Archive for year: 2018

Healthy eating is important for great energy levels, being able to think straight, keeping trim and healthy, and generally feeling good!

Eating well to nourish your body can take effort, especially when you are busy.  It doesn’t have to be complicated and fancy, but you need to make careful choices if you want to make sure you are eating in ways that nourish your body.  It is very easy to eat harmful and fattening edible non-food stuffs in our modern day environment.

Here is a meal plan to help give you an idea of simple meal planning and meal ideas for four days.

This meal plan is out of our Size Fantastic weight loss program, designed by Lisa Cutforth.

It’s our gift to you. 4 Day Meal Plan Example

Wishing you and your family health worth celebrating!

People who followed our meal plan felt amazing… if you can’t be bothered to cook or shop for yourself… why not check out our meal packages.

Helping you Find Healthy Eating Solutions:

There are many barriers that can get in the way of healthy eating in today’s busy society. If you’re looking to change your eating habits and are finding your road is being blocked time and time again by different factors, rest assured that there are solutions and tips out there to help you get back on track.

Common barriers you may have experienced include:

1.     Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can include eating for other purposes other than hunger. These purposes can include filling the void when sad, depressed or stressed. If you want more information on this, Size Fantastic has a blog post about Stress and Your Weight. Find it here

2.     Convenience

There’s no doubt that we live in a world of convenience. From computers, to pizza cutters to vending machines. When we also live busy lives, juggling work, study and family makes it sometimes justifiable to pay more for convenience than for quality. High-salt, high sugar, or high-fat frozen meals and fast food takeaways are there to make “life easier”, but very often these foods are cleverly engineered to tempt and entice you to eat them or eat more than you need.  While being cheap and easy to make, store and sell for a profit, they are typically low in nutritional value.  Good for the manufacturers, bad for you.

3.     Lack of Time

Time is one of the most common perceived barriers to healthy eating. You may have to rush off in the morning and not have time to prepare breakfast, or you may work late and be too tired to cook dinner when you return home.

Try these tips to overcome some of the common barriers:

1.     Plan your meals ahead of time. Look through some healthy cookbooks and base your weekly shopping list on what ingredients you need for your meals. When you do have the time to make dinner, make extra so that you have some for lunch the next day. Plan to cook just 3 times a week.  You can freeze leftovers for another night when you don’t have time to cook from scratch.

2.     When you go for your weekly shop, choose a variety of healthy snacks like fresh fruit and unsalted nuts, humus and carrots to keep in the house during the week. You can keep these at home, in your car or at work.

3.     Research your local restaurants and places around you that offer takeaway. Look at their menu’s online and see what kind of healthy options they offer. For example, a place that allows you to switch fries for a side salad might be a good place to try when you have no time to cook.

Healthy Meals To Your Door offers healthy convenient nutritious solutions so that you can eat well no matter what else is going on in your life!

If you feel like you really don’t have the time to cook but you still want to eat healthy, delicious food why not try Healthy Meals To Your Door? Weekly meals are delivered to your home or workplace and we cater for a range of different needs including vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free.

 

Find out More or Order Yours Today

 

 

 

 

If you are working full time, have children, don’t know how to cook or don’t like to cook then it is easy to dread the evening “What’s for dinner?” question.  Mums and dads, especially if it is being asked by hungry children with no real concept of time.

Even if you don’t have children at the end of a long day, shopping and cooking can be the last thing you feel like doing.

It is easy to understand why people turn to convenience options, fast food and ready meals.

I had a mum call me the other week saying: “I’m so over cooking, is it too late to place my order for next week?!”

As a nutritionist working with my clients, I found many people desperate for an alternative to having to shop and cook healthy meals for themselves.  Planning food and meals in advance felt like it was definitely in the “too hard” basket, and a last minute cooking decision was often not a good one.

That’s why we created the Healthy Meals To Your Door (fresh healthy meals delivered to your home or work place) service.

