Be Mindful of Snacking

Whenever we talk about snacks, we talk about purpose.

What is the purpose of the snack?

Are you hungry?

Are you aiming to stay satisfied until your next planned meal?

Just be aware of your snacking and why you are eating what you are eating.

If you are truly hungry, having numerous small snacks to stave off hunger might not be as effective as having a full, satisfying meal which takes food off your mind.

Also notice where your thoughts go when you think of a snack.
Do you think of a small meal?

Protein and plants?

Or do you associate snacks with indulgences?

If your mind goes straight to chips, chocolate etc, it might be best to use the term “small meal” rather than snack.

Snack Ideas

If your purpose is to stay satisfied in between meals, or to have something to keep you satisfied until your next possible meal, then fruit is an ideal choice. Popcorn is a rare savoury option that also provides food volume, eg it takes up space. Pistachios in the shell offer the benefit of a natural barrier to mindless, fast snacking. Protein and fibre are typically filling so should also be considerations if having regular snacks and fullness is a key part of your purpose. Adding volume to snacks can also help hit the spot, with a bit more food and a bit more protein. Adding a lean protein like cottage cheese to hommus works a treat.

Savoury snacks can be tricky, they are typically calorie dense, easy to overeat and hard to replace.

If you love a packet of chips, trying to replace them with something crunchy like carrot sticks might sound like a good suggestion from someone who doesn't love chips, but to you it might sound ridiculous.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with enjoying some savoury snacks from time to time, if you have identified that area as something you want to change, consider controlled portions of savoury snacks that are filling, with some fibre.

Be wary with snacks and marketing, we explain more in the “reading labels” article but just be aware that if your purpose is enjoyment, that allowing yourself a small, controlled portion of the food your truly want might be better than looking for a “healthier” option.

Write out your meals in advance

Regularly writing down your goals can be a useful tool and a constant reminder of what you want to achieve.

We also promote writing down a list of behaviours that match those goals.
Behaviour goals linked to the outcome goal.

Another extremely useful and underrated tool is to simply write down the meals you plan on consuming ahead of time.

This could be done one day to even a week in advance.

Writing your meals out ahead of time will:

• Take the guesswork out. You won’t need to think about what you’re going to prepare, cook or create.

• Reduces the amount of decisions you need to make, especially when hungry.

This saves you time but also requires less effort each day as you have a plan already set out.

Don’t want to write the meals out? At least plan the day in your mind. Think about when, where and what you might eat. If you are going to buy a meal, consider where you might be, what options you may have and what you will choose.

Coming up with ideas on the spot, cooking, preparing, battling with temptations, etc all requires energy. Energy that you could focus on other areas of your life.

Making food decisions on the spot, when already hungry can make it difficult to make decisions that are aligned with our goal.

Practical application:⠀
Meal 1: Eggs, veggies, salmon⠀
Meal 2: Chicken, Rice, Broccoli, Cabbage⠀
Pre Training: FNC Banana Bread and Banana⠀
Meal 3: Pork, Apple, Sweet Potato Veg⠀
Dessert: Yogurt, Berries and Peanut Butter⠀

Easy done. Plus it provides you with accountability to stick to the list you’re written out.

PS: Ensure that the list includes meals and foods you enjoy

Tracking your calories?

Track ahead - track your day in advance. It doesn’t mean you have to stick to it 100% if your appetite changes, however having that plan in MFP or the FNC Diet Builder can help you manage your calories across the day. No surprises, no sudden hunger - tracking in advance is a great tool.

Reading Labels

There is a lot of information on labels, some of it very helpful, some of it not.

The helpful stuff is the:

• Nutrition table with information on calories, protein, carbs, fats, fibre

• Ingredients list

The unhelpful stuff is the:

• Marketing buzz words (low carb, low fat, healthy, etc)

Somewhere in the middle of that we have serving sizes.

Serving Sizes are not official portions, they are just suggestions from the food manufacturer. That being said, they can give us an idea - a starting point when it comes to a controlled portion of packaged foods.

We recommend starting with the suggested serving sizes and adjusting according to what suits you, your goals and the purpose of your food choice.

The Tricky Stuff - The Marketing

Both of the products below use sugar alcohols, which are a non-sugar sweetener (yes the name is confusing, it’s neither sugar or alcohol). Anyway, sugar alcohols don’t have to be listed as carbs which allow the food manufactures to slap a “low sugar” or “low carb” label on their product despite the calories being basically the same as other products.

You can read more about sugar alcohols here - Sugar Alcohols Blog

The products below use slightly different marketing tricks. The wrap states “low carb” but in reality, it’s just a smaller size! And the “lower carb” bread, has more fat which means that the calories are fairly similar to the original version.

Finally here we have a “health halo” product. The manufacturer wants us to believe their product is a healthier version. This often leads us to eat more as we perceive it to be healthy. In reality, remembering the purpose of a choc biscuit is enjoyment, we should really ignore the healthy label and choose what we really enjoy and this can actually mean we eat less calories!

The helpful stuff

The nutrition labels are great for comparing similar products. In Australia we always get the values per 100grams which gives us that nice, easy, consistent number to compare products.

If we want to compare foods that don’t have labels, Food Standard Australia have a searchable database called NUTTAB which can help us make comparisons like these:

When comparing foods, don’t fall into the trap of getting too numbers focussed. Just because something is lower calorie, doesn’t necessarily make it better. We also need to factor in protein, plants, fibre, overall health and what’s going to keep us fuller for longer.

As we get better at reading labels, finding nutritional information and comparing similar products, we can make some easy switches which help progress us towards our goals with minimal effort. Either reducing total calories for similar foods, or increasing our protein and plant intake for similar calories.

We’ve got a blog going through more helpful stuff on labels:

Reading Labels and Tracking a Meal Blog

The Health Halo

Gluten-free, low-fat, sugar-free, raw, paleo, organic, high-protein…

These are all buzzwords that food marketers use to lead a consumer to believe that they are purchasing a healthier product.

These foods can be categorised into what we call: The Health Halo.

 Often we don’t perceive ‘health’ foods as having a caloric value. Have you ever heard anyone say: “I can’t lose weight but I eat healthy?”

 Researchers found that when health-conscious people consumed food products labelled with the aforementioned buzzwords, not only did they eat more, but they also reduced their physical activity.

More calories in, less calories out. Not ideal if trying to move towards an energy balance that achieves a calorie deficit for fat loss.

A study compared M&Ms and granola. Most of us would label granola as the healthier and less indulgent option, yet both foods are similar in caloric density. Researchers found that the participants underestimated the calorie content of the granola by 28% and actually overestimated the calorie content of the M&Ms by 9%. This led to an overconsumption of calories with granola.  

It can be difficult to tell the difference between healthier products and false claims. This is why it’s more important than ever to be aware, so that you can make choices that are aligned with you and your goals.

This is where reading labels comes in handy.

Don’t fall victim to the Health Halo.

