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

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

All About Abs

Like most girls I fear my bikini body is somewhat lacking. Not that it hugely matters this summer, with the end of university (and all sense of purpose and direction in my life) i'm scraping the pennies and a holiday is out of the question. English weather doesn't hold much promise for bikini weather either so technically I, along with the rest of the impoverished nation, have a get out of jail free card where bikinis are concerned this summer!

Unfortunately, along with the lack of things to occupy my time post university and exams, I also have a depleting amount of excuses for why that bikini perfect body is so hard to come by. It is difficult for girls to get that washboard stomach and perfect abs, we carry more fat naturally in the tummy area then guys so the temptation to throw my hands up in the air and wail that i'm destined to have a jelly belly for ever is strong. But, I am no quitter and I have a bunch of free time on my hands right now! So for the next few months my focus is all about the abs.

Bikini Body Action Plan 

(Disclaimer: all these exercises and nutrition information come via my pt Danny Dogget-Short website referenced below)

1) Nutrition

 Macros Macros Macros

The first step of getting that perfect body is nutrition! Admittedly, i've been slacking in this area with the stress of exams taking my full focus. But now, post exams,  hitting those macros has to be high on my priorities. At the end of the day, if you want muscle, and abs ARE muscle, you need to be hitting your calories. A lot of us female fitness wannabes are pretty bad at this and it can be really easy to associate increasing your calories with increasing your weight. The trick is to eat lean calories, not to binge on Maccy Ds and pizza! Fish, Chicken (oh god chicken, I love chicken!), nuts, vegetables and complex carbs like brown rice. To get that perfect bikini body you need to perfectly achieve your protein, carbs and fats. Skimp out and the journey is going to be a lot more difficult!

2) Exercise

I've put together some of my favourite abs workouts (all of which can be done from the safety and anonymity of your home!) that i've learnt over my sessions with Danny.

Crunches:

The old traditional favourite, everyone knows that crunches are a must for getting that fat free tummy.   A little technique Danny taught me is to hold your legs in the air whilst your crunching so that your engaging all of your ab muscles. Make sure you really squeeze and tighten those muscles throughout the workout.

Reverse Crunches:

Like crunches but, you guessed it, in reverse. The idea is that your bring your legs so that their bent at 90 degrees with your knees at your chest and curling your hips up off the floor.  Then lower your legs back down ensuring you maintain the control and tension and that your legs don't touch the ground in between. This exercise is brilliant for targeting that lower tummy pudge which is a nightmare to shift!

(Image taken from http://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/workouts/stronger-abs-in-fifteen-minutes-00000000022852/page8.html)

Plank Up and Downs:

These were a new addition I learnt at the end of my session with Danny yesterday. He suggested we do something fun before throwing this into the workout. Now me and Danny clearly have a different definition of fun because these were lethal, I felt like I was going to die. However, saying that, I have fallen in love with this little exercise and will be utilising it to my full advantage in my quest for a perfect bikini body.  The idea of the activity is that you hold your body in a planking position for 20 seconds before coming up onto your hands and back down into the plank 5 times, after the 5 up and downs you resume the plank for another 20 seconds and you do it three times before you're allowed to collapse in a heap, muscles crying! The great thing about this is it doesn't just work your core but your arms as well so the pain is totally worth it. 

V Ups:

V Ups are an old military style workout which impact both the upper and lower abs. Lying on your back, with your legs straight in the air, you attempt to touch your toes. This is a high intensity exercise so the movement needs to be fast for optimum effect. 

Squats:

I have a genuine hatred for squats. I look like an idiot when I attempt them and i'm forever fighting my body's desperate attempts to throw me on the floor under the weights. But, horrible as they are, squats are a brilliant all round workout. Not only will they give you toned thighs and a peachy bum for in that bikini but amazingly they also work your core and help to build those abs that we're so desperate for. I refuse to do squats in the gym without Danny to hide behind but they're certainly an exercise I cannot avoid in my home workouts if i'm serious about getting that bikini body!

