Weight Loss Checklist.

Health and Weight Loss Nutrition is all about balancing and therefore stabilising blood sugar. 

Obviously there are foods (and drinks) that have to be eaten and consumed in moderation for any kind of weight loss result.  

Also for most of us (non athletes) this means decreasing high energy carbohydrates like bread, pasta, rice, potato and sugary breakfast cereals and eating more vegetables (low energy carbs) and sources of lean protein or vegetarian protein such as Lentils or Quinoa.

I can't believe anyone I help, doesn't have at least something for breakfast (it's a huge metabolism kick starter!)
If you aren't, start as soon as you can!
If you are, try and have less high energy carbs and more protein.

Drink more water, sip throughout the day. It Indirectly effects metabolism, every function in the body speeds up, so the body burns more calories. Your skin will look better too.

Snacking! Snacking is good! It's what you snack on that counts. Again go natural low high energy carb, higher protein. This decreases the chance of blood sugar dips that slow metabolism over time. Also increases metabolism.

Feel free to ask a question in the comments section.

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Weight Loss: Avoid Comparison...

It's great to be inspired by someone in amazing shape.

Especially as we come to understand there is a certain level of self discipline all of the lifestyle habits and rituals involved.
It's hugely positive to implement the same healthy habits yourself.

However no two bodies are the same,  our genetics are totally different, our bodie's frame and structure can be different, different muscle groups seem to change shape easier than others, we store body fat in different areas.

It is true that some peoples genetics will give them a head start if they naturally process energy better than others.
So keep being inspired by people in shape, but don't always aim to emulate, instead be the best version of you, you can be.

What is the best Weight Loss Plan?

There are so many Weight Loss plans, Nutrition plans and the word I dislike the most - Diets!

I find myself having to explain why someone should follow my plan over something else, I'm asked "why is yours different to all the other plans out there?"

"Other plans enable me to lose weight much faster".

It's very simple, 

Simple sceintific rationale.

Also I'm not about quick fixes, it's not about lose weight quickly, then come back and see me when you gain the weight back and we will repeat the process.

It's permanent weight loss by adopting a healthy sustainable lifestyle.

Paleo influenced plans, have their roots in the origins of human genetics, our genetics have not changed that much in X million years.

But to only eat foods that our ancestors ate, for most, me included is unrealistic.

Drastically lowering any one type of nutrient is not creating a healthy balance, even Carbohydrate or Fat, or over consuming another.

You see, Carbohydrate is essential in our nutrition plan, it's the preferred source of fuel for our bodies.

However the average western world consumption is too high and there are weight loss issues associated with this.

When we eat a meal high in Carbohydrates it's essentially broken down into sugar, which leads to an increase in blood sugar levels.

The body's response to this is to produce insulin which transports sugar into the cells for storage, unfortunately there is only limited storage for this sugar and an excess sugar gets converted to fat and stored!

If Carbohydrate is moderated and Protein and healthy Fat slightly increased then typically blood sugar levels will stabilise. When blood sugar levels are more stable, a less well known hormone called Glucagon (which is usually suppressed due to increased Carbohydrate intake) is produced in higher volumes.

Glucagon mobilises fat, drawing it out of the cells so it can be metabolised as fuel.

This aids in weight loss.

Feel free to leave comments and ask questions.

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Weight Loss: Less Isn't Better...

When we are adjusting our nutrition habits to lose weight, we always tend to think eating less and low amounts of foods is the best way forward.
To some degree it is, but the idea shouldn't be to cut calories drastically, unless you are having huge portions of junk food at every meal!
Drastically lowering calories, tells the body to prepare for food scarcity, it does this by conserving energy, we lose weight quickly, but from water, muscle and fat, decreasing our metabolism and increasing our fat storing potential when the lowering of calories stops.
For a long term healthy weight loss plan, if you eat moderate balanced portions, with healthy natural food, you will find not only will you be processing and not storing the nutrients, but in actual fact you will be consuming less calories overall by eating more natural food in smaller portions. Eating often especially gives the body the impression food is in abundance, so if it feels it needs to draw on extra energy reserves it can use it's own fat stores, meaning steady long term healthy weight loss which is from fat loss, raised metabolism and numerous other benefits!

By the way,

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Weight Loss and being human...

When we are putting in effort and being disciplined to achieve a weight loss goal, it is easy to get despondent and allow ourselves to contemplate quitting if we lapse.
Really if we are having the odd lapse, we can merely just confirm that we are human!
Admitting defeat means we are turning our back on our goal that could bring about life changing benefits.

The only time we admit defeat is when we give up.
When we should just evaluate what led to the lapse and develop a better plan to prevent a re occurrrance so that we could act differently if faced with the same outcome?
For instance, If we over eat at a meal was it because our last meal was so long ago that we were hungrier than usual and consumed more in one go. Could we just find a convenient way to have healthy snacks to bridge the gap between meals.

Could we tell family or those we work with what we are trying to achieve and what it would mean to us, so that they knew not to even offer us certain types of food, to help and support us.

Except that you are human, lapses may occur, it's just part of the learning process, we just need to decide if there is a way we could do something different next time, as soon as possible just keep following the plan and lifestyle habits that have already bought about progress, if it's working keep doing it! If not reevaluate your plan.

Focus on the big things before the details of Weight Loss...

When it comes to weight loss, we can quite easily become "bogged down in the details".
Scrutinising and analysing everything we do.
In reality some of these minor details, only have a very small effect on healthy weight loss.

Instead focus on the big things that will make a big difference to your healthy weight loss, decide on is what you are focusing going to have a big effect on your progress.

Decrease as best you can the obvious foods and drinks that consumed often enough will hinder progress.

Decide what is the least amount you could realistically have per week.

If your nutrition plan contains a lot of high energy carbohydrates such as potato, white pasta, white rice, bread,  high sugar cereals, try and get your energy needs from Vegetables and some fruit, or have the smallest portions per meal possible of high energy carbs.

If your nutrition plan currently contains a lot of processed food, try and eat more natural or foods that have a very small ingredient list.

If you are having big sporadic meals, try and have moderate main meals with healthy balanced snacks in between.

Drink more water.

Try and include more movement in your life or even better begin an exercise routine that includes Strength training of some sort and Interval (periods of work and recovery) Cardiovascular exercise. 

Don't try and implement all of these immediately, but know I believe the above short list to be changes that yeild the biggest results long term, that not just help you lose weight and all the positive potentially life changing benefits that come with it.

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Increasing Your Metabolism...

The key to health and weight loss is making sure you process the nutrients you consume.

If they are processed by the body and used, in particular energy and fuel, they are not stored as fat.

Carbohydrate is our bodies main source of fuel.
All Carbohydrates are turned into Glycogen or Blood Sugar for fuel or energy.

The average person can process 30 grams of Carbs per meal (which the body roughly turns into six spoonfuls of sugar equivalent).

Noticed I said "Average" you probably know if you can process more or less than that based on past experience.

A lot of people blame age for a slow down in metabolism, research has been done in the States to claim that strength training a couple of times a week can reduce the slow down by 50%!

A study measured that if we are engaging in Strength training 2-3 times per week we could easily be burning an extra 100 k/calories per day, even on the days we don't exercise!

As ever Nutrition plays a big part, having breakfast wakes up the bodies metabolism, consuming enough Protein and healthy Fat stabilises blood sugar, eating moderate sized meals often ensures our body is in an "abundance state" rather than low calorie and sporadic meals which teaches the body to prepare for scarcity, decreasing your metabolism flame or putting it out.