Improving your eating and health without “Dieting”

For most people “Diets” are too difficult. The healthy recipe book or diet plan is great for about a week, then compliance drops off and the excitement of trying something new wears off because you haven’t lost 10 lbs in a week.

Gradually the “Diet” goes out the window and old eating habits creep back in.

For some people, the traditional method of following a strict diet for a few weeks, or the points systems or calorie-counting that have been relied on for so long do work, but for most, they don’t quite get the results you’re after.

Enter Habit Based Nutrition.

The reason people fail at dieting is because their new actions go against ingrained habits. It’s your behaviour and habits that need to be addressed rather than a strict plan telling you what you can or can’t eat.

You don’t need to be told what you can or can’t eat as this is the failing point in most diets, and most people know what they should and shouldn’t be eating. You need to be able to enjoy the foods you like, but still eat in a way that works for your body and delivers the results you want.

By addressing your daily habits, you can make small, healthy changes easily; gradually improving your diet over time so it changes for good, not until “the end of your diet”. Every couple of weeks you should introduce a new habit that you can scale up or down to suit your current level – if it’s too hard, make it easier. If it’s too easy, make it more challenging.

By introducing one achievable habit at a time, you’ll build up step by step to a healthier lifestyle.

Progress should be tracked in a number of ways, not just with weight on the scales (which is useful, but not ideal); photos, measurements, compliance and any other specific markers you feel will be helpful are essential in keeping you motivated.

DAILY reminders will help you stay on track; and learning why you’re doing what you’re doing will help you understand and commit to your habit changes more easily. 

Remembering why you’re making the changes (what your goals are) will also keep you motivated.

One of the main reasons slimming clubs work is because you’re making yourself accountable. Tell someone what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and ask for their support (it doesn’t have to be a facebook announcement to the world, but someone you trust who will hold you accountable and give you a hard time if you slack off – like a trainer or coach). 

The aim is not to embarrass you when you fail, but to motivate you to try harder and boost your pride and confidence when you succeed.

Now you can do all of this yourself, but there’s so much nutritional “information” out there that it can be difficult to work out what you need to do next, or even where to begin!

As a Precision Nutrition certified coach, I can now offer you access to ProCoach, a habit-based nutrition coaching program that will help you to easily integrate healthy eating into your lifestyle.

It covers all of the above – teaching you new habits in a structured way to ensure you start at the beginning and build up slowly, one success after the other. While there’s no right or wrong way, certain foundations need to be laid before you can build on them, so getting the right habits under control first will prevent you from falling off the wagon by trying something you’re not ready for.

This is an entirely new approach to dieting for most people, (in fact, for the first couple of weeks we don’t even talk about food!) but it’s effective and it works. By helping you think about and focus on your goals, it will help you make better choices that will ultimately lead to your desired result.

If you’d like more information on ProCoach, visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com/nutrition-coaching where you can watch a video of people who’ve done the program, and contact me with any questions you might have.

If your current efforts aren’t working for you, it’s time to try something new! 

Visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for more information on Personal Training, Nutrition Coaching, Bootcamp, and other classes.

And follow us on Facebook and Twitter (do it now……) for extra tips, advice and motivation.

What is a Good “Diet”?

These days everyone’s an expert. 

Your over/underweight friend, your mum who’s been to a slimming club, your work colleagues, the magazine you read… But what they’re telling you is often contradictory and conflicting.

The truth is there’s no one, perfect diet that works for everyone. LOTS of these things will work… for some people.

They key things to embrace are not the differences, but the common ground between all successful “Diets”.

For weight loss, yes, you will need to eat less calories than you burn (but that doesn’t necessarily mean eat less!)

All successful, healthy diets (you can have a successful unhealthy diet, but the results are short-term and you’ll feel terrible doing them – think “juice detox”, or powdered meal replacements!!) have a few things in common...

A good diet will address energy balance (calories in vs calories out) without a drastic reduction in calories, but through good nutrition and switching from high-calorie/low nutrient foods, to low-calorie/high nutrient foods. By making this switch you may be surprised at just how much you can eat and remain within your calorie goal, whilst also getting lots of nutrition from what you're eating.

It will look at health, nutrition, hydration, body composition (body fat % vs. lean/fat-free mass) and performance, not just weight.

The healthy diet will not be set, but flexible and constantly changing to meet your needs. This relies on you monitoring your progress and making appropriate adjustments to suit. If weight loss is slow, you’ll need to alter the diet in some way; if you lose weight, but your body fat % increases, you’ll need to immediately re-evaluate and make the necessary changes to make sure you’re losing fat and not muscle. A mistake many calorie-cutting diets make by dropping calories too low.

The point is – you can’t follow an “exact” plan permanently; the diet will change as your body does, and you’ll need to stay on top of this. That’s why your skinny friend can eat junk and not gain weight and you just need to look at a cake… It’s because their dietary requirements are DIFFERENT to yours, and in a year’s time, so will yours be!

The diet needs to be sustainable, not something that ends when you lose x-lbs, or go on holiday; not something that you suffer through for 3 weeks, and then revert to your old ways. You don’t “Go on a diet”, you change your eating habits.