Meal Prep

Meal prep: preparing or planning meals in advance. It doesn't have to be preparing all meals for an entire week.

Doing some sort of meal prep can help you out in the future by saving you time, effort and money.

Having something pre-prepared means when you are busy and hungry during the week you don’t have to think about it, prepare it, or purchase it.

When you are cooking one meal, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to increase the size and cook a few more portions at the same time. 

In the time it takes to cook 1 meal, you could cook 5 and set yourself up to save some time later in the week. 

For the same price as buying 1 meal out, you could cook 5 and save yourself some cash. 

Not only can it save money, it also means you need to make less food decisions later in the week. Less decisions about food when tired and hungry. 

If you buy your lunch everyday, it might be easy to buy something like a chicken salad on Monday but by the time Friday rolls around, you’re a bit tired and in the moment something a bit higher calorie, less nourishing is too hard to say no to for the 5th day in a row.

Meal prep doesn’t have to mean spending hours on a Sunday having the whole week organised. A little extra effort when you are already in the kitchen and you’ll really thank yourself.

Need Inspiration?

There are some great social media accounts to get some inspiration for what to cook. Our favourites are:

• @mason_woodruff

• @seriouseats

Not Into Meal Prep?

You don’t need to prepare the whole meal, you could keep some veggies cut up in containers in the fridge. Using time when you have it to get the veggies chopped, could be all you need later in the week to motivate you to stir fry those chopped veggies with a protein option, rather than getting a pizza delivered.

Keep in mind that meal prep is not a necessity and there are plenty of “grab and go” meal options to help you towards your goal, without great expense or a lot of time.

The food court is not the only option when you step out of the office to grab lunch. There are many 'zero cook' options available at supermarkets. 

Understand Calories, Kilojoules and Energy Balance

Calories & Kilojoules

These are both measures of energy. That's it, different measures for the same thing. Kind of like how kilometres and miles are both measurements of distance. Calories and kilojoules simply represent an amount on energy. Whilst kilojoules are the official standard of measure in Australia, we find calories much easier as the numbers are smaller, so, we'll use calories as our measurement in this book.

• 1 Calorie = 4.184 Kilojoules

• We can make things easier by rounding that to 1 Calorie = 4 Kilojoules

Energy Balance

We consume calories through food and drinks and we burn calories through a combination of general movement, exercise, digestion and functions of the body.

• When our weight is stable - energy in and energy out is basically the same - this is known as maintenance.

• When we are gaining weight, we are consuming a surplus of energy.

• When we are losing weight, we are in an energy deficit.

In simple terms, if we have fat we want to lose from our bodies - it is stored energy.

So if our goal is fat loss, we need to use that stored energy and not replace it. This doesn't mean that we need to do hours of exercise to burn more, we actually burn plenty of energy just staying alive. 

‘Calories in’ refers to the energy we consume from food and drinks. 

‘Calories out’ refers to the energy we burn in a day.

Macronutrients (macros)

Macronutrients are groups of foods that we need is large amounts.

There are 3 macronutrients, plus a category that we added to make things a little more simple.

We need macronutrients in large amounts, hence the prefix - macro

• Protein

• Carbohydrates

• Fats

• NDF (Nutrient Dense Foods - the one we added)

As we said earlier, a calorie is a form of measurement for energy. Each macronutrient has energy:

• 1 gram of protein = 4 calories

• 1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories

• 1 gram of fat = 9 calories

• 1 gram of alcohol = 7 calories (yeah sort of another macronutrient but unfortunately, not necessary)

Calories In

The amount of calories we need to consume for maintenance (staying the same weight) will depend on our size, age, activity, genetics and health. 

You don’t need to count the calorie content of everything you consume, however it is important to understand the concept and realise the difference between high calorie options and lower calorie options.

If you are reasonably consistent with your food and drink intake and are measuring your progress, you should be able to determine after a couple of weeks if you are in a calorie deficit, surplus or at maintenance:

• Deficit - losing weight

• Surplus - gaining weight

• Maintenance - generally stable weight 

Early on with resistance training (strength training), it is possible to gain muscle whilst losing fat, so the scale weight may stay stable whilst your body composition changes. This is why it’s great to check more than one measure of progress, scale weight, hip and waist measurements and progress photos.

Some things we consume won’t have calories, or basically none:

• water

• zero / extremely low calorie drinks like sugar free soft drinks, sugar free cordial

• tea and coffee (until you add milk, sugar, syrups etc) 

There are different types of fibre but in general we do not absorb much energy from fibre. It's great for keeping us full without having a big impact on ‘calories in’.

Non-starchy vegetables, salads and berries (NDF) are extremely low in calorie content, generally high in fibre, and are a great option for adding volume (size) to a meal, without increasing calories much. 

Added carbs and fats, especially in more processed foods, can quickly turn a low calorie meal into a high calorie meal.

Calories Out

The “calories out” side of the energy balance equation is more complicated. We've simplified it here but you can see a more 'sciency' explanation right at the bottom.

“Calories out” consists of 4 basic components:

• Energy needed to keep you alive

• Day to day movement

• Planned exercise

• Digestion and absorption of food and drinks

When we talk about our metabolism, we are really talking about the amount of energy your body requires to run basic processes and “keep the lights on,” so to speak. A more simple name might be “existence calories.” The body just keeping itself running is about 70% of your calories burned each day.

Day to day movement is the amount of energy you burn doing unconscious little movements throughout the day that aren’t planned exercise. These include typing on the keyboard, talking, fidgeting, wiggling your toes, walking, standing. These movements account for about 15% of your calories burned each day.

Day to day movement is an area that can be manipulated through extra movement like walking home instead of driving, moving around the house in between Netflix episodes. This is also an area that can drop when dieting, often without you noticing. Your day to day movement can reduce when you diet, therefore reducing your total calories burned each day. Activity trackers can be great ways of noting how many steps you normally walk in a day, then trying to be consistent with that number whilst dieting.

Exercise - Yep, this is exactly what it sounds like. When you exercise, you burn calories. How many you burn depends on the duration and intensity of the exercise, however this generally accounts for about 5-10% of your total calories burned each day. Much less than most people predict. Exercise does add to the calories burned but thinking of exercise in terms of the benefits on overall health including mood, well-being, stress reduction etc is a better idea than trying to make weight loss all about increasing calories burned through exercise.

Digestion and absorption of food and drinks — as weird as it sounds, the body burns calories in order to digest food and absorb nutrients. Different macronutrients require varying amounts of energy to be processed and digested. Calories burned through digestion and absorption accounts for about 10% of your total Calories burned each day.

• Protein - we burn about 20-30% of the calorie content of protein we eat just through digestion and absorption

• Carbs - about 5-15%

• Fats - about 0-5%

You might have heard about calories before and have even been told that weight loss is simply about calories in versus calories out. However now you know there is a bit more to it than that. Just because something is lower calorie, doesn’t necessarily make it better. We also need to factor in protein, plants, fibre, overall health and what’s going to keep us fuller for longer.

