When I see yet another diet being published or viewed as the next best breakthrough I sit there and roll my eyes, take a deep breath and say “Yet another fad diet to confuse the nation, again!”
I can explain it more simply with no specific diet required, we just need some key principles to follow.
Firstly:
Your specific needs or circumstances, to a large extent, can’t be put into a box and listening to the noise from everyone around about you doesn’t help. Whether it’s TV, magazines or social media, most of it is noise and the majority have an agenda.
Understanding your daily activity levels is now easier than ever with the invention of various fitness or life trackers allowing us to see sleep patterns, average heart rate activity levels and steps per day. This enables us to create a precise picture of our calorie output per day, per week and per month.
But do we ever act on it? Do we take the information and adapt our life to make the statistics better for us? Do you know if 5000 or 10,000 steps is good? Most people don’t.
What these fitness trackers don’t show and which is our biggest problem is our calorie intake. This has always been the problem. People in general don’t know the calories they are taking in or even the type of calories they take in which are just as important.
I always give the example of a slice of chocolate cake. An average large chocolate cake has as many calories as roughly 6 apples. No one will sit there and go through 6 apples in one go however many will eat one or two slices of chocolate cake and not realise the calorie density of this food.
The size or portion is not the only thing that is important. It’s also about the density of the food or drink. You either stay away from these foods or your activity levels need to increase drastically on the days post consumption to counter balance the affect.
Knowledge is power. If you know about these foods then you are more likely to act on it, or in this case avoid it. Being ignorant or unaware should not be an excuse.
Secondly:
You need to take a vested interest in what you are eating. What I say to those clients who have difficulty with food control is, imagine a plate in front of you. You want to see 4 food groups represented; your vegetables 35% of the plate e.g. peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. Your fruit 35% of the plate, not fruit juice but simply fruit (apples, bananas, pineapples, pears, tangerines) your proteins should be 15-20% of the plate so your beef, chicken, turkey, tofu, brown rice, sweet potatoes Spinach or fish etc, and then your fats 10% so olive oil, almond oil, cheese, etc.
In my opinion I have found that if my clients imagine a plate each day, while cooking their meals then it’s easier for them.
This brings us nicely onto my next point.
Thirdly:
Habits are good to have when it comes to a balanced food regime.
For example, I try to tell them; each Monday have a bed of salad with veg and fish. On Tuesday have brown rice with a vegetable stir fry, each Wednesday being oven roasted vegetables with olive oil and a side of mini baguette with tomatoes and cheese. They find that a routine of the same food on the same day each week helps tremendously, as it becomes second nature “oh it’s Monday its salad with fish”.
This in turn allows me to manipulate the activity levels due to a controlled intake of calories per day. This I find is paramount to what I call manipulating the diet. Control the intake and increase activity, leading to weight loss.
Lastly:
I always believe in the 90/10 rule so, be good 90% of the time, both in regards to high activity level and controlled food and drink intake. One day per week you have something which should be considered special so they are rewarded for their control, weekly routine and positive habits.
I am sure some will read this and think it’s impossible to navigate the pitfalls. I would say at least make a start and try to be good both in regards to eating and drinking habits along with an increase in activity level.
You will find that as your activity levels increase, your thought process towards eating changes and you will want to be more careful as to what you eat. If all else fails and you end up eating badly, then simply put, you need to exercise more. If you don’t then you are asking for problems later in life.
Rome wasn’t built in a day however it was eventually built. You must take this philosophy going forward week to week.