#MAY5ADAY – think you’re up to the fruit & veg challenge?

I’m passionate about a lot of things when it comes to healthy lifestyles – the benefits of drinking water, the importance of eating clean and real food, going back to basics and avoiding packaged junk, the effect that strength and flexibility can have on your overall mental and physical state… those are just a few. But perhaps one of my biggest passions is helping people to reach (and hopefully exceed) their recommended 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. The benefits of eating more of the plant-stuff are REAL, I promise you – just ask the peeps on my Spring Clean programme!

The UK’s recommendation is that you eat 2 portions of fruit and 3 portions of vegetables a day – that ratio is because fruit is higher in sugar than vegetables, and veggies tend to have a broader range of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals which can help protect us from diseases. In Australia, the recommendation is 2 portions of fruit and 5 of veg a day. And despite originally starting with the World Health Organisation’s recommendations of 5 a day, countries like Denmark (6 a day), France (10 a day) and Japan (a whopping 13 a day – 4 from fruit and 13 from veg) have upped their recommendations over the last few years. So our piddly 5 a day seems like child’s play in comparison! Surely we’re cool enough to play with the grown ups?

The scary thing is, so many people aren’t even reaching our small recommendation. I think that’s probably for a number of reasons:

Are you getting your 5 a day?

• I think there’s a lot of confusion about what a ‘portion’ actually is. “Hurrah!”, you think, “I’ve scoffed a satsuma – that’s one of my portions!”… Erm, no. Sorry. That’s half a portion. Check out the box opposite for what a portion looks like
• “Jacket potato in my gob, that’s a portion of veg!” – nope, I’m afraid not! While potatoes are definitely vegetables, they don’t actually count towards your 5 a day because they’re a starchy carbohydrate. So unless you’re loading your spud with salad or beans, you need to rethink that one!
• Squishing the juice of out fruit only counts as one portion, no matter how much not-from-concentrate, no-added-sugar goodness you think you’re drinking! See, when you squelch out the juices, you leave behind the pulp that contains all the nutrients and leave yourself with the liquid sugar. And, even more of a shame, this ‘one portion of juice’ rule doesn’t apply to wine. Oh how we wish it did.
• Sadly, I think some people find fruit and veg boring, or they have a phobia about the textures, tastes and other things. Okay, so school dinner cabbage (which I strangely loved as a kid and used to swap my ice cream for people’s cabbage), might be to blame for that – but there’s such a HUGE variety of different fruit and veg out there, and a gazillion ways to cook them and incorporate them into our diets – you’ll surely be able to find a way that you like to eat things. It’s sometimes just a matter of trying something new.

Tag your fruit & veg pics!

So I want to set a little challenge for you all in May – #MAY5ADAY – and a bit of a challenge for me too!

Every Monday in May I will share a recipe that helps you up your intake of fruit and veg. Your part of the bargain is to make a conscious effort to reach your target – and get involved by tagging me in your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use the #MAY5ADAY.

Of course, the easiest way for you to kick this challenge into touch would be to sign up for my May Spring Clean intake. You’ll be given meal plans and recipes that will help keep you on the 5 a day path – and you’ll get a whole heap of other benefits from the healthy food too. You can find out more HERE.

What say you? You in?

Happiness is egg-shaped – an ode to the humble egg

I love an egg. Small but perfectly formed, super tasty, relatively cheap and so damn nutritious. The ultimate fast food, packed full of vitamins and only around 70 calories each. What’s not to love?

On the Spring Clean programme, we’ve been working our way through eggs in all manner of shapes and forms – egg muffins, omelettes, luxury scramble with salmon, or tangy and creamy scramble with feta, bakin’ with them, and generally hankering after them. Seriously yummy, easy to make and designed to keep you fuller for longer. So what makes this little oval pocket such a powerhouse?

