Author: Claire Schillaci

We’ve talked about superfoods before but what’s a super bug? A super bug is a strain of bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotics. They have come about because of the overprescribing of antiobiotics.

Just to tell you how big this problem is, a study in the US of 19 million health records, and a similar study in the UK, showed that 23.2% of all antibiotic prescriptions were inappropriate.

Most commonly doctors prescribed them to fight a VIRAL infection but antibiotics only work on bacterial infections.

Do 2 or 3 days of consciously choosing what you are going eat for each meal. If you can do a  whole week. Think about the portion sizes, the balance of the plate and then notice afterwards how you feel.

Immediately afterwards notice if you feel overfull and perhaps didn’t stop eating soon enough. Or do you still feel hungry but within half an hour you realise you’re actually quite full.

Following that, what is your concentration like and your energy levels? What are your moods like and is there any pattern to them according to what you’ve eaten? How well do you sleep? Which part of the day are you most productive?

How soon after a meal do you feel hungry again?

And particularly notice what foods you crave or are drawn to – sweet, salty, soft, crunchy?

Just notice. This is the first step to listening to your own inner nutritionist. Your body is a mine of information and you listen it will tell you everything you need to know.

There has always been a lot of debate about whether eating from a smaller plate actually makes people eat less. Studies have shown that there is some supporting psychology behind a smaller plate size helping with weight loss.

Of course the most important aspect to eating a healthy meal is getting the balance right –Half your plate should be green vegetables.  A quarter of your plate protein – which is meat, if you eat it , or lentils, legumes if you don’t  .An eighth of your plate is complex carbs – brown rice, quinoa, beets, sweet potato, carrot or millet. One eighth good fats – nuts, seeds, nut butter, nut oils, olive oil, avocado,  flax or coconut oil.

Don’t count calories, for goodness sake! There is no need for that, just get a better awareness of the foods you are putting on the plate. We’ll talk about that in another Tweaklet but for now, maybe play with the notion of smaller plate, smaller waist!

I want to tell you very quickly about Intermittent Fasting. If you’re like me you hear the word FAST and you think it means STARVE.

But this is how it works. Intermittent fasting means you eat within an 8 hour period during the day. You eat your last meal at night, preferably around 6 pm and then you don’t eat again for 16 hours, which takes you to around 10 am the next morning.

This is called 16:8 intermittent fasting and the health benefits include balancing blood sugar, lowering cholesterol, increasing fat burning, boosting energy levels and mental clarity and many more.

If you haven’t heard of it look it up. For most people it’s easy to do. Of course there are people who should not try this without medical supervision – those who are underweight or with eating disorders, pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Here is a link to my Favourite blender, it’s the one I use for all my smoothies!