What is The Stages of Change model?

The Stages of Change is a model based on Intention to Change. When applied to health what this means is that you are thinking about, or actively doing something, which you know is good for your health.  The steps through which you pass, to get to that healthier way of behaving are considered cyclical. We all have capacity to move through the stages of change.

How do I change?

Most people do not change behaviours quickly and decisively. Before you even feel the desire to change you live in PRE-CONTEMPLATION. This is a stage where you may not realise your behaviours are unhealthy, or you may know but have no desire to change. For some reason, or many reasons,  you then  start thinking about changing – we call this CONTEMPLATION. This stage can last months, even years. You might think it’s not worth changing as the actions seem too much, too difficult, involve too much time. Or, you might only spend weeks thinking about things, then you decide to commit.

PREPARATION is next.  You might buy equipment, or stop an unhelpful subscription. You  might set aside time, or ask someone to buddy with you. Professional help might be sought, family and friends involved. Again, you can spend weeks or months in this stage, as you get yourself ready to take that first real step. Most usually, once you have decided to work on something, you spend less than 4 months in this stage.

Now it’s the time for ACTION. You are making changes to how you more usually behave. One of the objectives of the action stage is to look to new habits to work upon, and to embed them in your life. You learn confidence and believe you can continue with the changes you have begun to action. Despite temptation to return to previous habits, the action stage serves to remind you that if you can change across one day, you can change across  another day.  You usually spend around 6 months in this stage, though often it takes less time to feel like a habit is embedded. Everyone is different.

The MAINTENANCE stage of the cycle looks to where you no longer really look to the older behaviours. Instead, the positives associated with changing feel so good, it is worth keeping going with those changes. Previous ambivalence resolves. Making behavioural  changes into habits can still be challenging, but they no longer involve conflict. You are different now.

Do I pass straight through from one stage to the next?

Usually not! The illustration describes LAPSE and RELAPSE.  If you have ever tried to change anything in your life you may be familiar with lapsing. This is where you have slipped from what you had been trying to do on a single occasion. A slip can be a one off, or could lead to a series of slips or lapses. When we spend more time lapsing versus carrying out the new behaviour, we are considered to have relapsed. We have returned to our old habits. The illustration shows how we can slip in and out of all of the stages. Even a habit you have carried out for 6 months can be dropped.  But the longer you stay in the action and maintenance stages, the more likely you are to change your health status for the good.

What do clinicians  do? What do I do?

Clinicians will use different tools to move you from one stage of the cycle to the next, or to keep you in a stage as best fits with your life right now. Our goals are always to support you and your physical and mental health. We aim to keep you steady with  changes you have already adopted, or move you to a position where you feel able to implement change.

I use strategies such as the ones below.

1. Raise consciousness

I might talk to you about a healthier way of being, versus staying the way you are now

2. Dramatic Relief

I might help you to explore the feelings you have when you think about keeping the unhealthy behaviour or behaviours. These can be feelings like anxiety, or guilt, or shame. I help you to explore feelings you have when you think about behaving differently, perhaps feelings of optimism and hope

3. Evaluating the Self

I use tools such as imagining how things would be if you did change, what being and feeling healthier might look like, what you would gain through the process

4. Evaluating your environment

I help you think about how your  unhealthy behaviours might impact others, and what they want for you

5. Liberation of the environment

I  assist you in exploring your environment so that you see opportunities for change, and that society supports what you are trying to do for yourself

6. Liberation of Self

I guide you to believe in the possibility of change and then commit to doing so

7. Helping Relationships

I work with you to identify people who can support you in your endeavour; individuals who will help you to achieve your desired outcomes, not get in your way

8. Counter Conditioning

I work with replacing particular ways of thinking or behaving with other healthier ways of thinking and behaving

9. Reward systems

I ask you to think through rewards for yourself, things that might keep you motivated along the way – these could be experiences, or gifts, or even just time for your self

10. Stimulus Control

Together we figure ways to help you  change your environment, whether at work or at home, so that you have cues towards the carrying out of the healthy behaviour or behaviours. Those cues associated with the unhealthy behaviours are removed.

