Healthy recipes by the Prime Minister's Chef!
16/09/2009 at 08:18am by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
We’re pleased to announce that a partnership with our friends at www.thecookingschool.co.uk means that we’ll be updating you with regular healthy recipes on the run-up to Christmas, all from the award-winning former chef to the Prime Minister, Matthew Benson Smith.
Matthew has more than 20 years cooking experience with awarded-winning restaurants and hotels across the UK, and will kick off our recipes with an easy and great tasting start to your day!
RED ALERT RHUBARB REVIVER
This breakfast smoothie really helps to revive! You will have to put your ‘shop fresh’ principles aside because both fruits are canned. Forced Yorkshire rhubarb, if available, can be used if lightly stewed with a little sugar.
Place 100g canned rhubarb and 150g canned strawberries (stored overnight in the ‘fridge) with 1 teaspoon freshly grated root ginger and 300ml cold milk into a blender. Add 1 - 2 tablespoons clear honey. Whizz until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
Guest post - Why do we overeat? Includes tips on how to beat it!
13/09/2009 at 08:35pm by Guest contributor, Ros Astaire
This week, we are extremely privileged to have the thoughts of weight management coach Ros Astaire. Ros is a certified nutritionist, counsellor and life coach, and will be sharing her thoughts with us on why we overeat, as well as give her top 5 tips on how to overcome it.
For most of us, trying to lose weight without deprivation seems like an impossible task. Perhaps you feel that way? How many of us have tried a number of diets only to put the weight back on again?
Deep down, we all know that dieting isn’t the answer to permanent weight loss. Most people who have a weight problem do not know how to listen to their body or make the right food choices. Dieting destroys self confidence and does not address our unconscious patterns. When we stop the diet and go back to normal, the problem is still there.
The answer lies, initially, in tackling the underlying reasons why we overeat in the first place. Once these have been established, we have to embark on a re-learning process and get back in tune with our bodies.
Ask yourself – when was the last time I was hungry and what were the signals, how did it feel?
There is a way out of the dieting treadmill. We can lose weight without depriving ourselves of the food we love. We do not have to cut anything out. Learning to trust ourselves again, making a commitment to ourselves to do the best we possibly can to enhance our wellbeing and being kind to ourselves, are just some of the processes that can be addressed.
My top 5 tips for overcoming your overeating:
1. Ask yourself “How hungry am I?” . Rate your hunger level out of 10. If very hungry you are at 10 and feeling full would be 1.
Not sure whether you are hungry? Wait a bit longer – you will soon hear your body giving you the right signals.
2. When eating, your attention should always be present. If you are reading or watching TV, you are distracting yourself from the taste of the food and from how it feels in your body.
3. Stop eating when ‘satisfied’, not when you are ‘full’. It means being willing to waste food, throw it away, save it for later. It means not necessarily finishing the food on your plate. If you are enjoying a meal and you are not sure whether you are satisfied, put your knife and fork down, have a little pause, push your plate away. Check in with your body.
4. Eat what you really want. If you really desire chocolate, nothing else will do. If you choose something you really want, you will feel satisfied psychologically as long as you do so in moderation and consciously.
5. Always eat sitting down. This allows you to enjoy your food with awareness. If you are on the run, or in the car, or standing up whilst cooking, you will have eaten unconsciously and won’t feel satisfied.
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Please do check out the blogs on the right – have you read them yet?
Ros Astaire
Weightexpectations
www.weightexpectations.com
Registered Happyweight Practitioner
www.happyweight.com
Did dieting kill a slimmer?
12/09/2009 at 09:57am by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
I will try to keep this relatively short when compared to the way I feel, but to the point.
Any professional, us included, will tell you crash diets are not the answer. I’ve written as much in this very blog, set out our reasons and given guaranteed alternatives.
You may have heard the upsetting and unfortunate news of 34 year old dieter and bride-to-be, Samantha Clowe, who signed up to the Lighter Life 530-calories-a-day diet in a bid to lose weight for her wedding. Having lost 3 stone on the dangerous deprivation diet, she collapsed and died at her house, with coroners pronouncing the most likely cause was heart failure. Home Office pathologist Dr Alfredo Walker didn’t rule out the fact it could have been ‘related to her low-calorie diet and weight loss.'