As promised, here is the version of "Calories Out" with the standard scientific terms.

The “calories out” side of the energy balance equation is more complicated.

“Calories out” is also known as your “Total Daily Energy Expenditure” (TDEE) and consists of 4 basic components:

• Basal Metabolic Rate

• Non Exercise Adaptive Thermogenesis (NEAT) and Non Exercise Physical Activity (NEPA)

• Exercise activity (EA)

• Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — The amount of energy your body requires to run basic processes and “keep the lights on,” so to speak. A more simple name might be “existence calories”. The major component of your TDEE is your BMR. Your BMR accounts for approximately 70% of your TDEE

Non exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) and Non exercise physical activity (NEPA) — NEAT is the amount of energy you spend doing unconscious little movements throughout the day that aren’t actually exercise. These include typing on the keyboard, talking, fidgeting, wiggling your toes, etc. NEPA refers to walking, standing, and any voluntary, non-exercise activity.Most commonly, NEAT and NEPA are referred to under the NEAT umbrella. NEAT/NEPA accounts for about 15% of your TDEE but is an area which can be manipulated. 

Exercise Activity (EA) - This is exactly what it sounds like. When you exercise, you burn calories. How many you expend depends on the duration and intensity of the exercise performed.EA accounts for about 5% of your TDEE, much less than most people predict. 

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) — As weird as it sounds, there is also a thermic effect of food, meaning that it costs you energy to digest food and absorb nutrients. Different foods require varying amounts of energy to be processed and digested. Foods higher in fibre and protein have a higher TEF. TEF accounts for about 10% of your TDEE

• Protein - we burn about 20-30% of the calorie content of consumed protein just through digestion

• Carbs - about 5-15%

• Fats - about 0-5%

So when we get to the point where it’s time to calculate these equations, you have to take all of these into account. If all this looked like an equation, it would be:

TDEE = BMR + NEAT + TEF +EA

Rate Your Hunger

Hunger...
We've been programmed to fear it. 
Fear that rumble in the tummy. Feed it every time we feel or hear it.

Hunger is perfectly ok to feel.  There can also be so many factors that influence our hunger, and also different types/stages of hunger.
 

It’s a great skill to learn to differentiate between different hunger signals and cues.

Start asking yourself:

Do you need to eat right now?

Do you want to eat right now?

Do you feel like you should eat right now?
 

If you're having trouble with this, you're not alone. Most of us have forgotten what it's like to feel truly physically hungry (or satisfied).
 

So make a game of it as you practice.

Imagine this. You've just been shipwrecked on a desert island. (Not a dessert island, that would be a dream.... hmmmm Messina.... Damn, now I'm hungry!)
 

Would you be the person who starts to freak out once their stomach starts rumbling?

Or would you be the person who shrugs, gets to work making some pointy sticks, and hangs in there until they can spear a wild pig for dinner? That person knows that hunger isn't an emergency.
 

Yeah, being hungry kinda sucks. But you'll survive.
 

Your muscles won't dissolve if you don't get dinner by 6 pm.
 

Hunger comes and goes in waves.

Most of the time it's just a little uncomfortable. Nothing you can't handle.

Use your observation skills.

Pause. Observe it for a few minutes.

Try playing the hunger game.
 

When you notice yourself wanting food, pause for a moment.

• Are you physically hungry?

• What are the body cues that would tell you?
  
   

Signs of ACTUAL hunger may be: lack of performance for daily tasks, trouble thinking clearly, getting HANGRY, irritability, feeling weak or faint, low energy levels. 

We don't want you to starve. We simply want you to pause, observe and reflect.

Rate Your Hunger

1. Imagine a physical hunger scale from 1 to 10.

   • 1 is not hungry at all.

   • 10 is the hungriest you've ever been, like "My vision is going black and I will eat the next person I see" kind of hunger.

2. Before each meal, pause. Ask yourself: Am I physically hungry?

3. Rank your physical hunger on a scale from 1 to 10.

   • If you're somewhere around a 7 or higher, go ahead and eat.

   • If you're not there yet, wait a little longer. Remember that physical hunger comes in waves. So if you feel a wave of hunger, wait for a few minutes and see what happens. It might just be a small urge.

4. Eat slowly, and pause after each bite. Check in. Notice your body signals. How would you rank your hunger now?

   • If you're somewhere around a 2 to 3 or lower (which is more or less 80% full), stop. Pause. Again, notice what this stopping point feels like. Or what thoughts come up.

   • If you're not yet down to a 2 to 3, take another bite. Repeat until you get to something that seems like 80% full. Then stop. Again, this doesn't have to be precise. You're just getting the hang of where this stopping point occurs.

5. Notice what 80% full looks and feels like for you. For example:

   • What was an 80% full portion size?

   • What sensations told you that you were at 80%?

   • What foods seem to help you feel fuller for longer?

   • How fast or slow did you eat? 

Tip! Unprocessed foods (such as fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, beans and legumes, etc.) will help you feel fuller for longer.

Hunger Signals

Need, want, or should?

Of course we need to eat, to keep your body alive.
 

But often we don't need to eat (right now). We want to eat. We feel like we should eat.

Our bodies' natural hunger and fullness signals can get drowned out by "noise" from:

1. What we feel. “It's been a tough day. I've earned some pizza and beer.”

2. What's around us. "Damn, that steak smells good!"

3. What we think. “It’s 1 pm. I’m not really hungry, but I should eat. I mean, it is lunch time.”

4. What other people think or want. "Another serving? Well I shouldn't... ah, what the hell."

Differentiate between true signals and just noise.

The signals are meaningful information from your body. 

Tip! When you use or hear the word "should", that's probably noise. 


FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS

• What you're feeling, physically (e.g. shaky, lightheaded, tense)

• What you're feeling, emotionally (e.g. pissed off, relaxed, "hangry")

• What you're thinking (e.g. "I can't pass up this biscuit! It reminds me of my Nan")

WHAT'S AROUND YOU

• What situations make it easier or harder to make good choices

• What foods make it easier or harder to make good choices

• What environments make it easier or harder to make good choices 

Right now, just observe. Don't judge or feel like you have to "fix" anything.

Awareness leads to change. 
 

Keep doing what is working so far.


What signals tell you that you NEED to eat today?

What signals tell you that you WANT to eat today?

What signals tell you that you SHOULD eat today?

Walk 10 000 Steps Daily

To work towards building healthy habits, why not try to implement a daily step goal

10 000 steps is widely talked about as a great aim for daily movement.

Though it may seem like 10,000 steps is high, it's pretty doable.

The typical person walks < 5000 steps a day.

With a little focus and determination, it's easy to bump that number up to 10,000 .

A recent study actually indicated that those who averaged 12 000 steps actually benefited even more. However this was an association and the researchers pointed out that realistically, just aiming to stay active is a benefit and if you are currently tracking steps aiming to increase your average over time is a great idea.

