7 Tips to Stay in Control of your Nutrition During Covid-19

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Here are the 7 Tips to Stay in Control of your Nutrition During Covid-19.

1. Create eating inconvenience, by removing ‘zero-cook’ foods from the household

2. Set an eating routine

3. Place more emphasis on main meals

4. Get ‘red-light’ foods out of the house of at least out of sight.

5. Create an example day of eating or a ‘default diet’

6. Go on short walks or brush your teeth when questionable hunger strikes

7. Keep the mind busy with a passion project or hobby

We’ll explain more about them in detail below.

Firstly we must outline what sort of goals are feasible during this time. Due to the fact many folks will have full control of structuring daily schedules and diet, great fat loss and healthy eating goals can be achieved. However the situation still isn’t optimal, so 'best possible', aggressive results or ‘high level’ goals are probably not feasible. 

Appropriate diet-related goals during COVID-19 restrictions:

1. Improve or maintain health

2. Form & solidify healthy eating habits

3. Maintain current body composition

4. Achieve a slow rate of fat loss

Goals that likely aren’t feasible during COVID-19 restrictions:

1. Growing a notable amount of muscle for those who are beyond the ‘newbie lifting phase’.

2. Achieving fast, aggressive fat loss.

Why are these goals not feasible or not a good idea?

Growing notable amounts of muscle, or retaining muscle during aggressive fat loss, requires a pretty hefty training stimulus. When dieting aggressively, the risk of muscle loss is higher so the level of stimulus required to maintain muscle is elevated compared to situations of maintenance Calories or mild fat loss rates. Similarly, the amount of stimulus required to grow muscle for many folks will be difficult to achieve with a minimal home gym environment. While you can certainly train effectively at home, ‘high level’ goals are best saved for when gyms open or if you have a neat home gym set up.

Now onto the 7 Tips to Stay in Control of your Nutrition During Covid-19

1. Create eating inconvenience, by removing ‘zero-cook’ foods from the household.

During normal circumstances, a lack of convenience is often a reason why people struggle to eat healthfully. However when you’re spending all of your time at home, a lack of convenience is no longer a concern. In fact, it might actually become an issue, as the risk of mindless eating and snacking is so high.

Given this, adding some inconvenience to your ‘at-home’ food environment might provide a needed level of annoyance that can deter you from grabbing at random foods, or provide you with extra few seconds you need to consider whether your urge to eat is justified or just an ‘in the moment’ impulse.

2. Set an eating routine. 

When you move house, change the workplace, etc. The first week or two might be a little ‘all over the place’. But after a while, you develop a routine and settle into a structure that's the most efficient or effective ordering of events. Over time you know the quickest route to take to work, the most efficient morning routine, or the best way to navigate the supermarket. The same can apply to the foreign situation of working from home that many aren’t familiar with. 

It’s a good idea to sit down and plan a rough daily schedule that includes your ‘eating time slots’ (how many meals, roughly when you’re going to eat them). Have this as a start point to evaluate and refine from. This will help create efficiency, productivity, and make eating time and non-eating time clear cut, rather than a grey zone.

3. Place more emphasis on main meals.

You’re either eating or you’re not. Consume large, filling, fibre and plant-rich meals that will erase food from your thoughts for several hours. Plan them well to ensure they adhere to these requirements. Rushed, or in the moment decisions around food with poor planning will reduce your chances of making choices that are conducive to Calorie-conscious goals. Keep it simple and by placing more emphasis on main meals it may reduce any unjustified urges to eat in gaps between predetermined eating times. 

4. Get ‘red-light’ foods, out of the house or at least out of sight.

Any foods that when present, you struggle to control your intake of are not ‘bad’ foods but rather ‘red-light’ foods that might be best kept out the house, or at least out of sight. If the option isn’t there, then mindless consumption can’t happen. Crackers, dips, biscuits are all classic ‘zero-cook’ pantry-snack-attack foods that can add a tonne of Calories before you can blink. Either don’t buy them or arrange your kitchen to hide them from plain view.

5. Create an example day of eating or a ‘default diet’. 

In combination with creating a daily structure with meal times, the rough composition or structure of each meal should be planned. For example, breakfast might be a yogurt, oats and fruit-based meal. Lunch might be a Mexican style burrito bowl meal, and dinner might be a frozen veg and lean meat ‘one pan special’ with a moderate portion of fibrous carb-dense food such as brown rice. This structure is not rigid, but rather an example day of eating to always default back to. Change the proteins, change the fruit and veg choices, etc. Just keep the general structure and portion sizes roughly the same. This will help you plan appropriate nutrition, shop efficiently for only the things you need, and avoid having random foods present that don’t really fit your meal structure. 

