If you throw caution to the wind for a month every December, promising to make it all up in the cold, dark, depressing days of January, then you can guarantee you are in for a life of steadily increasing weight gain, as its a whole lot harder to lose it than to gain it!

It is very possible to indulge, and enjoy Christmas, without taking yourself all the way back down that road again though.

So here are some top tips, and they really aren’t killjoy tips, I promise!

In fact, if you feel awesome and energised and haven’t let a whole load of unwanted weight accumulate you will surely enjoy the New Year a whole lot more?

And January is categorically the worst time ever to be on a diet!

TIP 1:  Move EVERY DAY!

5-10 mins of something just for you – that can also be your oasis amidst the chaos and keep you connected and centred….

See my article with some links to resources you can use to show you what to do: http://www.perfectfitforlife.com/2012/12/festive-chaos/

TIP 2:  Move EVERY DAY!

Yep, the same tip!  This time its about getting out with whoever you are spending time with this Christmas and WALK!  Long, luscious walks before or after meals, or even both, help you to work up a healthy appetite (food is so much nicer when you are actually hungry and not just adding more to a sickly store of cheap chocolate, is it not?!) and help you digest your meal and also divert that energy to your muscles rather than your fat stores.

You know it will make you feel better and it so can be part of the festive fun – totally no excuse!

TIP 3:  Drink lots of water

We all know it and we often don’t do it, but now more than ever get drinking up on the H20!  Dehydration from over indulging on the booze is an obvious one, but there are other reasons to hit the bottle.   We frequently have the urge to nibble, feeling a little peckish, but in fact we really need pure, clear water!  Drink first, if you still want that treat, have it, you will likely not have quite so much as you have satisfied your real need.

Coconut water is awesome for rehydrating (way better than commercial sports drinks and has the same effect, for best results go to a tropical island and drink straight from the nut!) and the best hangover recovery tool ever!  You can get it everywhere now, check out the juice section of your local supermarket.  Much lower in sugar than the smoothies that are less innocent than they look, too.

TIP 4:  De-stress & find space 

This links to Tip 1, finding 5-10 mins in a hectic day where its you-time can help you remember what it’s all about and stay calm amidst the chaos of shopping, spending, relatives etc….

There are some great meditation tracks and apps you can get – simply putting a set of headphones on and sitting somewhere a bit out of the way and you can create a meditation haven.  Just a few minutes is so mentally refreshing and will save you time in the long run….

We often stress eat, and when food is all around us and so festive, then we are more likely to indulge.  Reduce the stress and at least when you do eat its for other reasons, not just to make yourself feel better (which it never really achieves, does it?)

TIP 5:  When you do indulge, choose the Festive treats!

This might sound a bit obvious, but bear with me on this…

You can eat muffins from Costa all year round, but Christmas cake comes around once a year only!

So for the month of December, leave all your normal treats behind and ONLY allow yourself festive things that are only around at this time of year.

Ideally save them to as near the big event as you can, but this tip really can save you some calories in the long run!

TIP 6: Make the ‘boring’, non-celebratory meals as healthy as you can!

This is a big one actually.  If you are having a works lunch and out with friends for dinner, set yourself up with a protein and veg based breakfast, such as a vegetable omelette.  Don’t fall into the trap of letting it all go just because some of it has gone awry.

The ‘all or nothing’ attitude is not a good one to have – yet many people come to me bragging they are so all or nothing!  This means as soon as you are not 100% on it you have an excuse to submerge yourself in indulgence till you are ready to emerge for a little more of your 100%!

If you have a massive, indulgent breakfast, that doesn’t mean you ‘might as well’ have some cake and a stodgy lunch!  Balance things out a bit!

Think about those people who you think can eat all they want and not get fat, then think carefully about their habits.  Do they really ‘eat all they want’?  Or do they eat what they want, have as much as they need without gorging, and balance it out by eating lighter later or the next day?

Think of making 1 or 2 meals a day the healthiest you can – seafood, meat, eggs, loads of vegetables and some fruits / nuts – and then enjoy the indulgences!

TIP 7:  Eat and Enjoy!

This is the final element of my SIMPLE Nutrition System.

Enjoy eating healthy foods – be creative and feel how good they are for you.  BUT….

Also enjoy the indulgences!  Don’t EVER feel guilty about it!  If you overate, so what?  It doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you human!  Get over it, and come from a place of love, not self-hatred, when it comes to eating.

Food is social and that is OK (whereas using it to numb pain or de stress is not really as OK as there are other, better ways of addressing those things).

Coming from a loving, accepting place is the first step to getting a really good relationship with food going.  You can eat healthy stuff because you know it feels and tastes good, but you can also eat things deemed less than perfect and not beat yourself up about it – which also means you don’t end up obsessing over those foods or on a binge…

That’s enough for now – hope you find these top tips useful!

So have a fab Christmas and New Year!

Thanks to the Clean Food Coach and Charles Poliquin for posting this recipe, you can visit the links or see my summary below….

Just before I start, I mentioned to my husband I wanted to try this out and he basically said ‘please don’t'…. So of course, I did it anyway (buying actual pizza ingredients and promising that we will make home-made real pizza soon….) and he was more impressed than I think I have ever seen him over one of my meals – and than includes things that took way more time and effort than this, and included carbs!

So, this was a hit.  Try it!

Pizza Base:

1 medium head cauliflower

2 eggs

Herbs – I used mixed herbs, probably a tablespoon

Grated cheese about 25-50g (I just did what I had)

Salt (celtic or himalayan) and pepper

Method:

Grate the cauliflower or pulse it in a good blender to make a ricey texture (you have to blend cooked cauliflower with an actual hand blender to get mash consistency).

Mix cauliflower and other ingredients.

Roll onto a greased baking tray – I did 2 small bases, we used a tiny cauliflower and was OK for two, would use a bigger one next time for sure…

Bake at 180 degrees (we have gas now I did gas mark 7 I think, still confused about gas) for 25-30 mins, or until nicely browned.

Take out of the oven and top to your heart’s content, then put back in the oven (or grill) for 5-10 mins to finish.

I did some passata & tomato paste, with loads of chicken and bacon (pre-cooked) with pesto then topped with mozzarella.  Served with roasted asparagus and garlic butter spinach.  Yum.  Feeling hungry thinking about it.

Didn’t take a pic but should have done – the one above is from a site detailing the recipes (slightly different to mine) who made it Hawaiian style.

Read Caroline’s Om Yoga Article – Yoga for Fat Loss

Classes coming soon to Mudeford, Christchurch & Southampton  - contact us to be put on the waiting list or if you have a requirement in terms of time and location as we are looking into the options at the moment!

