Yesterday I was at an event where people were talking about calories.

I overheard a woman say, ‘Oh no, I can’t eat carbohydrates today, I need to drop a dress size.’

I spoke to another women who told me she was on a juicing diet.

A man had a conversation with me about being on the keto diet for a year and seeing his weight fluctuate back and forth.

Diets are incredibly clever in that they create them so that you’ll buy into them whilst your weight fluctuates back and forth continually buying into them until you turn into a weight loss drink.

Wait that’s not right.

But the point is diets don’t work.

These companies make money off you FAILING rather than succeeding.

A lot of the ones like weight watchers and slimming world have good foundations. Eat more of what is good and less of what is bad. They encourage you to eat balanced meals.

This is a good thing.

However for the large part fad diets do not work long term.

In the short term you lose weight,

But research has shown that a large proportion who engage in diets and lose weight, will regain that weight in the next 1-5 years.

If you look at that actual effect dieting has on your body…

Neurologically, you start to notice food more. Your brain becomes overly responsive to food. The reward value increases. So food becomes harder to resist.

Hormonally, as you lose body fat the hormones in your body change. The hormones that help keep you full decrease. The hormones that make you hungry INCREASE.

And your metabolism changes. It slows down. Your body finds a way of running itself on less calories and stores the leftover as fat.

Dieting is essentially STARVING yourself of what your body actually requires.

Let’s look at two heavy hitters in the WELLNESS WORLD right now.

No carb diets? Your body and energy levels primarily run off CARBOHYDRATES. It’s your bodies main source of ENERGY.

They are the base of the nutritional pyramid. The big HEAVY BASE that helps your body and brain run.

When you starve yourself of carbohydrates, your body will use protein and fat for energy. Which sounds like a good thing, right? In the long term it puts you at risk of insufficient inatke of VITAL nutrients potentially leading to health problems.

Replacing carbs with fat, can increase your risk of heart disease.

It can also lead to KETOSIS which can lead to headaches, weakness, nausea, dizziness, dehydration and irritability.

The KETO diet is only really appropriate for possibly treating epilepsy. Not for anybody else.

No sugar diets? Your body REQUIRES glucose for ENERGY. It turns carbohydrates and natural, unrefined sugars into insulin which gives you energy and helps your brain run.

Your brain is the most glucose hungry part of your body and transforms a lot of calorie intake into ENERGY.

Your body typically uses 320 calories just to THINK.

I realized recently that A LOT OF US have very little or basic level understanding of nutrition.

That if something says ‘diet’ on it like a diet yoghurt, we are like…

‘YES PLEASE, this MUST BE GOOD!’

Without realizing the nutritional value of what is actually IN IT.

I’m not going to make this into some MASS LESSON of nutrition today.

But I’ll break it down into small points-

• For each main meal including breakfast, you want to be balancing out what is on your plate/bowl. Carbohydrates are important for sustained energy. Slow release carbohydrates. Protein to support carbohydrates and retain muscle strength. Good fats (unsaturated fats). FATS ARE IMPORTANT. They help maintain a healthy brain and heart. And FRUIT/VEG. You want a good old bigger than a handful portion.
• Do not cut calories on any meal. Stop counting the calories that are in your meals and start focusing on the NUTRIENTS you put in them. For example, if you see a 255 calorie sandwich made with white bread and processed cheese, although the calories are low, that also means the ENERGY levels are low. Whereas getting a falafel wrap with hoummous filled with veggies and pickles – AMAZING. Or a baked sweet potato with olive oil, chicken/veggie burger and a handful of veg – AMAZING. You’ll be kicking it out of the ball park for the rest of the afternoon.
• Snacks! Snacks are important. They maintain a consistent energy level throughout the day. You will be surprised the energy levels you will have if you eat a good snack. Which you will then PROBABLY burn off with the increased energy levels. A good snack might be a 100% natural, unrefined sugar free snack bar. Or a hummus and veg. Or some nut butter/ cheese and crackers. Some dark chocolate. Some fruit. Some nuts. Some hummus crisps. Some popcorn. Some muesli/granola. Or some yoghurt and fruit.
• Don’t say NO to anything. I have chocolate EVERY SINGLE DAY. I will have an ice cream nearly every other day. Cake, brownies WHATEVER. When you demonize a food, you will fixate on it. Allowing your body what it actually WANTS means that it is no longer a ‘banned’ food and binges won’t happen.

