Calorie counting- a long term solution

Calorie Counting- A Long term Solution

Everyone is so confused when it comes to health and how to keep to a diet. The word “keep” should not feature in the same sentence as I want to lose weight, why? Because you need to ask yourself a very important question. “Do you see yourself on this diet in a year’s time” if the answer is “no” then do not bother attempting a “diet”. I will use a lot of quotation marks in this article because quite simply, a lot of buzz words get thrown around in the health industry. These include terms like clean eating, gluten free, cheat meals and so on…

What I’m going to tell you now is the truth. Whether you like it or not THERE IS NO SHORTCUT. Do not search for one and any news articles that claim this kind of crap are not worth the read. Why you ask, because the media only publish stuff the public want to read or hear and I think that’s pretty obvious these days.

So, let the truth of health begin.

I will start from the top. Losing weight is very simple and it’s a case of actually being bothered. If you have the drive to want to achieve the body that makes you happy then just simply begin to understand why labels are put on food. Now, calorie counting is a chore I will admit, but any other “fad” diet is just another easier option to calorie counting. For example I’ve heard people measuring food out using the palm of their hand for protein, carbs and fats and then when they hit a plateau they simply take away a few carbs. This is calorie counting, but you aren’t using numbers. This form of dieting is not sustainable because you may be taking away too much food at one given time, which isn’t ideal as calories are the fuel you live on.

I swear by My Fitness Pal because it displays your diet in an easy to read format and shows you exactly what is in your food but to be honest if you decide to restrict yourself and the term “restrict” should also not appear in your vocabulary because you shouldn’t have to stop eating anything. You need to learn moderation which is the difference between having once chocolate bar to having three.

Your body gives you an allowance to spend in terms of calories. That’s it. Nothing else. This is why these stupid diets don’t last long term. If you know what your calorie intake is you are 50% already there. Let me make it simple. Let’s say you are given a £5 note every day for lunch. You cannot spend more than that because you don’t have anymore, unless you decide to overspend (overeat) which now means you are spending more than you currently have (calorie limit). If you want to lose weight you can simply spend £4 (note how it’s not really a drastic change. Some people lower there “spend” way too much and begin to hit a plateau quicker and then realise they need to lower spend but are realising they are becoming more hungry and more likely to binge spend).

If everything is gradually decreased you may hit the body you want and begin wondering “hold on, I’m eating more than when I was dieting in the past”. It’s about watching the numbers, the same way you watch the time. You don’t guess when your next meeting is, you keep to a schedule.

Let’s put it into practice. I currently weigh 14stone and have 8% body fat (buy some callipers of amazon for around £15. They are the best purchase I have made) and my maintenance (spend) calories to keep the physique I am at is 2,500 with 5 days training. If I want to lose weight ill begin a 20 week mission (yes, 20 weeks because it’s realistic) to drop some body fat.  I will lower my calories to 2,400 and track my diet and macros (protein, carbs and fats) for a week and see how I get on. 

Protein - 4kal/g

Carbs - 4kcal/g

Fat - 9kcal/g

Alcohol - 7kcal/g 

If you aren’t sure on what the above table means its basic breakdown that explains what each macronutrient equals to in calories. So for example if I have eaten a chicken breast that has 40 grams of protein in it then you simply do the equation 40 x 4 = 160. The 160 is the calories that are in the chicken breast. I will keep stressing that this is a numbers game because it means if you have 2,000 calories to eat in the day then you can essentially eat that chocolate bar you have been eyeing up due to your daily allowance having room to fit it in. Obviously it’s good to eat the healthy foods as you are fuelling you body to get the best out of it, but do not restrict yourself because you will become frustrated that you can’t have the foods you would like.  

Majority of the industry moans that its 80% diet and 20% training. WRONG. Its 100% diet and 10% training because training only assists with the weight loss. (and as we know – we should all give 110% to anything we do). The diet is what keeps the progression clock ticking. You can apply any training you like whether that would be weight training (the best option because you can build a physique that will allow you to branch out into other types of training) and obviously still incorporate cardio but only HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) why again?, because your body will adjust to standard cardio like 40mins on the running machine or cross trainer pretty quickly. You you will have to keep upping your time and let’s face it no one has time for that especially when the return is little. HIIT only lasts 15-20mins and works in intervals which your body cannot adjust itself to because it’s not a constant state of energy expenditure. It happens in bursts which will keep pushing your muscles and energy levels to new heights.

