Brochure

Institute of Physique Management L

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RESOLVE Commitment and Attitude www.iopm.co.uk i n f o @ i o p m . c o . u k

CONTENT 4

How to get the best out of this programme

5

How this programme will help you

10

Mindset

18

Habits

25

Goal Setting

26

Set yourself goals

28

Our sub-conscious set point

29

Getting your supporters on board

30

Meet the saboteurs:

34

Time planning

34

Tough Love!

37

How did you get on?

38

Tips for positive habit formation

40

Practice Makes Permanent.

41

What will exercise do for me

42

10 Good Reasons to Exercise

45

Joining a gym

48

Why Weights?

58

FACT SHEET 1

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How Do i Tell the Difference........

84

Store Cupboard Clear-Out

96

Portion Control

98

Alcohol

104

Restaurant Wisdom

108

This week’s goals are:

110

Classification of foods

113

The Glycaemic Index.

114

Foods which induce insulin secretion

116

Nutrition and Shopping

117

Package labelling

120

The Truth about Ready Meals

124

TAKE ACTION!

129

A Quick Guide for Food Labelling

131

Base Level

133

Level 4 – Optimal Nutrition..

145

How changes in our diet cause disease

148

Exercise is Boring

153

Muscle Physiology

154

How Muscle Work

164

Myths about muscles

183

Variety is the key

196

Unlimited Veg

199

Age is just a number

204

Vitamins and Minerals

206

Nutrient Variance.

210

Female hormonal changes

214

Takeaways – What’s really in them?

219

The Line in the Sand

223 Measuring your body

How to get the best out of this programme “If you don’t know where you’re going, then any old road will take you there.”

Many people squander their lives under the delusion that their bodies are immortal. They squander their energy, their health, their money, their time and their minds with activities that are tension-relieving instead of goal-achieving.

Many people hope the winds of fortune will blow them into some rich and mysterious port of call. It’s called the ‘Lotto Syndrome’. They look forward to when they can retire some day in the distant future and live on a fantasy island. “Where?” - they don’t know. “How?” - they don’t know that either.

Most unhappy people look to tomorrow to erase today. They put happiness on hold. Happiness can’t be sought, bought, or earned. Happiness is where you are right now pushing your pencil or pushing a plough, going to work or standing in line watching and waiting … or lying back in the sun tasting the wine.

If you live in the past you become senile. If you live in the future you’re on “Someday Isle”. It’s time to make “Someday Isle” now.

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How this programme will help you Over the years we have identified many success strategies that have helped hundreds of people to transform their physique in super quick time. If you’re serious about the rapid progress of results of focused training, then read, learn and respect these success strategies every day until you know them instinctively.

The programme is divided into weekly modules. It is designed to move you through a set of logical steps to the achievement of your objectives. In order to get the best out of the programme, please do not skip any sections or assignments. Work through each section in order to get the maximum benefit from the programme; it has been designed with you and your success in mind.

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Within each module you’ll find a mix of information for you to read, audios to listen to, videos to watch and exercises to do. When you come to a section of text, don’t say ‘yeah, I know all this’ and move on to the next part; take the time to read what’s written and really take the information on board.

When you see this symbol it means that you’ll get a quick win - you get a benefit without any hassle!

You also have the group forum where you can share your thoughts and challenges with the other people on this programme. You will prompted to visit the forum by questions we ask you. Use this to get support and motivation to keep going and also to help others when times get rough for them.

You are not alone. You will succeed.

Now you’re ready to start Module 1!

Week One Habits and Mindsets Over the next 12 weeks, you are going to learn a lot of information about changing the way that you eat and exercise and how we can best help you integrate these changes into your everyday life to ensure success with the programme. We’re not going to start with nutrition or exercise though. We are going to start with the one thing that will sabotage everything, if you let it; that is your MINDSET. The often overstated adage ‘eat less and move more’ ignores the role our mind plays in our success. Before we can succeed at any task it is imperative to believe that we are both capable and worthy.

So here we are at Week One. Excited? You should be!

Every week we’ll outline the goals for the week before you start so you know what to expect.

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What’s stopping you succeeding?

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Let’s begin where you are right now. If you had a happy healthy body you wouldn’t be on this programme, right? So we’re assuming you’re here to make some changes.

The most common obstacles to acquiring a lean physique are busy schedules, family gatherings and professional obligations… or so we’re told! But experience tells us a different story. Let’s face it, there are plenty of slim, busy professionals and working parents out there.

In reality, getting healthy doesn’t require us to withdraw from society or offend the family; it’s often our own sabotaging tendencies which keep us from reaching our goals The same people who complain that travel or business engagements disrupt their good intentions are the very ones who reach for an extra bagel or biscuit when no one’s looking.

So, ask yourself: Whose side are you on? It doesn’t matter how perfect our intentions are if we aren’t championing ourselves.

Face the truth of your situation, where are you right now. We have an infinite capacity of self deception. How many times have we heard the excuses of:

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Denial: Jumping on the scales and removing shoes, keys, jumper etc, Minimizing: “I know I am overweight, but it’s not that bad”. Or: “I don’t see my family a lot anymore, but it’s not that bad…”

Blaming: “My wife won’t cook healthy food for me.”

“My friends expect me to drink”. “My job is so busy I don’t get enough time.”

Projecting: “If you think I am bad, you should see him..”

Physically numbing out: The most dangerous of all.

Alcohol, prescription drugs, sleeping medication.

Making life a blur instead of a Blast!

They feel frustrated, choosing to live their lives half–heartedly, afraid that by embracing life today they’ll be sending the message that they accept themselves as they are - or worse, that their current self is all they can ever be. Unfortunately, they believe their weight makes them either invisible or, paradoxically, the object of everyone’s mockery. Herein lies the crux: This low self-esteem sets them up for inevitable failure.

Why should they work to achieve a goal for which they feel they are not worthy? They instead choose to self-sabotage so that they can claim success in their ultimate failure, or blame other circumstances.

To lose weight successfully and keep it off, you must be on your own side.

Failing at weight loss is isolating, especially when we do so repeatedly and publicly. Clients often tell us they believe others have discovered a secret that is beyond their grasp. They send in fabulous food diaries prefaced with the disclaimer: “Just watch, I’ll never keep this up.” Or, “I was bad and ate ‘X’ amount of sweets.”

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Mindset We don’t know what we don’t know and when we do it can be very painful to realise we should have known what we didn’t know!

One of the components of a high performance Mindset is self-awareness. As our clients work on developing their sustainable high performance I am always amazed at the growing list of things they begin to become aware of. One of the most powerful things they often become keenly aware of is their reactions they have to those around them.

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What do they feel when someone questions them? What do they think when someone disagrees with them? What is their first reaction when they see a news story? What situations really irritate them and what situations really impact their energy?

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The reason these things are so important is because often our reaction to a situation, person, comment, word, story, etc. tells us more about ourselves then the situation itself. If we reflexively overreact it may mean that our resilience is overwhelmed, or we have an inner issue that is still raw.

The ability to detach yourself from a situation, a comment, or an experience so you can look at it and your reaction to it, from all angles is very powerful. Suddenly, you not only find your performance improving, but also your feeling of being in control. When you realize that others can’t cause a reaction in you, only you can do that, you improve your hardiness, your energy level, and

Answer the questions in the next section to check out your current mindset The following questions are for you to think about and answer honestly. You can take as long as you like and write as much as you like.

How is your mindset about health and wellHow do you feel about the coming programme?

What really excites you about it?

How will you turn these concerns into your most

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It’s the beginning ofthe programme.

How are you all feeling?

Your comments will be posted so that all other people on the programme can see what you’ve written. These comments are not available to anyone else.

The FORUM is a place to share your thoughts and feelings with others and get and give support . Please be sensitive to other people’s experiences - something you find easy, they may find really challenging.

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The six crucial life changes that you must commit to making now:

1. Change your mind Stop identifying with the person you used to be - the overeater or the sneak eater. You are not designed to be fat, and being overweight isn’t who you are. Redefine your identity by repeating the phrase: “That is who I used to be, but today I am changed,’ until you believe it.

2. Drop the excuses There are as many excuses as there are people who have found ways to overcome those same obstacles. Social gatherings, busy schedules and limited options are challenges that have been met and overcome many times before by many others.

Vow not to waste time on self-critical thoughts or excuses. Take pride in your new emerging sense of self. If you don’t believe in your core that you are a changed person, no matter how desperately you yearn to succeed, old habits will take over, leading you down that same wellbeaten path to the biscuit tin, local bistro or the wine cellar. So give yourself the respect you deserve. Make no mistake - anybody with the wrong attitude will get fat and unhealthy.

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3. Create new habits Unlike alcohol or cigarettes, one can’t simply quit food! As a result, you will have to actively create new eating habits.

You will need to establish rules and abide by them until those rules become habit. Be a grown-up; feeling like eating rubbish isn’t a good enough reason to do so! (for example, you’ll soon discover not to let yourself get ravenously hungry as it is this hunger that drives bad food choices.)

These rules must be as non-negotiable as going to work each morning, washing, getting dressed or cleaning your teeth.

When people associate comfort foods with feeling better, they have a misplaced impression that it serves as some form of reward. But anything that will immediately make you feel lousy, look awful or is painful or cruel is a far cry from being a reward. There is no respect or self-appreciation in self-sabotage.

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4. Reset old habits In most cases, we must act like the changed person we wish to become before the internal shift actually takes hold.

Figure out what you really want before filing the feeling away. If you want to recreate the movie experience at home, make air-popped popcorn or curl up with a large mug of herbal tea.

If night eating is a problem, establish a rule that demands no eating after 7 pm or choose a small healthy meal that you know is acceptable. We’ll come on to what these are in a later module.

Create new non-food-related rituals that make you feel good. People who perpetually self-sabotage have turned food into the enemy. In effect they create an internal debate of -‘more!’ versus ‘no!’ But if you aren’t on your own side and a voice telling you ‘no’ is also berating you for your last slip-up in the kitchen, ‘more’ naturally wins over. Be prepared and have foods on hand that you can eat. We’ll talk about what these foods are during the programme.

5. Accept that you’re in this for the long haul It takes a combination of education, knowledge, will-power and experience to get you moving in the right direction… and accountability and trust to keep you there. Consistency and perseverance are essential to override old habits and so is a continuing thirst for knowledge about how your body works and how to maintain it.

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6. Be a fake Fake it until you make it if you must, and be true to yourself. If good health, vitality and longevity don’t inspire you, a big dose of vanity is as respectable a motivator as any.

Take heart as you inch closer to your goal, your resolve will become firmer, and you’ll defend the new you with passion.

Know always that merely wanting, or just trying, to be in great shape isn’t enough.

Make the decison to commit to your Wealthy Body TODAY!

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Habits It takes 25 - 30 repetitions to form a new habit. But it takes time to and practice to make it permanent. This is because the old patterns remain underneath. If you slip back, or constantly dwell on your past mistakes, a link immediately re-connects and tries to reassert the old habits.

We talk about ‘changing our habits’ but in fact if your brain is already hardwired to get you to a certain conclusion (for example, eating what you fancy even though it’s unhealthy), then we can’t undo that hardwiring. What we can do is to build new set of connectors that lead to a different conclusion and give that new path our attention so that eventually this new way of thinking will be hardwired and the old pattern will just die way from lack of use.

Does this make sense to you? Think of the connectors in your brain like a river – whilst water is flowing along the river bed, the river will continue to grow but if something stops the flow of water forcing a change in direction, then the original river bed silts up and stagnates and eventually dries up altogether and disappears into the landscape. The new river meanwhile is flowing along with life and energy towards a new outcome.

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Guess what? It takes 12 weeks to build these new neural pathways! This is what we’re going to do by focusing your attention on the new path we want to build towards your new outcome.

In these first 12 weeks you’ll see dramatic changes if you stick with it; after that you’ll need to keep going to ensure permanent change.

Why do we do what we do, when we know better?

The more we try to suppress unwanted thoughts the more likely we are to become pre-occupied with them (for example, Try NOT thinking about the colour purple).

Researchers found the more you try not to think about your habits (or the colour purple) the more they come to mind. However if you substitute those thoughts for others, such as the type of body you are going to have, the thoughts of success will dominate.

We behave not according to our knowledge but to what we have learned and no longer think about.

We live by reflex habits that are subconscious and hidden from view. You cannot erase any thought, experience or habit. You can only replace them by flooding your mind with the desired behaviours.

The greatest athletes, the greatest coaches, the greatest leaders, etc, use the same basic techniques:

Explanation

Repetition

Demonstration

Affirmation

Correction 19

Once you change your habit you must stay away from the old environment. The reason most criminals go back to jail is that they go back to their old environment and friends and therefore their old behaviour patterns.

Most dieters put weight on after being on a diet because new behaviour patterns are not yet embedded enough to make them strong enough to pass by the cheese, alcohol or desert section of a buffet, or they haven’t developed the skills of hidden fat and sugar detection! Overweight people and dieters should stay away from takeaway restaurants. If you want to stay optimistic and successful then you must mix and mingle in success related environments.

Make sure you read the Tips for Positive Habit Formation

A guided visualization exercise A clear vision is imperative for success. Focusing on that vision and mapping it out, can carry you through the steps it takes to reach your desired outcome. Your vision will be achieved step by step once you have the overall goal in mind. Once you are clear on that goal, you can begin to plan the practical strategies needed to move forward.

The problem for most of us, and the reason we don’t achieve our dreams, is that we are often unclear on our vision and need some help to access it. Visualisation is the process of creating a mental image or intention of your desired outcome, or a mental rehearsal of what we want to achieve.

If this sounds a bit woo-woo to you, then think again. ALL the most successful sports people use visualisation to achieve their goals!

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Many elite athletes routinely use visualisation techniques as part of their training and competition. Athletes use the technique to cultivate a competitive edge, enhanced mental awareness, and a heightened sense of well-being and confidence. All of these factors have been shown to contribute to an athlete’s sports success so if they use it, why don’t you?

But it’s not just used in the sports field, the most successful, hard-nosed business people use visualisation to focus on their goals and to use the power of their mind to unlock untapped potential.

We are going to introduce you to visualisation in this module and then come back to it again during the programme. Keep an open mind and try it for yourself.

Some tips Before practising any form of exercise like this, make sure you won’t be disturbed by callers, children, colleagues, the telephone and that you are in an environment you find comfortable, warm and relaxing In order to access the power within you, you need to allow yourself to get into a state of deep relaxation. This could be what you already use to meditate, or breathing exercises from your fitness class, or relaxation processes you already know. If you have something that works for you, use it again. Choose a method that is simple and effortless and which you into the visualization in a relaxed state. If you don’t already have a way of relaxing, then the followingaudio includes this.

Make sure that you are sitting comfortably 21

On the attached audio you will find a guided process you can use to get in touch with those parts of your mind that can get you to your ideal vision.

Why can’t you just give me a diet?

Over the next 12 weeks, you are going to learn a lot of information about changing the way that you eat and exercise and how we can best help you integrate these changes into your everyday life to ensure success with the programme. We’re not going to start with nutrition or exercise though. We are going to start with the one thing that will sabotage everything, if you let it; that is your MINDSET. The often overstated adage ‘eat less and move more’ ignores the role our mind plays in our success. Before we can succeed at any task it is imperative to believe that we are both capable and worthy.

We liken it to a child crossing the road. If they are simply told, even over and over again, not to cross, they will dash across without thinking when the moment arises. But if they learn why they have to look before crossing, and all the ramifications of doing that, they’re much less likely to go racing out on an impulse.

During this programme we do give you example meals and we teach you how to eat for weight loss, optimal health and longevity without being overly prescriptive with meal and food plans. This is so that whatever situation you find yourself in, you can cope and be in control.

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Your life is very busy and you are not always going to be in a situation where you have a diet book or plan in front of you. Those are the times that ruin the best physique especially if you are in a habit of following blindly, without knowing why.

And this is also why it is very important that your food diaries are an actual representation of your eating habits and not something you make up to look good.

Success comes with taking control of your eating and understanding how and what feeds the body. It’s a science, and often confusing and difficult, but it is a process.

Give yourself this small amount of time to learn these amazing concepts, strategies and principles, because your body and how you feel is the most important asset you will ever have … and it will look fabulous!

OK, so let’s talk about diets.

A safe diet includes: The choice of many different nutritious foods, including a balance from all the food groups. In other words, some fruit and lots of vegetables, beans, lentils etc, lean meats and alternatives, a moderate amount of organic whole grains and cereals (without added sugars). A minimal amount of low-fat dairy products.

A balance including both food and physical exercise.

An eating plan you can stick with in daily life so that whatever circumstances you find in yourself in, you can cope.

NOTE Make time to learn and understand how your body uses food and why it needs to become healthy from the inside out for lasting results. Understand foods so you are not confused or manipulated by manufactures and advertising. Become a student of your own body so you don’t make the mistake 95% of people do.

The most important step to make when deciding to go on a diet is to become a student of your own body and to understand the reasons why change is needed.

Unfortunately, most people don’t do that because it takes time. They just start exercising or stop eating certain foods or overdose on others without really understanding why and how it will affect their bodies now or in the long term.

Give yourself this small amount of time to learn these amazing concepts, strategies and principles, because your body and how you feel is the most important asset you will ever have … and it will look fabulous!

Success comes with taking control of your eating and understanding how and what feeds the body. It’s a science, and often confusing and difficult, but it is a process.

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With a myriad of choices out there, we’ve put together a checklist to help you identify the diets that don’t work:

Extraordinary amounts of weight loss (as opposed to fat loss)?

Quick WIN

Combining or excluding specific food groups?

Miraculous curing of disease?

Can be achieved in a few days/weeks?

Are they “New”, “Exclusive” or “Revolutionary”?

Implying you can lose weight without making exercise, nutritional or lifestyle changes?

No need to exercise?

Wearing special garments/corsets/suits/electrodes, or use of inactive machines?

‘Magical’ or ancient herbs or supplements with special weight-loss powers?

Eat as many calories as you like and still lose weight?

Have many testimonials and anecdotes but no inde pendent scientific research to back up claims?

Sell you products to achieve your results?

Does it merely make claims (rather than citing facts)?

Does it quote genuine authorities? Are the testimonials from accredited qualified experts in their field or authorities, or do the testimonials come only from celebrities?

Do the “authorities” stand to gain from their endorsement? (“I was so impressed with this product, I bought the company!”)

Unfortunately there are no magical foods or miracle cures to weight loss and if the promises or claims sound too good to be true, then they probably are!

ALWAYS:

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Take a good look at the person giving you advice. Do they ‘walk the talk’ and are they fit, healthy, slim and energetic with great muscle tone, or are their clothes just doing a great camouflage job?

Has the diet stood the test of time and are its devotees still in great shape after at least five years?

When tempted by the latest diet, pause and ask yourself, “If this works so well, why aren’t we all on it?”

Please share your experience of diets and dieting with each other inthe forum.

You’ve probably been on (many) diets with variable ‘success or ‘failure’ in the past.

Remember this programme is not a diet so you will not be reliving that experience here.

You’ll be surprised at how many others have been challenged like you in the past. Let’s get all those negative thoughts and feelings out of the way as you prepare yourselves to make long lasting changes to your Wealthy Body.

Goal Setting Try to chase your passion not your pension and to develop a sense of “now”. Many people spend more time planning a party or holiday than they do their lives. By failing to plan, you surely plan to fail by default.

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The mind can be likened to a guided missile. Once you set your target, the self-adjusting guidance system constantly monitors feedback signals from the target area. Using the feedback information to adjust the course setting, it makes the corrections necessary to stay on target.

Aimed at something non-specific or aimed at a target too far out of range, the guided missile will wander erratically around until its propulsion system burns out or it self-destructs.

People behave in much the same way. Once you set your goal, your mind constantly monitors self-talk and environmental feedback about the goal. Using the negative and positive feedback to adjust your decisions along the way, your mind subconsciously makes adjustments to reach the goals you have set. Programmed with vague random thoughts or fixed on an unrealistic goal too far out of sight, you will wander aimlessly around until you give up in frustration.

Set yourself goals Meeting goals and managing your body with design and commitment will help you to look and feel great, and it gives you a marvellous sense of control and confidence.

However, your goals do need to be SMART. Yes, you’ve set SMART goals in your working life but now we’re applying the same model to your body and your health.

S pecific (I will start taking my lunch to work five days a week) M easurable (I will keep a food log to check that it’s going to plan) A chievable (I will put aside an extra portion from dinner in a container for lunch the next day) R ealistic (The only extra cooking I have to do is 60 seconds in the microwave at work!)

T ime-framed (I will start this on Monday next week).

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You need to know what is working and what is not working - and be prepared to make your plan work.

You’re going to be spending considerable time and energy on this coaching programme, investing in yourself and focusing on your future, so before you begin it makes sense to think about what you want to gain from it.

To help you, try answering the question:

“How specifically would you like you, or your life, to be different after the programme?”

Identify 3 areas that you want to focus on during this programme. The goals should be challenging (so you remain interested) and achievable (realistic).

For each focus area, write a simple heading and try to describe a ‘measurable’ result so you will know you have succeeded or are on track

Three Goals

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Our sub-conscious set point We have a physical set point that controls our body weight (set in the younger years). We also have a psychological set point - the ‘self image’ that determines our comfort zone in achievements and performances. This also lives in our subconscious level. It doesn’t differentiate between an imagined event and one that really takes place.

We are motivated by this inner force that compels us to exhibit the appropriate behaviour according to its previous experience. We have also learned that if the self-image receives a message frequently enough, that message will become a habit that we accept as part of us.

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We realise that habits such as a sedentary lifestyle and over-eating are not exercise or food problems, they are behaviours requiring self-image modifications to substitute new habits in place of the old ones.

The good news is that you can change if you concentrate your thoughts on ‘goal-achieving’ instead of ‘tension-relieving’ thoughts, because the same part of your brain that regulates your heart beat, your breathing, your reflexes and your focus also controls your goals.

How many people do you know who won’t listen to reason? Do you have friends or family members who say they want your help but continue on a failure track? What they don’t realise is that they have turned their reticular activating systems to guard the mind against success by deliberately seeking the negative inputs and problems they say they are trying to avoid.

By considering so often the possibilities of failure, they have set their brains as “failure seeking guided missiles”.

Getting your supporters on board There is no magic formula to losing weight. It requires organisation, motivation, education and a change of habits. A big factor in your success is having the support of those around you.

Partner Family Mother Children Friends Work colleagues Yourself

When we’re making changes in our lives, no matter what these changes are, it really helps if you have the support of sympathetic people around you.

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Beware of the saboteurs But beware - researchers have found that these same people can also be your worst diet saboteurs, as the changes you are making to get your weight under control will always have a knock-on effect.

SOUND BITE - why it’s important to identify the saboteurs and how to turn them into supporters.

Meet the saboteurs: and become more energetic and attractive even best friends can feel threatened, and envious especially if they are overweight themselves.

2. Your children. As physique experts, we are usually told by parents that preparing extra meals for children, baking for their birthdays and snacking on their leftovers is a huge temptation. It is really important to realise that healthy eating should not just be something you do for yourself.

An adult’s eating habits are formed in childhood and it is vitally important that children are not exposed regularly to the high sugar and trans- and saturated-fatty foods that are given to them as so-called ‘treats.’ Keeping the ice creams, pizza and chips for special occasions only will help prevent obesity and all the premature diseases it brings to children. Plus you won’t be tempted to pick!

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3. Your Partner. Partners can also feel threatened when their loved one begins to change shape and may try to encourage you (subtly) to abandon your efforts, not because they don’t care, but because psychologically (and probably subconsciously) they feel safer with the ‘devil they know’.

They worry their partner won’t love them as much or they will become more attractive to the opposite sex. It’s not just that you are changing - you are probably wearing different clothes and behaving more confidently. You need to be sensitive to their feelings but it is crucial that your partner understands why you are doing this. You need to emphasise the health angle as well as the weight loss.

4. Your Mother. This is a tricky one. She knows your weak points and can also be very critical.

Mums are often very insecure themselves and see their adult children as a reflection of themselves and part of how the world judges them. By refusing her special dishes she may feel you are rejecting her as well. Again, use diplomacy … and remember to stress how important this is to you.

5. Your work colleagues. They will be there at all the worst of all diet situations - boardroom meetings, birthday shouts, afternoon teas, boredom, after work drinks. Some workmates may feel competitive and a little jealous of your evolving figure and will either ‘take the mick’ saying you are getting too skinny, or try and weaken your resolve in other ways.

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6. Yourself. “A little won’t hurt”, “I deserve something special” or, “I’m miserable and eating gives me comfort”. Often it is an unwillingness to change your old habits and mindsets which have been responsible for creeping weight gain.

Giving in to these temptations are the biggest saboteurs of all as it is these very tastes and habits that have led to the increased body fat levels and the accompanying feelings of misery.

Comfort eating is not comfortable for the body...or the mind.

Don’t let the ‘fussy’ or ‘eating like a bird’ jokes bother you. For some reason best left to psychologists to explain, people don’t like seeing others eating healthfully when they are eating poorly.

Remember: Your decision to make healthy changes in your life is made on behalf of yourself, not anyone else.

Always look carefully at the person who gives you criticism, what shape are they in? How healthy, fit and strong are they? Do they eat healthily? Are they full of vitality and energy?

In the next part, you’ll be identifying your own supporters and how they can help you.

Now it’s time to identify your own supporters.

Make a list of your supporters, naming them.

What practical help do you need from them.

What psychological help do you need from them?

How can you best prepare them to support you during your programme.

Make a plan to get your supporters on board.

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Making time One of the key issues that can affect your success is a belief that it is not possible to fit the new routines into your busy schedule. However, believe it or not, people who achieve extraordinary levels of success have days just as hectic as yours. They’ve got obligations, commitments to work and family, and they all have the same 24 hours in their days.

So how come some people find the time to make exercise and forward food planning part of their daily routine while others don’t?

“I don’t have enough time!”

How many times do you say you would like to have a physique of a movie star, a friend, or an acquaintance, but shrug at the possibility because they have all the advantages - good genes, plenty of time, more money? These are myths. Some of the unhealthiest people are extremely wealthy! However, some of the busiest people are in the best shape. What those people do have is motivation, commitment to change, and control of their bodies.

Time is finite. You cannot create more time, but having more energy will win you back more time in your day. Being overweight and out of shape means you are slower, things become more of an effort and you tire more easily. You become more susceptible to stress, sleep disorders and sickness and as a result always feel you are running against the clock.

To get your life back into balance you can instantly create time if you begin to plan, plan, and plan some more. That means planning your days ahead, at least a day in advance, or even a week in advance.

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One of the best time-creating techniques is to schedule in when you’re going to exercise and what you are going to eat.

Exercise and intelligent nutrition play a vital role in creating energy levels from within, and allow us to perform at peak levels (both mentally and physically) every day. You will become more alert, sharper, agile, energetic and effective.

Time planning You need a plan and a direction. When your mind locks on to a target with a burning desire, then your habits start to change and you gain control of your route to that destination.

We find clients have too often been given the ‘soft touch’ when it comes to their health: “Learn to love yourself as you are”, “Loads of people your age have these aches and pains”, “It’s hard trying to fit in 5 fruit and veg a day”, “Don’t exercise hard – a gentle walk is all you need”, or even; “Everybody puts on weight and gets weaker as they get old, so instead of getting you leaner, stronger and healthier, we’re going to give you a motorised chair, sheltered accommodation and loads and loads of drugs to make it all feel better.”

This isn’t only stupid, it’s unnatural and just plain WRONG! Don’t accept advice from people who say these things, and don’t accept anything less of yourself than what you know is RIGHT.

Don’t make excuses!

Tough Love!

If it isn’t hard, if it isn’t tough, if it isn’t a challenge, then nothing great will ever be achieved.

That’s the simple truth. Ask a yachtsman, ask a mountaineer, ask anyone who plays a sport.

What do you suppose it’s going to take to get you back in shape? Sometimes into the shape you’ve never been before in your life?

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Was there a time when you were in good shape – what were you doing then to produce that sort of condition? Were you playing sport every day? Were you running, cycling, rowing? Were your growth and hormonal levels high? Understand that you are older now with many sedentary years under your belt, you are less active, less strong, less able to commit the time it took to be fit, lean and as hard as you were back then.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a little change here, and a little change there will be enough to reverse the damage those years of sedentary living has wrought, and bring you back into a hard athletic condition.

It is the inherent survival mechanism that our bodies have that has helped us to successfully last for hundreds of thousands of years. It has enabled us to withstand long months of cruel famines and the most extraordinary hard physical work and survival situations imaginable.

We were never designed for strolling along a supermarket aisle pushing a wheelie trolley where the only effort required in choosing our food off a shelf is raising the arm slightly. Our body is a hard edge survival machine and it will not change with just a minor adjustment to this sedentary lifestyle – just ask any athlete whether it be a speed, endurance or physique competitor.

If you want to reshape your body, but are forced to remain in the sedentary environment you operate in today, something has to give. There has to be a point where you are prepared to commit a TOTAL effort in adjusting the way you do certain things if you really want to make the change.

To change the result, you must change the data. If you want to be lean you must cut out the things that make you soft and fat.

It’s great if you want to cut down a little on bread, cheese, butter, wine, sugar, and adding in a little exercise, and to be sure, this will produce some changes in your body. But you must understand that the degree of change you are prepared to make is always proportional to the degree of result you will get. Change a little – get a little. Change a lot – get a lot.

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If you start walking and continue to walk, you will become fit enough to walk. But that’s it.

However if you then push yourself on to a slow jog, and then to a run, there is no limit to how fit you will become because you are constantly challenging yourself to improve.

This programme is about teaching people to regain a HARD edge. It’s about both physical and mental toughness. Resilience. Sharpness. Drive.

If you really want to get a result that will make a significant difference, then you must be prepared to sacrifice some of the things that have made you soft and fat, and embrace the things that will harden, toughen and define the physique and the mind in the way nature designed them to be.

We’re not saying let’s all go back to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, but what we are saying is let’s at least change the attitude and change the actions that are slowly destroying us. This is not impossible to do within the corporate lifestyle model. Everyday there are thousands of the worlds top CEO’s and businesspeople who are doing it already.

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It all boils down to what you want and what you are prepared to do if it’s important enough to get it.

Think about it. Act upon it. Up your game.

In this module you should have:

Undertaken the required commitment for this programme Set three major goals for the programme Looked at your planning and made sure you are making time to invest in your body.

Set yourself SMART goals to keep on track.

How did you get on?

Before you move on, record the key things you have learnt during this module.

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module.

What are your top three challenges when it comes to following the programme?

How can you overcome these challenges so you can achieve your goals.

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The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Make time in your schedule to study this programme on a weekly basis and to take the required actions weekly.

Take steps to get your mindset right.

Practise visualising your new self

What do you need to do to make time for this programme in your schedule?

What 3 steps will you take to get your mindset right?

When will you do the visualisation exercise? How often will you do this in the coming week Write down 3 practical steps you can take this week to achieve your goals

Tips for positive habit formation We’re here to help you over the next 12 weeks so you aren’t doing this on your own. We want you to reach your goals probably even more than you do yourself, because we know how great it feels once you get there!

Sure there’s work to be done and you need to commit to the following:

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Identify your bad habits. Where, when and why did you learn and develop them? Are you unconsciously imitating peers or negative role models? Do you use your habits to cover fear or feelings of inadequacy? Are there emotions that cause you to search for false-comfort tension-relieving responses instead of goal-achieving activities?

Learn what triggers your bad habits. Identify your unwanted patterns and replace them. It’s easier to begin with the triggers, which are often stress, criticism, guilt, or feelings of rejection. Identify the situations that cause you the most frustration and tension, and plan ways to avoid and reduce them as much as possible.

List the benefits of the new habit that will replace the old one: self esteem, improved health, longevity, improved relationships, more professional productivity and respect, better focus, enhanced promotion potential, increased financial security. Each helps lead to our ultimate goal of life-long improvement and growth.

Say “farewell” forever to excuses for mistakes and failures. Accept your imperfection when an old habit begs for attention. Say “Next time I will be strong enough to do what is right”.

Visualise yourself in the new habit pattern of a positive new lifestyle. If you want to give up smoking, intentionally sit in non-smoking areas and request non-smoking hotel rooms. Substitute mints when a craving wants you to reach for a packet of cigarettes.

You’ll slip back; we all do. When you catch yourself reverting to an old negative habit pattern simply dust yourself off and state a positive affirmation, such as “That’s not like me”, “I’m better than that” or “I can get back on track” and “I deserve better”. Expect to do better next time, recriminations won’t help you move on - that will come from a supportive optimistic approach towards success which will take you to your goals.

People who are pessimistic, depressed or dependant tend to look to external ‘crutches’ as they attempt to cure their frustrations, eating mega doses of sweets, alcohol, taking too many holidays, taking “feel-good” drugs, buying expensive gadgets or high-tech ‘boy toys’, or choosing to party rather than relying on their built-in capability to anticipate a bright future.

If you find the source of your bad habit rooted in a pessimistic view of life, you need to change your environment, which will help you change your outlook. Mix with optimistic and successful people and read books on those who have overcome amazing odds to be successful and win. You may have heard it said many times before:

“Life is not a dress rehearsal so don’t waste time”

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Keep these three rules playing in your mind

1.

No-one can change you and you can’t change anyone else. You must admit your needs.

Stop denying your problems and accept responsibility for changing yourself.

2.

Habits are not broken but replaced by layering new behaviour patterns on top of the old ones. To change a habit, forget about the 30-day wonder cures and “get fit quick” schemes.

Internalising permanent change takes a minimum of a year, but as you change your eating and improve your fitness you will feel immediate results. Don’t forget it has taken years to form your current habits.

3.

A daily routine continued over time will become second nature.

Practice Makes Permanent.

Practicing positive behaviours leads to a winning lifestyle. Practicing negative behaviours leads to a losing lifestyle. It is so obvious it is often overlooked.

REMEMBER: We make our habits then our habits make us.

Much of television and entertainment is a breeding ground for destructive habits. Could you explain this? Visual cues and subliminal instructions from advertisements and brand placement. Also the consequence of spending hours sedentary on the sofa whilst snacking unconsciously on poor food choices.

Although most change comes from inner core convictions, it is possible for external environments, having a consistent flow of new and positive inputs, to create new habits and lifestyles.

Realising that we are cursed or blessed with habits is the basis of psychology for physique shaping and maintenance. If you know what your goals are and have a vision of them, you can get there. You can live without limitations.

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This week’s goals are: Understanding the importance of exercise.

Finding and joining a gym.

Understanding different types of exercise and their effects.

Learning how to plan and organise your work out.

Starting a workout diary Why do we work so hard in business? Why do we kill ourselves at work with long hours and punishing workloads? Oh, we complain about it all, but we still end up doing it. Our jobs depend on it. We set aside time— personal time—to get the work done. So what is it about exercise that we will actually avoid it at all costs?