Caroline’s style of yoga teaching is Fluid Vinyasa Yoga, a dynamic series of poses building strength, stamina, creating a solid and lean core, releasing tight areas for optimal posture and alignment.

Yoga perfectly complements kettlebell and resistance training – providing another way to build strength and ‘tone up’ whilst also providing a way to recover from training and address any tight areas.  This means you get even more out of your training sessions!

You can do 121 yoga sessions, arrange for a private small group at a convenient location, and classes are coming soon – please get in touch if you would like to be on the waiting list!

I assumed that Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals would be the same, just quicker, but its a lot more impressive and I recommend you grab a copy and try some of the recipes, with a few tweaks to make them Fit Body Fix compliant!

Firstly, each meal is the kind of thing you could see yourself doing / eating for a weekday dinner (some more lunchy) or weekend brunch.  While 15 minutes is not strictly kitchen door to dining room door, they are all simple and quick and easily within 30 minutes – as Jamie says its not a race.  With practice you will get many of them down to 15 I am sure.

While it might seem some have a lot of ingredients and you might be a bit put off for a quick weekday dinner, in reality most are pretty simple,  using herbs and spices tactically to get maximum flavour from pretty simple and nutritious ingredients (for the most part, depending on your view point…).

There is always a starchy carb element, and in general that means there will need to be tweaks for those on a low carb / paleo / Fit Body Fix nutrition plan, but in fact the switches are pretty easy.

Although all the instructions are, as for Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, for all the elements of the meal, rather than per actual dish, as he’s not including a dessert element it’s far easier to modify to suit varying needs.  And it means you don’t make your dinner being faced with a picture of a lovely, indulgent, sugar laden dessert which is an added bonus!

In general, my suggestions for carb switches, that can be applied to Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, are as follows:

Mashed potato:

Replace with cauliflower mash, adding butternut squash or celeriac for a nice twist.  Note that you steam the veg first (squash needs peeling for mash but not for roasting!) and then you need to use a stick blender not a mashing tool to puree – if you simply mash it it is more like rice – a great rice alternative done that way but if you want mash consistency gotta use the blender!

Rice:

As mentioned above, you can ‘rice’ cauliflower by mashing with a fork or masher.  I prefer it pureed so will tend to use that in place of rice for curries etc, personally.

Fries / Chips / Roast Potatoes:

Roast chip-shape celeriac or sweet potato (for a more starchy option) in olive oil – either spray on using a pump action spray (fill it up yourself using good quality oil – extra virgin for raw on salads, use the lighter stuff for cooking) or put on a small amount and shake the veg around in something to coat thinly).  Paprika goes really well on celeriac chips.

Roasting butternut squash is a fab alternative to roasted potatoes / chips etc, just chop into cubes (dice I guess) and steam first for a bit if you like, and roast in olive oil as per the instructions above.

Noodles / Pasta:

Courgetti spaghetti!  Using a spiraliser or mandolin, make noodles or thin strips out of the courgette and lightly steam then add to the recipe.  Delicious!

There are also noodles called Shirataki or Konjac noodles used by svelte Japanese women – these are carb-free as they are pure fibre!  They sell them in our local Chinese supermarket, and also online.

Bread / Wraps:

My awesome Psyllium Pankcakes are the way forward here!  1-2 eggs, the equivalent amount of water, about a heaped tablespoon of psyllium per egg (experiment to get a thick batter).  Make sure you heat the omelette pan with coconut oil beforehand so as soon as you have mixed you can pour into the pan.  Cook till slightly crispy round the edges (any sooner and it won’t flip!) and cook the other side.  If its too soggy just cook through it and usually its salvagable – too soggy is usually too much water vs egg and the other thing is too thicck if you leave it even a few seconds after mixing or if you use too much psyllium.

For the recipes where there is some crazy bread option or ‘serve with crusty bread’ I would personally just skip that to be honest.  You could get some sourdough rye if you like if you are OK with the carbs but want to avoid the wheat side of things.

General:  

I often just have a pile of salad in place of where the usual carb option would be.  Chilli is lovely with just a crisp, juicy salad and some home-made guacamole – who needs the boring rice bit anyway?!

Spinach is another good one – especially with curries.  If we order curry I will cook up a load of spinach (from frozen, always have some in the freezer for emergencies!) and have that in stead of the carb element.

Cauliflower is a great potato alternative – steamed in florets it can replace potatoes in Spanish Omelettes, and you can roast the same potato-sized chunks in place of roast potatoes.

Its about knowing the good alternatives and just giving it a go in place, as well as choosing recipes that make it easy, especially initially.  I would say this book would certainly give you a good few new recipes for your repertoire though!

Would love to hear your ideas on switches or your thoughts if you have tried any of these!

A good goal is to start with trying these alternatives 2-3 times a week.  Soon you will realise these are nicer than the boring pasta / rice options!

We are having Swedish Meatballs with celeriac & cauliflower mash (p.78) tonight, Mustard Lamb with cauliflower & butternut squash mash (p. 112) tomorrow and Asian Fish with courgetti noodles (p.126) Sunday.  And sometime next week I’m really looking forward to the Steak, Liver & Bacon with mash (p.74).  Also planning on Fritatta Arnold Bennett (p. 140) next weekend (sadly not enough time for brunches this weekend otherwise that would be the plan!).

This is actually the first time I have felt inspired to try several recipes in a row as often a recipe book will be more for entertaining or special occasions.

Thanks for this one, Jamie!

This is wrong on both counts!

Firstly, low carb is a huge spectrum, and most people do eat way too many carbs, and, more importantly, way too many of the carbs that aren’t really benefiting them at all.

I personally don’t do well with too many carbs – many people who seem to gain weight easily are in the same boat – logical really, as we are in a carb heavy environment and most foods that are easy to get are carb-based.  Others do fine on more, but I still recommend ALL clients, no matter what their goals, replace refined carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, cakes, pastries etc, with another food source.

The reason being, that if you load your plate up with pasta, rice or potatoes, then you are missing out on what you really should be loading your plate with – VEGETABLES!!!

There are so many awesome alternatives to the traditional carb in your meal that can be just as nice, more interesting and varied, and give you a mega nutritional bang for your buck!

Refined carbs actually take more nutrients from your body than they provide – they are known as ‘vitamin robbers’.  Sugar especially, it also depresses your immune system (which is why we get ill around Christmas!)

If you replace the pasta in your spaghetti bolognese with courgetti spaghetti, or cauliflower puree or ‘rice’ you will get fewer calories, way fewer carbs, but more importantly, way more nutrients!

There are loads of top vegetable alternatives in the Fit Body Fix nutrition guide.  Celeriac chips, for example, are amazing and go well with a lovely juicy steak (sorry vegetarians, but you are missing out there!) and some salad or green veg.   Butternut squash is also awesome roasted in place of potatoes or mashed with cauliflower (great with fish).

