#2014BloggerChallenge Topic Twelve~ Healthy Meals, Snacks and Drinks

So this topic was to explore meals, in any way we decided. Over on Devise I recently wrote a post about Inner Beauty, you can check that out here, and I thought to compliment that topic and to explore it in more depth I would share how I, personally, have been attempting to treat my body and insides with more kindness and awareness of what it requires. 

As you may have seen from my instagram, I have been trying to be a bit healthier lately with what I eat, this includes the obvious choices from salads, to more gradual changes like swapping chips to salad on a meal in a restaurant. 

So I'll firstly show you some images of these meals and ideas to give you an idea of how they look and how appealing you think they are.

As you can see there are a few similar and a few different ideas above, and you may notice I love, love, love salmon! 

To start with I began with breakfast, I never really ate breakfast out of lack of time or appetite however it genuinely is the most important meal of the day as it fuels your body and gets your metabolism going for the rest of the day. For breakfast I favour, natural or greek yoghurt with chia seeds and a mixture of museli and fresh berries and fruit, all of which can be swapped and altered according to taste and what you feel like on the day. 

One of the most important parts of this meal is however, the one that would go unnoticed if you didn't know about it previously. This being the Chia Seeds. These are tiny little seeds that are essentially super seeds. They contain calcium, manganese, phosphorous and healthy omega-3 fats! All in these tiny little seeds that have no effect on the taste of your meal (if your worried about not liking them). These seeds can be soaked to create a jelly type substance or just sprinkled on top as an extra topping. 

 For lunch there are so many options! If I'm at home and just pottering around I tend to prefer lighter lunches such a rye crackers, yoghurt and fruit or bagels. These can be paired with low fat cream cheese, salads, fish of some kind and nice nice cup of herbal tea -if it's chilly out- or a smoothie if it's warm. 

Rye crackers are a good alternative to bread as they still give you fibre, however have many more health benefits for you! Firstly they make you feel fuller faster, helping you with portion control (I covered this in my post over on Devise here), it can improve your digestive health, help lower your cholesterol and also it contains calcium and magnesium which help support your teeth and bones.

Fish can helps with lots of different issues such as decreasing the risks of heart disease, Alzheimers, cancer and can also help your skin! It contains omega-3 fatty acids, low-fat protein and minerals. Fish is also said to be a "brain food" which means essentially that it assists your brain to function and develop.

 Berries contain high levels of antioxidants, especially blueberries, which help your body to fight off illnesses, improve your health and also protect you skin and hair.

Other fruits provide you with vitamins and minerals your body needs, and are also suggested to help prevent heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

So next time you go to have an unhealthy snack, or have a meal, think about small adjustments you could make, such as having fruit instead of a bag of crisps or swapping a side order of chips for salad. Like I said in my other post, its not about cutting unhealthy foods out completely, it's about moderating and balancing your intake as well as keeping portion control in mind. 

I hope this has given you some ideas or inspiration on how to begin improving your eating habits and into what foods help your body in certain ways.

I'll see you soon,

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Sources of information, facts and references from:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/03/chia-seed-benefits-_n_3379831.html

http://www.saga.co.uk/health/healthy-eating/benefitsofeatingfish.aspx

http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/aboutfood/nutrition/fish/pages/ultimatebrainfood.aspx

http://www.joybauer.com/food-articles/berries.aspx

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/fruits-why.html