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Foods To Avoid When Trying To Lose Weight

May 10, 2010 By Kyle 1 Comment

Photo by FotoosVanRobin

Well I thought it might be nice to have a definitive list on the site of foods you should try to keep clear of when trying to lose weight.

Now I don’t expect you to stop eating these foods all together, that is ridiculous. I can’t really expect a chocoholic to give up their afternoon sugar rush overnight even if their waist and teeth would appreciate a break.

Instead I recommend that you simply reduce the amount you eat in one serving and then from there reduce the number of days you eat that food. [Read more...]

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Diet for Dummies: Part III – Afternoon Tea and Dinner

October 6, 2009 By Kyle Leave a Comment

Part 3 in my dieting series. See the bottom of the post for the other parts. In this I will cover afternoon tea, dinner and also supper for those of us who would like to eat a little more.

Afternoon Tea

Ok, so it’s been about 3 hours since we ate lunch and by the time we finish up at work, drive home and cook dinner it will probably be 7pm. This means 6 hours without eating a thing! A whole quarter of a day. So what do we normally do? Pig out on chips or cheese and crackers while we cook dinner. Or we’re just so hungry we stop by the fish and chip shop or pizza place on the way home for something quick and easy.

So what is a good afternoon snack (that does not involve  a trip to the evil vending machine)? Almonds and sunflower seeds are a tried and true great afternoon tea. High in protein to fill you up and very energy dense, you don’t need many in a serving. A small handful will do. This is also a great time to get in a 2nd or 3rd piece of fruit for the day, it doesn’t really matter what kind, just pick something in season.

Dinner

With Breakfast and Lunch coming in as our 2 most important meals of the day, dinner is actually much lower. While dinner is important, we must remember that it is the end of the day so we don’t need a whole lot of energy just to go sit on the couch and watch TV.

Stick to a big serving on veggies (pre-chopped of course) and some lean meat. Some great ideas are:

  • Stirfries
  • 1 or 2 burritos with lean meat
  • Barbequed lean meat with baked sweet potato and steamed (or barbequed) veggies
  • Giant chicken salad

You get the idea? Veggies, meat and a little starchy carbohydrates.

Supper

An average slice of cake is over a quarter of your daily recommended caloric intake! So It really is not a great food to eat every night after dinner. Instead make a big fruit salad with seasonal to eat over a few days. Add some unsweetened yogurt to really top it off and you have a much healthier alternative.

For us muscle builders out there it’s great to eat a little more protein before sleep time to aid in recovery during sleep. I make a thing that is known in bodybuilding circles as sludge. It takes about 2 minutes to put together.

Mix:

  • 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
  • 1/2 cup berries (mixed or your favourite kind)
  • 1 Tbsp peanut butter

Add a little water and stir it up to a thick mixture and yum!!! For those who don’t wish to use protein powder you can use cottage cheese with cocoa powder or flavoured yogurt.

Ok guys so the final part will involve a break down of when and what to eat. Until then stay healthy!.

View other parts in this series:

Part I – Breakfast

Part II – Morning Tea and Lunch

Part III – Afternoon Tea and Dinner

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Diet for Dummies: Part I – Introduction and Breakfast

September 19, 2009 By Kyle

This article is meant to break down the ‘battle’ of dieting and make it easy to chew. I bet when you think of dieting you think of hard work, no interesting foods and maybe Oprah. The truth is that most of our diets are so bad (especially in my generation) that just adding some normality and healthy foods to the diet can make a huge difference in how you look and feel. Anyway, let me break it down for you meal by meal how you can create a normal diet.

Breakfast

Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. No, this isn’t some lie made up so certain brands can cell cereal. Your breakfast is literally that, breaking the 8-12 hour fast from dinner. Your body needs to replenish what it lost during the night and fuel you for the day ahead. Lots of grains and fruit for energy and dairy and nuts for muscle repair and recovery will get you metabolism running.

I recommend eating breakfast as soon as close to waking as possible. I’ve found I feel more energetic and it stops my metabolism from slowing even further (I will write more on this in the future).

If you skip this meal all together, let me just say this: YOU ARE STABBING YOURSELF IN THE BACK! You are selling yourself majorly short of your goals, whether it be gaining, losing, maintaining your weight, putting on muscle, getting shredded or stripping fat.

I will try to counter some of your objections that you might have at this point.

  • ‘I don’t have time for breakfast’

I am surprised how many people get up for work with only 30 minutes to prepare. This does not make much sense to me, I have always allowed myself at least an hour to prepare  for the day, how can you expect to perform at your best that day if you don’t allow your thoughts to settle and plan your day? I would suggest to start with try eating just one quick and simple item. A muesli bar, whole grain muffin, protein shake, meal replacement or a piece of fruit. Each week add one more item; you may even want to do this more often as you will find yourself getting hungrier in the morning. Next start rising a little earlier to put together this little feast you will now be eating for breakfast.

  • ‘I want to lose weight. So I am trying to eat less’

Hmmmm… where to start… Skipping meals causes your metabolism to slow, now your metabolism has already slowed from being a sleep and not eating, therefore waiting longer will cause your metabolism to plummet even further until your body reaches starvation. Once you body is in starvation it isn’t expecting any food, so when you do feed it, it quickly stores excess calories as fat. So much for weight loss hey?

A calorie deficient state is important for weight loss, however it is much healthier to achieve this by cutting out that slice of cake you had with your coffee or that coke you had with lunch or by doing more exercise.

  • ‘I train in the morning, so I eat after’

Fasted cardio or training while in the short term has been shown to have some effect on a higher percentage of weight loss, is actually quite useless in the long term. Studies have shown that being fuelled by carbohydrates during training creates more effective training and hence more calories expended. Try to have something, even if it is liquid like a meal replacement or Gatorade.

  • ‘I’m just not hungry in the morning’/’I can’t stomach food first thing when I wake’

I hope by now I’ve convinced you how important eating breakfast is, and I hope you will at least try to force a small amount of food down in the morning. Try something liquid or just a piece of dry toast. If you are throwing up after eating (involuntarily) there could be something wrong and I would seriously recommend talking to your doctor about it.

Ok guys, this has ended up being longer than I thought, so I’ll leave it there for now. Stay tuned for Part II: Morning Tea and Lunch. Be safe.

Part I – Breakfast

Part II – Morning Tea and Lunch

Part III – Afternoon Tea and Dinner

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