2016 Healthy Life Changes*

One of my goals for 2016 was to maintain a healthy lifestyle to lose weight and become happier with my body image. Because I’m short with a small frame I don’t carry weight well. I have an odd shaped body where I don’t really go curvy more like cube shaped so I know I look better slim and because I know I look better, I feel better. Also, in March I’m spending 4 weeks in Florida which means a lot of eating out and I will no doubt put on weight despite doing a lot of walking.

So I’ve been calorie counting 2 weeks past Monday and already I’ve lost 4lbs, which for me is a good start and does make it feel worth while. I personally don’t do healthy eating well. I love cheese, chocolate, cake, eating out.. if it’s unhealthy I like it. I’m not a huge vegetable fan and I’m even less into fruit. But when I see that my calorie counting is making a different it spurs me on more. January for me is actually a really crappy time to attempt diet as I suffer badly with the January blues and when I’m sad I do just want to order a whole pizza and eat it myself washed down with a bottle of wine.. But I’m fighting that urge with the promise of lots of grilled cheese come March!

Today I’m going to talk about some of the changes you can make so you can live a healthier lifestyle (if you choose of course, I’m not here to lecture!)

Eating and Food Habits
One of the easiest way to live a healthier lifestyle is to address your eating and food habits. My mum always spends a couple of weeks keeping track of what she’s eating before she starts making changes and I think this is such a good idea if you think you’re already eating well but are still putting on weight. For me, I know where I’m going wrong. Bars of Dairy Milk bought at the corner shop, cheese on everything and at least one take out a week. These are the following changes I make, and I’m not saying their all necessarily good, for me this is a preference thing as I cannot stick to a defined diet and prefer to just keep track of my fat and calorie intake.

First, I drink a lot of incredibly milky and sweet iced lattes.. I cut this down to one in the morning with 250ml skimmed milk and sweetner. I KNOW sweetner isn’t great for you but I need that sweet kick first thing. I swap my snacking for low calorie and very lot fat savory snacks.. I love cheese flavoured Crackerbreads which are basically air but satisfy me enough when I get the urge to snack. For sweet snacking I look to low or zero fat yoghurts. For my cheese addiction low fat cream cheese is a god send, I put it on everything My rule of thumb is try where possible to go for low or zero fat choices, this includes meat, butter, snacking, just about everything. It’s honestly the only diet that has ever worked for me.

Those Bad Habits
Being healthy doesn’t just include eating better.. giving up smoking and reducing alcohol and caffeine intake are also really important. My biggest one is caffeine. At stressful times in my life I can sometimes have 5 cups a day and end up a complete mess. So I’m not down to one up cup and occasionally a bottle of Pepsi. In the evening when I feel like something warm I go for green tea. I LOVE the Twinings Caramelised Apple one, it’s perfect for this time of year. As for alcohol, yes.. I drink on weekends when I have absolutely no reason to. My dad is terrible for buying bottles of wine, bottles of cider.. anything that’s on offer really then unloading it onto my sister and I. There is no need for it, so now I just don’t drink it. If however you do like a drink at the weekend the lowest calorie alcoholic drink are usually spirits with a low sugar mixer. It’s not great, but it is an alternative that you should be considering if you keep track of your calorie intake. Finally, smoking. If you do intend on cutting down you can start by looking into e-cigarettes. One of the best kits for beginners is the Aspire premium kit, you can find it in Vapelux. Although these aren’t designed to ween you off the nicotine they are less harmful for you than cigarettes and are a great first step to quitting.

Exercising
Oh god, exercising. I hate this one but despite the freezing cold weather I am trying to make an effort with it. I’m choosing to walk over asking for lifts, or taking the bus. I wrap up warm and just walk. Walk into town, walk up and down home, to the supermarket. Living in a small town means things are in walking distance but there are a lot of hills. Even if you live in a city try to do a bit more walking even if it’s just walking around the city centre, it’s still burning off calories! Also, did you know housework also burns off calories? Days when I don’t get out for a walk I try to knock off a couple of the chores on the list to burn off some extra calories. It’s working wonders!

In the long run once Little Miss starts school I do want to start going out running. I’m perpetually too broke for the gym so this is a great free way to burn calories. I’m going to aim to do it during the day while everyone is at work because my main fear is people I know seeing me. My loser status is already way high without adding this to it!