The ‘no diet’ diet

Your nutritional guide to a healthier body

Fit Mums Ltd www.fitforlifemums.co.uk

Tel: 07867 301108 [email protected]

Registered Office: 16 Ellingham Way, Northwich, Cheshire. CW9 8UF

1

About this guide

Nutrition (specifically human nutrition) is one of the most complex subjects known to man. Understanding everything about the food we eat and how it drives countless molecular- level processes within our bodies will probably never be fully understood. The complexity of the subject is perfectly highlighted by the vast array of contradictory information available, particularly in the media. The advent of the internet and the huge marketing budgets available to food manufacturing giants only further fuel the fire: it’s no wonder that we struggle to know what to believe and what constitutes a healthy diet.

The aim of this guide is to summarise nutrition in an easily digestible (no pun intended) format. I have attempted to summarise many aspects I have learned through my studies & extensive research so that you will feel better-educated to make wiser food choices.

Having a basic knowledge of nutrition can empower you for life to be healthier, more energetic, and experience a greater sense of wellbeing & vitality.

Taking steps to use this knowledge in your daily diet will dramatically reduce your risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and many forms of cancer.

It should be noted that this guide is purely for reference; you should always seek advice from a medical professional if you are unsure or worried about your diet in relation to your health.

I have divided the guide into 2 sections – the first section overviews the basics of nutrition. It’s written to enable you to have a clearer understanding of what makes up the food we eat and how it is used by our bodies. My intention is for it to serve as a useful resource to refer to and support your longer-term diet choices. The second section is about nutrition in relation to a healthy lifestyle. It goes into a little more detail about some of the processes in our bodies and how eating the right things, coupled with regular exercise and sound sleep, can make dramatic changes to your body both internally and externally. This section also details what’s included and what’s not included in the recommended nutrition plan.

2

Contents

Part 1: Understanding nutrition Page

1) What is nutrition?...... 4 2) Protein……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 3) Fat………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6 4) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8 5) Vitamins & Minerals…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9 6) Water…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11 7) Alcohol………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 8) The 8-week transformation programme..…………………………………………………………………………………… 13 9) The Foods…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15 10) Your ideal plate………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 17

Part 2: The non-nutritive aspects of a healthy body and weight management

An introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 19 11) Sleep and Stress……..……………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………… 20 12) Hormones cont’d..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21 13) Detoxification…………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………... 22 14) Supplementation……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 23 15) Mind-set…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24 16) Embedding new habits……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25 17) A note on exercise and a final word………………………………………………………………………………………….… 25

3 Part I: Understanding Nutrition

1. What is nutrition?

Nutrition - noun 1. The act or process of nourishing or of being nourished 2. The science or study of, or a course of study in, nutrition, especially of humans 3. The process by which organisms take in, and utilise food materials

As the dictionary’s definition suggests, nutrition is the science of how the body takes in and uses food. It’s about why you eat what you eat, and how it affects your health. There is a saying that “you are what you eat” – your body is built from the very things that you eat: water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. In fact, a more accurate saying would be “you are what you absorb”. Years of eating foods that don’t serve us can lead to reduced digestive function, so we absorb less of the nutrients we eat, but more on that later.

The food you eat provides 2 main functions; 1) Energy 2) Construction and maintenance of every cell and organ in your body

Nutrients (all the useful bits in food) are divided into 3 categories: Macronutrients (Macro = big): Protein, fat, carbohydrates (and alcohol) Micronutrients (Micro = small): Vitamins and minerals. Macronutrient intake is measured in grammes whereas micronutrient intake is measured in milligrammes or microgrammes (one millionth of a gramme). Water: So important that it gets its own section in this guide.

Energy and calories We get all of our energy from food. Food is our power supply; without it we would die. All energy comes from the sun. Plants take energy from the sun and energy can never be lost; only passed from one thing to another. For example, plants get their energy from the sun – a cow then eats that (eg grass) and consumes that energy. We then eat that cow (fillet steak) and we in turn consume that energy. That energy is in turn used by us for all sorts of bodily processes and we release the energy back into the cycle via mediums such as sweating or urinating. This is of course, a very simplistic way of looking at it but serves the purpose here.

Energy in food is measured in calories. So when you hear people talking about how many calories a certain food item has in it, they’re really just talking about how much energy it provides. Calories were named by Wilbur Olin Atwater around 150 years ago by incinerating foods and measuring the heat produced.

4 Technically speaking a kilocalorie (to give it its proper name) is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1kg of water by 1⁰C at sea level. Since then there haven’t been any real advancements in measuring energy in food and therefore, the findings are used throughout the world as a way of printing food labels and listing nutritional values of food by manufacturers.

It is widely accepted that one gramme of the following macronutrients contain the following calories:

Protein 4 4 Fat 9 Alcohol 7

However, burning food is very different to digesting food and there are dozens of other factors that can affect the absorption of energy from them. It is for this reason that many of us, including myself, pay little attention to the calorific value of foods and instead focus on the quality and value it can add to the human body. For the purposes of this programme however, you will need to create a calorie deficit, that is, you will need to USE more than you EAT/DRINK. If you need specific guidance on this, please just speak with your coach.

