7 tips to have a happy and HEALTHY Easter holiday

It really does feel like we’ve just gotten over Christmas (just me?) and yet here’s Easter already, come to tempt us with its family holiday treats and goodies! Easter food in my family was always mainly about gorgeously warm hot crossed buns (one a-penny, two a-penny) with butter sinking into them and about the hearty family roast dinner. But I do know that the Easter bunny likes to deposit loads of chocolate eggs – and the supermarket shelves seem to heave with a ridiculous number of choices – and have you seen the SIZE of some of them?!

So chances are, the Easter bunny is going to be ‘forcing’ you to eat a bit more than your fair share of chocolate and other waistline-expanding goodies this long weekend… not to mention the extra tipple or four that is mandatory for celebrating a Bank Holiday! So how can you still enjoy all these vices but still make sure that you’re not straying too far into ‘the land of chubs’? I’ve got a few little tips to help!

1. Don’t buy a heap of chocolate. I know that there are often deals that entice us into spending a small fortune on a mountain of sugary goodness. Sounds simple enough, but if you don’t buy huge amounts, it won’t be in the house and you’re less likely to be sneaking into the kitchen to raid the choc-supply at strange hours.
2. Opt for the healthier kids on the block. Dark chocolate is a tasty treat and, in small quantities, it’s even good for you! Make sure that you’re opting for the 70% plus cocoa content to reap the benefits though. You can also choose cacao chocolate bars from places like The Raw Chocolate Company – cacao is basically the raw, unprocessed version of cocoa and is often mixed with natural sweeteners to make sin-free chocolate goodies! Another one of the new healthier types of chocolate doing the rounds at the moment is the tummy-loving Oh So chocolate – it’s Belgian chocolate with probiotics which are the good bacteria that look after and nurture your gut.
3. Make your own hot cross buns. I’m definitely going to be trying out a recipe for my own healthier homemade hot cross buns… I’m not much of a baker, but I’ve been eyeing out the shop bought versions since they came out (in, like, February??). I’ve spotted this recipe which uses wholemeal spelt flour and oats to pack the buns with fibre, and cuts out refined sugar… sounds right up my street! I’ll keep you posted on progress!
4. Make sure you’re keeping active. Brave the elements and drag everyone out the house! Go for a walk or a hike, organise a football/touch rugby match with your mates, dance til dawn, or get sweaty at the gym… Make sure you EARN those extra calories. And if you have little ones, why not set up an obstacle Easter egg hunt… kind of like Tough Mudder, but with eggs involved – Tough Egger?!
5. Stock up on healthy goods. Ironically, real Easter bunnies tend to prefer carrots, lettuce and foods that are waaaay healthier than chocolate! Make sure that you have lots of fruit out on display, ready for people to snack on. And if you’re cooking a Sunday roast, make sure that you pile your plate with the healthy, colourful vegetables rather than the beige spuds and Yorkshire puds…
6. Don’t beat yourself up. This is all part of family life and you’re allowed to enjoy it! Decide in advance what ‘treat’ you’re going to have and then draw the line at that. Don’t let the guilt send you into a spiral of indulgence. Make your choices and be proud of yourself for sticking to them!
7. Book in for my 4 week Spring Clean programme. Starting just after Easter, on 13 April, I’m running a 4 week Get Lean Spring Clean programme to shed off the layers of winter and help you feel better and brighter – more energy, less sludge and a perfect way to avoid that overindulgence spiral! Find out more info and book your place HERE. Go on, get booking!!

I’d love to hear about your Easter adventures – why not share in the comments box below, or swing by my Facebook page to tell your stories!

Did you know that I’ve also just started a newsletter? You can subscribe to receive the odd healthy morsel from me here.

Socially motivating: getting fitter through Twitter (and other channels!)

For the past week I have been following and getting involved in a little motivating moment of mindfulness via the wonders of social media. And it really got me thinking about the power of social networks in keeping people focused and on track when trying to lead healthy lifestyles.

Hannah Mills, or @wedgesandweights as I know her on Twitter, started a week long #WWPhotoFood challenge on Instagram. The idea was that for one week, you posted pictures of what you ate on a daily basis. So you took a photo of EVERY little morsel that passed your lips. Now to a nosey foodie like myself, this was heaven. I LOVE seeing what other people actually eat. And, to really get in the spirit of things, I thought it was only fair that I shared my food diaries too. Now, I confess, I didn’t do the full week. I came to the challenge late, and had a weekend celebrating my OH’s birthday, so got swept away in the weekend (and was purposefully leaving the phone in the hotel room so we HAD TO TALK TO EACH OTHER… Scary stuff, I know!) But despite that, I found that it still had a great effect. It really made me contemplate every mouthful. Did I really want to take a photo of that… (insert random snacky item here)? And I had already submitted my photos for the day, so I didn’t really need that handful of raisins or that mini chocolate bar, did I? And, jeez, I really do mindlessly pick at bits while I’m prepping dinner or my lunch for the next day… tut, tut Bella! Being consciously more mindful was an eye opener!

