Tag Archives: meal planning

Dietitian Advice

Improve your Diet for 2019

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Whilst diets are flying everywhere and detoxes around every corner here is how to make long-term change your diet that will give you lasting health benefits for life.
 
How are you eat impacts your gut health and your long-term risk of diseases. So here are my top 5 food goals, which I’m taking onboard for myself too.
 
 
Increase your fruit and vegetable consumption by one portion.
It may not seem like much but if you manage to do this every day then it’s going to make a long-term change over the year.
 
Plan your meals.
Plan out what you’re going to eat incorporating a variety of foods across the week. Different colour vegetables for the different antioxidants and phytochemicals. Different grains, different protein sources (e.g chicken one day, red meat another, fish and lentils other times.
 
Eat more gut friendly foods.
This can be simply more fibre from whole grains and fruit/veggies and more probiotics from live yoghurt, sourdough bread, pickles or kefir.
 
Go plantbased where possible
Note this this does not mean you need to go vegan. Incorporating plantbased proteins is going to be an ever increasing trend. It’s definitely one to follow. Plant based meals are better in terms of sustainability and environmental impact plus they deliver a range of nutrients you may not get through a meat meal. More on this to come in my next blog posts.
 
Cook from scratch more.
This doesn’t have to mean every day but go for it if you can! Everyone is busy so try planning in times when you can bulk cook and stocking up the freezer. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be complicated or take that much time. I will be posting regular recipes on my social media to show what we eat. Trust me, I don’t have hours to cook.
 
However you start your new year try and keep your goals simple, achievable and remember that food is to be enjoyed! 
 
 
 
 

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Eating Disorders, Nutrition Education

Number 1 tip for staying on track with your eating.

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Whatever changes you have decided to make to your eating there is something that can really make a difference to making or breaking that habit. 

It’s a commonly known fact that it can take 6-8 weeks to form a new habit, so if you have set yourself a healthy habit to form you need to stick with it. 

Whether you are gaining weight because you are underweight, losing weight or maintaining your weight, this applies across the board. 

I know because it is something I personally do and it is something that makes a real difference to the clients I work with. 

So here it is.

MEAL PLANNING. It isn’t rocket science I know, but it is everyday common sense science.

Dietitian UK: Meal Planning.

If you want to make a healthy change to your eating, you need to plan it into your day and week. Just deciding on a change will not make you stick to it. To give yourself the best chance to suceed you need to have the right mindset, the right food in stock, have the right time to prepare it and have the right recipe to hand.

Here is an example. If you need to increase your diet in order to gain weight, you could just say to yourself “I will eat more at each meal”. When it comes to that meal 1. Will you remember? 2. Will you have extra food to hand? 3. Will you panic and decide not to do it? Using a meal plan is a useful tool as it make you plan out exactly how you will meet your goal. So where you will increase your current meal plan and exactly what extra foods you will add in. This means you can now prepare practically by making sure you have the foods available at the right times and prepare mentally so you are focused.

If you make a plan you are more likely to stick to it than if you have no plan.

There are several ways of meal planning. Some people like to use a whiteboard in the kitchen (this is what I do), others like a notebook they carry around with them and others like a printout stuck up in the kitchen. Think about keeping your meal plan visible and available at meal times as a reminder.

Make meal planning a regular part of your week and it will really help you hit your goals.