Many of us gained weight whilst in lockdown, even though we theoretically had more time on our hands to cook and exercise. So what is it about this situation that’s led to unhealthy habits? Host Amelia Phillips speaks to nutritionist and personal trainer Jacqueline Alwill about the biggest weight gain traps people fall into and how to get back on track before the world opens up again.
Below is an unedited transcript of the podcast episode:
I have a set of scales in my bathroom, and whilst I’m not scales obsessed, every few weeks I jump on just to see where I’m at, but right around the start of Covid 19, my scales somehow switched to Imperial Metric, so stones and pounds, and so I just stopped weighing myself. Finally, last week I switched back to metric and I jumped on three kilos.
I’ve gained. In six weeks, and now I know it’s not heaps, but it’s over 5% of my body weight and I’m someone who’s got a pretty stable weight. So it was a bit surprising, you know? And it’s got me thinking if three kilos can slip onto me, unnoticed and health is my job. Let’s face it. What’s happening to everyone else out there?
Surely I’m not alone.
This is healthy. Her with. Phillips and in this special series on navigating Covid 19 with kids, I’m wanting to talk about ISO weight gain. Yes, it’s a real thing and what we can do about it. According to the Australian lockdown report, one third of Aussies have increased their weight during the lockdown.
So if you are one of those moms like me, then let’s halt the gain and work out what we can do to shed the ISO pack. To discuss this, I’ve enlisted the help of Jacqueline Orwell. She’s an accredited nutritionist. Author and mom of two. Thanks for coming on today, Jack. Hey, my absolute pleasure. Nice to chat with you.
Now, you’re about the only one I know who’s actually lost weight in iso, but you’ve got a pretty good reason for it. ? Uh, yeah. Well, I have a 10 week old baby Elke, so I think the only weight that I’ve lost legitimately from her physical weight. Other than that, I’m in the same boat as everyone. So, um, there’s lots I can learn from my own, uh, study and, and work in nutrition too at this time.
Well, you know, don’t you find it interesting like, now we’ve got the time, we’re cooking more from home, we’re doing all the things that US nutritionist bang on about, yet we’re still gaining weight in iso. Why do you think that is? Oh look, I’d say it had come down to the fact that there’s a lot less structure in our days.
You know, working from home, we don’t have the structure and stability of getting out of the house, of set times around meals. The fridge is always there to tempt us, so there’s likely people are using the. Fridge as you know, their friend in procrastination and boredom from being in the same place the whole day.
So there’s a lot of grazing going on. Um, and usually what I find with clients is when they’re grazing all the time, they’re less likely to feel more interested in sitting down for a full meal. Cause they think they’ve, you know, Eaten enough already, which is where good nutrition lies. When you’re constantly grazing, it’s not great for your, um, for your body, for your metabolism, for insulin levels.
But when you actually sit down to a meal and you stop and you rest and digest, that’s the key thing. So less structure would be one. Um, of course there’s less, uh, Incidental exercise happening. If you’re only walking between your kitchen table and the fridge, that’s really not as, as many steps as you would be is if you’d be at work going from the bus or the train station or walking to get your lunch or going to the gym at lunch, things like that as well.
Um, And I guess everyone’s doing a lot more cooking, obviously, which is fantastic. But because we have more time, we’re probably cooking richer foods than what we would be if we weren’t baking more. Yeah, totally. And just experimenting with new foods and different foods as well, which may not be our typical, get home at six 30 or seven o’clock at night.
Pop, you know, a piece of fish and have some salad with it. Um, together for dinner for instance, it might be, you know, much more slower, richer cooking, maybe popping some of that wine in that you’ve got sitting on the bench because you’re drinking a bit more, things like that. So I imagine there’s a lot more of that, you know, those sort of comfort foods coming into play as well, which are naturally heavier, uh, a bit more calorie dense, and we’re.
Burning it off on the other end with, you know, exercise or incidental exercise. So it all comes into play and can start, you know, contributing to a few extra kilos that people may not want. Yeah. And you know that incidental exercise, and I’ve heard it called neats as well, the non-exercise activity thermogenesis Yeah.
