Find The Healthy Meals

Some people go on vacation without any health goals. They want to let loose, go out every night, and taste all that their destination offers. You don’t need to be jealous of those folks. You can still go out and see the culture and taste the local foods; you just need to be smart along the way.

Before you go on vacation, research your destination and look at some of the restaurants that look appetizing. Then, review the menu and find healthy dishes that contain your desired calorie count. It’s a good way to indulge in local cuisine without being thrown off-guard when you enter a restaurant or feeling rushed when it comes time to order and get something you’ll regret. 

If you’re vacationing with a group, gather and research to find a local meal you all may like and then order and split it. That way, you can still enjoy the delicacies without overindulging. Another option is to book a hotel or a house with a kitchen so you can go to a store for ingredients and cook the meals you want. You can do that for some meals and then go out for others. 

Finally, be sure not to go overboard when it comes to beverages during your meals. Many of those drinks are rich in sugar and high in calories, and they can sabotage your diet before you even get to the food. Be especially aware of the fruit juice at breakfast because, though it may seem healthy, many fruit juices are full of preservatives and sugar.

When In Doubt, Go Plant-Based

During your trip, satisfy your appetite and enjoy local favorites by focusing on a plant-based diet. Plant-based foods carry many benefits. In addition to cutting out unhealthy elements, like trans fats, a plant-based diet of lighter foods can leave you with more energy so you can see the sights without getting overly tired. Eating a regular plant-based diet can also reduce inflammation in the body and help you to stay at a healthy weight, which is the key to feeling great and fighting off forms of cancer.

There’s also the eco-friendliness of a clean diet. A plant-based diet is good for you and the environment and is a crucial stepping stone for a sustainable future. Many processes in the animal agriculture sector produce a great deal of greenhouse gas emissions that can hurt the planet and impact biodiversity. A plant-based diet avoids that issue. 

A lot of land and water resources are also required to sustain livestock, which can strain the environment. By cutting animals out of your diet, you can help to cut some of that water usage. By keeping the world beautiful, you’ll have more to see during your vacations.

If your goal is to find plant-based restaurants during your trip, then research before you go and find where those locations are and see what options they have. You can use vegan travel blogs or join a vegan community on social media. When you find a place of interest, read the reviews and see if it’s up your alley. Many destinations also have vegan specialties that are unique to that region. Try them out and mark them off of your bucket list. Finally, look for hotels that offer vegan options at breakfast. 

Find Ways To Exercise

It’s perfectly natural to get off a plane or a bus after a long trip and want to plop down on the bed, and while there’s time for that, you can find ways to stick to your fitness goals. If you’re jetlagged, you can get out of that funk and stay fit by injecting some energy via a few quick exercises. Burpees are great because they get the blood flowing and help you to wake up. Yoga can also help. Try the camel pose to relieve lower back pain and the cow face pose to open up your chest and shoulders after being cramped on the plane.

While you’re on your trip, instead of taking taxis and buses, opt to walk to local tourist stops or spend some free time riding a bike to keep the blood pumping. You can keep up your walking and enjoy the beauty of your vacation destination by checking out hiking trails in the area. Be careful when choosing a hiking trail, and do your research. Find one within your experience level and consider the time of year. Trails can be slippery and muddy during spring and icy during winter, so know what to expect and go prepared.

If you’re going to be hiking somewhere without a cell signal, bring a map and compass. Tell someone where you’ll be going and when you’ll be back. Also, pack extra clothes, food, and water so you’re prepared if you do lose your way.

There are also other ways you can exercise on vacation without a gym, including doing laps in the swimming pool or ocean, trying stand-up paddle boarding, or doing sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks wherever you are.

Conclusion

It’s entirely possible to enjoy every minute of your vacation while eating right and exercising throughout. Plan your trip ahead of time and find ways to live your best life and feel great during your trip.

Author bio

Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in lifestyle, mental health, education, and fitness-related content. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter.

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The post Indulge Without Regret: Mastering Your Vacation Fitness and Nutrition Game appeared first on FitNish.com.