If you would like me to help you move forward with your healthier way of being, please get in touch. I would be delighted to support you through the stages of change model, to better health.

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There is very good evidence to support the use of self-monitoring as a strategy to help you manage your weight. But weighing everyday may not be necessary.  Ask yourself “what am I trying to find out when weighing?’  Then decide how often to weigh.

Active weight loss – weigh every day

If you want to lose weight, set yourself a target within a healthy time frame. A healthy time frame is one which is scientifically possible. A healthy time frame will not tip you over the edge to unhealthy eating patterns. Weighing each day can be helpful as you will  learn how your body loses weight. Everyone has a different body. None of us will lose weight at the same rate. Nor will we respond to the same programme in the same way. Weighing every day can help you to understand how you respond to a particular programme of weight change.

Will weighing every day affect me psychologically?

The evidence suggests that for adults who are actively seeking treatment to lose weight, weighing daily is helpful and supportive. Weighing daily does not lead to individuals feeling bad about themselves. Instead, the closer  connection with weight and the changes noted on the weighing scales, the more likely we are to be able to reduce our weight and maintain a new, leaner mass.

What makes my weight fluctuate?

Hormones

When you weigh every day you see that your weight can change if your hormones are changing e.g. during menstruation.  This can be to do with hormones affecting bowel emptying. Perhaps you become constipated or experience very loose stools and lose fluid.

The food and drink you consume

You may notice how eating late in the day,  or eating spicy or salty meals can affect your weight. Even when you eat the same number of calories but there is different macronutrient content, you may notice changes in your weight. Eating carbohydrates late often looks like weight gain in the morning. Don’t worry. Your weight will settle again during the day.

Alcohol

If you drink alcohol the evening before weighing you might be dehydrated in the morning. You might look like you have lost weight. Again, your weight will settle  as long as you drink plenty of fluid.  Weight fluctuations are often driven by changes in bodily fluid.

Exercise

Exercise can also affect fluctuations in your weight. This is not usually due to burning up 1000s of calories, and more to do with fluid and carbohydrate storage in the body.  Weighing daily  helps you to understand these nuances in weight change. Weighing daily can help you to learn to be calm with your weight, as you figure out what might be affecting weight changes.

Weight loss maintenance – weigh frequently

Once you achieve your goal weight, after a weight loss programme, it’s a good idea to continue to weigh yourself regularly. The evidence suggests that when we remain vigilant with this, and pay attention to the weighing scales, it helps us to keep between a narrow band of weight fluctuations.

You don’t have to weigh everyday.   You could weigh 2 – 3 times per week, or perhaps once per week, but on the same day each week. Weighing is a strategy which helps to keep us focused on weight. With weight loss maintenance it can you keep you bought in, and motivated to your new self, your new body weight.

if you wish to continue to weigh daily, this is perfectly acceptable.

When should I not weigh?

If you have ever experienced an eating disorder, or are perhaps in the midst of one, it can be challenging to figure your way through with the weighing scales. The best thing in this scenario is to work off the guidance that your dietitian will have given you if you are in recovery. Your dietitian  will have given the best guidance for you as an individual. Your guidance will be determined by your history and what type of eating disorder you have or are experiencing.

If you would like help with your weight management, or with an eating disorder, please get in touch. I will listen. I will see you.

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Important things to consider when you achieve your weight goal

1. Outline your motivations for wanting to remain at this new weight –  be clear on how different you feel now to how you felt at a different weight
2. Employ a system of accountability to yourself and ideally to another – this could be inputting data to a phone app, or discussing things with a friend, your partner, your GP, or a dietitian
3. Be able to identify the habits that you have managed to embed that helped you with changing your weight. Work on maintaining these new habits so they really do become defaults
4. Set goals in terms of managing your weight short and long term –  this can be weekly, monthly, yearly
5. Think through the challenges you might experience on a daily basis and how you can work through them to ensure you stay on the right path eg working from home or working in the office
6. Be aware of your triggers to unhealthy behaviours and consider ways to adapt how you might previously have responded eg how you handle stressful situations
7. Seek support from the people you mix with regularly eg your family, work colleagues or friends
8. Ensure your environment supports your continued efforts – fill your cupboards and fridge with healthy food, make choosing well easy

Those individuals who have managed to maintain a new weight in the long term are a really interesting group of people. We know they are the minority not the majority. Below is a list of things which differentiate between those of us who maintain a weight loss and those of us who don’t. We can all maintain a new weight – see how successful individuals manage to do just that.

