One Easy Step to Weight Loss

Keeping a food diary is an extremely powerful tool in optimising your diet and changing your life for the better. It is a task that can initially seem arduous and monotonous but can deliver outstanding results in a short space of time.
 
The first question we must ask ourselves is ‘what is a food diary?’
A food diary is used to record everything you eat and drink.
It should include the following information about what you consume:
1. The type of food/drink
2. The amount of food/ drink
3. The calories of food/ drink
4. The activities carried out while eating/ drinking
5. Your thoughts and feelings before eating/drinking
The last two points are very important in identifying certain behaviours or habits when eating. After utilising a food diary it may become apparent that you eat too much when watching TV or that you eat a lot of foods high in sugar when you are tired. Look for patterns that are present that lead to the intake of too much food or the intake of unhealthy foods. For example, if you find that you are eating a chocolate bar regularly at 4 pm because you are tired, replace this with a food that is healthier and will provide better energy, i.e. an apple.
Constructing a food diary is easy. Just purchase a cheap exercise book and copy in these headings across the top of the page: Food Eaten, Amount Eaten, CaloriesActivities while Eating, Thoughts & Feelings

It is really this simple! Tally up your total calories at the end of everyday and check that this is a healthy amount for your age, height, weight and dietary goals. If more specific information is needed on your calorie intake, then contact us.
Now if you are really diligent, you can also add protein, carbohydrates and fat columns and record the breakdown of the food in these columns. This is a great way of checking that you are getting the correct nutritional breakdown.
The food diary will provide some great realisations. You will quickly become aware if you eat too much, or you too little vegetables or if your morning teas are full of sugar, etc.
 
Accountability is key to making the food diary work; show your food diary regularly to someone you trust. Let them know what foods you’re aiming to eat and what you’re avoiding. This will give you good motivation and ensure you keep your food diary regularly.
 

Feeling Peckish

Tackle your snacking with a wide variety of ideas from Coastal Bodies Dietician Jess.

One of the most common questions I receive from clients is “what can I snack on to tie me over between meals?”  Fruit and nuts are what I personally love, but realistically it’s good to have variety. So I approached out Dietician Jess for some professional advice. She is oozing with snack ideas that taste great and give you long lasting energy fix!

Snacks

-          1 piece of fruit + 10 untoasted almonds/walnuts

-          1 cup popcorn (no oil)

-          Small handful of trail mix

-          Skim hot chocolate/ latte (1 cup)

-          2 vitaweets with a hardboiled egg

-          100g low fat yoghurt (e.g fromaige frais- fruche) or 150g Forme’ yoghurt

-          4 small vitaweets/ 2 ryvitas with reduced fat cheese and vegemite

-          Capsicum, celery, carrot, cucumber sticks with low fat hummous/ low fat cottage cheese

-          Mountain bread wrap with fresh salad and low fat hummous

-          2-3 corn thins with low fat cheese and vegemite

-          Hearty vegetable soup with beans/legumes

-          Miso soup

-          Seaweed salad

-          Small sushi roll with chicken/salmon/tuna/prawn/tofu and vegetables

-          1 corn on the cob (no butter)

-          Small baked potato with low fat cheese, fresh vegetables and beans

-          Fresh garden salad with 2 tbs low fat fetta and low fat dressing

-          1 slice of multigrain bread with low fat cheese/ low fat hummous/ small tin of tuna and fresh veggies

As you can see there are endless ideas that are healthy and filling. A bonus to most of these is that they include some vegetables to help you get all the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to function at its optimum. Remember it is recommended that you have 5 serves of vegies a day!

Warm Minted Lamb Salad

 Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Salad

400g lean lamb fillets

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/3 cup chick stock

½ cup couscous

Cooking oil spray

3 medium tomatoes peeled and seeded

1 small green cucumber

150g baby spinach

2 table spoons chopped fresh mint leaves

Dressing

¾ cup low fat yogurt

3 teaspoons lemon juice

¼ cup water

Pinch ground cumin

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Method

Salad

1. Combine lamb, garlic and juice in a bowl; cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight
2. Bring stock to the bo8il in saucepan, add couscous; remove pan from heat, stir, cover, stand for 5 minutes or until stock is absorbed.
3. Head frying pan, coat with cooking oil spray, add couscous; cook, stirring, until grain are separated. Remove from pan, cool.
4. Slice tomatoes thinly. Slice cucumber thinly with vegetable peeler.
5. Spray grill pan with a coat of cooking oil spray; cook lamb, turning, until cooked as desired. Cut lamb into thin slices.
6. Make dressing.
7. Place salad leaves, cucumber. Tomatoes and lamb on serving plate; drizzle with dressing, sprinkle with mint couscous.

Dressing

Place ingredients in small bowl and mix well.

Coastal Bodies Recommends this Womans Weekly recipie

Coastal Bodies Connections

Are you being nourished EVERY DAY? How BOB nourishes you:

1. BOB is straight from the farm to your fork – no time for nutrient depletion and spoiling
2. BOB takes 2 minutes to order and will last you most of the week
3. BOB encourages healthy eating because it’s in your fridge
4. BOB is 100% organic; see the organics section for more information on the benefits
5. BOB supports local produce and companies, and acts global.
6. BOB is run by nutritionists who can answer your questions and help with meal planning and recipes
7. BOB delivery is 100% reliable, friendly and delicious
8. The team at BOB are qualified nutritionists. Both Lisa and Emily are passionate about eating well, organically, affordably and creating simple recipes from all the lovely surprises received each week in your BOB box.
9. BOB wants you to feel good!!
10. By eating organically you’re also eating seasonally which has many benefits including:

• Eating seasonally brings amazing variety to your diet.
• With every season the fruit and vegetables bring a range of tastes, colours and textures. The seasons give us a long-forgotten sense of the wonderful natural cycles.
• Seasonal food also plays a role in holistic health – generally, fruits and vegetables appear during the season in which they are best for your body. Rich, full-bodied apples and pumpkins are winter foods, while light, juicy, refreshing mangos and cucumbers are suited to summer.
• Fresh food in season is unbeatable in terms of taste, nutritional value and variety.
• Most out-of-season food has been grown in artificial conditions, picked prematurely and shipped halfway around the world, giving it ample time to deteriorate and lose nutrients; this food is also limited to those varieties that can survive long-distance travel.