What will exercise do for me?

The importance of exercise cannot be over stated. It has numerous health benefits and really will transform how you feel. Exercise makes you feel good. Ever heard of ‘runners’ high’? Exercise boosts the brain’s production of ‘happy chemicals’ called endorphins, which lift your mood. The ‘good tiredness’ brought about by physical activity is the most effective and safe ‘sleeping aid’ you could find.

Yet we know that as soon as you hear the word ‘exercise’ your heart sinks. Don’t pretend, it does doesn’t it? Well, if it doesn’t you one of the lucky ones! We looked at mindset in Week One. Let’s just rewind to that with the following questions.

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Write down what you think when you hear the word ‘exercise’ If it’s a positive statement like “I enjoy the feeling I have once my exercise session is over”, record here how that will help you on your Wealthy Body programme.

If it’s more negative like “I’ve tried to exercise in the past and I’ve always given up”, record the effect this type of thinking will have on the programme What can you do to change this mindset.

10 Good Reasons to Exercise 1. Exercise makes you energetic The fitter you are, the more energetic you’ll feel. It’s ironic, isn’t it? You’d think exercise would tire you out and make you feel less energetic, but research proves that physical activity actually increases your energy levels.

Doctors have even found that carefully graded exercise can help patients suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a condition which leaves sufferers feeling constantly exhausted, and which defies most conventional cures. So, if sufferers of this serious and hard-to-treat fatigue find their energy levels rising with the right kind of exercise, how much more could some physical activity help the rest of us kick of our everyday tiredness?

This ‘energy paradox’ – using up energy to get more energy – makes more sense when we learn about how the body and brain react to exercise, and in particular, weight training.

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2. Exercise keeps your arteries clear Exercising helps prevent atherosclerosis, the narrowing and stiffening of the arteries that increases your risk of heart attacks and strokes. Deposits build up in the arteries over time – that’s why heart attacks are more common in the elderly than younger people – but regular exercise can significantly slow down this accumulation. Not only this, research suggests that exercise (combined with healthy eating) might even reverse the deposits of fatty sludge in our blood vessels.

3. Exercise lowers your blood pressure If your blood vessels are stiff and narrow, your blood pressure is likely to be high. But by keeping your arteries blockage-free and flexible, these blood vessels can stretch to accommodate the surges of blood that occur when your heart contracts – and this means lower blood pressure. Lower blood pressure in turn means less risk of heart disease and strokes.

4. Exercise helps keep your brain oxygenated The brain is the most oxygen-hungry organ in the body. Without oxygen, brain cells die – this is what happens when someone has a stroke. The brain needs to be constantly bathed in oxygenated blood, so it stands to reason that the better your blood flow in general, the better your brain’s oxygen supply. How do you boost your blood flow? It’s your heart that provides the impetus to pump blood around your body, so by increasing your heart rate through working out vigorously, more blood gets pumped around your body, more oxygen gets to your brain, and you feel more energetic.

Think about it. You’re feeling fuzzy-headed and lethargic. Go for a brisk walk –- and you’ll feel much more alert. It’s your brain welcoming that oxygenated blood.

That’s the short-term effect, but there’s another more longer-lasting effect on your brain. Over time, as you continue your exercise programme, your brain grows more of the tiny blood vessels called capillaries. It’s through these thin-walled vessels that your brain absorbs oxygen, so it stands to reason that more capillaries means better oxygen uptake.

5. Exercise helps the brain get fuel The brain doesn’t just need a healthy blood supply to keep it oxygenated, your blood also brings it’s ‘fuel supply’. The brain runs almost entirely on the single-unit sugar glucose, which is transported to the brain in the blood.

And exercise not only boosts blood flow, it also boosts the enzymes that control glucose production from the metabolism of carbohydrates.

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6. Exercise helps the body to use glucose Because of its action on enzymes and hormone, exercise also helps you to use glucose efficiently. This means that when unfit people’s energy levels slump, if you’re in good shape you’ll still have plenty of energy. It could also lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.

7. Exercise builds muscle And don’t think this just means the fact that those who work out with weights have stronger, firmer physiques than couch potatoes – though that’s no bad thing in itself. The muscle-building that occurs when you do resistance training exercise (working with weights) raises your so-called ‘basal metabolic rate’. And this means that you burn more calories throughout the day – even when you’re not exercising.

8. Exercise makes your muscles better ‘energy stores’ Muscles store energy in the form of a substance called glycogen. When the muscle works, that glycogen is available to be converted to energy, and used as a more or less instant energy supply. Being fit means your muscles store more glycogen, placing more energy at your disposal for physical activity, whether it’s working out or mowing the lawn.

9. Exercise boosts immunity Being in shape supports your immune system, boosting your resistance to germs and bugs, as well as cancer. (However, taking things to extremes has the opposite effect – overtraining, beyond your ability, can weaken your immunity, as can under-eating).

10. Exercise relieves stress Recently, doctors have started ‘prescribing’ exercise for stress and depression – and clinical trials back this up. It’s thought to work through a variety of mechanisms, including the action of endorphins, boosting energy levels, aiding sleep and helping to balance your hormones.

Now let’s see what you remember!

Answer ‘True’ or ‘False’ to the following questions without going back and looking at the text: 44

Exercise helps you to make glucose. True or False?

Exercise boosts blood flow to the brain. True or

Exercise makes you stressed. True or False?

Exercise helps your immune system. True or False?

Muscles can’t store energy that’s why you have to work out regularly. True or False?

Exercise tires you out. True or False?

Joining a gym It’s extremely important that you join a health club or gym. You might think this sounds like unnecessary expense, or an awful lot of hassle – so we’ll explain why.

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Joining a gym will help you achieve all of the following:

Reduction in body fat.

Gain knowledge in body maintenance.

Motivation/inspiration

Improved body shape

Social

Access to a wide range of equipment and classes

Delay or reduce the effects of aging.

Balance out the asymmetries created from one sided activities.

How often do I have to train?

It’s not just how often you want to train, it’s what you need to achieve from it. Build muscle, lose weight, run the Marathon, go skiing? If you have just been intermittently going through the same old routine now and then, you may find this interesting:

One session per week may make you feel you are doing something to burn calories and slow down the aging speed but it is not enough to change anything because the body needs constant overload to make it change.

Two sessions per week will keep your body at a certain level of fitness, so that running for the bus is not too much trouble but with little impact on the spare tyre.

Three regular sessions a week and you will notice your fitness levels increase and see some tonal firming up. Better only a hard workout three times a week than spending too long four to five times a week doing a light work out.

Five sessions a week at 45 minutes to an hour is the ideal training frequency. Your fitness levels, energy, strength, and cardiovascular system will dramatically improve and changes in body fat will be visible (As long as the eating is right!)

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Current research from Dr Muoio at the Duke University medical centre has found overweight people who do not exercise find losing weight a lot harder than those who take up exercise because they over produce enzymes that encourages the body to store fat. When looking at the lean tissue removed from lean and overweight patients they found three times the amount of fat inhibiting enzymes in the over weight person as opposed to the active exerciser.

This goes along with the well known theory that fit people burn more fat and the unfit burn more glucose.

Please note.We continually see lack lustre

workout habits among the majority of men and women in the health clubs we visit. There is just no point going to the gym four times a week and not raising your pulse above resting, (you should be finding a conversation of more than three words difficult.) If you find motivation hard try a class such as spinning where music and an instructor will push you along.

You should always do your weights before cardio for the best fat burning effect and you should train to, or near, failure when using weights. The body is an intricate adaptive survival machine and it will not change to adapt unless it is worked out of its comfort zone.

Shocking your body into higher intensity will give you the greatest endorphin rush and a brilliant new body.

The effects of exercise There’s nothing so motivating as being able to see the effects of your exercise regime. Whilst it is too soon for you to compare your ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos, have a look at the attached file and see the amazing results one of our clients had. Is it the same woman?

Share your thoughts at seeing these ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos with other members in the group.

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Finding a gym We suggest you join a health club or gym close to where you live, or in a convenient spot on the way to or from work. This is important, in order to give you a wide range of weight training equipment. Also, on those days you don’t feel motivated or the weather is lousy, the classes run by gyms and health clubs can also add variety.

During this coming week we want you to find a convenient and local gym. Join up and arrange an induction programme – so that you’ll be ready to actually start working out next week.

Try out the gym first by asking for a free guest pass or a week’s free trial. You can check they have a wide range of equipment and strict rules on hygiene, the correct training protocols in the weights area and if the supervising staff are friendly and helpful.

Tour the facility during peak hours or the times you plan working out the most.

When you join the gym, you will receive an induction from a qualified instructor. Your instructor will show you how to use all the equipment and help you establish suitable weights for you to start with. When you have your induction, take the Workout Format with you and show the instructor to get clear advice and help to get you started.

Why Weights?

Weight training gives you tremendous control over how you look and feel. Muscles get stronger, your posture straightens and the bulges disappear. It’s something you can do for yourself that achieves fast, gratifying results. Both men and women can workout with weights and see remarkable benefits relatively quickly.

No matter how old you are, you can expect rapid changes to occur within the first two weeks of resistance training. During that time, your brain is making new connections to muscle. The wiring of your nervous system is reorganised so it can direct your muscles to lift more weight more efficiently. It’s also tapping new parts of the muscle that may have fallen idle. By the six-week mark, you’ll find your muscles are harder and more defined. (This requires regular short but intense workouts.) And after 12 weeks, you’ll enjoy new harder muscles in places you never thought you’d see them.

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The conventional wisdom is that regular aerobic exercise (walking, running cycling , swimming) is all you need to remain young and healthy, however new research shows that to look and feel your best, you must train with weights What Building Muscle Will Do:

1. Keep you young For starters, muscle can keep you young. Even if you’re just cracking the ripe old age of 25 or 30, weight training can wind back the years and give you the power you had at 18. But if you’re older than that, the benefits are even greater. Research shows that significant gains in muscle can be acquired up to, and beyond the age of 100 years! Muscle is completely rebuilt at least several times a year. So even at the age of 80 and beyond, well-trained muscle tissue is really ‘young’.

2.. Speed up your metabolism.

Do you feel that your metabolism is slowing down?

Do you find that you can’t eat as much as you used to without getting fat?

Does it seem that you have less energy than you used to?

These problems all have a simple explanation - muscles shrink as you age. A well toned physique is like a big car engine. Even at idle, active strong muscles burn calories. But if you have less muscle, this causes your metabolism to slow. If you can slow or stop the muscle loss that most people suffer with age, – by exercising - you can keep your metabolism as speedy as it was when you were younger.

3. Lower your Blood Sugar As muscle mass shrinks, blood-sugar levels can increase. Also, as a person becomes fatter and less muscular, insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, doesn’t work so well. So as you get older, fatter, and less muscular, your blood sugar may rise.

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4. Strengthen your Bones

Weight training increases bone weight and density more effectively than swimming or running. Since it stresses (in a good way) most major bones in the body, it offers tremendous protection against the bone-thinning known as osteoporosis which affects both men and women.

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5. Strengthen your Joints

When you create muscle, you protect your joints. For instance, doing squats will stabilise the vulnerable knee joint by building much stronger ligaments and muscles that support the joint.

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6. Improve Your Appearance There is no better solution to the slouch-shouldered, potbellied, bent-over look of a person approaching middle age than an increase in muscle mass. People who weight train stand taller – they have more self-confidence.

7. Weights can keep you young Every decade from age 40, you lose up to 6 lbs of muscle. This may not be particularly noticeable, since the size of your arms and legs often remains about the same as when you were younger. But they’re the same size because fat has replaced muscle. The average 35-year-old man is 18% fat, but by age 65, he’s 38% fat.

It’s a use it or lose it phenomenon.

What about cardiovascular exercise?

There’s this big debate about whether this is better than weight training. Let’s put that straight right now!

Cardio, like walking, running, cycling, swimming etc, just doesn’t pack the same punch as weight training. Aerobically fit people who don’t weight train show the telltale signs of aging with fewer small muscle fibres and more scar tissue. By contrast, in a study of older men who weight train, Professor Henrik Kiltgaard of the August Krogh Institute in Copenhagen found plenty of robust muscle fibres. “Aerobic exercise is important, but it won’t keep people from getting weak as they get older,” he explains.

The order of your workout is

“Build before you

If you’re going to do or weight training (also known as resistance training) and cardiovascular exercise (also known as aerobic exercise but this isn’t simply an aerobics class. It can be swimming or walking and so on). Within one workout, always do your cardio after your weights, particularly if you are trying to tone up or lose weight, and never the other way around!

Here’s why:

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During a weight-training session you rely on maximum energy to overload your muscles for change and shape. By doing this form of exercise first in your routine you are at your strongest when at your freshest, with your muscle glycogen supplies full.

Whereas if you do cardio training first you will start using the aerobic (fat) energy system, which will leave you fatigued and depleted of glycogen fuel. (Remember that even when working aerobically you will be burning up to 30% fuel in the form of glycogen).

If you do cardio first, your body will then burn mostly glycogen made from broken-down muscle to fuel your weights training – damaging the very muscle you are trying to train!

Your metabolism will slow down, but more importantly, by losing muscle condition you will harm your long-term metabolic ability, making all your future fat-burning activities less effective.

Safety first Safety and good technique are also important issues when weight training. A fatigued body is less able to maintain good form, and a fatigued muscle is more prone to injury - as would be the case after a vigorous cardio session. So it makes sense to do the weights phase of your training first when your energy, balance and concentration levels are high.

The only time we would recommend doing cardio first, is if that is absolutely the only time you can do it, or of course, if you were doing a cardio-only session like a run, for example.

Checkout Fact Sheet 2 for more information abtout how to use the machines at your gym safely and to best effect.

Planningyour yourexercise exercise Planning Most of us have jobs that keep us at our desks for hours at a time, at home we have labour-saving devices that allow us to be so less active than our ancestors, and as a result we have all sorts of serious aches, pains, and illnesses from nothing so much as leading a sedentary existence.

SOUND BITE - IMPORTANC E OF PLANNING At the end of a long day we feel exhausted from yo-yoing blood sugar levels, nutrient-deficient food and lack of exercise. We then anaesthetise ourselves with a bottle of wine so we can relax and sleep!

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Sounds familiar?

Take heart - after a month of exercising daily you’ll feel like a new person. Your cells divide and grow at an amazingly rapid rate, and when your body gets the nutrients, oxygen, and exercise that it needs, you’ll be losing weight and making happy neurotransmitters that will give you a whole new outlook on life!

Make time for exercise - the rewards are huge!

Exercise Planning Tips Make it simple.

Your weekly exercise regime should start on Monday and end on Sunday.

The absolute minimum recommendation for exercise is 30 minutes, seven days a week. Ideally, you want to exercise 60 to 90 minutes a day to reap the full benefits of an active lifestyle.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be at the gym every day of the week. But you must still exercise!

Exercise is medicine for the body so don’t begrudge it.

If we put the effort into exercise that we did into excuses we could all be athletes. We hear so many excuses, such as, “my shoulder hurts”, or, “I get puffed!”. If you have an injury, you can always sensibly work around it. If your body feels uncomfortable, start slowly and work up; you will feel better and be better.

What will your weekly exercise plan look like?

You’ll need to read Your Workout Formats to be able to answer this question.

Are you going to opt for a single-day routine or a 2-day split routing?

How will you make time for your exercise sessions?

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Calorie Burning Opportunities!

If you’re concerned about all those exercises and sessions at the gym, take it steadily and you’ll be fine. Calorie Burning Opportunities or “CBO’s” will get you on the right track immediately. In order to feel the real benefits of this programme you need to have an active lifestyle in addition to visits to the gym.

If you drive to work, sit in the office most of the day and don’t use the stairs you will be burning minimal fat. A workout in the gym will then only just bring you up to a normal daily expenditure of calories. However, if you are active and working out then this is when results start to happen.

Quick WIN

A less-active person will use only 30% of the calories of an active person per day. If the lessactive person compensates by going to the gym he or she still uses 40% less calories than the active person who does not use the gym.

So this week, we want you to think about all the opportunities that you have in daily life to be more active and burn more calories. It is so important to realise that these little things make a huge difference and if you can incorporate every opportunity for activity into your daily life it cuts down the need for extra gym sessions to reach your weight loss goal.

Even if you have a sedentary job you can be more active if you try these ‘energy swaps’:

Using a lift or elevator to travel up four floors.

Expenditure = 1 calorie

Climb up four flights of stairs

Expenditure = 15 calories

Drive the children half a mile to school

Expenditure = 11 calories

Walk with them to school

Expenditure = 56 calories

Shop by internet

Expenditure = 17 calories

Walk 1 mile to the shop and back

Expenditure = 311 calories

Open packaged prepared sliced vegetables

Expenditure = 3 calories

Wash and slice own vegetables

Expenditure = 28 calories 55

Microwave a ready meal

Expenditure = 3 calories

Cook for 30 minutes

Expenditure = 67 calories

Get the idea?

Remember those CBOs from the last section? In everyday activities, always think in terms of seeking extra ones For example: 1. If you’re on the 7th floor, make a simple rule that you can only use the toilet on the 1st floor.

2. Rule number 2 is to get to the 1st floor and back, you have to take the stairs.

3. Rule number 3 is you’re only allowed to take stairs two at a time.

4. Rule number 4 is you have to drink lots of water during the day (minmum 2 litres) See how it works?

But how will you know it’s working?

Use a pedometer. A pedometer is an excellent fitness tool – it’s your daily reminder of how active you actually are! It is also a vital tool in understanding how important incidental exercise is to our body shape and health. Pedometers are easy to find and the small outlay will be well worth it as you see your progress.

The pedometer works by measuring your hip motion as you walk and it should be attached to your belt or waistband directly above your knee. (If you don’t want to lose it it’s a good idea to use a pin to secure it in place if possible) You should be aiming for at least 10,000 steps a day to prevent weight gain and maximise health, and over 15,000 steps if you’re in a serious fat-burning phase of your training.

Studies show that people who reach 10,000 steps a day are more likely to reach the minimum 30 minutes’ moderate intensity exercise.

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Your Workout Diary This diary, like your Food Diary, is a vital tool to help you gain valuable insight into how your current fitness is working and it also gives you insight into any trouble spots.

When you change your diet with the goal of losing weight, the first initial weeks are absolutely crucial. We know through working with thousands of people who have been overweight or really unfit, that losing a good amount of weight at the very outset of a program can lay a positive base for long-term success. If you get a good motivated start by seeing and feeling results then you are more motivated and confident to adopt a longer-term leaner lifestyle.

Your records will become a source of inspiration and progress, through preparation and planning and knowledge.

Every session you do, you should write in the sets and repetitions you did for each station, the weights you used, and the total duration of the workout. As you improve in your fitness and strength you should endeavour to improve on these recorded benchmarks.

When doing your cardiovascular exercises, keep accurate records of time, distance and any other parameters available to you. For example on a treadmill you could record time, distance, speed and incline. If walking or running you could record time, distance (if you can measure it), route and other notes about hills, where you speeded up from walking up to running, etc.

At the end of every day record the type of exercise you have done and how long you did it for.

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Use a notebook and pencil, your iPad, your iPhone or whatever you like as your diary. The importance is the keep the detailed records of what you’ve done!

REMEMBER:

Keeping a workout diary leaves nothing to chance, but you have to be accountable for changing destructive habits. You will become more aware of likely problems when workouts are planned out ahead of time, and you can form a contingency plan well ahead too.

Whatever your conscious or unconscious habits are you can use your diary as an indispensable tool to help identify them.

Use the Forum Now you’ve got a plan, why not share that with the other people in the forum? You will get their ideas too and get motivated to get that exercise plan in place and rolling!

In the forum, you can hold each other accountable on a weekly basis and give support when someone is flagging. We need that to keep us on track for the first few weeks when the programme may be a bit challenging.

The forum can be a sort of Exercisers Anonymous!

Add your comment here

In this module you should have: Understood the importance of exercise.

Understood the two different types of exercise and their effects.

Learned the importance of ‘weights before cardio’ and how to structure a work out.

Seen how easy it is to find calorie burning opportunities in everyday life

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

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What are your top three challenges when it comes to regular exercise?

What are the top three changes that you will make to your daily routine?

The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Join a gym and attend your induction session.

Decide on a training schedule and book in regular slots to visit the gym starting early next week.

Start a Workout Diary Seize every opportunity to be more active.

Assess your daily life and find ways to increase your CBOs. Get a pedometer and start to use it. Make sure you are aiming for at least 10,000 steps a day

Which gym have you joined and when is your induction session scheduled?

What is your training schedule planned to be?

What three CBOs will you add to your daily routine?

How many steps a day are you recording on your pedometer?

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Here’s a plan for two exercise for

FACT SHEET 1 Total Body Gym Routine, a beginner’s example (if you’re doing your weights every 2 – 3 days):

Leg Press Machine

4 sets of 12 reps

Leg Curl Machine

3 sets of 12 Reps

Abductor (Outer Thigh) Machine

3 sets of 12 reps

Wide Front Pull-Down

3-4 sets of 10 reps

Olympic Bench Press

3-4 sets of 10 reps

Seated Shoulder Press Machine

3 sets of 12 reps

Tricep Press-Down

3 sets of 15 reps

Incline Dumbell Bicep Curls

3 sets of 12 reps

Swiss Ball Crunches

3 sets of 10 reps

Floor Cycling

3 sets of 20 reps (10 to each side)

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2-day Split Gym Routine (if you’re doing your weights every day) Day One: Legs, Back, Biceps.

Leg Press Machine

4 sets of 12 repetitions (reps)

Leg Curl Machine

3 sets of 12 reps

Abductor Machine (Outer Thigh)

3 sets of 12 reps

Wide Front Pull-Down or Gravitron

3 sets of 10 reps

1-arm Dumbell Row

3 sets of 10 reps on each side

Incline Dumbell Bicep Curls

3 sets of 12 reps

Day Two: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs.

Olympic Bench Press

4 sets of 12 reps

Inclined Dumbell Flyes

3 sets of 12 reps

Shoulder Press Machine

3 sets of 12 reps

Upright Row with Bar

3 sets of 10 reps

Tricep Press-Down

3 sets of 15 reps

Swiss Ball Crunches

3 sets of 15 reps

Floor Cycling

3 sets of 20 reps (10 to each side)

Notes (for both routines): Start each workout with a 2-mintue warm-up only, but finish with 10 - 30 minutes cardio at the end, if you have time. If you do cardio in the same workout period, always do it after your weights.

Rest time between sets should be no more than 60 seconds Weight loads are calculated on as much as you can lift strongly for the number of repetitions recommended.

Begin each exercise with a ‘warm-up’ set at about 70% of your normal lifting weight.

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Drink plenty of water. You’ll need to eat again after finishing the workout, ideally a meal containing protein and carbohydrates.

Rotate the workouts through the week, even if consecutive days, in order to give each muscle group at least one day’s rest, but it won’t matter if you work out 5 or 6 times a week on this routine – you’d simply work on the routine you didn’t do last time.

Hot Tip: Punching a bag hard and fast is excellent for building fitness and upper body definition and endurance for both men and women. Go fast for 60 seconds then rest for 30 seconds before repeating. Continue for 5 minutes or more…

An explanation of the machines you’ll come across at the gym and what they do.mats.

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FACT SHEET 2

The exercises

Leg Press Machine Position yourself in the machine with feet about shoulder-width apart and toes turned ever-soslightly outwards. Ensure that your bottom and hips are firmly planted against the backrest of the machine. Slowly draw the legs in towards you under the load, keeping the knees in line with your toes, ie: out fairly wide. You may bring the knees back past a right angle, but be careful never to allow the hips or back to lift off the backrest. As the weight comes in towards you, breathe in. Exhale as you push the legs out again, but do not allow the knees to lock at the top of the movement.

Without pausing, smoothly repeat the movement. At no time should you hold your breath, especially under load, as this will cause your blood pressure to rise dangerously.

Leg Curl Machine Seated Version: Sitting in the machine, set the seat length so the back of your knees are just in contact with the seat, and the knee is directly parallel to the hinge of the machine, and you can

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lean back just a little. Position the leg roll so that it sits against the bend at the back of your ankle, and not against the calf or Achilles tendon. Lock the knee pad onto your thighs and begin to curl the leg down and under your seat from its extended position. Slowly allow the weight to return with strong control, but do not allow the weight stack to touch between reps once you commence the exercise.

Lying Version: Lying face down on the bench, position yourself so the top of the knee is just in contact with the end of the pad. This should bring your knees in line with the hinge of the machine.

Lying flat and holding the handles under the bench, smoothly pull the leg roll up in an arc until it gets as close to your bottom as possible. Do not lift the hips up off the bench. Slowly return to the start position with strong control, being careful not to allow the legs to ‘snap-lock’ back at the bottom. Repeat the movement. (Tip: This exercise can be made stricter by pointing the toes down throughout the movement.)

Abductor, or Outer Thigh Machine Sit in the machine and ensure the leg supports are set to their closest setting, ie: your feet should be together before you start. Making sure you are leaning back in the machine, slowly draw the legs out as wide as they can go. Pause momentarily if you can before returning to the start position. Do not ‘drop’ the weight back down, and remember not to let the weight stack touch between reps once you start the exercise.

Wide Front Pull-Down Machine Sitting in the seat, firstly ensure the leg roll is positioned firmly on top of your thigh. Now stand up and grab the bar with a wide, overhand, grip. This is usually on the outside of the bend in the bar.

Sit back down bringing the bar with you, and lock your thighs under the roll. Inhale as you draw the bar down. Lean back a little and, arching the back, lift the chest up to meet the bar as it descends.

Keep the elbows wide, and think of pulling ‘back’ rather than ‘down’, squeezing the shoulder blades together in behind you. Bring the bar right down onto the collarbone and smoothly return to the top, exhaling as you do so. Make sure you let the weight stretch you up, but do not let the elbows ‘snap-lock’ at the top, and don’t let the weight lift your bottom up out of the seat.

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Olympic Bench Press Lying on your back in the Olympic bench, position yourself so that the bar is directly above your eyes. Your feet should be wide and placed flat on the floor. If the bench is too high, place a weight plate under each foot, or an exercise step. Grasp the bar with a wide, tight grip. (To test your ideal grip width, lower the bar onto the upper chest and position your hands so the forearms are exactly vertical. Note your hand position with reference to the markings on the bar.) Lift the bar off the supports and position it above the upper chest. Inhale deeply as you allow the bar to descend, keeping the elbows wide. Watch the centre of the bar with your eyes to help balance.

Just when the bar is about a fist width above the chest, reverse the movement, exhaling as you drive the bar up to the start position again. Without pausing repeat the movement. Do not allow the elbows to snap-lock at the top, or the bar to ‘crash’ or ‘bounce’ on the chest. Safety: Always lock any weight plates onto the bar securely with collars, and if you are lifting to your maximum, or are nervous about the weight, ensure you have someone ‘spotting’ you through the set.

Shoulder Press Machine Sitting in the machine, make sure your bottom is firmly wedged against the back rest and your shoulders the same. Your feet should be placed reasonably widely, and flat on the floor. Grasp the handles of the machine and push up, exhaling strongly as you do. Without locking the elbows, smoothly reverse the movement back to the starting position. Do not let the weight stack touch once you begin the exercise.

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Tricep Press-Down This exercise can be performed with either a short straight bar, or a rope attachment. Stand in front of the machine and check that the pulley is at the top of the machine. Grab the handle with a narrow overhand grip and press down until you are standing with your arms straight down. This is the start position. Slowly inhale as you allow the bar to ascend, but keep the elbows locked tightly against your sides and slightly to the front of the body. This will force the bar to move in a very strict arc up to the shoulder. Without pausing exhale and press the bar down in exactly the same pattern, again keeping the elbows fixed in position. If using the rope attachment, the arm position is the same but the rope is held in a fist with the thumbs uppermost. As you descend, allow the hands to ‘spread’ out to the sides of the thighs at the bottom of the movement.

Incline Dumbell Bicep Curls Lie face up on a bench that has been set at about 45 degrees of incline with a dumbell in each hand. With the palms facing uppermost, slowly curl the dumbells up to the shoulder in a perfect arc. From the top, slowly lower down again, ensuring you get a full stretch in the elbow at the bottom of the movement. Repeat. Breathe out as you pull up, and inhale as you lower the dumbells, but do not hold your breath at any point.

Swiss Ball Crunches Lying face up on a Swiss Ball, position yourself so the legs are about shoulder width apart and feet flat on the floor. The ball should be centred in your lower back, allowing you to lean back over the ball and look behind you, upside-down. Make sure your centre of gravity is always loaded towards the feet so they do not become ‘light’ or leave the floor. From this position breathe out strongly and, using the power generated from the breathing movement in the abdominals, raise your upper body to a ¾ sitting position. Slowly lower back down, inhaling as you do so, until you are stretched out over the ball again. Without relaxing the abdominals, repeat the movement.

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Floor Cycling Lying on a mat on the floor with your arms crossed over your chest, raise your left knee until it is at a right-angle, with the thigh vertical. Lift your right leg off the floor about an inch, keeping it straight. Now breathe out strongly and lift your trunk up so the shoulders come off the floor and bring your right elbow across to connect with your left knee. Lower back down, change leg positions, and repeat the lift to the other side, breathing in as you come back down. It is important to separate the leg positioning from the upper body movement each time. Here is the sequence: “Change legs. Breathe out. Lift and twist. Return. Change legs…” etc.

1-arm Dumbell Row Position yourself with left leg kneeling towards the rear of a bench and the left arm extended down onto the side of the bench towards the front. Ensuring that your right leg is well out to the side of the bench for stability, grasp a dumbell in your right hand. Start from the floor and pull the dumbell up to the ribs. Continue to lift the shoulder as high as you can, but do not turn your head to the side. Keep looking straight down towards the floor. Without pausing return the dumbell to the floor again, but do not let it rest there. Immediately begin the next repetition. Inhale as you lift up, and exhale as you lower the weight down. When you have completed the set, place the dumbell on the floor, turn around to face the other way, and repeat the exercise on the other arm.

Upright Row with Bar Standing in front of a mirror, lift the bar off the floor, or the rack if you are using one. Hand position is ‘overhand’ with the thumbs extended and touching each other on top of the bar. Inhale and lift the bar up the front of the body keeping the elbows high and wide until the bar comes just above the nipple line. Do not continue up to the throat as this will stress the rotator cuff of the shoulder excessively. Without pausing at the top, slowly lower the bar with good control, exhaling as you do so.

Incline Dumbell Flyes Lying on a bench or Swiss Ball at about 35 degrees of incline (if the bench angle is too steep, you may overload the shoulders), hold a pair of dumbells directly above your face at full arm extension.

The handles should lie parallel to each other so that your knuckles are facing and almost touching.

Bring your elbows into a slightly bent position and tension the arm muscles so that they remain fixed in this position. Inhaling deeply as you commence the movement, bring the dumbells out in a wide sweeping arc to the side, lifting the chest up as you do so. Keeping a tight grip on the handles, breathe out as you reverse the movement back to the starting position again. At all times keep the arms long, but the elbows in a ‘soft’ position, as if hugging a large tree.

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FACT SHEET 2 The exercises Leg Press Machine Position yourself in the machine with feet about shoulder-width apart and toes turned ever-soslightly outwards. Ensure that your bottom and hips are firmly planted against the backrest of the machine. Slowly draw the legs in towards you under the load, keeping the knees in line with your toes, ie: out fairly wide. You may bring the knees back past a right angle, but be careful never to allow the hips or back to lift off the backrest. As the weight comes in towards you, breathe in. Exhale as you push the legs out again, but do not allow the knees to lock at the top of the movement. Without pausing, smoothly repeat the movement. At no time should you hold your breath, especially under load, as this will cause your blood pressure to rise dangerously.

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Leg Curl Machine

Seated Version: Sitting in the machine, set the seat length so the back of your knees are just in contact with the seat, and the knee is directly parallel to the hinge of the machine, and you can lean back just a little. Position the leg roll so that it sits against the bend at the back of your ankle, and not against the calf or Achilles tendon. Lock the knee pad onto your thighs and begin to curl the leg down and under your seat from its extended position. Slowly allow the weight to return with strong control, but do not allow the weight stack to touch between reps once you commence the exercise.

Lying Version: Lying face down on the bench, position yourself so the top of the knee is just in contact with the end of the pad. This should bring your knees in line with the hinge of the machine. Lying flat and holding the handles under the bench, smoothly pull the leg roll up in an arc until it gets as close to your bottom as possible. Do not lift the hips up off the bench. Slowly return to the start position with strong control, being careful not to allow the legs to ‘snap-lock’ back at the bottom. Repeat the movement. (Tip: This exercise can be made stricter by pointing the toes down throughout the movement.)

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Abductor, or Outer Thigh Machine Sit in the machine and ensure the leg supports are set to their closest setting, ie: your feet should be together before you start. Making sure you are leaning back in the machine, slowly draw the legs out as wide as they can go. Pause momentarily if you can before returning to the start position. Do not ‘drop’ the weight back down, and remember not to let the weight stack touch between reps once you start the exercise.

Wide Front Pull-Down Machine Sitting in the seat, firstly ensure the leg roll is positioned firmly on top of your thigh. Now stand up and grab the bar with a wide, overhand, grip. This is usually on the outside of the bend in the bar.

Sit back down bringing the bar with you, and lock your thighs under the roll. Inhale as you draw the bar down. Lean back a little and, arching the back, lift the chest up to meet the bar as it descends.

Keep the elbows wide, and think of pulling ‘back’ rather than ‘down’, squeezing the shoulder blades together in behind you. Bring the bar right down onto the collarbone and smoothly return to the top, exhaling as you do so. Make sure you let the weight stretch you up, but do not let the elbows ‘snap-lock’ at the top, and don’t let the weight lift your bottom up out of the seat.

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Olympic Bench Press Lying on your back in the Olympic bench, position yourself so that the bar is directly above your eyes. Your feet should be wide and placed flat on the floor. If the bench is too high, place a weight plate under each foot, or an exercise step. Grasp the bar with a wide, tight grip. (To test your ideal grip width, lower the bar onto the upper chest and position your hands so the forearms are exactly vertical. Note your hand position with reference to the markings on the bar.) Lift the bar off the supports and position it above the upper chest. Inhale deeply as you allow the bar to descend, keeping the elbows wide. Watch the centre of the bar with your eyes to help balance.

Just when the bar is about a fist width above the chest, reverse the movement, exhaling as you drive the bar up to the start position again. Without pausing repeat the movement. Do not allow the elbows to snap-lock at the top, or the bar to ‘crash’ or ‘bounce’ on the chest. Safety: Always lock any weight plates onto the bar securely with collars, and if you are lifting to your maximum, or are nervous about the weight, ensure you have someone ‘spotting’ you through the set.

