How To Cook Healthy Meals Every Night

What is the magic used by people who cook themselves a healthy dinner every night? This is an accomplishment that’s even more impressive at the end of a long workday when the temptation to order take-out or stop by a fast food restaurant can be irresistible. But it’s not magic that’s required, it’s simply a little preparation. Creating a healthier lifestyle is all about making a series of decisions that build on each other, day by day. If you want to nurture the habit of preparing a healthy, home-cooked meal every night you have to set yourself up for success.

Make Sure You Have A Plan

The battle might already be lost if you get home and ask yourself “What should I make for dinner tonight?” The end of a long day is not the time to assess your ingredients and try to think of a suitable meal. Being faced with this daunting decision, especially while standing in front of an empty fridge, may often have you reaching for the take-out menu. Make your life much easier by planning ahead at the beginning of the week. You should build up a varied rotation of well-loved meals that are healthy and straight-forward to prepare. What should you have for dinner? You will already know, just as you knew that an item that needed to thaw was already left out on the counter this morning. Having a plan and taking steps to execute it is the key to making the ideal of home-cooked meals a daily reality.

Keep Your Fridge And Pantry Well Stocked

The name of the game is to make cooking as easy as possible, and having plenty of ingredients on hand is a huge help. There are certain items you have to buy every week, like fresh fruits and vegetables, but other staples can be stocked for your convenience. Keep a good quantity of basics like frozen veggies, grains (brown rice, quinoa, etc), canned beans, and dried herbs. You will always have a decent base of ingredients for many nutritious meals, and then you can build on it with fresh items bought more regularly.

Utilize Helpful Kitchen Tools

Just like you stock your pantry, make sure to stock your kitchen. Take advantage of the tools and gadgets out there that can really make a difference in your cooking experience by making things easier or faster. Think about what you might benefit from, beginning with basics like having a couple of good, sharp knives that can meet all your chopping and dicing needs. You might also enjoy the options you gain from having a slow cooker, which will make it so easy to prepare a healthy soup. In the morning you just toss in water, veggies, spices, and a protein, then come home to a fragrant soup all ready for you. A food processor will also be a useful tool, allowing to shred veggies or make homemade dips. There’s no need to go out and buy a ton of things but you should try to think about where it’s possible to work smarter, instead of harder, in preparing healthy meals you will enjoy.

Remind Yourself Why It Matters

The final tip would be to just remember why homemade dinners are worth the effort. The right attitude and a little advanced preparation can help you prepare healthy meals that will enhance your quality of life and help you reach your goals. You can do it!

Start Your Day With The Following Healthy Breakfast Tips

Leading a lifestyle of wellness involves doing several things, including eating healthy meals. Your breakfast is, of course, an essential part of these meals– one of the most important in fact. As such, ensure that you get the most out of it by considering the following tips:

1. Eat on time

Have you ever found yourself eating breakfast hours after you get out of bed because you were “busy” doing other things? With so many distractions during this technological age, it’s so easy to wake up and start scrolling through your phone or laptop instead of having breakfast on time. Before you know it, hours have passed by, and you may not have even drunk a glass of water, let alone have your morning meal. Don’t passively fall prey to these patterns! It is said to be ideal to have breakfast about 1 hour after waking up so that you can get the energy boost you need to start your day.

2. Keep it high-quality

Your morning meal should be healthy and nutrition-packed. Proportionally distributing more of your calories to breakfast is an excellent idea as that will make you less likely to binge on foods that have lots of empty calories later on in the day.

3. Include vegetables or fresh fruit

Vegetables or fresh fruit in the meal can give you a healthy boost. You may even try making the vegetables and fruit into a blended juice on some days for variety and ease of consumption. Additionally, eating fruits before a meal can be highly beneficial as many fruits are known to aid in digestion and absorption of other foods.

4. Add some protein

Protein-rich items such as eggs come with many benefits when included in your morning meals. Some studies have shown that you could reduce the amount of calorie intake for the next 3 hours by getting a good shot of protein in your breakfast, which is helpful for finding a diet that may aid in healthy weight loss. Even if you cannot have eggs for any reason, there are many other high-quality protein rich foods to consider, such as quinoa, chickpeas, and tofu, to name a few.

5. Carbs can be good

Unless you are on a strict dietary restriction for a personal reason, contrary to popular belief, carbs can be good! Healthy or complex carbs could be just what you need to round out a balanced meal.

So what are you waiting for?

Go ahead and start your day off stronger and healthier by considering the above tips. A healthy breakfast is what you need to make the rest of your day brighter and more productive.

