Posted on May 11, 2010 by Lee
Do you feel like you are constantly ‘on’ (of ‘off’) a diet? Do you feel like it is a never-ending struggle to eat perfectly in order to achieve or maintain your ideal
- Your Perfect Diet Might Be To Blame…
weight? But does your ongoing dissatisfaction with your body linger on, despite all these efforts?
Well, perhaps your ‘perfect’ diet is to blame!
I recently had a client who was so committed to eating perfectly, she wouldn’t dream of polluting her body with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and on the surface you would think her diet was perfect. But she was struggling to see the results she wanted.
On the other hand, I had another client who was equally dedicated and committed, but who also gave herself some slack. She’d allow the occasional treat then simply move on and be extra good for a while to balance things out.
She lost 20lb in 6 weeks, despite it being the end of her university year, involving a few parties. She even lost another pound while enjoying her holiday the next week!
So, what’s going on?
Firstly, the ‘perfect’ client actually looks fantastic. But she has not always had that body and is still mentally and emotionally stuck in fear of regaining her previous, somewhat larger, physique. Her self-image is shockingly low and totally inaccurate! She is living in a state of fear and to her, ‘imperfect’ food is the enemy.
As in life, if you can’t be happy where you are now, you are unlikely to be happy when you reach whatever destination you are going to, unless you address the root of the problem. If you are like this client, you may get to your goal weight, celebrate momentarily, then immediately get right back to square one, dissatisfied with where you are at now, looking for a new goal. I’m sure you know of people who’ve decided that living in a different city or even country will make everything better – but we take our issues with us. It’s the issues that need resolution first.
The second client did not suffer from that lingering low self-esteem. She could have a cocktail or two at the weekend and it wouldn’t send her into a guilt-fuelled pit of self-hatred. She managed her nights out by not drinking too much and not having sugary drinks or mixers, made sure she had as much fun as possible and danced as much as possible, and didn’t succumb to temptations the next morning, instead squeezing a workout in. Her positive mindset made all the difference to her experience of life, her stress levels, and her results.
The other problem for the first client was that by focussing on ‘clean’ and ‘perfect’ foods, she often overlooked other aspects of her behaviour. She would make up for the fact that she couldn’t indulge in her favourite things by over-doing the so-called ‘good’ stuff.
Despite what many diet books insist, calories do count, and you can very easily overeat (especially as a woman), even when your diet is only ‘healthy’ foods. If you are hungry, and choices limited, the body and mind will find a way to satisfy!
On the other hand, you can be over vigilant on counting every calorie which can then send you into a rebellious mode, resulting in giant binges that are triggered by such excessive restriction and control.
If you stick to the nutritious, healthy foods we should all be focussing on, but also allow yourself the odd treat, you will still get great results, so long as the overall calorie level is right.
Rather than externally controlling either quality or quantity, why not make every calorie count? By being eating slowly and mindfully, enjoying every morsel, you’re less likely to overeat.
Another reason for being more forgiving: we actually benefit from occasional higher calorie days, as you boost the hormone leptin. Low levels of leptin, as seen in those who diet excessively, mean you are constantly hungry which makes sticking to your diet even harder. Your less restrictive meals or your odd indulgence is not only psychologically helpful, it is advantageous on a hormonal level too!
There is another hormone that is relevant here: cortisol. It’s the stress hormone, and who isn’t a little stressed these days? But unmanaged stress is one of the biggest blocking factors when it comes to fat loss. Some degree of ‘stress’ is necessary, but when our cortisol levels become chronically elevated, the body is unable to function optimally.
The first client is stressed about her body and her diet and stressed if she ‘breaks’ her perfect diet…. If she lightened up a little, enjoyed the odd indulgence and relaxed about it (without going overboard) then she would notice a significant difference in her overall wellbeing, as well as her results.
Over-restricting calories or types of foods leads to an ‘all or nothing’ mindset which is actually the enemy of long term results, as it can result in ‘blow outs’ or binges. Rather than being able to indulge sensibly, these ‘off-diet’ moments become a license to splurge on everything you’ve been missing.
If the first client does ever let herself go a little, she’s in fear that she’ll let herself go a lot, which will hinder her results (and ironically she will use this to prove her point that imperfect foods are the enemy!). By being more permissive all the time, the fear of totally overdoing it is lost, and you can begin to indulge sensibly.
Are you stuck in the neverending cycle of perfectionism and self-hatred? Are you chronically dissatisfied with your body? Are you suffering from ongoing low self-esteem and sabotaging self talk? If so, this will be blocking your progress as well as meaning that when you reach your goals you are likely to be no better off. So you must address these things now!
