Category: Diet

The dreaded “Freshers 15″… the notion that when you first go to university you will return home 15 pounds heavier. It’s unsurprising really; the alcohol, the late nights, the takeaways, it really is a recipe for disaster. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Here are 15 tips that will help you live a healthier lifestyle, fresher or not.

#1. Walk

Even if you are a bit of a gym-o-phobic, there is still no reason as to why you can’t get as least some exercise in during your day. Doing something small like walking to university or walking to the shops, instead of driving or getting the bus, can really help- all those steps add up!

#2. Be smart with alcohol

I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to drink…because that would be ridiculous #DownItFresher. But when you are drinking, try to be smart with your choice of alcohol. Things like beer or cider are very calorific, there is a crazy 250 calories in a bottle of Kopparberg, whereas a shot of vodka only has 55 calories.

#3. Go diet

When you are ordering alcohol with a mixer, try asking for the diet version, instead of full fat. You could be saving almost 150 calories per drink!

#4. Hydrate

This is especially important after alcohol and almost goes with saying. When you get in after a night of drinking try and chug as much water as possible. If you can down a pint of beer- you can down a pint of water! Sipping water throughout the day will keep you feeling full of energy and stop you from snacking on sugary snacks.

#5. Join a gym

If there is anything that motivates students more…it’s money. If you know that you are paying for a gym membership every month, it could well motivate you to actually go! And no excuses with it being too expensive. Some commercial gyms charge as little as £2.50/week- you’d spend more on a pint!

#6. Get a workout buddy

If you are a little worried about stepping into a gym, going with another person can make it much less daunting. You will also be able to motivate each other and it makes it much harder to slack off!

#7. Join a society

If the gym isn’t for you why not try joining an AU society! There are so many sports to choose from and not only will it get you fitter, but it’s a great way to make friends.

#8. Don’t buy crap

The easiest way to cut down on crap, is not to buy it! If you fill your cupboards with tempation then it makes it so much harder to eat well. Normally if I am craving chocolate but don’t have any it, I will be too lazy to go out and buy some, so will settle for something else instead.

#9. The “apple rule”

I saw this online and I thought it was a really good idea. Quite often most of us eat because we are bored, or we are watching TV etc. When you feel like reaching for a snack, think to yourself “would I eat an apple right now?”. If the case if no, then you are probably not really hungry and are just eating for the sake of it.

#10. Buy pizza from the supermarket instead

Whilst I am not condoning an all-pizza-diet, there are times when pizza is a necessity. If you really are desperate for a takeaway, always try and buy from the supermarket instead. A dominos veggie pizza has 1,653 calories, whereas an ASDA veggie pizza only has almost half the calories- 842- and is tons cheaper!

#11. Stir fries

Stir fries are a literally a god send for students. I mentioned this in the post I wrote last year about healthy eating as a student. Stir fries are an amazing way to get in your protein, carbs and veggies in a quick, easy and cheap way. Just watch out for sugary stir fry sauces.

#12. Buy frozen

Nope I don’t mean pizzas…I mean vegetables. This year I have decided to buy way more frozen items because not only are they much cheaper, but it stops me wasting so much fresh food. This way, it means you always have vegetables in, so no excuses for not eating your greens!

#13. Take a packed lunch

Whilst it may be easy to nip into a food outlet on campus and buy a sandwich for lunch, it will be far cheaper, healthier and probably tastier to bring your own. Even if you aren’t a culinary expert, just pack your own sandwiches in wholemeal bread with a good protein source and lots of veg!

#14. Sleep sleep sleep

I’m sure that most uni students won’t need any encouragement to stay in bed. But believe it or not, your 4am-1pm sleep is doing you no where near as much good as an 11pm-8am sleep would! Sleep is honestly one of the most important things for both your physical and mental health. When you are tired, everything seems to get on top of you more and your basic bodily functions start to suffer.

#15. Prioritise!

Instead of saying “I don’t have time to do this” say “this is not a priority for me at the moment”. This really changes your way of thinking and will help you to stop making excuses for things. Is watching Netflix in your PJs really a  priority?

I hope these tips were useful, if you want any more info check out my post about eating healthy at university which shows some easy meal ideas. Also check out my IG: @dionnelifts where I post loads of easy meal ideas!

