It's all about food

Hello all!

Recently I blogged about the struggles that can be involved in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Today I want to discuss how to start your healthy lifestyle! Everyone has different tastes and priorities. Your diet effects every part of you, your mentality, your weight, your concentration levels and your energy levels to name a few. When considering the latter it is important to understand that different foods offer your body different things. So first things first it is important to asses you goals.

If you've never got round to setting a SMART goal - (sorry to use lame business terms but I really believe this will help) now is a good time to start. So make your goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relative (to your overall goals) and Timely - I.e set a time frame.

My overalls objective is to get fit, healthy and into the best shape of my life. To achieve this I have set smaller goals like being able to complete 5 full unassisted pull ups in 3 months. I know to do this I need to be working particular muscles in my body and giving myself the correct food to fuel these work outs... I want to lose my stomach fat by my holiday in June... Same rules apply!

Try setting some of your own - breaking them down will make your goals more attainable and fine tune just what you need to do to get there. Write them down and keep them somewhere safe. I've just made myself a motivation board!

For some of you your goals might be purely aesthetic, you might want your clothes to fit a bit better or see the number drop on the scales, but not care so much for the health aspect - which I do not condone but each to their own.

Everyone's goals are different and choosing what foods to eat can be challenging especially when there are so many different lifestyle choices available today! In this blog I'm going to briefly mention some of the most popular diets available and my understanding of them. Please note, unfortunately I do not have a degree in nutrition and this is all my understanding from the ridiculous amount of time I have spent reading up on these things. I'm also going to go through what I eat on an average day in order to meet my goals. I hope it helps and inspires some of you to drop the processed junk and start eating real food!

So here is what I think are the most popular diets of today. First up

Paleo - or, the caveman diet.
This diet is usually promoted as high protein, low carb, low gi and high in fibre. It believes that although wholemeal foods are high in fibre, the body is better at digesting fibre and gets much more nutrients from that found in vegetables. Legumes (beans and oddly peanuts) are banned from this diet, no dairy, no potatoes and obviously no processed foods.
The premise of the diet is that for thousands of years man lived on the hunter gatherer diet before luxuries such as beans and baking things like bread were invented. Therefore our digestive system works best with these foods.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the 80/10/10 diet.

I learnt about this from following people on Instagram and their pictures are enough to make you consider it! (Pictures from @lonijane & @801010athlete). This diet is high carb low protein and gets its name from the dietary rules, 80% should come from fruit (and veg) 10% from protein and 10% from fats - such as coconut oil, avocados...These guys eat a tonne of fruit, I've seen photos of 6 banana lunches, the bottom right photo is a 12 banana and 12 medjool date smoothie, these guys are not under nourished. However they are in Hawaii and Oz where sitting on a beach in the sun eating fruit is a mere dream to my reality of cold rural Essex.




Vegans
Vegans believe in eating no produce from animals. No meat, no dairy, no honey, nothing with gelatine or anything even a tiny bit animal related! This typically means diets are very high in fibres from sources such as vegetables, fruit, wholemeal pastas, bread, brown rice. But you should all already know this from reading my last blog ;)

Raw Food diet
The raw food diet needs no explanation! Food is not cooked which often means meals are high in fruit and vegetables. There are ways around this - for example certain meats and fish can be eaten raw and some dairy foods are available un-pasteurised.

Raw Vegans
Again, straight forward, combine the last two and you have raw vegans who essentially eat a lot of fruit and veg! A bit like the 80/10/10 but I think less emphasis on keeping tabs on the quantities of where your food comes from. For example a raw vegan might wish to eat a tonne of veg rather than 80% fruit... This might not sounds like much fun but there are amazing options out there for you. I picked up this amazing pudding from wholefoods last week. It was SO chocolatey and it felt like I was eating the most indulgent pudding of all time! Guilt free!

The reason diets like this are becoming so popular is because there is research to suggest that acidic diets are more likely to cause problems such as cancer. I touched on this in my vegan blog, most fruits and veggies are alkaline (even lemon and limes when they enter our system) but meats and animal produce are typically acidic.
On top of this, food compounds change when they are cooked so the theory is the more food is cooked, the less nutritional value and the more carcinogens are added. This is why coconut oil is so popular. It has a really high 'smoke point' whereby it doesn't alter on a high temperature.
Have you ever seen the worlds youngest looking women? YouTube her! She is old and looks amazing, her husband - who does not follow the same diet, does not, she only eats nuts and veg and drinks her own rain water! Extreme I know but she looks amaze balls.