What can you do? Some mindful techniques such as meditation or yoga can help. Yoga is especially helpful as it enables you to see just how incredible your body truly is! You accept your body whilst also seeing that you want a healthy, slim body out of respect for your body and you want it to be as fit and healthy as possible! This helps you make positive choices all the time.
Also, try writing some positive affirmations. Write down the things you are grateful for: by celebrating what we have to be thankful for, we realise just how much there is to be thankful for. Write your goals positively too: you want to be healthy so you can enjoy life more and have more energy. When our mindset and our goals are positive, and we focus on things in a positive way, miracles can happen.
For a new way of thinking and behaving to become automatic takes time, which is why writing things down really helps. Use index cards and make sure they are to hand at all times. Whenever you ‘catch’ a self-sabotaging thought pop into your head, make sure you notice it, and then consciously replace it with one of your affirmations. Trust yourself to make the right choices, believe in yourself, and give yourself a little slack.
Diet-wise, make sure you are building in some flexibility and are not aiming to be perfect. This is certainly not an invitation not to take diet and nutrition seriously, but being a little less stressed and rigid about it all will help you get things into balance. You are eating healthy food out of self-respect, not out of self-hatred, and when there are occasions that invite you to make less-than-perfect choices, you can enjoy these indulgences too! In fact, the more you enjoy the treats the more they will be worth – and without the added guilt you are less likely to go into a binge spiral. You will enjoy every calorie even more, and find that compulsive negative eating patterns dissolve.
So, get writing those positive affirmations now! And take stock of your diet rules – what are you feeling like you are missing? Plan it in, and work around it, so your overall picture is one of health and happiness!
It really is possible to break the diet cycle. As the Buddist proverb goes: If we are facing the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. If you feel like you are running round in diet circles then this is one thing you need to work on, right now.
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Posted on May 11, 2010 by Lee
I’m sure you have heard about the ‘fat burning zone’ (usually seen demonstrated on a graph on the cardio equipment in your gym). The implication is that
Work out hard to burn more fat at rest!
you should work out less hard to burn more fat. Now this is a very tempting concept, is it not? Why should you work out hard if you’re not actually burning fat? Might as well chill out and read a magazine while moving as little as possible, just to make sure that every single calorie you burn off is pure fat?
Well, sorry to break it to you, but the ‘fat burning zone’ concept is seriously flawed. And it’s all in the maths…
You burn a higher percentage of fat the less hard you exercise – taking the concept to its logical conclusion, as you are burning the highest percentage of fat while at rest, this theory would imply you might as well just rest and watch the fat melt off! Maximum fat burning is at complete rest by this line of thinking, as you are concerned about percentages, rather than totals. But of course you are not burning many calories at rest or at low levels of exertion as you are when you work out harder – and of course it is the overall calories that count.
In fact, resistance training, especially when performed in super set or circuit form, with intense work periods and short rest periods, can be one of the best ways to burn fat, and is far superior to steady low intensity aerobic work.
You burn plenty of calories during the session, but also elevate your metabolism via EPOC, for up to 24 – 48 hrs after the training session. That means that when you are at rest, burning that higher percentage of fat for fuel, you are actually burning more fat than if you had just done some steady state cardio!
Resistance training also ensures you maintain lean muscle. If you are a woman that doens’t want to get bulky, don’t worry – it is extremely hard to pack on significant size, just ask any guy in the heavy weights room trying to get big (especially if he’s going the ‘all natural’ route)! It takes a huge effort and lots of calories to ‘bulk’. Women don’t need to fear resistance training – you will become lean and ‘toned’, not bulky. What this extra lean muscle does, though, is mean you burn even more calories when you body is at rest, again, maximising the amount of fat you burn at rest (when you are burning a greater percentage of fat for fuel, remember?). The overall effect is a shrinking one – you get smaller as the fat disappears.
Resistance training can give you all the heart health benefits of typical ‘aerobic training’ (do a superset resistance session with a heart rate monitor on to prove that you’re cardiovascular system benefits!) but also has the benefit of preserving muscle, accelerating fat loss and metabolism and balancing out the entire body. Steady state training, such as jogging, certainly has it’s place, but if all you do is run they you are setting yourself up for repetitive strain injuries and imbalances.
Resistance and body weight training work all the 600 muscles of the body in all the 3 dimensional planes of motion and works joints through their full range. So, heed my advice, and prioritise the resistance! Especially if you have limited time to train – and let’s face it, who has lots of time in this hectic age?