We wanted to provide a quick convenient solution that was also healthy, and good enough for the whole family.  Yes, there were quick convenient solutions out there already (by the dozen) but low calorie doesn’t equate to nutrient dense, and many of the solutions were laced with sugar, salt, preservatives, fillers and thickeners and frankly unhealthy.  The meals were quick, light in calories and easy and sometimes evenly mistakenly perceived as “cheap” but as a nutritionist I couldn’t put my health stamp on them.

Our calorie controlled meals are naturally low in calories but also nutrient dense, made with real food, fresh ingredients, from recipes developed by a nutritionist and chef team and cooked by real chefs in a fully equipped professional state of the art kitchen in Brisbane.  We don’t add nasties like preservatives and extra salt and sugar, the food is freshly cooked and delivered fresh, (and you can freeze a couple of the meals to afford you flexibility).  And the flavor comes from the real ingredients we carefully choose, not from a manipulated “sugar, fat, salt” formula.

We wanted to give people a positive healthy eating experience.  Imagine you and your loved ones eating healthy guilt free food, that tastes great, and that you didn’t have to plan, buy ingredients for or slave over a hot stove cooking from scratch.

Mums and Families are LOVING the 5 family dinners:

“All very, very yummy!!!  And so easy!!!! You are better than a shooting star!” Working Mum with young boys

“What a treat it was to not have to cook last night, and to top it off hubbie’s lunch for today was sorted … Looking forward to tonights!” Busy mum

“Love that it took five minutes to heat a nutritious meal for the family- perfect for witching hour! Looking forward to trying the rest of the weeks meals.” Mum with new born and older kids

And our calorie controlled meal plans are satisfying and effective:

“We really appreciate everything you have done for us – for both our physical as well as mental health. Since starting the meals last year, I have lost ~10kgs and managed to keep it off! And that’s just been the
tip of the iceberg.”  Brisbane Professional Couple

Choose from a range of healthy meal plans, for example calorie controlled meals, upgraded Paleo meals, even gluten free meals delivered weekly.  Whether you are living alone, a couple or a family we can deliver healthy meals to suit your needs.  And you can choose between 1, 2 or 3 meals (and snacks) a day… depending on your needs.

Check out our healthy meal plans here or order your Healthy Meals Delivered – Brisbane here

From a very young age we are taught to eat well. But in this busy world that we live in it’s easy to forget how eating healthy can benefit us, both emotionally and physically. Here are 10 benefits of eating a healthy and nutritious diet…

1.     A healthy diet will help you concentrate

Yes you heard it, eating a healthy balanced diet does great things for your brain and can ensure concentration levels are high and maintained throughout the day. Processed foods will impair concentration and will cause ups and downs in energy levels.  As adults being able to concentrate and focus during the day is definitely important, but adults have sneaky coping mechanisms they can use to survive, without too many people noticing.  Children on the other hand, who have missed out on breakfast for whatever reason, suffer all sorts of consequences when concentration is poor.   They don’t do as well at school, and sometimes they are given disease labels that could have been prevented by daily good nutrition.  Evidence suggests that breakfast consumption may improve cognitive function related to memory, test grades, and school attendance. (1) We advocate consumption of a healthful breakfast on a daily basis consisting of a variety of foods, especially nutrient-rich whole grains like oats or whole grain breads, fresh fruits (any), and healthy protein products (like egg, yoghurt, nuts or beans).

2.     A healthy diet will prevent you from turning into a grumpy grouch

Nobody likes turning grumpy at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, so prevent this from happening by incorporating more complex carbohydrates (like wholegrains), foods that release a steady stream of glucose into your system, and avoid refined or processed carbs that are likely to rapidly spike your glucose and then send it plummeting.  Wholegrain carbohydrates also boost serotonin (a naturally found mood regulator) in the brain, and also known as a happy hormone.  Too much of this will relax you too much so don’t only have carbs at lunch time, or you might end up with the sleepy 3.30itis.  Also include more omega-3 fatty acids (from salmon, flaxseed or walnuts), and ensuring that you eat breakfast and are exercising regularly.   If the afternoon sleepies do hit, rather than turning to sugar, have a peppermint tea or liquorice tea for a natural “pick me up”.

