Leisure

Knowing It Is One Thing, Doing It Is Another...

Issue 87

It's one thing to make the decision to change your lifestyle in order to reignite the feel good factor and achieve the body shape you desire, it's another to know you are doing the correct things to achieve this.

Most people have no idea how or where to start, with both their food and exercise. Here are just a few ideas to kick start you to a healthier few months towards the summer:

Go through your cupboards and put all biscuits, cakes etc into a bag and get them out of the house, this will stop temptation. Rather than throw them away why not donate them to a good cause.

Make a positive decision to avoid any soda drinks eg coke, lemonade or energy drinks. These are laden with sugar and are dangerous for your health, never mind your waistline.

Rather than eating a sandwich and crisps at lunchtime. Try taking a lean meat/fish salad into work, if you want to make changes you will need to put more effort into your organisation. Removing bread and snacks at lunchtime will consistently cut the amount of calories you are eating each day, therefore will have a big impact over the coming weeks.

Buying, rather than making a salad at lunchtime will mean it’s often accompanied with a sauce. Although you may think you are eating healthily the sauce may increase the calories to more than your original sandwich and crisps.

Increase your portion sizes by adding more protein, you may raise your eyebrows at this but as long as the food is natural and healthy, it will keep you fuller for longer, therefore avoiding unhealthy snacks later in the day.

If you are in the habit of snacking after your evening meal, eat half your meal at the usual time then the rest later at a time you would normally reach for a snack.

Keep drinking plenty of water to keep you feeling full and hydrated.

Training

If it’s body shape, weight loss and general fitness you are looking for: short, sharp quick workouts are the perfect way to train. Over training to compensate for a bad diet often works in reverse and remember, you can’t out train a bad diet.

Vary your speed, pace, rest times, type of training and amount of training. Your body will get used to the same type of training, if you want results, progress your sessions and mix it up, it also stops the monotony of repeating the same workouts.

Doing hundreds of stomach exercises per day will not make your stomach flat, stripping the fat off through a healthy diet will.

If you are looking to improve the look of your arms, make sure you work the back of your arms (triceps) as much as the front (biceps). Again you need to pull your body fat down first to really see a change in shape. Working big muscle groups such as legs and bum will help supercharge your metabolism. Squats and lunges in their various forms work very well.

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