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Give fitness fanatic Lucy Mountain a choice between a handful of almonds and a handful of fruit pastilles and she’ll take the sweeties anytime. And she won’t feel a moment’s guilt about it either.
The 25-year-old London-based blogger who calls herself Thefashionfitnessfoodie is giving many dieters food for thought by drawing comparisons between the calorie content between “healthy” and “unhealthy” food.
Lucy uses her Instagram page to show us how those healthy foods we run to when we want to shed a couple of kilos can actually end up being just as bad for you as the naughty treats we try to avoid.
In one of her posts, she points out how a handful of almonds contain the same number of calories as a handful of sugary candy. Lucy acknowledges that the almonds contain a lot of micronutrients that would keep her fuller for longer but there are days when she just fancies sweets -- and she refuses to beat herself up about it!
In another post she reflects that dark chocolate is more calorific than milk chocolate, which she prefers. Lucy says she loves milk chocolate, pizza and other treats as part of her diet - but she makes sure she has smaller portions of them and eats healthily 75 to 80 per cent of the time.
"When the majority of my diet has consisted of well-balanced food that’s full of micronutrients, I have no issue eating something that's less so just because I love the taste of it," she writes.
She told the Daily Mail that fitness bloggers are always under pressure to adopt the persona of someone who loves green juice and healthy food.
“We're bombarded with these kinds of accounts that you almost become numb to it all,” she said.
"Moderation is key and this will look different on different people depending on the person, their fitness goal, and their lifestyle.
“Having a chocolate bar in a day of well balanced meals and adequate micronutrients doesn't suddenly make it 'unhealthy',” she told Business Insider.
In one of her pictures she posted what looks like the same amount of food but the one was deemed to be fattening while the other seemed to help you lose weight
She believes that no single food will cause weight-gain or weight loss. Her advice? Eat what you want but all in moderation. The trick to enjoying these treats and staying fit and healthy, she says, is simply to pay attention to portion sizes and to enjoy what your favourite food in moderation.
Lucy’s feed also shows how simple tweaks to your daily life can reduce your calorie intake.
Things like using less butter, swopping out olive oil for low fat oil and using homemade salad dressing over the store-bought stuff can all make a difference.
She says although people might get bored of the comparisons, she hopes to make a difference in people’s relationships with food.
“Right from the beginning I have wanted my account to actually add value to other people's lives - and I hope my food comparisons have been a great way to do this,” she says.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk, highsnobiety.com, ukbusinessinsider.com
