Getting into shape and feeling vital is difficult when you are busy, stressed and overwhelmed. Not to mention the various different reports you read, nutritionists are changing their opinion on a weekly basis. Who can you trust? With so much noise in the healthy food and healthy eating marketplace it is very easy for the busy professional to become exhausted and befuddled. Advice is contradictory and confusion. What will work for you?
Trust yourself
My advice is trust your body. With 20 years experience in coaching and helping women with busy lives looking after yourself doesn’t have to be complicated, simply trust your body and hear what she is telling you.
It can be as simple as noticing how you feel in the morning after you have rushed out the door fed hubby, kids, cats, dogs, and you have grabbed a piece of toast and a cuppa? Frazzled, hungry and upset? The hit from the adrenalin and the glucose from the toast will give you a quick hit, which will give you a bigger down cycle that you create at the beginning of your day. I noticed when I ate toast in the morning I couldn’t survive until 11am before I was eating another meal. I was faint until I had lunch. Previously thought that this was simply my energy level, until I started to do a few things differently.
Intermittent Fasting
- Intermittent fasting is the big nutritional buzz word for weight loss at the moment. But what does it mean for you and how can you adapt it into your life? Intermittent fasting is simply extending the time between your meals. Approach this with common sense and listen to your body. If you have your evening meal at 7pm then don’t eat again until 7am, over the weeks extend this period from a 12 hour fast to 12.5 hours or 13 hours. Build up gradually until you reach 18 hours fasting.
Macro balance
- Fasting does not work if you are still eating a large carbohydrate diet. If you are eating cereal/toast followed by a sandwich for lunch then a normal dinner, you are using the carbohydrate pathway to digest and metabolise your food. This high carbohydrate diet means you are metabolising in ‘the hunger cycle’, the boom and bust of the glucose/insulin rush. If you add in the intermittent fasting to that mix, it spells trouble for you. You will feel hungry irritable and even dizzy. An angry mum, tears at bedtime and perhaps even a shouty wife. Instead begin to add more great protein and fat to your day. You will last longer, be less hungry and feel satiated. Intermittent fasting will feel easier. Read more Protein Sources for Women
Less carbs in the morning
- To make this really simple begin by reducing your carbohydrate intake in the morning – for example leave your breakfast until you get to work and have a boiled egg or real Greek yoghurt with chia seeds – little Aztec seeds which stick in your teeth but add a little dose of protein to your morning. Real Greek yoghurt like Fage is a brilliant probiotic, which helps with your tummy flora. Don’t be fooled by the marketing that says ‘tastes like Greek yoghurt’ or ‘a bit like Greek yoghurt’. You know how marketing tells you that a great perfume is going to make you sexy and alluring, food marketers do the same thing. Buy the real thing, real food has more nutrients and better health benefits. Common sense tells you that your body knows what to do with real food – it can metabolise it. When your amazing body has to deal with 75 different ingredients, it deliberates and puts the ‘toxin’ into storage otherwise known as fat.
Real food
- Eat real food, I appreciate you have heard that before in various different forms, to be clear there is no such thing as ‘cheap food’. It has a long term effect on your body, which isn’t cheap. Chemicals and processes go into ‘cheap’ food, including radiation to give it a longer shelf life. If you can eat organic that is wonderful, if not, make sure what you eat has very little ingredients list. If sugar is on the top 3 then look for an alternative. It is a little step forward towards a healthier you. Read more Cheap Food Myths
More water flush out toxins
- Drinking water is the best way forward for your radiant health, skin and weight loss, plus the extra activity of going to the toilet 75 times a day will mean you will also get your 10,000 steps in as well. 8 glasses of water 250ml will be your aim, but start with 5 glasses a day and build up. Read more Coffee? How Much is Too Much
Build your habit slowly
Don’t try all of these tips all at once, add one in and slowly build up. Notice how your body feels about the change, remember if you have been following a weight loss diet for a number of years, your mindset will be the first thing that needs to adapt and trusting your body will follow.
If you are looking for a more holistic approach to your health and weight loss you can read Adele’s book Gorgeous! How to look and feel fantastic ev
ery day Click here to find out about your Gorgeous book
“Gorgeous! The psychology of this book has opened my eyes into realising that things have to change and can change. For the better. The other topics on eating and the misconceptions of what to eat have blown my mind and understanding the importance of fitness from both a physical and mental perspective. I’m so pleased I trusted my gut and bought this book“
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