10 Ways to Start a Healthy Lifestyle Change – Motunrayo Ogunwumiju
With the increase of obesity, life-shortening illnesses and disabling conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes and autoimmune diseases. We are now more influence to make healthier day-to-day choices to maintain vitality and life longevity. I know very well how daunting it can be to make healthy lifestyle changes without feeling overwhelmed, what you really need is to change your habits, how you feel, and look will change on their own. Don’t try to make too many changes all at once, below are my tips to starting a healthy lifestyle change with ease.
- Cut Down on Processed Food – Processed food is not good because (a) most nutritional value is lost in the creation of these foods and (b) the added preservatives are bad for our health. Many processed foods contain a high amount of salt, which leads to higher blood pressure and heart disease. In general, the more ingredients a food has on the label, the more processed it is. Eating 50 grams of processed meat a day has also been found to increase the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. Go for less processed food, such as a baked potato over deep fried chips, a fresh fruit over canned fruit, steamed fish over canned fish, or organic produce over food with high preservatives.
2. Cut Down on Deep Fried Food – Deep-fried food contains acrylamide, a potential cancer-causing chemical, an ordinary bag of crisps may contain up to 500 times more of the substance than the top level allowed in drinking water by the World Health Organisation (WHO)! When I consume oily foods, I feel sluggish. Go for food prepared using healthier methods instead, such as grilled, steamed, stir-fried, or even raw food. Reduce your intake of fast food, fries, doughnuts, chips, wedges, and deep-fried food.
3. Cut Down on Sugary Food & Drinks
– Sugary food – These are your candy bars, pastries, chocolate, cookies, cakes, and jelly donuts. Not only do they not fill you, but they trigger you to eat more due to the sugar rush. Eating these foods occasionally is okay, but not daily. Go for healthy snacks instead.
– Soda and sugary drinks – Frizzy drink is unhealthy, causes weight gain, and is an artificial stimulant. Go for plain water, green tea, or vegetable/fruit smoothies instead!
4. Eat More Fruits or Vegetables
– Fruits have a lot of vitamins and minerals. Do you know that oranges offer more health benefits than Vitamin C pills? Satisfy your palate with these nutritious fruits: Watermelon, Apricots, Avocado (yes, avocado is a fruit!), Apple, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Guava, Papaya, Strawberries. If you intend to consume a lot of fruits at one go, consume fruit with some fats such as a hummus, almond butter, olive oil, or avocado mash to reduce the glycemic load.
– Vegetables are important for good health with many important vitamins and minerals. Onion, leek, and garlic are prebiotics which is essential food for good gut bacteria. Spinach, kale, swiss chard, and turnip greens are dark leafy greens with high mineral content. Consume a variety of different vegetables for a large diversity of good gut bacteria, which improves your immune system.
5. Choose Healthy Snack Alternatives – If you are hungry in-between meals, eat healthy snacks like fruits, vegetable or smoothies, and yogurts. These are nutritional and do not give you that sugar rush. Have them readily available so it’s available to eat for whenever you can get a munch, eat them in moderation stop when you fill full. Stay away from cookies and candy bars.
6. Avoid Trigger Foods – Trigger foods make you go and binge after you eat them. Everyone’s trigger foods are different (mine used to be biscuits and pastries), but generally trigger foods are sweets, chocolate, chips, cookies, or anything with a high level of refined sugar, salt, or flour. These foods cause a blood imbalance, hence triggering one to eat more. What are your trigger foods? Identify them and remove them from your diet.
7. Address Emotional Eating Issues – Emotional eating is eating to fill an emotion rather than real hunger. Do you eat when you feel stressed out, down or frustrated? Do you reach out for food when you hit a block at work? Chances are, you are emotional eating. However, emotional eating will never make you feel happy because you are trying to fill a void that has nothing to do with food. Food does not give you love or happiness; it’s just food. Why do you reach for food when you are down? How can you address it? Get to the root of the cause and address it.
10. Get Enough Sleep- When you do not rest well, you compensate by eating more usually junk food. Get enough rest and you won’t need to snack to stay awake. Also, lack of sleep causes premature aging, and nobody want that!
“Motunrayo loves all things health and fitness and shares her own health and fitness tips with cooking expertise that has inspired countless men and women to change their relationship with food and take charge of their health for a better future”
Top 4 reasons why the Planetary Diet is a Winner – Anna Porter
Want a healthy diet and to play your part in a sustainable food system? Look no further! The planetary diet was born out of desire to provide nutritious food to the worlds fast growing population whilst preserving the planet. According to researchers, the Earth can...
How To Stay Calm In a Crazy World- Francesca Elliott
Yoga Yoga helps me to escape, not only when I am teaching my clients but also when I am self-practicing. Yoga has taught me to acknowledge how my body and mind are feeling in any given moment, making me less reactive in any given situation. A yoga class is the only...
My Experience with Offline 48 – John Henderson
“The internet used to be an escape from reality, now reality is an escape from the internet” - Unknown My smartphone is like an additional part of my body these days, its always right there in my hand or at hand in my pocket. I spend countless hours scrolling...
How to Join the Anti-diet Revolution- Sarah Glover-Smith
Diet culture; it’s been getting a lot of attention recently, but it’s been a part of our society for years. It’s the voice that screams at you as you look in the mirror and curse yourself for eating that packet of digestives. It’s the reason you can’t wear shorts,...
Dogs and how they benefit our mental health and wellbeing- Holly Snowdon
'No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich' - Louis Sabin There’s a reason why dogs are often referred to as ‘man’s best friend’. I’m confident in my assumption that NOBODY will greet you with as much enthusiasm and joy...
My Top 5 Non-aesthetic Reasons to Workout- Tori Porter
Once we leave the childhood innocence of playing football or stuck in the mud in a field behind, exercise shifts from a playtime activity to becoming, for many, about weight loss. I think we’ve all been there, trying to make up for excessive pizza and alcohol but...
How can we make our wardrobes more sustainable?- Gemma Newton
We hear the term ‘sustainability’ used a lot nowadays, but it’s not without good reason. More recently, we’ve begun to hear the phrase ‘sustainable wardrobe’. This is almost certainly a reaction to the devastating impact fast fashion is having on the environment. I...
Beating fatigue with food- Naomi Laws
We’ve all been there. It’s that time again where we’ve had a terrible nights sleep (or perhaps even no sleep!), either due to a late night with friends, or just purely from the inability to go to sleep. But alas, morning is here (how is it morning so quickly?) and we...
6 Ways to Be Live More Sustainably- Elen Mai
Sustainable living has been the hot topic of 2019. If you haven't heard of the climate crisis, then you must have been living under a rock! Following a lengthy protest in the heart of London, the UK government declared an official climate emergency. It seems as though...
How to Fit in Movement Around a Busy Life As a Mother?- Cordelia Simpson
Finding it impossible to squeeze in time to move? What with school-runs, play dates, parent taxi runs, attempting to have a social life, not to mention possibly trying to hold down a job too... I’m feeling your pain! There are so many benefits to being active,...