6. Go for short walks or brush your teeth, when questionable hunger strikes.

In the time gaps between meals, if hunger strikes that you feel might not be justified or if you get urges for random indulgent type foods, you need to slow things down to give yourself a chance to consider things. Giving yourself a 10 minute time zone to let things settle before you assess whether eating is a good idea might work a treat for making you realise the urge you previously had isn’t needed. 

7. Keep the mind busy with a passion project or hobby.

Staying busy is one of the best ways to control your Calorie intake. The time gaps between exercise, house chores, eating and work need to be filled or the boredom might lead your mind to food. If you’ve been wanting to learn something, research a topic of interest, work on a passion project or start a new hobby, these times present an awesome chance for you to do something exciting and mentally stimulating. They can fit into your daily schedule to fill the gaps that might result in needless food intake.

With social drinks and meals not being a limiting factor, the current situation presents a great opportunity for fat loss and healthy eating goals to be focused on and nailed. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy… With some tweaking of your environment, you can mitigate some of the potential speed bumps your healthy eating goals might face during these odd times.   

If you’d like to learn some more strategies surrounding food selection, recipes, meal inspiration and shopping lists, our Team FNC Community is an ever-growing nutritional resource that has you covered.

For only $5 per week, you can access our Community that includes weekly webinars, infographics, exclusive content, meal inspiration, video lessons and more. Plus you get the chance to ask our team of coaches a question each Friday.

Yes, only $5 per week. You read it right. Less than the price of a drink at a pub that you can’t even go-to for a while. The money you’re saving there could be put towards improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition over the next few months.

To learn more about our online community and sign up, click the link below.

Nutrition When Working From Home

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Working from home can bring with it new challenges and opportunities. It’s important to build productive and effective routines early that form healthy habits.

This blog will focus on Nutritional Strategies when Working From Home.

An important thing to remind yourself of is that you are in control and to think of the things you CAN do.

Here are 4 things you can control with your nutrition:

Remember just because you may not be training the way you normally would, it isn’t a licence to forget about your nutrition.

It’s more important than ever to stay healthy with a diet focused on Protein and Plants. 

Not caring about your nutrition simply because you can’t train optimally is just like spending all your money because you don’t have an income.

Both a relevant right now.

Don’t write them off.

It’s even more important to take care of your nutrition and your savings.

With working from home or being home more often, there will be new challenges and temptations. 

Try to use this time to develop skills in identifying barriers, problem-solving and coming up with possible solutions to test out. That’s what we all need to do now - identify barriers, test solutions.

Being at home a lot more could lead to these barriers with these potential solutions:

Barrier: More temptation to eat being near the kitchen >

Solution: Creating a supportive environment starts with shopping. Buy foods which support you (protein & plants) and limit purchases of foods which you struggle with appropriate portions. With your indulgences, if you do have them at home, keep them out of sight. 

Barrier: Less routine leading to more snacking > 

Solution: Maintain your meal schedule. How many meals do you usually eat in a day? Continue your usual habits with meal frequency. Me personally, it’s 4 meals around 4 hours apart. That gives me a solid time structure with my meals and if I’m thinking about food in between meals, it’s just a time to test hunger and see that it does come and go.
Solution: Calorie-free liquids. Boredom hunger can often be quenched with a glass of water or a sugar-free soft drink/cordial.

Barrier: Overeating is easier, as there is always something else to eat. Eg. you find yourself going for seconds, adding a dessert to more meals than usual > Mindful eating - eat slowly, taste the food, try to focus on the flavours, try to notice how it makes you feel and when you start feeling full.

Solution: When you portion out your meals put all the leftovers away before you start eating. It’s tempting when the food is still warm in the kitchen to have another plate. 

The next blog in this series will focus on 7 Tips to Build Healthy Habits when Working From Home.

If your circumstances, goals and schedule have changed recently, it might be time to get some more individual guidance to help support your nutritional needs. An FNC Coach can provide you with strategies that suit you and your lifestyle to help you remain in control of your nutrition and stay on track with your health and fitness goals.

Click the button below for more information on our 1 on 1 Coaching service.

The next blog in this working from home series provides you with 7 Healthy Habits.

