Hitting the town for some noms or ordering a takeaway can be a bit of a nightmare when you’re trying to stay in shape! Often it can be very difficult to find healthy foods at restaurants. That’s why we have cheat nights, right? (Well, one of the reasons!)

It’s important to remember, eating whatever the hell you want every now and then won’t hurt your progress. As you probably know, I’m very much against dieting and recommend a balanced approach to eating to stay healthy, which of course sometimes includes taking an ‘eat, drink, and be merry’ approach to your nights out!

So here’s my favourite tips and tricks to stick to your eating plan but still enjoy going out with friends to dinner… Even when it’s not your cheat night!

Hope your day got off to a smooth start – especially because I want to talk to you about STRESS. We’re heading into a busy time of year with new schedules, etc. and I know a lot of you are feeling some pressure…

…and I also know a lot of you think you should just toughen up and “push through it”.

Been there. But here’s a spoiler alert: You can’t do it. That’s because stress isn’t all “in your mind.” It’s also in your body.

Your stress response system is a primal reaction… it’s hardwired into your system to keep you safe and alive.

In this email I am going to outline some important things you need to know about stress and how it affects you – info that also will help you:

1. Use stress to your best advantage and
2. Learn how to conquer it so it doesn’t run (and ruin) your life.

Sometimes we need a kick up the backside to keep moving forward. Sometimes we just need reminding what we already knew. Here’s 32 of those little reminders to light or re-light that fire inside you and get you kicking arse in your life.

Please add your own favourites in the comment section below!

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

“I’ve not failed 10,000 times, I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that didn’t work” – Thomas Edison

“Continuous effort – Not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential” – Winston Churchill

“My only fault is that I don’t realize how great I really am.” – Muhammad Ali

“Passion trumps everything” – Dave Tate

“You can’t get rid of it with exercise alone. You can do the most vigorous exercise and only burn up 300 calories in an hour. If you’ve got fat on your body, the exercise firms and tones the muscles. But when you use that tape measure, what makes it bigger? It’s the fat!” – Jack LaLanne

Read more about 32 arse-kicking quotes about fitness, life, and being awesome …

I have battled with my weight for most of my adult life, always putting it down to baby weight because that was easier than just admitting I didn’t have the will power to actually do anything about it!!

My before photo is a VERY rare item, as like most people who aren’t happy with themselves I always hid behind the camera, but being on holiday and having a husband with a camera phone I couldn’t avoid this one being taken, and I was horrified when my hubbie put it on Facebook. But still I didn’t have the willpower to fight the battle.

It took me several more years to realise no one was going to magic the weight away and I plucked up the courage to join Curves, for the first time in my life I was doing exercise on a regular basis and it felt good.

Then sadly life got in my way when I lost my dad in 2010, I suddenly had my world turned upside down, and it was easier to eat donuts and pizza than actually care about myself and what I looked like, I quickly ballooned from a tight size 14 to an incredibly tight 16, and I certainly wouldn’t actually admit I was really an 18. Read more about Spotlight Sunday – Tracie Tomkinson! “I never thought I’d see the day where I couldn’t wait to put a dress on and go to a wedding.” …

With food marketing everywhere, and clever labelling terms designed to lull you into a false sense of security, something really simple like eating healthily has become a huge minefield, and trying to eat healthily could be the very thing keeping you fat.

So to help get through the mines with both legs attached, here’s a quick guide to four very common healthy options that are secretly out to get you.

1) Frozen Yoghurt

Ice-cream makes you fat, right? So try this healthy alternative!

Frozen yoghurt has virtually NO fat (which they’ll proudly boast on the label)! It’s like the dessert holy grail!

Except it’s not.

It’s true it’s virtually fat free, so what’s it made of?

In a word – Sugar. Yeah there’s other stuff, (it’s called yoghurt for a reason!), but this stuff is essentially frozen sugar.

Just one 250g serving has nearly 270 calories, and nearly 50g of sugar!

That’s 12 teaspoons! You wouldn’t put that in your tea, would you?

You’d actually be better off having ice-cream on your ‘cheat’ or re-feed day than having this stuff and feeling like you’re doing yourself a favour.

Read more about Four “Healthy” Foods That Make You Fat …

Ever heard the saying pennies make pounds? Or the little things add up?

It’s true you need to get the big things in order first if you’re interested in weight loss – Eating right, doing the right type of exercise, etc. – but when you have those nailed down, the little additions can make a big difference.

So that in mind, here’s 8 little things you can stack up immediately with no real effort on your part to help you drop the next 8 pounds. Read more about Worthing Personal Trainer’s 8 easy ways to lose 8 pounds …

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” However, had he spent less time messing about with electricity and more time in the kitchen, I’m sure he would have added, “Oh, and eggs are awesome. Totally.”

Now, if you’ve ever exploded an egg in a saucepan trying to boil it, made an omelette more useful as a rubber Frisbee, or scrambled them in the microwave (good God, why!), then you may be inclined to disagree. However, you can’t blame the end result on the tool.

You see eggs are like the perfect nutritional delivery in a handy, albeit fragile, portable pod. They’re packed with high quality protein, with around 6g per egg, they carry more vitamins than you can shake a chicken wing at, and just one yolk contains half of our daily recommended requirement of Choline, an important nutrient for brain development.

Now me, I’m not the worlds greatest chef. When it comes to preparing food, the simpler the better as far as I’m concerned. But there’s one thing I don’t mind saying I am great at, and that’s poaching an egg.

Seriously, I have it down to an art.

I am so good at poaching eggs, I make Delia look like a gibbering chimp with arthritis. And you know why? Because I’ve perfected it into a simple five step process.

So in honour of the nutritional masterpiece that is the humble egg, here’s a video I made for Power Living Magazine where I’m going to show you how to make perfect poached eggs every time.

Eggcellent. Read more about Poach the perfect egg every time in 5 steps! …

So here’s a quick one for all you people who think you need tonnes of space or expensive equipment to get in a good workout.

You don’t.

You can in fact get in an awesome workout with neither.

So I’ve made a vid with 5 exercises you can do with a tiny bit of space and a chair to show you. Plus I’ve thrown in a couple of red herrings to see if you’re paying attention!

By the way, I take no responsibility if you fall off a chair or lose an arm to a jungle cat doing one of the red herrings… Read more about 5 Exercises You Can Do with Just a Chair… and 3 You Probably Shouldn’t …