This has to be the most confusing article I have ever read.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/2848599/Is-everything-you-thought-you-knew-about-losing-weight-wrong.html
I am not sure whether the diet advocated by this woman is mega confusing OR whether it’s British newspaper The Suns’ sensational interpretation of it.
What I DO know is that the article and it’s headline is saying ‘don’t bother to cut calories and workout - it doesn’t work.’
YES IT DOES!! WE ALL KNOW IT DOES!! Exercise has SO many benefits!! And yes, exercise is part of the HARD WORK and commitment to be healthy! The article claims that going on ‘the average run’ and burning about 230 calories doesn’t help. Sure, its not as healthy as working out and burning 600 calories, but it sure is better then the sedentary, laying around alternative. It makes me really cross. Any kind of working out, getting up a sweat is a good thing for your health!
I always wonder why newspapers and magazines persist with proclaiming that something effortless can be rewarding?? Newspapers are full of stories about the exercise programme that promises us Elle Macpherson’s amazing body in just 4 minutes a day OR a diet were you can eat lots of chocolate and cookies and STILL LOSE weight and these just aren’t helpful at all.
It’s simple. We all know, if you don’t change what you put in your body then your body will NEVER reward you with results. If you change what you put in your body and how you treat it then you will see results. But if you just then go back to how you were before then you might as well not have bothered. It’s about balance and I get so tired and bored of people expecting to lose weight and shape up without doing any work. IT IS HARD! It is also really rewarding if you do it and stick to it.
There is ONE element of this woman’s theory that I do subscribe to. PART of one idea I should say, and that is the low carb idea. I eat a low carb diet and it really works for me. I am personally a big fan of the so called ‘Hunter-gatherer’ idea (fruit, veg, meat, fish, eggs, no sugar, no processed carbs) and have found that my body can survive the odd (what will now be called) ‘Superbowl day’ if the rest of the time I look after it well. Our ancestors were SO much more active then we are and they burnt off their starchy bread and potato calories - our generations sit down most of the time which doesn’t mean much burn at all. (Plus lots of carbs make me sleepy beyond stupid so it’s a complete no-no after lunch.) But with the low carbs comes high fat? REALLY? According to the article this woman is basically advocating a high fat, low carb diet - er - isn’t that called The Atkins Diet? Didn’t we do all this ten years ago? I think we did. Didn’t that cause huge cholesterol issues?
In the same article, this woman also says that a low fat Mediterranean diet should be aspired to. Make your mind up love.
I am sure the paper have cherry picked about 20 quotes by her from a book of thousands and that is why this article is confusing but basically if you don’t have a clue about dieting and want to get healthy and pick up THIS article first, then you are screwed!!
Coming up this week - Rosie will be discussing finding the balance between those carbs, the fat and the proteins and giving you some examples of how to get it right.
I meanwhile will sign off with this -
DON’T FOR GOD’S SAKE STOP BEING ACTIVE!!
EXERCISE = ENDORPHINS, SWEAT, AND A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT
ALL THE ABOVE = A BIT OF ‘YOU’ TIME! BETTER MOOD CONTROL! BETTER SKIN! BETTER SLEEP! AND IF YOU WORK HARD ENOUGH, A BETTER BODY!!
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
ROSIE - THAT ELUSIVE 6 PACK!
Yes... whether you're male or female, we're all after it, those rippling abs. Hmmm - the difficulty is that they're incredibly difficult to get! Chances are people who have a 6 pack have an incredibly low body fat (about 15% or less!).
Despite this, as a personal trainer, I find that one of the most popular ideals for my clients is, if not a rippling six pack, then certainly a flat tummy! The trouble is that be it abs, thighs, shoulders or bottoms, you can't spot reduce any area of your body. Depressing, I know. Chances are those abs are there, they may just be hiding under a layer or two of fat... you need to find them!
There are three ways to "bring them to the surface" and show them to the world...
1) Cardio, cardio, cardio: the only way of burning fat, per se. As I blogged last week, high intensive cardio is best as it burns loads of calories... and builds muscle. Go for the burn, the more knackered and sweaty you are after a session the better! Burn the fat OFF those abs and you have a better chance of seeing them! High impact activity is best as it works you more efficiently for the amount of time you have.