Once you get the hang of everything, it all falls into place and you begin to understand how your body reacts to different types of training and different foods. Trail an error is key. Oh and one last thing if you begin to notice nothing is changing in your weight loss, just drop 50 calories which is equivalent to 10 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fat. That is a big enough difference to kick start the fat furnace.

Don’t become a person who jumps from one diet to another and moan I tried everything but nothing works. Just simply count your calories and you will understand were you went wrong.

Drink 3 litres of water A DAY, so in other words a large Evian bottle twice a day. You will pee a lot but it keeps your digestive system ticking and takes away the confusion that your body may be hungry when actually it was thirsty.


Credit and thanks to Ben Malka for this article and insight into how we can actually sustain our weight loss plans

Project Goal Body - ONELIVE Challenge

Project Goal Body - ONELIVE Challenge

Over the Easter break from university, I undertook an internship, working in the marketing department at Les Mills UK. As a company, they were in the process of counting down to their big ONELIVE tour event in London and so the office had decided to run a 'Get Fit for ONELIVE Challenge' for anyone who wanted to get involved. 

The plan was to complete 3 strength based workouts a week, eat 5 small-medium balanced meals a day and keep refined sugar to a minimum, with one cheat day in the middle of the 6 week programme. Although I knew I was going back to university for the duration of the challenge, with summer coming up, I thought it provided a great opportunity to get myself in tip top shape. With goal setting an extremely important part of any programme (see previous post), I was pretty keen for the challenge. I promised myself to go back to university with the aim of following their guidelines. 

For the past few years now, I have had a less than healthy relationship with food. I would eat super strictly during the week, limit my carb intake and make sure I was exercising at least 5 times a week. My cheat meal on a Saturday would easily turn into a cheat day and occasionally into a cheat weekend. I would binge until I felt sick and make up, if not exceed, my calorie deficit that I had built up throughout the week. I would keep this up for 3-4 weeks, until I just couldn't take it anymore and I'd end up not caring and eating whatever for a good 2 weeks until I worked up the motivation to try and be strict again. And I wonder why I had never been able to get back to my goal body from a few summers ago...

However, I'm not sure what was different this time, but something definitely was. Following the plan, I could start to feel myself worrying much less about food, and exercise in particular. I ended up dropping my quantity of training down to Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday - the days I taught classes, meaning I had more energy to work very hard on those days. I stopped thinking about which meals I was allowed to eat a carb source with and included them in every one of my 4-5 meals a day. I forgot about a 'cheat day' and treated myself to a homemade indulgent snack a day - including pancakes, brownies, muffins, cookies, chocolate mousses. I made sure that none of these contained any refined sugar, so they were a perfect treat both mentally and physically. I experimented with main courses too, trying out new carb sources and ideas for fun dishes rather than the usual plain chicken and vegetables for dinner. In the 6 week programme, I had one evening that I will call a real 'cheat', but unlike normal, I didn't crazily overindulge nor did I feel guilty for it as I really enjoyed my night out. 

ONE LIVE took place a couple of days ago now and it was a real success! Sadly, that does mean that in theory, the 'challenge' is also officially over. However, for me, it was more than just a 6 week stint, as it has really helped to stabilise my relationship with food and exercise. I feel much more comfortable with my diet and I definitely don't feel the need to starve myself of treats throughout the week leading up to an almighty binge anymore. They say you can't out exercise a bad diet and it's so true. Since sorting out my eating patterns, I have been able to limit my training to three times a week and still see my body change in a positive way. 

For the first time in a good two years, I feel genuinely happy with my figure. What's more, I'm so proud of myself for the changes I have made to my lifestyle - eating carbs with every meal, not going on a wild weekend binge etc. With summer quickly approaching and a good few holidays to look forward to, I am so excited for the next few months. I'm looking forward to continuing this healthy lifestyle, trying out new clean treats, without the fear of going crazy and eating all of them in one sitting. I am looking forward to allowing myself a few days off the gym if I want to do something else and not feeling bad for it. But mostly, I am looking forward to just enjoying food again and not over analysing everything I eat. 

I want to thank the Les Mills UK office team for organising the amazing ONELIVE event and the challenge which in turn has given me the push I needed to get back to where I was a few years ago - both mentally and physically. After a great 6 weeks, I couldn't be happier with the results and am looking forward to keeping it up! 

