Right, so snacking has become a multi-million pound business. I was talking to a client earlier today and I said look there’s an aisle in the supermarket for crisps, for biscuits, for chocolate, for fizzy drinks and everything. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s right. The supermarkets and the food manufacturers once you snack… that doesn’t mean to say you need to be reaching for them. We’re not designed to constantly need snacks and as I said before we are not ask me to change everything at once so do be you know be gentle on yourself and be kind and it is a process this not the endgame.

So, I’m going to give you the reasons why and what happens when you snack really. Snacking raises your insulin levels… basically snacking raises insulin so whenever you eat your body secretes insulin, this gets sugar from your blood stream, to your cells and then onto your liver and then your muscles for storage. These storage units in your muscles only take what they need. They are not greedy, they don’t need to take a surplus. So, if you still have sugar hanging out in your blood stream that isn’t used by the storage units your liver then converts this to triglycerides and then insulin, then stores this is fat to be used later. So insulin is known, quite often, as the fat storage hormone. Every time you snack, you will raise this insulin. Now, some snacks will raise insulin more, so things like sugar, anything like chocolate, muffins, cakes, biscuits, fizzy drinks – they were all raise your insulin much more; but even something healthy like some fruit, some carrot sticks, nuts – they would also raise insulin. Not to such a big extent but they will raise. So every time you snack it keeps your insulin elevated which makes your body more readily store fat. So that is a really good reason, I think, to sort of stop snacking.

Snacking also increases calories… however, quite often a lot of the snacks that are available in the supermarket shelves, they are high in calories but they are low in nutrients. So think of things like crisps, doughnuts and stuff – there is nothing of nutritional value for your body. So it is kind of typical, if you start snacking you can’t stop. It’s because your body is saying I haven’t got any nutrients, I need nutrients you’re, not providing them for me so therefore I’m going to keep sending out that hunger signal and you’ll just keep on snacking. Almost that kind of “I can’t stop” unavoidable. So yeah, I just find that people, I’m the same once I start snacking, it’s very difficult stop

The next one is you’re snacking for the wrong reason… you get stressed at work so you reach for a muffin, or you did well at something so you reach for some biscuits as a reward, or you’re sitting at home on the sofa after your evening meal and then there was a commercial on and it prompted you like lovely chocolate, or some ice cream and you thought, ‘actually that looks really nice, I’ve got some ice cream in my fridge, brilliant I’ll go and have that’. So that’s not hunger. You’re snacking because something has connected your body and brain with the need for reward and gratification, rather than actual hunger. So, I think it’s really important to track your eating habits. Work out whether you’re actually hungry or whether you are snacking for a different reason. If you are hungry then you need to work out why you were hungry – Did you not eat enough at the previous meal? Did you skip or miss a meal? Did you not have enough protein on that meal? We will go into sort of hunger but you need to really really recognise what your trigger is for your snacking. I say to clients, “is it stomach hunger?” i.e. genuinely you are hungry… in which case we look at the previous meal or is it what’s often called mouth or brain hunger. So, either it’s a trigger in your brain or it’s just your mouth needing something in to eat, as opposed to actual hunger. Basically, the reason for snacking for a lot of people, is they’ve connected snacking with reward and gratification.

