Diet saboteurs

Are you always on a diet but never manage to lose any weight? Or perhaps you're on Fitbitch Boot Camp and despite thinking that you're sticking to the diet as the next person, they're shrinking before your eyes while you look the same?
The likelihood is that either your portion sizes are too big, or you are eating something that you think is healthy but isn't.

Diet saboteur: Granola
Reality: Many cereals, particularly those that do a stunning job of packaging themselves as a healthy alternative are full of sugar, hidden or otherwise. Dorset Cereals for instance are packed full of sugar busting dried fruits but worse by far is Granola.
This is made by adding oil and sugar to cereal and then baking it. Most of us would never dream of eating a pile of biscuits for breakfast but that's effectively what you're doing.
Fitbitch Alternative: Make your own granola by soaking oats, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, grated apple, grated carrot and a few finely chopped nuts in apple juice. Then spread on a baking tray and bake very slowly at a low heat for 1-2hrs. Serve with yoghurt.

Diet saboteur: Honey
Fair enough it's not as bad as processed white sugar but it's still sugar. And what makes it worse is that it's perceived as healthy so you tend to overuse it. Just 1 tbsp contains an average of 50 calories. yet if you're the type to use honey, you tend to use it on toast, on your yoghurt and on cereal. That's 150 calories just there. Moreover, it's a high GI food so it will only leave you craving more.
Fitbitch Alternative: Agave nectar - it's still sugary but it releases energy more slowly.

Diet saboteur: Oat Cakes
You hear it all the time in diet features - snack on oat cakes. Yes, they release energy slowly but most people have absolutely no idea how many they eat in a day. Oat cakes usually come in individual 'handy' snack sizes of five. That's 289 calories just eating them plain. Of course it's fine if you can eat with control and just have two. But then if that were the case you probably wouldn't need to be on a diet.
Healthy alternative: Edmame beans or soya beans.

Diet saboteur: Grapes
The reason everyone likes grapes is frankly because they're sweet. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that a 450g pack of red grapes is around 300-400 calories. If you're trying to restrict yourself to 1500 cals or less that's the equivalent of a lunch or dinner. you might think you don't really eat that many grapes but next time you buy some really watch yourself, you'll be surprised how easy it is to scoff them without even noticing.
Healthy alternative: one piece of fruit that you can't overeat

Spicy tuna with autumn salad

Halloween is just around the corner, and suddenly there are pumpkins and squashes everywhere you look. They may be a bugger to peel and cut up but it's well worth it for a comforting, nutritious addition to a salad.

Tuna marinade
Two cloves of garlic, finely grated
1inch of ginger, finely chopped
1 Birds eye chilli or more if you like it very hot
Juice of one lemon and two limes
Fish sauce to taste
Rice wine vinegar to taste

Marinate the tuna steaks for a30mins at least.

Meanwhile, chop the pumpkkin and parboil in salted boiling water to cut down roasting time. Season with lots of salt and pepper and add the juice of two or three lemons and an orange. Put in the oven to roast until cooked through. When cooked, add a teaspoon or two of Dijon mustardto the roasting dish and stir in to give the pumkin a dressing. Leave to cool for a bit and add the leaves and chopped tomatoes. If you add to early or put the pumpkin on top of the leaves they wilt and become soggy.

To cook the tuna steaks, heat a griddle pan until smoking hot. Place the tuna steaks on the pan and leave for 3-5mins depending on thickness. Turn and do the same for the other side. They should be served pink or even red in the middle according to taste - and freshnes of the steak. There's nothing worse than grey, tough dry tuna steaks!
use the leftover marinade as sauce and serve!

Quinoa with rainbow dressing

Just back from Switzerland and to prove it's not all Gruyere and chocolate, this is a lunch I had from a little hippy cafe in the heart of Lausanne. I've made up the recipe from what I deduced from taste but it was delice and easy to make.
Some of you might think, 'not another quinoa recipe' but this grain is fantastic. It's full of nutrients and unlike other grains it contains a high level of protein. it's much lighter and has a lower GI than many other grains such as couscous, bulghar wheat and the like.

Quinoa
1 courgette, sliced
2 carotts, thickly chopped
(I'd also add 1 red pepper chopped plus two cloves of garlic for extra taste)

For the green sauce
Cucumber
Fresh mint
Garlic
Yoghurt

For the red sauce
Roasted tomatoes, skins off
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
pinch of paprika


In an oven dish roast the veggies, using fresh lemon juice in place of oil.
Meanwhile, in a food processor whizz up the cucumber, fresh mint and garlic. Add the yoghurt and seasoning to taste and give it another whizz until you get the taste you're after.
For the red sauce, roast the tomatoes first and then whizz in a food processor. You may want to add some tomoato puree to thicken.
Serve the vegetables on top of the cooked quinoa with the sauce.

