This week’s online delivery for Fit Fans includes not only a session you can use to benefit your own fitness and support of the Leicester Tigers Foundation’s Around The World Challenge distance but also some valuable advice on nutrition and diet.

Over a 10-week period, Fit Fans will provide plenty of advice and exercise details while also allowing participant to tally their metres in the Around the World Challenge.

You can join any time and work on your own fitness and wellbeing while also hopefully helping us raise funds for the Foundation’s delivery of inclusion and education programmes in our own community.

There are three levels of exercise so you can find which one is best for you and you can complete most of them in about two metres of space.

As all of our Global Partner Club teams are well underway in their efforts to race around the world, we thought that for Week 4 we could create a workout based on some appropriately named exercises and the inspiration for the choice of exercises is based on destinations reached by our global team so far.

While you are looking at your exercise and health, remember to consider your diet.

We’ve called this week’s advice ‘Colours of the World’ to reflect the benefits of eating as many different colours as possible in our diet.

Everyone loves routine and sticking to what we know – including food. We know what we like and we can be very limited in trying new things.

However, it is vital that we try to eat as many different colours of food as possible.

The colour of our fruit and veg, meat, condiments and anything else we eat provides us with an array of important minerals and nutrients required to function healthily.

So, if we don’t try to eat at least one of each colour, we potentially lose some favourable health benefits – to a point that if we neglect some food completely, we may create a deficiency.

There is nothing better for us than collecting our vitamins, minerals, calories and macro-nutrients in the forms of solid, edible food and not supplements (unless medically prescribed or advised from a health professional). Below we outline the generic health benefit each colour gives us and some ideas of how we can add them into our diets.

Red = heart & blood health; joint function; anti-inflammatory properties.

Lycopene; Vitamin D

• Tomato/Chilli/Pepper base sauces (natural / tinned / puree)
• Eat as desert
• Smoothie base (strawberries/raspberries)

Orange = cancer & heart disease prevention.

Potassium; Vitamin A

• Drink as juices
• Add to smoothies (carrot)
• Replace white potato with sweet potato

Yellow = improve digestive and immune systems; assist with skin, heart and eye function.

Beta-Carotene; Folate (Vitamin B)

• Drink as juices
• Add to smoothies
• Use to add flavour in food dishes (pineapple / sweetcorn)

Green = detoxification; strengthen immune system; bone health.

Fibre; Vitamin K

• Green tea
• Add green leaves to smoothies (kale / spinach)
• Must have 1 per plate

Blue/Purple = mineral absorption; brain function/memory.

Anthocyanin; Vitamin C

• Replace as vegetarian alternative (e.g. aubergine / beetroot)
• Add to smoothies
• Snacks (blueberries / cherries)

White = strengthen immune system; circulatory system health; reduce cancer risk.

Allicin; Potassium

• Use as Carb alternative (e.g. cauliflower rice / pizza base)
• Use as seasoning/flavour (garlic)
• Use as minced meat alternative (mushrooms)