body mind spirit Archives

Get More Fruit and Veg Into Your Diet

January 20, 2023 by Wendy S

It’s pretty normal for children to be picky about vegetables. But when you’re an adult, you don’t necessarily want to feel like your diet is limited by a dislike of fruits and veggies. If you feel like you don’t get enough fruit and veg, it could also be because you’ve simply fallen into a pattern of not using them in your meals. The occasional meal with no vegetables isn’t a big deal, but if you’re rarely eating them, it’s likely your diet isn’t very balanced or complete. Luckily, there are things you can do if you want to get more fruit and veg in your diet.

Image by Dominik & Frederike Schneider from Pixabay

Count Fruit as Dessert

Looking forward to your dessert at the end of a meal can be a good motivation to eat a main course that might not be that interesting. But dessert doesn’t have to be cake or something else that’s filled with sugar. Fruit can make a great dessert, or it can be included in your dessert as an ingredient. If you want to learn how to make ice cream strawberry flavored, click here for a recipe. A piece of fruit on its own can be tasty, but there are also plenty of things you can do with fruit if you want to make a more interesting dessert.

Eat Vegetables as Snacks

Snacking throughout the day can keep you going between meals. Some people even snack all day or have small meals instead of three big ones. However, many snacks can be less healthy than ideal. If you want to eat healthier snacks, both fruits and vegetables make good snacks. But fruit can be high in sugar, which means vegetables are often the better choice. They can be made more interesting with a healthy dip or combined with things like peanut butter or some seasoning to add flavor.

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

Try Out New Things

When was the last time you tried a new fruit or vegetable? We tend to stick to what we know, especially when it comes to preparing different ingredients. However, trying something new can open up a new world and allow you to explore lots of different recipes and cuisines. Next time you shop for groceries, consider getting something that you’ve never eaten before or never cooked with before. You’re sure to find plenty of ways to use it, whether it’s something you want to cook with or try raw.

Have Smoothies and Juices

Smoothies and juices are excellent for getting more fruit and veggies into your diet. You can put so many different things in them, from strawberries to spinach. You can make sweet drinks or go for a more savoury flavor profile, depending on what you prefer. They can be good for your breakfast in the morning, or they can make excellent pre- or post-workout fuel to give you the energy and hydration that you need. You can try out so many different flavors.

Getting more fruits and vegetables into your diet can help you be healthier and give you more energy too.

How to Cook Healthy Meals When You’re Short on Time

December 29, 2022 by Wendy S

Cooking healthy meals can be a challenge, especially when you’re short on time. It’s easy to resort to fast food or processed meals when you’re busy, but these options are often high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats. However, it is possible to cook healthy meals even when you’re short on time. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Plan ahead

One of the biggest time-savers when it comes to healthy cooking is planning ahead. Take some time on the weekend to plan out your meals for the week, make a shopping list, and prep ingredients in advance. This can save you a lot of time during the week, as you won’t have to spend as much time chopping vegetables, cooking grains, or portioning out protein sources. Planning ahead can also help you stay organized and ensure that you have all the ingredients you need to make healthy meals.

Keep a well-stocked pantry

Having a well-stocked pantry can be a lifesaver when you’re short on time. Keep a variety of healthy staples on hand, such as whole grains (such as quinoa and brown rice), canned beans, canned tomatoes, frozen vegetables, and nuts and seeds. These ingredients can be used to create a variety of healthy meals in a pinch. For example, you can make a quick grain bowl by combining cooked grains with canned beans, frozen vegetables, and a homemade dressing. Or, you can create a healthy soup by simmering canned tomatoes and beans with frozen vegetables and spices.

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Use your slow cooker

Slow cookers are a great way to cook healthy meals when you’re short on time. Simply add ingredients to the slow cooker in the morning, and you’ll have a healthy and delicious meal ready for dinner. Slow cookers are great for making soups, stews, and braises, which are all perfect for busy weeknights. Slow cookers are also a great way to cook tough, inexpensive cuts of meat, as the long cooking time helps to tenderize the meat and make it more flavorful. This guide on how to cook white chicken chili in an instant pot is a good example of what you can do with a slow cooker.

Use convenience items

While it’s always best to cook from scratch, there are some convenience items that can help you save time without sacrificing nutrition. For example, pre-cut vegetables and fruit, rotisserie chicken, and canned tuna can all be used to create quick and healthy meals. Just be sure to read the labels and choose options that are lower in sodium and added sugars. Pre-cut vegetables, for instance, can be added to stir-fries, omelets, or grain bowls to add nutrition and flavour without requiring any prep time.

Try one-pot meals

One-pot meals are a great option when you’re short on time, as they require minimal prep and clean-up. Some examples include chili, soup, and pasta dishes. These meals can be made in advance and easily reheated for a quick and healthy dinner. One-pot meals are also a great way to use up any leftover ingredients you have in the fridge, as you can throw them all into the pot and create a delicious and nutritious meal.

Starting Your Gym Journey? Tips For You!

November 14, 2022 by Wendy S

It doesn’t matter what time of year you choose or at what point in your life you start going to the gym – what matters is how you approach it. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while or aren’t sure what you should be doing – make use of free guest passes like the ones they have at Fitness 19. This will give you an idea of their equipment, and you can chat with the people who run the gym there. You can see whether it is the right place for you.

Once you find the right place, though, here is how you can make the most of your gym time.

Photo bySven Mieke onUnsplash

Reps or form?

To get the best from your workout, the form you use will have the most significant impact. However, many new gym goers look at their reps rather than their form. Proper form will mean you get the best out of the workout and avoid injuries.

Ask a gym instructor or a gym buddy to help you get your form right – then, after that, move on to nailing the reps you have set as your goal.

