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Your weekly shop

One of the key basics is your weekly shop of course.

I have banged on about this for a long time. As long as 80% of your shopping is good nutritious food, then you are in a good situation. After all, how many tmes have you bought sugary/fatty foods and promised yourself you’re only going to eat them on “special occasions”?!!

Those special occasions happen quite a lot in my book and its always surprising how quickly all those extra treats are gulped down in record time!

I keep telling everyone, if you are REALLY shopping for healthy food and get used to the supermarket layout, chances are you wont visit many of the aisles, as most of them are full of you know what! It shows the supermarket really bets on most of its visitors filling up on junk, and how many times have you looked at someone’s basket and how many clues does that give to the owner’s appearance and body in general.

If a shopping basket/trolley is full of white bread, biscuits, multi-pack chocolate bars, value packs of crisps (around 10 packs in one big bag), bottles of wine and lager, full fat milk, not much veg or fruit, lots of orange squash, lots of ready meals and other processed versions of real food, you get the picture!! If this is indeed the case, you can be sure the owner of this trolley and most likely their family is suffering from obesity issues, which include diabetes, blood pressure problems, cardiovascular problems, bad circulation and a whole host of life-changing problems.

Compare this to someone who has a trolley full of porridge, low fat low sugar beans, fish of all kinds (no batter), chicken, turkey, lean beef, cottage cheese, lots of fruit and vegetables, wholegrain pasta, brown rice, sweet, jacket and new potatoes,  all the good stuff guaranteed to make you look and feel fantastic.

Put your treats in if you must, but 80% plus of the trolley needs to be good nutritious food, hugely important to get in the habit of this and not to be sidetracked into the aisles full of junk!

You all have worked hard for your money, spend it on food thats actually going to make you feel good and help you reach all your goals!

Twitt
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Eating before exercise

Its more important than you think to have a snack before exercise.

We are all a bit different and react that bit different to all sorts of foods, so working out what best food choice for you and agrees with you is always important.

Whole grains, lower far dairy or fruits will always work well for you as a stop gap for your workouts and give you some energy for your tougher workouts through the summer.

Try eating these snacks if you can at least 30 minutes before exercise to make sure your food goes down properly, and your food is ready to release energy into your system.

The 30 minute rule applies to smaller snacks, if you were to eat a big meal before training, you may need 90 mins to 2 hours before your workout.

I find some people have better digestive systems than others. I find i can eat and literally then go for a run. I could probably do a big meal and exercise 30-60 minutes later, but that took a lot of getting used to because i tend to eat on the run throughout the day, and took me years to get used to that because of my lifestyle.

If you stick to the guidelines i first mentioned, you shouldn’t really go wrong.

I used to try the no food strategy before a workout because i thought i may feel sick. This was a stupid strategy because i would always then fail towards the second half of the workout, due to lack of carbohydrates left in my system. I avoided the sickness for sure, but it wasn’t worth losing all that energy.

You will find also that if you don’t have food before workouts and you have no carbs in your system, then your body will use precious lean muscle tissue already on your body. This can be a disaster because you have worked so hard to get in the first place, as well as muscle being so important for your metabolic rate (the rate your body burns calories). The last thing you want is to slow down your metabolism, so lets keep getting your snacks in every 3-4 hours and really make this thing happen for you!

Not eating before exercise is bad news full stop, just like the idea of not eating breakfast, any time your body goes long periods without food, its goes into starvation mode and stops burning fat so easily.

Keeping your weekly eating well-structured and full of nutrients is the only way to go if you want the best out of yourself.

Twitt
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Stay full

Dieting is never a good word to use, as it scares the hell out of most of us. It’s often associated with going hungry, so feeling full is one of the best strategies you can take on to make the whole process of losing fat tolerable!

Most of your hunger pangs and cravings happen in your mind, and not your body’s sudden urge to consume huge amounts of food. Watching TV is a good way to get hungry and snack on things you know you shouldn’t!

The best way not to make rash decisions with your food intake is not to get so hungry in the first place.

Ways to stay fuller start with water intake believe it or not, not only does it burn body fat and make your insides work well, it also makes you feel full.

Eating fibre makes you feel full too as it takes a while before it gets through your system. You also get better cholesterol, better blood sugar levels and better intestinal health, an all round winner of a strategy!

What about times when you get uncontrollable urges to eat  kebab, ice cream, chocolate etc? You need an emergency low-fat stash of healthy snacks to counter this, or your whole diet is going to come off the rails! I know some people who keep emergency snacks but they’re usually chocolate! If you keep chocolate in the house as an emergency, you’re going to have that “emergency” once a day so don’t buy them in the first place.

Healthy snacks include nuts, any fruit, lean pieces of beef, chicken, turkey and the occasional protein bar.

Other ways to avoid hunger bangs include staying busy, if you just hang around watching tv, you’re going to struggle big time, do something and you don’t think about food.

Eating at regular times will always help, if you know that a meal or snack is just around the corner, you’re not going to be looking to grab food in a haphzard way. Plus, you keep your blood sugar levels steady which is always good.

Don’t forget sweeter, sugary foods can re-ingnite your sugary taste buds, making you want more and more and this creates new “bad” habits!

