Healthy eating can be daunting and difficult, especially after the festive season. Our New Year’s resolutions are generally revolved around eating healthier and wanting to improve our dietary patterns, but this is often challenging as we get back to our busy lifestyles. Why not make 2021 your year, with a little help from FUTURELIFE®? 

SETTING GOALS 

Before we start on our wellness and healthy eating journey, we need some direction. What do you actually want to achieve? Setting goals provides guidance and motivation, especially during those tough and busy days. This process does not need to be complicated and can be as simple as setting a goal of walking 10 000 steps a day or adding more fruits and vegetables onto your grocer list. It is important to visualize your goals, write them down and place them in a visible spot such as on the fridge. This will be a constant reminder of your end goal, there is nothing more satisfying than ticking off the goal you have achieved at the end of the week.  When setting your goals, make sure they are specific and set in a time frame to ensure that you can reach them. Setting unrealistic goals can lead to disappointment and discouragement, doing the opposite of what a goal is intended to do. So rather start slow and build your way up!

Now that step one is complete and we have set ourselves goals, what is a balanced diet that will help me reach my wellness goals? 

WHAT IS A BALANCED DIET?

A balanced diet means including ALL the food groups into your diet. Yes, you read correctly, all the food groups. There is no need to cut any food group out of your diet. These food groups include: 

• Carbohydrates: Low GI carbohydrates are the way to go. Low GI foods are slowly digested and absorbed leading to a slower rise in blood sugar levels. This sounds technical, but the important part is that this makes us feel fuller for longer. Low GI options include brown rice, wholewheat pasta, FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Smart food™ and whole wheat wraps. ‘Brown’ or ‘wholewheat’ carbohydrates are often high in fibre, which helps in maintaining a healthy gut. High fibre products are perfect options for breakfast to help us meet our daily fibre goals. 
• Proteins: Protein is often found in meat and meat sources like milk. Protein isn’t just found in meat but in eggs, beans, lentils, cheese and yoghurt too. Remember to choose low fat and lean proteins such as chicken without the skin and fish. Try including vegetable proteins like beans in your diet. Easy options could be adding lentils to your mice or beans to your chicken stew. Not only is this great for our health, but we can save a few Rands by including them into our meals!  Red meat should not be consumed more than 3 times per week and choose lean options like lean mince. FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Smart food™, FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Shake, FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Bar and FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN LITE Bar are all high protein containing foods and contain SmartProtein3D™, which is a scientifically formulated blend of whey, soy and casein. 
• Fats: Fats form part of a balanced diet. It is important to distinguish between the two types of fats and choose the correct one. Fats can be divided into ‘good’ fats and ‘bad’ fats. In general, ‘good’ fats come from plant sources and ‘bad’ fats come from animal sources. Healthy/ good fats include avocados, olives, nuts, and nut butters as well as olive oil and canola oil. These oils can be used in cooking preparations but try and avoid deep or shallow frying. Bad fats are often in the form of saturated and trans fats and are mostly found in processed foods, so try avoiding these. 

• Vitamins and minerals: These mostly come from fruits and vegetables and we should aim for 5-a-day. This is easier than it sounds, simply substitute your mid-morning snack for some fruit, include vegetables into your wraps or on your sandwiches and try have them at each meal. Include a variety of different coloured fruits and vegetables so that you get all the different vitamins and minerals. FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Smart food™ is low GI, high in protein and dietary fibre and a 50g serving also provides us with 50% of all vitamin and most mineral requirements for the day.

Remember leaving out a food group can often make us feel hungry and result in binge eating. Try aim for balanced meals that includes all the above-mentioned food groups, this will help you feel fuller for longer and satisfied. 

SNACKING 

Aim to consume 5 balanced meals per day. It is important to consume 3 main meals and 2 snacks in between the main meals every day. This helps keep us full and assists in the prevention of binging on unhealthy foods.  But what are healthy snack options? 

• A handful of home-made popcorn 
• FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN LITE Bar or FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Bar
• Rice cakes with your nut butter of choice 
• A medium sized fruit 
• Whole wheat crackers with low fat cottage cheese and cucumber slices

GET THE FAMILY INVOLVED 

Everyone in the family can benefit from a healthy diet. It is a lot easier to stay on track with healthy eating when the whole family is involved. Include the whole family in meal preparations and eating balanced diets. Kickstart your teen’s day with 50-75g of FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Smart food™. This is conveniently available in a 1kg value pack so that the whole family can enjoy it. Swop out unhealthy chocolate bars for the FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN LITE Bar. Adding FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN LITE Bar or FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Shake can be a nice option for those long school days filled with after school activities. With FUTURELIFE® there is something for everyone in the family. 

Some additional tips include meal preparation and having a healthy pantry. As the week gets busier, we get tired and it is much easier to make an unhealthy meal or food decision based on what’s convenient. Try and do meal preparation on the weekend. This is an easy way to get the whole family involved and help ease the pressure of the busy week to come. Avoid filling the pantry with unhealthy snacks and rather include healthy options like nuts or FUTURELIFE® High Protein LITE SmartBars. This removes temptation. If the unhealthy snack isn’t there, you aren’t tempted to eat it! This simple step change can help ensure that you are consciously eating healthy. 

LET’S GET ACTIVE 

Getting active does not only mean going to the gym. This is the perfect opportunity to get the whole family involved, organise family walks or family exercise challenges. The important thing is to get moving. 

For those of you who are hitting the gym hard this year, don’t forget to add in a post exercise recovery. International scientific research has shown that a blend of proteins provides a more balanced amino acid profile than a single protein source. This is because of the different digestion rates of various proteins that are absorbed into the body over a longer period of time, thereby optimising the muscle repair process. This is why FUTURELIFE® HIGH PROTEIN Smart food™ has been formulated with SmartProtein3D™.

Enjoy your wellness journey and remember it is all about balance and building a sustainable lifestyle. FUTURELIFE® makes balanced eating easy! Next time you get groceries, don’t forget to add your favourite FUTURELIFE® product to your shopping basket.

Author: Bianca Jonischkeit RD (SA)