Thinking differently about what a meal consists of is the key here!  Carbs are the tiny little add on if you need or really want it – not the centre piece!  Vegetables are the main event, with a good portion of high quality protein.  Always get some green veg in (people often go for all the starchy veg – carrots, peas, celeriac, squash etc should be thought of as replacing the refined carb element and always include a non-starchy veg too) as these truly are the nutritional powerhouses that keep you looking and feeling great.

There are loads of fantastic studies into the anti-inflammatory effect of fruits & vegetables via Juice Plus, a wholefood fruit & veg capsule that me, my family and my clients all take daily, as although eating more veg is vital, we also need to ensure we get a full spectrum and make up for any ‘bad’ days.

High levels of nutrients from fruits & vegetables also reduce your recovery time, so you can train harder and get more out of your training!  People often think they can exercise to allow a less healthy diet – the opposite is true!  We need MORE nutrients the more we train, which is why I focus my meals on vegetables (fruit being secondary for me as I don’t do well with sugars, but I do have berries and apples - Juice Plus bridges my fruit gap without the sugar) and protein.

Please, shift your thinking from TODAY!  The 5 a day mantra is really the minimum for existing!  Not for thriving, and living a long and healthy active life!

Think 9-13, and if you start to base your meals around veg, and look into a wholefood supplement such as Juice Plus to bridge any gaps, you will be well away!

Also, remember that veg should feature more – I’m amazed at how many people eat a few bananas and drink a smoothie and think they are done!  4:1 is a good ratio – I have 2-3 fruits (berries & apples mainly) and 7-9 veg (I reckon!) plus my Juice Plus, which means I know I am on track… Are you getting enough?

Launching w/c Aug 27th, sessions will run Mon, Tues, Thurs 6.30pm. We will start 9.30am sessions too at some point, please let us know if you want to be on the waiting list for the morning slot.

Contact us to book your place – spaces are limited to 20 and booking up fast!

The idea is we all bring dishes that are healthy but delicious, with a view to sharing some around so we can all try new things!

You can make dishes from the Fit Body Fix recipe book, or ones simply inspired by the Nutrition Guide that are your own invention, or a recipe you have found that fits, or is adapted to fit…

You don’t have to share all your lunch, feel free to bring what you want then maybe something to share around.

Bring friends, family, dogs, anyone! Everyone can join in but fine to have spectators also, or those who want to hang out at the beach while you are working hard!

If the weather is dodgy, we can just head to the cafe instead of the picnic, but I assure you the weather at Highcliffe is always better than Southampton! Its a little micro climate!

Just come along, but let us know if you can come via the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/356080767793917/ (ask to join the group and friend me up while you are there!)

And more info here: http://www.fitbodyfix.com/event/bootfest-mudeford-highcliffe/

Looking forward to seeing you there for some fun on the beach!

XCaroline

This is possible!

This free event is open to all, and will explain the WHY behind the Fit Body Fix Nutition Guide, and help you to get some fundamental concepts that will make choosing healthy foods far easier (and tastier!) in future!

You can register here:

http://www.fitbodyfix.com/nutrition-weight-loss-your-health-seminar/

and info here: http://www.fitbodyfix.com/event/nutrition_wellness/

Or visit the event on Facebook, and friend me up while you’re there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/399274223462239/

THE 4 MINUTE WORKOUT (AKA TABATAS):

You can get a workout in with only 4 minutes, perfect before a dip in the pool! Called Tabatas – 20 s sprint along the beach, 10 s walk / recover.  Repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes then dive in the wonderful cool water!  You will tone your legs, feel great, and boost fat burning for the rest of the day.  (As the best time to eat carbs is after a workout a great way to reduce the effect of the post-swim ice-cream too!)

FAT IS NOT THE ENEMY!

Load up on protein at the all you can eat buffets – don’t skimp on the fat though!  People think everythign needs to be low fat, but eating good fats keeps you full and happy! Yes, good fats improve your hormone levels, and satisfy you, but unlike carbs will not bloat you out.  Ditching the carbs but avoiding the fat too is a recipe for irritability, hunger, cravings, and a lowered metabolism.

COCONUTTY:

One of the best fats?  Coconut oil!  If you’re holidaying somewhere tropical get your hands on coconuts  – the water inside is brilliant for rehydration (a great inclusion in any cocktail and definitely for the morning after too many cocktails!) and you can scoop out the flesh afterwards – just ask them to open it up for you, they are usually delighted as tourists waste the good stuff!

HOLIDAYS ARE GOOD FOR YOU!

Exercise outside!  The vitamin D helps you burn fat, improves your bone healthy and more!  It feels better too, improving mood and wellbeing as well as your body.  You want to expose your skin for a short time every day before the sunscreen in order to get vitamin D – sunscreen blocks it.  If you are concerned then take a supplment – gel caps are the best and ideally take with food.  Find a local outdoor fitness bootcamp to get you in serious shape for your upcoming holiday – and be prepared to amaze yourself with how great you feel training outside – many start in the summer and realise they love it even more in the cold, dark wintery days when you otherwise don’t get outside much at all!

SEAFOOD & EAT IT!

Eat loads of fish on holiday – the Omega 3s help you burn fat, help your brain function better and improve skin, hair and nails!  Oily fish such as sardines and salmon are usually plentiful when on holiday so make the most of them!  On honeymoon we had smoked marlin at breakfast – a great thing to load up on before hitting the beach. At home, why stick with the same old BBQ burgers and chicken?  Oily fish like mackerel (also super cheap) are amazing on a BBQ, as is salmon.  Impress your guests and sneakily get them being even healthier!

GRILLIN’ IN THE NAME OF:

On the BBQ side of things, making it interesting and healthy are the same thing!  Make loads of fab salads, add beetroot, avocado, peppers, fresh basil etc to make the salads the centre piece.  Home-made houmous by whizzing up chickpeas and 0% Total Greek Yoghurt (an all year round lean-body treat for all sorts of things) and veg dippers – a whole lot more interesting than the usual fare.  Making sure your guests have loads of salad and sides means they won’t eat 10 peices of meat each either.

TAKE ME TO THE GREEK:

Total 0% Greek Yoghurt is a perfect cream alternative – if you’re holidaying in Greece you can get it anywhere (if not the 0% the full fat is great too, but you need to be a bit more mindful of quantity…).  Add fresh berries and a few chopped nuts for a breakfast / snack / dessert that will feel indulgent but keep you on track for looking great in that bikini on the beach!