To read, follow this link

Team FNC Physical Challenge

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1 min

We are all about progressing and making the most of our ability here at FNC, we thought why not give you a chance to progress with something that good nutrition gives us the ability to do regularly - exercise..

Using spare time as a chance to refine or work towards a skill that may elude you currently is a great way to add some progression into your daily/weekly routine.

How to use this

Step 1- SELECT THE SKILL 

Step 2- SELECT THE APPROPRIATE SCALING

PISTOL: 

1. Squat - with feet flat, about shoulder width apart, sit down as if you were going to sit in a chair. When you can’t squat any further, rise up to the starting point. 

2. Close footed squat - with feet flat, bring your feet as close as you can together to perform an air-squat with a close stance.

3. Single leg box squat - Stand on one foot with a stable box positioned just behind you, your free foot should be bent and raised a few inches off the floor. Hold your hands out in front of you, using them for balance as necessary. This will be your starting position. Keeping your hips as square as possible, descend into a deep knee bend and momentarily sit on the box.

Stand back up by extending at the hip and knee and repeat for reps before switching to the opposite side.

1. Ballerina squat - with one foot flat and the other on the point of the toe (to be used for balance) start with feet in a shoulder width stance and progress down into an assisted pistol, then stand to full extension. 

2. Elevated single leg squat - using a small book, or an elevated ledge place one heel on the elevated surface. Using your arms for balance sit down into a full squat on one leg with the heel raised as an assistance method for maintaining a neutral spine and balance. 

SIT-UP: 

1. Crunch - Hands behind your head, gently lift your head and shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down.

2. Roll up - with feet slide your hands up to your knees, then lower back down. 

3. Top down - start at the top of the sit up and slowly lower yourself down to the floor. 

4. Fixed foot - keeping the feet flat to the floor, anchor them under a bench or around a pole, hands behind your head lift the shoulders from the floor up to the knees and back down. 

PUSH-UP

1. Wall - Face a wall, standing a little farther than arm’s length away, feet shoulder-width apart. Lean your body forward and put your palms flat against the wall at shoulder height and shoulder-width apart, bending the elbows and moving your chest towards the wall, then locking the arms back out to finish the rep.

2. Incline - Bend your elbows to slowly lower your chest to the edge of a table/bench/desk. Keep a straight body throughout the movement. Push your body away from the bench until your elbows are extended.

3. Knee - Begin in a hands and knees position. Place your hands on the ground on either side of your shoulders. Your knees should be at a comfortable distance apart. Slowly lower your elbows to bring your chest toward the ground. Touch the chest to the ground in the lowered position. Push up from the ground to your starting position.

4. Elevated floor push-up- using a pillow or something of a similar size under the chest, perform a pushup to the pillow as the target, this decreases the deficit in which we need to descend for the pushup to be completed.

5. Wide feet - start in a plank position with feet at shoulder width or wider distance, descend chest down towards the floor and then lock the arms back out to complete the rep.

Step 3- INCORPORATE 2-3 TIMES WEEKLY

Using progressions to help you work towards or work on a skill that interests you is a great way to build your skill repertoire, and the ability to incorporate a small portion of exercise a few times a week.

This article was based on our weekly Webinar in the TeamFNC Community. We are a growing community of like minded people with an interest in improving nutrition for fat loss, muscle gain, athletic performance and overall health. We often compare nutrition to learning a new skill. It’s often easier to look at skill progression with physical activity. Look again at these progressions to skill - think about areas of nutrition you want to improve. The skill is your end goal but don’t expect to nail it straight away, just like physical skills, it takes time and progressions are a great way to get you to the end point. 

To access our online community that is full of education and support for anyone with any goal, follow the link. PLUS it’s only $5 per week

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Pre-Exercise Nutrition Tip

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1 min

If your guts are often upset during exercise, take a look at your pre-exercise meal.

For obvious reasons, discomfort can and will impact your ability to perform in sport and exercise training.

One of the most common causes of discomfort for athletes during exercise is gastrointestinal stress. [1]

If you feel 'heavy', bloated, gassy, and maybe feel like you're going to throw up, there can be a number of potential causes. It's certainly worth an audit of any foods/meals you typically consume in the hours prior to exercise. Your guts ability to deal with food is impaired during hard exercise.