Goals

While it is good to set a goal, your main goal could just be to feel fitter – and that is fine. Many people choose to set a weight goal, a reps goal, a distance goal, or others. Goals can help you stay on track for what you want to achieve. There are a couple of ways to track your goals. One of them is to take photos as you go.

Photos can be incredibly motivating because you can see the changes in your body. They say that most of the time, the people around you will notice the changes after a couple of months – but you might notice them much sooner if you track them carefully.

Workout journals are also instrumental because you can see the figures attached to your work. You’ll see the uptick of the weight you can lift, and depending on if you are bulking or losing, you will be able to track that too.

Nutrition

You need to feel your body has the right foods so that it has the right amount of energy to go into a workout and recover well. The foods you choose should be considered like fuel. Some foods will give you more benefits than others.

You don’t need to change everything you eat immediately; you can do it over time as you start to work out more.

Change up

Doing the same workouts every time you go to the gym will mean that, over time, you get bored – and that you might start to plateau because you don’t push yourself anymore. Every few weeks, change what you are doing. Work out a new muscle group, change the cardio that you do – anything that keeps you engaged in the workout process.

Time off

Even if you want to hit the gym daily to reach your goals, by doing this, you are likely to find yourself burning out pretty quickly. Your body won’t have time to recover between workouts, and you will be pushing tired muscles to perform their best. You’ll notice the difference, which can cause many people to feel like they aren’t making the progress they want.

Rest and recovery are two of the most important things for a good workout.

Never underestimate how vital cardio is when it comes to your workout, it has a long list of benefits: The Benefits of a Cardio Workout.

The First Five Steps to Better Mental Wellbeing

October 20, 2022 by Wendy S

Better mental wellbeing begins with you. There are professionals who can help. But you must be willing to recognize and address your situation in order to move forward with your health.

Man on sofa comforting a crying woman – Image Courtesy of Pexels

Reach Out to Professional Services

There are a lot of professionals who can help you with mental health problems. There is always help for mental health problems, from mild ones like anxiety to serious ones like personality disorders. For instance, the trained and caring therapists at the Toronto and Ottawa Psychotherapy Centre can help with a wide range of mental health problems. All you have to do to get the help you need is call, send an email, or send a text message.

Spend Time with Other People

Studies have shown that having good relationships at work is good for your mental health. By keeping in touch with friends and family and making those relationships stronger, you can build a group of people who can help you. Maslow says that this helps people feel like they belong and have value, which is high on the list of needs. Also, you can be honest with the people you trust the most and talk to them about your problems for the emotional support you need.

Learn Something New for Better Mental Wellbeing

You might think you don’t have time to learn something new. Or that you can’t do it or are afraid to try. Getting out of your comfort zone slowly is another way to deal with pain and mental health that can be used in many different ways. Also, learning a new skill can help you feel better about yourself and connect you with people who like the same things you do. You could do something like a do-it-yourself project, learn how to cook or sign up for a local college course.

Be Aware of Your Situation

Your mental health can get better if you pay more attention to the present. This would include your thoughts and feelings, your body, and the rest of the world. This is called “mindfulness,” which you might know if you’re a Star Wars fan. But being more aware can help you enjoy life more and find out more about who you are. It can change the way you see the world and help you solve problems in a positive and logical manner rather than ruminating into depression.

Use Your Time to Help Others

Recent studies have shown that about 40% of people help people around them on a regular basis. This could be done by listening, being a friend, or even giving money and food. But other studies have also shown that helping other people is good for your own mental health. It does this by making happy feelings a reward, mostly because of a balance of serotonin. But it can also make you feel like you have value to other people and help you connect on a human level.

Summary

Better mental wellbeing isn’t out of reach for anyone because there is always help available. But it begins by taking steps such as contacting professionals, learning new skills, or helping others.

How To Better Deal With Pain

October 10, 2022 by Wendy S

Pain is a fact of life – everyone is going to experience it in various forms throughout their lives, and this is something you can’t get around. However, it is possible to change how you approach it, so that you are going to make as much as possible out of the situation, and that is something that you should always be able to do. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the better ways to deal with pain, so that you can reduce its impact on your life as much as possible.

Change Your Mindset

One of the most fundamental changes you can make is to change your relationship to pain as it occurs. If you are able to get to a place where you just see pain as the necessary information it is, useful data that you need to pay attention to, rather than some huge problem, then that in itself makes it a lot more bearable to deal with. Changing your mindset to this kind of approach is perfectly possible, even if it takes a while to achieve. It’s the kind of thing that you are going to want to think about working on right away.

Photo by JESHOOTS.com

Alternative Treatments

You might also be interested in trying out a number of alternative treatments that are out there to be sought after. There are so many of these that you would be forgiven for forgetting about some of them, but there are some that have been known to help people out a lot in the past, and which are therefore quite worth thinking about. For instance, you might find that the kind of acupuncture services offered at www.qitcm.ca could be a good solution for your long-term pain in particular, and it’s definitely worth trying out at the very least.

Gentle Exercise

In general, when you have hurt something in your body, the best thing is not to just keep it still entirely, but to move it gently a little. We used to think that you should keep it still, but we now know that this is the worst thing to do. Instead, you should get some gentle exercise with the area, ensuring that you don’t push it too hard or too far, but generally making sure that you are engaging with it in a small way. That helps it to recover, and it actually works through the pain sooner too.

Photo by Engin Akyurt

Controlling The Breath

Your breath is one of the most powerful tools you have for managing pain too. If you are able to control your breathing as best as you can, it’s going to help you manage how your pain feels, so this is definitely something to think about. In particular, deep breaths are always important for overcoming your pain, so make sure to avoid shallow chest breathing when trying to get rid of pain in your body. That is a simple thing you can do which really makes a huge difference.