Health & Wellbeing News
Top Tips To Get Active Every Day
If you struggle to find time and motivation for regular exercise, you’re not alone.
Joining a gym or pounding the pavement isn’t for everyone, and it doesn’t have to be. By looking at exercise in a different way and making a few small changes, you can create healthy habits that stick.
Start with finding your ‘WHY’
Understanding why you want to be active can help get you motivated, set goals and keep yourself accountable. Ask yourself:
- What are the important areas of your life that could be enhanced If you improve your health through exercise?
What types of movement make you feel good?
It doesn’t matter how big or small the goal, it just must be meaningful to you. That could be returning to work after an injury, going for a longer walk with your dog or getting a better night’s sleep.
Challenge what ‘exercise’ means and focus on moving
The human body is designed to move. Any extra movement you can add to your day is a positive, so focus on simply moving rather than intense exercise.
Daily physical activity can include many basic day to day activities, such as:
- 10 minutes of weeding
- Walking around the room while on a phone call
- A quick stretching session in your lounge room
- Getting up every hour and walking away from your desk.
Break it up and boost your mood
Getting your recommended amount of physical activity doesn’t have to mean a 30-minute workout every day. Spreading it out into smaller blocks can make it easier to fit in and improve your mental health, as consistent exercise elevates mood and reduces the production of stress and anxiety causing hormones.
Movement increases blood flow to the brain, improving concentration, memory, creativity, learning, and mental stamina. Physical activity also increases endorphins – your feel-good hormones – which can drastically improve mood.
Add stretching to your routine
Stretching is another form of exercise and is just as important to include in your day, especially if you work at a desk. Stretching warms up your body and allows blood to flow, which relieves muscle fatigue and sends extra blood to your brain.
By reframing the way you think about exercise and finding ways to incorporate small amounts of movement into your daily routine, you are on your way to improving your health and wellbeing in a sustainable and enjoyable way.
Quick and Easy Recipes for Kids Lunch Boxes
(Australia's Best Recipes Team by Australia's Best Recipes Team)
If you've only got ten minutes to put together a school lunch then never fear, these ideas are sure to help you out. From healthy fruit snacks to making good use of leftovers, make sure your lunch boxes are both nutritious and fun with these helpful tips.
Plan ahead
When it comes to seamlessly throwing together a healthy lunch box in under 10 minutes, forward planning is your best friend. If you only have time to do one of these things each week, you'll be well on the way to packing a lunch box the littlies will love.
Night before planning
By far the best thing you can do to make lunch boxes come together seamlessly in the mornings, is to plan everything out the night before. Try peeling and slicing carrots into sticks, then store them in water in an airtight container in the fridge to keep crisp. Or dice up watermelon into cubes and place it in an airtight container ready to grab the next day.
Make a weekly snack
If you can, use your time on the weekend to make up an easy to grab healthy snack. Full of dried fruit, they are perfect to throw together and use throughout the week. Try this no-bake muesli slice.
No-Bake Muesli Slice
Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup Kellogg's Rice Bubbles
4 Sanitarium Weet-Bix crushed
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
125 g butter melted
Step 1 Grease a 19cm x 29cm slice pan.
Step 2 Combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl.
Step 3 Combine sugar, honey, peanut butter and butter in saucepan
Step 4 Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir constantly.
Step 5 Cool slightly and stir into dry mix.
Step 6 Press into slice pan and refrigerate until set.an, stirring constantly over low heat until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.
Freezer friendly ideas
Make your freezer your best friend by cooking batches of muffins, pikelets, scrolls and balls. One day in the kitchen can have you sorted for a whole months worth of lunch box goodies.
Make your own snack packs
Fill small zip lock bags with rice crackers, dried fruit, yoghurt covered sultanas, pepitas and sunflower seeds. Custom the snack packs to what your kids love and you'll have a handy treat to bulk out a lunch box. Remember to get the kids to return the zip lock bags so that you can refill them for another day.
Leftovers
Make good use of your leftovers by transforming them into lunches the next day. Here are some of our favourite leftovers for lunch boxes:
Meat
By far the easiest way to keep lunch boxes fuss free is to cook extra meat, such as roast chicken, corned beef or pulled pork that can then by used in wraps, sandwiches and salads.
Patties
Leftover patties, fishcakes and burgers are also great options to add to a lunch box. Pack them as they are, or add them to a pita with plenty of premade dips.
Salads
Leftover pasta salad, rice salad or potato salad are some of the great options to add to a lunch box.
Not satisfied? We have collected 150+ pasta recipes guaranteed to impress your family and friends!
Stock up on spreads
For quick, tasty sandwiches, keep a variety of spreads on hand to smear onto sliced bread. While perennial favourites like peanut butter and vegemite will always be a hit, nut butters, pestos, hummus or favourite dips are also a yummy alternative.
Jazz up yoghurt
Keep a family-size tub of yoghurt in the fridge to dollop into small airtight containers and adorn with everything from chopped fresh fruit, berry purees, crunchy muesli or even rolled oats. For a time-saving tip, keep frozen berries in the freezer to sprinkle on top of the yoghurt in a jiffy.
Boil up some eggs
Eggs are packed with protein to help young minds and bodies grow and develop. They are also great to fill you up, and come in perfect packaging for lunch boxes. Perhaps the thing we love most about them is that, once boiled, they stay fresh for up to a week, making them perfect to have preboiled and ready to go. Try peeling them and packing them as they are, or slice them up and add to sandwiches and wraps.
Fruit
Keep a supply of easy to pack fruit on hand for an easy addition to a lunch box. Bananas, apples, pears and apricots are all great, but a few strawberries, blueberries, grapes or cherries can be an extra special treat.
The right lunch box for the job
If you struggle to pack a diverse and healthy lunch, or you're constantly searching for containers – and their lids – to put everything in, then consider buying a lunch box with inbuilt compartments. This can dramatically cut down on the time needed to put everything together, and ensure your lunches are full of variety and perfectly portioned.