In laymans terms, when you're exercising hard, the body is preoccupied with providing fuel and resources to the working muscles. Digestion isn't a big priority, so gut function is 'put to the side' and therefore becomes impaired. Your guts can't deal with much of a workload so in the hours before exercise it's a good idea to only burden it with nutrients that will actually provide fuel for the upcoming work.

Anything that isn't that, or 'fluff' that'll get in the way, should be eliminated.

Fats, fibre and solid protein-dense foods provide the gut with a pretty big burden to deal with, and if it's in an exercise-induced impaired state, it simply might not be able to deal with it.

So what can you do about it?

Reduce and even eliminate fibre, fats and solid proteins from any meals consumed in the hours prior to exercise [2].

Fibre, micronutrients and all that 'health stuff' can wait. The primary role of pre-exercise nutrition is to fuel the machine and nothing else.

It's worth mentioning that the above is only really a consideration, and cause for potential concern for athletes who have really high fueling needs, who do a lot of very hard exercise.

For more information and nutritional strategies to improve your exercise performance, we have an online community that you can access for $5 per week. In our Team FNC Online Community, you’ll have access to our video lesson library that includes athlete and exercise specific videos. You’ll also have a chance to ask questions to our team, be inspired by nearly 100 meals that have been shared and tune in to a weekly webinar.

For more information on how you can sign up to improve your knowledge and understanding of nutrition for the price of 1 coffee a week, follow this link

[1]Training the Gut for Athletes

[2] ‘I think I’m gonna hurl’: A Narrative Review of the Causes of Nausea and Vomiting in Sport

Fat Loss Troubleshooting

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1 min

Working out why you're not losing weight.   

Have you ever started a new 'diet', gotten results initially, but soon after plateaued and failed to progress further? Or have you observed the success of a particular 'diet' only to fail to obtain progress when trying it yourself?  

It is this dilemma where people feel a lot of confusion and develop 'diet desperation'. All of a sudden there is a gap for fads and nutrition BS to be marketed and successfully sold for financial gain. 

Rather than reaching for 'that next thing', this article will give you a step by step list of questions, and things to think about when it comes to fat loss troubleshooting.

Question 1: Are you sure you aren’t progressing?

1. Are your expectations of rates of progress not feasible, therefore leading you to think you're not progressing? Often people just don't realise how slow fat loss happens over time. 

-If you're looking at scale weight alone (full of limitations) the upper limit of whats generally feasible is 1% body weight drop per week. 

2. Are you controlling, considering and accounting for confounding variables when assessing progress?-Limitations & inaccuracies of DXA and other assessments of body fat%. 
-Acute influencing factors of scale weight

-Have you potentially gained muscle mass? (body recomp)
-Influence of thoughts and feelings on a subjective sense of progress?

-Is fat loss occurring in the absence of weight loss?

3. Do you realise fat loss is not linear, especially when considering the ways we may assess fat loss?

4. Have you given 'the diet intervention' enough time to see if it's working?

You're 100% sure you're not progressing. It's now time to fat loss troubleshoot. 

Weight change over time is not method driven, it's principle-driven. Before you start troubleshooting, you need to reframe the question from 'why is the diet not working', to 'why is an energy (Calorie) deficit, not present consistently over time'. 

Question 2. Are you actually eating as little as you think?
This is almost always the reason for lack of weight loss. Diet under-reporting, even for those who track Calories has been demonstrated well. In fact, a study by Lichtman and colleagues showed obese subjects who claimed to eat less than 1200 Calories a day, under-reported their intake by a whopping 47%, meaning that ate over 1000 Calories more than they thought. 

Play devil's advocate on your diet adherence (and/or tracking if that's the way you're choosing to control your Calories). Consider gaps in tracking/dieting practices and see if you can identify why there may be a difference between the Calories you think you're eating versus the Calories you're actually eating. Consider weekends, eating and drinking, sauces, cooking oils, things you 'forgot', etc. Because it's all the little things that can add up and cancel out a deficit. 

You know you're not progressing and you're 100% sure you're controlling variables sufficiently, yet still not achieving fat loss results?

Question 3. Have you overestimated your weight maintenance Calories?

If you've overestimated the number of Calories you need to maintain weight, then you've likely overestimated an appropriate intake of Calories to lose weight. 

Usually, we use predictive equations to estimate total daily energy expenditure but at the end of the day, these equations are just estimations based on averages, that honestly only form a rough starting point to monitor and adjust from. 

The activity factor you used in your predictive equation might have been a little optimistic. It's worth considering the fact that you might just burn less energy than you think. It might be worth trying lowering your intake by ~10% to see what happens. 