Nice-Cream

Nice-Cream

Since I was a young child, I have always loved Ice-cream. Any flavour, any weather, I'm game!

After the trauma that was my C3 maths A level, I ate a whole tub of ice-cream. As a 2 year old, I used to force my parents to buy me ice-cream at the park in the middle of winter. When on holiday, I formally re-named 4pm as 'ice-cream o'clock'. 

You can quite clearly see, ice-cream is one of favourite treats. Unfortunately, that's all it remains nowadays- a treat. 

However, I have discovered a new, healthy version of ice-cream and it is called 'Nicecream'. It's core ingredient is bananas and other than that, the flavour choice falls down to you. 

Making Nice-cream couldn't be more simple. It is made my freezing bananas and then simply whizzing them up in a blender. You can choose to add other ingredients for variety in flavour. Options I have tried so far include, cocoa powder, peanut butter, berries and they were all great! 

The possibilities for nice-cream are endless. It is genuinely like eating real ice-cream, but without the high fat and refined sugar. You can feel good about yourself, indulging on what appears to be a delicious, creamy dessert, but is quite simply a banana... 

So, with summer on it's way (fingers crossed), give Nice-cream a go and feel good about treating yourself :) 

Easy Energy Balls

Easy Energy Balls

If you are looking for a quick snack, then energy bars can be a great option. However, the bars that you buy in the shops tend to be laden with additives, refined sugar and general rubbish. If you want to be healthy and know exactly what it is you are eating, then the best thing to do is make your own.

It’s so easy to make your own energy balls and takes no time at all. Raid your cupboard of all natural, nutty and fruity ingredients and simply blend them all together and roll into ball shapes. Dip in chocolate or any topping you desire and store in the fridge. You can try out any combination of ingredients that sounds tasty.

Here are some I made the other day. I literally opened my cupboard, pulled out a variety of bags including; ground almonds, flaked almonds, shredded coconut, cashew nuts and dates. Blended them all together with a little Sweet freedom and rolled them into balls. I then melted some coconut oil with cacao powder and dipped in the energy balls, covering the tops.

They don’t look like anything special you would serve at a dinner party, but they really do taste great and give you a quick boost! Perfect as a pre-workout snack.

(In fact, Mr Dave Kyle, Les Mills UK head trainer, just had 2 of mine before his workout – I’m basically famous!)

Calories - the Simple Truth

Calories - The Simple Truth

A month or so ago, I attended a nutrition lecture by Martin MacDonald at my university. He is the founder of Mac Nutrition and has worked with a range of celebs including Vicky Pattison, Zoe Smith and Jenifer Ellison. He asked us as an audience to suggest topics for him to discuss, some of which were of great interest to me and others less so.

Overall, I thought that the talk was really informative, although occasionally topics were touched upon, sparked my curiosity and unfortunately no further detail was given.  However, one specific idea has stayed with me over the past month and I thought I would share it with you.

Along with the rest of the population, I am aware that there are good, healthy foods and bad, not so healthy foods. I am sure that I am not alone in telling myself that as long as I’m eating the good stuff, and limiting the bad stuff, I will keep at a healthy weight. Whilst to an extent this is true, there is another dimension to this idea. What Martin was touching on was that at the end of the day, calories are calories, and it doesn't matter where they come from, if you eat more than you burn, you will gain weight.

I've thought about this idea for a while now and I can’t quite get my head around it.

Hypothetically, let’s say that I eat 1875 calories a day, comprised of exactly the same macro nutrients day in day out. In order to maintain my weight, I need to eat 2000 calories and so I decide to add in a snack. Let’s take two scenarios. For one month, I eat half a Mars Bar every day – 125 calories worth of saturated fat and refined sugar. For another month, I snack on a wholegrain slice of toast with a generous helping of pure peanut butter – 250 calories perhaps. At the end of each month, what would be the outcome with regards to my weight?

 

  v

Logic tells us that the peanut butter sandwich is a much healthier option and so the month where I eat a Mars Bar a day should be the one where I gain weight. This is exactly what I would assume as well. However, by Martin’s theory, by choosing the Mars Bar, I am staying within my calorie limit. Opting for the peanut butter sandwich on the other hand, takes me over by 125 calories a day. Calories are calories, and if we eat a in a surplus then it doesn't matter where they come from, we will gain weight.

