Part Two

About Faddy Diets

As a nutritional therapist, I cringe inwardly when I hear what some people do to their bodies, in the name of losing weight. Let’s look at some of the well known diets, and I’ll tell you why they’re not a good idea.

Very Low Calorie Diets

These are bad, bad news for your body. Very low calorie diets work by restricting calories to below 1,000 per day, sometimes as low as 500. This is often achieved by using meal replacements, such as shakes, soups or drinks.

Apart from being a dull and highly unnatural way to feed your body, these diets basically starve your body, so it will reset its metabolic rate to protect itself against possible long term famine. When the dieter goes back to a ‘normal’ diet, having learned nothing about how to alter their eating habits long-term, they do so with a lower metabolic rate – and pile on the weight. The vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting begins!

High Protein/Low Carbohydrate

Again, bad news health-wise. Yes, these diets do achieve weight loss, but at what price?

In the short – term, people experience bad breath, lack of energy, constipation, clear messages from the body that’s it’s not happy with what you’re doing to it.

Long–term effects are unclear (probably because few stick to such a regime long–term) but would probably include kidney, bowel and heart problems. A high price to pay for getting slim. Remember, the body is designed to run on complex carbohydrates as its preferred energy source. Tinker with Mother Nature, and you’re asking for trouble.

Mono–diets

These diets are not so fashionable at the moment, thank goodness! They work by the suffering dieter eating nothing but grapefruit for 3 days, or eggs and tomatoes for a week or some other restrictive regime.

Apart from the boredom such diets induce, they are nutritionally unbalanced and won’t provide your body with the wide range of nutrients that it needs. And let’s not say anything about the suffering housemates after you’ve been on an egg only diet!

And once again there is the usual problem of putting weight back on once you return to your old ways of eating.

No fat diets

Your body needs fat in the diet. It does not need a lot of it and it needs to be of the right kind, but it’s unfortunate that fat has acquired such a bad reputation.

I’ve heard of people who cut out all fat from their diet. Very soon their skin is in a terrible, dry state and they can’t think straight, it’s a cruel way to treat the body.

Slimming pills and weight loss aids

Often touted as miracle cures, the fact is that many of these pills are expensive and just don’t work. Some are actually believed to be dangerous, as well – ones containing Chitosan, for example, could cause deficiencies in certain vitamins and essential fats.

The sad fact is that you won’t lose weight just by taking a pill – as always, it comes back to there being no substitute for a permanent change in your attitude to food and dieting.

Part Three

A long–term way of life

So, how is what I’m proposing different?

Because it does away with the problems outlined in “Why Diets Don’t Work”. This is a plan that does away with deprivation, feeling unable to socialise with your friends… and concentrates on changing the way that you think about food and health.

It’s a long–term plan, aiming at teaching you how to lose weight safely and steadily, whilst re educating your taste buds and teaching you how slim people stay slim…for life. No more yo-yo dieting. No more feeling tired or excluded from your own social life. Instead, you will feel energised; you’ll be eating delicious food that you’ll love, and maintaining a slim, healthy body, for good.

Once you learn about nutrition and change the way that you eat, you’ll start the process of changing permanently your attitude towards food.

Have you seen the excellent Channel 4 series “You Are What You Eat” with Gillian McKeith?

All the people involved started out with terrible eating habits. They loved fatty, sugary, unhealthy junk foods, and scorned fresh, healthy foods. Fruit and vegetables just didn’t figure in their daily menus. Where they did do well, however, was being prepared to change their ways and try Dr McKeith’s advice. Within just 8 weeks, they all lost a lot of weight, and just as importantly, their health benefited enormously.

Energy levels soared; premenstrual problems vanished, as did constipation and other health issues. All of the participants said that they could never go back to their old way of eating – for them, such greasy, sugary food had lost all its appeal. They now enjoyed fresh, healthy foods, and were delighted at the radical changes in their health. And all that happened in just 8 weeks. A bonus for them was the reduction in their food bills – instead of buying expensive convenience foods and takeaways, they now spent less on fresh, wholesome food that was cheaper because it hadn’t been pre – packaged.

I’m sure you’ve seen the principle here yourself.

Who doesn’t know somebody who used to drink tea or coffee with several sugars and swore that they just couldn’t drink it any other way? Eventually, they decided to reduce their sugar in hot drinks, until eventually they got to zero…and then couldn’t stomach the thought of sugar in tea or coffee at all. Their taste buds had been re–educated and a permanent change had taken place.

Just like these people,  just like Dr McKeith’s volunteers, such a change can happen to YOU. You just have to make the commitment to making that change, and stick with the process while it takes place.

The alternative is yo-yo dieting, failure, frustration, and damage to your health.

The choice seems clear.

Don’t worry that changing your eating habits will mean more hours spent in the kitchen preparing complicated recipes, or the end of eating out with friends. We’ll be seeing in future instalments how quick and simple healthy eating can be, and how to choose wisely from restaurant menus. And no, you won’t have to eat lots of lettuce!

Part Four

The benefits of being slim

“I know the benefits” I can hear you say. “I’ll look good on the beach…I’ll be able to fit into smaller clothes…” Yes, of course being slim means all that. But there’s more, and I think it will appeal to you, as the kind of person who visits the Fiona Harrold website. Think about it. The website is for people who want to get the most out of life, who want to change, make more of themselves, and do more. It’s for dynamic people.

To live life like that you need energy and vitality. If you’re struggling with excess weight, it’s unlikely that you have that kind of vigour, get up and go, call it what you will, or at any rate, enough of it. Excess kilos are usually a result of unhealthy eating habits, and those tend to lead to nutrient deficiencies, which lead to lack of energy and health problems. So you end up not having the oomph! to really make your life the best it can be.

What will motivate YOU?

I know what motivates me to stay slim – it’s respect for my body. It’s the only one I’ll ever have, and I want to treat it well; to maintain a healthy weight, to feed it properly, not starve it with low calorie diets or diets that deprive it of the nutrients it needs. I want a healthy slim body that functions well – so I can lead the full life that I want. What will be YOUR motivating factor?

It may be the same as mine. It may be entirely different. Perhaps you have a dream of taking a year out and travelling round the world, but you know that there’s no way you’d be able to haul a rucksack around in tropical heat whilst carrying excess weight as well. It may be the fear factor. Is there a history of heart disease or diabetes in your family, and would you like to reduce your risk of getting such serious conditions?

Part Five

Guidance for safe and steady weight loss

To be safe, effective and permanent, weight loss leads to be slow and steady. Be gentle with your body! The tables below give guidance as to what is a healthy weight range for your height.

Ideal Body Weight for Women

Ideal Body Weight for Men

Look up your height and determine what weight range you fall into.

If you’re small framed, aim towards the lower end of the range, and vice versa. Determine your goal weight from this. You now know how much weight you are aiming to lose – the difference between what you weigh now, and the goal weight that you’ll achieve.

Work out this difference in pounds or kilos.

Action!

Actions of the Week

1. Commit yourself to long term change

Resolve to ditch the faddy diets for good and to treat your body with respect. Remember that your taste buds can and will alter.

2. Let’s decide on a time scale

Your aim is to lose weight slowly and surely – aim for about 1 kilo or 2 pounds per week. Divide the difference calculated above by this amount and you’ll have a target to aim for and a time scale in which to complete your weight loss. For example, if you have 10 kilos to lose, aim to achieve that in 10 weeks, being 1 kilo per week. Obviously losing weight isn’t an exact science and some weeks you may lose more, some weeks less. Just keep in mind the overall goal.