However, sometimes you're already eating so little, and eating even less doesn't quite add up, you need to consider the possibility of adaptive thermogenesis. 

You know you're not progressing, you're 100% sure you're controlling variables sufficiently and the idea of you overestimating your maintenance Calories is unlikely, yet still not achieving fat loss results?  

You might think you're in a deficit, not seeing progress and therefore beginning to question the Calories in versus Calories out model. Here is the thing... you're not in a deficit. In fact, you might even be 'energy-deficient' but still not in a deficit.  But, it's not really your fault...

Question 4: Is your lack of fat loss results due to increased energy efficiency?

This is where the following terms or phrases come in. 
-'A slow metabolism". 
-'Metabolic damage'. 
-'Metabolic adaptation
-'Adaptive thermogenesis. 

What do these terms all sort of essentially mean?
A reduction in 'metabolism'. 

What is metabolism?
It's simply just the summation of chemical reactions that occur with in the body... It's a unit of 'fuel', or 'energy burn'. It's how many Calories your body uses.

So with that in mind the aforementioned 4 phrases, relate to a reduction in the amount of energy your body burns. 

The good news is; These reductions are not forever,... they're acute. Meaning permanent slow-down or 'metabolic damage' can basically be deleted from the periphery of thought. You're not broken, but you may just be acutely adapted. 

Your metabolism (or the components of your daily energy usage/needs) can be broken up into two main categories. 

1. Resting energy expenditure - Human function at rest, and the energy cost of digesting and absorbing food. 
2. Non-resting energy expenditure - All spontaneous, planned and unplanned physical movement, activity, and exercise. 

Both of the above components of energy usage can change over time, both will impact your ability to create an energy deficit, but it's increased 'resting energy efficiency' that can impact your health and wellbeing.

Weight maintenance Calories required at 'full human functional capacity' versus weight maintenance Calories at any given time which could potentially be in a suppressed state are not the same thing. What was once an energy deficit Calorie intake, might now have become weight maintenance Calorie requirements. The body is smart and really adaptable in the name of survival. In the event of a famine or a food shortage. The body can learn to function with less energy, it can become more efficient with its usage and thus can function and survive on fewer Calories. This is great for the human race if a famine was actually present. This efficiency-seeking 'is what we're talking about when we say 'metabolic slowdown or adaptation. 

However, while the body is smart, it doesn't actually know if there is a famine. It can only get an idea based on energy availability. The outcomes of 'metabolic slow-down' might not be wanted or needed. Functioning well enough to survive versus thrive is different. The 'survival mechanism' of metabolic adaption doesn't come 'free of charge'. When the body has limited energy available it needs to prioritise the things that really matter. The means the 'other stuff' that doesn't matter so much, gets put aside. These impairments are not desirable (unless a famine is actually present). Not only do they make fat loss harder, but they may also severely impact health and wellbeing. 

'Energy deficiency' or 'low energy availability' can affect health and wellbeing in many ways. Shifting hormonal markers can result in a cascade of negative effects ranging from low bone mineral density, impaired cognition, muscle and strength loss, low testosterone (males), loss of the menstrual cycle (females), suppressed immunity, and more, all leading to performance loss, increased risk of illness, injury, poor health and poor self-image. 
So in short, the reason why you might not be in a state of negative energy balance (not losing fat) is because you may be experiencing a reduction in the number of Calories you expend over time due to 'metabolic slow-down'. 

The likely solution to 'metabolic slow-down'. 
Well, we can just 'do more, and/or eat less' but there is a limit to this because you can't just keep 'doing more and eating less', to stay ahead of metabolic adaptation. 

The solution might blow your mind. If I went straight to the solution without explaining metabolic adaption it would only add to the confusion, which would only result in you, the reader questioning 'Calories in versus Calories out' even more. 

Eat more. Increase your Calories for a period of time. Give the body the confidence to revert back to energy 'inefficiency', and therefore function at its full ideal working capacity which will, therefore, mean Calorie usage skyrockets back up. After you're in full functional health, only then can you start to consider recreating an energy deficit. 

At this point, your body will be far better primed for successful and 'healthier' fat loss results. 

Often a concern among people trying to lose weight when being told to eat more is the fear of gaining weight. As previously stated metabolism is dynamic and any adaptions are acute. As you increase energy availability (eat more) the body will just start doing the things it really wants to do, and therefore, as a result, will only just churn through the additional Calories up to the point where 'a true' surplus of Calories is created. 

