Slow Down & Enjoy It!

I'll be honest with you here - I'm a bit of a chocoholic.

I went to a networking meeting not too long ago and after our little 60-second elevator pitch we had to tell two truths and a lie and everyone had to guess which was the lie...

People actually believed I ran 5 marathons in a year and thought me eating chocolate every day was the lie!

So, believe it or not - I LOVE chocolate.

What's this got to do with you?

Well, if you're like me, there's no way in hell you're eating one square and leaving the rest in the fridge for another day, or even a couple of hours! (Seriously - who the hell does that?!)

If it's there - I'm eating it.

And if I'm eating it - I'm eating it ALL!

It's easy to get a bit carried away and eat too much unless you only have one small bar, but it's cheaper to buy a pack or a massive bar than a regular bar isn't it?!

So here's what you should do...

Slow down and enjoy it.

Sounds simple, but actually, most people eat mindlessly and scoff down the chocolate (or biscuits, or cake, or crisps or whatever your "vice" is).

I can easily (and I do mean easily) eat a 4-pack of Wispa's in one sitting - 2 can be gone before I even make it home from the shop!

It's a bit like driving home and not remembering the journey - you were on autopilot!

So slow it down.

Sit down with it instead of eating "on the go" or while you're otherwise distracted.

Take a bite and really savour it. Enjoy the taste.

When you want the next bite, wait. Just a few seconds. Then take a bite.

Do this for every bite, and when you're finished, appreciate what you had and move on - DON'T reach for the next bar/bite/packet.

Quite often you can overeat (on anything) if you're eating mindlessly or whilst distracted.

So when you eat, make it a thing. Don't eat in front of the TV or whilst you're doing something else.

Enjoy your food, but enjoy the right amount.

Make it a rule that if you have your little treat, you make sure you enjoy it and aren't just eating it out of habit or boredom.

Set a rule that you can't eat whilst driving, walking around or working.

You could try to give it up entirely, but you shouldn't have to.

We all want treats in our life so it's about learning to control the urges and eat them in moderation.

Set yourself a few rules and stick to them, or else you're going to have to either keep struggling with it or go cold turkey - and neither of those options are good.

Also pay attention to when you reach for the goodies.

Is it when you're bored? 

Stressed? 

Tired? 

Is it just a habit (like having a biscuit with a cup of tea)? 

Is it just a habit whenever you walk into the kitchen? 

Do you automatically have it when someone else is (like ordering alcohol when you meet your friends at the pub or having a burger when your kids get a McDonalds)?

Once you recognise your cues for eating junk food, you're one step closer to getting control over it.

So, savour your treats and enjoy them. If you can do this, there's no need to forego them entirely or stress out about them.

Master you Nutrition with habits.

Let me know how you get on.

Or if you have any other tricks you use to control your junk food intake, I'd love to hear them, and I'll be able to share them - if it helps you, it'll almost certainly help others people too.

Mark

How Many Meals Should You Be Eating?

Some people swear by three meals a day; some people live on two. Others recommend from 5 up to 8 meals per day!

So what’s right?

Well, for starters, we’re all different, and what works for others may not work for you, and vice versa. 

What you need to pay attention to is how you feel when you follow different eating plans. If it makes you feel good, then it’s probably right for you, regardless of what the next guru says.

Before now I’ve recommended the “smaller meals every 2-3 hours” approach, and for some that’s great. Especially if your main goal is to bulk up – you need to eat more meals to get the sheer amount of food you need in. You can’t get 5,000 calories down you in 1 or 2 sittings (certainly not the right calories anyway!).

But, for fat loss and general health, as well as hormone optimisation (which is the key to weight loss, muscle gain, mood, energy levels, fat storage/burning, sleep and much more besides) I’ve come to realise that actually, despite all the reasons to do otherwise, we actually weren’t far wrong in the first place with the old “breakfast, lunch and dinner” routine.

There are a number of reasons for this, and although I HATE talking about calories (because if you’re eating the foods you’re supposed to be eating, calories really aren’t an issue), you’ll struggle to overeat on just 3 meals a day.

The key here is not to snack between meals. 3 meals means 3 meals. 

Various and numerous chemical reactions happen after we’ve eaten, and some hormones aren’t even released until 3-4+ hours after we’ve eaten, others take that long to get back to normal levels. 