4000 per day is better than 2000

8000 per day is better than 4000

10 000 per day is better and 8000

12 000 per day along with great nutrition, fun and stimulating planned exercise, good sleep and stress reduction is probably the ultimate goal.

Make your goals realistic and achievable

It’s probably not realistic to go from 4000 steps per day to 12 000 steps per day consistently. Set small, realistic goals and tick them off. If you’ve gone from 4000 to 6000 consistently, then aim for 8000.

Be Mindful with Indulgences

What are indulgences?

• Higher calorie, lower nutrient type foods.

• Typically more processed combinations of fats and carbs.

• Alcohol, cakes, cookies, chips, chocolate etc

We don’t think complete restriction is a positive, sustainable step. Reduction of these foods can certainly help with a weight reduction goal, however complete restriction can lead to binge-restrict type behaviours.

How to enjoy indulgences

1. Stop labelling food as good or bad. No one food will make you gain body fat. No one food will help you lose body fat. Everything in context. All foods can play a role.

2. Give yourself permission - you can indulge in foods you love. You don't have to restrict yourself completely.

3. Make sure it will satisfy you. If you are going to indulge, make sure it's going to hit the spot. There's no point going for a low Calorie or "diet" alternative if it doesn't satisfy you.

4. Make it an experience. Can you make it part of a social event, a family outing? Eg, a walk to the pub with a loved one or a family trip to the ice cream place.

5. Enjoy it slowly and mindfully. Don't rush it, it still counts if you make it disappear quickly. Make it a highlight, notice the flavours, the texture and how you feel.

6. When satisfied, stop eating. You don't need to finish it or have more once you've found your ideal enjoyment level. More may not bring more enjoyment. Know that you have permission to indulge again, so you don't need to make the most of the opportunity and over-consume.

Consider regular, planned and controlled indulgences

If healthy eating & weight management is important to you. Enjoying some regular indulgences can make your diet and life more enjoyable, keeping things realistic and therefore sustainable. This can boost the chances of progress and success.

Food is more than fuel, food is an experience, an art form that should be enjoyed and a vehicle to build important social connections.

Indulgences are worth it and a good idea. Just remember they’re the ‘icing on the cake’, and fit them into a well rounded whole food-focused diet, in moderation.

Regular indulgences can prevent the build-up of powerful excitement and anticipation driven cravings that can become uncontrollable. Leading to excessive consumption, binge eating, and potentially the development of a binge restricted mindset.

If you don’t make allowances and room for regular indulgences, they’ll probably make their way into your diet anyway probably against your will. When this happens you might attempt to “give it an inch”, but end up “taking a mile”.

Excessive deprivation and restriction can be the root of future excess! Keep your indulgences regular, controlled, planned, in moderation, and enjoy them mindfully.

How much is too much?

“Everything in Moderation” is possibly one of the most overused and overrated sayings in the nutrition world and it’s about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

The idea of everything in moderation is great but it’s extremely ambiguous and subjective.

The interpretation of “moderation” differs from person to person.

We generally hear this term used in regards to indulgences, and it leaves decisions about serving size and frequency of consumption up to the individual.

This can be a dangerous move because people are pretty poor judges of portion sizes, the calorie content of foods, the amount of food they’ve eaten; so making estimations are unlikely to be accurate.

Who determines what moderation is?

Well, our own ideas of moderation are influenced by our own consumption and the consumption of others around us.

Personal bias affects definitions of moderation

The more of an item a person typically consumes, the greater amount of that item would be considered moderate consumption.

Eg. if I drink 10 beers a week, I might think that moderate is 15 beers, especially if my friends drink 20.

When people don't consume much of an item their idea of moderation is relatively low.

Eg. I don’t really like chocolate so my idea of moderation might be half a block a week compared to someone who loves chocolate might think moderation is 2 blocks a week.

The more you like a food, the bigger your definition of a “moderate” serving will be.

Instead of saying "Everything in moderation".... maybe it could be “some things in controlled portions”.

Nutrition Australia advises limiting your intake of discretionary choices (indulgences) to a maximum of one serve per day (approximately 150 Calories). You could also use a percentage of your daily calories if tracking, say 10-20% of your calories could be indulgences when you are ticking off the protein, plants and whole foods boxes for 80-90% of your nutrition.

Drink 2 Litres of Water Daily

Drinking water and maintaining hydration has a range of positive effects on the body such as transporting vitamins, minerals and nutrients around the body, regulating body temperature, improving digestion, immunity and lubricating tissues.

Dehydration can lead to reduced blood volume and blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased RPE (rate of perceived exertion, reduced skin blood flow, increased core body temperature during exercise, whilst affecting physical and cognitive performance.

How do you know if you are maintaining hydration?

Infographic courtesy of Healthdirect Australia.

Here are some tips for making water and easy habit:

• Carry a bottle with you at all time

• Add some flavour (diet cordial)

• Set a reminder to drink

• Keep a jug of water on your desk so you can see when you have or haven’t been drinking

• Use the habit-stacking technique, maybe each time you have a coffee, also drink a glass of water

When choosing something to drink with a bit of flavour, just be aware that liquid calories do count and are not very filling.

Eat Until 80% Full

Why “80% full”?

First: The exact number isn’t important. “80% full” is an idea of eating until you're satisfied, not completely stuffed

If eating until you're completely stuffed is a current habit for you, this strategy could be beneficial for you.
This is also more a strategy if you're learning how to build your meals OR in particular to be used when our at social meals when you don't have control of portion sizes.

80% full is about two things:

1. How much you eat.

2. How it feels to eat that much.

So by doing this habit, you’ll learn:

1. What portion sizes work for you.

2. What it feels like to be physically hungry, satisfied, and/or full.
    

In the beginning, you may not know what 80% full is for you.

That’s OK.
 

Experiment. 

Here are techniques to get you started.
 

Eat slowly to help find 80% full

They work together.

The better you are at slow eating, the easier 80% full will be due to the time it takes for the brain to receive signals of satiety. 

You may even try to stop eating sooner than you normally would

You probably have a sense of how much you normally eat — what size of plate you use.
So you can start with what you’d normally eat and then just shrink that a little bit. Or stop eating just a little sooner than you normally would.

For instance, try:

• Purposely leaving a couple extra bites of your meal on your plate.

• Ordering one size smaller than normal.

• Using a smaller dish than normal.

Eat Slowly

If you find that you’re a fast eater and it leaves you feeling hungry, try to slow your rate of eating down.

It takes approximately 15-20 minutes for the digestive system to let your brain know that you're satisfied.
You can imagine if we eat a meal in 5 minutes, what happens in the remaining 10-15 minutes? We could over-eat to perhaps 110% full. Completely stuffed

Can you stretch it out to 15-20 minutes by putting your cutlery down in between bites, swapping hands, using chopsticks, etc.

When we eat slowly, we actually feel more satisfied with less food.
When we eat slowly, we can learn to listen to what our body is saying to us.