2. Protein

Protein is an essential nutrient (an essential nutrient being something that you must take in, as your body can’t make it itself). Protein is vital for growth and repair – it repairs and strengthens muscles (after exercise), allows hair and nails to grow and skin to replenish. It is also involved in the production of enzymes, antibodies, neurotransmitters and hormones. It is required by EVERY single cell in the body. It also supports metabolic rate so a diet low in protein will lead to a lower metabolic rate, meaning weight-loss will be harder to achieve. As mentioned earlier, 1g of protein generally provides 4 calories of energy. However, protein is the body’s least preferred source of energy and it tends to use it as a last resource for this purpose. It is also the hardest of the macronutrients for our body to digest (that is, it requires more energy to digest it than any other macronutrient). Once again, this makes protein a friend when it comes to weight-loss.

Your body can break proteins down into smaller pieces known as amino acids and then rearrange them to make different proteins depending on which functions are required by the body.

5 Generally speaking, protein from animals is more useful to us than protein from plants for the simple reason that animal-based proteins are, of course, much more similar to our own proteins and are therefore used more readily and rapidly. Importantly for weight-control and hunger management, protein has a big effect on satiety – ie how full we feel. It is very difficult to over-eat protein on the basis that we feel too full before we get anywhere near dangerous levels. This is one of the reasons why high-protein diets have become more popular, especially when trying to manage or reduce weight.

Below is a list of common food types that contain protein. Obviously these foods contain other nutrients too and it should be noted that some are more desirable sources of protein than others (the top 5 contain a higher % of protein than the latter sources). During this programme, you will need to be consuming a good chunk of protein at EVERY meal, or most at the very least. Use the palm of your hand as a guide for the protein portion size of your meals:

Meat (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, venison, game, etc) Fish Eggs Soya Dairy (milk, cheese, yoghurt) (eg beans) Pulses (eg lentils) Nuts Rice (relatively low protein content) (relatively low protein content)

3. Fat

For decades fat has had a bad name and my aim here is to show you how unjust this is.

Fat is a valuable source of energy (remember, 9 calories per gramme) and is the body’s most concentrated source of energy.

Fat provides us with more than just an energy source; it provides cushioning and insulation; it’s the base for all hormones; 60% of the dry weight of the brain is fat; it creates the structure for our cells; if forms the base of the synapses between our nerve cells and it helps combat inflammatory conditions such as swollen joints.

Cells require fat in order to function and certain vitamins such as A, D, E and K can be stored in fat in the body (other vitamins can’t be stored and are excreted). Fat also slows down the release of nutrients into the bloodstream, keeping our energy levels consistent and helping to regulate our appetite.

The vast majority of dietary fat is made up of fatty acids – these fatty acids are either:

6

Saturated – eg , coconut oil, ghee, animal fat. These are fine in moderation and the best form to cook with. Monounsaturated – eg olive oil, avocado and macadamia oil. These are great for dressing salads and . Polyunsaturated – eg corn, sunflower oil, low-fat spreads. These should be limited to address our Omega 3:6 ratio (see below)

EFAs Some unsaturated fats are called essential fatty acids (EFAs) because the body cannot synthesise them itself. These include Omega-3 and 6. In our modern western society, most people’s diet is too high in Omega-6 and deficient in Omega-3 (found in flaxseed oil and oily fish) which has recently been show to provide a whole host of health benefits, and it is therefore well worthwhile considering as a daily supplement (more on supplementation later). In a nutshell, we need to keep our Omega 3 intake higher than our 6 if possible.

Hydrogenated / partially-hydrogenated trans-fats & oils These are fats that have been modified or processed to make them more stable – to give foods a longer shelf-life. The best way to spot these is to look for anything in the ingredients that says ‘hydrogenated’. They are found in baked products such as biscuits, cakes, pastries and savoury snacks; processed foods such as breakfast , chips and other potato products; takeaway foods and fast-food outlets. These are by far the worst type of fats and should be avoided wherever possible. They are chemically processed fats that damage the cells in our body. Long-term exposure contributes to weight gain, chronic diseases and accelerates ageing.

Portion-wise, you should look to consume some fat with all or most meals and generally your thumb-size is a good guide for the amount. Below are some common sources of fat:

Olive oil and extra-virgin olive oil (never cook at high temperatures with extra-virgin olive oil) Butter Ghee Avocados and their oil Nuts Coconut oil Full-fat dairy (milk, cheese, yoghurt) Fat on meat eg lamb / pork / beef

7 4. Carbohydrates

The simplest way to think of carbohydrates is to think of them as sugar – some are ‘simple’ sugars such as table sugar, and some are ‘complex’ sugars, lots of sugars ‘stitched’ together, such as potatoes. All carbohydrates are eventually broken down in the body into the simplest form of sugar – glucose (the only exception to this is the sugar in , fructose, which can’t be converted to glucose but more on that later). Glucose is the sugar in our bloodstream - a lack of it can make us feel weak whilst an excess can make us feel hyperactive.

There are 4 types of carbohydrate:

Monosaccharides – one unit of sugar such as glucose or fructose (found in fruit) Disaccharides – two units of sugar ‘stitched’ together (eg sucrose is made of one unit of glucose and one unit of fructose) Polysaccharides – more than two sugar units ‘stitched’ together. These are what are sometimes referred to as ‘complex carbohydrates’ (think pasta or rice) or ‘starchy carbs’, as the number of sugar molecules in them means it takes longer for the body to break them down into glucose. Fibre – is a type of polysaccharide but isn’t a source of energy. It is the indigestible part of plants and either passes through us unchanged, absorbing water and helping bowel movement, or ferments in the colon into gases and other by-products.