3. Create a simple way of recording your goal and your progress

For some people, this may be via a calendar or diary. Others may create a spreadsheet. It’s whatever works best for you. I encourage you to use a way that you can either carry with you or have visible, so that you can remind yourself of your goal, and see your progress towards it.

4. Remember the section above about what motivates YOU?

Spend some time thinking about this one. Whatever your motivating factor, write it in large letters on your progress chart, to keep you focused. Phrase it in a positive way – e.g. rather than saying “I don’t want to get heart disease like my mother”, say “I want to keep my heart and my body healthy”. Focus on the positive, not the negative.

5. Treat yourself!

Think of some ways to reward yourself as you achieve your weekly weight loss targets, that aren’t food based. A trip to the cinema, a new lipstick…whatever you fancy. You’ve earned it!

Part Two

Recommended Daily Allowances

Many people are also misled by RDAs – Recommended Daily Allowances. People are confused by the word “recommended” – they feel that if they achieve the RDA of a nutrient, then that’s the amount recommended for good health. Not so at all.

Far from being sufficient to promote good health, the RDAs are set at a level just high enough to prevent deficiency diseases in the majority of people.

Take vitamin C, for example. The RDA is 60mg per day – just sufficient to ensure that you don’t get scurvy. It is not enough to promote good health.

Vitamin C is used in a huge number of processes in the body, from helping the immune system to being involved in the growth and repair of body tissue. Gorillas, closely related to humans, can eat 3,000mg a day. Most nutritionists recommend about 1,000mg a day for benefits to the immune system. Vitamin C is also a fragile nutrient, easily destroyed by storage and cooking.

It is easy to se how many people just aren’t getting enough, and end up with frequent colds, etc.

As it is poor eating habits that usually lead to weight problems, it’s essential that you arm yourself with some basic nutrition knowledge, so that you can learn to make healthy choices and not be misled by claims on packaging, etc.

So, here Comes the Science Bit…!

Part Three

About Your Food

Carbohydrates

Currently enjoying a bad press as a result of the popularity of high protein, low carbohydrate diets. However the truth is that our bodies are designed to run on carbohydrates for energy.

The problem with the high protein diets is that all too often they fail to distinguish between different types of carbohydrates, so that the public comes to see all carbohydrates as bad. They’re not. It’s what the food industry does to carbohydrates that is bad. It’s the refined sort, stripped of nutrients and fibre, which is bad for the body, and which nutritionists don’t recommend. Whole, unrefined carbohydrate foods are a different story.

So what are carbohydrate foods?

Grains, vegetables, fruits, and sugary foods such as honey and table sugar. This is where the high protein propagandists confuse people. Not all carbohydrates are the same and one big difference is what the food industry does to carbohydrates – they refine them. Wholemeal flour is stripped of nutrients in order to make white flour. Fruit sugar is extracted and added to a multitude of foods to add extra sweetness.

Why is this bad news for the body?

Let’s look at why carbohydrates are important. Basically, they are the body’s preferred source of fuel, where you get your energy from. Packaged as nature intended, in the form of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, they supply this energy complete with fibre, which helps slow down the rate at which the body converts the carbohydrates into energy. This is especially so when protein is eaten at the same time, as protein is broken down more slowly. Eaten in this form (also called complex carbohydrates), carbohydrates are released slowly and steadily into the body, keeping energy levels constant and avoiding slumps.

Now look at what happens when we eat carbohydrates in their refined form. Take a breakfast of white toast, spread with jam – both refined carbohydrates. The body can convert such a breakfast very quickly into energy. Result – blood sugar rises rapidly, there’s a surge of energy but soon it’s all gone. By mid morning it’s odds on that the eater of this type of breakfast will be experiencing an energy slump, feeling irritable, and craving food, probably a sugar fix. So a chocolate bar is eaten (more refined carbohydrates) and the cycle begins again.

The more insidious side to all this is long term. To deal with the quick surges of sugar into the bloodstream, the body releases insulin, which helps transport sugar from the blood into cells. If a diet high in refined, sugary foods is eaten, the body is constantly producing insulin, and the cells have to respond. Over time, both the pancreas and the cells can become exhausted. The cells no longer respond to the stimulus of insulin so readily, and so sugar is left circulating in the blood. In order to deal with this sugar, the body starts to lay it down as fat, and weight problems are started.

Eating carbohydrates in their natural, unrefined forms, balanced with protein, can avoid these problems, keeping blood sugar levels constant, and avoiding the dips in energy that give rise to sugar cravings. They also supply vital nutrients.

Unrefined, whole carbohydrates should comprise about 60 – 70% of your diet.

Protein

Protein is commonly described as the building blocks of the body – it is used for growth and repair, as well as other functions such as hormone manufacture.

What foods are protein foods?

Many people have an image of protein as being a “good, rare steak”, and think that it comes solely from meat or fish; the truth is that most foods, excluding fruit, contain some protein, and a widely varied diet, sufficient to maintain a healthy weight, should give you all the protein that you need. Good sources of protein are eggs, meat, fish, pulses, soya, nuts and grains such as quinoa. The drawback with animal protein is that it contains no fibre, but does have a lot of undesirable saturated fat (more about fat and fibre later). Vegetable sources have the extra benefit of containing complex carbohydrates and fibre.

The benefit of protein for weight watchers is the fact that it takes quite a while for the body to break down, and so when eaten with complex carbohydrates will help to ensure a steady energy supply for the body. The fact that protein is broken down slowly also means that you feel fuller for longer, helping to stave off those mid – morning sugar cravings.

About 15% of your diet should be comprised of protein.

Fats

An emotive word for many dieters! Some people try to eliminate fat completely from their diet, with disastrous consequences. Yes, it’s true that too much fat is not good for your body, but fat is needed for many bodily functions, and the right kinds of fats help to keep skin and hair healthy. It is important to distinguish between different types of fat. Saturated fat is found mainly in meat, eggs and dairy products, and is not good news for the body: too much can lead to heart and circulation problems.

There are two types of unsaturated fat: monounsaturated, such as olive oil, and polyunsaturated, found in nuts, seeds and oily fish. Some polyunsaturated fats are called “essential fatty acids”, because they are essential for body functions such as the brain and nervous system, and cannot be manufactured by the body; they must be taken in through the diet. This is why nutritionists recommend nuts, seeds and fish so highly.

Fibre

Mentioned above in the section on complex carbohydrates, fibre is an integral part of unrefined grains, fruits and vegetables, and helps fill you up for longer, helping to avoid food cravings. Foods high in fibre will help maintain steady energy levels. A diet high in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole foods should supply you with all the fibre that you need.

Water

Many people don’t think of water as a nutrient, but is it vital for the body – the body itself is about two thirds water! A healthy diet needs water for many functions, one of which is to help fibre pass through the digestive tract. As you new healthy diet will include plenty of fibre, you will need to drink plenty of water. If you dislike plain water, try diluted fruit juice or herb/fruit teas. Regular tea and coffee is thought to cause the body to lose water, so are best avoided.

Part Four

About How You Eat

Don’t skip meals!

This is where many dieters fall down, in the mistaken assumption that missing meals, particularly breakfast, will lead to weight loss.

