Tag: tuesdaytip

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Mindset matters

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Mindset matters 🤯

Mindset is one of the most overlooked parts of any successful exercise or fat loss plan. Unless you have the right mindset then any plan you intend to follow will likely fail. Here are some tips:

# 1 Don’t let one mistake become many.

You’ve fallen off the wagon and ended up eating that large pizza, don’t use that as an excuse to spend the whole weekend over eating. Draw a line under it and get back on track. Focus on the next meal not than the one you’ve just had.

# 2 Focus on consistency not perfection

4 weeks of being pretty consistent with your cals will give you better results than 3 days of ‘perfection’, a day off the wagon and 2 more days feeling guilty and over eating. The odd day over your cals won’t matter if you’re consistent over the long term.

# 3 It’s not a race

You won’t get long lasting results in 7, 14 or even 21 days – it’s weeks, and months. Recognise that and take the short term pressure off yourself.

# 4 Moderation not restriction

if you’re feeling deprived you will eventually eat or drink it anyway, and probably in far greater portions. Accept that you can still eat the foods and drinks you love. Shift your mindset from unnecessary misery and restriction to appreciation that no foods are bad foods. You just may have to compromise; have less of it, or forego something else to stay on track, or accept that the pleasure of that food outweighs that fat loss and go with it.

# 5 Lifetime changes

Sustainable fat loss is about changing things for life. So unless you never want to eat chocolate ever again it’s a good idea to include some chocolate in moderation when you’re trying to lose fat. Find ways to enjoy foods you love in a way that align with your goals long term. Don’t chase results you won’t be able to sustain.

#6 Joy of missing out

You don’t have to say yes to every event/food/drink if it doesn’t align with your goals. Focus on the benefits and you’ll realise you didn’t miss out on much anyway and it was actually a good decision because you didn’t get that hangover, or eat that dessert you didn’t want etc. Just say no thanks. No need to justify, no need to explain.

Happy Tuesday

🤗

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Weight loss is rarely linear….

Dr Nancy P

Weight loss is rarely linear…. 📉

Most people measure their fat loss progress by stepping on scales. This can create an all or nothing mentality and can impact not only your happiness but your behaviour. If the scales don’t go down when you’ve been ‘good’ then what’s the point? You may as well throw in the towel and enjoy that cake!

Weight loss is rarely linear. It’s normal for your weight to fluctuate on a day-to-day basis. There will be days where your scale weight goes up, just like there will be days where your weight will drop, and there will also be days (maybe even weeks) where your weight will stay exactly the same. Your weight can fluctuate up to 6kg during the day depending on what you eat and drink, and how you exercise. If you drink 2-3 litres of water a day that’s up to 3kg. Then how much do you pee, sweat and breathe out over the day? It’s impossible to measure. Our bodies are mainly water so changes in hydration cause significant weight fluctuations.

In addition a bowel full of food, a big meal the night before, fibrous or salty meals, and menstrual cycle hormone changes can all influence weight and cause greater daily fluctuations so real change can be hidden. Exercise can affect the scale both ways; if, after a workout, you’ve refuelled properly your muscles will be full of glycogen and water. On the other hand if you’ve sweated loads your weight will drop due to dehydration. Alcohol does the same; it’s a diuretic so will dehydrate you initially, but can cause cravings for salty foods leading to water retention.

For many of us, seeing that weight go up, despite ‘being good’, can make us give up. It’s vital to trust the process and think long term. The graph above is real client data. Look at how the weight fluctuates and look at the overall trend. By trusting the process and not giving up when the scales went up they’ve continued their weight loss over time.

We’re conditioned to focus on weight but instead try to use other measures e.g. items of clothing and how they fit, or cm measurements etc. If you must step on the scales then look at averages over time rather than daily variations and focus on long term trends.

🤗 xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: isn’t tracking food a bit obsessive?

