As a Dietitian I am often asked \u201cis this what I should be eating?\u201d by both my patients and many friends and acquaintances. And what I generally say is \u201cit depends on what you are trying to achieve\u201d.<\/p>\n
Food is Fuel for your body. Think of your body as a car. When we put fuel into our cars we pay close attention to the manufacturer\u2019s instructions. We don\u2019t let our cars get too low in fuel and if we do the red light comes on and eventually our car will stop. And if we put the wrong fuel in our cars then we really are in trouble!<\/p>\n
So when it comes to our diet \u2013 the food (or fuel) we put in our body \u2013 why do we ignore our bodies warning signs? Why do we eat when we aren\u2019t hungry? Why, when we are trying to lose weight, do we ignore our bodies hunger cues? Why, if we have been advised to avoid certain foods for health reasons, do we want those foods more? Most of this comes down to our thoughts, our beliefs and our behaviours.<\/p>\n
Dietitians work with each person and tailor nutritional advice to their needs, their lifestyle and what is realistic for them. There is certainly no one diet that is perfect for everyone.<\/p>\n
As it\u2019s the New Year there are lots of \u2018diets\u2019 out there to help you lose weight or become a healthier you in 2019. If you would like to make some changes to your diet to improve your health I would recommend small, specific and sustainable changes, here are my 5 top tips:<\/p>\n
1. Reduce sugar gradually \u2013 don\u2019t go from 2 teaspoons in your cup of tea to none! Try stepping down to 1 \u00bd then 1 and see how you go. Some people find swapping to a sweetener makes the process a bit easier.<\/p>\n
2. Increase fruit and vegetables \u2013 we all know fruit and vegetables are a healthy choice but simply saying \u201cI need to eat more\u201d will not make you do it. Think about when e.g. putting some fruit on your breakfast cereal in the morning or taking a piece of fruit to eat as a snack mid-morning.<\/p>\n
3. Drink less alcohol \u2013 alcohol in moderation can be part of healthy balanced diet. Alcohol contains calories and so for those people trying to lose weight cutting down on alcohol is a good idea. Why not try saving it for the weekends as a good starting point.<\/p>\n
4. Eat Mindfully \u2013 turn off the television and take your time to taste and appreciate your food. Try sitting at a table if you can and enjoying a meal with your family. It is known that those people who eat more slowly eat less food overall.<\/p>\n
5. Put together a meal plan and shopping list for the week \u2013 this is certainly not an easy task but it is one worth doing to help you and your household enjoy home cooked meals and save a few pennies along the way too!<\/p>\n
I hope these suggestions will help improve the quality of the food you are eating which with time can help improve the way you feel both inside and out, and perhaps help with some weight loss too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a Dietitian I am often asked \u201cis this what I should be eating?\u201d by both my patients and many friends and acquaintances. And what I generally say is \u201cit depends on what you are trying to achieve\u201d. Food is Fuel for your body. Think of your body as a car. When we put fuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunlightnutrition.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}