The truth is that the body needs regular meals to provide vital energy, in a constant, steady supply. If you miss breakfast, your blood sugar levels will fall very low, giving rise to food cravings. These food cravings typically take the form of wanting chocolate or other refined, sugary foods. Eating a chocolate bar gives a quick burst of energy and stops the hunger pangs – temporarily. The body quickly converts the chocolate bar into sugar for energy, so blood sugar levels soar. Insulin is produced, causing the sugar to be absorbed into the cells…and hey presto, blood sugar levels crash down. Result – an energy slump, irritability, the shakes. Long term, as explained above, insulin supply can become disrupted, and the cells lose their ability to respond. Weight problems ensue – just what the meal – skipper was trying to avoid.

All that can be avoided by eating a balanced breakfast of unrefined carbohydrates together with protein (such as scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast), and regular, healthy food choices throughout the day. We’ll be looking at meal ideas in Module 3. For now, just remember the concept of treating your body kindly. Feed it regularly, feed it nutritiously, don’t starve it.

Some people who experience regular slumps and peaks in their energy levels do better with smaller, more frequent meals – say 6 small snack -size meals instead of 3 regular ones. It’s known as “grazing”. Try it, you may find it suits you.

What IS a portion of fruit or vegetables?

“Eat 5 portions or fruit or veg a day” is what we’re advised, but the truth is many people don’t know exactly what a portion is. I’ve heard people say that it’s an orange segment and say that therefore just 5 segments of orange a day is enough. Wrong on two counts. It has to be different fruits and vegetables, and one segment of orange isn’t enough.

So what is a portion? Let’s look at various fruits and vegetables, and see how big a portion is:

• Vegetables
  3 tablespoons of peas/sweetcorn
  8-10 asparagus spears
  3-4 cauliflower or broccoli florets
  6-8 Brussels sprouts.
• Pulses (yes, pulses count)
  4 tablespoons of baked beans, chick peas or lentils.
• Salad
  1 average sized mixed bowl.
• Dried fruit
  4 dried apricots or prunes.
• Berry fruit
  10 strawberries.
• Medium sized fruit
  2 kiwi fruits.
• Larger fruit
  1 banana, apple or orange.
• Very large fruit
  1 wedge of melon or slice of pineapple.

Picture the above in your mind, and you’ll get an idea of how big portions are. By the way, potatoes don’t count – even though they are indeed vegetables, their high starch content means that they are classed for this purpose with other starchy foods, such as bread or pasta.

Bear in mind that 5 portions a day should be the minimum that you should aim for; aim to base your new eating plan around as many portions a day as you can manage, packing in lots of health giving nutrients with all those different fruits and vegetables. Aim to “eat a rainbow” – as many different coloured ones as you can, to get as many nutrients as possible.

Part Five

What about calories?

Some people may be surprised that I haven’t mentioned anything about calories, as losing weight and calorie counting are inextricably linked in their minds.

Remember what I said in Module 1 about changing the way that you think about food. Weighing and measuring food and counting its calories isn’t much fun and leads to you thinking about food only in terms of what it will do for your waistline. Food is one of the great pleasures in life and is there to be enjoyed. Once you start eating healthy, nutritious foods, enjoying the delicious tastes that come from eating food in its natural state, and start rejecting the unhealthy choices of before, once you start eating regular, balanced meals and lots of fruit and vegetables, you won’t need to worry about calories.

Think health, not weight loss, and you’ll be naturally drawn towards the choices that keep you slim anyway.

A word about vitamin/mineral supplements

“Why should I need those if I eat a balanced, healthy diet?” you may ask.

Remember what I said above about the myth of the well balanced diet. Chances are that you’d benefit from a high quality vitamin and mineral supplement. Don’t be tempted by cheap ones. They tend to be packed with chemicals as fillers, glazers and bulking agents, and the vitamins and minerals in them are in forms that the body can’t use easily – such as calcium carbonate, which is calcium in the form of blackboard chalk. Difficult to imagine your body absorbing that, isn’t it? High quality supplement companies would include calcium in a form such as calcium citrate, which is far better absorbed by the body.

Good quality supplements, readily available from health food stores, include Solgar, Quest and Higher Nature.

Action!

Actions of the Week

1. Clear those Cupboards!

Look through your cupboards, fridge and freezer. Make notes of what food in there is unhealthy. Study the backs of packets and look at all the additives, extra salt, sugar and fat, and think of what all that must do to your body. See if you can think of ways to replace the junk with healthier alternatives. We’ll be looking at this in greater detail in Module 3.

2. Think about your current diet downfalls

Are you regularly skipping breakfast? Do you depend on chocolate fixes? Think about the various ways in which your desire to eat a healthy diet is at odds with what you actually do – your diet downfalls! Write them down, ready for Module 3.

3. Visit your local health food store

Buy a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement. Start taking it right away and remember to take it each day!

4. Brush up Your Cooking Skills!

Cooking food is for many a dying art – people increasingly rely on ready-made meals, which tends not to be the healthiest way to eat. If your cooking techniques need brushing up, invest in a good book that will teach you the basics. Lot’s of practice is the key if you’re not confident in the kitchen – you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Part Two

Daily meal ideas

Let’s start with Breakfast

Breakfast is very important – don’t skip it. We’ve already looked at the reasons why. Now let’s see what you can eat for a healthy breakfast that will fuel you so that you don’t need sugary snacks mid morning. If you’re not very hungry first
thing, try a glass of water with squeezed lemon juice on waking – it will help stimulate your digestive juices.

Breakfast Ideas

I’ve listed in italics why these are good for you:

• Two portions of chopped fruit, with live yoghurt and a mix of seeds
  Say sesame, pumpkin and sunflower.
  Provides protein, essential fatty acids, fibre and two of your daily portions of fruit and vegetables
• Organic baked beans on wholemeal bread.
  Try Whole Earth beans, as they have no added sugar.
  One portion of fruit and vegetables, protein, iron and fibre
• Scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast.
  Or try boiled or poached eggs. If you use Columbus eggs, these are high in essential fatty acids.
  Protein, fibre, iron, essential fats.
• Grilled tomatoes or mushrooms on wholemeal bread, with a poached egg.
  Protein, fibre, one portion of fruit and vegetables.
• Muesli or wholegrain cereals.
  Try to avoid ones with wheat, as today’s wheat is grown to be high in gluten which irritates many people’s bowel. Or mix your own muesli, using oat, millet or brown rice flakes. Soak overnight with milk (dairy, soya, rice or oat), add some mixed seeds and maybe some nuts and fresh fruit.
  Protein, fibre, essential fats, one portion of fruit and vegetables.
• Kipper with grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and 1 slice of wholemeal toast.
  Or replace the kipper with a slice of lean grilled bacon.
  Protein, essential fats, two portions of fruit and vegetables, fibre.

Part Three

A Look at Lunch

For those of us who work, lunch is often a sandwich but not always a healthy one! It is not difficult however to replace your current sandwich with a healthier and more delicious one. If you have access to cooking facilities – even very basic ones – the options for a healthy lunch are much wider.

No matter what you choose, a good way to finish lunch is with a portion of fresh fruit.

Lunch Ideas

Healthy Sandwiches

Some healthy, nutritious fillings include

• tuna
• hummus
• chicken
• egg or avocado with salad
• mashed avocado with salad and pumpkin seeds.

Avoid fillings with mayonnaise, such as Coronation chicken or egg mayo. Go for wholemeal bread rather than white, and have salad rather than pickle.

Cooked Lunches

If you have access to some basic cooking and/or food preparation facilities at work, which widens the scope for your lunches. Try the following:

• Jacket potato, with any of the following toppings: hummus, homemade curry, baked beans, cottage cheese or tuna. Avoid fatty toppings like grated cheese.
• Protein such as tuna, egg or lean chicken with salad and a wholemeal roll
• Homemade or a good quality bought soup (such as Covent Garden), wholemeal roll and small pot of plain yoghurt.
• Prepacked supermarket sushi.

