Typically your average middle aged woman should be aiming for 2 litres. If you are exercising through the day you would look to increase this to 3 litres. Especially if working to a level where you are sweating. Men should be aiming for 2.5 litres of water a day.

Ideally your water should be unadulterated bottled water with no cordial. Realistically we tend to turn on the tap and drop a dash of cordial in a glass before filling up. The truth is that if this is what you need to do to stay hydrated then continue but ideally to limit the amount of fluoride going in you need to be drinking bottled water and to lower calories and teeth rotting sugars – no cordial. Room temperature is best to maintain a good metabolism. If you are fond of your hot drinks then go for ones containing No Caffeine. I would suggest Camomile for calming and soothing. Looking to aid weight loss? Infuse dried licorice root and drink as a tea. Buy licorice root from your local herbal shop and create a tea beverage. Grate one root stem and add it to a tea ball or infuser. Boil 1 cup of water and add the infusion to steep for five to 10 minutes. Drink licorice root tea up to three times a day with your meals to aid in weight loss

• Delays fatigue
• Slows the breakdown of muscle glycogen, which means your body has more fuel to keep going
• Enhances endurance
• Keeps you more alert
• Can reduce muscle pain during exercise
• May lower perceived exertion, making exercise feel more comfortable

While caffeine can have a positive effects on endurance exercise, you don’t need it to have a good workout. If you’re a competitive athlete thinking of using caffeine, keep in mind that it is a diuretic, so you may need more bathroom breaks. That could affect your workouts as well as your hydration levels. However, it comes at a price to one’s lifestyle and health too. Caffeine is a stimulant, so it does have side effects that could cause problems for certain people:

• Increased urination
• Stomach upset
• Trembling or shaking
• Trouble sleeping
• Increased anxiety
• Headaches
• Nausea

Method
Squirt a couple of pumps of Frylite into a hot frying pan. Then break the eggs straight into the pan and scramble as they cook. This will give you better protein rewards than mixing in a bowl before cooking. Don’t add butter, cream or milk stir in chopped sundried tomato, torn fresh basil and pile on top of an unbuttered wholemeal muffin.
To make an even lighter breakfast use one whole egg and one or two egg whites together. Serve on one half of muffin.
Enjoy x

1. Avoid creamy or deep fried dishes such as onion bhajis, Sag Paneer, Poppadoms
2. Opt for tomato based dishes and pick your meat or vegetables out of the sauce rather than pouring over your rice. Tandoori and madras dishes are favourite.
3. Plain or steamed rice rather than fried is best.
4. Chapatti’s cooked on a hot skillet or better for you than nan bread or poppadom.
5. Vegetable side dishes are good as are lentil side dishes known as dhal.
6. Avoid korma, passanda, masala, pilau rice and pakoras.
7. Portion control is also a great way to manage fat and calorie intake.
8. A dish of mixed meats from the tandoori oven with salad is delicious.
9. Go easy on the calorie laden mango chutney and other dips.

Kebab and burgers
1. Be aware of what is what. Donor kebabs are large cuts of formed meat from the skewer. These are high in fat.
2. A healthier option, is shish kebab, which is a skewer with whole cuts of meat or fish and usually grilled.
3. If you choose to have a burger avoid breaded or battered chicken, fish, vegetable patties. These are usually deep fried.
4. Select a chicken burger which is grilled where possible.
5. Avoid extra cheese, mayonnaise, bacon strips.
6. Don’t “Go Large!” single patty burgers with extra salad is best.
7. Best option is a Chicken shish kebab with pitta bread, salad and no coleslaw or mint yoghurt.
Ask for extra salad to fill you up. Portions are generally huge with a family of 3 easily sharing a large Chicken shish kebab.

Most importantly, enjoy what your eating and consider it a lovely treat that you’ve earned with combining exercise. Be sensible with portion control and honest with yourself. If your guests choose to eat a small horse in their burgers good for them. You are accountable and responsible for yourself and only you.

Enjoy x

1. Steer clear of ‘crispy’ items – these are normally deep fried. Prawn crackers, spring rolls are all carriers of fat.
2. Battered items such as chicken or pork balls will be high in fat.
3. Opt for steamed dishes such as steamed prawns with Chinese greens.
4. Stir fry’s are usually lower in fat and include vegetables.
5. Stay clear of egg fried rice and opt for jasmine rice or steamed rice.
6. A good choice of starters are crab and corn soup, steamed dumplings. Main course – Steamed vegetables, steamed rice, steamed fish, chop suey, stir fried vegetables. Szechuan prawns.

