SHAPE UP FOR THE NEW YEAR
We all service our cars regularly, making sure it has an MOT once a year,
insure our homes and possessions, iron clothes, clean the house etc., but do we look
after our bodies with the same level of care?? Your health should be THE most
important thing in your life, as it keeps us away from a feeling of DIS-EASE (or
disease). Without health we wouldn’t be able to do half the things we do today. The
question is: are you making your health better or worse?
Did you know that just as little as a hundred years ago the average amount of
sugar an average person consumed in a year was 4 lb’s. Now it is between 150-175
lb’s! You can see why the majority of people are now overweight…
Don’t be a Christmas Turkey all your life. Follow these simple tips to lose that extra
Christmas stuffing, to look and feel better!
1. Follow a DETOX diet for 7 days to rid your body of all the toxins that have
accumulated over the Christmas period. This will help your metabolism kickstart
itself into action – your Golden Ticket to achieving your weight loss
goals. Also have a glass of warm water with 3-6 slices of lemon first thing in
the morning to further boost your metabolism.
o Cut out all processed foods, and those with refined sugars, wheat,
dairy, caffeine, cakes, biscuits, chocolates, sweets and alcohol.
Supplement these with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, particularly
blueberries, prunes, redcurrants, blackcurrants, green vegetables and
salads.
o Try Vogel bread or a similar Organic bread that is free of all
flavourings, additives, preservatives. You may be surprised at how
good it tastes compared to your normal bread.
o Eat a diet that is high in fibre which will enable bad fats to latch onto
the fibre and help remove them quicker from your body.
o Drink plenty of water, and even try fruit smoothies, green tea, herbal
teas and probiotic yoghurts, no red meat having turkey or fish instead.
o You may feel tired or lethargic initially, this is just the toxins removing
themselves from the liver and body. Keep drinking water to flush these
out and within days you will have more energy than you know what to
do with.
2. Take regular exercise 2-5 times per week
o Mix up cardio exercise with some weights or other outdoor activity.
The goal is to burn off more calories during the day than you consume.
Its not rocket science. Regular exercise and eating healthily is the
answer to losing weight and keeping it off. . Think of it as a lifestyle
change. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you
always got!” You will basically have to change a few bad habits for a
new and healthier you. Look after yourself and you will reap the
rewards and benefits.
o Your will need to be working all the major muscle groups to burn off
the most calories, as well as working the deep abdominals in Pilates or
using a Stability Ball. Working on a Stability Ball recruits 40% more
abdominal musculature than normal floor work. This will also help
reduce your injury risk, back pain, protect your joint and give you
more strength without the need to bulk up.
o Training with a Personal Trainer will ensure your workouts are safe
and effective, and targeted to your goals as well as helping with
posture, correcting muscle imbalances. Regular exercise will give you
more energy to deal with a busy and stressful lifestyle.
3. In order to maintain lean muscle mass whilst exercising make sure you are
having enough PROTEIN in your diet. This needs to be calculated
according to your Body Mass Index, weight, height, and activity level.
o One of the better ways of doing this is by taking a nutritional smoothie
or shake such as Shapeworks Formula 1 by Herbalife, available from
Nick.
o Your body has a set amount of protein that it needs every day.
However, if you do not consume that set amount, you body will have
to find it by breaking down lean muscle mass, thus lowering
metabolism.
o One Gram of muscle burns SEVEN times more calories than 1 gram of
body fat. So you can see the more lean muscle mass you maintain /
build the higher your metabolism and the better you will be able to
meet your weight loss goals.
4. Set yourself a target date to have lost a certain amount of weight. Think
small targets instead of the overall big picture. This will be easier to manage
and achieve. Reward yourself with a new pair of shoes, a dress, a ticket to a
show or a match / concert once you reach each goal.
5. Smoking: Try hypnotherapy to unlock your subconscious mind, and analyse
the reasons why you smoke, and why you may have found it hard to give up
previously.
Exercise Motivation Tips:
· Train with a Personal Trainer to tailor a specific routine to you
· Join a gym with a friend for a training partner
· Set your exercise plans into a routine in your diary
· Attach massive amounts of pleasure to achieving the shape you want to be and
deserve!
· Tell everyone what you’re doing. You’ll find it a lot harder to back out
halfway through, as friends and family will keep asking you how you’re
getting on, and congratulate you on the results.
What NOT to do:
· Use Yo-Yo or low fat diets – they categorically do not work!
· Go to the gym 6 times a week as some sort of punishment for over-eating or
being overweight. You will become “over trained” – a state where your body
says it has had enough, you’ll lose motivation, and your body won’t be able to
recover from the exercise properly.
· Spot reducing – it doesn’t work –it’s the overall metabolic gain or boost that
causes weight loss. So 1000 crunches a day won’t really be the best thing, it
may actually cause back pain.
Nick de Meyer is a Weight Loss Coach, Personal Trainer, Nutritional therapist and an
active Triathlete. Nick is a Personal Trainer at the K Club in Kingswood, Surrey and
can be contacted on 07958635142, or by email: dynamicmotion1@hotmail.com