Carbohydrates generally contain 4 calories per gram, but it’s not that straightforward in terms of how the body digests and uses that energy. The body uses glucose as an energy source – it’s the most easily accessible stored energy source in the body but, as we can’t store much of it, it shouldn’t be our preferred source (remember we want fat burning to be our primary source of energy if our goal is weight- loss). Glucose is stored in the liver and muscles in a form known as glycogen. The body can only store around 500grams of glycogen before it gets full. Carbohydrates are just as essential for the body as any other macronutrient. They are needed to support thyroid function, they provide an energy store for our muscles and they can be extremely nutrient-dense (ie contain lots of micronutrients). Unfortunately, we often consume far more carbohydrates than our sedentary lives lead us to need and we consume many of the wrong sources too. When we take in too many carbohydrates and our glycogen levels are full, there is only one outcome for them; we either burn them quickly (through exercise) or the liver repackages them and sends them off to be stored in fat cells. We will look at this in more detail later but this should give you an indication already of why too many carbohydrates can drive weight gain. As a rule, most of us need to reduce our carbohydrate intake by swapping our conventional sources such as bread, pasta, rice etc for low-starch veggies such as cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, salads, spinach, aubergine, courgettes. A good portion (one or two fists) of these wonderful veggies should become the norm at any meal.

8 Below is a list of some of the main sources of carbohydrates (we will discuss the quality of these in more depth later as some are much better sources for weight-loss than others):

Vegetables Fruit Bread Pasta Rice Grains (, cous cous, buckwheat, bulgar wheat,) Lentils Legumes (eg beans) Sweets and biscuits Chocolate Cake Honey, Jam

5. Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins and minerals are the micronutrients that our bodies use in much smaller quantities than protein, fat and carbs, but are vital to many processes such as fighting disease and helping to release energy that the body has obtained from the macronutrients. Major deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals can result in illness and poor health. Do always bear in mind that the RDAs (Recommended Daily Allowances) often quoted for micronutrients are only the levels needed to avoid disease; not necessarily the levels needed for optimal health, which are often considerably higher. Because of the poor quality of the soil that modern foods are farmed in, and the fact that they are sprayed with pesticides and toxins, it can be difficult to obtain everything we need from our food today. This is where supplementation can come in handy.

Below are 2 tables showing the main minerals and vitamins, and some of their sources along with a few of their functions.

Vitamin Found in Needed for Fish, liver, meat, green leafy veg, and A dairy Eyesight, growth, appetite and taste. D Fish, liver, eggs, milk, and the sun! Strong bones and teeth oils, wholegrains and some Fighting toxins – vitamin E is a powerful E veg antioxidant Liver, eggs, wholegrains and green leafy K veg Blood clotting after injury Nervous system, digestion, muscles, heart, B1 Lean meats, wholegrains and dairy alcohol-damaged nerve tissues. Growth, skin, nails, hair, eyesight, B2 Some meats, fish and some veg breakdown of carbs Meat, fish, grains, legumes and some B3 veg Metabolism and resisting some diseases

9 Preventing skin conditions, nerve Liver, fish, wholegrains, banana and problems, helps the body absorb protein B6 avocado and carbohydrate Foliage vegetables, wholegrains, Formation of DNA, nervous system and B9 legumes, mushrooms and some brain function Making red blood and the formation of the B12 Meat, liver, eggs, milk and yeast nerves Immune defence system, protection from viruses and bacteria, healing wounds, Citrus fruits, berries, cabbage, broccoli reducing cholesterol, cell lifespan and C and spinach preventing scurvy

Mineral Found in Needed for Milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt and green Strong bones and teeth, nerve function, Calcium leafy vegetables muscle contraction, blood clotting Lean red meat, oily fish, egg yolks, green leafy vegetables, nuts, Red blood cells and muscle function, Iron wholegrains white blood cells and the immune system Converting energy from food, cell repair, Green leafy vegetables, wholegrains building strong bones, teeth and muscles Magnesium and nuts and regulating body temperature Meat, shellfish, milk brown rice and Immune system, the breakdown of Zinc wholegrains protein, fat and carbohydrate Sodium Table salt and processed foods Maintaining concentration of body fluids Fish, leafy greens, citrus fruits and Potassium bananas Acid-base balance and protein synthesis Some meats, sardines, green olives and Chloride potato Electrolyte balance Phospate Some meat and dairy Formation of bones and teeth

10 6. Water

Water is the last of the 6 main nutrients (the others being the pre-mentioned protein, fat, carbs, vitamins and minerals). Given that our bodies are 60% water and that we’d die without it long before we’d die from a lack of food, you could argue that it’s the most important nutrient.

Entire books have been written about the benefits of drinking plenty of water but here are a few at a glance. It:

- supports a weight loss programme by flushing out by-products of fat-breakdown and suppressing appetite - is a natural remedy to most headaches - supports better focus at work – the brain can struggle by a significant amount with just a tiny drop in hydration - improves energy levels - supports the digestion of food by dissolving nutrients, allowing them to enter your bloodstream - carries toxins and waste products out of your body via urine - provides a medium for certain chemical reactions to take place - sends electrical messages between cells so that your muscles can move, your eyes can see and your brain can think etc - prevents overheating, for example through sweating

Always drink a large glass of water in the morning as you’ll be dehydrated from your night’s sleep and aim to consume a minimum of 2 litres of water a day (more if you’re exercising and/or the weather is warm).

The bigger you are, the more water you need to drink. As a guide, you want to take 2/3 of your weight in pounds, multiply it by 0.028 and that is your daily water intake requirement.

For example, if you weigh 12 stone:

12 stone = 168lbs

2/3 of 168lbs = 112lbs

112 x 0.028 = 3.136 litres

If you are exercising a lot or the weather is very warm, this requirement will be higher still.