And finally, the “Diet” will look outside of just food! Exercise is a crucial part of the energy balance equation, and if you want to burn more calories than you eat, this should be your first port of call before you start reducing food intake and restricting your nutrient intake. 

The bonus of doing it this way (as long as you don't overtrain) is that you may not even need to restrict your diet or eat less- if you burn more calories, you may be able to carry on as usual and still benefit; although exercise without a healthy diet is not likely to work wonders.

The key here is to change over to healthier foods that nourish your body. By restricting food intake, you also restrict nourishment, leading to ill-health rather than the vital, healthy body you want.

Use diet and exercise together to build a better, stronger you.

If you need more help, visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for information on Personal Training, Nutrition Coaching, and Bootcamp classes.

Breakfast

Well known as being the most important meal of the day, many people tend to skip breakfast or opt for something quick and convenient in their morning rush, but what is this doing to your body?

Eating breakfast not only helps you to make better food choices throughout the day, but studies have also shown that those who skip breakfast tend to overeat later in the day, contributing to higher body fat levels and BMI. So skipping that all important meal in a vain attempt to lose weight is actually doing the complete opposite and helping you to store excess body fat!

As important as actually eating breakfast (if not more so), is what you eat. This is the same for any meal, but even more so for breakfast, and needs highlighting since the typical “breakfast foods” are so out of sync with what we need to kick off our day.

Toast or cereal seems to be the popular choice for adults and kids alike, no doubt because it’s quick and easy; but this is possibly the worst breakfast you can have! Worse even than skipping it altogether!

Forget your “wholegrain goodness” and “keeping hunger locked up ‘til lunch”, or how “grrrreat!” they are, these processed, refined carbohydrates are majorly lacking in nutrition (they actually have to add synthetic vitamins/minerals to these cereals to be allowed to sell them as “food”). Not to mention the insulin response of eating a high-carb, low fat, low protein meal!

Add to that the fact that wheat and processed dairy are two of the biggest culprits for food intolerance, and sugar sends energy levels sky-rocketing, then crashing back down again, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Erratic energy levels, hunger well before lunch, poor concentration and weight gain follow.

So what should you eat for Breakfast?

It’s important to “break your fast” with nutritionally rich foods, providing the nutrients your body needs, and keeping you satisfied right through until lunch-time. Contrary to what the cereal producers tell you, that’s NOT carbohydrates! The foods that satiate us and keep us from feeling hungry again soon after are protein and fats. These have a low insulin response – meaning no energy spike then crash. They are digested more slowly and your brain actually registers that you’ve received some nutrition – so you won’t be hungry again for a while.

One of the best things you can do is remember that food is food; there are no “breakfast foods”, “lunch foods”, or “dinner foods”.

I highly recommend the “Meat and Nut” breakfast. Simply rotate daily between different meat (not processed) and nut combinations. Chicken breasts and a handful of Almonds; Steak and a handful of Cashews; Turkey and a handful of Brazil nuts… you get the idea.

Tea, coffee and herbal teas are acceptable, but avoid processed milk and fruit juices.

This will set you up for the day, prevent you from overeating and making poor food choices, and ensure more steady energy levels.

Give it a try

My Breakfast Experiment

Yesterday I decided to do a little experiment. I hadn't been shopping and the cupboards were pretty empty, so breakfast options were limited.

Now I don't really have a particular problem with wheat or dairy, although many people do, but instead of my usual breakfast of eggs or bacon or a super-smoothie, I decided to have Weetabix. A power breakfast, no?

So, 8am, breakfast: 4 weetabix with milk and a small sprinkling of sugar (what most people seem to think of as a healthy breakfast!)

The Result: Well, not only was I hungry again in about half an hour, but by the time I was set to have my workout at about 11.30, I had NO energy. I felt weak, lethargic and had no motivation whatsoever to drag my arse into the gym.

Is this how people feel day in, day out?!

No wonder everyone doses up on sugar-filled junk and caffeine!

If you "don't have the energy to train" or are "too tired" after your day's work, then maybe, just maybe, it's NOT that you've worked hard (let's face it, unless you're a labourer, you don't work hard - sat at a desk all day), but that you've been feeding your body crap and it's telling you it just 'aint good enough!

If you're feeding your body the fuel it needs, you'll have better energy levels throughout the day and have plenty left over for a workout at the end of the day.

All without having to dose up of coffee and sugar at regular intervals.

You may not have made the connection between the s**t you're eating and your apparent lack of energy, but trust me, this is EXACTLY what the problem is.

So tomorrow, instead of having your cereal with milk, and cup of tea or coffee, try having something different; scrambled eggs and a couple of rashers of grilled bacon, maybe with some grilled tomatoes. And at least a pint of water.

Give it a try and see if you feel any different.

Then later on, when (or if) you get hungry, have another glass of water first, then a handful of nuts with a cup of berries.

Try this for a couple of days and if you don't notice the difference...
(then you're probably still pretending you "can't go without your cup of tea in the morning")

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.