BRING ON THE BUBBLY:

Soda Water – many people seem confused about soda water, its just fizzy water from the gun in a bar.  The perfect thing to drink instead of so much alcohol – spritzer your wine with it, add to vodka instead of sugary mixers (with a squeeze of lime) and drink a tall glass inbetween other drinks.  If you really don’t like plain water the fizz jazzes things up, if its still to plain a squeeze of lemon / lime, maybe a small lime cordial (don’t make it too strong as that just adds sugar).

SICKLY SWEET?

Sugar depresses your immune system and is aging!  To look great, and stay looking great, and also to be healthy and avoid the sniffles, ditch as much sugar as you can!  Holidays might seem a great time to indulge but focus on the protein / veg / salad / nuts first and keep the treats moderate to avoid feeling sluggish on your holidays – the last time you want to feel bad, so eat to feel great!

THE SEA, THE SEA!

Water walking is great exercises!  Get to thigh-deep water and stride out (watch out for spineys and other seabed spikiness!), try sprinting and walking slowly in the water – tones the legs, gets the heart pumping and potentially exfoliates and improves cellulite at the same time, due to the sea water.

CONNECT WITH THE EARTH / SAND:

Walk (or jog) barefoot on the sand as much as you can!  This is great for foot and lower limb health, keeping those over-shoed feet healthy by allowing them space and challenge. This also works your legs out harder and therefore tones your legs more.  Your glute (butt) muscles work harder too, so you get a better, perkier butt and a properly working butt reduces back pain (honestly!).  Find a cute guy to walk along with you (perhaps some cooling off in the sea too) for a win-win!  Oh, and connecting your feet to the ground has other benefits, as does being by the sea.  You can actually buy things to ‘earth’ you which improves a multitude of health markers – this is essentially simulating the goodness of just walking barefoot – a much cheaper alternative!  not near a beach – walk barefoot in your garden as much as you can in the milder months for maximum benefit.  Negative ions abound in nature and especially by the sea – these make you feel better (one of the reasons the beach is so alluring) and healthier too!

EGG ON YOUR FACE?

Before eating scrambled egg at the hotel buffet, find out if it is actually egg or if its made from powdered – the off white wierd looking stuff is usually made from powdered egg – not worth eating!  Ask for a omelette, or poached or even fried if this is the case!  Eggs are a great holiday breakfast, and most hotels will boil you them to order, or offer a range of omelettes, so do ask before hitting the bread basket!  A protein based breakfast really will keep you lean and reduce the holiday bloat factor – why ruin all your hard work before the holiday at this stage!?

MEAN AMINOS:

Tyrosine is an amino acid that helps give you a tan!  It is often in tan supplements, but you could just as well take some alone without all the dodgy rest of it.  It also gives you a pre-workout boost, so take it 30 mins before exercising.  Another win-win?

Comment if you have any of your own top tips!

When it comes to fat loss, we really need to find out what works for us, individually, and learn how to apply lifestyle changes to our lives, in a way we actually enjoy and can maintain for life. We also need to take full responsibility for making these changes, and doing all we can to make them work for us.

Incremental changes to our diets and lifestyles mean that our new habits have a chance to become second nature. If you follow the newest ‘fad’ approach you will have some success while your willpower is involved, but these approaches do not stand the test of time as the minute you stop focusing on the diet you will slip up, going back to old habits.

This highlights another problem with relying on willpower, especially while following some faddy or extreme approach. By definition you are thinking about your diet a lot more than you would otherwise – so you are essentially tormenting yourself with your deprivation! Being aware of ‘being on a diet’ all the time, which is needed if you are going to succeed with willpower, means that your chances of success are immediately lowered – it is much easier if you are not constantly focussed on what you can and can’t eat, and if you can just get on with your life and keep yourself busy.

So, how can you avoid this all-too-common pitfall?

Well, firstly, a long term approach is vital. You can force foods you dislike down you in the short-term in order to achieve a short-term goal, but where does this leave you in the long run? Still reaching for the old favourites, that’s where. Instead, think about finding foods you actually do like and incorporating these into your life – this takes a bit of trial and error to get right, but means that the healthy foods you are eating are ones you really enjoy. Then, who needs willpower? Over time you will proabably also find your tastes change and eventually the foods you used to eat or even crave no longer have the same appeal. Once you realise how good you feel when you eat healthier foods, junk really does lose its appeal.

We need to enjoy the changes we make to our lifestyle, although I would also add that change can be hard and uncomfortable. We need to persevere with certain things even if we aren’t that excited about them immediately, adapting our approach to find ways to make the changes as enjoyable as possible. For example, we all need to up our vegetable and fruit intake to 5 – 10 portions a day, but for many this is extremely hard. At first you may resist, insisting that this nutritional programme cannot work as you absolutely hate vegetables. But there are universal laws of good nutrition, of which vegetables are one!

The solution is, again, in the long term approach. So try out several different methods to find something that works for you. When it comes to eating your veggies you may realise that while you hate boiled broccoli you love it when it’s added to a stir-fry with herbs, spices and garlic, for example.

If you struggle with this side of things, you will need to begin experimenting with new foods and methods of preparation: you can try stir-fries, mashes or purees (mashed cauliflower and / or butternut squash is a fab alternative to regular white potato mash for example!), roast veggies (roasting sweet potato or celeriac ‘chips’ instead of regular chips!), various salads, exotic foods, new combinations, spices and herbs. You can always find healthier alternatives to your favourites and all these small replacements can add up to big improvements to your diet as a whole – which will be evident in both your energy levels and your waistline!

For any plan to succeed for you in the long term you need to have the freedom to make choices. It is freedom to choose that empowers you, and as you learn which choices are going to support your goals and which are going to take you further away from achieving them.

Rather than focusing on deprivation and willpower, focus instead on how you can make yourself feel great, while eating foods you enjoy and that take you a step closer to your achieving goals.

1. MINDSET.

A can-do attitude is so important. The foundation of this is a real desire to achieve. Think about what you want and why. Think about how highly you prioritise a healthy lifestyle and what you are prepared to change to achieve this.

2. GOAL SETTING & GETTING.

Be clear about what you want to achieve. Write it down. Write it where you can see it regularly. Be precise and aim high! Then break it down into manageable chunks and work on one piece at a time. Remind yourself of your goals regularly and don’t be afraid to update them. Keep an index card in your bag or by your computer (or on the fridge…) so you can keep your mind on the prize!

3. ACTIVITY.

Increase general activity any way you can. This is so important and can cover the effects of the odd missed workout! There are people who never ‘work out’ officially but are still fit as they are naturally active in their daily lives – walking or cycling around, using stairs not lifts, performing manual work etc. Look honestly into your life and seek out the pockets of activity you can exploit.

