Tag: motivation

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Eating out, on track

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Eating out, on track 🍽

With restaurants reopening I know a lot of people are heading back our for meals etc. So I thought it would be useful to go over a few tips to help you stay on track, when when eating out.

Look up the menu in advance and decide what you will have, or a few options that you fancy. Then reverse engineer your day around it – log the meal, and fit your other meals around it.

You may want to prioritise lean protein for your main course e.g. steak and salad. But be mindful that restaurant portions are 2-3 times bigger than those you’d have at home, so consider a doggy bag.

Try to choose 1 or 2 courses rather than 3 if you can. Remember you’re the customer – if you want starter and dessert, or 2 starters, or even 2 desserts you can do that! You don’t have to go for starter, main and dessert.

Avoid extras – bread, olives, nibbles, oil, dressings etc. Ask for sauces on the side and you can decide how much you want to use. Ask for your veggies without butter etc too and be mindful of liquid calories (both alcoholic and non alcoholic).

Choose your indulgence – perhaps it’s booze, or the dessert, or the bread basket – whatever it is (for me it’s always dessert!), rather than having them all! It’s ok to enjoy a meal out but if you want to stick to your calorie targets then you can’t have it all.

Focus on the company and conversation – that’s what you’ll remember from the meal. It won’t be the food or that glass of wine, it will be the laughs and stories with your friends or family that you remember in months and years to come, not whether you had dessert or not!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

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

Fitness and Exercise

Bodyweight workout number 17!

Dr Nancy P

Workout time! Number 17 this week!

Skaters, jacks, bears and maybe a few dead bugs after this one! lol!

Ten exercises, ten mins in total and no equipment required – just yourself, a watch/iphone to time it, and a mat if you want one for your knees/hands.

If you have more time then you can always do it twice or three times, if you don’t have ten mins then just do half! Get everyone involved! 🙂

If you want to do it “with me” then the video is below.

Or you can use the pics below or download a pdf of the workout here Bodyweight Circuit 17

Have fun! 🙂

xx

Ps. If you missed the previous workouts they’re here: Bodyweight Circuit 16, Bodyweight Circuit 15, Bodyweight Circuit 14, Bodyweight Circuit 13, Bodyweight Circuit 12, Bodyweight Circuit 11, Bodyweight Circuit 10, Bodyweight Circuit 9,  Bodyweight circuit 8, Bodyweight Circuit 7  Bodyweight Circuit 6 ,   Bodyweight Circuit 5, Bodyweight Circuit 4,  Bodyweight Circuit 3, Bodyweight circuit 2 and my first one is here (Bodyweight circuit 1)

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Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Too busy?

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Too busy?🤯

It’s really easy when you’re busy to feel like the additional stress of trying to eat well or exercise to lose weight is too much. I often hear people say they’re just too busy to even think about it. I get it, I really do, I know how hard it is when you’re busy and feel like you never have a chance to stop and breathe, let alone fit in meal prepping, exercise etc. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Here are some tips I use with my clients to help them reach their fat loss goals, despite being short on time.

First off; ditch the all or nothing mindset. You don’t need to spend hours exercising to see results, in fact you don’t even need to workout every day or for long periods when you do. You also don’t have to spend hours prepping meals and creating a pile of tupperware boxes full of perfectly balanced meals. You do however need to commit a little time if you want to change things. Take an honest look at your schedule and see if you’re wasting time anywhere that you could use for something else. I’m not talking about hours, but perhaps that 20 mins idly scrolling through social media? or 30 mins watching TV? I’m not saying you shouldn’t do those things but if you’re desperate to lose weight then could some of that time be redirected?

Schedule your workouts and walks, you don’t need long, ten mins is enough (try one of my ten min workouts for example). Commit to a specific time and put it in your diary. Multitask and walk while you make a business call if you can or walk instead of driving to the shops etc. And be realistic, workout on days when you’re less busy. Don’t try to cram a workout in on your most manic day. Be generally active; walk, stand, fidget – do whatever you can whenever you can.

Stay in a calorie deficit – consistently. Now that does require some sort of tracking but you can make this easier on yourself by sticking to a small range of ‘go to’ meals and snacks that you know the cals for. Then you only need to work the cals out once. If you have say 6 meals you regularly have then simply rotate them. Use pre-prepared snacks and even the odd ready meal if you need, then it’s easy!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Bread is bad! 🍞

Dr Nancy P

Bread is bad! 🍞

I’ve lost count of the number of times people tell me they need to stop eating bread, or that they’ve had a bad week with too much bread, or their main weight loss issue is their love of bread…..

There seems to be a common misconception that bread is inherently bad and that having it means you can’t lose weight. Bread in itself (white or brown) is not that high in calories – a typical slice of hovis is 88 cals, and even a small sourdough is only 120 cals or so. Bread in itself is not a problem, what you put on it is the problem. The scraping of butter that you barely notice almost doubles the calories that slice of bread/toast will give you. Butter and 30g jam nearly triples the calories, as does a serving of Nutella (without butter underneath)! If you’re a peanut butter fan then that 40g serving (without any butter underneath) brings that piece of toast up to 349 cals. A snack of a little cheese on toast (no butter) is around 255 cals whilst a brunch of toast, 75g avocado, egg and a little ketchup comes in at 324 cals ….

Technically it is of course possible for bread to derail you if you’re eating a huge amount, like any food, but it’s far more likely to be what you’re putting on the bread that’s doing the damage. Bread isn’t the devil; in fact it’s a great source of carbs, which we all need. It tastes good and it’s also a really convenient food for a snack or lunch (as a sandwich) etc and there’s no need to cut it out of your diet to lose weight, but it may pay to be aware of what you’re putting on it and consider some lower cal toppings if you are trying to watch the calories.

Enjoy bread responsibly 🤣

🤗 xx