Successful weight loss maintainers

1. Employ continuous self regulation eg weighing once per week, or keeping a food diary one week per month
2. Revisit their reasons, their motivations for their goal weight frequently, reminding themselves WHY they feel better or different at this new weight
3. Actively manage themselves in terms of ensuring they maintain a healthy lifestyle – keeping a focus on the drivers of a healthy weight eg scheduling activity, choosing healthier foods, employing good sleep hygiene, meeting up regularly with friends and family
4. Experience a change in how they see themselves, now as someone who can work hard to achieve a personal goal, and be prepared to  act differently and do different things to the person they used to be. Successful weight loss maintainers are prepared to see themselves as different to who they were before they lost the weight
5. Have changed their habits eg they may  get up earlier in the morning to exercise, or always plan their food across the week
6. Find fulfilment in different ways than previous to their weight change programme. They  find strength in positive experiences they attribute to losing weight

Success is linked with

1. Strong self knowledge eg using a journal to capture how you are dealing with pressures or triggers as well as capturing successes
2. Self accountability eg prepare yourself to  step on the scales even though you might not want to
3. Active continuous self monitoring, resulting in actions when required eg paying attention to if  your weight increases and drawing upon measures to reduce it again. You might complete a food diary for a week
4. Trust in the approach, the process and the measures taken – having faith that your personal ability to work hard on maintaining weight, will enable you to do just that.

If you would like some help to work on reducing your current weight, or keeping to a weight that you have achieved yourself, please get in touch. I will be happy to help.

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Eat to a pattern Whether your pattern is 3 meals per day or 3 meals and a snack, stick to what works for you. This will help you to train your body to identify hunger signals.  If  you feel hungry  in between these eating episodes, you can consider whether you are actually hungry, or if you are craving something else.

Take a breath before opening the fridge or cupboard door. Maybe put a sticker on the front to remind you of the more mindful approach you are trying to adopt. Counting out 60 seconds may help you walk away. Sometimes we all just need a moment.  And if you would like a breathing exercise to try, why not consider this one which looks to mindful breathing as a helpful way to centre you.

Ask yourself what is going on Are you really hungry? Perhaps you are just  bored? Maybe you are  tired? Is work stressing you out?  Identify why you think you might be hungry and figure out if you really need to eat, or if you just want to eat.

If you are not hungry

Walk away. And if you don’t need to eat think about how you could comfort yourself in a different way. I like to do something physical, as it distracts my brain and helps me concentrate on something else. Leaving the house and walking in the park, or just walking around the block can be enough to dissuade me from messing with my eating routine. Find your ‘go to solutions’ by trialling different distraction techniques.

If you are hungry

Eat sitting down. This helps with digestion and metabolism of food, and allows the body to optimise absorption and use of nutrients.

Serve food on plates or in bowls. Don’t eat from the fridge, or from packets or bags. Lay the table and make your food look nice. Use a napkin. Treat yourself as you would a friend you invited for a meal.

Enjoy a measured amount. Using smaller bowls and plates can help us manage our portion sizes as food tends to look bigger the smaller the plate. If you are still hungry when you have finished, you can always go back for more.

Take your time at the table. Sometimes setting a timer for 20 minutes can help, even longer if you have opportunity to relax and rest after the meal. Another idea is to use chopsticks if you are not used to them, or using your non-dominant hand to eat. Eating differently helps to slow us down also.