In all honesty I don’t know the answer to this scenario. The powers of logic tell me that a Mars Bar a day can’t be a healthy way to live, but if you can eat one and keep within your calorie limit, then in theory it shouldn't cause a problem with regards to weight gain.

I think what I took away from this lecture was that as much as you do need to focus on sugar content and fat content for health, if you are looking for a specific weight goal (whether it be losing, maintaining or gaining), it doesn't massively matter which macro nutrient you get the calories from. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat in a calorie deficit. If you want to maintain weight, then you cannot eat too much or too little. If you want to gain weight, you have to eat in a calorie surplus.

Despite understanding this theory in principle, I can’t get my head around being allowed to eat a Mars Bar every day, assuming I don’t eat over my calories from other foods. However, it has made me much more aware about the portion sizes I am eating. I used to scoff down a huge salad of chicken breasts covered in peanut sauce with nuts and seeds and a variety of fruits and vegetable toppings. I’d think that because it was just a salad full of chicken and healthy fats, it was fine. I couldn't understand why I wasn't losing weight. The answer must have been calories. Although it was all good for me on the inside, as I was eating more calories than I should, I couldn't shift the weight.

Since the lecture I have definitely started to think more carefully about how much peanut butter I put on my toast (and other general portion size things of course). No matter how many ‘healthy fats’ I tell myself PB contains, if I eat too much of it, it can’t be good for me weight-loss

Goal setting for our goal body

Goal Setting for Our Goal Body

'The trouble with not having a goal, is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.' (Bill Copeland).

I recently came across this quotation and it got me thinking. How often have we wanted something, attempted to go after it and not quite made it? What percentage of those times had we actually set clear short term goals in our minds, planning how we were going to get there? More often than not, the 'burning desire' to achieve something was most likely a vague want that we would have been moderately pleased to reach. 

Goals are what drive us. They keep us focussed on an ultimate aim and bring meaning and purpose into our lives. Without them, we are merely bobbing along, doing odd jobs, not working towards anything in particular. Of course this relates to all aspects of life, but I wanted to discuss it in terms of health and fitness. 

For some people, being fit, toned, healthy etc is a goal in itself and they are more than happy to keep this in their head and work towards it, both in the gym and in the kitchen. They are what is called 'intrinsically focussed' - working towards something for themselves, internally. Unfortunately for the majority of us, internal rewards aren't strong enough and we need something more tangible to drive us. 

This past week I have eaten extremely cleanly, consuming balanced meals of 350-400 calories every 3-4 hours. After a few previous weeks of messy eating, I am feeling a lot better and happier in myself and my body. But how long is this going to last? I know I am prone to binging and undulating between periods of clean and unclean eating. Why will it be any different this time? I started to think about this in more detail and honestly I don't think it will be any different. I will get bored of such structured, balanced meals after another week or so and head straight for the sugary cereal, chocolate bars, biscuits etc. This will last 4-7 days and then I will promise to eat well again until I get bored of it. The cycle continues. 2 steps forwards, 3 steps back. 

The problem is, I have little intrinsic focus and need something external to give me motivation. A reason to eat cleanly and work hard in the gym for an extended period of time. Something like a beach body for a holiday, a party to look good for or a new dress to fit into. Unfortunately I don't have any of these coming up and summer seems just that little bit too far away. I am currently struggling to think of something to keep me going and as much as I wish, simply being confident in my body isn't a strong enough desire to keep me working hard long term. I also enjoy eating big portions a little too much.

What I am trying to get at, is that a lot of us can't cope with long term, internal goals. As superficial as it sounds, giving up is all too easy and without something in the near future to aim for, the thought of working hard long term is just too difficult. 

If this is sounding all too familiar, don't start fretting yet. Just because we don't have strong enough long term motivation to keep going, doesn't mean we can't eventually get to where we want to be. The key is to work one step at a time focussing on the short term battles.

I am currently trying to be positive and think of an event in the next month to work towards because I do want to be fit, healthy and happy in my body - I'm just not strong enough to effectively set my sights that far away. I urge you to do the same. Pick a day in the near future where you want to feel amazing in your body and be the envy of everyone in the room. Work for that day and once it's over, set another. Don't keep running up and down the field and never scoring. 

