Interviews & Expert Advice 4 | The Health Sessions

The Finest Healthy Eating Tips from Your Favourite Food Bloggers

Have you been thinking about swapping your regular old cornflakes and milk for a smoothie bowl?

Healthy eating has been a hot topic for a while now. Thanks to the popularity of super foods and luscious pictures of plant-based power meals, health food has shrugged off its musty, granola-hippie image. A new breed of healthy food blogs inspires tons of people all over the world to tune up their eating habits and energize their body from the inside out.

But many of us don’t know where to start. Eating healthier can seem overwhelming, especially with all the conflicting information about nutrition around. Plus, we’re creatures of habit and changing our habits comes with challenges.

So how can we adopt a wholesome style of eating that will last?

Who better to ask than the health experts and recipe creators who showed us that good food is so much more than nibbling on lettuce sans dressing?

Here are the finest tips on how to start improving your diet from your favourite food bloggers!

Getting Back on Track: 11 Expert Strategies on Rebuilding Healthy Habits | The Health Sessions

Getting Back on Track: 11 Expert Strategies for Rebuilding Healthy Habits

Summer is officially over and schools are back in session all over the world. It marks a new beginning, a fresh start to rebuild healthy habits after an indulgent summer break with one too many glasses of wine and lazy days in the sun.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with living life and treating yourself. As Hayley from Full of Life rightfully points out, what’s the point of working hard to feel as healthily as possible, if you aren’t doing anything aside from obsessing about your diet and workout plan?

But when it comes to ‘bad’ habits, there’s often a sliding scale. It starts innocently, with big BBQ’s and ice cream cones on the beach and staying up way too late and skipping yoga class, “because it’s summer, we’re on vacation, let’s live a little” (and you should!).

But then the holidays are over and all of a sudden you find yourself mindlessly eating a bowl of cookie dough ice-cream in front of the TV every night and it becomes harder and harder to break a habit you didn’t mean to have in the first place.

This time of year, with the changing of the seasons and faux back-to-school feel, is a fitting moment to re-examine your health habits, let go off what isn’t working and embrace new things.

So here are 11 expert strategies to get back on track with a healthy lifestyle.

Expert Advice: How to Overcome Obstacles to Exercising with Chronic Illness

It’s hard to ignore the illustrious health benefits of exercising on a regular basis – it boosts your mood, helps you control your weight, promotes a good night’s sleep and keeps your body strong and fit.

Even if you have a chronic disease, being physically active can improve your health and quality of life, by helping you manage your symptoms and giving you more energy to do your daily chores.

But for people with persisting health problems, there are many obstacles between them and a regular exercise routine – from pain, fatigue and debilitating symptoms to limited mobility and realistic fears of health setbacks.

That’s why I asked a few of the finest fitness experts: “What’s your best advice for overcoming these common barriers to physical activity when someone’s struggling with chronic illness?”

Kaila Prins about Coping with Eating Disorders: “I see it as a challenge that I want to overcome every single day”

This is the first interview in a series about what it’s really like to cope with chronic illness every day. How do you deal with the physical symptoms, emotional turmoil and practical problems? Today Kaila Prins of In My Skinny Genes shares her story about living with an eating disorder and how blogging about it helped her heal.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a 26 (soon be 27–where did the time go?) year old Marketing Copywriter living in San Jose, CA. I’m also a certified personal trainer, an exercise addict, and a recovering anorectic. I currently blog about disordered eating and exercise at inmyskinnygenes.com and run the Finding Our Hunger podcast. On the podcast, we talk to everyday people as well as “personalities” about their journey instead of the end point, and we share stories of working through issues of disordered eating, body image, identity, career goals, perfectionism, and building community in this strange, wonderful constantly-changing world.

Expert Advice: 11 Tips for Boosting Your Daily Happiness

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” – Margaret Lee Runbeck

Do you wake up in the morning feeling positive about life?

Most of the health advice we receive encourages us to eat healthily, be physically active and avoid bad habits like smoking. But it may be time to add “be happy” to the list of standard health recommendations.

An overwhelming amount of scientific studies have found that optimistic people who enjoy life have stronger immune systems, lower stress levels, less pain and even a longer life expectancy than unhappy people.

You might be wondering how you can start to feel happier when you’re struggling with daily hassles and life’s difficulties.

Being happy doesn’t mean you have to be cheerful and smiling all the time. Happiness is an overall satisfaction with your life, as well as the sum of the fleeting feelings you experience every day.

Research by Barbara Fredrickson shows that, in order to flourish, we should have three positive emotions for every negative one. To feel happier, we shouldn’t focus on avoiding bad moments, but on finding ways to increase the positivity in our lives.

So what can you do to cultivate more positive emotions like joy, love and gratitude? What small change can you make that will have a profound impact on your daily happiness?

Six experts on emotional wellbeing share their best tips on how to be happy.