The main hormones we’re concerned with here are Leptin and Insulin, which interact to determine when we feel full, and what we do with the food we’ve eaten. 

If these are out of whack, you can be sure your body fat levels will show it. The best way to address insulin resistance and leptin sensitivity is to take longer periods between eating, as well as selecting your foods carefully.

There’s a lot more to it than this, and I don’t have space here to go into detail, but you don’t need to know how or why it works to benefit from it. The most important thing you can do is to make sure when you do eat, you’re eating the right foods (see my previous articles/blog posts/website for details). 

So try it for a couple of weeks. Have a good breakfast (not toast/cereal etc. – have real food), then nothing until lunch 3-4 hours later, then nothing again, until dinner. No snacks between. No sugar-filled drinks (that includes “sugar-free” versions of things!). Just keep well hydrated.

Then when you’ve finished dinner – you’re fasting until breakfast 12+ hours later.

If you have breakfast at 9am, then lunch at 1pm, then dinner at 5pm - you're eating all of your meals within an 8-hour window (9-5), so you'll then be fasting for the reaming 16 hours each day. (See my other posts for more information on the benefits of fasting like this).

It’s important that you get all the nutrients you need at these three meals, so plenty of veg, lots of protein and fat from good sources, fruit, nuts and seeds. Don’t waste your meals with breads, pastas and other nutrient-free foods.

And always check with your GP before you make drastic changes to your diet – especially if you have any medical conditions. (Although I have to say that – it’s always a good idea!)

For more detailed guidance, check out MoveBetter.Club and get everything you need to start seeing the results you want.

Mark

Who Do You Want To Look Like?

There are many different training methods available to anyone that wants to lose weight. But which is best?

The most common option seems to be running. Many people who hate the thought of going to the gym, working out with weights, or attending fitness classes, opt to go running a few times a week in order to lose weight; but is this the best idea?

Bearing in mind that most people want to lose FAT, not WEIGHT, it’s safe to say that running ISN’T the best way to do it. There’s no doubt that it has worked for many people, but if you really want to reach your goals (which you may think are weight loss, but actually, you just want to fit into smaller clothes and look better – unfortunately, people have linked this with weight), you're better off doing resistance training.

Let’s make it easy to see what’s better for stripping fat and building the muscle that shapes your body...

Take a look at the average marathon runner – for the most part, they look skinny, emaciated, and generally not too healthy. They may weigh very little, but they have no muscle, and no shape to them – not the ideal figure is it?

Now take a look at a sprinter. They’re lean, muscular, with good shape and muscle tone. They look athletic and healthy, and will generally have LESS body fat than the marathoners.

Obviously these are two extremes, but the bottom line is if you want to lose fat, shape and tone your body, and look and feel strong and healthy, you need to ditch the long cardio sessions and start working with high intensity intervals (sprints if running’s your chosen activity) and start lifting weights.

If you enjoy jogging, then by all means, go jogging. But unless your goal is to be “skinny fat” (where you weigh very little and look skinny, but still have a high body fat – mainly due to a lack of muscle), then you also need to be doing intervals and weight training.

Another easy way to see what you need to be doing is to walk into any gym. Are the people who look how you want to look walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes, then moving across to sit on a bike for half hour and watch EastEnders? ... Or are they in the freeweights area lifting weights?

Don’t be fooled by the common misconception that cardio burns more calories. Use your muscles and lift weights that you struggle to finish your set with i.e. if you’re aiming for 12 lifts (repetitions), you should struggle to finish the last 2 or 3. 

Just take a look at British champion weightlifter Evelyn Stevenson (Google her name).

Not exactly the hulky mass of muscle that people (especially women) are afraid of becoming if they lift a weight!

It should be clear, just by looking at the different athletes, which type of training will produce the best results – if you want to look like a sprinter, train like a sprinter.

This may go against what you thought was the best way to train and what you’ve been told by magazines, friends, even trainers in the gym. But really, it’s pretty obvious.

Be aware also that the same goes for diet. Just because you’ve read it, a friend recommended it, or a trainer has told you to do it, doesn’t mean it’s the right way. Even if it works, there might still be a better way, and it’s usually the most obvious.

If you’d like to know more about how best to eat and train for your goals you can joining my membership site MoveBetter.Club where you'll be guided, step-by-step through nutrition and training to get the best results.

Mark