Bye for now x

Hey guys! Today I want to share with you my go-to recipe for protein pancakes. I normally eat these for lunch as I love my savory breakfasts too much, but for anyone with a sweet tooth these are ideal. 

Ingredients:

• 20g Oat Flour (I use rolled oats and stick them in a blender or a chopper to make them really fine)
• 20g Coconut Flour (You can also just finely blend coconut meat)
• 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Egg OR Half A Banana (Vegan)
• About 300ml Coconut/Almond Milk
• 25g Protein Powder- (I use Pure Blend Co Acai Berry, Blueberry & Camu Camu) This particular flavor is not vegan, but they do stock a vegan range.

Method:

• Pop all the ingredients into a blender and whizz together.
• Add coconut milk until you achieve the right consistency- not too thick, not too watery.
• Cook your pancakes in a non-stick frying pan using coconut oil, or another oil of your choice.
• I prefer to make smaller pancakes as they are easier to flip.
• Once they are ready, stack them up and add your toppings.

Toppings:

• I topped mine with sprinkles, blueberries, strawberries.
• I finished by drizzling over Sweet Freedom Choc Shot (Vegan)

Macros: 395 Cals/ 35P / 35C / 15 Fibre/ 15 F

Thank you for reading this and give it a share if you found it interesting! Leave any suggestions in the comments below and make sure to follow my IG @dionnelifts for more food and exercise ideas.

For the past few years I have stayed well away from fruit smoothies. Why? Well you only have to look at the sugar contents to realise that fruit smoothies are absolutely full of sugar. However as I have become more interested in veganism (is that a word?) and plant-based-diets, I have noticed that a huge proportion of a plant-based diet is made up of fruit, and very sweet foods such as dates. At first I was quick to turn my nose up at this, thinking “god I can’t believe they would eat all this sugar”. Meanwhile I was more than happy to sip on my pint of Diet Coke, which whilst being calorie and sugar free, contained more chemicals than I would even attempt to name. So…all this got me thinking and I decided to have a proper look into fruit and fruit smoothies and see if they really were as bad for me as I thought.

*THE SCIENCY BIT:

• Fructose is the name of the main carbohydrate in fruit. Humans don’t actually produce fructose and the liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose in significant amounts.
• When people start to eat a diet that is high in calories and high in fructose, the liver gets overloaded and starts turning the fructose into fat.
• Although some fructose is derived from fruit, a lot of fructose consumed in the diet is derived from sucrose, which we know as sugar.
• This is because sucrose consists of 50% fructose and 50% glucose.
• Sweet foods such as desserts, cakes, chocolate and other confectionery, and sweetened beverages such as carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit juice and so on, contain large quantities of added fructose

*THE BAD BIT:

• A lot of shop bought smoothies, whilst containing whole foods, also contain other things to sweeten them up and make them taste nicer.
• You may often see that they use a fruit juice, normally apple, or use other ‘natural ingredients’ such as honey.

• This is where it all goes wrong, the ‘fruit juice’ they are using, is basically glorified sugary water, not the juice of an actual fruit; and due to the nature of mass production, the honey they are using will most likely be cheap and contain added sweeteners and sugars.
• THIS is what makes the smoothie unhealthy, NOT the naturally occurring fructose from the fruit.

• If you are trying to loose weight or don’t lead a very active lifestyle, if you don’t use up the fructose you are consuming in fruit through exercise, it will be stored as fat and you will gain weight.
• Fruit is reasonably calorific compared to vegetables, so if you are trying to loose weight I would recommend you consume 1-2 servings of fruit and 4-5 servings of vegetables.
• Some smoothies can contain up to 5 servings of fruit, so I would stay away from them if I was trying to loose weight.

THE GOOD BIT:

• As I explained earlier it’s not the fruit itself that makes smoothies unhealthy, it’s all the other crap.
• So if you are making your own smoothies and are only including fruit, or other natural bases such as almond milk, they are a really healthy and convenient way to get in your fruit!
• In very simple terms you would have to eat a hell of a lot of fruit to even get close to a level of fructose that is dangerous. You would literally have to overdose on bananas.