4. PLANNING AND PREPARATION.

Without planning, how can you expect to succeed? We don’t leave for a journey with no map, otherwise we would only end up getting lost, or back where we started if we are lucky!

This applies to planning your approach (what am I going to eat, how and when am I going to exercise etc.) as well as planning the details (e.g. menu plans for the week’s meals feeding into a shopping list that you stick to). Plan what you are going to choose when you go out, looking online for menus if you can so you can make healthy choices in advance. On the exercise side, you need to decide which activities you want to take part in and schedule them into your diary – if you wait for a free 30 mins you are never going to find it! Schedule it in and commit to your appointment.

5. NUTRITION.

Clean it up! Eat lots of veggies, plenty of fruit, lean proteins, good fats and plenty of water. Minimise anything packaged or that does not fall into the above categories. Experiment, play with your food! Focus on enjoying the good stuff rather than the foods you are minimising or avoiding. Improving the quality of the diet should automatically result in the weight dropping off, but you also need to pay attention to eating moderate portions and ensuring you don’t over-do the more calorie-dense foods, as ultimately calories do count.

6. EXERCISE.

Daily activity is one part of the equation, and the other is including periods of more structured intense activity. This should cover both resistance and cardio training and ideally you should aim to spend around 45 – 60 mins, 3 – 5 times a week on this element.

7. RECOVERY.

Yes, rest is encouraged! Ensure you have adequate rest between intense training sessions. A common error is going too hard at the outset and putting yourself off or causing injury. Plan your workout days in advance and stick to it, letting yourself recover but staying active. Active recovery is great and can include walking, cycling, swimming etc. to help keep the blood flowing through the muscles and actually ease out any soreness from a previous session.

Getting enough sleep is also crucial: 7-9 hours a night is optimal. Your training will suffer if you are not getting enough sleep, as will your mood and energy levels.

8. STRESS AND TIME MANAGEMENT.

You need to prioritise your health in order to effectively deal with all that life throws at you. Once you have acknowledged that you are going to make this a priority it is then time to look into how you can achieve this. Are there things cluttering up your life? Are they all really that important? Could you spend 30 mins less time on the internet or watching TV in the evenings and use that time to squeeze in a training session? Can you delegate certain tasks? We often feel that ‘to get a job done properly I might as well do it myself’ but sometimes we need to let it go, allow someone else to ‘learn’ to do it for us! It may not be perfect, but it will free you up some time!

9. CONSISTENCY.

No matter what nutrition or training plan you choose to follow, you will get success if you stick with it, so long as it is a quality approach and not some quick-fix fad. Any ‘magic bullet’ promise means you start out with the view that you will deprive yourself for a short period of time and then go back to ‘normal’. You will find that certain approaches work better for you than others, but you need to focus less on the detail and more on ensuring the changes are being implemented consistently and ongoing on a regular basis.

10. LOG AND REVIEW.

In order to find out if things are working, you need to take measurements at the start and then re-measure on a regular basis. Logging what you are doing is also very important. Logging food intake is one of the most important things you can do to ensure success as it provides you with some accountability, as well as an historical record so you can look back on things that worked well and things that didn’t.

To Sum Up:

So, to conclude, you are in the driving seat and it is up to you to take control! No plan or advice is worth anything if the plan or advice is not implemented, and only you can do that. So you need to decide to make changes and to visualise success, acknowledging the fact that there will be obstacles to overcome.

The important thing is to take action – moving, no matter how slowly, in the right direction!

I’m a Personal Trainer and my job is to get people fit and help them to lose body fat. So you may be surprised that I am making such a bold statement! Should this not mean that my entire existence is pointless? Well, as it is my job to ensure that my clients get results, I need to make sure I am up on all the latest research, and when research tells me exercise doesn’t work, I need to take notice – as do you.

A study by researchers at the University of Texas came up with this conclusion, after studying 100 previously sedentary participants – half of whom stayed sedentary and half began exercising. The exercisers followed a programme of 5.5 – 6 hours of activity per week, including weight training and interval training for a total of 12 weeks. The rest did nothing. The subjects were between 35% and 40% body fat to begin with. All the training was designed by Dr John Berardi, a highly respected trainer and nutritionist, although significantly there was no dietary intervention.

The shocking result was that the exercisers didn’t do much better than the non-exercisers. Yep, without changing their nutrition, 12 weeks of high intensity training resulted in a loss of only 1 pound of fat with 2lb gain in lean muscle (weight gain!). Another recent study published in April 2008 issue of Nutrition and Metabolism showed a very similar result – 10 weeks of intense training showed hardly any change in body composition – there was some fat loss, but nothing exciting. Not when you consider that most of us really want to ‘burn fat fast’ and are desperate to get results, this is not encouraging. Most of us would be so discouraged that we would give up on the exercise altogether – which is absolutely not what we should be doing.

So what is the ‘take-home’ point I’m making here? Well, that you cannot out-train a bad diet for one! And you definitely cannot exercise and then ‘reward yourself’ with a larger portion at dinner or a dessert! It is absolutely critical that you look at making changes to your diet as well as increasing your exercise levels, otherwise all your efforts could be a waste of time.

So, where to start?

• Eat 5-10 portions of vegetables EVERY DAY!
• Eat a portion of lean protein with every meal (and ideally some protein in each snack)
• Limit intake of white, starchy carbs (wheat-based products, sugar, pastries, cakes, cookies, white rice, white potatoes, white pasta etc.) and replace with vegetables, adding small portions of wholegrain carbs (sweet potatoes, oats, quinoa, brown rice, wholegrain pasta, wholegrain – ideally sourdough – breads) unless you are especially carb sensitive in which case these will have to go too.
• Include good fats: cook with coconut oil, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on veggies or salads (with apple cider vinegar for extra fat burning and health promotion), have small portions of nuts (almonds / walnuts) with fruit as a snack or in your salads, try avocado instead of mayo…
• Drink plenty of water, eliminating sodas altogether, even the diet ones! Tea and coffee in moderation and without sugar or excessive cream (a little organic cream in coffee can be OK)
• Keep an overall check on calories – to reduce without counting calories just reduce your current intake by 10%. If you see no results after a couple of weeks, reduce by another 10%.
• Think 90:10% – let yourself off the hook occasionally, but make sure it is only 10% of your weekly total, so as not to obliterate all your results.
• Experiment! Try a new whole food every week and make it your mission to find healthy foods that you positively love to eat – I certainly love my food, eat plenty of it and feel great, as it is nourishing me, not sapping me.

Exercise is definitely a vital part of the fat loss equation – as well as having a hugely important impact improving health, wellbeing, energy and performance. Dieting to lose weight results in muscle loss and a reduced metabolism, propagating the ‘yo-yo’ weight loss / gain cycle most people are well aware of. But exercise alone is not enough!Exercise and nutrition, along with sufficient rest and recovery, are the keys to losing fat and maintaining your new physique for life.

