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Alcohol is very often not the cause of that extra pound or two you gained over the holidays or after a few parties. The fact that alcohol relaxes you, lowering your inhibitions means that unless your dancing on the table you’re probably scoffing all the high fat, high sodium nibbles on the table. You conveniently forget all the cheese sticks and sausage rolls you ate and blame the alcohol. Stick with the list below and I’m afraid you’ll have to face the truth. You’re a binge nibbler after a few tipples.

Top Ten Low Calorie Alcoholic Drinks

•       Sparkling wine is surprisingly low in calories, containing a mere 105 calories for a 140 ml glass.
•       White wine averages 91 calories per 140 ml glass. Sweeter wines will average an extra 20 calories. Pour your white wine into a long glass and top with soda water, adding volume to your drink without adding calories. Alternatively pop a couple of ice cubes into your wine glass.
•       Red wine comes in at 98 calories for every 140 ml glass.
•       Vodka comes in on average at 55 calories per 25 ml. Add plenty of ice, 50 ml of lime cordial and top with soda water for a long drink. A total of 61 calories a pop. Yippee! bring on the vodka…
•       Gin is also 55 calories per 25 ml. Add lots of ice, a slice of lime and 100 ml of Schweppes’s tonic. This delightful tipple will rob a mere 92 calories from your daily allowance.
•       A 25 ml of whiskey topped with soda water has to be the lowest of all, hitting home at only 55 calories. Ye hay!
•       A 25 ml of whiskey and 120 ml of ginger ale will set you back 95 calories.
•       A martini averages 200 calories per glass, if you don’t eat the olive. I say eat the olive. There’s a lot of alcohol in that olive. To hell with the extra 8 calories.
•       A better choice would be a bloody mary with a celery stick! A bloody mary will cost you about 120 calories. Tomato juice is also full of vitamin C, which helps prevent a hangover the next morning. And celery is a zero calorie food. Three good reasons to drink bloody mary’s.
•       A Tom Collins runs alongside the bloody mary at a 120 calories per glass.

Some good tips stop all that nibbling: have a healthy dinner before the party and drink lots of water between drinks. Remember to drink responsibly and don’t drink and drive! Happy celebrating! 

How to: Start Meal Prepping

 

You want to eat healthy and you know there’s many foods out there that just aren’t nutritious for your body. Convenience foods are filled with unnecessary preservatives and extra calories leaving you with little room for more food throughout the day even though you’ll be hungry in a couple hours. You know that foods made at home at the best since you can control what goes in them. You know all these things, but it takes time to prepare meals at home and with a growing family, career obligations and a busy schedule where is that time going to come from? To battle this you can easily pre-make some or all of your foods so that you have items ready to go that are easy to eat so you won’t have to endure another drive-thru any time soon. Here’s how you can easily start to meal prep.

 

Make a Plan

Well, obviously. But no, really – plan. Find or make a meal planning sheet – either digital or one you can write on – and plan your meals. Plan all of it: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. By figuring out what you’re going to eat for the week you can figure out what groceries you need to buy and exactly what you need to prepare ahead of time. You can even, if you like, cross reference this plan into your work or family planner so that on days you’re really busy you can see you need to prep for the entire day and not just a couple snacks or one meal. Knowing what is going on in the week to come can really help to ensure you’re preparing the foods you need to eat and you won’t be left hungry hours before you can get home.

 

Decide your Timeline

No meal prep is the same: some people do it on Sundays, some do it on their day off because they work shiftwork. Some people prep every meal and snack, some only do the ones where they know they won’t be home for a long time. Some people prep for a whole week, others only for a day or two at a time. Whatever works for you, do it. Figure out if you are comfortable with preparing meals and snacks for the whole week. It is common to struggle with questioning if you can know what you’ll want to eat a whole week ahead, but this is part of making the plan: to ensure you aren’t always trying to find a drive-thru you need to have foods prepared. You will also want to figure out when you want to meal prep and keep it consistent. If you plan to do it on a day where you already have a lot going on it’s likely you’ll push it back and then you’ll be without ready to go foods for a few days.

 

Find Recipes you Like

Some people are ok to eat the exact same thing for breakfast every day of the week, while others don’t even want to look at the same foods twice in one week. You know yourself best, so figure out what you like to eat. Do you like leftovers? Will you always have access to a microwave during the day? Figure out what you want to eat and make it. It is important, though, if you are prepping for the whole week that you find recipes that will stay for the week. If there are ones you love but it’s only good for a couple days, perhaps you can prep the ingredients and make it for a day or two at a time so that you will still be able to enjoy it fully. If you don’t like it, you won’t eat it.