Shoulder Press Machine Sitting in the machine, make sure your bottom is firmly wedged against the back rest and your shoulders the same. Your feet should be placed reasonably widely, and flat on the floor. Grasp the handles of the machine and push up, exhaling strongly as you do. Without locking the elbows, smoothly reverse the movement back to the starting position. Do not let the weight stack touch once you begin the exercise.

Tricep Press-Down This exercise can be performed with either a short straight bar, or a rope attachment. Stand in front of the machine and check that the pulley is at the top of the machine. Grab the handle with a narrow overhand grip and press down until you are standing with your arms straight down. This is the start position. Slowly inhale as you allow the bar to ascend, but keep the elbows locked tightly against your sides and slightly to the front of the body. This will force the bar to move in a very strict arc up to the shoulder. Without pausing exhale and press the bar down in exactly the same pattern, again keeping the elbows fixed in position. If using the rope attachment, the arm position is the same but the rope is held in a fist with the thumbs uppermost. As you descend, allow the hands to ‘spread’ out to the sides of the thighs at the bottom of the movement.

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Incline Dumbell Bicep Curls Lie face up on a bench that has been set at about 45 degrees of incline with a dumbell in each hand. With the palms facing uppermost, slowly curl the dumbells up to the shoulder in a perfect arc. From the top, slowly lower down again, ensuring you get a full stretch in the elbow at the bottom of the movement. Repeat. Breathe out as you pull up, and inhale as you lower the dumbells, but do not hold your breath at any point.

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Swiss Ball Crunches Lying face up on a Swiss Ball, position yourself so the legs are about shoulder width apart and feet flat on the floor. The ball should be centred in your lower back, allowing you to lean back over the ball and look behind you, upside-down. Make sure your centre of gravity is always loaded towards the feet so they do not become ‘light’ or leave the floor. From this position breathe out strongly and, using the power generated from the breathing movement in the abdominals, raise your upper body to a ¾ sitting position. Slowly lower back down, inhaling as you do so, until you are stretched out over the ball again. Without relaxing the abdominals, repeat the movement.

Floor Cycling Lying on a mat on the floor with your arms crossed over your chest, raise your left knee until it is at a right-angle, with the thigh vertical. Lift your right leg off the floor about an inch, keeping it straight.

Now breathe out strongly and lift your trunk up so the shoulders come off the floor and bring your right elbow across to connect with your left knee. Lower back down, change leg positions, and repeat the lift to the other side, breathing in as you come back down. It is important to separate the leg positioning from the upper body movement each time. Here is the sequence: “Change legs.

Breathe out. Lift and twist. Return. Change legs…” etc.

1-arm Dumbell Row Position yourself with left leg kneeling towards the rear of a bench and the left arm extended down onto the side of the bench towards the front. Ensuring that your right leg is well out to the side of the bench for stability, grasp a dumbell in your right hand. Start from the floor and pull the dumbell up to the ribs. Continue to lift the shoulder as high as you can, but do not turn your head to the side. Keep looking straight down towards the floor. Without pausing return the dumbell to the floor again, but do not let it rest there. Immediately begin the next repetition. Inhale as you lift up, and exhale as you lower the weight down. When you have completed the set, place the dumbell on the floor, turn around to face the other way, and repeat the exercise on the other arm.

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Upright Row with Bar Standing in front of a mirror, lift the bar off the floor, or the rack if you are using one. Hand position is ‘overhand’ with the thumbs extended and touching each other on top of the bar. Inhale and lift the bar up the front of the body keeping the elbows high and wide until the bar comes just above the nipple line. Do not continue up to the throat as this will stress the rotator cuff of the shoulder excessively. Without pausing at the top, slowly lower the bar with good control, exhaling as you do so.

Incline Dumbell Flyes Lying on a bench or Swiss Ball at about 35 degrees of incline (if the bench angle is too steep, you may overload the shoulders), hold a pair of dumbells directly above your face at full arm extension. The handles should lie parallel to each other so that your knuckles are facing and almost touching. Bring your elbows into a slightly bent position and tension the arm muscles so that they remain fixed in this position. Inhaling deeply as you commence the movement, bring the dumbells out in a wide sweeping arc to the side, lifting the chest up as you do so. Keeping a tight grip on the handles, breathe out as you reverse the movement back to the starting position again. At all times keep the arms long, but the elbows in a ‘soft’ position, as if hugging a large tree.

This week’s goals are Getting organised for healthy eating Understanding why we gain weight Quick changes for healthy eating Mini-meals – what they are and how they can work for you The 7 day eating plan to kick start your new regime.

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Week Four Nutrition

Since starting your Food Diary in Week Two you should have begun to see some patterns in your eating – both good and bad. This week we are going to look at introducing the 7 day meal plan to kick start your new healthy eating regime and look at some quick tips for changing old habits. It’s a very practical week and you’ll get lots of ideas about what to eat!

To access any section, click on ‘Select’ listed against each section name.

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This week’s goals are Getting organised for healthy eating Understanding why we gain weight Quick changes for healthy eating Mini-meals – what they are and how they can work for you The 7 day eating plan to kick start your new regime.

Where does the body get its raw materials from to recreate its new skin cells, brain cells, muscle cells, bone, new blood and heart cells? . It’s from the food we eat.

This isn’t something we usually learn at school or at work or from a coach or a trainer. Sometimes there’s so much conflicting data we just get “information overload” and get so caught up in the “small stuff” that we forget the big picture.

Often people have no clue what damage they’re doing to themselves with the food they normally eat (or don’t eat!). Alongside, they are frequently unaware of how much better they would look and feel if they stopped eating accidentally and started remodeling themselves intentionally.

The beauty is that it’s not complicated and, just like learning to ride a bike, it only takes the initial learning of new skills and some practice before it becomes second nature.

Get to know your metabolism Understanding your metabolism will really help you to lose weight and get in shape.

Your metabolism is the way in which the body burns the calories you feed it. You can think of your metabolism in two parts: 1 Calories used for your basal metabolism 2 Calories used for exercise and voluntary activities.

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Understanding your metabolism will really help you to lose weight and get in shape.

Your metabolism is the way in which the body burns the calories you feed it. You can think of your metabolism in two parts: 1 Calories used for your basal metabolism 2 Calories used for exercise and voluntary activities.

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The following increase your BMR:

Things that affect your basal metabolic rate (BMR)

Muscle - more muscle tone increases your BMR The weather - a colder environment can increase your BMR. It may sound strange, but not only do you expend energy keeping warm, you expend more energy while moving around in cold weather. It’s a lot easier to move around in summer but more of an effort to ‘get going’ in winter.

Pregnancy Meals - small regular healthy meals will increase your BMR.

The following increase your BMR: Crash or Yo-Yo Dieting Constantly skipping meals Inactivity Concentrating only on cardio exercise Age - your BMR will decrease with age unless you do something about it.

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Nutrition counts

When you cut down your calorie intake, it’s important to remember that your food must be super-nutritious, giving your body all it needs for repair and maintenance. When you miss out on these nutrients for any length of time, it causes damage to your body composition, health and shape.

Just cutting calories in general makes dieters lose energy and crave quick-fix high-sugar high-fat foods.

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Here’s a little more science. he body’s first choice for fuel is stored blood sugar, in the form of a substance called glycogen. But after it runs out of glycogen, the body must still get more glucose to keep the brain and nervous system operating. The muscles and organs can use fat as fuel but the brain and nervous system cannot.

Many dieters believe the body will burn only fat when they go hungry. But this is wrong! Here’s why: If you are skipping meals or saving up calories on a point’s system type diet, this is when you will begin to crave starchy carbohydrates. An inactive, underfed body will then turn to protein, its own lean muscle mass, to obtain the fuels it need to keep your engine ticking over.

Here lies a huge problem with most conventional weight-loss programs. They don’t work for the very reasons just explained. Conventional diets lower the calorie intake by creating a negative energy balance.

People will lose weight using this method, but they will be losing muscle or lean mass loss (protein).

A slippery slope It is important to realize that when the calories and corresponding nutrients drop below the minimal amount of energy required (BMR) to tick over and feed the nervous system, the body thinks “starvation”. When this occurs, not only does the body burn muscle to fuel its energy requirements, but while doing so, it is actually starting to shut down its metabolism.

You will also become increasingly and overwhelmingly tempted by every high calorie food you see or smell to get glucose back into the system.

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Sabotage!

By ridding itself of muscle, the body is essentially ridding you of a high octane gas guzzling metabolism. This is where the fat storage survival mechanism will begin to sabotage a diet.

When you slip up, by letting old eating habits back into your routine, or perhaps save up all your calories for a day and binge on rubbish, the calories get shunted straight into fat storage with your new increasingly super-efficient fat–depositing enzymes, doing exactly as you’ve been training them to do.

In prehistoric times, you would be a survivor! Now, however, you would just get fat. And that’s what this programme will help you avoid…

Share with others on the programme what your thoughts are about nutrition and healthy eating.

Food cues Wow! Have the advertisers got us on this one. Wonderful pictures of granddad in his beautiful garden restoring his energy with an ‘all natural’ energy bar, indulgent girl shuts out boyfriend while she obsesses over a bar of chocolate, a family that can only settle their children with branded ice creams or the loving couple sipping wine in the evening sunset.

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Continually bombarded with these marketing messages and perhaps a childhood of parents who used some of this kind of deficient comfort food as treats, it has set up a belief that it makes us feel cosy and comfortable to indulge.

Does it really make you feel good?

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What do you feel when you look in the mirror as you step out of the shower? Does it make you feel comfortable? How does your skin look? Do you want to jump out of bed every morning with the anticipation of a child to a new and exciting day? Are you slim?

Most people would be amazed at the extent to which companies target their customers and study them in depth. No expense is spared as they find ways to press every emotional button to keep you buying.

Before a product has even got to the market place, chemical experts and laboratory technicians have been busy analysing, restructuring and denaturing foods so they stimulate and titillate all your primeval sensors - the ones that made us such successful hunters and gatherers.

These foods are manufactured to make you to keep wanting more and more. They taste wonderful, they smell wonderful and they look colourful - but they are designed that way. The only thing is that they are almost always lacking is the nutrients we need, and they are often overloaded with those we can do without.

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Emotional eating When you eat, you produce enzymes to break this food down for the repair and maintenance of your body and brain. If the expected nutrients don’t arrive you quickly feel emotionally and physically empty again, but the calories have already been tucked away in the fat cells and the cycle starts again.

Calories without nutrition will rapidly age you, make you feel emotionally unstable and create a vicious circle of need. To add insult to injury, think of the enticing smells of newly baked bread, coffee percolating and the baker’s shop aromas; these are also designed to make you buy even when you are not hungry.

If you can understand how we are being manipulated into believing that cheap, high chemical, high fat, high salt and high sugar foods are emotionally helpful to you, then you will be able to rise above this and take charge of your health.

“A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running” Groucho Marx

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How do I tell the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger?

There are several differences between emotional hunger and physical hunger: 1. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly; physical hunger occurs gradually.

2. When you are eating to fill a void that isn’t related to an empty stomach, you crave a specific food, such as pizza or ice cream, and only that food will meet your need.

3. When you eat because you are actually hungry, you are open to options.

4. Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied instantly with the food you crave; physical hunger can wait.

5. Even when you are full, if you are eating to satisfy an emotional need, you are more likely to keep eating. When you are eating healthy food because you are hungry, you are more likely to stop when you are full.

6. Emotional eating can leave behind feelings of guilt; eating when you are physically hungry does not.

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Describe the differences between emotional eating and physical eating for YOU. How aware of What do YOU turn to in times of stress, fatigue or other challenges? this are you on a daily basis?

What practical things can you do to become more aware of WHY you are eating?

Getting organised In order to achieve successful fat loss and healthy longevity, everything hinges on being organised. Failure to plan leaves you open to poor food choices.

Think of a typical day - rushing home after work, you’re hungry and tired, and just need something to get you by. Do you quickly purchase any old thing that smells good to fuel your body? The deli sandwich or French pastry will probably wallop you with as many calories as a full meal but leaves you feeling hungry again soon after.

Planning ahead is very important as there aren’t a lot of healthy choices when it comes to eating on the run.

It’s amazing to us that switched on people plan a full appointment diary up to 6 months in advance, with everything from business meetings to things going on at their children’s schools, but do you know what? There is not one spot entered for their most fundamental important asset: their body, their health, their only vehicle they will ever be given to get around in!

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Store cupboard clear-out The first thing to do is clear out all those tempting addictive foods you already know will damage your progress. Go through all your cupboards, fridge and freezer and search out foods such as ‘beige-coloured foods’, crumbed food or food for frying, or nutrient-empty white foods.

You need to get rid of those depleting foods that zap your mental and physical energy and sabotage your resolve.

Eating healthier is better value for losing fat. Eating on the run, sandwiches, oily salads, extra cakes, treats and alcohol cost considerably more than just money.

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Foods to ditch All ‘beige’ foods, such as pastries, doughnuts, cakes, biscuits, pies.

The white foods, such as white pasta, white rice, white bread, processed and refined grains Soft drinks (including diet drinks), fruit drinks, squashes Sweets, cream, ice cream and chocolate.

Sugary breakfast cereals.

All hard cheeses Creamy sauces.

Foods containing trans-fatty acids, e.g. margarine, baked goods Fats high in saturated fats, e.g., butter, lard Processed meats, eg hot dogs and luncheon meats, sausages, salami etc Mayonnaise Chips and crisps Convenience meals Processed oils Alcohol goes to the back of the cupboard or cellar, reserved for special occasions only.

Either video or audio here to motivate and focus on the end point - the ‘why you are doing this’. Also about what’s to come - now you’ve cleared out your cupboards, what next?

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Eat when you’re hungry Another thing that has to go apart from those beige foods is over-eating.

Eat when you’re hungry, but before you’re ravenous.

Here are two fundamental changes you can make TODAY! 1. Think about your appetite; eat when you are 5-6 on the scale. Practice being aware of where you are on this scale.

2. Consciously eat every three hours. It may seem inconvenient at first but like all habits it soon becomes second nature. Plan at what times you will eat for example 7am, 10am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm.

Quick WIN

NEWSFLASH....

Eating rubbish will get you caught.

The inventor of a revolutionary new forensic fingerprinting technique claims criminals who eat processed foods are more likely to be discovered by police. Their sweaty high salt fingerprint marks made more of a corrosive impression on metal. Is this what you are looking for?

How can you eat more and lose weight?

In the next section we are going to outline a 7-day meal plan to quick start your new eating – but before we do that we want to introduce the concept of mini meals – as these are a key component of the plan.

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This involves adjusting to eating 5 – 6 small meals a day, and making it a habit that sticks.

This is how it works – it’s all about being organised, and it’s great if you’re often tempted to stray from your eating plan. When you are preparing, or have your main meal prepared for you, take an extra portion and put it into a sealable container for your lunch the next day (or prepare a separate lunch if what you are having for supper is not suitable for keeping). Refrigerate it overnight. Also prepare your mid morning and mid afternoon mini meals and put these into containers.

The next day at work you have your day’s nutrition sorted.

For quick weight loss the golden rule is: If it doesn’t come out of your container, you don’t Here’s an idea for an evening meal which will also make an ideal minimeal lunch for the next day:

Pan cooked chilli salmon with watercress, beetroot and orange salad

(Serves 2) 2 salmon steaks 3 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce 4 tbsp water For the salad: 3 large handfuls of watercress 3 small cooked beetroot, sliced 1 large orange, peel and pith removed 1 small red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped (optional)

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Method: To prepare the salPlace watercress on 2 plates and top with sliced beetroot and chopped chilli, if used. Remove the outer skin and pith from the orange and remove the orange segments from their skins. Arrange the orange segments on the salad and pour over any juice. Sprinkle with a little freshly ground black pepper.

To cook the salmon: Remove the skin from the salmon. Using a non stick frying pan – do not add any oil - gently pan fry the salmon until it is cooked, turning once. (It will take 3 - 5 minutes for each side depending on the thickness of the fillets). Add the sweet chilli sauce and the water to the pan with the salmon and heat for one minute, spooning the sauce over the salmon.

Place the salmon on top of the salad. Serve with boiled new potatoes, broccoli and green beans.

For your lunch mini meal: Fill your container with watercress, beetroot and orange salad, 3 small cold sliced boiled new potatoes and ½ a cooked cold salmon fillet. When you are ready to eat your meal drizzle over a little oil free dressing.

You’ll find more recipes in the More Minimeals document .

Garnishing The real secret to ensuring your meals never run the risk of appearing dull, bland, or unappetising is to come up with creative ideas with toppings, garnishing and gravies or sauces.

Side dishes also lend colour and visual appeal, however they should all be low or non-fat in nature. Tomatoes, diced peppers, spring or pickled onions, chives, dried fruits, low-fat yoghurt or cottage cheese are acceptable additions to any meal. Also consider low sugar chilli sauces, pickles, or relishes.

7 -Day Eating Plan Now it’s time to get started on your eating plan. Yes, it’s tough, but it’s only for one week and you will be eating 5 – 6 meals each day – which is probably a lot more actual ‘meals’ than you are used to.

This eating plan will kick start your programme and get your metabolism zinging, so that your new pattern of eating little and often is established.

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You’ll find the detailed plan at the end of the module, but let’s go through the basic layout of it here:

1.

Breakfast

4.

Mid afternoon meal

2.

Mid-morning meal

5.

Dinner

3.

Lunchtime meal

6.

Supper

We’ll look at each of these in a lttle more detail in the upcoming sections.

Do you usually eat all these meals?

Breakfasts Try to vary your breakfasts – choose from A bowl of porridge made with water or semi- skimmed milk and topped with a handful of berry fruits or a chopped pear, peach or apple.

A bowl of no sugar, no salt added muesli with skimmed or semi-skimmed milk and a piece of fruit.

A Hardedge super smoothie. (See recipe below)• Toasted pumpernickel bread topped with scrambled egg and a few strips of smoked salmon An egg white omelette (made with 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg) with grilled mushrooms, tomatoes and a slice of wholemeal toast.

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The Hardedge super smoothie Add a small segment of fresh uncooked organic vegetables of choice e.g. Broccoli, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, beetroot, celery and grated ginger to taste.

(The carrots, beetroot and celery can be juiced if your blender is not strong enough, and other less fibrous vegetables blended but you do lose the valuable fibre.)

Add: 2 cups of water 1 cup of ice 1 banana ½ cup of frozen raspberries, strawberries or blueberries

2 scoops whey protein powder. (Your choice of flavour) ½ cup of organic plain yogurt A tablespoon of Xylitol (optional)

Add ingredients and blend in a ‘heavy duty’ blender until thick and smooth. Delicious!

NB Don’t mix the beetroot and green ingredients unless you don’t mind a brown looking mixture. It still tastes wonderful!

You can use this as a base to add a splash of organic Aloe Vera juice or a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, dried wheat or Barley grass, 1 tsp spirulina, Vitamin C powder.

You might want to print this page out (especially as it has a recipe in it).

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Mid-morning meal Two pieces of fruit.

Try to eat a variety of different fruits throughout the week to get a widest variety of nutrients. A large handful of berry fruits – strawberries, raspberries, blueberries – are equivalent to one piece of fruit such as an apple, pear, orange, peach, nectarine or banana. Small fruits such as kiwi fruits, satsumas, mandarins, clemantines and plums, count as half a fruit. A quarter of a small melon, or two slices of fresh pineapple count as one portion.

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Lunchtime meal For your lunch meal you have several options. f your canteen provides ‘healthy’ options similar to the meals in this plan, you will be able to have one of those.

You could choose a healthy option from a deli or similar outlet. Opt for wholemeal pitas’ or wraps rather than traditional sandwiches. (Go for low-fat fillings, no mayo, no oily dressings, no cheese) Prepare something at home to take to work. This is the healthiest choice as you have absolute control over what goes into your lunch. We’ve given you some suggested lunches if you are making your own at home - see the More Mini Meals document

Mid-afternoon meal

Dinner

A mini meal you have brought from home.

This is a carb free meal

Supper You may not need this meal unless you had an early dinner.

Rinks For the one week introduction you should: Drink two litres of water each day.

Dilute fruit juices 50-50 with water.

Avoid fizzy drinks.

Avoid coffee and instead drink decaffeinated, herbal or green tea.

Avoid all alcoholic drinks.

Use semi-skimmed or skimmed milk on cereals and in drinks.

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The Best Drinks: Filtered water on ice (twist of lemon) - still or sparkling Iced or hot tea (check that iced tea is unsweetened) Sugar-free lemonade, juices, diet drinks Dry red or white wine in moderation if you have to drink alcohol (2 glasses in any one sitting max!).

Decaffeinated black coffee Lo-cal beer (e.g.: Bud Lite) Avoid whole milk, soft drinks, milk shakes, alcoholic mixer drinks and creamy cocktails.

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Eating out During this first 7 days try to avoid eating out as it will throw you off balance.

Following this plan doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to eat out again – but when you do, you just need to know how to make the wise choices.

If you have to attend a business event where there is food during this 7 day period, then try to follow the following tips.

When you are eating out, follow the tips below:

Find a restaurant you can return to again and again - the staff will get to know you and your ordering preferences. They’ll also treat you well as one of their ‘regulars’.

This makes getting the meal you want easier each time. This is especially important when you’re taking clients out or having regular business lunches with colleagues.

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When ordering, ask to have the preparation of unfamiliar dishes explained. Which dishes are baked, grilled or fried, and what type of sauces or dressings they are served with? You don’t want any nasty surprises!

Enquire if the vegetables can be steamed or boiled, and if you would like less starchy carbs (potato, pasta, rice), ask if you could have more “greens” instead.

Never hesitate to ask for food to be prepared exactly the way you want it. This may seem awkward at first, but it is an obstacle you’ll have to overcome early on if you want eating healthily to become second nature.

Often restaurants serve extra large helpings. Don’t feel bad about asking for a half-portion, or starter-sized serving.

If you are treating yourself to a dessert or sweet, investigate and order the items lowest in fat and sugar. Consider sharing your dessert with someone else.

If you will be dining at a new restaurant, make the reservation yourself so you can advise the staff well ahead of your preferences. This also allows you to check if the restaurant can help with your food choices or not. It may be you’ll have to choose another venue.

Always maintain focus on the benefits of your healthy lifestyle choices: a lean strong body, a healthy constitution, and a bright and vital presence.

Eat something healthy before you go out. By the time you are seated at the restaurant you’ll be ready to order a smaller-portioned meal without over-eating.

As soon as you’re seated drink a glass of water and take a single wholemeal roll only to eat whilst waiting for your order.

Order low fat, low calorie items which should be found on any menu, or which can be easily prepared in any kitchen.

Go straight for a clear consommé soup (one prepared with a water base and low-fat stock - avoid anything “Cream of...” or “Crème de...”).

Ask for a main of steamed/grilled fish or steak with steamed or boiled vegetables.

Request that any dressing or sauces be served “on the side”.

Insist that salads have no oil or dressings.

Go spicy! The temptation to overeat can be a subconscious response to bland food!

Have chillies, peppers, cayenne, onions or garlic with meats, salads, yoghurt dips, scrambled eggs, or curry powder to sauces. Try spicy dishes from the menu, but be sure to check the contents as always.

For more eating out tips, see the Restaurant Wisdom document 98

Portion Control Portion sizes have exploded since the mid-1980s - normal portions of food have doubled, trebled and even quadrupled during this time.

These are just a few examples of the calorie explosion over approximately 20 years:

In 1984, a blueberry muffin was 210 calories, it was up to 500 calories per muffin in 2004 A cheeseburger was 333 kcal, rising to 590 kcal.

A chicken Caesar salad was 390 kcal, nearly doubling to 790 kcal.

A portion of popcorn was 270 kcal, and increased to 630 kcal.

A chocolate chip cookie was 55 kcal – now a luxury cookie in a coffee bar can tot up 270 kcal.

French fries were 210 kcal – now they can be 610 kcal.

A restaurant portion of Spaghetti and meatballs was generally around 500 kcal – now it could set you back 1025 kcal.

Soft drinks were much smaller, generally around 85 kcal. Now they can be 250 kcal.

Thanks to these bigger portion sizes we are eating more than we realise and it has been shown that we underestimate how many calories we eat each day by as much as 25%.

If you dine in restaurants frequently or eat a lot of pre-prepared meals it’s too easy to lose track of just how much you are eating.

Keeping your portions under control

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Your hand is an excellent tool to gauge healthy portions, as its size is proportional to your body size and frame, and big people need more food than small ones!

Portion Sizes A Salad can be the size of both hands together.

Meat and poultry portions can be the size and thickness of the centre of your palm.

Any added oils should be a thumb nail amount only!

1 cup of fruit is about the size of a small fist One serving equals a handful of starchy vegetables.

Non-hand portions A 3-ounce serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, and one ounce of meat is about the size of a matchbox.

A six-ounce fish portion is the size of a chequebook One cup of potatoes rice or cereal is about the size of a baseball 1/2 cup of ice cream or frozen yoghurt is about the size of two golf balls.

You can eat an unlimited amount of non starchy vegetables.

Use these as rough guides for the appropriate size portions to eat when dining out – beware Super-sizing!

Chicken Breast: palm of the hand

Fruit: 1 fist size

Fish: palm of the hand

Vegetables (greens): 2-3 cups

Salmon and tuna: ½ palm of hand

Oils, dressings: 1 fingertip

Lean beef and pork: ½ palm of hand

Low-fat yoghurt: 1 teacup

Starchy foods: 1 teacup (when cooked)

Jacket potato: 1 cup.

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AIcohal Finally, this week we are going to look at alcohol and the effects it has on your body.

Alcohol is an aging problem, toxic to the body, packed full of calories and reduces the nutrients from you get from food.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that because you only have a few glasses of good quality wine with meals during the evening, you’re any better off than those guys knocking back pints in the pub. It’s all sugar. It’s all calories. It’s all toxic, and, most dangerous of all, it’s a habit. Fat bulging bellies, dull eyes, sallow puffy skin and wrinkles. It is a burden to the detoxifying stations within your body - primarily the liver and kidneys. Keep alcohol for special occasions only and alternate with one glass of water to a glass of alcohol.

Alcohol - 7 calories per gram (only fat has more) and they slip down so easily!

Did you actually like the taste of alcohol when you first tasted it? Probably not.

We are not designed to drink alcohol and any benefit derived from the beverage is probably from the grapes. It used to be more of tonic years ago when the soils were healthy and there were not so many chemicals added.

Drink in moderation and choose your alcohol from organic sources.

If you overindulge, the next day you may experience the following:

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1. Strong thirst 2. Hunger for ‘quick calories’ (craving for sugar and fat) 3. Aching muscle 4. Excessive fatigue/sluggishness

5.

6.

7.

8.

Slowed mental responses Headache Poor vision Difficulty with co-ordination skills, ie: speech, movement

Soon you may notice a significant and rapid increase in body fat levels and a reduction in muscle mass and strength.

A multi mineral and vitamin supplement and a dose of milk thistle can help the body to clear alcohol from your system if you have over indulged on that once a year spree!

In this module you should have: Understood why you have gained weight and the need to change your eating habits.

Discovered how to tell the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger Understood the concept of mini-meals.

Become familiar with the 7-Day eating plan

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

What are your top three challenges when it comes to organising your meals?

What are the top three changes that you will make to your daily eating?

Get organised for healthy eating and clear out your cupboards.

Start your 7 day eating plan to kick start your new regime.

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Regularly attend the gym and keep your food and workout diaries.

Assess your current alcohol consumption and resolve to drink in moderation.

Have you cleared your cupboards out? If not, when are you going to do this.

How is your new 7-day regime going.

When are you planning to go to the gym this week?

What are you using for your food and workout diaries?

Note book? Mobile ‘phone? What

When committing to working on upping your physical and mental game you have to make yourself top priority if you want change to happen.

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Here are 30 important tips to help you.

You have to…

1.

Eat thoughtfully not accidentally. Write down what and where you are eating so you can clearly see your habitual patterns.

2.

Eat more coloured vegetables.

3.

Plan meals ahead of time - this is one of the single most important keys to success.

4.

Cook extra or freeze meals for the days ahead.

5.

Eat a small meal before you go out in the evening – it’s your insurance against high-calorie nibbling.

6.

Before you eat it, question why you are going to eat a food that has a negative impact on your health and waist line.

7.

Understand that we are psychologically affected by advertising and nutrient depleted foods; they make us crave more of the same

8.

Know that comfort foods are only a manifestation of the above and will actually make you feel worse. When giving into the ‘comfort’ myth, ask: “Will this make me look comfortable naked?”

9.

Resist the handful of the children’s M&M’s. A little does count, and it’s not so good for them either!

10.

If slimming down for appearances sake isn’t enough of a motivator, then do it for your health. Even a modest amount lost can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancers, alzheimer’s, back and joint pain, boost energy, libido and improve sleep.

11.

Instead of focusing just on how much weight you have lost, focus also on the other changes in your health, skin tone, appearance, and mood. Does your body feel more desirable?

12.

Find a symbol of your weight loss. A bag of potatoes or sugar, or measure it in pounds of butter - this helps to graphically illustrate how much you have lost.

13.

Don’t get despondent by always focusing on the big goal. This challenge starts from the inside out. Go for smaller targets and the big one arrives more quickly.

14.

Try new foods to liven up your menu or go spicy. Overeating can be a search for flavour.

15.

Don’t cook the goodness out of your food – you can destroy the enzymes and nutrients that would help you to lose weight. Find innovative ways to eat vegetables raw.

16.

The nutrient content of food is vital to weight loss. You can lose weight on a low-calorie diet but if it doesn’t cover all the vitamin and mineral needs of your body you will lose your energy, vitality and stamina, skin elasticity, muscle tone and, of course, the weight, will soon reappear.

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17

Get off the scales. Once every two weeks is enough for a ‘weigh-in’. Scales don’t give an accurate assessment as to what is happening within your body. How your clothes are fitting is a better sign that you are making progress.

18

Cut out the ‘little snacks’ and ‘incidental drinking ‘. Mindlessly eating while watching TV, reading or an evening glass or two of wine can easily add up to a day’s worth of calories – and without providing a day’s worth of nutrition! Cut out the Latte or mocha, they are calorie loadings you don’t need. Switch to green or other herbal teas.

19.

Drink enough water. 2 litres a day. It’s a popular fat loss secret: Drink more water, and you’ll shed more pounds. Finally, science has added weight to the practice.

20.

Don’t slim by skipping meals, this leads to evening binging.

21.

Be assertive in restaurants; say “No” to foods dripping in oil, creamy sauces or mayonnaise.

Just two tablespoons of mayonnaise contains 198 calories! Skip the cheese on your salad or sandwich or pasta and substitute mustard for mayo.

22.

Always read food labels - you need to know the serving size and what is in your food. Are there hidden fats, sugar or salt? Too many unpronounceable words? It probably isn’t good for you.

23.

Carry chopped raw vegetables, an apple or a hard boiled egg everywhere with you as a snack – they’re very portable. Taking your own minimeals in a small lunch box can save you up to 350 calories a day.

24.

Remember, persistence is the key to changing your taste habits. You will get used to your new way of eating.

25.

Avoid the aisles in the supermarket containing processed foods.

26.

Always look closely at those who give you health advice - are they in fantastic shape? Arm chair saboteurs are a big threat to your success so find a role model and don’t be sidetracked.

27.

Exercise without a good diet will never succeed in sculpting a great physique - and diet without exercise will not succeed.

28.

Put inspirational pictures of how you want to look on your cupboard doors, above your bed and behind the shower door. Keep focused.

29.

Healthy eaters and exercisers lose their weight in fat; dieters lose their weight in lean tissue, not fat.

30.

For unbelievable results and for food never to torment you again, begin to eat for nutrition and not for emotion.

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MORNING

DAY ONE DAY ONE

DAY TWO DAY TWO

1 Cup of raw vegetables crudités with hummus mixed with low fat yoghurt.

4-6 egg whites with 1 yolk scrambled on spinach & chopped tomatoes. Top with a teaspoon of cottage cheese. Herbal tea. OR Hard Edge Super-Smoothie

1 Medium Apple

Thick vegetable soup with organic chicken breast diced in. 1 Rye crisp bread with mung-sprouts & cottage cheese.

1/2 cup of dry organic oats cooked in 2 cups of water. Sprinkle with cinnamon & ground flaxseed with ¼ cup of mixed fresh berries. OR Hard Edge Super-Smoothie.

LUNCH

Steamed fish of your choice. ½ a cup of cooked Quinoa with 1 ½ cups of spinach leaves, 2 radishes and grated carrot dressed with lemon or balsamic vinegar. Herbal tea.

MIDMORNING

MID-DAY

1 Hard-boiled egg mashed with hummus on a whole rye crisp beard.

Protein shake with ¼ cup of organic oats & 1 tbsp. of ground flaxseed.

½ Cup of wheat free muesli with oats. Rice or almond milk mixed with 1tbsp of ground flaxseed, bee pollen & wheat germ. ¼ cup of fresh mixed berries. Herbal tea.

OR Hard Edge SuperSmoothie.

DAY FOUR DAY FOUR

1/2 cup of dry organic oats cooked in 2 cups of water.

Sprinkle with cinnamon & ground flaxseed with ½ a sliced banana or 6 grapes.

OR Hard Edge SuperSmoothie.

DAY FIVE DAY FIVE

4-6 egg whites with 1 yolk scrambled topped with finely chopped Zucchinis, mushrooms, pepper & garlic. 1 piece of dry gluten free toast.

Bambu or coffee substitute. OR Hard Edge Super-Smoothie.

DAY SIX DAY SIX

Slimmer’s soup.

1 Poached egg. 2 Quorn sausages dry fried.

Low salt/sugar organic baked beans with grilled onions & mushrooms.

Herbal tea or coffee substitute. OR Hard Edge Super- Grilled chicken breast with smoothie.

DAY SEVEN DAY SEVEN

Gluten free toast with sardines, tomato & chopped peppers. OR Hard Edge SuperSmoothie. herbal tea.

1 Pear with a handful of organic almonds.

Herbal tea.

DAY THREE DAY THREE

Slimmer’s soup & 1 Organic oatcake.

½ a cup of low fat unsweetened plan yoghurt with ¼ cup of wheat free muesli mixed together.

Grilled lean steak or venison. Sweet potato, mung prouts, carrots & lightly steam broccoli.

Small serving of raw ice cream with clopped almonds. (see recipe)

Hard Edge Smoothie with 1 scoop of whey protein powder & 1 cup of non-fat unsweetened almond milk.

1 Cup of raw vegetables crudités with hummus, mixed with low fat unsweetened yoghurt.

Grilled chicken breast with sugar snap peas, fresh tomato, chopped radish & baby spinach.