Drastic action is often what we feel like we need but drastic changes all in one go can be very hard to take. We might be successful in the short term but soon return back to the old habits that got us out of shape in the first place.

The best, and most painless, approach is to take one step at a time. And where better to start than breakfast?  Breakfast is one of the hardest things to get right due to all the ‘pseudo foods in boxes’ (otherwise known as breakfast cereals) that we have become so accustomed to eating and our perceptions of what we are ‘supposed’ to eat in the morning.

Ideally we would all be eating some form of lean protein, such as eggs, with some green veggies and maybe fruit at breakfast (I just had an omelette with spinach and broccoli with apple cider vinegar and olive oil). But we are conditioned into seeing toast and cereal as our only breakfast food options.

The first step to lifelong change is to make sure we choose the best options – so replacing sugary cereals (read the label, even the supposedly healthy ones usually have added sugar) with steel-cut oats (not the sweetened / quick cook versions) is a great idea.   You can prepare the oats into a bowl of porridge (even consider making with water and stirring an egg through at the end for added protein – honestly, just try it!) served with fruit and chopped nuts and maybe a dollop of plain, live yoghurt.

Or you can hunt out a really good muesli – but check for the sugar content, even ones packaged to look healthy and organic are frequently sweetened with too much sugar-laden dried fruit, and often the tropical dried fruits and cranberries have further added sugar.

Even better, make your own muesli with oats plus other whole grains of your choice if you like, plus chopped nuts, seeds and chopped fruit. Apple and cinnamon is a great combination (works with porridge too).

Toast-wise you can choose the wholegrain breads – but this is not just ‘brown’ bread! The ‘brown’ options are often not much better than white. Instead try the German-style rye breads or the more ‘bread-like’ sourdough ryes that are absolutely delicious toasted. For maximum results serve with a poached egg! You can also get protein in by smearing with some nut butter – get the no salt / no sugar peanut butter or even try almond butter for a delicious alternative.

If you are prepared to leave out cereals and toast then plain, live yoghurt with berries or other fruits, plus a small handful of chopped walnuts is a great option.  You could add a sprinkle of your home-made muesli into the yoghurt too.

The key point is to keep an open mind about what breakfast ‘should’ consist of. Then try things out!  The idea of eggs for breakfast might sound strange to someone still hooked on starchy carbs, but once you get into the habit, it becomes second nature and quite normal! Try things for a while and see what works for you.

Good nutrition is an evolution: making small but significant changes on a regular basis means that you gradually build better habits over time. These changes are then embedded into your lifestyle so they are no longer a challenge, just a way of life. You will be seeing results with relatively little effort! If something doesn’t work straight away, just keep trying until you find something that does. So long as you don’t give up and revert back to old habits you can guarantee you will see the results you are after.

Resistance training is all too often overlooked by people trying to get fit or lose weight, in favour of long cardio sessions, but resistance really is the key to creating a fit and healthy body.

1lb of muscle burns 30-50 calories per day, while 1lb of fat only burns about 9 calories per day. The more muscle your body contains the more calories you burn each day. This is one of the reasons that resistance training is such a vital part of any successful fat-loss programme – it supercharges your metabolism both in the short term (by making the muscles you already have burn even more calories) and in the long term (by increasing the amount of muscle you have).

Long duration cardio, on the other hand, can actually reduce your muscle mass! And it only burns calories while you are doing it, whereas resistance training causes you to burn calories for hours after the session has finished.

Resistance training, correctly applied, will ensure you have a balanced, strong and functional body. Repetitive cardio activities can actually worsen or create imbalances, so if you are a regular runner / cyclist etc. you need resistance training to balance everything out!

Resistance training has been called ‘the fountain of youth’ – and it really is. A recent study showed that when subjects engaged in resistance training their strength increased by over 20% and their genes literally ‘reverted back’ to the same markers as ‘younger’ genes after only six months! Also, when the older folks in the study began, they were almost 60% weaker than the younger members of the study. In just six months, they were only 38% weaker.

For maximum effect, perform compound exercises that use the largest muscles and more than one muscle group at a time (squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows, press ups and pull ups). This works your body as a unit which is more functional than isolating specific muscles, and also means you burn more calories in less time!

Resistance can be your bodyweight – in fact most women in the gym will use dumbbells that are FAR too light to get a result, and doing bodyweight versions can provide more resistance!  Single leg versions of things like squats and deadlifts up the load significantly.

You can’t ‘spot reduce’ fat – no amount of crunches will show the 6 pack beneath the flab – so the more of your body you work, the more fat you burn all over: the real secret to revealing those abs!

Exercise gets quite a bit of bad press, in my view! Of course we are all told we need to do it, and plenty of it, but rather than seeing it as something we want to fit into our lives for pleasure, this can often make us feel like it’s an arduous task that we really don’t want to do, but have to. Maybe it’s the word ‘exercise’ and its association with school work?

Really, what we all need to be doing is getting more active. This doesn’t mean driving to the gym and jumping on a cross trainer to plod away for endless minutes, but means moving more on a regular basis, throughout the day and building movement into the fabric of life. Don’t beat yourself up if family commitments mean you can’t get to the gym – instead go for a long brisk walk or a bike ride as a family, or play games in the garden.

Perhaps you could take up an active sport: surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, kayaking, football, martial arts, stand-up paddle surfing – there are so many things out there to get involved in and it’s never too late! If you find yourself saying ‘yes, but…’ to ideas, finding reasons not to get involved in anything, try to re-phrase your thinking to ‘yes, and (that sounds fun, I wonder where we can do it)’. There are so many activities out there and it’s a great way to spend quality time with other people while getting fit at the same time.

As for sneaking activity into your daily life, you have certainly heard it all before, but you really must put it into action – have a policy that you never get in a lift but always take the stairs, for example.

I used to do this when I worked with a guy who had the opposite policy of never taking the stairs. Instead of sit-down meetings, we would grab a coffee and go for a walk around (while he smoked a cigarette, but I least I got him walking!). When we got back into the building, however, he would refuse to get the stairs, so we’d meet back upstairs instead – and of course I invariably got there first.

It also used to drive me mad when I heard people in the office going on about ‘going to the gym 3 times a week’ but then seeing them get in the lift every time! They would be the ones who had also used that gym visit to justify an extra-large lunch or an afternoon snack.

‘Going to the gym’ is not necessarily equivalent to actually doing anything useful when you get there and it can be a great excuse to ‘take it easy’ for the rest of the day. Most people will get more of a fitness benefit from going up the stairs a few times a day than ‘cruising’ on a machine at the gym, while watching TV or reading a magazine then slobbing out or eating more because they have ‘earned it’.