Eat Leftovers!!

When cooking evening meals such as curry or stew, cook more than you need, and take a portion to work to heat up at lunchtime.

Part Four

Your Evening Meal

For many people this is the main meal of the day and the only one for which there is any appreciable cooking time available. For now we will assume you’ll be eating your evening meal at home – we’ll look at eating out later.

Often all that is required to make your evening meal more healthy is to slightly alter the way you prepare it or a change in the ingredients you choose. Aim for your food to be as unprocessed as possible. I know that people today lead hectic lives, and may have to resort to convenience foods, but if you do, make it as healthy as you can. If you’re having a ready meal lasagne, for example, go for a veggie rather than a meat one, and team it with masses of salad or vegetables rather than chips.

Eat more fish or vegetarian based meals (always with lots of vegetables) in order to reduce unhealthy saturated fats and replace them with the healthy essential fats. If it’s fish and chips that you love, try grilled battered fish steaks with oven chips at home, and add a vegetable such as a portion of peas.

OK, it’s still not the healthiest meal around, but better than the chip shop version.

Evening Meal Ideas & Advice

• Poached salmon or other fish, new potatoes and three portions of vegetables
  Or try a portion of lean grilled chicken, or any other protein source that you fancy.
• Homemade quick curry
  Use a good quality curry sauce, such as Shere Khan. Stir in at least 3 portions of cooked vegetables, together with a protein source such as cashew nuts, diced tofu, pulses, or cubed lean chicken. Serve with steamed brown rice.
• Chilli, stews and casseroles
  Reduce the amount of meat you normally use and replace with mushrooms, diced peppers or Quorn mince.

I hope the above has given you some ideas – with so many food choices available today, it’s impossible to go through everything. Remember to apply the healthy eating principles that you’ve learned in Module 2, think less fat, salt and sugar, more unrefined carbohydrates balanced with protein, and more vegetables and fruits, and you’ll begin to see results.

Always think how you can incorporate more fruit and vegetables onto your plate.

Part Five

About Snacks

Snacks can be the spanner in the works of a health eating plan – but they don’t have to be! If you feel peckish during the day, you’ll want a quick snack to keep your energy levels up. Before diving for a bar of chocolate or a bag of crisps try
one of the following:

• Small pot of live yoghurt with either mixed seeds or chopped fruit.
• A handful of mixed nuts, raisins and mixed seeds. Make up a tub of these and keep it near you.
• A slice of wholemeal toast spread with hummus.
• Some dried or fresh fruit, with some protein – e.g. a small wedge of cheese or some nuts.

What to do when the urge for sugary snacks strikes?

This is almost certainly going to happen along the way – old habits die hard! Don’t beat yourself up about it. Go for one of the healthy snacks mentioned above of you can. If you do give in and have a chocolate bar, make it a small Kit Kat or a
small bar of plain chocolate. Remember, you’re not perfect – if you eat something unhealthy, don’t pour guilt on yourself, just carry on with an overall healthy eating plan. The urge to eat junk will fade in time.

About Drinks

Tea and coffee are stimulants that can play havoc with your blood sugar, which is just what you don’t want. Try to substitute mineral water or diluted fruit juice – they’ll refresh you much more, as well as being good for your skin.

Avoid fizzy drinks such as colas – they are laden with sugar and can play a part in osteoporosis. Alcohol is bad news for your body in any quantity. By all means enjoy a glass of wine or some beer with a meal or socially, but keep it under control.

A Word about Portion sizes

Be guided by the size of normal plate and bowl sizes! For an evening meal based on the traditional “something with potatoes and vegetables”, aim for a portion of protein such as chicken or a vegetarian savoury no bigger than the size of your fist, and a slightly bigger portion of starchy carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta or potatoes.

The rest of your plate should be covered with 2-3 of your daily portions of vegetables, aiming for different coloured ones to maximise both nutrients and visual appeal. If it’s something like curry and rice, again fill a normal sized plate, but don’t heap it high.

With breakfast, if it’s cereal have a standard sized bowl, and the same if you’re having something like fruit and yoghurt. For snacks, I’ve suggested ideas above, in sensible quantities.

The thorny question of dessert

Many people like to finish their meals with dessert – the problem is many are laden with sugar and it’s your sweet tooth that you are trying to kill off! Remember, if you don’t feed a sweet tooth, it will die.

Instead, think of dessert as a chance to improve your healthy eating skills and squeeze in another portion of fruit. Try either dried or fresh, or a cooked dessert such as baked apples or pears, maybe stuffed with nuts and raisins or perhaps poached in wine.

But I don’t like…

It’s usual for people who have been eating junk food not to like fruit and vegetables. Remember what we’ve said about habit and re – educating your taste buds!

There is such a huge variety of fruit and vegetables that there must surely be some that you like. Try getting extra into your diet by sneaky ways, such as added extra mushrooms or chopped peppers to chilli and reducing the amount of meat. The more you eat, the more you will grow to love fruit and vegetables.

Good digestion starts in the mouth

Remember that your stomach doesn’t have teeth! To get the most from your food, chew it thoroughly. You’ll be helping your digestion, and you’ll also enjoy your food more if you don’t gulp it down. Also, by eating slowly, your brain will have enough time to receive the message from the stomach that it’s full.

Be a label detective

Get in the habit of checking labels for hidden nasties. As a general rule, the longer the list of ingredients, and the more long scientific sounding names in the list, the more additives, preservatives and hidden salts, sugars and fats there will
be. As a devotee of healthy eating, you won’t want to eat foods like that, especially the hidden fats and sugars. Watch out for sugar in hidden forms, such as maltose, lactose or fructose.

What to avoid

• Processed or refined foods such as white bread, pasta or rice. Use the whole grain alternatives instead.
• Avoid sugar, whether in sugary snacks or hidden in foods, as described above.
• Don’t add salt to cooking or at the table. As with sugar, it’s a habit and once you stop using salt, your taste buds become very sensitive to it. You’ll be able to taste just how salty many prepacked meals are – when you don’t eat it regularly,
  it tastes disgusting and overpowering. Add extra taste with herbs, spices or lemon juice if cooking.
• Deep fried and fatty foods are another no – no. Go for grilled, baked or steamed foods rather than greasy fried foods, which will soon start to taste horrible anyway. For hot meals, vegetables are always best steamed. Sausages, even if grilled, are high in fat, salt and other nasties, even the vegetarian ones.

Part Six

A Guide to Eating Out

Eating our is one of the great pleasures in life! By eating more healthily, you’ll gain a greater appreciation of good food, far more than if you eat fatty sugary junk. And it’s very possible to eat out and still eat healthily – I
know, because I eat out a lot, as I love combining food and socialising!

So let’s start by looking at different types of food, and how you can make healthy food choices from restaurant menus.

Indian Restaurants

• For starters, go for dhal soup or chicken tikka, rather than fried starters such as bhajis or samosas.
• Avoid curries cooked with cream or butter, such as pasandas or kormas, and go for curries with tomato based sauces, such as rogan josh, jalfrezi or dupiaza.
• Team your curry with plain boiled rice rather than nan breads or pilau rice – it’s healthier, and the plainness of the rice provides a better contrast with the main dish.
• Try a tandoori dish with salad and chapattis.
• If you have a vegetable based curry, you’ll be packing more vegetables into your day, and you avoid the unhealthy saturated fat that comes with meat based dishes.

