Every Step Fitness

Just a quick festive drink…’ 🥤

At this time of year all the coffee shops bring out their range of festive coffees and hot chocolates. You’re out Christmas shopping, or meeting up with friends and family, so you just grab a quick festive drink to enjoy and get you in the festive spirit. You’ll drink it in minutes, and possibly have a snack with it, without really thinking or noticing. But that’s ok, because it’s just a festive hot choc, and it’s Christmas….

These drinks do vary but are all pretty high calorie. This particular example is a Cafe Nero salted caramel brownie hot chocolate and comes in at 476 cals and 42.6g sugar.

On the other hand that selection box contains 5 chocolate bars, with less calories and sugar. Now whilst I’m sure you could eat a selection box in one sitting (I certainly could) most people probably wouldn’t . You’d probably spread it over a few hours or possibly days, rather than eating it all in one go and certainly wouldn’t have any extra snacks with it (unlike the hot choc).

Christmas is definitely a time to relax a bit on calories and certainly a time to focus more on sharing memories and happy times with people you care about. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of the calories in some of the treats you are having.

Knowledge is power so being aware of the calorie content of things, and also of our own perceptions of the things we consume is always a good thing.

If you want the festive drink – have it and enjoy it. If you want to eat your way through a selection box in one go then go for it. Just be aware of the calories so you’re making an educated choice!

Merry Christmas 🎄

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

I’ve overeaten today, I’m gonna put on fat….’

December 7, 2022 Dr Nancy P

‘I’ve overeaten today, I’m gonna put on fat….’😱

At this time of year it’s quite likely you’ll end up overeating/drinking at some point. You hop on the scales in the morning and to your horror you’ve put on several kg seemingly overnight! Like most of us the first reaction is probably to feel demoralised and demotivated, think all your weight loss efforts have been wasted and assume you’ve put however many kg of fat on overnight.

However the scales are not a very accurate measure when it comes to changes in bodyfat levels. Short term, significant, fluctuations in scale weight are normal and natural – especially large ones that seem to happen overnight. These do not mean changes in body composition, so you haven’t suddenly put on X kg of fat. Rather they tend to be related to water levels – intra and extracellular hydration.

Even if you did eat an extra 20000 calories in one day then you STILL couldn’t store that all as fat. Some would be expended in physical activity and metabolic processes, including the cost of digestion itself etc. The extra weight you see on the scales in short term fluctuations is water retention and food volume.

The reasons for it may include – a really big meal the night before, especially one that might be high in fibre, or red meat (which takes longer to digest). It could be due to your workout routine recently which can lead to short term fluid retention in the muscles. General hydration levels and salt levels will also impact it – especially if you had high levels of salt in your diet the day before. Hormones play a massive role – particularly for women and can cause fluctuations of up to 5kg due to water retention. Lack of sleep or high levels of stress will also cause you to retain fluids. Carb heavy meals and alcohol do exactly the same thing too – you retain fluid – short term. Now that is NOT to say you need to avoid any of these things – you should be working out, you should be eating carbs etc but it may help to explain any fluctuations you see.

So if you overate on one day and your scale weight is up, then before you let it get you down, just stop and think about all the reasons it is probably fluctuating. Focus on being consistent with your calories over the long term instead, and use things like the way your clothes fit, or longer term trends in weight gauge progress (i.e. if you want to weigh yourself daily then take an average each week and use the trend of that average to gauge if you’re making progress). Remember it’s the average calories consumed over weeks or months that matter – not days!

Enjoy 🤗

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Tips for Festive Socialising

December 6, 2022 Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Tips for Festive Socialising 🥂

This festive season there’s bound to be lots of socialising and If you’re trying to lose fat/weight it can be a challenge to keep things under control. Here are some tips to help reduce those extra cals.

#1 Be realistic

Saying “I’m not going to have any alcohol / desserts at all” isn’t realistic, but perhaps “I’m not going to drink at every Christmas party” might be more doable?

