The hare and the tortoise….on a weight loss programme
Once upon a time there was a hare and a tortoise, and they were good friends. They had once had a race and surprisingly the tortoise had won! The hare was much faster but when he was far ahead he’d become cocky and decided to have a rest. He dozed off to sleep and the tortoise had sneaked by and ended up winning. Image courtesy of digitalart at freedigitalphotos.net After the race, both lost their motivation to exercise. They had trained hard for their event, the tortoise, victorious and pleased with himself became complacent and lazed around all day eating chocolate and chips instead of lettuce. The hare felt down after his loss and consoled himself with beer and takeaways in front of the TV. A few months went by and one day and Mr Fox came to visit. He couldn’t help but notice how much weight both had gained and felt he should say something. He was in fact a doctor, he didn’t use the title as there had been an unfortunate incident when he had been confused with a radio DJ and followed by the paparazzi on holiday in Turkey. He offered to help the hare and the tortoise to lose weight, and although surprised at first, they agreed. The tortoise did say that his shell had been feeling a little tight recently and the hare had noticed he could no longer see his big paws. Mr Fox started the pair off on a healthy eating routine, carrots and lettuce leaves, as well as a sensible amount of daily activity. They both had to go for a walk in the park for half an hour every day which they could do together so they had some moral support and to make it a sociable task. Both felt motivated by having a new challenge and encouraged each other by preparing healthy evening meals, taking it in turns to cook. A week passed by and Mr Fox came to carry out his weekly weigh in with the pair as he had promised. Both had lost 2 pounds and were on the right track. Tortoise felt pleased with himself and could feel that his shell was already a little looser and easier for him to curl up into at night. Hare was less happy; he wanted to lose one and a half stone, and he thought that at this rate it was going to take him forever. He decided that he would cut back on his food and do more exercise, but he didn’t tell tortoise as he wanted to lose more weight than him to impress Mr Fox. Next week the pair continued to do their walks together, but tortoise became frustrated as hare would speed off and he would struggle to keep up. Hare started to run off into the distance and then run back to tortoise, jogging on the spot next to him. This annoyed tortoise, but he didn’t say anything as he was focused on his own goals and he knew what he could and couldn’t do. Hare found that if he skipped breakfast in the morning and got out for a quick run he could be back before tortoise woke up and then still be able to do their exercise session together. At the next weigh in tortoise had lost another 2 pounds. Fox congratulated him for continuing to work hard. Hare though had lost 4 pounds and Fox praised his hard work but warned him that losing too much weight too quickly could be unhealthy. Anything more than 2 pounds a week was likely to mean that hare was not just losing fat but probably not eating enough. This meant his glycogen stores (carbohydrate supply) were being depleted and with it he would be losing water. His body may also start to break down his muscles to supply him with energy if he continued for a long period of time at this rate. Hare though was pleased that he had lost more weight, and determined to reach his goal as quickly as he could he decided to ignore Mr Fox’s advice. He continued on his strict diet and did as much running as he could. He stopped exercising with tortoise as he felt he was not fit enough to keep up with him. Tortoise decided to add a little weights routine into his program as he did not want to get bored of doing the same thing and had heard that weights training could build lean muscles, which in turn would increase his rate of calorie burn and help him reach his goals. At the next weigh-in hare had lost another 4 pounds and tortoise another pound. Fox was now concerned that hare wasn’t eating enough to fuel his body properly and had a chat with him after the session. Hare reacted angrily and was confused; why was Fox not pleased that he had done so well? He told Fox that he no longer needed his help and that he would carry on alone. Fox, not wanting to argue, asked hare to reconsider his weight loss methods but wished him good luck. Another week went by and tortoise lost another pound. Hare was now weighing himself and was surprised and upset when he fund he had gained two pounds when he was so close to his goal. How could this have happened? He had barely eaten all week and he had exercised very hard! But he had been starving and gorged most of that cake the one day. And he had treated himself on Friday night with pizza and ice cream as he had been good and only eaten one lettuce leaf all day. Hare decided to up his training so he joined the gym and spent hours on the cardio kit and went in the sauna as he though he might be able to sweat out more of the weight. Tortoise joined too and took up Body Combat, although it didn’t work as
Super foods: fact or fiction?
