Skip to main content

Lose weight in 30 days

If you need to drop and few kilos and don’t know where to get started, stop counting calories and start counting colours. When it comes to losing weight, make sure your plate is piled high with a range of colourful fruit and vegetables. You’ll naturally create more balance and health-filled menus.

Why? Colour not only brightens your mood – but also your diet. Load your plate with fruit and veges like a box of crayons in colours such as red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, white and green and you’ll also be filling up on power packed phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are naturally occurring chemicals which combat disease, including cancer.

Go easy on the beige and brown foods such as pasta and startchy carbs. When there are too many of these drab colours on your plate, weight gain is almost certain. That's because these beige foods often are high in calories and can leave you feeling hungry later. A cup of beige or brown beans can be over 200 calories....but a cup of red or green vegetables is under a hundred! Add fresh greens, deep purple-reds and bright yellow-orange to a meal, and water the nutrient content go up, while calories go down! Plus, you'll get more enjoyment from eating when there's a variety of colours and flavours on your plate.

According to Dr David Heber, M.D., Ph.D. and author of “What Color Is Your Diet” the key to designing your colourful diet is to choose from a range of different colour groups:

Blue/purple fruits and vegetables contain varying amounts of health-promoting phytochemicals such as anthocyanins and phenolics. Choose from a range including blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, plums, raisins. These assist in memory function.

Green group includes broccoli; Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and bok choi. These foods stimulate the genes in your liver to turn on the production of enzymes that break down the cancer-causing chemicals in the body.

The yellow/green group includes green peas, avocado and honeydew melon. These promote eye health.

The yellow/orange group includes carrots, mangoes, apricots, rock melon and pumpkin. These contain carotenoids (beta carotene is one), fierce antioxidants that help prevent cancer and assist to lower heart-attack risk.

The white group includes bananas, white peaches, cauliflower, garlic, ginger, mushrooms and are helpful to maintain heart health.

The red group includes tomatoes, pink grapefruit and watermelon all of which contain lycopene. Lycopene is associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The red/purple group includes grapes, grape juice, prunes, cranberries, strawberries and red apples. These foods contain anthocyanins which have a beneficial effect on heart disease by inhibiting blood clot formation.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

VIDEO: Swiss ball dumbbell chest press

Improve your upper body strength with this Swiss ball workout. WH&F Head Trainer Nikki Fogden-Moore demonstrates. Read more ...

How to avoid dry skin

  Are you prone to dry skin ? If you think your diet has nothing to do with it, your face may beg to differ. The Suspects: Alcohol , Coffee , Poor Diet In the short term, alcohol can cause dehydration , which can cause dry skin. “For women, the recommendation is no more than two standard drinks a day on average,” says dermatologist Ann-Maree Kurzydlo, who recommends limiting consumption and alternating alcoholic drinks with water. “One or two alcohol-free days should be had per week.” Caffeine is a diuretic and can also lead to dehydration of the skin - so steer clear of energy drinks as well as tea and coffee. Meanwhile, dietitian Dr Joanna McMillan says diet can also play havoc with skin. “A lack of fats in the diet can lead to dry skin, whereas good fats such as oily fish, avocado and olive oil deliver fat-soluble nutrients, are anti-inflammatory and promote skin health,” she says. “Certain nutrients are important for the skin including vitamins A, C, E and many antioxidants. ...

Health and fitness with Lauren Hannaford

  We chat to Lauren Hannaford ( @lozhannahford ) about her top fitness tips, how she stays motivated and her fitness mantra.   After competing as an elite gymnast for more than 20 years, IsoWhey -sponsored athlete Lauren ‘Loz’ Hannaford turned her fitness sights to gymnastics coaching, modelling and personal training. While touring the world with The Wiggles (yep, she once performed on stage as Dorothy the Dinosaur), Hannaford learnt the importance of the ‘do anywhere, anytime’ workout for boosting her health and wellbeing. “I always remind myself of how much more energised and vibrant I feel all day after I sweat myself through an awesome workout.” Her top tips Write it down - “This is a great way to believe you can do it. There is something about writing it down that makes it become real. When it becomes a real commitment there is no room for self-doubt or sabotage.” Focus on process, not outcome - “I encourage [my clients] to have their specific goals but to ultimately make...