Are you craving Thai take-out food, but want to stick to your weight loss plan? Tony Ferguson has solved your problem with his tasty, quick & easy Thai Beef Salad recipe.

Satisfy your craving while keeping things healthy!

Ingredients

• 4 x 120g Rump steak (females) or 4 x 220g Rump steak (males)
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 100g Baby spinach
• 1 Large red capsicum – seeded and finely chopped
• ½ Cup bean sprouts
• 4 Spring onions
• ½ Cup coriander
• 2 Tablespoons chopped mint

Dressing

• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 Clove garlic, crushed
• 1 Red chilli, seeded and chopped

Method

1. Heat pan, brush meat with oil and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side for medium rare or until cooked to your liking.
2. Place steaks in a warm place or cover with foil and set aside for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mix all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Slice meat across the grain into thin strips. Place beef and remaining ingredients in a large bowl and pour dressing over salad – toss gently.
5. Serve immediately with extra allowed salad or a vegetable side dish if you wish.

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You know that exercise is good for you, but did you know that it has advantages for your love life too?

It’s something that we all know we should do often but frequently don’t do enough: exercise. It’s labor intensive, time-consuming and sometimes painful, so it’s no wonder why many of us abandon exercise three weeks into the new year. However, it’s possible that many more people would hit the gym more frequently if they knew the benefits it would have on their love life.

Yes, it’s true! Exercise can make-over your romantic relationship. Here’s how:

1) You’ll Feel Better About Yourself
We could go on and on about the benefits of breaking a sweat, but probably the number one reason is the surge of confidence you’ll feel once you get going. Exercise releases endorphins, powerful chemicals, into the brain that naturally improve your mood. Add that to the physical differences you’ll see in a matter of weeks from working out and you’ll be ready to take on the world!

So how does this translate into a better love life? The more confidence you have the better partner you’ll be. You’ll be healthier, happier and less likely to suffer from physical ailments big and small.

2) You’ll Have More Energy
Many people think, “I can’t work out because I don’t have any energy!” Well, this is a self-defeating prophecy. The less you work out the less energy you have. Even though it may feel like the last thing you want to do, getting a workout in will actually fill you with energy. Go figure.

The verdict for your romantic relationship? You won’t be a drag. The energized individual has more to offer than the person who is perpetually tired and/or sedentary. Moreover, the person with more energy is also generally more fun.

3) You’ll Have Something to Do Together
If you’re one of those people who will never truly enjoy exercise, refer to the old adage, “Misery Loves Company.”

Recruiting your loved one to exercise with you has many benefits. You’ll hold each other accountable to a healthy new lifestyle and have a cheerleader for when you want to call it quits after the first mile. Undoubtedly the best part is the time you’ll get to spend with one another. Too many couples pop in a movie and call that together time. They aren’t even interacting!

4) You’ll Handle Stress Better
Ask anyone who’s been in a long relationship about love and they’ll confess it’s not always roses. Life throws a lot of stuff at us, and at times keeping it all together—a relationship, work, family matters—can seem overwhelming. How a person handles these things can make or break a relationship.

Reducing the level of stress in your life is essential for your own mental health as well of that of your partner. The next time you have a terrible day at work, take your frustration out on the basketball court instead of bringing it into your home. After an hour of heart-pumping activity, you won’t have forgotten your troubles, but you’ll be less bothered by them.

Sometimes you get stuck in a rut when it comes to exercise. We think it’s the devil when we have to go to all that effort.. Our minds start to think, is it really worth it? Can I be bothered… It’s not fun!

GHA is here to the rescue! We have found some help, to keep the fun in that seemingly dreadful word called ‘Exercise’.

HERE ARE TWENTY WAYS TO HAVE FUN EXERCISING!

1)Load up your MP3 and hit the streets or the bush or park for a walk or a run. Or leave the MP3 at home and enjoy the sounds of the bush or park.

2)Invest in some goggles and present yourself at the local pool.

3)Whatever happened to squash?

4)Call a friend for a hit-and-giggle at the local tennis club and decide to make it a regular event.

5)Get a group together and book a trail ride on horseback through some picturesque bushland.

6)Learn scuba diving.

7)Join a water polo team.

8)Go to your local laser-gun-place-I’ve-forgotten-what-they’re-called and run around like a madman/woman for a while.

9)On your bike! Bike into the city for lunch then home again.

10)Organize a group for a bush-walk followed by a barbie.

11)Play a round of golf. (No buggies allowed -the object of this exercise is exercise, remember?)

12)Have dancing lessons – ballroom, funk, tap, jazz, break – whatever!

13)Learn a self-defense art: Tae Kwon Do, Hap Ki Do, Karate, Tai Chi etc.

14)Or a non-self-defense art, like Qi Gong (Chi Goong) or yoga.

15)Pilates is a safe, gentle indoor exercise you can do at home.

16)Start a mixed netball team.

17)Play polo if you’re an affluent member of society.

18)You don’t see many fat, unhappy sailors! Have lessons.

19)Take up mud-wrestling.

20)Take a course in circus tricks.

Source: Heart Foundation

Your heart needs care for life. A healthy heart is about enjoying a healthy lifestyle and making this a part of your everyday life. It is also about taking positive steps to reduce risk factors.

Everyone can do something to help prevent heart disease, including people who already have heart disease or who have had a heart event. The good news is that if you lead a healthy lifestyle, as outlined below, you can reduce your risk of developing heart disease.

