Baby steps

Here’s a tip for anyone struggling to find healthy snacks in their local supermarket. Baby food. No, I’m not talking about  surviving on mashed up veg or rusks – no matter how many celebrities may have sworn they lost shed-loads of weight by eating out of a jar. I’m thinking more of the sort of snacks you can buy for toddlers – and having had two kids of my own I’m quite the connoisseur now! Below I’ve listed the sort of benefits I’ve found from swapping normal snacks for kiddie fodder – 

Cereal Bars
It’s scary how many cereal bar brands are packed full with sugar – but I’ve found Organix cereal bars to be a real find – they’re low on calories and have no ‘nasties’ in them – and no added sugar at all. More importantly I find they are a delicious and satisfying treat. (I promise I’m not being paid to be this nice about them – I just really like them! There are, of course, plenty of other options – some other brands make ‘fruit bars’ which count as a portion of fruit each.)

Crisps & crackers
Again, children’s versions of crisps and crackers tend to be additive free – just check the packet before you buy – and are usually produced in very small portions. By swapping your usual bags of crisps for a child-friendly pack of ‘corn puff shapes’, you are, in my experience, consuming less than half the calories, and a fraction of the fat.

Fruit puddings
Some baby food brands make delicious fruit purees that are packed in pots, just like yogurts. Not everyone is going to like the idea of eating a puree, but I’ve found them very handy as an alternative, healthy pudding. They’re also great for swirling into plain yogurts or porridge.

Perhaps I’m the only mum who’s decided to have a sneaky taste of what she’s been feeding her little ones and thought “Mmm…not bad!” In which case, I’m a freak! But it works for me. A piece of fruit, would of course, be the healthiest snack of all, but all the above have often helped to me keep boredom at bay when I’m doing my best to have a wholesome day. By the way, you’ll usually have to head to the baby food section of your local shop to have a chance of finding any of these – most supermarkets keep them all together like this.

My top 5 worst diet foods

Greetings pop pickers! Here’s another top 5 for you  –  the worst foods I’ve eaten when on a diet – usually because I took things to extremes and binged on them because they were ‘allowed’ instead of moderating my portions of normal, healthy food, instead. I cringe so much when I recall some of these and hope I’m not the only person to have ever lost their senses in such ways as dieting madness took hold of me…

5.Pasta n’ Sauce
A staple of the Slimming World regime and very tasty, for food out of a packet, it can be. Trouble is, like all ‘packet’ food, I severely doubt Pasta n’ Sauce is that good for you. Sure, it may fill you up, but I always felt uncomfortable chowing down on something that had to be re-hydrated to be eaten. And a lot of salt seemed to be involved, too. Slimming World deemed this ‘free food’ in the sense you can eat as much as you like of it, but the only thing I felt it was free of was nutrients…

4. Sugar-free jelly
When I dabbled with Weight Watchers last year, I was delighted to see that sugar-free jelly was allowed. If I was starving – and whilst I was on the ‘quickstart’ thingy I was a bit – I’d gobble one, or two, or, eek, maybe three of these. The amount of chemicals I cheerfully consumed in the process doesn’t bear thinking about. Again, I ask, “Weight Watchers – where oh where are the vitamins and minerals in this stuff?”

3. Weight Watchers yogurts
Whilst on Weight Watchers, I also got into the habit of stockpiling these little beauties – which I have to say are actually pretty tasty. But again, I would take things to extremes – at only 1 point or less each, I was packing away an enormous amount of aspartame-laced dairy items each and every day. A balanced diet? Good Lord, no! I have also in the last year developed a dairy intolerance – milk and yogurts now play havoc with my skin, and all I can get away with is the odd bit of cheese. What a mess…

2.MullerLight yogurts 
Pretty much the same deal as the WW yogurts, except that I was allowed as many as I liked of these on Slimming World. So I did. I’d have several a day – and these are pretty hefty yogurts – fitting the bloody things in the fridge was always a challenge. At the time I was attending a weekly ‘Fat Club’ (as we called it) consisting of several friends, all keen to shift our post baby blubber. Most of us were informally following the Slimming World plan. Once I squirmed inside when my pals chitchatted about the merits of MullerLight. “Bit worried about the artifical sweeteners in them, mind.” said one. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry – I can only ever manage one or two a day, so that’s alright, isn’t it?” replied another and I watched, red-faced, as everyone else nodded in agreement. Oh dear, oh dear.

1.Weight Watchers Fruities
By far the worst of my diet food offenders, because their crimes were committed on so many levels. These practically points-free sweets did nothing to encourage healthy eating. They tasted a bit funny. They used a weird sweetener in them. They had a warning on the packet that said that consuming too many of them at once would result in a laxative effect. Did I heed that warning? Heck no, but I was spared multiple trips to the loo. Instead, I was able to enjoy crippling stomach pains for several hours. Lovely!

So there you go. Realise I’ve only got myself to blame for taking things too far. Which is why I prefer to make things up as I go along now – I’d rather have a small morsels of  delicious and nutritious grub than cram my gob with ‘frankenfoods’, ta very much.  

POINTless!

I want a muffin top!

What’s a muffin top? In my mind it’s the annoying overhang of flab you get when you can fit into some trousers, but really still need to work those stomach muscles a tad harder and also lose a bit more weight. I’m well acquainted with the term, and am extremely well acquainted with the reality. However, it turns out that there is such a thing as an actual ‘muffin top’, made from the top of a muffin, would you believe? And I’m fast becoming obsessed with them…

At Curves we get a free magazine every so often. Curves is an American franchise, so I love flicking through their mag as it’s full of several interesting articles, but more importantly, American adverts. I just love American ads – they always seem so much more self-assured, witty and exciting than our boring old UK ones. (Sweeping generalisation, I know, but stick with me…) Anyway, the Curves mag always contains a particular ad that piques my interest. It’s for VitaMuffins and VitaTops (which as far as I can tell, are simply the tops off muffins!). They look gooooood. And according to the ad they’re oh so healthy – packed with fibre – low in fat – low in sodium – filled with added vitamins. And because the portions are small, low in calories too. A fat fighter’s dream…

I’ve even gone so far as to check out their website to see if they ship to the UK – but alas – they don’t seem to. I’m heartbroken. I know that I could probably make some muffins that would quite possibly surpass these dietfoods in quality, taste and even nutrition. But dammit, I want a muffin top!!

Wow, writing all that down helped a bit… still want one, though.