Sunday 29 June 2014

How do you like your eggs in the morning?

I have never been a breakfast person. Heck, I have never been a morning person at all. In fact, it's fair to say, that since turning 18 and leaving the rigour of sixth form there are probably very few mornings I have actually seen. The concept that there might be more than one ten o clocks in a day was alien to me!

Of course, when you're not leaving your bed before midday, skipping breakfast is not a particular issue. However, this changed very quickly upon finishing my degree (still a heartbreaking sentence to write!) and entering the world of work. When you're awake, or even starting work, at seven am waiting until one or two for your first meal of the day suddenly becomes a huge issue!

Now unfortunately for me, as I think I have made clear in previous posts, I am an avid lover of sleep. I would even venture that I am sleep's biggest fan. There is nothing that can come between me and my bed. Therefore, although I quickly learnt that I needed to eat in the morning, my first instinct on sourcing out breakfast was to find something that I could eat on the go. Something which would provide a fast energy source. Something which would be just enough to tide me over until my actual first meal of the day. For me, this, came in the form of Milky Way bars. Yummy, chocolatey, light Milky Ways. At only 192 calories for both bars in a Milky Way duo, and with a sugary rush to power me through those hours I had previously slept through, I was sure I was on to a winner.



However, despite my love for both chocolate and sleep, I pretty quickly had to admit to myself that eating a Milky Way on the way to work is not the most healthy of diets. There's very little goodness at all in it, and despite the initial sugar rush I soon found I was crashing a couple of hours before lunch and craving more sugar to regain that energy boost. Something had to be done. 

Since leaving my student home and moving into my own little flat (such a scary, grown up thing to be able to say!) I have developed a new love for breakfast. I might even consider it my favourite meal of the day now! The sudden silence that accompanied nights in the flat meant that an early night, previously a luxury in a busy, social, student house, was now the norm. If you get a good nights sleep, and wake up rested, it's far easier to get out of bed and think about making a nutritious breakfast rather than blearily downing a coffee and running out of the door. 

There is the old cliché that breakfast is the most important meal of the day; it genuinely is. Breakfast is about ending the intermittent fast that we take over night, every night. If you haven't eaten since dinner at seven o clock the night before, and it's now one in the afternoon, you haven't eaten for a massive 18 hours! Not only will this make you feel run down, it will actually reduce your productivity and ability to concentrate at work. In essence, eat breakfast and you will perform better. Breakfast is also  important to kick start your metabolism in the morning. Not only that, research has demonstrated that people who skip breakfast in the morning are more likely to overeat later in the day. Indeed, people who regularly eat breakfast are far more likely than those who skip it to maintain a healthy BMI and the American Heart Association found that breakfast eaters were significantly less likely to be obese! Therefore, if you're trying to lose weight, breakfast really is essential! 

But of course, it's not just about eating breakfast but about eating the right breakfast. My milky way bar was clearly not the right breakfast to kick start my day. Sugary cereals are also not the best option, nor would a full English every day be particularly beneficial to maintaining a healthy weight! So what do I recommend?

My current favourite breakfast is:

Cornflakes: 


Topped with strawberries:


And half a banana:


Finished off with a couple of spoons of 0% fat greek yoghurt:


And normally accompanied with the good old British staple- a mug of tea:


So there you go, a nutritious breakfast which will energise you through the morning. The high fibre cereal helps keep you fuller for longer, healthy bacteria in the greek yoghurt helps maintain a healthy gut (but make sure you choose the low fat option), and the fruit thrown in contributes to your five a day whilst providing plenty of vitamins. Not only is it healthy but it tastes amazing.  Feel free to experiment with the fruit topping combinations. I'm also a big fan of cherries and banana (Cherries work out a cheaper option as well), however, I just could not resist those beautiful British strawberries in Tesco last time I went shopping. 



Have a tasty healthy breakfast of your own? Please let me know!

