Be ready for your nutrition traps when travelling

A big trap for people who travel often is allowing their nutrition habits to slip while they are away from home. Whether it is interstate or overseas flights, country car trips or daily business trips where most of the day is spent in transit, our diet plans often end up going out the window. Well here are my tips for helping you stick with your good eating habits when your ‘normal environment’ has changed;

1) Pack for the Plane/Car trip – rather than falling into the fast food trap or having to eat less than ideal plane food, take some appropriate snacks with you. Fruit, nuts or healthy sandwiches are a great alternative and only require a small amount of planning prior to your trip.
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2) Avoid the ‘empty’ liquid calories – it’s easy to quickly load up on calories if you allow yourself sugary soft drinks or alcohol that you wouldn’t normally drink at home. Stick to water or black or green tea if possible and if you must indulge in alcohol for business purposes drink slowly and try to space your drinks out with a water in between.

3) Keep a food diary – plan out what you are going to eat prior to leaving and stick to your plan. Recording exactly what goes into your mouth keeps you accountable and less likely to slip up.

4) Study the Menu – if your travel includes business lunches or dinners, make sure you choose wisely from the menu and fill up on sides of vegetables such as broccoli or asparagus rather than chips.

5) Avoid ‘impulse’ eating – if you’re at a function and ‘finger food’ is being passed around, think before you just grab one of those sausage rolls or deep fried treats or better still eat beforehand so you don’t feel hungry and become more likely to succumb to the food on offer.

6) Fruit and Vegetables are your friends – fill up on fruit and vegetables at every opportunity to help avoid ‘snacking’ on chocolates, cakes or lollies.

7) Earn a reward – if you’re away for an extended period and you stick to your healthy eating plan, reward yourself with one ‘treat meal’ at the end of your trip. This doesn’t mean you go crazy and order everything on the menu!!

So good luck with your travels and I hope these tips help you get home in the same shape as you left!

If you are seriously looking to improve the quality of your lifestyle overall why not request a Risk Analysis Health Check Diagnostic

Did you know Tea can lower blood pressure?

I’ve been doing some reading lately about different sorts of tea and their various benefits so I thought I would share some of my findings with you.

You have probably heard many times over about the benefits of Green Tea so I won’t go into that today, apart from highly recommending it. Instead I’m going to look at a couple of not so well known teas and share some of their benefits.

First looking at Chammomile Tea and research has shown that Chammomile Tea can help to control blood sugar levels, which is great for diabetics and non-diabetics alike. It has also been indicated that controlling blood sugar levels can help you to lose body fat.

Another benefit is that some of the natural compounds in Chammomile Tea assist with counteracting the effect of estrogenic pesticides and other chemicals that our bodies are exposed to from our food sources and environment.

Chammomile Tea is also well known as a relaxant and a cup about an hour before bed can help with preparing you for a good night’s sleep.

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The other tea I’m interested in is Hibiscus Tea. A study I was reading recently indicated that drinking Hibiscus Tea daily can lead to a mild but helpful reduction in blood pressure. The study, from an American Heart Association conference, showed that volunteers who drank Hibiscus Tea had a 7.2 point drop in their systolic blood pressure compared to the control group who drank a placebo beverage and recorded only a 1.3 point reduction.

Other studies show that drinking any sort of tea will provide some benefits, which makes sense, as every different kind of tea contains some form of antioxidants in varying levels. So next time you’re thinking of having a hot drink why not try one of the many different forms of tea available.

If you are seriously looking to improve the quality of your lifestyle overall why not request a Risk Analysis Health Check Diagnostic