Lifestyle Choices

Choosing to change your diet and lifestyle doesn’t just improve your health; it also changes your life. Even so, it can be a challenge to get started, and hard to stay on track. The keys to success are effective planning — and developing self-belief.

To be successful, you need to plan ahead and set goals, to give yourself time to prepare, both mentally and practically, for your lifestyle change. Deciding in advance what you are going to do and what you want to achieve will build your enthusiasm and help you to commit to the diet, to see off the temptation to stray beforeyou get started.

The most important tip of all is: Believe you can succeed. Your self-belief and the way you talk to yourself will influence your ability to stay the course. Supporting each personal ‘wish’ with a positive programme of action will help you to maintain momentum. (more…)

All diets focus on weight loss, and there is general acceptance that the closer you are to your ideal weight, the healthier you will be, with less risk of life-threatening and debilitating diseases.

However, your weight is only a part of the picture. Your lean muscle tissue is important as well. Vital body organs, such as your heart, liver and kidneys, need to be supported by lean tissue, as does your whole body. That is why fitness is so important. When we exercise we shape up on the inside as well as the outside.

Muscle uses up more glucose, and therefore calories, than fat meaning that muscle (or lean mass) helps you burn fat. This means that if you are heavy, but fit, your weight may not be as much of a problem as you think. On the other hand, if you are thin, but lightweight and lacking in muscle tone, you may not be as fit as you suppose. How can this be? (more…)

5 EXERCISE - FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES

Exercise - for at least 15 minutes a day - helps to stabilise your blood sugar levels and reduce your appetite.

It seems that the less we move, the more we eat - and vice versa. The human body needs physical activity to work properly, just as it needs water or vitamins. The right kind of exercise will increase muscle and boost the rate at which you burn fat for up to 15 hours afterwards. A pound of muscle burns many more calories a day than a pound of fat, so every pound of fat you lose, and every pound of muscle you gain will further increase your body’s long-term ability to burn fat.

To kick-start this process, start by doing 15 minutes exercise a day, or 20 minutes five times a week, or 35 minutes three times a week. Go for it! The short and long-term benefits will far outweigh the initial strain. (more…)

There are five core principles at the heart of the Holford Low-GL Diet. Each of them is a positive guideline in its own right, and each supports the others. All five are easy to follow, and essential if you are serious about achieving permanent weight loss and 100 per cent health:

1 Balance your blood sugar.

2 Eat good fats; avoid bad fats.

3 Eliminate allergies.

4 Supplement for success.

5 Exercise for at least 15 minutes a day.

The 21 days of menus listed later articles do all the initial meal planning for you. You can use the recipes as part of your weight-loss diet, or follow the recommendations to modify them for a maintenance diet that will keep you at your ideal weight. (more…)