Hopefully, last week's feature will have encouraged you to change a few things in your lives, you should by now have given yourself a good kick up the butt. Having inflicted this pain upon yourself, you are now ready to do something positive towards a more healthier you.
Quite a high percentage of us have too much saturated fat, protein, salt, sugar and caffeine in our diets. Some of you will also experience wild mood swings and depression. If you recognise these symptoms in yourself or even your children, there can be a simple reason and a simple, effective and sometimes quick solution. If your teenage 'brat' is behaving worse than you could have imagined – sit down and think about their diet. If it consists of the above, be assured, this can be one of the main reasons for their behaviour.
For those of you who are going to seek the experience of a good trainer to get back on track – well done. You will be glad you did. For the rest of you who for your own reasons haven't done so yet, I have put together a few points which will have a detox effect on your body, following the cutting out of the above food groups.
Taking these steps and even that additional step of seeing a trainer, will have a profound effect on your health. But what you will notice is an immeasurable positive effect on your life.
Cutting out certain foods isn't easy, so I will suggest you do it over a period of six weeks maximum. If you wish to attempt to do it in less time, aim to cut out two things each week. This week, I will cover three weeks of suggested foods to cut out.
WEEK 1
Boost your water intake. It makes sense. Our body is 70% water, we can go weeks without food but only days without water before we would die. Water is a great weight loss tool. It helps your body breakdown fat and is a natural appetite suppressant. Take two litres of water a day, this figure came about because with breathing, sweating and going to the loo, we lose this amount, so it is important that we replace what is lost. Break it down into small amounts by drinking 8-10 glasses per day aiming for your two litres. Aim for slightly more if you can.
WEEK 2
Banish Sugar! The cave men didn't have it and none of them experienced severe weight problems. We recommend cutting it out. It won't be easy, as it releases the feel-good hormone serotonin. The problem is, the more you eat, the more you want – a classic sign of addiction.
A good tip on banishing sugar is to check your cupboards for sugary foods and those sweetened artificially. Avoid foods containing aspartame, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, golden syrup, honey, lactose, malt, malt extract, maltose, mannitol, maple syrup, molasses, saccharin, sorbitor, sucrose and a few others. This will help you balance out your diet and speed up your weight loss.
WEEK 3
Beat Cafffeine. This is another highly addictive substance. It makes you produce adrenaline, sending blood to your muscles so that you have more energy. Once that adrenaline fix wears off, you feel more lethargic and depressed than before your caffeine fix. When this happens, you automatically reach for another coffee and so the cycle begins again.
If you drink a lot of coffee, I suggest not cutting it out straight away. Wean yourself off it. Start by drinking half decaf, half caffeinated coffee or four days with an extra glass of water for every coffee you drink. On day five, reduce to 75% decaf. Drink this for the next four days then switch to decaf coffee or herbal teas.
You now have enough to get started and get into the mind set required for permanent weight loss. Don't forget, once September comes, you want to be prepared to start your new life style changes, which by Christmas, will start to show great results. Next week, we will continue on with the remaining three weeks advice.
