The Healthy Lifestyle Way

Here are some tips to help get you started on reducing the amount of fat in your diet, and keep you going.

Meat

Every January a multitude of people endeavour to lose weight. Many do it as part of their New Years resolution, others are driven by a forthcoming special occasion like a wedding or school reunion, and some do it for the reason that they’re unhappy with their weight and have been for more years than they care to remember - and want to change the way they look.

Unfortunately, most people who attempt to shed some weight see only a small amount of success, that doesn’t last for very long. Others see none at all. Many who set out on a weight loss strategy in January, often lose weight at the time,. But by the end of the very same year, not only have they put all their losses back on, they normally have found even more from somewhere.

The solution to losing weight lies in two special things: information and application. First you need to know exactly what to do, then you’ve got to do it. No ifs, no buts, no maybes, and no cutting corners. Then the answer to maintaining weight, once you have made the losses you require, is to follow a healthy lifestyle plan for ever.

My belief is that providing my clients with important information it gives them the power to make healthy choices. So today I want to talk to you about fat.

Many of my clients are now following my Lifestyle Plan. It will not only help them lose weight, it will teach them how to both lose weight and maintain that weight loss. One of the most important principles of this plan is to keep below 10 grams of fat per meal.

Research has shown that the most effective diets for long-term, healthy weight loss and developing a streamlined, toned body are high in complex carbohydrates and low in saturated and trans fats.

Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated Fats

Fats should make up no more than 35% of your daily calories and preferably less (20-35% is the recommended range). Fats consumed should ideally be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, or “good” fats, which provide numerous health benefits. These fats can be obtained by eating nuts, seeds, avocados, vegetable-based oils (olive, canola, peanut, sunflower, soybean, corn and cottonseed), soybeans, salmon, tuna and mackerel. Our lifestyle plan makes it easy for you, we suggest that you aim to have no more than 10 grams of fat with each meal.

Saturated Fats and Dietary Cholesterol

Saturated fats and dietary cholesterol are found in a number of popular foods, generally animal-based products. Aside from increasing the long-term risk for a number of health problems ranging from heart attacks and cancer to obesity and diabetes, saturated fats can sabotage your short-term fitness goals. To lower saturated fat intake, avoid foods such as steak, hamburger, lunch meats, poultry skin and fat, whole milk, egg yolks, cheese and butter.

Trans Fats

Trans fats, found in solid and semisolid margarines and other products where ingredients are “hydrogenated” should be avoided altogether. Many popular processed snacks and spreads contain hydrogenated fats, including some peanut butters. When in doubt, check the label. If you see the word “hydrogenated,” avoid the product.

Let me repeat avoid products made with hydrogenated oils (these are clearly labeled and listed in the ingredients). Cakes, cookies, doughnuts, pies, frostings and salad dressings all contain hydrogenated oils. Frozen fried foods like French fries, fried chicken, fried fish and potpies contain significant amounts of trans fat.

Decreasing Consumption of Saturated Fats

If you do eat foods with saturated fat, keep it in moderation. Trim the skin from chicken and turkey and the fat from beef. If you eat ground beef, choose extra lean and drain the fat off before consuming it.

Beware of Carbohydrates

While complex carbohydrates found in whole wheat bread, brown rice, oatmeal, other whole grains, vegetables and fruits are excellent fuel for exercise, promote fitness and help to sustain long-term weight loss, simple carbohydrates should be kept to a minimum along with saturated fats. Simple carbohydrates, found in white rice and anything containing white flour or sugar (white breads, many desserts and sodas), contribute to weight gain and a variety of health problems.

Happy New Year One and all!!!As I look out of the window this morning and see the snow outside (there’s almost 2 feet of fresh snow on the ground and it still coming down heavily), I look forward to the year ahead and what it will bring to me.  As a Life Coach and Fitness Trainer, as well as Author and Speaker, I also think of all those that I will work with this year, and what their expectations are at the beginning of this new year.  

Hands down, the most common New Years resolution, year after year is the optimistic dream that this will be the year to shed that extra weight. As 2010 began, many will have vowed that this year they would drop those extra pounds, get to the gym and fit back into their skinny jeans.Are you one of these? 

How many of you in the past have made a new years resolution and by about lunch time on January 1st it has almost been forgotten about? Well why shouldn’t January this year be the year that your resolution for weight loss actually comes together. Well, do yourself a favor and commit once and for all to achieving his long yearned for result, and create the new you. 