Nutritional Information

15g Cornflakes: 54 calories
Half a banana: 60 calories (approx)
100g Strawberries: 30 calories
Onken Fat Free Natural Yoghurt (75g approx): 34 calories

Total: 178 calories

Fat: >1g
Carbohydrates: 37g
of which Sugars: 11g
Fibre: 2g
Protein: 6g





Sources

http://sru.avifoodweb.com/nutrilearn_09_breakfast.pdf
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2014/05/05/the-health-benefits-of-greek-yogurt

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Sleep yourself thin

A while back Channel 4 did a brilliant tv series called Secret Eaters. If you haven't seen it I seriously recommend it (all the episodes are on 4od). The premise of the show is that secret cameras follow two people, both of whom just don't understand why the weight keeps piling on instead of off. Normally they've drastically underestimated their calorie intake in a way that baffles me. One woman believed she was eating 1400 calories a day but was actually eating nearly 5000- that's some serious denial! But, apart from the fun of laughing at the people who omitted the large big mac and fries they had as an afternoon snack from their food diaries, the real hidden gems in the show were the experiments run into dieting.

(Image from http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/vwzry/secret-eaters--series-2---episode-1)

In one episode, Dawn Porter and her team investigated the effects of a disrupted nights sleep on weight loss. They took two groups, invited to the clinic under the premise of a bogus experiment, and whilst one group was allowed a perfect nights sleep the other was woken every few hours. The group who had a seriously disturbed nights sleep ate 35% more the next day!

Now this experiment became particularly relevant to me on Monday night. I had work at 7am on Tuesday so I called it a night at 11 on Monday in the hopes of a good nights sleep. Unfortunately, the house next door to me had other ideas, hosting a raging house party (which may I add was still ongoing when I was leaving for work). Seriously exhausted then, I spent the entirety of the day with the worst junk food cravings i've had in a long while. Just the thought of high fat food made me salivate. I can only compare it to that desperate need to carb up when your hungover. Not only was I craving quick fix sources of energy, the thought of going to the gym made me want to cry. I actually ended up having a two hour nap after work before I dragged myself onto a treadmill!


(Image from http://7bigspoons.com/sleep/sleep-better-eat-better/)

Indeed, countless studies have found the same results as me and secret eaters. One study found that people who get 7 hours of sleep a night are 30% more likely to be obese than those who get nine hours. Lack of sleep can make you gain weight by causing you to eat more and exercise less! If you're tired you are far more likely to reach for a fast source of energy, such as chocolate. On top of this, chances are that you will opt to collapse onto the sofa rather than head to the gym. Even worse, the sleep deprivation is likely to leave you unmotivated to cook and so takeaway, or a ready meal, become likely options.

Susan Zafarlotfi PHD said "Sleep dept is like credit card debt. If you keep accumulating credit card debt you will pay high interest rates or your account will be shut down until you pay it all off. If you accumulate too much sleep dept, your body will crash."

A particularly interesting study by Walker et al, published in the Journal of Natural Communications looked at the brain of people who had been sleep deprived compared to those who hadn't when viewing images of foods. They found that depriving people of sleep had a huge impact on the way their brain responded to high-calorie junk food. Junk food stimulated a stronger response in the areas of the brain which motivates us to eat, whilst simultaneously depleting activity in the frontal cortex where rational decisions are made. Participants were asked to rate the pictures of food and told they'd be given one of the ones they rated the highest to eat. On average, the foods they requested when sleep deprived were 600 calories HIGHER than the food they desired when well rested.  That's a huge difference!

So what's the solution? If you want to keep your weight down make sure you get a good nights kip! Next time someone moans at you for having a long lie-in in the morning, or being a social pariah and getting an early night, you can tell them with pride that you're serious about your health and fitness and those extra hours in bed are essential. I'm sure this is advice that students and young people everywhere will love!


(Image from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/385831893048203770/)

Sources
Secret Eaters- Channel 4
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/lack-of-sleep-weight-gain
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/tiredness-and-fatigue/Pages/lack-of-sleep-health-risks.aspx
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/how-sleep-loss-adds-to-weight-gain/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0


Tuesday 10 June 2014

Carbs: friend or foe?

A few of the girls at work today were questioning me about my diet whilst I was trying to lose weight. What did I eat? What didn't I eat? Do I eat at ALL? The common question which kept reoccurring was, "but what about carbs? Surely you don't eat carbs? You must have cut out bread and potatoes?!" It makes perfect sense then for my next blog post to be all about carbs; are they the enemy or something we can still enjoy whilst losing weight?


