For the past six months my exercise regime has been slashed to a minimum by an annoying stress fracture in my foot. Stress fractures are an over-use injury and my particular one was called a ‘march fracture’ because armies who marched long distances often suffered them. In my case it was vanity – some flimsy, pretty sandals which I teetered around on every day for four or five months. It’s taught me an important fashion guideline. Similar to the number one dietary guideline ‘eat a variety of foods’ my new mantra is ‘wear a variety of shoes’!

[tweetmeme]“No walking or running for at least three months,” my physiotherapist commanded me. I was devastated. How could I cope without even a walk in the fresh air and sunshine? And how would I stop from morphing into the Michelin man? Overnight I cut out 25km of running and 10km of walking each week. All I had left was 5km of swimming and some Pilates. I went through a few months of exercise withdrawal before I finally settled comfortably into slothfulness. It’s been great sleeping in until 6.45am rather than dragging myself into the icy dark streets at 5.30. And the surprising thing is that I didn’t gain any more bulges than I usually do over winter. What was my secret? Don’t eat after dinner at night. It’s easier said than done so here are my top five tips for resisting the after dinner nibble urge.

• 1. Brush your teeth straight after dinner
• 2. Keep your tight jeans or skirt on when you get home rather than slipping into some sloppy, spacious track pants
• 3. Do some exercise after dinner. I would go to Pilates one night and swimming another night. It really helps to do this with a friend so you stay committed. If the evenings are light, walking or tennis with a friend are also great options. I’ll be trying these soon now that daylight saving has started in NZ.
• 4. Eat a reasonable sized lunch which includes protein and ideally a vinaigrette dressing. Protein has lasting power and vinegar lowers the glycemic index which also makes the meal last longer. Yesterday I went out for lunch and had a delicious salad of grilled salmon on baby spinach leaves with a soy sauce, ginger and lime dressing. I wasn’t hungry until 8pm! If you can’t have a decent lunch, have protein mid-afternoon. Try sushi or a handful of raw nuts.
• 5. Go to bed early and read a good book. Compared to blobbing in front of TV with a block of chocolate you’re more likely to expand your mind and shrink your stomach!

You are trying to lose weight and are about to go out for dinner. What do you choose? Salad or vegetables, vegetarian pasta or veal masala? So much depends on how it’s been cooked and what’s been added. Vegetarian pasta in a tomato-based sauce with a salad sounds low in kilojoules but if the vegetables are pre-roasted in oil, the tomato sauce has been laced with cream, the salad is swimming in dressing and cheese smothers the lot, perhaps good old meat and vegetables would have been a better choice. Here are a few healthy eating out tips to help you skip the lurking kilojoules in restaurant food.

• Order water for the table and drink at least one glass for every glass of wine. This helps to fill you up and slow down your eating – and drinking!
• Order plain bread (or toast at breakfast) with the butter or olive oil served separately. Garlic, herb or pizza bread has the fat already added.
• If the meal you are ordering comes with a sauce, ask if it is creamy. Even tomato sauces are often ‘finished’ with cream. A 50 ml dash of cream (less than ¼ cup) adds an extra five teaspoons of fat to the sauce!
• The same applies to soup. Ask if it is made with cream. Even tomato and vegetable soups sometimes have cream or butter added.
• Poached eggs are a good egg choice – unless it’s ‘eggs benedict’ wit all that creamy sauce. Scrambled eggs are often made with cream to give that creamy texture.
• Order extra vegetables or salad.
• At Asian restaurants, choose stir-fried dishes with extra vegetables.
• Check if curries are made with coconut cream which has lots of artery clogging saturated fat.
• Most sweet and sour dishes use meat or fish which has been pre-fried which adds extra fat.
• If you feel full or don’t love the flavour of something, it’s OK to leave some food on your plate. No-one will growl at you!
• If you are planning on eating dessert, order an entrée with side serve of salad or vegetables rather than a main.
• Best desserts are fresh fruit, sorbet or coffee with biscotti.
• If you need a chocolate fix, order a trim hot chocolate for dessert.
• Follow the 3 S’s rule: choose small serves, share large serves and save some for later.

“Lose 20 kg in 12 weeks.” That was the advice a GP doctor gave one of her patients last week. Is it possible to do this? Yes – but you would have to go on that 4-letter word – a diet! And quite a strict one. The worst thing about ‘going on a diet’ is that you go off it. It’s far better to make small changes that, if you stick with them for a few weeks, turn into new healthy eating habits. Remember the fable of the hare and the tortoise? Slow and steady wins the race!

The ideal rate of weight loss is 0.5 – 1 kg (1.1-2.2 pounds) a week. Any more than that and you will also be losing muscle and water. Standing on the scales doesn’t tell you whether you have lost fat or muscle. That’s why some people actually gain weight when they start increasing exercise. They are building muscle which weighs more than fat. A better way to check whether you are losing fat is to check how tight your clothes feel. In winter my clothes feel as though they have shrunk but when summer arrives, thank goodness they miraculously loosen up again. It’s easier to blame the clothes than the cakes and chocolate!

Too much fat around the tummy increases the risk of all those nasty heath problems – heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Instead of the scales grab a tape measure and check your waist circumference. For good health, women need to keep it under 90 cm (35 inches) and men under 100cm (40 inches).

I’ve just come back from a relaxing weekend at my parent’s home – walking on the beach, basking in the sun at outdoor cafes, talking a lot – and eating soup. My mum, who loves no-fuss cooking, whipped up this simple, healthy soup in 10 minutes for dinner. It’s really low in calories and full of soluble fibre from the lentils – great for weight control, diabetes and high cholesterol.

Barbara Rolls, a professor with the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, looked at the effect of eating soup before a pasta meal. She found that eating vegetable soup (pureed or chunky) before a meal can lower energy intake at the meal by 20%. It makes sense that eating a large volume of a food containing few calories, such as soup or salad, at the start of a meal means you are too full to eat much of the main dinner. All those vegetables are good for weight control and great for a strong immune system. The trick is to eat them before the meal.

1/2 cup red lentils

2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 leek, finely sliced

2 large  carrots, chopped

1 litre chicken stock

Boil together for 10 minutes.

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Related:

Soup nutrition by Aussie nutritionist, Catherine Saxelby

My other soup article (recipe)