Chinese Restaurants

• Avoid fried starters such as deep fried won ton or spring rolls or greasy ones like satay chicken. Try one of the hot and sour soups or barbecued spare ribs instead.
• For the main course, avoid fried foods and duck dishes (duck is a very fatty meat). Other unhealthy options are the sweet and sour dishes. Aim for seafood or vegetable dishes and team them with plain rice. Try king prawn with mixed vegetables, or chicken with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

Italian Restaurants

• Go for the fish dishes with potatoes and salad or vegetables.
• If you’re having pasta, make sure it’s with a tomato and herb based sauce, rather than a creamy one such as carbonara.
• Avoid or limit the garlic bread, or ask for bruschetta topped with tomatoes and extra garlic. If going for a pizza, avoid the meat based toppings in favour of the vegetable ones – they’re healthier and you’ll be helping to pack more nutrient rich vegetables into your day.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for your pizza without cheese, therefore cutting out a lot of saturated fat. Pile on the tomatoes, extra vegetables and herbs and you’ll have a far healthier and less fatty pizza.

French Restaurants

Go for plain cuts of meat or fish with vegetables or salad, rather than fatty casseroles.

Mexican Restaurants

Go for the vegetable fajitas or burros, and fill with plenty of vegetables, limiting the amount of sour cream. If you’re having chilli, go for the vegetable rather than a meat based one – more vegetables towards your quota, and less unhealthy fat.

Barbecues

Aim for veggie kebabs, grilled sweet corn and peppers, jacket potatoes and chicken legs or barbecued steak, with plenty of salad and wholemeal bread. Avoid sausages (they are full of extra fat, salt and additives). Avoid creamy dips in favour of tomato based ones such as salsa.

Action!

Actions of the Week

Actions of the Week

1. Make a list of ways in which you can incorporate the ideas above into your daily life.

Start with breakfast – how can you change and adapt this to healthy principles? What can you do about lunch, and your evening meals?

Come up with at least 6 ideas for each meal throughout the day, as well as snacks. Use the ideas outlined here and come up with more of your own. Think about any restaurant meals out that you have planned – how can you choose healthily whilst still having a delicious meal?

Think ahead, and you’ll be less likely to succumb to unhealthy choices when you’re there.

2. Have you bought your vitamin supplement and are you taking it regularly?

Place it in a prominent position in your kitchen, so you’ll remember it each day.

3. Now that you know about how to eat for health and weight, you’re ready to start.

Make sure your progress chart is somewhere where you’ll see it every day. You can reread your motivating factors for getting slim, to remind yourself why you’re doing this. Never lose sight of the benefits of being slim and healthy – including the chance to live a more fulfilling life!

4. Go shopping!

Now that you know what you’ll replace your old choices with, clear the cupboards of the junk…and buy lots of healthy, delicious replacements, as outlined above. Fill your cupboards with fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and enjoy healthy eating!

Next Week

To be effective, weight loss should be teamed with exercise, to help melt away the flab and tone up your body. We’ll be looking at how to incorporate exercise into a busy life, and what you should do. Don’t worry, you won’t be sentenced to hours in a gym if that’s not your scene – we’ll find something that will suit you!

Part Two

How exercise can help with weight loss

We’ve already mentioned that regular exercise can speed up your metabolism. Your body becomes more efficient at converting food into energy, and you won’t store as much as fat. This put paid to one of the beloved excuses of many overweight people – “it’s not my fault I gain weight, it’s my metabolism!”

Regular exercise also tones muscles, so that you’ll look sleeker, and it also increases the ratio of muscle to fat in the body. Muscles use up more calories in the body, so you naturally burn up more calories, helping you to lose weight. And of course, the exercise itself will use up calories.

Start slowly and gently

Many of us struggle with exercise, remembering grim school hockey sessions or wasted gym memberships. The trick is to find something that you enjoy. There’s little point buying an expensive gym membership, vowing to go 5 times a week, and then giving up after 2 weeks. It’s far better to go once a week and stick with it long term. The same principle applies to exercising as it does to losing weight – do it slowly and gradually. No sudden assaults on your body that, ultimately, are unsustainable.

Remember also that exercise doesn’t have to mean going to the gym. Many people just don’t enjoy gyms. You can pick something that you actually like, so that you’ll have fun at the same time, and maybe even improve your social life.

Some ideas for you …

Part Three

Walking

This one is reasonably easy for many people to fit into their lifestyle. Walking can be maintained for as long as you like and gives a gentle but excellent cardiovascular workout. Long, brisk walks bring the greatest benefits.

• Try leaving the car behind for short journeys and walk instead. If you’re going grocery shopping, so much the better – carrying those bags home can double as an easy form of weight training!
• Think about whether you could walk more often in your lunch hours from work. Just a ½ hour walk, three times a week, will help.
• Or look at joining a local walking group. Many do Sunday afternoon rambles, a great way to get some fresh air, make new friends and improve your fitness at the same time.

Cycling

A good alternative to taking the car for short journeys, cycling can also be used for longer trips, improving your fitness and saving money as well. It gives a good cardiovascular workout whilst strengthening back and leg muscles, To begin with, a 4 or 5 kilometre ride would be a good start.

Again, it’s something that you could do with a local club, so you meet new people and have fun at the same time. If you’re nervous about cycling on our busy roads, many cities have organisations that run courses aimed at improving your cycling confidence.

Dancing

Salsa, jive, tango, Leroc…today’s range of dance classes are fun, varied, and a great way of exercising whilst having a great time. You don’t need to worry about going along on your own as you’ll be paired up with a partner there. Most of your body will get a good workout, including your cardiovascular system.

Swimming

A great form of exercise all round, swimming is ideal for anyone with joint problems, as the water will support you. Local authorities run both beginners and improvers courses should you feel you need them.

Don’t aim for too many laps at first – three or four laps, followed by a short rest, then more laps, until you reach say 20, will be fine at first. Just do what you can, and you’ll be surprised how your stamina builds up.

Jogging/running

Great exercise for your cardiovascular system and it helps tone and firms the legs and bum. Make sure that you invest in a pair of proper running shoes, and if possible find a running track or grass/dirt area to run on. (Running on cement surfaces can cause leg injuries, as it’s too hard a surface). At first, just jog or run gently until you tire, and aim to increase the time and distance that you go each time you do it.

Recreational sports

Most of these are excellent for increasing fitness and good for your social life as well. If you enjoyed sport at school, think back to which ones you enjoyed, and see if you could take them up again. There are always tennis, squash and badminton leagues available at sports centres, as well as football, volleyball and netball.

Joining a gym

If you are happy to use a gym and can afford the fees, then this can be an excellent way to exercise. The treadmill, bikes and rowers can increase your cardiovascular health, with the weights machines increasing strength.

Part Four

Excuses, excuses!

Exercise is boring

You don’t have to commit yourself to just one form of exercise – keep it varied and you’ll keep it fun. Swim once a week, take a long walk on Sunday, do a dance class. It’s all contributing to your overall fitness levels, and helping to maintain that steady weight loss that you’re after.

Make it enjoyable, so that it never feels like a chore. Very soon, you’ll be seeing and feeling the benefits, and you’ll be motivated to carry on.

But I don’t like exercise!

I do sympathise with this one – exercise doesn’t come easily to me. Don’t worry; there are ways to incorporate exercise into your life, in ways that don’t feel as if you’re exercising. And as you do so, you’ll have more energy and stamina, so you’ll end up wanting to do more.

