I’m going to be ranting in this post so I apologize in advance!

Tomorrow the World Health Organisation will release it’s action plan on the prevention of chronic diseases to the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

This has again sparked discussion over what Governments can do to reduce the obesity rates in developed countries. The medical impact of obesity and overweight people contribute to many health conditions including heat diesease, diabetes, cancers and a range of other chronic illnesses. The cost of these conditions on the health system is massive.

A range of programmes throughout the world have been trialled with various levels of success. Food labelling, restricting junk food advertisements, taxing junk foods, school health programmes and a plethora of other initiatives have all been tried. However, the rates of chronic diseases are increasing along with the waist lines of many people.

One thing that really strikes me with the discussion over how to fix the problem and who to blame lies in those very questions. Why is it that we as a society need to assign blame and look to everyone else for a solution?

Government agencies have tried to educate people on diet and exercise. We all know that if you eat junk food or fatty foods, drink alcohol and don’t exercise that you will more than likely put weight on and won’t be a very healthy person.

Yesterday my partner and I went to the grocery store to do our weekly shop. We had already been to our local vegetable market to get our fruit and vegetable so headed to the store to pick up the other items for our week.

Our trolley contained items including low fat milk, tomatoes, some lean steak, chicken and a few other items for lunches. While waiting for the checkout lady to finish our shop, my partner remarked to me that the people behind us placing their food on the conveyer belt had not one healthy item in their cart. Everything was pre- packaged, frozen junk food with fatty processed snacks thrown in. Not one vegetable or natural food was in their trolley Both were overweight and looked unhealthy.

Now who do you *blame* for their food choices? Is it Government? food manufacturers? No-one forces them to fill their trolleys with unhealthy foods. People know when they buy foods that it’s not good for them but they choose to consume it on a regular basis.

People need to take responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately, we live in a society where people don’t take responsibility. We blame everyone else for the problems in the world and look to Government to fix them. It’s reactionary, it’s dangerous and it’s why we now find ourselves with rates of obesity that are just staggering.

We are eating ourselves to death. Stand up, stop making excuses, make a change and take control of your own life.

Just thought I’d update you on my weight gain post from a few days ago.

I had put on about 4 pounds resulting from a recent vacation. I’ve been back now for about 2 weeks and have lost around 2 pounds!

It wasn’t all that difficult. Basically, no alcohol, lots of water and back to eating my usual foods including fresh vegetables and chicken. It’s also been really nice to get back out walking my dog and doing my regular exercise routine.

I hope everyone is doing well!

How you handle challenges in life can really impact how you cope with weight gain.

As you may have read from one of my earlier posts, we have been busy entertaining family from overseas. I mentioned that it is really hard trying to stay on course with your health and wellbeing goals during vacations and for me, that has become a reality.

Our visitors have since returned home and we are now settling back into our normal routine including diet, exercise and daily routines.

So this morning I stepped on the scales. I’ve put on almost 2 kg or roughly 4.4 pounds. Not really bad but not really good!

I could have gone one of two ways in dealing with this news.

The first and probably the one that most can relate to is diet. It seems to me that people who take this path really do struggle to maintain their weight long term. You put weight on, self loathing follows, you diet, feel good when you lose the weight for a short while, fall back into bad habits and the cycle starts over.

The second is to take it in, set a plan to manage your food and exercise. Let’s face it, most people are going to have times in their life where weight gain is an issue. The trick as far as I can tell is to know when to stop and take stock of where you might be heading if you don’t stop.

In my case, I knew I was probably going to gain a kilo or two over my vacation. I set limits on what I consumed on a daily basis but certainly still enjoyed my food and wine. But I knew that I had to keep a check on myself and that once the vacation was over that I needed to get back to my routine straight away and focus on maintaining my weight.

I am 36 years old and have never had a weight problem. Every so often my weight fluctuates but it’s never been drastic.

I’ll report back in to let you know how I go with getting back to my regular weight.

Clinical Nutritionist Alexis Beck, shows Diet.com Video Host Sarah the secret health benefits behind cinnamon.

You might have noticed that our posts have been few and far between over the last fortnight. Being a lone blogger can be challenging at the best of times but trying to take time off and run a blog is difficult to say the least!

We are currently taking three weeks vacation from work to show my partners Dad (from Texas) around Australia. It has been really wonderful showing him all the sights of our beautiful city and quite a buzz to see his reaction to many of the places he has seen.

But having visitors is a really difficult time for people who are trying to eat healthy and exercise regularly. Taking people out and about presents many challenges. For starters, you tend to eat out more. Things like going to your gym or following your exercise regime can pretty much fall away completely with the demands of entertaining your visitors.