Exercise doesn’t only burn calories, it suppresses appetite too to a degree so you’re not feeling hungry all the time.

Keep your protein intake up, eating protein in most meals fill you up, and helps keep you lean and your desire for sugary foods way down.

Staying full is vitally important, and help you make the consistent good choices you need to be in shape!

Twitt
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Inside out

One of the biggest transitions you can do is make the difference in thinking about purely weight, and thinking about your health overall.

If you purely think about weight, then healthy food can sometimes take a backseat and it doesn’t seem to matter what the quality of food is.

I have seen a ton of people eat things because they are “only 80 calories”, they will only drink things because they are only 80 calories. The next time you do that i challenge you to do this, count how many ingredients there are in that drink. I’m serious, you would have a tough job writing them all out in one go as its such a lengthy list! PLUS it does a very good job of representing a chemistry experiment, just about everything artificial you can think of is thrown in there!!!

Another way to look at it is the energy value in foods.

For instance, things such as green veggies, fruit and nuts will have a greater energy than processed foods, which are lower in calories of course but not so good for your stomach, and interal workings. These foods were put on earth for a reason,so you need to take advantage of them!

Nobody i know wants to feel terrible all the time, and if that is the case with you at the moment, do you even believe that life could feel better than it is right now? A massive part of this is to enable you to feel better and the facts are that whatever you put into your mouth will have a direct effect on how you look  and feel, its that simple for you so you take your choice on where you want to be!

Making your goals become real all start with looking after your insides, and although it could be a sizeable change for many of you right now, once your eating habits do change, even though it will be a struggle to start with, you WILL feel better inside, and as i keep saying, you will feel a lot better when you get it right from the inside out.

The biggest transition i made was saying to myself “is this piece of food going to any good for me”? Once you get to this stage and are very aware of your nutrition, life will be more full of energy and your immune system gets some serious boosting!

Twitt
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Day 79 Your amazing shopping list!

Your amazing food shopping list!

All of these foods will serve you well, and leave no shortage of ingredients for you to cook healthy meals. As long as you eat well 80% of the time, then you will be in great shape, and keep your sanity! A treat here and there is no problem when you use this philosophy.

Meat and fish

Anchovy fillets

Chicken breast

Haddock

Mackerel

Prawns

Salmon, fresh fillets and cans

Smoked salmon

Scallops

Squid

Swordfish

Tuna, fresh and canned

White fish fillets

Dairy

Free range eggs

Goat’s cheese (soft and hard)

Milk

Parmesan cheese

Tofu

Live natural yoghurt

Vegetables

Aubergines

Avocados

Beansprouts

Baby beetroot

Broccoli

Green cabbage, green red and white

Carrots

Celeriac

Celery

Chinese leaves

Corn, baby cobs

Courgettes

Cucumbers

Fennel

Garlic

Green beans

Leeks

Lettuce

Mangetout

Mixed salad leaves

Mushrooms

Red and yellow onions

Parsnips

Frozen peas

 Red yellow and green peppers

Red chillies

Rocket

Shallots

Spinach

Sprint onions

Sprouted seeds

Butternut squash

Swedes

Sweet potatoes

Tomatoes

Watercress

Fruit

Apples

Apricots

Blackberries

Blueberries

Grapefruit

Kiwi fruit

Lemons

Limes

Oranges

Pears

Raspberries

Nuts and seeds

Cashew nuts

Hazelnuts

Linseeds

Pine nuts

Pumpkin seeds

Sesame seeds

Sunflower seeds

Walnuts

Pulses

All canned

Butter beans

Cannellini beans

Chick peas

 Flageolet beans

Lentils

Mixed beans

Mung beans (dried)

Red kidney beans

Spilt yellow lentils (dried)

Split yellow peas (dried)

Grains and wheat

Brown rice

Buckwheat flour

Buckwheat noodles

Couscous

Millet flakes

Oats

Quinoa

Rye/wholegrain, wholemeal bread

Herbs

Basil

Bay leaves

Chives

Coriander

Dill

Fennel

Lemon grass

Marjoram

Mint

Mixed herbs, dried

Oregano, dried

Parsely

Rosemary

Sage

Thyme

Spices

Black pepper

Caraway seeds

Cardamom pads

Cayenne

Chilli paste

Chilli powder

Cinnamon, ground

Cloves

Coriander seeds

Cumin seeds

Curry leaves

Curry paste

Curry powder

Fennel seeds

Fresh ginger

Ginger powder

Mango powder

Mustard seed

Nutmeg

Onion powder

Paprika

Poppu seeds

Star anise

Turmeric

Oils

Avocado oil

Olive oil

Sesame oil

Walnut oil

 

As previously discussed, handy and essentials for your storecupboard

Anchovy essence

Black olives

Carrot juice

Coconut, creamed

Coconut, milk

Honey

Horseradish sauce

Mixed vegetable juice

Mustard, Dijon

Mustard, wholegrain

Peppers in olive oil

Ratatouille, canned

Soy sauce

Stock, fish

Stock, vegetable

Stock powder

Sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

Hopefully, you will find all of this useful!

Twitt