HEALTHY DIET

By making a few small changes to your diet, you can make a massive difference. But where do you start?

The main thing to remember is not to be too hard on yourself and ‘give up’ all your favourite foods. You’ll not only find it virtually impossible to stick to, you’ll also be missing out on a lot of the nutrients your body needs to function properly. So make sure you enjoy what you eat and eat a variety of foods.

What is a healthy diet?

For a healthy diet, you should be aiming to:

• Enjoy a variety of different foods from each food group, including at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day
• Eat fatty and sugary foods in small amounts. Cut down on 'bad' saturated fats and replace them with 'good' monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats
• Try to eat two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily
• Try to eat less salt
• Switch high fat dairy foods such as milk and cheese for lower fat versions
• Base meals on starchy foods such as bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. Choose whole grain varieties whenever possible
• Drink alcohol in moderation  

Doing Exercise

Moderate, regular exercise is safe and effective for all of us – it raises your body temperature, gets you breathing more heavily, helps you look and feel better and above all it’s enjoyable!
Here are a few simple guidelines to make exercising fun:

• Start with activities that you already know and are comfortable with, like gardening or walking
• Start slowly and ease off towards the end
• Stay within your comfort zone - you should be able to talk comfortably while you’re exercising
• Listen to how your body feels - you should feel a little tired at the end but not exhausted
• Wear shoes and clothing that give you support but still let you move comfortably
• Drink plenty of water before, during and after activity
• Aim to exercise two hours after eating a light meal

Take it slowly

If you’re new to exercise, don’t overdo it. Aim to build up to half an hour of moderate activity at least five days a week and then when you’re ready, you could try to increase this to one hour of moderate activity. If you’re already used to moderate activity you might want to have a go at some more vigorous activities:

• Swimming, tennis or even salsa dancing. They’ll help you improve your fitness, tone up and lose weight.
• With any vigorous activity you should be breathing heavily but be able to continue for at least 20 minutes - aim to do this three days a week.
• It’s a good idea to include different activities that will help to strengthen your muscles and give you more mobility, for exampl Yoga, Pilates or gym workouts.

Getting fitter

Why not start with general daily activities, such as walking to the station and aim to increase this by two to three minutes and at a slightly faster pace. You can then increase the number of minutes you do each week. For example if you start with just five minutes of activity each day, aim to increase this to 10 to 15 minutes in the first week, 15 to 20 minutes the next and so on.

If you want to try more vigorous activities, make sure that you’re already moderately active for an hour, at least five days a week, then start with 10 to 15 minutes of vigorous activity, three times a week and increase this by just one to two minutes each week. It’s best to spread vigorous activity throughout the week and to always have at least one to two days of complete rest, so your body can recover. Activities you might like to try:

• Cycling – try cycling with friends and family, it will help to keep you going
• Running – go slowly and try running up a few hills
• Badminton – it’s a great fat burner and a good social activity too
• Swimming – perfect for giving your heart a great workout