2) Diet: eat well! It's as simple as that! Your poor abs won't have a chance of showing themselves off in their best light if they're hiding under layers of fat. It's the simplest sum in the world; calories in must equal calories out. If you want to lose weight then it MUST be a negative equation!
3) Strengthening: Only NOW is it time for those ab exercises! Be they core exercises on the ball, crunches, sit ups... go for them. In the coming weeks I'll do a blog on my top 5 ab exercises.
So, on paper, simple! In reality... the first two steps are the basic way of reducing body fat and, if that's what you want to do, getting the body you want - six pack or no!
Despite this, as a personal trainer, I find that one of the most popular ideals for my clients is, if not a rippling six pack, then certainly a flat tummy! The trouble is that be it abs, thighs, shoulders or bottoms, you can't spot reduce any area of your body. Depressing, I know. Chances are those abs are there, they may just be hiding under a layer or two of fat... you need to find them!
There are three ways to "bring them to the surface" and show them to the world...
1) Cardio, cardio, cardio: the only way of burning fat, per se. As I blogged last week, high intensive cardio is best as it burns loads of calories... and builds muscle. Go for the burn, the more knackered and sweaty you are after a session the better! Burn the fat OFF those abs and you have a better chance of seeing them! High impact activity is best as it works you more efficiently for the amount of time you have.
2) Diet: eat well! It's as simple as that! Your poor abs won't have a chance of showing themselves off in their best light if they're hiding under layers of fat. It's the simplest sum in the world; calories in must equal calories out. If you want to lose weight then it MUST be a negative equation!
3) Strengthening: Only NOW is it time for those ab exercises! Be they core exercises on the ball, crunches, sit ups... go for them. In the coming weeks I'll do a blog on my top 5 ab exercises.
So, on paper, simple! In reality... the first two steps are the basic way of reducing body fat and, if that's what you want to do, getting the body you want - six pack or no!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
GEORGIE - Track it! The way forward...
GEORGIE - Sunday 7th FEB
With Rosie's "Daily Diet" blog fresh in our minds, I thought it might be good to share with you a few little helpful ‘keeping on track’ tools.
I personally suffer two failings when it comes to my nutrition. It’s not WHAT I eat, as I like the healthy stuff and can keep my ‘treat’ food to a sensible level - it’s HOW MUCH that counts. The first problem is that I am a pig, so put it in front of me and I will eat it (that, my friends, is a whole other blog that we shall get around to soon) and the second is that if I don’t track what I put in my body, then I don’t keep my weight constant or am not able to lose a few pounds.
The primary function of diet programmes such as WeightWatchers is that you COUNT how many points (or calories) you are putting in your mouth a day. I don’t advocate fastidious calorie counting, and like Rosie said, I don’t advocate eating less then you should (it only makes your body store the fat) but knowing WHAT you are putting in your body everyday really helps.
I remember 3 years ago when I moved to America; a little on the chubby side, and a little inspired by the huge levels of obesity around me, I changed it all up. I started properly exercising and eating well and that was the start of all this. BUT about six months in, after an initial weight loss of the extra chub I stopped losing weight. I wanted to lose another 5 kilos (10 lbs) and it wasn’t happening. My trainer at the time recommended a food diary. I wrote down everything I ate, and he looked at it. Amazing how often I was going well over my daily limit of calories when I wasn’t paying proper attention! I started researching ways to track what you put in your body for an article last year so though I might share with you a few of the results in case they help!
www.sparkpeople.com
This online community boasts 7 million US members alone. It has an online daily nutrition and exercise tracker that takes a while to get used to but takes 5 minutes a day once you have it. It’s also a great way to help you track your sugar, carbs and protein intake. (I NEVER manage to eat enough protein no matter how hard I try!). There are also thousands of online team leaders and other ‘sparkers’ who get involved in lots of online discussions that can help you feel less alone on the sea of good health!! They will also send you 'you can do it' emails that help motivate!
Loseit! App for Iphone
This is my saviour. A little icon on my iphone screen that lets you track what you eat and offset it against exercise at the touch of a button. There are other apps for iphone and Blackberry but having tried them all out for an article I was writing this is the one I would recommend the most. Recently this app has been tied up to a Loseit! website which has expanded its capability so I highly recommend this if you are in iphone land. (Available at the App store and last time I looked it was FREE!)
