10 daily habits for the holiday season - Part 3

My third personal daily habit for the holiday season will be to

eat plenty of fruit and veg - at least the recommended daily amount

of 5 portions per day.

I always try to do this every day and usually succeed in managing an average of 8 or 9 portions, but this becomes much harder when you are out and about, Christmas party food becomes very much your staple diet and vegetables appear to be a rare commodity.

A couple of tips for increasing your f & v intake during this period are:

1. Have a fruit smoothie for breakfast - just whizz up 3 or 4 fruits in a blender - experiment to find your favourite combinations. A variation on this fruit breakfast theme would be to make a breakfast fruit salad - I often do this and can manage to get up to 5 or 6 portions of fruit in there.

2. Take a bag of veg sticks to work with you to nibble on at break times. Just cut up carrots, celery, cucumber, spring onion and cauliflower (florets), put them into a bag or sealed dish and nibble away as a healthy alternative to crisps, nuts and other snack foods. A handful of sunflower and pumpkin seeds is another healthy alternative for snacking on.