Interested in Losing Weight?

What You Need to Know Before Getting Started
Weight loss can be achieved either by eating fewer calories or by burning more calories with physical activity, preferably both.

A healthy weight loss program consists of:

• A reasonable, realistic weight loss goal
• A reduced calorie, nutritionally-balanced eating plan
• Regular physical activity
• A behavior change plan to help you stay on track with your goals

We want to help you with each of these components.

Keep in Mind

• Calories count
• Portions count
• Nutrition counts
• Even a small amount of weight loss can lead to big health benefits
• Strive to develop good habits to last a lifetime
• Discuss weight loss with your doctor before getting started

Getting Started

• Check your Body Mass Index(link is external) (BMI) - an indicator of body fat - and see where it fits within the BMI categories.
• Discuss weight loss with your doctor and decide on a goal. If you have a lot of weight to lose, set a realistic intermediate goal, maybe to lose 10 pounds. Remember that even a small amount of weight loss can lead to big health benefits.
• Estimate your calorie needs. Using USDA's online Adult Energy Needs and BMI Calculator(link is external), you can determine the number of calories needed each day to maintain your current weight. To lose about 1 pound per week, subtract 500 calories each day from the daily amount. To lose about 2 pounds per week, subtract 1000 calories daily.
• Score your current food intake and physical activity level using MyPlate SuperTracker. Taking a good look at your current habits will help you determine what changes you might make as well as what you are doing right.

How Do I Know Which Weight Loss Plan is Right For Me?

• Keep in mind that you want to develop lifestyle habits that will help you maintain your weight in a healthy range. A short-term "diet" that you "go on" and then "go off" is not the answer to long-term weight management.
• In choosing how to go about losing weight, keep in mind key habits of people who have lost weight and kept in off. These people are called "Successful Losers" by the weight control experts who have studied them.

Key Behaviors of Successful Losers*

• Getting regular physical activity
• Reducing calorie and fat intake
• Eating regular meals, including breakfast
• Weighing themselves regularly
• Not letting small "slips" turn into large weight regain

source

Tips for losing weight healthily

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommends that we all achieve and maintain a healthy weight. More than half of all Australian adults are above their healthiest weight.

How do you know if you are carrying extra weight?

Most adults can use the following graph as a guide to the healthiest weight for their height.  Draw a line across from your height without shoes in centimetres and a line straight up from your weight in kg with light clothes but no shoes. The point where these two lines cross will land in a BMI range. Your weight will be classified as ‘underweight’ (less than your healthiest weight), ‘normal’ (healthiest weight), ‘overweight’ (above your healthiest weight and at greater risk of some health problems) or ‘obese’ (significantly above your healthiest weight and at greatest risk of health problems).

You can also use the graph to work out what is the healthiest weight for your height. The graph cannot be used for children or people under eighteen years of age because they are still growing and developing.

If you are carrying extra weight losing even 5kg can make you feel better and lower your risk factors for health problems.

Everyday there are new ideas, diets, programs and books telling us how to lose weight. It can be very confusing and hard to know what to try.

It’s easier than ever before to gain weight and harder to take it off. Discretionary foods are cheaper and tastier, portion sizes are larger and we are less active at work and in our spare time.

So to lose weight that stays off we need to make small changes that turn back the clock. We need to limitdiscretionary foods, down size our portions, and find ways to be more active in our everyday lives.

To lose weight, we need to eat and drink fewer kilojoules that we use. Choosing foods from the Australian Dietary Guidelines will help us choose foods that provide the most nutrients, without the extra kilojoules. For example eating more coloured vegetables and salad will keep us feeling fuller for fewer kilojoules. In fact making half our meals coloured vegetables or salad and having smaller portions of the other foods, we can reduce the kilojoules by up to half.

There recommended number of serves can be used to plan meals and snacks for weight loss. Following the serves from the Five Food Groups and avoiding discretionary foods will help most people lose weight while staying healthy. Younger men, people who are taller than average or more active may find they need to include the ‘additional serves’.

Planning is the secret to successful weight loss. By thinking ahead about meals and snacks we can spread the number of serves from the five foods groups over interesting meals and snacks and avoid unplanned eating of extra serves or discretionary foods.

Making a plan for meals and snacks will also make food shopping easier and quicker and cheaper and avoid unplanned extra kilojoules, because then we can buy exactly what we need. Also, knowing a few tips for getting the most out of food labels when shopping can help avoid extra kilojoules.

MORE: How to read nutrition labels for weight loss and health

Eating away from home can be a challenge when wanting to lose weight, but again, thinking ahead and knowing some useful strategies can make it work.

If we eat more ‘mindfully’, turning off the TV, slowing down and savouring food, we can enjoy food more, be more in touch with how hungry or satisfied we are and eat less.

You will find plenty of great information and tips to help you with goal setting, increasing physical activity and making other lifestyle changes to help with weight loss at The Healthy Weight Guide website.

source

What a Nutritionist Eats in a Week

I do believe in everything in moderation. I follow an 80/20 philosophy with my diet – where the 80% accounts for nourishing wholefoods, like organically sourced fruits/veggies/meat and plenty of good fats – and the 20% includes healthy treats in moderation; a few squares of dark chocolate or a glass of red wine at the end of the day. Enjoy the 20%, but make sure you are having a good quality animal protein and loads of colourful and green veggies to go with it!

Here is what a week on my plate looks like – I make sure to include heaps of variety – eating the rainbow is truly the easiest way to make sure you get all the essential nutrients your body needs!

Monday:

Pre breakfast: lemon and ginger warm water + yoga + belly breathing exercise. (Everyday)

+ Morning piccolo coffee – 1 shot of coffee with a small serve of hot milk.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup organic rolled oats cooked in water/almond/coco milk and cinnamon. Topped with berries, a scoop of vanilla pea protein and some mixed seeds. It is so important to get some good fats and proteins in at breakfast time to keep your blood sugar levels stable until dinner.

