Five steps to minimise your appetite, maximise your weight loss,
double your nutrient intake and send your energy levels soaring.
Step 1: Veg out
Forget calorie counting, weighing, measuring and other faddy diets.
Simply switch from eating meals based predominantly around carbohydrates
such as cereals or toast for breakfast, sandwiches or jacket potatoes
for lunch and rice or pasta for dinner to meals that are largely based
around fruit or vegetables instead.
Doing so will automatically reduce your calorie intake (sometimes by
as much as 500 calories a day – the amount recommended for long term,
permanent fat loss), lower circulating levels of insulin (the fat
storing hormone) and because we naturally prefer to eat carbohydrates
with fats (think bread without the margarine, baked potatoes without the
butter and crackers without the cheese) you’ll slash your fat intake
too.
You’ll also significantly increase your intake of essential vitamins, minerals fibre and other disease preventing nutrients.
How? - Eat a minimum of seven servings of fruit and vegetables a day.
• Swap your bowl of cereal with some chopped fruit on top for a bowl of chopped fruit with a spoon or two or cereal added.
• Swap your midday ham salad sandwich for a large ham salad.
• Swap a lunch time jacket potato for a bowl of vegetable soup.
• Swap your shepherd’s pie made from just mince and potatoes with a
few carrots on the side for a smaller serving of pie made from carrots,
peas and mince with a sweet potato and leek topping and fill up the rest
of the plate with a spring cabbage lightly sautéed in a little garlic
and olive oil.
• Swap the usual plate of spaghetti with two or three spoons of
bolognese sauce on top for a plate of bolognese sauce made largely from
tomatoes, peppers, carrots, peas and sweetcorn with a little extra lean
meat added and one or two spoons of spaghetti added in.
Step 2: Eat two thirds of your calories within the first two thirds of your day
If you were to drive from London to Edinburgh on an empty tank of petrol
you wouldn’t expect your car to keep going on the ‘promise’ you’d fill
it up when you get there. That’s exactly what we expect our bodies to do
when we race through the day skipping breakfast, grabbing a bite for
lunch only to fill up on an oversized, energy sapping, calorie laden
meal in the evenings.
The very best way to make the pounds drop off and to keep energy
levels sky high (helping to avoid all those cravings for high fat, high
sugar, quick energy fixes) is to switch to eating the majority of your
calories during the day when you most need them and to avoid over eating
at night.
How?
Make breakfast the largest meal of the day followed by medium sized
lunch and a far smaller evening meal (try using a side plate in the
evenings rather than a dinner plate).
Always have a healthy, low GI snack such as a small handful of nuts,
seeds or dried fruit, a low fat yoghurt, some fruit or a wholegrain
cracker topped with cottage cheese and grapes mid morning and mid
afternoon. Swap calorie packed desserts for a low fat yoghurt or fresh
fruit. Don’t have foods in the house that you know will tempt you into
nibbling in the evenings
Brush your teeth straight after dinner. You’ll be amazed how
effective that can be at stopping you from heading back into the
kitchen!
Step 3: Switch to low GI carbohydrates
Low GI carbs release their sugars at a much slower pace into the blood
stream helping to keep energy levels high, cravings for fatty/sugary
foods at bay and insulin production to a minimum and the less insulin
you have the less fat you’ll store and the lower your risk of developing
diabetes and heart disease will be.
How?
• Swap Baguettes (GI 95) for wheat tortillas (GI 30)
• Swap Rice Cakes (GI 74) and bagels (GI 72) for a slice of wholemeal
rye bread (GI 58) or wholemeal stone-ground, heavy grain breads (GI 47)
• Swap Jacket Potatoes (GI 101) for Sweet Potatoes (GI 46)
• Swap white rice (GI 87) for Barley (25)
• Swap Mashed Potatoes (GI 101) for lentils (GI 26)
Step 4: Fill up on high ‘SI’ foods
Why? - ‘SI’ stands for ‘satiety index’. A measure of how filling a food
is created by Dr Susanne Holt, one of the researchers at Sydney
University where the Glycaemic Index was developed. According to the
Satiety Index, some of the most filling foods you can eat include oats,
apples, wholewheat pasta, oranges, popcorn, beans, grapes and wholemeal
bread.
However, the most satiating nutrient of all has been shown in
numerous studies to be protein so adding high quality, lean meat, fish,
chicken, nuts and seeds to your food is a great way to control appetite
which will naturally help to reduce your calorie intake.
How? - Try smoked kippers or smoked salmon with scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Snack on a small handful of nuts and seeds, grapes, oranges, apples, low fat hummus and popcorn.
• Swap your usual lunchtime pasta salad for a mixed bean salad or a tuna nicoise instead
• Swap your cheese sandwich for an open topped ham, chicken or beef one instead.
• Swap your usual bowl of evening pasta for a chargrilled tuna or
sirloin steak on a bed of lightly steamed pak choi or shredded spring
cabbage sautéed in garlic and a little olive oil.
Top your fish pie with protein rich mashed lentils instead of potato
Add strips of lean beef to your stir fry, beans to your casseroles and pulses to your curry and soups.
Step 5: Hit the bottle
The water bottle that is. Keep one with you at all times and as soon as
it’s empty fill it up again because apart from the fact that sipping
water instead of sugary drinks, alcohol and lattes can cut up to 500
calories a day, studies show that even very mild levels of dehydration
will slow the metabolism and can result in over eating by confusing
signals of thirst with hunger.
How? - Drink at least 2 litres of water a day.
Swap strong teas and coffee for herbal teas or hot water infused with
lemon, lime, ginger or fresh mint (and don’t over do the lattes - they
can add up to 350 calories to your day!) Drink at least two large
glasses of water when you wake in the morning to replace the fluids you
have lost during the night.
Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. Research shows that thirst can be a poor indicator of hydration.
Swap sugary drinks that contain excess calories and only serve to make
you more dehydrated for vegetable juices and diluted fruit juices.
Alcohol dehydrates, robs the body of essential nutrients, adds empty
calories and increases appetite so apart for the odd glass of red wine
keep it to a minimum. Sip on sparkling water with a splash of
elderflower or ginger cordial.
Article by Racheal Anne Hill for Yahoo Lifestyle
Natural Figure recommends -
Sanafil - to help curb your appetite
Green Tea Optimum - to help boost your weight loss plan
