Tag: healthy snack

Nutrition and Calorie Tips, Tuesday Tip

Tuesday tip: Strategic Snacking

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday tip: Strategic Snacking 🍪

Often clients tell me they ‘just need to stop snacking’ and they’ll lose weight, but that’s rarely the solution. Snacking has a bad rep, but there’s nothing wrong with a snack in itself. Many of us need smaller intakes of food spread across the day rather than 2 or 3 large ‘meals’, it’s mindless snacking that’s the real issue.

Remember whether you call something a meal or a snack is basically meaningless; some snacks are more cals than meals anyway! It’s just a window of time when you eat. So try to view them all as part of your overall daily food intake, they’re just names! The key is planning them in. If you don’t then you will end up feeling guilty every time you have a snack and that can lead to the f*ck it mentality and then overeating.

Identify first of all when you tend to or want to ‘snack’ and then allocate some calories for it; the same way you might for breakfast or lunch etc and adjust your meals to accommodate. By factoring it in not only are you ensuring you’ll be within your calories, you’re also managing your expectations and giving yourself permission to have that snack. It doesn’t matter what it is, choose snacks that work for you; if it’s biscuits fine, if it’s fruit that’s also fine, within the context of a balanced diet you can have anything you want!

If you find the problem is that once you start you can’t stop then try getting your snack item out at the start of the day and having it on show and somwhere easy to grab. That way hopefully you’ll be more likely to stick to it rather than rummaging through the cupboards or heading to a shop to get it at the time you’re most ‘snacky’ and will power is lower.

Everyone is unique and the desire and need to snack are influenced by age, emotions, activity, main ‘meals’ etc so you have to work out what’s best for you. One good approach is strategic snacking at around 3/4pm to help stave off evening hunger, and there is some scientific evidence to suggest a plan of three balanced meals and one snack (4 windows of time where you eat) works well for weight loss.

Happy snacking! 🤗xx

Recipes

Cinnamon Oat Baked Apples

Dr Nancy P

This is a really easy option for a warming winter dessert. Delicious as it is or even better with a scoop of Greek yoghurt or ice cream! I make a batch and then I can reheat them for pudding or even have one for a snack or brekkie! Bramley apples work best but you can actually use any apple you like.

This recipe makes 4 portions (half an apple) at approx 77 cals per portion (this will vary with apple size).

You will need:

2 Apples

50g Oats

10g sugar (I use half spoon – as it gives sweetness with fewer calories)

20g light spread (I just used a normal anchor light spread)

1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more to taste)

Preheat the oven to 180 C

Mix the oats, cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Add the spread and use a fork or your hands to mix it into the oat mix. Leaving clumps.

Cut the apples on half and use a spoon to remove the core and create a little hollow.

Pop the apples on a baking dish and pack the oat mix into the hollow and across the top of each apple half.

Add a tbsp of water to the dish, cover lightly with foil and bake for 25 mins. Then remove the foil and bake for a further 10 mins.

Serve as is or with ice cream/ yoghurt

Enjoy! 🙂 Xx

Recipes

Easy, ‘Healthy’, Autumn Crumble

Dr Nancy P

With Autumn upon us it’s definitely time for some comforting, warming puds, and for me that means stewed fruit and crumble! Traditional Crumble can be quite high calorie so this is a great option for keeping the calories a bit lower but still just as tasty!

I was lucky enough to be given a haul of apples and pears, and I had some wild blackberries in the freezer form earlier in the summer but you can use any combination of fruit you fancy!

This comes in at about 184 calories per portion (I got 6 portions from mine) but tastes just as great! I didn’t add any sugar to my fruit at all – it was perfectly sweet as it was and with the sweetness of the topping you shouldn’t need to add any, but you can add if you feel you need it.

This makes a fab dessert, snack or even breakfast!

You will need:

3 large cooking apples/ pears (bramley apples work best)

A large punnet of blackberries (approx 200 – 300g) (or use more apples/pears/plums/raspberries/gooseberries/ anything!)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

For the topping:

100g oats

50g flour (I used rice flour as it has a finer texture but any flour will do)

30g sugar (I used ‘half spoon’)

1 tsp cinnamon

40g non-dairy spread (I used a ‘light’ spread)

Prepare the fruit – peel, core and chop the apples/pears into small chunks and rinse the blackberries. Place the apples in a saucepan with a tbsp of water and start to cook – they need a bit longer than the blackberries so this gives them a head start. Once they’ve started to soften a little add the blackberries and the cinnamon and stir well. Allow to simmer gently until the apples are cooked through.

Pre-heat the oven to 190 C.

Place the oats, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well. Add the spread and then use a fork or your fingers to rub it in to the mixture creating little lumps.

Pour the fruit mixture into whatever dish you’re using – I made 4 individual portions and one double portion.

Add the topping and then pop in the oven for 15-20 mins or until the topping starts to brown.

Remove and serve warm (or cold!), with a dollop of zero fat total yoghurt, or maybe some low cal ice cream!

Enjoy! Xx

Recipes

Hoisin Pulled Veggie ‘Pork’

Dr Nancy P

If you’re a Chinese takeaway fan this is a great lower calorie, home-made option for you! You can use any veggie alternative – there are pulled pork, pulled chicken and pulled jackfruit options available now. I happened to have the Linda McCartney pulled fake chicken in my freezer so that’s what I’ve used.

This serves 3-4 people and comes in at around 230 cals per portion (before rice etc).

You will need:

1 pack of veggie pulled ‘meat’

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

1 stick of celery

1 small red pepper

1 small red chili (optional)

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

2 tbsp hoisin sauce

1 tbsp black bean sauce

1 tbsp water

Small handful of cashew nuts (optional)

A couple of spring onions (for garnish)

Place the pulled fake meat in a bowl and add the soy sauce and sweet soy sauce – leave to marinate.

Chop the vegetables up into small pieces and add the onion, garlic and celery to a hot wok or pan with a little oil (or oil spray to save calories)

Add the peppers and chili if using.

While the vegetables sauté add the hoisin and black bean sauce and water into a small bowl and mix together. Set aside.

Add the marinated pulled fake meat to the wok and fry it for 5-7 mins.

Meanwhile, if you’re using the cashew nuts roast them in a dry pan.

Add the sauce mix to the pulled meat and cook through for another 2-3 mins.

Serve with the cashew nuts and spring onions sprinkled over the top, with rice or noodles.

Enjoy 🤗

xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

What you track vs what you actually eat…

Dr Nancy P

What you track vs what you actually eat… 🥜 🥄

If you’re hoping to lose fat in a sustainable way you need to be aiming for a deficit of around 200-300 cals a day. So you have your calorie goal, and you’re tracking your calories and weighing your portions. You diligently weigh your peanut butter for your slice of toast … 30g – that’s 169 cals – all tracked, all good. But what about the little bit you just scrape off the side of the jar as you’re getting that spoonful… or that bit that dropped on the plate that you wiped off with your finger.. or the bit you lick from the lid….

All that can add up to another 15g – that’s an extra 84 cals.

84 cals in itself isn’t going to ruin your progress, but if you’re having a couple of slices of toast a day that’s 168 extra calories a day or 1,176 cals a week! And that’s assuming that’s the only “extras” you have. That can easily stop you progressing or slow it down. And to be honest you probably don’t even realise you’re doing it.

So if you’re tracking cals and hoping to lose fat then perhaps double check you’re actually tracking what you’re eating, especially with calorie dense foods like nut butters etc.

🤗 xx