Weight Loss

At Steps for Life we believe that building healthy habits starts at home. We also understand that putting these habits into practice can be challenging so we have provided you with some tips to help you build them into your daily lives.

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports “The risks of consuming fructose-rich sodas and processed foods drop substantially if you get up from your chair and move around, even if you don’t formally exercise, two important new studies find.”

Incorporating exercise into your everyday life is very important. To get a healthy balance in your day you need to eat well, sleep well and keep moving. Being active in all stages of your life provide so many great benefits:

Over the last 30 years portion sizes, especially in packaged foods, have dramatically increased. The culture of ‘supersizing’ has distorted our view of just how much is enough.

The good news is that the answer is in our hands, literally. A hand is something we all own, and it’s usually just the right size for us. So why not use your hands as a guide to serving yourself the right portion size:

A recent report conducted by market research company Nielsen shows that we are a nation of ‘snackers’ with 97% of Kiwis regularly consuming snack foods.

The good news is that fresh fruit was the ‘winner’ in terms of snack foods with 69% of respondents having eaten fresh fruit as a snack in the past month. However, both chocolate and potato chips were not far behind with 67% and 62% respectively.

Type 2 diabetes, once known as adult-onset or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition that affects the way your body metabolises sugar (glucose), your body’s main source of fuel. It develops when the body becomes resistant to insulin or when the pancreas stops producing enough insulin.

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘knowledge is power’ and this is certainly true when it comes to our health and the foods that we choose to buy and eat.

Health halos are claims on food that make them seem healthier than they really are. It’s time to outsmart the manufacturers and to learn which foods really do have a healthy glow and which are just devils in disguise!

Let’s take a look at some common halos

Natural - These foods contain no artificial colors or additives, but they may still be full of sugar, sodium, and fat.

When the clock approaches 5pm does the dinner panic begin to set in? With some planning and preparation the 5 o’clock panic can be a thing of the past.

We can probably all agree that dietary advice is confusing! There are a myriad of diets out there – all claiming to offer the right solution to our problems. It’s a bit like an ongoing beauty contest – my diet is better than yours…

Should you go low-fat or low-carb, vegan or paleo? It’s not easy to know the answer. As a result of the obesity and diabetes epidemic, the confusion of dietary advice has provided a lucrative market for weight loss and health promotion diets and the media also thrives on the ongoing debates – fuelling the fire of confusion.

We’ve all experienced it... maybe it’s when you’re bored, stressed, sad or tired and you find yourself heading for the snack machine or lolly jar. Whatever it is, it is a reason to eat other than hunger.