June review, my top 10 healthy living tips and a GIVEAWAY!

Hi everyone, I’m in shock that we are now almost in July, I can’t believe how time has flown this year! Hopefully we’ll be getting more weather like this:

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June has been a great month for me! I have:

• Increased my running speed consistently
• Continued to work steadily through my Diet and Nutrition Advisor course
• Ran another successful giveaway
• Joined the WIAW party
• Enjoyed two great blogger meet ups with the lovely Nicky and Jessica
• Continued to listen to my body and stopped calorie counting
• Enjoyed simple seasonal meals
• Shopped – a lot ;-)

I have a really great July ahead including a short break to one of my favourite places in the world Brighton, and I’ll be attending Kendal Calling Festival in partnership with Alpro Soya!  I also have the Great North 10K. There’s a couple of other things I’d like to focus on this month too, including meditation and mental clarity.

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These days it feels like my head is set to explode with all the ideas I’m working on and I really need to find some clarity and focus so I can achieve my plans. I also want to look at my beauty routine, as even though my skin and hair are in good condition, I’ve just been feeling a bit ‘meh’ and could do with a focused effort, especially with my make up!

I was also a bit disappointed that I lost a couple of lbs this month. I always want to be honest with you here on the blog, as this is all part of my journey. I thought that because I was feeling really good, putting in strong performances with my running and honouring my hunger signals I would be maintaining my weight, as I have successfully for the last few months, rather than loosing more (FYI, weight loss is no longer a goal for me). I’m now in a position of wanting to gain a couple of pounds, bring on the nut butter!

My goals for July:

• Do the Great North 10K in under an hour (I would love to manage under 55 minutes if possible!)
• Continue to train for the Great North Run consistently and without injury
• Make sure that I’m fuelling myself properly to prevent any further weight loss and to gain weight instead
• Continue to try and take a frugal approach to grocery shopping when possible
• Change up my interval training and get more structured with my resistance training – this was a goal last month that I didn’t really look at. My focus will still be my running though :-)
• Enjoy my time in Brighton and the Festival, especially the food!
• Start to do some meditation and really focus on bringing some of my ideas to life
• Review my make up routine and make a bit more of an effort

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July Sponsors

I’d like to welcome back sponsor Viva Pure for their second month of sponsorship. I’m also happy to report that the Goodness Direct discount code will be valid until the end of the year, so if you haven’t taken advantage of it yet you still have plenty of time!

You may have also seen on a few blogs that Total Greek Yoghurt are running their Fit for Summer Campaign and have been asking healthy living bloggers to submit their top ten healthy living tips. In addition to giving you some of my tips I’ve managed to wangle it so that Total are my sponsors for July and that of course includes an awesome giveaway!

1 lucky winner will receive a month’s supply of Total Greek Yoghurt!

To enter (each of these counts as a single entry – please leave a separate comment for each one):

• Leave a comment to this post with one of your own top tips for healthy living
• Follow me via Google Friend Connect or ‘like’ my Facebook page (links under the ‘follow me’ section on the right) or follow me on Blog Lovin or Twitter and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
• Tweet about this giveaway mentioning @keephealthstyle and leave a comment below stating you have done so
• Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on your blog and leave a comment below stating that you have done so

Giveaway open to UK residents only (sorry International friends!) and closes at 12am GMT Thursday 7th July 2011, good luck!

For an extra chance to win check out Total’s own giveaway too!

As a ‘mostly’ vegan I don’t eat Greek Yoghurt at the moment but I know a lot of you guys love Total so I didn’t want you to miss out on winning!

Of course, before I go I need to give you my very own Top 10 Healthy Living Tips:

Drink water – I think this is so important! Drinking plenty of water should be something everyone does, water is vital for all of our metabolic processes, lubricates our joints, flushes out toxins and improves our skin! 2 litres a day seems to be the most widely recommended amount, I know I drink a lot more than that when I exercise though.

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Eat whole foods – eating a diet that consists of mostly unprocessed whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, nuts and whole grains will ensure you get a range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants needed for good health and vitality.

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Move your body – do some form of exercise 3-6 times a week. I don’t think it matters what you are doing, just that you are getting your body moving, your heart rate up and the blood pumping! Exercise is proven to improve your mood, support detoxification and generally give you a glow!

Be joyful – take joy in food! Who says that to be healthy you should exist on bland tasteless salads? Yes, food is fuel but food is so much more than that! It can be our connection to our environment, a way to show someone you love them, a social act to bring people closer together and most of all food should bring you pure unadulterated joy :-)

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Honour your body – listen to your body and learn from it and the signals it gives you. Teach yourself the difference between true hunger and boredom or stress eating, but don’t be hard on it when you do eat because of those things. Eat what makes you feel your best, don’t worry about labels or what other people think, love and honour your amazing body and treat it with kindness and compassion.

Take care of your mind – good mental health is just as important as having a healthy body. Look after your own mental health, try and be positive, use affirmations and avoid negative self talk, see the best in people, avoid exposing yourself as much as possible to things that bring you down.

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Take the pressure off – I think all too often we feel the pressure to be perfect, to do all the things on our to do list, to cook that tasty meal, do the washing, clean the house, study, work, exercise… Sometimes it just all adds up! Take the pressure off yourself sometimes, no one is perfect. Try your best when you can, but there’s nothing wrong with taking an extra rest day, getting a take away instead of cooking and letting the house be a pig sty for one more day!

Seek balance – Everyone needs to find their own level of balance that they are happy with. Some people prefer to eat clean whole foods at all times, some eat well during the week and eat what they fancy at the weekend. The fact is that to be at your healthiest you need to find a balance between eating healthier foods and not so healthy foods that works for you!

Choose healthy over skinny – My final tip, and one that is really important for me, is to move beyond the ‘I want to be skinny’ mentality. If your focus is on taking care of your body (and mind) then motivating yourself from a health perspective is going to be so much better for you, especially in the long term!

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Hope you’ve enjoyed my tips! Good luck with the Giveaway!