2rye crisp bread with avocado.

5 oz. of grilled chicken breast cut into strips with grated raw vegetables wrapped in a green leaf.

Slimmer’s soup, 1 Organic oatcake.

Lumberjack roll. Herbal tea.

Left over Bolognese.

1 Nak’d bar.

1 Cup of green tea.

John West tuna meal tossed with ¼ cup of each – celery, onion & red pepper.

1 Medium banana with a small handful of dried berries, nuts and seeds.

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Restaurant Wisdom

Perfect Poultry: White meat is leanest, and the best choice is breast meat.

Dark meat has a higher fat content (thighs, wings).

Even breast meat can be too high-fat if prepared without the skin removed.

Avoid crispy skin chicken, pan-fried, fricassĂŠed, or any preparation method that involves fats or oils.

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Red Meats: Steak: Always ask for fat to be fully trimmed off steak before it is cooked when ordering.

A well-done steak will have more chance of marbled fat being melted down and dripping out of the meat whilst on the grill.

Leanest choices are tenderloin, top sirloin and topside The fattest steak cuts are porterhouse, rib, rib-eye, t-bone, brisket and chucksteak.

Steak mince usually has a very high fat mix and is seldom pre-boiled in restaurants to remove excess, so avoid cottage pie and the like.

Lamb: Avoid if possible, especially rack, chops and shoulder. Roast lamb is likely to be quite high in fat.

Choose leg steaks or loin as the least fatty portions.

Pork: The least fatty options are loin and tenderloin – sometimes a pork leg steak can be quite lean if the fat is well trimmed before cooking.

Avoid chops, rack, rib, shoulder, rump, bacon, processed ham roll and NEVER eat crackling!

Processed meats: Avoid high fat foods such as corned beef, salami, pastrami, bologna, or burgers.

Sausages, frankfurters and savaloys tend to be predominantly made from fatty off-cuts, likewise with recipes containing sausagemeat.

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Pies, pasties and sausage rolls have fat-rich pastry, and often contain very little in the way of protein or other nutrition.

Vegetarian Eating: Moving toward a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to boost your health, protect against disease and keep your weight in check but vegetarians must eat plenty of vegetables and plan against the possible nutritional deficiencies in this diet. Very restrictive, poorly planned vegetarian diets can lead to deficiencies in protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B12 and zinc, to name a few. What’s more, just because the diet is vegetarian does not ensure weight control.

Avoid high fat foods such as corned beef, salami, pastrami, bologna, or burgers.

Sausages, frankfurters and savaloys tend to be predominantly made from fatty off-cuts, likewise with recipes containing sausagemeat.

Pies, pasties and sausage rolls have fat-rich pastry, and often contain very little in the way of protein or other nutrition.

Fish and Seafood: Generally seafood is low in fat and high in protein. Much of the damage is done in the preparation and cooking.

Avoid all fried fish. Ask for steamed, poached, baked or grilled portions.

Specify no butter, oil, cream or added salt.

Fresh lemon or a twist or two of black pepper is all that is needed for seasoning.

Most soups can be created fat-free with a little thought and effort. Quiz your server about the exact ingredients and preparation methods for the soup selection. Once you have established this, it makes it very easy to order on future occasions.

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Many vegetable soups have cream, butter, oil and flour added to create extra texture, taste and thickness to the soup.

The best vegetable soup is simply pureed vegetables with only seasoning added. Simmering a little water off the stock, or adding potato or rice can add thickness. Unsweetened Greek yoghurt can and should be used as a topping instead of cream or sour cream. Find out which method is used.

Greek yoghurt may also be used to give a creamy texture to lobster bisque, and instead of sauté vegetables in oil for the minestrone, they can be sweated in a light stock on a high heat.

Thai coconut crab soup should only have a trace of coconut with a chunky fresh stock and vegetable juices. Too often the mixture relies almost totally on coconut milk for substance, which is very high in fat.

Asking questions will assist in determining the standard of preparation, degree of healthy ingredients, and levels of fats in your soup choices.

Desserts: Common sense is your main guide here – fruit salads and sorbets are best, though quite sweet, and you’ll know to minimise the size of the serving if you decide to treat yourself to richer fare.

Vital Vegetables: You’re always a winner when you choose vegetables (greens) to accompany a meal. They are virtually fat-free – so long as none is added during cooking. Eat as many fibrous veggies as possible to load up on nutrition, and you can have them grilled, steamed, baked or raw.

Scrumptious Salads: Most salads are created healthy but destroyed in the kitchen. Avoid any dressings containing mayo or oils. If need be simply ask for a drizzle of Greek yoghurt or perhaps a little hummus.

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Sandwich Secrets If you have to go for a sandwich, takes these precautions: Instead of white bread have a wholewheat, kibbled, or granary rolls. Pitta bread is better, and avoid croissants altogether.

Avoid spreads high in fat, such as butter or margarine. Even olive oil spreads, whilst lower in cholesterol-raising saturate fat than butter, are still high in fat calories.

Avoid Mayonnaise in your sandwiches. Mayo is made from egg yolks and oil, and contains an enormous amount of fat.

Stay away from peanut butter, chocolate and hazelnut spreads – once again the fat content of these and similar products will go straight onto your hips and stomach!

Cheese is high in saturated fat and tends to be present in many off-the-shelf sandwiches.

Cut the cheese out if at all possible.

Load your sandwiches with lean cold meats, salads, tomatoes, grated carrot, chutneys and pickles.

Use Greek yoghurt as a dressing and flavour with garlic or sweet chilli sauce.

Week Five Understanding Food We have already covered many of the key basic concepts that you need to change your habits. You have looked at the importance of exercise, joined a gym and established a workout routine and kick started your new healthy eating regime. In the next two weeks we are going to focus on nutrition and developing your knowledge of food to enable you to make informed choices and wise dietary decisions.

This week’s goals are:

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Understanding: Classification of Food

The Truth about Ready Meals and Soft Drinks

The GI Index

The Fat Burning magic of fibre rich vegetables

Reading the Labels Supermarket Street Wise

Food Groups Protein

Starchy

Fibrous

Simple

Chicken or Turkey Breast

Carbs Potato / Sweet Potato

Carbs Asparagus

Carbs Banana

Dried Fruits: Figs, Dates, Prunes, Raisins, Sultanas.

Grapefruit Broccoli, Cauliflower

Fats

Sugar: White, Brown, Cane, Raw, Icing Sucrose

Dripping / Lard / Shortening / Tallow Butter

Glucose

Cheese

Lean Beef / Steak / Veal

Pumpkin

Tuna in Spring Water

Pasta

Fresh Fish

Boiled Rice (Brown preferred) Corn

Brussel Sprouts

Kiwifruit

Fructose

Egg Yolks

Cabbage / Silver beet / Spinach

Oranges

Dextrose

Mayonnaise

Game Meats: Ostrich, Venison

Oats / Wheat: Cereals / Bread

Capsicums

Lemons / Limes

Lactose

Peanut Butter / Coconut / Avocado

Egg Whites (6 per serving)

Rice Cakes

Carrots

Pineapple

Corn Syrup

Low-fat Cottage Cheese

Beans: red, broad, lima.

Apple

Beans: Sprouts, or Baked (without sauce.)

Yams / Taro

Celery, Lettuce, Onion, Sprouts, Salad greens Leeks, Mushrooms

Tofu or Soy Protein

Peas

Protein Powders - (High Content, Low fat / Carbs) Lentils

Swede

Lean preboiled Beef Mince

Beetroot

Sugars

Oils: Saturated, Polyunsaturated, Monounsaturated Golden Syrup Margarine

Apricot

Maple Syrup, Honey

Palm oil, Olive oil

Courgettes / Zucchini

Peaches, Plums, Nectarines

Molasses

Tomato

Grapes

Maltose, Malt / Malt Extract

Any food processed in any of the above

Turnip / Parsnip

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Mannitol / Sorbitol / Xylitol

Classification of foods Food can, basically speaking, be classified into three groups: Protein Carbohydrates Fats Within these groups, there are further subdivisions, but probably among the most important to understand are the kinds of carbohydrate. When you have this knowledge you can choose more healthy foods to eat so take some time getting familiar with the table you just downloaded “Food Groups”.

Those in the Starchy carbs column are good sources of energy for the body.

The Fibrous carbs (vegetables) are, as their name suggests, high in fibre, and also vitamins and minerals.

The Simple carbs (fruits) are also high in fibre, but also in sugar.

But as these sugars are parceled up with this fibre, and plenty of vitamins and minerals too, they’re considered healthy, unlike the foods in the Sugars column. We need to minimize our intake of these.

We wil now look in more detail at each of these groups.

Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are the body’s main fuel source. After they have been digested, carbohydrates are broken down into a simple sugar called glucose and used as fuel by the brain, nervous system and muscles.

A small portion of glucose is converted to glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles for instant emergency fuel. Any excess glucose is converted into fat and stored in deposits throughout the body as your longer-term emergency fuel.

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Beware simple sugars!

You need to know that the chemical composition of breads*, pastas and other starches is similar to the chemical composition of pure sugar. In fact, as far as your body is concerned, they’re practically the same thing, and it takes little time to convert starch to simple sugars. *Don’t think this is necessarily different when it comes to brown bread and other ‘browns’ though.

‘Brown’ could be wholemeal or white flour coloured brown with caramel to make brown bread - you will need to check the flour details on the label. Milling wheat into white flour removes the outer bran coat and wheatgerm. -they then sell this back to us in the health shops (!) losing most of the thiamin, niacin and iron in the process.

Millers are legally obliged to replace B vitamins lost but we cant replicate nature so a lot nowadays depends where they get their dough and how cheaply they can make it.

Wholemeal bread is more processed than wholewheat bread but slice for slice, wholemeal bread should contain twice as much iron, three times as much zinc, and four times as much fibre as basic white bread. Again this is not always standard. Bread and pasta comes with a lot of baggage around the growing of the grains, pesticides, fungicides, processing etc Unlike fruits and vegetables, which are metabolised fairly slowly, refined carbohydrates like pasta provide an instant rush of sugar to your bloodstream.

To make up for this high-octane sugar rush, your pancreas produces the hormone insulin, which removes sugar from your bloodstream (including storing it as fat). Insulin is powerful stuff. Once released, it dramatically reduces your blood sugar levels ... which make you hungry for more sugar ... which makes you crave even more carbohydrates.

And so the viscious cycle continues – you eat more carbohydrates, the pancreas makes more insulin, and on and on it goes. You get fatter and fatter, and risk the consequences of blood sugarrelated diseases.

In our society, fatigue, diabetes and weight gain is often associated with a diet filled with too much sugar and refined grains. We eat too many over-refined and over-processed foods such as biscuits, cakes, pastas, sweets, processed fruit juices and pastries which are crammed with an unwholesome mix of sugar, salt, hydrogenated oils, preservatives and colouring agents. Diets that are high in refined carbohydrates are usually low in vitamins, minerals and fibre.

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Look for the ‘OSE’ Some carbohydrates are simple fast-energy foods, such as those sugars that end with –‘ose’ on food labels and also those found in refined foods eg .

Glucose,

Frutose,

Sucrose,

Dextrose,

Lactose,

Mannose,

Maltose,

Saccharose,

Galactose,

Levulose.

We even saw one label that contained “Dehydrated Glucose Syrup…!”

Even if the first ingredient listed on a food label isn’t sugar, the product may contain more sugar than anything else. How is it possible? Just add up all the sugars that go by different names, such as sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and white grape juice concentrate.

Over indulgence in these starches and sugars also suppress the desire for other essential nutrients and often results in nutritional deficiencies, obesity and poor health. They are called displacement foods.

Fats Being overweight is your greatest health risk. But it is avoidable. Despite all the myths, hype and celebrity diets, it’s not so complicated once you know how the human body works. In fact, becoming lean and strong is relatively easy!

Even people who are only moderately overweight show the typical defensive reaction to the medical evidence: excess body fat is dangerous to your health. They suck in their stomachs and laugh.

“This is just Happy Fat.” Or they slap a plump thigh and explain, “I’m made this way – healthy and comfortable”.

At the Harvard School of Public Health a study of 19,297 healthy males found that even the mildly chunky die younger.

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Hidden fats Many dieters can fail when they believe they are following a healthy low-fat nutritional plan, but become misled by false or deceptive food labelling. Many apparently ‘dry’ foods such as biscuits, baked goods, crackers and crisps, can be higher in fat than ice-cream! We’ll be coming on to food labelling a little later on in this module.

Identifying ‘trans fats’ All processed oils are likely to contain trans fats. The more solid the processed oil, the higher the trans fat level. To identify these look for the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredients list. You will find these on labels of many breads, sweets, baked goods, chocolate, ready meals and processed meat products etc. If you want the best health don’t eat them.

The discovery by scientists of mechanisms in the human body that motivates us to seek out fat and sugar (developed in our hunter gatherer ancestors for survival in lean times) has contributed to our growing weight problems today. This basic human survival function is now being exploited by the food industry to sell their wares, as fat from oils is cheap to produce and is a good filler in foods.

Share your thoughts about what you have read so far in this module. Is there anything that has surprised you? Shocked you?

The Glycaemic Index.

Eating high glycaemic foods without specific need causes your body to store excess carbohydrate as fat, rather than use it for energy. The advertising machine that encourages us to have lots of sweetened comfort food and drinks as a pick me up is a myth, and, in fact, has the opposite effect.

It also causes cravings because of rapid blood sugar fluctuations.

The glycaemic index is a measurement of the way the blood sugar responds two hours after a certain food is ingested in comparison to the way it responds two hours after an equivalent amount of pure glucose is ingested.

It is extremely important for three reasons:

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1.

The glycaemic rating of food identifies that food’s ability to stimulate the fat enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, the “gate keeper” for fat storage in the fat cell. The scale has a direct relation to the bodies “fat storing properties.” A food with a high rating is considered more fattening than one with a low glycaemic rating.

2.

It helps to know when foods with certain ratings need to be consumed at specific times. For example, if your blood sugar is low or dropping during exercise, you would eat carbohydrates that raise blood sugar quickly (not to be confused with simple sugars) or, if you want to keep the blood sugar from dropping during a long period of activity, eating lower glycaemic carbohydrates with a longer action time.

3.

In weight loss low glycaemic foods are excellent to prevent hunger. They have a high ‘satiety value’ because they are broken down in the body slower than other carbohydrate foods, and will keep you feeling full for longer. Example: hard boiled eggs (a take-anywhere protein power pack!), low fat cottage cheese and crudités, a small handful of almonds and pumpkin seeds, yogurt (organic with “live cultures” are healthiest), organic oatcakes, apple or pear.

4.

This information is important because any rapid rise in blood sugar causes an insulin reaction (i.e. a large burst of insulin into the blood stream).

5.

Insulin, which is a ‘storage’ hormone, as we have said signals the body to remove excess glucose (blood sugar) from the blood and to store it first in the muscle cells. All excess is then converted to fat for storage in your fat cells….chin, upper arms, belly, hips, buttocks, thighs and anywhere else it can find. Insulin also assists in creating more hyperplasic fat cells in the body.

6.

Download the document “Foods which induce insulin secretion” to understand which foods induce insulin secretion at what rates.

Foods which induce insulin secretion

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Rapid inducers of insulin secretion 100% Glucose 80 – 90% Corn flakes, pasta, instant potatoes, maltose, puffed rice, honey, sugar, glucose, dates, water melon, French baguette Short Grain White Rice Instant Mashed Potatoes Instant White Rice, Scones

70 – 79% Bread, millet rice (white), weetabix, cereal, potato {new}, bagel, Donuts, Whole-wheat bread, waffles. Bananas, raisins, Cooked carrots, swede, mashed potato’s, rice cakes, couscous, bread sticks, instant oat cereal, pop corn, crumpets, dried dates watermelon, French Fries, Water Crackers

Moderate inducers of insulin secretion 60-69% White bread, brown rice muesli, shredded wheat cereal, crisp breads, beetroot, cornmeal, couscous, corn, raw carrots, white rice, grapes, ice-cream, couscous, taco shells, Ryvita, raisins

Slow inducers of insulin secretion 30-39% Butter beans, baked & Frozen Green Peas, haricot beans, black-eyed peas, lentils apples, Yellow Split Peas, tomato soup, unripe bananas, whole milk, skimmed milk, yoghurt, pears, Apples, Dried Apricots, strawberries. Custard, Meat Ravioli, Egg Fettuccini

50-59%

20-29%

Spaghetti (with tomato), sweet corn, All bran cereal, digestive, oatmeal, whole-wheat pasta, peas, Basmati Rice potato, pita bread, fresh dates, figs. Kidney beans canned. Yam Beans in tomato sauce.

Wild Rice, Digestives, Oats Blueberry muffin, Honey Oatmeal Crackers, Jam New Potatoes, Bananas

Kidney beans, lentils red, cherries, grapefruit. Cashew Nuts 10-19%

40-49% Sweet potatoes, beans, chickpeas ,frozen sweetcorn, oranges, orange juice, whole rye bread, all bran muffins, apricot jam, dried Natural Muesli ,kiwifruit, mango, grapes.

Nut & Seed Muesli Bar, Coconut Milk,Snickers Bar (high fat)

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Peanuts. Walnuts Hummus, Mushrooms, Cabbage, Broccoli ,Cauliflower, Green Beans Tomatoes ,Lettuce ,Onions

Protein and fats are not measured on the glycaemic scale. Protein will have an effect on lowering a high glycaemic food when eaten at the same time. Therefore it is important to have a small to moderate amount of protein with each meal.

More detailed information can be found at www.glycemicindex.com which offers general information and a comprehensive search database on almost any food item imaginable.

Nutrition and Shopping Exercise and nutrition are the two most crucial components of good health, regardless of whether you’re trying to gain muscle, lose fat or just stay fit. People know this, but may continue to look for simpler, more convenient, or even outright lazy ways to achieve their fitness goals. Even when you’ve realised the importance of good eating habits, making the best choices is still not easy.

SOUND BITE -why it’s so important to get the shopping part right This week we will focusing on the information you need to make informed choices. You don’t need a PhD in nutrition to be a smart food buyer, but you do need to have certain knowledge and skills and being “supermarket streetwise” doesn’t hurt either. If you can read food labels and distinguish nutrient-dense foods from junk, you’ll be well on your way. You’ll eat better, feel better and look better.

Be especially careful with foods labelled “Reduced Fat”.

They can trick you into overeating This simply means it has less than the original or standard product, and it may still be a relatively high fat food or padded out with highfructose corn syrup, salt and artificial sweeteners – three things your body definitely does not need. Read the ingredients on a low-fat tub of strawberry yogurt and you will see that this “health” food is actually a pot of sugar and artificial ingredients. For a truly healthy yogurt, buy the plain variety and sweeten it yourself with fruits, honey or Xylitol.

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Package labelling Usually the first item of ‘information’ on any packet is the nutritional claim.

Recent EU legislation means that a food can’t make any actual health claims, such as ‘good for your bones’ or ‘heart healthy’ if they are unhealthily high in fat, salt or sugar.

For example, a yogurt that is high in bone-healthy calcium won’t be allowed to say it’s good for your bones on the label, if it is also high in unhealthy added sugars.

Here’s some handy information to bear in mind when assessing food products from their labels: Total calorie estimations are allowed a wide variance in accuracy of plus or minus 20% Be especially careful with foods labelled “Reduced Fat”. This simply means it has less than the original or standard product, and it may still be a relatively high fat food. Being ‘Reduced Fat’ doesn’t make a food healthy – it’s simply less unhealthy.

“Fresh” has no specific criteria other than it may not be used in a false or misleading way...

“Natural” is another term to be cynical about – it’s a very woolly term, and the food can still contain large amounts of fat, sugar, colourings, preservatives that just happen to be derived from whole food sources.

Watch also for the phrase “...no artificial ingredients...” as there’s still no guarantee that it’s healthy.

“Sugar Free” may not contain simple sugars in any form - sugar, glucose, sucrose, fructose, sorbitol, mannitol, corn syrup, honey or molasses.

“Cholesterol Free” foods may not contain any cholesterol. However, the product may contain high quantities of fats from plant and vegetable products. Oils and plant fats are still high calorie and will be stored in the fat cells just as easily if a surplus in calories exists.

Knowing your way around the label More accurate information on foods, required by law, is provided in two formats:

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a list of ingredients, and a chart showing a break-down of the nutrient composition.

Being able to understand both is important.

List of ingredients Ingredients must be listed in descending order of quantity or volume, so the items listed first will represent the major bulk of the food. Be careful, therefore, of items which list fats, oils or sugars in the first five ingredients.

Nutritional Information The first statement is usually the serving size and servings per packet. This is required to be “realistically reflective of the amount the average person actually eats”. However there appear to be no guidelines as to what these quantities are, and so manufacturers will often alter serving sizes to make their product appear lower in calories, for example.

Alongside serving size, information must also appear about the product in portions of 100g or ml, which makes the whole process much easier to figure out, especially when calculating percentages.

Energy may be expressed in two forms, Kilojoules (Kj), or Kilocalories (Kcal). Kilojoules can be a bit confusing, especially when we’re more familiar with the calorie system.

However it’s easy to convert Kj to Kcal by simply dividing by 4.2. If you’re not familiar with Kilocalories, they are basically what most people refer to as “calories”, and this is what we’ll do for this programme.

Reading the label You’re right, we’re talking alot about package labelling but get to grips with this and it will really make a difference to the way you shop.

The three main items of interest for us are the content of fat, fibre and sugar.

Fat To find the fat in packaged food, look at the line on the nutrition label showing total fat grams. Don’t separate the saturated from unsaturated fat readings, as it is total fat intake we are looking at here.

Most labels will have 2 columns: “per serving”, and per “100g”. “Per serving” amounts can often be unrealistically low, so look at the container and estimate how much you would eat as part of a normal meal. The “per 100g” reading is very useful when comparing similar products side-by-side, but can also be used to calculate amounts per packet, or container.

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Follow the “per 100g” column down till you find the line for fat content. We already know that we don’t want our daily intake of fat to exceed 10% - 15% of total calories,so we need to convert everything into a percentage format. Remember that fat yields 9 kcal per gram, so we must immediately multiply the fat grams by 9 to get total number of fat calories per 100g.

Next step is to get the total calories for 100g and divide the fat calories into it: “(Fat calories per 100g) divided by (total calories per 100g).” This gives us the percentage of fat calories in this product, and will tell us if it goes in the trolley or not.

If all those calculations are too much for you, use this simple rule of thumb instead: No more than 5 grams of fat for any meal.

Fibre It is vital to our wellbeing that we eat enough dietary fibre in our foods. With the amount of fast and processed foods we have become accustomed to eating in recent times, our fibre intake has fallen woefully short of requirements.

Fibre comes in two forms: soluble and insoluble.

Soluble fibre acts as a buffer in slowing down the release of carbohydrates into the bloodstream during digestion.

This has four main beneficial effects: Minimising the stimulus for insulin secretion Encouraging the even release of energy Promoting the use of fat for fuel instead of storage Helping reduce cholesterol Insoluble fibre helps prevent blockages in the gut and stagnation of the elimination process, and can reduce the chances of lethargy, re-absorption of toxins and the risk of cancers of the bowel.

The recommended daily intake of mixed fibre for most adults is set at 18g, but we believe it should be as high as it is in many African countries - 40 g per day. The average fibre intake in the UK is a pitiful 12g.

Salt Daily salt intake shouldn’t exceed 6g (for adults – the limit is lower for children). This is the equivalent of 2.5g sodium.

Often overlooked (and certainly on food packaging) is the proportion of sodium to potassium. In natural products such as vegetables, fruits and meats, potassium out-weighs sodium by about 4:1, and we should be attempting to follow that formula as much as possible with any processed items we buy.

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Sodium has the effect of encouraging the body to store water in the thin layer of tissue between the skin and fat (the sub-cutaneous layer), and amongst the fat cells themselves. This often gives us a “puffy” or “bloated” look. Besides being visually undesirable this also has the effect of raising blood fluid volume and pressure, and reduces the muscles’ ability to store adequate supplies of glycogen in the muscle tissue due to a lack of the necessary amounts of fluid.

Potassium on the other hand has exactly the reverse effect, allowing the muscles to maximise glycogen storage, and minimising fluid build-up in the blood vessels (preventing excessive blood pressure) and sub-cutaneous areas.

Make sure you download the document “A Quick Guide to Food Labelling” as this is the list you need to take shopping!

The Truth about Ready Meals The top tip for those concerned about their health is to go for fresh rather than manufactured. If your dinner comes in a packet with a film lid or has a golden brown crispy coating, the chances are that it’s about to send your blood sugar levels sky high and your fat cells into overload!

Quick WIN

Many people believe that they if they don’t have time to cook, they can get all they need from ready meals. However, it has been shown that the labelling of these meals confuse many people, making it easy to underestimate the calorie and fat content in the whole meal. In addition, many ready meals are high in salt. Salt is used to lengthen the shelf life and improve the texture and flavour of foods. One ready meal can contain way more than your daily allowance, and salt is implicated in heart disease and strokes.

1.

Ready-meals and takeaways are more expensive and take more time to heat and eat than preparing a nutritious home-cooked meal. Use home delivery groceries so you always have provisions in the house you can use to throw a great meal together at short notice.

2.

Home cooking does not make enough money for supermarkets who want extra profits that can be gained with processing. Big margins can be made from convincing people that they don’t need to mash a potato or chop or wash a salad. Now supermarket shelves are filled with foods that minimise the need for any home cooking whilst racking up the profits.

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We often take for granted the very thing that most deserves our gratitude; our health. Without good health we have nothing. …It is worth the effort!

You very probably eat ready meals from time to time. Share you thoughts with others now you’ve considered this topic from the angle of your health (and your wealth).

Why soft drinks aren’t good for you Many soft drinks contain caffeine and sugar, so they can be addictive, like coffee, and cause our heart to beat faster and our nervous system to work harder. They usually contain additives which, when consumed in the large quantities many people do, could have harmful effects.

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The bubble and fizz of soft drinks are created by phosphoric acid and carbon dioxide, which make the drinks highly acidic. Soft drinks also contain sweeteners – look out for names like saccharine and aspartame - which for those sensitive to them can cause symptoms including insomnia, headaches and mood swings. Alternatively, soft drinks contain sugar, which can trigger swings in blood sugar levels.

Soft drinks give you a lift and a burst of energy then send you crashing down with feelings of fatigue, just as coffee does. Then you drink more to give yourself another charge. This imbalance will exhaust the adrenal glands and often causes chronic fatigue symptoms.

So be aware - do not get hooked by glamorous advertisements saying that a soft drink is good for you, because it isn’t.

A better alternative is freshly squeezed juice with 50 percent sparkling water added. This will give you a nutrient and energy lift from the fruit, but no toxins, and will provide some of the water your body so badly needs.

The fat burning magic of fibre-rich vegetables

Having looked at what to avoid when shopping, we also wanted to point out the benefits of increasing the number of vegetables in your trolley! Some people love them, some people hate them, but the simple fact is our body needs them.

A simple and easy strategy to speed weight loss is to replace starchy carbohydrates with fibrous vegetables. This is the real secret to a lean body without drastically changing your lifestyle. But unfortunately, most people don’t eat enough vegetables.

The reason why vegetables are so effective for fat loss is that they provide ‘bulk’ to the diet but add very few calories. This keeps the metabolism high when you cut your calories, because of the large volume of food the body has to process.

Vegetables increase satiety (fullness) and keep your blood sugar levels steady so that the musclebuilding, fat-burning process isn’t interrupted. If you want to truly be healthy and lean then a high intake of vegetables is essential because most vegetables are nutrient dense, yet sparse in calories.

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Not many people realise that a large plate piled high with any variety of vegetables contains less than 200 calories, and I guarantee most people couldn’t finish the plate!

When you’re choosing vegetables As a rule of thumb, go by colour. Many nutrition scientists believe that the colour of a vegetable is a good indicator of the level of antioxidants and phytochemicals it contains.

In regards to the fresh vs. frozen, organic vs. non- organic debate, I think the most important thing is to get as many as POSSIBLE vegetables into the diet.

1. Choose first: 2. Local, fresh, organic 3. Local, fresh 4. Frozen - They are generally frozen very soon after harvesting Fresh, but not local - The further they had to travel, and the longer this takes, the less nutrients they’re likely they contain 5. Canned – A last resort, but better than nothing Only ever lightly steam your vegetables and try to eat as many raw as possible. The process of cooking vegetables kills essential enzymes, as these cannot survive temperatures beyond 118 degrees F or 48 degrees C. When you continually cook all your food you risk not getting vital nutrients. Dead food gives you dead nutrients. Try raw, it’s so easy, you can grate, dice, noodle or finely chop most vegetables to eat raw/live.

Supermarket streetwise So, how do you put all this into practice? Filling your supermarket trolley with healthy foods needn’t be stressful or expensive and it’s certainly instructive. You’ll find that the content of many products you previously thought were OK will no longer be acceptable, and you’ll be surprised at the differences between different brands and types of the same item.

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TAKE ACTION!

In the next week, make the time to spend at least one shopping trip working out the labelling on items you regularly buy, and deciding which is the best brand to buy. Take a calculator, a pocket notebook or pad and leave the family at home!

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Once you’ve done the number-crunching and comparisons, that’s it! You won’t have to repeat the exercise as you’ll now know which products or brands offer you the best nutrition. After this, shopping trips will be a great deal faster, and you’ll be able to make more productive use of the time

Hints for healthy shopping: Use your local street markets, specialist food shops, farm shops, farmer’s markets and pick-your-own outlets for fresh fruit and vegetables if you can.

Always buy fruit and vegetables in small quantities – you will be able to use them when they are fresher and there will be less waste.

Make friends with your butcher and fishmonger. Many supermarkets now have fresh meat and fish counters where you can buy exactly what you need, and get advice on how to prepare and cook it healthily.

Clever shopping tips: Always go armed with a shopping list. Aimless wandering along the aisles searching for inspiration may increase your steps for the day but it will waste time and invariably you end up buying more than you need.

Plan a week’s menus before you write your list, but be prepared to amend it if you spot a bargain or a special offer in the fresh food aisles.

Keep a running shopping list in the kitchen and get into the habit of jotting down items you are about to run out of.

Buy fruit and vegetables when they are in season and from local producers if possible.

They won’t have clocked up thousands of air miles to reach the shop and are generally cheaper.

Check out the supermarket frozen food aisles - you’ll often find special offers such as buy one get one free, or large packs of chicken breasts and fish.

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Don’t shop when you’re hungry. Research has shown that if we shop when we are hungry we buy more.

Keep away from the aisles you won’t need. Spend your time among the fresh fruit and skip the crisps and fizzy drinks aisles.

Look into ordering an organic fruit and vegetable box from a local farm.

Make sure to download “Your Supermarket Checklist” to help with your shopping!

In this module you should have: Understood the main food groups and the different roles they play in your diet.

Identified the different types of fats in foods including saturated fats, trans fats and oils.

Thought about ways to adapt your diet to ensure that only 10 – 15% of your daily calories come from fat.

Understood the role the GI index can play in regulating your blood sugar and identified opportunities to increase high GI foods in your diet and reduce your intake of low GI foods.

Understood how to read food labels and assess the amount of fat, salt, sugar and fibre in everyday items.

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

What are your top three challenges when it comes to the food you eat?

How will you adress these challenges?

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The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Look at your average weekly shop decide how you need to alter it to ‘make yours a healthy trolley’ Plan a week’s meals and resolve to shop with a list in future.

Complete one shopping trip to look at the labels on items you regularly buy, and decide on the best brands to buy considering the different nutritional values in different food items.

What are the top three changes that you will make to your food shopping habits?

When will you conduct your shopping trip to look at la Describe your week’s meal plan

Your Supermarket Checklist Make yours a healthy trolley.

Don’t visit the supermarket without this list!

Check the sugar, fat (especially saturated fat) and salt content.

Check the ingredients list for E numbers and additives.

Check the country of origin of items you buy and buy local Check the ingredients list to see there is nothing you are trying to avoid – such as processed vegetable oils (the source of unhealthy trans fats).

Check that the product is in good condition.

Check ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates.

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Buy more: Fresh fruit and vegetables. (Don’t eat fruit instead of vegetables) Organic skinless chicken and turkey Oily fish – sardines, mackerel, pilchards, etc Pulses – lentils and beans Organic free-range eggs

Buy much less: Processed or “pre-formed” meats and fatty meat smallgoods Manufactured Spreads and cheese Alcohol Bread

Don’t buy: Processed and ready meals

Biscuits, cakes and pastries

Cream and full-fat dairy

Sweets and chocolate

Chips, crisps and crumbed frozen foods

Sodas, soft-drinks and flavoured fruit or “energy” drinks

A quick guide to food labelling Here’s a quick guide of what constitutes a little or a lot of particular ingredients in a product.

This is A LOT per 100g food 20g fat or more

0.5g sodium or more

5g saturates (saturated fat) or more

10g sugars or more

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This is A LITTLE per 100g food 3g fat or less

0.1g sodium or less

1g saturates or less

2g sugars or less

Seven food additives to avoid The additives may be listed by name or E number. ‘E numbers’ got a bad press a few years ago so watch out for the names. E211 is a preservative , the others are artificial colourings.

Sodium Benzoate could make the symptoms of asthma and eczema worse in children who may already have conditions. The other food additives may cause allergic reactions.

The following food additives have been linked, by government research, to increased hyperactivity in susceptible children. Unfortunately these additives have not been banned and are still used in drinks, foods and medicines.

Tartrazine E102

Ponceau4R E124

Quinoline Yellow E104

Allura red E129

Sunset Yellow E110

Sodium benzoate E211

Carmoisine E122

This week’s goals are: Understand the Performance Nutrition Pyramid Analyse where your eating is on the scale.

Resolve to make adjustments to your diets to reach a higher level on the pyramid.

Understand how changes in diet cause disease Review effects of stress on the body So many times we are asked by people in seminars, workshops, and even people we bump into in the street, “How do I know whether I’m eating healthily, or not?” You’ll have a better idea than most. You’ve been following your healthy eating plan for several weeks now and you now know exactly how to shop for healthy foods at your supermarket.

Over the many years of closely observing the eating habits of countless individuals, we’ve become aware that there are definite levels of quality when it comes to nutrition, and certain characteristics that seem common to each level.

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These levels form the Performance Nutrition Pyramid and we’ll now go through each level in turn.

Base Level Mainstream eating is by default “Unhealthy Eating”, and it represents the eating habits of most of the population.

The key characteristic of this profile is the lack of an agenda, or even awareness, that food can either promote or destroy your health. Your purpose for eating is simply to satisfy hunger or to fulfil a social situation with little or no regard for the consequences, and you often select your food on the basis of “What do I feel like?”, rather than “What would be good for me to eat right now?” As a result, most of your food choices tend to be nutritionally deficient, fall into the “junk” category and are generally of very poor quality.

