Healthy nutrition
Weight loss day – 1.5gram of carb x body weight in kgs. 1.5kg x body weight in grams protein. Plus LOT’s of salad / veg.
Please feel free to split this up however suits your daily routine and hunger patterns best. If you are hungrier in the night, eat more then and less in the morning. If you are hungrier in the morning, then switch that around. Its the daily (and weekly) total that matters, not the timing of the meals.
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Happy movement
No exercise today, but I do want you to do extra movement today in whatever way you enjoy. Up to 2 hours extra movement or an extra 10,000 steps on your pedometer. Feel free to break this up into smaller time chunks.
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HOT tip
Set a reminder to get up and MOVE on your computer and phone. Set it to go off every hour or so.
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HOT lesson – A successful weight loss program needs to do 3 things
- Use up more calories than you put in each week. (we are always looking at a weekly average, not micro-managing)
- Ensure you consume enough protein so that the lost weight comes from body fat and not lean muscle.
- Manage your blood sugar levels (so that hunger, craving, energy levels and hormones are also managed)
Here are some useful tips on how to manage your blood sugar naturally.
- Reduce the overall portion size of your meal. Even a healthy balanced meal will spike (then crash) your blood sugar if you eat to the point of feeling “stuffed”. And a so called “unhealthy” meal will not have a dramatic effect on your blood sugar if you only have a small portion
- Eat slowly. You can slow down and reduce the blood sugar spike from any meal if you chew properly and eat slowly (not to mention the fact that you might stop eating sooner because you notice you are full)
- Reduce the carbohydrate portion of your meal and where possible try to choose a carbohydrate choice contains fibre
- Include protein and vegetables with your meal
- Include fibre with your meal. You can do this by adding lots of veg (ideal) or by choosing a carbohydrate choice that contains fibre, or by taking a natural fibre supplement with your least fibrous meal of the day (don’t do this too often).
- get enough sleep
- reduce stress
- keep moving throughout the day, especially after eating. Even 5 minutes here and there helps
- perform exercise that uses and overloads your muscles a couple of times per week
- perform short bursts of exercise that gets you huffing and puffing outside of your comfort zone a couple of times per week
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HELP !! – It’s too late, I already over ate.
The following tips are what to do to manage your blood sugar AFTER you have had already done the damage with a treat, cheat meal or simply eaten too much. Hey, it happens to us all.
- Move. The sooner the better, the more intense the better. But any movement is better than none. It will use up some of the glucose in your blood stream, in turn reducing the blood sugar spike and reducing the chance at fat storage.
- Exercise and overload your muscles (soon after eating). Some of the excess glucose will be stored in your muscles instead of in your fat cells
- Drink water. There is some evidence that this will help slow down the blood sugar spike, however this will only make a small difference.
- Remind yourself that we are NOT micro-managing each week. More at one meal and less in the next is fine. Compensate by having a lighter soup or salad meal as your next meal choice.
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Blood sugar management and your fat burning hormones
One of the main concerns with NOT managing your blood sugar levels is becoming more insulin resistant. This makes fat burning hard and fat storage easy. As well as a whole host of other health problems.
Please read Insulin and your weight for full details
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Carb management = Blood sugar management = More insulin sensitivity
= Easier and Faster fat burning = Yay
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