Do you need to do a slow reverse diet? Probably not. Almost always it's not only fine to go straight up to 'ideal weight maintenance Calories', but it's also going to help up-regulate any suppressed factors of metabolism the fastest. 

Summary

To recap, if you’re having trouble with fat loss reflect on the following?

Are you sure you aren’t progressing?

Are you sure you’re adhering to a deficit?

Are you miscalculating your energy requirements?

Finally, are you perhaps in a state of increased energy efficiency?

If you currently aren’t seeing that fat loss results you’re after, it might be time to reach out to us for some more guidance, education and support to help you move towards that goal.

For more information on our 1 on 1 service, contact us today.

Find The FN'Sweet Spot: Goals, Values & Convenience

Shocking Facts:

• You can eat a healthy meal that tastes good

• You can eat a healthy meal that is cheap

• You can eat a healthy meal that doesn’t take much time to prepare

• You can eat a healthy meal that doesn’t require high levels of cooking skills

• You can eat a healthy meal that aligns with your culture

• You can eat a healthy meal when you go out or are with friends

• You can eat a healthy meal that you enjoy, that tastes good, is aligned with your goals, aligns with your values and is convenient.

Can you consistently consume meals that tick the 3 boxes of Goals, Values and Convenience?

Now termed the FN’Sweet Spot.

A new term and strategy to help promote adherence and sustainability for your way of eating.

This is a truly vital component of healthy eating because “Healthy eating is an important determinant of health, but adherence to dietary guidelines remains a public health concern.” [1]

*NOTE: We are using the term healthy eating to mean eating for your goals.

In the research, common influences on healthy eating are:

• Social and cultural factors

• knowledge

• social media

• the relevance of information

• peers, taste

• convenience [4, 5, 6]

Alongside those are common barriers to healthy eating such as:

• Social

• heritage (perceived to lose heritage/cultural component of meals)

• poor taste

• expense

• lack of information

• cooking skills

• confidence

• time

• effort

• convenience

• cost

• support

• availability

• competing priorities

• ease of access to unhealthy foods [2, 3, 7, 8]

One study had expense and taste coming in the top 3, just after willpower. [2]

One study even showed a common reason being eating healthy is not a masculine/bloke thing to do. [3] (Clearly an Aussie study).

From this list, we’ve placed them in 3 categories:

Goals, Values and Convenience.

We can try to improve our adherence and consistency with our diet by ticking all 3 boxes.

Under each category we have:

Goals - Education, Informed Decisions, Legit Knowledge, Goal Aligned

Values - Taste, Culture, Social, Physical Health, Emotional, Personality, Enjoyment

Convenience -  Time, Effort, Energy, Money, Cooking Skills

Why is important to tick all 3 boxes?

If we just tick the goals and values box eg. they are healthy and taste good - they might not be convenient, it might be expensive, take too long to make, have too many ingredients.

If we just tick the values and convenience box eg they are tasty, enjoyable, cheap and easy - they might not be goal aligned.

Then if we just tick the goals and convenience box eg they are goal aligned, cheap and easy - they might not be very tasty or enjoyable.

We know that taste certainly goes a long way when it comes to rewarding. From previous webinars and blogs, we know that the reward is an important final part of the habit-building sequence. We are more likely to continue the behaviour that provides us with immediate rewards.

How do we put the FN’Sweet Spot into practice?

If you feel like struggling to adhere to your diet, do a check-in with yourself. 

Use the FN’Sweet Spot graphic as a guide. Do most of your meals tick all these boxes?
If there is a constant theme of a certain box not being fulfilled, look at some strategies to try and improve that area.

Here are some examples for each:

Goals: Improve your knowledge and understanding of nutrition such as food selection, portion control, energy balance, calories per bite. Make sure this is legit information too, not guru health. Make sure it is information that is aligned with your goals

Values: Can you improve the taste of your meals by using low calories sauces, herbs and seasons? Can you bring your culture and heritage into the meal creation? Can you invite friends over for healthy dinners or learn how to read menus and pick goal aligned foods? Can you still enjoy foods and flavours that resonate with your personality?

Convenience: Can you find easy/no prep protein and plant options? Can you shop smarter to keep costs down? Can you find recipes that are within your skill level and don’t have 10+ ingredients? 

So to reinforce the point from earlier, you can eat healthy meals that are tasty and convenient.

