Energy balance (calories in versus calories consumed) and the nutritional content of food are your key benchmarks to eating healthy. If you follow these basic dietary guidelines and follow them consistently you will achieve the success you are seeking:

• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. Go for a variety of colour and a variety of types of vegetables and fruit. Have a look at your meal before you eat it, how much colour do you see on your plate?

• Minimise pre-packaged food. If it comes in a packet or a jar then it cannot be 100% fresh, and fresh is best. Needless to say this can be very hard to follow, but once again, look at your meals as a whole and determine how much is fresh or not.

• If it‘s sweet then take note. Sweet means energy. Fruit is the exception here but even the quantity of high glucose fruit needs to be considered.

• One gram of fat contains more than twice the number of calories than one gram of carbohydrates or protein. This means that fat is energy dense. Some fats are essential (most plant based fats), and some fat is bad (saturated and trans fats) so type of fat is important. Reduce your saturated fats and ensure you are getting your essential fatty acids.

• Alcohol in its purest form has enough energy to fuel combustion but is completely empty from any nutritional value. Alcohol makes us feel good, it’s great socially but does nothing for us nutritionally and definitely needs to be kept to moderation.

At Evolve Health we work with 2 different Dieticians to ensure that our clients get the right level of dietetic support that they need (see “Team Evolve” on our website).For more information check out www.metabolicjumpstart.com but make sure you contact Evolve Health to register as you will receive the MJ+ program ($120/annum value) for free.