Posted on

Thursday, 18th October

Another underrated part of good nutrition is making sure you eat and drink after your workout, no matter how late it is!

Your body needs carbs, protein and other nutrients to fill back up your energy stores and make sure your body recovers after training. If you miss this meal, it will definitely delay recovery and leave you feeling sluggish the next day.

As long as you don’t overeat, these extra calories won’t turn into fat!

Try and consume the majority of your calories and nutrients earlier in the day if possible, especially if you workout at 5-6pm, which is popular with a lot of people.

If you exercises normally at that time, you should have had a good breakfast and lunch, and a mid-morning snack and mid-afternoon snack too. This should give you enough energy to put in a good training session.

Straight after you train, try and have a drink immediately, either water or diluted fruit juice (which keeps your simple sugars lower), then a lighter meal as soon as you can.

A jacket potato with tuna or cottage cheese will work well, chicken salad with rice, pasta with a lighter natural sauce, you could try baked beans with tomatoes on toast, that would work well too.

This meal is essential after training to speed up the recovery process greatly! If you did a bit of planning beforehand, you would make sure these ingredients are easily at hand and it would be quick to make these meals.

This makes sure you’re not tempted to eat fast food, anything too sugary or your worst nightmare-ready meals after your workout which is a big no-no of course!!!

Other examples of meals to get your energy levels back after workouts include;

Lentils with rice and vegetables

Mashed potato (without butter) with grilled salmon and salad

More naturally made chicken curry with rice and vegetables

Chilli with rice and green vegetables

Lasagne with salad

Pitta bread with protein source and salad

Bean and vegetable soup with wholemeal bread

Jacket potato, chicken breast, broccoli and carrots

Fish pie with cauliflower and cabbage

Any more information, contact www.keri mckibbin.co.uk

07968 980808

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 9th October

Lots of little colds and annoying little illnesses around lately, and some of them taking at least a couple of weeks to finally go!!!

So it’s a probably a great time to discuss how you should play this situation from a training perspective?

The rule of thumb should be the following.

If you are feel a little bit off above the neck, then its still okay to train as long as you are sensible, and i’m talking about little sniffle’s and not heavy cold’s!!!  If you have a heavy cold or really bad headache, then you should not train definitely!

If you are aching below your shoulders, then you should not train as you are probably going down with something. Aching from a cold or flu perpective means you should rest your body right now, and try and still keep drinking water to keep you hydrated, this will help in the recovery process for sure.

You must realise that exercise can be a massive positive for your immune system, and protect you against future colds and illnesses.

However, IF your immune system is already compromised, and i mean run down and not feeling well, then it definitely is not a good time to exercise, as exercise can put extra stress on your immune system and can mean a 2-3 day recovery from a cold turning into a 2-3 week recovery from a much heavier cold. This is why you must treat your body with care and respect your immune system.

You know how to boost your immune system by now? Eat a wide variety of nutrients, eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, eat nuts in sensible portions, get plenty of sleep, avoid alcohol, certainly avoid cigarettes, which could be considered as the worst thing in creation for your body!!

Autumn is a delicate time for all sorts of colds, so make sure you eat well, eat natural when you can and respect your body by doing all the right things you know that will work very well for you!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 5th October

Metabolism talk rounds up our week, and if you can get this vital subject under control, and firing FOR you 24 hours a day, then you are likely to be burning fat and likely to achieve the body you always wanted, AND STAY THERE!!

One of the most unlikely tips i can give you that you wouldn’t have thought about regarding metabolism is water!

Most people don’t regard water as boosting your metabolism but they couldn’t be more wrong!!!

Water is paramount to a lean healthy physique.

Water is crucial for flushing fat out of the sytem, and is crucial for your body’s messaging system to fire correctly. And drinking water can actually raise your metabolism!

Being dehydrated can give you sugar cravings, tricking your mind into thinking you are hungry, rather than thirsty! Keeping hydrated keeps your body in balance, keeping you in tune with your body’s actual needs.

The less cravings you have, the more fat you lose because you’re less likely to make poor choices.

A recent german study showed that subjects who drunk healthy amounts of water, compared to others who didnt drink enough, BURNT around 30% more calories, and their metabolic rates were proven to increase for the same amount. This started within 10 minutes of drinking the water, and reached a peak 40 minutes after drinking the water.

The moral of the story is drink more water, and if you train hard in the gym, drink even more!!!

One minor point is to say that you should keep it to water too. If you fall for misleading information about energy/sports drinks, then you will be consuming almost pure sugar for no real reason apart from some dodgy marketing claim that has no basis. Your performance will go up 33% if you keep fully hydrated, so don’t fall for similar sports drink claims. Sports drinks are only worthwhile after 60 minutes of continuous exercise.

