Blog Post
Weight Maintenance Tips Part 1 - Buying Food
11/6/2012
al Covo offer Nutritional Therapy and also Weight Loss Programmes
Here are is my first set of tips when you have lost your weight and looking to maintain it without yo-yoing back.
1. Buying food
Here are some top tips!!- Low GI foods, such as bananas, apples and baked beans should help keep you fuller for longer. Buy some of my recommended books on GI diets and Healthy Eating from my Amazon webshop
- Look at MY Cambridge online on calorific values of foods. E.g 1x Clementine/satsuma = 22 Cals, 1x Apple = 47 Cals, 1x plain wholegrain toast = 58 Cals, 1x small banana = 76 Cals, 1x300ml lager = 87 Cals, 1x chocolate digestive biscuit = 89 Cals, 25g packet of crisps = 132 Cals, 440ml bitter = 141 Cals, 25g salted roasted peanuts = 150 Cals, 1x 250ml glass white or red wine = 170 Cals. A large glass of wine is more calorific than a Cambridge soup or shake (approx 145 Cals)!
- Buy food online to avoid temptations in store.
- Write a shopping list and stick to it e.g. from the Cambridge Meals in Minutes recipe book. don’t buy things you saw on the TV or magazine advertising.
- Avoid aisles where you know you will be tempted, or have high salt, sugar, and saturated foods.
- Remember to use the Cambridge Eat Easy range of low calorie ready meals, or have a Cambridge bar, shake, soup, or porridge once a day – all available from me.
- Go for colour – this usually means you get a great range of nutrients (serve yourself a rainbow, it doesn’t just look good, it’s full of goodness)
- Try and go somewhere that has plenty of fresh food and a high turnover.
- Buy fresh, organic, local, raw produce instead of unprepared or processed food – you’ll get more nutritional value.
- Chopped fruit and veg such as carrots, leafs, broccoli spears etc often have poorer nutritional value than the whole veg or fruit.
- Eat more fish, less meat (aim for 2-4 portions of lean, white meat a week).
- Don’t buy what’s on offer in supermarkets – they are often high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, highly refined products, and therefore poor nutritionally.
- Look at labelling for salt, sugar and saturated fat content and check the portion size to which it refers (eg does a quarter or a whole pizza contain 25% of your RDA!). The traffic light schemes focus on the key nutrients that we should be cutting down on (salt, saturated fat, sugar, calories), so choose much more greens, then amber and avoid reds. Try to avoid foods containing over 5% fat.
- Don’t buy green packaged foods thinking they’ll be better, and anything ‘giving you energy’ is probably loaded with sugar.
- Look at best before dates and buy those that are furthest away.
- Don’t go shopping when hungry or when distracted by children or other thoughts – you won’t buy as much or will make bad decisions!
- Buy a little a bit more often - instead of one big shop – your food will be fresher so higher nutritionally.
- Buy portion ratios to match the Eatwell Plate – eg 2x200g pork steaks, 2 medium potatoes and 2 tomatoes does not match the Eatwell ratio!
- Keep portion sizes real – what does an average 80g portion of fruit or veg correspond to? (3 heaped tablespoons of veg or a bowl of salad)
- Store them as guided on the label eg in the fridge – to extend nutritional value.
- Cook more often than you buy ready made things eg chips, icecream, soup, meals –spending time in your kitchen can relax you as you get used to appreciating and cooking ingredients, rather than just eating food.