(Image taken from http://fitnesswithjlee.com/2014/02/07/day-26-love-your-body/ as no one needs to witness me attempting squats!)

So there you go, some of the key elements in my mission to get that bikini ready body! If you have any other must dos for getting the bikini body, or are on your own mission for the perfect summer body, tweet me at @a_life_on_fire or drop us a line in the comments! I'd love to know about everyone else's fitness journeys this summer!

Sources

http://ddsfitness.co.uk

Shame free snacking

The place where most people fall down when attempting to cut their calories, or their waist lines, is snacking. It doesn't help that all the health and diet advice out their recommends fruit and nuts as their low calorie snack replacements. The majority of us crave high fat high sugar snacks and a handful of fruit and nuts, nutritious as they are, just do not seem to cut it! So here are my top six alternative snacks which will satisfy those junk food cravings without hurting your diet:

1) Ben and Jerry's Frozen Yoghurt.

This is the highest calorie out of my top six snacks but at 180 calories and 5g of fat per 100g (Stawberry Shortcake Flavour) its a far cry from the 280 calories and 15g of fat in the same flavour of ordinary Ben and Jerry's ice cream! Not only is sinfully low in fat but it tastes delicious, every bit as good as the real icecream. I haven't experimented with other brands, being a Ben and Jerry's girl at heart, but if you're in the mood for ice cream any frozen yoghurt is going to be a much healthier alternative.

2) Metcalfes Topcorn

Now plain popcorn isn't particularly unhealthy for you anyway, but once you start adding all those delicious flavourings the calories, and the fat, soon add up. Most frustratingly, most bags of popcorn claiming to be low cal, say 100 calories per serving, contain about 5 servings in a bag. I really struggle with will power with popcorn, once the bag is open i will eat the entire bag regardless of how many servings in it! Metcalfes Topcorn is perfect then because when it says 108 calories per serving it means 108 calories per bag. I enjoy the salted flavour but for around ten calories more you can get salted sweet which is equally irresistible. It's delicious, hits those cravings, and is very unlikely to make you pile on the pounds.

3) Snack a Jacks

Sticking with the salty theme, i frequently crave crisps but can never justify there high fat quantity. Snack a Jacks are the perfect alternative boasting only 7% fat and with the majority of their flavours coming in at under 100 calories a bag. My personal favourite is the salt and vinegar which never fails to satisfy however, experiment to find the flavour that best hits your crisp cravings!

4) Weightwatchers Dessert Flavour Yoghurts

At under 60 calories a pot these yoghurts were an absolute god send to me when i found them. They taste like heaven. They're little pots of goodness tasting almost exactly like the desserts they attempt to mimic. The Rhubarb crumble flavour left me feeling as guilty as if i'd eaten a real crumble, but at 56 calories and most significantly only 0.1 grams of fat these yoghurts are far from the guilt trip their dessert alternatives would be!

5) Options Hot Chocolate

When i'm really craving a sweet treat and a chocolate fix, which lets be honest every girl does on a regular basis, there is nothing better than an options hot chocolate. If you make them with water they are only 38 calories, however, i see no harm in adding a dash of skimmed milk to cream it up a tiny bit. I mean who is counting calories here? Embarrassingly my favourite thing to do with this drink is eat it out of the mug with a spoon like chocolate soup to really make the satisfaction last longer! The mint flavour is my personal favourite but orange is also incredible and butter scotch is certainly worth a taste!

6) Hartley's Jelly

These jellies really are a wonder coming in at just 10 cal a pot. I was incredibly ambiguous buying them as surely no dessert can taste good for 10 calories. I was even warned that they were lacking in sweetness and flavour which is obviously to be expected for 10 calories. But boy were the critics wrong. I can taste very little difference between these little pots and real jelly and i seriously wonder why anyone would ever opt for the high calorie alternative!


