Saturday 1 February 2014

Eating & Exercise

A few people have asked me lately to elaborate on my diet and exercise, so I thought I would. I guess the thing is that I have only started this a few weeks ago, and I haven't yet discovered how well it's going to work! So far so good though I think, like I said, I've lost 3kg this month and have been eating the greasiest food imaginable.

I've just put together all the things I know that genuinely work to help lose weight. Like it or not, it comes down to what we've all been told a thousand times: diet and exercise. There is no "secret" to weight loss, and it isn't easy.

1) Burn more calories than you eat in a day. One uses energy doing usual things, but doing actual exercise i.e. at the gym, an enjoyable sport, walking or running, etc. is a good way to know you've achieved something. I visit the gym most days and do about 40 minutes of cardio (burning roughly 400 cals) and maybe 30 minutes of weights. I've also started Zumba, there are free videos on YouTube. Doing 20 mins of Zumba in the morning is actually pretty fun.

2) Discover how many calories you should have each day. I can have 2,000 to be healthy, but to lose weight, I can consume only 1,200. I used an online calculator to find this out. I also joined LiveStrong.com which is a useful way to track how many calories you're consuming.

3) Having muscle helps your body burn calories. I do weights at the gym, machines not free weights, which hurts but is worth doing. People, mostly women, worry that if they do weights it'll make them look bulkier, this is absolutely not true.

4) You don't have to starve yourself, but you do have to feel hungry. I figure it's more how much you eat, rather than what. Obviously unhealthy junk food is a No but you can eat other stuff you like as long as you don't eat big amounts of it. A small calorie limit means you do spend much of the day feeling hungry, but really there are worse ways to feel.

5) Focus more on being healthy than thin. If you eat healthy food and learn more about what you can do to improve your health, the rest will take care of itself. I consider what is in everything I'm eating and what the benefits are, such as antioxidants, things to benefit the liver or kidneys or skin and so on.

6) Remove starch. Not eating starch all the time is a great way to help lose weight, so remove pasta, rice, potatoes, and bread from your diet, even for a few months.

7) Water. I find it's a bit yuck to pour water from the tap and drink it at tap temperature, so I bottle and refrigerate it and just drink that throughout the day. Water also helps one feel less hungry.

Basically all of the above are the things I have learnt, and am applying to my lifestyle every day. It all makes sense, right? I believe in being healthy and good to yourself. My diet every day currently consists of bacon and eggs for breakfast fried in extra-virgin olive oil, sometimes with mushrooms. I put on a lot of olive oil because it is unbelievably good for you. It has numerous health benefits as well as being great for skin. The best part of this meal is that the oil now tastes like bacon *thumbs up*.
I haven't been taking lunch, but I'll have a small supper of either fish and steamed vegetables, or avocado on wholegrain Ryvita, or yoghurt with fruit and nuts. I've been drinking 2-3 litres of water each day too as well as green tea. I drink a lot of ordinary tea during the day too which isn't going to change for any reason, the caffeine keeps my face off the floor. So it's a small amount of food, but it's all yummy things that I like!

Anyway, I have to go to work now but I hope I've managed to help at least one person out with their New Year's resolution or something :p Take care now, bye bye then. xox

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