11 7. Alcohol

“Alcohol: The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems!” Homer Simpson

Alcohol (or to use its correct name ‘ethanol’) is essentially fermented sugar. Depending on the type of alcoholic beverage being made, a further distilling process is sometimes necessary. Cider is made from apples, wine is made from grapes, vodka is made from potato – all those foods are types of carbs, and carbs are all essentially types of sugar.

In the first section about calories, you may remember that 1 gramme of alcohol contributes approximately 7 calories of energy. Alcohol is different to other types of food in that it contains no other nutritional value to the body other than energy (it’s worth bearing in mind that some drinks do contain tiny amounts of vitamins or minerals etc but alcohol as a neat substance doesn’t contain anything else). Because of this, it doesn’t need to be digested. It can move straight into the bloodstream and it’s estimated that 20% of the alcohol in your drink reaches your brain within 1 minute of drinking it.

Take home message The primary aim of this guide is to educate in relation to fat loss, weight management and eating to benefit from an active lifestyle, and therefore an extensive explanation about what alcohol does to the body (or mind) is inappropriate. The most important fact to consider is this: A small amount of the alcohol is stored in fat cells but that isn’t the main issue. When you have alcohol in your body, you burn it as fuel. When you’re burning alcohol as fuel, you’re not burning fat, carbs or protein. Given that alcohol stays in the body for quite some time (even if you feel sober) you should be able to easily see that a significant amount of time is spent burning alcohol – or more importantly, not burning fat.

I never have and will never say that you can’t drink alcohol if you want to lose weight. It simply isn’t the case and I’m a keen advocate of ‘everything in moderation’. I have, however, met many women whose weight loss attempts are seriously thwarted by excessive alcohol consumption. Whether you choose to drink it or not and to what extent is totally your choice but please do understand its effect on the body once consumed.

If you want the best results during your 8-week programme, alcohol should be avoided fully.

12 8. The 8-week transformation programme

Now that we’ve covered the nutrition basics, what are you going to do during your 8-week programme? And most importantly, WHY?

A. Support your liver - You are going to support your liver by removing all toxic and processed foods/drinks and replace them with clean, natural and wholesome nutrition that is going to support your body to do what you want it do, no longer working against it. Drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated. Upping your greens can also be a huge support to your liver, aiding and speeding up your detoxification process.

Why? - The less toxic your liver is, the better it can play its role in supporting your body to burn body fat (amongst MANY other health-related functions).

B. Balance your hormones - You are going to balance your hormones by eating the right foods, eating regularly and at the correct times to balance blood sugar levels. Avoiding skipping meals or drastically under eating is key to supporting this. Eating to balance hormones can play a huge part in reducing cravings and helping eliminate excess oestrogen more efficiently via improved digestive health. Staying hydrated and regular/healthy sleep patterns are going to massively aid your body’s hormonal balance and recovery too.

Why? - The more stable your hormones are, the easier it is for your body to let go of body fat, especially around your middle. The higher the excess oestrogen and the lower the testosterone, the more fat you will hold onto. The higher insulin and cortisol, the higher the percentage of body fat around tummy and love handles and importantly, around your internal organs. Balancing and controlling these helps hugely in lowering body fat in area’s such as your waist, tum, hips, thighs, bum and upper arms. Cravings and hunger will also be reduced and you will feel increased energy. All of this will help you avoid “falling off the wagon” and leave you feeling more in control of your appetite and body. Essentially, taking control of your hormones, allows you to take control of your body and get it to do exactly what you want it to do – let go of that excess body fat!

C. Improve your digestive health - You are going to increase your digestive health by eliminating processed foods while upping your fibre via excellent nutrition and essential amino acids. LOTS of green vegetables from your foods will up fibre and eliminate toxins/ excess oestrogen. You’ll select foods to aid, support and nourish your digestive

13 health rather than slow it down, make it work harder and feel more sluggish. A healthy gut increases your liver’s health and hormonal health. For you this means a healthier body and even better results. Never forget that digestion starts in the mouth. Chewing our food properly is something many of us simply don’t do these days. So give your poor digestive system a break: slow down your eating and chew your food properly before you swallow it.

Why? - The less toxic, less sluggish and more efficient your digestive system is at ridding itself of toxins, waste and excess oestrogen, the better your energy and results. This plays a huge role in also balancing hormones and cleansing liver. They are all inter connected. The healthier your gut and toilet schedule, the better your results, health, energy and the lower your body fat. Your gut is home to >80% of your immune system so for general wellbeing, it’s essential that we look after this truly remarkable internal system. Remember, you are what you ABSORB, not what you eat. The more you can improve your digestion, the more of those valuable vitamins and minerals will actually make their way into your body.

D. Increase your metabolic rate - You will increase your metabolic rate by increasing your lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle tissue your body has, the higher your body’s basal metabolic rate will be i.e. the faster your rate at burning calories/body fat. So how will we increase your lean muscle tissue? With resistance/strength and HIIT (high- intensity-interval training) 3-5 times per week. This type of training has a higher recruit of muscle tissue and has your body burning cals/fat for up to 48 hours after a workout. We will also increase and maintain a high lean muscle mass by eating more protein, eating regularly and aiding recovery generally through smart nutrition.

Why? - By increasing your metabolic rate we are accelerating your results, calorie burn and minimising efforts. We are focussing here on your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which makes up the majority of your life – awake and asleep. Just by increasing your BMR you are not only burning calories during workouts but most importantly you’re increasing the number you burn when you’re not working out and even at rest (including in your sleep). Even at rest, day and night, your body is more efficient at burning fat.