Whatever you think of these diets, note that they ALL have one thing in common. There is NO PROCESSED FOODS. All these diets revolve around fresh foods, there's a reason for that guys. All your rubbish processed food, - low fat and low cal included, is full of shit. Hidden sugars, salts, chemicals, sweeteners etc. etc.
Sugary foods make your blood sugar levels peak and troph all day long leaving you feeling tired and constantly having to top up your sugar buzz. Not ideal! Now I bet I know what you're thinking 'I can't afford to eat fresh' all I can say to you sir, it's up to you to choose your priorities. If you can afford to smoke, go out boozing, for meals, getting takeaways and buying any junk food at all then you can afford to buy fresh food! The decision is yours. I understand you don't want to become a recluse! So everything in moderation.

Try swapping your current snacks for high protein snacks which will fill you for longer:
Nuts, good quality beef jerky, apple with a 1tbsp of peanut or almond butter, Greek yoghurt and berries.

Now I don't know what the rules are on popcorn, I have no idea whether its considered processed or not? But my boyfriend kindly gave me a popcorn machine for Christmas :) it pops the corn using heat and air, no oil or anything so it's so low in calories and I love it. I melt 1tbsp of peanut butter and pour it over some popcorn and have it as a snack pretty much every day!

So if I were to compare my diet to any of the above I would say I'm a less extreme Paleo. My diet is high protein and sort of low carb. I'm avoiding all processed foods (with the exception of the occasional corn tortilla & Greek yoghurt) I'm not eating any refined carbs such as bread, pasta, white rice. On top of that I'm avoiding potatoes but I cannot say no to kidney beans and black beans! I'll talk you through a typical day:

For breakfast I make a protein shake using 'Elle True Diet' vanilla whey protein. I blend this with one frozen banana, unsweetened almond milk and a big handful of spinach or kale. People always react at the last bit but I guarantee you cannot taste it, not even a little bit, especially with the addition of protein powder. It tastes like vanilla milkshake and has the same texture because of the frozen banana. Sometimes I add chia seeds or flaxseeds if I need some more fibre.

I have a morning snack and an afternoon snack which is usually a bit of fruit and some popcorn with peanut butter, or a graze box :) got to have a little something something you enjoy every day right?

For lunch I either have fresh soup - I always check the ingredients, or I have chilli. Most weeks I cook up a huge batch of chilli. I can't get enough of the stuff! Mince, kidney or black beans, loads of tomatoes and veg and chilli, what's not to love! Sometimes I only use 250g of lean mince beef and double the quantities of chopped toms and veg :) I split it into about 6 portions at 300g each. Preparation is key to not crumbling and buying a manky sandwich on your lunch!

For dinner I usually stir fry lean quick cook steak or chicken with peppers, sugar snap peas, baby corn and asparagus - unfortunately I hate leafy things so I can't buy perfectly good stir fry packs with ready prepped veg. I add soy sauce and lemon juice, tonight I actually added some peanut butter to make it a bit like chicken satay. Alternatively I stick to Mexican food because I can add loads of spices and it never gets old :) if I'm feeling meat free is in need I do quesadillas with corn tortillas, peppers, onions, black beans a maybe a bit of tobasco cheese if I think I've earned it! Fajita tray bakes are super easy too, pour spices over chicken, onions, peppers and roast! Serve up with fresh salsa and jalapeños.

This diet suits my goals because I'm trying to drop fat and build muscle but admittedly my digestion is not as good as it was when I was vegan... Nor does my skin like it as much! But I am feeling the effects on my body and for now that is my priority. I know I need to tweak it to up my fibre intake and I will do this over time. It's all about listening to your body and knowing what works for you! There are no secrets or magic tricks just science and good food!

So think about your goals, discover what foods will fuel your goals and I can assure you that with persistence, you will reach your goals. It's that simple!

Minnie
Xxx


P.S. If you have any questions, just ask!