Just Ask Jase: Weekend Indulgences

Dear Jase, One of my favourite weekly activities is going out for brunch with my partner on a Saturday morning. How can I indulge while also staying healthy?

 – Addicted to Avocado

Hi Addicted to Avocado, a very pertinent area to delve into from what I have been hearing of late.

The notion of that “weekend treat” or “cheat meal” is essentially a reward of food to balance our some other area within your life. As I always say, we make decisions emotionally and justify them logically and this moment is no different. You may have had a stressful week at work, been training extremely hard at the gym, or been extra diligent with your diet but regardless there has been some element of “justification” that has gone into your weekend treat.

To answer your question, the best way to indulge in foods you may not think hit the “healthy” ideal is to control their portion size. It is always better to allow yourself that treat on occasion, but the factor that can control any detrimental effects on your health or weight lies in how much of this treat you have.

Your small decisions regarding portion size and healthy modifications make a huge difference when added up. For example you could order the small sized value meal in the drive-through, only have a couple of slices of pizza rather than the whole pizza, have a drizzle instead of a litre of hollandaise sauce on your eggs benny or remove as much visible fat from the streaky bacon as possible.

Your best bet to minimise the damage is to choose whole foods at brunch, and control the calories where you can to keep the excess kilo’s from creeping on. Other ideas for brunch similar to the hollandaise sauce example is to order your sauce on the side to control how much you use (sauces are notoriously calorie packed!). Calories could further be controlled by watching the serve of avocado you use (even though it is packed with healthy fats, half a medium avocado has the same amount of calories as three apples!) or even opting for lite or skim milk if you have a coffee with your breakfast (saving you between 40-60 calories per coffee).

A note on that last point, reduced fat or skim dairy products are not detrimental to your health compared to their full fat alternative in the majority of cases (a topic I will answer in much greater detail should I be asked to!)

Another way you can enjoy your brunch and the potential excess calories it may contain, is to add some form of activity to your pre-brunch routine with your partner. This could be as simple as a morning walk together, and as an added incentive we have recently learnt that research indicates that couples that train together stay together. Furthermore, you will have just “earnt” yourself the right to refuel with the extra calories we find so readily in our indulgence foods and can remove the guilt from having them on occasion.

In summary, your nutrition can be engineered for optimal health, obtaining your desired body shape and allowing those indulgences on occasion with the right planning. Healthy eating is moderation, it is balance, it represents a healthy relationship with food and also building a positive self-image within yourself to allow the self-confidence to be your best every day.

For anyone who might like to build that support network to achieve our ideals of healthy eating and still enjoy all the wonderful things food brings into our lives be sure to ask about how our nutrition plans can be tailored to assist you to achieve your goals and become better than yesterday!

 

— Jase

 

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