Time to get your metabolism working at its best levels, and make fat loss much easier than you ever thought!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 4th October

It’s metabolism all the way this week, and here’s some more ways to get it fired up!!

If you eat 5-6 times a day, then you are raising your metabolism nicely, as the act of eating alone will make you burn more calories.

Its vital these meals though are not over-sized, and are smaller in general as you will be eating every 3-4 hours. The idea is to eat breakfast, lunch and evening meal, with mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks keeping you full and energised in between.

So if you eat three meals a day, you will be raising your metabolism 3 times a day, instead of 5-6 times a day with the smaller meals and snacking method.

Another benefit of eating multiple times a day is that you never get hungry, your body will expect food regularly and this will make sure you are not tempted to binge!

Another great way to raise your metabolism is to eat real foods. That may sound strange but eating real vegetabls, real fruit and most importantly, AVOIDING PROCESSED FOOD whenever you can.

Most of the processed food you get in the supermarket these days doesn’t take much digestion, therefore burning less calories and also playing havoc with your digestive system.

If you eat fruit, real vegetables, real oatmeal for example, your body’s whole digestive system is working at its full capacity to break down the food, then use it as an energy source.

This process will not go on when you eat processed rubbish, that seems to fill most of the aisles in supermarkets!! Ready meals are the most guilty example, but anything that takes a minute or so to heat up and eat is usually going to be very poor for your internal digestive system.

Eating natural isn’t always possible, so try to use processed foods before your training session. This way you can at least use the food as energy and get it out of your system as soon as possible!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 27th September

These are choices that are going to work for you, these are real foods, no shakes, no bars, no faddy diets, these are real everyday choices that will strip body fat off, make you stronger and leaner, as well as keeping you very healthy on the insides too, which is vital! This is very sustainable and will positively contribute to your healthy lifestyle!!

 

Portion size for protein and carbs should be the size of your fist as a general rule, have as much vegetables as you like. This will make sure you do not overeat.

 

Try and avoid any packet or jar sauces, do not cook with salt or add salt to your meal (encourages blood pressure), and try to keep your ingredients as natural as possible for maximum results!!!

 

You can use these for lunch times, and for your evening meal.

Chicken breast with 100g pitta bread, add a serving of salsa and a serving of salsa-489 calories

Chicken breast, a serving of lettuce, 100g of boiled potatoes, 100g asparagus, plus 2 dates to finish-437 cals

A good piece of salmon, sweet potato, 100g of spinach, 10g of peas and nectarine to finish-423 finish

Piece of turkey,  50g brown rice, 100g broccoli, 100g carrots and an orange afterwards-402 cals

125g lean roast chicken without skin, 225g new potatoes, 100g butternut squash, brushed with tsp olive oil baked, 60g peas, 100g dark leafy greens, 50g home made rice, apricot but stuffing, 5tsp pan juices made into a sauce with a little wine

631 cals, 21g total fat, 4g saturated fat, 45.7g protein, 68g carbs

Thin sliced turkey breast, one tablespoon cranberry sauce warmed in small bowl for 30 secs, pour sauce over turkey. Serve with brown rice and broccoli-455 calories

I medium baked potato or sweet potato with 100g cottage cheese and tomato and cucumber-160 cals

1medium wholemeal roll, 100g tomato, good slice of 100g turkey breast plus some strawberries and low fat natural yoghurt-393 cals

Grill and lean cut of steak how you like it, squeeze the juice from half a lime over the meat and sprinkle pepper and garlic powder. Then slice and serve with brown rice and salsa-393 cals

Grill any fish with a selection of steamed veg-100 cals and that’s a ton of veg!!

100g haddock 81, mackerel 220 canned salmon 153, try with lemon and potato

Smother a grilled, skinless chicken breast with a freshly squeezed lemon, either a jacket potato or boiled potatoes with it-303 cals

Brown rice salad with beans and asparagus-263 cals

In small saucepan, mix one can of chicken broth, a sliced grilled chicken breast, a 50g portion of cooked barley and a handful of your mixed veg. heat for 5 mins.-400g

Tuna salad-drain a can of tuna in brine, place tuna in bowl and mix one tsp of very light mayo if you have to and some juice from a lemon. Pile tuna on top of lettuce and serve with a portion off fruit. This is a light meal with plenty of good stuff throughout the meal.

Pasta and tuna salad-50g of wholemeal pasta, 100g of carrots, 100g of tomatoes, 100g cucumber, a can of tuna in brine and apple to finish-373 cals.

For further information please go to www.kerimckibbin.co.uk

Or telephone 07968 980808

Twitt