I am not medically qualified enough to suggest a correlation between the two. But I certainly feel angry at the Lighter Life organisation.
The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and independent regulator Ofcom often respond with decisive action when a handful of complaints are made against what’s shown on our screens. Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand insult an actor over the telephone, and heads roll. Where then, are the authorities when businesses such as Lighter Life promote dangerous eating practise, which in this case has potentially led someone to their death?
Of course you’ll lose weight if you’re nearly starving on a Lighter Life diet, paying nearly £70 a week for the privilege of eating soup. But, this isn’t realistic. The person’s connection with the food and lack of exercise that got them to the point of being overweight hasn’t been challenged in truth, as there’s still the association with depriving themselves of the food they enjoy. Giving a 530 calorie figure to apply to every single person who wants to lose weight is ridiculous, it's unlikely to be even a third of the calories they need simply to function. This one-size-fits-all approach is completely unsound.
Jackie Cox, the obese founder of Lighter Life has a lot to answer for. But whilst she goes unchallenged, she can and will get away with it. The people who use the diet as a quick-fix also need to know they are part of a damaging cycle. There are experts out there, such as ourselves, who would happily give free advice rather than see more people sign up to diet plans only interested in the money they can make from them. Lighter Life isn’t the only one.
Jackie Cox, founder of fad diet plan 'Lighter Life'
Guest post: Male fitness cover-model David White gives his diet alternatives!
09/09/2009 at 06:43pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
For our first guest blog, we’re lucky enough to be able to introduce arguably the UK’s best known fitness model, David White.
David has appeared on the cover of industry leading titles such as Men’s Fitness and Healthy for Men, as well as modelling for the likes of Adidas and Reebok. David is also the founder of online fitness magazine www.finalfitness.co.uk. Final Fitness includes many fantastic diet and exercise tips, including interviews with leading athletes and models.
David recently spoke to Fat Free Fitness about his diet and how he manages to keep himself in such great shape for his work.
He kindly agreed to look at typically unhealthy foods to give alternatives, to help people stay on track with their weight loss effort. Below are David’s alternatives to the top 10 foods which can ruin weight loss attempts. As with anything, moderation is key!
1. Crisps – Crisps are a dieters’ worst enemy, simply because there’s very little of any actual nutritional benefit in them. If you’re going to eat crisps try ‘Snack a Jacks’, or ‘Ryvita Minis’. These come in loads of flavours so there’s sure to be a flavour you like. They’re low in fat and high in fibre so will help fill you up too!
2. Chocolate - If you simply have to have that chocolate moment, try and pick dark chocolate rather than milk, and maybe limit yourself to a day a week you treat yourself to chocolate. Dark chocolate can be good for blood pressure and contains anti-oxidants.
3. The dreaded ‘office cakes’ – Do the amount of cakes brought into your office seem to directly correlate with whenever you are trying to lose weight? If you have to choose from a selection of cakes try and stay away from the high fat cakes, which will typically be the ones with added extras. Try carrot cake, there are loads of natural cakes out there in the shops and at no extra cost.
4. Jarred pasta sauces – All supermarkets do an amazing range of pasta sauces, and all offer a healthy option in an array of flavours. Have a good look next time you’re in the supermarket and try to pick out the healthy option; they normally taste the best as well. Alternatively, look up home-made recipes online, you can create sauces using little more than simple ingredients such as tomatoes and garlic.
5. Alcohol - The best beer to drink is Michelob Ultra if you can find it, with 120 calories in a pint serving. For wine, go for Chardonnay, with around 90 calories for a 4 oz (118ml) serving. As for spirits they are all highly calorific at around 80 calories for a single shot but the mixers are the worst, you can try and have it on the rocks of course or try diet coke.
6. Takeaway pizza - Always try to go for thin crust and vegetable options. It’s normally the bread that builds up the calories on a pizza; if it’s fresh it’s a lot better for you.
