It is the wrong time of the year to live healthy, right? No. Actually, you can still choose to make the right health choices. Just ask Ziyanda Fotoyi (25), an opera singer from Khayelitsha in the Western Cape.
Despite it being the silly season, she manages to stay healthy simply by sticking to her daily routines and habits.
“All year long I have been trying so hard to stay away from junk food, energy drinks and fatty foods, and the festive season is not going to distract me,” a determined Fotoyi tells Health For Mzansi.
“Before committing myself to leading a healthy life, I was not conscious of what was going into my mouth. I never looked into what each food product I consumed consisted of. As a result, I found myself in a position where I struggled with most things like running, fitting on most of my clothes after gaining a lot of weight.” In an effort to change her life for the better, she created a diet plan and “started watching videos on YouTube just for motivation and checking other people’s progress towards losing weight and how to maintain my weight. I stopped eating heavy foods with less nutrients, but started cooking more, and drinking a lot of water.”
How does Fotoyi stay healthy?
- She exercises 30 minutes per day at least four times a week.
- She actively avoids junk and fast foods
- She tries to get as much sleep as possible. At least eight hours a day is recommended.
- Also, she consistently follows her diet plan. This includes three nutritional meals a day.
- Oh, and she drinks a lot of water.
How to switch it up
Jandrí Barnard, a registered dietician and spokesperson for the Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA), tells us that Fotoyi’s decision to change things around was the best move.
“While avoiding fast foods and unhealthy holiday foods by cooking [one’s own meals], people should choose healthy, lower-fat cooking methods. This is a practical way of ensuring that you get the necessary nutrients without any added kilojoules,” Barnard says.
If you think adopting healthier ways of cooking means boring and tasteless meals, Barnard says you simply need to explore more.
“Nutritious meals can be easy and delicious – all it takes is a little modification to an ingredient or a method – and even your favourite recipes can be revamped.”
Avoid these nutrition mistakes
- Do not fry food in oil, margarine or butter. Rather opt for low-fat cooking methods like grilling, braising, steaming and stewing. But don’t make the mistake of over-boiling or over-cooking food that causes it to lose all its nutritional values.
- Rather use a rack when grilling meat or chicken so that the fat drips away. Then discard these fat drippings and do not use it to make gravies or sauces.
- Restrict your portion size of fatty meat or chicken during your main meal to 90g or about the size of the palm of your hand. Meat has a high fat content and the larger the portion you consume, the higher your intake of fat.
“Be careful with your portion sizes, especially after the holiday season during which all our portions are increased. Eat more lean protein such as fish, skinless chicken, lean pork, tofu, nuts, beans and lentils, eggs and low fat dairy products, with the occasional lean red meat,” Barnard says.
“Choose whole grains that are rich in fibre, low in saturated fat and low in sodium, rather than refined grains. Severely limit foods containing artificial trans fatty acids, which is produced when liquid vegetable oil is treated with heat, chemicals and hydrogen to transform it into a product that is semisolid at room temperature.”
Remember, spoil yourself at least once a week and cook your favourite dish for yourself. Cook comfort food from your childhood, something exotic that reminds you of someone special or that dish you specially learned to cook when you were dating. But do it all in moderation.
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Five quick tips to keep healthy this summer
Nina Joubert is a fitness trainer in Pretoria who shares her five tips for keeping healthy in the summer.
Walks are cool: Stretch your legs as much as you possibly can. Park a little further away when shopping to get your steps in for the day or take the stairs.
Music motivates: There is nothing quite like some motivating tunes to get you amped for training.
A friend fitness is a gem: Get a workout buddy to join you in either an online workout or a workout class. Get the family to join in, go for a hike, zip lining, or spend the day at the beach and go for a walk on the beach.
Keep it real: Start with a reasonable time frame of exercising. If you are someone that hasn’t exercised in a while and you are just starting out – start with a 30min walk a day.
Enjoy yourself: As tempting as it may be to crash diet and restrict yourself, it could potentially lead to crashing and binge eating. “Rome was not built in a day.”
