This January, eating healthier just got a whole lot easier! Join the #LearnuaryNI Challenge and discover a new top tip to help you eat better and feel great every day this month.

January is typically a month associated with New Year Resolutions, with the general consensus being: “I’m going to eat better”. A fantastic idea, but one which can be hard to maintain or even know where to start. So this #LearnuaryNI, to make your mission of eating healthier a little easier, we’ve shared our daily tips to get January off to the perfect start. Trying out each of these will increase your knowledge of healthy eating, helping you see the benefits of what you are doing.

Your #LearnuaryNI quest to learn one new thing each day throughout the month of January 2018 can take many forms. Learning is proven to boost your health and wellbeing and is one of five key steps recommended by mental health charities and no-one would doubt that taking care of your diet, fitness, medical issues and self-care are critical considerations for everyone.

So without further ado, here are our #LearnuaryNI challenges, one bitesize health and nutrition tip a day:

1. Plan your shopping list for the week in advance and stick to it
2. Don’t shop hungry
3. Drink ½ your weight in water ie 150lb person = 2.2 litres
4. Use online shopping to reduce temptation
5. Make your plate of food colourful
6. Enjoy 3 portions of fruit each day
7. Eat 6-7 vegetables/salad each day
8. Chew and eat slowly
9. Avoid low fat products
10. Avoid low sugar products
11. Don’t neglect exercise – Healthy eating = 80% and exercise = 20%
12. Eat out as little as possible – Enjoy other social outings: crazy golf, ice skating, tenpin bowling…
13. Cook from scratch
14. Dance and workout to music while cooking
15. Ensure you have working utensils like peelers, sharp knives, colander, scales…
16. Make vegetables appealing with spices and herbs
17. Keep trigger foods out of your cupboards
18. Sleep is major – if insufficient your ghrelin hormone increases hunger
19. Avoid filling up on bread
20. Bored of boiling veg – roast it instead – add garlic/salt and enjoy
21. Sit at the table at each meal and smell, look, be aware and enjoy what you are eating
22. Don’t eat if not hungry – it may be dehydration or even boredom!
23. Use vanilla extract, cinnamon, mint, lemon, lime for flavourings
24. Dark chocolate x 2 squares a day is a tasty and nutritious treat
25. Avoid eating the leftovers – freeze instead or save for lunch the next day
26. Don’t pick at the kids’ foods
27. Alcohol = liquid calories – keep to a safe minimum
28. If eating out stick to sharing starters and desserts and enjoy a healthy main
29. Have a large glass of water 15 minutes before eating
30. Be careful if taking supplements – do you know how good the ingredients are?
31. Use a weighing scales once per week, weighing yourself at the same time of the day, to watch your weight

Trying out these steps this January is the foundation of adopting a healthier lifestyle and promoting self care.

If you are unsure of how to change your eating habits, or need help optimising the foods you eat please do contact us. We would love to help you or your family and friends with any nutrition related queries big or small.

In the meantime do please check out our 121Dietitian Shop

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How can a Dietitian help

• Book a consultation via our Online Portal
• About Gillian Killiner 
• Check out our tailored dietary programmes

Gillian x

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Information checked & correct on 16th May 2018.