Top health and nutrition tips by Gillian Killiner – 121Dietitian
Your #LearnuaryNI quest to learn one new thing each day throughout the month of January 2018 can take many forms.
Learning is proven to boost your health and wellbeing and is 1 of 5 key steps recommended by mental health charities and no-one would doubt that taking care of your diet, fitness, medical issues and self-care are critical considerations for everyone. In this blog Dietitian Gillian Killiner has kindly shared her expertise to give us #LearnuaryNI challengers one bitesize health and nutrition tip a day:
- Plan your shopping list for the week in advance and stick to it
- Don’t shop hungry
- Drink ½ your weight in water ie 150lb person = 2.2 litres
- Use online shopping to reduce temptation
- Make your plate of food colourful
- Eat 3 portions of fruit each day
- Eat 6-7 vegetables/salad each day
- Eat and chew slowly
- Avoid low fat products
- Avoid low sugar products
- Don’t neglect exercise – Healthy eating = 80% and Exercise = 20%
- Eat out as little as possible – enjoy other social outings: crazy golf, ice skating, tenpin bowling…
- Cook from scratch
- Dance and work out to music while cooking
- Ensure you have working utensils like: peelers, sharp knives, colander, scales…
- Make vegetables appealing with spices and herbs
- Keep trigger foods out of your cupboards
- Sleep is major – if insufficient your ghrelin hormone increases hunger
- Avoid filling up on bread
- Bored of boiling veg – roast it instead – add garlic/salt and enjoy
- Sit at the table at each meal and smell, look, be aware and enjoy what you are eating
- Don’t eat if not hungry – it may be dehydration or even boredom!
- Use vanilla extract, cinnamon, mint, lemon, lime for flavourings
- Dark chocolate x 2 squares a day is a tasty and nutritious treat
- Avoid eating the leftovers – freeze instead or save for lunch the next day
- Don’t pick at the kids foods
- Alcohol = liquid calories – keep to a safe minimum
- If eating out stick to sharing starters and desserts and enjoy a healthy main
- Have a large glass of water 15 minutes before eating
- Be careful if taking supplements, do you know how good the ingredients are?
- Use a weighing scales once per week , weighing yourself at the same time of the day, to watch your weight