To supplement your resistance programme you can also do intense cardio intervals, rather than simply steady state plodding on the cross trainer. This has all the benefits to resistance training mentioned earlier. It also means you can get in and out of the gym (or get your workout done without having to go to a gym at all) in under 30 minutes, while also benefiting from the fat burning elevation that the workout has created for hours afterwards.
If you have more time, then by all means add ‘lifestyle cardio’ into the mix, but I would urge you to stop seeing the gym as the answer for this! Go for a long walk with your family or friends, go for a bike ride in the evening or at the weekend – make it about socialising and having fun too! Treat your workouts more seriously and keep them focused and not endless: 45 minute intense workouts 3 or 4 times per week plus as much general activity as possible in day to day life is the recipe for best results!
Following my advice means you get maximum ‘bang for your buck’ and in an era where time is at a premium, making a clever investment and getting maximum return for that investment is what separates the ‘have a fab physique’ from the ‘have nots’. You don’t need all the time in the world, you just need to use that time very wisely!
It is the overall calories in a day that counts, not where they have come from in your workout. The sooner we realise that we need to work out hard and be more active, the sooner we will be able to get results, so take my advice, and forget about the ‘fat burning zone’ now!
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Posted on May 11, 2010 by Lee
The traditional fat loss theory that you should perform cardio, such as running, cycling or swimming, for as long as you can in order to burn as many calories as possible has been overturned in recent years. People around the globe began to realise that they were plodding away, day after day, and not losing any fat! In fact, people were getting fatter.
Has this happened to you? It sure happened to me! I didn’t blame the workout though – I blamed myself for not doing enough, so tried to do more and more until I had no more time to devote to exercise, without severely compromising my life.
I was under the impression that it was my fault for not doing enough, whereas in fact, I was not actually doing the right kind of exercise to burn fat. By learning to maximise my workout time, I began to lose fat and shape up like never before, while spending half the time exercising (and no time at all in the gym – as I did it in the comfort of my own home!).
The secret – a tool known as a kettlebell! This unique exercise tool has meant I can get a cardio and strength workout in with a single piece of equipment, in my own home. It also delivers an unrivalled workout experience that means you can workout for as little as 10 minutes a day and get great results.
So, if you struggle to fit exercise into your life, the kettlebell has several benefits:
1. You can keep it at home and work out at home, so you don’t waste any time travelling to the gym or messing around in changing rooms. My advice – get up 15 minutes earlier than usual and get a 10 – 15 minute workout in before breakfast. You’re busy schedule is not impacted at all – and you will sleep better when you exercise regularly so will be able to get up those 15 minutes sooner with no problems at all! You will also have more energy throughout the day, so will get even more done – the kettlebell could well make you feel like you actually have more time in the day!
2. The workouts are incredibly efficient, so you make maximum use of your time spent exercising. The moves use every muscle in your body, and work them out intensely, so you burn maximum calories while you work out. You take short rests between intense bursts, which means you can work out to your maximum capacity, which gives your body such a great stimulus that it is forced to burn loads of calories to deal with it.
3. Because you are working intensely, the metabolism stays high throughout the day. What this means, is that you not only burn calories while you are exercising, but you continue to burn calories at an elevated rate for the rest of the day. So your 10 minutes has meant fat burning can go on all day – so you reap the rewards of every 10 minute session for a long time afterwards. But, if you don’t get to work out in the morning, don’t worry, The metabolism boost you get will be the same whatever time you work out, meaning that you can work out in the evening and still make the most of this effect – you’ll just be burning fat while you sleep instead!
So, the trick to achieving your fat loss despite a busy schedule, is to get up 15 minutes earlier every day and add an intense 10 minute kettlebell workout to your day, 5 or 6 days per week. So long as you don’t compensate by eating any more (ideally you should combine this with cutting your calories by 10%) you will see the fat melt off in no time.
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Posted on May 11, 2010 by Lee
Batwings, or bingo wings if you are in the UK, are one of the main problem areas for most women, especially as we get older. The term ‘bingo wing’ refers to
the fact that you typically see them when a woman waves – as she does if she’s just won a prize at bingo! But they will unattractively jiggle at any waving opportunity, and as first impressions count, you really want to make sure you can wave to greet people from afar without your jiggling arms catching all the attention, don’t you?
So, what can you do to get rid of this affliction?
Well, firstly, I must point out that there is no such thing as ‘spot reduction’. Sorry to have to tell you this, but you cannot lose the fat on the arms by doing arm exercises alone. If this is your one area that you want to shape up, you still cannot expect to just do arm exercises to get results.
