Physical Activity

• Set your alarm earlier to fit in a half an hour walk or jog before work
• Go to bed wearing your exercise gear to save time in the morning
• Park your car in the furthest parking bay
• Do sit up or push up competitions with your kids during the ad breaks
• Set goals. Keep an exercise diary! Allows you to look back and see how far you have progressed
• Dance whilst doing housework
• Wash the car! Play the tunes
• Take the stairs; more often than not it’s quicker and less congested than the escalator/lift
• Take your kids for a bike ride while you run alongside them
• Have your next social function at the local bowls club
• Replace the Sunday drive with a Sunday walk
• Schedule meetings that you can walk to from work
• If you have stairs in your house…use them for a quick workout
• Take a daily 30 minute brisk walk and use it as a great opportunity to have ‘us’ time with your partner, your family, your friends or even your dogs.  Or just enjoy the break for yourself
• Sign up to fitness alerts on your iPhone/android
• Spend half of your lunch hour walking before eating your lunch. Your body and your brain will appreciate the fresh air (and sunshine, if you’re lucky) and you’ll burn up some of the sugar in your blood stream and prevent it from being converted into fat
• Write down your ‘big picture’ health goals and keep them handy like the fridge or back of toilet door
• Plan your exercise schedule at the start of each week (and don’t forget to include rest and recovery days). When you’ve got a schedule written down, you know exactly what you’re doing and can be prepared for it. Without a plan, its too easy to get to the end of the day and decide not to do any exercise at all
• Sit on you fitball during TV time, you can stretch and do a mini workout at the same time as watching your favourite TV show – how’s that for time management!

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Nutrition

• Swap food rewards for a trip to the zoo, park, river, beach etc
• Keep bags of frozen veges on hand so you never have an excuse. They’re already chopped up, simply to prepare and never go to waste
• Try to have as many different colours on your plate as possible for fresh nutritious meals
• Half fill your bowl/plate with veges/salad first and then add other components of your meal
• Add veges to tinned/packaged soup to bulk it up and make it more filling
• Add veggies to things you normally wouldn’t – add grated carrot, diced mushies, chilli, onion and celery to your next spaghetti bol
• Flavour your food with plenty of fresh herbs and spices. Fresh, flavoursome food is more satisfying than bland mundane meals, so you don’t need to eat as much to feel content. Plus herbs and spices are usually packed with vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
• Portion before serving - if a recipe says it will serve 4, take out the additional servings and put them in a container for freezing or next day's lunch before you serve the meal. That way there's not a tendency to over serve.

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