Take the time to find ways to make the experience and process of healthy eating a little sweeter by using the FN’Sweet Spot.

At FNC we can help you improve the consistency of each category by improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition, providing you with convenient and enjoyable ways to create your meals.

Contact us today to learn more from our team

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13679-016-0192-0

[2] https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/39/2/330/3002965

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5675273/

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15702586

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15570680

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29892990

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276670/

[8] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309314854_The_barriers_and_enablers_of_healthy_eating_among_young_adults_a_missing_piece_of_the_obesity_puzzle_A_scoping_review

Nutrition for PCOS

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1 min

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with an insight into PCOS. The purpose is not to treat PCOS. The purpose is awareness rather than any kind of prescription and this should not be used as medical advice in any way. If you believe you have PCOS, we encourage you to speak to your trusted health professional and seek guidance from them. 

The female reproductive system is highly sensitive to physiological stress, and exercise-induced menstrual dysfunction occurs in a wide range of female athletes and across a wide spectrum of sport activities.

PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) is a common problem among female athletes caused by a multitude of reasons. These being high testosterone levels, lack of quality nutrition and sleep, hormonal dysfunction caused by malnutrition and incredibly high levels of insulin sensitivity. 

This can lead to the following menstrual cycle disruptions.

• Amenorrhea (lack of 3 consecutive menstrual cycles or more) 

• Oligomenorrhea (irregular periods at intervals of more than 6 weeks) has been found to be more prevalent among athletes than in the general population and is primarily due to hypothalamic amenorrhea.

How can PCOS sufferers meet their nutritional needs?

Due to their unique nutritional needs, each athlete with PCOS could think about meeting with a consulting with a dietician that has experience in sports nutrition and with PCOS to develop an individualised plan of attack to continue to optimise their performance while managing their overall health.

The main nutritional concerns for PCOS sufferers are: 

• Should I still be having carbs? The answer is yes, if you are a female and participate in regular physical activity and hope to maintain/regain a regular, healthy period then yes, you need carbs in your daily intake. What you need to be doing is looking into what kinds of carbs are suitable for PCOS sufferer. In most cases they are low GI (sweet potato, quinoa and buckwheat) are atop their shopping lists. 

• A diet that is high in processed and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, sugary cereals, crackers, lollies, cakes, and cookies can increase insulin levels and worsen insulin resistance which can cause more pain and inflammation to the cysts caused by PCOS.

• Whole, unprocessed carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables, rolled oats, quinoa, brown/wild rice and sprouted grain bread tend to have more fibre and a slower impact on insulin levels.

• Why low GI? Eating lower GI has proven greater effects in an attempt for weight loss for PCOS sufferers, improved menstrual regularity, reduced insulin resistance which means lowered levels of inflammation (important for regular exercisers as inflammation = joint/body pain), quality of life and reduced depression levels/increased self-esteem. 

PCOS sufferers tend to experience more cravings for carb-rich foods, often due to problems regulating blood sugar levels due to exercise. To reduce these cravings they can focus on spreading carbohydrates evenly throughout the day, and combining carbohydrate foods with protein and fat-containing foods can help to manage cravings and blood sugar levels. 

What about supplements to avoid deficiencies? Sure, why not. PCOS can cause females to become deficient in both omega 3 fatty acids, B12 and vitamin D. 

• Omega 3s can help with the lowering of testosterone levels which when high in the female body can cause things like hyperandrogenism which reduces the likelihood of a regular period. 

• B12 supplementation can help with it’s absorption as birth control and medication for PCOS interfere with B12 absorption.

• Vitamin D can help with bone formation as it is often low in females with PCOS, low levels of vitamin D can decrease physical performance and increase the incidence of stress fractures. 

In conclusion, we can't stress the benefit of recording and experimenting with your nutrition around your signs and symptoms in PCOS to see what works best for YOU!

To learn more about women’s specific nutrition, contact us today.

How To Pick Your Protein Powder: Step by Step

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1 min

Why would you even need a Protein Powder?

The reasons to use a protein supplement can be three-fold. 

1. Not obtaining a sufficient intake of protein from whole foods. Utilising supplemental protein can provide a convenient way to 'top-up' total intake to sufficient levels. 

2. Providing a protein bolus at appropriate times where convenience due to scheduling may make consuming a protein-dense whole food meal, not feasible. For example; post morning exercise, rushing to work and won't get a chance to eat for a few hours. 

