No gimmicks, no fads, just RESULTS!!
The time has come for a recipe section, its the most constant question i’m having at the moment, so most days now we will publish a new recipe we really like, please feel free also to contribute some of your own recipes! By the end of the year, we are hoping to have at least 300 recipes so that all starts tomorrow!
The big plus will be that they are easy to make too, even i can do them so see what you think!
As we went through some essentials yesterday, we all know my opinion of faddy diets, but what really happens to your body and what is the “cost” to your body? Please consult with a respected doctor if you doubt any of this!
Most “diets” are low in calories so WHAT do they say that they are going to do for you?
These faddy diets encourage you to eat a diet entirely based on calories, and if you eat fewer calories than you use, you will somehow use fat as energy and that’s how you lose weight. Your body is a bit more clever than that according to scientists, and doesn’t just respond to counting calories. How many of you out there have been on kind of a starvation mode and still couldn’t lose weight, it does happen to many after a few weeks of eating like this you tell me!
The nasty effects of eating this way!
You avoid the essential fats that we talk about a lot on here that are vital for great health. Faddy diets encourage you to avoid these foods as they are somehow “fattening”! How wrong can you get! This advice should be banned!
You measure food just as a calorie, and therefore healthy food doesn’t really matter. Poor food choices which are harmful to your health in the long term count the same as far more healthy choices, very poor education again by the faddy diet “experts”.
When you keep denying yourself food, your rate of calorie burning (metabolism) slows down, and that’s what makes your diet eventually crash and burn. And when you return to eating your normal food, your body is still in starvation mode so will not only put your weight back on, but will more on more than when you first started, a nightmare scenario!
What about the very high protein diet?
This diet that severely limits your carbs always encourages you to eat all fat and all protein for a while. Then, a little carbs come in later. Let me say that weight loss can be very big in the first couple of weeks of this programme, which encourages people to stay in the all protein all fat stage!
The nasty side effects and negatives!
If you stay on this diet for the long term, you will be avoiding fibre, which leads to constipation and increased the risk of colon cancer.
If you don’t take in your fruit and veg, the risk of cancer, heart disease and arthritis goes up significantly.
When you take in all fats, and in particular saturated fats, you can develop cholesterol problems and heart disease.
Limiting carbs also discourages you eating your five a day of fruit and veg, always a bad idea!
An eating for life plan that discourages starvation methods, going without food for long periods, and counting calories works every time. You don’t cut out whole food groups and you have a healthy balance of foods in your life. Common sense actually works, so don’t be fooled by the charlatans ripping you off with the latest faddy diets that are all around us each day!
The benefits!!
You will be developing great health because you have balanced nutrition.
Eating little and often every 3-4 hours keeps your metabolism revved and stops you from going hungry, and stops willpower becoming the all important factor!
Eating enough fruit and veg makes sure you are in great health, fibre and energy to live the life you want to.
This is a simple plan for life that works, there is no deadline and it doesn’t encourage you to avoid your treats completely, a bit of what you fancy is good for you now and again and keeps you sane!
Eating healthy and essential fats is actually GOOD for you, fish, nuts etc work for you every time if you let them!
I keep giving you choices every day, mine are actually based on science. The rest you hear are often “heresay” or “made up” to take your money and sound different or just plain dangerous.
Let’s have a great day and make the most of your body this week!
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”-Winston Churchill.
Seems to me that we have been ignoring eating essentials lately, and that some of you have come off the rails a bit, and that you need to get in your head why you felt so good in those initial few weeks!
When I start with anyone, I always stress the importance of eating well, to do this effectively though, you have to get the right shopping in, and that means keeping your cupboards and fridge stocked well.
To me, the idea of eating lots of weight-loss clubs branded foods is sickening, full of chemical enhanced foods designed to take even more of your hard earned money out of your pockets, then allow you lose weight, but long term you are destined to put back on (97% OF PEOPLE IT HAPPENS TO according to latest studies). Then, they want your money all over again, what a scam so are you going to fall for it again!
Here’s a list of things to stock to make sure you are never without good, nutritious food. Some of these are used more sparingly than others.
Tins
Low sugar and low salt baked beans, tinned sweetcorn, tomatoes, tinned fruit (no sugar in their own juice), chick peas, kidney beans, cannelloni beans, tinned tuna, mackerel, salmon, sardines.
For your freezer
Chicken portions and fillets, lower fat beef, pork, lamb, frozen herbs, stir fry vegetables, frozen blueberries, strawberries, summer fruits, frozen sweetcorn, carrots, mixed veg, broccoli, frozen peas, green beans, real fish fingers, salmon, tuna, cod, tofu
For your fridge
Milk, eggs, cottage cheese, low fat cheese, yoghurt, orange juice, apple juice, hummus, Cooked chicken, turkey pieces, lean beef
Bottles
Vinegar, olive oil, tomato puree, long-life milk, low sugar jam
Flavourings
Cous cous, pesto, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, curry paste, garlic puree, stock cubes.
Dried items
Wholemeal bread, wholemeal wraps, wholemeal pitta bread. Pasta, wholemeal flour, brown rice, porridge, dried fruit, dried pulses.
Okay, that is out of the way so you can see how important it is to shop properly in the first place.
To get organised for the actual cooking, let’s try the following ways to get your healthy eating actually happening in practice!
Number one
It’s been in the news over the last few months that we throw away an horrendous amount of food every week, which adds up to around £700 a year, so try these ideas to sort that out!
Keep fruit and vegetables in the fridge or freezer so they last longer for example.
