I was hoping that today would be a beautiful sunny day and I could write that there was a feeling of spring coming, etc, but sadly it is now grey and cold again and not terribly spring like at all.

However, it is now August and that does mean it is only five weeks until spring officially starts. Already the days are lengthening and when we do have a fine day, we are reminded that before long we will be peeling off a couple of layers and exposing a possibly less streamlined shape than we would have liked.

If you have accumulated a few bulges around your waist over winter, don’t wait any longer to take action, because the sad news is that those muffin tops will not disappear of their own accord. In fact, left alone, they seem to gather momentum and spill even further over the top of your jeans!

What is the first step? To have a goal! Whether it is a fat loss goal, a clothes fit goal or a couple of habit change goals, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you take positive action now. It might be something as simple as your deciding not to drink alcohol for two weeks. (maybe that doesn’t sound too simple to some of you!) Or you might have a goal of losing two kilos of fat by the end of August. Your goal might be to buy a pedometer and do 10,000 steps a day. If you have been hiding from me for a while, your goal might be to come back in this week and let me help you re-set goals and write you a new food plan. Whatever your goal, write it down and make a start today.

Often when you make a commitment to re-establish one good habit, by default you tend to pull other habits into line too. It is generally never one thing in isolation that makes us gain fat, it is a combination of a few things that add up over time. The main culprits are increasing portion sizes, decreasing exercise and picking between meals and snacks, especially late afternoon and after dinner.

This is a great time of year to get your workmates onboard and inspired to shape up for spring too. Maybe you can organise a biggest loser type competition at work or organise lunchtime power walks. Have a ban on office shouts, birthday baking or other dangerous activities? If there are enough of you interested.

Sometimes we just need to make more of an effort and yes, toughen up. Stop looking for reasons as to why you can’t do something and instead look for ways that you can. If you really want it, you will make it happen. It might take a few false starts, but hang in there and persevere. Don’t give up when you have a bad day? – just move on and make the next day a great one.

There are so many studies that show keeping to a healthy weight and exercising regularly can help prevent bowel cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease and many other conditions which seriously impact on enjoyment of life. Eat well and exercise regularly now to help prevent health issues later in life.

For recipe ideas, check out my updated website: www.nutritionforlife.co.nz

Protein

Protein is responsible for all the growth, maintenance and repair jobs that your body is constantly carrying out, so it makes sense that your body needs a regular supply. Unlike fat and carbohydrate, we don’t have storage depots? For protein on our bodies so we need to eat protein throughout the day.

Just one of the good things about protein is that it has a high thermic effect? Meaning that some of the energy in each gram of protein is wasted as heat during the process of digestion and metabolism. The thermic effect of nutrients is approximately 2–3 % for fat, 6–8 % for carbohydrates, and 25–30% for proteins. What that means is that about 25-30% of the energy (calories) contained in protein foods is burnt off during digestion. Protein is also more satiating than carbohydrates or fat, meaning you stay full for longer after eating protein.

Including protein with each meal and snack also slows down the rate at which blood glucose levels rise after meals. Spikes in blood glucose levels lead to elevated insulin levels, which in turn means fat burning stops! To stay in the fat burning zone you need to have steady levels of glucose and insulin.

Protein doesn’t have to mean meat, it can be low fat dairy like yoghurt, cottage cheese and milk, or nuts, nut butter, whey shakes, protein bars and other enjoyable foods.

Fat – we need it!

While fat does contain more than twice the energy of carbohydrates and proteins, gram for gram, we do need fat in our diet to stay healthy. It is the type of fat which is important and of course how much we consume.

Fats such as the essential omega-3 fatty acids found in krill and fish oils actually help your body burn fat, fight inflammation, prevent mood swings and keep your hair and skin healthy.

Our body needs fat to burn fat and the healthiest type of fat is obtained from deep water fatty fish such as salmon and tuna. Unfortunately, tinned fish has quite a bit of the good oil drained from it, but it is still a source of omega-3 fat. Supplementing with omega-3 capsules is an easy way to obtain your good fats if you aren’t eating fresh fish 2-3 times a week, which most people don’t. You can also use a vegetarian form of essential fatty acid, such as flax oil, as a dressing on your salads or as an extra in your smoothies.

Did you know that belly fat is a strong predictor of heart disease? It is, and it’s hardly breaking news. This finding was first reported by the British Medical Journal back in 1984.