Many of my clients will be beginning my ‘Healthy Lifestyle Plan – Steps to Healthier Living’ this New Year, to lose weight and stay healthy.  

Are you tired of dieting? Whether you’re ready to start losing weight, need to boost your metabolism, or just want to learn more about healthy eating, my blog over the next couple of months will bring you articles relating to this lifestyle plan, and I trust it will help you achieve the results you to now have only dreamed about.  Many people have a list of diets they’ve tried over the years and the one thing these diets all have in common is that they often fail. Why? They leave you hungry and deprived, and they slow your metabolism, setting you up for a never-ending cycle of yo-yo dieting. My Lifestyle Plan changes all that. Here’s how: 

It Revs Your Metabolism

This is perhaps the most significant aspect of the Plan, and it’s what allows you ultimately to be delivered from dieting for good. With a higher metabolism, you burn more calories all day long — even when you’re sitting on the couch. My Lifestyle Plan raises your metabolism through eating — yes eating — and strength training, which builds calorie-burning muscle.  

It Allows You to Eat

On the plan you eat all day long — six small meals rather than three large ones. This helps keep you from feeling hungry even during the start up phase of the plan, which lasts only one week, and it keeps your metabolism revved.  

It Offers a Wide Variety of Food

The plan recommends limiting your intake of refined carbohydrates and sweets, and limiting your fat intake to less than 10g per meal but no foods are off-limits. The meal plans are so easy to follow — no counting is necessary! You simply choose 3 healthy meals and 3 healthy fruit snack. 

It’s Healthy

Diets that deprive you of certain foods also deprive you of the nutrients contained in those foods. Because our plan not only allows, but encourages you to eat a wide variety of foods from all the food groups, your diet will be rich in the nutrients your body needs. It’s a diet you can stick with, as it satisfies your hunger, your taste buds, and even the occasional less-than-healthful craving, making it easier to stay on track. Here I offer you 8 steps to a new you: 

1. Eat several meals a day

Of course, you can’t just eat something at breakfast and expect to keep your blood sugar level in check all day long. Eat at least 3 meals spread over a whole day. Even better would be to eat up to 6 small meals per day. This way the food energy can be gradually processed, Keeping constant food cravings under control is essential when trying to learn a healthy lifestyle or on a fat loss program. your glucose or blood sugar level indicates how much energy you’ve got readily available for use. If your blood sugar is too low, a hunger signal will go to the brain initiating food cravings.Low blood glucose levels indicate you’re low on energy. Obviously, this happens when you don’t eat enough throughout the day. As a result the body will send out a message saying it needs food, which in turn will trigger the cravings. The lower your blood sugar levels, the more severe your cravings could be.So instead of eating 3 big meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), or eating all day all the time, spread your calories out over 6 smaller meals. Eat one meal every 2 and a half to 3 hours. Doing this will speed up your metabolism keeping the huge swings of the blood sugar to an absolute minimum. 

2. Eat Low glycemic foods / complex carbohydrates

We love filling up on simple carbohydrates when the cravings kick in. Simple carbohydrates are found in foods such as pizza, pancakes, spaghetti and high fructose sodas. These simple carbohydrates are very quickly absorbed by the body, causing a blood sugar rush. Simple carbohydrates quickly supply us with that much craved carb load. After the initial high simple carbohydrates give us, the blood sugar will dramatically drop. Incorporating Low Glycemic (complex carbohydrate) foods (eg. oatmeal, brown rice, whole pasta, vegetables and others) into your diet will supply you with slowly absorbed energy and keep your sugar in balance all day long. Not only will this keep cravings away, it will make fat loss a lot easier as well.Lower the bad Carbs! Limit foods high in bad carbs. These carbs will eventually turn into fat. Foods like sugar, white bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. are high in simple (bad) carbs.  

3. Control the amount of fat you eat

The bad fat must go! Stay away from “bad” fat! Get rid of all the crisps and chocolate. No more fast food, nothing fried. No more biscuits, no more cake, no more of these saturated fats. Processed foods are to be avoided. There is no question about it and there is no way around it, get rid of these types of foods. Don’t get me wrong, you should not be eating 0 grams of fat every day, but the only places you should be getting your daily fat intake from are lean meats (not the fried fast food kind), chicken (again, not fried!), etc. as well as the foods that contain the “healthy” types of fat, which can be found in just about every type of fish (tuna fish, salmon, etc.), nuts, olive oil and flaxseed oil. My recommendations are to aim below 10 grams of fat per main meal. 