Decide which events are worth relaxing a bit for. One event a week is a good target, so choose the special events and then don’t worry about them, just relax and enjoy having whatever you want to have that day/night.

# Make a plan

If you’ve decided which events to relax at that means there are some events where you will want to be more careful. So you need a plan. First thing to remember is the reason you’re there is to share time with people in your life. Focus on the people and the activities rather than the food and drinks. Ensuring you’ve had something to eat before going to drinks events, or have dinner plans in place for afterwards. If it’s a dinner then just try to make the best possible choices, fill up with veggies and get some protein in, and drink lots of water. Stick to lighter beers, prosecco, white wines, clear spirits with low cal mixers etc and avoid sugar-laden cocktails.

# Plan for problems

Try to think about the possible obstacles in advance. Are buffets your weakness? Are canapes / nibbles your weak point? Have some alternative plans in place; for buffets commit yourself to one plate of satisfying food only. Make a decision before you go not to dip in to the nibbles and ensure you’re not too hungry when you arrive so you’re not starving when they come round. Making an active decision before you even get there will help you to resist them more easily.

You have to be realistic about the situations you’re facing. There’s no point planning on just eating carrot sticks all evening, you will fail, no question. So be smart about your strategy and honest about what you can manage. If you have a friend going with you share your plan with them, they might be keen to help you and give you some moral support – it’s a lot easier to say no to those canapes when you’re both refusing them.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Skinny popcorn ….

November 30, 2022 Dr Nancy P

Skinny popcorn 🍿….

Popcorn can be a great snack – it’s high volume and often lower calorie than say crisps or sweets/chocolate. But yet again manufacturers try to tap into the power of the weight loss industry to promote their products to market their products. The natural assumption is that the skinny popcorn be a lower calorie option and perhaps a ‘healthier’ choice.

In reality the ‘gourmet’ brand in this example is actually lower in calories. The skinny popcorn comes in at 481 cals per 100g.

The ‘gourmet’ brand is only 430 cals per 100g! It’s also worth noting that the skinny popcorn gives a smaller serving size of 20g whereas the other brand gives a serving size of 30g so if you were to do a quick comparison you may not spot that.

So as always don’t automatically assume these weight loss branded foods are always the better option.

Read the labels and look at the calories and then make your choice. If you’re trying to lose weight then go for the lowest calorie option, that you actually want to eat!

🤗xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Why you can’t stay on track

November 29, 2022 Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Why you can’t stay on track 😬

Sometimes it just seems like whatever you do you can’t stay on track or stick to the ‘diet’ doesn’t it? I see this so often with my clients. They start the week well but then something throws them off and it all goes pear shaped. Very often it comes down to one main reason – the all or nothing mindset.

You set yourself unrealistic expectations that can’t be achieved. You view every week as a new week to be ‘perfect’ and as soon as anything disrupts that you fall totally off the wagon and decide there’s no point doing anything. Common examples I see are things like exercising excessively every day, cutting out food groups or types of foods (sweet things / carbs etc), or skipping meals/fasting. Or you restrict yourself all week and then get to the weekend and all bets are off – either you totally give up because ‘there’s no way I could track this’ or you under estimate what you’re having at social events etc.

So what can you do instead?
Well I often talk about trying to ditch this idea of having to be perfect. You don’t need to be – what you do need to do is not give up when something disrupts the plans. You’re going to get much better results being imperfectly consistent 7 days a week than being perfect for a few days then jacking it in all the time.

So instead of waiting to start again on a Monday and going all guns blazing instead start right now. Ask yourself what small change you could make today that would get you closer to your goals. Make it a change that you could stick to even on the worst day. So for example it might be simply to track your calories – you can do this – even when you’re over your target you can still track! It might be to eat veggies every day etc. It might be to either have a starter or a dessert if you eat out – not both etc.

Making small changes you can stick to every day will get you better and faster results than the all or nothing mindset. Something is always better than nothing – even if that something isn’t perfect!

Happy Tuesday 🤗
Xx