You can’t have failed to escape the press coverage over the last few years about ‘super foods’ and all of the good things that they contain. The idea is simple; these foods are supposedly healthier than their counterparts because they contain high levels of a wide variety of substances, including: • Vitamins • Minerals • Isoflavones and flavonoids • Phytoestrogens • Polyphenols • Antioxidants You’re probably thinking, they all sound very fancy, but what are they and what do they do for me? Well, without getting too complicated, here’s a brief description of each and their importance. Vitamins These are a diverse range of organic compounds that the body needs to get from diet to be able to work properly. They help your body do everything from grow and repair to producing energy and boosting your defences against disease. Minerals These are different to vitamins as they are inorganic, that is they have never been alive. The body still needs them to function and stay healthy though. They are always solids and made up a range of chemical elements. Sodium and potassium are examples of minerals, and roles include maintaining fluid balance in your body, ensuring your heart pumps effectively and building strong bones and teeth. Isoflavones, flavonoids phytoestrogens and polyphenols A range of compounds that you get from things that were alive, namely plants and animals, the latter containing them because they have eaten plants. These compounds have a lot in common with vitamins; in fact flavonoids up until the 1950s were often referred to as vitamin P. Today you’d probably only use that term in relation to the colour of your wee when you’ve taken your effervescent vitamin c tablets! Collectively, any nutrient that comes from a plant is called a phytonutrient. Antioxidants Have you ever watched Star Wars? It’s the classic battle of good versus evil, light versus dark. Inside your body there’s an interstellar war going on every day to keep you in balance. An army of Antioxidants, think of them as Jedi Knights, defend you against Free Radicals, or Darth Vader’s army, hell bent on destruction. As you know, your body needs oxygen to survive, that’s why we have to breathe to live. Unfortunately, oxygen is a highly reactive substance. We know this as we can see the effects it has on cars and boats over the years. As they are exposed to air and water, they begin to rust, and there is a process that occurs in your body every day known as oxidation, which is effectively internal rusting. It is one of the things that causes you to age. This process occurs as a result of using oxygen to produce energy for life. As a consequence, free radicals are produced. These are atoms that have effectively lost an electron and as a consequence go a little bit haywire, or to use our earlier analogy, have gone over to the dark side. They search around the body looking for another electron to get back into balance and back to the light. In their efforts though they can leave behind a path of destruction. Your antioxidant defence system come armed with spare electrons, which they donate to any free radicals that they meet, turning them back into stable atoms that function normally. Remember when Darth Vader becomes good again in Return of the Jedi? This happens in your body every day, as long as you have the right amount of antioxidants available to defend you. And this is where the notion of ‘super foods’ comes from, with some things that you can find on the supermarket shelves containing a wide range of these healthy substances. It certainly cannot be argued that some foods contain a massive amount of these health-promoting goodies and it is worth having them in your diet. The truth is though that your body needs a wide range of these nutrients to function at its best; as with everything it’s about balance. You can eat tonnes of blueberries, knowing that they’re packed full of antioxidants, but if this is all you eat you won’t be getting many of the other substances that you need. Instead of thinking about super foods, focus instead on Super Diets, consuming a wide range of plant substances to give your body everything it could possibly need to stay healthy, grow and function at its best. Remember here that the word diet simply means the foods that you eat; it has absolutely nothing to do with restricting foods or calories. How are super foods measured? One helpful measurement is the ORAC value of a food, or the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity. This tells you how many free radicals a food can turn back from the dark side, stabilising them and decreasing the risk of damage to your body. So which food is the Yoda or Luke Skywalker of your diet? Learn about the ORAC values of different foods here. Below I’ve provided you with ten foods that can contribute effectively towards a Super Diet. You’ll notice that there a wide range of colours on show here and a great little rule to remember is the ‘Rainbow Rule’, ensuring that your shopping trolley always contains foods that are a wide range of colours. Sorry to disappoint you here, but Skittles don’t count! Image courtesy of Kangshutters/FreeDigitalPhotos.net 1) Broccoli Extremely rich in vitamin C, as well as good amounts of vitamin A, B6 and calcium. All dark green vegetables are a superb source of folic acid too, particularly essential for women during pregnancy Perfect with stir-fries or traditional roast dinners 2) Blueberries Rich in flavonoids called anthocyanins, blueberries have been shown to be effective in reducing blood pressure and managing blood sugars to help control diabetes Perfect as a healthy snack or in yoghurts or porridge 3) Tomatoes High in levels of lycopene, an antioxidant that has been strongly linked with cancer prevention. Also a good source of vitamin C A food that pretty much goes with anything, from salads to sandwiches, or even roasted and served with fish 4) Kale Just 50 grams will give you your daily requirements of vitamin A and C, helping with your immune system, eye health and a host
