Weight loss:
The secret to maintaining it!
F
ollowing on from January’s New Years action plan, this month Seb looks at weight loss and how to kick start your healthy eating program. Weight loss or ‘Fat’ loss has got to be the ultimate quest for the Holy Grail and is a journey that millions of people all over the world are currently on. With thousands of fad diets, dieting pills, old wives tales, and urban myths, how do you decipher which route to take? Dieting is a mine field of misinformation, multi-million pound money making schemes and all fuelled by the desire of billions of people that want to look and feel great. I bet as you’re reading this you have had at least one experience of following a diet that has born some fruitful results but has been ultimately unmaintainable and you’ve slowly but surely returned to your old ways. Granted this isn’t the case for everyone but we are all different and what is good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander. The word diet instantly projects the thought of depriving
yourself of something and this creates a problem. However, your current diet, eating plan or whatever you want to call it, that is the problem and that is what is ultimately to blame for your current weight loss desires. To overcome this you have to realise that there is no quick fix to weight loss; the easy bit was getting into your current predicament, that was the fun bit! The next step is going to be the hardest but done properly it will be the most rewarding and more importantly maintainable! Here are 7 easy tips to get you on the path to being happy ever after! 1) Make a change to you, your lifestyle. Change nothing and nothing will change! You all have a reasonable idea of what’s good for you and what’s bad, start there and make little positive changes. 2) Drink plenty of water, water is so important in digestion and ultimately weight loss so you need to be well hydrated. Use this sum to roughly gage how much you should be drinking per day: Weight In kilograms (kg) x 0.03 = litre’s per day 3) Look at how you prepare your foods, adding additional calories to meals can be avoided by grilling, baking your meats and fish etc and steaming your vegetables instead of boiling them to keep the nutritional content of vitamins and minerals high. 4) Portion size is a big one; don’t over eat for the sake of
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eating. I know mother said you can only have a pudding if you finish everything on your plate but she’s not watching now! 5) Fat is not the enemy! Fat is an essential part of a healthy body, you should try to eat more omega 3 and 6 rich foods such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, walnuts, sunflower seeds etc. Reduce your saturated fats for example, spread an avocado on your toast instead of butter! 6) Actually look what the ingredients are in the things you eat. You will be surprised how many things have sugar in. Bread, pre-packed ham, salad dressings to name a few. 7) Never miss meals and choose healthy snacks! Keeping your blood sugar levels regular will work wonders for your metabolism and energy levels. When blood sugar levels fall we crave something sweet that’s why when you’re starving you make bad choices! Use these tips to make a change to your lifestyle and you will be well on the way to finding the new healthier, happier and more confident you! Over the page is a quiz to see how good your general knowledge is on Fat! To see how well you’ve done email your answers to me at sebwalker@srwfitness.co.uk the person who scores the most will be picked at random and get a FREE 1 week dietary analysis from Seb and help kick start your weight loss!