Fitness and Healthy Living....

 As someone who is deeply interested in fitness and healthy living I am finding so many gaps in the fitness world. It all stems around the gym or the outdoor gym. I love the idea of using sports as a way of fitness training. It gives the feeling of being apart of a group, team or even a duo, and yes it can come down to an individual.

For example swimming, that can be in two different areas to start, open water and pool swimming. I really enjoy both. I have swum all my life, and its not until the last five or so years I have taken it to a level of competing. Lets also look at triathlon (swim, bike and run). This is one amazing sport, you get to do three different disciplines and you never get bored with your training. Its an exciting sport for the athlete, unfortunately not for the spectator.

Yes anyone can go to the gym, but for me the gym really comes down to being part of my cross training with my swimming. There are what we call land exercises that can be done to help strengthen our bodies while we do our swimming training. I also love the idea that with one hour of swimming you burn so many calories and tone the body with very little if any impact on the body. A session could be as easy as swimming your favourite stroke (freestyle, breast-stroke, back-stroke) for 300m then put on some fins and with a kick board kick (freestyle kick or dolphin) for 100m rest for 10 seconds and repeat for a total of 500m. Believe me you will feel you abs and legs after a quick session like this. If you want to extend the time in the water, swim 100m of your favourite stroke and rest for 10 seconds and repeat for 500m. If you are a beginner take your time and ease yourself into this type of exercise program. Believe me when I say, if you do something like this you will be a bit sore the day after, but it is a good type of sore as you will know that you have moved your body.

 Now I know not everyone likes swimming as much as me, though I am sure there are other sports that can be included into an exercise program. Cycling, running, walking, aqua aerobics, and the list goes on.

With exercise comes the eating part of being healthy, now I am not going to rant about having to eat a "clean" diet and I am definitely not going to rave about the Paleo diet. I am a true believer in the 80:20 rule. Lets take the seven days of the week, the week days we should be eating as healthy as possible, which for me means NO processed take-out foods (McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, Burger King, etc) these foods are so full of sugar, sodium and as much as they are cheap to buy, there are ways to make similar and more healthy styles of these foods at home. I am like everyone else, I love a great hamburger, but for me getting the best lean beef patties or chicken is priority and good whole grain (gluten free) rolls, and putting in large amounts of salad and yes even some sauce and mayonnaise (I use a dairy and gluten free mayo). Yes its going to take a bit of time to make, but its going to be healthier than fast food outlets.

My family make our own home make taco and burritos, which again are full of lean meat and salads, with the extras being a little cheese, sour cream and salsa. We make great spaghetti bolognese which also has grated vegies in it. There are so many quick and simple ways to eat healthy, now here is the good part to the 80:20 rule, on the weekends you are allowed to eat something I would say a little special, such as cake, ice cream, etc. Though here is the hard part, you are allowed to have it with one meal of choice, for example if you were having lunch out with friends you can have dessert, but that would be it, and on Sunday if you wanted something like an ice cream then you can, but remember the more calories you put in the more you need to burn if you want to loose weight.

 This book Diet Cults I can't recommend highly enough, its an amazing read and filled with science based information on cult diets, and Matt Fitzgerald goes through his idea of the best way to eat for a healthy lifestyle without giving up everything that is good and super tasty.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and finds some time to exercise and not just in the gym, even if its going for a walk or hiking in the forest of bush, take time to smell the fresh air.

Hayley xx