Take small bites. Put your spoon or fork down in between mouthfuls. Sit back. Chew well. Breathe. Then lean forward and enjoy another mouthful. Repeat. Try not to add to what’s already in your mouth, but wait until you have had a proper swallow before having some more food. This helps with savouring and enjoying the deliciousness of the food we are consuming.

Sit and eat without distractions. So no TV or screens or other devices. Don’t even have them on the table. We can all do with eliminating some technology from our lives. Let your mealtimes be the beginning of some  tech free time.

How does it all feel?

Consider the senses. Spend your first 5 minutes noticing the food. What does it look like? How does it smell? What is the texture like? Can you pick the food up? Does the food crackle or sizzle before or during eating. Food can be so interesting, we just need to remind ourselves.

Pay attention. Consider your body and how you are feeling. Remember you don’t have to eat everything on the plate. You are allowed to leave food behind.

If these top tips for mindful eating feel challenging to achieve by yourself, get in touch. I will be happy to help you implement this mindful way to improving your eating and your health.

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Mindful eating and weight loss

How do we eat mindfully?

Explore the environment before, during and after eating

How to use mindful eating

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Positive affirmations are based on the idea of auto-suggestion. Because we are  repeating something in our mind over and over, we  eventually begin to believe it, and act accordingly. The use of  positive affirmations helps us to challenge our negative thoughts and words, and replace them with more positive thoughts and words.    We know that our Thoughts lead to our Feelings which then lead to our Actions, so if our thoughts are positive so will be our actions.This is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT.

The idea is to create the thought around how you want to be.

How to create your positive affirmation

1. Work in the present tense
2. Make your  phrase  positive
3. Target the desire you are trying to achieve

Examples could be:

1. I  eat well
2. I am losing weight
3. I exercise every day
4. I meditate every morning 

Then we repeat the thought as regularly as we can e.g. 20 times when we get up in the morning, and 20 times before bed. You can repeat the thought when standing at a bus station or at a tube stop, when washing your hair, or cooking dinner. Another idea is to draw on the power of the affirmation when you are feeling challenged e.g. when you are standing in line for a coffee and tempted by muffins and biscuits. 

The repetition of the positive affirmation develops new pathways in your brain. These new pathways reshape how you think, and help you to adapt your approach to what you are trying to achieve. Effectively, we learn to think our way to eating better, and being more physically active. You  can think your way to reducing your weight and being healthier. 

Fostering a positive mental attitude

Thought For The Day on BBC 4 is a favourite listen of mine. Speakers and thinkers from across the UK discuss current issues or ideas. Dr Kang refers to positive emotions to help us through difficult or challenging times.  I consider these emotions  useful and supportive of the use of  positive affirmations:  Patience, Enthusiasm, and Confidence.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bh0zsy

 For me these attitudes are about reminding myself what I, and my clients need when trying to achieve change in our lives. We need to be enthusiastic and have time and energy to devote to the endeavour. We need to be confident that whomever we are working with,  the foods  we are consuming, or the steps we are taking, will help us achieve that target. We need to be patient. Sometimes we will lose focus. Sometimes it will not be easy to stick to the task. But with patience, and effort, we will get there. 

If you would like my help with your goals please make contact.

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1. Use a food diary

The single most effective tool in helping you to understand and mange your eating habits better is to keep a food diary. A food diary will most definitely help you to take back control of your eating. Whether you use an app on a phone, or a small notebook in your kitchen doesn’t matter. The important thing is to capture what you eat,  when you eat it. No discussion. If you don’t capture the eating immediately  studies show you will forget. This will impact your ability  to influence change.

Food diaries will help you discover patterns of eating. Most people have situations, times and activities that stimulate eating. These events become paired with eating, so the event makes you feel hungry. For example, you may eat biscuits while watching TV. So watching TV makes you feel like eating biscuits. By separating eating from other activities we remove the ability of those activities to stimulate eating, freeing you to respond to actual physiological hunger.