7. Pre-packaged sandwiches/baguettes - When looking for a sandwich always try to have the one with less or low-fat mayonnaise, and always have brown bread. Seafood or chicken is great.
8. Pop/fizzy drinks – I would say all fizzy drinks should be avoided, try to go for water at all times. It’ll fill you up more, is less likely to bloat you and costs much less.
9. Sugary cereals - For breakfast try Oats or Muesli, the fibre will keep you going all day, you can add fruit and honey as well if you prefer a sweeter taste.
10. Chips – If you are a chip eater, it’s always good to check the back of the packet before you get oven fried chips, to compare the calories to competitors' chips. Homemade chips are best as they won’t include any preservatives frozen chips often include. Try not to eat soggy battered chips… this means no more regular trips to the local chippie!
Follow Fat Free Fitness on Twitter here for the latest in diet, health and weight loss: @fatfreefitness
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Please do check out the blogs on the right – have you read them yet?
David on the cover of Healthy for Men
David on the cover of Men's Fitness
How going back to school will finally help you lose weight
08/09/2009 at 09:20am by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
Have you ever heard that weight loss is simply a case of burning more calories than you take in? Have you ever wondered just how to find out how many calories you should be taking in? Well, we're going to help, and guarantee that if you stick to this, you'll lose weight.
So, if you're not sure how many calories you should be taking on, there are ways to find out. Being a personal trainer, maths was never the strongest weapon in my academic arsenal, so check this link out and then come back to read more, you'll be able to calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, basically, the amount of calories you'd need if you stayed in bed all day).
As soon as you know this number, use the following to determine how many calories you need every day at your current activity level:
Multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:
1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
As soon as you have this, it's time to look at whether there's any room to shave unnecessary calories from your diet, or up the amount/intensity of exercise you do, to healthily ensure you are using more energy than you're taking in.
Let's say you were a 30 year old woman, 5'6" and 10 stone 3 lbs (65kg), your BMR would be approximately 1455 calories.
If you were lightly active, you'd need just over 2000 calories every day to maintain your weight going on the above calculations. If you stictly kept your calorie intake the same, but exercised regularly (the Government recommend 5 times a week, for 30 minutes a day, but any exercise is of course better than none) you'd lose weight.
Healthily reduce your food intake by a few hundred calories too by becoming a bit more food-savvy/reading the nutritional information on the foods you put in your body, and we guarantee you'd lose weight. Really. By 'healthily reduce', we mean that it's important that you don't cut out whole food groups, such as carbohydrates, protein or fat. We all need these macro-nutrients in our diet, and whilst balanced reduction to an extent is fine, cutting one group out will not aid in your weight loss, at least not healthily and definitely not enduringly. For a few reasons why, please read this blog about crash dieting I wrote last week.
As always, if you have any questions, comments or queries, please email us on info@fatfreefitness.co.uk, or comment below, we'd be happy to help.
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Guest post - Why do we overeat? Includes tips on how to beat it!
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Fat Free Fitness Weight Loss
Launched in 2009, fatfreefitness.co.uk is the UK's only weight loss specific personal training agency. Fat Free Fitness helps you stop dieting and counting calories, by teaching you how to improve your nutrition, increase your activity and exercise levels and lose weight. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is a great way to lose weight and save money. fatfreefitness provides you with expert diet, fitness, exercise, gym and personal training advice and support, similar to ivillage.co.uk, weightlossforall.com, thecolumn.org, weightlossforgood.co.uk, tescodiets.co.uk and weightlossresources.co.uk. Win diet, exercise and fitness products by entering fatfreefitness.co.uk competitions. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is not a weight loss support group like Weight Watchers weightwatchers.co.uk or Slimming World slimmingworld.com. Fat Free Fitness is updated regularly with new information. Fatfreefitness.co.uk and weight loss expert, personal trainer and fatfreefitness.co.uk founder Rich Leigh disagree with and discourage fat loss tablets, diet tablets and weight loss aid tablets, fad dieting and crash diets such as the Atkins diet, the Cambridge diet, the cabbage soup diet, the Beverley Hills diet, the baby food diet and all other carbohydrate and calorie restricting diets.