14 9. The Foods

“So what am I going to eat?” I hear you ask. In a nutshell, you are going to eat whole, unprocessed, natural, nutritious, tasty food. If it swam, ran, grew or flew, it wants to be on your plate.

To help provide more colour, here are 3 lists to guide you: an ‘eat freely’ list, an ‘eat in moderation’ list and an ‘avoid’ list:

Eat/drink freely:

• Meat – good quality (go easy on the processed varieties eg bacon, ) • Poultry • Fish & seafood • Eggs • Tofu & • Low-starch vegetables & salad (as a rule, veggies grown above ground are lower in starch than those grown underground). Low-starch include: spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, cabbage, greens, kale, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc. • Lower-sugar fruits; stick largely to berries (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries) lemons, limes, avocado and tomato, melon, apples, citrus etc • Herbs & Spices • Water and herbal teas

Eat in moderation:

• Higher-starch veg include: potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, etc. Peas and beans are quite starchy too; peas, beans, sweetcorn, etc • Rice and other grains (if tolerated – see note below) • Higher-sugar fruits including: banana, pineapple, • Nuts (nuts are super-nutritious but very calorific so just don’t go mad – brazil, chestnuts and macadamia are the best) • Seeds (as above – super nutritious but don’t go mad). • Oils and fats (dairy (cheese, yoghurt, milk); coconut, olive, macadamia, avocado oils & grass-fed butter). As discussed, our bodies NEED fat but it’s the highest concentration of energy so don’t overdo it. About a thumb-size per meal will see a good dose throughout the day.

15 Avoid:

• Caffeine (specifically past lunch time but totally if you can) – caffeine in the pm can play havoc with your sleep patterns and quality and sound sleep is a crucial component of weight management and good health. The only exception here is green tea that can be consumed in the morning if you enjoy it. It can serve as a great weight-loss aid, provided you enjoy it and your body does too. • Refined sugar and sugary drinks: cakes, pastries, biscuits, chocolate – these will send your insulin levels through the roof and remember what we said earlier about stabilising your hormones? • Alcohol – never a feature in any health-improvement programme…remoce for the best results. • Processed foods – anything made in a factory. Remember, we are wanting to support our liver, not hinder it.

***A note on grains***

This is a contentious issue and the topic of much current debate in the world of nutrition. Grains provide a cornerstone of the diet of many nations in the world today, but whilst they may keep you alive, they won’t necessarily allow you to thrive.

The most common grains are: wheat, rice, oats, millet, maize, barley, buckwheat, rye, quinoa and barley. These are used to make foods such as bread, breakfast , cakes and pasta. To take a to an end product, a certain amount of processing is involved from the milling & grinding to the mixing and baking. By the time it ends up in our mouths, the ‘innocent’ grain has generally undergone a great deal of processing. Remembering that these types of carbohydrates have a similar effect on our bodies and insulin as straightforward sugar you can apply the effects (albeit muted) in the above sugary drinks section to this grain section also.

Some grains such as wheat, rye and barley also contain gluten. You may have heard of coeliac disease where the sufferer is gluten-intolerant. Even as non-coeliacs, gluten (along with some of the other components of grains such as lectins and phytates) can play havoc with our insides. It’s always worth trying a week or two with no gluten consumption to see if gluten has an effect on you or not. This is a very personal thing and the only real way to see if gluten adversely affects you is to remove it from your diet and assess any health changes.

White rice is generally not considered as ‘bad’ as other types of grain simply because it is often more easily tolerated by our digestive systems. So if it’s something you enjoy, then include it in your diet (as a starchy carbohydrate), especially if you are doing lots of exercise and tolerate carbohydrates well. If you would benefit from decreasing your carbohydrate intake, then try cauliflower rice as a great substitute (back to your low-starch veggies again.

16 Cutting back on grains can be tricky; most of us have spent a lifetime eating sandwiches and breakfast cereals, relying on rice & pasta to make up half a meal, or simply enjoying the dough of a pizza. However, we certainly don’t need them in our diet and don’t even need to replace all of the carbohydrate content they provide. Some of us would undoubtedly benefit from removing them altogether. If you do wish to do this, the simplest way to look at it is to swap whatever you were going to have from a grain source, to a vegetable(s).

*A note on fibre Fibre is an essential part of the diet although not in the kind of quantities we’d be made to believe. Media advertising (especially those breakfast cereal and bread companies) tell us we need ‘wholegrains’ in our diets to ensure we get enough fibre but this is simply not the case. The skin of some fruits as well as lots of vegetables can easily meet our needs.

10. Your ideal plate

So what should your plate look like?

Your plate, and by this I refer to your meal, should be predominantly plant-based. 50% of it should be made up of low-starch veggies/salad. The more colour you can get into this part, the more micronutrients you are consuming – the more ‘health’ you are absorbing. You can look at this as two big fistfuls, if that’s easier to visualise.

The next important component that should be at every meal and in every snack if possible is protein. This should make up 25-30% of your plate or think of it as a palm-sized portion if that helps.

The remaining 20-25% is for your fats and this is achieved in just a thumb-size portion. So a knob of butter or a small handful of nuts, a ¼ of an avocado or a drizzle of olive oil over a salad.

On the days you are training you can be more liberal with your carbohydrates, so take the opportunity to swap some of your low-starch veg for some higher-starch veg on those days. This adds to variety whilst still keeping those carbs in moderation.