Firstly, let’s look at whether you really dislike all exercise. Chances are that there’s something that will provide exercise that you already enjoy. We’ve already looked at dancing, which many people love. What about gardening, another popular hobby? Walking is another good one; we all do it already, so it’s just a case of doing a bit more. I know people who enjoy housework – put some energy into it, and it can be a good form of exercise.

Many people say they dislike exercise because they hate feeling hot and sweaty. Swimming could be the answer here! There’s always some way to get exercise into your life.

I just don’t have the time…

This is understandable in today’s busy, stressful lives. However, busy, stressed out people are just those whom would benefit from exercise! And there’s usually a way to get some extra into your life. This can also help the “I don’t like exercise”  people also.

Let’s look at ways to sneak exercise in through the back door, so you don’t notice that you’re exercising.

Part Five

Exercise by stealth

This approach to being more physically active overcomes many of the usual objections to more organised forms of exercise, such as insufficient time or dislike of exercise. Exercise by stealth works by changing the way that you do the everyday activities that we all do, so that the result is greater strength, endurance and flexibility.

The benefits of this approach to exercise are many. It can be done anywhere, and often requires no special equipment or training. It can be done by people of all ages and weights. In many cases this more physically active approach doesn’t take longer and may also save you money.

So what can you do during your everyday life to exercise? Ideas include:

• Get off the bus a stop or two earlier, or park the car further away, and walk the rest of the way.
• Use stairs instead of lifts or escalators. A good toning exercise for thighs and bums is to take the stairs two at a time, if you can manage it.
• Walk (or cycle) short distances rather than take the car. This saves on fuel costs as well.
• If you only need a few items at the supermarket, use a hand basket rather than a trolley – mini weight – training for your arms and shoulders.
• Change TV channels manually rather than use the remote.
• Wash your car by hand rather than using the car wash.
• Gardening and housework can both be good forms of exercise. Get that Hoover moving!
• Take time to play with children – they often have endless energy and just keep up with them will give you some exercise!
• If you have a dog, add 10 minutes to each walk. No dog? Borrow a neighbour’s, or visit the local animal sanctuary, where they usually welcome volunteer dog walkers.
• If you can, choose a pub or restaurant that you can walk to.
• If you already walk to the bus stop or train station, try jogging.

Part Six

Advice for those unused to exercise

Please, go gently! Remember that it is important to respect your body. If you’ve been accustomed to little or no exercise, don’t be cruel to your body by going mad on the exercise front, then finding you’re so stiff and aching that you can’t face the prospect of any more exercise. Building up gradually will avoid overstraining yourself and possible injury. Don’t expect results overnight. Little and regular is the key, as long – term it’s far less daunting and hence more sustainable. Start slowly; taking care to select an activity or form of exercise that you think you can stick with.

Warm up first – do a few basic stretches before you start your chosen exercise, to avoid possible strains. If you have any doubts at all about your health if you have any heart disease, joint or muscle problems or any other worry, then have a check up with your doctor before you start exercising.

Measuring and monitoring

As with the weight loss, it’s a good idea to record your progress on the exercise front, and find some way of measuring the increase in your fitness. The way to do this will vary according to which form of exercise you choose. Set up some simple form of record to note your progress. Swimmers can choose to increase the number of lengths they do; walkers, cyclists or runners the distance they go.

For those who choose something like dancing, housework or the exercise by stealth method, a good way is to monitor your resting heart rate. This is the number of heart beats per minute when your body is resting. It can be measured by a home blood pressure monitor (these usually also give the pulse rate) or by simply counting your pulse, which you will find on the inside of your wrist, in line with your thumb. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers on your pulse and press down, not too hard, and count the beats for 15 seconds. Multiply this by 4 to give the heart rate per minute.

Your resting heart rate is best measured first thing in the morning, or after you have been lying down and relaxing for about half an hour. It should be in the range of 45 – 80, the lower figures usually being the province of elite athletes. For those unused to exercise, it may be 90 -100, and as you gain fitness this will steadily come down.

Action!

Actions of the Week

1. Now it’s time for you to decide how you’re going to get more activity into your life.

Review the time and money that you have available, and decide on an exercise programme that is both realistic and right for you. Check out that sports centre, think where you could walk at lunchtimes, whose dog you could borrow for walks. Commit yourself to your chosen activity on a regular basis, at least once a week, and preferably three times.

2. Buy or borrow whatever gear or equipment you may need.

3. Decide on your way of measuring your progress

Set up a simple record and enter your progress weekly, to give visible records of how you’re doing.

Part Two

An under active thyroid

The thyroid is linked to metabolism, and so an under active thyroid can lead to weight gain. Look at this list of symptoms and see if they apply to you:

• Gradual, unexplained weight gain
• Often feeling cold and needing extra clothes/heating
• Constipation
• Dry skin and/or hair loss
• Lack of energy and tiredness
• Headaches
• Poor memory, confusion and difficulty thinking straight
• Menstrual problems
• Depression

If, after reading the above, you feel you may have thyroid problems, then consider seeing your GP for a blood test. However, mild case of under active thyroids can go undetected by these tests, and there is a simple one that you can do to check your thyroid function. It’s done by taking your temperature when your body is at rest. If the reading is low, it may indicate an underactive thyroid.

Here’s how to test yourself.

The Barnes Basal Temperature Test

You need an ordinary mercury thermometer. First thing in the morning, before you get out of bed or do anything, place the thermometer in your armpit and leave it there for 10 minutes. Do this for 3 consecutive mornings, making a note of the readings. Men and women not in the menstrual years can do this test on any morning; women who menstruate should do the test on day 2 or 3 after the start of their period.

The normal range is 36.4C – 36.7C, or 97.6F – 98.2F. If your temperature is falling below 36.4C, then you may have an underactive thyroid that could be contributing to weight problems. There are specialised nutritional supplements that can help with mild thyroid issues, and a good nutritional therapist can advise you about these.

Make sure your diet includes plenty of thyroid boosting foods such as whole grains, seeds, prunes, potatoes, apricots, dates, eggs and potatoes. Some vegetables, if eaten raw, can depress thyroid hormone production – these are the brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. However, cooking should remove this effect, but to be on the safe side bias your vegetable intake towards other vegetables.

Part Three

Prescription drugs

An unfortunate side effect of some medications such as steroids or HRT is weight gain. You may want to discuss your prescription with your doctor and see if there are alternatives that you could try. (On no account stop taking your medication without discussing it first with your GP). Increased exercise levels and a healthy diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables should help keep the problem under control.

Food intolerances

Many people exhibit intolerances to various foods – common culprits are wheat, dairy, corn, eggs and citrus fruits. All sorts of symptoms can result, from skin problems, headaches and aching joints, but food intolerances can also predispose the body towards weight gain and fluid retention.

How can you establish what foods may be causing your weight problems?

One important sign is that often it’s something that you crave or eat a lot of. It’s a shame, but it’s true. Think about what foods you feel you couldn’t possibly do without.

• Is it bread or pasta? Wheat may be your problem food.
• Love your morning orange juice? Maybe it’s citrus.

The food in question can become somewhat addictive, causing you to eat more and more of it, perhaps beyond what you need for energy. Try cutting out the suspected food for a few days, and see if you notice an improvement in water retention and your energy levels.

The Pulse Test

If you cut out a certain food and feel better, try the pulse test, which can confirm your suspicions. After you’ve excluded the food for a few days, take your pulse after resting for about 15 minutes – count the beats on the thumb side of your wrists to determine the number of beats per minute. Some people will have home heart rate or blood pressure monitors which will do the job for them.

