As part of our Healthy Lifestyle Challenge, participants strive to include 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables each day. So what exactly is a serve?

Fruit

1 standard serve of fruit is approximately 150g (350kJ)

1 serve = 

• 1 medium piece of fruit e.g. 1 apple, orange, pear, small banana
• 2 small pieces of fruit e.g. 2 kiwi fruit, apricots, plums, nectarines
• 1 cup diced fruit e.g. fruit salad, melon, berries, pineapple
  
  

Fresh is best but occasional sources include:

• 30g Dried fruit e.g. 1.5 tbs sultanas, 2 dried apricots
• 125ml Juice (100% juice, no added sugar)
  
  

These should not constitute your fruit serves of a daily basis but are OK to include occasionally.

Vegetables

1 standard serve of vegetables is approximately 75g (100-350kJ)

1 serve = 

Non-Starchy Vegetables:

• ½ cup cooked vegetables
•  1 cup raw salad vegetables

Starchy vegetables:

•  1 medium potato
• ½ cup corn kernels
• 1 small sweet potato
  
  

We challenge you to use at...

We talk about periodising nutrition all the time, but WHAT the heck is it?

And HOW do you do it? 

Nutrition Periodisation is the use of planned nutritional strategies aimed at maximising the results from specific training sessions to improve performance (1). It is just like having a training plan but for your nutrition, where your nutrition is planned around your training to get the most bang for your buck out of it.

Periodising nutrition primarily manipulates our glycogen stores, or our carbohydrate fuel tank.

There are a few ways dietary periodisation can be used:

1. Train low

This is where you train with low glycogen stores. For example, you train first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or you don’t quite top your glycogen stores back up between sessions. This allows your body to learn to run more efficiently on a lower fuel tank. For athletes that train twice or even three to four times a day, chances are they are probably running on lower...

Feeling sad, moody or a bit low? We all do from time to time. Did you know your gut can have a role in your mental health?

A number of studies have confirmed a close link between our gut bacteria and our brain; ever heard of the gut-brain axis? The gut microbiota (bacteria) greatly impacts our brains physiology, influencing our behaviour and response to stress. Research shows that a plant-rich diet high in probiotics and prebiotics helps to increase the richness and diversity of our gut microbiota and aids in our stress response and mental health. So cool!

How can you eat for a happy life?

To promote balanced moods and feelings of well-being:

• Focus on a plant-rich diet including a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts & seeds. Aim to fill half of your plate with salad and veggies at lunch and dinner.
• Include whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, wholemeal pasta, couscous and grainy bread.
• ...

Calcium is one of the most important minerals in our body. In fact, without calcium we wouldn’t be able to stand or eat as 99% of our calcium is in our bones and teeth!

A small amount of calcium is also dissolved in the blood and is essential for our heart, muscles, blood and nerves. In fact, every contraction of our muscles requires calcium.

So how much calcium do we need and where do we find it? 

Calcium Requirements

After higher calcium needs as a growing teenager, our requirements stabilise at 1000mg/day until they increase again as we get older. This is because calcium isn’t absorbed as well in our later years.

We achieve peak bone mass by our early 20’s so it’s important to lay down a good foundation in our teenage years to set you up with good bone density for life.

Food sources of Calcium

In food terms, the best sources of calcium are dairy sources.

Check the label on your milk product and ensure that for each 250ml serve, it contains at...

Introducing Dave!

Dave aka Bangar can do it all. From indoor rowing to rugby, surf swimming, pool swimming and running, what can’t you do well Dave? Just quietly he holds the title for the No. 1 ranked Indoor Rower for the half marathon IN THE WORLD!

Dave’s next focus is on smashing his Gold Coast 10km run time with the goal to go sub 39 minutes this weekend. Good luck Dave!

_{Dave with his son Jack after blitzing the Burleigh Swim Run 2017}

Name: David

Current location: Palm Beach, QLD      

Profession: Turf Contractor

Sport of Choice: Running/Swimming

How many years have you been training and competing in your sport? 26 years

What got you into it in the first place? Looking for a new sport

What’s your favourite training session? 4-10 1km reps (running)

Main Competition or Event for 2017: Gold Coast 10km run + Burleigh Swim Run (Australia Day 2017)

Looking ahead to 2018 and beyond, what are your...

Introducing Bec!

An all-round LEGEND, Bec is one of our longest-standing clients! She even has an original meal plan with our old logo on it – sorry about that Bec From humble beginnings as a triathlete 3 years ago, she’s gearing up to race Cairns IRON(Wo)MAN this weekend. Good luck Bec! You’re going to absolutely smash it!
 

Name: Rebecca aka Bec

Current location: Mackay, QLD      

Profession: Podiatrist

Sport of Choice: Triathlon, but my first love was and still is netball – I’ve retired from playing now to coach

How many years have you been training and competing in your sport? On and off since 2010, started taking triathlon more seriously in 2015

What got you into it in the first place? I love a challenge and a few people I went to university with competed at a pretty decent level so they were a bit of inspiration for me

What’s your favourite training session? Long rides or a brick...

We look at the latest evidence on what cramps are, why we get them, how to prevent them and how pickle juice may be able to help.

What are muscle cramps?

Ah cramps! They make me nervous just thinking about them! Most of us have had one at some point or another but what are they exactly?

A cramp is defined as a painful spasmodic involuntary contraction of a skeletal muscle which occurs during or after exercise. There are actually two main types of cramps:

1. Whole-body cramping, but thankfully these are not as common;
2. Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps (EAMC). This type of cramping involves individual muscles or groups of muscles and is common in the calf, hamstring and quadriceps. Think a calf cramp as you go to push off the wall in the pool. It typically involves the muscle being used.
   
   

Cramping prevalence has been reported to be as high as 6-20% during Ironman events, 30-50% in marathon runners, 60% in cyclists and 30-50% in team sports.

Although localised and short in...

Schools are back…”Phew!” I hear you say… Kids are kept busy for the term and parents can find their sanity again.

With back to school also comes the challenge of school lunches. They can be fun for the first week or two and then boredom sets in for both parents and kids alike. Here are a few tips on packing school lunches to make your life easy and fun.

1. Have your tools ready

Containers of different shapes and sizes make packing lunch easy and allow you to separate foods so juices from one don’t run into the other. Have an insulated bag to put all your containers into to keep lunches fresh in this hot weather.

2. Cold packs

Food safety is important; especially with the summer heat, cold packs are a must to keep your kids food cold until lunchtime.

3. Stick with a basic structure

(it's much easier to slot things in if you have a basic plan):

• Brain snack: small apples, pears, carrot or cucumber sticks, strawberries or snacking tomatoes...