If you are at all unsure about portion sizes and quantities, feel free to photograph your meals and ping them over to your coach to check – we will happily provide feedback to ensure you are on track.

Once again, in a nutshell, enjoy a decent amount of protein with every meal (the palm of your hand is a good guide if you need one). Include some healthy fats with every meal (thumb-size portion) and make up the bulk of your plate with veggies/salad. It really is THAT simple.

17

As part of the 8-week programme, you will be given a ‘Paleo Primer’ recipe book. You will find that the recipes contained within this largely the types of foods we are referring to here. Sometimes, you will need to add extra veg or sometimes swap a high-starch option for a low-starch one to get your 50% on a plate, but the recipes should provide you with a great foundation from which to build and tweak.

Again, if you’re unsure, just ask - that’s what we’re here for J

How does the 8-week programme progress?

For the best results, you want to adhere to the above guidelines as closely as you can during the 8 weeks. This is important to give your liver a helping hand as well as to kick some old habits into touch and seriously boost your overall health.

After 8 weeks, you can then start to adjust the balance to 80:20 and this is what you are looking to achieve beyond the programme. You can start to plan your 20% around social engagements, weekends maybe. Failing to do this will mean that you start to crave certain foods and this will more than likely lead you to ditching your new eating habits so please do have a little of what you fancy 20% of the time. Where this can go wrong is when the 20% becomes, 30%, then 40% and so on. The key to a long-term healthy eating regime is moderation. Make sure your moderation doesn’t need moderating ;-)

18 Part 2: The non-nutritive aspects of a healthy body

There is no single, perfect diet that guarantees that we’ll always be free from disease and live to well over 120 years old in good health. People from different parts of the world have to eat differently purely because of what’s available to them. Eskimos for example don’t exactly have access to fresh fruit in freezing cold Siberia and instead have to rely almost entirely on food they hunt (animal protein and animal fat). Because of their remote location, their diet has changed very little from what it would have been 50,000 years ago. It is also worth noting that Eskimos, along with other remote (primitive) groups, have virtually no evidence of many of the degenerative diseases that plague modern society in the rest of the world.

Before the agricultural revolution, human beings (and versions of) were hunter-gatherers. We as a species have spent 98% of our existence eating pretty much the same things and having to work physically hard (think exercise) to obtain said food. As a species we’re designed to be active and to eat the things that we’re genetically programmed for; the same types of food that were readily available to us long before Tesco and Coca Cola reared their heads! I don’t suggest for one minute that we should all run out to fashion a homemade spear and kill the next living animal we come across; but we can learn a lot about healthy nutrition when we consider our evolutionary past. Yes, Mr. Caveman had a shorter lifespan than modern man, but there are many reasons for this outside of diet such as: starvation through lack of food, exposure to the cold through insufficient shelter, a lack of medical treatment, not to mention being killed by a predator or even each other. Scientific research can prove that the fossilised remains of our ancestors show no tooth decay, no evidence of modern diseases, and skeletal structures similar to modern day elite athletes. All this indicates that those who survived Mother Nature, were strong, fit and extremely healthy individuals.

More and more books and papers are being written about this approach and it’s a fascinating debate although one that isn’t going to take place in this guide. The brief outline above is there to give you a short overview of my philosophy and approach to healthy eating and living. Eating like a hunter-gatherer basically means eating meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. That list basically reads like the contents of the fresh-food section of any supermarket so not exactly rocket science. There are a few foods that are prevalent in the modern diet that we take for granted but are effectively processed foods and should in my opinion, be limited if we want to give ourselves the best possible chance of losing/managing weight, and most importantly feeling healthy for the rest of our lives.

But our health is not purely determined by what we out in our mouths.

While our inherited genetics play a huge role, there are also several significant lifestyle factors away from diet and exercise that impact on our weight management and our health in general.

We will cover these in the section.

19 11. Sleep and stress

When stressed and/or sleep deprived the body produces large amounts of the stress hormone cortisol. Increased and chronic levels of cortisol can lead to increased abdominal fat storage. This directly results in unbalanced hormone levels, further stress responses, inhibited digestion, increased fat storage, down-regulated metabolism and increased inflammation. None of these are good for managing our weight and none are good for our health in general. Indirectly, too little sleep and too much stress also contribute to increased boredom, irritability, susceptibility to stressful situations, poor decision making, increased appetite, binging and comfort eating, cravings and feeling of low blood glucose.

But where does our stress come from? Physical

Toxic Emotional

Relationship Financial

Nutritional

Everyday stresses come from many different sources and one of the first steps in managing our stress is to identify these for ourselves. Our stress buckets often get full to the point of overflowing. We need to tip our stress bucket regularly to keep levels low and our bodies and minds happy.

There are many different ways that stress can be managed: breathing techniques, regular meditation, regular exercise and getting out into the fresh air being a few common ones. It’s important to figure out what works for YOU and most importantly, to make the decision to partake in it REGULARLY.

20

The importance of sleep

Sleep – both the quantity and quality is so crucial to good health that it mustn’t be overlooked – especially when we’re talking about weight management. As a rule of them, the optimal hours for us to sleep are between 10pm and 6am. Between 10pm and 2am much of the physical repair within our bodies takes place. Between 2am and 6am much of the psychological repair takes place. Both are important. These obviously vary between individuals but on the whole are good guidelines.

When you achieve good sleep, you should drop off easily, your sleep should be uninterrupted and restful and you should wake feeling refreshed.

