Welcome To Week Six
This week our focus is Alcohol & Stress
Alcohol is one thing to really keep an eye on if you are struggling with weight. Most people are well aware that alcohol can add weight – it’s not called a beer-belly for nothing – but it is not just the calories in alcohol that can be a problem.
This week we will have a short meditation session and will look at benefits of mindfulness and explore all the ways you can use what you have learnt in your daily lives.
The workout regime will be enhanced for those that are ready to move on at this stage and there will also be additional recipes for you to try.
Change the Alcohol Habit
Alcohol is one thing to really keep an eye on if you are struggling with weight. Most people are well aware that alcohol can add weight – it’s not called a beer-belly for nothing – but it is not just the calories in alcohol that can be a problem.
The Calories
Although it’s not just the calories, we can’t just forget about them. Whether we like it or not, alcohol adds calories. Lots of them. And it is the alcohol itself that does it. People often talk about the sugar in alcohol but there’s surprisingly little sugar in many drinks. Even where there is sugar, it’s still the alcohol that is contributing most of the calories.
In red wine, 98% of the calories come from the alcohol. Alcohol accounts for 96% of the calories in dry white wine and 84% in medium white wine. So although sugar can be part of the calories, it’s mainly the alcohol.

Where To Start?
What’s in a serving?
A 175ml serving of wine (one of those little bottles) has around 140 calories.
But if you are pouring from a bottle you can easily pour a 250mls glass which is almost 200 calories.
Spirits are a little lower in calories with around 75 calories in a pub measure. If you go with a sugar-free mixer, you can limit the calories. A bottle of gluten free beer can have up to 130 calories.
Alcohol and Appetite
People often talk about getting the “munchies” when they drink. This is because alcohol stimulates your appetite – making you want to eat more and reducing your ability to resist temptation. So, with alcohol, it’s not just the calories you drink, it is the calories you eat along with it. Limit how often you do drink or take a break for a few weeks if you find your weight is not going the way you want it.
Alcohol and Sleep
Experts now know that too little sleep or broken sleep makes it harder for people to lose weight and to keep it off. When you drink, alcohol makes it harder for you to stay asleep or to get the good, deep, sleep that you need. Even one glass of wine or one beer is enough to impact your sleep. Broken sleep makes you want to eat more and makes it harder for you to feel full – leading to lots of extra calories. This is one of the reasons you’ll often find that you eat more the day after you’ve had a few drinks. In fact, studies now show that broken sleep can lead people to eat up to 300 calories more the next day.
Do you need to give up alcohol?
No! Do stay below recommended limits (see below) and make sure you have lots of alcohol free days each week.
The upper limits are: 17 standard drinks a week for men & 11 standard drinks a week for women
1 standard drink is: ½ pint of beer
100mls of wine (not ‘a glass’ of wine)
1 pub measure of spirits
This is equivalent to 8 pints a week for a man or 1 ½ bottles of 12% wine for a woman.
Stress and Weight
There is no doubt that stress can make you eat more. In fact, stress is a big driver of weight gaain. Many people find themselves craving foods – especially sugary and starchy foods – when they are stressed. It is easy for people to have a craving for crisps, sweets and chocolate as well as pasta, bread and other carb-rich foods. This is because carbs can actually help you to feel more relaxed. This is fine if it is now-and-again. But if it is all the time, it can add more weight than is healthy. So, what can you do?
A month in the sun would probably help…but as most of us can’t do that we need to look for other solutions. The obvious one is to deal with whatever it is that is stressing you but that is easier said than done. Sometimes it is work, sometimes it is a health issue, sometimes there are family problems. If there is anything you can do to help reduce the stress, great. If not, then it’s good to look for some other alternatives to eating when you do feel stressed and need some relief.
- Set a timer. When you are going to stress eat, set a 10-minute timer. Stress eating is a bit like giving up cigarettes. Sometimes you just want to eat (or smoke) in the moment. If you wait 10 minutes, the urge can often go away. Not always. But a 10-minute timer can help.
- When you feel stressed, your body is preparing you for physical action – even if the stress you are feeling is not a physical threat. Your body puts lots of chemicals in your system to get you ready to run or to fight. These chemicals stay in your body until you use them. Part of stress eating is trying to “push down” this feeling. If you can move, it can help your body to use up these chemicals. This is why people feel more relaxed after they have done some exercise. It doesn’t have to be a lot of exercise. A brisk 10-minute walk is often enough to reduce stress eating. If you can’t leave the house, jumping jacks, jogging on the spot or a minute or two with a skipping rope can all help. When it comes to stress eating, it is a short burst of exercise that can make the difference.
- Build an exercise habit. Short bursts of exercise are great when you are trying not to stress eat, but in the long term, a good exercise habit can prevent the need for stress eating in the first place. Can you add in a daily walk? Could you swim? Can you go for a run? A cycle? Getting 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week helps you keep stay more balanced, even during stressful times. See what you can do – and remember that even 10 minutes is better than nothing.
- Deliberately relax. Can you listen to a relaxation exercise on your phone? Can you have a bath (if you are feeling rich with energy costs these days…), can you do a yoga class? Pilates? Reading in a quiet room is very relaxing for some people. Whatever it is that can help you feel relaxed, try to plan it into your day or your week.
- Phone a friend. It is good to talk to someone about what is stressing you. Even if you don’t want to talk about the problem that is stressing you, connecting with other people can bring relief.
Ready To Go?
Check out our recipes for this week. This is not a menu plan but a collection of ideas that you can try as you go. We will add some new recipes each week along with more tips and a focus on a different aspect of nutrition from immunity to heart health.
Pilates Week 6
Exercise
Welcome to week 6 of our exercise program. The final week!
You can now progress to week 6 of the couch to 5km or to whichever week suits your progress to date. The finish line is in sight. Whatever week you are at – you’ve been moving, you’ve committed to the process and you should be very proud of yourself.

In week 6 – sessions 1 and 2 – there are now 8 exercises per session.
Each exercise is performed 12 times (12 reps). Take a 15 seconds rest between each exercise as well as the 30 seconds rest after each set. Complete 3 sets to finish.
As always substitute exercises from previous sessions if you need to.
We’ve been building the number of sessions week by week and by now you should be as fit as a fiddle !! It’s a huge commitment to give yourself the time to commit to these sessions every week so give yourself a clap on the back.
On a related topic, do not underestimate the benefit of a good nights sleep. Ideally an average of 7-8 hours per night. If you don’t sleep well the body can feel slow and lethargic the next day – not ideal for exercising. I could write an essay on the importance of sleep but we all know how much better we feel if we sleep well. Give yourself time to wind down in the evening. Turn off the screens at least an hour before bed (yes I know this is a challenge), have some relaxing herbal tea, leave the stresses of the day to one side.
Enjoy your sixth week.
I truly hope this is only the beginning for you and you will continue to exercise and reap the benefits of healthy lifestyle. You are never too old or too young to start looking after your body. You only get the one body so do your best to look after it.
As always, feel free to contact me on suzanneclarkept@gmail.com with any questions or queries.
Night-time Mindfulness Meditation
Join Aideen Burke, Mindfulness and Yoga teacher from Eat.Create.Be for the week 5 of your mindfulness course. Today we will be looking at a night time routine as our task. We will be trying to harness in a mindful ritual for your evenings.
In this weeks session we will do a ten-minute evening mediation, to bring a mindful routine to close off your day, get yourself ready for bed and tune in to this relaxing body scan and mindfulness meditation.