be snack aware – Page 71 – Every Step Fitness

‘Healthy’ brekkie on the go vs ‘naughty’ brekkie…. 🥐

If you’re rushing in the mornings you may need to grab something to eat on the go. You may really enjoy a pain au chocolat but avoid it because you feel it’s ‘naughty’ and instead go for a ‘healthy’ nut bar.

You may view the pain au chocolat as bad as you don’t feel it’s packed with protein or ‘good’ fats, or vitamins or all those things we know we should be eating. It’s an ‘all butter’ pain au chocolat (omg!) so it is definitely evil and must be avoided at all costs…..So you avoid it. But nuts are healthy right so you can have a nut bar and feel virtuous.

Maybe you didn’t really fancy a nut bar or maybe you think it’s ok cos at least you’ve made a good decision in terms of your weight loss goals…. Or have you ?

A pain au chocolat from a supermarket multipack is 210 cals and actually has less fat and sugar than the 218 calorie nut bar (and only a little less protein). So you haven’t actually saved yourself anything by going for the nut bar.

So, if you are a fan of the pain au chocolat or need to grab something from home to eat on the go then go for it! And if you’re having the nut bar just because you think it’s ‘heathy’ and by extension lower calorie then maybe rethink that. I would add though that a pain au chocolat from a cafe is likely to be somewhat larger (eg Starbucks is 314 cals) so just be mindful to check the cals! As always knowledge is power!

Enjoy 🤗

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday tip: Think outside the gym

March 7, 2023 Dr Nancy P

Tuesday tip: Think outside the gym 🏋🏼‍♂️

Whilst you can’t out-exercise your diet and diet is undoubtedly king when it comes to fat loss it’s obviously still important to be active and to exercise for lots of reasons – not least of which is health and well being.

It’s very hard to create a meaningful calorie deficit via exercise and activity alone. You have to work extremely hard to burn more than a few hundred calories in a workout. Studies show we usually over estimate cals burnt and how active we are. Even if you’re working out every day you may not be as active as you think if you spend the rest of the day sat down. So we are likely to perceive a workout as burning more calories than it actually does. There’s also a tendency after a tough workout to eat more- either because we reward ourselves for the perceived effort or because we’re hungry. There’s also a tendency to be generally less active too if you’re exhausting yourself in workouts.

The end result is that by being focused on workouts as the only source of calorie expenditure we can end up moving less generally and eating more.

So as well as workouts try to think beyond the gym. The calories you burn in a 45 min workout will be considerably fewer than what you burn being generally active for the rest of the day. So think about how you spend the rest of your day. Do you find yourself sitting more than perhaps you need to? Do you amble instead of walking with purpose? Do you take the lift instead of the stairs. Think beyond the gym and focus instead on making yourself more active – get up, stand instead of sit, walk faster, walk more!

Also don’t be tempted to eat exercise calories back – just treat them as bonus cals rather than something to eat back.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Ways you could be subconsciously over eating…

March 1, 2023 Dr Nancy P

Ways you could be subconsciously over eating… 😋

When it comes to losing weight /fat it really is true that you get out what you put in. So often we subconsciously consume more than we realise. Sometimes it’s due to lack of time, sometimes it’s because our focus is elsewhere e.g. being distracted by work and absentmindedly grabbing a snack, sometimes it’s because we perceive things to be fewer calories than they are, and sometimes it’s denial – we don’t want to admit to what we’ve eaten or it feels too overwhelming to try to track it all.

So if you’re not seeing progress maybe it’s worth just having a think and seeing if you’re perhaps subconsciously consuming more than you think. Common ways this happen include:

Estimating rather than measuring. Are you actually weighing things or are you using estimated weights? Eyeballing things and saying that’s probably about 30g? Or you using inaccurate measures like ‘cups’ or ‘medium banana’ – how big is ‘medium’?
Are you honestly tracking everything you’re actually eating – what about the odd bite/ spoonful here and there? The odd chocolate/crisp etc? They can really add up!
Are you including liquid calories? If you drink a lot of coffee/tea are you including the milk?
Alcohol – are you underestimating the calories from alcohol? It’s easy to rack up a couple of thousand calories over a weekend in booze.
Sauces / dressings / condiments – again it’s easy to overlook these but over a week they can easily add up to several hundred/thousands of calories.
Oil in cooking – a drizzle /slug of oil is at least 100-200 cals! Swap to a 1 cal oil spray – 30 sprays is only 30 cals so you’re still saving!
Secret snacking / picking – are you actually snacking more than you realise? That biscuit with coffee, the sweet you grab when you pop to the kitchen to make a cuppa etc.

We all do this. You’re not a ‘bad’ person if you’re not tracking everything, but you will only make progress if you can be really truthful and honest with yourself about what you’re consuming. At the end of the day it’s your body, your goals and your decision.

🤗
Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Reverse lent!

February 22, 2023 Dr Nancy P

Reverse lent! 😇

Today is the first day of Lent! Regardless of your beliefs or faith Lent has traditionally become a time when people give up various things they consider ‘bad’. Now whilst there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all sometimes it can become more of a negative rather than positive experience.

So how about instead of giving up things, you turned it around and tried taking something up or giving something to others?
You could do some voluntary work, or you could give things to charity. For example, try setting up a box and popping one item of clothing or something you don’t want anymore in it every day for each day of lent, then donate to charity at the end!
You could give your time to someone – it could be something simple like helping a friend or neighbour, or calling someone for a chat. Or you could take up a new hobby or challenge during Lent – try something new like gardening, knitting, drawing, or perhaps a fitness based challenge – trying new classes, walking every day, working out 3 times a week etc.

What do you say? 🤗
How about a reverse lent?
Xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Preventing weight regain

February 21, 2023 Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Preventing weight regain ✋🏻

Preventing weight regain starts from the moment you start trying to lose weight in the first place. Believe it or not the most important aspect of weight loss isn’t actually weight loss – rather it’s maintenance. Most people underestimate the importance of both maintenance and learning to live at your new goal weight (maintenance).

Maintenance is harder than losing the fat in the first place and it’s one of the main skills people ignore. The reality is the habits and behaviours that help you lose weight are the ones that will help you maintain it as well. You can’t expect to keep the weight off if nothing has changed. I often tell my clients they need to behave like the ‘slimmer’ / ‘fitter’ / ‘stronger’ (whatever THEIR goal is) version of themselves . What would that person do? That person probably can’t get away with 3 takeaways a week, or boozy lunches at the weekend etc. It’s about finding things you enjoy (both food and exercise) that fit into your goal/maintenance lifestyle. Swapping behaviours and habits for new ones. For example – not restricting foods you enjoy, but learning to include them as part of your eating plan, trying to be as physically active as possible for you generally and doing exercise you enjoy etc

In addition research shows that for each kg of weight lost there’s an increase in appetite and a drive to consume an extra 100 cals per day that a person that hadn’t lost the weight doesn’t experience. This means you are dealing with not only trying to establish new habits to help you maintain a lower weight, but you’re also experiencing more hunger than a similar weight person who hasn’t lost weight. It’s important to be aware of this – recognise that a little hunger isn’t always a bad thing and be prepared for it.

So don’t waste your money on fads and quick fixes. Instead look at how you’re approaching your fitness and diet goals and ask yourself – is this something I can maintain for the long term? Because if it isn’t, you’re going to struggle to make (and later maintain) progress.

Happy Tuesday 🤗