1.   Write down the goals you want to achieve and stick them somewhere that is always in your sight like in the bathroom or on the fridge. Having your goals always in front of you keeps you motivated; it also means your friends/family will be more supportive in helping you achieve your goals. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

2.      List your strengths or things you do well already and congratulate yourself on that. Then list your weaknesses or aspects that are or may be a barrier to achieving your goals. Then come up with strategies to overcome these barriers. Identifying these will help you have a clearer path to achieving your goals.

3.      If you haven’t already- start an exercise routine and keep to it. Write it in your diary when you can schedule it in during your day and week, that way you have a plan and plans help you succeed.  If you haven’t exercised in a while, don’t panic, just start small with something you enjoy like walking, then build up the intensity or duration.

• If you are doing regular exercise maybe just change up the routine and try new pieces of equipment or increase the intensity or duration of your workouts to get desired goals.

4.      Get your 5-7+ per day! Healthy eating starts with fruit and vegetables. Make this your core focus if you don’t do this consistently already. 2-3 pieces of fruit and 3-4 serves of a variety of vegetables. Remember ½ cup steamed veges = one serve or 1 cup salad= one serve.

5.      Drink at least 2L of water, more if you are exercising. If you don’t drink enough water to flush the toxins out of your system, your body will use the water from the colon (lower bowel) to reuse around the body (this just re-circulates the toxins the body has tried to extract).

6.      Watch your portion size and make sure you are getting balance of nutrients. ½ plate vegetables, ¼ plate protein source and ¼ plate carbohydrate source.

7.      Watch your saturated fat intake- reduce takeaways and start cooking! Use trim milk, cut fat off meat and skin off chicken and watch cheese intake.

8.      Get enough sleep! Very important for rejuvenation of the body- let it rest and repair and you will see the benefits. Try for 8 hours of quality sleep.

9.      Watch the alcohol or little ‘extras’. Every glass of wine is 15mins extra on the treadmill running. Or a chocolate muffin is 12mins intense boxing/ uphill cycling.

10.  Make healthy living easy and fun! Time to look after yourself.

How many servings of fruit and vegetables do you get per day?

The statistics show that one in three people do not get at least 2 pieces of fruit per day and 3 servings (3 cups) of vegetables per day. This is frightening to think many of us are not meeting the baseline minimum requirements (RDI). Fruit and vegetables are essential for providing vital nutrients to the body to prevent illness and promote optimum vitality and health. For example Vitamin C is needed to promote a healthy immune system and acts as a powerful antioxidant to scavange for free radicals (unstable molecules which cause damage to healthy cells). Fruit and vegetables are essential is providing soluble and insoluble fibre to also keep the bowel healthy in reducing constipation, this reduces risk of bowel or colon cancer.

The issue we have today is we are seeing a diminishing nutrient value in our fruit and vegetables. Fo example in 2004, Donald Davis, PhD, a former researcher with the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, Austin, led a team that analyzed 43 fruits and vegetables from 1950 to 1999 and reported reductions in vitamins, minerals, and protein. Using USDA data, he found that broccoli, for example, had 130 mg of calcium in 1950. Today, that number is only 48 mg.
The problem lies within the conventional farming techniques with high turn over of crops, lack of minerals to fertilize the soil properly and picking produce before it has fully ripened, these are just naming a few. The US Centre of Disease now recommends 8+ per day to receive real benefits from todays produce. In New Zealand we tend to be a bit more cautious with our farming methods but the use of pesticides and herbicides are still highly prevalent. Buying organic produce is a great way to reduce our intake of these chemicals and due to the caring of the soil, many types of fruit and vegetable have a higher nutrient content in magnesium, folate and potassium to name a few.

So bottom line: If you are not eating your 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables per day- DO IT! MAKE THE EFFORT. If you are already doing this then increase your antioxidant capacity and eat 7+ per day (main component being vegetables). You may think this a lot but once you take out the other ‘non- essential’ items such as processed foods this is quite easily done, just needs abit of preparation. People need to stop relying on packaged foods and start back with the basics…fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, beans, wholegrains and quality protein.

Here are some easy tips to get at least 5+ per day

1) Add dried or fresh fruit to your porridge or low sugar cereal in the morning. Try grated apple or diced apricots

2) Have a mixed fruit salad as a snack- try few tablespoons of low fat yoghurt and seed mix

3) Try a mix of carrot and celery sticks with hummus as a snack

4) Have a least one serving of vegetables at lunch e.g salad or steamed veges or vegetable soup.

5) Load a wrap or sandwich with different veges such as grated carrot, cucumber, lettuce and tomato. Also try a roast vegetable salad for lunch. Wraps work well as you can fit more vegetables inside them.

6) If having an omlette throw in diced tomato, mushrooms, spinach etc. Or if having poached eggs try sliced tomato on your toast with a handful of rocket lettuce or avocado

7) Take a mix of dried apricots or prunes with mixed nuts or seeds for a healthy afternoon snack

Make a breakfast smoothie with 2 serves of fruit such as banana and blueberries or tinned peaches and pineapple

9) Add tinns of diced tomato to casserole dishes as well as frozen veges then serve with more vegetables on the side.

10) Make little snack packs consisting of carrot or celery or cucumber

11) Make healthy desserts such as steamed or stewed apple and rhubarb or frozen banana or a mixed fruit salad and yoghurt

12) Mash potato/pumpkin or kumara as a base for casseroles instead of rice or pasta.

These are just a few ideas…. be creative and see what you can come up with. Best to plan your meals so that you are always in a position to have the best options to eat.