Thanks and Credits

So, this is the end of this blog! Hope you've learnt something and enjoyed browsing through this website. As long as you follow these tips, you'll be in the pink of health and as fit as a fiddle! 

Photo credits to Google Images.

Some of the Information credited to Google.

Thank you! 

FITT Principle - Tips while Planning and Exercising

Every brief bounds of activity offers benefits - This shows that you need not have 1 hour of activity in each day in 5 days a week. You should spread your time wisely depending on your daily schedule. Maybe, you can only have 15 minutes of activities on Monday followed by 45 minutes of activities on the next day. No matter whether you exercise everyday, as long as you have at least a total of 5 hours of exercise or physical activities planned.

Time - Plan your time wisely for your own activities. Look at your schedule before deciding the activities planned. Make sure that you have enough time and try to squeeze in bits and parts of physical exercise in your schedule. Don't make exercising an excuse for not going to work/ school/ classes, not doing house chores/ homework/ assignments and so on.

Determination - Even though you are bound to be really fatigue while you are exercising, make sure that you do not stop and have the correct mindset that you are doing this for your own good and not because you are forced to. Hang in there and keep going, it will all be worth it.

Interest- Build interest for the activity you are about to do. When you build interest, you feel that you are having fun instead of actually being tormented. 

Discipline - Simply do not procrastinate!

Know your own body - If you feel like you are going to pass out, quickly stop to take a rest. After each activity you carry out, try to endure to build stamina, after a few exercises you will notice you are about to carry out activities of a greater intensity level. Consult your doctor or a specialist before carrying out the activities you planned if  you have any medical conditions eg. asthma, high blood pressure, history of heart attack etc.

FITT Principle - Suggested Proposed Activity

Here is a suggested proposed activity for kids and teens:

FITT Principle - Suggestions (1 Week Exercise Programme)

1 Week Exercise Programme

Based on a weekly schedule, make sure that you have time for exercising as well.

Recommendations for kids and teens of ages 6 to 17:
At least 1 hour of physical activity per day, excluding 2 days in a week.
1h x 5 days = 5 hours per week

For adults:
At least 150 minutes (2.5h) of moderate exercises / aerobic activity such as brisk walking, swimming, table tennis, basketball, badminton and also muscle straining activities 2 days per week.

FITT Principle - Definition

Frequency - How often you carry out physical activities.

Intensity - How hard you exercise.

Time - Duration of each exercise.

Type - A specific type of activity to target a goal.

Example:

Frequency - I exercise thrice a week.

Intensity - I go through tough training every time and noticed that my rate of heart beat is getting higher and increases every time I increase my speed or amount of strength used. 

Time - I spend at least 1 hour exercising each time.

Type - I jog and sprint on the treadmill and also swim and do rigorous sit ups. 

FITT Principle - Introduction

FITT is a principle to help maintain a balanced sporty and healthy style. It is also commonly agreed by students as a need to be empowered to construct and tailor workouts to meet their individual health-related fitness needs. It is used to guide the development of unique and bespoken fitness plans that cater an individual's specific needs.

Balanced Diet - Buying the right Food

Have you ever walked into a supermarket and seen this?

You just take them all and you forget about your health?

Here's a solution! You can look at the ingredients!

But... That's such a waste of time! Whatever, who cares about health? I'll just work out after that.

Well, here's the best solution for you!

All you have to do is to look out for something on the packaging.

And it is the 'Healthier Choice' symbol!

Hooray! So remember, look out for the 'Healthier Choice' symbol and it'll help you think twice before aimlessly grabbing the tidbits and rushing to the counter!

Balanced Diet - The 4 Main Food Groups

For your meal to be considered a balanced and healthy one, these factors has to be present in your dish.

- Carbohydrates
- Fats
- Protein
- Micronutrients and Water

The above four components make up the four main food groups.

Carbohydrates are starchy foods that give us energy. Examples are potatoes, pasta and breads.

Fats give our body energy that can be stored. A layer of fat under our skin keeps us warm.
However, there are good fats and bad fats. Bad fats increase cholesterol and your risk of certain diseases. Good fats protect your heart and support overall health. In fact, good fact - such as omega-3 fats - are essential to physical and emotional health. Examples are ice-cream and donuts, butter and French fries.

Proteins help our bodies repair themselves. Examples are steamed fish, milk, eggs and peas. 

Basically, micronutrients and water are the same as vitamins and minerals, dairy and milk. Vitamins and minerals have many jobs, such as building strong bones and teeth, making blood and keeping our brains working. Dairy and milk products improves bone health and reduces the risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and two other diabetes, and with lower blood pressure in adults. examples are butterhead lettuce, fruits, carrots, and dairy products. 

As long as you have at least 1 of these foods from each food group, rest assured, you'll be in the pink of health!

Balanced Diet - Why?

Why do we have to eat so much grains?

Grains are great sources of complex carbohydrates. They are your body's preferred fuel to support physcal and mental activities. Fill your plate with enough grains at each meal to stay energized throughout the day.


Why do we need a balanced diet?

Our bodies need a balanced diet to ensure healthy growth and development. The nutrients that the body requires are carbohydrates, fats, protein, and micronutrients and water. Unbalanced or improper nutrient consumption will result in a week body and immunity system.

Why are vegetables and fruits good for us?