Level 1 – “Not Bad” Eating There is, however, a growing percentage of the general population who recognises that a diet featuring “junk” is clearly not going to do your body or your health any favours, and who are aware that good health isn’t going to come from continuous quantities of pizza, fish ‘n’ chips, pies, crisps, fizzy drinks, alcohol, biscuits, cakes, deep fried food or double whammy burgers.

Your food selection tends, therefore, not to include these items as staples. Rather than eating badly, it could be said that this form of eating is “not bad” in nature. In addition the quality of the foods selected is invariably better. You’re more careful where you do your food shopping, and that the food and drink you consume comes from a known or vetted source.

However, it’s important to understand that simply not eating “bad” foods, does not necessarily make this profile of eating “Healthy”. It may not aggressively attack your health, but it may also not make it any better. Foods consumed still tend to be high in sugars, fats, empty carbohydrates and salt, and there is a tendency to eat too much at the wrong time, drink too much alcohol and miss meals when they are most badly needed.

We’d consider that most of our clients start off at this level, but it’s our opinion that to raise your health standards, increase energy and drive, and to live longer, this is not enough – you need to form much better Level 2 – Healthy Eating

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Healthy eating is the profile characterised by selecting foods and drink that will mostly advance your state of health. It will therefore include at least 5 or more vegetables per day plus fruits, a preference for organic wholefoods, and demonstrate a disciplined structure in terms of timing, quantity and balance.

There is an obvious effort made to reduce alcohol, sugars, fats and salt, and to include by default foods that yield a higher value of nutrition at every opportunity.

There is no rule set about stepping outside this profile, but the pattern tends to show far fewer occasions where you make less healthy choices (parties, social events, celebrations, etc.).

If you’ve been following this programme and taking the required actions, this is where we’d expect you to be now…… habits.

Are you at level 1 or level 2 by now?

Be honest!

If you’re at Level 2 then you’re ready to move on to the next section.

We want you to be at level 2 before you go on and that’s probably only going to take a few simple adjustments on your part.

If you’re still at level 1 or a bit in-between the two, go back now and re-read your goals for this programme. Think about your mindset (week 1) and get that aligned to the healthy, happy person you are becoming. Then make the necessary adjustments to your eating before moving on to consider the next level.

SOUND BITE -why they should really commit to going to level 2 and beyond While level 2 is certainly going to make a difference to your shape, energy and lifespan, given the pace and stresses of our present environments, it may still not be good enough to sustain a demanding personal lifestyle or performance career, so you need more focussed habits to move to the next level.

Are you at Level 1 or Level 2?

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If you’re still at Level 1 or in between, why do you think this is?

How does this feel?

What do you need to do to get yourself to Level 2 this week

How will you achieve this?

Share with the group which level you’re at, you’re greatest challenges and you’re finest achievements.

Level 3 – Performance Nutrition This is a profile of eating that should most closely match other behaviours of top performing individuals. As illustrated in the pyramid model there is a pattern of nearly always selecting organic whole foods, eating 9 - 10 cups of vegetables per day (half of which would be uncooked), and nearly always totally avoiding alcohol and foods that are processed or high in fats, sugars and salt. The agenda at this level is not only to choose foods that will improve your health, but to also increase the ability of both your mind and body to perform consistently at a more serious level without breaking down.

People eating at this level also consistently demonstrate an agenda to advance their knowledge by reading and researching information on health and nutrition.

These patterns become a feature of their lifestyle and tend to be part of what defines them as a person.

We’d suggest that people who exercise hard and/or who live or work in a city environment, and who don’t eat at this level, are in a state of miss-match – and this could well produce complications with their health and performance. It’s a little like running a Formula 1 car on standard petrol or street tyres.

Level 4 – Optimal Nutrition..

Note From Anne, needs the proper full pyramid This level of nutrition is so finely tuned that it is extremely rare to find. This is the area of performance where you would tolerate no deviation, and the habits that create this profile are extremely “driven”. You would have hard and fast rules and every living and waking moment would be concerned with optimising only the very best nutritional habits.

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This would typically only be seen in the highest level of athletic competition in a peaking phase of performance development, for example, and would be fitting for the most challenging levels of achievement.

It isn’t impossible, and will produce extraordinary results, but for the vast majority of people, it isn’t where they exist!

Where would you like to be on the Nutrition Pyramid?

Where would you like to be on the Nutrition Pyramid

How would being at this level change your life?

What actions will you take to get there?

Health, Nutrition and Disease Now we know what we’re aiming at, let’s look at why it’s so important and see how our diet affects our health and the link between diet and some diseases.

We are going to consider how healthy eating can not only make you feel better and fitter in the short term – but also make a real difference to your long term health and well being.

As you manage your weight and fitness, never lose sight of the stakes involved. Your stakes are: your health and your wealth, your emotional well-being, your hopes and dreams, and the quality of your entire life.

Don’t choose to bail out.

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Nutritional Fallout Because of these changes in eating habits in the modern environment, over half the population in the UK currently fails to get even the minimum requirement of vitamins, we have an epidemic of obesity and high levels of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

A recent National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2010) revealed that many people in the UK aren’t getting enough vitamins and minerals from the food they eat every day. For example, more than half of the men and women surveyed had a very low intake of vitamin A, and over 40% of them fell short of their Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) for zinc. Even more concerning was that 30% of women weren’t getting enough folic acid and over 90% were under their RNI for iron and vitamin D. The foods we are taking into our bodies are not the foods the body was designed to handle. Intensive farming, genetic modification, acid rain and other pollutants all play a detrimental role when it comes to nutrients in foods. If you want to find out about 8 factors that affect our ability to process food, then read the document “How changes in our diet cause disease” .

In the next section we are going to have a look at several health related issues and consider how we can use diet and exercise to get our bodies working more efficiently in the long term and minimise the chance of ill health.

Ill health begins in the bowel That’s a bold statement, and it’s an unpalatable subject, but it is a fact because there is a direct relationship between the health of your digestive system and your overall look, mood and physical performance!

Let’s ask you a question. How can anybody be full of joy and happiness with a bowel that is clogged with stuff that should be flushed down the toilet? How can anyone feel full of beans if their cells are bathed in poisonous wastes? How can anyone enjoy radiant health if they feel under par most of the time? The answer is, of course, they can’t!

More than a quarter of the population says Dr Rob Hicks, Medical Advisor to the BBC, now function in this state, and laxatives are big business! The huge rise of laxatives, now sold in large buckets in the USA, is also a testament to this disturbing trend. Unexpelled waste products slowly poison your whole body, seep into your bloodstream and every cell is affected. Instead of bathing in life-giving nutrients they are choking on toxic waste. Gradually the cells give up the battle and premature death is the result - this is how old age begins in your bowel!

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Healthy elimination Elimination once a day is an absolute minimum. Eat plenty of fibrous vegetables and seeds for the bulking and cleansing effects, drink plenty of water (2 litres a day) and exercise to improve the muscle action of your gut as it squeezes food and waste material along your digestive system.

Yoga is g Stress!

Stress is a tough one to pin down. You can actually picture cholesterol gumming up your veins, but stress is a stealth fighter, harder to get in your sights.

The stress hormone cortisol is the demon face of stress. There is early evidence linking high levels of this to all kinds of problems, including obesity, muscle loss, diabetes, heart disease, impaired memory, depression and prostate cancer.

Are you running on high cortisol?

Cortisol not only varies greatly throughout the day, it also rises quickly in response to even simple stress — like encountering a rude shop assistant or somebody talking into their mobile phone on the train. For these reasons doctors believe that cortisol tests aren’t particularly accurate or useful.

However, unlike the case with cholesterol, how you feel can be a good predictor. If you’re hassled and frantic, it’s a good bet your cortisol is too high.

“In the long term, elevated cortisol may be as detrimental to overall health as elevated homocys-

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teine or blood sugar,” says nutritional biochemist Dr. Shawn Talbott of the University of Utah Department of Nutrition, “High levels may make you fat, kill your sex drive, shrink your brain, squelch your immune system and generally make you feel terrible.”

Where does cortisol come from? When you’re in acutely stressful situations, your adrenal glands release several hormones. Some make blood surge to your muscles so you’ll have fuel to physically fight, or run away – this is the ‘fight or flight response’.

Obesity Studies at Yale University in the US found subjects with higher stress- induced cortisol levels ate more than subjects with lower levels. What’s more, if your cortisol stays elevated, it eventually encourages your body to store fat. And guess where it stores it...? The abdomen, more than anywhere else in the body!

Impaired memory When researchers at Washington University artificially raised subjects’ cortisol levels, they found that 14 out of 15 showed decline in their powers of recall after four days. Memory improved once levels returned to normal. “Sustained high cortisol levels can interfere with the brain’s energy supply,” says lead researcher John Newcomer.

Diabetes High insulin and cortisol often go together. Though it’s not yet clear which comes first, high cortisol levels may make your body less responsive to insulin, impairing its ability to manage glucose.

High insulin and cortisol often go together. Though it’s not yet clear which comes first, high cortisol levels may make your body less responsive to insulin, impairing its ability to manage glucose.

Add in..

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The many health problems that can start in your bowel Constipation, excessive wind, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and diverticulitis come from a sick bowel. Less obviously, so can headaches and migraines, low energy, lack of motivation, even some cases of depression. It affects the whole system and over loads the liver. All of these health problems – and more – can happen because your bowel is clogged up with wastes from an inferior diet. Our system was designed for the diet of 20,000 years ago which contained five times the plant roughage we consume today.

Candida, or Thrush as it is often called, is at epidemic proportions. Many men think Candida is only a female problem, but they are wrong - men get Candida as well as women! This yeast feeds on sugar and refined foods and has been called the ‘great mimic’ because it causes so many health problems. Constant tiredness, moodiness, irritability, foggy thinking, sugar cravings and the resultant weight gain, can all be caused by an overgrowth of Candida. This condition is often left untreated by doctors who do not realize the underlying cause of the problem.

A healthy bowel and digestive system can make an enormous difference to the health of our body.

Did you realize that your bowel is an important part of your immune system? Did you know that your bowel, if healthy, actually produces important B vitamins, and also vitamin K? If your bowel is overwhelmed with bad bacteria you can never be well and on top of the world. A bowel which is out of balance is also a welcoming place for parasites; a healthy one will resist these intruders.

Share your tips and techniques for managing stress with the other people on this programme.

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Combat Strategies for Stress You can’t change the stresses of the outside world but you can change your response to them!

Here are some damage control steps to reduce the cortisol coursing through your veins, or at least minimise its effect.

SOUND BITE -how important it is to find stress reducing strategies

Take charge A sense of control over your life helps. Try getting organised — even in small ways, like investing in a shoe rack, de-cluttering your bedroom, and delegating more.

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Go to bed on time Take the sleep specialists’ advice. Chicago University research found that men who slept only four hours a night had 37% higher cortisol levels than those who got a full eight hours. It may cut into your socialising time but it will be worth it. The quality of your sleep matters too. A good restful night meant your body secrets almost 65% more human growth hormone (HGH). HGH can help prevent loss of muscle mass triggered by elevated cortisol levels.

Get your vitamins South African research found that taking 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily for eight days reduced marathon runners’ post race cortisol levels by an average of 30%. “For managing stress,” says Dr Talbott, “1,000mg, divided into several small doses throughout the day, probably brings maximum benefit.”Work it out!

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If you’re under a lot of stress, go and have a heavy work out. It does wonders for the way you feel.

Exercise hard and it will quash the urge to overeat.

Hard exercise produces endorphins (so-called ‘happy chemicals’) in the brain that give a sense of well being as good as any chemical drug.

Attack the weights If you normally just stick to cardio, thwarting cortisol is another good reason to add some resistance training. Vigorous activity effectively stands in for the fight-or-flight response, according to exercise scientist Dave Pearson, bringing stress-hormone levels back down where they belong.

You have the added bonus of getting into better shape!

Don’t drink out of habit Booze dehydrates you, booze makes you old! Your dehydrated body thinks there’s a water-shortage emergency, which bumps up your cortisol. How much is too much? The smart money says two units a day. (When trying to lose weight leave it out altogether!) The same dehydration message goes for caffeine. For cortisol control, stick to no more than one cup of coffee per day. And drink plenty of water to avoid triggering the cortisol dehydration alarm.

Exercise correctly, eat correctly Whether stress is lethal or not depends on how you deal with it. A run down, alcohol-fuelled body will never cope as well as a nutritionally balanced, fit body. Healthy food is medicine. Weight training is medicine. They both balance your hormones and your brain.

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Stress eating strategies Be accountable for how you react to stress. You are accountable for how you respond to everything in your life.

Choose healthy alternatives to high sugar comfort foods. There are nutritious foods that will induce the same calming effect, but without the unpleasant side-effects. Among the most effective anxiety management foods are fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Specifically, these foods are natural, complex carbohydrates.

Leafy green vegetables such as spinach and Romaine lettuce are bursting with a B vitamin called folic acid, which is thought to be a mood balancing nutrient. Other good-mood foods include fish and unprocessed turkey.

The point is, to draw emotional comfort from food, you have to build certain foods into you food plan to help you normalise your mood for the day. This nutritional knowledge can put to use on a day to day basis. Rather than sabotage your body’s true needs, you can support them with high-nourishment foods.

There’s no good reason for you to experience any nutritional back-sliding when you have strategies in place to handle stress.

When these situations arise, as you know they will, you won’t panic and start eating everything in sight. You will simply say to yourself, “This is the very thing I knew would happen, and I know how to deal with it. I won’t panic, and I won’t give in just because I am encountering normal challenges of day-to-day life. I am in control”.

Your ‘H’ Level Homocysteine is a naturally occurring amino acid (protein building block), which is found in blood plasma when the body’s chemistry is out of balance. Many medical experts and scientific studies around the world are now hailing it as a better predictor of potential health problems, particularly cardiovascular problems, than cholesterol levels.

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Your ‘H level’ is the best single indicator of whether you are going to live a long and healthy life, or suffer problems at a younger age. It is also toxic and damaging to the nerve cells, especially brain neurons, but also motor and pain response nerves. There are highrisk groups and low-risk groups, but the best way for us to find out is to have a test. Whatever your state of health, a homocysteine test will let you know what your risk is. We would recommend clients ask their physician or specialist for a test. In the UK you can order a Homocysteine home test kit from us (www.thehardedge.com/store ).

A high Homocysteine reading has been directly linked with, and in many cases is the cause of, over 100 diseases including: Alzheimer’sand early-onset dementia

Heart attacks

Cerebral Atrophy (Brain size shrinkage)

Infertility

Memory deficit

Obesity

Depression

Accelerated ageing

Schizophrenia

Strokes

Arthritis

Thyroid problems

Cancer

Ulcers

Chronic fatigue

Deep vein thrombosis

Diabetes Headaches The high-risk, high-homocysteine groups include people who smoke, have an unbalanced diet, are stressed, have a family history of disease, have a high consumption of alcohol (more than two glasses a day), who exercise infrequently and who are overweight (20% body fat or more in men, 25% body fat or more in women) or carry a lot of weight around the abdomen.

Levels can also increase with age, with oestrogen deficiency, and with some medications.

This programme will help you to change them, as high levels can be reduced in a relatively short time with the right nutrients and the right changes in lifestyle.

Homocysteine busters!

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Eat less fatty foods and more lean meats and vegetable protein.

2

Eat large quantities of highly coloured vegetables.

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3

Include a clove of garlic in your diet every day.

4

Cut right back on coffee and caffeinated drinks.

5

Cut right back on alcohol.

6

Reduce your stress.

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Stop smoking.

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Supplement with homocysteine-lowering nutrients daily. (Make sure your supplement includes folate (folic acid), Vitamins: E, B12, B6 and B2, Zinc and Magnesium. (Vegetarians and vegans can also be more at risk as some of the best sources of these are in animal products.)

And, of course, take regular exercise.

AN Add- in..

More about Homocysteine

Homocysteine is a reliable biomarker of overall health, and a causal factor in many degenerative diseases and conditions. It is a more powerful and meaningful marker of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) than cholesterol levels. A raised homocysteine score, especially when significant, is NEVER good, as it suggests a deficiency in certain B-vitamins, the presence of serious underlying disease, or an unhealthy lifestyle. In all cases, there is benefit in taking strategies to lower elevated homocysteine levels, in order to reduce your risk of early onset disease.

What are the effects of Homocysteine?

Homocysteine is a major indicator for heart attacks, coronary heart disease and one of the best predictors of Alzheimer’s and many other nervous system disorders. These silent diseases remain the biggest killers in the western world.

In the UK they account for around 125,000 deaths a year - approximately one in four deaths in men, and one in seven in women.

How high is too high?

“Optimum” levels have been suggested as less than a score of 6, with 6 - 9 being “Low” risk, 9 - 15 being “High” risk, and scores over 15 rated as “Very high” risk. Recent research has indicated that an increase in homocysteine ratings of just 5 points showed a 32 - 42% increase in risk for heart disease, a 60% increase in risk for deep vein thrombosis and a 59 - 65% increase in risk for stroke.

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What if your homocysteine levels are high?

A high level of homocysteine in the blood is damaging to the circulatory system and damages and narrows the arteries. Homocysteine doesn’t just cause artery damage - a high accumulation reduces the body’s effectiveness in producing vital bio-chemicals that reduce your risk of a variety of conditions and diseases.

In this module you should have: Understood the Performance Nutrition Pyramid and analysed where your eating is on the scale.

Resolved to make adjustments to your diets to reach a higher level on the pyramid Understood how our diet has changed over the years – and recognised how healthy eating can protect you from some of the ill effects caused by these changes.

Considered the effect that stress might be having on your health and resolved to take action if you are affected by the issues raised.

Understood the importance of a healthy homocysteine level and considered getting tested

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

What are your top three challenges when it comes to following the advice given about your health?

The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Eat plenty of fibrous vegetables and drink 2 litres a day to keep your bowel working well.

Keep on track with your healthy eating Make the necessary adjustments to improve your level of nutrition

How will you train yourself to drink 2 litres of water a day?

What are the top three changes that you will make to your eating to move you up the performance nutrition pyramid?

What top three stress reducing techniques can you practice this week?

An add in..

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How changes in our diet cause disease Sad to say, we modern humans aren’t eating the foods we’re designed to.

In common with many other research facilities worldwide, over the last 20 years we have identified eight key detrimental changes in our food.

1 Processed grains First, about 10,000 years ago, came the introduction of cereal grains, a rare item in our preagricultural diet. Processed cereal grains today not only rob our diet of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, but also change our mix of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats), by adding a carbohydrate load never before experienced in our evolution.

2 New kinds of animal The second big change in our food, between 8,000 and 5,000 years ago, was the domestication of animals, which introduced dairy foods and cultivated meat, which were non-existent in our ancient diet. Cheeses, man made spreads like butter, and cultivated meat variations changed the composition of our fat intake, by adding large amounts of saturated fat and hydrogenated, which also displaced healthy essential fats from our diets.

3 Sugar Limited to honey on occasion, and the sugars in seasonal fruits, sugar was a minor item in our diet before the agricultural revolution. Refined sugars were non-existent. Refined sugar, and its 1970s’ progeny, high-fructose corn syrup, pushed our glycemic load into the stratosphere!

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4 Salt Except for occasional ingestion of seaweed and saltwater, we rarely used salt. Now, over 80% of the salt we eat has been added to our food. Salt did a real number on us by reversing the sodium-potassium ratio in our diets, from low sodium-high potassium in our ancient diet, to high sodium-low potassium in modern foods. Our kidney function and blood pressure are genetically programmed for the low sodium-high potassium intake, and doesn’t like the reverse situation.

5 Vegetable oils The fifth change in our food was the introduction of processed vegetable oils, another previously non-existent item for our bodies. As we “progressed” technologically, these fats became more and more artificial. Now most processed vegetable oils are high in trans-fatty acids, some with added colouring, and are worse for your health than saturated fats.

Aggressive, agricultural management techniques have decreased the Omega-3 fatty acid content in many foods such as green leafy vegetables, animal meats, eggs, and even fish while increasing omega- 6.

It is estimated we evolved with an Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio of one to one from both meat and vegetable sources. This is also true in the animal kingdom and is the reason why proper body function for all animals (including the ones we eat) is so dependent on the

correct balance of essential fatty acids in the foods they eat also. Today the modern processed vegetable sources have an estimated ratio of 10 to one. The modern diet of meat, fish, chicken, has a ratio estimated to be 20 or 25 to one! These changes promote many diseases in humans, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. These disorders have risen exponentially in our pets also.

6 Loss of fibre Fibre totaled about 100 grams per day in our ancient diet and we operate best on this kind of level. It came in many forms - almost exclusively from roots, fruits, nuts, and other bits of vegetation. Processing of carbohydrates and vegetables removes most of the fibre today, because it is indigestible and hard to deal with. That’s precisely why we need it, to clean our genetically programmed ancient gut, and especially to get potential carcinogens out. Now we are lucky to get 20 grams of fiber a day (the average intake is a mere 12g), and from a very narrow range of sources. And to add insult to injury, the food manufacturers sell it back to us in the form of wheat germ or bran to alleviate constipation!

7 Micronutrients 151

There has been a systematic reduction or removal of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and polyphenols) in hundreds of our common foods. Except for sodium, the vitamin and mineral intake in our ancient diet was up to eight times what it is now.

8 Acidity The final change in our food that damages us is increased acidity production. Our ancestors ate a basically alkaline-producing diet of unprocessed foods. The modern combination of cereal grains, processed carbohydrates, dairy foods, battery farmed and mechanically rendered meats, salt, sugar and processed vegetable oils, along with very low levels of micronutrients and fibre, overwhelms our genetically programmed mechanisms that regulate acid/alkaline balance. Now our bodies are far more acidic. Acid reflux disease and indigestion disorders that are 99% preventable fuel a $7-billion dollar industry in the US alone (“Take control of your health� by Elaine Hollingsworth). But acidity and the other seven detrimental changes in our food are a lot more costly than that for your physical and mental health

This week's goals Reminding ourselves why exercise is so important Exploding some exercise myths Getting remotivated Understanding how muscles work and why muscle building works

How exercise will speed up your fat Have you ever heard the saying fit people burn more fat, and unfit people burn more glucose?

Well this is why‌ 1

Exercise improves your oxygen delivery and extraction system, which helps muscle energy cells burn fat more efficiently, in the same way that a tuned carburettor and free-flow exhaust will improve the power and performance of a car engine.

2

Exercise improves the body's sensitivity to chemicals and enzymes which speed up the break-down and release of fatty acids into the blood. The body does not like to dissemble fat once it has laid it down, and will by default attempt to limit its release as energy into the system. A fuel pump or injectors in a car function in the same way, ensuring that plenty of gas is sucked from the tank and is delivered to the engine effectively.

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3

A fitter circulatory system will aid transport of these fatty acids to the muscle more efficiently through better blood flow and enhanced function of your capillaries - the tiny blood vessels that can junk up easily causing damage to areas that rely on them to supply life-giving oxygen and nutrients. Allowing junk and sludge to enter the petrol tank of your car will block the essential supply lines to the engine in the same way.

4

The amount of protein transporters (that help deliver fatty acid fuel molecules within the muscle cell) increase in number, and the mitochondria (the fat burning furnaces within the cells) also multiply in both number and size. This effectively creates more cylinders - and bigger cylinders - within your muscle engine. Bigger engine = more fuel burn-off!

The important take-home message here is that consistent, progressively challenging exercise will truly develop your body into a much better and m

Finding it difficult to stay motivated?

We hope by now that you are into your regular exercise routine and are seeing and feeling the benefits thereof. But just in case you need a little boost, read on‌

"Exercise is boring�

If we said to you we wanted you to drive from London to Manchester on a wet and dull grey day in the rush hour, chances are you would say that would be a very boring thing to have to do, right? But if we then told you there was a cheque for a million pounds there with your name on it, do you think you would be so worried about being a little bored?

You see, life is full of boring things you do every day: Cleaning your teeth is boring, but it will make them sparkle. Taking the train to work is boring, but you will be earning money toward your dream car, or whatever pushes your buttons. Taking your turn to drive the kids to school is boring, but the rest of the day is yours. Look, never mind, I think you get the picture.

What makes boring things worthwhile are the results you get at the end.

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The trick is to find ways to make the necessary boring things a little more interesting: 1

The exercises in this programme are designed to give you that great physique relatively quickly, and in a format that is less repetitive or dull.

2

The fitness tests at the beginning are there to help you see progress as it happens, and this in turn encourages you to accomplish even more.

3

Make sure you keep your training diary - workouts go more quickly and smoothly when you keep records. You know exactly what you are doing and what you have to accomplish to progressively get better on that day. This is absolutely important to prevent your motivation from waning.

4

Have a little fun while you do something for your body. Find an ‘exercise buddy’ to join you.

As you get through the exercises, you find the motivation becomes intrinsic.

5

Keep focused on your goals. Remind yourself there is nothing more boring than trying to find clothes to fit properly, not liking the way you look naked, or feeling too tired to get off the sofa to play with the children?

More functional machine.

How is you exercise routine going?

What do you find most motivating How can you increase these motivational factors?

What demotivates you when it comes to regular exercising?

Exploding some exercise myths

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Did You Know?

We have between 50,000 and 80,000 thoughts running around in our head during a day and if you begin to programme and focus on the benefits of your new younger body and eliminate the negative thoughts, it will soon become a comfortable part of your daily habit.

Imagine feeling twice as energetic and healthy as you did in your twenties - slimmer, toned, physically energetic and more emotionally balanced. Do some visualisation and really see and feel the New You.

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“I have a very active life. Surely I don’t need to exercise?”

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When performing aerobic exercise at a lower intensity the body does prefer to use predominantly fat as its main fuel source. However, this has led many people to mistakenly believe that walking, housework, running after children and the like, is all they need. What they overlook is the fact that when they exercise at a higher level of intensity (for example, running, sprinting, circuits etc) the overall amount of fat calories burned during this high intensity exercise is much greater.

The positive aspect of low intensity exercise is that it is well tolerated by the sedentary or older exerciser but by now you should be using every opportunity to get active and undertake high intensity exercise.

“I hate running! Do I really have to jog?�

We are all natural runners, although many of us forget this fact. Why? Children run - naturally.

Running is part of the way a child engages with the world. When we ask our young children what they liked best about school, play time and running all over the place with their friends is generally the answer.

What has happened to us between the miraculous age of five and 25, 35, and 45?

We’ve forgotten the art and the freedom of running. Our bodies were made to run - otherwise we would not have had the amazing survival history we have had. Running has been a long integrated part of our lives until recently. (Many tribesmen still run for days whether tracking food or visiting neighbouring communities).

However, like most things, running has to be practiced to be enjoyed. Too many people start to run too fast and get put off as they droop with exhaustion.

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TAKE ACTION! Get started. Start gently. Just start at a very slow jog and break this up with frequent bouts of walking until your joints and muscles begin to feel fluid and free. In no time you will be able to pick up the pace with little effort.

If you are an achiever, motivate yourself with something that challenges your comfort zone, such as a triathlon or marathon. If competition is not what you desire, do it for charity.

Share your experience in the Forum. Ask for support if you need it. Help motivate others to keep at it

Understanding Muscles Let’s now look in depth at muscles and how they work, how and why to develop them and how to look after them. Hey – it’s your body, and you need to know how to maintain it to keep it functional!

SOUND BITE

there’s a lot coming up inthe next few sections on muscles.

Introduce it with a short audio to explain why they need to have all this information -what’ s in it for them?

Muscle Physiology In broad terms, muscle does three things: 1

It supports vital life functions, for example cardiac muscle keeps your heart beating.

2

It determines It provides structural support and allows and enables your body to move.

3

your metabolic rate through its own expenditure of calories.

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Muscle tissue in its simplest form is constructed from 20 amino acids (protein building blocks) which in the most part come from our food. Many other amino acids are built by the body from broken down proteins. Protein is the main ingredient of your cells and, consumed in the proper amount, also stimulates the release of carbohydrate for energy.

In order to adequately maintain muscle we need to consume a minimum of 1 gram of protein for every kilogram of lean body weight. To develop and improve muscle we need 1.5 to 2 grams.

How muscles work

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All muscles in the body function through contractionwhen activated. The strength or power of these contractions depends on the size and condition of the muscles.

Size and condition of muscle tissue can be altered at any time.

Atrophy, or loss of condition, occurs when muscles are under-used, or through the breakdown of protein by the body for use as fuel in the event of carbohydrate-starvation. This can be seen when someone has a limb in plaster for a length of time, or when someone embarks on a low-carbohydrate diet.

It’s been calculated that after our mid twenties we lose up to 2% of our natural strength levels every year through muscle atrophy, brought on by general inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle.

This has previously been put down as part of the natural aging process, but we know now that it is more to do with poor decisions and choices when it comes to physical activity.

Hypertrophy, or muscle growth, occurs when the muscles perceived that an increase in activity or ‘loading’ is taking place. These loads produce microscopic tears in the muscle, which are repaired during periods of rest. The repair process allows the muscle to re-build the damaged tissue thicker and stronger, and it takes roughly 48 hours to complete.

If the minimum amount of protein required to be consumed is raised to 2 grams of protein for every kilogram of lean body-weight, regular weight-training will stimulate on-going muscle hypertrophy (growth) in people at any age.

Why muscles are receptive Muscle is very receptive to the stimulus of training. We can deliberately encourage a muscle to work better by performing the actions we want to develop. This could be strength, speed, endurance, or flexibility. If we introduce an action or type of action the muscle is not used to, it will perceive that it needs to adapt in order to successfully complete that movement type when asked to do so again.

For example, if we lift a weight which we’re not accustomed to doing, and repeat that lift over successive occasions, the muscle will adapt and become stronger, in order to allow us to complete the movement more comfortably and safely. We recognise this process as the movements become easier to perform.

Initially the overload training will make the muscle mildly sore, and it will take about two days to fully recover and improve. This growth and adaptation is referred to as “The Overload Principle”, and if performed with correct attention to safety and technique, can be responsible for improvements in many areas.

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What muscles burn When they're working, and creating movement, muscles burn energy. This energy comes from a number of sources:

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Glycogen This is the muscle’s favourite fuel. Derived from blood sugars taken in as carbohydrates, glycogen can be stored in the liver and in the muscle tissue itself. When muscle and liver storage cannot store any more glycogen and are effectively full, the liver converts the glycogen molecule to one suitable for storage in fat cells.

Glycogen yields about 4 calories of energy per gram.

Triglycerides These are formed from a combination of three fat molecules with one glucose molecule. The muscles burn about 10% of their total energy from this source in a normal day’s activities. The fat molecules come from the diet or are released from fat storage, and are supplied to the liver to be converted to triglycerides.

Fat as a fuel yields about 9 calories per gram, more than twice that of glycogen.

Protein The body will burn protein as a fuel if it doesn’t have enough carbohydrate. If the diet contains insufficient carbohydrate, the body will break down protein from the muscle tissue and convert it to glycogen, resulting in a dramatic loss of strength, energy, and weight. When synthesised as a fuel, protein yields about 4 calories per gram, as it is broken down into glycogen

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Muscle matters for metabolism The amount of energy the muscles burn in a day depends on their volume (size) and operational ability (strength/endurance/general condition) – so it varies between individuals.

We call this rate of daily calorie expenditure our Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR) –remember?

A loss of muscle size or condition through inactivity, aging or dieting without exercise will result in a reduced metabolic rate, while a growth or improvement in the condition and strength of the muscles will increase metabolism.

Muscle facts: Metabolism of calories in the muscle is at a peak during and immediately after bouts of exercise.

An increase in lean muscle mass of 1 kilogram will burn off an extra 70 - 80 calories per day.

Why muscle building works Here’s a question that often confuses people: “I keep hearing about how I should add muscle if I want to lose weight. If I’m already overweight, why would I want to build muscle?”

Let’s just recap on this one...

This is what will happen when we add muscle - more specifically, when we add muscle fibres, or their constituent parts, muscle filaments. Filaments are tiny strands, just like the filament in your average light bulb. In order to build a better body, we need to maximise the number of muscle fibre filaments. These tiny strands of muscle each carry a powerful calorie-burning furnace within them and your body manufactures thousands of these filaments after each productive workout. Now imagine how fast fat would melt off your body if you were adding thousands of these fat burning furnaces each day.

That’s exactly what you do when you train with intensity and resistance.

It’s also one of the secrets of breaking through the dreaded fat loss plateau.

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You won’t turn into the Incredible Hulk. These filaments are tiny, so you’re not actually growing muscle at a rapid pace; you’re just bolstering what’s already there by increasing muscle density.

You’re simultaneously strengthening and toning your body, increasing your endurance and increasing your metabolism.

Remember, as beneficial as cardiovascular activity is to fat loss, weight training can deliver the same benefits and then some!

Proper weight training not only increases your metabolic rate, so you burn more calories each day.

It also helps you injury-proof your body and improve your posture and structural integrity. Plus it builds up bone density and helps prevent osteoporosis.

Describe your weekly exercise routine How does this compare to your routine in Week Four What differences can you see in your body What differences can you see in your mental attitude?

How proud are you of yourself and your progress?

Repair The 24 - 36 hours after the workout are the golden hours where the “body is ‘rebuilt’.

The rebuilding process takes place through biochemical reactions that burn a lot of calories. This is where protein comes in. Proteins are the bricks that your muscle filaments are built from. Carbohydrate plays a huge role at this point – you can think of them as the ‘cement’.

Imagine a house being built on a hot day in July. Dozens of bricklayers out in the sun and sweating. Those are the ‘workers’ in the muscle. Sweating, forming muscle filaments from the protein bricks and adding those filaments to the house…and burning calories!

Now imagine what would happen if the workers were to run out of bricks (protein). What happens?

The workers sit down, cool off and relax. No more calories burned, no more muscle being built.

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All about your abdominals 165

You won’t be surprised to learn that the abdominals are one of the main body areas people are concerned about – bellies are a sensitive subject!

But your abdominal muscles play an important role within the body, a lot more than just helping us look good.

They act as important postural muscles and we certainly wouldn’t be able to stand up without them.

They work with the diaphragm to help us to breathe.

They help balance and stabilise the body against falling over when playing sports, etc.

They assist with the movement of our limbs.

They protect the internal organs from blows to the mid-section, just as the rib cage does for the heart and lungs.

They transfer forces from the upper arms to the legs and back during activities such as leaping and reaching.

The contraction and relaxation of well toned abdominals helps massage and stimulate the internal organs.

They give support to the spine.

What you need to do: To create a great mid-section, you need to lower your body fat levels until you can see some definition.

