Diet and Fitness

If you had a bad diet day, avoid making it a bad diet week (or month) by getting right back on track.

It's all too easy to say "I've blown it now. I might as well carry on eating badly for the rest of the week".

But it's really quite difficult to eat so much that you really put on weight just from one meal or one day.

It's overeating day after day that does the damage.

The very next day after a blow-out, start the way you mean to go on with healthy eating and exercise.

1. Don't punish yourself by eating too little - eat how you need to eat to nourish your body and treat yourself well.
2. Eat little and often so that you don't feel too hungry and start hankering after yesterday's blow-out food.
3. Start the day with exercise to give your metabolism a boost
4. Plan your meals and snacks for the day so that you regain the upper hand. The idea is to get control back.
5. Choose healthy foods you like so you don't feel deprived
6. Remove temptation - get rid of any leftovers from yesterday
7. Keep busy
8. Don't spend time regretting what you ate yesterday and beating yourself up. Everyone overeats at times. You won't have done too much damage if you get right back on track today. Spend time visualizing how things will be in future to help strengthen your resolve.

Sometimes you just need to eat and fast! That's when we are most vulnerable to grabbing unhealthy food from the fridge or store cupboard, or to deciding to send out for takeaway - or worse, grabbing something unhealthy AND sending out for food.

To prevent these lapses in your weight loss efforts a bit of advance planning can work wonders - and then you can still eat fast - without breaking your diet.

1. Your Fast Food List

Have a list of healthy items that like and which you can cook in a hurry. On mine I would have things like 

• ham and mushroom omlette
• scrambled egg with smoked salmon on toast
• chicken stir fry (I buy cooked chicken from the deli)
• prawn (shrimp) curry
• pasta with tomato sauce and cheese
• sandwich
• cereal
• ready-made soup
• crunchy peanut butter on rye crackers

2. Shop Ahead

Have Ingredients for yout fast food list always to hand in your fridge, or pantry

3. Be Flexible

A meal does not have to be meat and 2 veggies. If your family objects, YOUR meal does not have to be the same as theirs. A bowl of cereal and milk with an apple for dessert may be all you need.

4. Get Help with the Prep

Buy ready-prepared salad or vegetables to accompany your main dish. Frozen veggies or canned sweetcorn can save time too. Look out for healthy pasta sauces and soups in the chiller cabinet at the store which can make a healthy meal fast when you have run out of time.

5. Cook in advance

The best meals are those which did take a bit of time to cook but you made them earlier so they are ready and waiting for you when you come in. A crock pot or slow cooker is ideal for this - or cook extra helpings when you do have time to cook then freeze portions and defrost ready for your meal.

Live in rooms full of light.
Avoid heavy food.
Be moderate in the drinking of wine.
Take massage, baths, exercise, and gymnastics.
Fight insomnia with gentle rocking or the sound of running water.
Change surroundings and take long journeys.
Strictly avoid frightening ideas.
Indulge in cheerful conversation and amusements.
Listen to music.

–Aulus Cornelius Celsus, ca. 25 B.C.—ca. 50 A.D.

I received this from a reader yesterday. Let's call her Mary as I don't want to reveal her real name.

"I am 22 years old and losing 1 lb/day by not eating.  I know this is unhealthy but this is how I lose weight (I have been doing it since 7th grade)  but this time I am 250 lbs trying to lose 100 lbs instead of 130 trying to lose 10 lbs.  Will I have hanging skin?  I just want my life back."

It made me so sad.

Because I know there are lots of others like Mary who would like to lose weight fast.

Maybe they have the willpower to succeed like Mary obviously has, maybe not. But the desire is there.

Now Mary knows this way of losing weight is unhealthy.

I agree.

You see you can't lose a pound of fat in a day - you are losing something else as well - a combination of water and vital muscle along with the fat.

I can hear some of you saying "So what! If it works, it doesn't matter. I'm desperate - I'll try anything".

Well just look what happened to Mary.

She started off her drastic weight loss method when she weighed 130lbs - no huge weight at all.

And she starved herself into losing 10lbs or so and at the same time trained her body to survive on very little food - to go into the starvation mode I often talk about where your metabolism slows down to preserve as many precious calories as it can.

So what happened when she got to her goal weight of 120lbs. She felt great and went back to eating normally again.

But her body remembered that it needed to hold onto as much food as possible and that's exactly what it did!

Result: Mary gained weight again - and fast.

And if Mary continued to diet off and on (and it seems she did "this is how I lose weight") the cycle continued with Mary's weight spiraling upwards.

If you are following this kind of weight loss pattern, each time you finish a period of drastic dieting, a little more weight will be gained and the pounds will be harder to lose the next time you go on a diet.

You have to get out of this kind of yo-yo cycle.

It is like feast and famine. You are either getting too much food or you are starving yourself and at the same time you are training your body to get fatter and fatter to preserve itself.

How do you escape from this vicious circle?

You need to retrain your metabolism to work normally by feeding it nourishing food in the right amount for your body so that you are neither gaining weight nor losing it.

Only when your weight has stabilized should you start to reduce a little so that you gradually lose weight.

Above all, work on boosting your metabolism rather than reducing your calories.

It's not an easy process to kick start it but it can be done. See my article 15 Simple Metabolism boosting secrets for some tips on that.

Now for the loose sagging skin question.

If you lose weight slowly your skin will suffer less than if you lose weight fast. Above all stop yo-yo dieting because constantly stretching and shrinking your skin is not doing it any good at all. It's like constantly stretching and releasing a piece of elastic - in the end it loses its ability to ping back into shape. See my article about avoiding loose skin problems for more information.

Despite these practical problems, what made me the most sad about this email was the final sentence in Mary's note "I just want my life back".

You know weight does not actually stop you doing anything - you can still have a fantastic life no matter what size you are. Live life to the full because you only have one - and there are so many things out there to enjoy whether you weigh 120lbs or 250lbs. You are just the same person whatever your size.

The more you do, the less you will have time to brood about your weight, the less you will think about food, the fewer negative feelings you will have and consequently the less you'll think about comforting yourself by eating.  And every activity that gets you out and about burns calories and gives your metabolism a bit of a boost (provided you're NOT starving yourself!)

And if you are really struggling with these issues (Mary or anyone else) then please seek professional help wherever you are - there are many cases where a blog post or an email is just not enough and you may need more support in getting over these deeper personal issues.

I hope this blog post helps any of you "Marys" out there - please get sensible about losing weight

Janice

We can’t prevent all accidents from happening, but we can make smart choices about how we spend our leisure time.  If you’re the type of person who loves a little pavement adventure on your skateboard, rollerblades, or freestyle bike, you already know you can easily get hurt—if you don’t take proper precautions.  But have you stopped to consider the other possible consequences of your leisure-time injuries?

According to researchers at the Center for Trauma and Injury Prevention at the University of California-Irvine, the average cost per skatepark injury is about $3,200.  Medical costs are around $2,100, while lost wages run about $1,100.  Adults (over age 25) miss an average of 17 days of work from skatepark injuries.  Once man actually lost his job because his injury prohibited him from working for weeks; subsequently, without an income, he also lost his apartment.  Likewise, a piano and guitar tuner was fired for similar reasons when he fractured his forearm, the researchers report.  

Before you show off on your skateboard or skip wearing a helmet when rollerblading or biking, consider the impact any potential injury could have on your ability to maintain an income.  Don’t let a little fun become a life-altering event.