Some points to consider when trying to achieve this are: ensuring the room you sleep in is dark; removing electronic devices from the room, or at least the immediate sleep area; avoiding stimulants such as caffeine after lunch time; stimulating serotonin/melatonin through good nutrition and engaging in activities that promote relaxation in the hours or two prior to retiring.

We will discuss these in more detail as we progress through the 8-weeks but for now this should provide some food for thought and at the very least, highlight to you the importance of sleep and stress management in your quest for a healthy body.

12. Hormones cont’d

What have hormones got to do with weight management and staying healthy? A hell of a lot actually. They play a vital part and it’s important to understand the role a few of them have within our bodies. We’ve mentioned some of them earlier in relation to the importance of managing the likes of insulin through our dietary habits. Let’s have a look at a few more facts below.

Insulin & Glucagon

When too much sugar enters your bloodstream, your pancreas releases insulin. The job of insulin is to bring blood sugar down to an acceptable level and it does this by sending the excess to be stored as fat (via a trip to the liver to be converted into a format that can be stored in fat cells). This should immediately set alarm bells ringing that too much sugar is not good. Slowly- digested carbohydrates such as vegetables take longer to breakdown into glucose (blood sugar) and so the effect is greatly reduced. Other than the issue with fat storage, maintaining steady blood sugar level is also conducive to stable energy levels. If you repeatedly eat sugar and/or too many carbs, your insulin is constantly working overtime to keep up. Eventually, the effectiveness of your insulin to lower blood sugar will

21 be reduced and even stop; welcome to Diabetes Type II. Formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, this name has now been dropped as children as young as 4 these days have been known to suffer from it.

Glucagon has the opposite effect to insulin in that it increases blood sugar levels. We need a certain level of glucose (blood sugar) in our body; if you’ve ever felt weak and tired from not eating enough, you’ll have experienced low blood sugar levels. We need glucose as energy, just not in large amounts. When our blood sugar gets too low, glucagon is secreted by the pancreas to signal the liver to release its stores of glucose (stored in an alternative form, glycogen). Glucagon is also key in the process of burning fat for energy. How fat is broken down and turned into energy is quite a complex process but the message to take home from this is that the pancreas cannot do 2 things at once. It can’t release glucagon whilst it’s releasing insulin. So raising your blood sugar too quickly not only contributes to fat storage, it also prevents fat burning.

Cortisol

Cortisol is known as the stress hormone. When we’re stressed, our cortisol levels rise; which basically means it can increase our blood sugar levels, increase blood pressure, and suppress our immune system. Prolonged raised levels of cortisol in the body (coupled with high insulin levels) have a big impact on fat gain around the mid-section and trigger the breakdown of muscle mass. Broken sleep can release cortisol and as sleeping is something we do every night, it’s important to get good quality sleep without interruption as often as possible. Eating healthily and exercising regularly also reduce stress and improve sleep.

13. Detoxification

We’ve discussed detoxification in respect to cleaning up the diet and the effect of this on our health cannot be overstated. There are however, many other sources of toxin exposure and these play a bigger part in weight management and general health than you may think.

It is estimated that there have been between 50,000 – 90,000 man-made chemicals released into the environment in the last 100 years. Mountains of research can prove that nowhere is safe – 100% of human beings and water supplies tested (including remote regions such as the poles) give clear traces of toxic (poisonous) chemicals in their blood. The cream you put on your skin, the fluoride in toothpaste, the water you drink, and the food you eat – everything is polluted, albeit at an extremely small scale. Over many, many years, we can slowly stock pile these toxins if we’re not supporting our body in its natural ability to metabolise them – eventually we end up getting sick, or even suffering from fatal diseases.

22 There is mounting evidence to suggest that many diseases, including some cancers and Parkinson’s disease are a result of decades of chemical-stockpiling. This is a contentious issue although there is plenty of evidence to support the theory. The rain in the sky is polluted from the chemicals that are released into the world and blow around the globe. The soil is then rained on and many nutrients die. Plants then grow missing key elements and lack in nutrition as a result. Their immune systems are weakened so we spray them with pesticides to protect them – this further damages them. This food is then eaten by animals (making them sick) or picked and shipped around the world, where a week later, via a stint on a supermarket shelf, it ends up on your plate. Sounds far-fetched, but this is the food supply chain on a global level.

As women, one of our main sources of toxin exposure is cosmetics and toiletries. For this reason alone, I became a Neal’s Yard consultant some time ago now and offer all Fit For Life Mums 10% off their range. Their products are all free from parabens, GMOs, mineral oils, synthetic fragrances and colours and instead contain natural, organic products wherever possible. It’s one significant things we can do to reduce our toxin exposure.

The body is a remarkable machine and given chance, can detoxify itself perfectly well – but only when it’s given chance. By eliminating low-nutrition foods, removing alcohol, caffeine, smoke and other drugs and replacing with highly nutritious foods and plenty of water, we can give the body what it needs to do its job.

Never forget that ‘detox lotions and potions’ are NOT needed by our body to detoxify. It is perfectly capable of doing it all by its clever little self. Simply eat well, exercise regularly and your body will take care of the rest. You need never pay another £ to that gimmicky de-tox product marketer ;-)

14. Supplementation

Through over-farming and the excessive use of pesticides, it’s a sad fact that food quality just isn’t what it was 50-100 (and beyond) years ago and with the news that we actually need more nutrition than ever before to combat health problems (let alone promote health), it’s important to supplement carefully.

Energy drinks are out. Health supplements that provide key vitamins, minerals and fatty acids are in. There’s a case to be made for quite a large supplement program, and once you start living a healthier lifestyle and perhaps want to learn more, you may wish to look into this side of things a little further. To start, I would highly recommend some basic health supplements. You will hear about these during the 8 weeks.

