Manage Your Weight, Energy and Mood! – Elsa’s Nutrition advice

In this weeks episode of ‘How Healthy Are You?’ I help self confessed serial dieter Nicole Ryan turn away from a lifetime of quick fix diets. Nicole, like many clients I see, felt like she was stuck in a vicious cycle. “I feel tired all the time”, “my weight won’t budge”, “I just can’t resist my sweet cravings”, sound familiar? These are the most common words I hear from clients similar to Nicole who are struggling with their weight and energy levels. And I always tell them the same thing – losing weight isn’t difficult as long as you work with and not against your body’s natural design.

Blood Sugar Balance:

The key to long term weight management is stable blood sugar levels. Truly. When you get that piece in check all else starts to fall into place: your energy levels soar, your sweet cravings disappear, your mood stabilizes and your weight drops off. When we eat sugary foods like sweets, soft drinks, cakes, biscuits etc. our blood sugar levels rise rapidly giving us what’s called a ‘sugar rush’. This is effectively a false energy which is very short lived. Unfortunately, for every up there is a down, hence the subsequent sugar crash causing our energy levels to plummet and further cravings, the mid afternoon slump being a classic example.

But it’s not just sugary foods which cause problems. Refined carbohydrates like white bread, cereals, white pasta or rice have a similar effect in that the body converts them into sugar very quickly The problem with regularly consuming these types of foods is that they cause our blood sugar levels to go up and down like a seesaw which has three major effects: Firstly, it wreaks havoc on our energy levels, secondly it causes constant strong cravings for sweet and starchy foods and thirdly it makes it virtually impossible to lose weight as our body goes into ‘fat storing mode’– It’s a vicious cycle!

How to break the vicious cycle:

I designed a tailor made diet for Nicole but here are some basic principles which will kick start you in the right direction:

No. 1: Reduce the amount of sugar and refined carbohydrates in the diet.

Replace white bread, cereals, rice and pasta with wholegrain varieties and limit carbohydrates to one quarter of your plate at meal times. Avoid eating foods high in sugar such as cakes, biscuits, fruit juices and chocolate. If you simply must have something sweet, replace milk chocolate with a couple of squares of good quality dark chocolate which contains less sugar.

No. 2: Include protein with every meal and snack.

Protein can help balance our blood sugar and thus reduces cravings for starchy and sweet foods significantly. Sources of protein include meat, fish, eggs and dairy. Ideally, focus more on vegetable sources of
protein such as nuts, seeds, beans and lentils.

No. 3: Do not allow long gaps in-between meals.

3 meals per day and 2 snacks is ideal. Always make sure to have healthy snacks close to hand so you have no excuse when temptation strikes! Healthy snacks options include a handful of nuts with a piece of fruit, hummus on an oat cake or natural yogurt with berries.

For an individual consultation:
Email info@elsajonesnutrition.ie or visit www.elsajonesnutrition.ie

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