WeightWatchers
The reason this programme works is that you quantify what you put in your body and stick to the limits they set you. Zar did WeightWatchers with great success and will tell you that the only way you can fail to get healthy and STAY healthy on this programme is if you fail to count your intake properly. It’s that simple!
Finally - Keep a food diary!
One of my best friends in London is a GP. She says she cannot believe the amount of overweight/obese people who come to her saying “I hardly eat anything but I’m still fat”; to which she ALWAYS sends them home to keep a food diary for 2 weeks. They write down EVERYTHING they eat and drink in that period and she looks it over. She says its unbelievable that so many of these people are regularly eating more then a thousand calories over their daily needs and wondering why they are struggling. Keeping a diary of what you eat takes discipline but is a great way to LEARN about the nutritional value of what you are eating and thus how much you should be shovelling down your throat. It helps moderate the amount of ‘treat’ food you eat and monitoring the amount of calories you intake in alcohol can sometimes be a sobering experience for some!
Hope these help, please feel free to post comments on any or ALL of our blogs - see you all next week in blog land!
With Rosie's "Daily Diet" blog fresh in our minds, I thought it might be good to share with you a few little helpful ‘keeping on track’ tools.
I personally suffer two failings when it comes to my nutrition. It’s not WHAT I eat, as I like the healthy stuff and can keep my ‘treat’ food to a sensible level - it’s HOW MUCH that counts. The first problem is that I am a pig, so put it in front of me and I will eat it (that, my friends, is a whole other blog that we shall get around to soon) and the second is that if I don’t track what I put in my body, then I don’t keep my weight constant or am not able to lose a few pounds.
The primary function of diet programmes such as WeightWatchers is that you COUNT how many points (or calories) you are putting in your mouth a day. I don’t advocate fastidious calorie counting, and like Rosie said, I don’t advocate eating less then you should (it only makes your body store the fat) but knowing WHAT you are putting in your body everyday really helps.
I remember 3 years ago when I moved to America; a little on the chubby side, and a little inspired by the huge levels of obesity around me, I changed it all up. I started properly exercising and eating well and that was the start of all this. BUT about six months in, after an initial weight loss of the extra chub I stopped losing weight. I wanted to lose another 5 kilos (10 lbs) and it wasn’t happening. My trainer at the time recommended a food diary. I wrote down everything I ate, and he looked at it. Amazing how often I was going well over my daily limit of calories when I wasn’t paying proper attention! I started researching ways to track what you put in your body for an article last year so though I might share with you a few of the results in case they help!
www.sparkpeople.com
This online community boasts 7 million US members alone. It has an online daily nutrition and exercise tracker that takes a while to get used to but takes 5 minutes a day once you have it. It’s also a great way to help you track your sugar, carbs and protein intake. (I NEVER manage to eat enough protein no matter how hard I try!). There are also thousands of online team leaders and other ‘sparkers’ who get involved in lots of online discussions that can help you feel less alone on the sea of good health!! They will also send you 'you can do it' emails that help motivate!
Loseit! App for Iphone
This is my saviour. A little icon on my iphone screen that lets you track what you eat and offset it against exercise at the touch of a button. There are other apps for iphone and Blackberry but having tried them all out for an article I was writing this is the one I would recommend the most. Recently this app has been tied up to a Loseit! website which has expanded its capability so I highly recommend this if you are in iphone land. (Available at the App store and last time I looked it was FREE!)
WeightWatchers
The reason this programme works is that you quantify what you put in your body and stick to the limits they set you. Zar did WeightWatchers with great success and will tell you that the only way you can fail to get healthy and STAY healthy on this programme is if you fail to count your intake properly. It’s that simple!
Finally - Keep a food diary!
One of my best friends in London is a GP. She says she cannot believe the amount of overweight/obese people who come to her saying “I hardly eat anything but I’m still fat”; to which she ALWAYS sends them home to keep a food diary for 2 weeks. They write down EVERYTHING they eat and drink in that period and she looks it over. She says its unbelievable that so many of these people are regularly eating more then a thousand calories over their daily needs and wondering why they are struggling. Keeping a diary of what you eat takes discipline but is a great way to LEARN about the nutritional value of what you are eating and thus how much you should be shovelling down your throat. It helps moderate the amount of ‘treat’ food you eat and monitoring the amount of calories you intake in alcohol can sometimes be a sobering experience for some!