Is a really interesting one. I think that in our everyday lives we underestimate how many calories we burn and, and. How that incidental exercise stokes our metabolism. Yeah. You know, even for myself, who is, I was getting out for my three jogs a week, but my incidental exercise was so, like virtually nothing.
Yeah. And I think that has played a really big, uh, had a really big impact on my weight. I, I’ve, I’ve certainly felt it. Yeah, absolutely. And obvious. Sitting for longer periods as well as we are at home. So I think it’s great if people can set up some kind of standing desk scenario at home while they’re there.
Get a milk crate or something, cover it if you wanna make it sort of nice. Um, but do things like that, which naturally, naturally increases your movement. Um, and it’s great for your posture as well. So, good little tip for, um, you know, up in your incentive like size with. Yeah, great. And also, I know with homeschooling the kids, one of the recommendations that they always have is, you know, have these physical breaks where it might be putting a music video on the TV and having ’em all dance around.
It’s like whenever my kids are out, running around, I’m trying, I’ve been trying to get out with them and just, you know, run around and be silly. And of course they love it too. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s a really great way to break up the day, get some fresh air. It’s healthy for absolutely everyone. So, um, you know, you gotta find those breaks and make the most of them.
What would your recommendation be for the mums listening here who have gained a few extra kilos? The the kind of overarching principles that we should be adopting if we are wanting to at least maintain and not gain, or if we wanna lose a little bit as well. Well, I think it’s probably going back to that first point I made, which is creating some structure in your day.
Don’t fall into the trap of, um, grazing all day. Rather set your time for breakfast, snack, lunch, you know, an afternoon snack and dinner and stick to it. Um, make sure there are healthy things on hand and not just eating your kids leftovers, but there are. For you. Um, I think especially as a new mom, for those that are listening out there, um, snacking on the leftover, uh, you know, toast crusts and things like that is really common.
Um, it’s almost like its own its own food group, but you’d be so much better to have some boiled eggs in the fridge or something of that nature ready to just. Peel and go, you know, you need some time savers as well. So cook once, eat twice, and then that way there are already meals there in the fridge ready.
Um, and having healthy snacks on hand in there. So some cut up veggie sticks, things like that that are not, um, Sugar laden treats and don’t tempt you into doing more baking, but rather un nutrient dense and a little bit lighter and can help support, you know, a healthy metabolism, get some fiber into your body, um, and will either help you maintain or lose weight if you have been reaching for some of those more baked like goods for snacks, for instance, with moms especially, especially when you.
Uh, exhausted. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of having a lot of coffee or tea throughout the day. And you really need to be cautious with your caffeine intake when it comes to losing weight because it can put a lot of stress on your adrenals. Um, it can increase the production of your cortisol, which can for many people, cause um, weight.
Gain because it’s putting your body under more stress, or it makes it harder for stubborn weight to move. So be really cautious with your caffeine intake. It would, again, just like you might be popping to and from the fridge, it might be really easy just to be going, having that extra cup of coffee, um, or, you know, multiple cups in a day, but we really don’t need it.
Try and cut off your caffeine intake sort of mid-morning, um, by 11, or can you push it out to 12? Ideally, 11, but let’s. Be too perfect about things. What we’re trying to do is avoid coffee in the late afternoon where it can be really disruptive as well to your sleep, um, and can be more of an appetite suppressant, and then you actually end up overeating at the next meal, for instance.
Interesting you say that because I actually am not a coffee drinker, but I probably have seven cups of tea day , but I will have maybe two or three caffeinated teas in the morning and. Always stop by 11, but then I switch to decaf teas. Yep. I encourage tea drinking from the point of if you’re trying to lose weight instead of eating or snacking, you can have a herbal tea.
Yeah. So I don’t wanna discourage people from drinking tea, but I think that caffeine point is a really, really good one. Absolutely. And it’s herbal teas, and even if you’re making an initial switch and having some green tea instead of your black tea in the arvo, that’s better than having too much of that.