Despite the fact that I’m pretty sure that some of my real life friends on Instagram started groaning out loud every time they saw ANOTHER post about the food I put in my mouth, this little experiment really made me think.

I’ve just finished the first module of my nutritional adviser course on the psychology behind motivation and weight loss. So I had a particular interest on the benefit of social media in helping maintain and sustain a healthy lifestyle. People who are trying to make the change to a healthier lifestyle will pass through different psychological stages of change. And even the healthiest of healthy souls will be at risk of relapsing back to the early stages or even failure at some point of their lives. This is where having a toolkit or coping strategy to rely on can make the difference between ‘Bye bye healthy ways’ and ‘whoops, I’ve slipped up, back on it now girl…’ And this is where I think social media, and little challenges like #WWphotofood, online ‘twitter teams’ like #FitTeam14 or #FitFam, or ‘fitspo’ (fit inspiration) accounts on Instagram or Facebook can really help. If you surround yourself with healthy and positive inspiration, it’s more likely to rub off on you, right?

Of course, just following these accounts isn’t enough… At some stage you need to actually get off your ass and do something about it. But for some reason that feels easier when you know that there is an army of other people also spending Sunday cooking up healthy delights in the the kitchen. Or that there are other people dragging their heels about heading out into the rain for a run. More often than not, these people will take time out to cheer you on, give you a virtual pat on the back and (and I’ve actually had this) a ‘COMEONGIRLGETOFFYOURASSANDDOTHIS!!!’ (It worked).

Now obviously if you’re getting this kind of support from your real life friends too, then you’re onto a winner. I have a supportive man in my life (supportive in nature, but draws the line at swapping his real chocolate mousse for one made with avocado instead…), I come from a fit and healthy family and have recently met a great group of people through my bootcamp training sessions. But given that we spend SO much time buried in social media, it’s nice to know I have my social kick up the butt and inspiration when I need it too!

Do you use social media to give you a boost when you’re flagging? As inspiration on what to cook for a healthy dinner? Or as your very own Mr Motivator to get you off the couch? I’d love to hear what your coping strategy is and how you find inspiration to get you through the moments that matter…

Farewell to Zest

Obviously my boyfriend thinks I’m practically perfect in every way (*ahem*) … but if he did have one complaint about me, it would probably be my obsession with health, fitness and food magazines. And I have to admit, it is verging on ridiculous. In drawers, under the bed… there are PILES of them and despite having just had a massive clear out, I’ve still managed to cling on to at least 100 of them.

This week marked the end of an era in health and fitness magazines. Zest magazine announced that it’s January issue would be it’s last. Apparently Hearst Magazines UK has decided that to be strong enough to survive going forward, it needs to shed some excess weight. And given that it has some other pretty successful and notable publications (Women’s Health being their new baby), they’ve made the hard and brave decision to shut down Zest.

To me, this is a massive sign of the times. I’m a die-hard-mag-fan, so it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to wean myself off my habit of flicking pages with a cuppa at the weekend. But now I get to feed (pardon the pun) my food and fitness obsession with tonnes of Twitter tell-alls, billions of foodie bloggers, platefuls of instagram pics, YouTube vids, foodie facts from Facebook, millions of nutritionists and a plethora of PTs (is that the proper collective noun for them? If not, it should be!) sharing their wisdom. So, like newspapers, my beloved magazines need to work harder, both on and offline, to avoid going the way of the dodo.

The thing I love about the social media side of this is that it suddenly makes it a whole lot more personal. Sure, you read someone’s story in a magazine, and that’s fine. But on social media, you’re hearing it from THE ACTUAL PERSON. And you can become a part of it in a way that hasn’t been possible before. I fell in love with Twitter when I discovered #FitTeam11 (as it was then, now it’s #FitTeam13) led by the awesome PT, Stuart Amory. Stu made the brilliant connection between on and offline by starting a #FitTeam roadshow where people from Twitter could get together to workout, share experiences and learn first hand from the PTs they’d been following.

And right now, I’m off to a bootcamp that I found out about on Facebook, before coming home to cook up some bonfire treats that I’ve been collecting from twitter and instagram! Enjoy your Saturday!