Hi There,
Welcome to edition 5 of the Pound 4 Pound Personal Training Newsletter. We have something a little different for you this edition. I have handed the keyboard (and responsibility) over to my lovely wife Shelley who has written not only an interesting success story but also a highly informative article!
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome all the wonderful new starters I now have in the gym, I look forward to helping you all achieve your health, fitness, weight loss and fat loss goals over the next few months!
I will now hand you over to Shelley Dargan…….
FOODS WE LOVE- THE HEALTHY WAY
When it comes to making meal choices that are healthy and low in calories, it’s not a hard task! In fact it is just as easy as making the “wrong” choice. Making the “right” decision is about thinking “outside the square” and getting to know food.
Eating the “right” way is not about giving up the foods you love, it is about making what you love healthier buy using different ingredients and cooking the food a different way to make it work for you!
For example: I LOVE chicken schnitzel, Wedges & Gravy. When I deep fry the Schnitzel & Wedges that amounts to a massive 1200 calories (my daily intake should be 1200!). By oven baking the wedges & shallow frying the schnitzel (with minimum oil or coconut oil) this cuts the calories in half! So just by changing the way it’s cooked it is not that bad of a choice to eat my favourite meal!
Another example: I LOVE creamy pastas (who doesn’t?). Creamy pastas are not a great decision for someone watching their calories. However if you feel that you HAVE to have a nice creamy pasta simply replace the cream with LIGHT evaporative milk and add lots of veggies. The family favourite dish then becomes much lower in calories for the whole family to enjoy.
Here a few quick ideas that you may be able to incorporate into your everyday lifestyle-
· Like White toast with butter & vegemite? Why not replace with wholemeal bread toast with a spread of cottage cheese – YUM!
· Feel like a full fat Latte? Select a Skim option or why not have a cup of tea with no sugar. When having hot drinks also try to cut down on your sugar. This will save quite a few calories over the space of a day. Instead of a full teaspoon of sugar try half a teaspoon.
· Replace high sugar fruits with fresh crispy raw vegies
· Chicken Salad Sandwich for Lunch – replace with a chicken salad with lots of crunchy vegies
· Potato chips – replace with carrot or celery sticks with a slick of cream cheese or hommus – this is so YUM!!!
· Mash Potato (everyone’s favourite) – replace with mashed pumpkin or mashed sweet potato. Ensure mash has skim milk with minimal butter. You can also you evaporated milk here instead of the milk & butter
· White wine – replace with Red wine (red wine has less calories) try to stick with just 100mls a night
· Bourbon & Coke – replace coke with a diet version. This will automatically cut 100 calories from your beverage. This can go with any mixed drink (DIET option at all times)
When it comes to serving up your meal, ensure at least half your plate if full of vegies or salad. Limit your meat portion to 100g per serving and if you NEED to have pasta or potato limit the serving to the size of your fist or less if you are SERIOUS about a GREAT body!
If you MUST have dessert cut your portion size in half or even just 3 spoonfuls you will be amazed how satisfied you will be with just a small amount of a sweet dessert. And the best thing is you won’t have that horrible sick feeling afterwards!
If you like a snack at the end of the night while watching your favourite TV show, replace it with a nice cup of tea (no sugar!). You will get rid of that feeling that you want something and will be about a quarter of the calories that you intended to consume.
So as you can see just a few changes will have you well on your way to reaching your goal weight & body.
A great tool to assist you is to log onto www.calorieking.com you can type in whatever food item you like and the site will give you all the details on that item.
So give it a go! Get to know your food and you will be much happier for it!
My success story- by Shelley Dargan
Over the years I had maintained my fitness and weight fairly easily. I had a job where I was on my feet all day, worked out 5 days a week and ate healthily.
Then I got a new job sitting at a computer all day. I put a couple of kilos on which I expected. It wasn’t until we got back from overseas that I weighed in and realized I had put on almost 9 kilos in just under 4 years! What the??? It was time to shift those extra kilos and quickly!
Firstly I questioned myself – what went wrong? I worked out I ate well, worked out, did all the right things but I had not changed my portion sizes with the change of job. I was still eating 100 times a day and not using up those calories.
So I then went to Steve and said ok, let’s do this! Steve put me on a measly 1200 calories a day with plenty of exercise. It was a little hard at first with just 1200 calories but it was easy once I worked out the right foods and kept track of what I was eating. In the 1st week I dropped 1.5kg. Things were looking up!
After 4 weeks I had to get Steve to up my calories as I was STARVING all the time! He gave me an extra 200 calories and I was happy!
Week after week I worked at it and 4 months later I reached my goal of 62 kilos. I was ecstatic! My clothes looked so good on me and felt much better, but it didn’t stop there…it just kept coming off! Now my clothes are all too big & baggy!
At the moment I am trying to eat up and gain and extra kilo or 2 so that my clothes fit but it’s really not working!!!!
Oh Well, I must go shopping now! I need some new clothes to fit my new fab body!!
Thanks Stevie…You’re the best!
Example of a day with under 1300 calories
2 Slices of Wholegrain Toast with Butter & Vegemite – 226 Calories
Cup of tea with Skim Milk – 20 Calories
1 Apple – 70 Calories
1 Tub of Lite Forme Yoghurt – 71 Calories
2 Slices of ham off the Bone – (100g) – 112 Calories
100g Frozen Veggies – 86 Calories
1 Skim Milk Latté with 1 teaspoon Sugar – 56 Calories
Beef Casserole – 644 Calories
Total – 1285 Calories
Steve’s notes: To date Shelley has achieved the following results: She has lost 9kg (59.7kg), 6% body fat (bringing her down to a low 17%); her BMI has dropped from overweight down to healthy range. In addition to this she has lost the following measurements: 6cm off both her arms, 1.5cm off both her calves, 13cm (WOW) off her waist at the narrowest point, 9cm off her waist at the widest point, 4cm off her chest and an amazing 10cm off each of her thighs!
Congratulations Shelley you have certainly done the hard yards and you are now reaping the rewards!
Steve and Shelley Dargan
Pound 4 Pound Personal Training
“You will HATE me, but you will LOVE the results”