Move more, eat less?
High intensity work outs, cut the refine carbs out?
Run, run and run?
Shakes & Walking?
Pt’s like to answer with the following “It’s really simple, just get yourself into a calorie deficit.”
They’re right but there’s still a thousand ways you can create that and you probably won’t choose the correct way otherwise you’d have done it already and wouldn’t need to read this. I won’t talk about what a calorie deficit is, that’s simple, everyone on this planet knows it to some degree. Instead I’ll talk about the habits that are holding you back from keeping the weight off when it does come off.
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Lack of Fruits and Veg
If you’re eating over 800g a day everyday, you’re doing awesome. If it’s under, you’re lacking and lacking these foods leads to a whole host of unwanted habits. Folks that eat 800g + of these tend to get to bed before 10pm and they wake up around 6am full of energy. This sounds like will power to you but natural for them and it’s because of their consumption of the right foods. Fruits and veggies should be seen as hormone stabilisers and energy pills. Up these and you’ll be sure to keep the weight off.
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Sleep
Not sleeping well is a sign things aren’t going right. And the reason it’s second is because you could just set your alarm and go to bed earlier but you won’t because at 8pm you’re little snack belly as I like to call mine starts to ring letting you know you need something sweet with that film you’re about to chill out with. Sugar at 8 awake til late. Get the veggies in and you’ll likely be full at 8, catch my drift?
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Cultural norms you need to let go of
Chicken does not go with strawberries, why would I have these on the same plate? You need to let go of breakfast, lunch, pudding and all these terms created to sell products. Food is food. You’re going to consume food throughout each and every day for the rest of your life so you might as well start learning more about it and take it more seriously, you do it EVERYDAY!
Cereals are only breakfast foods in the west. If you were born in Africa fruit would have been the first solid food you were introduced to. If you were born in Japan it would likely be fish but born in the UK it’s most likely processed baby food full of stuff you don’t know how to pronounce or bread as the first solid food.Let go of “it’s 3pm I can’t eat now or I wont want dinner later.” If you’re hungry you should eat, your body is telling you it needs something. What you eat at any meal time is what you’re leaving your body with. Cereal for breakfast is the same as cereal for dinner… not good enough.
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Overestimating your activity
I used to hate the term ‘getting your steps in’ I still do to an extent but as the majority of the worlds population is suffering from obesity I’m starting to see how it could be useful. In a perfect world you’d get up, go to the gym for an hour of high intensity functional training. You’d go to work and eat mostly whole foods throughout the day. You would get home and make dinner for later, then you and the family would go and either play a sport together, go bike riding, or walking. You finish the day with dinner at the table talking about your activity together. That’s 2 hours of exercise a day and the whole family was involved. Disguising movement through activities with the family is the easiest way to create a calorie deficit because you’re moving more than you would normally. Netflix will still be there, when you get back. Most people think a hard hour at the gym means you can eat whatever you like and how much you like because you’ve suffered at the gym. One hour at the gym no matter how hard you went usually warrants a the standard daily calorie intake recommendation for both male and female. The only people who should be eating in a surplus are strength athletes (rugby players & contact sports or anyone who through their vigorous activity schedule is constantly losing weight they don’t want to be. That’s not you or me is it? CrossFit, although challenging on the body does not call for excess consumption of calories.
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Repeatable
You need to live this way for years until it becomes normal. You don’t need to be obsessed it just has to become normal. Getting up early isn’t a discipline, it’s normal if you want certain things for your life. It’s no surprise that when someone radically changes there life from obese to healthy or from well to fit they also make progress in their work careers. Their family responds to them more positively. Kids even do better at school when their parents are happy and healthy. Whatever you’re doing, make sure you can repeat it for year upon year upon year.