Hope these help, please feel free to post comments on any or ALL of our blogs - see you all next week in blog land!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
ROSIE - The daily 'DIET'
Diet. Yuck, don’t you hate that word? It brings to mind starvation, dizziness, “bad, boring” food and general doom and gloom. The kind of thing you have to suffer because you’ve over-indulged at Christmas or have tried on your bikini and those love handles have increased in quantity since last year.
Well, I’ve got good news for you… yes, food is NOT your enemy! In fact, it’s your friend. Since qualifying in nutrition I have found so many people UNDEREAT and this, in fact, is the reason they struggle to lose weight. The key – you should not eat under 1500 calories per day. The fad diets – you know, those ones you see in magazines – the calorie count is ridiculously low. That’s the reason most people fall off the wagon and can’t stick to them – starting an unhealthy pattern of yo-yo dieting.
The reason? When you under-eat, your body clings onto all available sources of energy as it recognises the signs of starvation – yes, really! So it thinks, “okay, I’d better save some of this energy in case I really need it in the future”. So if you’re feeling very virtuous sticking to your three meals per day and your 1000-1200 calorie per day diet… think again.
Aim for at least 1500 calories – more if you’re exercising. The other key? Eat regularly – every 2-3 hours. It sounds ridiculous and to start with you will feel like you’re eating way too much for your body. However, your body will get used to it and start to utilise the energy as it should, by burning it off. So, smaller meals, more snacks and you’re onto a winner.
It’s also important to keep active, this will ensure your body does actually use the energy you consume – your metabolism will be super boosted. The two best bits – you should rarely be hungry and will have way more energy!
One thing to keep an eye on – those portion sizes. If you eat too much at each sitting then – of course – you will gain weight. It’s also really important that you don’t have a “main meal” anymore. Try and take that idea out of your mind as, whilst your three meals will be bigger than your snacks, most people eat their biggest meal way too big and way too late in the evening – your body has to work hard to metabolise the calories overnight. Still eat what you would usually eat but halve the portion and have it earlier than normal.
Below is an example day of how I eat to give you an idea of how regularly you should be consuming calories:
6 am: Breakfast – Fortified Muesli, orange juice, cup of tea.
9 am: Snack – Cereal bar or banana
12 noon: Lunch – Wholemeal pita with cheese, ham & salad & a yoghurt/piece of fruit.
3 pm: Snack – Fruit (say an apple) and handful of nuts & raisins.
7 pm: Supper – Tuna, avocado, feta salad/soup/chicken & veggies/omelette.
10 pm: Snack – A couple of biscuits (my treat!) or yoghurt or something light.
Give it a go – good luck!
PS I'm not ALWAYS this virtuous. I don't want you thinking I'm too much of a boring health freak. If you're good 90% of the time then 10% of the time you really deserve to enjoy yourself with food!
Well, I’ve got good news for you… yes, food is NOT your enemy! In fact, it’s your friend. Since qualifying in nutrition I have found so many people UNDEREAT and this, in fact, is the reason they struggle to lose weight. The key – you should not eat under 1500 calories per day. The fad diets – you know, those ones you see in magazines – the calorie count is ridiculously low. That’s the reason most people fall off the wagon and can’t stick to them – starting an unhealthy pattern of yo-yo dieting.
The reason? When you under-eat, your body clings onto all available sources of energy as it recognises the signs of starvation – yes, really! So it thinks, “okay, I’d better save some of this energy in case I really need it in the future”. So if you’re feeling very virtuous sticking to your three meals per day and your 1000-1200 calorie per day diet… think again.
Aim for at least 1500 calories – more if you’re exercising. The other key? Eat regularly – every 2-3 hours. It sounds ridiculous and to start with you will feel like you’re eating way too much for your body. However, your body will get used to it and start to utilise the energy as it should, by burning it off. So, smaller meals, more snacks and you’re onto a winner.
It’s also important to keep active, this will ensure your body does actually use the energy you consume – your metabolism will be super boosted. The two best bits – you should rarely be hungry and will have way more energy!
One thing to keep an eye on – those portion sizes. If you eat too much at each sitting then – of course – you will gain weight. It’s also really important that you don’t have a “main meal” anymore. Try and take that idea out of your mind as, whilst your three meals will be bigger than your snacks, most people eat their biggest meal way too big and way too late in the evening – your body has to work hard to metabolise the calories overnight. Still eat what you would usually eat but halve the portion and have it earlier than normal.