Interest in veganism is growing around the globe. Around 2% of American adults follow a vegan lifestyle and 5% of young adults in the UK eat a vegan diet. This is particularly impressive when you consider how entrenched animal consumption is in these two nations. And even if certain people don’t fully commit to the lifestyle, many more are becoming curious. In Google searches for veganism alone, there has been an increase in people around the globe seeking out vegan recipes or the details of a vegan lifestyle. 

As a vegan blogger, you can take advantage of this interest by sharing your love of veganism through blogging. A blog is a perfect place to post your insights, share your favorite meals, and build a community centered around animal activism. With more and more people curious about the lifestyle, your blog will only stand to grow from here.

Creating a Vegan Blog

The idea of running a blog is alluring. However, if you’ve never started a website of your own, you may feel intimidated by the prospect of buying domain names and creating themes. 

Fortunately, you aren’t the first vegan blogger on the block. You can find inspiration online and learn from other plant-based content writers. So, before you sign up for a WordPress or SquareSpace site, take a look through the hottest vegan blogs today. Consider drawing inspiration from vegan blogs like: 

• Plant Based on a Budget
• Rainbow Plant Life
• Pick Up Limes

These sites host high-quality vegan content and have a varied approach to plant-based living. Use their content to refine your ideas and take note of how they structure their web presence. 

Once you’ve completed some market research, you’ll need to choose a website builder that works for you. Pick a builder that aligns with your aesthetic and gives you the options you need for customization. At the moment, the biggest web hosting sites include: 

• WordPress
• Weebly
• Squarespace

You’ll also need to buy a domain name. Visit a site like Google Domains or GoDaddy to find a domain name that aligns with your vegan-oriented content and helps you promote your page.  

Promoting Your Page

Once you’ve built your page, you need to promote it. Your plant-based blog may be filled with high-quality vegan content, but you’ll never gain followers without promotion and a clear marketing strategy. 

Your marketing strategy should align with your broader goals for your blog. For example, if you focus specifically on the sustainability benefits of veganism, you need to run an eco-friendly marketing campaign, too. Focus on running digital ads with a low carbon footprint and use recyclable materials when running contests or giveaways. 

In every campaign, lean on social media, as it has the highest potential to increase your return on investment (ROI). In particular,  you have a higher chance of going viral among plant-based blogging and beyond with social media marketing. You can also guide this virality onto your website, and other social media platforms. 

Monetizing Your Website

You don’t have to monetize your website. However, monetizing your site is the easiest way to make money from your vegan blog. Once you’ve built your site and started to post high-quality content, you can run a series of ads through Google AdSense and Media.net. These sites will post relevant advertisements on your site and will reward you for increasing your traffic. 

Bear in mind that many vegan blogs do not run in-site ads. Instead, high-profile vegan bloggers usually make their money through affiliate marketing and brand partnerships. Through this method, you’ll be able to retain more control over your site. If affiliate marketing sounds interesting to you, partner with a vegan-oriented business and create a media kit that shows off your profile and blogging portfolio.  

Content Ideas

As a vegan blogger, you may struggle to generate fresh content ideas to keep your blog up-to-date. 

Keep your content fresh by building a site-wide strategy that helps you plan your content in the long term. In general, your vegan-blog content should fall into one of the following categories: 

• Vegan News
• Recipes
• Fashion
• Vegan Gardening
• Facts and Informative Content
• Vegan Fitness

Keep up to date with current news and trends by utilizing sites like Google Trends and Exploding Topics. These sites give you an insider’s-view of current trends online and can help you identify current events and news items that are worth covering. 

Remember to write some evergreen content, too. Evergreen content like fitness and nutrition tips will draw users to your site for years to come. Your traffic will be more consistent and you’ll bolster long-term growth of your site with this kind of content. Most evergreen articles are highly-shareable, too, meaning your post about vegan self-care strategies will be shared on social sites hundreds of times over the next decade. 

Conclusion 

You can support your vegan lifestyle by building an online community via a blog. A blog is a perfect place to record your thoughts and share important facts about veganism. Just be sure to choose a web hosting site that suits your style and research other blogs before you start posting content online. 