Combine Foods

Not actually, but if you normally make three difference recipes for the week try to find ones that use similar ingredients. For example, they all use chicken, or beef, as the meat in the recipe. If you have to buy three different kinds of meat then your grocery bill will go through the roof. By combing ingredients you can also save on space needed in your fridge and cabinets, if that’s an issue for you.

 

Get the Stuff

You’ll need reusable containers – lots of them. Meal prep requires that you make a lot of foods ahead of time so you’ll need something to store it all in. Make sure you have a variety of sizes and that they are all microwavable in case you want to heat up the food you make.

5 Popular Fitness Myths Debunked

 

There are a lot of fitness “truths” out there, and it seems like what is true today won’t be tomorrow. Well, there’s a few things out there that have always been true, even if fads having you believing otherwise. Here’s 5 popular fitness myths that just simply aren’t true.

 

Myth #1: No pain, no gain

Ultimately pain is a signal your body sends when something just isn’t quite right – perhaps your workout is too intense or your form is incorrect, either way what your body doesn’t like what you’re doing if you’re in actual pain. The muscle soreness caused from a heavy workout, such as your quads after squats, is very normal but that shouldn’t be confused for pain. If you are having troubles walking or with regular mobility the day after a workout you might have pushed too hard and you should give yourself sufficient recovery. Soreness is to be expected, but you should not be in pain.

 

Myth #2: Women who lift weights will become bulky

This myth has been circulating with the aerobics and step class goers for years, but it is ultimately not true. Gaining huge amounts of muscle takes an incredibly regimented diet and workout schedule, plus that much extra muscle – order to look “bulky” – would require a large elevation in testosterone levels which women just naturally don’t have. Having a low body fat percentage will show the definition that your muscles naturally have, but without doing it on purpose women who lift weights will not become bulky. If anything, they will come to have a much more defined shape to their body.

 

Myth #3: I burned the calories, so I can eat whatever I want

What? Why? If you are on the path to losing those extra 10, 20 or more pounds then why would you sabotage your success? Seriously. In order to lose weight you need to consume less calories than you burn in a day, a way of thinking known as CICO or Calories In Calories Out. If you burned off 500 calories during your workout, that’s a pretty intense workout. But you can completely ruin that extra deficit with just one small snack. Due to the amount of processed foods consumed, calorie intakes are pretty high for those of us in a busy lifestyle. Don’t ruin your fantastic workout. Eat your regularly planned meals, ensure you have enough protein, fiber, carbs and fat in your diet and you will see those results. Don’t waste your efforts with just one snack; it’s so easy to over eat and you need high intensity workouts to burn a large number of calories.

 

Myth #4: If you’re trying to lose weight you should start with cardio, and then move to weight training when you’ve lost some weight

No. A million times, no. Cardio and weight training are both valid workouts but they will give you drastically different benefits. Cardio training helps your lung capacity and works your heart – it is an aerobic workout. Weight training is anaerobic. Aerobic workouts burn fat stores, which requires much more oxygen to complete. Weight training, on the other hand, uses your glycogen stores to complete the workout. What might be more relevant is this: weight lifting keeps burning calories even after you finish working out as it increases your metabolism over time. Cardio, on the other hand, doesn’t have quite the afterburn affect but it will burn more calories during the workout than weightlifting. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, but you do not have to choose one over the other if you’re just starting out.

 

Myth #5: Working out should be hard, and it isn’t meant to be fun

This myth goes all the way back to fundamentals. Working out – in any form – is great for your body: it can relieve stress, help you sleep better, help you with focus and memory and just add quality to your every day life. So why would you choose a workout that you don’t enjoy? If you hate running don’t do it. Don’t want to squat your own body weight? Then don’t do it. It’s really that simple. You don’t have to hate it and it doesn’t have to be hard. Notice how kids do things they really enjoy doing? They don’t put themselves through stuff they don’t like so why are you? Choose a form of exercise that you look forward to doing and it will become a whole lot less work.

 

 

Overall health is not just about fitness – but fitness is key 

 

When talking about becoming healthier and feeling better most people automatically assume that you’re just going to start working out, but that isn’t the only thing you need to think about when looking at a healthier lifestyle. There are a few other factors to living a well-balanced, healthy life and it isn’t just about hitting the gym. Here’s the other key factors to maintaining balance in your life, without feeling like you’ll completely lose who you are.