4. Include Protein in Your Meals

Eating more protein will make you feel satisfied and full faster. Foods that contain protein are needed by the body to grow and repair body cells and fight off disease. The body usually needs more protein during times of sickness and stress.High Protein Foods are:·         Meat and Seafood·         Milk and Milk Products·         Eggs·         Nuts, Nut Products and Seeds·         Dried Beans and Peas·         Soy Products, Tofu·         Commercial Nutrition Products High in ProteinMake every effort to include high protein foods in your diet. Getting good, high quality protein will not only increase your lean mass (non fatty tissue) but it will increase your metabolism, and burn away fat. You know how sugar makes you fat? Well Protein makes you lean. Whether you want to be buff, lean, or just thin, meat is what’s goning to give you the body you want. And, you can get what you want out of fish and poultry too. When it comes to meat, the leaner the better. 

5. Never Eat Carbohydrates By Themselves 

Each meal needs to provide your body with a balance of lean (low fat) protein, low Gi (based on the Glycaemic Index), high fibre Carbohydrates and essential oils.This balance will keep your blood sugar and insulin level stable which is necessary to get your body into a fat burning mode. This balance also helps control your appetite, so you are less tempted by unhealthy foods. One way to make sure you store less food away as fat is to mix up your nutrients. That means mixing carbs, protein and fat. We get much more nutrients and efficiency out of our meals when those three nutrients are eaten together instead of separately. The oils in the fats and proteins will act a lot like the fibre does, inso far as making the carbs take a longe time to break down in the stomach., thereby reducing the effect on your blood sugar.

6. Water!

Drink water! Get rid of the soda, get rid of the beer, and get rid of the sports drinks and the cordials. Drink around a half gallon a day, more if you can. Spread it out throughout the day, just like your 6 meals. Yes that’s a lot of water, but it’s that water that will give you energy and speed your weight loss. Water is essential in a healthy lifestyle and it’s probably the cheapest and easiest way to stop cravings. Anytime you feel puckish drink water, and I promise you that craving will disappear. Keeping a bottle of water by your side is a must do in my book. Water is ‘the oil that keeps our body running smoothly all day long’. 

7. Strength Training!

Yes! Lifting Weights isn’t just great for muscles, it’s great for losing weight. Muscles burn calories. In an earlier article I referred to a book ‘Body for Life’ by Bill Phillips, he describes a simple, but very effective strength training programme. You can get details of this here http://bodyforlife.com/.Weight train, three times per week on alternating days with aerobic exercise three times per week is what I suggest you do. 

8. • Develop an Exercise Routine
Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.  Fitness takes hard work and dedication but the results can include lengthening your lifespan and creating a body that you are proud to show off. Stop making excuses. Now is a great time to commit to a new you in the New Year. My clients will be aiming to do 50 minutes of exercise daily. Three or Four of those will be workouts in the gym where they will be combining their strength training with aerobics activities. The other three  or four days will include a very easy activity, namely walking. A fast brisk walk is as good a fat burning activity than most others. I do suggest at this time of year, with the snow thicker on the ground than I remember before, you wrap up warm, wear a hat, and purchase a pair of wellies.

9. Sleep! Yes! Sleep! The easiest, yet most over looked step. Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Trust me, you need it!  

When making resolutions regarding your fitness and health, remember that making changes to your body and lifestyle take time. You can’t do it all in one day. Stick with it, believe that this year you will achieve your goals …to  Get Fit, Stay Healthy, and Be Happy! 

I am an auditory learner. I learn best through hearing things. My learning is enhanced by verbal explanations, dialogue, talking things through and listening attentively. I think in words, not in pictures. I am very aware of audible signals, tone, pitch and speed of voice. They very much influence the way I interpret what I hear. So words have always been important to me, even before I understood why. 