3.     A healthy diet will reduce inflammation in the body

Incorporating more healthy fats (from extra-virgin olive oil, avocado, tree nuts, and wild fish like tuna, sardines, salmon and mackeral) and certain spices (turmeric, cloves, ginger and rosemary and cinnamon) can help to reduce inflammation in the body (2).  This is beneficial to prevent or help repair swelling of the joints, bloating, aches and pains and other consequences of inflammation.  Some studies have also uncovered the potential anti-inflammatory effect of garlic – either way, garlic is a great natural flavour enhancer to add to your meals (3).

4.     Healthy meals will optimise energy levels

If you really want to make the most of your day and be as productive as you possibly can, eating a diet rich in wholegrains, fruit and vegetables is the way to go. Avoid refined carbohydrates and sugary snacks if you don’t want to crash in the middle of the afternoon.  Try and get an early night if you are consistently having energy slumps during the day or craving carbs in the afternoon or late in the evening.

5.     Healthy meals enhance weight loss

Chances are that you’re not going to have much luck losing weight if you’re not eating a healthy diet and feeding your body the nutrients it needs.  Starving yourself is a dangerous way to lose weight because you lose muscle, slow down your metabolism, deplete yourself of essential nutrients and ultimately activate all sorts of stress and compensatory systems in your body that will make you pile the weight back on… usually as fat. Eating a healthy diet consisting of regular healthy meals is the best most consistent way to lose weight and keep it off.  Plus, when you lose weight you also slowly start to lose all of the dangerous risks that come with being overweight and obese, especially if you lose the weight simply by eating a healthy diet!

6.     Appearance

A nutritious diet will give you healthy glowing skin, stronger and shinier hair, stronger nails and healthy teeth.  You can literally “eat for beauty”!

7.     Eating a healthy diet results in less cravings

Stress can lead to cravings and when you give in to these cravings, you reinforce them.  Do this often enough and you end up with a learned behaviour (or bad eating habits). We can crave foods when we are missing key nutrients, so if we eat a balanced diet we often find we have fewer cravings.  Sometimes though we can also develop cravings for the foods that we don’t need but that we eat regularly (particularly if there are strong associations to that food or patterns around eating it), for example if we regularly eat a piece of cake or something sweet after dinner then we can be in a pattern to expect or seek out something sweet as soon as we finish dinner.   Fill up on nutrient-rich foods during the day, make healthy conscious choices regularly and be careful of unhelpful habits to avoid these cravings.

8.     Healthy eating will help you to sleep better

Sleeping better will improve your eating habits and improving your eating habits will help you sleep better. This was highlighted in a 2007-8 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), showing that the more sleep people received the better their diet was (4).

9.     You’ll save money

Although some healthy foods may cost a little bit more than their unhealthy counterparts, in the long-run you will have fewer medical bills to pay and your grocery bill may also be less if you’re eating less overall.

10.  You could add years to your life and live longer

Eating a healthy balanced diet will reduce your risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and much more.  We also know that in population samples that have a culture of eating well, it is not uncommon to live to over 100 years old.(5)

Want to start eating healthier but don’t know where to start? If you are in Brisbane or the Gold Coast you can now get healthy meals delivered to your home or workplace.  It means less worrying for you and a peace of mind knowing that the food you are eating is going to be doing your body some good.  If you aren’t based locally but would still like some help with how to eat healthily, please contact us and one of our nutrition team can help you to get yourself and your family on track.

Order today

References:

[1] Rampersaud, G., Pereira, M., Girard, B., Adams, J. & Metzl, J. Breakfast Habits, Nutritional Status, Body Weight, and Academic Performance in Children and Adolescents. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Volume 105, Issue 5, May 2005, Pages 743–760

[2] Top anti-inflammatory foods, herbs and spices. (www.articles.mercola.com retrieved from web 16th June, 2015)

[3] Ban, J., Oh, J., Tae, K., Dae, K., Heon-Sang, J., Jin, H., & Sang, H. (2009). Anti-inflammatory and arthritic effects of  thiacremonone, a novel sulfurcompound isolated from garlic via inhibition of NF-κB. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 11.

