Keyto health is small steps
BLITZ LAZY EATING HABITS WITH THESE TIPS FROM SAM WOOD
Morethan sixin10 Aussies admit to feeling guilty about their diet, a new report reveals. And COVID lock downs across the country –especially in Melbourne– haven’ t done many people any favours, says former Bachelor and health and fitness expert Sam Wood.
“It feels tome like people have gone one way or the other ,” he says .“People have either gone ,‘ I’ m going to choose a Netflix and Uber Eats lifestyle ’, or embrace home workouts.”
The Switch Up Your Diet Report, conducted by You Gov for T ass al, a company that produces Tasmania n-grown Atlantic salmon, also shows more than 40 percent of Aussies are not eating as healthily as they could because they’re “too tired to cook ”.
Wood lives in Melbourne with wife Snez, baby daughter Charlie, Willow ,3, and Eve, Snez’ s teen daughter from a previous relationship. He says the lock down has brought his family much closer together and he has relished the opportunity to spend more time at home with his kids, especially at meal times.
“We’ ve cooked more with the kids in the past six months than ever,” he says.
But even he hasn’ t been immune to the effects of CO VI Don their lifestyle.
“I think in the early days, particularly in the depths of winter we probably did some comfort eating and drank too much redwine– we slipped into some bad habits ,” Wood confess es. But the arrival of spring, and promise of ea sing restrictions in Melbourne has given Wood and his family a fresh burst of energy. The barbecue is fired up most nights and they are tucking into nourishing but satisfying fresh meals. They’ re spending more time outside, even if it is in their backyard, and embracing daily walks. Wood is talking to SMART daily while on his hour-long walk which he generally takes early in the morning.
“There was a bit of an adjustment, social lock down here is not much fun ,” he says.
The report also reveals almost three in 10(27 percent) say they don’ t have enough time to cook healthy meals– and 56 percent admit they are “bored” with their regular diet as they replica te the same dishes every week.
On average, Australians only try one new recipe a month, a statistic Wood finds surprising. But he is encouraged to see that 86 per cent of people want to improve their eating habits. He has seen this reflected in his own online training and nutrition business 28 By Sam Wood. Business has nearly doubled since March, he reveals.
“They key is small steps– don’ t do nothing because it feels too hard ,” he says.
“Don’ t feel guilty about it, it’ s not so hard to make small changes. Don’ t try to be a 10 out of 10. Because people feel they have to jump to the 10, the alternative is to do nothing at all.”
Preparation is also the key. Doing a regular shop and having fresh food on hand, and following simple recipes make it easy to overcome that hurdle when it’ s “6.10 at night and you have to think about dinner”.
“If you’ ve got the time to order it( take away ), you’ ve got the time to cook it ,” Wood says .“It’ s also much cheaper and much healthier.”
Wood is passionate about encouraging Australians to include more fish and seafood in their diets. The report shows just 15 percent of people are aware of national recommendations that they should be eating two serves of fish and other seafood each week. As little as one in four people meets this guideline.
“It’ s as simple as swap ping chicken for salmon in a ta co, or pork for salmon on a pizza, or even switching beef for salmon in a spaghetti bolognese,” he says.