Once you can build up to doing 40 continuous abdominal exercises during your training then your own body resistance becomes too light. To get more shape and definition, the muscles have to be trained as any other muscle would be for tone and shape, with resistance and plenty of recuperation periods.

Watch your technique!

Do not strain your neck or back by wrenching your body off the floor at speed. All abdominal exercises should be performed slowly and with full control… but never with secured feet.

Why muscles get stiff If you do an exercise that introduces a movement that’s unfamiliar to your usual movement routine, you often get stiffness in those muscles as part of the body’s adaption process to change.

What’s happening is this - the tiny fibres within the muscle are ‘traumatized’ by the new movement and then repair, in stronger form, to compensate for when this movement happens again.

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Tips for when your muscles are stiff The great benefit of using gym equipment is that you can go and work out the body parts that are not stiff.

Stretching gently can be useful although new scientific evidence doesn’t give much credence to lots of stretching unless your flexibility is poor.

Soak in a warm bath with a heaped tablespoon of Epson salts added and then rub in a sports muscle relaxant

Will muscles turn to fat if I stop exercising?

This is a very widely held misconception.

Just as an apple cannot change into a pear, or a bicycle into a car, your muscle cannot change into fat. Muscle and fat tissue are two very separate and distinct tissues. They do not have the capability to change structure

BUT muscles are the ‘workhorses’ of movement and they have a unique adaptation so that it’s a case of “use it or lose it”. If you don’t use muscle it will literally ‘waste away’. A good example of this is to look at the shape of a broken limb after the plaster cast has been removed and muscle wasting has occurred.

This misconception about muscle turning to fat seems to arise from examples of very athletic sports people expending many calories exercising with well developed muscle tone, and therefore a high metabolic rate. They then retire to a sedentary lifestyle but keep up the same eating patterns. The muscle is no longer being worked at the same level, so it atrophies away to the level of the present demands put on it and therefore their metabolic rate drops. All the unused calories go straight into the storage sacs of the body’s fat cells and this is how an out-of-shape physique begins!

All about your abdominals Let’s recap on these Progressive Resistance: As your muscles get stronger you need to gradually increase the resistance.

Train Large Muscle Perform the larger muscle group’s exercises first (bench press, one-arm row, shoulder press, squats, lunges), then train the smaller individual muscles (side raises, bicep curl, tricep extension, knee extension, leg curl, calf raises).

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Speed of Movement: While speed training does have its place in sports, the majority of the movements in strength training should be performed in a slow controlled fashion. Momentum is the enemy of strength training. A good rule of thumb is a 1 - 2 second count while you are lifting the weight up (the exertion phase) and a 2 - 4 second count while you are lowering the weight.

Frequency: Each muscle or muscle group should be trained 2 - 3 times per week with at least 1 - 2 days between workouts for the muscles to rebuild.

Sets/Reps: For good health and toning, 2 - 3 sets of 8 - 12 repetitions is enough. When you are new to training, start with two sets, moving up to three as you improve. Rest periods should be at least 30 seconds between each set, and up to 60 seconds on heavy sets

Vary Your Workouts: Periodically change some of the components of your workout. For example, change the type of exercise that you do for a given muscle group. You could do press-ups perhaps instead of bench press, use weight machines instead of free weights. Vary the weight, number of sets, and repetitions every few weeks as seen below:

WEEKS

1-2 2-4 4-6 5-7

SETS

WEIGHT

Light Moderate Heavy Very heavy

2 2-3 3 3-5

REPETITIONS

15 12 8 12

You need to change your weight routines every 4-6 weeks with different activities in order to activate the different muscle groups in your body; otherwise your body gets lazy and uses the same muscles every time. So while some muscles will stay strong, others will lose their capacity to fire as we age.

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Don’t run on empty If it’s been many hours since your last meal, you will fatigue quickly and may put yourself at risk of injury. To get the best out of your workout it’s important to have a small meal combining protein and carbohydrates about one to one and a half hours before you train.

In this module you should Reminded yourself of the importance to keep focused on your goal to increase your fitness.

Understood muscle physiology and how muscles work.

Learned how muscle building increases your metabolic rate and its role in burning calories.

Understood the key principles of weight training.

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

What are your top three challenges when it comes to regular exercise The actions you need to take in the Make sure your training diary is up to date and that you are using it regularly.

Consider finding an exercise buddy – if you think it would help your motivation.

Go jogging. Start slowly and build up.

Assess your workout to ensure you are working all your muscle groups and make any necessary changes.

Review the weights you are using and ensure you are gradually increasing the resistance as your muscles get stronger. Make a note in your training diary to do this on a regular basis.

Would an exercise buddy help? Who can you ask and when will you ask them?

What are the top three changes that you will make to your daily training routine?

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Myths about muscles The ‘Lower Abs’ myth Your abdominals are composed primarily of so-called ‘fast-twitch’ fibres and, like other muscles made up of this type of fibre; they respond better to low reps and a heavier weight.

If you feel you have reached your abdominal training ability is no longer a challenge to your muscles, try resting a weight on your upper chest to increase resistance. Take care not to lever it off again to assist in the sit up.

The misconception of “lower abdominals” is still alive in gyms, on TV shows and in fitness magazines. Thinking that there really are muscles known as “the lower abdominals” is just not true.

There is no such muscle and therefore there is no need to make up exercises to strengthen it.

Some think the words “lower abdominals” merely refers to the lower half of the central abdominal muscle, the rectus abdominus. The problem with thinking the lower portion of a muscle’s fibers are a separate muscle is that this implies the lower half of a muscle can contract without its upper half being affected. This is impossible due to the way our skeletal muscles are constructed.

Spot reducing – another myth There is a myth that youcan spot-reduce fat from specific regions of the body. There is no truth to spot reduction of fat through exercise, creams or pills. When we exercise, the body uses energy produced by metabolising fat from general energy stores - not just from the working areas. You may do many hundreds of sit-ups a day only to see little change in their bulging abdomen. It will not trim fat off this area any quicker than it will your buttocks or thighs.

You can, however, spot tone areas of your body. For example, if you have untoned inner thighs or arms, these muscles can be shaped and tightened … although nobody will ever notice if there is still too much fat covering them!

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This week’s goals are: Exploring more Calorie Burning Opportunities (CBO’s™) to add to your day Recognising the importance of a good night’s sleep Understanding the importance of good posture Learning the ‘at home’ workout, so you can do it any time, anywhere.

Exercises you can do at Your regular gym sessions should be paying real benefits by now – but if you want to give your efforts a little extra boost and increase the Calorie Burning Opportunities we looked at in Week 3 – then some of the exercises below can be slipped into your everyday life whenever you find a minute or two spare.

Find ways to squeeze a few of these into your day and you will see progress even faster.

Continuous Squat: If your thighs have lost their tone, sort them out with this great target toning move.

Hold a heavy book at arms length directly in front of you while you lower the body down by bending the knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Without stopping the movement, begin to rise again until your knees are almost straight, but not quite. Don’t stop at the top or pause but continue down to the full squat position again. The entire movement over 10 to 15 repetitions should be smooth and fluid and performed slowly to load the muscles. It’s also hard work for the shoulders and an excellent calorie burner!

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Walking Lunge: Try this great calorie burner and shaper for the legs and for tightening the buttocks. This one will also have you working through an excellent stretch for those important postural muscle groups - the hamstrings and hip flexors – so you don’t develop that “tucked in” look through the pelvis.

Hug a heavy book to your chest and take a bold, but controlled, step out and forwards. Sink down deep on the front leg allowing the trailing leg to almost straighten and the rear foot to come up on the toes. Push off from the rear foot and take another long stride forward in an exaggerated walking pattern. Repeat the movement for 10 -15 repetitions on each leg. Maintain an upright posture, almost leaning back whilst sinking the hips down and forward with each step. Don’t worry – it will get easier as you get lighter!

Leaning Body Press: It’s time to tighten and build the chest muscles and tone up your arms.

Standing about 4 feet away from your office desk topple forward until you catch the edge of the table in your palms and grab hold firmly. (Ensure the table is jammed up against a wall first, or you will end up with carpet burn on your elbows and chin!). With the arms extended and the body stretched straight out and rigid at about 45 degrees to the floor, slowly lower the chest towards the edge of the table and then press back out to full arm extension again. If the hands are placed wide it will be similar to a regular chest press -up, BUT if you bring the hands in closer than shoulder width, you can target the back of your arms by keeping the elbows close to the body as you lower down. Really work your triceps by stretching even further out and lowering the forehead to the table (be careful not the bridge of the nose, or teeth for that matter – although you’ll only get it wrong once). If your cleverness and ability exceed even your own estimation – try it with one arm at a time.

Advanced Plank This one is quite advanced: The aim is to hold as steady a position as you can without shaking, sagging or wobbling about, hence the name. It’s for those who are looking for more challenge than the regular-type sit-ups or “planks” you may be doing currently.

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With your feet up on a chair assume a press-up position and hold the body flat and rigid for as long as you can, preferably more than a minute. Suck the stomach in, pulling your tummy-button in towards your spine, and hold that contraction hard for the duration of the exercise. That’s the easy version. Then try placing your feet up on a large Swiss ball (if available) on the points of your toes (or an office chair with wheels), with your arms extended slightly out to the front. Then try lifting alternate legs off the ball or chair for each held bridge.

We’ll come back to exercise later in the module, but for now let’s take a break and look at sleep.

The importance of a good night’s sleep So you’re getting your health in order – exercising and watching your diet. Great … but don’t forget about the need for a good night’s sleep.

These days the average person gets about 7 hours sleep a night compared with nearly 9 hours, thirty years ago. Now only one in five gets the recommended 8 hours.

Lack of sleep can make you fat, according to researchers at Columbia University’s New York Obesity Research Center[1] who studied more than 6,000 people. Obesity rates were 73 percent higher in people who had only four to six hours sleep a night.

If you are feeling snappy or a bit washed out, lack of sleep could be playing a part. Studies show that the frontal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for thought, decision-making and reasoning, needs plenty of restorative sleep to function well and keep us ahead of the game. Lack of sleep also activates the appetite control centre in the hypothalamus, making you feel hungry.

Poor or inadequate sleep disrupts the body’s ability to repair itself, and in extreme cases leads to weakness, poor immunity, raised blood pressure, hormone imbalances, gastric ulcers and other stomach problems.

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What is a good night’s sleep?

The National Sleep Foundation recommends establishing regular sleep patterns to help you get the rest you need for cellular regeneration. A good night’s sleep involves getting to bed early enough to get the deepest sleep (by 1030pm every night) The most common symptom of poor sleep patterns is poor appetite control. Desires to eat will fluctuate from periods of little appetite, to periods of uncontrolled over–eating. Shift workers are

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A good night’s sleep leads to a good recovery of our chemical systems, and the adrenal and serotonin systems should be ideally balanced to deal with the day. The adrenal chemistry is very important for firing the body into its regular activity. After a good night’s sleep we are highly alert, feel positive about the day ahead, have plenty of energy, and our cravings for poor quality food (especially fats and carbohydrates) are reduced.

[1] SLEEP, Vol. 28, No. 10, 2005 “Inadequate Sleep as a Risk Factor for Obesity: Analyses of the NHANES I”James E. Gangwisch, PhD; Dolores Malaspina, MD, MPH; Bernadette Boden-Albala, Dr.PH ; Steven B. Heymsfield, MD

How many hours sleep a night do you get?

How do you feel when you wake up in the morning?

What steps can you take to get a better night’s sleep

Sleep deprivation and the immune system Sleep deprivation appears to harm the immune system, reducing both the production and activity of immune cells and hormones. Disrupted sleep also increases levels of cortisol (the hormone responsible for our stress response.)

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When you are asleep, your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is in control and your nervous system is being rejuvenated. Many important immune system processes occur as you sleep, which is why “getting a lot of rest” is prescribed as a treatment for so many illnesses.

It has also been established that the human immune system takes advantage of sleep time to promote its infection-fighting actions. Sleep-deprived rats have been shown to be more susceptible to otherwise innocuous viruses and bacteria.

Sleep and memory Dr. Robert Stickgold[1] of Harvard Medical School has discovered a new link between sleep and memory. Dr. Stickgold reported that experiments had shown that performance of a newly acquired skill does not improve until the person has had more than six, and preferably eight, hours of sleep.

The research supports a new hypothesis that memory formation is a function of the two stages of sleep during which the brain undergoes physical and chemical changes that produces or strengthens memory traces. Without adequate sleep, new skills - as well as new facts – may not be properly encoded into memory.

Sleep and ageing A person’s need for sleep does not decline with age. Researchers have demonstrated that sleep needs remain constant throughout adulthood. However, a number of factors commonly associated with aging may interrupt, delay, or shorten sleep. As we age, night time sleep is likely to be disturbed for a number of reasons: lifestyle changes

decreased mental stimulation during daytime

decreased secretion of Melatonin

aches and pains

changes in body temperature cycle

disease and/or medications to treat them

decrease in exposure to natural light

frequent waking at night to go to the bathroom

dietary changes

[1] Ellenbogen JM, Payne JD, Stickgold R. The role of sleep in declarative memory consolidation: passive, permissive, active or none? Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2006 Dec;16(6):716-22. Epub 2006 Nov 7.

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Revitalize while you sleep A frequent overseas traveller and leading international authority in the field of anti-ageing medicine, Dr. Bob Goldman has devised a practical, tried and tested programme that often helps him and others to boost the quality of sleep. These are some of the highlights: Practice good sleep hygiene: where you sleep directly affects how well you sleep. Create a sleeping environment that is at a comfortable temperature and no distraction from light or sound. (It is important to have blackout curtains in the bedroom). Don’t become over stimulated: television emits full-spectrum lighting and electromagnetic fields that can cause wakefulness and/or agitation. Get rid of televisions, digital clocks and cell phones from the bedroom. If you have allergies to airborne agents, remove plants and humidifiers (both can be sources of mould), don’t let pets into your bedroom, and encase your mattress, duvet, and pillows in allergy barrier covers.

Herbs or sleep-inducing herbal supplements can help: For some people, a modest dose of valerian root, kava kava, or chamomile taken, or a few drops of lavender oil inhaled, speeds the trip to dreamland.

Avoid certain medications: Check with your doctor of pharmacist whether any prescription and/or over the counter products you take may cause you difficulty in falling asleep.

Blood pressure medicines, decongestants, nicotine, caffeine, diet pills, and some cold/ cough remedies are frequent culprits.

Lower your body temperature. A warm bath or shower before bedtime makes it easier for your body to cool down and the time to reach dreamland shorter.

To help you get your full eight hours worth of sleep: Take a warm bath with lavender or chamomile in the evening to relax the muscles, and then go straight to bed.

Don’t eat your large main meal at night as it over-stimulates the digestive system Avoid taking a nightcap of alcoholic or caffeine-based drinks.

If you have missed out on sleep, go to bed half an hour earlier each night to help reset your body clock. This is more effective than a big sleep-in now and again which can leave you feeling drowsy and lethargic.

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It is important to establish healthy eating patterns by going to bed and getting up at the same time.

Although not always an ideal or practical long-term solution, taking a short power nap during the day can be a restorative way to catch up on some lost sleep.

Share your sleep issues and your sleep remedies with your colleagues on the forum.

Your posture People often ignore good posture in their drive to shape up and lose weight, where their focus is often on the scales and not on how their bodies ‘hold together’.

Carrying too much weight, with the added shapelessness you get from poor muscle tone, will make you look old. This weight is also instrumental in causing a shift in your postural alignment.

Even a small increase in body fat makes your centre of gravity adjust to keep you upright. Your bones and muscles are always responding to many kinds of pressures as you move, and an overloading of bodyweight and fat in one area or another will put extra strain on ligaments, tendons, long bones, joints and muscles in other supportive areas.

We commonly see this in men and women where their body fat has built up around their stomach, causing their shoulders to pull back for balance, and making their back arch excessively to compensate. Because the back has now arched the head sticks forward to counter-balance that backward lean.

This unnatural posture creeps up slowly on us over the years until misalignment becomes the easy, comfortable position to sink into and we no longer can move with the agility we did in our younger years.

Poor posture also causes fatigue. If your frame is unevenly loaded with body weight, surrounding joints and ligaments become stressed and damaged, causing pain, most commonly in the back, neck, hip and knee areas. This can invariably lead to headaches, strains and fatigue.

Collapsed posture also makes it more difficult to draw in a lung full of air, thus restricting your uptake of oxygen.

Benefits of great posture Great posture is a wonderful anti-aging tool, it has a beauty all of its own. Good posture will turn back the age clock on your structural health by 20 years. Compare the difference between someone in their sixties and a much younger person – it’s the way they move and their posture that adds or subtracts the years.

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When all our organs, bones and muscles are in ideal alignment we can move with ease, function well and stand tall. It has been estimated up to two inches can be added to your height when you correct a slouch and you can look pounds lighter instantly simply by standing tall.

To give it maximum strength, our spine takes the shape of gentle ‘S’ – this is the neutral alignment of a healthy body. The ‘anchor’ parts of the body are the head, chest, pelvis and ankle - these should sit in a vertical line. In this position, all your muscles, joints and bones sit in their natural biomechanical positions and are not tightened, rotated or compressed or restricted by your movements. This is, however, quite a delicate balance and works best when we have a well toned and balanced muscle structure with no unduly heavy fat deposits.

Besides dramatically improving your appearance, great posture allows your internal organs to operate more efficiently. Your digestion works better, your lungs can inflate more and your lymphatic and vascular system flow more efficiently. As a result there is less stress and fatigue and you feel the benefits throughout the whole body.

Practice standing comfortably and correctly.

Looking from the side, it should be possible to draw a straight vertical line from your earlobe, through your shoulder, hip, knee, and into the middle of your ankle.

We all find ourselves in several positions throughout the day and repeating bad posture habits will them until they start to feel normal. Stay alert!

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Posture Homework:

Stand in front of a full-length mirror and observe your posture from the front or side.

Stand tall and stretch the crown (back) of your head up toward the ceiling, lengthening your neck.

Check to see that your head is not craning forward and your chin is tucked in and down.

Roll your shoulders back and down from your ears.

Lift your rib cage up and out to the front.

Check that your pelvis is centred and is not tilted forward or back.

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Change your computer’s screen saver to read “Posture check” to remind you to straighten up until your old habits and slouches are gone.

Make it a habit to take deep breaths from your diaphragm; it helps you open out your chest and energizes the whole system.

Exercises to do at home We have already made it clear that there is no substitute for joining a gym and taking advantage of the equipment there. But what about the times that simply isn’t possible –you’re away from home and there’s no gym in the hotel or family commitments mean you just can’t get there?

Should you give up on fitness and health? Of course not! But don’t make a habit of missing gym sessions. This is the exception, not the rule!

SOUND BITE There are plenty of exercises you can do in your own home, with just some simple equipment – some dumbbells and a Swiss ball – and the resistance provided by your own bodyweight. You can of course do the exercises we suggested earlier for the office, at home as well.

In the following sections, we have outlined a workout you can do at home on the days you don’t make it to the gym.

The Walking Lunge This is possibly the best exercise for targeting the buttocks and thighs, hip strength, core in muscles and for improving your balance - all in the one movement. Lunges work deep into the gluteus (buttock) muscle and will tone, lift and firm if you regularly keep these in your routine.

Standing with the hands on the hips take a long step forward keeping the knee over your second toe.

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Sink down and forward until you feel a stretch through the top of the trailing thigh. The front foot should be positioned well out in front so the knee is not protruding beyond the toes (see guide line on second picture). Your body should be as upright as possible.

Now in a fluid, smooth movement drive up and off the back foot swinging straight through into the next step. Continue forward until you have completed 10 steps on each leg.

Advanced move Once you can perform this exercise confidently and smoothly, simply carry a light dumbbell in each hand to increase the resistance. Don’t forget to continually advance the exercise by increasing the weights in order to gain tone in buttocks and thighs.

Tip: As you sink into each movement, try to lean back with your upper body as far as you can, to increase flexibility in the hip/thigh.

The walking lunge is superior to a static lunge, and is the version our celebrity clients come back to time and again for tightening up legs and glutes for those sneaky paparazzi beach pics!

The Sissy Squat.

Knees are often a trouble spot area and the Sissy Squat is an ideal exercise to bring them back into shape. This is a compound exercise which will also work on the quadriceps, inner & outer thigh and pelvic floor muscles.

Hold onto a firm support and stand with your feet close together and toes pointed slightly outward.

Come up on to the balls of your feet, lean slightly backwards and lower your body.

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Before you descend tilt your pelvis forward, tighten and lift the pelvic floor area and tuck your glutes under.

Pause at the bottom and squeeze your thighs and buttocks as you come up.

Variation Placing a ball between your knees for the full movement gives added benefit and extra emphasis on the inner thigh.

Tips: Maintain the pelvic tilt and buttock squeeze at all times and keep the ball firmly gripped between your thighs through out the whole movement.

Take a breather and head over to the forum to share your ideas for fitting more CBOs into your day.

The Press-up There is no better exercise that targets your upper body in one single movement than the press up. Arms, back abdomen, and chest.

Basic press-up: Position your hands wide on the floor just below shoulder level. Do not allow your back or bottom to sag. Slowly lower your self in a plank movement until your chest is almost touching the floor. As you push up do not fully extend your arms or allow them to lock out.

Modified Press-up Kneel on the floor with your weight supported by your hands. Position your hands the same as the basic press and lower your body to the floor. Your back, neck and head should remain in a straight line.

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Tip: It is important not to hold your breath, drop your head or allow the lower back to sag causing the stomach to touch the floor. When at the lowest point of the movement, think of raising the bottom first to prevent the upper body coming up prematurely in a severe arch.

The closer together the position of your arms the harder your triceps will have to work, so as a chest exercise, keep the hand position wide.

Examples of Bad Technique:

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The Dip Target muscles: Triceps Triceps are often referred to as “bat–wings” and are notoriously weak. We rarely straighten our arms against resistance in our automated society so they begin to show their age rather quickly.

The Dip is excellent exercise for toning and tightening the back of the arms.

Starting position: Place your hands shoulder width apart, palms forward on the edge of a chair or bench.

Inhale and lower your body with your elbows directed backwards until they form an angle of 90 degrees, exhale.

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Pause and push back up to starting position.

Tips: Ensure you have a stable platform to work from. Take care not to snap or lock elbows out at the top of the movement. Keep your body close to the chair.

Advanced variation Place your feet on a Swiss ball to also improve your balance and control.

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Neck Exercises These are exercises that are often forgotten in our efforts to improve body shape. These smaller muscles need a workout just as much as the larger ones as this is an area that is always on display and needs tightening as much as abdominals.

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In this module you should have: Recognised the importance of a good night’s sleep and made a really effort to get eight hours a night.

Familiarised yourself with the ‘at home’ workout, so you can do it when necessary.

Understood the importance of good posture

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

What are your top three challenges when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep?

What top three CBOs can you add daily this week?

The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Buy a Swiss ball and some dumbbells to keep at home Plan an ‘at home’ training schedule so you have it ready to implement for the days you cannot make it to the gym.

Fit in a few additional exercises in your odd spare moments.

Do the posture exercises and make an effort to improve your posture

Have you bought your Swiss ball and dumbbells? If not, when will you buy them this week?

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What top three CBOs can you add daily this week?

This week’s goals are: Adapting your recipes How to maximise the nutrients in your meals Identifying Trigger foods that send you off course Planning strategies for special occasions By now you have a clear idea of where we’re aiming with your healthy eating programme. But it’s at about this point that many people get a bit stuck.

Here are some tips to give your meals and favourite dishes a healthy update: Always add extra fruit, vegetables or seeds to increase fibre.

Increase the variety of vegetables in stews, casseroles and soups to boost the nutritional content.

Replace all bleached grain products including noodles, white rice or white bread, to gluten free grains, such as organic Millet, Wild rice, Rye, Quinoa or Buckwheat.

Replace garlic salt or onion salt with garlic powder or onion powder, and use unsalted vegetable stocks.

If you’re in a hurry, buy a pre-made soup, stew or casserole and bolster it with extra vegetables from a frozen mix or add in finely chopped or blended fresh ones just before serving. This not only makes the meal go further, it helps retain the vegetable nutrients and dilutes the high salt content and additives in the commercial base.

For browning or sautéeing, use a wipe of coconut oil, low-fat cooking spray, wine, stock or lemon juice.

Always remove all visible fat from meat before grilling or baking. Remove skin from chicken breasts before cooking.

Blot excess fat from cooked meats and fish with kitchen paper towels.

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Replace minced beef with lean minced chicken or turkey. If you’re watching your calorie intake, mince can be gently pre-boiled to remove excess fat.

Reduce salt by using herbs and spices to provide extra flavour.

Use healthy cooking methods such as steaming, baking, grilling, blending or stir-frying.

Eat vegetables raw where possible or with gentle heat only as it does less damage to the nutrients in your food.

Use grated half-fat mature Cheddar cheese for toppings and mix it with rolled oats or wheatgerm so that you can reduce the amount of cheese needed.

Frozen vegetables are an ideal stand-by when extra fresh vegetables are unavailable or not-so-fresh!

For other ideas like this one below, print out the document “Replacing ingredients for healthier options” : Use mashed bananas or avocado instead of oil, as they are creamy and thickening (when ripe!).

Banana acts the same as avocado in terms of replacing fat in baking recipes.

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Keeping the nutrients in!

To keep your body in the best working order, and to shift those extra pounds, you need top quality nutrients from your food. And there are some easy tips to make sure that your meals keep as many of their natural nutrients as possible.

Take care when cooking eggs, as the delicate phosphor-lipids (special fats that are used in the brain and cell membranes) in the yolks are damaged by high direct heat. So frying is out, in favour of poaching, boiling and lightly scrambling eggs to preserve these valuable fats.

Steam rather than boil vegetables. If you do boil them, use only a little water to cut down the amount of vitamins leaching into the water, and use the cooking liquid to make gravies.

Serve vegetables raw or lightly cooked, to benefit from the fibre and vitamin content. They should be crunchy to the bite, not soft and boiled to death. The more you cook vegetables, the less work your digestive system has to do to break them down, so they won’t fill you up for as long either – hence raw carrots have a much lower GL (Glycemic Load) than boiled carrots, so they are a better choice when trying to lose weight.

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Try steam-frying your vegetables instead of stir frying, it’s just as quick and easy as stirfrying, but it’s much gentler, and so preserves more nutrients. Start off as you would a stirfry, and add your meat to the heated pan. After a quick stir to seal the meat, add a couple of tablespoons of liquid (such as soy sauce and water, lemon juice or stock) and add your vegetables. Place a lid on the wok or pan to allow the food to steam inside. Stir after a couple of minutes and check that it hasn’t boiled dry. Add a little water to the pan if the vegetables are not cooked.

Why raw food is better ‘Eating raw’ isn’t quirky or bizarre. It’s true that it isn’t the norm – yet. Perhaps that’s because it’s a well kept secret and people don’t know of the real benefits that come with it.

I don’t think I know of a single person who eats at least 80% raw foods who doesn’t enjoy far more energy than the average person. When we transitioned away from eating a diet made up of breads, processed grains, and cooked vegetables and put more raw foods into the diet, our energy went through the roof. This is long-lasting energy that enables you to do more with less time.

Energizing Enzymes There are several reasons why a raw food diet will give you more energy. First, raw foods are rich in enzymes. Enzymes are required for every single reaction in the body.

When you cook foods above 118 degrees fahrenheit, you destroy the food enzymes that are naturally present in all raw foods. Therefore, if you eat a predominantly cooked foods diet, you’re not getting enough food enzymes, which means that your body will have to produce and use more of its own to digest and metabolize your foods.

The more energy your body needs to divert towards digesting the chemically laden pap that comprises much of our food, the less energy you will have for other activities. You will feel more lethargic and tired as your body is trying to breakdown “dead” foods and figure out what to do with them.

So, the food enzymes inherent in raw foods are a big reason for boosting your body’s energy.

They are the spark plugs that make raw foods so energy-boosting.

The source of the force When zzzzare fresh, they are also known as living foods. They are called “living” because they carry an incredible amount of life force. To give you an example of this, let’s look at the difference between the following two images:

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The image on the left is that of “steamed organic broccoli”. The image on the right is of “raw organic broccoli”. Notice that both pieces of broccoli are organic yet the raw broccoli has a significant aura around it.

You will find it much easier to lose weight when increasing raw foods into the diet because you are getting more nutrients and, therefore, your body won’t crave sweet or processed foods . Second, the enzymes help to breakdown the foods you are eating and excess energy and fat stores in your body. Third, raw foods are water-rich, which helps you feel more satiated, as well as hydrated.

You might want to share your thoughts about eating raw or generally exchange your plans for changing your diet to benefit your health. Find out what others are doing too. Dare to be different and give it a go!

Max your Veg Diet-wise, getting more fruit and vegetables (and especially vegetables) inside you is probably the best thing you can do. This week we are going are going to focus on why this is and give you some tips for how to increase the number you eat.

Boosting the number of fruit and vegetables you eat will: Increase your intake of vitamins, especially vitamin C, the plant pigment beta-carotene (which the body converts to vitamin A), and folic acid (one of the B vitamins, important for heart health and vital for pregnant women and those planning a baby).

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Increase your levels of health-promoting antioxidants, which protect our bodies’ cells from damage.

Supply phytochemicals (plant chemicals) with powerful health benefits, such as the reducing your risk of serious chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

Increase your intake of minerals, especially potassium (for healthy blood pressure and acid-alkaline balance).

Boost your fibre intake, aiding digestion, and also helping to lower your level of harmful cholesterol.

Help you to shift or maintain your weight. Vegetables and fruit are filling, so you’ll be less likely to succumb to unhealthy snacks.

Different fruit and vegetables contain different vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, and the more varied your fruit and vegetable intake, the more likely you are to get enough of all the different nutrients.

Bring some colour into your day -Eat something green, yellow, orange, red and blue every day Vegetables are also the supreme diet food. They only yield an average of 25 calories per serving while fruit has approximately 60 calories per serving and starches have about 80 calories plus per serving. Compare this to a refined fast food serving which can have up to 500 calories per serving!

You may not have thought of fruit and vegetables as carbohydrate foods, but they are actually great sources of natural carbodrates.

Slow-releasing complex carbohydrates are crammed full of fibre, vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

These are typically vegetables, fruits and wholegrains. These fall into the categories as shown on the table below.

For other ideas on veg, print out the document “Unlimited Veg”

Variety is the key In Japan, people often eat a mixture of 20 – 30 different fruit and vegetable helpings a day. They have a massively lower disease and obesity rate, although this is changing as more people adopt a Western diet.

Here in the UK we are considered radical or obsessive if we eat 15 different foods a week! A typical example of a British diet may be: toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and a form of meat and two vegetables for dinner, repeated endlessly throughout the week.

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We need to increase the range of vegetable and fruit foods we eat to increase the chance of our body getting all the essential nutrients it needs, plus the beneficial polyphenols, bioflavenoids and phyto-estrogens. These are all the very best known allies in the war against cancers, heart disease, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis, high cholesterol and raised blood pressure.

Health-boosting ideas: Try recipes that include lots of different foods incorporating wholegrains, fruit, colourful vegetables, salad, plus lean beef, chicken or fish.

Using spinach instead of iceberg lettuce in a salad will double the dietary fibre consumed, more than quadruple the calcium and potassium, more than triple the folate and provide seven times as much vitamin C. Frozen vegetables can be almost as useful as fresh as they are chilled immediately after being picked and often retain more nutrients than those left on the supermarket shelf.

The intense supermarket lighting to make the vegetables look nicer depletes vitamins, so it can be better to buy your vegetables from a farmers market or grow your own if possible.

An easy way to shop is to mail-order organic food from your desk.

Browse cookbooks for inspiration and make a list before you shop.

Be careful when using the microwave to heat pre-packaged food because the overcooking often associated with microwaves can destroy valuable nutrients.

Eating leafy greens that are high in lutein can reduce your risk of breast cancer, as well as age-related macular degeneration, a serious eye condition.

For maximum antioxidant content, the darker and more vivid the colour the better.

When eating out be assertive and ask for the chips to be replaced with the vegetables of the day.

A fruit is not a vegetable!

Remember that a fruit is not a vegetable!

Sounds obvious? But, probably partly because of the ‘five-a-day’ message to encourage us to eat enough (though we’d like you have ‘nine-a-day’) many people think fruit and veg are created equal.

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If fruits were the same they would look and taste the same as a vegetable. But they all have their essential and very unique benefits, and this is why it is important to eat a wide variety.

If you prefer fruit, just eating a lot of them and forgetting vegetables will leave you open to deficiencies. Although it’s a wonderful food group, fruit also has a high sugar content. We recommend just 2 pieces of fruit into a he

10-a-day Challenge When it comes to fruit and vegetables 5 a day is the minimum recommended but is simply not enough when you are aiming for optimum health. Give yourself a target of 10 portions a day. It may seem a challenge but actually it’s quite simple.

Here’s an example to show you how easy it is to get an impressive 10 portions of vegetables and 2 of fruit into a day’s diet.

Breakfast: Power Smoothie – 3 veg, 1 fruit

Mid morning meal 1 Piece fruit Lunch Flaked tuna with vegetable salad (peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, mixed salad leaf 2 Veg

Mid afternoon meal 3 tablespoons low-fat dip or salsa with crudites (strips of pepper, cucumber, celery, and carrot) 2 Veg

Dinner A small fillet steak with sweet potato mash, broccoli, asparagus and carrots 3 Veg Fresh strawberry platter 2

Supper A sliced peach served with a tablespoon of low-fat 1 cottage cheese

The Plate Model A good guide to getting the balance of foods on your plate right is to remember you should cover ½ of your plate with vegetables, ¼ with starchy foods and ¼ with protein foods. day.

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Functional Foods Functional foods provide more than just nourishment. Fruits and vegetables are natural functional foods. Loaded with antioxidants, phyto-chemicals and physiologically active components, they protect us from illness and promote health.

Individual stars include: Tomato products, which are a rich source of the cancer-risk reducer lycopene Broccoli, famed for its association with lowering the risk of certain cancers Berries, which can boost antioxidant defences.

In fact, the cancer risk for a fruit and veggie enthusiast is cut in half compared to those who eat the bare minimum.

Breakfast We’ve already looked at breakfasts but we’ll just remind you that this is the most important meal of the day!

We’ve become so out of touch with what our bodies need that too many of us race out the door and call a cup of coffee ‘breakfast’. It isn’t! Skipping breakfast or eating highly refined cereals won’t give you the energy you need to get through your day. A top-of-the range car doesn’t run on lowgrade fuel or start a journey on an empty tank, and neither should you start the day that way. To function at its best, your brain and central nervous system need a steady source of high quality and high-performance nutrition.

Eating something is always better than eating nothing, and eating something that has complex carbohydrates, protein and some healthy fats to balance is an even better idea.