Number two
Crush the myth that it’s too expensive to eat healthy. Recent studies show that that a weekly shop of healthy food compared to a weekly shop of processed, fatty and sugary foods varies by JUST 40 PENCE!!
Number three
If you start cooking from scratch, you will save money and make meals you can be sure that will be healthy. You can make simple meals out of only 4 ingredients, in fact there’s many books on the subject.
Number four
We do it in my house now we have two kids, planning your meals for the week is highly important and let’s you plan for what you shop for better.
For example, you can cook a whole chicken instead of using the ready cooked parts already split up for you, much cheaper this way.
With the chicken, you can easily do the following.
This is pasta bake recipe, you can use with chicken, meat, fish, whatever you like tins of any beans of you want for vegetarians (haricot, cannelloni etc) !
Fill two mugs of dried pasta, place it in water and boil pasta as per instructions on pack, whilst the pasta is boiling, place olive oil in a frying pan, chop an onion and one garlic clove into the pan , once that softens, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, and teaspoon of dried mixed herbs, simmer for 5-10 mins and when the pasta is ready, drain the pasta and tip it into the sauce. You can add cooked chicken, tin of tuna, tin of any beans, just mix it up and add black pepper.
You can serve just like this, or place in a baking dish, grate a little cheddar on the top or thin slices of mozzarella and place in an oven for 20 mins at 180 degrees, until cheese is bubbling and golden.
Number 5
If you eat the supermarket brands, they have been shown to have not suffered the price increases that bigger brands have. I’m not bigging up their own brands, but it can save a lot on your weekly shop.
Number 6
Eat seasonal foods. Once you eat foods in season, they are always cheaper and usually have less chemicals added to them, you win all round plus they actually taste nicer!!
Number 7
If you shop later in the day, there are always more bargains on the shelves, the big supermarkets often have scandalous deals on even the most nutritious, and valuable food for your week.
Number 8
Since I started using my freezer, I have saved an awful of money on my shop. Studies have shown that vegetables frozen lose little of their nutritional value, plus you won’t be throwing all that food away all the time!
Number 9
Check your consume by dates. If you buy something today and you have to eat it tomorrow, you’re less likely to actually eat it, which is really a waste of money. Supermarkets are very clever pushing foods to the front of the shelf.
Number 10
Online shopping may not sound like cost-cutting, but it can make sense all round. You are not tempted to eat the rubbish that sometimes confronts you in supermarkets, online offers you the best value that particular day, your shopping remains consistent and you always get the basics/essentials you actually need! I use it all the time now and find it very handy indeed!
Give all of this a go and see how you get on!
Keri
Okay where do i start? First of all its day 64 and if you have been following this, its just 20 days left, and you can see by now how hard these 12 weeks are to do, and if you have stuck by the 64 days, you should have come a long way down the track.
Let’s sort some of the issues out too, Jean has come a long way but has had a bad week for various reasons but seems to be back on course now. She has achieved big things before like many of you because she has had a big work ethic, achieved consistency with her eating and training, and generally got some momentum going. Isn’t this the best situation to be in, and isn’t very valuable to stay in this perfect phase of your training?
Jean lost her training partner, and that was unfortunate. The realities of training partners can be fantastic, they are great company and usually push you a little bit further than you think you can go. They will call for you even when you don’t want them to sometimes, so all of these positives are fantastic in my view.
Now her training partner is injured, the running side will be suffering. The answer to that would be that i usually found myself that training partners don’t usually last long, or they start turning up late or they start cancelling. I have been through many training partners over the years, and to be honest now i just rely on myself to get the job done, even if its harder to motivate yourself sometimes! My golden retrievers can also be a big help on my sunday runs!
The reality of having a circle of friends is very relevant as she says. I have friends who drink and smoke too much, here’s the way i work my week, i will eat very well 90% of the week, a bit of what i fancy at the weekend, nothing wrong with a few drinks on a saturday either, but i always make sure i hit the road first thing sunday morning. I made it my golden rule to go the run the morning after.
All my friends will be in bed, but its important to me to get out and do something. Took a while to get into it, and it would be easier to stay in bed, but I DO feel better afterwards, and thats all that matters to me. Plus i don’t seem to put weight on that i would have if i didn’t go for that run.
So, it doesn’t mean i lose all my friends, i hang around with people i feel comfortable with too!
I have never been into all this rubbish of being friends with everyone i think i “should be friends with”! That’s just not me. I’m not into dinner parties and i don’t like formal occasions. Some people love those things and all that sucking up to people, i’ve never done it and don’t intend to start now! I believe it’s called “networking”, i’ve never needed it for my business and i believe your work should speak for itself, some people love all of that but definitely not my scene!
So the answer to jean and everyone else is to always stick to what you really believe in. Most of you wouldn’t be on here unless you weanted the very best for yourself. Sometimes, we all get distracted and i am here to help, like others who post too and their thoughts are always very valuable. The bottom line is that you can all reach your goals, there is always a bumpy road but that’s life. Keeping going towards your big outcome is the key thing, the worst thing is quitting before you even got there.
If you’re always going forward, you WILL get there! Every time i read that jean or anyone else is doing well, that usually means they are happy. When they make more negative posts, it means that they are unhappy and not eating well or training well, i’m here tonight to tell them that they can get back on track, and it takes getting back to basics, and believing in their abilities. I know its harder than it sounds, but thats why i preach every day about doing the basics right, that way you will soon do them without even thinking about them, kind of like cleaning your teeth!!
A rocky start to the week, let’s make sure it improves tenfold by the end of it!! I would change my principles but i am here to listen!