7 tips on eating for fat loss!

1. Nutrition experts recommend healthy, high-fibre and low-sugar whole foods such as lean protein (lean beef, chicken, & fish), colourful fruits & vegetables (oranges, apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, broccoli, peppers, asparagus, and the list goes on!), nuts (almonds, cashews, & walnuts), and whole grains (oatmeal and rye sourdough bread).

2. Food choices should contain a large nutrient-to-calorie ratio. Dr. Phil calls this, “High-Response Cost, High-Yield Nutrition”. Some examples of this approach include, eating a piece of whole fruit instead of drinking fruit-flavoured beverages, eating green vegetables instead of potatoes, and snacking on nuts instead of chips.

3. Nutrition experts recommend eating 6 small meals each day rather than 2-3 large meals. A well-planned schedule will help you achieve this goal. Eat soon after waking up, and then every 3-4 hours thereafter until you go to bed.

4. A sample 6-meal plan would include breakfast, a small morning snack, lunch, a small afternoon snack, a sensible dinner, and a small evening snack. Smaller, more frequent meals help you use all nutrients better, retain more vitamins, and control your blood sugar levels. Controlling your blood sugar is a key to avoiding hunger and fatigue.

5. Avoid overeating or combining sugar and fat within a meal. One easy way to improve your health and lose fat is to stop eating “fast food” and stop drinking soda pop. It’s also extremely important to control portion sizes, especially when eating out.

6. When eating at a restaurant, avoid excess sugar, fat, or oversized meals. Restaurant meals are often too large to eat in one sitting and contain more than enough food for one person. It’s important that you recognise the pitfalls of eating out. Stick with the foods recommended by nutritionists as often as you can: healthy, high-fibre and low-sugar whole foods such as lean protein, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and whole grains.

7. Nutrition experts recommend avoiding “processed carbohydrates” (typically, this includes carbohydrates from a bag or a box). Processed carbohydrates generally provide too many calories and too much sugar. Processed carbohydrates rapidly increase and decrease blood sugar, often resulting in hunger and fatigue.

Let me know what your tips are for healthy eating below!

Tim James CPT

For more tips check out TurbulenceTraining.com

The top six ….. ups to achieve your fitness goals!

• Wake up- I could write a whole blog on this as it all starts with the beginning of the day.
  Set your alarm if you need to use those horrible things and know what you are waking up for the night before. Plan to be a winner.
• Get up- This sounds simple but it follows wake up. You must not continuously hit snooze. Once again if you are waking up with a positive mind set then you will be eager to get up and into the day.
• Eat up- Ok so this sounds really hard (lol) but many people are skipping meals because it is too hard to plan properly. Get onto a healthy eating forum where other people talk about their struggles and surround yourself with people who want to actually make positive changes in their eating habits. And make a plan on Sundays what you are going to eat for the week. Alternatively each night write down the next days rough eating plan.
• Drink up- Ok not too hard this one but get plenty of filtered water and buy it in bulk if you dont have a filter that removes flouride. You shouldnt pay more than $6 for 10 litres
• Stand up- Many of you have sedentary jobs so get out of that chair and stretch, walk around and dont sit in the couch when you are not at work. Get into the garden or swim in the pool but enjoy using your body. You could even go and work out :p
• Show up- There is a saying in AA. Keep coming back! Well we say that too. Just keep showing up to your workouts. Some days you will really feel like piking on it all but if you persist you will be happy you achieved something after that fact.

Look out for the 6 …. ups not to do soon
Tim James AKI CPT

Fitness – fat loss mistakes of 2009!

I have been putting in a lot of energy to my upcoming Worldwide Workout on Saturday the 9th but here is the top mistakes you made in 2009 and how to be successful in 2010!

1. Doing too much cardio. Because cardio is exercise many of you make the mistake of thinking that is where you will burn  the fat. Unless you are doing enough to burn more than you are eating this is a very ineffective way to succeed at fat loss. You need to train less, recover more so you have the ability to put in more effort each individual workout and most importantly if you havent allready start INTERVALS.

2. No accountability. In 2009 if you didnt have a group to turn up to, a friend to train with or a coach to make appointments with then you had a high chance of falling off the wagon. Get accountable to someone and inspire them while y0u are at it!

3. No meal planning. What am I going to eat? Standing at an open fridge door or cupboard door thinking, “What is there to eat”? I know, I have done it. The answer is sit down on a Sunday with some paper and plan your main meals. Brekky, Lunch, Tea. You are bound to succeed at eating better when you know what you have planned even if you have planned to eat out.

4. No intensity. It is ok to exercise at your level but when do you really challenge yourself. Pushing the envelope! Doing that last few seconds that you dont feel like. Without intensity you will stagnate and eventually go backwards.

5. Undereating. Yes it is true. If you dont eat often enough you will be more likey to overeat or snack on crap or simply you will lose muscle and be fatigued & tired! Stick to 3 meals and 2 snacks for minimal success.

6. Overeating. Related to undereating often but it can also be that you love what you are eating so much that you lack the discipline to stop. First only have one serving. Secondly reduce the size of your plate. Lastly wait ten minutes before deciding to have dessert.

7. Overtraining. Many of you have seen the signs. No energy, lethargic, disinterested, constantly hungry, sore all the time. The list is much larger but can be summed up into one statement. You are doing too much and need to reduce the amount of time you are spending per workout and also reduce your workouts to one per day and every other day being strength. Also have one day off where you are only doing leisure activities.

5 more ways to battle the Party Season

There are so many challenges at this time of year that many people give up and overindulge because they say it is too hard. Hey, I just met a guy I hadnt seen in a long time who lost 30 kgs over the last few months so dont tell me it it impossible !! ps He is determined!!

Share a dessert. Why not. It can make for a fun game of fork stabbing besides the obvious eating less rich stuff.

 

Have one rumball instead of 6. It would be insane to suggest not having any party food unless you are a cover model and have a photo shoot tomorrow. So enjoy the taste and stop at one. Move past the chips and enjoy the white christmas but have one piece instead of 3.

 

Cook from a recipe book instead of eating out. I find the exciting challenge of trying a new recipe more fun than eating the same old predictable burger and you actually know where the food is coming from. You know what the basic calorie content is and have a choice in adapting the recipe to suit your choices.

 

Ask for the salad dressing in a side dish and dip your fork in it. Often women will order salad as a healthy low fat option but the hidden salt and calories are in the dressing. By dipping the fork you get a real taste without the drowned, soggy lettuce at the bottom of the bowl!

 

Drink water between your alcohol. It will fill you up faster, which satisfys the thirst craving and will dampen the toxic load the alcohol is having on your allready assaulted body from the festive overload.

Have a safe and merry Christmas

Tim James CPT AKI