Tag: healthy snacks

Recipes

Veggie ‘feta’ roasted veg pasta

Dr Nancy P

I’m sure many of you have seen the posts on social media of the feta and tomato pasta hack. This is my version of it – using a dairy free (vegan) feta! I wanted to see if it would work and it does! Obviously you can use a normal feta if you prefer. I also pimped it up a bit with mixed peppers, mushrooms, spinach and basil.

This serves 5-6 and comes in at around 380 cals per portion.

You will need:

500g pasta

1 200g block ‘feta’ (I used Violife Greek white cheese)

600g cherry tomatoes (1 punnet)

2 small peppers

5 mushrooms

100g baby spinach

Fresh basil

Salt, pepper, mixed herbs

1 cal oil spray (I used the olive oil version)

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Chop the peppers and mushrooms into chunks. Spray a roasting dish with oil spray and pop the block of cheese in the centre, and throw the cherry tomatoes and peppers around it. Season and spray with oil.

Pop in the oven for 10-15 mins to start with.

While it’s in the oven cook the pasta to your taste. Drain and pop to one side.

Check the oven after 10-15 minsand if the tomatoes are just starting to split a little then add the mushrooms and pop back in the oven for 10 mins or so. Timing will depend a little on how ripe your tomatoes are so check and see if they are soft and that the juices have run into the dish. The feta will have melted too.

Using a wooden spoon stir the veg and feta together and gentle squish the tomatoes.

Add the spinach a little at a time, stirring in each time. Pop back in the oven for 3-5 mins.

Remove from oven Once the spinach has wilted and stir in a handful of fresh basil leaves.

Stir in the pasta

Then serve with a little sprig of basil!

Enjoy! 🙂

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Reasons to lose weight… and why I talk about calories so much…

Dr Nancy P

Reasons to lose weight… and why I talk about calories so much… 🍔

Many of my posts talk about calories, tracking and fat loss , so you could be forgiven for thinking that my main goal for myself and clients is weight or fat loss. It’s true that for a large proportion of my

Clients fat loss is a goal, but it’s not everyone’s goal. I have clients for whom building strength, increasing fitness, improving mental health and well being etc are their goals.

Knowledge is power and whatever your goal is it is important to be aware of the caloric values in various foods. For many that could involve tracking calories , as it’s almost always the most successful method of long term, sustainable fat loss. But the beauty of tracking is that you don’t have to do it forever because by the very act of tracking you become aware of the calories in foods and can then adjust your diet, should you want to. And that’s what it comes down to. Do you WANT to lose weight/fat? If the answer is yes then the knowledge of calorie content will help that.

However, it’s worth considering what your reasons are for wanting to losing fat. If it’s because someone’s told you to, or commented on your body shape, or because you think you need to because ‘everyone’ is a size X then consider whether they’re really important enough reasons? If losing weight becomes so all consuming that you can’t possibly maintain the weight without being super restrictive with your food, or cutting food groups, if you’re irritable and miserable all the time, if you’re skipping social events, if you’re female and your periods have stopped, then maybe, just maybe losing more isn’t such a good idea?

Medical conditions aside, at the end of the day, YOU need to weigh up the pros and cons. Does the pursuit of weight loss outweigh the pleasure you get from food? Does being a size X make you happy enough to overcome the necessary restrictions in calories?

How can you do any of this without knowledge of calories? So please remember that, whilst my posts often focus on calories, knowledge is the main goal of these posts – not a never ending pursuit of fat loss at all costs.

🤗

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips
Dr Nancy P

Carbs are bad… so I can’t have Pizza…. 🍕

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. I often hear people complain that they feel really bloated after eating things like pasta/pizza etc “due to all the carbs”.

Pizza is definitely placed firmly in the “carb” camp, but In reality that large pizza that you consider to be carbtastic is actually mostly fat and protein (from the toppings). The reason you may feel bloated isn’t necessarily the base, but the combination of rich, fatty cheese, with other toppings and the sheer quantity of food. As you can see 38% percent of the 1,144 calories from this pizza come from carbs, whilst the remaining 61 percent are from fat and protein (with a small % from other nutrients). So actually it’s mostly fat and protein, not carbs, and let’s be honest, you wouldn’t eat that quantity of naked pizza dough without any toppings right? So perhaps it’s time to stop demonising the carbs?

