You, 2015

Without repeating the usual January advice about goal setting, a new exercise regime, whatever new diet is trendy at the moment; I’m going to attempt to give you the basics (again) in hope that this year, rather than starting some crazy new plan that you’ll never stick to, you’ll just make a few small changes and focus on being consistent with them.

Changing your entire lifestyle takes time, and if you try to do it all at once or too quickly it’s a recipe for disaster. So, what you need to do is simplify and streamline.

Attack the weight loss demon from two angles.

Firstly, eliminate the junk. Surprisingly, most people don’t gain weight from eating too much; but from eating the wrong things, at the wrong times. So step one is to eliminate all the processed, sugary foods and drinks (don’t forget drinks!).

For the time being, don’t worry about calories, fats, points or sins. Just change from convenience foods to fresh, single ingredient foods. If it’s got a list of ingredients on the packaging (especially ingredients you can’t even pronounce), don’t eat/drink it.

Don’t worry for now if that seems like it’s not a big enough change. If you can do this, and stick with it, you’ll notice a difference.

Secondly, exercise. This is another one people tend to overdo and burn out. If you already exercise regularly, DO NOT increase how much you do, just increase the intensity that you’re working at.

If you’re not already exercising regularly, do no more than 3 workouts a week to begin with, but again, work HARD when you do them. Keep them short and high intensity; always under an hour.

I’m purposely keeping this simple because most people overthink or overdo things at the start of their program, only to end up getting sick of it and giving up, or just failing.

DON’T over-complicate things. Make a positive change (no matter how small) and be consistent with it, and you’ll have improved your health. Once you’re consistent (that word again!) with that change, make another positive change. And repeat. Gradually, you’ll be improving your healthy lifestyle with almost no effort. One small change is easier to stick to than multiple drastic changes. 

One step at a time and this time next year, you won’t be “dieting” or starting a new regime – you’ll have it covered!

Yes, exercise and nutrition can get a LOT more complicated than this, but the simplest changes are often the most powerful; don’t get sucked in to marketing hype and magazine diets. Keep It Simple.

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

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

Cheat Meals

Anyone dieting has probably heard of or used a “cheat meal” or even a “cheat day”!

So is this good or bad?

My personal opinion – don’t do it! Certainly not every week.

For most people trying to lose weight, it’s really NOT just a case of calories in vs. calories out (i.e. eat less, move more); it’s a case of an inefficient hormonal profile.

If you’re lean, and weight loss isn’t a goal, chances are you’re able to handle a “cheat meal” without any negative effects because you have an efficient system (balanced hormones, efficient digestive system, good carb tolerance, good insulin sensitivity etc.). In this case, ‘calories in vs. calories out’ is far more likely to work – because you have an efficient system.

But if you’re overweight, chances are high that your hormones have, over time, become imbalanced. Insulin resistance is likely an issue, reducing carb tolerance; and digestion may be compromised. And it will take time to rebalance them, through both diet and exercise.

If you put in all that effort to follow a diet for a few days, and then have a cheat meal (read: blowout) it WILL, almost certainly, undo all your hard work and send you right back to the start hormonally. You may lose some weight initially, but you’re setting yourself up for failure. The weight loss will soon stop and your hormones are still out of balance (possibly even more so).

It’s like giving an alcoholic a drink a week. Will they have one and stop? Or go overboard and have more than a few?!

If you’re following a healthy diet, you can use a “re-feed” day, but you still need to follow the same rules. There’s never a good reason to have junk food. On your re-feed days (maybe once every 4-6 weeks depending on the individual) it should be with good, clean, real foods. It means you can eat more of the good stuff for a day, not binge on crap and expect it not to have an effect.

Your aim here isn’t to eliminate all the things you enjoy forever, but to eliminate them temporarily until you get to the point that you CAN indulge occasionally without any negative effects. When you’re in this position, there’s no need to feel guilty about the odd night out. You won’t gain a stone on a one-week holiday (that took you 6 months to lose!).

When your system works efficiently, you can enjoy the foods you want, when you want them (within reason). But until then, you need to rebuild your system, and that means spending some time being good, cutting out the foods/drinks you know you shouldn’t be consuming, and following a good training plan.

As you get leaner, you’ll be able to introduce more of the foods you love, but until then – fight on!

If you want help, visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for information on Personal Training, Nutrition coaching or Bootcamp Fitness classes.

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

Mark Broadbent

What (not) to eat before you exercise…

Most people exercise/workout to lose body fat. Even the people aiming to gain muscle mass (which should be ALL of you) want to lose body fat too.

With this in mind, should you eat before a workout? How long before? And what?

The key thing to remember is that your body is smart and it will use whatever form of energy is most readily available. Why go to the trouble of breaking down and burning fats if there’s a steady source of sugar at hand?

If your goal is fat loss, you need to avoid sugar (carbs) before your workouts. Quite simply, if you have glucose running through your bloodstream, that’s what your body will preferentially burn, NOT fat. Why would it?!

So if you’re one of these people who go into your spin class, sports drink in hand, you need to stop. Right away.

You need to prime your body to burn fat by reducing insulin levels, which are elevated the most by consuming carbohydrates.

If insulin is present, you’ll be pushing sugars INTO cells (either muscle or fat cells, depending on how much exercise you’ve done and/or the amount of carbs you’ve eaten – because once muscle cells are full, they’ll head straight to fat cells for storage!)

If insulin is NOT present (i.e. you haven’t eaten sugary carbs), then your body will be relying on the stored energy in your muscles and your fat cells.

So grabbing a banana before your workout is a BAD idea, as are any sports drinks (trust me, avoid the supposed “low sugar/calorie” options too).

Save your carbs for AFTER your workout and/or your evening meal. This will replenish the muscle glycogen you burned during your workout, without storing excess as fat (assuming you don’t overdo the carbs that is – eat too many and you’ll be right back to fat storage!)

Nutrition can get very complicated, but for the most part, it’s the simple changes that’ll make the biggest differences. Get on top of those, and you’ll probably never have to worry about the minor tweaks and details unless you’re planning on competing.

Visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for information on Personal Training, Nutrition coaching or Bootcamp Fitness classes.