What’s stopping you from becoming healthy? Is it the price? You saw that deal in Morrison’s, which meant pizza, chips and a tub of ice-cream for £3! Yes, it’s quite the bargain, but many people seem to forget that fruit and veg is not that expensive either. The more expensive fruit like raspberries ranges at around £2 but lots of fruit and veg are one pound and less(I found this whilst shopping in Morrison’s, it may not apply to all supermarkets). Whilst your three pound meal deal has scored you a chilled night in with Netflix, you may notice you feel more fatigue and unhealthy when indulging frequently on these foods.Therefore, with this blog I want to help you become healthier and feel happier inside and out, by making those small but powerful changes.

The purpose of this blog post is dedicated to motivating you. To become set into a healthy regime is challenging and involves a lot of determination. But, I’m going to give you a few tips on how to either get started or to keep going!

1. What's your current perspective?

First and foremost, you have to find the drive, the positivity and the belief that you will achieve, if you take the very first step. You will not achieve, if you do not feel positive about the great changes you can make to your life with this regime.

The next thing you will ask me is, how do I find this drive? There are many ways to do this, one of my favourites is I like to write motivating quotes on post-it notes around my room, in this way, you are physically surrounded by positivity all the time.

The second thing you need to do is to not compare yourself to anyone else, looking at other people and seeing their progress should not intimidate you. Considering that these individuals could have begun their regime months, if not years ago, it is simply impossible to achieve such progress overnight. Believe in yourself! And for those who feel like they haven’t achieved as much progress as they have wished in the past few months, remember that all our bodies are different and that we are all at different fitness levels so achieving speedy results is dependent on the individual.

2.  Set your targets

Where do you want to be in the next month? What do you want to achieve? Write down specific goals, which will keep you determined and moving in the right direction. It’s important that you do not forget to set a deadline for these goals, by being restricted to a select period of time, you will feel more motivated to get it done. Saying this, when starting a healthy regime, it may not be easy to guess how much time it will take you to achieve your goal. So, you should start by setting small goals, which are within-reach, combined with general aims describing what you want to get out of your new regime.

3. Getting the balance right

It’s easy to get too into the regime, your adrenaline is pumping, you feel a real buzz off this new regime. It is important to remember to slowly break into your regime, this way you will make it into a sustainable routine. For example, say your main exercise is walking to university everyday, consider slowly increasing what you are doing, by starting to go to the gym twice a week or another form of cardio you may prefer. The same with healthy eating, if you eat a lot of fatty meat, then maybe switch to eating lean chicken or taking to salmon or tofu once or twice a week and then slowly swap the unhealthy meat out and the healthy protein in.

4.  Make it enjoyable

My fourth and final tip for you all is to gain full satisfaction from the regime. If you don’t enjoy going to the gym, go to Zumba, go for a jog or even play badminton with a few mates. If you don’t like the idea of eating kale and quinoa, try quorn, avocado or other types of fish. This regime is about making it personalised towards your preferences, after all, it is you who has to put all the effort in. If you don’t want to do this alone, find a mate, work out together and motivate each other, that always helps. I go to the gym with my friends and although we don’t always stick with each other whilst we are in there, it is simply going there together, that helps keep the routine going. Plus, I find it much more fun knowing you achieved a lot with someone, so you can celebrate your progress together. I also love cooking, so the satisfaction of doing a good work-out and eating a delicious, healthy meal post-exercise is what i call 'heaven on a plate'.

I want to end this post with this quote: “Your only limit is you”. No-one is stopping you from putting on your running shoes and going for a run. No-one is stopping you from eating healthy. No-one is stopping you from making you a better you. So, make that first move today, your body will thank you in years to come!

Thank you again for reading! Any comments, feedback or suggestions, please feel free to leave me a message in the comment box!

See you very soon,

Louise :)

Welcome to Louise's Bite Sized Chunks!

Hey everyone! Spontaneously during this week, I thought I would grab my laptop and start writing a food/health style blog. Who knows how far I will get, but I would love to share my perception of leading a healthy lifestyle as a student to as many people as I can.

I am sometimes asked these sorts of questions; for example: “How can you be bothered to cook?” or “It’s so easy just to make pasta or put a ready meal in the oven, why don’t you do that?” The way I see it, is that cooking is really fun, I don’t see it as a chore.  It’s fair to say that when the hangover strikes, it takes a new level of motivation not to turn to the junk food aisles in the supermarkets, but after a while that junk food feels monotonous and does your insides no good.

Growing up, my mother has always cooked us healthy and balanced meals and has encouraged us to try new things. As a result, I thrive off new and interesting meals I can make next, because of that don’t find cooking laborious. I am also frequently inspired by a wide range of friends, family, chefs and health blogs and the types of things they cook.  I love to mix it up and to have a good range of fruit and veg as often as I can. In fact, whilst I am writing this blog, next to me is a bowl of tropical yoghurt, chopped up apple and kiwi alongside some oats and pumpkin seeds for that extra protein.

What I enjoy about eating healthily, is that you feel a lot more refreshed than usual. This is done by simply avoiding processed foods and taking to home cooking, which all-in-all can have such positive effects on your perception and therefore can help you to keep up that motivation to eat cleanly.

First and foremost, I understand it is not easy to give up certain types of food, I struggle from time to time. However, I read an article by the Body Coach that explained that getting healthy and fit is a marathon not a sprint. I learnt that it is fine to have off days, we are all human and sometimes we give in to a bit of chocolate here and there- I can definitely vouch for that!

I believe that, It is all about creating that sustainable eating plan, which you're likely to keep up. For example, if you struggle to give up eating crisps, then you don’t have to give them up straight away, you could either swap to a healthier brand of crisps, or you could slowly wean yourself off crisps by eating alternative snacks like nuts, fruit or homemade snacks more and more until you don’t feel the need to eat crisps anymore.

Another way to divert your desires for junk food is through experimenting with different ingredients. One ingredient I have begun to love recently, is sweet potato. I have always been reluctant to try it and once on an impulse buy at Morrisons, I bought some. From that moment on, I have made many a portion of sweet potato wedges (see the two pictures) and to my surprise they were delicious when topped with olive oil and herbs. My vegan flatmate uses paprika and swears by it. In the future, I intend to experiment further, maybe with sweet potato mash or soup.

This being my first blog post, I wanted to make it short and sweet. By introducing to you slowly how I keep up a healthy and active lifestyle. If you have any ideas for future posts or any general feedback, keep me updated in the comment box. See you very soon!

Louise :)