Arguably, it is the most spoken about topic. Whether it’s at work, in the gym, at family gatherings or even on holiday. We’re talking weight loss. It’s an issue that will not go away and year by year it also ramps up the political agenda in terms of the nations health.
The difficulty is living in England makes losing weight a big challenge, with almost everything around you setup for you to take shortcuts and find an easier way to do things throughout your day.
When writing nutrition plans for people, 90% of them follow a similar pattern and is the pattern of our country and it goes a bit like this………wake up, get the kids ready, have a couple of slices of toast and a coffee, around 1pm have a sandwich and maybe a flapjack, then at around 3pm have another coffee and maybe a packet of crisps or a biscuit or sometimes a piece of fruit, then around 6pm when the other half gets home we sit down and have a meal which can be pasta or spaghetti bolognese or something like that. Recognise the pattern? If this is YOU then you are not alone!
What is wrong with this intake of food? Everything! It is impossible to succeed in the game of weight loss if this is your strategy. Ever wonder why you do not really see overweight people in Spain or most of the Mediterranean even though they eat more bread and have a more relaxed lifestyle?…. The key is frequency, portion size and movement. Sounds fairly logical but your metabolic rate is dictated by it. If your metabolism is slow then you will be too, if you can go 4 hours without eating then I’m afraid your metabolic rate is much like a tortoise sprinting across the sand. Think of your metabolism as a camp fire, feed it little and often throughout the day then across the week and by Friday you have a roaring bonfire meaning at the weekend you can afford a coupe cheats as your ‘bonfire’ will just eat them up.
So why is this such a challenge in England ? Leave the house unprepared and unplanned and you are at the fate of Tesco express, Costa and an abundance of convenience style food shops which are specifically designed for people who have failed to prepare. Let’s fast forward to the evening where we sit down have a feast (normally high in carbohydrates) then watch 2 hours+ of television at which point the news at 10 comes on and enough is enough we take our belly of food and go to sleep.
The system in our country from the minute we wake up to minute we go to sleep is working against you if you want to be lean, fit and healthy so you have to be prepared and plan! You have to plan each day’s food and for god’s sake have small portions especially in the evening meal, be active, do some classes, exercise intensively for at least 3 hours a week.
Give yourself some respite. Have weekends off and relax from the regiment of the week’s nutrition, enjoy your social time and the pleasures that come with it BUT when Monday hits its game on till Saturday!! Repeat this for a few weeks and you now have a healthy balanced lifestyle which you can maintain forever, just remember it’s YOU against THEM.