Obesity In Adults And Role Of Exercise And Physical Activity

Obesity is referred to as excessive accumulation of fats in the body. The amount of fats is measured by indefinite methods, and we are bound to assess obesity based on anthropometric figures such as height and weight relationship. BMI or body mass index is the most commonly used tool for the assessment of obesity.

Most common health problem

Obesity is one of the most common general health problems in today’s world. It is especially prevalent in the regions of the world which are resource-rich and where the economy is strong. Obesity comes with some severe co-morbidities. A large observational study has proven that obesity in adults is due to prolonged physical inactivity. Conversely, increased physical activity and exercise result in decreased obesity and fewer co-morbidities. This results in a better quality of life and increased life expectancy.

Management of obesity

The first and foremost step in the management of obesity is receiving counseling and accepting the problem. One must then take the steps to seek proper guidance regarding diet, exercise, behavior, and lifestyle changes. Exercise can be one of the most effective treatments of obesity. Data has proven that exercise alone may bring about changes in the reduction of total body fats, visceral body fats, and also may decrease insulin resistance caused by weight gain. Exercise combined with moderate calorie intake has added benefits to overall health. Older adults who are at risk of losing muscle mass along with fat loss are advised to do aerobic or resistance exercises to regain and maintain muscle mass.

Recent studies have shown that proper and regular exercise can also change the microbiota in our gut. This indirectly improves digestion and contributes to better results in terms of treating obesity.

General guidelines on exercise and physical activity

It is generally recommended that 150 minutes of moderate exercise for 5 to 7 days is beneficial to prevent weight gain and cardiovascular diseases. Another option is 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise per week with a healthy diet. The type of exercise on does is also an important factor in determining the overall effect of the exercise on weight. For example, aerobic exercises are good for calorie burn and maintaining muscle mass. A combination of various exercises is also one of the options that has proven to be effective in the treatment or prevention of obesity.

The most common way of increasing physical activity is a walk. Beginners can start with 5-6 thousand steps a day, then gradually increase the duration and speed. This is to make sure your body adapts to changing routine, and more calories are burned every week. Other common types of exercises are general endurance exercises like walking, running, jogging, swimming and hiking.

Intensity and duration of exercise also play an important role in deciding what exercise to engage in depending on how much weight you would like to lose. Different people may have differing tolerances to exercise depending on their baseline health status. Those who are less tolerant to exercise initially should start with lighter exercises with low intensity and duration.

In summary, physical activity may serve as one of the most inexpensive therapies for the treatment and prevention of obesity. It must be encouraged by health professionals at all levels to eradicate the most common non-communicable disease in the modern world. 

The Importance of Health and Wellness

It goes without saying that good health and overall wellness is something that we should never take for granted– it is priceless. It is best when health and wellness are holistically considered, as one’s happiness depends on not only physical health and wellness, but also on other dimensions of a person’s being, such as emotional, mental, and spiritual health and wellness. 


As profoundly important as it is to attend to one’s overall health and wellness, it may not be so straightforward to do so. But a vital first step is becoming more aware of the importance of raising your consciousness for attending to your health and wellness needs. This article is meant to give you some prompts on the importance of consciously considering health and wellness with more priority. 


1. Health 


On one level, health can be considered a state of being free of disease and injury, and having your body as a springboard to live life, rather than a weight that feels heavy. On another level, health may also be inclusive of feeling stable, whole, and light– emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. If one is blessed with good health in one or more facets of being, it may be easier to take health for granted– that is, until something threatens or harms the state of good health. 


Why does it matter? 


Health matters for every person because it affects the very basal condition of not only each person, but communities, populations, and at a highest level, the world! It is important to take notice of your baseline state of health in order to be conscious of your needs. This will in turn, help inform you as you seek out the appropriate types of information and help. While it is good to prevent and avoid bad health in all arenas of life where you could, it is not possible to completely avoid things such as hardship, pain, and suffering completely and indefinitely. This is why it is helpful to build up healthy patterns and to seek healthy answers whenever possible– this will make you more resilient through difficult seasons of life.


2. Wellness 


In this article, wellness is more than being free of disease, injury, and harm. Wellness affects one’s awareness for making decisions towards living a healthy and fulfilling life.


Why does it matter? 


One reason wellness matters is because it determines the overall quality of your life, and yes, you guessed it– the lives of communities, populations, and the world! Wellness also impacts productivity and the thriving of individuals and populations. Just as with health, wellness is a holistic matter. Becoming more conscious of all of the day-to-day decisions– from finances and spirituality, to diet and social interactions–can really add up. Informed and conscious life choices are correlated with more satisfying lives. 


There are so many things in this world that fight for your attention, and at times it may feel overwhelming. But make sure you do yourself and the world that you live in the justice of putting forth time and effort to become more conscious and informed about your health and wellness.