Learning how to live a healthy lifestyle is great for so many reasons! It’s not about starving yourself, it’s about giving yourself delicious, nutritious food to keep you healthy and happy.

I have found that most mums want to eat ‘healthy’ but often the problem is they have no idea where to start? For this reason I have put together the Pram Fitness Clean Eating Basics which are my guidelines and philosophy around eating.

When it comes to achieving health related results it’s important to remember that 80% of your results will come from the very things you put into your mouth.

No matter how much or hard you exercise, if you aren’t fulling your body with the right nutrition you won’t be the best version of yourself until you make the choice to eat foods that are going to give you energy to thrive.

I agree, there is so much information out there and it’s hard to know what the right thing is to do so today I want to talk to you about the things that I have seen work and how you can implement these healthy changes into your life today.

I strongly believe that being organised and prepared is so important when it comes to making good food choices. As a mum you are busy, tired, sometimes cranky and maybe even have a short fuse. This is completely normal but it’s for these reasons that you need to plan your meals in advance so that when your baby is screaming and you haven’t slept for a month or even a year you can still make good choices because you are organised.

Please keep in mind, clean eating by no means needs to be boring, my philosophy is all about flavouring foods with amazing herbs and spices to give the dishes plenty of taste and for you to not miss things like sugar filled sauces that are going to ruin an otherwise healthy meals.

The Pram Fitness Clean Eating Basics are a short compilation of questions that client’s often ask me. Please keep in mind that i’m not a nutritionist and everyone’s specific needs are different so please take this information as general in nature and if you need more personalised nutrition guidance I’d strongly recommend getting in touch with a dietitian to discuss your needs.

Ok, let’s get stuck in…

The Pram Fitness Clean Eating Basics

Why don’t we count calories

You may notice there isn’t any calorie or kilojoule information in this program. We know as busy mums, you simply don’t have time to be calculating the energy of everything you put in your mouth. Also, our bodies have an in built ‘calorie-counter’ that is so much more accurate than any app could be: our hunger and fullness signals. It’s important to listen to your body to give yourself the best chance of achieving all the health goals that you have ever wanted to get in control of.

Why should I eat ‘clean’?

Clean Eating put simply is the lifestyle of avoiding processed foods and basing your diet on whole foods that come in their natural state. The clean eating lifestyle will help you to eliminate toxins from your body, lose weight, avoid diseases and most importantly give you lots of energy to get through your busy day and look after your little one.

The term ‘eating clean’ is majorly overused of late, but it is worth the hype and is something that is vitally important to achieving a lean and healthy body. Think of it as going back to basics. Our ancestors didn’t have supermarkets or pre-packaged meals to pop into the microwave when they got peckish. That being said I don’t expect you to attempt to cook dinner over a fire pit you started in the garden with two sticks, but I do highly recommend that 90% of your shopping trolley be filled with items from the fresh food section.

Rather than feeling like you are constantly on a diet, learning to live a clean eating lifestyle is the key to helping you achieve the results you are after, have more energy, be healthier and feel better than ever.

How often should I eat?

Personally, I believe in eating 5-6 smaller meals per day. This helps to fuel a healthy metabolism and to work towards sustainable and long term weight loss results.

Why do I have to think about portion sizes?

This really is the key, even if you are eating a seemingly healthy diet, if your portion sizes are too big you won’t achieve results – simple. The problem is, when it comes to portion sizes everyone is different. For example, some mums are breastfeeding and require more calories in just to fuel that super important job…

You should never feel overly full. Think about the last time you ate too much, did you filled like you were about to burst? Well at that point it’s too much. Likewise you should never be starving so we are looking for that happy sweet spot right in the middle where you are feeling satisfied but not stuffed.

One little trick I like to tell clients is that it’s best to eat slowly. Sometimes it takes your brain a bit of time to catch up to how your stomach is feeling so if you take your time eating this will give your brain more time to know if you really are full or just eating for the sake of it.

Why do I have to drink water?

