Posted on

Wednesday, 14th August

We talk all the time about the importance of trying to keep improving your physical performances, how about improving your eating habits?!!

When someone starts off with me for the first time, I like to guide them into things gently or you are likely to ask far too much off individuals in a short period of time.

An easy start for me to give someone is to make just one minor improvement per week.

The usual one I ask for is to try and eat breakfast every day. Believe it or not, most people I bump into tend not to eat breakfast at all, or eat something full of sugar or saturated fat, or most likely both!

So to get to eat the individual to eat well every day all day is quite unrealistic.

Making small changes each and every week will lead to a monumental change over just
six weeks!

Then I move onto the subject of properly hydrating one’s self. If someone can just drink more water throughout the day, then I know that this change alone will make such a difference to the person concerned. They will feel better, look better, burn more body fat and perform better in their workouts full stop.

Then I move onto sleep. Making the effort to get to bed earlier, especially in the week is paramount in order to recover from exercise, and set yourself up for the next day again.

Next is lunch and evening meal. You need to put healthy protein sources in there for your meal, healthy slow-burning carbs and a healthy array of vegetables. These meals can be similar (unless you have a packed lunch when wholemeal bread/pittas are likely to be choice of the day).

Then the snacks come into observation and how you are powering yourself through the day in terms of energy. Natural snacks such as fruit, dried fruit, nuts etc will work for you far better than sugary/fatty snacks every time!

This is a very brief description of the small changes you need to undertake to look and feel your best, so up to you when you implement all of this to get results as soon as possible!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, February 19th

A lot was made yesterday in the press, about certain cereals and high fibre foods not actually telling us the total number of calories in the product.

This is another example to avoid foods that contain chemicals that we don’t really know anything about.

Muesli is a great example of this. The full sugar and full fat version are a nightmare for you if you are tryiing to drop body fat, in fact they are bad news if you are even trying to maintain a healthy weight!! They will drive body fat on to your frame quicker than you can say excess sugar and salt!!

You shouldn’t bundle all of these products and cereals into the same pile though!

I have always said that products such a weetabix and shredded wheat will always be good, because all they contain is wheat and the keep you away from dangerous chemicals and needless extra chemicals. You can’t go wrong with these.

You do need to avoid though variations of these products, when sugary coatings or/and sugary versions of fruit are added to the products. This is a perfect example of how to mess up a good cereal and make it no longer healthy for you!

Same with porridge, one of my favourites! I love porridge and eat it twice a day! Plain rollled oats with no additives are great and will give you long lasting energy, no catches with this one and no sugar, salt or saturated fat!

The problem starts when we add the sugary versions of sugar, the apple pie and blueberry pies versions for example. Al NO GOOD for you!!!

You need to keep it plain and simple with cereal, stick to the intended natural version and add natural ingredients to it, such as chopped fruit and or dried fruit with no added sugar.

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 17th August

Once you make the big change to eating well, and more natural food, the common question is how long it will take to get used to a big change in diet.

Scientific studies show us that it generally takes around 12 weeks to get used to this change, and more importantly for your taste buds to change completely.

This means that foods that you used to be tempted to eat will soon become foods that you find sickly, you especially when eaten to excess.

The great thing about this situation is that you won’t feel like going to the bad old days once you make this change, as long as you follow it through and remain committed in getting used to it.

Making the first step is the hardest part and sometimes the thought about eating healthy for the rest of your life can be overpowering.

Most of us would love to stay in our comfort zone and it would be so much easier to eat in the chip shop every night, drink alcohol as often as we liked, and hit the bakery every morning for some lovely snacks full of sugar.

The downside to all of this behaviour if done over a longer period unfortunately would likely to be weight gain, shortness of breath, joint trouble, heart disease and elevated risk of many serious diseases.

So if you look at the big picture, which scenario is more appealing?

Would it be a lifetime habit of eating foods very low in quality nutrients and super-high in saturated fat and calories, that in general makes you feel sluggish, desperately low in energy, overweight and plain unhealthy?

Or do you put up with a few weeks of all that sugar, salt and saturated fat leaving your body and then your body having a much more sustainable diet for the rest of your life, giving you huge amounts of energy, healthy body fat levels, much more joint strength, more endurance and higher strength levels?

Not much of a choice there but it’s a free country so at the end of the day, it’s YOUR choice!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 19th July

If you are continuing to struggle to get into good structures with your eating, then you need to stop over-complicating things and simplify things.

If you’re not eating breakfast for instance, you will pay for it in some way later in the day.

Not eating breakfast DOES NOT help you lose weight, and WILL encourage binge eating usually much later in the day.

START eating breakfast right now if you are interested in losing body fat straight away and maintaining healthy levels for the rest of your life.

Don’t be afraid to snack! If you don’t snack, your hunger levels will go up and down leading to bingeing again later in the day. Snacking healthily is always a successful strategy when it comes to fat loss, maintaining healthy lean muscle tissue, and feeling energised throughout the day.

Don’t skip lunch or you will pay for it later in the day. You need the satisfying feeling of a good lunch or you know what’s going to happen?!!! Those hunger pangs you get by missing lunch will lead to yet another bingeing opportunity later in the day, I hear this time and time again, so lets get it sorted right now and make your eating plan simple!

If you get the breakfast, the mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snacks sorted, then you should be feeling great when it comes to evening meal.

Due to the fact that you have fed your body throughout the day, you shouldn’t be absolutely starving when it comes to evening time. Your energy levels will be much more constant and you shouldn’t feel the sudden urge to slam in a cheese sandwich whilst waiting for your main meal.

Those people who try to make the process of getting lean and healthy sound like rocket science are the same ones trying to rip you off on some kind of “wonder diet” that comes around all the time. Nearly all of those diets don’t work, and once you accept all you need to do is keep a good structure to be successful, you will never fall for those dodgy sales people ever again!!!

Bottom line is to eat often but in smaller portions, the number one way to lose body fat AND STAY FULL and end your wild bingeing on food days forever!!!

Twitt