[4] National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). (2008). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm

[5] Buettner, D. (2012). Blue Zones. National Geographic Society.

“An analysis of 175 countries showed that when you look for the cause of type 2 diabetes, the total number of calories you consume is irrelevant. It’s the specific calories that count. When people ate 150 calories more every day, the rate of diabetes went up 0.1 per cent. But if those 150 calories came from a can of fizzy drink, the rate went up 1.1 per cent. Added sugar is 11 times more potent at causing diabetes than general calories”[1] Robert Lustig

The above quote from Professor Lustig couldn’t be any more true. All calories are not created equal. It is the types of foods that matter. If you eat 90 calories from a banana this is not going to be the same as eating 90 calories from chocolate. The banana is going to provide you with more nutrients, while containing no refined sugars, saturated fats or preservatives. The chocolate contains all of these.

Some believe that counting calories is the way to go in terms of weight loss and preventing disease, and there are definitely quite a few fad diets out there that support this. You should really be looking at the source of your calories and practice more mindful eating. Where did your food come from?  Is it highly processed or has it come directly from nature? Is it laden with chemicals and preservatives? Does it contain refined sugars or trans fats? These are all questions we should be asking ourselves about our food. Simply counting calories MIGHT make you lose some weight but will you be healthy on the inside? Probably not, and the sad news is you usually don’t sustain the weight loss nor do you necessarily lose fat.  More often than not you lose muscle, and not fat when you are eating too little, especially if they are empty calories and worse still  because your body is stressed, the type of food you are eating activates fat storage, so you also end up with dangerous internal visceral fat, despite “weight” loss.

Meal companies are definitely trying to make a name for themselves by promoting “low calorie” convenient frozen meals that will aid in weight loss. In reality you would be better off by eating more calories but from different sources (like real nutrient dense and healthy food). Weight loss (in fat and centimetres) can happen just from switching to healthy and wholesome foods, no matter whether you are consuming more calories or not. For more info on this, check out our recent blog post where we compare the healthiness of different ready-made meals.

A great real life example that highlights just how different calories can be is a study done by Damon Gameau. He embarked on a two month experiment where he was to consume 40 tsp of sugar a day (the average for an Australian adult). His results were outstanding. He went from eating 2300 calories/day from vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy to eating still 2300 calories a day but sourced from vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and 40 tsp of sugar that will hidden in apparently healthy foods (like yoghurt, breakfast cereal, fruit juices, muesli bars etc.) These were his results:

1.     His liver health decreased dramatically

2.     His liver and blood were laden with fat

3.     He gained nearly 10kg

4.     He put on 10cm of fat around his waist (the dangerous visceral fat)

5.     His moods were greatly affected and he would often crash mid-afternoon with no energy2

To put it in short terms, he was on his way to developing fatty liver, type II diabetes and heart disease.   It only took a month to dramatically change his health for the worse… and all it took was hidden sugar in processed food.

This all happened to him just by eating so called ‘healthy foods’. Foods that we wouldn’t even imagine to be high in sugar. It’s scary how much more so people who eat a diet of predominately junk food items and sweets are at risk of these diseases and side affects are.

Now we start to see why our population has a 2 in 3 adult obesity rate.

What can you do about it? Start paying attention to the foods you are eating and where they come from. As much as you can shop for whole food and cook at home.  If you’re stuck for time and you live in Queensland, and you are looking for healthy convenient solutions, you could give “Healthy Meals to Your Door” a go.  Meals are prepared fresh for delivery to you, without adding harmful “badditives” to your food.

References:

[1] Lustig, R. (2012). Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar. Fourth Estate.

[2] Gameau, D. (2015). That Sugar Book. Pan Macmillan Australia.