Bingo or bat wings are excess fat, and to burn fat you need to make sure you are doing intense resistance and interval training about 3 times per week, using as many muscles in the body as possible.
That is why this exercise is so effective, however. You are hitting the triceps muscle, that is the muscle in the back of your arm, where the batwings reside, so that you will ensure the muscle is strong and toned, so when you have burned the surrounding fat, your arms will look fantastic.
But, the added benefit is that this exercise counts as an almost full body exercise, as you are working your arms, shoulders, back and your entire core to do this correctly. If you pair this up with a lower body exercise, such as a squat, as well as a pulling exercise, such as a row, you have a full body fat blasting workout. This will mean you lose the unwanted bodyfat, and can show off your lovely arms in skimpy tops once more.
So, what is this exercise, I hear you cry…
It’s the triceps, or close-grip, press up.
Now most people find these a lot harder than a regular press up, and you have to really engage your core strongly throughout. The simple steps are as follows:
1. Place your hands directly underneath your shoulders, in a plank position (to start with you will want to be on your knees not your toes to make this easier – just make sure your knees, hips and shoulders form a straight line: don’t let your butt stick up!)
2. Slowly lower your chest between your hands, keeping the elbows tucked tight into the sides of the body, elbows pointing back as you come down, until your chest is hovering just off the floor.
3. Press back up to the start position. That is one rep.
I actually get all my yoga students to practice this regularly – as chaturanga or the low push up position is part of the ashtanga and dynamic yoga sun salutation sequence, but many people really struggle with it. A few weeks of practicing triceps push ups usually does the trick and students can really start to enjoy the fluidity of the sun salutation sequence.
So, no equipment needed, and it hits more than just your batwings! Give it a go…
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Posted on May 11, 2010 by Lee
Are you struggling to summon up the motivation to exercise? Are you constantly telling yourself you must get to the gym, but finding that other things just
get in the way?
It is a typical scenario, and one that is actually pretty simple to address.
The first thing you need to do, is stop hassling yourself to exercise. You do not have to have willpower of steel or be super disciplined, so you can stop worrying about that right away. Relax a little and have faith that your body will intuitively know what is good for it, if you give yourself a chance to listen to what it is telling you.
Next, you need to sit down! Yes, the first step to successful fat loss is sitting down and doing practically nothing! Get a pen and piece of paper (and a cup of tea – but skip the sugar and cookies) and begin to write down what you want to achieve when it comes to your health and fitness.
Do you want to lose body fat? Do you want to tone up your thighs and bat / bingo wings? Do you want more energy? Do you want to be stronger for daily tasks? Do you want to play a sport better or take up a sport you feel too unfit for?
Brainstorm all these things, and you may find there are some surprising things you attach fitness too that you hadn’t thought about before. Think about how good your life would be if you could achieve these things – really try to imagine and visualize being slimmer and more energetic, or how you’ll feel when you finally learn to snowboard, if you’ve always felt too unfit to give it a go.
Then write down all the reasons that stop you from exercising.
Do you feel low on energy when you get home? Are you too hungry at the end of the day to go to the gym, but then too full to workout after dinner? Do you struggle to find the time?
Then write down ways you can address all of these. If you are too hungry after a day at work, make sure you take an afternoon snack so you can work out straight from the office. If you struggle with time, consider a time-efficient work out plan, using kettlebells ideally! Realise that there are solutions to all these obstacles.
Then go back to your ‘goals’ list, as that is what you have effectively written in the first step. Then begin to expand on the goals and look into what you will need to do in order to achieve them.
Will you need to exercise? Will you need to look at your nutrition? Will you need to improve your time management?
Then, using all the information you have in front of you, come up with a plan. Write your goals out clearly, and give them a deadline and attach measurements to them. But also state WHY you want to achieve them. Then, state HOW you are going to achieve them, in several clear steps.
Once you have established a clear and compelling WHY (remember to visualise and keep the end result uppermost in your mind) and you have worked out practical steps HOW, then motivation is no longer an issue at all. You see exactly what is required to get the result you are after, and that you truly want, and so will take those actions accordingly.
The next time you find yourself low on energy, you will be able to remind yourself that your workout will energize you. If that is not enough, you can remind yourself that you won’t hit your target if you miss this workout – so the workout is no longer an isolated activity with no purpose, but part of a longer chain of events that will take you exactly where you want to be – to the fitter, slimmer, more confident version of you.
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