Think about it this way. Your blood is made up of 80-90% water and our blood is the awesome vehicle that caries the nutrients around our body and to our cells to keep us healthy. Pretty simple really, when we are dehydrated there isn’t enough water to go around, therefore leaving us feeling tired, sluggish and cranky.

What’s this about protein?

Put simply protein is the building block for our entire body! Protein is made up of amino acids, these amino acids help to repair muscle tissue, look after our skin, ward off disease, gives us our all important energy and helps to look after our hormone balance.

There are 2 types of amino acids: non-essential amino acids (that are manufactured by the body) and essential amino acids (found in food).

There are 22 amino acids, your body can make 13 of them without you ever thinking about it. Your body can’t make the other nine amino acids, but you can get them by eating protein-rich foods. They are called essential amino acids because it’s essential that you get them from the foods you eat.

It is important to know that not all proteins are created equal, some contain all the essential amino acids and are therefore called “complete” proteins – some examples of this are all animal sources of protein such as chicken and fish. On the other hand vegetable sources of protein contain only a few of the essential amino acids and should be combined with other proteins to help them work more efficiently in your body.

Fat…

Throw away your old beliefs about fat and don’t be scared anymore – in fact I LOVE fat – but only the good kind!

Good fats actually help you burn fat – yes this is true! And the other benefits are that good fat helps you to absorb vitamins and minerals, they reduce your sugar cravings as well as helping you concentrate and keep your body full
for longer.

What about Low Fat?

“Low-fat,” “reduced fat,” or “fat-free” processed foods are not as good as they sound. One problem with a generic lower-fat diet is that it prompts most people to stop eating fats that are good for the heart as well as those that are bad for it.

Now that we know more, ‘Low Fat’ is actually a bit of an old school way of thinking. What you need to be aware of is that when food manufacturers take out fat, they often replace it with carbohydrates from sugar, refined grains, or starch. Our bodies digest these refined carbohydrates and starches very quickly, causing blood sugar and insulin levels to spike and then dip, which in turn leads to hunger, overeating, and weight gain.

I don’t understand how carbs work? Should I avoid them to lose weight?

For some reason Carbs have become the devil when it comes to healthy eating and more specifically weight loss over the last few years. This couldn’t be further from the truth, in-fact eating the ‘right kind’ of carbohydrates will help give you much needed long lasting energy to get you through your busy day.

Put simply carbs are sugars that are broken down into glucose which is your body’s main source of energy. If that isn’t enough of a factor to start incorporating carbs into your every day nutrition then you should know that carbs create the fuel that keeps your brain working and your heart pumping – enough said right?

BUT not all carbs are created equal.. There are 2 types of carbohydrates:

1 – Simple Carbohydrates (Otherwise known as bad carbs): Simple Carbs are digested quickly into the body, the energy is stored as glycogen and if not used straight away will be stored as fat. Bad Carbs are usually processed foods that have been altered from their natural state such as cakes, white rice, pasta and lollies.

It’s good to take note that fruit and vegetables are actually Simple Carbohydrates BUT they are extremely different from other foods in this category. When you eat fruit or vegetables their fibre content helps to slow down digestion, actually making them act a bit more like complex carbs so they get a big thumbs up from me. (Confusing I know but bear with me) ☺

2 – Complex Carbohydrates (Otherwise known as good carbs). Complex carbs are an energy powerhouse, they take longer for the body to digest therefore they sustain your energy for a longer period of time. Complex carbs help to stabilise your blood sugar levels and help to improve the 2pm crash and burn that we can often feel. It’s important to know and understand that COMPLEX CARBS are an energy powerhouse and a fat burning machine.

It’s also good to know that while providing much needed energy is a very important job that Carbs look after they also have some other very important functions. They help to protect our muscles, provide nutrients to the intestinal tract that helps to digest food, assists in your body’s absorption on calcium and can help to lower cholesterol levels (just to name a few).

I hope this helps, it’s a lot of information all at once so take your time to ready through, if you have any questions or your want to understand something in more detail please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

I am so happy to be a part of your clean eating journey and i’m looking forward to helping you achieve all of your heath and fitness goals.

Love Karen

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