I will be transferring this post to its own page in due course so that as i discover more incredible low calorie, low fat snack replacements i can add them to the list for you all to see. In the mean time, if any of you have any nuggets or discoveries of your own please drop me a line and i will add them to the list!

Cardio vs Weight training: how to spend your time in the gym!

 A huge proportion of girls avoid weights at the gym at all costs for fear of getting over muscly and butch. Or there's those of us who avoid them purely because of the macho guys continuously loitering around the machines making any girl who wonders into their territory feel slightly out of place! The big question for female fitness fanatics is cardio or weight training? In the battle of fat burning workouts which comes out as top dog?

On a minute by minute basis, cardio burns more calories than weight training making it the fast track to weight loss. However, a huge benefit of weight training over cardio is that it builds muscle. This makes you slimmer and leaner then you would be at the same weight if your exercise routine had been 100% cardio. One study found that a group of dieters lost 21lbs irregardless of whether they performed cardio exercise or strength training. Unfortunately for the cardio group, around 6lbs of this came from muscle whereas those doing weight training lost almost pure fat (Fetters 2013)! A combination of cardio and weight lifting then would ensure that a high number of calories were burnt but equally, that it is fat not muscle which is lost! Weight training will help you look and feel better in those crop tops and high waisted shorts than if you take the cardio only route.

Furthermore, simply having muscle in your body increases your metabolism consequently burning more calories. This effect isn't only present when exercising but continues after exercise has finished so even activities such as standing or sitting in front of the tv will burn more calories with muscle than fat! This is great news for anyone trying to lose weight as it means that your BMR will increase and the calories you eat are more likely to be used for energy as opposed to stored as fatty tissue in your body. One study found that 1kg of muscle burns 50 extra calories a day in comparison with 1kg of fat which only burnt 3 (Hawkey as cited in Harris)! Cardio, whilst effective for burning calories, doesn't have this same benefit on the metabolism. Moreover, it's unlikely to make a huge change to your overall body shape or leanness unless combined with some weight training!

Scarily, fat isn't just external but can grow around your internal organs and even in your bones. This can be hugely detrimental to health. In other words, you may look skinny after weight loss but that doesn't mean there isn't still visceral fat circulating inside your body damaging your liver and other vital organs! Even more scary is the fact that it is visceral fat, not the fat we can see, which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, liver damage, heart disease and high blood pressure among other things! It is therefore a health threat which cannot be ignored!One study in the UK found that more than half of those studied with a normal BMI had excessive deposits of far around their heart and liver as well as streaked through their muscles! Consequently, fitness shouldn't just be about weight loss but lowering your body fat percentage. Weight training certainly trumps cardio here as it specifically burns fat whilst maintaining muscle; it will not just make you lose weight but help to reduce that dangerous visceral fat which puts your health at risk! The solution, make sure to include weight training in every work out you do in order to ensure you are not just losing weight but losing fat!

Cardio is still incredibly important to not just weight loss but health in general. Getting active and getting fit is not just about weight loss but about that overall fitness factor. Cardio exercise enables your lungs to process more oxygen with less effort, improves the rate the heart pumps blood at and increases supply of blood to the muscle. It thus reduces the risk of heart disease and vastly improves our respiratory systems. Furthermore, cardio exercise has been linked to a reduced risk of stress, anxiety and depression and an improved immune system putting you less at risk of physical illnesses such as colds and flu as well! For anyone looking to make a healthy, permanent lifestyle change, rather than just a diet then, cardio must be incorporated into the workout routine. The best benefits to fitness will come with a combination of cardio and weight training on a daily basis.

Don't worry girls, you don't have enough testosterone in your body to get butch without taking steroids or other supplements! The health benefits of weight training however, cannot be ignored! We therefore, need to ensure that we brave that masculine arena to venture into the weight machines to truly reap the awards of our fitness efforts!