Below is an example day of how I eat to give you an idea of how regularly you should be consuming calories:
6 am: Breakfast – Fortified Muesli, orange juice, cup of tea.
9 am: Snack – Cereal bar or banana
12 noon: Lunch – Wholemeal pita with cheese, ham & salad & a yoghurt/piece of fruit.
3 pm: Snack – Fruit (say an apple) and handful of nuts & raisins.
7 pm: Supper – Tuna, avocado, feta salad/soup/chicken & veggies/omelette.
10 pm: Snack – A couple of biscuits (my treat!) or yoghurt or something light.
Give it a go – good luck!
PS I'm not ALWAYS this virtuous. I don't want you thinking I'm too much of a boring health freak. If you're good 90% of the time then 10% of the time you really deserve to enjoy yourself with food!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Georgie - NOT going the whole 9 yards...
Inspired into action by Rosie’s Interval training blog yesterday, I got in the gym last night. My aim, to run a 5k. Something I haven’t done in a while (I hate running - I am not exactly the right build for it) but I figure, new blog = new start in the gym so in I went. I run slow - a 5k takes me about 31 minutes so I decided to get in under 30 - maybe aim for 29. What happened next seems to happen so often to me... at 4.6k - when I was heading toward a really good time - under 29 mins - I stopped. Well I knew I could do it, I was going to finish in time, so laziness stepped me right off the treadmill. This, my friends is the reason that I will never be a proper gym bunny. I will never have a body fat of below 22 and I will never be a full bonafide fitness freak. Mediocre works for me it seems. I am disappointed with myself for stopping, there is no excuse for not going the whole distance, but giving up is a common occurence in the gym. There is ALWAYS an excuse. Actually going to the gym in the first place is a battle... I can always find a reason not to exercise, although when I get there and get started I quite often enjoy it. Affectively, having a shirker attitude means that I have absolutely no one to blame but myself. When I am half hearted about it like I am at the moment, (Winter always brings gym apathy to my schedule) I am NOT entitled to whinge or whine about my weight or my body. So I am learning to shut up. There can be no dressing room crying on shopping trips, or complaints ‘my bum looks big in this’. Not having a ‘can-do’ attitude whether on a small or a grand scale means certain failure. If I don’t give 100 percent then I certainly can’t expect a 100 percent return. I am learning this after years of excuses.
I feel it’s excuses that stop a lot of people from getting to their goals. Whether it’s getting healthier, losing weight or just making a positive change that will improve their lifestyle, its way too easy to blame everyone but ourselves. If you eat badly and fail to do any exercise at all (even just walking to work) then your body will reflect that. If you work out a little and are a little healthy then your body will look like that. If you PROPERLY go for it, then hey, you will look at the best you can be! The old 'slow metabolism', 'big bones', lines don’t wash. And we are only cheating ourselves if we fail to accept this. So, I accept that I am weak - this is my own doing, and I will always just strive to do better. And I feel ok with that. I feel it's better I know my shortcomings then try and pretend I don’t have any.
Needless to say, I am pretty happy with the results (most of the time) and hey - 4.6 k is better then NONE run at all isn’t it!
And I am extra lucky to have two mega motivated sisters to aspire to catch up with! KEEP plugging away people!
I feel it’s excuses that stop a lot of people from getting to their goals. Whether it’s getting healthier, losing weight or just making a positive change that will improve their lifestyle, its way too easy to blame everyone but ourselves. If you eat badly and fail to do any exercise at all (even just walking to work) then your body will reflect that. If you work out a little and are a little healthy then your body will look like that. If you PROPERLY go for it, then hey, you will look at the best you can be! The old 'slow metabolism', 'big bones', lines don’t wash. And we are only cheating ourselves if we fail to accept this. So, I accept that I am weak - this is my own doing, and I will always just strive to do better. And I feel ok with that. I feel it's better I know my shortcomings then try and pretend I don’t have any.
Needless to say, I am pretty happy with the results (most of the time) and hey - 4.6 k is better then NONE run at all isn’t it!
And I am extra lucky to have two mega motivated sisters to aspire to catch up with! KEEP plugging away people!
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