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Top Tips for Portion Control

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I am often asked by clients – and in fact many other people I come across as soon as they discover I am a Registered Nutritional Therapist ‘how much should I be eating?’ This is never a straightforward question but I’m going to give you some general guidance.

WHAT YOUR PLATE SHOULD LOOK LIKE

My experience is what people are actually asking is ‘how much of the different food groups should I be eating’ or ‘what should my plate look like’ and my answer is this:

  • Have protein at every meal
  • Eat as much non-starchy veg as you can
  • Think carefully about the type and quantity of starchy carbs like potatoes, pasta, bread and rice.

I ask people to split their plate in half. Consider filling 2/3 of one half of the plate with protein, the remaining 1/3 of that half plate with starchy carbs, and the second half of the plate with non-starchy veg. This is a good visual guide.

THE DIETING INDUSTRY AND READY MEAL PORTIONS

People are frequently surprised because the advice on the starchy carbs goes against what the diet industry and big slimming clubs have been telling us for years. It is also the exact opposite of the ratios you’ll see if you open up a ready meal ­ – the starchy carbs section is usually very generous as this is typically the cheapest part of the meal to manufacture. Even if you’re a little unsure, trust me on it.

SHOULD YOU EAT UNTIL YOU’RE FULL?

You’ve probably heard it said that you should eat until you are 80% full, then stop. There is a lot of logic in this because it takes some time for the stretch receptors in your stomach to pass the message to your brain that you are actually full.

If you eat slowly, taking care to properly chew every mouthful, your body will thank you for it because you will be digesting your food better, and you may find you eat less than you normally would simply because you’ve given your brain a bit of a chance to catch on to the fact that you no longer need to eat!

A SECRET WEAPON

There’s usually something else going on, too, and this cunning trick might be what you need if portion control is something you struggle with. Serve yourself a meal on a smaller plate. I’m not suggesting you go from dinner plate to side plate but try swapping from a 12-inch dinner plate to a 9-inch plate. The same serving will look significantly more generous, tricking you into thinking it’s more food.

Try it, it does work.

9 Ways to Avoid Festive Season Weight Gain (And Still Have Fun)

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December is a month that encompasses the Christian and Jewish celebrations of Festive Season and Hanukkah, and also includes spiritually significant days for Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans and Zoroastrians. Festivities and commemoration for each faith go on for varying lengths of time.

So how do we end up piling on the pounds over the festive season?

It’s normal to want to indulge over the Festive Season, but the number of people joining diet clubs and gyms in January speaks volumes about how many regret their festive binges.

Maybe you’ve grown up associating food with pleasure and fun, so subconsciously you fear that if you don’t eat tonnes, you won’t have a ‘happy Festive Season/happy Hanukkah’. It’s easy to slip into a ‘one more won’t hurt’ mind-set – just one of the many reasons you might have piled on the pounds during the festive period in the past.

When working with clients on weight loss programmes, I always like to get clear on what has held them back in the past. These are a few of the things that often come up

1. Portion control – have you ever felt you’ve waited all year for Festive Season/Hannukah, so you’re not about the hold back? The extra roasties or chocolates don’t seem to matter.

2. Social life – family gatherings, work lunches and endless parties mean that you are literally overloaded with temptation, sometimes on a daily basis. And hangovers add to the urge to eat junk food and veg out on the sofa

3. Sedentary lifestyle – a busy social life means exercise routines get put on the back burner as we swap dumbbells for the remote control. Swap that for a few brisk walks in the park or some gym time and you’ll have done the hard work of making a start come the New Year- starting is always the hardest bit

4. Mental ‘hall pass’ – willpower goes out the window at this time of year. It’s almost as if you tell yourself that it’s fine to binge on everything in sight as you’ll lose it all when you go on a January diet / detox- which often doesn’t ever start.

Guess what? You can still enjoy the festive season and not gain weight

The trick is to not feel left out by integrating treat foods into the context of an overall healthy diet. So one slice of cake/doughnut/biscuit treat, not four, in one afternoon. And as long as you have some strategies in place before the festive season, there’s no reason why you can’t start the New Year looking and feeling fantastic.