(Image from: http://myyearofsweat.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/oh-carbs-how-i-love-and-hate-you/)


Truth be told, I haven't cut anything out of my diet all together. The main reason that diets fail is people attempting to cut out everything "bad" and then giving in to cravings a few days later and giving up! The famous yo-yo dieting pattern is not something I have any desire to fall into so, if I fancy a chocolate bar, I will damn well eat a chocolate bar! Ultimately, it's all about balance and portion control; calories in and out. Eating smaller portions of food and making sure that snacks fit into your calorie allowance.

Don't cut out food groups, cut down on calories! But remember, the absolute minimum anyone should cut their calories to for weight loss is 1200. It's dangerous to go lower and your body wouldn't be getting the energy or nutrients it needs!

I'm really against all these quick fix diets, "low carb", "5:2", "the cambridge diet" because I think that weight loss is about more than this. It should be a permanent lifestyle change that we can maintain forever to live healthier and more fulfilled lives. By all means if you want to condemn yourself to never eating potatoes again in an attempt to lose weight do, but there are easier ways!

A healthy plate should actually be 1/3 carbs! 1/3 vegetables and then the other 1/3 should be made up of protein, dairy and fats. Like this:

(Image from: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/eatwell-plate.aspx)

And there are lots of reasons why carbs are so essential to diet. Most importantly, carbs are the best source for the body to get energy. They are the fuel the body needs to function properly! However, they also contain a lot of important nutrients and vitamins which would be missed out on if cut from the diet. One thing I didn't realise when I started my fitness regime is that fruit is actually a carb. If you aim to cut carbs out of your diet you would therefore have to cut out fruit as well which would leave you seriously deficient in many vitamins!

Moreover, eating carbs means that the protein you eat can be used for building muscle rather than simply fuelling the body. Anyone who wants muscle and definition and not just to be skinny therefore needs to eat carbs in order to get maximum benefits out of the protein they eat! And, obviously, returning to energy once more, carbs will enable you to work out with far more energy and intensity than otherwise further increasing the benefits of your exercise regime!

Coincidentally, Danny posted a fitness tip concerning carbs today:



"Weight Loss Myths #2

Zero Carb Diets, this is the best diet right?!

Cutting carbs is a pointless method of fat loss unless you are extremely low in body fat and want to be extra shredded, and let's face it, you wouldn't be here reading this if you were 5% body fat!

The correct approach is to cut your calories down all together, and make sure you get a good amount of protein for building muscle, carbs for a good amount of energy and fats to keep your body ticking."

(Check out the link to his website in the sources below)


So, following this line of thought, here are my personal top tips for removing the fear from eating carbs!


(Image from: http://alovelettertofood.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/7-surprising-facts-about-carbs.html)


1) Eat complex carbs like brown pasta, cereals and whole wheat bread. Although calories are largely the same between the two, complex carbs are absorbed slower making you feel fuller for longer and providing a longer release of energy.

2) Eat early. We've already established that carbs are great for energy, therefore its common sense that they should be eaten earlier in the day! Try and make your evening meal a low carb option because if we eat carbs straight before bed the body doesn't have the chance to use the energy and stores it as fat. Eating carbs at lunchtime instead will provide energy for the rest of the day and ensure that its used rather than stored!

3) Eat in balance! Make sure that carbs aren't making up more than 1/3 of your dinner plate. I am a huge fan of lasagne and chips but do you really need potato when there's already pasta in there? The answer is no.

4) Eat carbs when you need them. If you're spending a day lounging on the couch without  moving then a high carb meal probably isn't the most essential or beneficial thing. However, if you're on your feet all day at work or heading to an intense work out at the gym then carbs are not only great but essential!

Fundamentally, we shouldn't be cutting anything out of our diets just simply cutting down on our eating and increasing our exercise! Even the occasional McDonalds won't kill you or make you fat. It's a cliché but it really is about everything in moderation!

Sources

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/eatwell-plate.aspx
http://www.sharecare.com/health/carbohydrates-weight-loss/why-eat-complex-carbohydrates-weight
http://www.active.com/nutrition/articles/why-are-carbs-important
http://ddsfitness.co.uk/




Sunday 8 June 2014

Race for Life: Cancer, We're Coming to Get You






When my alarm went off at 7am this morning the last thing I felt like doing was getting up and running 5k. After two back to back 13 hour shifts at work, followed by a 5k walk home from work when I finished at 11pm the night before, I was exhausted and the temptation to switch off my alarm and roll over in bed was pretty strong! Unfortunately, there were three very good reasons why I could not back out of running Race for Life this morning:

1) My lovely friend Emma (check out her beauty blog in the links below) was sat outside my bedroom door harassing me with texts until I opened it and let her in. It's amazingly difficult to go back to sleep when you're being nagged from a feet away!