In the study, researchers measured a surrogate marker for belly fat known as the waist-hip-ratio or WHR, and this is what they concluded: “results indicate that in middle aged men the distribution of fat deposits may be a better predictor of cardiovascular disease and death than the degree of adiposity [fat].”1 In short, it’s not about the amount of fat, but where it’s found that leads to trouble.

www.nutritionforlife.co.nz

So just as the type of fat you eat is important, where you carry it on your body is also important. Fat deposits in the abdominal area especially release inflammatory chemicals which can lead to heart disease, insulin resistance and diabetes. Fat stored around the organs is called visceral fat and it is this type of fat which is the most dangerous. You can measure your own waist to hip ratio by grabbing a tape measure and measuring your waist (at the narrowest part) and your hips, widest part.

Here is a link to a WHR calculator: http://www.healthyforms.com/helpful-tools/ and it also gives the healthy range of WHR.

Protein Bars

Sadly, my supply of the Lo Carb Fx protein bars has run out and they are no longer available in NZ. Probably the closest in texture and flavour is the Carbless range (blue wrapper) from the supermarket. The best value protein bars are the HPLC bars. Half a bar = a serving as they are big bars. Try the Chocolate Crunch flavour. These are available in most supermarkets too.

Off the Shelves

Kelloggs All-Bran Apple flavoured Crunch is a nice crunchy high fibre cereal which is new on the shelves. A ¾ cup serving contains 6.8g of fibre and around 160 calories.

Soup: Good Taste Smoked Fish & Wine chowder found in a bag in the chilled section of your supermarket.

Lemons are in season now so make the most of them. Try microwaving a whole lemon (or other citrus fruit) for a few seconds to get more juice out of them. Plain old lemon juice makes a nice dressing on salad.

Instead of eating until you are full, try eating slowly, until you are no longer hungry. The difference in energy between the two could add up to a couple of kilos of fat per year.

Fitness Tip from Sally of Fitness Fix www.fitnessfix.co.nz

People who exercised during their workday were 23 per cent more productive on those days than on a non-workout day, says a recent study from the International Journal of Workplace Health Management. With a good cardio workout your circulation increases, which fills you with energy, and your thinking becomes sharper and clearer. So next time you get writer’s block and you can’t see the weeds from the trees get outside and fill your lungs with fresh air.

Yummy Mash with a difference

Mash kumara (no butter or milk added) then add stewed apple + Dijon mustard. One stewed apple added to enough mashed kumara to serve 4 people. Delicious!

It’s still soup weather so I’ve made up a hearty chicken soup recipe to keep you warm. Leftovers are great for lunch the next day.

Hearty Chicken Soup – serves 6

• 500g cooked chicken, chopped
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• Few sticks of celery, chopped
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 litre of chicken stock
• 1 packet of Maggi Creme of Chicken Soup
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 3 cups water
• Black pepper and salt to taste

In a sprayed, large non stick pan sauté onions, carrots and celery until tender. Add rest of ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Serve with 2 Corn Thins broken into the soup, they make great croutons!

Chicken is such a versatile protein, there are endless ways to use it. The next recipe has a few options, but there are many other ways of filling the chicken too.

Filled Chicken ‘Rolls’

150g chicken breast per person.

Place the chicken between two layers of baking paper and using a meat mallet or similar beat out chicken until schnitzel thickness, then use one of the fillings below.

Filling #1 (serves 1)

Mix 1tbs Extra Light Philadelphia cream cheese with 2 well drained, chopped, sun dried tomatoes and spread on one half of the chicken. Roll up firmly, tucking the sides in too.

Filling #2 (serves 1)

Mix 1 tbs Extra Light Philadelphia cream cheese with 2 diced dried apricots then spread on chicken as above and roll up.

Filling # 3 (serves 1)

Spread chicken with ½ teaspoon of pesto, then sprinkle with 1 level dessertspoon of grated parmesan. Roll up as above.

Line a baking dish with baking paper then place rolled breasts, seam side down in the dish. Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through. You don’t want to overcook them or they will be dry.

The recipes in my newsletters will be added to my website regularly, so check in at http://www.nutritionforlife.co.nz/recipes/ for easy, healthy meal ideas.

That’s it for now, remember, if you have gained a muffin top over winter, call me now and let’s put a plan in place to get rid of it.

Lynda