Hobart Personal Trainer | Hobart Fat Loss | Hobart Personal Training

It would be no surprise to you that I am a big fan of green tea for its health and fat burning benefits.

I would drink somewhere between six and nine cups per day on average. I find this a great way to keep hydrated and also find that I am not reaching for snack food between meals when I am regularly drinking a cup.

But there is a time when enough is enough. There is only so much green tea you can drink before you go crazy!

As they say, ‘Variety is the spice of life.’ One look into my kitchen pantry will be evidence of this.

Currently I have the following teas at my disposal:

Plain Green Tea
Peppermint Green Tea
Vanilla Green Tea
Lemon Green Tea
White Tea (not to be confused with black tea and milk)
Black Tea

One of my goals at the moment is to try a new, zero calorie, drink every week. A quick trip to the tea section of your local supermarket will make this very easy. ‘New’ products are coming out regularly and given that you can get anywhere between 10 and 50 serves of tea (leaf or bagged) for the cost of a cafe made coffee it is a very cheap alternative.

I like the idea of a tea swap meet at work. When I get a new tea to try I will bring some into the gym and give a sample to my colleagues and clients and they will often reciprocate.

This is a great way to keep things interesting and perhaps try something that you wouldn’t have chosen yourself.

This week I want you to get out there and try something different with a positive impact on your health.

It may be trying a different tea. It may be swapping a coffee for a tea. It might be to have your favourite tea without milk. It might be to have your tea or coffee without (or even with less) sugar.

All of these are easy to try and you might surprise yourself with what you like. Many of these are habits rather than choices. There is no real reason why you do it other than that’s just the way you do it.

Let me know what your favourite tea is if it’s one I haven’t mentioned.

This has to be my all time favourite lunch.

Why? First of all it gets a tick in all of the nutritional boxes. Protein – Tick. Vegetables – Tick. Good Fats – Tick.

It’s dead easy to make, stores well (make it the night before) and will help you lose inches off your waist (unlike many other quick and easy lunches)

And because I have to eat it, there is a massive tick next to TASTE. That’s right, even healthy food should taste great.

The Super Ultimate Tuna Salad Lunch – Makes one large or two small serves.

160gms tuna shredded
Seasoning (salt/pepper/other mixed seasonings)
2 tsp mayo (the real, full egg stuff unless allergic)
3 Tbsp avocado (mashed)
1.5 Tbsp shredded parmesan
1 cup cucumber
1/3 cup red onion
1/3 cup chopped tomato

Throw tuna, seasoning, mayo, parmesan and avocado into a large bowl. Mix all together. Add remaining ingredients and mix lightly. Accompany with a green tea of your choice.

Afterwards, you might want to give the teeth a brush, or grab some sugar free gum. Tuna and onion, great for your body and health, not so great for the breath!!

Feel free to mix and match some of your favourite vegetables in there or let us know what special seasoning mix you are using.

Enjoy!

As you probably know I am not a big fan of making massive dietary overhauls in one step. Instead I favour the approach of making small, consistent improvements. I think this is a better approach because it leads to much greater sustainability and long term success.

The chances of succeeding when you try to chance long term habits overnight are very slim. If instead you replace the old, bad habits with new, healthier ones over time, you will be able to sustain these new habits just like you did the old ones. The main difference being that you will be healthier and leaner as a reward for the effort.

“What are the 8 C’s?” I hear you asking. Well they are 8 foods that have no health benefits, packed with sugar, fat (or both) and will lead to extra kilos and extra inches on the waistline.

Alright, you’ve waited long enough, here they are.

1. Cereal. Any processed breakfast type cereal has to go. If you want, go for whole rolled oats instead.
2. Colas. Without being brand specific (none of them are good for you) opt for green tea, black tea or flavoured teas.
3. Cakes. If this needs explaining we’re in trouble.
4. Cookies. See cakes.
5. Candy. Basically sugar in different shapes. And the ‘sugar free’ versions are packed with modified alcohols.
6. Crackers. Not only are they a poor quality, processed food, chances are you will add some cheese, dips etc to them.
7. Cream. Throw ice cream in here as well. They are a sure fire way to pack on the pounds.
8. Chocolate. Sure one piece of 80% cocoa chocolate might be alright, but every otherwise chocolate isn’t your friend!

All I want you to do is reconsider your intake of the 8 C’s. If all you were to do this week was to drop the 8C’s, increase your green vegetable intake and read this, then you would be doing better than 95% of the population.

What other ‘C’ foods can you think of that should be avoided? Leave a comment below.

Ok plain and simple today. Here’s 10 surefire ways to improve your eating, diet, nutrition or whatever else you want to call it.
That is 10 things to do when you aren’t fasting!

1. Reduce your intake of processed carbohydrates. This is pretty much anything that’s in a bag, box or can.
2. Which means…Eat more green vegetables. No interpretation necessary.
3. Same goes for berries. Eat more berries, frozen are fine (and cheaper)
4. Get more Omega 3′s. Get a supplement if you need to as well as eating more fish (especially salmon)
5. Drink more green tea. I tried three new ones on the weekend. Like two. Not a bad strike rate!
6. Set goals. Dax Moy is the king of getting stuff done!
7. Drink less juice, soft drink and alcohol. See point 5.
8. Don’t add sugar to your tea of coffee. Actually, don’t add it to anything!! It will just make you fatter.
9. Make small changes and keep to them. If you improve one thing every week and stick to it think of how much better you will be in 6,12,24 weeks.
10. Think long term and be consistent. See point 9. You don’t need to change everything at once. Make sustainable and consistent change.

Let me know if there’s something you would add to the list. Your number one way to instantly improve your eating.