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Thursday, 8th March

Following on with the family food advice, you need to keep considering why you are doing this whole thing, and this will keep you strong in your times of doubt and uncertainty.

  • Eating often is fun and good for you!

–     This day’s eating is all about eating every 3 hours or so, raising the rate our bodies burn calories so we burn more fat, feeling full throughout the day so we don’t feel the need to binge at certain time, and actually feel about hundred times better than we have before.

Positive trade off’s

–     You CAN keep this way of eating up if you really try and all it takes sometimes is  5 minutes preparation the night before making a packed lunch.

–     Plus, all that money you will have spent on junk food can go on something worthwhile, like a new dvd or some new clothes!

  • Summing up

–     changing your lifestyle to a rewarding healthy one starts with what you put into your body. Make it a priority when you go to a supermarket to influence your parents on what you want to eat. As a parent, you can inspire your kids to eat well too. They will listen if you tell then you want good food (and vice-versa) and soon it will become second nature.

–     Make sure you try and work up to 5 servings of fruit and veg a day

–     Try and get 2 servings of protein such as fish, chicken, eggs, lean beef, nuts, lentils etc per day.

–     Choose 2 portions of milk, yoghurt, cheese etc for calcium and extra protein

–     Use whole meal/wholegrain versions of pasta, bread, rice, cereals, potatoes to give you lots of energy every day.

–     Try to limit these in your diet using them more as a treat-Crisps, cakes, biscuits, pastries, chips, mayo,  salad cream, margarine, cooking oil, pop/fizzy drinks

You have had a pretty good overview on how you should be making your healthy lifestyle count, and its benefits.

If you adopt all or most of these guidelines, then you and your family’s quality of life in terms of health will be enhanced out of all recognition.

Once you do it this way, you won’t fall for the next “big” diet, those slimming classes that never ever worked long term (scientific studies back all of this up), or any of the faddy ways to lose weight.

Trust in your own instincts of what is right, is sensible and likely to work for you over a lifetime!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 7th March

We were working on having a good morning yesterday in terms of ideas for you and your kids meals, so its time to concentrate on having a good afternoon, to really maximise your progress. Eating well is vital if you’re interested in being the best you AND YOUR FAMILY can be!

Lunch

–     Because you’ve eaten twice before lunch time, you should feel less hungry  than you normally do. If you’re starving eating lunch, then you’re likely to pick the wrong foods and have a real binge.

–     Packed lunches are often the choice for most children and with a little planning, they can make a successful day for you.

  • Sandwiches are often king and although wholemeal bread is king, white bread kids love and with some wholemeal flour can be better than just plain white, also you could combine white and wholemeal slices in a sandwich?
  • Whole meal pitta bread is also a great choice and is lower in calories and can make a great change. Also, when making a sandwich, try and pack it with veggies as well as the meat,  fish,chicken etc, it may be a toughie to start with but you’ll soon get used to it.
  • Fish is a great food for the brain as well as rest of body which can be mixed with things like pesto and veggies, and can go great in a sandwich. Chicken also works well and seems to be universally liked, providing a high protein source and goes well with any combo of veg and salad. Lean beef is also good as it’s tasty and much lower in fat than i used to be .

–      Remember to keep the spread small too, don’t slap it on, merely a smearing will do

  •   If you want to use mayo, use a small amount and the lowest in fat please.
  •  I used to have yoghurts in my sandwich box but most seem full of sugar these days. Natural yoghurt sounds horrible but with some berries, chopped apples, dried fruit, nuts in a re-usable sealed pot can be very tasty and hugely energising.
  •  Rather than put cheese in a sandwich, use it as a snack. There a lot of cheese snacks these days but most are full of additives, a simple piece or two of tasty cheese will do the trick. Low fat versions for parents or cottage cheese versions much better again!
  •  However good your lunch box, don’t serve the same stuff every day or kids get bored, mix it up with different fruit, different bread for sandwiches, different yoghurts etc and interest will be maintained. Same with parents, we all get bored if you don’t change it!
  • Using dips works too with things like hummus and a cool box for the lunch box will keep all of these healthy ingredients cool and much more appetising after being in a school bag all morning. Same with parents food boxes, we all want nice food and cool to taste.

–     You’re never going to completely ban treats so just trying scaling them down to very other day to start. Most of us  adapt quickly to this and soon get used to having treats sometimes just once a week. A good idea sometimes is to make your own cakes perhaps using a little less sugar than normal. And if you put mostly natural ingredients in, at least they are going  to be much better than what we can get in shops!

  •  Mid-afternoon

–     This is a typical time when all of our energy levels are tested.

  •  A small handful of nuts (almonds, brazils, cashews etc) would be a great choice and give you some of the healthy fats your body needs.
  • A piece of fruit such as an apple, banana or orange would be great too for some added energy.
  • Remember to keep a variety of food every day so you’re not eating the same old stuff all the time or you will rebel and grab something that’s high in fat and sugars and normally off limits for you.
  • Evening meal

–     How many of us have got home and felt starving even before we’ve got through the door. We pick something sometimes like a cheese sandwich to tide us over before the bit meal comes along. There’s nothing we can do about it either unless we have followed the typical day’s eating we have just talked about which will sort out those feelings.

