How to get Healthy in 2018

Once Christmas is over, many of us think of detoxing and dieting following the over-indulgences of the festive season. On a set date in January, once all the goodies are gone, we promise we will begin. Unfortunately, few of us make it to the end of a week and we fall by the wayside and back into our previous habits.

If you are a regular reader, you will know that my darling GG has a bad sugar habit and I too need to up my game, introduce new recipes and cook more healthily. So 2018 is the year we are going to tackle these matters, with the help of one of my Fierce 50 friends, Wendy Hodge.

She is a Precision Nutrition certified coach and healthy lifestyle blogger, who promotes moderation and a common sense approach to diet and exercise.

A little bit about Wendy

Although born in the UK, Wendy currently lives in Tasmania, Australia, with her husband Jayson.

She’s been fit and healthy for most of her life, except when they were in the UK running pubs, working long hours, not eating well or exercising regularly and drinking too much.

So it was after their return home to Australia in 2009 that Wendy decided to regain her healthy lifestyle. She cut most of the junk food from her diet (and cut back on the wine) and got back into real, whole foods and simple home cooking. She also re-established a regular exercise routine and mixed strength training with running and HIIT sessions at the gym.

In 2014, she completed her certification with Precision Nutrition and started Wendy’s Way to Health. She developed her online membership programme, The Healthy Normal Revolution, earlier this year, specifically for women who are sick of trying diet after diet without long-term success.

The aim is to gradually incorporate healthy changes over time so they naturally become part of your lifestyle – the focus is on a fit, healthy body, rather than a number on the scales.

 Wendy’s philosophy

“My philosophy is based on eating a well-balanced diet and that includes snacks, treats and wine. We can enjoy the things we love and be healthy; it’s all about moderation and balance.

Sugar won’t kill you, as long as you’re aware of how much you’re consuming. That goes for any refined processed foods and junk food in general. It’s when we eat them in large amounts every day that we develop health problems.

We all have different body shapes and different metabolisms and different needs at each stage of our lives. It’s okay and it’s normal.

The key to happiness is ditching the scales and aiming to be just a little bit healthier every day. Accepting that perfection isn’t realistic is important too. There will be times when you over-indulge or stray from what you have planned and that’s okay too – yep, it’s normal!

We’ve still got a long way to go and I look forward to the day when dieting is a thing of the past and women are no longer worried about looking a certain way and being a certain size.”

About Wendy’s Recipes

Wendy aims to use as many natural ingredients and whole foods as she can when she’s making her own snacks and treats. She figures she gets enough of the refined and processed stuff when she occasionally buys a cake or a packet of biscuits.

So she uses honey and pure maple syrup instead of refined sugar. She bakes with flours like almond meal, buckwheat flour, oat flour, flaxseed and coconut flour. And she uses butter, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil instead of margarine and vegetable oils.

She makes her own chocolate too and it’s really easy. You can make a basic dark chocolate with cacao powder, honey and coconut oil – then just add fruit or nuts. Have a look at the recipe on her website if you’d like to give it a try.

Wendy loves food and anyone who knows her knows that breakfast is her jam, pardon the pun! She knows a lot of people skip breakfast because of time, or they think that healthy means it won’t taste good. She’s on a mission to turn that around.

So see from her video above how quick and easy it can be to make a simple, delicious brekkie bowl.

Wendy is also sharing her simple immune boosting smoothie with you. It’s great to drink all year round, but especially in the colder months to help keep colds and flu at bay.

You’ll find lots more yummy recipes on her website for healthy breakfasts, snacks and treats. Tag her on Instagram when you post photos of anything you make: @wendyswaytohealth and #wendyswaytohealth

Oh and make sure you grab a copy of the free meal planner while you’re there too!

Wendy has also set a breakfast challenge on her website which you can access here

Here’s to a healthy 2018 to all…and I’ll keep you updated on how GG and I are doing in the weeks and months ahead.