Whether spoken or written, words have the power to influence your thoughts, and they have the power to transform your life. Words can inspire you to find the best within you. Words create a psychological connection within your mind, and can inspire you or demotivate you. The right words can produce inspiring thought, and get you to take massive action. The wrong words can totally deflate you.  So, words can be uplifting or damaging. ‘Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill’. Buddha.  When words are used against us in a negative way, whether by somebody else or our own self talk, they can cause great damage. Negative words can kill enthusiasm, reduce self-esteem, lower expectations, they can even make you cry. When someone says something negative to us, a sarcastic remark, a discouraging word, or something that puts us down, it hurts so bad, and forms a hidden wound that is hard to heal. You are hurt by what a loved one says in a fit of fury. When we hear somebody say something about us that is discouraging or sarcastic we take it to heart. Hurtful words can make us lose our common sense, twist our thinking and change our behaviour.

Positive and encouraging words lift you up, raise your spirits, motivate you, awaken your expectations, create dynamic visions, feed your mind, inspire thinking and make you feel great. Words have a massive influence over your thoughts and actions. They impact and affect everything you do. 

One of my personal methods of coping with daily stress is reading and then thinking about an inspirational quote. Of course just reading a quote won’t make stressful situations just disappear, but by letting their insight absorb your mind, you will feel more relaxed, more positive, and you will find your ability to handle pressure vastly improved. 

When you are down in the dumps, struggling with situations in your life, what do you do to lift your emotional state? At these times, what is it that you use to bring you inspiration, understanding, or solutions? By just reading an inspirational quote and then pondering it, you will create positive thoughts, encouraging you to find solutions.

Inspirational quotes have massive power through their capacity to inspire and motivate you to take action. When we are troubled, facing difficult circumstances, instead of focusing on solutions, we let our mind wander through the debris of life, seeing the worst case scenarios, expecting doom and gloom. Your mind spinning out of control building things up to an exaggerated state. You imagine all kinds of terrible outcomes.More often than not, we find the worst case scenario that we think about for so long don’t actually turn out as bad as we have been imagining. Most of the terrible outcomes you think about don’t come to fruition. In reality, the worst that happens is usually not that hard to handle. In fact the worst part of it is the time you have wasted fretting, troubling yourself with the fears of what may come to pass.It is a fact that our ability to handle pressure is determined by our attitude toward it.

Getting our thinking right will help us to deal far better with things at difficult times. Find yourself an inspirational quote which you can use to get your thinking into perspective, that will also bring you inner calm. A great quote can instantly transform your thoughts, putting you into a better frame of mind. Use quotes as the off switch to your inner chatter. Turn off your fears and stress, and focus on the words and their meaning instead. Let them inspire you. Let them bring your mind to a peak state, full of positivity, and excitement about what you can to, be or have. 

Weekly, I plan to put forward, my quote of the day. I will share the words that I will ponder each morning, the words that will inspire me to positive thinking. I ask you, to use the comments section in my blog, to leave your favourite and most inspiring quotes. Let motivational quotes inspire you, motivate you, get you to take action creating results. Expose your mind with positive energy, offsetting the negative and weakening barrage of stress. Fuel yourself with positive, upbeat words and start taking massive, immediate, and consistent action.

For most of my adult life I had an interest, maybe even a fascination with personal development. As I’ve already said I read many a fantastic book, and a few pretty pathetic ones too if I’m honest. 

My car was a library on wheels. More often than not, every journey I took, I would listen to personal development audios. Anthony Robbins ‘Get the Edge’, ‘The Secret’ were the two that I think had the biggest impact.   

The most memorable seminar event I went to was Anthony Robbins Unleash the power within in London 2001. That’s where I completed the fire walk. All of this taught me something, instlilling in me a bit more positivity, motivation, excitement. But how long did it last. For someone that had absorbed all that knowledge could I say that I was leading the perfect life … the very honest answer is no, not at all the time.  

Life will always be a learning curve. The most important thing to learn, for us all, is knowledge isn’t enough. Hey, for now, until I’m a best selling author, don’t just take my word for it. Read what a few others have to say on the subject:  

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. ~ Herbert Spencer  

The knowledge that we consider knowledge proves itself in action. What we now mean by knowledge is information in action, information focused on results. ~ Peter F. Drucker   

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world. ~ Albert Einstein   

The truth is that even in the information age, information is not enough. if all we needed were ideas and positive thinking, then we all would have had all the toys in the world when we were kids and we would all be living our “dream life” now. Action is what unites every great success. Action is what produces results.