If you don’t have a plan (for parties, going out, visiting friends, having family over and so on) you are setting yourself up to fail. Be clear in your mind what your healthy options are, and if you know you’re going somewhere you won’t be able to eat the right foods, take some nutritious snacks or meals with you.

9 Tips To Avoid Gaining Weight Over The Festive Season

As a qualified BSc Nutritional Therapist, I work with clients to take control of their relationship with food and plan how to get through times when over-indulgence might feel hard to resist.

Here are my 9 tips for how to avoid gaining weight over The Festive Season, and still have fun:

1. SET A FESTIVE FOOD GOAL

It’s unrealistic to try and avoid all temptation over the Festive Season, but by setting a specific goal – say, limiting yourself to one treat a day, or scheduling in a quick workout once or twice a week to offset your increased calorie intake – will help you stay on track

2. HAVE PROTEIN

Fill up on some protein-rich food such as nuts, seeds or chicken before you hit the party circuit

3. PORTION CONTROL

Eating from a smaller dish causes you to eat less, because the food itself looks more substantial. If you transfer food from a 12-inch plate to a 9-inch plate, it looks like more food and you, therefore, feel more satisfied. And avoid seconds unless you are genuinely still hungry

4. AVOID EATING EXCESSIVE FAT

Research reveals that fat from certain foods, including ice cream and roast potatoes, goes straight to the brain and tells you to eat more! It triggers messages that are sent to the body’s cells, warning them to ignore appetite-suppressing hormones that regulate our weight.

The effect can last for a few days, sabotaging efforts to get back to a healthy diet afterwards. Dr Deborah Clegg, who conducted the research, explains: “Normally our body is primed to say when we’ve had enough, but that doesn’t always happen. When you eat something high in fat, your brain gets ‘hit’ with the fatty acids and you become resistant to insulin (which regulates blood sugar levels) and leptin (the hormone that suppresses hunger). Since you are not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat.

5. KEEP TREATS OUT OF SIGHT

If you want a Quality Street chocolate and all you have to do is reach to the tin and help yourself, chances are you’ll end up eating 3 or 4. But if you have to get your shoes on, walk to the shop in the cold to buy some chocolate, you probably wouldn’t bother.

Ever heard yourself say “take this away from me, so I stop eating?” With food directly in front of you, it’s easy to overindulge. Once it’s removed, you realise you aren’t even hungry – you were just eating because it was there. So keep unhealthy foods out of sight in cupboards- or better still, don’t buy them. If you know they’re in the house, you might not be able to resist

6. REMEMBER VEGETABLES

Veggies don’t need to be doused in oil and roasted to within an inch of their lives to taste good. Plus they can really fill you up in a healthy way.

One of my favourite festive side dishes are thinly sliced Brussels sprouts, steamed and then fried with garlic, pine nuts and a dash of white wine. It’s so tasty, I make it all year round. Slow-cooked red cabbage and apple is another fantastic way to get some much-needed nutrients

7. SLOW DOWN WHEN YOU EAT

It takes around 20 minutes for your body to tell your brain that you’re full. If you eat quickly, you’re more likely to overeat. Slowing down gives you time to recognise and assess how hungry you really are.

One trick I use is counting chews (it’s tedious but, believe me, it works). If you chew a bite 10 times, you’ll eat slower. I also found myself enjoying food more, as there’s more time to actually taste what I’m eating. Eventually it becomes second nature to chew more

9. 8. CIRCLE OF SUPPORT

Emotional support is crucial when it comes to dieting. Research shows that people who felt supported by their friends and family were 50% more likely to stick to a healthy eating plan. So ask your loved ones to help you avoid temptation by not to offering you sugary treats. Buddy up with a family member who is also trying to lose or maintain their weight. Having that moral support will boost your chances of success (and you won’t be riddled with that horrible feeling of regret the next day)

9. BE KIND TO YOURSELF

If you slip up, don’t beat yourself up or see it as an excuse to write off the rest of the day and eat everything in sight. Just leave it in the past- don’t ruminate about it, and move on.

If you’re resigned to Festive Season weight gain and are promising yourself you’ll do something about it in the New Year, why not make a commitment to your future self by booking a FREE call with me to see what the options are. I offer a range of health and weight loss packages that can help you reach your personal health goals. You’ll be surprised how easy it can be to get to (and stay at) your happy weight.