Thai
Arguably Thai food is similar to Indian and Chinese meals.

1. Once again, stir fried and steamed dishes with chicken, fish and vegetables are best.
2. Thai red or green curries contain a lot of coconut milk, which is high in saturated fat. If you like your red or green curries, try and pick the meat out instead of pouring over your rice. This will lessen the amount of sauce you consume.
3. Try to avoid: fried rice, fish cakes, spring rolls, prawn crackers, satay skewers with peanut sauce and sweet and sour dishes.
4. Opt for Tom Yum soups and other clear choices, salads, stir fried meat, fish or vegetable dishes. Steamed seafood dishes such as fish or mussels are best.

Most importantly, enjoy what your eating and consider it a lovely treat that you’ve earned with combining exercise. Be sensible with portion control and honest with yourself. If your guests choose to eat a small horse in their burgers good for them. You are accountable and responsible for yourself and only you.

1. Pizza is a great way to increase your fresh veg – 5 a day portions. Also, an opportunity to have some lower fat tasty toppings such as ham, fish and prawns.
2. A big No-No is upping your saturated fat content by having extra cheese toppings.
3. Ask for only half the cheese on your pizza
4. Do it the ‘Mel’ way and ask for no cheese and extra artichokes or asparagus (you’ll get strange looks but it makes for a tasty pizza with a fraction of the calories and fat).
5. Pasta dishes can be steeped in fat, a simple rule is to steer clear of white sauces. These are normally creamy and/or cheesy.
6. Opt for tomato based dishes such as Arabiatta.
7. Portion control – ask if you can have a half pizza and side salad or a half pasta and side salad.
8. Steer clear of garlic bread and opt for Bruschetta topped with fresh tomatoes and herbs.
9. Absolutely avoid large deep pan pizza’s,
10. Stuffed crust pizza’s.
11. Definitely no triple cheese with pepperoni pizzas.
12. Best choices are Small, thin based pizza’s with vegetables or lean meat and just a sprinkle of cheese.

Most importantly, enjoy what your eating and consider it a lovely treat that you’ve earned with combining exercise. Be sensible with portion control and honest with yourself. If your guests choose to eat a small horse in their burgers good for them. You are accountable and responsible for yourself and only you.

1. Have a portion of baked beans or mushy peas instead of a portion of chips.
2. Half your portion of chips to half the fat.
3. Aim for a thicker chip as this has less fat absorbed
4. Steer clear of pies and sausages. If you ‘need’ that pie, take as much of the pastry crust away as possible.
5. Battered fish, delicious as it is and with all the health benefits of our swimming friends the deep fried batter is thick with fat. Try eating just half the batter and pick out the fish.
6. Where possible have your fish coated in breadcrumbs as it soaks less fat.
7. Say no to chip shop salt and manage your own sprinkle. This will be far less.
8. Beware of soggy fish and chips. These may not have been cooked in hot enough oil and will taste will absorb more fat.
9. Be aware of portion control – try for a “pensioner’s portion”.

Most importantly, enjoy what your eating and consider it a lovely treat that you’ve earned with combining exercise. Be sensible with portion control and honest with yourself. If your guests choose to eat a small horse in their burgers good for them. You are accountable and responsible for yourself and only you.

2. Strength training is also required
When we think about weight loss, many people think about pounding the streets with hours of running. There is another aspect to exercise that is integral in weight loss management. Strength training. Using weights and resistance to put the body under repetitive strain. Strength training should become part of your 60 minute workout. Break your session up with a selection of Strength and CV. Try a 15 minute swift run, followed by 5 minutes work with resistance bands before running at a good pace again for 15 minutes and then working on upper body and core areas with press ups, planks, triceps, bicep dips for 5 minutes. Finally finish with another run for 15 minutes and then enjoy some stretches as a good warm down. Strength training exercises can help you tone and where required, build more muscles, can boost your metabolism and can help you achieve your weight loss goals faster.