National Eating Disorder Week

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

I'm not sure how many of you know, but this week is National Eating Disorder Awareness week, where the aim is to spread knowledge of eating disorders and raise money to help combat them.

Eating disorders are something that have always interested me. Although I do not specifically have one, for a while now I have thought about food in a very precise, detailed manner. I study food labels, choose meals based on nutritional content and calories and keep tabs on my body image. I think about what I am going to have for my next meal, go through periods where I monitor exactly what I am eating and go on rampant binges where I consume everything in sight now and again. I am fully aware that I show traits of someone with an ED, but I have never allowed it to become an unhealthy obsession that gets out of control. Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone as people all over the world are suffering from a variety of eating disorders, leading to very extreme health issues.

In my opinion, the media plays a huge part in the onset of an eating disorder. We as a society are being constantly bombarded with messages about losing weight. We spend our time scrolling through pictures of beautiful models posed for online shopping catalogues looking amazing in their size 6 outfits. There is always a story about the latest celeb to loose half their body weight in magazines and Twitter and Instagram are full of the best exercises to drop belly fat. How on earth is anyone supposed to be focussed on anything other than losing weight?

Our society isn't particularly helpful when it comes to overcoming an ED either - mainly for the same reasons. When you can't help but overanalyse the food you are putting in your body anyway and everyone around you is talking about eating 'low carb', calorie restricting and wanting to lose weight for summer, it is twice as hard to do exactly the opposite, even if it is what's best for you. You can't just snap your fingers and suddenly that voice in your head telling you to restrict goes away. It is a constant battle to overcome your own thoughts, let alone go against everything that is being said in the media about losing weight. Since when was 'gaining weight' something to be happy with?

During this week I think it is really important to spread awareness of EDs. Knowing how to spot the onset of them, how to go about starting a recovery process and also just realising that you are not alone and there are people to speak to who can help. More people than you know have struggled with eating problems and can really relate and want to help. Eating disorders go far beyond just anorexia and bulimia and the more we know about them, the more we can start to advertise the importance of weight gain, eating healthy carbs and sticking to your calorie guidelines. Recently we have made a huge step, believing strong is the new skinny- therefore promoting gym work, eating protein and sticking to macros. We need to keep this up and hopefully we can make life easier for ED recovery and limit the number of people suffering.

I am donating to B-eat to help people along their journey and spread awareness of eating disorders. I would love if you could join me:

Give them a call on 01603 753308 or visit their website https://www.b-eat.co.uk/support-us/donations

Fat & Sugar - Coming to our senses

Fat & Sugar- Coming to Our Senses

For as long as I can remember, fat has been thought of as the nutrient demon among us. People regularly check food labels to see fat and saturated fat contents and will always opt for 'low fat' options over regular varieties. 

This phenomena has been prevalent since the 1980s, when the government convinced the population that high fat diets were to blame for Heart Disease. We were told to reduce our fat intake to 30% and increase our carbohydrate intake to make up for the loss of daily calories, single handily destroying the UK dairy industry. 

If you have read my previous articles - detailing the importance of dietary fats and the dangers of sugar carbohydrates-  you'll know my opinions on this worldly accepted concept. I will go out of my way to add healthy fats into my diet, consuming nuts, avocados, olive oils etc. When I look at food labels, my eyes will be drawn to sugar levels before anything else and I will rarely look at fat content. It astounds me that people can still be under the illusion that a low fat, high carb diet is the way to go and this is a message I am constantly trying to spread - even if I'm fighting a long hard battle. 

However, is today the day where that fight becomes a whole lot easier? 

The media have finally released information scrutinising the dietary guideline advice that was given out back in 1983. They say that the advice to decrease fat content to 30% was off the back of no data whatsoever. There was in fact no evidence to suggest that a high fat diet leads to an increase in cholesterol, heart disease or heart related deaths. They have even taken it as far as saying the advice to increase carbohydrate consumption in place of fat, could in part have led to the obesity epidemic that we are in now. People became too obsessed with limiting fat levels - which as we are starting to understand, do not make you fat - and weren't concerned enough with the amount of sugar they were consuming - which as we now know, have lots of fat storing properties. 

Of course this doesn't mean you have free rain to consume high quantities of saturated fat without any health worries. What it does mean however is that you need to be more wary of other macronutients and not compromise on sugar content for slightly less fat. 