2. Do nothing else while eating

Carrying out other activities e.g. reading, writing, working, watching TV brings 2 distinct disadvantages when it comes to eating. Firstly, as mentioned above, the activity becomes paired with  eating, so eating is stimulated during the activity. Secondly, the activity distracts you from eating, so you get all the calories but only part of the pleasure. In this scenario, we mindlessly over-consume. We are half way through the packet of biscuits before we realise.

Calories should be tasted not wasted : )  Eating should be a pure experience and if you love food, like me, try not to contaminate it with other activities.  Sounds heavy I know, but if you find it difficult to just concentrate on eating by itself, this technique offers you an opportunity to help you change your relationship with food, to one which offers more joy.

3. Follow an eating schedule

Using a food diary will help you uncover  times when you are more likely to over or under consume. By keeping to a schedule of eating you will always know when you are next due to eat. This helps us to hang on for a little longer, or perhaps even supports eating sooner than you might normally, but the overall achievement is feeling in control. Use your home or work pattern to figure out when you most like or need to have meals and breaks, and schedule accordingly. This will help you to not only take back control of your eating but also optimise the use of the different macronutrients you are consuming.

Following an eating schedule helps you to move you from  constant or regular snacking, to a routine that supports your body  physically, physiologically and psychologically.

4. Eat in one place

Some people can eat anywhere. Standing up, laying on the sofa, driving the car, walking, generally on the go.  Eating is possible everywhere. Try and select one place in the home, or work situation where you will eat. Do your eating there, but nothing else.  For those of us working from home at the moment who may have to multi-purpose a kitchen table. If this is you then use different seat places for eating and working. This way sitting in the one seat and place at the table carries the eating association, but when you move to the other seat, well that’s where you work.

5. Leave something behind on your plate

Another evidence based helpful strategy to learn control over what you consume is leaving something behind on your plate. It doesn’t matter how much – 2 lettuce leaves, 6 peas, a mouthful of curry. If we can learn to exert control in this way it helps to emphasise our abilities to not always respond to the sights and smells of food.  We do not have to follow the ‘clean your plate’ mantra, which we may have learned as children. Instead we learn to cherish our bodies, cherish the food we put on our plates, and cherish a more sustainable way of cooking, eating and living.

If you are  finding it tricky to implement these strategies, just get in touch and let’s work together to change that.

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Physiology and Decision Making

Mechanisms between men and women may be different,  but we all experience physiological responses to lack of sleep. Amongst these responses are changes to the secretion of hormones involved in appetite control.  Appetite hormones are hormones that affect how hungry we are, or how full we feel.  It makes complete sense that changes to these hormones will affect our ability to make decisions around eating throughout the day. Below, we  look to decisions which affect:

how we eat

what we eat, and

how the body is handling food.

Sleep and Insulin

When we are sleep deprived we are less effective at absorbing glucose from the bloodstream into our cells.  Usually insulin is secreted when we eat. Insulin  acts as a carrier of glucose from the bloodstream into the cell, and is  necessary for uptake of proteins too. When we are tired our cells don’t seem to respond to insulin in the normal way. Our cells seem to become resistant to insulin. It’s a little like if you were to ignore the postman who has a package for you, and is knocking on your door. You don’t answer, and the postman leaves the package behind. When the cell doesn’t open and let insulin deliver glucose, the insulin and the glucose are left circulating in the blood stream. Too much circulating of either compound is not considered healthy.

Women, particularly, seem to experience higher circulating levels of insulin, and may eat more because their insulin resistant cells are still craving glucose to fuel cell functions.

Leptin and Ghrelin and Cholecystokinin (CCK)

When tired we also experience changes to normal concentrations of  leptin, ghrelin and CCK. These are  compounds which act as hormones and also as neurotransmitters or nerve messengers.  Leptin, ghrelin and CCK have many different functions, some of which will be affected by how much sleep we get.

Circulating leptin helps you to feel full.

Circulating ghrelin triggers your appetite to eat.

Cholecystokinin slows down gastric  (stomach) emptying, and so affects our feelings of being full.