Daily vitamins: Fish oil, Multi mineral, Vitamin C. (repeated daily)

Snack: Green apple with cinnamon and ginger lemon tea

Lunch: Salmon trout served on a mixed leaf salad with avocado slices. Lemon juice and Dijon mustard mixed together for the dressing.

Snack: Carrot sticks with clean hummus

Dinner: Grilled sea bass/snapper with sautéed/steamed garlic broccoli and grilled asparagus. Lemon ginger tea/chamomile.

Nighttime vitamins: Magnesium powder and a probiotic.

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Power protein shake: scoop of vanilla pea/whey protein, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1 tbsp chia seeds, cinnamon, 1 tsp almond butter, vanilla stevia, 1 cup ice cubes, 1 cup almond milk. Blend. This keeps me so full and satisfied all morning.

+ Morning piccolo coffee – 1 shot of coffee with a small serve of hot milk.

Snack: small handful of raw almonds

Lunch: Tuna and roasted cauliflower salad: a bed of lettuce, chopped carrot, artichokes, avocado, onion, cucumber and roasted cumin spiced cauliflower. Tossed with sesame dressing made from Dijon mustard, sesame oil, tamari and white balsamic.

Snack: 2x sugar free protein balls 

Dinner: Grilled salmon served with pesto green beans and a mixed salad

Wednesday:

Breakfast: 150-200g Greek yoghurt/Coyo with 1/2 cup mixed berries. Add a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and chia seeds. Top with a handful of raw almonds and a drizzle of honey/stevia/cinnamon to sweeten.

+ Morning piccolo coffee – 1 shot of coffee with a small serve of hot milk.

Snack: 1x boiled egg + fresh green juice

Lunch: Grilled chicken and avocado salad with rocket leaves and grilled zucchini. Top with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Snack: Carrot and cucumber sticks with tahini dip

Dinner: Piece of lean eye fillet steak served with cauliflower mash (recipe from my book, The Healthy Life) and roasted sweet potato slices.

Dessert: 2-3 pieces of 80% dark chocolate.

Thursday:

Breakfast: Power protein shake: scoop of vanilla pea/whey protein, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1 tbsp chia seeds, cinnamon, 1 tsp almond butter, vanilla stevia, 1 cup ice cubes, 1 cup almond milk. Blend. This keeps me so full and satisfied all morning.

+ Morning piccolo coffee – 1 shot of coffee with a small serve of hot milk.

Snack: 1 cup of blueberries sprinkled with cinnamon

Lunch: Tuna and avocado brown rice sushi – from my local Japanese café.

Snack: 150g Greek yoghurt sweetened with cinnamon and stevia granules. Topped with some raw almonds – keeps my blood sugar levels nice and stable until dinner.

Dinner: Snapper in a bag – with lemon, rosemary and garlic – baked in the oven. Served with sautéed garlic spinach and a fresh green salad.

Dessert: 1 sugar free protein ball

Friday:

Breakfast: 1/2 papaya with a squeeze of lime juice. Topped with Greek yoghurt and mixed seeds.

+ Morning piccolo coffee – 1 shot of coffee with a small serve of hot milk.

Snack: Carrot sticks with a smear of almond butter

Lunch: Pesto Zucchini pasta with chicken breast – amazing pasta alternative. So satisfying.

Snack: Herbal tea

Dinner: Grilled lemon and herb chicken breast served with sweet potato mash.

Post dinner: Chai tea with almond milk and cinnamon

Saturday: 

Breakfast: Warm cinnamon oats topped with 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt, banana slices and a mix of nuts and seeds.

+ Morning piccolo coffee – 1 shot of coffee with a small serve of hot milk.

Snack: 1 carrot sliced – sprinkled with rock salt.

Lunch: Chicken, pumpkin and avocado salad – spinach leaves as the based. Drizzled with a miso salad dressing.

Snack: My signature Power Protein shake – minus the fruit.

Dinner: Garlic and Ginger Prawn stir fry – with lots of greens and fresh herbs. Served with brown rice. Glass of red wine.

Sunday:

Breakfast: Treat breakfast of an Acai bowl from a local acai bar in Bondi.

Snack: Morning piccolo coffee

Lunch: Roasted chicken with grilled parmesan asparagus and big salad – enjoyed with my family.

Snack: Greek yoghurt sweetened with cinnamon and stevia

Dinner: Scrambled eggs with pesto and served with avocado – Sunday nights are always easy egg night!

Source

What Does Organic Really Mean?

In Australia, the Australian Certified Organic ‘BUD’ logo is a great way to check whether the product you’re buying is, in fact, organic. If you see this logo on a product you’re buying, it means it’s met the requirements of the Australian Certified Organic standard.

Choosing organic produce where and when you can means that you’re making a decision that helps support the soil, animal, plants, people and the environment we live in on a day-to-day basis. The more chemicals we spray on our soil, the more chemicals that can end up in our food and water supply, and potentially in our bodies.

The ‘Dirty Dozen’ is a list of fruit and vegetables that are the best investments when it comes to choosing organic. In other words, if you’re shopping on a budget and want to know the best foods to prioritise when choosing between organic and non-organic, I think these are the ones to pick. I also choose to buy organic dairy, chicken and red meat.

• Apples
• Celery
• Grapes
• Peaches
• Blueberries
• Potatoes
• Spinach
• Nectarines
• Capsicum
• Strawberries
• Lettuce
• Cucumber

Eating organic is an investment in your health – you’re helping to avoid eating unnecessary chemicals.

Comment below any other articles you'd love to see or read about! xo

Source