Tag Archives: Healthy meals

Christmas health claims are about as useful as a chocolate teapot

In the run up to Christmas it’s all too easy to overindulge, especially when festive goodies are handed out at almost every opportunity. But I don’t just mean the times when you travel to see family and friends. You know that those visits oblige you to sample someone’s homemade mince pies or Christmas cake. However, recently I have been surprised to be plied with stollen bites, Bailey’s and holiday chocolates simply by buying presents, choosing a Christmas tree and attending my gym. Even if you are normally accustomed to eating a healthy diet, somehow it still feels awkward to turn down the offer of a festive calorie-laden treat. So you end up eating something sky high in sugar that you know you don’t really need or necessarily want from a virtual stranger. You even go overboard in thanking them for it and will happily do it all again because it’s Christmas. Then when your gut starts to nag away at you with eater’s regret, you try to convince yourself that there’s no harm in a little celebrating…Nobody wants to be a Scrooge, right? Besides, it’s practically impossible to have a healthy Christmas.

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Dehydration is no running joke

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After too many days of running on wet, soggy trails and being whipped by the wind, it is nice to finally feel the warmth of the sun. With the weather forecast predicting more sunny days ahead of us, many people will be planning to get outside and enjoy a workout or two. But although we are still in the last days of the Spring and the temperatures are mostly mild, now is the perfect time to start thinking about hydration. Ensuring that you are sufficiently hydrated while running will not only keep you cool and comfortable. It can make the difference between finishing a workout, crossing a finish line or crashing out in a big heap and a DNF.

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Would you run for burritos?

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As a Registered Nutritionist I work with parents to help ensure their children can eat a healthy balanced diet that is full of variety. Needless to say, this can be extremely challenging and stressful if their child is going through a bit of a picky eating stage. But one thing that can work wonders and even motivate very fussy children to eat is to introduce an element of reward for trying new foods. However, the golden rule that should always be followed is that the reward for eating should never be food-related. In other words, using a more carrot than stick approach but not literally. The simple reason why is because awarding a liked food as a prize for doing something difficult doesn’t work effectively nor does it foster a healthy attitude towards eating. But oddly enough, as soon as you become an adult this rule is positively flouted. Especially amongst runners because favourite foods are regularly used as incentives and rewards for doing something challenging.

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Make every run your PB

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I have spent a lot of time recently while out running thinking about the pressure we often feel as runners to always achieve a Personal Best. It isn’t helped by the fact that once people find out you are a runner, the subject of PBs becomes a regular part of your conversations. No one – not even relative strangers – will beat around the bush about it. They will ask you outright to reveal your vital PB stats. It doesn’t even seem to occur to others that the question might be somewhat personal. But it’s worse if you are a parkrunner, training for an event or a member of a running group because discussions around PBs are literally inescapable. I cannot count the number of times I have been quizzed about my PB while standing at the start line, or even worse, while I was literally running in the middle of an event. It’s not that I am especially secretive about my PBs, but I tend to have other things on my mind during a race.

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Why a New Year’s resolution to avoid Ultra-Processed Foods is ultra difficult

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You know it must be January because the number of runners outside have multiplied, the gyms are full to their sweaty breaking points and knabbing a space in any yoga class is harder than landing tickets to Glastonbury. Although that’s not to say that there is anything wrong with starting the year with some good intentions to get fit and healthy. But it can be hard to know how to do it while navigating yourself through the wealth of wellness-related information we are fed by social media. Especially because the free advice we are given doesn’t often take into account the realities of our daily lives. And if a new fitness regime or resolution to eat better isn’t easy to adapt to, it’s difficult to stay motivated and stick to it long term. Nonetheless, every year we hear that our eternal ‘wellness’ and so, happiness, is promised by religiously following another new workout or fad diet.