It appears so onerous and unattainable that many people just say “forget it!” and keep doing what they have always been doing. Well, I’m going to share 3 super simple nutrition and weight loss tips you can use to help reach your goals.

1. Eat 5 or 6 Small Meals a Day

This is the ideal and I know it is not always realistic, but let’s think of this as a goal to work up to that we can reach over time.

Most people eat less when trying to lose weight. However, to burn more fat you need to eat more frequently throughout the day.

There is a myth about food, some think that less is better, this is not the case. You see, when you eat one meal a day in the hope of losing weight you are actually putting yourself in a position to gain weight. How? you ask. Well, when you starve yourself, which is basically what you are doing when you eat one meal a day, your body’s natural reaction is to try and protect you.

It will protect you by holding on to as much fat as possible, this is called ‘starvation mode’. It does this so it will not starve to death – hence the term! That’s why eating more will result in you losing weight. When your body doesn’t feel the threat of starvation it will gladly release the extra fat. And the only way you eliminate that threat is by feeding your body every 2 or 3 hours.

Here is an example of what a well-rounded day of 5 meals could look like:

1. Drink More Water

Water is your best friend when it comes to losing weight. You would be surprised how many calories you are drinking every single day. That soda you drank for lunch, 200 empty calories. That sports drink you had after your workout, 300 empty calories.

With those two drinks you have already had 500 calories and you haven’t eaten any food. Always think about it in terms of nutritional or non-nutritional. Too many fall into the trap of using energy drinks as a crutch or ‘pick me up’ that they need to get through the day without realizing the adverse effects they are having on their hearts, adrenal glands and waistlines! Do your homework and/comparisons.

Try to drink a glass of water with every meal. Water not only keeps you hydrated and helps you flush out all those unwanted toxins, it also has zero calories which means it won’t add any empty calories to your daily calorie intake. I would suggest drinking soda and other sugary drinks only once or twice a week, if you feel you absolutely have to drink it.

1. Do Resistance Training

‘Resistance Training’ or ‘weight training’ is another name for exercising your muscles using an opposing force i.e. dumb bells or resistance bands.

Many people are hesitant to engage in some sort of resistance training. I’ve had many women, in particular, tell me that they think it will make them big and bulky like a man. This is completely false. For a woman to get big and bulky like a man she would have to lift extremely heavy weights on a regular basis. And be ingesting a lot of testosterone!

Incorporating resistance training into your fitness routine really helps you tone up and shed body fat. And you can do it anywhere with resistance bands and hand weights if you don’t like the gym. Most individuals would benefit from doing 3 resistance workouts a week in conjunction with regular aerobic or cardio exercise.

Ready to get going?

My 10-Week Lean program gives you a new resistance workout to follow every week for 10 weeks, as well as a personal diet analysis for just $15 per week.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag; seal. Shake to coat chicken. Marinate 15 minutes at room temperature. Arrange chicken mixture in a broiler-safe 11 x 7–inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle chicken evenly with oregano and the next 4 ingredients (through shallot); top with lemon slices. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.
3. Remove chicken from oven. Preheat broiler to HIGH.
4. Place chicken 3 inches from broiler element; broil on HIGH for 3 minutes or until chicken is browned and done.

To create healthier and cleaner recipes, it starts at the grocery store where you choose your produce, whole grains, dairy, proteins, and other items. It just takes paying a little more attention to what you’re putting in your basket. Opt for whole foods where you can and avoid anything processed. Look for ingredient lists that are short and contain no preservatives, artificial colorings or added sugars.

A great rule of thumb is to be wary of anything with more than 5 ingredients or an ingredient you can’t pronounce!

Eat balanced meals

Balance is the key to creating healthier, cleaner meals and snacks. You can use fruits, veggies, whole grains and lean, clean meats to create this balance. By doing this, you are combining protein with carbs and fat which will fuel your body and quash hunger pangs, making you less tempted to reach for sugar-laden treats or junk food.

Clean ingredient substitutions

In addition to that, substituting some ingredients will help create healthier, cleaner meals.

Here are your basic substitutions:

Get creative with fruits and veggies

Fruit and veg can be used as cleaner alternatives to foods you would usually use to ‘fill out’ your plate or to snack on. Here are a few ways to incorporate more fruit and veg in your diet while getting rid of some less healthy foods and drinks:

• Use avocados as a bowl for poached eggs, salads or quinoa
• Swap out potato chips for apple chips, beet chips, sweet potato chips or kale chips
• Use apples and celery in place of crackers to pair with nut butters
• Use veggies instead of pasta and rice, such as zucchini noodles; spaghetti squash and cauliflower rice
• Instead of drinking fresh fruit juice or diluting juice, infuse plain water with fresh herbs, and fruits to create interesting and refreshing alternatives.

You’ll be surprised at how nice they taste and how quickly using these healthy alternatives becomes a habit!

For many of us, including rice and pasta in our meal is psychological – we feel that a meal is not complete without them. So just by substituting them with something else we feel a lot more comfortable than removing them altogether – plus these veggie alternatives pack a great nutritional punch, so it’s win-win!