3. Food diary
Most people when asked what they eat over the period of 7 days will fail to admit the ‘naughtiest’.
By being accountable and responsible for what you eat, you and only you can manage your intake.
It is not acceptable to say ‘My partner enjoys a big meal so I have one too’ or ‘I didn’t want it to go to waste so I ate it’.
If you are truly keen on losing weight you will look into your relationship with food and decide where you are making mistakes. How many of us reward ourselves with a chocolate bar at the petrol station when we fill up the tank? Had we of not needed petrol it’s quite likely we would have missed that out.
What we eat plays a significant part in our weight loss campaign and can be the difference between losing weight fast and maintaining the loss or struggling to lose an amount each week and keeping it off.
Keep a diary and be honest with yourself.
Also, consider portion control. If you use a smaller plate for your meals or make a point of having a smaller portion on your plate you will of course be decreasing your dietary intake. For example if you have a dinner of chicken stir fry with a selection of vegetables on a bed of rice and take away 20% of your normal portion you will of course be eating 20% less calories, fat etc. If you do this to all your meals your intake will be carved dramatically. If you work in a fairly sedentary work place, instead of having a whole sandwich try having one slice of bread with your filling and if you normally have a bag of crisps, have half a bag of crisps. (I share my sandwich and crisps with my son and pop his in his school lunch box).
Check out some of our delicious healthy recipes.

4. Re–set your weight loss goals
Change this to ‘Lifestyle Change’. Make good healthy food and exercise part of your lifestyle. Find classes that you enjoy doing and attend them with friends weekly as part of your exercise regime. I love Zumba and go with girlfriends. We walk the 20 minutes to class giving us time to catch up and natter and then after class it’s great to have a giggle about some of the moves we may have adapted to suit our lack of rhythm. All the while it has become a weekly ritual which we all look forward to and is maintainable.
Set one morning a week to train with a friend if this helps you. Maybe to meet at the beach and have an hour long work out incorporating steps, zig-zags, strength training. Take it in turns to introduce a new strength exercise. Support each other in your campaign for weight loss and fitness gain.
Find a local Personal Trainer that you get on with and will not be a bind to spend an hour of your week with. If they’re good, you’ll enjoy your session and not dread it whilst burning calories and educating yourself with exercise and diet advice.

5. Separate eating from your other emotions
Be aware of the trigger that occurs when your reach for unhealthy food. For example, for many of us that monthly treat us women have when we cannot help but put chocolate into our mouths is one that we can control but we are programmed to give ourselves that pass as by way of reward of getting through the abdominal discomfort etc. However, if you were to discipline yourself to have a smaller treat for example a finger of fudge or a freddo 10p chocolate bar this will half your intake.
When we’ve had a bad day it’s so relaxing to reach for the wine and nibbles. If you can’t escape for a run which will release the feel good endorphins we need to make us happy then educate yourself on the best drink to have with the lowest calorie intake. I suggest Gin & Tonic and if you’re asking, mines a large thank you. Enjoy your drink and sip it, it is a treat and of course all treats have down sides. This will affect your liver and the process of excreting toxins through your liver thus making any work out within 72 hours pretty redundant. (I don’t discriminate the odd drink though to aid sanity (Mother of two!!))

6. Reach out for support
Speak to friends and family and ask them for support. Whether they time you on a run round the block or if they join you on a cycle ride or at an exercise class. Also, ask them to join you in relaxing activities. Rather than a trip to the pub on a Saturday night, a good friend will join you on an evening walk beside the sea or a trip a dance class or the cinema or something that doesn’t involve 6 hours of drinking liquid calories.

7. Start slow, plan big
The weight loss tips above are all essential for improving fitness and obliterating fatty inches. It is necessary to make changes that are maintainable. It is not realistic to commit to a training program 7 days a week when you have work and family commitments. Make a point of finding ‘you time’ when you can take yourself off to do some unchallenged exercise. Pop some of your favourite tunes in your ears and go for a swift walk. It will brighten your mood. A simple way to lose weight is to increase your exercise effort by 10% and decrease your food intake portions by 10%. It’s elementary a weight loss will occur. Make your changes gradual and don’t deny or create anxiety when invited out for the evening. Make the right decisions.

Look out for my Blog on Eating out and Take away meals, the right choices.
Mel x

What is Cash for Kids?

Is Wave 105 FM very own Charity.
Provides help, support and daily basics to children in the South who are financially, socially, emotionally or physically disadvantaged through encouraging a healthy lifestyle by promoting physically, mental and general well being.

As a mum of 2 small ones I just couldn’t say no.

We will keep you updated of our total periodically – so keep your eyes peeled.