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: isn’t tracking food a bit obsessive? 🤯

People often tell me they’ve tried everything but can’t reach their goal. When I ask if they track their food they respond with ‘isn’t that a bit obsessive?’ or ‘no I don’t want to do that’. Not wanting to is fine, that’s your choice, but if you’ve been struggling to reach your goals and you haven’t been tracking then why not try it?

Do you track your finances? Most people do so they have an idea of how much they’re earning, spending and saving. That’s not obsessive, so why would tracking your calories be?

Can tracking food become obsessive? Yes, like anything, of course it can. Does it have to? No! Do you have to do it forever? No! Does it have value? Yes! It’s a tool – and its value is determined by how it’s used and what you learn from it.

We don’t have an innate working knowledge of portion sizes and calorie content. In fact, studies show that people are awful at estimating how much they eat. We underestimate ALL the time, even nutrition experts do! We are surrounded by highly palatable, calorie dense foods and we have evolved to seek them out. So it’s unsurprising, when these sorts of foods are so readily available, that we need to do some tracking to keep an eye on what’s actually going in our mouths.

The main reasons we don’t track are fear, time and being unsure of how many cals to aim for. The fear is of what we’re going to find out and that we really are eating more than we thought. Time is really about priorities. Yes it can take a few days to get the hang of it, but then it takes seconds to log before you eat. Most people have time to check Instagram/Facebook/watch tv. Even the busiest person has 2 mins to log their food, if they want to. In terms of how many cals to aim for; if you’re not sure, ask! I’m happy to help!

You don’t need to track food forever. You’ll learn about portion sizes, calories in the things you eat and drink, and develop that skill. Then you can cease tracking if you want and see how it goes. You can easily go back and check if you feel that skill needs more honing.

You don’t have to count calories forever, but calories will always count!

Happy Tuesday

😁

Xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Small changes, big results

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Small changes, big results 🤗

Fad diets and massive changes to eating and exercise habits work well for some people, in the short term but research shows that for most people these drastic changes don’t last and only increase the likelihood of gaining back the weight when we go back to our old ways. It’s also overwhelming and much more likely to lead to failure. So stop trying to change everything at once!

Instead, identifying lots of smaller changes and trying to do them daily works much better. This ‘habit stacking’ has been shown to be more successful than making one massive change. Big goals are overwhelming and scary, and you’re far more likely to stick to small, easy changes and you’ll also get a confidence boost from sticking to them.

So for example rather than going cold turkey on sugar try reducing your 2 spoons of sugar in your tea to one, then none, try reducing your soft drinks to one a day instead of three, try adding one portion of veg to your meals, then two etc. A recent study showed that it takes approximately 8 weeks for a new habit to form so stick with them and you’ll find these new habits will stay with you!

Happy Tuesday

😁

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Half an Avocado….

Dr Nancy P

Half an Avocado…. 🥑

If you’re trying to lose fat and tracking your calories it’s really important to be as accurate as you can and this is why. If you’re using an app like myfitnesspal you might assume that the calorie value for half an avocado is a generic measurement for all avocados. Of course in reality avocados vary quite a lot in size – is that half an avocado a small one? A medium one? Or a large one? Obviously the nutritional value, and calories, will vary significantly with size. In this example one half is a pretty small avocado (150g), which means half will be around 149 cals. However, if you’re lucky enough to get a large avocado (350g) then you’d be looking at 347 cals for half!

So if you were just logging a generic half

an avocado at 149 cals but actually eating a large avocado then you’d be underestimating your calorie intake by 200 cals. If you’re an avocado fan and having some most days that could be an underestimate of 1000 calories or more a week – which is significant enough to prevent or slow fat loss.

If you’re having something low calorie then it won’t matter but with something calorie dense like avocado it really is important to know how much you’re having – assuming your goal is to lose weight/fat.

This is why I encourage my clients to weigh, in grams, rather than using generic, subjective measures like ‘half an avocado’. So if you’re trying to lose fat and tracking your calories have a go at weighing your avocado next time. You may be surprised! 😬

🤗

Xx