Now late night snacking… now, this is where most people inadvertently snack and actually this is where most “diets” are likely to fail. Obviously at ShowM.Fit we don’t like to call this a diet, this is more of a healthy eating plan. I don’t like the word “diet”, they always fail but most diets are likely to fail in the evening. You snack, you feel guilty and so you snack to ease that guilt or you just sort of carry on eating. Now late night snacking has actually been shown to store more fat. Unfortunately this is particularly true in females that are over 40s. This is because as we, I mean we by women, get older we have more of a tendency to get insulin resistant or insulin sensitive. This means that actually in response to any food we pump out more insulin and as we just learned higher incident equals higher fat. So that’s why I don’t like the late night snacking, for that reason. It can just trigger insulin resistance. Another reason that late night snacking isn’t great is our digestive system. We have a circadian rhythm which tells us to go to sleep and to wake up, but our digestive systems also have a circadian rhythm. They use night time to clean up and they don’t digest our food, so at this time food is much more likely to be broken down in the liver and when the liver can’t deal with it, it packages up as triglycerides and stores it as fat to deal with the next day. Obviously if you’re constantly eating then you’ll never using your reserves of fat and that that’s sort of why you’re not using that fat storage. So yes we need to think about it so the night time is for the digestive system to do its work to clean up, so that late night snacking I would say to people actually once you’ve finished your evening meal whatever time that might be you need to really allow 12 hours before you have your next meal. You can survive 12 hours… I get people going “ohh I’m going to get really hungry”, if you think about it you know our bodies have evolved from a small snap of time we’ve evolved back in cave men times. They didn’t have a constant supply of food. Our bodies are very able to use our fat resources is that we could get. We’re very adapted to using fat that our body stores for energy so we don’t need to constantly snack. After not eating or snacking for 12 hours our body starts using up the stored sugar from our liver and it starts to burn fat so that’s great. Also our levels of insulin drop overnight so that usually is about 12 hours after not eating they drop ready for the next day and everything. But it’s good to give our digestive system a break and fire our body up for burning fat because that’s ultimately what we want to do and want to lose weight as we want to lose fat. We’re not really concerned about the number on the scales because that doesn’t accurately reflect how much fat you’re burning so we definitely want to be burning fat.

Now, if you’re just starting out on ShowMe.Fit you might find that your blood sugars all over the place, it actually might not be regulated and balanced. We’ve designed ShowMe.Fit to be what’s called a blood sugar balancing plan; where you’re you don’t have those massive energy spikes and energy dips of blood sugar, where you could have feel that hangry – when you’re angry, you’re so hungry that you constantly will just eat whatever is in front of you. We have to devise this to be very blood sugar balancing so your blood sugars should be on a very even keel throughout the day. I know that some of you have blood sugar monitors, you should find on this plan that your blood sugar throughout the day is on a much more of an even keel. If you’re just starting out you might find that your blood sugars aren’t balanced in which case you might find that you need to snack to tide you over. Remember this is a process, you’re working towards no snacking but you might find start with – the first week or two weeks, that you need to snack and we will go into later on what kind of snacks will be a good snack for you to do. The first of the most important things to work on with your with getting your blood sugar right is to making sure you’ve got protein. Now, every single meal at ShowMe.Fit and every single recipe, I have made sure that there is good levels of protein. Protein helps fill you up and helps produce satiety, which means you shouldn’t feel hungry. People think carbohydrates fill you up but actually carbohydrates only fill you up for one to two hours, protein fills you up for much longer and also fats fill you up – fats fill you up for even longer they’re usually three to four hours from proteins about two to three hours. So, actually putting some fat in your meal is very good and again we’re not we’re not completely low fat at ShowMe.Fit. I mean, with fat you have be moderate but we are not low fat – we’ve got eggs, we’ve got avocados, we’ve got extra Virgin olive oil, we’ve got nuts, we’ve got seeds – they all contain fat, so that’s good. You also need to work to help with your blood sugar levels on moving around, that’s why we really encourage you all to do some kind of exercise even if it’s walking. Walking, in fact, should be your number one goal with exercise we should all be aiming for as much movement throughout the day as we can. Then also sleep is really important and they have found this so many studies that those people that don’t sleep very well have dysregulated blood sugar levels, they end up needing more sugar and more carbohydrates, especially those highly refined sugary carbohydrates the next day much more and they will usually eat more calories on a day to day basis; especially the next day if they’ve had poor sleep, so you know, work on your blood sugar levels if you think they might be dysregulated before you remove your snacks.

