So that’s WEEK 1 in the bag, went pretty well I thought, how about you? I did manage a good breakfast everyday, didn’t drink too much booze (just a couple of drinks on Fri and Sat), ate good stuff most of the week and didn’t eat too much cheese (my achilles heel), well not yet anyway, there's still time!!!!
This week I'm bringing in the next two Stealth Health key concepts Nutri Foods and Carb Sense. Both of these ideas help to support Eating with Awareness which we covered last week, they could almost be considered a subset of EWA because in the context of ‘making better choices’ it helps to develop an innate sense of the foods that are intrinsically beneficial so you can steer your eating in that direction.
Starting with Nutri Foods, these are foods that score high on the Nutrient Density Index (that is, how “rich” an individual food item is in nutrients per calorie consumed), berries, leafy veg, eggs - you get the idea. It took me a few months when I started trying to sort out my eating back in 2012 to find the Nutri Foods I loved and that would become the backbone of a new way of eating. At the time I didn’t realise this process was in train. It was only after having done a lot of research and trial and error in the kitchen that I noticed I had a new 'capsule wardrobe' of ingredients, things I always had on hand to make eating well a daily reality. I'll share my must-have Nutri Foods and a recipe or two as we progress through next week so stay tuned.
The second key concept for this week (to recap there are 8 in total, this is the 4th) is Carb Sense. Carbs have had bad press in recent years, well actually since 1999 when Robert Atkins published the Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, and the poor old potato market took a dive that it still hasn't recovered from. So I want to make it clear that carbs are good, in fact they are essential, they provide much needed energy and are also really important for endocrine (that’s hormones to you and I) balance in midlife women. Very low carb diets - whilst they can be useful in specific situations ideally, under medical supervision, for example if you are pre-diabetic or already T2D - are not a sustainable way to achieve weight loss.
Now I know what you're thinking, eating carbs and weight loss do not go together and to a certain extent this is true, but only because often our diets are skewed too far in favour of carbs to begin with! It’s all about balance and understanding the types of carbs that are beneficial. All carbs are not made equal when it comes to nutrition and again I will be going in to more detail on this as the week progresses.
So the plan for this week is to keep going with Breakfast is Best – you can repeat the breakfasts from last week or if you are on a roll seek out some new healthy breakfast options. I made a delicious Mexican Breakfast Bowl this morning so why not give it a go, and remember to keep practising Eating with Awareness, focusing on making those healthy choices by incorporating more Nutri Foods and applying a bit of Carb Sense.
So that’s a little taster of what this week has in store. Now, I might just have a little sliver of cheese ...
Sam xx
P.S. If you have any feedback or comments on the blog so far or there are any questions you have or areas you’d like me to cover in future posts please do let me know in the comments.