Heavily caffeinated coffee or black tea in the arvo, but there’s so many great, her beautiful herbal tea out there that, yeah, as you say, are a great solution to, instead of reaching for another snack, it’s thinking about how well hydrated you are. Um, and can be, you know, a much nicer sort of little ritual and pick me up than reaching for the chocolate, which might be lingering around since Easter or something of that nature too.
It’s interesting you talk about having that structured meal time. What’s your take? On intermittent fasting, because I’ve been having a lot of success. I’ve got 70 women at the moment trialing an intermittent fasting program whereby they’re fasting for 12 hours a day. Mm-hmm. . And so they’re designated eating periods.
Basically what they’re doing is they’re finishing eating. Say you finish eating at 9:00 PM at night, uh, and say you don’t have breakfast, then till 9:00 AM the next morning, and then you squish your breakfast, lunch, and dinner into a closer timeframe so that there’s, you know, Uh, blood sugar spikes. Mm-hmm.
because your blood sugar levels stay even throughout the day. You’re having like a generous breakfast, like almost like a brunch and a generous dinner, but then you might be having more like a, a meal replacement or a mini meal, like a shake or a soup or a porridge or something like that for that middle meal of the day.
Yeah. What do you think about kind of a blueprint like that? I think it works really well because again, it does provide that structure and people love to sort of have. A bit of that discipline when they’re trying to understand how to improve, be it their weight or their overall health and wellbeing. So it’s good with respect to that.
It does limit obviously, the timeframe in which you can consume your calories. So it might be that they’re trimming off, you know, maybe two or 300 calories, possibly more by having that limited timeframe. Um, as nutritionists, I think we all know that a lot of people reach for a little sort of, um, post dinner snack or pre-bed snack that might actually.
Up those calories at the end of the day that they don’t need. So cutting it off by nine o’clock. Um, my little trick to people was always, you know, sort of when you finish dinner, go brush your teeth and after that have herbal tea and that sort of stops you from eating into the evening. Yeah, it’s a great tip.
And intermittent fasting really works well for that structure and to just. Create that timeframe and, um, get people off on the right foot. Some people, I think find it works for them long term. And other people, it seems it works for them over a period of, you know, beyond six months to sort of a year to help put them in the right frame of mind to move forward with their health.
Um, but I think there’s a lot of benefits in, in what you’re saying you’re doing and it’s not, it seems like your trial. Hyper restrictive. So I, the five two I think would be very tricky for a mom, for instance, with this one, we’ve kind of said, you know, this is meant to be something that’s sustainable. So 12 hours a day is sustainable.
And we said for rapid weight loss, you may wanna up it to 14 hours a day, but that’s absolute max. I wouldn’t wanna do any of the, you know, 16 hours a day or, um, yeah, anything like that. I just think that’s, Well, it’s not sustainable then. No, exactly. You know, we need to help people create long term habits with what they’re doing.
If they are choosing to, um, refocus their approach on their diet, um, I hate saying go on a diet, but when you actually do renew how you are seeing your consumption of food and, and your nutrients, then it does help to create longer term habits there. There’s great benefit in what you’re doing. I’d be looking forward to seeing the results.
Yeah, me too. Me too.
Jack, you have such amazing, delicious recipes on your website and, um, we love your recipes. Tell me, what are your go to healthy filling ISO meals that you are recommending? Ooh. Um, I am doing a lot of plant-based cooking, particularly at the moment. I’m just loving the exploration of it. Um, so. I think my family would say that our favorite go-to is probably something as easy as a doll, um, which we might have with some steam broccoli, um, you knows, a little sprinkle of cashews and some whole grain rice on the side.
How filling is doll? Oh, it’s. Delicious and it’s so easy and it is one of those things as well where if you looked in my freezer right now, you definitely see a pot of dar and a pot of curry in there. It’s my cook once, eat twice, meal. Um, we’ll do pastas. I have a beautiful friend that makes us a delicious passata.