Knowledge is only potential power until it comes into the hands of someone who knows how to get himself to take effective action. In fact, the literal definition of the word “power” is “the ability to act.” ~ Tony Robbins. Power is the ability to act.  The key to life, the key to making a success is taking ACTION! I’m not saying, that there’s no point in picking up a book or listening to an audio cd. I want you to take in as much good information as you can. But from this knowledge, i want you to follow through, immediately put into action what you’ve learned. 

Our Healthy Lifestyle plan starts with the steps to creating a successful day right from the start of each and every brand new day. I am sure we all want to be more productive and achieve success, and set out every morning to make the best of the day ahead. But isn’t it also true that sometimes we find it difficult to motivate ourselves to take action–especially first thing in the morning.  

Getting started on something like a healthy lifestyle plan has less to do with whether you have the energy and more to do with your desire and willingness to make the changes. So how is it that some people can get started on the healthy lifestyle plan and others don’t. Well the ones who do, dig in, make the start and soon begin to see results, and then they become more motivated to continue. The difference is they took action.  

“A thousand mile journey begins with the first step.” – Chinese Proverb.

In everything in life, if you want to achieve something, take the initiative and do it now! The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get where you want to go. BECOME A PERSON OF ACTION.  Only through doing will you accomplish! 

One of the biggest weaknesses of human behaviour is procrastination. Each time you procrastinate or avoid taking action, you reinforce a negative and demonstrate to yourself that you don’t follow through. The longer you procrastinate about something, the more likely that you never will get started.. Procrastinating for many is a life habit.   But, like all habits, it can be broken.

To do so, you must establish and reinforce a new, get up and go action response to replace your habit of “putting it off.” This is your call to action.  In time, this drive to take action will become your norm. And, you’ll then find yourself making personal life progress beyond what you may have ever thought possible!  

So what’s going to get you to start taking action? Firstly find what excites and drives you in life? What are you passionate about? It is these things that drive you in life that will compel you to take action, to make a difference, or to follow through.

You can achieve anything, you can create, have, do, share, become, anything you want, once you start to take action. So what is it that will keep you up late at night and get you up early in the morning?   What results are you committed to? What are the results you must achieve? What is it that you really want – personally or professionally (health, finances, relationships, emotions, material possessions, experiences, etc.) ?

Now if you truly want these things, you know you have to step up and make them happen. They won’t land in your lap while you sit and procrastinate. You have to get up, get going, take action. 

‘In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently’.  Tony Robbins  

How do you get started?

Develop a plan of attack– a “massive action plan”. List every outcome you want and any possible action you can take that may help you achieve your goal.

Brainstorm.

Even if the idea sounds crazy, write it down. Then just do it.  In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says the surest way to grow rich is to have faith. But, he says, faith by itself will yield nothing. The secret is to have “…faith backed by action. Action, action, action.”    

Every Journey Begins with a Single Step So just take action. Don’t be one of those people that make up excuses, or give excellent reasons of why sitting around and doing nothing is the right thing to do. Things seldom happen when nothing is done. Rarely has somebody achieved anything by sitting around pitying themselves, because nothing is happening, so, feel free, to take action now. Massive action = powerful results. 

THE LONGEST JOURNEY STARTS WITH THE FIRST STEP  

I just wonder if you’ve ever experienced the following situation. That when your morning starts badly for you, everything seems to go downhill from there. You end up being in a negative frame of mind most of the day, you lose control of your healthy eating intentions and end up eating more food and making wrong choices, and the whole day feels like a losing battle. Just because you had a bad start to the day. So is this something you’ve experienced. If not, congratulations, you’re pretty unique. But if you have, isn’t it time you took control of your day.

Facts are, if your morning starts well, the rest of the day will follow through with a positive outlook. So what can you do about it?  The first action is simple. No more lying in bed in the morning, fighting off your alarm, grabbing those extra few minutes in dream land, and then rushing around like a headless chicken, trying to get everything done before you fly out the door. Let me make this extremely clear. Even if I know I’m sounding more like my mother every day. Waking up tired to the sound of an annoying alarm clock, hitting that snooze button multiple times, and then rushing out the door without even having time to fuel your body, that’s the purpose of breakfast, you are creating the problems that will now face you for the rest of the day.  