I am extremely glad that this information has come out today. Although there are a large number of us who understand the truth about sugar and fat, the media has been too powerful for the message to really sink in worldwide. Hopefully, if we can get the media to push this new message, it shouldn't be too long until we can begin to change people's deep rooted beliefs. 

Full details of the recall on these advice guidelines can be read here

Cheat Clean

Cheat Clean

There are multiple reasons why one day you might want to stray from your normal, clean eating pattern. Be it a bad day at the office, a way to celebrate some good news or quite simply you are craving it. Unfortunately, no matter how strong your need to eat whatever you like is, for some reason lots of us can't help but feel guilty afterwards and how unfair is that? After a week of strict eating, one bad meal realistically isn't going to change any of the hard work, but yet we find it easy to feel bad about ourselves for doing so. 

I have suffered from this feeling many times, mainly down to my portion control. If I have gone without any 'bad food' for a while, once I get a taste for it, I find it hard to stop, even when I am stuffed. The original desire for the food is usually long gone and all that's left is the taste of guilt.  

However, I have recently come up with a plan. Looking through many healthy eating accounts on instagram, I have come to realise it is totally possible work treats into daily life if you keep them clean and healthy. This way you can have all the joy of treating yourself, without the after guilt. This could potentially eliminate cravings and binges that happen as a result. I decided to look more closely into it and give it a go.

Firstly, I went out and restocked my cupboard with 10 delicious, raw, healthy ingredients:

1. Coconut oil

2. Coconut flour

3. Almond flour

4. Lots of unsalted, untreated nuts – eg. cashews, almonds, pecans etc

5. Almond Milk

6. Cacao Powder

7. Agave Nectar/Honey

8. Any flavour Nut butter

9. Oats

10. Dates

Secondly, I found some recipes which I wanted to replicate and test out and thirdly I started creating some magic. Let me share these with you

1. Raw Twixt Bar Bites 

For the ultimate chocolate lover, these no bake 4 layer bites are unbelievably delicious, containing only raw, healthy ingredients

Bottom Brownie layer

Blend:

25g Almonds, 25g pecans, 12.5g agave nectar, Drop chocolate extract

2nd Caramel layer

Blend and layer:

1tbsp melted coconut oil, 25dates, 1tbsp almond milk

3rd Cookie Layer

 Blend and layer: 

25g cashews, 25g almonds, 1.5tbsp agave nectar, dash vanilla extract

Chocolate Coat

 Mix and drizzle over cookie layer: tbsp raw cacao powder, 1.5tbsp agave nectar, dash coconut oil

Nutty Apple Pie

These apple pies are perfect for a treat after dinner, containing absolutely no refined sugar or processed carbs. Just what you want from a guilt free delicious dessert.

Nutty Base

Mix:

8 Dates, 25g cashews, 25g pecans

Apple Filling

Peel and cut up some cooking apples and place in the microwave until soft and juicy. Add cinnamon if you want and fill the tarts.

Place in the oven at 180 degrees for 5-10min and enjoy!

3. Nutty Ganache Slices

Bottom Brownie Layer

Blend:

6 dates, 100g oats, 40g mixed nuts, 4tbsp almond milk

Ganache Top

Mix:

1/2tbsp melted coconut oil, 1.5tbsp cacao powder, 1tbsp agave nectar

In 7 days, I ate all 3 of these desserts, never once feeling at all guilty for doing so. Nor did I feel the need to binge at any point, because I knew these weren't specific one off tastes which would have to last a week until the next cheat meal. None of these desserts have anything bad in them- no refined sugar or processed rubbish etc. In essence they were no different from eating a bowl of yoghurt with a handful of dried fruit, nuts and seeds. The only difference was the taste and joy factor that they brought. Indeed I have seen great results this week with my body image and haven't felt like adding in these treats has had any bad impact. 

I urge you to give this a go and try to 'cheat clean'. This way it doesn't have to be a one off treat, as it can be worked into your normal day to day diet. Have a look through the people I follow on instagram ( @nextstopfit4 ), because there are some amazing accounts with some great looking recipes. 

Good luck and let me know how you guys get on making these recipes or trying out your own. Hopefully this way we can beat that guilty feeling and start to feel good about treating ourselves! 

Email: nextstopfit@hotmail.com

Tweet: @nextstopfit4

Insta: @nextstopfit4