Diet & Healthy Eating Tips
Quick Tips to Help With Your Diet & Healthy Eating Plans
Losing weight isn’t always about counting calories and dieting (although you will need to create a calorie deficit to lose weight). It’s also about the quality of your diet and lifestyle as a whole. If you can cut back or avoid certain harmful types of food but eat more beneficial types food then you won’t just lose weight, you’ll have more energy and be healthier for it. As Personal Trainers we spend a great deal of time advising our Billingham and Stockton clients on how to optimise their diets and get the best results so we thought that we would share some tips with you.Food and Drink to Avoid if you are trying to eat healthy or lose weight.
Small changes in your diet can make a huge difference over time. Don’t try to change everything at once work on improving one aspect of your diet at a time. If you’re one of our Stockton or Billingham clients and you need help tailoring your diet to your training and fitness goals just ask.
Cut down on refined carbs, This includes bread, noodles, pasta, white rice, pretzels, wraps, tortilla chips, cakes and biscuits. These are high on the glycaemic index. Which means that they turn to sugar in the blood, trigger an insulin response and are quickly stored as fat.
Eliminate sugary and carbonated drinks. (For example pop, drinks made from concentrates, fruit juice, wine, sweetened coffees, fruit smoothies). Even diet drinks can impede your weight loss progress. Swap them for fruit and herbal teas, regular tea, coffee and iced tea Make your own sugar free iced tea by chilling fruit tea.
Reduce sugary foods – most breakfast cereals, jams, dried fruit, ketchups, granola, sweets, chocolate. Not only are they very high in calories, they provide no nutritional benefit and elevate your blood sugar.
Avoid foods that have trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils listed on the ingredients. Especially margarine, cakes, biscuits, savoury and sweet pastries and anything fried. This is because trans fats are not only high in calories they also raise your bad cholesterol and have been linked to heart disease.
Food that Helps you Achieve your Goals
Weight loss and Healthy eating isn’t just about cutting food out of your diet. It’s also about introducing helpful foods into your diet.Food and Drink that will help you get great results on your weight loss journey
Do Eat more protein! Think meat, fish, lentils, eggs, cheese, quinoa and so on. Protein will aid weight loss by making you feel fuller and help build lean, metabolically active muscle. Try to eat unprocessed protein rather than protein bars and drinks. These often contain sugar and other additives.Do Eat more probiotic foods that promote good gut health can really help with weight loss. Try to include Greek yogurt, blue cheese, sourdough bread, fermented food such as Kefir, Kimchi, tempeh, miso and also more plant based foods in your diet. Research suggests that your gut microbiota assists in processing food and helps to determine the quantity and quality of calories and nutrients your body absorbs.
Do Eat more high fibre foods. The most beneficial sources are beans and pulses, fresh vegetables, whole grains, oats and bran. This makes you feel fuller, helps maintain bowel health, lowers cholesterol and helps control blood sugar. It also helps maintain healthy gut flora and lose weight.
If you need more information, help or advice contact Giselle to find out more.