Is summer an easier time to lose weight?

On the contrary and particularly post ISO summer ain’t gonna be that easy!!!
I don’t know about you but I can certainly vouch that it feels like ISO was the calm before the storm… the month of November normally feels like a build up of social catch ups but now after the last 6 months it’s amplified. What a world win, 6 months ago the isles in the supermarket where empty, panic buying was rife, ‘baking’ was out of control and anything in the pantry that was available to us went missing quickly, to today’s issue of not being able to  make a reservation for dinner for 3 weeks in advance.

When times of stress are high, we find ourselves reaching for comfort foods and justifying the next recipe to make… Not saying that it ain’t ok to bake that cake but it can affect our health…  But it’s no wonder that iso-life has meant lots of us are feeling’ the heat with food and our bodies,….

So how do we return to civilisation’ health kicks?
How to keep cool pre Christmas and following ISO and lock downs of restaurant reservations?

1. Focus on another motivation other than fitting into the skinny Jean… 
The weight loss industry is a billion dollar business  and is a forever unachievable cycling of weight loss/gain, and not the healthiest cycle for you!

The thing is you cant control the actual weight unless you cut an arm off or sit in a sauna, neither of those I recommend by the way.

So what works is shifting the focus on health behaviors, that is the things we can control. These are the actions we take the things you do day-to-day.  Focusing on the process, the food goals and exercise goals.  So rather than setting your goal as a number on the scale, why not set a goal as a number of times per week you plan to move your body? One of the best strategies that help my clients is preventing the onset of impulse eating, is introducing a free snack, a revolutionary strategy at the most vulnerable times… so make this a new behavior or make a new health goal to order small coffee  everyday rather than a large… this will make the difference over 365 days in your year!

2. Focus on the foods you can have rather than the foods you should cut out. Who wants to never eat pizza again in their life??

As soon as you plan to cut something out, like pizza or chocolate it becomes the only thing you think of. Have you had this happen? This is human nature for most.   It’s not you and your inability to control your self, but it is actually a deep physiological response to become fixated on  a food when we are told you cannot have it.  So nowadays, when we cut food and calories from our diets, our bodies essentially think we’re starving ourselves, and this prompts us to search for food! SO its not about what you can’t eat, its all about what you can have, the way you can have, the way to have fish n chips, how you can have that pizza, how you can make that ice cream work in your favor!!! Make it your goal to improve every meal you chose to have!

3. Increasing the colors on your plate or when dining out ramping up your intake of veggies and salad. Make the post ISO dining work for you..

Focus on the sides, create a meal surrounded by colorful side dishes.  A clever strategy, is to choose a vast variety of side dishes that can work in your favor. Include sides such as a miso soup, tom yum, a seaweed salad, oysters, miso eggplant or even a salad can be  your starter.  Filling u  up with the right things and enjoying the beautiful flavors of each cuisine. And not to mention you won’t need to have that extra serve off rice… truly a better investment . Focusing on fruit, veggies, whole grains, dairy (or alternatives), meat (or alternatives including nuts, seeds and legumes) and mix and match them at each meal, you’re in an excellent position to meet all your nutritional needs.

If you’re focused on pumping and infusing more of these foods in your diet you will be feeling all the better for it!!! You will crave less, less impulse eating and more energy to keep to your daily routine.

4. Avoid the “good food bad foods thinking”…. 

There is nothing that you can never NOT eat again, its all about what you choose to invest in!! With the increase in cafe culture, eating out culture and the increase in socialising associated with food we do need to think about choices. Food is SO much more than nutrients. So it’s ok to eat for reasons other than nutrients and eat because we enjoy the food and because it brings us pleasure. So its about the choice and your motivation….

First we do not believe in ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food. Rather, think on how to make the food you want to eat better….  eg. “how am I going to make this Pizza better, how can I improve the set menu? Swap the salami with a lean protein or the cheese with goats cheese and add more flavour from olives that the extra cheese….. just a couple of ideas!!