5 Tips to stay healthy....

5 Tips to stay healthy.... 

by Jasmine Wing

Always thought going to the gym and calorie counting had no appeal to you what so ever? And you've heard it all before, 'cut out the junk food; have your five a day; go running; blah blah blah...' well this isn't one of those articles. Here are five practical and easy steps to the new you! 

• Tip 1 - Fail to plan, plan to fail! One of the best ways to get on the right track for thinking healthier is planning your food, taking seconds from your day to consider your food intake for the week will save you time, money and help you curb your unnecessary bad eating habits. Plan meals, don't skip them! 
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• Tip 2 - Bat your way to a healthier you. Why not ask a friend to come play a game of badminton for 30 minutes once a week? Having fun whilst exercising is a great way to get fit without realising it
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• Tip 3 - No more late night snacking. Try not to eat 3-4 hours before you go to sleep. Eating before bed is likely to store unwated fat due to a slower digestive system in the evenings, sound easy enough? Why not challenge yourself for a week! 
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• Tip 4 - Phone a friend. Find someone who also wants to start looking after their body and challenge each other to start being healthier. Encouragement from others is a key to success when making lifestyle changes. 
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• Tip 5 - A helping hand. Lastly, ask one of our fitness instructors at SportsDock to show you an exercise that you may not have tried before or something completely new that will help you to reach your goal in no time.  

Fat vs Sugar

Most of the people that I have met down the years who, when they realise I work in fitness will without hesitating ask the question “How do I get rid of the fat?” while simultaneously holding the spare tire around their waist. However is it fat that we need to be careful of or is it our sugar intake?

Resent research funded by the National Institutes of Health in America and published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that it is not the fat in cakes and alike which attracts our taste buds but the high sugar content instead. Furthermore Dr. Stice, a senior research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute as quoted in the New York Times suggested “We do a lot of work on the prevention of obesity, and what is really clear.......is that the more sugar you eat, the more you want to consume it.“As far as the ability to engage brain reward regions and drive compulsive intake, sugar seems to be doing a much better job than fat.”

So is sugar addictive? Well Dr. Avena from the New York Obesity Research Center at Columbia University has found that sugar does affect the opiate receptors which are responsible for regulating pain, reward and euphoria in rats. Furthermore once the sugar was taken away the animals showed withdrawal type symptoms.

So think about that next time you pick up a low fat yoghurt!

Jon Watkins
SportsDock Fitness Centre Manager