D is not for deprivation

One of the biggest downfalls to any diet is people thinking they've got to stay in and can't ever go out because they're not allowed to eat. It's not true. You could go and eat out every night of the week if you wanted just as long as you choose right.
Obviously, yes, you have to have the will power to say no to bread and oil, desserts and a bottle of wine but is that really such a hardship compared to thinking you've got to sit in front of the TV?
In Brighton & Hove there are so many options of where to eat but the same is true of anywhere. At The Chilli Pickle, an Indian restaurant in Meeting House Lane, choose Tandoori Fish with a pomegranate and onion salad for instance. And that's an Indian restaurant somewhere that most people think they can't possibly eat.
Let me know where else you think is good...my list includes
The Ginger Pig on Sackville road - just ask them to serve the fish with a salad and grilled with no sauce for instance.
The Giggling Squid, a new Thai on Church Road. Opt for the fresh chilli fish salads
Murasaki, sushi in Seven Dials (go for sashimi)
it's a life that you're living so forget the whole, 'I'm living on a leaf' mentality.

Gilthead Bream with leafy quinoa salad

Forget the supermarkets - and get down to your fishmongers for the best fish. I'm lucky as a live in Hove on the South Coast, home to a great fishmongers, Fish who supply a lot of the restaurant trade. I nip down there and buy a bunch and stuff and freeze it for the week. No more grey looking limp fish from the supermarkets for me.

Ingredients
Gilthead bream filet seasoned with salt and pepper and lemon juice
quinoa
celery
Watercress
1 tsp of sultanas
1 tsp of pumpkin seeds

Place a 5p piece of olive oil in the centre of the pan and heat - as it heats it up you'll notice that it begins to spread so you don't need lots of oil. Now turn the heat down and place the fish skin side down on the oily patch and squeeze liberally with the juice of one lemon. The fish will cook in this juice but make sure it's not on too hot or it will burn.
One the fish has become to turn creamy white, flip over on to the other side keeping heat low. The whole thing should only take around 10mins if that.
meanwhile, cover the quinoa in water and boil, turning down to simmer. cook for 15mins or until cooked. Wait until cool and then mix with the sultans, pumpkin seeds and chopped celery. add the watercress and dress with pink grapefruit juice or any other citrus fruit you have to hand (er, except lime - use your common sense!)
Delicious and only around 400 calories, with 26g protein, 24g of carbs and 12g of good essential fats.

Smoked haddock and lentils

I hate to say it, but as the rain starts to put in an appearance with ever more frequency there's no denying that the seasons are on the change. As we slip into autumn it's all too easy to let the diet slide as the nights get colder and you start thinking of comfort food. But wintry food doesn't have to mean a plateful of mashed potato and cheese.
Think meaty stews or light Thai style broths - or try fish with a warm salad like this smoked haddock on leek, chilli and lentil salad.
Ingredients
1/2 leek sliced
5 asparagus spears chopped
1/2 birds eye chilli thinly sliced
clove of garlic
Puy lentils
2 tbsp of low fat yoghurt
fillet of smoked haddock
Saute the chopped leeks, garlic and chilli in a little vegetable stock of a tiny amount of olive oil. Add the Puy lentils, cover with water and simmer until almost cooked. (if it needs more water top it up). Then add the yoghurt, a bit more water and the fish.
Cover the fish with the lentils and simmer gently until the fish poaches in the lentil juice. Add the asparagus with a few minutes to go. Then serve with chopped coriander, mint or any other herb of your choice.

Spicy Chick Pea Burgers

You might think there's no point even attempting these as they'll take ages. But they took me about 20minutes to knock up after coming home starving having play 2hrs of volleyball after a 6mile hill run. Give them a go, they're delicious.

Ingredients
3/4 can of chickpeas
Fresh coriander
sliced spring onions
finely chopped carrot
sprinkle of turmeric
fresh lemon juice
2dsp of cooked wholegrain rice (or use quinoa - i needed my carbs!)
small Bird's Eye Chilli, finely chopped (or to taste)
Polenta grains for dusting
Mash of whizz up the chickpeas in food processor. Add the veggies and turmeric and stir. sprinkle uncooked polenta or cornmeal on a chopping board. Shape the patties (sld make two) and roll in the polenta. Using a tiny bit of oil or dry fry the patties, cook until browned. serve with a veggie salad dressed with lemon juice.
Don't be afraid to experiment - you can whack any old veggie in there -as long as it fits the FB eating principles of course!