So what am I suggesting instead. I want you to create for yourself a happy, relaxed, productive day, where you have a positive mind and an energised body right from the start.  The magic is to programme yourself to get up one hour early. Yes that right, one extra hour in the morning can and will make such a significant difference to your day ahead, as well as your life.Getting up an hour earlier than you normally do. Now don’t pull that face! I don’t know you but I do know what your initial reaction is. You are questioning my sanity! You’re about to give up reading my blog, because I’m suggesting something so impossible! But am I, or perhaps am I giving you the key to unlock your potential, to now be able to achieve so much more than you ever have before. Am I not giving you an uninterrupted one hour ‘MY’ time! At this time of day you will have your own private time.  This is the time of the day that is truly your own private time ‘Me Time’.

You will now have one hour, every day, to programme yourself for success.   You have to make it a priority in your life. A great start to the day will make a huge difference to you. Eliminate any excuses, give it a go, and get started creating your perfect morning each morning. I call it my Morning Power up Session. Give it a try and see the difference it can make to your day  

OK SO I’M UP, WHAT DO I DO NOW?  Your overall health improves when you treat your body to habits that stave off stress and support a balanced lifestyle. Here I give to you the first step of my morning power up session:   GET INTO CENTRE – Tune in your mind and body. It’s like pressing the starter motor of a car. Within five minutes of waking, you will have gone from the early morning brain fog, to an alert, powerful fully functioning brain, with a strong and powerful body. You’re going to feel like you can walk through a wall, internally in an excited voice you’re going to say ‘come on, bring the day on!’  

BREATHE – Breathing correctly will flush out the bad energies and inhale fresh and positive energy. Every cell and organ will benefit from you breathing in fresh oxygen and removing all that nasty stuff. Concentrate on your breathing. You have to breathe to live. When was the last time you noticed, how you breathe? Breathe in deep through your nose, exhale it completely out through your mouth, Bring it in and out from your diaphragm.  

MOVE – Get your muscles and joints fully oiled. Give them a stretch. Neck, arms, shoulders, chest, back, move down to your butt and your legs. . Now how about getting out and do a power walk, or go out on your bike, maybe even pull out your exercise machine in your garage. Get your heart and lungs pumping. Move your body. Purposely, with power. You’re now a winner no more slouching, no more ambling.   

GRATITUDE - The act of focusing with gratitude on everything you have in your life. and then using those positive thoughts to create a happy, productive day will calm your mind and create energy for your day ahead. Cut out the negativity, we can all find troubles in our lives, things not going as they should. We’re the best at seeing these. But now find the good things. You found one a minute ago. Your breathing, so you’re alive. Now start to live, make each and every day better than the one before.  

AFFIRMATIONS - use positive affirmations. Tell yourself positive things, such as “I am a winner’, ‘I am a great person’ whatever words that will highly charge you, motivate you, that will get you into a confident and positive state.Please don’t tell me you like telling yourself, how you can’t do this or that, how you weren’t meant to …, how you’ll never … Stop! That’s no longer you! Get positive, compliment yourself, be who you want to be.  

VISUALISATION – Get a mental picture of you achieving your GOALS. See the day ahead working out brilliantly for you. Hey, your choice, morning television, yawn, or watch a video in your own head of your new wonderful successful life. Welcome to the big screen. Step on and watch yourself go.  

MULTIVITAMIN - Nutritional supplementation is a good source to ensure you receive all the vitamins and minerals you need for a correct daily allowance.   

DRINK WATER - Your body needs to re-hydrate, especially after being without fluids all night. And just tell yourself you love the taste of water, keep telling yourself and eventually you will. How do I know you don’t. Because as a fitness trainer I’ve heard it 1000’s of times, and once upon a time, I thought wrongly that I didn’t like it either. Your body needs water right through the day. So get started.  That’s all there is to it. So achievable in 30 minutes, an hour if you want. What a difference it will make to your life. .I spend 30 minutes doing that, then I still have time to do three more things before I start my ‘normal day’ 

It’s a busy life for most of us. And keeping ourselves healthy is all too rarely near the top of our list of ‘things to do’. Convenience often wins - we are all so busy that convenience is at a premium.

It is so important to make ‘keeping healthy’ a part of our day-to-day living habits. Your health depends on what you do throughout the day, everyday. A healthy lifestyle is absolutely vital.