  • Good examples of an evening meal would be some chicken/fish, with vegetables in whatever way you want as long as they’re not drowned in rich sauces, from a stir fry with a little olive oil to any healthy cooking method you want, and some brown rice, whole wheat pasta or some new potatoes and more examples to follow.
  • You can get buy or make your own tomato sauce/pesto to add to these meals. 
  • Always look to add veg to whatever meal you’re having in the evening, extra veg on some pasta and top of a pizza, use hummus as a dip,
  • use fruit salad a gorgeous dessert, or some natural yoghurt with fruit chopped in, with some nuts and maybe dried fruit also, a bit of imagination can go a long way in making the most important family meal of the day a roaring success! 
  • Take these ideas and make them work for you!!!
Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 6th March

How’s your food intake going? Good or bad? Stuck in a rut? Okay, here’s some ideas and can work espeically well for families for breakfast and mid-morning, we all need a great start before lunch!

  • Breakfast

–     We all  have problems eating breakfast, especially eating good stuff. Here’s some ideas. 

  • You can throw some sultanas, berries or some banana over your cereal, how about mixing 2 or 3 fruit juices up together as a drink or making your own smoothie by throwing in some fruit with some milk in a blender, you can make your own muesli more fun by putting in some apricots, dates, figs, chopped orange and apples.
  • How about chopping up a ripe banana on some toast instead of a big spoon of butter or marge?
  • Eggs are great for protein and can taste great on toast. These ideas work well especially when you’re trying  to get more fruit in your diet without really noticing.

–     mid-morning

–     Remember this is a way of life and not a diet! No starving yourself please?

  •  Smaller apples with more flavour work well as well as tangerines which can be easier to peel than oranges.
  • Kiwis taste great as well as cherries, blueberries and strawberries.
  • Nuts like brazils, cashews and almonds are beautiful as a handful and give you a lot of good fats for a change!

 Hope this all sounds a lot better than either being too restrictive, or on the other side being too indulgent which means foods usually dripping in saturated fat, which you know is going to be bad news for our hearts and arteries, which inevitably leads to heart attacks, strokes etc if done over a longer period of time.

Some people always go on about how much it costs for fresh food, but try comparing that with alcohol in pubs, cigarettes and sweets and its a pittance!!!

If you manage to get some of these great foods into your body daily, you will soon feel amazing and look around a thousand times better in all ways!

More tomorrow!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, February 26th

To maximise your gains in fitness, i cannot stress enough how vital your eating is, and what eating CLEAN really means.
To me, eating clean means eating food as much as possible in its natural state, and keeping refined sugars to an absolute minimum.
 
All the foods we always talk about will always bear fruit for you if you pardon the pun!
 
Porridge is a natural food that gives you long term energy, and stops you snacking.
 
Any oat based products or porridge with added “apple pie” type flavourings, WILL NOT DO YOU ANY GOOD.
 
Wholemeal bread in moderation is a sign of good clean eating, White bread is the equivalent of a disaster zone, full of refined sugar, bleaching agents and lots of chemicals and rubbish designed to put weight on you, it will be really unhealthy on all sorts of level for your body, and you have to avoid this rubbish if you are to be successful in weight/fat loss.
 
The margarine and butter on top should be avoided, this is saturated fat and can never be any good. Saying that, butter is the natural product and helps your body more than margarine, which can be horrid for your body and contains needless calories.
 
White meats are very welcome, fish is fantastic (no batter or any fatty sauce on it), cottage cheese is great, lean cuts of red meat are fine once a week.
 
White pasta is not acceptable when you can eat “clean” and have wholegrain and wholewheat pasta.
 
New potatoes and sweet potatoes are great examples of potatoes with a nice low sugar release, and offer a lot of nutrition.
 
White potatoes wont work as well, more refined sugar.
 
Fruit is fine in moderation, although classed as refined sugar, is a food in its natural state and offers far more than any negatives.
 
Fruit juice should be dilluted, and this will will give you far less refined sugar per glass.
 
All vegetables are classed as eating clean, and offer an abundance of nutrients and is nature’s way of making you healthy and helping your body to function properly.
 
Eating clean means trying to be as natural as possible in your food choices, this will automatically cut down on your refined sugars, and give you dramatic changes in bringing your body fat down!!
Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 21st February

Eating on a budget is one of the topical subjects that needs to be addressed, and just about everyone has thought of, or probably already taken action on, given the very harsh economic climate.

There is good news though, and there are many options. Being careful with your money usually means that you cut out the little treats in your diet, the things loaded with sugar and fat, guaranteed to wreck your energy levels and pile on the body fat over time.

So if you are cutting back financially, the junk snacks need to go right now.

I always encourage everyone to eat plain and more natural, if you’re cutting back, then this needs to happen and again, your biggest beneficiary will be your waistline and hips.

So start off the day with plain oats, which are very cheap if you go for the big bag the supermarket sell, around 75p a kilo. Add water or milk to taste, and this will give you up to 4 hours energy!

Try getting your fruit and vegetables from like likes of Aldis and lidl’s to save money, but they are actually nicer in my experience., and you save a fortune!

If you’re looking at pasta, try the big bag of wholegrain pasta, which keeps it slow release energy, again eat in moderation and you will lose body fat, try making your own tomato sauce for flavouring. Throw a tin of fish in there, mix it up and you have a great meal, and very low in cost compared to the first class nutrition you are getting.

Stir fries are great to make with all that veg, and with a piece of chicken, lean beef or any fish.

The cans of fish are still really cheap, and I consume them a lot. Mackerel, tuna, salmon will fit well into any meal and are a first class protein source you need in main meals.

Drinks are often a source of needless calories and things like diet drinks need to be avoided too, they cost money and not good for you internally. Plain old fashioned water will be zero calories for you, help you actively lose body fat, and give you up to a third more energy, a win win situation.

Don’t bother with supermarket sandwiches, high in fat, salt and sugar, expensive for what you get. Try making your own filled pitta bread wholemeal options. Vegetables and a protein source of your choice will work brilliantly and work perfectly for lunch.

 With a bit of thought, you can eat very well and economically!

Twitt