And then we can add in as we wish. So you know, if we wanna make it into a boase one night, add in some lentils. I might have it with zucchini noodles cause I’m a mad fan of them. Um, the boys might have it with spelt past. What about snacks as well? Oh gosh. So many, um, I’ve literally just made today, uh, my citrus glow bars, which are cashews, coconut, um, turmeric, cinnamon, bit of coconut oil, and a little bit of minooka.
Honey, that’s a real, really good one. It’s got, you know, that beautiful, rich. Source of healthy fats. So it helps to keep your appetite nights and stable. Um, it’s really easy to put together and then, you know, you can just grab a little piece from the fridge or freezer. So it’s like a little, like, almost like a chew bar.
Like a little chewy bar? Is that what you mean? So would it, if you made it into a bliss ball, it’d be like a. A orangey flavored kind of nutty bliss ball. But I’m too lazy to roll balls. I don’t have time with all my, you know, with kids and stuff on my hands. So I just slice it up and it’s, you know, like a little square.
It’s perfect. Okay. It’s like the perfect little, pick me up. Mm-hmm. . Um, what else? Uh, small handful of raw nuts and seeds. Always a good one. You know, gets your magnesium, your zinc, and your fiber. Any healthy fats in there? Um, can’t go past things. Hummus with raw veggie sticks. Um, you know, plant-based protein helps to stabilize your appetite and gets you fiber in, so that helps as well.
What else do we love? Um, a smoothie, you know, either, you know, a little shake a meal does a really lovely, um, vanilla shake that I’m a mad fan of or otherwise blending up a quick smoothie and I’ll often with my smoothies, if I make it at the beginning of the day, I might have one mid-morning and. In the afternoon and split the smoothie.
So I’m having half at each snack as opposed to having a big dense smoothie. Um, yeah, a little at this time of year as well. When it’s cooling down, a little cup of soup is also nice as well. You know what I’m loving at the moment is veggie chip. And, uh, not the ones that you buy in a packet, cuz let’s face it there exactly the same, pretty much, you know, as your Doritos, I may, maybe you’re tiny bit healthier, but not much.
But what I do, I get Amanda Lin and I’ll just get either a zucchini, a beet fruit, a sweet potato, um, carrot, and you just slice it in 30 seconds using mandolin. Yeah. Toss it in some oil, throw some paprika on it, uh, bake it in the oven for about eight minutes and you’ve got a big bowl of really healthy veggie chips.
Yeah, and I’ve just been in iso, I’ve been making a rule for my kids and for myself, um, that screen time is green time and that if we are snacking and we’re, you know, watching a show or you’re having a snack, then it’s gotta be something healthy. The only thing my kids did say to me the other day was, Popcorn is corn, so that’s a vegetable.
So we can have popcorn, Ma, we . And I kinda couldn’t really argue with that one. They’re clever, aren’t they? Oh it’s so clever. I do love that rule though. Screen time is green time. It’s a good way. Yeah is a good one. Anyway, that we can get more veggies into our kids and to adults too as well. Cuz so many people lack that.
Um, you know, the recommended daily intake of fiber. Any way that you can get veggies in is a good one. Um, provided they’re not deep fried, I guess, but your chips sound delicious. I do really like to try those. Oh, they’re beautiful. Let’s talk about exercise. Cause exercise is a big component. Mm-hmm. , um, as well, and I know you’re a nutritionist, but you can’t really talk about health without balancing it out with the exercise.
How have you been finding, getting exercise in? Or are you still in that baby bubble where you are not exercising at the moment? Uh, I need exercise for mental health more. Anything for me. Um, me too. I’m such an addict. Management endorphins. Yes. And just, I think also after not, I’m a bit of a sweat and bero face addict.
So after that nine months of not having any of that, and then, you know, your fourth trimester in this past sort of 12 weeks where, you know, you, you’re definitely doing less, but at least for the first six weeks of that, it’s literally, you can’t be. Sweating up the storm like you used to. Um, so the minute I was sort of able to have a little bit more of a high intensity kind of feeling of exercise, I, I organized it.