Do you notice yourself loading up your fork or spoon with the next mouthful before you’ve even finished what’s in your mouth? Try putting your cutlery down in between bites and concentrate on chewing, how the food tastes and really enjoying the meal.

Chewing your food more can also significantly reduce hunger and promote satiety.

Listening to up-beat / fast music may actually make it difficult to eat slowly, try something a little slower. Who knows, maybe some yoga chill sounds will be your secret to eating slowly.

Manage Stress

When the demands of stress are too great and for too long, the body needs to work harder to recover from the stress. This can cause other areas of health to deteriorate.

Short term it can cause changes in our appetite, cause gastrointestinal upset, increase cravings for indulgences/comfort foods.

Long term it can cause impaired immune function, disrupted sleep, increased levels of fatigue, increased water retention, and potentially lead to weight gain.

Stress and Food Choices: 

Under stress, people tend to eat a more westernised dietary pattern with more emotional overeating, overconsumption of high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar foods and reduced intake of fruit and vegetables.

Now we have an understanding of the impact stress has on our health, our body composition, our goals and our sleep. The next step is to look at strategies to cope with stress in relation to your nutrition.

1. Identify if you are a stress eater 

2. Identify your stressors. What is causing you stress? 

3. Try your best to mitigate the stress. Can you control it, avoid it, reduce it, fix it? If it is uncontrollable, can you try your best to put a plan in place to control it. Making a plan can help you mitigate the stress and even if it doesn’t it will give you the sense of control. Try mindfulness meditation (See below for options)

4. Replace the stress eating with a positive behaviour. Enjoyable things you can do that are more constructive. Reading, catching up with friends, exercise, walking, writing, playing music? 

5. That old chestnut of controlling your environment. Remove the calorie dense items from your personal surroundings, home and work. In the absence of highly rewarding foods, there is less incentive to eat them to self-medicate your stress. You can’t eat what isn’t there.

Eat Mindfully, With Purpose and Reduce Boredom Eating

Food journaling can be a really powerful tool when it comes to eating mindfully. Imagine you are writing a description of your meal for another person. Imagine that they will never see the meal, so you want to describe it in detail. How does it look, smell, taste, what’s the texture like, how did you feel when eating it - cover all your senses and focus on enjoying the meal. Notice when you start feeling full.

This is eating mindfully.

Eating in front of the TV, or laptop, spooning in mouthful after mouthful without thought can lead us to eat well past satiety, without every stopping to think about how the meal tastes.

Make your meals the highlight of your day. Take your time, put your cutlery down and at least once - try to write a journal.

Purpose

Focus on WHAT YOU EAT but also WHY? This is to become mindful of your choices.

To further extend this theme we want you to ask yourself "What is the purpose of this meal?"

What benefit will this meal give me?
Why did I choose these foods?
Will I feel better about this choice tomorrow?
Does this choice move me closer to my health and fitness goals?

Just like random training brings random results, the same can be said for meals.

If you are journaling, try to make some notes on the purpose of your meals:
Was it to fuel you for training?
Was is for recovery?
Was it to keep you feeling satisfied through the day?
Was it because you were hungry?
Was it for enjoyment?
Was it a social function?

YES, sometimes we can eat certain meals for the pure enjoyment factor!

Look at your meal, find the purpose, find the meaning.
If there is a consistent theme of fuel, health, recovery, you're on the right track.

BOREDOM EATING

Have you ever noticed that your purpose for eating is boredom?

Are you trying to kill time, procrastinate from doing work or study?

Are you stressed, emotional, angry, lonely?

Is eating filling a void for you?

Here is a strategy to try and overcome boredom eating.

Note: Boredom in this activity can be replaced with stress and emotional-based eating.

1. List the habits, behaviours and activities you enjoy doing that have a positive effect on your health (mental, social, physical, emotional). OR habits you'd like to try and build that have a positive impact

2. Set an intention and write it down. Next time I feel bored, instead of eating I will ..... (insert positive behaviour)

Eg. Next time I feel bored, instead of eating I will: do 15 minutes of mobility

OR

Next time I feel lonely, instead of eating I will: call a friend or family member

OR

Next time I feel stressed, instead of eating I will: read 10 pages of my book

By keeping the cue and the reward the same and merely changing the routine you implement, it can go a long way towards habit change.

Also, you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Building a new habit that has a positive impact on your life whilst breaking an old one.

Mindfulness Apps:

Waking Up - Sam Harris

Headspace

Smiling Mind

Calm

Unplug

Sleep 7-9 Hours

We all should be aiming to sleep for 7-9 hours a night. Under-sleeping can lead to cravings for sweet, sugary food, poor dietary decisions and overconsumption of food. Ever noticed that on the nights you sleep the least, it is harder to make good nutritional choices the next day?

When we under-sleep we are likely to eat more food than usual and make poor choices around food. A lack of sleep can have a big impact on our hormones and make us crave sugary, processed foods and make us less likely to choose protein, greens and healthy fats.

Under-sleeping is a particularly bad habit if you are trying to lose weight. Those who are in a calorie deficit and under-sleeping are likely to lose up to 70% of weight from lean body mass rather than fat stores. Our weight loss plans are realistically fat loss plans, so we want a higher percentage of our losses on the scales to be coming from body fat. Sleep, along with protein and exercise, help shift this percentage in our favour.

It’s not something we think about a lot but getting enough sleep also has a direct impact on our productivity. Many of us lead busy lives and assume that getting a few hours less of sleep means a few hours more of work. Prioritising work over sleep is actually counter-productive. Instead of allowing you to get more work done, you’ll find yourself burnt-out, stressed, slower and your creativity will suffer. Evidence suggests that you actually make 20% more mistakes when you are sleep deprived, only creating more work for you.

Sleep Tips:

1. Get sunshine during the day, particularly in the first couple of hours after waking.

2. Avoid screens 1 hour before bed.

3. Avoid caffeine 6-8 hours before bed, caffeine stays in our system a long time!

4. If you enjoy tea in the evening, consider switching to a caffeinated / herbal tea such as chamomile or peppermint.

5. Try to keep your bedroom cool, we tend to sleep better when slightly cool.

6. Try to make your bedroom as dark as possible.

7. Keep technology out of the bedroom as much as possible.

8. Exercise regularly, just not in the 1-2 hours before bed.

9. Avoid alcohol consumption before bed, it may help us lose consciousness but can reduce sleep quality.

10. Consider practicing meditation before bed as a strategy to “wind-down” and switch off.

11. Try to maintain a fairly regular schedule of when you wake up and go to bed.

12. Save your boring, easy jobs around the house for the last hour before bed to help you switch off.

13. Turn off some lights in the house as it get’s closer to bed time - the dimmer light may help you wind down.

Alcohol and Sleep

We feel like we have to bring this bad news to you - having a ‘nightcap’ drink might actually prevent you sleeping well.

Alcohol can help us lose consciousness but can reduce the quality of our sleep.

