Good morning!
I've had a really bad 2 weeks of exercising, I've had a bit of a virus that wiped me out for a week or so. I thought I was OK but went to Body Combat and had to leave when the stars came rolling in and I thought I was going to hit the floor!
After a few days without the gym I felt better but work has taken over a session or two so I haven't really got my A game back yet.
Throughout this time I've had to try and reel in my eating habits. I do eat healthily and can't remember the last time I had crisps, biscuits or chocolate but I am constantly hungry so keeping my food and snacks all within a decent calorie range and without overdoing the sugar is important.
There's one thing that always helps me keep my raging food monster from taking over, and that's Food Maths. Bear with me, I'm not about to get some crazy equations out and boggle your brain in a Friday.... This is pretty simple.
I'm giving you some foods and their equivalent exercises you would need to burn them off. Get ready to be horrified!
To start off, here are images from Pinterest so you understand what I mean:
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| Image from Pinterest but property of Skinny Mom |
I don't know about you but 87 minutes of crunches, 272 burpees or endless running sound horrendous and boring and totally uninspiring!
There are definitely more fun ways of burning these foods off but MY GOD isn't it a wake up call?!
Let's have a browse of the next one.....
I love fried chicken but 65 minutes on a bike? I struggle with a 45 minute spin class!
159 minutes of climbing stairs?! My heart rate would sky rocket doing that, and don't even get me started on the 170 minutes of Pilates.
Wow, doesn't it all make it really hit home what you're eating??
I do find things like this really help but a lot of these snacks aren't what I eat so I've looked up a few of my favourite snacks and treats to see what I'd need to do for those:
1) Starbucks Blueberry Muffin - admittedly I am more likely to eat my mums homemade muffins as I'm a cheap individual and wouldn't fork out the cash (forever a student....) but blueberry muffins rate highly on my treat scale and I would pay for these when I had the cash....These come in at 380 calories which according to My Fitness Pal would take me 40 minutes of running (at 5mph) to burn off or 32 minutes of swimming.
2) Whitworth's Fruit, Nut and Seed mix - this stuff is the best mix I've found. It's an even distribution of fruit and nut as opposed to a game of 'spot the almond amongst the raisins' and all of it tastes great. In my opinion it's healthier than eating chocolate and sweets but it's easy to get out of control. A serving is 25g but I never measure.....going with a 50g helping this would give me 240 calories to burn. This equates to 23 minutes on the elliptical trainer as punishment...just for a few bits of dried fruit and nut!
3) 9 Bars - I can't get enough of these beauties, so many gorgeous flavours and some even have a bit of chocolate on them.....drool! The 50g bars can take you into the 280 calorie region meaning a 33 minute Zumba class is coming my way!
4) Nutella - its a shameful secret that I have a tub of Nutella by my bed (literally with my name on thanks to Selfridges!) that I tend to have a teaspoon out of when I'm feeling low, it does work to cure my chocolate cravings usually so I don't feel guilty about it but the other day I sat and ate quarter of the tub with a spoon straight out of the jar....whoops! That's 520 calories for a few spoons of happiness - I felt seriously better afterwards (long day and feeling run down, you know the drill) but the 65 minute hike with a weighted back pack necessary to burn them off definitely wouldn't!
So even with my seemingly healthier alternatives to a pizza and a family bag of crisps I'd still have to do some serious exercise to burn off my treats.
Have you thought about your snacks as an exercise to complete afterwards? Have you really thought about how much your weekend takeaway chinese food or pizza might be ruining your hard work during the week?
It's a scary thought, but it's all about balance. Being aware of your calorie intake from treats goes a long way to helping you towards your goals!
It's a scary thought, but it's all about balance. Being aware of your calorie intake from treats goes a long way to helping you towards your goals!
L xxx