1. It’s a protein pocket – most eggs contain 6g of protein, and it’s the complete type of protein that has all the essential amino acids that our bodies need to maintain and repair tissues and support brain function. They also have around 20% of our daily protein intake in just a single egg. Awesome. Protein is so important – not just for the muscle and tissue repair and support, but also because it keeps us fuller for longer… combine them with carbs to help slow down their digestion and you’ll have a meal that will keep hunger at bay!
2. All ‘dem good fats – pretty much all eggs have omega 3 in them… that’s the stuff that so many of us don’t get enough of that is so good for us… But the level of omega 3 depends on the level of omega 3 in the foods that the chooks eat. You might have seen eggs being marketed as ‘Omega 3 eggs’ – that’s usually because of the added oils to a hen’s diet. That’s not always entirely natural – it’s rare that hens would actually eat algae or krill oils if they were left to their own devices – but hens that are free to run around in pastures green will eat plenty of omega 3 from clover and other legumes which will be passed on to us. So we’re getting plenty of the good fats from these beauts – a blessing for vegetarians in particular, as most other forms of omega 3 are fish-based.
3. Remember the whole hoo-ha about eggs and cholesterol? Certainly gave our little oval beauties a bad rap for a while, huh? Well, let’s do a quick recap on the facts. Yes, eggs have cholesterol, but our bodies can’t actually survive without cholesterol – it’s a structural molecule that our cells couldn’t survive without and we couldn’t produce several essential hormones without it! But, there are two different types of cholesterol – one of which can be a harmful if we have too much of it. Previously it was thought that eggs raised cholesterol levels and contributed to the risk of heart disease from high cholesterol – but more recent research has shown that while eggs do tend to raise cholesterol levels, they actually increase the levels of the good type of cholesterol which clears up the bad fat in our blood stream (a little like a hoover) and helps maintain those cells. A little caveat though, if you do suffer from high cholesterol make sure that you check with your doctor whether it’s okay for you to eat eggs as it’s sometimes not recommended if levels are already fairly high.
4. Eggs provide a stack of vitamins and minerals – selenium (to help keep our immune system healthy as well as maintain the health of our thyroid) and Vit D which so many of us are deficient in, especially as we come out of a dreary winter (our main provider of Vit D is the sun) amongst a whole heap of other fabulous vitamins and minerals to keep us in tip top shape.

The thing that I possibly love most about eggs is that they’re a shining example of Mother Nature doing her ‘thang’… For example, Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. That means that unless we consume it with a bit of fat, our bodies will struggle to absorb the goodness. So Mamma Nature very cleverly designed these little beauties to have their own inbuilt fat supply – the yolk! That’s why it’s so important to eat the yolks and not just the whites.

Eggs is easy…

I use eggs in a multitude of ways – in our 2 person house, it’s not uncommon for us to run out of a box of 12 eggs in a week. They’re cheap, nutritious and EASY. Check out some of the pics from the Spring Clean programme to see how folks have been using them below. Egg muffins were a favourite (although definitely use silicon muffin cases for an easy release!) but there’s something luxuriously simple about smoked salmon and scrambled egg for a brunch-time treat.

What are your favourite eggy recipes?

The Spring Clean tribe have been enjoying the benefits of more energy, healthier looking skin and weight loss too – and we’re only in Week 3! If you’d like to sign up for the May intake of the programme or to find out more, click HERE.

* Image of eggs in a basket from Huffington Post.

Why you (and your inner diva) NEED to eat breakfast

My mum used to find it highly amusing that, as a toddler or grumpy teen, I always had the same morning ritual. Haul my ass out of bed (usually under great duress) and head straight for the breakfast table in a zombie-like coma. Must. Eat. Food. And slowly, but surely, with each mouthful of whatever it was, the human(ish) Bella would emerge and I’d leave the table a brighter and sunnier person (or so I’d like to believe!).

Turns out, I was setting myself up for an awesome habit that does me a power of good now that I’m a proper grown up (again, so I’d like to believe!). While I know that there are several of you out there who will argue that you can operate fine without breakfast, science backs up the fact that to get your body working properly throughout the day (not just at the beginning of it) then you need to start it right. And that means you need to break the fast and EAT! Preferably something healthy and filled with the good stuff. Don’t believe me? Here are 4 reasons why you need to find a way of starting the day right:

1. Manage your blood sugar levels. While you’re sleeping, your body is working away digesting all the food that you’ve eaten the night before. So when you wake up, there’s very little trace left of the nutrients in your blood stream and just the *ahem* remains waiting to be pooped out. And your blood sugar levels will be low enough to make you comparable with a grouchy grizzly. By gently raising your blood sugar levels first thing, you’re helping to manage your hunger levels throughout the day – leave it too late and chances are you’ll be reaching for a high calorie, high sugar ass-kicker snack mid morning because I’M-STARVING-AND-IF-I-DON’T-EAT-I-WILL-DIE (yep, low blood sugar may result in you turning into a melodramatic diva.) So give your metabolism a wake up call, get some stability in your blood sugar levels, and start the day as you mean to go on. And leave the diva at the door.

