Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Spring clean your habits

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By Sayeh Woodman — Let’s try and keep this simple this time round.  Just four healthy habits to focus on this spring — seeing as we’re in May, a quarter way through the year, doesn’t matter where you’re living in the world, what the climate is, these four habits can make you feel fresher and happier.  Let’s do this!


Eat the rainbow


Let’s increase our consumption of fruit and vegetables. Don’t like it as a whole? Then blend and juice it down into a scrumptious smoothie.  It’s so beneficial and a great way of getting a variety of vitamins and minerals, which is what we need on a day-to-day basis.  Keep fruit accessible as well, if you see it, you’re more likely to eat it.


Add a handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped carrots or cucumber to your sandwiches at lunch, or pack a handful of spinach salad leaves to your sandwich.


Keep a bag of frozen berries in the freezer and pop some in to your porridge or cereal.  Glam up your sandwich with different fillings like peanut butter and banana, sliced apple and cheese and blue cheese and sliced pear.


When making a bolognese sauce add some diced courgette, carrot and onion to the mix.   Beans such as cannelloni beans or chickpeas count towards one of your five a day.  Add into your stews and soups or to your salads.


Make friends with fibre


The primary role of fibre in our diet is to support a healthy bowel. Simply boost your fibre intake by choosing wholegrain at every opportunity, like wholegrain cereals such as wheated cereals or porridge oats, seeded and granary bread or wholemeal pasta and brown rice.


If you have a sweet tooth reach for a flapjack next instead of doughnut.  Oats are a great source of soluble fibre, or make homemade cakes with added fruit; nuts and seeds.  Replace the packet of crisp with your sandwich at lunch with a small handful of nuts.  Linseeds are high in soluble fibre and healthy fats.  Sprinkle over your cereal, or yoghurt.


Power up with plant proteins


Add chopped nuts and seeds to your salads instead of your go to cheese salad. Replace beef mince in your bolognese with quorn mince.  Vegetable burgers can really hit the sport with fiery jalapeno chutney. Delicious!


Hummus is a great snack, and even try a lentil dhal or chana masala.


Reach for the stars


Fitness friends have told me — the more active we are the healthier we are.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out, but we do forget and ignore our bodies or what we consume.  The benefits of exercise are well known, but exercise is often associated with lucra-class- gym sessions, with walking overlooked.


We should be aiming to walk 10,000 a day.  Walking is free and great on that love road in Muscat, in the early hours of the morning, a great start to the day, making you feel great all day more importantly.  If walking is boring, lets put those excuses aside, download some music or walk with friends.


Just making these small changes will help make you feel better.  If the seasons can change, I think we can make a few changes too, to suit.


— sayehwoodman@outlook.com


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