Don’t let yourself believe exercise is something hateful you have to do. Look for all the reasons why getting active will make you feel good and then choose to exercise because you want to. Make sure you choose things that are worthwhile and fun – if you can combine a walk with a meeting or spending time with family you are getting more out of your time than if you do that at a gym, staring mindlessly at a TV screen. Keep the focus on activity and movement and use your exercise sessions at the gym for quality exercise, not just passing the time!

Most of us experience this with every major holiday or even long weekend. Despite being ‘good’ most of the time, the cumulative effect of these indulgent periods will really make a huge impact on the waistline if some action is not taken to immediately get back on track. This is one of the big reasons why people gain weight each year – without getting back to where you were previously you can easily keep gaining and gaining weight without even realising it.

It’s a good idea to develop healthier holiday habits: a holiday is a treat in itself but all too often we think we need to eat loads of the wrong things in order to enjoy ourselves! But if you can make the healthier choices while on holiday you can actually enjoy the treats all the more. How many times have you looked through your holiday snaps to see photographic evidence of the weight gain?

Some tips:

• Drink plenty of water: You will dehydrate much quicker in the heat and we often mistake thirst for hunger.
• Avoid liquid calories: That ‘virgin’ cocktail is still choc-full of sugar! Juices may seem tempting but you are better off having a glass of water and a piece of fruit.
• Set yourself a ‘beer o’clock’ time: Alcohol does massively impact weight loss and will cause weight gain very quickly. If you skip lunchtime drinking you can save a load of calories, plus you will feel much better for it. Keep the alcohol to a pre-dinner drink and then while you are eating.
• Alternate water with alcoholic drinks: You will thank me for it when you wake up feeling fresh and able to enjoy your precious vacation! Plus you will halve the calories you take in.

And we haven’t even got to the food!

• Choose lean protein and fruit and veg first: If you have access to a buffet breakfast you are onto a winner – fill up on the good stuff first then if you must add the starchy carbs keep them to a small treat afterwards. You will still enjoy the taste but won’t need as much. If you don’t have time to make omelette and veggies at home you can ‘treat’ yourself to this when someone else is cooking!
• Enjoy new foods: Try a new fruit and vegetable each day!
• Have healthy snacks to hand: Buy fruit and unsalted, unroasted nuts to have as snacks throughout the day. If you are unprepared you will be more tempted to eat the treats that are everywhere.
• Enjoy the treats: Savour every last mouthful of the things you wouldn’t normally have – there’s no need to eat ice cream all day but make sure you fully appreciate it when you do!

Think of it as ‘damage limitation’ so you can enjoy yourself without feeling deprived whilst also coming back from your holiday looking even better than when you left.

Make sure you get straight back on track as soon as you get home, too. Consider a few weeks of extra-focussed nutrition and training to reverse any weight gain, or even to boost your results even further. You often find that after a week off, or a period of ‘maintenance’ (holidays are usually a little over maintenance) you actually lose at a faster rate, so make the most of this turbo-charged window of opportunity!

Goal setting is vital for increasing your chances of success. The people who don’t take this step are the ones who will get stuck into an exercise programme or a new diet, will give it all their attention for a short period of time, then let it fall by the wayside before it’s had a chance to work.

Goals help steer you through the rough patches: when you wake up feeling a bit tired and think ‘I can’t be bothered to train’, it is all to easy to hit the snooze button. However, if you have set yourself short, medium and long term goals, today’s behaviour becomes part of a bigger picture, and the consequences of not getting up are harder to ignore. If you have a short term goal, such as ‘I will train 3 times this week’ that is linked to an outcome that you truly want, such as ‘losing 5lb of body fat’ or a longer term goal, such as ‘I will run the Race for Life in 3 months time’ then the single training session is no longer an isolated event that can be missed out. It becomes part of a chain of events that will take you, step-by-step, to your ultimate goals.

You should set yourself compelling goals, that you actually want to achieve. A lot has been said on keeping your goals SMART:

Specific:

‘I will lose 6lb’ rather than ‘I want to lose a bit of weight’. A word of caution here, however. We should focus on our ‘sphere of influence’ – the things we have direct control over. We have control over the actions we take – so training regularly and eating right – but the actual amount of weight / fat we lose is actually not within our direct control. It is an outcome of our behaviour, so we should focus the goals on the behaviours that are required, in order to achieve the desired outcome. So a goal of: ‘exercising with my trainer 3 times per week, walking for 30 minutes 3 times per week and eating according to my diet plan for the next 6 weeks’ is a goal we have direct control over.

Take measurements (and photos!) on day one and remeasure regularly to track progress. If you’re not moving in the right direction then you need to change your methods – looking at your exercise and nutrition more closely. If you are building up your running then ensure you know the distances you are running and the time it is taking – I have a GPS that I take with me when training clients so we know exactly how far and how fast!

Measurable:

Aiming too high can be demotivating: if you have never run before, then a marathon in 3 months time is not the best idea, but a 5km might be! Aim for 1lb a week fat loss, rather than 10lb in a fortnight – you may lose quicker, in which case you can always revise the goals later. But on the other hand, do aim high enough. It can be hard to imagine that losing a stone is possible, but it is, and in theory should take no more than 14 weeks on the 1lb a week timescale – if you ensure goals are broken down into shorter term goals you can see how it can be achievable.

Achievable:

Setting unrealistic goals can be counter-productive – some people do this as it offers them an excuse to fail with a bit of dignity intact, whereas if you fail to achieve a more realistic goal you will feel more of a failure. Counter-productive, of course, and if you follow good goal-getting methods and take action on your goals you don’t need to worry about failing as it won’t happen!

Realistic:

However, sometimes you truly have to ‘dare to dream’ and keep a long term goal in mind that might seem totally unrealistic at the moment. So long as you are achieving short term goals and taking things step by step you will be getting closer to this ‘crazy dream’ and you just might well make it a reality.

Visualisation is important too – regularly imagining yourself having achieved your goals is a very powerful tool indeed! How does it feel in your new body? How much do you now love ‘bikini-time’? A daily day-dream of how life will be when you achieve your goals tricks your mind into thinking it has already happened, and makes getting there much easier!

But remember also to appreciate yourself as you are – focus on your good points and let your visualisation include these: for example how great it is that your thighs are more toned because you can finally show off your tiny waist in a bikini. Your nutrition and exercise plan is all part of truly making the best of yourself: adding lean muscle and shedding excess body fat, improving your posture and increasing your energy. There is no need to compare yourself against unrealistic (and probably airbrushed) targets as it’s all within you, waiting to come out!