Now eat a larger than normal quantity of the suspected food – say 3 slices of toast, if you think wheat may be a problem. Then take your pulse 10 minutes later, then again after 30 minutes and after 1 hour. If a food intolerance is present, the pulse can jump by 10 beats or more quite rapidly. Remember to sit quietly whilst doing the test, so that your pulse doesn’t rise because you are being more active.

You can also have a blood test done. I don’t recommend some other forms of intolerance testing, such as those done via a testing machine – a blood test done by a reputable testing laboratory is more likely to be accurate. A reputable nutritional therapist will be able to organise a test for you.

If you find you are intolerant to something like wheat or dairy, there are many helpful books on the market that can guide you towards alternatives, or consult a nutritional therapist. You may well find that after eliminating the culprit foods for say 6 months, you can reintroduce them in small quantities without adverse effects.

Part Four

Cigarettes

Many people want to give up smoking, yet are afraid of the weight gain that many experience. Without the prop of a cigarette, many turn to food and so overeat. Smoking also acts as an appetite depressant, so giving up can make you hungry – and that’s when problems can start.

If you’re following the healthy eating principles of this plan, you should already be eating plenty of fibre rich foods and complex carbohydrates, which should help to keep you feeling full and stave off hunger pangs. Suck sugar free gum or clean your teeth if you feel a cigarette or food craving coming on – somehow eating when you have squeaky clean teeth isn’t so appealing.

A good nutritional therapist can also advise you on supplements that contain l – glutamine, which can help control a variety of cravings, whether they’re for cigarettes, sugar or alcohol. They can be contraindicated for some individuals, so make sure you take such supplements under supervision.

But it’s my metabolism – honest!

Your metabolic rate isn’t set in stone, forever stuck at a slow rate which means that you are doomed to pile on weight and not be able to do anything about it. Your body’s metabolism can change, fuelled by good eating habits and regular exercise.

The metabolic rate rises after eating to process the food – another reason why it can help some people to graze rather than gorge – i.e., eat little and often. Missing meals makes the body think it’s heading for starvation and it will slow down metabolism to prepare for lack of food. So don’t skip meals.

Exercise is vital to a healthy metabolism –it boosts the metabolism and allows the body to burn fat more efficiently. Also, the higher your ration of muscle to fat, the higher your metabolic rate will be, because the body uses more calories to sustain muscle than it does fat. So athletes can eat more without gaining weight! Follow the suggestions in Module 4, and get moving!

Part Five

Candida – the hidden enemy

Candia Albicans is a yeasty organism that we all have in our guts, but which in a healthy digestive system is kept in check by the beneficial bacteria in the gut. Many factors such as antibiotics, stress and the Pill can cause Candida Albicans to grow out of control, leading to a variety of unpleasant problems. Check the following to see if they apply to you:

• Recurrent thrush, fungal infections or an itchy anus
• Food cravings, typically for bread or sugary food
• Inability to lose weight
• Tiredness and lack of energy
• Bloating and excess flatulence
• Mental confusion

A blood test can be done to test for Candida, or for those who hate needles, a good nutritional therapist can evaluate this for you, using a detailed questionnaire and discussion of your symptoms. You will need to go on a yeast and sugar free diet and take antifungal and probiotic supplements to help restore the balance of bacteria in your gut – again, take professional advice.

Water retention

Many women will recognise this particular nasty just before their period! It can add a good couple of pounds to your weight and make clothes and jewellery unbearably tight. The sad thing is that many people, correctly believing that they suffer from water retention, then limit the amount of water that they drink. This is wrong for the same sort of reason that means skipping meals can contribute to weight gain. If you restrict your water intake, the body interprets this as a possible drought situation, and so hangs on to what water it can in case future supplies are going to be short. Result – that tight, uncomfortable felling around your waist band. Drink plenty of bottled or filtered water throughout the day.

It’s also important to limit your salt intake. Excess salt, whether in convenience foods or added to cooking or at the table, can upset the body’s water regulation mechanisms. Over the counter diuretics should also be avoided, as they can result in important minerals being lost from the body along with the water.

Part Six

Depression and stress

It’s common knowledge that your mental state can affect your weight. When we’re unhappy we tend to compensate by overeating, finding solace in sugary snacks and comfort food such as sausages and mash. It’s a vicious circle, as we then have another factor to be unhappy about – our weight.

Stress can contribute to weight problems as well. People lead rushed, hectic lives, eat on the run and often make unhealthy food choices as a result. Breakfast is often missed as you dash off to work. Lunch is a quick burger. It’s all too easy to grab a takeaway on the way home because you’re too tired to cook. Poor food choices, full of fat, low in nutrients, which will deplete your energy, and so you turn to sugary snacks as a quick boost. Coupled with no time to exercise, the scene is set for weight gain.

It’s beyond the scope of this Module to give advice about relieving depression, unhappiness and stress. I’m not a trained psychologist or counsellor. If you have underlying issues that could be contributing to your weight problems, then seek professional help to resolve those issues. Otherwise, you’ll most likely end up sabotaging your efforts to lose weight, and then beat yourself up mentally about what a failure you are. That won’t help at all!

If stress and a hectic lifestyle is your problem, then consider consulting a life coach, who can work with you to establish your priorities and guide you towards taking more time for yourself. If money is an problem, consider volunteering to be coached by somebody who is training to be a coach, as this is often free of charge.

The Fiona Harrold website is an excellent place to find somebody to coach you! Or read the superb book “Take Time For your Life” by Cheryl Richardson, published by Bantam Books. Cheryl explains why everybody should make taking good care of themselves a top priority, and offers practical advice on how to restructure your life so that you have more time for the things that really matter.

Action!

Actions of the Week

1. Is something stopping you?

• Have you checked your thyroid function?
• Consulted your doctor about any medication that may be contributing to your weight gain?
• Considered whether you may have a few too many Candida Albicans bugs living happily inside of you?

Check through the above – and take action if you think it may be appropriate. Book an appointment with your GP, hire a life coach, check out possible food intolerances. You’ll be giving your healthy weight loss programme the best possible back up if you do

2. Let’s recap on progress so far. Have you taken the following actions?

• Considered what might be your diet downfalls – and come up with ideas for healthy alternatives?
• Cleared your cupboards of junk foods?
• Been to the supermarket and bought healthy, fresh alternatives?
• Planned new healthy meal ideas, using the guidelines in Modules 2 and 3?
• Started taking a good quality multivitamin and mineral regularly?
• Decided how to incorporate more exercise into your life?

If so, well done! If not, I urge you to start right now. Your new slim, healthy life is too important to delay. Look back at the motivational factors that you wrote on your progress chart, and remind yourself what being slim will mean for you. Keep that thought in mind, and start taking action!

3. Have you updated your progress chart with your weight loss to date?

The chart is there to show you your progress in black and white – use it!

Part Two

Have some practical goals to aim for

Besides the obvious one of achieving your weight goal, why not pick some other, fun goals to help you on your way? A favourite one for many people is to buy an fabulous item of clothing in the size they’d like to be, and plan an fantastic night out to show it off.

Other people know their ultimate goal when they start a weight loss programme and for many it’s a wedding they want to lose weight for. The danger with this is that they’re thinking short term, rather than aiming to be slim for the rest of their lives. By all means have your wedding day as a fabulous reason to lose weight, but remember to think beyond the day itself. By changing your eating habits in the way set out in this plan, you are equipped to do just that.

What about having an exercise goal to aim for? Maybe there’s a half marathon being held that you could enter, or you may prefer a more modest goal like being able to play badminton regularly without getting puffed.

