Be Realistic and Keep it Simple

Most of us feel like we need to be extra healthy after indulging over Christmas. Some of us also want to start the new year with a new ‘diet’ or a ‘detox.’ We prefer to stay away from these words.

Yes, we could all do with more healthy eating after the Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities, but you don’t need to be super restrictive or make any drastic changes.

Let’s be realistic here. Keep it simple, eat lots of fruit and vegetables and enjoy small treats sometimes. This is far more manageable in the long term! Your eating needs to fit in with your lifestyle!

Let’s ditch the ‘diet’ and ‘detox’ and use these tips to guide us with our eating this year:

Don’t cut out any food groups

Your meals throughout the day should contain a combination of healthy fats, carbohydrates and protein. You don’t need to cut out carbs to lose weight, just make sure you’re choosing the right carbs e.g. wholemeal bread and pasta and brown rice.

Don’t skip breakfast

A healthy high fibre breakfast prevents cravings later in the day as well as helps your metabolism aka help the way your body burns fat!

Be mindful of your portions

This is not something you need to obsess over, just be mindful of. Use your nutrition plan and portion plate as a guide for your portion sizes. Make sure your meals are mostly full of fruit and vege.

Love what you eat

Don’t think you’ve got to eat boring meals to be healthy or lose weight. Get creative and use a big variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and spices in every meal. Check out our recipes for inspiration! Make meals you’re excited to eat!

Cook and prepare most of your meals at home

Try to make your favourite lunches and takeaways at home. You’ll be surprised how many kilojoules you’ll save and how many extra vegetables you can sneak in! 

Check out our First Recipe of the Year.

It’s simple & speedy, it’s healthy, it’s full of fruit & vege, it’s delicious, it’s a great way to start your year!

Serves: 4 Time: 20min Cost: $13.80 approx ($3.45/serve) 

• 1 punnet of strawberries
• 1 large broccoli head
• 2 cups of spinach
• 1 avocado
• ½ cup dry roasted almonds
• ½ block feta
• 4 eggs
• 2 TB balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ tsp salt and pepper

 Method

1. Eggs: place eggs in saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil, turn off heat and leave eggs for 10 mins (place eggs in iced water to cool down quicker).
2. Broccoli: bring pot of water to a boil, chop broccoli into small florets and boil for 2 mins, place broccoli into bowl of iced water for 1 min.
3. Dressing: mix balsamic vinegar oil and brown sugar, salt and pepper.
4. Dice avocado and slice strawberries.
5. Peel shells and slice boiled eggs into quarters.
6. Construct salad: add spinach, broccoli, avocado, strawberries, almonds and eggs then crumble over feta and drizzle over dressing.