Tag: healthy snacks

Tuesday Tip : To breakfast or not to breakfast? 🍳

I often hear people saying that they are not a ‘breakfast person’. They often say that they don’t eat breakfast because they forget, they’re rushing, they aren’t hungry, don’t think they need to, or just don’t want to. Some people also skip breakfast to have more calories for later in the day. Now whilst this is all absolutely fine and can work for some people (I have some clients who employ this strategy very successfully), it doesn’t always. Very often skipping breakfast means that, although they’ve stocked up some calories for later, they’re so ravenously hungry that they overeat. You may not even recognise the issue – but if you regularly skip breakfast and also have a problem of overeating/snacking after dinner then it might be worth revisiting that pattern.

Consider planning in some breakfast, and trying to view it as something that will fuel you for the day and prevent you from bingeing later, rather than something that just takes up calories. Aim for something with some protein in it – eggs, greek yoghurt, nut butters , milk etc as well as carbs. It doesn’t have to be traditional breakfast foods if that’s what puts you off – you can eat anything you like for brekkie. Equally you don’t have to have breakfast as soon as you wake – it can be a couple of hours later if that works better for you.
Try experimenting with different dishes and timing and see if anything helps reduce those post dinner munchies.

Many people do cope perfectly well without breakfast but if you’re finding you’re not able to control your appetite later in the day and are over eating then maybe you’d benefit from including breakfast in your daily diet.

Happy Tuesday 🤗
xx

Tuesday Tip: Lunch Tips 🥪

Lunch is one of the meals I’m definitely worst at and many of my clients are the same. Here are some lunchtime mistakes and how to prevent them.

#1 Eating out every day

Do you just end up buying lunch instead of bringing it? If you’re making yourself dinner each night why not make a bit extra for lunch too. Or if you’re buying lunch choose options you can easily scan and track the calories for so you can stay on track like a sandwich, pre-packaged salad etc .

#2 Eating too fast

I get it, you’re racing around, back to back meetings, no time to stop…. stuffing your lunch in on the go… but this is when we tend to forget about portions and over eat. A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition and Diatetics found a direct relationship between faster eating and weight gain. Try to take at least 20 mins over your lunch.

#3 Eating too little

I often hear clients saying they only have a small salad for lunch.. and they wonder why they end up craving snacks at 4pm or tucking in to the biscuits late at night. Salad is a great lunch but it needs to be more than just leaves and a bit of cucumber. Use some dark leafy greens as a base (e.g. spinach), add veg (carrots, pepper, cucumber etc), then a protein (chicken, egg, feta, chickpeas, tofu etc) and then add some complex carbs (quinoa, brown rice, beans etc).

#4 Choice of drink

Going for a juice or soft drink at lunch in your meal deal is just extra empty calories. Ditch it and go for water (add lemon, cucumber or zero cal squash for flavour if you need) and save the calories for your food.

#5 You’re too hungry

You rush to work, skipping breakfast and by lunchtime you’re so hungry you end up making bad choices. Avoid this by either having breakfast or having a 100 – 200 cal mid morning snack (yoghurt and berries, apple and nut butter etc). This will help you make better choices at lunch.

#6 Grazing

You’re trying to avoid eating too much so just end up grazing instead – a snack bar here, maybe some fruit, half a biscuit, another bar.. before your know it you’ve actually eaten more cals than a standard sandwich lunch but you won’t feel like you’re have. It’s easy to kid yourself that you’re not really eaten lunch, you’ll still be hungry and more likely to overeat later. So either make sure you track the snacks or have a proper lunch instead.

Happy lunching! 🤗

xx