Hobart Personal Trainer | Hobart Fat Loss | Hobart Personal Training

Let’s ring in the new year with some back to basics fat loss advice.

Fat loss is simple. Tell yourself this until you actually believe it.

You probably already know what you need to do and there is no need to be looking for the latest greatest method because the tried and tested basics work every time.

Here’s 20 quick tips to get you on track straight away. Feel free to leave some more in the comments section below as well. 

1. Eat more fish

2. Eat more eggs

3. Eat more cottage cheese

4. Eat more nuts

5. Eat more green vegetables

6. Eat more berries

7. Eat more fruit

8. Eat less CRAP -> Avoid these 26 Foods

9. Drink more tea -> Add your favourite tea to the list

10. Drink more water

11. Never add sugar to anything

12. Take your fish oil

13. Take a good multi vitamin

14. Train with intensity (high intensity that is, not low intensity!)

15. Train the whole body

16. Train your weaknesses more than you train your strengths

17. Master body weight exercises (See point 16)

18. Set a personal best every workout

19. Be consistent

20. Be consistent (No I didn’t get lazy, nor is that a typo. Be consistent dammit. Don’t be saying “I’m just getting back into it” once a month. Be saying “I haven’t missed a workout or messed up my eating this month”. Do everything on this list CONSISTENLY to make 2010 your best year ever.

Now tell me your top tips for this year, leave a comment below.

You can never eat too many blueberries. Well maybe you can, but I don’t think anyone has yet.

But you can eat too much cheesecake. And I’m sure plenty of people have!

So what’s the alternative? I want to have my cake and eat it too!!

Enter the Blueberry Cheesecake Pudding courtesy of Allie from Pimp My Protein Shake.

It’s blueberry, it’s cheesecake (minus the fattening crumbled biscuit base), it delicious and it’s good for you. What more could you want?

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup lowfat cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup vanilla whey powder
• 1/2 cup blueberries (frozen works best for thickness and cost)
• 1 oz. lowfat cream cheese
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (depending on your protein powder)

Allie has an order of adding the ingredients and blending, but true to my style of keeping it simple, I like to chuck it all in the food processor and just blend it until it’s all mixed together. Choose your own path here!

It will only need a few hits of about 30 seconds in the food processor, checking that its all mixed in and you don’t have pockets of ingredients that haven’t joined the party.

If you want to thicken it a bit more, throw it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes while you clean up and it will be perfect.

Depending on the actual ingredients you use, you will be getting about 35 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat and 12 grams of carbs.

Yum yum, enjoy.

It’s one of my favourite sayings.

If it comes in a bag, box or can then don’t eat it, or at least 
think twice about eating it.

You see most of the food that we should be eating isn’t processed 
or packaged. Vegetables, fruit, lean meat for example comes 
straight off the shelf and is beast eaten fresh.

Obviously there are some exceptions to this rule, that’s why I 
encourage people to think twice. Yogurt and cottage cheese fit this 
category nicely. But if you are able to identify more foods that 
you should be eating that are packaged then it means you are 
actively thinking about what you are eating which is a good thing!

The trick then when buying packaged foods is to be able to 
determine exactly what’s in them and the best way to do this is by 
reading the Nutritional Information panel.

Today we will look at one of the most confusing areas of this label 
the Ingredients List.

All ingredients must be listed, according to weight, from most to 
least. So the higher on the list an ingredient is then the more of 
it the product contains. Interestingly if an ingredient makes up 
less than 5% of the total ingredients it doesn’t have to be listed. 
Also, all additives and allergens (such as gluten, nuts, and eggs) must 
be listed regardless of the amount.

In an effort to be reducing bad fats and sugar from our diets it is 
important to know what names these might appear as on these labels. 
You see most of these food corporations know health conscious 
people are looking for sugar and fat on the labels so they make it 
a bit more confusing in an effort to, well confuse the customer.

Fat

On the label you are looking out for vegetable oil, coconut oil, 
palm oil, milk solids, shortening or cream. If any of these 
ingredients are up the list then look out!

Sugar

A lot of the time you can look at a label and it appears that there 
is no ‘sugar’ in a product. Technically your basic table sugar is 
sucrose. However there are other sugars used such as maltose and 
lactose. Also be on the lookout for the ‘..saccharride’ clan. This 
includes the monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. 
Other common sugars you will find hidden in the labels are malt 
extract, corn syrup, syrup and brown sugar.

Salt

These tricksters also try to hide the salt on the label. To 
increase the shelf life of these foods the manufacturers must add 
salt. The typical western diet gets 80% of its salt intake from 
processed foods. Be on the lookout for any sodium. Sodium nitrate, 
sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate and mono sodium glutamate.

What are you on the lookout for on the labels of food you eat? Let 
us know.

We all know that it is important to eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, and chances are that you need to increase your intake. Not many people really do get enough, especially when it comes to the vegetable part.

Fruit is typically sweeter, more enjoyable and more practical. For instance you can just grab and apple, orange and banana in the morning and throw it in your bag. Not so appetising or easy to do with brocolli, celery and capsicum.

So how can I add some more of this high fibre, nutritious, lean body food to my diet?

1. Get a good blender. Start with green tea (chilled) or water as your base and have at it. You can mix and match vegetables and fruit to get great flavours and a heap of nutrition. One blended shake like this could have more nutrition in it than the rest of your normal diet!
2. Saute it with onions. Just about anything tastes good when you saute it with onions in a pan. Add a little bit of your favorite flavored olive oil, some garlic or salt and add it to your chicken or beef.
3. Home made guacamole/salsa. Start with an avocado, some sauteed onion and tomato. Then add your favorite vegetables to make your very own signature dish. Once again serve it as a side to your chicken or beef, or you can use it as a healthy alternative to store bought dips.
4. Think fruit not grains for breakfast. Replace your favorite grain based breakfast cereal with your favorite fruit and go from there. Add some yogurt, mixed nuts or blend it with some cottage cheese. This also works well with berries!
5. Always carry fruit. It is a great idea to have a piece of fruit on stand by. This way it will be your first port of call in case you need a snack, or are going to be late for your next meal. No more running to the store for a chocolate bar or going to the take away for lunch, have this on stand by and you be able to keep the diet horrors at bay!

Let us know your favourite, most practival way of increasing vegetable or fruit intake.