(Credit to my lovely friend Emma Dean for these photos of me at the gym! Visit her beauty blog: http://dinosbeautydiary.blogspot.co.uk/ )


Sources

Much credit to my personal trainer Danny for giving me the foundation of this knowledge: http://ddsfitness.co.uk/
http://www.webmd.boots.com/fitness-exercise/guide/cardio-vs-strength?page=2
http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/exercise/cardio-vs-weight-training.htm
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/cardio-vs-weight-training
http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/healthandfitness/a/bodyfat.htm

Cocktail Calories

All of us love a drink from time to time, some of us like more than one!As a student I am a particular fan of shotting tequila (sometimes a bit too much tequila!) and I can certainly match my guy friend for pints of lager.  Alcohol is a great stress reliever and a huge part of social life in Britain. There are some that argue that alcohol doesn't do any harm, its empty calories which the body cannot absorb. However, the vast majority of fitness experts argue it can be detrimental to weight loss and diet! My personal trainer refers to two of his clients who go out for drinks every weekend and come back on Monday 2 pounds heavier.  

The knowledge that a glass of wine has the same amount of calories as four cookies, whilst a pint of beer has the same amount of calories as a large slice of pizza is slightly concerning. Indeed, in one episode of Secret Eaters it was revealed that one of the women consumed 2000 calories a day just in alcohol! Two bottles of beer contain the same amount of calories, and far less nutrition, than a sirloin steak! A huge issue with our love of alcohol then is that we do not make allowances for the alcoholic calories in our daily calorie allowance. The average woman needs about 2000 calories a day in order to maintain her weight. Therefore if we intend to drink 500 calories worth of alcohol in a night we should reduce our food for the day likewise. This however, can have a negative impact on nutrition as we are replacing food packed with nutrients we need, with the empty calories and toxins in alcohol.

Research has suggested that alcohol does not make you gain weight because your body physically cannot store the calories from it. In fact one study found that non drinkers put on more weight than those who frequently drank a moderate amount of alcohol. The argument is that when calories in food were worked out it was by burning it to test for energy, clearly alcohol burns fast and so it was given a high calorific factor. However, the calories in it have as much point as if we ate coal. The body cannot process or absorb them. 

Although I am not convinced by this argument alone, there are further flaws to add to it. A problem with alcohol is the fact that it tends to make people hungrier. It is a staple part of a night out to take a 3am trip to Mcdonalds or Marylands adding up to 1000 calories onto what has already been consumed in the day! Now don't get me wrong, nothing tastes better than crispy Maryland's chicken or a greasy fat kebab when you're crashing on the sofa after a particularly insane night out. The temptation to avoid fatty and sugary food when drunk is understandably extremely difficult to resist and this a real danger to look out for! A huge way to reduce the damage done by alcohol to weight loss then will be to avoid the draw of the fatty fast foods!

A further problem is that when the body is absorbing alcohol it is not absorbing the food we have eaten. The processing of alcohol takes priority over anything else as the body rushes to get the toxins out of the body. This means that your body will stop processing the dinner you ate before the night out in preference of sambucca you just shotted. Then, to make matters worse, it will ignore the kebab you wolfed down to focus on freeing your body from that last triples vodka and redbull. Not only does this slow down your metabolism and inhibit the absorption of real nutrients, it increases the liklihood that the food you eat will be stored as fat rather than used for energy. 

There are a lot of myths surrounding alcohol and it is difficult to know exactly what to believe. What can safely be assumed however, is that anyone who is serious about getting fit and healthy needs to keep an eye on those liquid calories and limit alcohol fueled nights to a special treat!

Sources

http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/check-the-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/appearance/calories-in-alcohol?id=457cd0de-167b-4c76-bcfb-70b1084e7d94#calories

http://exercise.about.com/od/healthinjuries/a/alcoholandweightgain.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2512850/Drinking-doesnt-make-fat-A-startling-new-book-claims-nightly-glass-wine-wont-straight-hips.html

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/how-alcohol-affects-metabolism.html#b

http://ddsfitness.co.uk/