Eating Healthily – the right nutrition is necessary to live a healthy lifestyle. Your body requires a well balanced diet every day in order to maintain the adequate amounts of vitamins, nutrients and minerals needed to maintain a healthy body.

“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” - La Rochefoucauld

An Active lifestyle - you will need to include fitness as part of your life. Physical fitness keeps your weight in check, helps you sleep better at night, prevents heart attacks and strokes and other health problems, and generally prolongs your life. Basically there are so many benefits of exercising that you really can’t live a full life without it.

‘Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness’. ~Edward Stanley

Stress Management - Emotional stress plays an important role in many illnesses, both directly and indirectly. People are also more likely to smoke, overeat, drink too much, work too hard, argue with others and so on, when they are feeling stressed. Thus, stress management is an important part of your new lifestyle, and meditation and relaxation techniques are truly a key part of living a healthy lifestyle.

‘Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body’. ~ Cicero

Make friends with yourself - Loving yourself is a key to a healthy, happy lifestyle. Self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves; the pride they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel. Self-esteem is important because feeling good about yourself can affect how you act.

“The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around…. Throughout history, “tender loving care” has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing”. ~Larry Dossey

Powering up your Mind and Body - programme your mind for total success. Develop a vision, a compelling future that excites and inspires you, and focus on it daily. Don’t let anything knock you of course, or make you question its possibility. I promise you, by taking control of your thoughts, you will improve your life in a big way.

‘In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else’. ~Alison Rose Levy

Life Balance - If you want to achieve a healthy lifestyle you must take steps to ensure you maintain a certain level of balance… spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and financially. You need to balance work and family, and all the other areas of your life without spreading yourself too thin and having a guilt trip when you do one thing, but think you should be doing another. All of the key areas of our lives overlap and interlink, effecting each other. Unless we create for ourselves satisfaction in each and every part of our life, we can never truly be fulfilled, or live a contented, happy and healthy life.

“No success in public life can compensate for failure in the home.” —Benjamin Disraeli

In the fifteen years I have been working actively in the fitness industry I have never ceased to be amazed by the things I have seen and heard in relation to lifestyles that people come to accept as the norm when, in fact, their quality of life is far less than they deserve or should expect, no matter how it has been occasioned.

Too often people who have been diagnosed with such conditions as arthritis, rheumatism, diabetes, depression, back problems or stress, seem to immediately start their descent down an imaginary slippery slope. They see, feel and believe their life to be on a descending spiral.

 To see a 40 year old man diagnosed with diabetes, age 20 years overnight is a shocking thing to witness.

 To see a fit 50 year old successful businessman, with an active social life, a mortgage-free perfect home, two wonderful children succeeding in their own lives, being diagnosed as clinically depressed, losing his way overnight, and his entire body posture and state of mind crumble, is an exasperating sight.

My passions have led me to take everything I have learned and experienced and use it to start providing information and coaching, as a formula to provide people with both the tools and behaviours necessary for healthy, happy living.

Drawing on my fitness, diet and personal development knowledge, the bedrock of a healthy lifestyle is a healthy eating plan, together with a weekly exercise programme, both being personalised for the needs of each individual. Neither of these requires very much financial outlay, certainly not a plethora of magic tonics and potions, nor expensive ‘state of the art’ equipment.

The two key elements of fitness and diet must be supported by tools which help people be prepared for, and deal with, the normal stresses and pressures of everyday life. Bringing both relaxation techniques and meditation into everyday living ensures people have the way of calming their minds and relaxing their bodies.

Another lifestyle element is based around one function of the body which without we could not survive, breathing. For something so important, it is truly amazing how few people can breathe properly..

In life we have to grow, and strive to be more than we ‘originally seem to be’. So setting goals and making them an every day call to action is another key.

Our minds are so powerful, yet fragile, resulting in many people being overcome by negativity and a loss of self esteem that work against us. So having a positive mental attitude and practicing personal development is paramount to having the right lifestyle.

Understanding the keys to personal development, and the need to control thoughts, make decisions, visualising a brilliant future, and take actions will, holistically, make the difference to how people live.

Through all my communications I will provide the knowledge, skills, tools and systems to make life more fulfilling, rewarding, fun and enjoyable.

Through the internet I will provide tools and information, feeding my readers with positive messages and ongoing support and advice.