Vegetables can reduce risk of heart disease, stroke and potentially lower risk of certain types of cancers. Eating plenty of vegetables also reduces your risk of macula degeneration, leading case of visual impairment in Australia. Vegetables are also the answers if you want to lose weight, they will bulk out your meal and fill you up, while adding the bare minimum of kilo joules to your daily intake. Fruits can build our immune system, nurse us back to health and increase the energy level in our bodies.

Balanced Diet - Fun with Fruits & Vegetables

Let's see...

Children are born with a preference for sweet foods because of their association with energy. Meanwhile, one of the reasons why children, and sometimes adults, hate vegetables could be due to the bitterness of the greens. People often give the excuses to prevent themselves from eating vegetables such as 'they do not taste good' or 'they do not look attractive'. 

How if we 'doll-up' your healthy meal? Will that make you want to consume the greens?

If you have a sweet tooth like us, and you see a simple vanilla cupcake

and another cupcake piped with frosting with the butter-cream frosting that that had its enriching scent wavering into your nostrils and was topped with sprinkles of a thousand shades of colours,

which would you prefer to savour more?

Well, definitely the cupcake that's garnished, right? Let's look into why this is so.

Plating is as important as how the food tastes. Presentation is the process of offering the selected foods to guests in a fashionable way that is visually pleasing. Most of the time, we're happy just to get the food on the table and any points for presentation are just bonuses. Yet, we know that how food is presented definitely has an effect on how we perceive and enjoy it. Just imagine the difference between a pile of meat on a platter verses sliced meat carefully arranged over oven-roasted vegetables. Even the most humble home-cooked meal can feel fancy if it's arranged and presented nicely. Well, as the saying goes, "the eye eats first". As mentioned, the creativity and skill that goes into cooking or baking has to be placed on the plate, and skill, experience and most importantly, style needs to be incorporated. In a nutshell, the fancier the dish looks, the more the consumer would want to dive right into it!

This is no different from vegetables. Vegetables can be presented in many different ways and even forms.

Let's have Fun with Fruits & Vegetables!

Take a look at the above collage. As you can see, the salad in the first column is so plain and boring. But look at what you can turn it into! Also incorporating healthy food, you can create a completely different looking but equally nutritious bite-sized snack!

Take a look at the second column. A simple leaf of lettuce with a cherry tomato and an egg all held together with a toothpick and placed on a classy white platter. How much of a difference it actually makes as compared to leaves thrown into a bowl! This idea is cute and you can even put this on the table during a party.

How about the dish in the third column? This idea is appealing, especially to kids! With wholewheat bread being the body, lettuce being the hair, cheese being the nose, seaweed being the pupils, eggs being the eyes and cherry tomatoes being the jewellery, a nutritious yet creative dish has been displayed on the table! 

Look at this collage of fruits. In the top-left grid, a plain bowl and chopped fruits thrown into it is shown. How boring! How about rearranging them?Check out the grid on the top-right. Are you one of those people who dump the watermelon shells away? If you are, then stop! You can easily cut the shell into adorable shapes and then hold your fruits or even salad in it! Such an adorable idea and is amazing to display at a party where your friends can pick out their healthy bites!Just by rearranging the fruits, it looks so much more presentable and neat, as you can see from the grid on the bottom-left. This makes it so much easier to look for your desired fruit without shoving and pushing the other fruits away. Neat and hygienic!Also, storing your fruits in a cup makes it look more classy and presentable, as shown in the bottom-right grid.

Finally, let us take a look at this collage. This is what I mean by 'food can be presented in different forms'. Hmm... Instead of eating strawberries, let's have a change. How about drinking strawberries! Simply throw strawberries in the blender, turn on the switch and you got it, strawberry juice! Now, just pour the juice in a classy glass and I bet you'll be drifted off into the beautiful land of fresh red strawberries, because I did!You can also serve your fruits in the form of a tart. Grab a tart base from the grocery store or you can make your own tart base from scratch. Just ensure that you replace the flour with wholewheat flour to make it healthy. Once you've gotten your tart base, place your fruits on the tart and there you have it, a bite-sized snack that's great for a party or just to eat during tea-break!Mmm... Did someone say 'heart-shaped watermelons'? Using a cookie cutter, cut out slices of watermelon and display them on a fanciful platter to serve. Exquisite!Chocolate! I love chocolate. But isn't chocolate unhealthy? Don't they contain a high level of sugar and a lot of cocoa which is very unhealthy? Well, this doesn't give you a free pass to strap a box of Bon Bons to your face. Some chocolates are packed such that they have a more powerful health punch than others, thanks to naturally occurring healthy chemicals found in cacao. The higher the amount of cacao, the darker the treat and the more health benefits you'll reap, such as reduced blood pressure and a better mood. Therefore, get into your kitchen, microwave melt some dark chocolates and dip your strawberries in the pool of healthy chocolate sea! Remember, only dark chocolates and not milk or white chocolates as milk and white chocolates are dangerously unhealthy as compared to dark chocolates which is loaded with antioxidants and are beneficial to our health. Here, you can make yourself oh-so-happy, indulging yourself in the goodness of the rich dark chocolate and fresh strawberries!
Hope you've picked up some hacks on how to lift up your mood when faced with greens and healthy bitterness!