Time-Bound:

Give yourself a deadline and stick to it! If you want to improve your running, pick an event and get signed up! Project manage your goals like you would any other important task. Bear in mind that weight and size is an outcome, so make sure that you are focusing on the behaviours first. Log your success in a journal to show you are sticking to your plan.

If goals are clear, SMART and compelling, broken down into short, medium and long term goals, they are much easier to achieve. It can be hard to reconcile today’s behaviour with achieving a goal that is too distant or too vague so keep it real and close to you by visualising and reflecting upon your goals daily.

Obviously the element we haven’t discussed is the behaviours needed to succeed – thinking about goals is only going to work when matched with the appropriate action! Taking goal-setting into goal-getting requires action – so whatever you do, make sure you are taking steps every day to get closer to your goals. When your goals are vivid and clear then you will know that each and every action you take will either take you a step closer, or a step further away. Remind yourself of the ‘why’ and make sure that each decision is taking you a step closer to your dreams.

Every training session you do, every time you eat according to your healthy plan or prepare a healthy meal, every bit of general activity you do each day is putting money in your own personal ‘body bank account’.

Deposits are when you stick to your eating plan or exercise programme.  When you eat something that isn’t ideal or when you miss a training session, you are making a withdrawal.

The aim is to treat our bodies as a savings account (with no overdraft allowed…) not a credit card that is maxed to the limit!

It is easy to keep spending when we have credit cards at our disposal, but now is the time to metaphorically cut them up. You will not lose weight if you are constantly withdrawing from an account with non-existent funds.

If you have enough funds ‘saved up’, or if you have been eating well and exercising consistently, you can justify having earned a ‘withdrawal’. You don’t have to stop having treats altogether by any means, but you do need to make sure that the balance tipped in the right direction if you expect to get the results you are after – and think of the satisfaction you will feel when you do get those results!

Thinking like this can really help you get your head around the concept that it is the little things that make all the difference, when applied regularly and consistently.  It can help you see how something that might seem so small as to be insignificant, such as taking the stairs every day, can, over time, add up to big savings!  It can also help you realise just how damaging that daily cookie and sugary coffee-based drink can be to your fat loss goals.

No matter what exercise or nutrition changes you are making, the key to success is consistency.  Most diet approaches will work if regularly and consistently applied.

Thinking about your ‘Body Bank Account’ can also help you to get rid of an ‘all or nothing’ approach to nutrition and exercise.  We all want to give it our all when we start, but then a minor deviation can make us feel like we’ve blown it all.   But that is like saying ‘oh no, I’ve just spent £100 on a pair of shoes, I’ve ruined it now so I must go and blow the rest on a new car’!  You can suddenly see how illogical that thought process is, can’t you?

Your new ‘Body Bank Account’ response to over-indulging would be to make sure you start re-paying straight away, to offset the indulgence.  This is how many ‘naturally’ thin people behave – we often look at people who seem to be able to eat ‘anything they want’ but if you were to look more closely at their habits you would see that they allow themselves the odd treat, usually don’t go overboard as they aren’t stressing about eating in the first place, but then naturally cut back for the rest of the day, or a few days.

It’s a classic scenario – you stick your diet perfectly all week but then the temptation of the weekend kills or even reverses all the gains (or losses) you’ve made over the week! This is especially the case over the summer – all the BBQs and the ever-tempting refreshing glasses of beer or wine to cool you down in the sunshine!

If you are feeling a bit ‘worse for wear’ after a weekend that was heavy on the calories and light on the exercise then make sure you remember this feeling – and try to invoke the memory next weekend! You don’t need to deprive yourself to enjoy a weekend – you just need to improve your choices. Use this feeling to refocus and make sure you get straight back on track with clean eating and good quality exercise.

But this is of course another classic scenario – why are gyms so busy on Monday and Tuesday? 5 days of hard work and good nutrition will likely mean you feel great again by Friday, or at the very least you feel like you have ‘earned’ some let up. But do you really want to start the whole cycle again? Or do you want to actually get the results you deserve due to all the hard work you are putting in all week? A ‘treat’ meal is usually a good idea, but a ‘cheat weekend’ will just destroy your results.

It is far better to have strategies and habits that come into action regardless of the situation – if you have given up wheat then don’t make an exception for the weekend. You’ll feel great for sticking to your goal behaviour and can still indulge on other things – but ones that won’t take you off the plan. It is a good idea to focus on a few small changes at a time, so give yourself a 6 week time frame and write down a few goals – specific behaviours you will stick to for 6 weeks no matter what, even at the weekend or at parties! Ultimately you will get quickest results by changing more but the really important thing is to build habits that you will stick to for good, and when you have done something regularly for 6 weeks it has had a good chance to embed itself in your life and become second nature.

I like to encourage people to use these 6 week chunks of time and keep the goals rolling – some 6 week chunks will be really strict to get through a plateau or boost results for a specific event and others will be more relaxed, but still ‘no excuses’. The little things really do add up – in whichever direction. So make the savings where you can and watch the results follow!

Muscle doesn’t weigh any more than fat pound for pound, of course, but by volume it certainly does as it is about 17% DENSER – a kilo of fat is therefore much bigger than a kilo of muscle.

‘I want to lose weight’ is a common phrase, but the reality is, we need to lose body fat and preserve our precious lean body mass (LBM – consisting of muscle, bone, blood etc.). Muscle burns calories for a start – the more muscle we have the more calories we require to do nothing! If you add muscle and lose body fat, the scales may not budge quite as much as you might have expected, but you will look thinner, as well as more fit and toned!

Many ‘weight loss’ plans do result in significant muscle loss – if you severely restrict calories, consume insufficient protein and do a lot of steady cardio you may lose weight on the scales, but you will also be losing muscle. This is a major factor in regaining lost weight after a ‘diet’ – you have lowered your daily calorie requirements quite significantly, so what was once seen as a maintenance intake will now cause weight gain. The ‘yo-yo’ effect can be explained by this happening on a regular basis – every time you diet you lose more and more of the muscle that you need to keep your weight off in the long run! This is exacerbated by the fact that we lose muscle mass throughout adulthood unless we take action (especially resistance training) to keep it!

There are several methods to find out your body fat percentage, including skin fold tests with calipers, electrical impedance tests and the highly accurate, but highly impractical, hydrostatic (underwater) weighing method.

A quick and easy method is to use a software programme, where you take body measurements and plug them in to a form that calculates your body fat – you can find links to these by searching Google or through the links page of my website. They are usually accurate to between 1-3% and are a very simple way of testing.

Using this information, you can set yourself realistic fat loss targets based on the amount of fat you have to lose (rather than a random number you think might be nice to see on the scales!), and you can monitor your progress over time.