Breakfast should be hearty, hot if possible, and something you love to eat. If you have orange juice (or any other pure fruit juice) with your breakfast it should be organic, freshly-squeezed and must be diluted half-and-half with water. Each glass contains the juice of 4 - 5 oranges, which you normally wouldn’t eat. There is too much sugar in full strength fruit juice (8 - 10 teaspoons per glass!) and, if you are having it from a commercial outlet, chances are it has been heated and treated with extra added sugar or flavouring.

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To include a good range of nutrients, vary your breakfast choices as much as possible. If you don’t feel like eating breakfast in the morning then stop having your evening meal so late, and definitely stop drinking any alcohol in the evening - you should wake up hungry, not hammered!

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Packaged Cereals Many people start the day with this type of cereal. You might change your mind after reading this!

Dry breakfast cereals are produced by a process called extrusion. Cereal makers first create slurry of the grains and then put them in a machine called an extruder. The grains are forced out of a little hole at high temperature and pressure. Depending on the shape of the hole, the grains are made into little o’s, flakes, animal shapes, or shreds (as in Shredded Wheat or fruitloops), or they are puffed (as in puffed rice). A blade slices off each little flake or shape, which is then carried past a nozzle and sprayed with a coating of oil and sugar to seal off the cereal from the ravages of milk and to give it crunch.

In his book Fighting the Food Giants by Paul Stitt. He tells us that the extrusion process used for these cereals destroys most of the nutrients in the grains. It destroys the fatty acids; it even destroys the chemical vitamins that are added at the end. The amino acids are rendered very toxic by this process. The amino acid lysine, a crucial nutrient, is especially denatured by extrusion. This is how all the boxed cereals are made, even the ones sold in the health food stores. They are all made in the same way and mostly in the same factories. All dry cereals that come in boxes are extruded cereals, even gluten free ones.

The only advances made in the extrusion process are those that will cut cost regardless of how these will alter the nutrient content of the product. Cereals are a multi-billion dollar business, one that has created huge fortunes.

The Rat Experiments Paul Stitt also wrote about an experiment conducted by a cereal company in which four sets of rats were given special diets.

One group received plain whole wheat, water and synthetic vitamins and minerals. A second group received puffed wheat (an extruded cereal), water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given only water. A fourth set was given nothing but water and chemical nutrients. The rats that received the whole wheat lived over a year on this diet.

The rats that got nothing but water and vitamins lived about two months. The animals on water alone lived about a month. But the company’s own laboratory study showed that the rats given the vitamins, water and all the puffed wheat they wanted, died within two weeks---they died before the rats that got no food at all. It wasn’t a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock.

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Results like these suggested that there was something actually very toxic in the puffed wheat itself! Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the pressure of the puffing process may produce chemical changes, which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance.

Many start the day with this kind of cereal.

During extrusion, the cereal protein bodies are completely disrupted and deformed. The extrusion process breaks down the organelles, disperses the proteins and the proteins become toxic. When they are disrupted in this way, you have absolute chaos in your food, and it can result in a disruption of the nervous system.

For better breakfast ideas, print out the document “Breakfast ideas” Set your alarm a little earlier tonight to give yourself a little extra time tomorrow morning to make sure you leave the house well fed and ready to start the day. If you make the correct choices you will help prevent unstable blood sugar levels and weight gain, and you’ll give yourself more energy and concentration to function at your very best throughout the day.

Trigger Foods Trigger foods are those foods that you can’t just have one of!

These foods are often refined flour-based, high-sugar or high-fat products such as chocolates, potato chips, ice cream, biscuits, cheese etc. They will feel comforting in an addictive way, much the same as cigarettes, prescription drugs or alcohol. They are the ones the most advertising budgets go into.

What you crave depends on your body’s nutritional bio-chemical balances. Unfortunately foods such as broccoli, cabbage or spinach never seem to fall into the trigger food category!

Trigger foods are often the reason people put on weight after they have been on a diet. As they slowly allow these foods back into their eating patterns, so the body fat insidiously starts to rise again, regardless of will power.

Hunger also encourages the cravings for your trigger foods. The body doesn’t know the difference between hunger and potential starvation and, being an extremely well-adapted survival machine, it drives you to seek out densely-laden calorific foods.

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These addictive foods are best eliminated altogether from the diet or kept only for exceptionally special occasions. If Christmas, Easter or a holiday was one of those occasions be aware it will take some weeks for the feeling of ‘need’ for these foods to go away.

If tempted, always ask, “Will this make me look better or worse naked?” Then go and have a small meal first!

Make a list of your trigger foods, those foods that you can’t just have one of.

What could you do to eliminate these triggers foods from your diet?

What healthy alternatives could you find to replace these trigger foods?

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Special Occasions By this stage of the programme you should have a good idea how to organise your exercise and plan your diet for your optimal health and a day to day basis – but this week we are going to take time to look at how to handle those special occasions when it is all too easy to over indulge.We looked at restaurant wisdom in Week 4. If you need to, go and remind yourself of it as your special occasion could be taking place in a restaurant!

Below are some further tips to keep you on track when dining with friends and on holiday – as well as how to cope when you do over indulge.

Travel and holiday strategies If you’re flying, you don’t have to settle for typical airline food. Call the airline ahead of time (usually 24 hours) to request a special meal. Airlines can often accommodate diabetic, vegetarian, low-fat, low-calorie, and low-sodium diets. You can also make such requests practically anywhere, even on cruises, as long as you give the food preparation personnel plenty of notice.

If the circumstances are such that you cannot control your choices, take it easy, eat smaller portions, and be selective.

If you want to guarantee some control over what you eat while travelling or on holiday, take your own food.

The same rules apply here as going out socially - never travel on an empty stomach. If you’ve had some healthy, filling food beforehand, this makes you less likely to crave food and cave into food cues such as fast-food vendors at airports.

Keep up with your food diary while away from home to help you stay the course, and pack also your exercise diary. There is absolute proof that those who self monitor are the long term successful weight-loss losers.

If your alcohol consumption tends to increase while on holiday, devise strategies to compensate, such as ordering sparkling water, diet drinks, or other non-alcoholic beverages.

Ask yourself, do you really need the calories? How will this look on my stomach or my thighs? Drinking your calories are one of the biggest weight loss saboteurs Never use a holiday to take a break from your workouts. Stay with your regular exercise programme by walking, jogging in the sand, using hotel exercise facilities, or purchasing a week’s membership at a local gym. During layovers, walk briskly around the airport for exercise. Exercising will burn off calories, plus helps relieve the stress that is so often associated with travelling. It is travel hygiene!

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Dining at a friend’s house Eating with friends is a fantastic experience, but it can be difficult they’re entertaining in their home. When you’re on our programme there can be a conflict between good manners and your desire to stick to the plan!

Rule 1 - Snack before you leave home, this will take the edge off your hunger, as meals can often be served late.

Rule 2 - Ask for small portions - and it is not bad manners to leave a little on your plate.

Rule 3 - Eat only the food they have spent time cooking for you. It is quite acceptable to pass on the pre-dinner nibbles, bread rolls and canapés, and cheese boards etc. These small items pack in the calories, without the nutrition.

Rule 4 - Start the evening with plain or sparking water and only move to a glass of wine with your meal. Keep topping it up with sparkling water if you think it will be constantly refilled.

Rule 5 - Just ask for a small portion to taste for dessert, or go for the fresh fruit.

You can always use a digestive or allergic reaction to fats/oils or sugars as an excuse if the food is particularly heavy in these.

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Resist the temptation to say you are on a diet. People suddenly think you may become boring and try to derail you. Also you are not on a ‘diet’ you are adopting new habits for a healthy body.

If you do get caught out (and we all do occasionally) just learn from the experience, ramp up the exercise and continue on with the plan.

Share your tips, techniques and strategies for staying healthy whilst celebrating with your colleagues on the programme.

In this module you should have: Reviewed your favourite recipes and found ways to reduce the fat, salt and sugar in each one.

Reviewed your cooking methods and established better methods for maximizing the nutrients in your meals.

Identified your ‘trigger’ foods and resolved to eliminate them from your diet or save them for special occasions Understood the importance fruit and vegetables in your diet.

Understood the importance of starting the day with a good breakfast.

What are the top three things you have learned about yourself in this module?

What are your top three challenges when it comes to adapting your eating?

What top three ways will you introduce to eat more healthily?

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The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Make an effort to have a natural and balanced breakfast everyday.

Increase your fruit and vegetable target to 10 a day.

Plan ahead for the next time you travel or get invited out Keep your alcohol consumption to a minimum

What are the top three changes that you will make to your daily eating this week?

What are you planning to eat for breakfast this week?

Design a detailed strategy for the next time you go out to eat What are your alcohol consumption goals for this week

Breakfast Ideas Try these breakfast ideas Old fashioned porridge soaked overnight Soaking will neutralize the tannins, complex proteins, enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid. You soak the grains in warm water with one tablespoon of something acidic like whey, yoghurt, lemon juice or vinegar. The next morning, the porridge cooks in about a minute. Porridge oats is delicious with fresh fruit, lowfat natural yogurt and protein powder added.

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Scrambled eggs with grilled tomatoes, onions and mushrooms, with a slice dry pumpernickel toast. Try to get used to doing without toast and bread, butter and definitely margarine - They are not good diet or health foods. Along with wine, it is one of those things to keep for special occasions only.

“Full English” breakfast, but with poached egg instead of fried, grilled lean lamb steak and low-salt/sugar baked beans and lightly grilled onions and tomatoes. Hold the sausages, bacon and hash browns!

Soft-boiled eggs with dry wholegrain toast. Copped tomato’s and cucumbers Egg-white omelette (made with one yolk and 3 whites), with chopped ham, steamed chicken breast, courgette, mushrooms, peppers, tomato, garlic, or any other vegetable of your choice.. And a hot sauce to fire it up a little!

No-added-sugar muesli with low-fat natural yoghurt and fresh berries, wholemeal rye toast, green tea.

Cottage cheese (organic if possible) and fresh melon and berries. “Bambu” or other organic coffee substitute.

Wheat free muesli with organic bio-yogurt, banana and berries.

‘Bircher Muesli’ – Mix ½ cup raw organic oats, ½ cup low-fat natural yoghurt, ½ cup frozen berries, 2 scoops protein powder, plus a little water to reach the desired consistency.

Blend in a powerful blender until smooth. Eat, drink or slurp the lot!

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Replacing ingredients for healthier options

Use mashed bananas or avocado instead of oil, as they are creamy and thickening (when ripe!). Banana acts the same as avocado in terms of replacing fat in baking recipes.

Unsweetened applesauce instead of sugar. Using applesauce in place of sugar can give the sweetness without the extra calories.

Unsweetened applesauce instead of oil or butter. This works well in any sweet muffins, as does banana or grated/blended zucchini.

Black beans (blended) instead of flour. Swapping out flour for a can of black beans drained and rinsed) in biscuits or loaf is a great way to cut out the gluten and fit in an extra dose of protein.

Cinnamon instead of cream and sugar in coffee. Cutting out the cream and sugar in favour of a sprinkle of cinnamon can cut up to 70 calories per cup. Cinnamon is good for balancing blood sugar levels.

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Avocado puree instead of butter. Be aware that they are both fats, but there are more nutrients in Avocado.

Organic peanut butter instead of reduced fat peanut butter. Use sparingly as it is caloriedense but reduced fat peanut butter can actually have more sugar and a long list of artificial additives than the organic natural version.

Xylitol to replace sugar. This sweetener is expensive, but cleared to be good for your health.

Cacao Nibs instead of chocolate chips. Cacao Nibs are the raw chocolate chips full of antioxidants - but without the sugar.

Quinoa instead of couscous. Similar texture, but couscous is made from processed wheat flour, where as quinoa is a seed, rather than a grain, and is high in nutrients and protein.

Zucchini slices instead of pasta in a Lasagne. Thin strips or ribbons of zucchini are a great raw-food substitute for pasta layers.

Turnip mash instead of mashed potatoes. Before butter and salt, one cup of mashed potatoes made with whole milk can reach to 180 calories, whereas a cup of mashed turnip (which doesn’t need milk or butter to get that creamy consistency) has only 51 calories.

Grated steamed cauliflower instead of rice. Eat with your eyes. Cut both calories and carbs with this simple switch. The texture is similar and tastes almost the same. Even better when served raw Rolled oats instead of breadcrumbs. Is a great way to sneak extra protein and nutrients into any meal.

Free range Bison or Venison instead of beef. Higher in B 12 vitamins and lower in fat.

These are a great substitute for intensively farmed or, even worse, feed-lot raised meat.

White-meat, skinless poultry instead of dark-meat poultry, as the white meat is lower in calories and fat.

Coconut milk instead of cream. Coconut milk is a great substitute for heavy cream in soups and stews. It doesn’t taste like the sweetened shredded kind!

Noodled squash instead of pasta, is a great low-carb, high-nutrient substitute for spaghetti. Excellent raw also. (To ‘noodle’ a root vegetable like squash, beetroot, radish or carrot, use a ‘spiraliser’ hand-turned device) Greek yoghurt instead of sour cream. Half the fat and calories, yet the taste and texture are virtually identical. Plus, non-fat Greek yoghurt offers an extra dose of lean protein.

Romaine, spinach, or kale instead of iceberg lettuce. All greens are not created equal.

Darker greens usually mean more nutrients like iron, vitamin C, and antioxidants.

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Pita instead of bread. An average 4-inch whole-wheat pita has approximately 80 calories and only 1 gram of fat. Two slices of whole-wheat bread is 138 calories!

Greek yoghurt instead of mayonnaise substitute. Add some herbs, balsamic or a squeeze of lemon juice and you won’t know the difference. Extra protein and much lower in fat.

Natural yoghurt with fresh fruit instead of flavoured yoghurt. Flavoured yoghurts are packed with extra sugar. To skip the sugar rush without sacrificing flavour, opt for plain Greek Yoghurt and add fresh fruit and a touch of honey if you need sweetness.

Nutritional yeast for cheese. The taste and texture are a little bit different, but the creamy gooiness is pretty comparable. Instead of topping with cheddar, try a sprinkle of nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavouring with much less fat.

Lettuce or cabbage leaves instead of bread wraps. A large Fresh lettuce or cabbage leaf is a great way to wrap salad roll or fajita ingredients.

Nuts instead of croutons. Adds that extra crunch and, rather than getting the carbs, fat and salt of the croutons, some slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds , or walnuts can add a delicious crunch.

Avocado mash instead of mayonnaise. Half a mashed avocado is a great substitute for mayo on any sandwich. A typical two-tablespoon serving of mayonnaise has about 206 calories and 24 grams of fat, whereas half an avocado has only 114 calories and 10.5 grams of fat.

Frozen or Fresh Fruits instead of canned fruit. Cut down on excess sugar and preservatives by choosing fresh or flash-frozen varieties.

Crudités instead of chips for dips. This save hundreds of calories and increases the vitamins and minerals in your diet Quinoa instead of porridge. Cooked with almond milk and some cinnamon, a few raisins and topped with fruit. Quinoa makes a perfect protein-packed hot breakfast.

Kale chips instead of potato chips. Kale lightly tossed in coconut oil and some seasoning (salt and pepper, paprika, or chilli powder work well), baked on a low heat until crunchy.

Popcorn instead of potato chips. Lower in calories and fat, natural popcorn is a great snack to replace oily and salty potato chips.

Steel-cut oatmeal for instant oatmeal. While rolled oats are rolled into a flat grain, steel cut oats (also known as ‘pin-head’ oats) are less processed and are just diced whole grains that maintain more of their fibre-rich shell. Rich in B vitamins, calcium, and protein, steel-cut oats also lack the added sugar that often comes with instant varieties.

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Banana ice cream instead of ice cream. No milk, no cream, no sugar, additives‌ but still the same, delicious consistency. It is so simple. Freeze bananas, then puree in a strong blender. Use your imagination, frozen Mango and banana mixed is a delicious combination with a chopped nut topping.

Frozen Yoghurt instead of Ice Cream. Choose frozen yoghurt over ice cream to cut down the fat content! For special occasions only.

Low-fat cottage cheese instead of sour cream. They both add a creamy texture to many dishes, but sour cream is packed with fat while low-fat cottage cheese is packed with protein.

Blended raw fruit instead of syrup. Both will sweeten flapjacks, pikelets and pancakes but blended ripe fruit has less sugar and provides an extra dose of antioxidants and vitamins.

Sparkling water with a citrus slice instead of fizzy drink. Opt for a glass of sparkling water with a few slices of grapefruit, lime, orange, or lemon. Stay away from sodas, and never drink your calories!

Soda water instead of tonic water. It’s still clear and bubbly, just like soda water, but tonic water is actually full of sugar. Adding plain soda water and a pinch of lime gives almost the same taste with 32 grams less sugar per 12 ounces

Unlimited Veg Add-in You can eat unlimited amounts of the non-starchy vegetables from the table.

FRUITS (Raw) Eat early in the day

Fibrous or non-starchy carbohydrates Eat with all meals

Apple

Alfalfa Sprouts

Apricot Avocados

Beans Corn

Artichokes, globe

Banana Blackberries

Starchy Carbohydrates Eat early in the day

Carrots cooked Okra,

Aubergine

Lentils 208

Blueberries Boysenberries Cherries Crabapples Cranberries Currents Grapefruit

Potatoes

Asparagus

Turnips

Bamboo shoots Bean sprouts

Pumpkin Parsnips Green peas

Beans: runner, green, yellow, string

Squash, beetroot

Dates Elderberries figs Grapes

Sweet Potato

Broccoli

Sweetcorn

Gooseberries Guavas Kiwifruit Kumquats Lemon Lime loganberries

Brussels Sprouts

Yams AS WELL AS STARCHY VEGETABLES, THIS GROUP ALSO INCLUDES WHOLEGRAINS:

Cabbage Carrots raw celeriac

Brown rice

lychees Mango

Cauliflower

Barley

Melon

Celery, raw Cucumber

Bulgur Wheat

Nectarine

Chives courgettes

Oranges

Eggplant

Polenta (coarse ground) Rye Including Rye crispbreads

Papaya Peaches

Spelt Fennel

Buckwheat 209

Pears

Kale

Pineapple

Leeks

Plums, Prunes, Quince Rhubarb Raspberries

Millet

Lettuce

Oat bran,

Mushrooms

Oatmeal, porridge oats

Strawberries

Oat cakes

Tangerine

Beetroot tops

Tangelo

Onions

Watermelon

Parsley

Organic wholewheat pita Quinoa

Rice, wild Organic Muesli (Low-fat/low-sugar/Low-

Cranberries

shallots

Watermelon

rocket

Passion fruit

Peppers, all varieties

salt)

Pomegranates

Plus your favourite herbs and spices

Spinach

SEEDS & NUTS

Sugar snaps Mange tout

Pumpkin seeds

Tomatoes

Flaxseeds Sesame seeds

Swiss chard Watercress Bok Choi Watercress Radishes 210

Sunflower seeds Poppy seeds Hemp seed

This week’s goals are: Understand the effects that aging and muscle loss can have on the body.

Learn how strength training can counteract some of the effects of aging.

Gain an insight into how a healthy diet and exercise can protect you against diabetes, osteoporosis and other health problems.

Understand why we need vitamins and minerals and the role that supplements can play in our diet.

Why balancing hormones is vital for anti-aging!

Age is just a number From studies of those in their 90’s up, the people that fare best in old age are people that carry on as if age is not an issue. Many are employed, sexually active and enjoy the outdoors and the arts. Modifications in everyday activities, such as not smoking, a good understanding and the practice of better nutrition and supplementation combined with exercise are vital to aging well.

When our bodies are young, we seem to function effortlessly. We take these high energy levels for granted and are surprised when problems occur.

‘Ageing’ is an all-encompassing term for a combination of factors that influence every cell, every hormone and every organ in the body. We all have a chronological age, which measures how many years have passed since we were born. Our biological age, on the other hand, tells us what sort of healthy condition we are in for the number of years we have been around. In other words, chronological age tells us how long we’ve been alive – biological age tells us how long we’ve left to live.

Medical bills and days lost from work are higher when your body is unhealthy and dogged by the increasing so-called age related problems. Statistics indicate that the biggest out-goings of expenditure for people in their 60’s are for medication and tablets for their associated diseases and disabilities!

Our philosophy is that you only have one body to take you through life, so it’s worth making an effort to get to grips with how it works and how to look after it early on in the process. You can see it is a false economy indeed to be too busy to take care of this most amazing asset.

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After years of study we now know there is no magical age at which someone suddenly becomes, or starts behaving, “old”. It is generally self-determined and is definitely not a downward slope that everyone falls down at the same rate, if at all!

We have also developed an immense admiration for the restorative mechanics of our bodies. In observing the exercise, nutrition and lifestyle habits of thousands of individuals ranging from 10 to 100, we have seen that it doesn’t matter what your eating habits are, or how slow your metabolism has become. In every case our clients have been able to turn things around. Their pay off is not just that they will live longer, but they will live longer, better and younger!

It’s Never too late

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It’s true to say that it is much easier to keep weight under control when you are in your teens and early twenties and hormonal activity is higher. And yes, it’s true that a busy but sedentary lifestyle will make it harder to keep trim and energetic as you get older, but this doesn’t seal your fate to having to accept a body you are not happy with.

It is never too late to turn back your age clock and regain a youthful vitality and physique.

Like anything worthwhile it takes extra dedication, persistence and study to be successful, but the difference between ordinary ageing and an extraordinary ageing is that little “extra”!

The role of nutrition Nutrition plays as big a role in staying young, vital and lean as exercise. But it is also the most underappreciated and misunderstood of the two elements. Many people think that as adults, their bodies have finished growing, but what they don’t realised is that their organs, their bones, their skin and virtually every tissue in their body is constantly in a state of change on a daily and a monthly basis. You are not the same body you were last month, last year or the year before that.

The lining of the stomach is replaced about every five days, the mighty liver in six weeks and your skin is completely replaced in one to three months. Even your bones are being renewed.

People who constantly restrict their food intake and the variety in their diet, or eat on the run without thought, need to ask themselves where they are getting the raw materials from for their bodies to make, manufacture and replace the billions of cells it needs each day.

What you eat today is how you will look and feel tomorrow It’s important to understand just how vital having a wide variety of good quality food – plus supplements – is. The human body requires approximately 100,000 different proteins, essential minerals, trace elements, vitamins, phytochemicals and enzymes (plus thousands of nutrients that haven’t even been discovered yet) to operate at peak efficiency. It is well documented that not even one in ten of us meet this ideal level of nutrition.

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All those billions of cells each demand a constant supply of daily nutrients to function properly.

All of our energy problems, weight problems, diseases and illnesses have their roots in malnourishment at some level - and this, unfortunately, gets progressively worse with age.

What you eat and when you eat affects all these cells and their operating ability and therefore every aspect of our being from mood, energy levels, food cravings right through to thinking and learning capacity, fertility, sex drive, sleeping habits, immunity and general health. Headaches, weight gain, regularly catching colds and flu, acne, depression, tiredness and fatigue are just some of the ailments preventable through exercise and a healthy diet.

The strong stay young We are always surprised by the lack of older people working out in gyms in the UK. If they are there they are usually bobbing gently in the pool or on the cardio machines but in fact people of all ages should weight train. There is overwhelming evidence that we start losing muscle from the early age of 25 and this accelerates as we age, depending on our lifestyle. Along with this muscle loss comes physical weakness and an increase in body fat to nearly double by the age of 60.

Many years ago the daily physical tasks of living were all we needed to keep our muscles strong and to maintain a healthy bone density. Now that our environment has become increasingly automated, manual labour has all but disappeared for many of us.

Strength training or weight training is now an important part of the anti-ageing package.

It makes an amazing contribution to weight control, increases energy, promotes bone health, muscle tone, posture, vitality and the quality of life of everyone - and particularly those who are slowing down or leading a sedentary life style.

Ageing - don’t work so hard at it If you’ve detected the first tell-tale signs of ageing – or even if you’re well on your way then it’s time to halt ageing in its tracks

Why we get fatter We looked at muscles and their physiology in week 7 from the exercise standpoint. Now we’re going to revisit them from the weight-loss point of view.

The loss of muscle reduces your metabolism (the rate you burn food for energy) by up to 45%. So even if your food intake stays the same, it becomes easier to gain unsightly fat where you once had youthful, toned muscle. So what do we normally do? With great willpower and hard work, we may do hours of aerobic exercise or go on a low calorie starvation diet. But what does the research show? Most of the weight loss is muscle tissue, which can slow down the metabolism even further. Not the ideal solution, to say the least!..

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Weight gain is ageing Science shows us that any form of exercising or dieting that causes us to lose muscle is a serious step in the wrong direction. In fact, you are actually breaking down the firm body you hoped to produce. Indeed, to lose muscle is extremely damaging to your health. Due to misinformation you may have speeded up the ageing process, in spite of all your sacrifice, willpower and hard work.

Muscle, a furnace An hour of aerobics, depending on how vigorous, could burn approximately 400 to 500 calories.!

Ten pounds of muscle burns between 500 and 1,000 calories per day - even while you’re sleeping or watching TV. Of the total amount of calories your body burns, 80% are burned by muscle. Think of the muscle as a furnace in which you burn calories.

Once again, it’s weights that are the secret! Strength training is your number one secret weapon in turning back your age clock

How strength training can help you beat ageing Modern technology has engineered many of the harder physical activities out of our daily lives. But our muscles and bones are only as strong as the current forces exerted upon them. This is because force is required for the process of regeneration. Unfortunately the body doesn’t store fitness, and a healthy athletic young man or women can just as easily turn into a weak middle-aged couch potato with all the associated problems as someone who started out sedentary. Their blood pressure inflates, arteries become clogged, body fat balloons, strength wanes and balance teeters.

Prevent Diabetes As muscle mass shrinks, blood-sugar levels can increase. High levels of blood sugar are thought to age the connective tissues of our skin, joints, ligaments, and bones. Put simply, muscle is the primary place our body puts the sugar you eat, and if you’re active, that sugar is burned by muscle with some in storage as reserve fuel. As a person becomes fatter and slower, with less muscle, insulin (the hormone that regulates blood sugar) doesn’t work as well. This affects everything from our skin and our hormones to our emotional wellbeing.

Cheat osteoporosis Weight training will increase bone density and keep your bones young better than just aerobic activities.

Bones are constantly being renewed throughout our life in exact response to the stress put on them by daily activity.

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Sex at any age Part of a Healthy

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Sex is also important as we age to keep the fires of youthful hormones burning.

Sadly, many surveys of busy mature executives ranked their sex life somewhere between the survey categories of “yawn” and “awful.” And that was the ones who were honest!

One reason for this may be that many middle-aged and older adults are taking medications not realising that side effects negatively impact sexual performance or enjoyment.

Beverly Whipple, PhD, sex researcher, professor and current secretary general of the World Association for Sexual Health, said medications such as “Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) taken for depression/anxiety certainly can affect both men’s and women’s abilities to experience orgasm.”

Some widely used brands of SSRIs are Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.

In addition, she said, it’s long been well known that high blood pressure and cardiac medications can affect men’s ability to achieve or maintain erections. Before you blame your partner, stress, or the contents of a wine glass… check with your doctor if you are on medications.

Getting rid of excess weight, keeping fit and retaining good muscle tone will help to keep your sex hormones optimised. It stands to reason that keeping your body in great shape your libido, your performance, your confidence and hormone balance will be at the top of their game. If you don’t use it , you lose it, so keep practising !

A healthy sex life is just one of the essential elements to a wealthy body.

Hormone balancing is an essential element of anti-ageing treatment and being able

to operate at top level for longer when used in conjunction with exercise and optimal nutrition. When hormones are balanced, the body is able to do miraculous things: regenerate new tissue, create an abundance of energy, and defend itself against disease.’

Hormones are vital for repairing and regulating your bodily functions, and when ageing causes a drop in hormone production, it causes a decline in your body’s ability to repair and regulate itself as well.

Moreover, hormone production is highly interactive: the drop in production of any one hormone is likely to have a feedback effect on the whole mechanism, signalling other organs to release lower levels of other hormones, which will cause other body parts to release lower levels of yet other hormones. This occurs in both men and women.

A new medical specialty of Anti-Ageing Medicine considers Natural Bio-identical Hormone Balancing to be a safe and effective treatment for restoration of youth and wellness, appropriate for both men and women. After complete physical examination and bloodwork analysis with a specialised anti ageing physician , hormones that are shown to be deficient are replaced and balanced, thus ensuring they all remain within normal youthful ranges. This enables the body to feel and function younger. As well as your brain and sleep patterns settling back to normal so does your looks skin tone and longevity. In studies of women who balance their hormones against those that don’t, the ones who do, look younger and report positive cognitive benefits. Hormone balance is equally important to men.

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If you want to look closer at the topic read either “Female Hormonal Changes” or “Balancing Male Hormones”

Vitamins and Minerals We are going to look at why we need vitamins and minerals and the role that supplements can play in your diet.

There is a hidden sickness in most modern western cultures today that is causing our bodies to deteriorate at a much faster rate than nature ever intended. It is getting worse each year. There is little publicity, little government acknowledgement and no celebrity campaigns. It’s malnourishment.

Diagnosis rates in hospitals for this sickness have soared 44 per cent over the past 5 years, and yet the truth is that many of us are walking around not even aware that we’re affected until later on in life when it begins to manifest itself in a string of chronic and degenerative health problems – ranging from Alzheimer’s, arthritis, heart disease and even cancer.

Vitamins and minerals can play a vital role in protecting your health and strengthen your body including:

Building up your immune system : Many illnesses and diseases are not ‘caught’. One doesn’t catch cancer, heart disease or diabetes. You create these ailments with deficiencies based on your lifestyle and eating habits and they start silently years before you notice the signs.

Increasing your energy level ! : Being well nutritionally ‘topped up’ means you will have

strong and lasting energy levels, and this is a good indicator of a healthy body. The afternoon noon energy slump is not. Your trillions of cells are like factory assembly lines. When you feed it enough oxygen, hydrogen, sugar (the good kind), good fats (vitamins, minerals and amino acids, it works its magic and creates a ton of energy. About 60 percent of this energy is used to produce heat. The other 40 percent handles everything else. Every single physiological and biochemical reaction in your body… (including replacing old cells with new ones).

Enhancing your appearance : Skin clearness, tone and elasticity, hair strength and thickness, nail strength and texture all depend on an optimal intake of vitamin, minerals and enzymes.

Expanding your intelligence : Brain function, your ability to concentrate, and memory recall are also vitally dependant on all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients found in good quality food. With a healthy balance of the vital B group vitamins it easier to feel happy and Where do vitamins/minerals come from?

Vitamins are natural substances found in living things such as plants. Vitamins must usually be obtained for the body from foods or supplements, as most cannot be produced by the body.

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Minerals are found in plants and also animals (which get them from eating plants). Plants get their minerals from the soil — soil gets minerals from water washing over rocks etc. For vitamins to do their job, they require minerals. Minerals must also be obtained from food.

Antioxidants are specific vitamins or minerals that protect body cells from the damaging effects of free radicals. Free radicals come from or are caused by cellular activity, smoking, pollution, toxins, stress, exercise, etc., and are one of the primary causes of premature ageing, sickness and disease.

How do vitamins/minerals get in the body and where do they go?

We get vitamins and minerals by eating plants such as fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and spices, or animal products such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy foods. Again the meat you eat is only as healthy as the soil and plants it has been fed on.

Vitamins and minerals go through our normal digestion process and into the intestines. They then go through a very complex allocation system whereby the body distributes certain vitamins and minerals to parts of your body based on its own priority system.

If a nutrient is needed in a certain organ that it (the body) deems more important, it will take the nutrient from a less important organ, and allocate it to a more important organ. Sort of a “rob Peter to pay Paul” action. That’s why it is critical to maintain proper vitamin and mineral levels.

Vitamins and minerals in your body shouldn’t be viewed as independent substances, but rather as a cooperative network of nutri¬ents working together. If some nutrients are missing, it throws the entire network of nutrients out of balance.

How do vitamins/minerals leave the body?

Vitamins and minerals are “used” by the body. As they perform their function, they often use themselves up in the process, which is the case with most of the critical disease fighting antioxidants.

Even thinking uses vitamins and minerals. Exercise and stress use a lot of vitamins and minerals; the use of diuretics (substances that increase the discharge of urine) such as recreational drugs, prescription medications alcohol, coffee and tea — washes vitamins and minerals out of the body potentially creating deficiencies.

Tobacco and alcohol can also inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals, or accelerate the loss of them.

Your good health, your intelligence, your brain, your energy and your appearance are dependent on you replenishing your vitamins and minerals. In the case of some vitamins and minerals, you need to do this several times a day.

Why you should eat 9 to 10 portions of vegetables and fruit a day and take a multivitamin and mineral supplement…

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Vitamins and minerals are vital for your body's proper functioning and for the prevention of disease. There is an old argument of "I can get every¬thing I need from food." But are you? In a large 26,000 person study it was concluded that not one person received the nutritional requirements for all the nutrients set forth by the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance).

Eating nutrient deficient foods and insufficient vitamin intake can definitely increase your risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, strokes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, obesity and depressive disorders. We have seen over the years that most people don’t consume an optimal amount of all their vitamins and minerals through their diet alone.

Here’s why:

Antibiotics and medicines – Antibiotics interfere with the uptake of essential nutrients.

Crop nutrient losses – Decades of intensive agriculture have overworked and depleted soils of minerals.

Poor digestion – Eating too much or too quickly, and also stress, can cause poor digestion, which reduces absorption vitamins and minerals.

Ageing- a lowered level of stomach acid or damage to the intestinal walls prevents food been broken down properly.

Poor lifestyle habits – Smoking, alcohol and caffeine can inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals or accelerate the loss of nutrients.

Stress – Be it physical or emotional, this can increase the body’s requirement of vitamins and minerals, and hamper their absorption.

Out of balance – The level of each vitamin and mineral in the body has an effect on others, so if one is out of balance (missing), all are adversely affected. For example, we are now eating too much refined oil because we are told it is good for us, resulting in an over- abundance of Omega 6 oils and a deficiency of omega 3 oil.

Nutrient Variance.

There are substantial differences between one fruit or vegetable and another. One tomato can have 10 times more nutritional value than another depending on how and where they are grown and how they are cooked. Do you know which one you ate?

Nutrients vary because of:

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The nutrients the soils contain. The shape and colour of a carrot might be the same, but the size, resistance to disease and even taste, can vary greatly. Why is the produce from chemical-based mass farming so different from the compost-rich, chemical-free foods raised on healthy farms?

Over-cooking –High temperatures can easily destroy valuable food nutrients and enzymes.

Food storage – the length of travel, storage, exposure to air, heat and light, can all deplete valuable nutrients.