When put through sleep deprivation trials (4 – 5 hours of sleep allowed), healthy individuals report feeling much hungrier than when they are allowed to sleep 8 or more hours per night.  Measured hormone levels in trial participants suggests that:

Not enough sleep

Reduces the secretion of leptin so we feel less full.

Increases the secretion of ghrelin so we feel hungrier.

Reduces the secretion of CCK, so we feel less full.

Even when we consume the same amount of food as we might normally, you feel hungrier, and less full, so may be triggered to consume more than usual.  Changes in hormones are only part of the story: is sleep affecting your weight?

Endocannabinoids

Another interesting finding  is the increased production of endocannabinoids when we are sleep deprived. Endocannabinoids  are chemicals very similar to the chemicals produced by marijuana. Result? We are more likely to increase our intake of snacks following a poor night of sleep – we get ‘the munchies’ – further increasing our intake of calories.

And what do we crave with the munchies?

Sweets – chocolate, biscuits and ice cream

Carbohydrate rich foods such as bread and   pasta

Salty snacks like crisps and pretzels

How much more do we eat when sleep deprived?

Research suggests that on average after being sleep deprived, we eat almost 400kcal more than normal.

Are you burning more kcal because you are awake for longer?

And if you think you are burning more kcal because you are awake versus being asleep, think again. Sleep is an intensely active period of calorie burn for the body and the brain anyway. You are highly unlikely to burn up a significantly greater number of  kcal than usual, just because you are awake.

Do we switch off parts of our brains?

Research using MRI scanning and looking at individuals who have enjoyed a good night of sleep or are in a  sleep deprived state see differences.  Areas of the brain which are involved in ‘thoughtful judgements and controlled decisions’ are silenced with sleep deprivation. Instead, deep seated areas of the brain which are more primitive and automatic, parts of the brain which would drive us to seek calorie rich foods and so help us to survive, are activated.  We seem to lose the ability to more consciously consider what we eat. We can create and try to stick to good habits of course, it’s just more challenging.

Body composition effects

What’s also interesting to note is what happens if we are dieting. When well rested we  tend to reduce our weight primarily from fat stores, whereas when we are sleep deprived there can be  more of a loss of lean tissue.

Is sleep affecting your weight? Yes!

Hopefully by now you will see it is really important to get a good night’s sleep. For me, a good sleep is the foundation upon which healthy lifestyle related decisions sit. A variety of hormones are involved in sleep, many of which affect your appetite and your ability to manage your weight.  The mechanisms by which they play out may be different between men and women, but we all tend to eat more if we don’t get enough sleep. We  eat more junk food, or foods which we find comforting, even bigger servings of healthy food than normal.  If we manage to keep to a calorie prescription to enable weight loss, we may lose lean tissue rather than fat. So create a good sleep routine, and watch the weight loss happen.

Please contact me if you would like help with a healthy lifestyle.

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Healthy high fibre breakfast of muesli, yogurt and sharon fruit

See below for all about fibre and top tips on how to enjoy fibre daily

Why is Fibre so good for your Health?

Fibre is a type of carbohydrate, found in plants and essential to good health. Fibre is the structural part of the plant which can help us to understand how it works in the body. We know that people who consume a high fibre diet enjoy a variety of health benefits e.g. a regular bowel movement. A high fibre diet is also protective to the development of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and can help with weight loss. By enjoying more plant based foods in your diet,  you can reduce the flow of bile from the liver caused by a heavy meat based diet, this in turn reduces the amount of carcinogens reaching the bowel. Potential carcinogens can be swept through the bowel by different types of fibre, so decreasing the amount of time they might spend in the bowel and reducing the risk of colon cancer.

Different plants may have more of one type of fibre than another, but most plants will contain a variety.  You might think that one source of fibre is better than another, but as with all things nutrition most benefits to health are achieved when we consume the variety of different fibres.  See below:

What is Insoluble Fibre?