3. A convenient source of protein that goes well with certain meals that needs a 'protein boost'. Certain meals are not well suited to the inclusion of protein-dense whole foods. For example; You're not going to put a chicken breast in your morning PB oats w fruit. Protein powder can provide the solution here. 

What to pick - Step by Step

Whey protein. The cheapest, most common and most effective with the 'most powerful' amino acid profile. Whey protein concentrate (WPC) is the cheapest and does the job just as good/better than more expensive alternatives. If you have problems mild digesting lactose, opting for the slightly more expensive, further proceeded whey protein isolate (WPI) is a good idea. Hydrolysed whey protein powders are not worth it.

Vegan / no dairy. 
If you're vegan or avoid dairy for preferences or digestive issues, a rice and pea vegan protein blend is your best bet. The blend of these two plant-based proteins provides an amino acid profile closest to the 'more powerful' protein source being dairy. Find the right one and it's still relatively inexpensive.

Probably not worth it:
Collagen protein: Collagen protein rates poorly in it's the ability to spike muscle protein synthesis to promote a net positive protein balance, which fundamentally dictates whether muscle is gained, lost or maintained. This is due to it's lacking leucine content. Research on the utility of collagen protein on joint health is mixed and not robust. Combined with the fact collagen protein is expensive, it's a gamble at best to say it's worthwhile. 

Weight gainers or 'post-workout blends'
If you're an athlete who does a lot of exercises who needs to eat well beyond hunger, if you're someone looking to gain muscle requiring you to eat beyond your hunger, and/or if you're an athlete who does very frequent bouts of exercise and needs to replenish glycogen rapidly (carbohydrate/glucose 'storage tank's). 'Weight gainer shakes' or 'post-workout protein blends' have some utility. However, they're really just (most of the time) a regular whey protein mixed with carbohydrate powder, commonly in the form of 'a powdered sugar'. They're overhyped and you're probably better off buying whey protein and adding you own carbs from whatever appropriate source you prefer. Not only is this potentially a tastier way to get in additional carbs (if needed), it also gives you the ability to adjust protein to carbohydrate ratios as per needed. When consuming ample amounts of carbohydrates, taste and palatability play a role in how easy and comfortable it is for these high intakes to be achieved.   

BCAA's: Branched-chain amino acids are just 3 of the 9 essential amino acids. They're the 3 most 'powerful ones' that spike muscle protein synthesis the most, but without the rest they're not useful. There is nothing a BCAA supplement can do that a regular protein powder can't and they're very expensive. Save your money.

Fluffy 'health' protein powders. These are the wildly expensive 'health food store' kind that your favourite naturopath or 'woo-woo wellness expert' recommended. The additional ingredients can do a few things.

• Add no additional needed benefit, vitamins and minerals to a diet that is already well rounded, whole food-centric with sufficient plant matter.

• Potentially blunt adaptations to the training stimulus that you're after through the needless inclusion of 'extra' antioxidants.

• Reduce the protein content per serve/100g of the protein supplements.

• Drain your bank account. Save your money. 

'Lean protein'. 
Basically take regular protein powder, add some fancy fluff that does nothing notable if anything to change your energy expenditure and/or Calorie intake, stick a different label on it and you have 'lean protein'. Energy balance over time underpins weight change, and the 'fat loss fairy dust' they add to 'lean proteins' is not going to change any part of that. 

Side note: Athletes & athletes in tested sports. 
As mentioned, weight gainers may have their utility in those with high exercise loads who are required to eat a dose of carbohydrates well beyond their hunger and/or have planned exercise bouts at frequent time intervals. But for the prior mentioned reasons you're likely better off using regular protein powder and adding any additional carbohydrates as per preference, the dose required, comfort and speed of digestibility and absorption. 

Safety of supplements for tested sports. 
The following applies to any supplement for use in sports that are subject to performance-enhancing drug/banned substance testing. No supplements are completely safe from banned substances. When considering the use of a supplement a risk versus reward evaluation should be conducted. To minimise risk, choosing supplements that are certified by Informed-Sport is a really good idea. Check the Informed-Sport website for certified products and proceed with caution. 

We want to make sure our clients and community are making informed choices when it comes to where they spend their time, effort and money to make sure they are getting a worthwhile return on investment. We review products based on their effectiveness and based on what the research says.

To learn how about how our team of coaches and nutritionists can help you make informed decisions by improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition, contact us today.