Did you know 2/3 Australians have reported that covid impacted their exercise in a negative way? Or that 40% of Aussies reported they gained weight during isolation?

With covid restrictions lifting, Canberra’s return to normal life is increasingly close. Restaurants, cafes and bars are opening their doors and allowing more and more patrons to dine in rather than the covid-classic take out.

Now, with the return of eating out, and probably doing more so than during or even before isolation, we should ensure balance is kept, to a certain degree, in order to keep working toward our goals-especially seeing as a lot of us would have new found goals post covid bulk!

Of course we should be excited about the re-opening of our local businesses and take advantage of the return of date night, girls/guys night etc, but we want to ensure we are being smart about the decisions and habits we are making. Supporting local businesses doesn’t necessarily mean all home-cooking out the window and take out every night…we want to try and maintain a consistent and sustainable plan that allows us to treat ourselves while keeping a balanced lifestyle and diet. Not only will eating out possibly tip those scales more than isolation did, but it will also hurt our bank accounts.

Keeping these factors in mind, enjoy eating out now that it is available to us, but stay accountable by organising your meals around eating out. For example, knowing I am going to have a big meal out on Friday night, I might ensure I eat cleaner and leaner throughout the day, to help balance out the extra calories consumed that night. Also ensuring meal prepping at the beginning of each week is done, so that I cant make the excuse to buy lunch every day now that the café in the office building is open…try bringing prepped lunch to work at least 4 days of the week! If you find it hard to manage time to meal prep on the weekends, or would prefer to take this time with family and friends- no worries, GMD has your back.

- Bec