Eat – Uneducated ‘healthy’ eating which often results in weight gain and visible signs of health issues
Fix – To put everything into quick fix, unsustainable diet and exercise plans
Slump – Failure with a huge sense of guilt
Repeat – Cycle is repeated with low mood and reduced energy levels, both not conducive to producing good results on the next cycle
Cycle of success
EAT – EXERCISE – ENJOY – REPEAT
Eat – Educated healthy eating often resulting in weight loss, renewed energy and other visible signs of improved health
Exercise – Tailored, long-term exercise plans
Enjoy – Enjoy the odd guilt free, cheeky indulgence
Repeat – Cycle is continually repeated with high energy levels and a drive to achieve even better results
Explanation
EDUCATED HEALTHY EATING
Many over weight people, very surprisingly, believe that they eat a healthy diet! Their poor health is often blamed on just one or two non food related issues eg. drinking or lack of time to exercise. The unfortunate fact is that the majority us have had very limited nutritional education and therefore what is thought to be a healthy diet is often far from it.
In addition, the food industry has brain washed many of us, via their marketing strategies, to believe certain unhealthy foods are actually good for us! Eating ‘so called’ healthy foods that have been marketed with limited integrity, will very often lead to weight gain and numerous health issues.
Examples of foods that many believe to be healthy – diet yogurts, cup-a-soups, many breakfast cereals and granolas, tortilla wraps, white rice, skimmed milk, zero sugar drinks, parma ham, rice crackers, rye crackers, cottage cheese, coconut oil, fruit smoothies, detox tablets, orange juice.
TAILORED EXERCISE PLANS
Quantity of exercise – Many people embarking on a new exercise regime will take on too much too soon. Setting workout frequency goals above 3 times per week is not advisable. 30 minutes, 3 times per week is generally maintainable and, provided you do the right workout, this is sufficient time to achieve significant results.
Quality of exercise – Walking the dog, jogging or swimming will raise your heart-rate, however the most effective way to increase your fitness and burn fat is to spike your heart rate in timed intervals. This is called high-intensity interval training or HIIT. For weight loss combine HIIT with weight training to ensure most of the loss comes from fat stores rather than muscle.
Interval training is never easy, for any fitness level, therefore to achieve good results, a personal trainer can be hugely beneficial. A good trainer will personalise workouts to your needs, motivate you to push hard during exercise and add the right amount of progression at the right time.
Bethan Lee