The best ways to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, and to help prevent it getting worse if it already exists is to reduce or remove the risk factors over which we have some control.

To do this, have ongoing heart disease risk assessments with your doctor and lead a healthy lifestyle as outlined below. Being male, increasing age and having a family history of early death from heart disease are also risk factors for developing heart disease, but are much more difficult to control or change!

1. Be smokefree

Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood and damages the artery walls. Stopping smoking is the single most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of coronary heart disease. For more information on quitting smoking, call the Quitline on 131 848.

2. Enjoy healthy eating

Cholesterol and fat contribute to the deposits which build up in the artery walls and cause disease. You can help lower your blood cholesterol level and limit further artery clogging by reducing the amount of saturated fat you eat.

Saturated fat is found in fatty meats, full cream dairy products, butter, two vegetable oils (coconut and palm oils), most fried take-away foods and commercially baked products.

Replace saturated fats with moderate amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats such as canola, olive, sunflower and soybean oils.

3. Be physically active

The body is designed to move, and regular, moderate physical activity is good for the heart. Being active is also a great way to have fun.

Physical activity can also help control other risk factors such as high blood pressure and being overweight.

The Heart Foundation recommends that people include 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity (such as brisk walking) on most, if not all days of the week, for health benefits. The amount of activity can be accumulated in shorter bouts, e.g. three 10-minute walks.

4. Control blood pressure

High blood pressure can strain your heart and speed up the process of coronary heart disease.

Have regular blood pressure checks. If your blood pressure is high, reduce salt intake, limit alcohol to two drinks or less daily and follow your doctor’s advice. Long-term medication may be required to manage high blood pressure.

5. Maintain a healthy weight

Being overweight and carrying too much weight around the waist are risk factors for coronary heart disease and diabetes. Healthy eating and being physically active assists weight loss.

Your doctor can advise you on your waist measurement goal.

Article from myDr

There is no easy way to lose weight. A gradual weight loss of 0.5 kg to 1 kg per week is optimal weight loss. It takes a long time for weight to be put on, and the most lasting way to lose weight is to do it gradually and let the new lifestyle become the healthy habit.

A change in lifestyle is usually necessary to sustain weight loss. This involves increased activity and different eating habits.

Beware of products that advertise ‘no effort or exercise required’; miracle ingredients in special supplements that speed up metabolism or ‘burn fat’; rapid, major weight loss; very restrictive or limited variety of food diets; or other fad diets.

Dietary considerations

Our main energy (calorie/kilojoule) intake should be from vegetables, fruit and complex carbohydrates such as cereals, breads, pasta and rice.

It is important to reduce calorie/kilojoule and fat intake as well as eating less food generally. Fat has 9 calories per gram while sugar or carbohydrates have only about 3 calories per gram. Fat should not provide more than 30 per cent of the total energy (calorie/kilojoule) intake, and generally should be less than 30g per day.

There is growing interest in the glycaemic index concept (GI factor) of food. The GI factor is simply a ranking of foods based on their immediate effect on blood sugars, e.g. complex carbohydrates have a low GI. The aim is to have a slow, steady release of glucose into the blood rather than short, high peaks. A low GI factor is good; it helps achieve slow, steady blood glucose levels.

Smoking should not be used as a method of reducing weight through reducing food intake. Smoking increases the risk of heart and lung diseases. It also makes people look older than they are by reducing circulation and increasing wrinkles.

Exercising

If you have signs of obesity, heart disease, diabetes or breathlessness, you should first talk to your doctor before starting a weight loss programme. This will help to ensure that the programme provides a safe, healthy way for you to lose weight, while taking into account any medical problems that you may have.

You should start exercise programmes with small amounts of exercise initially, for example 20-30 minutes of exercise per day, perhaps even broken up into 2 or 3 sessions. It is much better to start gradually. Expect to take weeks or months to build up fitness, rather than trying to do too much too soon, and being disappointed or discouraged.

Some people prefer taking exercise as a group or community activity, rather than by themselves. Do whatever suits you best. You can also take every opportunity to move and be active. For example, get rid of the TV remote, always park on the far side of the supermarket car park, walk up and down stairs, get off the bus one stop early and walk the extra distance to work.

Exercise helps maintain body weight, reduces risk of heart disease, improves mental well-being and can provide relaxation and enjoyment.

Some healthy weight tips

The following tips may also help you to maintain a healthy weight.

• Have a realistic expectation of weight loss in total, and over a set period of time. Weight loss should not be too rapid.
• Exercise is very important and should be part of any weight loss programme, but do not start out by overdoing the exercise, e.g. immediately expecting to run 1-2 kilometres. This is not realistic and may be demoralising.
• Diet and/or exercise to target weight loss from ‘just one spot’ such as the hips, generally does not work, but overall weight loss will eventually result in reduction of the size of the ‘problem spot’.
• Lifestyle change is important. The goal is to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• Read the labels in the supermarket. Check the fat content, aiming for no more than 30g of fat per day. Be alert for ‘hidden’ fats. For example, toasted muesli has a high fat content compared to standard muesli.
• Use tried and proven diets, not fad diets.
• Weigh only once a week, not daily. 0.5 kg to 1 kg per week is the expected, and suitable, weight loss.

myDr, 2001. Adapted from original material sourced from MediMedia Australia.