2. Wake up your brain. After a night’s sleep your brain cells will be running on empty – they need energy from the food you eat (that’s the glucose from complex carbohydrates) to refuel. Without that refueling, your brain will struggle to operate on all cylinders, which means that processing information or managing complex challenges (so things like forming and retrieving memories) are all a little bit too tricky. But by giving your brain the boost that it needs through food, it’s all set to be bright and alert and all those other things that you’d probably find life easier with!

3. Get your vitamin fix. Grabbing some fruit, yoghurt, and wholegrains for breakfast is a sure fire way to make sure that you’re getting a swift vitamin shot. It’ll pump you full of vitamin B for maximum energy and keep your immune system healthy with vitamins A, C and zinc. And that diva that you left at the door? She’ll be replaced by the happier version thanks to a lift in your seratonin levels. Happy shiny people!

4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I’ve waffled on about the importance of drinking enough water before and breakfast is a great place to start. I like to down a glass of the good stuff first thing to help make sure that my body has the fluid it needs. And don’t forget that pile of digested poop waiting for you to wake up… water will help with that too! But you can eat your water too – fruit is packed full of it! Don’t get too attached to strong caffienated drinks though – that diva might make a re-appearance.

UGH FINE… But I don’t have TIME.
Just because you need to kick start your system doesn’t mean you need to labour over a mammoth feast, or get up a gazzilion hours earlier to create some exquisitely complex sensation for your taste buds. When it comes to my top 3 breakfasts, taste and simplicity are key. I tend to eat mine either at my desk or before I leave the house. Either way, I don’t have a lot of time to hang about faffing over the preparation. Sometimes, that means getting things prepped the night before. Trust me, that little bit of effort can make morning life a whole load more peaceful!

Fruity yoghurt-to-go: This is a night-before-er. Half-fill a Tuppaware with frozen berries (I prefer the mixed ones). Chuck 20-40g of oats on top, spoon in some Greek yoghurt and sprinkle with a tablespoon of milled seeds/nuts. Takes you 3 mins to make. Then all you need to do in the morning is remember to take it with you! And there you have a vitamin-packed breakfast, super tasty, with all the nutrients.

Smashed eggs on toast: Sounds like a palava, really isn’t. Stick your toast (wholegrain, or sprouted if you can!) on while you’re heating a pan with a tsp of coconut oil. When the pan is hot, crack in 2 eggs and smash them up (it’s a less-hassle scrambled egg!) and season. Plop them (as elegantly as you can for first thing in the morning!) onto your toast. To get the full nutritional brownie points from this, whack in a handful of spinach at the same time as the egg and smash it all up together. Or just serve with some avocado or tomatoes. That’ll do too.

Chia and cinnamon oat pot: Might be flashing a few ‘health freak’ warning bells to some of you, but you can get chia seeds from pretty much anywhere these days! They’re packed full of omega 3 and are hailed as a superfood of the moment. I like to chuck a tablespoon into my trusty Tuppaware pot along with a tbsp of desicated coconut, milled flax seed, 40g oats and a tsp of cinnamon. Cover the mix with milk of your choice (I like this one with almond milk) and mix it up, ready to soak in the fridge overnight. Chia seeds start to soak up the liquid and make it go gooey… which is perfect for you to take out in the morning, top with greek yoghurt, blueberries and a drizzle of honey if it’s not sweet enough for you.

I have loads more breakfast ideas – from smoothies and pancakes to sweet bakes and savoury delights! Why not share some of yours below? Are you a breakfast lover?

Four things you need to know about H2O

Bear with me. Before we go any further with this post, grab yourself a glass and go fill it up with water. Take a slurp. And now we’ll begin…

I think it’s pretty much common knowledge that, without water, we will die – we’ll shrivel up and turn into a human version of a raisin. A large raisin. With a few weird sticky out limbs and stuff.  But there’s an awful lot of conflicting information out there about how much of the good stuff we should be imbibing (I love that word). Personally, I like to think that I’m positively SAINTLY at drinking water when I’m at my desk – I fill up my 750ml bottle at least 3 times throughout the day – but outside of this routine at work, I need a little nudge every now and then. And I know from conversations with friends, that several of you don’t drink nearly enough either. So I thought I’d pull together a handy list of things you need to know about H2O to hopefully entice us into drinking more. But first…. Take another sip of that water you got earlier…