Alcohol can fragment sleep, meaning that without realising it we might be waking many times during the night which can lead to fatigue the following day. Alcohol can also block rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which helps us consolidate memories. If we are trying to learn and commit new things to our memory, an interruption of REM sleep can slow down or stop this process. 

It’s easy for us all to get into the mindset of ‘needing’ things. “I need a coffee to start the day” or “I need a drink to get me to sleep”. These needs are actually habits and a change of mindset and gradual behaviour change might be more beneficial than the quick fix.

Develop a Sleep Routine

• Try a sleep routine. Make a decision on what time you want to go to sleep and an hour before start to unwind. Try to get away from screens - TV, laptops, mobile phones in that hour. Try turning off half the lights you normally have on. Save jobs you might have that aren’t on the laptop or phone for that last hour, like washing up, folding laundry, ironing etc.

• Try to get into bed at least 20-30 minutes before you’re aiming to sleep and read a book. Make sure the light on isn’t super bright. Choose a fiction book that isn’t too taxing mentally.

• Set your sleep environment. Get your bedroom nice and dark, try to remove any light or cover them. If you can keep your phone outside your bedroom.

• Find a routine that works for you and with your exercise, healthy eating and good sleep habits you will be on the path to fantastic health.

What if a short night is going to happen?

So when we know that we are going to under-sleep for a special event, how do we mitigate these issues?

• Meal preparation and reducing decisions.

Prepare your meals in advance or have a set plan which you will not change. Try to avoid having to buy food or make any decisions when you’ve under-slept.

Take your prepared lunch to work and if you start to feel cravings for something else remind yourself of the time, effort and money that went into preparing your lunch.
 Obviously try to get a good night's sleep every night but when a special event like this comes up a bit of planning and preparation will save your the next day.

Constant Low Energy?

Constantly fatigued, lethargic, low on energy, and reliant on stimulants to get through your day? Also can't seem to achieve restful sleep? You may have heard about something termed 'adrenal fatigue' and think that's your issue. You might have also heard about supplements and special treatments which could be your saviour.

The idea behind 'adrenal fatigue' is related to an inability to produce sufficient levels of hormones that keep us energised, resulting from an overly stressful lifestyle and potentially excessive intake of stimulants. "Don't drink too much coffee, you'll fatigue your adrenal glands"...

'Adrenal fatigue' is NOT a legitimately recognised and diagnosed medical term, and the rationale behind it has been debunked in the scientific literature. In short, adrenal fatigue is not a thing.

However, none of this means that your symptoms don’t actually exist.

If you're experiencing the symptoms commonly associated with 'adrenal fatigue' chances are these will hit home:

• Sleep is poor in quality & duration (potentially for other reasons)

• Not managing and coping with the stressors in your life.

• Potentially training beyond your capacity to recover

• Maybe not eating enough Calories.

• Potentially deficient in 1 or more vitamins and/or minerals namely Vitamin D, iodine, iron & B12.

When seeking a solution to your fatigue-related symptoms. Please understand...

1. You don't have adrenal fatigue.

2. Supplements won't help (unless you're deficient in something as diagnosed by a medical professional, and supplementation has been advised over a food first approach)

3. Your lifestyle needs strong consideration, are you "burning the candle, at both ends", not sleeping enough, being overtrained, underfed, overworked, and... overstressed.

4. Talk to your GP, as they can run and interpret blood work to see if an inner, underlying issue might be present.

Understand Dietary Fats

Why do we need dietary fats?
We need adequate fat to support hormone regulation, cell signalling and the absorption of many nutrients (vitamins A D E K are fat soluble vitamins).

Fats are calorie dense, we get substantial amounts of energy from smaller portions of fats so just be mindful how many fat sources and how much you are including in your meals.

• Benefits

  • Our body needs healthy fats for brain cell formation, cells in our central nervous system, for absorbing a lot of vitamins and minerals.

• Portion sizes - Not tracking

  • Look at your thumb roughly from the tip to the base. Generally 1-2 thumbs sized portions of dietary fats at meals, however the thumb size can be more generous for whole foods (avo, nuts, seeds, fish) when compared to liquids (oils).

• Portion sizes - Tracking

  • We recommend setting fats at a minimum of 20% of your calories. If you are using the FNC Diet Builder you will see how to make sure of this. Otherwise, take your daily calorie aim and multiply by 0.2. That gives you your minimum calorie aim from fats. Divide that number by 9 and you have your minimum grams of fats per day for health. Going above this minimum is not an issue, provided you are keeping an eye on total calories. This means that if you are focussing on your total calories and protein, then your fats and carbs can be dictated by your personal preferences and individual goal.

• Ideal sources

  • Plant based: nuts, seeds, avocado, olives, olive oil

    Marine based: cold water fish, salmon, mackerel, sardines

    Some animal sources: some fats from meat, eggs and dairy

• Timing

  • Try to consume healthy fats with meals that are at least 2 hours before your training. Fats are fairly slow to digest, can sit in the stomach for longer than carbs. This can be useful at times, however before training when we want to feel comfort, fats might not be the best choice.

• How to prepare it

  • Most fats don’t need much preparation but can enhance the taste of meals. This can be useful when expanding your plant intake, using some olive oil for salad dressings, avo, nuts and seeds for salads, some cheese sauce for veggies, however just be mindful of how much you are adding.

Q: If I eat more fat will I burn more fat?

Yes, it’s true! If you increase the amount of fats within your diet your body will indeed increase the amount of fat you burn. 'You burn what you eat'!

BUT! Fat loss and fat burning are NOT the same thing. 

For body fat loss, a calorie deficit needs to be present over time. After calories and protein have been matched, the ratio of carbs and fats doesn't really matter. If you are eating a lot of fats, you may be eating too many calories to reduce your body fat and may even increase it. So whilst you might be burning more fat, keep the perspective that it’s all relative to how much you are eating overall and energy balance.

Nuts and nut butters have a lot more fats than protein. Fat dense foods are also Calorie dense foods. 1 gram of fat = 9 Calories.

We need to eat fats for our health but portion sizes have a big impact in weight loss.

It might be easier to use spoons and cups to measure, however it's more accurate to use a kitchen scale. That little extra effort whilst dieting could be the difference between progress and no progress.

Bacon is another popular food which is often actually higher in fats than protein.

For a fat loss / weight maintenance goal, consider how often you are eating bacon:

Eating often > choose something leaner

Eating rarely > move up the spectrum to the point where you will enjoy the taste/experience the most

Understand Carbohydrates

• Benefits

  • Carbs are our primary fuel source for strength training and high intensity exercise. Anything above 60% effort will be primarily fuelled by carbs and the higher the intensity, the more carbs are used for fuel compared to fats.

• Portion sizes - Not Tracking

  • Cup your hand and imagine it full of a chosen carb source. Aim for 1-2 cupped handfuls at most meals, particularly those around exercise.