In reality there is no reason at all to cut carbs (or pizza) from your diet. You can lose weight with or without carbs of any sort; it’s all about calories. Now obviously some people have medical reasons to avoid things like gluten in some carb-based foods (coeliacs etc) but for the majority of people these foods are fine. The reason you may see less bloating and more weight loss when cutting these sorts of carbs is simply because you’re reducing your overall calorie intake and reducing consumption of that rich combo of fat and protein. However unless you never want to eat carbs again then you’re not really setting yourself up for sustainable, long term weight management.

Different carbs do 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 pizza to fruit! Cutting out whole food groups is never a sensible or sustainable approach though.

Eat the carbs you like and enjoy and just be mindful of the calories! 🤗

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Volumetric vs Weight measures…

Dr Nancy P

Volumetric vs Weight measures…. 🧭

This tip doesn’t just apply to tracking your calories, it’s also important for baking too! You will often find that certain items on tracking apps / recipes are measured in cups. This method of measuring though is very inconsistent. For a start – which cup? What size is the cup? Well usually this means measuring cups, but UK and US cups are actually different sizes so even that is inconsistent! The other issue is that measuring cups and spoons vary slightly in capacity from manufacturer to manufacturer. In addition people differ in their perceptions of how to fill them e.g. do you have it loosely packed, compressed, levelling off the top, heaped etc. So whilst these measures give you a ball park figure they aren’t that precise. For some things this won’t matter – a cup of lettuce for example is so low in calories that it won’t make much difference. However with certain things it can make quite a difference.

In this example, oats are often measured in cups, especially on tracking apps. A serving is half a cup which is assumed to be 40g. So you may think it’s ok to just go with a half cup when scooping out your oats. In reality though a loosely filled half cup is actually closer to 55g. This is an extra 56 cals per portion. 56 cals may not seem like much but if you were also measuring other things in your oats with cups/measuring spoons (like a tbsp peanut butter, tsp jam etc etc) and all those are out too then you’re consuming quite a bit more than you realise. If you’re doing that daily that’s over 390 cals a week, which is enough to affect your progress.

So where possible go for metric measures i.e. grams or ml on a kitchen scale if you want to track your calories more accurately, especially for calorie dense foods.

Enjoy 🤗

xxx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

I don’t have time to track my calories….

Dr Nancy P

I don’t have time to track my calories…. 🍏

People are desperate to lose fat/weight but often say they just don’t have time to track what they eat. Now whilst it’s perfectly possible to lose weight without tracking calories, there’s no denying that accurately tracking them is an extremely effective way to do it. And in addition is gives you an excellent foundation of knowledge for maintaining any results you achieve.

I completely understand that it can be really stressful trying to balance work, social life, childcare or caring for other family members etc and perhaps even more so right now with home schooling/home working, but I am not sure the excuse of “no time” always rings true.

On average, in 2020, people in the UK spent 2hrs and 24 mins a day scrolling social media/messaging etc, 1hr 11 mins watching TV and 1 hr 21 mins online shopping. That’s an average of nearly 5 hrs a day! Now whilst you may claim you don’t spend anywhere close to that amount of time doing those things I bet you spend more than 30 mins on these activities (or similar ones)? Studies have shown that tracking your food; whether it be in an app or physically writing it down, takes no more than 30 mins a day. That includes weighing portions, barcode scanning items that are pre-packaged and then actually entering it into the app/writing it down and adding it up.

You don’t have to devote your life to tracking food, but if you can’t spare a few minutes to think about what’s on your plate before you eat it, you won’t make changes to what you eat and drink to reduce calories. In short – it won’t work. You have to make a change.

If you’re telling yourself you’re too busy or don’t have time to put any attention on your diet, then you’re right – you don’t – but that’s not because you don’t want to, it’s because it’s not enough of a priority right now. Once it becomes a big enough priority you’ll find you do in fact have time. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re too busy to track or that it’s a bigger job than it really is, and maybe reconsider the time you spend on other activities that are perhaps not as important for you?

Enjoy 🤗

xxx