Monthly Archives: July 2013

July 31, 2013

WATCH THE CONDIMENTS.

Sauces

If you pile your plate with healthy salad and grilled fish or chicken, you may think you’re on a fast track to weight loss. However, it’s the bits on the side that can trip you up.

A dollop of mayonnaise (about 2 tablespoons) caries around 100 calories. Ketchup is better, but depending on how much you use, you could be adding around 50 calories and a whole lot of sugar to your meals.

Why not make your own dressing from fat-free Greek yoghurt instead? And swap normal ketchup for a reduced sugar variety, or use fresh, sliced tomatoes as a garnish instead.

July 26, 2013

SLEEP-BETTER FOODS.

Sleep

When sleep deprivation hits, it sends your hormones on a roller-coaster ride in search of sugar. For each 30 minutes of sleep lost a day, we eat, on average, an extra 83 calories.

The main 3 factors causing lack of sleep are caffeine, stress and alcohol. As well as reducing these, try the following foods to help you get a goodnights sleep.

  1. Eggs – provide tryptophan, which our bodies convert to serotonin, then store as the sleep chemical melatonin. Start your day with eggs to reap the benefits at night.
  2. Kiwi – research shows that participants who ate 2 kiwis and hour before bed saw an increase in average nightly kip and a boost in sleep quality.
  3. Cherry juice – juice from the Montmorency cherry is rich in melatonin. It can be hard to get hold of fresh cherries, but you can buy them dried or in juice or capsules.
July 19, 2013

BREAK THE HABIT.

You can break your bad eating habits one step at a time. Here are simple solutions for the 7 most common bad eating habits.

  1. Make a plan and stick to it. Consuming the same simple, locally grown or organic foods week to week will help prevent you from resorting to last-minute fast-food (and unhealthy) meals. Avoid using treats, such as ice cream or other sweets, as a reward for a hard day.
  2. Don’t munch on the run. Our brains feel deprived if we aren’t mindful of the food we’re eating. Make a point to eat breakfast and dinner at a table as often as possible. Otherwise, you may end up eating anytime, anyplace – like when you’re lying on the sofa watching TV.
  3. Avoid noshing in the car. You can quickly become trained to eat whenever you’re behind the wheel. Plus, it’s harder to keep track of what you’re eating if you’re driving and munching.
  4. Have a healthy snack, like fruits and veggies, 30 minutes before you eat a meal. It can take as long as half an hour for fullness signals to travel from the stomach to the brain. The sooner you start eating, the sooner your belly will get the message to your brain that you’ve had enough food.
  5. Downsize your dishes. Unless our plates are full, we tend to feel cheated, like we haven’t eaten enough. Try using a side plate instead of a dinner plate to help control those portion sizes.
  6. Bust your eating triggers. If watching your favorite reality show triggers a craving for bowlfuls of your favorite snack, give up eating in front of the TV.
  7. Exercise, exercise, exercise. It will help you maintain a healthy weight, and it can prevent compulsive eating because, like food, it produces stress relief and a feeling of well-being.
July 12, 2013

DON’T CURB YOUR CARBS.

Many of us fear the consequences of carbohydrates and their associations with weight gain have stuck with many dieters.

In fact, this comfort food is an important macronutrient and has major benefits on our bodies. Choosing your carbs wisely could help you to ward off disease, keep the excess pounds at bay and improve your fitness performance.

So, what are the benefits of this underrated food group?:

  • Essential for our cognitive skills – carbs are the only fuel that our brains can utilise, so without this our brain health and memory deteriorate.
  • Vital source of fuel for exercisers – they are your body’s preferred fuel for energy. Having the right fuel at the right time is critical to performance.
  • Helps ward off food cravings – eating the right carbs will help keep to minimise potential sugar peaks and troughs.

So, it’s not about omitting carbohydrates from your diet entirely, it’s about making the right choices based on your own activity levels and objectives.

Check out the following top facts to help you eat smart and rebuild your friendship with the good guys:

  • The general recommendation is that around 50-60% of your diet should be carbohydrates. These should mainly be vegetables, some fruit, bread and grains.
  • If you’re trying to slim down, opt for veg like broccoli, tomatoes and peppers with a small helping of slow-release carbs like sweet potato or brown rice.
  • If you’re training hard you may need a steady intake of carbs throughout the day, plus a carb-based pre-workout snack.
  • For those who are training, it is recommended that you consume about 5g of carbs per kilo of body weight.
  • The top carb champs are oats, spelt, legumes, millet, wild rice, wholemeal bread, pearl barley and quinoa.
July 5, 2013

THE WONDER OF WALNUTS.

Walnuts

A recent study suggests that eating walnuts a couple of times a week could reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study of almost 140,000 women found that snacking on 28g of walnuts twice a week slashed the risk by 24%.

For an extra nutritional boost, opt for raw over roasted nuts.