The Don's Meddle

What is your definition of healthy living?  Do you wish you were healthier, had more time to do the things you love? Do you feel like you are living life to the full? Healthy living for me is "smiling everyday, surrounding myself with people that are positive, loving, kind & nuturing" to have "laughter, love, friendships, family" being "kind to myself & giving back to the community, nuturing my body & mind with healthy food choices, meditation for the mind & movement of the body - walking, swimming, weights, stretching, sex" What is healthy living to you? Being able to get up each day and survive?  Do you look after yourself properly? Go one step at a time and see how things go?  That surely isn't a fun way to live.  What do you wish you could have, what in others do you admire? Are you on autopilot?  Do you just get up and go to work and wonder why you are left wanting so much more? You need to be challenging yourself, making s

After my post on Facebook the other day mentioning "Anything skim has more sugar in it" or along those lines,  I decided to write up  my opinion/rant  about skim/low-fat/low-sugar dairy products.    Right..... think about a calf drinking it's mothers milk... how natural is that, does a cow continue to drink milk after a certain age? No.  Makes me wonder why we do?  Just because we have always done so is not an answer.  Don't get started on the "but we neeeeeed calcium" bandwagon just yet.  Why are we the only mammals that do this, continue to drink dairy (not breast milk) when we start eating solids.  That is a whole other blog.  My main reason is not to bag all dairy.  The reason for my little rant on Facebook is, we need to be more accountable for what food we shove in our mouths on a daily basis (if we can really call some of the products food?).  Am I the only one that has noticed the supermarkets are getting bigger and filling up with more proces

Writing goals can seem like a tedious task & you are probably wondering why bother as they normally don't happen or change.... Goals don't have to be set in stone, your goals are simply things you want to achieve within a certain timeframe. If the timeframe changes so be it. When writing your goals/list/things-to-do keep in mind the SMART method - are your goals: Specific - significant for you now, simple Measurable - motivational, manageable Attainable - appropriate, achievable, adjustable, aspirational Relevant - timely result-based, resourced, realistic Timely - time specific, trackable Use a calendar, whiteboard, vision board & honestly work out what you can achieve if you set out steps to guide you, little milestones if you like to tick off. Whether you’ve always dreamed of running a marathon, long to start your own business or aspire to see your name in lights, we all have ambitions and goals in life. However, often we don’t feel good enough, lucky enough

Wedding Dress Shopping Day Number 1 booked in the diary for July..... The one thing I do know I will require on that day is a fitter, healthier version of myself.  At the moment most of my clothes are tight on me.  I have dropped the ball lately with my headspace, training and my nutrition.  No excuses, I dropped the ball. I haven't been consistent.  Nothing like a wedding dress challenge to get that ball back up and thrown around with some extra health & fitness goals thrown into the plan to mix things up. This has inspired me to start a challenge on my FitbyDons Health & Fitness Challenge Facebook page. To get others healthy, fit and feeling great about themselves. It isn't always about weight loss (even though that is a bonus) it is about shifting the mindset to being healthy, living a healthy, full and active life.  Making choices that will look after us in the long run. So I look forward to sharing my journey with you on my blog and also with motivation an

If we can manage our time and to do lists we would all be much happier and healthier versions of ourselves, do you agree? Do you find that you are super productive at work but your home and social life is a mess? Or vice versa?   Do you achieve the things you want outside of work or do you achieve your goals at work, in the gym, with friends, family? Ask someone today how they are; top responses would be something like “I am so busy” or “I am flat out today”, “So much to do, not enough time”.   Yes yes, we are all very busy and important (in our own lunch boxes).   But why do we say that? Of course we are busy, we are living, and we know we would complain if we were bored. So what gives? We perceive busy sometimes as a little out of control, we have SO much to do and not enough time to do it in.   Do we? Do we utilise the time we have? Are there healthy levels of busy? Obviously we have those days that are run a little slower, does that mean we are less productive?   Do we achie

What truly makes you smile, what makes you feel all giddy with goosebumps? What do you wish you had more time for? What do you waste your time & life dreaming about, why don't you go out and get your dreams? Are they your dreams or others expectations? How many hours a day do you think about being a different version of yourself? If there were no hurdles what could/would you achieve?

But what about calcium they asked… yes, the questions from the new ladies at work about my no eating dairy, having eggs for breakfast (and kangaroo some days) has sparked intrigue (again). So why NO dairy, well I do eat Greek yoghurt when I fancy it because I like it, tastes good and helps my tummy.   Yes there are other ways to get good gut health but they don’t taste as good.   But for the 2-5 yoghurts I have a month, I do not notice any change.     I know for me milk is not a friend, or cheese (goats cheese is super-duper ok). I do not cope well with the lactose or the casein in dairy products (even protein powders affect me, pea protein is the best).   If I have it I notice it.   Some days I have a dash in my long black coffee and that is enough for me to notice. I find that my body functions better on no dairy and no wheat.   I find my body can get the same nutrients from other foods, if not more from NOT eating dairy and wheat I find my calcium levels are higher, my ir

Connecting with others all over the world is so much easier now thanks to social media.   I personally love connecting with others both in person and online but I feel that there is a lack of etiquette online.   Finding out a very close friend is engaged on Facebook or even sad news like a death is the impersonal nature of these online social tools. This raises the question, do you still contact those close to you via phone if they live a distance or meet regularly for face to face visits rather than just relying on social media tools? Even the younger generation should still have quality 'real time' in person with friends and family whenever they can. I imagine for some, the line is blurred with relationships online and real life relationships – do we say things differently online to a friend’s post, would we speak the same to their face?   Just as it is hard to take back words spoken it is the same for online posts, they remain online, with more people viewing, foreve

Something happened in my head over the weekend, a penny or three dropped and I realised that in TWO MONTHS time I will be trying on wedding dresses!   All of a sudden hot cross buns and Easter eggs/chocolate didn’t appeal to me as much (ok there was that little bit of disappointment come Easter Sunday morning when I remembered we had agreed NOT to buy each other Easter Eggs). But we survived.... well red wine became a good distraction... I had done so well last week eating clean & training mean and was feeling really good, energised, full of beans and motivation was WAY HIGH.   This is the feeling that I wish everyone could feel at least once or twice if they are embarking on a healthy lifestyle change, so they realise how easy it is to not feel lethargic and tired all the time. Easter weekend, so much chit chat on Facebook about eating chocolate, making chocolate, buying chocolate and eating hot cross buns and the like I was thinking, nope, not for me. Friday I emba