  • You should scale your carb intake depending on your training. If you're training more than usual, eat more carbs. If you increase carbs for training but then start training less than usual, consider reducing carbs a little.  

  • Looks closely at your meals, how many carb options are on your plate? Think about if you have a sandwich, wrap or burger. The bread is your carbs, do you also have breadcrumbs on your protein, high carb sauces like sweet chilli or bbq, a side of chips?

• Portion sizes - Tracking

  • For fat loss and weight maintenance, we aim to hit a minimum of 1 gram per kg of body weight, then let personal preference dictate how high this number goes depending on your total calories.

  • For fat loss, 1-3 grams per kg of body weight is probably good for most.

  • Weight maintenance might be 1-4 grams per kg of body weight, however it will be individual and depending on lifestyle and preferences.

• Ideal sources

  • Most of the time, try to choose whole grains and whole food sources of carbs:

    Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, oats, buckwheat, beans and legumes, fruit, bread, noodles.

  • More dense forms of carbs and liquids are great when you need to consume more energy but your appetite is limiting you (think athletic and muscle gain goals):

  • Honey, jam, juice, sports drinks, lollies, pretzels.

• Timing

  • You don’t need to have carbs at every meal, however we’d really encourage a serving at the meals and any snacks before training. Having some carbs available in the blood stream after digestion is a great idea to increase performance.

  • Pre-Workout: If eating something within about 30-60 minutes of intense training, your comfort is an important consideration and in these cases, leaning more towards liquid and low fibre carbs can be beneficial

• How to prepare

  • A rice cooker will save plenty of time and it’s possible to bulk prep carbs and freeze them in portions for easy use later. Roasting potatoes or sweet potato in big batches and portioning out as needed. Overnight oats are an easy option to have a high carb, high fibre breakfast ready to grab and go.

• How to shop, keep prices down

  • Carb sources are generally very cheap. It’s a good idea to eat a variety of sources so buying whichever option is on sale when you need to restock will help you add variety.

 Carbs from whole foods and whole grains are health-promoting, slow-digesting, and nutrient-rich. They provide us with energy and a range of health benefits, can be filling and satisfying and eating a variety over time can really help us get a wide range of micronutrients.

Carbs get a bad wrap (lol) from some people, however often it’s just the type of carbs that we can switch to help us feel fuller from less carbs. For fat loss and weight management, try to switch from liquid carbs to whole food carbs. Also, many higher calorie sources of carbs are actually combinations of fats and carbs.

For fat loss and weight management, try to reduce your choices from this list:

• pastries, such as cakes, cupcakes, and muffins

• cookies and bars, including muesli & nut bars

• lollies, chocolate, etc.

• sweet drinks: juices, soft drink, and other sweetened drinks

• sweetened dried fruits: raisins, dried cranberries, banana chips, dried dates or figs, etc.

Refined carbohydrates provide almost no fibre.

So, what is a whole food carb choice again?
Keep it simple.
More fibre and nutrients + whole foods = more value.
Less fibre and fewer nutrients + processing = less value. 
Always look to add more value to your diet.

Now it’s not about saying NO to some of the more refined carbs if you enjoy them, just LESS.

Athletes: if your goal is athletic performance, your energy demands will likely be very high and eating only whole food carbs and whole grains will likely mean you appetite will stop you from consuming enough calories to maintain performance and health. In your case, the base of nutrition should stay the same, however including more refined and liquid carbohydrates to make up the difference between appetite and ideal energy will be an important consideration. See below for some graphics on carbs for athletes.

Q: Should I stop eating carbs at a certain time?

Carbs and athletic goals.

If you are trying to take your athletic pursuits to the next level, it may help testing higher carb intakes.

You might start with 3-5 grams per kg of your bodyweight for a few weeks and then bump it up to 5-6 grams per kg of your body weight and see if you notice any differences.

When aiming for higher carb intakes it will likely be necessary to include some more refined options. These are like the sprinkles on top of a solid foundation and if they are needed for you to consume enough energy for your activity, then they are health promoting in your individual situation.

Have a Plan for Buying Meals

Meal prep isn’t for everyone and even if you do enjoy it, there will still be times when you need to buy a meal.

Sometimes you might not realise that your bought meals, even your quick grab and go options are actually quite calorie dense and don’t actually keep you full for long.

Buying meals can often be where a huge amount of calories are added to the week. Buying meals from restaurant and cafes will nearly always be significantly higher calorie meals compared to home cooked food. The chef doesn’t care about your goal, they care about making food delicious so people come back!  

Sometimes the purpose of a bought meal will be complete enjoyment and/or social health, so it might be more of an indulgent meal. That’s totally fine, we shouldn’t lose enjoyment of these situations, our point here is that if you buy meals regularly as part of your routine, there are plenty of options that can be aligned with your goals.

Remember that the food court is not the only option when you step out of the office to grab lunch and Uber Eats isn’t the only way to have a quick, effortless meal at home. There are so many 'zero cook' options available at supermarkets and options which you can store away in the cupboard, provided you're informed about them and have them on your go-to list.

Do you consider going without food when you are without a plan or a prepared meal? Don’t eat anything, just skip the meal/feeding all together, leaving a 6+ hour time frame before your next meal/snack?

Extended periods without food can leave you irritable, ravenous, and unable to make mindful food decisions. You’re more likely to snack mindlessly, grab without thought, and go for Calorie dense, indulgent options because they’re within reach.

Sudden changes in schedule, unforeseen busy days, happen. Having a list of foods that you can buy, from a range of places, that suit you and your enjoy can help you in the long term.

It’s an IF-THEN strategy.
IF my plan changes, THEN my grab-N-go option is ………...

IF I need to buy a meal when at work, THEN my options are………..

Hot chips are bloody delicious and one of those amazing combos of carb, fat and salt that make them hard to keep to a small portion. Can you eat a few and throw the rest away? No, we neither.

Chicken shop salads are possible, however be cautious. They can be loaded with Calories from flavour additions and sauces, as we said before they make the food as tasty as possible. Making your own side salad is quick and can help you have a bit of BBQ bird whilst still moving towards your fat loss goal.

This is an example of creating some awareness around a regular choice and thinking of your plan. You might not be a regular at the chicken shop but can you relate this IF-THEN planning to places that you regularly buy meals from?

We had a look into some fast food options which serves as a possible plan if we end up there and are hungry. Road trips, unexpected stops with family and friends, can mean that we end up at a fast food restaurant for a meal. How is your mindset when this happens? All or nothing? I’m at McDonalds therefore I’m off the plan? It doesn’t have to be that way when you have an IF-THEN plan and a flexible mindset.

Here are a few simple guides for ordering meals when out:

Implementation Intentions: If-Then. Have a Plan B

Things are easy when life runs to a plan or schedule. We can plan our day, plan our meals, plan our training, even plan our sleep.

But how often in this life we live do plans get turned on their head and chaos happens. 

When chaos happens, our intentions and rhythm are thrown out of order. Chaos creates a barrier, and with barriers come excuses. 