How do you break your snacking habit?  I think the first thing is become aware of why you’re snacking. As I said before, stomach hunger or brain or mouth hunger? Before you reach for a snack have a think, pause for a bit, do a few deep breaths – why am I reaching for this snack? If it is genuine, rate to say on rate on a scale of 1 to 10 if you’re above 7 with 10 being the most hungry, if you’re above 7 you probably need to eat something. You’re hungry so therefore do eat, allow yourself something to eat. Don’t go too long being hungry because that just plummets your blood sugar levels too much and therefore that’s very difficult then to get up again so give yourself something to eat. Really really work out, be truthful to yourself – am I actually hungry here or am I reaching for it because it’s habit? Is it habit? Is it boredom? Is it stress? Why am I snacking? I think half the battle is actually becoming aware of why you are snacking. Then look at the particular time of day – some people have a trigger… what I would like you to do is identify your trigger. Some people it could be when they pick the kids up from school, others it’s getting home from work, it could be it’s muffin time in the in the office or something and everyone downs tools at 4:00 o’clock and reaches for the muffins. What is your trigger? Is there a trigger? Is there something that you reach for a snack and can you pre-empt this trigger? Can you change your routine at this time or distract yourself? So if you’ve become aware of the why and then you said actually I’m always reaching for a snack at three o’clock I’m a bit bored I’ve been working for a couple of hours I’m bored or I’ve done all my jobs for the day I’m bored at 3/4/5 o’clock, whatever it is, therefore I’m always reaching for something to pick me up… could you do something else at that time, just to start with, you need to change your routine, change what you’re doing to distract yourself – go for a walk, listen to some music, phone a friend, listen to a podcast, go for some stretching, do some exercise, anything that will just kind of break that trigger snack association. That brings me onto the third point – can you find a non-food reward. You’ve done well at work so therefore normally you would reward yourself with a glass of wine at night or a chocolate bar or something. What can you do that’s a non-food reward? Buy yourself some flowers, go for a nice walk with a friend or a partner, treat yourself to a massage, have a nice hot bath, have some “me” time. Check you’re not thirsty as well. Really common to actually find that you’re thirsty so maybe it’s at 3:00 o’clock but actually maybe you haven’t had anything to drink until since lunchtime so actually maybe you’re thirsty. Have a large glass of water, wait 20 minutes and see whether you still feel like you need a snack. You could have a herbal tea if you don’t like water or you can add something more interesting to your water if you find water a bit boring. I would say to people things like cucumber, mint or rosemary or crushed up fruit lemon lime or anything that will just you know take the taste too if you don’t like plain water.