1. So what does all this water do for our bodies?

Well, it doesn’t just slosh about in our bellies until it makes an exit! Nope, it does a whole heap of good things to help make sure that we can actually exist. I’ve listed a few below:

• It keeps your tissues moist – not the Kleenex in your pocket, although it’ll do that too if you leave an open bottle in your handbag – the really important tissue around your eyes, nose and mouth and internal organs.
• If you think of food as the fuel in your car (body), then water is like the oil that keeps your engine running smoothly. It helps make sure things keep ticking over and that your body can build and repair itself. And it keeps your joints and organs lubricated so you’re not hobbling around, old before your time.
• It’s absolutely fundamental to the digestive system. It helps with the breakdown and metabolism of all the things we eat – the good, the bad and the ugly. It’ll transport the good stuff to the places we need it, dissolving the minerals and nutrients to make them easier for the body to use; and helps the kidneys to flush out all the nasties. So it’s like the Batman of our digestive tract. Just wetter! Awesome.
• And as we’re coming up to a steaming hot summer in the UK (okay, mildly warmer than winter), water is brilliant for regulating our body temperature and making sure that all the chemical reactions that make us move can still happen. Thirsty work!

(Go on… have another glug…)

2. How much water do we REALLY need?

Considering that 50-75% of our body weight is made up of water, and we’re pretty much like an unplugged sink (water goes in … and then out again…), we do need to drink a fair amount of it to make sure that all the good stuff I mentioned above can keep on happening. The basic guidelines are that the more active you are, the more you need to drink:

• If you’re relatively sedentary throughout the day (more time on your butt than on your feet), then as a minimum you should be getting through 2litres. (Makes you want another sip of that drink, right? Go on, do it).
• And on the other extreme of the scale, if you’re a high-powered, incredibly active athlete doing hours of training a day, then you should be nearer the 10litre mark per day. Yep, TEN.

If you’re curious about how much water you should be drinking while you’re exercising, you could always try this little experiment. Weigh yourself in as little clothing as possible (‘Oooer missus!’ Bit of cheek in the gym!) before you do some exercise. Don’t drink anything (just for the sake of this experiment) during your workout. Then weigh yourself again afterwards. Provided it was a relatively intense workout, then you should notice a shift in the scales. The weight that you’ve lost is purely water weight (sorry). And the general rule of thumb is that you should aim to drink 1litre for every 1kg of weight lost over that period on top of your usual daily recommendation.

3. You might not recognise some of the signs that you’re dehydrated
If you’ve not been getting enough water (which reminds me, time for another sip?), then the obvious symptom will be that you feel parched. But there are other signs that we often mistake for other things…

• Hunger
• Very dark wee
• Headaches
• No energy
• Feeling lightheaded
• Bad skin
• Constipation

So if you’re suffering from any of those, check your water levels – maybe it’s worth drinking more! Have another gulp of the glass infront of you as a promise to do just that!

4. Water comes in many forms

• Plain old water is absolutely best (and there are arguments for and against bottled or tap water), but it can get a bit boring… so some crazy kids like to jazz it up a tad by going for the bubbly variety! Or by adding some fresh fruit, veg or herbs to it. I like a bit of lemon, cucumber and mint with tonnes of ice. Looks well posh in a jug at a BBQ too.
• Yes, tea and coffee DO count. But they’re not the best for you. Caffeine isn’t great for any of us, and the tannins in tea can stop the absorption of vital nutrients like iron or vitamin C. If you are going to get some of your water this way, I’d suggest herbal teas are best.
• Some fruits and veg have incredibly high water content –  so stock up on goodies like watermelon, lettuce (with a whopping 96% water!), cucumber, tomatoes, grapefruit for example…
• Sadly fizzy drinks and alcohol contain far too much of the things that are bad for you for them to count towards your necessary fluid intake. Drinking booze is like imposing a drought on your body – it makes you pee more (‘breaking the seal’ sound familiar?) without doing the jobs that water would, so your kidneys have to work harder and your tissues start to shrivel – which is why you wake up with bright red eyes and a massive headache. So match water for wine when you’re out on the town!
• Juice is the bone of contention for most – yes, even the freshly squeezed variety… it’s so packed full of sugar, that it veers towards the fizzy drinks end of the scale. The trick here is to limit yourself to one 250ml glass a day and to dilute it. Much better.

So I’ll be making a concerted effort to guzzle a bit more of this amazingly simple nutrient… even if it results in this:
 

Finished your glass of water yet? Care to join me in another?

*image source unknown