Category: Nutrition and Calorie Tips

‘It’s just a drink….’🥤

It’s very common to be feeling like you’ve gained weight but you really don’t think you’ve eaten that much? One of the most common reasons is that we often forget to account for the calories we drink. High street coffees, hot chocolates, smoothies and ‘healthy’ iced teas etc can be surprisingly high in calorie, sometimes higher than a whole meal!

For example, a medium Black Forest Hot Chocolate with whole milk from Costa contains more calories than many of the lunch options including their cheese and ham toastie. The issue is that most of us wouldn’t think twice about grabbing one on a cold morning or as an afternoon pick-me-up. It’s ‘just a drink’… right? And if you do consider the calories you might assume it’s around 200-250 cals not nearly 450.

If your goal is fat loss, the key is being in a calorie deficit, and one hot chocolate wipes out that deficit in one hit. Many people are pretty good at keeping track of the food they eat but the drinks are often underestimated or slip under the radar entirely.

The truth is, liquid calories add up fast because they don’t make us feel full. You can drink hundreds of calories without noticing, and without feeling any more satisfied.

That doesn’t mean you have to give them up.If you enjoy a seasonal hot chocolate, enjoy it. You can even make a few choices that make it easier to accommodate it within your calories e.g. go for a small size, swap for skimmed, oat or coconut milk as they’re lower calorie, go for sugar free syrups and skip the whipped cream.

Remember knowledge it power. It’s not about cutting everyone out, it’s awareness When you know what you’re consuming, you can enjoy the things you love without accidentally derailing your progress.

🤗 xx

Weekend pattern… 😬

Weekends are often the time when people feel like they ‘fall off the wagon’.

It’s natural – it’s often a time when you’re not at work, your routine is different, you’re relaxing and de-stressing from the week. Often there are lots of social events to navigate and it can become one big ‘cheat’ weekend.

It doesn’t have to be like that though and if you want to make long term, sustainable progress then you need to find a way to make weekends less of a blow out.

It’s common for people to undereat during the day, to starve themselves and save calories for the evening. Whilst it’s definitely a good idea to save a few calories for an evening out you do have to be careful how you do it. If you don’t eat all day you will arrive at the event starving hungry. This leads to overeating and binge type behaviour as you will struggle to maintain control. Instead have smaller, well balanced meals during the day and save some calories over the course of 3-4 days for a night out. Have a small snack before you go so you’re not starving hungry too.

Whilst it’s obviously fine to have a few drinks at the weekend the calories can really add up. Instead of having 4 or more drinks every evening over the weekend (which often stretches to Thursday night too right?) just limit yourself to 2-3 drinks … in total. You will save hundreds of calories and reduce the likelihood of alcohol induced munchies too!

Just because it’s the weekend and you’re relaxing doesn’t mean it has to be an entire ‘cheat’ day or weekend. I hate that term anyway – if you have a sustainable diet you don’t need to ‘cheat’. It just creates a bad relationship with food. Instead – incorporate all the things you enjoy in your diet ALL week in portions you can accommodate in your calories.

Instead of making all your social events focused on food try to find other ways to socialise with friends. Or consider meeting for drinks or dessert rather than whole meals? Try to stick to one meal out or takeaway a weekend rather than one every night.

Most importantly if you do overeat then try not to beat yourself up, feel guilty and then think ‘f*ck it’ and sabotage the rest of your weekend. You don’t need to wait until Monday to start. Just move on, make the next meal/snack a sensible one and get back on track. Take the time to plan for the week too so you have a sensible week ahead, rather than punishing yourself with an overly restrictively Monday just because you overate at the weekend.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Enjoy

🤗

Xx

‘I’m trying to lose weight so I’m avoiding carbs ….’ 🍞

There is a common misconception that carbs are inherently ‘bad’ and that in order to lose weight you need to cut them out or avoid them completely. This usually means people cut out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc.

However they continue to eat fruit and veg without thinking twice when many actually contain more carbs. For example compared to a slice of bread a small Banana contains more calories, 3 times as many carbs and 15 times as much sugar! Now that doesn’t make the banana bad either – but why would you avoid the bread if you like it, yet happily eat the banana if you’re trying to avoid carbs?

In reality there is no reason at all to cut carbs from your diet. You can lose weight with or without carbs – it’s all about calories. Now obviously some people have medical reasons to avoid things like bread (coeliacs etc) but for the majority of people these foods are fine. The reason you may see weight loss when cutting these sorts of carbs is simply because you’re reducing your overall calorie intake. However unless you never want to eat carbs again then you’re not really setting yourself up for sustainable, long term weight management.

Obviously different carbs have different pros and cons – complex carbs will keep you fuller longer, whilst simple carbs (fruits mostly) will provide a faster hit of energy, you’ll get different nutrients from the different types too.

It’s important to have a balanced diet – including a range of carbs from bread to fruit. What works for you may not work for someone else and you may prefer to reduce consumption of carbs, but it’s important to be informed about what’s actually in the food you’re eating before you make that choice. Cutting out whole food groups is never a sensible or sustainable approach though.

Personally I enjoy all sorts of carbs – from bread, to fruit, to pasta, to potatoes – to doughnuts! Eat the carbs you like and enjoy and just be mindful of the calories! 🤗
Xx

Movie Snacks… 📺

We all love a snack with a movie, and I’m sure if you’re a chocolate lover like me you could easily chomp down through a large bar of chocolate without even thinking about it. A 180g bar of chocolate isn’t even that large really so you might even have more. That bar is 961 calories though!

Why waste 961 calories on a chocolate bar when instead you could have:

• 150g raspberries
• A mini bag of buttons
• A curly wurly
• A substantial chocolate protein mousse
• A snack bag of popcorn
  All for the just over half the calories, but with approx 25g of protein.

You could deceive yourself that you’ll only eat a few squares of the large bar or you may end up eating it all without even thinking about it. However instead you could opt for smaller chocolate bars paired with nutrient-dense foods that provide more nutritional benefits and protein, keeping you fuller for longer and making you significantly more likely to maintain your calorie deficit whilst still satisfying your sweet tooth.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some snacks with a movie but maybe try a few swaps to reduce the cals without reducing the enjoyment.
Enjoy!
🤗
Xx

Low calorie snacks for cheese lovers … 🧀

If you’re trying reduce your calories then cheese is often something that’s quite hard to incorporate easily due to it being very calorie dense. There are however a few options out there which are lower calorie and can still give you a cheesy hit! These options would be great to grab on the go for a snack, or combine for a picnic lunch or dinner etc. They also have the added advantage of being relatively high in protein so will help to keep you fuller for longer.

This list is by no means exhaustive – but it’s just a range of the options out there.

Cheese triangle – 25 cals

Cathedral City lighter mini – 62 cals

Philadelphia light mini- 52 cals

Boursin mini – 63 cals

Mini babybel light – 42 cals

Marmite cheese – 57 cals

So you can grab a cheesy snack without worrying that it’s going to derail your progress!

Enjoy 🤗

Xx