1. Chew Your Food – Don’t just shovel it down, enjoy it and take your time. You are much more likely to overeat when you eat too quickly.
2. Cut Out Alcohol – To burn off a glasses of red wine you would have to skip for 10 minutes. Beer is worse, a pint of beer contains almost 200 empty calories which will get stored as fat. At least for your program try to cut down/cut out altogether your alcohol intake.
3. Tea & Coffee – Try swapping your hot drinks for green tea instead. People can get very reliant on caffeine to get you through the morning, try to reduce your coffee intake, it may seem tough at first but after a few days you’ll realise that your energy in the morning will come from a good nights sleep, a healthy breakfast and a mood boosting workout.
4. Avoid Low Fat Versions – 1 fat isn’t the enemy, you should be eating fats every day and 2 low fat versions are often worse than the original as they take out the fat and need to replace the flavour with something so they use unnatural ingredients which are much worse for you or just sugar.
5. Don’t Rely On Sauces – Instead of adding unhealthy ketchup, mayo and bbq sauce to all your meals experiment with healthy oils, herbs and spices to give your meal a good flavour kick
6. Butter Over Marge – If you do use a spread always use butter instead of margarine
7. Coconut Oil – This is a great product, I love it. You can pick it up from your local supermarket, it’s a little expensive but it lasts a long time. Add it to the pan when you are cooking stir frys, meats and pretty much anything and it’s healthy as well as tasty.
8. Water – Ensure you stay hydrated throughout the day. A lot of people think they are hungry when they are actually just thirsty, you should drink at least 3 litres of water each day
9. Good Carbs – These are the carbohydrates you should be eating. Sweet potato, normal potatoes (moderation), brown rice, wild rice, couscous (moderation), basmati rice.
10. Bad Carbs – These are the carbs you shouldn’t be eating. Chocolate (you can occasionally have organic dark chocolate, this is much better for you and a couple of squares every now and then is a great way to suppress your appetite and stop you overeating), crisps, sweets, chips, ice cream, bread.
11. Eat Breakfast – Get your day off to a flyer and prevent yourself overeating mid morning with a health breakfast. Smoothies, porridge, omelettes, healthy pancakes, scrambled egg with smoked salmon just a few ideas.
12. Balanced Meal – A perfect meal would contain a good supply of lean quality protein, packed with vegetables (green veg great), a reasonable portion of good carbs like brown rice and some fats to go with it (fish, oils, avocado). Try and aim for this with most meals.
13. More You Do More Carbs – Eating too many of the bad carbs like the ones mentioned above are a big reason why so many people get fat, stick to the good ones but don’t have too much. Not plates and plates of rice and potatoes or it will have the same effect as the bad carbs would, on exercise days have more carbs including fruit as your body will use it more and not store so much as fat, especially straight after exercise.
14. Plan & Prepare – Probably one of the most important steps. Get into a habit of planning what you are going to eat and making sure you have all of the ingredients ready and prepare the food if you have time. Try to get all of your food ready (snacks included) the night before or in the morning to make your day easier.
15. Cook Extra – If you are cooking cook extra, it makes things so much easier and reduces your cooking time. Store the left overs in the fridge/freezer and heat up if needed another time.
16. Eat Little & Often – Rather than just two big meals, 3-4 smaller meals are the best way to go. This keeps your metabolism burning and the calories burning. This will also help to maintain your energy levels throughout the day.
17. Eat More Fruit & Veg – This will provide all of the goodness you need, they are also a great way of filling up without adding extra calories.
18. Treat Yourself – After you have got the hang of your healthy eating and have been doing it for at least 2 weeks allow yourself to have a treat, pencil it into your diary, eat it, don’t feel guilty and get back to your good ways. This gives you something to look forward to and science suggests it is good for fat loss to have a treat every so often.
19. Eat After Exercise – This is a very important meal, exercise depletes your energy supplies and damages the muscles so they need to be refuelled. It’s like putting petrol in your car after taking it out for a long drive. Stick to your usual meal structure of protein, fats and carbs. Try and eat with 30mins-1.5 hrs of your session.
20. Snack Wisely – Snack on things such as fruit, nuts, cottage cheese, peanut butter, small salads, 9 bars, eat natural bars rather than breakfast bars, chocolate bars, crisps, bread etc.