Get your diet analysed

With my 10-Week Lean program, you get a personalized diet analysis with my clean substitutions. All this with a new full body resistance workout to follow every week for 10 weeks, designed to help you lose weight and tone up in just 10 weeks. At just $15 per week, this program is excellent value and a great first step to a new lifestyle.

However, there’s ways and means to eating ‘well’ and it means different things to everyone. Yes, there are general principles that, if you follow, should have a positive impact on your health. Such as ‘drink more water’; ‘eat less sugar’ and so on…. But when it comes to personal nutrition, every(body) is different and it is so important to learn to tune into your own body and understand what does and doesn’t work for you. You don’t need to cut out every single ‘bad’ thing from your diet, and you know what, if you do, you’re much more likely to throw in the towel and surrender to the vices you’ve been dreaming about since you gave them up!

Some people just simply cannot function without a morning coffee, but some will go to great lengths to paint caffeine as a complete diet no-no. You know what, keep your morning coffee! If it doesn’t give you a headache or make you feel bloated, go for it!

Following a strict meal by meal diet plan with no personal input or acknowledgement of your personal tastes and preferences is completely counter intuitive. I liken it to being forced to watch a movie you don’t really want to. “But you HAVE to watch Star Wars, everyone is going, everyone likes it!” “But I don’t want to, I’ve tried watching the other movies and I just didn’t get it” you think to yourself, as you reluctantly take your seat, without popcorn of course because that’s ‘NOT ALLOWED’. So you sit there, bored, confused, trying desperately to enjoy it, going against everything that makes you, YOU …. Seems wrong huh? That’s because it is.

Following a strict diet plan that someone else has created can have a negative effect, teaching people to hate or fear food – which should never be the case. It’s the fuel you need to keep your body firing and as long as it’s generally good stuff you’re putting in, that you enjoy, it really is as simple as that. Eating should be a pleasure, not a chore and the odd treat is nothing to be scared of, it’s about balance and moderation. We as humans enjoy and thrive on familiarity especially when it comes to things like food, there’s an almost emotional connection we have with certain foods we’ve grown up enjoying for instance. Why give those things up?

I’ve seen so many people become slaves to weighing food or become afraid to eat because they might go “over” their allotted amount for the day. Something that should be enjoyable like going out for dinner with family or attending a social event becomes a scary thought. There is rarely long-term success with this kind of approach, and there certainly isn’t happiness. It just doesn’t make any sense having a standard diet approach for everyone.

We think about it differently at UFiiT by Adrianne – teaching everyone the basics of a healthy approach while acknowledging their individual tastes, preferences, and medical conditions. We teach you how to listen to your body and learn the foods that work for you. We as humans enjoy and thrive on familiarity especially when it comes to things like food, there’s an almost emotional connection we have with certain foods we’ve grown up enjoying. Why give those things up?

We help you to understand the types of foods that will benefit your body and general wellbeing (including the foods that make you happy) without the need for weighing quantities and calorie counting. Adhering to a strict calorie controlled diet isn’t effective because your caloric needs change daily. Some studies say that we burn between 200-400 calories just sleeping, add to that general activity plus physical activity then additional burn through experiencing certain emotions – it’s different all the time. Starving your body of what it needs can lower your metabolism, causing more damage in the long term and making it much harder to burn calories….which was your ultimate goal right? It is completely counter-productive. Think of your body and metabolism as a fire place, it burns better and heats up the house with more firewood not less!

When we measure food or restrict caloric intake, we tell the body two things:

1. We don’t trust you to do your job
2. We respect whatever the food is, more than we do you.

Think of your body as a second person. Someone you admire, love and respect, and that person was staying with you for the week. How would you treat them, would they be comfortable, fed regularly, made to feel at home and so on? Would we measure their food before putting it on the plate, would we restrict their calories because we took them out for a light snack a few hours before and they were still hungry? Of course we wouldn’t. We likely would tell them to eat more and trust that they would know when they were finished and not to over-eat. And if they did, they did. Next time they might not because they didn’t like how over-eating made them feel.

Let’s not forget theses facts: we humans are brilliant, we’re intuitive, we have internal checks and the ability to listen to and read our own individual bodies.

So why aren’t we doing that? Is it because we doubt our own abilities? We aren’t trusting in our ability to make the right choices for ourselves, or is it that it’s just ‘easier’ to listen to what we’re told to do? Maybe – but it’s time to start tuning into our own bodies and accepting that actually, we’re in charge of being the best people we can be, the healthiest, leanest, strongest, smartest…. whatever happiness means to you. You’re the boss, no one else. You know what works best for you and no one else.

Treating yourself with respect, less criticism, more understanding and effort will get you better long-term results than following any diet under the sun. Think positively about yourself and your body and you’re half way there. Give yourself credit for your achievement, nobody else.

Get your diet analysed

With my 10-Week Lean program, I do a personalized analysis of your diet, giving you clean eating substitutions and tips for improving nutrition (without sacrificing the foods you love!). All this with a new resistance workout to follow every week for 10 weeks, this plan will help you lose weight and tone up in just 10 weeks.