Author bio

Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in lifestyle, mental health, education, and fitness-related content. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter.

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The post Sharing Your Love for Veganism Through Blogging appeared first on FitNish.com.

“Yokos is an innovative dairy and non-dairy yoghurt brand that defies the traditional limits of yoghurt.
Through experimentation with natural ingredients, Yokos develops authentic double-cream yoghurt and innovative plant-based yoghurt alternatives that allow more people to live purely.”

I tried the banana flavoured cultured coconut yoghurt, and the plain cultured Oat yoghurts.  

Taste and texture:

• The texture of the yoghurts is quite nice, they are not as thick as the plain dairy full cream yoghurts, but still a good conisstency and thickness for a yoghurt. 
• The flavouring is not very sweet, and in essence is having a ‘hint‘ of the flavouring. I liked this as I am not such a fan of the very sweet stuff like many of the popular flavoured dairy yoghurts on the shelves, so it depends on your preference. When its too sweet is usually means theres a whole lot of extra sugar, or a a lot of artificial stuff that probably shouldn’t be in there anyway.
• You can slightly taste the ‘oat taste‘ in the cultured oat yoghurt, but it still tastes good in my opinion.   

“Yokos values health and well-being, but understands that everyone approaches it differently.”

“Dairy lovers should have access to the ultimate unsweetened double-cream yoghurt, made with rich, nutrient-brimming milk, so Yokos has packaged a delicious full-cream, Greek-style dairy yoghurt to satisfy their cravings. Yokos also wants lactose-intolerant and vegan taste-seekers not to have to forfeit yoghurt’s gut-friendly health benefits, so it has developed a scrumptious, nutritious, flavour-loaded range of dairy-free, vegan-friendly yoghurt made from plant-based ingredients.”

“Yokos is against animal abuse and holds a strong respect for nature. Its personal relationships with suppliers and producers mean it knows where all its ingredients come from and how they are made. It is Yokos’s social and environmental responsibility to be good to people and kind to the planet.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9MBwrAl7fe/

“Two years later, due to the demand for lactose-free products and a shift into conscious ways of consuming food – less dairy and more dairy-free – Eric was inspired to develop the business into one that was ethically and consciously attuned to the planet and all its beings. He produced an innovative plant-based yoghurt that held a better footprint on the environment – bringing people closer to ultimate well-being without causing harm to animals. The yoghurt would focus on dairy alternatives that were environmentally friendly, using plant-based ingredients sourced with care.”

“That’s how non-dairy coconut yoghurt found its way onto the Yokos menu, and into vegan-loving hearts. It turned Yokos into the first dairy and non-dairy fresh yoghurt concept bar of its kind in South Africa.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8o9UjKJmLi/

In 2018 and 2019, due to an overwhelmingly positive response and high demand for Yokos vegan yoghurt, Eric further developed Yokos’s unique recipes, adding almond and cashew-milk vegan yoghurt to its range. Few brands around the world boast such a multitude in non-dairy yoghurt alternatives.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5sHhnxJXYC/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B32Z1QlplSS/

Besides its two yoghurt concept bars (at V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and Somerset Mall in Somerset West), Yokos retails its non-dairy yoghurts through various South African stockists, including Pick n Pay, Checkers, Spar, Dischem and Wellness Warehouse.

Hi res Photos used can be found here:

• Unsplash

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The post A Look At Yokos’ Vegan Cultured Coconut And Oat Yoghurts In Cape Town! appeared first on FitNish.com.

The Game Changes is a new plant based documentary, produced by a number of big celebrities such as  James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic and Chris Paul, and directed by Louie Psihoyos, who also directed the incredible documentary, The Cove.

The movie trailer just released and it sure looks to be a real ‘Game changer’, being a new documentary about meat, protein, and strength.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjLM6Milty_/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhu0lF2lNnM/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzgVUkpl1AN/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgFJoBFhJZX/

Photo by:

• Kristian Angelo on Unsplash

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The post The Game Changes Trailer | New Plant Based Documentary Featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger! appeared first on FitNish.com.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrhmABLA2XW/

Two questions that vegans are inundated with (which leaves me a little salty at times), namely:

1. “why did you give up meat?”