2) Cancer is an illness which can affect anyone. You can have the healthiest, strictest and most nutritional diet, exercise daily and refrain from drugs, alcohol and smoking and still be hit by cancer. True all of those things dramatically lower your risk of cancer, but ultimately, it's one of those things that fitness really cannot defend against. Therefore, it's certainly something that anyone who cares about their health and fitness should be motivated to raise money for. The more money we raise for Cancer Research, the better we can defend ourselves against it and the closer we come to a cure. 

3) Cancer has affected a lot of the women in my family. Most recently, my Nana had a mastectomy. She is the bravest woman I know and nothing has ever stopped her from getting up and on with things that have to be done. Now if she can have major surgery and keep on going, how can I possibly decide i'd rather stay in bed then get up and run to raise money for cancer research, just because I worked a few long shifts?

So I got up, got dressed and Emma and I walked the 5k from my house to Victoria Embankment ready to begin the race! I'd had all the best intentions of getting in a healthy breakfast before the race, brilliant plans of eating weetabix and a banana to provide energy and nutrition. Unfortunately, my need for sleep had won over food so we were left to grab something at the Embankment. The smell of bacon was in the air, but at £4 a roll it was way out of my budget! So we headed over to the pick and mix stand and grabbed a nutritious breakfast of fried eggs, fudge and a few chocolate pigs (My pt would be so proud!)




There was a horrific performance by some school children (I will never be able to listen to Let it Go without cringing again) and then some incredibly hot guys came onto the stage to lead the warm up. There was a lot of arm waving and squatting, star jumps and jogging on the spot and it was a brilliant way to create a buzz and get everyone motivated for the task ahead. I must admit to chickening out of the hip thrusts though, it would have taken a good few beers to make me confident enough to hip thrust in the middle of a large crowd in a brightly lit public place! 


Impressively, the entry tickets alone for this race raised over £300,000 which really emphasises how great an impact Race for Life has!


The sleep cobwebs banished from my brain then, and operating on a minor pick and mix fuelled sugar rush, we set out on the 5k race. 



Whenever i'd told anyone I was running 5k their first reaction was to say, "5k that's easy!". Let's just take a moment to remember that 5k is around 3 1/2 miles! Now before anyone says that 5k is easy they should give running 3 1/2 miles a try and then come back to me! I myself had been pretty optimistic over the length but by the 1k mark it suddenly dawned on me what i'd let myself in for! Although the time went fast, the track felt long! Nearing the final stretch we could hear the music from the finishing ground and gained false confidence before realising there was another 1k to go!


Not to mention the misleading false finish line! A couple of metres before the real finishing line there was a stretch of pink carpet, bubbles blowing and people cheering. Given false hope many people slowed to a walk or doubled over with stitches only to realise that the finishing line was still ahead! Cruel joke!! There was no better feeling then running past cheering crowds and across that finishing line though. I have serious respect for those running the 10k Race for Life in the Afternoon because by the end of that 5k I was almost ready to crawl across the finish line rather than run!



Exhausted, and holding an agonizing stitch under my right rib, I was incredibly grateful to the volunteers handing out water and chocolate chip brioches. These were a welcome gift after running for 30 minutes in the hot sun! There was also an amazing sense of achievement after being handed the race for life medal. I never got medals in sports day at school (unless stickers for taking part count?) so this was a new experience! But the most exciting and welcome thing that I was handed was an apple from a volunteer on a bike. Words cannot describe how good that cool apple tasted!





















I had an amazing morning and I'm so glad that I got my lazy ass out of bed to take part. I hope that all of the women that took part today feel proud of themselves for the effort they made. The sense of sisterhood and community amongst strangers, sisters united in the fight against cancer, was an amazing thing to be apart of. I was also so proud of my friend who ran the entire thing with a dodgy ankle, both of us have family reasons for wanting to take part in the race and I couldn't have picked a better person to do it with. Cancer is something we should all take seriously, as is health and fitness in general, so seeing so many people run to raise money for Cancer Research makes me feel proud of the women of Nottingham, and all over the country running Race for Life this summer.





















Sources
dinosbeautydiary.blogspot.com
http://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/