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Drink more water

Eat more beans

Avoid fried foods

Drink more green tea

Eat more veggies

Use portion control

Make and eat your own soup

Eat raw nuts

Don’t add sugar to anything

Eat more berries

Try being Flexitarian

Get enough sleep

Remove temptations from your kitchen

Don’t shop when you are hungry

Get a great non stick fry pan

Eat some flax seeds or flax meal

Use lots of spices

Get social support

Be consistent

Challenge your limits

Raise a sweat everyday

I love lists!

They make life easy.

It’s sort of like painting by numbers. Someone has done all of the hard work for you and all you have to do is follow along and reap the rewards.

So lets have a look at a list of five foods you should stock your shelves with.

1. Green Tea

Now before we get off on the wrong foot, i am going to say drinks count as a food. The calories definitely count, so I’m adding them to the list. But we want to add good ones, so it’s going to be green tea to kick things off. Antioxidants, increased metabolism and some calorie free fluid in the stomach is reason enough. By the way, when I say green tea, you will be buying bags or leaves not premade, sugar filled, pretend-to-be-healthy drinks.

2. Pistachios

As my daughter calls the, “the ones with the shell.” A couple of good reasons to eat these is that they taste pretty good but you also have to shell them which means you won’t eat as many! They contain plenty of goodness, boosting your immune system and lowering your cholesterol.

3. Cinnamon

Now if you have ever said to me that you don’t like spicy foods, you will know that my reply will have been “you don’t like donuts then….?” Cinnamon is a spice, however is mostly used to sweeten foods. Adding some to your oats in the morning, adding it to a shake or even adding it to some steak will help to control your body’s post meal insulin spike. In simple terms, less energy slumps and less belly fat!

4. Spinach

Spinach goes with anything. Anything! You can have it raw, steamed, or my favourite new trick – blended into your shake. Now before you turn your nose up, let it be known that adding spinach to you shake will have ZERO affect on the taste of your shake. It will make it a bit greener and add a whole lot of nutrients but will not affect the taste at all. Don’t comment on this or share an opinion until you have tried it!

5. Beans

Beans, any variety, pretty much any way. The more organic and less sauce they come with the better, but adding beans to your diet will add a heap of fibre and help to suppress your appetite. They can be added to basically anything (notice how I said basically anything…don’t add them yo your shake and blame me!) salads, eggs, meat, curries, hommus or just by themselves.

A nice little trick when filling your shelves with good foods is to take away an equal amount of bad foods. If you cannot bring yourself to throw the bad foods out, eat it. Eat it all, now. Seriously.

First up put the cashews and the water/green tea into a blender and give it up to 60 seconds of blend time. You don’t really want any chunks of cashew in your drink so it’s best to do a little more if you are unsure. Once you have given that a god thrashing, throw in the blueberries and protein powder and blend until its all mixed, but nice and thick as well.

Should take you all of two minutes to make, drink and clean up. No more “I don’t have time to eat well excuses” my friend!

Let me know what you think.

We all know that it is important to eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, and chances are that you need to increase your intake. Not many people really do get enough, especially when it comes to the vegetable part.

Fruit is typically sweeter, more enjoyable and more practical. For instance you can just grab and apple, orange and banana in the morning and throw it in your bag. Not so appetising or easy to do with brocolli, celery and capsicum.

So how can I add some more of this high fibre, nutritious, lean body food to my diet?

1. Get a good blender. Start with green tea (chilled) or water as your base and have at it. You can mix and match vegetables and fruit to get great flavours and a heap of nutrition. One blended shake like this could have more nutrition in it than the rest of your normal diet!
2. Saute it with onions. Just about anything tastes good when you saute it with onions in a pan. Add a little bit of your favorite flavored olive oil, some garlic or salt and add it to your chicken or beef.
3. Home made guacamole/salsa. Start with an avocado, some sauteed onion and tomato. Then add your favorite vegetables to make your very own signature dish. Once again serve it as a side to your chicken or beef, or you can use it as a healthy alternative to store bought dips.
4. Think fruit not grains for breakfast. Replace your favorite grain based breakfast cereal with your favorite fruit and go from there. Add some yogurt, mixed nuts or blend it with some cottage cheese. This also works well with berries!
5. Always carry fruit. It is a great idea to have a piece of fruit on stand by. This way it will be your first port of call in case you need a snack, or are going to be late for your next meal. No more running to the store for a chocolate bar or going to the take away for lunch, have this on stand by and you be able to keep the diet horrors at bay!

Let us know your favourite, most practival way of increasing vegetable or fruit intake.