Friday, January 25, 2019

FAT OR FIT ... IT'S YOUR CHOICE.

Yes you do have a choice and it's your decision. A fellow health professional was telling me a story the other day of a 43 year old woman whose Doctor had recommended  a very expensive diet expert who had given her a specialized nutrition plan, all very complicated and involved, so much so that she didn't even look at it.
   When asked by my friend what her normal day was, it consisted of fruit, yogurt, cereal/ bread/croissant or waffle and juice for breakfast. She would go out to a café for soup and some salad at lunchtime plus 1 small glass of wine, a mid afternoon snack, then a late evening dinner of protein /veg with potatoes/rice/pasta ... and maybe 2 or 3 glasses of wine plus a naughty desert a few times a week. I'm sure she was probably having a few more 'naughty things' that she didn't tell us about as well. She did no exercise save for the occasional 15 minute walk now and again. She was 38% Body Fat but felt she was about 25% and didn't consider herself to be much overweight and in fact she thought she ate quite well. (Everybody says that). The idea that you can be fat and healthy is a clinically proven myth, so get over it.
This is a classic case, so let's break it down.


Firstly this woman is clinically obese and is ripe for some serious health issues in the years to come.
Secondly for someone this fat her diet is very poor, actually to be honest its atrocious.

BREAKFAST
You may think her breakfast is okay but as ever the devil is in the detail. She is consuming mostly sugar and bad fats. All fruit is sugar, her yogurt was the usual fruit flavoured sugar loaded supposedly healthy type.
It should have been full fat Greek yogurt and half a small pot at that with perhaps few blueberries, 1/3 banana and then protein powder. No croissants bread waffles or juice. (Its all sugar, sugar, sugar!)
And no special high fibre Alpen/granola/ healthy cereal either, its all crap.
 What she actually needs to do is switch to protein and vegetables and no juice and a very small amount of fruit, if any. She should always have a Green drink, fish oil, probiotics and vitamins and a small handful of nuts and seeds. It amazes me why hardly anyone has green drinks for breakfast, I just can't fathom it. All fit, healthy and lean people consume some form of Green drink with ingredients such as wheatgrass/ barley grass/ spirulina/ chlorophyll/ seaweed/ kelp/ enzymes/ bacterial cultures/ spinach/ ginger/ turmeric. You can buy it or make your own. I do both, it takes seconds and you are flooding your body with healthy nutrients the moment you wake up. The difference between this and a waffle/croissant is so obvious it beggars belief.




      IT'S YOUR CHOICE FOR BREAKFAST ... but remember there are consequences.












If you want to try intermittent fasting and skip breakfast there can be benefits but you need to know how to do this the right way but at this stage she needs to keep it simple. If you consume protein/vegetables you will feel fuller and avoid the mid morning crash from all that sugar you had for breakfast. I have found that for most people changing there current breakfast routine is the fastest way to healthy fat loss.

LUNCH
Get rid of the soup for lunch and instead have chicken/fish/meat with a lot, and I mean a lot, of salad or vegetables, no sauces. I am always amazed how many restaurants provide you with so little salad or vegetables. I was in a fairly decent café the other day and the waiter said they had no vegetables when I asked for them, as in NONE. Utterly bizarre and in the UK and the USA they smother the salad with some type of crap dressing. I always have to ask to have it separate. In other words the simple healthy ways of preparing and presenting food are being avoided, I just don't get it.

The amount of people who have soup for lunch and are overweight is incredible, you would have thought by now that they had figured out that there must be a problem.

Let me be clear, there are ways of preparing nutritious soup properly but most people don't know how to do it and besides it's much better to consume healthy protein and crunchy fibrous vegetables.
As for one glass of wine please don't get me started. By the time she tots up that plus the evening glass or 2 or 3 she's probably consuming at least 25 glasses of wine a week! That's ALOT of sugar which is going to turn to fat. She needs to start drinking 2+ litres of water a day.
Stop drinking alcohol for a month and see how you feel. I promise you will notice a difference.

DINNER
The first issue is she eats it late but at least she had protein for dinner but then spoilt it with a ton of carbs. Before someone jumps in here, I know carbs are not all bad but at 40% body fat they are! She has to cut her body fat first and then she can reintroduce some 'good' carbs (e.g. Quinoa, Sweet potatoes, Brown rice, Oats), perhaps in a few weeks time.
 I suspect the naughty desert was more than once a week and was probably not just a little naughty but positively pornographic.
 I ran the Grand Canyon from rim to rim for over 8 hours and consumed very few carbs before, during or after the run, I didn't need them because I have enough stored fat for energy; and I was 9% Body fat ... and so if I don't need them to do a run like that then why does she need them sitting around doing nothing? I eat quality carbs about 3-4 times per week for dinner or lunch and that's it.


If you eat carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner then you are on massive overload, the fact you see everyone else doing it doesn't make it right, they are probably enormous too.
She needs to start exercising for  a minimum of 3/4 hours a week, say 30 mins per day, starting with walking and then moving on to a planned exercise regime that will metabolically disturb her body into losing fat, 20 minutes of high intensity a day 2/3 times per week plus a strength and conditioning routine twice a week would be a sensible goal to aim for.
 If she did this then within a week she would start losing fat and in a healthy nutritionally balanced way ... and she can eat more than she is doing now so will not feel hungry at all because she will be eating the right food.
If she ate like this and had decent training advice she'd look like a million dollars in a few months. How do I know? because I've done this with client after client and it always works, every time.
It really isn't complicated, you don't need a specialist dietician you just need to change the basics of your routine to the correct way to eat and exercise. I've also found that when someone starts to live a healthier lifestyle and they see the positive results then they want to keep it going and improve on it even more, so it has a processional positive effect. There mood and sense of well being is enhanced, they have more energy and want this new lifestyle to be permanent.
Remember every person I see thinks that their health problems are unique and  therefore more complicated but I'm afraid in most cases that's a load of garbage plain and simple.

Get off your 'special diet', throw away all your useless pills and overprescribed medicines and get your body back into a state of harmonious natural balance by eating properly and exercising effectively.
Its your choice, just decide and do it.

           If you have any questions or seek further advice then please email me at phil@modelplan.co.uk 

6 comments:

  1. Brilliant :) - and this just made me giggle "I suspect the naughty desert was more than once a week and was probably not just a little naughty but positively pornographic."

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  2. Such sound (and amusing) words Phil. It’s tragic the amount of miracle diets out there. Eat properly and move more, simples!

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  3. Excellent advice - have been living this way for years and people always ask me how I do it! I tell them and they go "oh" and don't make the changes. Next time I see them they have done nothing or are doing Weight Watchers or Keto or another diet that is low in fat.....I am a trained Health & Wellness Coach & teacher but rarely coach individuals anymore. I work as a teacher for Integrative Nutrition - the largest Nutrition School in the world! We teach balance in ALL areas of your life! Time to get smarter people.....

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