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Health and Wellness Advice and Tips
Health and Wellness advice from The WellNow Company.
The pandemic has given us the opportunity and the time to focus on ourselves and our family, enjoy the outdoors and nature more and to put in place the necessary routines to ensure that we come out of this in a healthier and happier place. So, let’s grab that silver lining and run with it.
We spoke with Suzanne Leyden, Qualified Nutrition, Health and Wellness Coach and Owner of The WellNow Co. and she shared some great advice and hints for us all including:
- Reviewing your eating habits.
- Fussy eaters, food waste and overspending on food.
- Think it, plan it, do it! - Changing those habits you’ve always been meaning to.
- Household Audit - Three effective ways to make your household more efficient.
REVIEWING YOUR EATING HABITS
While many of us are at home trying to work and home-school, it can be a great time to look inward at our family’s eating habits. Increasing awareness around what we eat, how much we eat and when we eat it can be really helpful to improving our family’s health through nutrition. Keep a food diary over a few days with as much detail as possible and be as honest as you can. Then review it and see where you can cut back or change anything.
Some things to look for:
1. Are you eating enough fruit and veg? Don’t worry, most people don’t. So, consider where you can squeeze in a few more portions each day.
2. Nearly everyone puts the blinkers on around their snack consumption. Be really honest about what you’ve eaten each day – yes, that third biscuit counts! You may need to look at decreasing sugary treats.
3. From a health, environmental and cost perspective many of us need to consider reducing the amount of meat we eat (if you’re not vegan or vegetarian). Think about eating more plant-based foods or vegetarian options.
4. Fibre is such an important aspect of our gut health and the western diet is naturally low in it. Increase fibre by replacing white with brown – bread/rice/pasta.
5. Hydrate – It’s difficult to remember to keep our water intake at the optimum level regardless of time of year. Use a water bottle and fill it at the start of the day and refill it throughout the day until you have reached your goal of approximately 2 litres.
FUSSY EATERS, FOOD WASTE AND OVERSPENDING ON FOOD.
You are not alone if you find yourself whipping up two or three dinners for just one sitting to accommodate the different (fussy!) palates. Very often our children reject foods, and we take the path of least resistance as we pick our battles carefully! Not only is this not sustainable for the busy working parent who is already stretched to their limits, but it’s not helping our child develop tastes and interests in other foods. It is also a huge source of food waste, and with food waste, there is money waste also. Now is the time to help your kids really understand why we should eat a certain way and what the benefits to them are. By realising they can enhance their learning ability, and their running speed by choosing the best foods for them is a good start. Empowering them is rewarded with buy-in from them. Broadening their food horizons is good for their health, your time, your wallet and the environment.
Two effective activities to task them with are:
1. Let them create their own meal plan for their lunches during the week. It helps take the daily thinking out of it for parents and they can keep doing this when they go back to school.
2. Do an ‘Eat The Rainbow Challenge’ for the kids or the whole family. See how many portions of the different colours everyone eats across a week. This can highlight where increases or changes can be made to your eating habits, but done in a fun and engaging way.
THINK IT, PLAN IT DO IT!
Each and every choice we make for ourselves has an impact on our health and how we feel. Some habits we have, we know we want to change. Becoming aware of what we would like our life to ultimately look like and deciding what it will take to get there, will help inform what new habits we want to form, and what old ones we want to lose.
Whether stress is a big factor in your life, or you want to increase your exercise and movement, if poor sleep is having a negative impact, or your work/life balance is out of whack, establishing clear goals is critical to succeeding with positive behaviour change. A couple of ways to help figure out what your goal is, and the action steps to make it happen are:
1. Ask yourself how you want the situation to look when you have succeeded in achieving your goal. Use this visualisation to look realistically at what changes need to be made to get there.
2. Write out the list of things that need to change to achieve your goal. This can be a long or short list depending on your circumstances and what the goal is. Then rate how ready you are to make each of the items on the list from 1-10. Choose the 3 top-rated steps that you are most ready to change first and work your way down the list.
HOUSEHOLD AUDIT
Take control of your life before it controls you.
Scrambling from week to week is no way to live. Most of us would like a calmer life to allow us to enjoy ourselves more and feel optimally productive. Some people opt to complete The WellNow Co ‘Household Audit’.
Three effective ways to make your household more efficient through this audit are:
1. The household budget template can help you optimally understand and refine your spending. It may be that you can switch providers to reduce costs, or an avoidable outgoing could be highlighted. Sometimes the grocery shopping could be a good place to consider making cost-effective changes, without compromising healthy choices. In fact there’s an opportunity to improve your healthy eating habits here too.
2. Meal Planning and shopping list templates will help you reduce costs, waste and trips to the shops. If more than one of you is responsible for meals and shopping, you can share a list through your phones so changes and additions can easily be tracked.
3. A review of your household cleaning and personal care products will allow for product recommendations and the ability to buy certain products in bulk, again, reducing waste and costs. From natural deodorant to bulk shampoo or clothes detergent. The WellNow Co can work with you to streamline how you purchase for your household, helping to live more sustainably.
Find your pot of gold.
The silver lining may end up being your pot of gold when the pandemic finally ends. Tap into your positive thoughts to make it happen.
If you would like to make a change for either yourself or your family, The WellNow Co has a range of one-to-one virtual health coaching packages sessions. Alternatively, they have a range of Online Wellness Programmes available from meal planning to stress management. In addition, they also have Workplace Wellness packages available for corporate clients.
EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR SANDYFORD BUSINESS DISTRICT!
The WellNow Co is offering exclusive discounts for two of their online programmes:
‘Relieve and Manage Stress for Life’ (normally €49 - for SBD now €29) and
Just use code ‘WELLNOWSANDYFORD’ at the checkout until February 28th, 2021.
The WellNow Co. is Ireland’s leading provider of online health coaching solutions. Offering Workplace Wellness, Online Wellness Programmes and Virtual Health Coaching Packages, WellNow aims to empower everyone to establish and achieve their clear health goals.