23 15. Mind-set

This nutrition guide obviously contains a plethora of information both surrounding food itself but also factors outside that are often over-looked. Your success in implementing the changes illustrated here will largely come down to your mind-set on the subject. And we have a more influence over our mind-set than you may previously have been led to believe.

How do you talk to yourself? What do you say to yourself on a regular basis? Is it kind and compassionate or is it harsh, cruel and berating? Becoming aware of self-talk and its impact is the first step in managing it (if indeed it needs managing). If you know you are saying things to yourself that aren’t helping, imagine saying those exact same words to a dear loved one. It will likely stop you in your tracks and make you think twice before using those words again.

Do you spend your time with drains or radiators? WE all have them: friends who you make you feel energised when you’ve been in their company and others who drain every last ounce of life and should from your being. Now I’m not saying that’s it’s easy to spend all of your time with the radiators and totally cull the radiators but we can certainly start to influence the time spent with each. Once again, even becoming aware of this and the impact it has on our mind-set is a step in the right direction. The next is to start to turn the dial up on one and down on the other ;-)

Gratitude logs and journals Getting your thoughts down on paper can have a significant impact on your mind-set. Stopping to appreciate the good that already exists in your life has both real, physiological impacts as well as more soft and emotional ones. Putting pen to paper to explore how you are approaching a new challenge (diet and fitness) can also be helpful. What are you enjoying about the new regime? What can you do more of? What are you currently finding difficult and how can you change that? Who can you ask for help? Try these questions for a few days and see how it can help you stay focused and start to build a problem-solving mind. Once again, we’ll cover this in more detail, on your journey but for now, do consider the impact of these simple daily habits. We’ll discuss how such exercises can be helpful in tackling emotional eating, for example.

24 16. Embedding new habits

We don’t want a single lady who partakes in the 8-week transformation programme to stop at the end of the 8 weeks.

Our wish is for you to continue your journey towards a fitter body, better health, a calmer mind, a happier you for the rest of your life.

This illustrates the difference between change and transformation and the key to this is in habit-formation.

New habits MUST become embedded for them to make the transition from a new behaviour to a real habit.

We do this through AIR (Attention, Intention and Repetition).

Attention: We will be providing much of the attention over the 8 weeks to constantly remind you of the behaviours you want to be engaging in in order to make the changes you want to make.

Intention: YOU need to provide this. Each of you have very individual and personal reasons for wanting the results you want. You need to constantly remind yourselves why you signed up to the programme and why continuing as you were was no longer an option for you. Why did the change need to happen? What does achieving the results you strive for really mean to your life?

Repetition: You need to repeat the behaviours again, again, again, again and again….and again ;-) for them to be embedded in the part of the brain where habits sit (the basal ganglia). We want you to establish new behaviours in the first 2-4 weeks and repeat, repeat. repeat them beyond the programme. We offer memberships after the programme that allow you to stay with us in this supportive environment and continue reaching your health goals, should you wish.. Please don’t underestimate the importance of the repetition element.

17. A final word

Eating well is two thirds of looking and feeling fit & healthy. Throw in regular exercise, some stress-management techniques, decent sleep (often overlooked in its importance) and a few other lifestyle factors and you have the recipe for an awesome, longer, independent life.

Even though this guide has been written with a view to keeping things as simple as possible, I’m very aware that there’s a lot of information here. I hope though, that by reading this guide, a few of the key messages have become glaringly obvious.

25 To summarise: - Some of us are not genetically wired to need many carbohydrates in our diet, and our body can easily manage (indeed thrive) with much less of them than we currently consume. - Sugar, sugary foods and processed carbohydrates are bad for us on so many levels and are the number one cause of weight gain, obesity, diabetes type II and other metabolic diseases that are common in society today. - Fat doesn’t make you fat (unless you really over-indulge on it, which is actually quite hard). It’s actually needed by our body and to not eat it or severely restrict it is to starve ourselves. - Fat is one of our body’s primary fuel sources and by restricting simple carbohydrates, we can reprogram our body to start using fat more efficiently, resulting in weight- loss or effective weight management. - Hormones are more important than they are given credit for. Through hormone cascades, eating sugary food not only drives weight gain, but also inhibits fat burning. It’s almost as if our body is trying to tell us the best way to eat. - It’s not what alcohol does to us in terms of weight gain, it’s what it doesn’t allow our bodies to do. Whilst we have alcohol in our bodies we burn it for fuel rather than using any excess fat. It also compromised or liver function and we need this to work optimally if we wish to lose weight. - We need to maintain a constant supply of protein to the body, especially when we exercise. Protein is a crucial component of every meal. - Veggies and salads provide a plethora of vitamins and minerals as well as sufficient carbohydrates and fibre for our daily needs. Make these the staple component of your meal, replacing the part that grains or legumes probably once occupied.

As stated at the start of this guide, you should always seek the advice of your GP if you’re unsure about your diet or have reservations about making significant alterations.

The nutritional guide I advocate is not rocket science; eat fresh, clean food that hasn’t undergone processing and you will look and feel much better. Don’t just accept what the giant corporations with endless marketing budgets would have you believe and be prepared to question conventional wisdom.

We were a healthier species for hundreds of thousands of years; evolution is trying to tell us something.

Fit Mums Ltd www.fitforlifemums.co.uk

Tel: 07867 301108 [email protected]

Registered Office: 16 Ellingham Way, Northwich, Cheshire. CW9 8UF

26