Author: SBMaster

There is so much information about diets these days that comes from every direction, that it is hard to know what to follow and what to ignore. The Australian Dietary Guidelines are evidence-based eating guidelines that can help you to make healthy choices in your everyday life. They are endorsed by the Australian government and are easy to understand and implement!

Guideline 1: To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of nutritious food and drinks to meet your energy needs.

Children, adolescents and adults should all aim to be physically active daily. The activity doesn’t have to be anything strenuous, just going on a short 30 minute walk each day easily suffices. This will help you to maintain a weight that is healthy for you, and goes hand in hand with eating nutritious foods. Try to stick to whole foods over anything too processed or sugary, especially drinks-wise.

Guideline 2: Enjoy a variety of nutritious foods from the five food groups every day.

These food groups are vegetables, fruits, grains, lean meats and dairy. Note that there is no food group for processed junk foods! These are recommended to be avoided as much as possible, although if you do feel the need to have them, make sure it is in moderation! The guidelines are also just a general idea for the population, so they do not hone in on certain diets such as vegetarian, vegan or paleo. This does not mean that these diets are bad, it only means that the general population does not follow them, so they are not considered.

Guideline 3: Limit intake of foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol.

This guideline mostly pertains to fast food, junk food and alcohol. When buying foods that aren’t in one of the five groups mentioned above, have a read of the label that is on the packaging, or the calories displayed on the menu board. Make an effort to know what your daily caloric intake should be (there are lots of calculators online), and when reading labels take note of that saturated fat percentage.

Guideline 4: Encourage, support and promote breastfeeding.

This one is self explanatory, but should not be forgotten.

Guideline 5: Care for your food; prepare and store it safely.

Again, this guideline is self explanatory. Be thoughtful and safe when it comes to food preparation, and make sure you check use by dates on products.

I hope that this post has helped you better understand the Australian Dietary Guidelines, and given you some thoughts as to how to incorporate them in your day to day life when making food choices! Remember as well, that everything is best in moderation!

Ebony

One of the main things that contributes to stress in our modern society is poor posture, but stress also contributes to poor posture. Improving your posture immediately takes pressure off your organs being compressed and your bones being bent out of alignment, thus making your body and mind feel more relaxed. A recent study by researchers from Harvard and Columbia Universities published in journal Psychological Science also showed that postures that were expansive, rather than hunched, actually altered the participants’ hormone levels in decreasing cortisol and increasing testosterone.

Mentally and emotionally as your body improves its posture you’ll literally have more of the happy hormones floating around in your body compared to the bad ones, which will help you to feel calm and centred. When we position our bones correctly, our muscles are lifted onto the bones the way that they are supposed to. This triggers muscle memory ensuring that every muscle is the perfect length and reminds the muscle of its individual purpose. The muscles will resume working for you exactly as they are designed to do.

Try to stop work every hour and do five or six breathing exercises and strengthen your deepest breathing muscles whilst sitting at your desk; too often people sit completely hunched over a computer. First move your spine away from the back of your chair to sit on the front half of the chair. Place your feet flat on the floor directly under your knees. Look straight ahead and sit as tall and relaxed as possible. Your vertebrae will be stacking up, so the natural curves of your spine will already have improved. Staying tall and relaxed, let your body breathe in through the nose.

To get the most out of lying on your back, bend your knees so that the soles of your feet are comfortably on the ground and sink the top parts of both your upper arm bones into the floor. This naturally rolls your collarbone wide and repositions your thoracic spine. This relaxes the large upper back and neck muscles and fires up the hundreds of smaller muscles around your spine and ribcage.All of your abdominal and breathing muscles immediately activate to flatten your abs and strengthen your body front and back.

We spend a lot of time standing around – unfortunately nowadays that means we’re often looking down at our phones. This pulls the neck forward resulting in a hunchback. Always look ahead if you can. When standing still, look straight ahead. Stand as tall and relaxed as possible. This will reduce strain throughout your spine, especially your upper torso and neck.

As a result of trying these really simple moves, fixing up your posture will help you feel a lot calmer!

 

Clara