Tag: getactive

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Coping with Xmas Stress

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Coping with Xmas Stress 🎄

Stress levels can soar at Xmas, with the pressure of expectations, exchange and excess. Here are some tips to help!

#1 Limit spending

Gift buying and entertainment costs can spiral quickly, so make a budget and limit spending by only taking cash on shopping trips. Make 1 financial decision at a time to avoid losing willpower and overspending. Remember your relationships with friends and family are more important than material objects!

#2 Manage expectations

Wanting things to be perfect can lead to more stress. Dinner being late or a less than perfect xmas tree won’t ruin your day – it may even give you fond memories to laugh about in future! Be realistic with children: they don’t need everything on their list! Xmas is about being together, so plan lots of fun family activities to do.

#3 Take time out

Factor in some time out for yourself – a bath, watching a movie, reading or a walk. You will feel better and be less likely to take your stress out on the rest of the family too.

#4 Don’t fall totally off the wagon

Plan, eat well outside events, stay active – check out my article (link below) for more. If you do find yourself overindulging just remember 1 day of indulgence won’t make you fat, just get back on track the next day and don’t make it a month!

#5 Go for a walk

Studies show physical activity reduces the brain’s response to stress, even more so with other people (by 26%). So try to fit a walk in to your day even if it means walking to work, or school pick up, or just around the block.

#6 Have fun

Laughter is a fab stress reliever. It releases endorphins, boosts circulation, helps muscles relax and reduces physical symptoms of stress. Make sure you have some fun; whether it’s your favourite movie, jokes with relatives, or a fun activity with friends or family.

At the end of the day remember, its just one day, it doesn’t define you or your life. Your friends and family are there all year round and if things don’t go as planned you can always get together in January or Feb instead 🙂

Happy Tuesday 🤗

xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: No Excuse

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: No Excuse 🚫

At this time of year it’s easy to find excuses to ditch healthy eating or fitness plans . But most excuses don’t really cut it and here’s why:

# 1 Too Busy

We’re all busy with work, family etc, but that’s no excuse to eat badly. A lower cal dinner takes the same time as ordering a takeaway. Make life easier by buying bulk frozen veg, healthy ready meals or soup.

# 2 Bad day

After a stressful day it may seem like a takeaway/glass of wine etc will make it better. But it will only make you feel guilty, bloated and more stressed. If you’re an emotional eater find a non-food way to deal with your feelings e.g. exercising,  calling a friend, or watching a movie. 

# 3 I deserve it  

It’s tempting to reward yourself for your workout / work performance / weight loss with a “treat”. You do deserve a treat, but don’t celebrate with calories, have a non-food treat instead e.g. massage

# 4 Genetics

Why bother starting a diet when it’s in your genes to have a big bum or muffin top? While genes do determine where and how easily fat is stored, you’re not powerless to shift those pounds! Research suggests that regular exercise outweighs the effects of “fat genes”. 

# 5 Diets don’t work for me 

If diets leave you lacking energy, or you’ve never achieved results, it’s probably the approach that’s the problem. Fad diets, or cutting food groups etc aren’t sustainable. Instead, adopt a sensible, balanced approach focussing on a calorie deficit. 

# 6 Slow metabolism

Some people do have a slower than expected metabolism but the variation is small. You might need slightly fewer calories to lose fat but it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Plus regular exercise to build muscle will increase your metabolic rate. 

# 7 I’ll start after X, Y.. Z

Rather than putting off your diet until tomorrow or after a big event start right now; at the next meal. Remember, a little blip isn’t the end of the world, put it behind you and carry on.  

# 8 I love food

You don’t need to make yourself miserable and eat things you hate to lose weight. You can have everything you’re having right now; just less of it! 

If you need any help or advice just ask me! Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xxx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Why you shouldn’t eat back your exercise calories….

Dr Nancy P

Why you shouldn’t eat back your exercise calories…. 🏃🏼‍♀️

Many of us use activity trackers / fitness watches; they’re fab tools to monitor activity and motivate us to get fitter, but they can also cause some issues.

The main issue is the figure they provide for calories burned, particularly when linked to food logging apps. Apps like myfitnesspal give you a daily calorie target or budget to spend, based on your current stats, goals and activity levels. If you have a tracker linked then it automatically adds any calories burned to this figure e.g if your goal is 1700 cals and you burn 500 cals in spin it gives you 2200 cals to ‘spend’ (eat).

Great! So you can eat more right? Wrong! You shouldn’t be eating back those exercise calories. Aside from the fact that you have already accounted for your activity level in the daily calorie goal, the main issue is that the tracker is overestimating calories burned. Recent studies found that, despite being pretty accurate for heart rate readings, devices overestimated calories burned by 27 – 93% ! If we assume a 40% error rate you can see on the graph how much it overestimates (blue is actual burn, red is the tracker reading) e.g. a long walk burns 1500 cals on the tracker, but if you ate those back you’re actually over eating by 300 and 1450 cals!

This is why if you’re eating back those exercise calories you could easily wipe out the calorie deficit. Best-case, it slows progress, worst-case you overeat and put on weight. Also, as you get leaner and fitter the calories burnt in general activity and exercise decreases, so you’re burning even fewer calories than the device is reporting.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t record workouts and steps; it’s a great way to look at your relative effort and fitness. Use them as a way to encourage more activity but not as a reason to eat more. In the paid version of myfitnesspal you can choose not to add those extra calories, or simply un-link your tracker so it no longer gets that info.

So if you workout as a way to increase your calorie expenditure, that’s fine, just don’t eat back those calories, as it defeats the entire point of increasing activity in the first place.

🤗 xx

Fitness and Exercise, Mindset and Motivation

Winter Motivation

Dr Nancy P

Are you lacking in motivation now it’s getting colder and darker? Check out my article over at Sundried for my top tips to stay motivated this winter 🥶🤗 xx

(And why not treat yourself to some nice new winter kit to help with that motivation – 50 % off everything on their site with the code ‘NANCY’ – take a look at their fab range of ethical active wear from recycled plastic and coffee grounds etc) 🌍 🏃🏼‍♀️

Click below for the article:

https://www.sundried.com/blogs/training/get-fitter-feel-better

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Being ‘good’ and having the weight watchers digestive biscuit instead of the ‘bad’ normal version…

Dr Nancy P

Being ‘good’ and having the weight watchers digestive biscuit instead of the ‘bad’ normal version…🍪

Most people would assume that the weight watchers (or other weight loss brand foods) are automatically a more virtuous choice of biscuit. Whilst tucking in to a couple of normal chocolate digestives would be considered ‘bad’. In reality they’re almost the same in terms of overall calories per 100g and have similar sugar levels. The main difference is the price and the actual serving size itself. The weight watcher’s biscuits are much smaller – so you get less calories per biscuit BUT it’s so noticeable that you’re likely to end up having more biscuits to compensate. So it’s just a way to trick you in to thinking they’re better. The other major difference is price – over twice the price for the weight watchers biscuits!

So if you really love a chocolate digestive you’re probably better off getting the real ones, enjoying one or two, within your calories and feeling like you’ve had what you actually want. If you actually like the weight watchers ones then obviously go for it, but don’t automatically assume these weight loss branded foods are always the better option. Sometimes they’re the same or worse than other brands. If you enjoy them then definitely have them, but if you’re only having them because you think they’re ‘good’ then think again.

Read the labels and look at the calories and then make your choice.

No foods are good or bad, enjoy the ones you actually want to eat, and just be aware of the calories! 🤗xx