Recently we have looked at various lifestyle changes we can use to help us on our healthy fitness journey and, today we are just going to sum up some of the main points covering nutrition and training.
1. Where’s the beef? Most people continue to load up on carbs like rice, pasta, breads and other low-nutrient, higher-calorie foods when overeating. Instead, start your meal with a bit of protein. Eating protein with a meal can help you avoid high blood sugar spikes that may lead to consuming more calories.
Despite the recent WHO study that red meat can lead to cancer; you need to look at what the report was saying; one example was about consuming protein found in say bacon and it stated that eating around 30g of this type of meat increased your chances of contracting cancer. Reading the fine print and it says you need to eat this amount (approx. two slices) a day: EVERY DAY! I like to have bacon every now and then but I’m not going to eat it every day. Lean proteins are best; white meat, fish, and good quality red meat.
Even a handful of almonds can help you curb your appetite. In a number of studies, people on a low-calorie diet who ate a handful of almonds 60 to 90 minutes before meals lost more weight than those who opted for other snacks. Plus, almonds are packed with energy-boosting vitamin B12 and fibre, and a touch of protein.
2. Filler up. Fibre-rich foods like vegetables and fruits can help you feel fuller faster without the guilt of high-calorie foods. If there’s one category of foods that you can afford to overindulge in, it’s this one. Fruits and veggies are made up of fibre and mainly water, so they will help your belly feel full without busting your diet. Fibre helps your body eliminate wastes and toxins, and absorb the good vitamins and minerals it needs to run more efficiently.
3. Bottoms up. Drinking more water can be as easy as pouring yourself a big glass or two before sitting down to a large meal where you might not be able to trust yourself to eat a smaller portion. Water has no calories, but cues the brain to help you feel fuller faster. Think of refilling that water glass between each course and focus on drinking every last drop. You’ll be well hydrated and eat less, too.
4. Walk before you sit. Sit down to eat that is. Taking a 10- to 30-minute walk just before eating can provide three benefits. First, you’ll have a different mindset by focusing on healthy living habits like walking and potentially bring on some endorphins to feel happier, which helps to reduce the likelihood of overeating. Secondly, many people have a drop in appetite after a light workout session. And lastly, you may be more in tune with your body to listen to brain cues about feeling full.
5. Slow Down! Dinner ahead! Slowing down your eating may be a key to avoiding overeating. By simply chewing your food longer, taking breaks and consciously eating more slowly, your body’s signals for feeling full may be more apparent.
6. Out of sight, out of mind. A simple task of clearing the cupboards of food items you’re more likely to overeat (chocolate biscuits anyone?) can be an easy step. If you’re prone to eating every last chip out of the bag after opening it, then don’t buy chips; hide the packet of biscuits behind something healthy so it isn’t the first thing you see when you open the cupboard.
7. Planning & Setting Goals. In order to lose body fat effectively we have to have a reason as to why we want to achieve this goal, is it (a) Make you look good (b) Health benefits (reduce heart disease, lower cholesterol etc) (c) Holiday/Vacation (c) Competition (d) or just to see if you can.
Remember that the body likes to be at a set point of body fat and will try everything it can to maintain this set point, the main way that the body achieves this is by slowing the metabolism down, or by holding body fat and using muscle tissue, the body is clever and it has evolved over thousands of years, so were not going to trick it into change overnight.
It is not easy to achieve a low body fat percentage and you must be 100% committed to your aim.
Write down the reasons as to why you want to achieve this aim, i.e., “I want my body fat to be …X…” “I want to lose one stone in weight in the next 3 months”
So to achieve this plan all we have to do is exercise and eat right, “Oh if it was this simple”.
We see constantly advertisements for pills, potions, exercise gadgets, which all say “take this and do that”, and that’s all you have to do. Forget them all they don’t work – Period.
8. Training. To transform your body you must lift weight. Aerobics by themselves won’t achieve your goal; the best form of exercise to shape the body is weight training for both Male and Females. By resistance training you increase your metabolic rate, which is the rate at which the body burns fat. By increasing muscle mass the body requires more energy to maintain the new mass; fat does not require energy it just sits there annoying us all. So weight training is superior to aerobics as it increases the rate at what the body uses energy, by doing only aerobics you may lose weight but won’t alter your body in the way that weight training does.
In resistance and weight training you have to push yourself, don’t just think than you just have to do a number of reps and then put the weight down it’s like everything in life “you get out of it – what you put in”. We see many people doing their training and pushing the reps out as fast as the can, just to get to their required amount of reps, but the exercise is being lost when you do this, slow the reps down and you overload the muscles for a longer period of time.
Final thought: You can’t control everything in your life, but you can control yourself and how you react to each situation. You are ultimately in control of you!
To help you with this, if you send us an email we will send you a FREE GIFT:an e-book FREE containing 53 Fat Burning Smoothie Recipes.E mail either: glasnevin@kiwifit.ie or Sutton@kiwifit.ie