Insoluble fibre  does not dissolve in water, nor is it fermented by bacteria. Instead insoluble fibre  absorbs and retains water  and bulks up the stool. This helps to ease the passage of the stool through the large bowel, and  as the stool passes through this part of the digestive system it collects toxins and carcinogens and other  residue such as dead bacteria and dead cells from the lining of the gut.  I think of insoluble fibre like a bottle brush cleaning the bowel.  Because of this collecting or cleansing ability insoluble fibre is considered to be protective to colon (large bowel) cancer.

Good Sources of  Insoluble Fibre

• wholegrain cereals such as wheat, rye, barley, teff, quinoa, amaranth, spelt
• corn bran e.g. popcorn
• nuts – peanuts, almonds, walnuts
• seeds – chia and flaxseeds
• the skins from most tree fruits e.g. apples and pears
• potatoes
• green vegetables e.g. courgettes, green beans, cauliflower, and celery
• fruits e.g. tomatoes and kiwis

What is Soluble Fibre?

Soluble fibre arrives to the large bowel and is fermented by the bacteria that live there, or is used by them as a food source.   When foods containing soluble fibre are consumed the soluble fibre dissolves in water in the stomach and forms a thick gel like substance. This is one of the reasons why soluble fibre is considered helpful to weight loss. The gel sits over the opening of the stomach into the small intestine and so keeps food in the stomach, helping us to feel fuller for longer.  Consuming soluble fibres on a regular basis can also help to reduce cholesterol levels and protect us from developing coronary heart disease.

Good Sources of Soluble Fibre

• oats, barley, rye
• lentils, beans and peas, soya beans
• fruits e.g. berries, plums, apples, bananas, pears
• carrots and broccoli
• nuts and seeds

What are Prebiotic Soluble Fibres?

Prebiotic fibres are non-digestible fibres which help to feed the good bacteria in the gut.  By providing nourishment for the good bacteria they help to achieve and maintain a healthy balance of bacteria necessary for a healthy gut wall. It is thought that if the balance of good and bad bacteria is upset this may make the bowel wall weak, allowing toxins and even colon bacteria to seep from the bowel to other other parts of the digestive system where they do not normally live e.g. the small intestine. Maintaining a healthy gut wall is important to the maintenance of a good immune system as it’s in the gut wall that the immune system is primarily located. Another positive for the prebiotic fibres is their ability to turn off hunger hormones produced by the gut wall maintaining our feelings of fullness for longer..

Good sources of  Prebiotic Soluble Fibres

• asparagus
• yam
• onions, garlic, leeks
• bananas
• chicory and some other root vegetables such as Jerusalem artichoke
• agave
• wheat, rye, barley

Rethink your plate and include more high fibre foods in your diet  

Think Wholegrains

Choose brown rice, pasta, and bread with bits such as nuts and seeds. Enjoy a variety of wholegrains by e.g. having a wholegrain cereal such as oats for breakfast, a wholegrain sandwich for lunch or rice/couscous/pasta salad, then an evening meal with barley/noodles or quinoa. As always with diet – variety is best.

Think Fruits

Try to have a piece of fruit at each meal, either as part of the meal or as your dessert. Fruits can be your snack in the afternoon or your evening treat, with lots of different coloured fruits lending different benefits.

Think Vegetables

Consider the vegetable part of your lunch or evening meal before you think about any other content. This may help you to balance  your meals better and make sure that you are getting enough vegetable fibre for your healthy bowel bacteria.

Think Legumes and Pulses

Enjoy more plant based and use legumes (beans), peas and soya beans more regularly through your week. Having a meat free Monday is a great place to start.  Working yourself towards a more plant based diet will not only improve the fibre content of your diet but will also be good for the planet.  You know it makes sense.

Think Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds add crunch and taste to most meals and a heathy dollop of fibre in the same mouthful. Whether its walnuts on porridge,  a nut butter on oat cakes, peanuts on a stirfry, or a topping of seeds on your salad, including more nuts and seeds in your daily diet is a healthy step indeed.

It’s easy to include more fibre in the diet, once you know how. Get in touch if you are finding it tricky.

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