So how can we stay on track or at least do our best when we experience chaos?

Forming if-then plans can improve your rate of achieving your goal. 

An if-then plan is essentially a Plan B.

This strategy can prevent you from straying off course, by giving you a plan of action on how to stay on track if you do sway slightly from the plan.

“If-then” planning acts as a safeguard in case you need to use the “break glass procedure.” It requires a realistic view of the future, by assessing potential critical situations. By thinking ahead and devising a Plan B you are prepared to react right away, minimising the possible damage.

The “If-Then” technique forces you to create a strategy for when chaos strikes. It gives you a plan of attack before a barrier arises so you are prepared and can then stick to your schedule.

All you need to do is complete this phrase:
“If [something unexpected], then [your response].”

If I don’t wake up in time to go to the gym before work, then I’ll go after work.

If I eat a large indulgence meal tonight, then I’ll scale back my carbs and fats tomorrow.

If I forget my lunch at home, then I’ll get a bbq chicken and salad from the shops.

If I have a drink during the week, then I’ll have one less on the weekend.

Planning for chaos and using the “If-Then” technique can help find ways to stay on track even when life is pulling you off course. 

The “if–then” strategy gives you a clear plan for overcoming the unexpected stuff. You can't control when little emergencies happen to you, but you don't have to be a victim of them either.

Build a Support Network

A sense of relatedness and belonging is a huge component of behaviour change and motivation. 

This is the need for relationships, for connectedness, and for interaction with like-minded people. People are more likely to adopt values and behaviours promoted by those to whom they feel connected and in whom they trust.

In the book “Join The Club” by Tina Rosenberg, it suggests that “our personal identity is in part defined by identification with a group or separation from other groups”. Probably why keto, fasting, Crossfit and any other “health-cults” are so powerfully ingrained in peoples behaviour. Their sense of belonging to a group reinforces their behaviours. Peer pressure can be a wonderful tool when used for good rather than evil. 

We want you to share your experience with others on a similar journey and be supported by the coaches and community.

We love the quote: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Name any successful person in any field and I bet they didn’t do it alone. They had any number of supporting people place a significant role in their life. Whether it be teammates, coaches, partners, parents, etc. 

Having a support crew is going to be crucial for your success.

It’s actually aligned with one of the values of FNC under Community.

When it comes to health and fitness goals in particular healthy eating, a common perceived barrier that showed up was a lack of support. 

This included family, friends, and colleagues.

Not only were they unsupportive, but sometimes even going as far as discouraging.

4 Tips for Creating a Support Network:

1. Be clear on your goals. Your own goals. Remind yourself of those during times of temptation or when people are trying to sway you to the darkside.

2. Find your why. 

3. Communicate your goals and your why to those you truly care about and those who are your so called support environment

4. Ignore the comments and actions of those who don’t support you and understand why you want to follow a healthy lifestyle.

Be true to yourself.

Communicate with others.

Support others and surround yourself with people who support you.

Include Plants with Meals

We want to aim for a source of PROTEIN at each meal, then we want to build upon that foundation with some plants.

Plants are NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS (NDFs) 

Vegetables, salads, berries, fruit. These foods are typically lower calorie, high in volume, and provide a wide range of health benefits.

Benefits

• We get a lot of our vitamins,  minerals, antioxidants and fibre from plants. They are low calorie and add volume to our meals.

Portion sizes

• Aim to eat at least 5 fists of veggies and salads sized serves per day as a minimum - the 5 Fists of Fortitude.

• Aim for at least 300 grams (2 medium sized pieces / handfuls of berries) per day as a minimum - the Fortitude 300

Ideal sources

• Vegetables, salads, berries and fruit.

• Aim to eat the rainbow, a variety of different plants and see if you can add to your favourites list over time.

When

• Each meal, though if you do miss plants in one meal just aim to make it up with a bigger portion at another. You might notice the meals without plants aren’t as filling as that’s why having them at each meal is our recommendation.

How to prepare it

• Roast trays of vegetables in the oven and portion them out, make big salads, don’t be afraid to eat them whole. In colder weather, soups and stews are great.

How to shop, keep prices down

• Buy seasonally as they are usually the cheapest options at the time and freshest. Usually what’s on sale is in season. Try not to have a set idea in your head when you go shopping of what you need, buy what’s on sale to cut costs and get variety over time.

EAT THE RAINBOW
Each coloured group of plants are associated with a list of health benefits. Hence why it is important to consume a range of different colours or EAT THE RAINBOW.

Here are a few tips when it comes to adding plants to your meals:

• Start with the ones your enjoy

• You can add flavour to them, eg. Roasting with herbs and spices

• Frozen options are also great

• Tinned options are great backups

• Add them to your smoothies if you don't really like the taste

• Make big veggies sauces with passata (tomato puree) and grated veggies

• Prepare them in a way you enjoy. Don't like boiled broccoli? Try pan frying or roasting it with garlic and some butter or oil.

Only about 7% of Australian adults eat the recommended 5 serves of veggies each day and only about 50% eat the recommended serves of fruit per day.

Plants are the perfect tool to help add to the size of your meals.

Bulk your meals with plants to satisfy your hunger signals and keep you feeling fuller for longer!

Tracking plants

If you are tracking your calories, make it easy and track averages, rather than individual plants.

If using the FNC Diet Builder, you will already be selecting “mixed / averaged” for fruit, berries and veggies.

If using MFP - we’ve added these averages to the food options. Search “teamfnc” when entering your plants to find those options.

Frozen and tinned are great options as well as fresh. Having some 'emergency' frozen veggies and berries, along with some 'emergency' tins of fruit and vegetables is a great idea.

Adding some flavour, despite some Calories and added sugar in sauce, is almost definitely going to be a positive.

There are plenty of low-calorie / low-sugar flavour sauce options. Over time you might even find that you develop a taste for veggies and need less sauce.

Have you heard that fruit makes you fat?

Fat gain occurs when you consume more calories than you burn. It's not gained by the consumption of a single food or food type.

Fruit is very low calorie per bite and quite filling due to it's fibre and water content. It is extremely unlikely that fruit would be the cause of anyone's fat gain. 

Please stop fearing fruit.

Please stop listening to people who tell you to stop eating fruit.

Understand Flavours and Sauces

Flavours and sauces can help make your meals more enjoyable, can help make plants more tasty and there are heaps of lower calorie options available.

Just be aware of sauces, if not controlling portions we can be adding hundreds of calories to our day, even with small amounts of some sauces:

Just be aware that there is a spectrum, from meals that are too bland and boring, which will be hard to stick to all the way through to foods that are super delicious and hard not to overeat.

Herbs, spices, salt and pepper are all basically zero calorie flavour options. Some spice mixtures do have sugar added so just be aware of the calorie content. Try to build your skills in reading labels, notice how many calories per serve and what a serving size actually is.

You might find that your taco spice mix is actually 20 suggested servings and without awareness, might be something that you add a whole packet when cooking.