CONCLUSION (TLDR):

• Smoothies consisting of fruit ONLY, mixed with an unsweetened liquid or ice, are perfectly healthy.
• Saying that, if you are on a calorie controlled diet you do get a long more bang for your buck through eating vegetables.
• By this I mean for 100 calories you can eat one small banana, or over 300g of broccoli (not sure why anyone would want to eat that much broccoli).
• I tend to veer towards smoothies containing vegetables such as spinach or kale, as they normally contain more fibre and nutrients!

Thank you for reading this and give it a share if you found it interesting! Leave any suggestions in the comments below and make sure to follow my IG @dionnelifts for more food and exercise ideas.

I absolutely love eating out, but when you try to maintain a ‘clean eating’ regime, eating out can seem like a challenge. But do not fear, there are plenty of ways you can go out to restaurants, eat something really tasty, but still stay on track!

However if it’s a special occasion or you’ve really been looking forward to pigging out, I say go for it! I believe there should be no such thing as restriction, so if you want to eat out and go a little crazy every now and again, as part of a balanced healthy lifestyle- go for it.

But if you’re eating out quite regularly, or do so often for convenience, it can be detrimental to ‘go crazy’ every time. I’ve put together a few meals from chain restaurants that you may find useful next time you go out for dinner and want to maintain those abs!

Just before we get onto the chain restaurants, an important thing to remember when you’re eating out anywhere, is if in doubt go for a lean meat or fish, vegetables and good carbs like brown rice, new potatoes or sweet potatoes…and try to avoid things that are fried or drowned in oil!

Pizza Express

The ‘Sounds-Healthy’ Option:

Starter: Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato Salad…331 Cals / 9.5P / 30.3F / 5.3C

Main: Leggera Superfood Salad…453Cals / 14.0P / 27.4F / 32.6C

TOTAL: 784 calories / 23.5g protein / 57.7g fat / 37.9g carbs

The ‘Actually-Healthy’ Option:

Starter: Prosciutto Melone…124 Cals / 7.3P/ 9.2F / 3.5C

Main: Pollo ad Astra Leggera…486 Cals / 35.4P / 14.1F / 54.5C

TOTAL: 610 calories / 42.7g protein / 23.3 fat / 59g carbs

Turns out you are able to eat a pizza over a salad, still eat less calories, practically double up on protein and decrease fat by half….win win!

Nandos

The ‘Sounds-Healthy’ Option:

Main: Double Chicken Wrap (Medium)… 716 Cals / 23.5F / 58.9C / 65.2P

Sides: Spicy Rice…453 Cals / 11.7F / 75.6C / 7.8P

Macho Peas… 336 Cals / 20.7F / 19.6C / 13.2P

TOTAL: 1505 calories / 86.2g protein / 55.9 fat / 154.1g carbs

The ‘Actually-Healthy’ Option:

Main: Double Chicken Pita (Medium)… 505 Cals / 8.1gF / 42.2C / 63.1P

Sides: Corn… 288 Cals/ 5F / 44C / 11P

Sweet Potato Wedges… 332 Cals/ 14.8F / 46.2C / 8.6P

TOTAL: 1125 calories / 82.7g protein / 27.9 fat / 132.4 carbs

The healthier option here is still pretty calorific, however it is a lot more substantial than a salad, and it is full of protein- keeping you nice and full! I would only recommend this as part of an active training regime.

Wagamamas

The ‘Sounds-Healthy’ Option:

Main: Teriyaki Salmon Soba… 803 Cals / 45.3P / 68C / 37.5F

Starter/Side: Duck Lettuce Wrap….339 Cals / 15.3P / 1.9C / 67.4F

TOTAL: 1142 calories / 60.6g protein / 55.9 fat / 69.9g carbs

The ‘Actually-Healthy’ Option:

Main: Chilli Sirloin Steak Ramen… 665 cals/ 68P / 79.2C / 10.6F

Starter/Side: Edamame Beans…179 Cals / 13.4P / 7.4C / 6.2F

TOTAL: 844 calories / 81.4g protein / 16.8 fat / 86.6g carbs

The healthier option here is slightly higher in carbs, but has more protein and tons less fat! If you have a low fat option you can afford to eat more carbs.

Zizzi