Well winter has certainly hit over the past few days, timed perfectly with our arrival home. Going from 42 degrees last week to 10 degrees today has certainly been a shock. It has also been more of a challenge to get back into better eating habits to knock off the few kilos that attached themselves to me while we were away.

I started the holiday with fairly good intentions, but as the weeks went by the resolve weakened accordingly. By the end of the 6 or so weeks my attitude had gone from “I’ll just be careful” to “I’ll sort it out when I get home”! I’m sure you can relate.

No amount of walking, and I was averaging 20,000 steps per day (best day was 32,000 steps), could keep up with the extras. It doesn’t bear thinking about what would have happened without all those steps! It goes to prove without a shadow of doubt that what goes in our mouth determines what happens, one way or another.

Like anyone else wanting to lose fat, the first thing has been to do some meal planning and preparation, especially with the colder weather and wanting to eat more substantial meals. I love having a meal or two in the fridge or freezer, meaning that only veggies need to be prepared on the night.

Here are some suggestions for easy meals to make ahead.

• Roast chicken bought or cooked yourself. You can have hot chicken + veggies one night then use leftovers in:
  - Add shredded chicken to bowls of thick veggie soup, e.g. Roast Veggie and Chicken Soup
  - Make a ratatouille type veggie mixture and add chicken to it a hearty vegetable base mixture
  - Make a stir fry veggie mix and add shredded chicken to it
  - Make lettuce ‘wraps’ for lunch and add chicken, relish + veggie sticks

• Put a big piece of meat (bolar roast, leg of lamb, piece of pork roast, whole chicken) in the slow cooker, add a tin of tomatoes and some chopped veggies + seasoning and let it do its thing

• Make a large batch of bolognaise type lean mince sauce to serve with steamed veggies and cauliflower rice, or starchy veggies. The flavour improves on keeping.

• Mince is so versatile, here’s a recipe for a quick, easy curried mince

• For a simple, but tasty roast chicken, spread pesto and chopped garlic on the skin and roast. Skin off before serving if not eating high fat, low carb.

Planning and organisation is key to success for healthy eating.

Plan, shop, prepare, enjoy!

Don’t forget that frozen veggies are just as nutritious as fresh ones, so keep a couple of bags in the freezer for days when you don’t have enough fresh veggies on hand. There is a huge selection available now.

Are you eating for the right reason?

Winter is an even more challenging time to stay on track with healthy eating because we are inside more, it is cold and the nights are long. Most people admit to eating because they are bored. When you have time on your hands what do you think of? Certainly not dropping to the floor and doing 20 press ups. Nope, the good old fridge and pantry call to us and all too often we respond. How do we handle this?

The three D’s come into play here.

• Delay - give yourself permission to eat, but make yourself wait for 20 minutes.

• Distract - in that 20 minute time frame

• Do something else - get out of the kitchen or away from the source of food you are thinking of eating and do something that distracts you from thinking about food. It might be surfing the net, checking out a possible dream holiday destination, emailing or calling someone, rugging up and going for a quick walk around the block. Anything that changes your mindset so that if you aren’t genuinely hungry you forget that you were going to snack on something.

It is all too easy to eat mindlessly just because you can. Aim to not have tempting food easily available.

Summer bodies are made in winter

We’ve all probably heard this, but it is true. Why wait until November to start panicking about getting into shape for Christmas? There is so much less pressure if you make a start now and slowly, but consistently make positive changes to your diet and lifestyle.

Please don’t feel awkward or embarrassed if you’ve gone off the rails a bit over winter, it really doesn’t matter, it is what you decide to do next that does. I’d love to help you, so let’s get together and make a start.

Contact me now for an appointment, I’m looking forward to seeing you.