Food selection – Eating a too limited range of different food groups will result in nutrient deficiencies. We see this constantly where clients stick to just a few favourite foods.

Food omission – Allergies to foods, crash dieting, poorly designed vegetarian or Vegan diets or just not liking healthy foods, may all leave your body open to being nutritionally deficient.

An over-abundance of sugar. With improved growing techniques sweet fruits are just sugar shots. Sugar and refined high glycaemic index (GI) carbohydrates can drive fungal infestations that produce mycotoxin overloads. The eating of too many grains and sugars disrupts cell function, breaks down the immune system, and feeds fungi.

What supplements do I need?

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There is a huge difference between feeling “just okay” and feeling “fantastic” and, although eating well will take you a long way towards achieving optimal health, in order to climb up to the top rung of the ladder the consensus amongst the world’s leading researchers is that you need to take supplements. You just need to make sure you’re not swayed by the marketing – you need the right ones!

Your body is consuming calories constantly, and from different sources of fuel. It also requires a wide variety of raw materials to renew and maintain its organs, structures and functions.

The basic supplements You can see that it’s important to get our daily diet correct first, to help provide the many nutrients we need.

Unless advised by your doctor, you shouldn’t take single vitamins. This can lead to nutrient imbalances. For good health the balance of essential vitamins and minerals should be taken together.

Like an orchestra they work together within the body and interact to aid maintenance, regeneration and repair.

Because the human body is a complex survival machine, it is imperative that you arm yourself with even the most basic information about how you function and what foods you need to eat. From studying this programme you should, by now, have those basics!

Becoming a Student of Your Own Body is like taking lessons in DIY – it’s the knowledge you need to keep things in ship-shape condition.

Most people know we need vitamins and minerals but not that we need so many a day. They take a supplement for a few weeks and then lapse because they don’t notice any significant improvements - there are normally only around 20 different components in the average vitamin/mineral tablet. But we need at least 76 vitamins and minerals to ensure good health, plus amino acids and oils.

As a minimum standard we recommend you supplement your diet every day with:

2 x multi-vitamin & mineral 2 x 1000mg Vitamin C

In this module you should have:

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Understood the effects that ageing and muscle loss can have on the body.

Learned how strength training can counteract some of the effects of ageing.

Gained an insight into how a healthy diet and exercise can protect you against diabetes, osteoporosis and other health problems.

Understood the importance of vitamins and minerals.

Understood that supplements do not replace the need for a healthy and nutritious diet.

The actions you need to take in the coming week are: Plan your meals every 3 days ahead so that you obtain the maximum daily requirements of vegetables, fruits, proteins, vitamins and minerals.

Visit your local health food store and buy quality vitamins and minerals to supplement your diet including a high quality broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement, an Omega 3 supplement, a Vitamin C supplement, and a Calcium-magnesium supplement if required (preferably with vitamin D3 to aid absorption).

Balancing male hormones We hear about hormone balance in women but it is equally important to men. Just as women have some testosterone in their system, men some oestrogen and progesterone. Testosterone starts to decline from the 20s on and when this balance is disturbed particularly in mid life ,(40s+) and in the case of men gaining weight, the effect can be far-reaching. .

Men with pot bellies are likely to develop breast tissue. This is because fat is actually an endocrine organ (secreting hormones) and fat tissues in the abdomen converts testosterone into oestrogens. At the same time as men are getting raised levels of oestrogen, they’re not making as much testosterone because of age, the foods or drink they consume and the exercise they don’t do.

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The resulting hormone imbalance of too much oestrogen and not enough free testosterone explains why so many men in this condition experience a loss of sex drive and a range of premature degenerative diseases, including cardiovascular disease, gout diabetes as well as mood swings, lethargy, anger, loss of drive and irritability (Grumpy old man syndrome) Loss of Sex Drive Depression Irritability Muscle loss Weight gain Sleep problems Libido and Erectile problems Memory loss Thinning hair Decreased bone density

“You don’t have a Viagra deficiency, you have a testosterone When hormones are balanced, the body is able to do miraculous things: regenerate new Tissue, create an abundance of Energy, and defend itself against disease.

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Female Hormonal Changes Pre-menopause: This is the phase before menopause actually takes place, when ovarian hormone production is declining and fluctuating, causing a host of symptoms.

Some specialists maintain that perimenopause can last for as long as 5 to 15 years, while others refer to perimenopause as that period which is a 3 to 4 year span just before menopause. Either way, many women experience more symptoms during perimenopause than after menopause. Because this often happens at an age between 35 and 45, many women’s symptoms are overlooked or ignored by their healthcare providers.

Perimenopause is a perfect time to begin judicious oestrogen/progesterone/testosterone therapy because then the hormone supplements do not create an excess, but are simply replacing a failing internal supply. Always check out a specialist and only use bio-identical hormones

All too often successful women loose their confidence and their health with these symptoms while being side-lined with anti depressants or sleeping tablets!

Symptoms which may indicate perimenopause or menopause.

1.

Hot flashes, flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling

2.

Irregular heart beat

3.

Irritability

4.

Mood swings, sudden tears

5.

Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)

6.

Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods, shorter cycles, cycles

7.

Loss of libido. In much the same way as they felt before puberty

8.

Vaginal dryness.

9.

Crashing fatigue

10. Anxiety, feeling ill at ease

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11.

Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion

12.

Disturbing memory lapses

13.

Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence

14.

Itchy, crawly skin

15.

Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons Increased tension in muscles

16.

Breast tenderness

17.

Headache change: increase or decrease

18.

Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea

19.

Sudden bouts of bloat

20. Depression 21.

Exacerbation of existing conditions

22.

Increase in allergies

23.

Weight gain

24.

Hair loss or thinning, head, pubic, or whole body; increase in facial hair

25.

Dizziness, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance

26.

Changes in body odour

27.

Electric shock sensation under the skin and in the head

28.

Tingling in the extremities

29.

Gum problems, increased bleeding

30.

Burning tongue, burning roof of mouth, bad taste in mouth, change in breath odour

31.

Osteoporosis (after several years)

Week 12 Tips to make your habits stick I Just Can’t Lose Weight

Really In Your Food

Why Isn’t It WorkingWhat’s

Salad Bar Sabotage QW

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Here we are at the last module of your programme! So we have some important evaluation to do this week to show you just how far you’ve come. But before we do, we’ll look at some extra tips to help you with your weight loss.

This week’s goals are:

Resources In this module you’ll find:

Tips to Boost Your Weight Let’s look at some of the areas where clients struggle with weight loss and common mistakes which are made when trying to improve your diet including: Mistakes you make without realizing.

What else you can do to boost weight loss.

Common pitfalls – salad bar sabotage and takeaways!

This is part of the fine tuning process to your new healthy lifestyle.

Why isn’t it working?

I’m sure you’ve already had great success on this programme. But there may be some goals that you haven’t exactly nailed yet. Are you eating healthily but still not losing weight? Are you making any of these common mistakes when it comes to eating healthily?

Skipping meals: Many people who are trying to stay slim diet by day - but binge by night.

Eating lots of sweet fruit but not enough vegetables: This is a common mistake as although fruit is important you have to remember that it contains fruit sugar (sucrose).

“Grazing” yourself fat: You can easily eat 600 calories in a snack such as a snatched sandwich or bowl of cereal.

Eating pasta like crazy: An actual serving of pasta is 1 cup of cooked pasta, but some people routinely eat 4 cups at one sitting.

Ignoring the “serving size” on the Nutrition Facts panel of bought food. The serving sizes are usually very small (much smaller than most people really eat) to trap the unwary.

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Snacking on bowls of nuts: Nuts are healthy but dense in calories. Use nuts as a garnish instead of a snack.

Thinking that all energy bars and fruit smoothies are low in calories – they are not.

Eating loads of cheap oils because you believe it is healthy.

Not being assertive about how your meal is cooked in a restaurant.

Not eating a healthy breakfast.

Review of your current behaviour.

QUESTIONS relating to the above What needs to change?

Quick WIN

What else can you do?

Get enough sleep:

Research has shown that those who do not have 7 – 8 hours sleep a night are more likely to gain weight.

Fidget more:

Tapping your fingers, swinging your foot and standing up while you talk on the phone, getting up to change TV channels could add up to 350 more calories burned a day.

Reset your thermostat:

You may burn more calories if your body is working harder to maintain its core temperature. Obesity researchers speculate that some of the population’s weight gain may be due to the increased use of heating and air conditioning.

Exercise: Keep lots of incidental exercise in your daily routine. Keep the pedometer on! don’t neglect strength training - it’s equally important.

Common Pitfalls

And

Two of the common healthy eating pitfalls that we haven’t looked at yet are salad bars and takeaways.

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Salad bar sabotage

Do you think you’re being virtuous by visiting the salad bar, instead of grabbing a burger? Your leafy meal could be every bit as bad, if you’re not careful! Here are some of the culprits to watch out for at your favourite salad counter.

Dressings: Avoid the French, Italian and Russian dressings, which can contain about 65 kcal per tablespoon, and don’t even think about Ranch dressing, which packs of whopping 90 kcal per tablespoon. Salad oils are rarely top quality and will go straight to your fat cells.

Coleslaw: Hard to believe that a small serving can contain 150 kcal.

Full-fat cottage cheese: Those 120 kcal per half cup can put the cottage cheese on your thighs or stomach in a hurry. Be sure that it’s the low-fat version.

Egg salad: Generally packed with mayo, and can be 345 calories per 4 ounce serving.

Bacon bits: A mere tablespoon of these blighters can set you back 300 calories.

Peas: They’re healthy, but one half cup contains 70 kcal, so go sparingly.

Croutons: Usually fried, so best avoided.

Sunflower seeds: Another nutritious option, and good for protein, but it’s easy to overdo them, and they’re high in fat calories.

Takeaways What’s really in them?

During the programme we’ve been encouraging you to choose ingredients that bring vitality, watch your portion control and prepare healthy meals yourself. But if you’re not prepared and you’re busy, you may resort to the takeaway. Another common area where people fall down is failing to realise the high fat levels in takeaways.

The table below illustrates just how fat loaded some take-out meals can be.

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High Fat Takeaways

High Fat Takeaways

KFC: 2 x KFC Chicken thighs and fries:

Meat and Veggies: 100gm Lean grilled meat 1 cup mashed potato 1 cup steamed pumpkin 1 cup green vegetables:

1000 calories 18 teaspoons fat

350 calories 2-3 teaspoons fat

Big Mac: 1 x Big Mac and regular fries:

BBQ Chicken: Quarter grilled chicken Salad 400 calories 3 teaspoons fat

860 calories 10 teaspoons fat

Fish and Chips: 1 piece cod and 1 x portion chips

Shish Kebab: Whole meat pieces Peppers, Onions Pita bread

800 calories 11 teaspoons fat

350 calories 3 teaspoons fat

Meat Pie:

Healthy Chinese: Chow Mein 1 x cup steamed rice:

560 calories 8 teaspoons fat

570 calories 3 teaspoons fat

Pan Pizza: 2 small slices:

Hamburger: Standard Hamburger Plus extra salad:

590 calories 7 teaspoons fat

500 calories 6 teaspoons fat 230

When dealing with your health and body shape it is vital to remember that the old adage always holds true, “When you do the same you will stay the same”.

So when trying to lose body fat, whether it is an ever-bulging stomach or perhaps clothes are just starting to strain at the seams, never skip healthy meals or be duped by the myth you need empty high calorie snacks to keep your energy levels up.

The body is extremely busy on a subconscious level processing approximately one billion messages per second, pumping blood on its journey through 62,000 miles of arteries, capillaries and veins per day. Every second it is constantly destroying and replacing millions of skin, liver, stomach, skeleton and brain cells etc.

More than 98% of the molecules of your body including muscles, organs, and bones, are replaced every year. This miracle all happens as we deal with a multitude of other daily activities.

To ensure all these cells have the necessary resources to rebuild you in a healthy state, and to assist that great feeling of being in peak-condition it is vital you have; multi-vitamin/mineral supplements and constant and regular fuelling of quality foods high in vitamins, nutrients and minerals, and low in sugar, fat and refined grains.

NB. 50,000 cells in your body will have died and have been replaced with new cells by the time you have read this article!!

This is a great reminder of why we’re doing this and how it’s never too late to make the changes we want with our bodies and our lives.

Action Point By the end of this week, you should have:

Read the list of common mistakes and acted on those apply to you.

Noted the salad bar and take away hazards and resolved to make better choices in future.

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End of programme review Evaluation Goal setting for next level Week 12 Suggested evaluation component of week 12 YOU Take photos/measurements and add to your measurements chart Align with benchmarks.

How close did you come to achieving your programme goals?

What were your particular successes?

What did you find more challenging?

What are your goals for next 3 months/6 months?

What do you need to do differently to achieve these goals?

What steps will you commit to, to get there?

What support do you need to achieve these goals?

Who will you nominate to hold you accountable to them?

What new information/skills do you need to learn to continue successfully?

How can you find this information?

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CELEBRATING YOUR SUCCESS

How will you celebrate your success on the programme?

What do those closest to you say about your progress?

How can you ensure that stay on course to celebrate the next milestone?

THE PROGRAMME

Please tell us what you gained from the programme What did you like most about the online programme?

How did it help you to achieve your goals?

What more could we have done to help you to achieve your goals?

What further support could we give you?

What would you like to say to suggest other people use this programme?

Would you be willing to share your success story with future participants?

Would you be agreeable to us using your words and/or photos to encourage other people?

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The Line in the Sand

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This week’s goals are: • • • • •

Build up a realistic picture of how you are now and accept that this is so Get a full medical from your GP or Doctor if you have medical problems– it’s a good idea to get their clearance before commencing on any new regime of exercise or nutrition.

Take all your tape measurements and a set of “before” photos.

Take all the benchmarking tests and rate yourself on the scores where provided.

Start to keep a food diary.

We said this last week and we’re saying it again!

Before you start, you need to get into the right mindset.

There’s a direct relationship between desire and commitment, and it is our commitment to our goals that leads us to great achievements, even in the toughest times. If you’re really committed to making a change now, the only way to make it happen is to create a sense of immediate importance.

You can do this by attaching reasons that are so compelling and so intense you absolutely desire to follow them through.

• Create a picture in your mind of how you want to look, the clothes you will be able to wear, and how you will feel. It’s extremely important to programme this into your sub-consciousness.

• Where your mind goes your body ultimately follows. See yourself at 80, sky diving in fantastic shape, water skiing, rock climbing… Being as fit and healthy as you were at 30!

• Nothing is impossible if you have a healthy body.

• The energy from eating optimally and exercising enables the body to clear itself of toxic build-up and become a more efficient calorie burning machine.

• Remember it takes six weeks to start to form a habit. Be patient with yourself.

Healthy eating will become second nature if you persist.

• Think of your body as a savings account and make a priority to invest in it a little bit each day.

Right now, answer the following questions and come up with at least three intensely compelling reasons why you must commit to your transformation goals.

How will I look and feel in 5, 10 and 20 years from now, if I carry on as I am now?

How do I want to look and feel in 5, 10 and 20 years from now?

What has this cost me so far, concerning my health, self-confidence and energy levels?

If I DO change now, how will I feel about myself?

How will this impact my life?

What will I gain as a result?

Do I want to be around to be a role model for my grand children? If so-in what shape?

What are the three intensely compelling reasons I must commit to my transformation goals?

In order to track your progress, you need to know your starting point. The best way to do this is to take measurements and photographs.

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One of the main reasons people fail to achieve positive results on a ‘typical’ fitness programme is because they fail to see progress, even if they are experiencing it. When we put our time and energy into something and we don’t think there’s any change, we give up, and we give in - we give in to old patterns of action, like not being careful what we eat, and start under-exercising.

When you begin this programme and you start losing fat and gaining muscle tone, you may not see it happening, even though you look in the mirror every day.

By looking at your photos and taking your measurements and comparing them, side by side, you’ll know you are indeed experiencing an evolutionary process. You’ll see that your efforts are paying off. This will fuel your desire and keep you focused.

Weighing scales are not a correct assessment of your body composition or size. When you go into a clothing shop you are never asked how much you weigh – you’re asked what size you need. When you buy a car you never ask the salesman how much it weighs, you choose by colour, shape, power, reliability etc.

Measuring changes in your body shape is an excellent way to track your progress, and alert you to how your shape is changing. Using a measuring tape to record circumferences of the specific body sites is a simple means to keep track. The sites could include the upper arm, chest, (underneath the arms and over the most prominent point of the chest), waist, hip, upper thigh, just above the knee and mid calf. Measure in the same spot each time.

Waist circumference Weight (fat) stored around your waist is more unhealthy than weight stored elsewhere, and experts generally agree that this measurement is more useful to assess your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

Measurement: With a tape measure find the midpoint between the top of your hips and the lower border of the rib cage and measure around.

High risk level:  Men. Larger than 94 cm / 37 inches  Women. Larger than 80cm /32 inches Taking a photo of yourself may be the last thing you’ll want to do when you’re feeling less than happy about your weight, age or self image and often when we ask people to take a ‘before’ photo prior to starting their programme, they say “I know what I look like,” or “I see myself every day.”

But therein lies the problem - you see yourself every day. So much so that you are unable to identify the subtle changes to your body shape that have taken place over time and you may have a false picture of how things really are.

Yes, it might feel embarrassing, but it gives you a chance to really see yourself dispassionately. It also gives you a chance to look at the areas that are not so bad and other parts that may be hindering your progress.

It is an honesty moment – a self awareness check that allows you to form a road map of shape and proportion rather than concentrating solely on your weight. (Remember the ‘scales mentality’ is detrimental to even the best health and anti-aging plan and fat-loss attempts).

TIP:

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TIP: Retake your photo every four weeks. Don’t underestimate how important that is – your photos will help you stay on track by offering proof that you are making progress.

Let’s take a realistic look - Have your photo taken from the front, side and also the back, dressed only in underwear. Don’t worry, these are not for display, and you may choose not to let anyone see them just now. But they will be photos you can be proud of when you compare them with your ‘after’ photos later - you will be amazed at the difference!

We seldom see our full back view and, other than the legs, it is not a popular area to work when toning our overall physique. The back can also display some very premature signs of aging. Structural/ postural collapse, loss of muscle tone, wrinkles down the side of the rib cage, flabby fat rolls over the bra and folds around the waist line are but a few of the common problems.

You will look younger!

There’s no denying the fact that as people lose weight healthily (the correct way rather than just dieting) the younger and more vital they look in the face, and also their overall shape. This is very obvious in a photograph - but you rarely notice it on yourself when your only monitor to success is using the scales.

So, you here you have a magic tool for checking on your progress. Look at the difference in your jaw line, the tone of your skin, shape and definition across the shoulders, arms legs and abdominals, as well as fat reduction on the back and top of the hips and belly.

These heartening and fantastic motivational markers show that you are turning back your age clock and becoming healthy from the inside out.

Measuring and Monitoring Research shows over and over again that the people who measure and monitor their progress are always the most successful at getting in shape. They get underway quicker and they’re more successful from then onwards.

We always stress the importance of measuring your progress. The true measure of the great success of our programme is the degrees of checks and measures to make sure all change is happening.

After all, how do you know where you are going if you don’t know where you have been?

So this week, we want you to undertake a series of measurements and tests so you have a clear picture of your starting point.

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Measuring your body In order to accurately assess your starting point we want you to take measurements at the points shown in the photo below.

Record your measurements on the next document “Your Measurements and Test Results�.

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Testing your body We’ll go through each of the tests in detail in future section but here’s the overview: 1.

Fat Free Mass 2.

Resting Pulse Rate 3.

Cardiovascular Fitness 4. Strength 5. Flexibility 6. Balance 7.

Current Level of Fitness When you’ve conducted the tests, be sure to record your test results on the next document “Your Measurements and Test Results”. This means you’ve a record against which you can measure your progress as you go through the programme.

Your Measurements and Test Results Record below your starting measurements and test results and repeat the process at intervals during the programme to see your progress.

Measurements Week 2

End of Week 4

Chest/bust Upper arm Waist Belly Hips Upper thigh Above knee Mid-calf

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End of Week 8

End of Week 12

Test results Week 2

End of Week 4

End of Week 8

End of Week 12

Fat Free Mass Resting Pulse Rate Cardiovascular Fitness Strength Flexibility Balance Current Level of Fitness

Fat free mass Many doctors and insurance companies use height and weight charts to classify healthy body fat levels. But because weight/height charts cannot tell you the actual composition of your weight, for example what proportion of you is fat, muscle or intestinal bulk, etc, they will give a false reading. These charts do not indicate if you are lacking muscle tone, or your stomach is protruding over your belt, or if you are in fantastic shape.

Test 1: Measuring your Fat Free Mass One piece of kit you could use is the Bio-electrical Impedance Scales, which measure the amount of fat and lean tissue in your body, using an electrical current. The fat, water and muscle in your body all have different electrical resistances – a fact that is exploited by this clever piece of equipment.

All good gyms have these scales, or you could buy a set yourself. Because your bodyweight is influenced by many things it is very important to be weighed, or weigh yourself by sticking closely to the guidelines below or your result will not be accurate. Be aware that a health club trainer typically will not give you any instructions before your weigh-in, but you need to follow these in order to receive an accurate reading.

These guidelines, however, hold true for whenever you use this type of measurement: • Avoid eating or drinking for 4 hours before the test. For example, taking a reading 2 - 4 hours after a meal decreases the current resistance, and is likely to lead to over-pre-

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dictions of Fat Free Mass, sometimes to the order of 1.5kg (3 ½ lbs), leading to a Fat % reading that is too low. Conversely, dehydration has the opposite effect – it’s been shown to result in an underestimation of Fat Free Mass of up to 5kg (11 lbs) resulting in a Fat % reading that’s too high.

• Avoid moderate or vigorous physical activity for 12 hours before the test. Jogging and cycling at moderate intensities for 90 - 120 minutes produces substantial decreases in current resistance, resulting in large over-estimation in Fat Free Mass of up to 12kg (26 lbs) and Fat % reading that’s significantly too low. This is probably due to the relatively greater loss of body water compared to electrolytes (salts in the blood). A higher electrolyte concentration in the body’ fluids also lowers resistance.

• You should urinate within 30 minutes before the test.

• Avoid all alcohol for 48 hours before the test.

• Avoid all diuretic medications for 7 days before the test, unless prescribed by a doc tor.

• Do not have any caffeine for 24 hours before the test.

• Ensure a moderate room temperature is maintained. Cool ambient temperatures (less than 14 degrees C) can cause a drop in skin temperature which results in increased resistance and an under-estimation in Fat Free Mass of up to 2.2kg (5 lbs) and a too-low Fat % reading.

Note: If you fail to observe these protocols when using digital fat scales, this can lead to prediction errors in estimating percentages in body fat, possibly by as much as 9%.

Interpreting your result The healthy range maximum guidelines for men is 20% or under (25% for women). For good health men should be around 15% (and women 20%) body fat. For optimal health and increased longevity men should be 10 - 15% (and women 15 - 20%).

Rate Yourself: Rating for Men 10 – 15%Lean Athletic 16 – 20%Healthy 21 – 30%Overweight 30%+Obese Rating for Women 12-17%Lean Athletic 18-25%Healthy 26-35%Overweight 36% +Obese Don’t forget to record your test results.

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This test measures how fit your heart is, as it pumps blood around your body.

Test 2: Resting pulse rate.

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If your met abolic state and whole system is balanced you are operating at peak efficiency and this will be reflected in a lower resting heart rate. This state of health puts less pressure on your heart and blood vessels. The best time to find out your true resting heart rate is in the morning, before you get out of bed.

Test: There are two ideal spots for taking your pulse, one at the radial arteries in each wrist, and over the carotid artery, about an inch or so on either side of your windpipe. Place your index and middle finger lightly over the artery and count all the beats for 15 seconds and then multiply the count by 4 to get the rate for a minute. This is your resting heart rate.

Rate Yourself: Beats Per Minute Age Rating in Years 60 20 65 30 70 40 75 50 80+ 60+ The average heart beats about 60 to 80 times a minute when rested but this will be lower in a well conditioned body or an athlete. Re-check your resting heart rate monthly and aim always to keep it within the lower limits of the healthy range.

Don’t forget to record your results!

Test 4: Strength - Press Up Test Start with your body in a straight line and only the hands and toes touching the floor. Using strict technique lower yourself down until there is a 90 degree angle at the elbows and the upper arms are parallel to the floor. Continue to perform as many repetitions as possible then refer to the table below to rate your upper body strength level against age.

Number Performed: 0-5 5-9 10-19 20-29

Age Rating:

65 55 45 35

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Test 5: Flexibility Good flexibility is vital for injury and pain prevention, efficient movement and great posture.

But what exactly is it? Flexibility is the full range of movement you have within a joint, such as the shoulder joint, your hip joints, or your spine. Good flexibility allows the joints to easily rotate and rotate within the joint without causing pain and stress on the tissues surrounding them.

Good also flexibility improves a joint’s range of motion. For example, flexibility in the shoulder muscles allows you to turn and put your hand over the seat as you back your car, it means you’re able to stretch your legs out when running fast, and can look behind you without turning your whole body.

These are all movement restrictions we see in older people - but they can be prevented.

Daily we overload and strengthen some muscles while others weaken through lack of use.

Having a good balance of flexibility improves posture, movement and prevents pain. Walk like a panther! Supple, fluid and graceful movements are all an indication of a youthful and healthy body.

Flexibility is also essential for injury prevention. Injury causes scar tissue which tightens and interferes with your muscle balance.

Test : Shoulder flexibility Bring one arm up behind your back. Now raise your other arm above your head and drop it down behind you to attempt to touch your hands together behind the back. Repeat on the other side.

Rate Yourself: Distance Apart 0 (Touching) 2.5cm (1 in) 5cm (2 in) 7cm (3 in) 10cm (4 in) 12cm (5 in) 15cm (6 in) 18cm (7 in)

Age equivalent flexibility rating 20 25 35 40 45 50 60 +70+

But remember, you cannot assume someone is flexible just because they have flexible shoulders, or can touch their toes - you must be evenly flexible all over.

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Test 6: Balance How long can you stand barefoot on one leg with your eyes shut? Simply raise one leg out to the front at right angles. Your arms can be out to the side to assist. Now close your eyes and see how long it takes before you have to either return your raised foot to the ground to prevent falling over, or open your eyes. Get someone else to time you.

You should be able to achieve at least 20 seconds at any age.

Test 7: How fit are you now?

Finally, we would like you to make an honest assessment of your current level of exercise and activity and see which category below you fit into.

Very Sedentary • Less than 5,000 steps per day • Someone who stays in the same place, sitting for most of the day and uses a car at every opportunity Minimal Activity • An office worker who rarely breaks into a sweat from exertion • Plays golf, gardening, swimming or walking for 30 minutes, 3 times per week • 5,000 – 10,000 steps per day Active • Someone doing a job that requires doing a fair amount of moving around but not a large physical effort.

• Consistently exercises and works up a sweat: cycling, rowing or weight training and plays sport for at least 30 minutes, 3 times per week.

• 10,000 – 15,000 steps per day Very Active • A very physical occupation requiring strenuous work - on their feet for most of the day • Plus a sport or weight training, and running, for at least 60 minutes, 4 times per week •15,000 + steps per day Which category best describes you now? Record that on your results sheet.

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Keeping a Food Diary We all have plans for other areas of our lives – so why do we seem to leave eating up to a whim?

The act of recording and monitoring your food brings about a sense of accountability to the whole process. It’s no different than having a business diary - we know the mess we get into when this facility is lost!

You need to get organised, and one of the best tools to get you started is a Food Diary. It will give you information on what you are eating, where you are eating, portion sizing, nutrient intake, the balance of your diet, and many other vital statistics. It can be a simple notebook that you carry around with you or an electronic version if you prefer.

It’s your road map for helping you change! No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you absolutely, positively do have the power to change your physique, but it is difficult to calculate where you are going if you don’t know where you have been! This is why a ‘before’ analysis of your eating is important.

We need you to put aside a small piece of your time to write down what you eat, when you eat and how much. Do this for the first seven days, although it is an empowering habit to do regularly.

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You become aware if are you calorie rich but nutrient poor. Have your diary near you for every meal until you get into the habit of understanding what you are eating. Write down how many different fruit and vegetables you eat, how many processed foods, how many sweet foods, how many grams of fat, how many glasses of alcohol.

You will be surprised at how much there is to learn about your eating patterns when you begin to document them!

Eat as you would normally eat while initially filling out your food diary. We frequently find our clients are sometimes quite shocked at the repetitious foods they eat, the amounts they do or don’t eat, and how nutrient deficient many of the foods they eat are.

Remember that your diary needs to be as clear as possible for accuracy. Psychologists tell us in study after study that they have found we always underestimate how much we eat (and overestimate how much exercise we do). Therefore food consumed needs to be written down immediately as our recall isn’t accurate and because we eat so much of our food out of habit.

Tip – Maximum information As well as what you eat, write down when you eat and things such as whether you tend to overeat if you are bored at work in the afternoon, or if you eat mindlessly as you watch television at night. Once you know when you overeat and recognize your personal habits, you can develop a plan to curb those habits and assume control over them.

Some basic rules for keeping a food diary • Write everything down. Don’t rely on your memory • Be specific. If you had a meal out write it down and include any extras like sauces, mayonnaise, cheese topping, bacon etc • Please note if the soup was cream or broth, did you have butter on bread, milk or sugar in your tea? Was the meal home-cooked, a ready meal or eaten in a restaurant • Don’t forget the in-between nibbles and all drinks taken with the meal • Just recording the food you eat isn’t enough to provide useful information - recall the size of your portions. Portion sizes have exploded since the mid-1980s, and ‘normal’ portions of food have trebled and even quadrupled during this time.

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• So, if you had broccoli, did you have one or two florets or 1 cup? If you had fruit, what was it and how much? Be specific. For example: ‘1 x 10-once sirloin steak with ¼ cup of mushroom sauce, a small serving of mange tout, 6 asparagus, 2 x tablespoons of caramelised onions and medium jacket potato with cheese’ would be more accurate than simply ‘steak and vegetables’. (When eating meat, remember that a 3-ounce cooked portion is about the size of a deck of cards.)

• Include details and extra information, such as where you were when you ate, who you were with, and how were you are feeling at the time. Record as much information as possible about the circumstances surrounding your meals and snacks - just as you would do in a daily diary!

• Please also write down any nutritional supplements you are taking.

• Most of the time you’re not looking for the bad foods that appear on your log. Rather you should be interested in what is missing, and where the gaps are.

• Be as honest as you can – the only person you’re fooling is yourself!

Evaluating Your Own Food Diary….

To get a quick overview of the quality of your eating, here’s a simple method to check that you’re getting enough of the right foods, and not too much of the bad!

After completing a 7-day record of your eating, get hold of a set of four highlighters: Pink Orange Green Yellow for example. Sometimes when you buy them in a set or pack the colours may be different – this won’t matter too much.

Now assign each colour to a food group, like this: Pink: Protein Orange: Fruit Green: Vegetables Yellow: High Fat, Sugar, Refined carb, Alcohol, etc Next select a colour, for example Pink for Protein, and highlight each serving of protein you find on any day in your food diary. A serving is the equivalent of 1 small chicken breast, a 6oz steak, a sea bass fillet, 2 boiled eggs, and so on. Enter the total at the end of the day – you should have at least 3 servings per day. Note that sometimes you only find half a serving in any particular meal (for example as found in porridge or muesli oats, yoghurt or beans), so include these in the total for the day as ½ or part servings. Nuts would count as protein, but bear in mind they’re also quite high in fat, so don’t use them as a default protein source on their own…

Next do the same with the green highlighter for vegetables, identifying each serving as you go through the day. A serving is the equivalent of 1 teacup, or a small handful. Ideal at the

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less than half a serving.)

The same applies with the orange highlighter for fruit, except your daily ideal is 2-3 servings, each of which would be the equivalent of one fruit item, or 1 teacup of something like berries, for example. (Note: dried fruit counts as one fruit, so one prune is the same as a plum, and one dried apricot is the same as, um, well, one apricot….)

Mon 10th

Date

Croissant

ham

Cheese &

B/fast

Tea

muffin

Lo-fat

M/Tea

berry

salad wrap,

Chicken

Lunch

nuts, coffee tikka, naan

Handful of

A/Tea

Chicken

Dinner

chip

2 x choc

Supper

x 2 ½ Pro-

x 7 Poor

Totals

Tues 11th biscuits, tein

x 6 Veg

bread

Muesli,

x 4 Fruit

x 1 Veg

Lamb leg

grapes,

tea

Chicken

steak, pota-

smoothie

Hearty bean

salad wrap

Coffee

Banana,

& veg soup

x 1 Fruit

Bircher

cereal bar x 3 Protein

1 x Poor

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muesli,

toes, beans, yoghurt

carrots,

broccoli,

Now, in order to make some sense of the information we’re collecting, you can add up all the different servings for each group over

apple

You’ll note that we haven’t been accounting for starchy carbs on their own. Apart from those that occur as vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin), beans and wholegrains (muesli, quinoa, couscous) it’s assumed that anything like wraps, pita pockets, oatcakes, etc, are going to be rough, organic wholemeal products and therefore won’t fall into the less-desired processed grains bin (yellow highlighter) – often bound with large amounts of sugar, fats and salt!

berries, tea

Now it’s time to find the items you need to focus on reducing or eliminating.

Take the yellow highlighter and find any servings of alcohol, coffee, bread, biscuits, cakes, pasties, pastries, pizza, mayo, cheese, chocolate, soft drinks, candy, butter, oil, etc. Once again make a note of how many instances these foods occur in the day.

the whole week and divide that number by the number of days you have recorded, giving you an average daily serving for protein, vegetables and fruits.

Do the same with the less-desired foods highlighted in yellow, and compare the volume of these with the total volume of all the other groups. The idea is to try and get the percentage, or proportion, of the undesired foods down as close as possible to 10% of the total intake – that’s an ideal, so as close as you can personally get to that that better…!

We’ll be talking a lot more about food in Week Four.

But to give you an idea what we’re talking about and what you could aim for, have a look at this 7 Day Diet Plan (below). If there are certain foods on it which are unfamiliar to you, find out about them so you’ll be ready.

Don’t panic if it looks a long way away from your food diary now! You might be able to make a few small changes right now and then get yourself ready for when we tackle this in two weeks time.

In this module you should have: • • •

Build up a realistic picture of how you are now Accepted that this is the reality and committed to moving on Planned to get your medical and taken your measurements

How did you get on?

The actions you need to take in the coming week are: • Make an appointment and get a full medical from your GP or Doctor if you have medical issues.

• Take all your measurements and a set of “before” photos.

• Take all the benchmarking tests.

• Start your food diary and commit to keeping it for seven days.

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