                   M: 07812163324          Email: info@yournutritionalhealth.co.uk

 

Yours in health

Sylvia

Sylvia Salvendy

Nutritional Therapist, Health Coach & EFT Practitioner

BSc Nutritional Therapy, Dip BCNH, CNHC, mBANT

Accredited Certified EFT Practitioner AAMET

Zest4Life Health Coach

 

 

 

Slow Cookers

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By London nutritionist Sylvia Hensher

Benefits of Slow Cookers

The advantage of the slow cooker is that it is able to do the cooking without any human intervention. The cooker takes the heat and indirectly applies it to the food so that the food cooked slowly and evenly. As the slow cooker uses low heat, the food is not burned without stirring. Furthermore, the slow cooker is an economical appliance to use for cooking. It uses as little electricity as a 75-watt light bulb and substantially less energy as compared to an electric oven.

The slow cooker means you can go to work all day and come back to enjoy home-cooked food without having to spend time in the cooking process. In the morning before leaving for work you can easily place all the food ingredients in the slow cooker and set it on low. By the time you  come back from work in the evening, a tasty, nutritious, home-cooked dish will be ready.

Tips For Using Slow Cookers

1. Keep it convenient- Make the slow cooker fit your schedule. Prepare a recipe in the morning and let the slow cooker work all day. Or, get everything ready the day before, cover and refrigerate overnight, and wait until morning to start slow cooking.

2. Use fresh ingredients- Avoid using frozen ingredients, especially meat and poultry, which take longer to cook and can disturb the overall timing of a recipe.

3. Stock the crock the right way-For best results, the slow cooker should be half to two-thirds full. When making soups and other dishes that need to simmer, leave a two-inch gap between the food and the top of the slow cooker. Place ingredients that take a long time to cook—root vegetables and large cuts of meat, for example—on the bottom of the slow cooker so they have maximum heat exposure. More delicate items, such as rice, pasta, dairy products, and certain vegetables, should be added during the last hour of cooking.

4. Keep the lid on, stir sparingly-In general, keep the lid securely on the slow cooker to avoid heat loss, which slows down cooking. However, it’s ok to occasionally lift the lid and stir. In fact, if your slow cooker has hot spots, stirring can be helpful.

5. Season later, not sooner- Slow cooking tends to mellow seasoning so be sure to taste your dish to see if you need to add additional salt and pepper at the end of cooking. Better yet, wait until cooking is nearly complete to season your dish. It’s also a good idea to add fresh herbs near the end, as they have a tendency to blacken when cooked for any length of time.

Slow Cooker Recipes

Continue reading “Slow Cookers” →

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Mood and Performance

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A Corporate Nutrition article by London Nutritionist Sylvia Hensher

The power of mood on staff motivation

Research has shown that the mood people bring with them to the workplace at the start of each day, “waking up on the right or wrong side of the bed” influences worker mood throughout the day more powerfully and consistently than any other variable (1). This is not surprising since the boundary between our work and non-work roles is permeable (2). Our mood at the beginning of the day may come from challenges and opportunities we are presented with, positive or negative family experiences before leaving for work, or even the commute into work.

Employees are rarely able to check their emotions at the door, nor are they emotional islands while at work. Whereas start-of-day mood might lead to greater “stickiness” in work mood later in the day, ongoing work interactions can be an important source of positive or negative fluctuations in work mood throughout the day (3). In short, our interactions with others might influence our work mood during the day through the emotional state and mood of others (4).

Consequently, staff with low mood could potentially de-motivate their colleagues by their attitude and lead to underperformance. Conversely, staff with positive mood could help optimise work performance among co-workers.  Thus, the emotions we experience at the start of the day and the emotional state of those we interact with at work can consequently have a profound effect on how we feel and ultimately perform at work.

The effect of mood on work performance-why it matters

Research has found that negative mood can reduce performance outcome; for example, in customer service work settings, it has been shown to reduce the turnover of calls per hour (5).  Workers in a negative mood also need to expend effort to conceal their mood to co-workers and customers (6) which uses up valuable mental and physical resources (7) and could lead to underperformance at work.

On the other hand, positive mood can help employees obtain favourable outcomes at work (8). In particular, research has Continue reading “Mood and Performance” →

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