These 6 Tips Make Nutrition Easy
Sometimes nutrition advice gets confusing, so we asked our community of BUF Girls – the clients doing our programs online, not the trainers - for the tips that have helped them most on their healthy food journeys. Remember, these tips are not from nutritionists or trainers, they’re simply based on what’s worked for other women like you.
Watch portion sizes & eat until 80% full – not 110%!
Bec, NSW
I’ve always eaten healthy food and trained hard, but I couldn’t seem to shift the last few kilos and was always feeling bloated after meals. One of the BUF trainers suggested I try smaller portion sizes and reduce the amount of different foods I was having in one meal. For example, my salad probably didn’t need 2 different kind of proteins and 8 different salad ingredients – all the different kinds of food were confusing my digestive system and causing bloating. I didn’t change much, just started paying attention to my appetite, eating a little more slowly, using no more than 4-6 different ingredients for most meals and stopping when I was 80% full, rather than 110%. I still eat whatever I want, I just pay more attention to how much!BUF Girl Tip: Portion sizes are important! Eat a little more on days you do a tough workout, a little less on others. Increase food intake when breastfeeding, be wary of ‘boredom snacking’ when studying. And the easiest way to check whether you’re on the mark with portions during main meals? If all the separate ingredients in your meal can fit on a regular sized dinner plate without touching each other, you’re about right. Green vegetables don’t fit into this discussion, you can eat as many of them as you like!
A sweet education on sugar
Izzy, QLD
I didn’t think I ate much sugar, because I wasn’t a ‘dessert person’ and didn’t have much of a sweet tooth. But after doing the BUF Body program, I realised a lot of the things I was eating had more hidden sugars than chocolate or cake, including the yoghurt I was eating every single day, my morning muesli, the trail mix I was snacking on, the sushi I had most lunch times and even my choice of coffee! Now I’ve educated myself properly on how to read nutrition labels and understand ingredients. It’s made such a difference – my body shape totally changed and I no longer feel wiped out and in need of a second coffee by mid-afternoon. I can’t believe how unaware I was before!BUF Girl Tip: A lot of ‘healthy’ yoghurts have 2-4 times the amount of sugar per small tub than an entire block of Lindt 85% dark chocolate! That’s worth taking note of. We prefer to buy natural Greek yoghurt and sweeten it with fresh berries and seeds.
Limit processed sh*t
Claire, UK
Last year my naturopath challenged me to cut out all processed foods for a full month. Some packaged items were allowed, but they had to have minimal ingredients and no chemicals, vegetable oils, added sugars, or life extending preservatives. In other words, tinned wild caught salmon or really simple/natural yoghurts were OK but rice crackers, muesli bars and packaged sauces were not. Simply doing this one thing has changed my life and I’m not looking back – my weight is so easy to manage and I feel much more energetic! I didn’t think I was eating a lot of processed foods before the challenge, but when I got really strict with myself, I realised how much every little bit counts.BUF Girl Tip: Try to avoid foods with ingredients you don’t recognise, vegetable or seeds oils, thickeners or numbers on the back. Yoghurt should only have a few ingredients; milk and/or milk solids and live cultures.
Avoid human made trans fats
Nicola, ACT
I didn’t realise how much eating trans fats – basically human made fats that your body isn’t able to process - was affecting my body shape, until I started avoiding them completely. Six months after cutting them out, I feel and look so much better. I learnt about how the food industry often adds hydrogen to unsaturated vegetable fats to create this new breed of man-made fat, which makes food taste awesome but can’t be processed by the body very effectively, meaning it stays in the body for way longer than it should, creating inflammation and causing you to hold on to fat for longer.BUF Girl Tip: These kind of fats mostly hide in anything deep fried, most donuts, a lot of commercially baked and/or packaged foods like biscuits, crisps and long-life products. They can stay in your system for up to a year. Yikes! No more hot chips ladies ;)
Experiment with different nutrition approaches
Cathy, NSW
If there’s anything I’ve learnt from being part of such a broad community of awesome women, it’s that one size certainly doesn’t fit all and it’s important to keep experimenting with the kind of nutrition choices and training levels that suit your body. Genetics and personality each play a part and what works for you might not necessarily work for your family, or your friends. Before I found BUF, I was on a strict Paleo eating plan and it just made me bigger and grumpier! I couldn’t understand as it worked so well for a lot of my fit and slim friends, who swore by a low-carb approach. What I’ve learnt about myself is that eating a few carbs with each meal makes me feel satisfied and curbs my appetite. My body looks better and not only that, it allows me to train harder! So for me, moderation is a great approach and finally, I refuse to feel guilty for ordering a slice or two of sourdough when out to brunch with my Paleo girlfriends.BUF Girl Tip: What works for one, doesn’t work for all – this is why we prefer to educate you guys and get you to try different approaches, rather than telling you the ‘answers’ and hitting you with strict food plans. Stay curious, always. Keep experimenting, but make sure you give each experiment enough dedication and time to validate it, or decide it’s not for you.
Own your shopping
Nic, NSW
We admit, this tip is from a MAN but we loved it so much, we had to share! Nic is a personal trainer at our partner business, Agoga Bondi and also the husband of BUF naturopathy expert, Cassie Mendoza-Jones. So y’know… he has cred. And we love that he does the shopping ;)Learn to love and look forward to your weekly shopping trip. Literally change your language from, “I need to do the shopping” to, “I can’t wait to go shopping and plan my week”. We’re really lucky to have so many awesome, healthy options on our doorstep and it’s a privilege to be able to choose what you put in your body. You literally have the power to decide how you want to feel each week! Preparation and knowing what you have in your cupboard/fridge to work with at the end of a busy day can mean the difference between fueling your body with something awesome, or reaching for takeaway.BUF Girl Tip: We agree 100% - own your shopping, enjoy it, celebrate how empowered you feel when you know exactly what’s in the fridge and don’t need to reach for takeaway. Or… encourage your man to do it, as Cass has clearly done so well ;) Keen to pick up your own life-changing tips? Join us for the next group round of BUF Body and get ready to transform the way you understand nutrition and approach your training, while being surrounded by an awesome community of #bufgirls. See you online!