De-sugar your life and feel great!

Did you know that between 70-80% of weight loss is attributed to the food that you consume. The further 20-30% is down to exercise. Therefore I can’t stress enough the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet for keeping your weight in check.  Also keeping a healthy heart, avoiding health risks such as diabetes and high cholesterol,  maintaining a healthy digestive system, keeping energy levels at their peak and keeping you looking and feeling great! Anyone who claims that all you need to do is exercise and then you can eat what you want to stay healthy is just plain wrong!

One of the first things that I focus on when I have a new client who is lacking in energy or is looking to lose weight is to take a good  look at their eating habits. More often that not I notice similar patterns developing… seemingly ‘healthy’ foods that  appear on a daily basis are often packed full of hidden sugars and artificial sweeteners that send the blood sugar levels souring and many contain chemicals that don’t provide the body with any goodness.

With this in mind I am going to show you a typical ‘seemingly healthy’ daily food menu and then add a few tweaks that could make all the difference in helping you to achieve your goals.  These changes will increase the amount of protein and good fats at each meal and reduce the amount of overall sugar in the diet. In combination these will help to make you feel fuller for longer – helping you to resist the urge to pick.  They should help to improve your energy levels and will prevent you from storing excess sugar as fat.

Typical Daily Menu

Breakfast

A bowl of low-fat  fruit and nut muesli with some chopped strawberry OR  2 slices of  wholemeal toast with Marmite

SUGGEST SWAPPING  TO – 1 slice of multiseed toast with 2 boiled eggs or smoked salmon, 1/2 small avocado, a tomato and some leaves

Lunch

Tuna and salad sandwich made with 1/2 can tuna and salad on turkish bread

Low Fat raspberry Yogurt

SUGGEST SWAPPING TO – Tuna salad made with a whole can of tuna, 2 tablespoons of mixed beans, lots of salad, a handful of seeds, olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing

 1 cup of natural yogurt with a few raspberries

Snack

Oat and honey muesli bar

SUGGEST SWAPPING TO – 1 tablespoon cottage cheese with 2 oatcake biscuits

Dinner

Wholemeal pasta with a tomato and vegetable sauce

Big bowl of chopped pineapple

SUGGEST SWAPPING TO –  1 whole chicken breast baked with a little olive oil and herbs, with a tomato and vegetable sauce, extra broccoli

Half an apple spread with a little almond butter

Finally…  make sure you get at least 8 glasses of water per day. If you have a coffee chase it with a glass of water!