 

Sleep

This cannot, cannot be stressed enough. Sleep is likely the biggest thing you’re missing out on. Most adults need about 7-8 hours per night; now there are a select few who can actually function on less than that and not be affected, but most of us can’t. Getting a good, restful sleep every night is crucial for living a balanced life, and for ensuring you are completely present in every aspect of your life. Skipping out on sleep in favour of catching up on TV shows will catch up with you, whether you like it or not. Get some rest!

 

Nutrition

Well, obviously. But in all seriousness that foods you choose can also have an affect on your ability to concentrate and your motivation. When you feel better, you start to want to feel better all the time. This means that you’ll want to consistently eat better when you realize how good it feels. Make sure you get the nutrition your body needs, and not just the latest fad diet. It will be a consistent effort to choose the right foods in the beginning, but once you know how your body reacts to certain foods it will motivate you to continue to eat that way.

 

Mental Vacations

Most people will talk about how they go on vacation just to get away from it all – every day life, the stress, the responsibilities, the never ending To Do lists – all of it. What this means is they need a mental vacation, and some time to just do nothing while they can recharge. This doesn’t have to be sitting on a beach or backpacking through Europe – it can really be just a week away from everything you don’t want to do. Taking the time to mentally prepare for upcoming work, projects or family events is crucial to your overall health and should be considered important time with yourself. Take the time – you won’t regret it.

 

Physical Fitness

Incorporating physical fitness routine into your schedule is great for all parts of your health – not just the physical. While it will show the most benefit to you physically it can also have fantastic benefits to your mental health. Working out regularly can help you to focus on tasks on work and can also help you have restful sleep at night, and a good night’s sleep is very important to overall health too. When you have physical fitness as a priority in your life, everything else just seems to line up – ever wonder why? In order to excel in your chosen area of working out you need to ensure you are sleeping an appropriate amount, eating the foods that align with your body’s needs and you are mentally prepared for the workout to come. Fitness needs all of those things in order for it to work: if you are eating foods that aren’t nutritionally sound your performance will suffer. If you aren’t sleeping enough, you won’t want to work out. By ensuring all the other aspects of your health align then your workout will fall right into place and your overall health will be maintained.

The Best Way to Get Back into Fitness After Having a Baby

 

Having a baby is tough – both physically and emotionally. If you had a regular workout routine before baby came along you might find yourself pinched for time now. If you didn’t frequent the gym before having your little one, you might find yourself in a position now where you’d like to lose that extra baby weight you just can’t seem to get rid of. Here’s some of the best ways to get your pre-baby body, and routine, back if you’re struggling to make it happen.

 

Make Some Friends

This might sound weird, and you’re thinking “I already have friends, thanks” but make friends who are also new moms. You’ll likely go through the same struggles and issues, so you can vent to them but what’s more is you can form meeting groups and do activities like going for long walks where you can bring baby along. This means you’re getting out, getting active and maintaining a social life.

 

Find the Right Workout

New moms aren’t likely cleared for working out until about 6 or 8 weeks postpartum, potentially longer if you delivered via cesarean. Even if you have been cleared to work out that doesn’t mean that every option out there will be right for you. Be realistic about what you can do and your limitations. Find something you enjoy doing, form a workout group or find a gym that encourages new moms to join. If you don’t enjoy doing it, you won’t do it – so find what you enjoy.

 

Be Mindful of Food

This seems like common sense but it’s much easier to be mindful of food when you don’t have a little one to be worried about. Check what your diet looks like – and be honest about it! Figure out where you can adjust and ensure you’re eating proper, nutritional food. You’re taking such great care of your new addition, make sure you take care of you too!

 

Get Enough Sleep

As a new mom you’re probably thinking this is crazy, but try. Getting enough sleep is crucial for a well-balanced life. It’s not selfish to try to get some sleep in – the dishes can wait, laundry can wait, take a nap, go to bed early. Do what you can to make sure you’re getting enough sleep.

 

Make a Routine

Be realistic about this – figure out what works best for your schedule and your partner’s, if possible. Find days and times where it’s in the calendar that you’re working out and it’s your time to reset. Let your partner know you need them on that day to be home so you can have some you time. Stick to your days and you’ll be back into it in no time.

 

No matter how you get back into fitness after having your baby it’s important that you do. Fitness is essential for a balanced life and can really help you to reset your mind. It’s also time for you to spend by yourself – or with a group – and get some much needed you-time. Being able to reset and relax is important as a new mom, so take the time to focus on you sometimes and that way you can be the best possible mom when you get home.