The thing is a lot of us have an image in our heads of what size we should be.

You might have a picture on your wall of a size 6 model.

Or an image in your head.

And actually all our bodies are designed to be different shapes and sizes.

And we have to learn to accept that.

That if you fully listen to your body and it give it the proper nutrition it requires not skimping on fats or carbs, you will find your body will even out at your natural body weight and your energy levels will increase.

Needless to say the amount of mental and emotional energy you waste engaging in diets and hating your body.

Ditch the diet!

Embrace your life!

I appreciate that I am someone who is not trained in Nutrition and only participate in learning and reading to fuel a passion.

However… I have some news.

As of January 2019, I will be training in nutritional therapy at the College of Naturopathic Medicine.

It’s a part time course on weekends with study during the week for 3 years. So it fits around my current lifestyle.

I want to be fueling a passion of mine and learning more because I want to be helping people understand nutrition better and actually allowing themselves to ENJOY food and live a life free from boundaries.

I want to gain more knowledge and put more into this blog.

All exciting stuff.

And on that note I want to share with you my Banana Boost Nut Butter Chocolate Blondies.

What I love about Jake’s Boost nut butters is that he sweetens the nut butters with the NATURAL ingredients and sweetness from the NUTS.

In his Banana Boost butter, there is also the addition of the naturally sweet and crunchy banana chips. So you haven’t got that faux artificial banana flavour. You’ve got a REAL LIFE BANANA in there.

I thought this would be a great natural addition to a Blondie.

A blondie is like a brownie but blonde.

(Ha ha ha that’s the simple answer)

It’s accessing more neutral sweet flavours for the base to enhance the addition of the rich chocolate. It substitutes vanilla for the traditional chocolate flavouring.

My recipe is completely dairy free, refined sugar free and wheat free. For the most part, I’ve used straight forward ingredients you can find in your cupboard or in the local supermarket.

This is ooey, gooey and indulgent but 100% natural and packed full of wholefoods goodness.

It’s a proper SEXY dessert but not packed full of anything that will get your body sugar crashing.

Slow release carbohydrates, protein, good fats – what more can you ask?

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

And with the beautiful friends I shared them with.

Not gonna lie – I’m proper proud of these sexy bad boys.

Banana Boost Nut Butter Chocolate Blondies

Ingredients –

• 180g of oat flour (this is just oats blitzed til smooth)
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 100g of dark chocolate cut into chunks.
• 60g of coconut sugar (or alternative sugar)
• 1 flax egg (made with a tbsp of ground flaxseed and 4 tbsp of warm water)
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup
• 1/2 cup of plant based milk
• 5 heaped tablespoons of Jake’s Boost Banana Boost Butter

Method-

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
• Blitz oats in a food processor/blender.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix the oat flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.
• Make flax seed egg in a cup. Let sit for a 5 minutes to get all ‘eggy’. (And by that, I mean the consistency of an egg. Thick.)
• In a separate bowl, mash banana until smooth with plant based milk. Then mix in the Banana Boost Butter and Flax Egg.
• Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. Stir in 3/4 of the chocolate chunks.
• Grease and line a baking tin and pour in mixture.
• Smooth until even with the back of a spatula then top with the rest of the dark chocolate chunks.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check at about 18 minutes depending on oven as you don’t want them to be dry or over done.
• Remove from oven and leave to cool for 20 minutes before slicing into squares.
• Take a moment to indulge and enJOY this sumptuous treat. You bloody deserve it!

Ditch the diet, please.

It’s more healthy for your body and brain.

Listen to your body. Fully listen.

You may not end up at the size you want.

But your body and mind and energy levels will be happier and healthier for it.

Much love,

Joy xx