Friday - Artificial sweeteners -

Friday – please think about meal planning for next week.

Keep it simple. Choose 4 or 5 dinners and make enough for leftovers.

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Healthy Nutrition

Weight loss day – Each meal should contain – One handful of a carb rich food, 1 handful of a protein rich food plus LOT’s of salad / veg. Eat when “fairly hungry”, stop when “satisfied” (not full / stuffed).

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 Exercise

Today I want you to do any exercise session that A) gets you huffing and puffing out of your comfort zone and B) uses and overloads all of your muscle groups. You can choose an exercise session from the video instructions HERE, or you can do your own session as long as fits the criteria.

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HOT tip

So far, there has been a lot of talk about counting and checking. This can freak some people out. “Aaaaahhhh, its so much work. I can’t focus on all of these numbers forever”.

Good news !! I don’t want you to.

MOST of your results will be achieved by following the perfect plate guidelines (video lesson) . One handful of a protein rich food, one handful of a carb rich food and LOT’s of salad and / or veg.

However, some foods don’t lend themselves well to measuring this way and that’s where counting in grams can be appropriate. Checking the amount of carb and protein of a food item with a label should take you 5 seconds. If the item has no label it might be useful to make the extra time and effort to look it up, IF its something you consume on a semi regular basis.

Of course more focus and attention is always needed at the beginning stages of learning something new. In time I am sure that habits, awareness and routines will be enough to succeed long term.

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HOT lesson – limit artificial sweeteners

There are few other topics that cause the internet to go into such a frenzy as the debate over artificial sweeteners. I like to take some emotion out, and simply look at the scientific facts.

Whether you choose to include foods with artificial sweeteners is a personal choice. Here are some pro’s and con’s

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Items that contain artificial sweeteners include diet drinks, diet jellies, diet yoghurts, most diet foods in general and most protein shakes and bars.
Artificial sweeteners do not cause weight gain. We know that consuming more calories than we burn is how weight gain happens.
Research has shown that the consumption of artificial sweeteners is safe for humans in small doses.
Yes, I realise that you can find very scary and emotional articles on the internet, stating that artificial sweeteners are the devil and they will kill us. I am only interested in real facts with real studies to back them up.
Is water a better option than diet drinks?? Absolutely. Water should make up MOST of your daily drinks.
Is fresh whole food a better option that something with artificial sweetener in it? Of course and most of your plan should be filled with these foods.
However, a small amount of an item containing artificial sweetener is safe for you to eat if that is your preference

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I do believe that we should limit our use of these products.

Notice I said limit and not necessarily exclude totally. I believe that all things in moderation are fine. If you truly feel like you can’t live without a sweet taste, then sometimes a product with a little artificial sweetener included will satisfy your sweet craving.

There are 2 schools of thought on this.

You crave something sweet, you have a small serve of a product with artificial sweeteners, it satisfies your craving, you get on with your day. By satisfying your craving this way, it actually made it easier to stick to your plan.
You crave something sweet, you consume a product with an artificial sweetener, the sweet taste results in you craving for more, you end up bingeing and eating more sweet foods than if you had abstained all together. By satisfying your craving this way, it made it harder to stick to your plan.

Neither of them is right or wrong. Only what is right or wrong for YOU. Test and measure on yourself to see what works.

Obviously if you have any bloating or any negative symptoms after consuming artificial sweeteners, then give them a miss all together.

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Please do not misconstrue this message

I am not encouraging you to rush out and guzzle a litre of diet soft drink. I am simply letting you know…

If you satisfy a sweet craving with a small serve of an item that contains artificial sweetener and that helps you stick to your plan, please know… It’s not the end of the world, its not going to cause you any harm.

Everything in moderation (including moderation itself)

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Further recommended reading –

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Go to Week 2 wrap up – – HERE

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