So many of us, we rush through eating our food, we eat quickly, we’re eating in front of the computer, in front of our phone, in front of the television – so really slow down your eating. Think about how you eating, use a knife and fork, sit at the table, don’t have distractions and eating really slowly and chewing your food. It takes a while for our brain to recognise that we are full, so the slower you eat, the quicker and the more likely you are to reach that stomach and your brain in co-ordination with each other and thinking ‘actually I’ve had enough’ to reach. Number six, I said this a couple of times, don’t reach for the stars (sorry I’ve got spelling mistake there). Set yourself goals and ditch the easiest snack first, don’t try and go all out and go right that’s it I’m never going to snack again in my life, I am stopping them all. You’re just reaching too far – set yourself small goals. Is it easier to break the habit of the snack between breakfast and lunch first? I usually find it is with clients, especially if they’re having much better breakfasts with all the protein. All these recipes that are on ShowMe.Fit are good for that. So that’s usually the first snack that’s going. Do that for a week before you then break the next one. Don’t try and do it all, all at once. The results will come and actually I would think with weight loss I want you to look less at the results at the end, i.e. to lose weight and to be the weight that you want to be. What I want you to focus on more is the process to get you there, it’s all about making habits that stick for life that will allow you to then be the weight you want to be for life. Otherwise you’re just going back to eating well for a period of time, which is easy, and then stopping – going back to your old habits, putting the weight back on, which is not great. Small steps, small goals and really working out that process is much, much healthier for you. Then if you’re massively craving something sweet (really common) that could be a blood sugar problem so going back to the previous point make sure your blood sugar is (this can take a couple of weeks to balance your blood sugars so don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re still starting out) and like I mentioned this a lot in the Facebook group but cinnamon, ground cinnamon is fantastic for helping with your blood sugar levels. So, if you were starting out on this programme and you always have something sweet after your meal or you know that after your evening meal you always crave something sweet, have a couple of tablespoons, not huge amount, of Greek yoghurt with a sprinkling of cinnamon. You can put a few berries with that if you want to make it a little bit sweeter. Have that, allow yourself to have that, it doesn’t need to be a big bowl – literally a couple of spoons and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon it’ll give you that sweet bit, the yoghurt has got the fat and the protein to help fill you up and it should be enough for your brain to go ‘I’ve had something sweet now I’m alright. I don’t need anything else’. Other things you could do after your evening meal if this is your tricky spot and I do find this a tricky spot with a lot of people, is going to clean your teeth. If you always after your evening meal go and sit on the sofa in the evening, now that’s your trigger for your brain to say “right where’s my snack? Where’s my sweet thing?”. So, to start with you’re going to need to switch up your routine slightly. You’re going to need to stop sitting on the sofa and maybe doing something first, so I advise cleaning your teeth, doing a stretch or a yoga session is quite nice, just get your body used to not sitting on the sofa and reaching for that trigger. Going for a walk now that it’s light outside in the evening, all these kinds of things are really positive things that you can do that will hopefully help you stop your snacking.

If you find yourself hungry… so, if you when you’ve looked at your snack and you’re reaching for the snack and you thought ‘hang on, am I am my stomach I’m hungry or my brain mouth hungry?’, if the answer is stomach hungry learn from why you were hungry. If you are hungry between breakfast and lunch look at the timings of those meals and look at the portion size. Was it enough to keep me going? Did I forget to put protein with it? Have I left it too long? Look at those things and learn from those mistakes. If you are genuinely hungry, then try to make smarter choices and with that I mean you want to include something that maybe might be sweet but actually want to include some kind of thing with protein and butter here so things like an Apple with a bit almond butter. You’ve got the Apple which is sweet, the almond butter which has got protein and fats, it’s low carb so it should keep your blood sugars nice and balanced and that’s a really good one. Celery with a bit of cashew nut butter. You can get some sliced Turkey with a few slices of avocado, so you’ve got the fat and the protein there which should help to fill you up without spiking your blood sugars too much. Some carrot sticks with some hummus. So you want to make choices that aren’t going to spike up your blood sugar levels. If you spike your blood sugar levels too much you can then actually find that you’re more hungry, so we have to make sure you’ve got some protein with that snack. It’s all about making some really smart goals when you come to stopping snacking. Your goal is to no snacking however I’m less focused on the goal but more the habits and the process and the systems that you integrate into your life to stop you. Otherwise, if you just say to stop snacking as your goal without putting a system in place it’s easy to do for a few days when motivation is high, but it can you can fail a bit if you haven’t got those systems in place. Rather than focusing on the goal you focus on what you want to change. So, I want to change how I’m eating, I want to slow down how I’m eating, I want to make free choices, I want to look at the timings, I want to make sure my portion size is good. One of the common mistakes is if you’ve got a snack drawer or cupboard in your house then how are you going to resist that? One of the main things is actually not to have the snacks or the food that you tend to overeat in the house. Could you shop online for a bit to stop any impulse buying? Could you speak to the other members of your house to support you if they need these snacks? Can they keep them somewhere where you can’t reach them or don’t know where they are (in their car, in a locked box, out of your knowledge, let alone out of sight but actually out of your knowledge). Really look at what timing your snacking occurs and can you pre-empt that time by doing something before that time. So, if it’s always 3:00 o’clock set a reminder on your phone 2:50 to go for a walk, you’re not in the house alone with your snacks that you probably shouldn’t have in your in your house in the first place.