So I actually hired a spin bike. That was my personal trick because getting out every day with a newborn isn’t always that easy. But before that, we were doing just. Some lovely really big, long walks, um, which was a great way to get jet out and about as well. He’d either go on his skateboard or take his bike and we’d go and do laps around the park.
And of course there’s lots of amazing online programs as well. So either doing your body weight exercises, um, Pilates, and I’ve got, uh, really great yoga program as well that I follow. So, There’s so many things that you can tap into and so many, uh, really creative ways that people have been utilizing just what they have at home for equipment instead of trying to, you know, buy in equipment, which, you know, let’s face it, sold out within about a week.
Um, people are being really clever. They’re using bags of rice or filling up milk bottles. They’re using their chairs, um, the stairs that they have. Anything that’s close and nearby a park bench. Um, so. I think most important is that you actually are allocating some form of movement in every single day.
Doesn’t have to be high intensity every single day, nor is that healthy, but definitely get your body moving every day because there is so much to say for the benefits of exercise, for your mental health, um, and for, you know, for plenty of other things as well. And one thing I’ve noticed is a lot of people that were gym goers have been exercising outdoors and just been loving that, getting in touch with nature and uh, you know, instead of staring at a, a screen in the gym or on a machine, they’re out and about.
And, you know, you talk about mental health. I think that it’s great to see people mixing up their exercise routines and trying something a little bit different. Absolutely. And I hope. That is a habit that is maintained. I, I hope that after all of this sort of subsides that it’s not, let’s go back to normal, that you know that we do use the outdoors and we use the outdoors as a time to connect with other people as well.
I think it’s teaching us a really good lesson. It’s that. Whilst we’ve all been such screen addicts previously, now we’re gagging to get away from them. We’re absolutely craving connection and we’re craving being outdoors. So let’s not forget that when this sort of lifts, let’s really focus on making sure that that outdoor exercise is a part of our lives ongoing.
And that doing exercise with others when we can, um, is something we do. So we have that human connection as well. Cause all of that is so important for just lifting your mood every. Oh, and especially for moms where we need to multitask. I just think socializing and exercising at the same time kills two birds with one stone.
And you know, it’s, it’s great to go out for margaritas with the moms. I love that as well. But you know, if we can have those social interactions while we’re out for our power walk or. Yoga class together or a run. I think that’s, that’s beautiful. Yeah. All right. Well you’ve given some amazing tips. Uh, so for, for all the moms, including myself out there who have got a little bit of an iso pack that we need to shift, what I’m hearing is, you know, intimate and fasting feels like it is a good way if you are, if you’re wanting to shift a bit and just a bit of a no brainer, cuz it’s just 12 hours of the day you are knee by mouth.
Yeah. Um, that whole veggie. I’m loving this idea of, you know, really making vegetables a hero and just getting creative with how you, you’re cooking your veggies. Mm-hmm. reducing, you know, having those designated eating times instead of grazing because you tend to eat more when you graze. What would be one final tip for moms who are ready to shift the iso weight?
Ooh. Um, I would have to say that don’t fall into the trap of, um, Yoyo diet. Honestly, like when you are ready to do this, be committed and don’t cherry pick from lots of different diets or fall into a comparison trap or do something that you know, some hot celebrities on. Um, well that’s so extreme that you’ve got no chance of sticking to it.
Absolutely choose a way of life cuz that’s what your diet is, that is sustainable and that fits within your way of life that already exists. So, um, so that you can enjoy. All the best of you know life. Enjoy time with your family and enjoy cooking with your family and not feeling like you’re in a hyper restrictive state.
Um, but definitely choose something that is sustainable, long term. Amazing, Jack. Amazing advice. And you’re making me hungry with all those beautiful recipes you’re talking about. No grazing though. No grazing. I’ll wait till dinner tonight. I’ll wait till dinner. I’ll make some dial. You’ve got me on the dial train now.
Thanks for coming on today. My absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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