We have been trying really hard to find a balance between socializing and living well. So here are our top 5 tips for staying healthy on vacation.

1. For starters, we have chosen to prepare lunches rather than go to restaurants. Gourmet sandwiches or wraps with plenty of salads, grilled chicken, turkey, tuna or any low fat lunch meats are a really healthy option. Our picnics have been a real hit with our American guest. So much so, he has taken quite a few pictures of his lunches to show the family when he returns home!

2. Because we are taking picnics, finding great spots to enjoy them is critical. So we have chosen places that require a little effort to get there. While we are certainly not breaking a major sweat, we are getting some exercise. It feels good to finally get to the top of that hill ( literally! ) and sit down to a healthy and yummy lunch.

3. Healthy options when dining out is getting easier now that restaurants have worked out there is a market. Avoid fried foods, request grilled instead. Ask your waitress to hold the dressings and look for dishes with lots of vegetables providing of course they aren’t prepared with cream or butter! Salads are a fabulous option but don’t go for a caesar salad, it’s one of the most unhealthy options on the menu!

4. Park the car and walk. Taking visitors around requires transportation and your car is probably going to get more of a workout than you are. Rather than park close to your final destination, choose a car park that’s a little further away and walk the final distance instead. Your visitors may complain but you are doing them a favor as well!

5. Water anybody? Being on vacation often means wining and dining and it’s easy to forget to drink plenty of water. Make sure you have a water bottle with you at all times and keep yourself hydrated.

Let’s face it, being on vacation means enjoying yourself and I personally don’t have a problem with changing it up over this period.

All you have to do is keep yourself in check and be aware of when your body is telling you to cut back, you will feel better for it during your vacation and reap the benefits after your visitors leave!

Marksdailyapple.com has an interesting post and picture! on protein.

They have also provided a list of foods showing how many grams of protein are contained. Worth a read

For those interested to know a little more about protein, check out:

• Wikipedia: Protein in Nutrition
• WebMD: Benefits of Protein
• MedlinePlus: Protein in Diet

In Australia, we have just started the first day of our 4 day Easter long weekend. Among the religious celebratations many Australians will follow this year, one of the most cherished is the chocolate Easter egg hunt this Sunday. In-fact, Australians will consume around 1kg (2.2 pounds) of chocolate this Easter weekend!

As a child, my parents would get up at some ridiculous hour and hide eggs throughout the backyard. My brother and I would jump up out of bed and straight outside to hunt them down. After all the eggs had been picked up, we would sit in the family room and start to “negotiate”. This was a rather tense time for my Brother and I. We had our favorites of course. Size, weight and contents all played an important factor in what we were prepared to swap or keep.

My parents would sit there and referee. I can’t remember having any arguments which I put down to their abilities to mediate!

Once final agreements had been reached, we would take our eggs away to be consumed.

My brother would pretty much each all of his straight away. We then spent the rest of day dealing with his sugar high..not a pretty sight!

I, on the other hand would go into my bedroom and feed them to my dog. I know that many of you are probably horrified to read that. I still shake my head in disbelief that I didn’t kill my dog. My parents had no idea and were shocked when I first told them, many years after our dog died of an unrelated illness. For those who don’t know, chocolate and pets don’t mix. Please don’t give them any chocolate at all as it can kill them.

The fact is, I don’t like Easter eggs. After all that effort spending the morning collecting and bartering, I didn’t eat them.

I still don’t enjoy Easter eggs. I think the chocolate tastes strange and it’s so unbelievably sweet.

However, I love dark chocolate. Which isn’t such a bad thing.

If you can help it, give the milk chocolate away and try dark chocolate instead. Here’s why:

Antioxidants: Dark chocolate is a potent antioxidant. Don’t drink it with milk though as studies have shown that milk may interfere with it’s absorption.

Lower blood pressure: Consuming a small bar of dark chocolate every day can help reduce high blood pressure.

Lower cholesterol: Dark chocolate can reduce LDL cholesterol by up to 10% . LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol.

Makes you feel good: Endorphin production is stimulated when you eat dark chocolate which gives you feelings of pleasure.

Anti-depressant: Dark chocolate contains serotonin which acts as an anti-depressant.

This doesn’t mean you can go out and start eating large amounts of dark chocolate. It is still a high-calorie food so you must balance consumption. Studies indicate that no more than 100 grams should be consumed each day.

You should also look out for dark chocolate with a higher cocoa content and avoid anything that contains fillings like caramel, nougat or any other sugary substance.

And finally, just enjoy it!

Happy Easter everyone.