Well for me, the short version is this; All it took was one Carte Blanche documentary to turn me vegetarian. I remember not finishing my dinner, going to bed with a heavy heart and waking up the next morning with one thought.

The meat I consume was once a living thing, it does not die peacefully for my consumption, instead an animal (like any human being) fights, begs and screams for their life – this is the negative energy I put into my body and have been doing so for the past 26 years.

The switch from vegetarian to completely plant-based occurred when again I came across a graphic video detailing the production of dairy. Three years later, I am still a vegan, and I do not think that I will ever go back to consuming meat or dairy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs-yYeHAPm1/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqbof-5A4Jy/

2. “where do you get your protein from?”

This question is by far my favourite, for one reason only. This is my chance to crush “bro science” with actual science and nutritional facts. Being a competitor with the IFBB and a personal trainer, this question is unavoidable and my approach to it is education.

My transition from vegetarian to vegan was not an easy one, predominately due to living in a town where boerewors and biltong is a staple diet. After months of research and living off beans and rice, I finally decided to treat by body differently to that of your average bikini competitor. Yes, I wanted the muscle but I was not going to flood my body with supplements.

I instead use plant-based, whole foods (apart from my consumption of pea protein) to meet my macro intake and the added benefit of being a vegan is that my vitamin and mineral intake is also being met due to the variety of fruit, veg, nuts and seeds, grain and legumes that I consume on a daily basis. I take a B12 supplement and make sure to get my blood tested twice a year, just so that I am aware of any nutrient deficiencies – which there have been none of for the past two years.

Over the past six years (period that I have not eaten meat), one thing is for sure, veganism has surely grown, people have converted for health reasons (trust me there are too many to ignore), for the animals and for the environment. Science is proving that eating a plant-based diet promotes not only longevity but also and most importantly vitality.

The bottom line is this, any diet whether plant-based or not will have deficiencies if it isn’t researched and well-planned , the question you have to ask yourself is “what is going to help you thrive, perform better and keep you alive longer.”

With veganism going mainstream, there are still skeptics, mostly among males. Its somehow been fortified in the male psyche that not eating meat, makes them less masculine.

Let me introduce you to the men who have re-defined masculinity…DRUM ROLL PLEASE AND ITS OKAY TO SALIVATE

Dominick Thompson 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Btd91hVFP5q/

Not only has this man crushed the very ideals of what masculinity is, he is also a formidable animal activist and athlete. 

Nimai Delgado

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtgoE_0hZ7b/

The IFBB Pro who responsible for the podcast Generation V and get this… has never eaten meat! Please can someone ask, “where do you get your protein from?” (I hope you can feel my eye roll).

Torre Washington

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtPpUIcH_rm/

IFBB Pro, who recently landed a contributing roll in Chris Hemsworth’s (yes, Thor) CentrFit Team.

Simon Hill

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bto_L4Wnetn/

Nutritional bad-ass who founded the Plant Proof podcast and who is also a part of the formidable CentrFit team.

These are just a few of the men that have proven that you do not have to kill to have a killer body and do they look like they have a protein deficiency?

Here are a few good reasons why you should be giving a plant-based diet a try:

1. Plant-based foods are widely available, you will not be missing out on the good stuff. More and more vegan eateries are popping up, catering for every craving.
2. Being vegan does not have to be expensive. Lentils and beans rank as one of the cheapest foods you can buy. Also take a peak at plantbasedonabudget.
3. More and more doctors and other health professionals are recommending a diet centered around plants, check out veg_md.
4. Resources to assist you are widely available, and their purpose is to help you make the transition to a plant-based lifestyle.
5. We cannot ignore the science surrounding a plant-based lifestyle and how it reduces the risk of illness and promotes health.
6. Aside from all the marvelous, and literally life changing benefits that a plant-based lifestyle has for your health, body, animals and the environment, just remember – VEGANS do everything better!

Written by Melissa Kannigan. Find her on her instagram, and her vegan blog.  

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtP54nIAG7d/

Photo by:

• Robert Bye on Unsplash

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