Whatever extra goal you choose, make sure you write it on your progress chart, so that you will see it regularly!

Tell friends – find a healthy eating buddy

Harness the power of teamwork! Make yourself accountable by telling friends of your decision to eat healthily and lose weight, and ask that they enquire regularly about your progress. People are more likely to accomplish goals if they are accountable to somebody else and have to report their progress. Make sure you pick friends who have a positive encouraging attitude, but who won’t be soft on you.

Even better, find a friend who is willing to learn healthy eating and lose weight alongside you. You’ll have support and encouragement along the way, and somebody to celebrate your success with.

Part Three

Affirmations

Affirmations can be a very effective way of changing ingrained thinking. You may have some unhealthy patterns of thinking that could interfere with changing your habits successfully. I’m not referring to issues like depression that we looked at in Module 5, but rather the insidious way many people have of putting themselves down. “My body is fat and unattractive”. “I’ll never lose weight”, and so on. It ends up being a self fulfilling prophecy, and it just isn’t helpful to think in this way. Let’s look at how regular use of affirmations can help.

What are affirmations? They are positive statements, phrased in the present tense, which you repeat as often as you like to re – programme both your conscious and subconscious thinking. Why must they be positive? Because your mind picks up on the key words, so if you say “I don’t want to be fat” – being fat is what it focuses on and this is not the best way of breaking old patterns. Better to focus on slimness and health! Why must they be in the present tense? Because ones phrased in the future, such as “I will lose weight” always mean that the action of losing weight is deferred to some date yet to come, at least as far as your subconscious is concerned.

So let’s look at some examples of positive affirmations. Try:

• I am slim, healthy and happy.
• I eat nutritious, delicious foods that are good for my body.
• I achieve my goal weight easily.
• I enjoy taking great care of my body.
• Exercise is fun and keeps me in great shape.

You can practise affirmations anywhere – in the shower, driving to work, whatever suits you. For maximum effect, they should be said out loud, with a confident, positive tone. Try it and see!

Prefer something more visual?

For some people, visual aids work better than affirmations. One trick that many people have found helpful as a motivational aid is to create a Motivation Board.

Think of all the reasons to lose weight that you thought about in Module 1. How could these be represented in picture form? Buy a large sheet of cardboard from any stationers, and start cutting out appropriate pictures from magazines, etc., that will act as an incentive for your healthy eating programme and that you can stick on your Motivation Board. If an overseas backpacking trip is your motivation, cut out pictures of your dream destinations from holiday brochures. If it’s your wedding, stick on pictures of lovely bridal dresses. If it’s health and fitness, find pictures of healthy, athletic individuals doing your chosen sport.

Make sure that you include pictures of healthy food on the Board as well – create a riot of colour with purple grapes, orange carrots, and green vegetables – make it as visually appealing as you can. The aim is to get the Motivation Board to represent both the healthy food that now forms the basis of your diet along with the reasons why you want to lose weight, all in one big, fantastic, colourful motivational aid. Find some large, stick on numbers from your stationers, or cut out numbers from magazines, and make sure your goal weight is prominently on the Motivation Board too.

Place the Motivation Board somewhere prominent, such as your bedroom wall, so that you have a constant visual aid of what’s you’re aiming for.

Part Four

When temptation strikes…

You’re only human, and changing ingrained habits can be difficult at first. There will be moments when you’re tempted to go back your old, favourite foods, and maybe you’ll give in to that temptation. Don’t let one slip ruin your progress! Acknowledge that you ate something that wasn’t in your plan, and go back to eating healthily. Think about whether there were any stress factors that led to your lapse – were you unhappy and in need of comfort food? Remember what we said in Module 5 – are there any issues that need professional help from a counsellor? Were you rushed and grabbed at the nearest thing to satisfy your hunger? Think again about how you can slow down your life, or carry healthy snacks with you.

If temptation is lurking, but you haven’t yet succumbed, have one of the healthy snacks from Module 3 and look again at your list of motivating factors. Distract yourself – phone a friend, do some housework, whatever will work for you.

Remember you don’t have to completely deny yourself. Yes, I know I said about that feeding cravings can keep alive unhealthy habits. However, there’s a danger that if you totally deny yourself, your cravings may carry on nagging at you, getting more and more persistent. And there’ll always be the special social occasion where you’d like a sweet dessert. If you follow the basic plan, eating plenty of complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, then your cravings for junk food and sugar will subside in time. If the basic foundation of your diet is good, then an occasional deviation from that won’t hurt.

If you remember that it’s not a disaster if you occasionally eat chocolate or have a burger, then you won’t feel as if you have to attain some impossible ideal of healthy food, and nothing but, for ever and ever. Relax and don’t be too hard on yourself!

Part Five

Reasons Not to be Overweight

I don’t want to focus too much on this as I’d rather emphasis the positive aspects of eating for health and slimness. However, I think it’s important that you know just how unhealthy being overweight can be for you – there’s a long list of health (should that be un – health?) conditions linked with being overweight.

Most people know of the link with heart disease – how many overweight centenarians do you see? Overweight people just don’t make it to a ripe old age. But there’s more. Overweight people have a greatly increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, the ultimate result of poor blood sugar control, and diabetes can lead to serious complications, such as blindness and amputation of limbs.

All that excess weight creates joint problems, as the large complex joints such as the knees struggle to cope with the burden that’s placed on them. Arthritis is painful and can severely restrict mobility. Overweight people suffer with back pain, which can make normal sitting positions agony.

Women who are overweight are at higher risk of breast cancer, and can also have major problems conceiving.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. Love your body, don’t abuse it. Love it as it is right now, even if you still have weight to lose. It works hard for you – treat it with respect. You can’t trade it in for a new model if you wreck it.

Action!

Actions of the Week

1. Look back over your progress so far

And make sure you are recording it on your progress chart. Are you doing the other parts of the programme too? Are you exercising regularly, or at least getting more active? Are you taking your daily multivitamin and mineral supplement? Are you rewarding your success?

2. Decide on a suitable affirmation

Pick on that has some resonance for you and start using it regularly, or if you prefer, create your Motivation Board.

3. Find a sympathetic friend to work with

You need someone who will at least motivate and help you when you need it. Make sure you talk regularly to spur each other on.

4. List out at least 3 extra goals that will help you as you go along

Chose practical things, such as buying some new clothes or being able to run a mile easily. Record them on your progress chart.

Summing Up

Thank you for coming this far with me. I hope that by now you are excited about the new healthy future that is before you.

Remember these basics, and you’ll do fine:

• Choose unrefined, unprocessed foods, basing your diet around complex carbohydrates, balanced with good quality protein and lots of fruit and vegetables.
• Exercise as you go along, helping to tone up your body and boost its metabolism.
• Drink plenty of water and diluted juices rather than stimulants like tea and coffee.
• Review your overall health and deal with any issues such as thyroid problems or Candida.
• Consider your emotional triggers for over eating or choosing junk food and see a counsellor if necessary.
• Find ways to make your new way of life fun – regular rewards, working with a friend, creating your Motivation Board. Don’t make hard work of getting healthy!
• Always remember your motivating factors, and remind yourself of them every day. Think of yourself being able to dance the night away, having the energy to hike through the hills, or looking great in those sexy new clothes – and being able to do that for the rest of your life, being fuelled by great, nutritious food and exercise.
• Bear in mind that your focus should be health, rather than calorie counting, fad diets, deprivation, and the other miseries associated with dieting.

Remember the title of this course – I wish you every success for a long, healthy, slim life.