Archive for the Weight loss Category
Consistency is the key!
Let me describe a scenario to you;
Tuesday:
An 11am 30 minute meeting turns into a 2 hour marathon. No time
for the planned lunch time swim, but you manage a quick break for lunch.
The afternoon is a nightmare catching up on the backlog of work from the
morning. You get out of work at 7.30pm. You have had a tiring day you need
to get home to try and say a quick hello to the kids before they go to bed.
There will be no swimming today.
Thursday:
It has been a long week; the weekend is now in sight. You feel a bit
sleepy as you travel to work. On arriving at work you realise you have the work
notes you needed to read over last night but have forgotten your workout gear.
“Not to worry” you tell yourself, “it is almost the end of the week, I can sleep in
Saturday morning and then make up for the workouts I have missed during the
week”
Saturday: You sleep in, have a family breakfast and then head
to the gym, you complete 30 minutes of strength training, followed by
a one mile swim. You feel terrific, it is great to finally get a good workout
and you don’t have to rush it. You feel so great in fact you even do a 45
minute bike ride to finish up.
Sunday: You wake up feeling pretty sore, the body
aches. No training today! Back into the training on Monday for sure!
I bet there are many of you out there for who the above fictional
scenario rings true. We start out the week with all the best of intentions but
the clamour of everyday life destroys any semblance of routine for your fitness
program. The problem is although the Saturday morning exercise might be fun
and provide good stress relief you won’t get much more benefit. The body will
see it as a one off event. It will help you recover but any adaption, or increased
fitness, will be minimal.
A different way to approach the week would be to have a plan of
when, where and how much exercise you want to do, and then modify
the plan as work and family commitments eat into your workout time.
Consistency is the key. You are far better getting in four 30 minute
workouts during the week than a single 2 hour session on Saturday morning.
I will explain it using an analogy; sleep. We all have a certain amount
of hours of sleep we like to get in a night. When life gets busy we miss
out on that sleep, but we still make sure we get at least some each night.
You can easily imagine if you put off sleep each night and planned to make
it all up on the weekend – you would be in serious trouble. The good thing
about exercise is you need far less of it than you do sleep which makes it
easier to be flexible.
Keep in mind this philosophy; ‘some is better than none at all’.
I am saying even 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise is better than
missing the workout entirely. By working hard to get at least 30 minutes of
exercise, 3 to 4 times a week you can make enormous improvements in your
well-being, physical composition, your energy levels and general health.
Don’t be the one to fall into the trap of leaving it all to the weekend.
Consistency is the key!
Dan
Nutrition
I think you will like this blog! I have just been checking out some weight loss sites online. It is a popular topic, always has been and always will be! For me defining nutrition is easy – it is what we eat (I like to keep things simple).
Statistics indicate that as are global population we are growing, upward but also, and more importantly, outward .There is absolutely no reason why we cannot remain the same weight from when we were 24 until 54 or 64 years of age. A large percentage of us struggle to maintain a weight range, this is due to two reasons; we exercise less as we get older and/ or we continue eating the same or more.
The exercise part is discussed more frequently; the nutrition side is talked about far less. I suffer from a very common affliction that many of you may relate to, I love eating! I swam for many years as a youngster and honed my eating skills over that period. I no longer manage the 15km – 20km a day in the pool but could probably still eat a similar amount of calories.
As I said at the beginning I like to keep it simple. I am going to share some simple eating guidelines I use to personally maintain my eating habits. See what you think.
Dan’s top ten nutrition tips
1. Breakfast is vital. It gets your metabolism kick started for the day.
2. The only diet that will work is one you can maintain for the rest of your life. Can you see yourself living on soup or fruit drinks for the rest of your life? No ? Then in the long term it will not work!
3. Don’t let yourself get hungry. Snack throughout the day (fruit is a great snack), don’t let yourself get too hungry or too full. This helps you maintain a constant metabolism and most importantly makes it easier for you to control your appetite. When do you normally over eat? Yup – when you are famished!
4. Don’t buy treats and store them at home. You will only be tempted. Keep the good stuff at home, if you really want a treat go out and get it.
5. Shop regularly. I shop every one or two days. That way I use plenty of fresh and unprocessed produce to cook with. It helps me stay clear of processed foods that might have lots of added salt for storage etc. Better yet I never end up with a ton of groceries to carry home and less wastage.
6. Drink plenty of water. It is oh so good for you and keeps your body in balance.
7. Have your evening meal as early as possible. I am not advocating a time but the more time between eating and going to bed the better, it allows time for digestion and it gives you an opportunity to ‘use’ the meal rather than storing it. You will probably get to sleep quicker as well.
8. Share these tips with the people you live with. If they eat well it makes it easier for you to main good eating habits.
9. Moderation is important. Eating well all the time can be very hard. You may slip in some areas but by following most of these tips most of the time you can be successful.
10. Exercise. Our bodies were built for movement. It is a whole different topic but always need to be considered when looking at nutrition for better living.
Hopefully you will find these tips useful. Send me your feedback or let me know if you have some useful nutrition tips!
Dan
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