Easy changes you can make to achieve healthy weight loss
Who doesn’t crave hearty food when it’s cold and wet? Even if you’ve been healthy all year, your diet may be changing with the weather, you’ll start to feel sluggish and unfit, weight will creep up and before you can put the brakes on, bad eating habits become hard to break.
If your favourite jeans are starting to feel tight, act now! It will be so much easier to make changes now, before weight gain becomes the norm. And, losing even a bit of excess weight or inches on your waist could help you to sleep better, move about more easily, improve your immunity and eradicate joint pain. Dropping a few pounds also helps to reduce the risk of developing heart disease or type 2 diabetes, so it could add years to your life!
Medical experts, pharmaceutical companies, and fitness experts actively target those overweight and yet despite all the ‘help’ available, according to NHS statistics, over 25% of UK adults are obese. The reason? Lots of these experts are in business to sell a quick fix – surgery, pills or supplements – but expensive ‘band-aids’ aren’t necessary!
We recommend a series of small steps – incorporate them into your life and get on a healthy path to losing excess weight. Follow our practical, common-sense advice and you could lose up to 10lbs in one month.
1. Combine proteins, carbs and fats at EVERY meal.
The key to weight loss is blood sugar control. Blood sugar drops cause a release of cortisol, which directs the body to store fat. By controlling your blood sugar you’ll reduce the amount of cortisol released. By eating all three food groups in one meal your blood sugar will be better managed – protein lowers blood sugar, carbs raise it and fats normalise it.
2. Eat your biggest meal of the day for breakfast
Skipping breakfast causes dramatic peaks and troughs in blood sugar that can last all day and can cause night-time bingeing.
3. Go to sleep by 10pm.
A lack of sleep leads to low levels of leptin in your blood. Leptin plays a key role in helping you feel full. Plus, if you are overtired, you are far less likely to have the energy you need to turn up at an exercise class after work or cook a healthy dinner.
4. Remove gluten from your diet.
A gluten intolerance can cause tiredness, feeling bloated, skin issues or unexplained weight gain. We recommend a reduction in the gluten in your diet for most of our clients, whether gluten intolerant or not. This means they will naturally be relying more on vegetables and lean meat for calories and cutting out unhealthy foods such as bread, pizza, pasta, cakes, etc. Reducing gluten in your diet can help to improve cholesterol levels, digestive health, and energy levels.
5. Remove ALL processed foods from your diet.
One rule of thumb: if it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago don’t eat it.
You would never add ingredients such as soy lecithin or carageenan, to your home cooking so don’t buy foods that contain them either! Emulsifiers and stabilisers, designed to keep the product on the shelf longer, cause inflammation in the gut and destroy the thyroid resulting in poor metabolism and easy weight gain. Eating varied and colourful plates of whole, unprocessed foods will have a dramatic impact on your weight loss goals.
6. Drink lots of water.
You hear this all the time, but it’s vital! We confuse the feelings of thirst with hunger so you might eat when your body actually wants liquid. Plus, if you’re dehydrated, fat cells become harder to break down so losing weight is much harder.
7. Get moving!
If you are living a sedentary lifestyle, have a rethink. Sitting for long periods is simply not good for you. Take a break from your desk work to walk about at least once an hour.
Find a fitness expert who can design an effective exercise program for you and your body.
Why not give us a call to find out more bespoke wellness packages? These 1:1 programmes are individually tailored toward you and your weight loss goals, including an objective lifestyle analysis and nutritional advice to get you on track with your health and wellbeing journey. Give our specialist team a call on 01273 495911 to find out how our bespoke wellness packages can work for you.
Take the first step to a healthier, more vibrant you!