balance on…..Brussels Sprouts
Love them or loathe them, there’s no denying that Brussels Sprouts are an incredibly healthy addition to any plate. At balance, we’re determined to get them on the dinner plates of Great Britain in less than two weeks’ time, and also controversially, on days other than Christmas Day! So why do we want to ‘shout about the sprout’? There are so many reasons! Image courtesy of -Marcus- at FreeDigitalPhotos.net 1) They may prevent against cancer. Sprouts contain Glucosinolates, organic compounds containing sulphur and nitrogen which may offer protection against carcinogens, those substances that cause cancers. It appears they may be particularly effective in protecting the organs in the body but more research is being carried out to find out why. All of the Brassica vegetables, broccoli, cabbage and sprouts convey these benefits so be kind to the sprout and don’t leave it out. 2) They lower cholesterol. Because they are high in fibre they are an excellent foodstuff for controlling cholesterol levels in the body. Given that Christmas tends to bring with it a lot of substances that do the opposite like alcohol, cake, milk chocolate etc, the sprout is definitely worth adding to those Christmas dinners. 3) They’re anti-inflammatory. Sprouts contain Omega-3 and other specialist Glucosinolates that help decrease inflammation in the blood vessels, whilst other research has shown that they may even protect our DNA from damage. All this means in the long-run they may form part of a great team of foods that’ll help you to enjoy even more Christmas dinners! 4) Special K. Sprouts are rich in Vitamin K which has numerous important roles in the body, helping blood to clot properly when required, looking after bones and acting as a strong antioxidant. 5) They taste great! If you’re not a fan of the sprout on his own, then get inventive this Christmas. Steam enough sprouts for a handful per person, chop them finely and add them into a pan with your choice of chopped walnuts, roast chestnuts, cubed pancetta or bacon, and even grapes or slices of satsuma orange. Cook in a little bit of butter or duck fat to get the pancetta nice and crispy and then serve with your Christmas dinner and for the rest of the winter. Hopefully we’ve persuaded you that this little green fellow is worth adding to your shopping basket, so we’d politely ask you to: SHOUT ABOUT THE SPROUT!!!
A balanced view on running for weight loss
Come January, as the New Year’s Resolutions start to kick in, you will see many people hitting the roads for a run, some to get fitter or dreaming of being the next Mo Farah, others because they want to lose weight. You’ll see the same increase in jogger numbers in the weeks after the London Marathon has inspired the British public in the middle of April. So is running a good option for weight loss? We’ll present both sides of the argument for you here and let you decide for yourself, after all, we’re not called balance for nothing! The pros 1) Running burns calories This is an undeniable fact! You’ll hear some say that cardio is no good for weight loss and they’ll upsell the virtues of resistance training (and they’ll be absolutely right to do so on the latter). But let’s be honest, you don’t see very many overweight professional long-distance runners do you??? OK so cardiovascular training doesn’t build muscle and increase calorie burn after workouts in the way that weights training does, but it burns plenty of calories in the process. If you want to know how many calories you burn during a run, Runners World provide a nice simple calculator here: http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator Of course, this is an estimate but it gives you some idea and shows how much of a dent you are making towards your goals. 2) You might like running Doing something you enjoy is fundamental to success in any weight loss or health programme. For those that enjoy running, it may well be a good idea. If you don’t, we guarantee there will be an alternative that is just as effective for you, be it cycling, swimming, walking, weights training or whatever works for you. 3) Running improves health From improvements in blood glucose and blood cholesterol to better control of mood and mental health, running provides a range of health benefits. We’ve also shown many times that getting outside amongst nature has important effects on health and running is a great way of doing this. 4) Running can improve bone density Various studies have shown that bone mass is increased, maintained, or the rate of loss with ageing slowed through running, in both the lower limbs and lumbar spine. Running is of benefit because the strain frequency is high. This means that during a running session the number of times the foot comes into contact with the floor are high, putting repeated stresses on the bones and causing adaptations to occur in order to cope with these stresses and strains. The cons 1) It places stress on joints Yes we know, we just told you that placing stress on bones and joints was a good thing, and it is, for the right people at the right time. If you are overweight and deconditioned however, it may not be the best place to start. When running, up to five times your bodyweight can pass through your joints. For those who are normal weight or slightly overweight, this may not pose too much of a problem, but if you carry more weight then running may place too much stress on your joints, increasing the risk of injuries. 2) It is repetitive The nature of running means that you have to perform the same movement time and time again. This increases the likelihood of overload on specific muscles and joints, again increasing the likelihood of injury, especially if the body is not conditioned enough to undergo these pressures. Running with poor posture or technique, or doing too much, are the things likely to cause issues here. If you have tight muscles, have had injuries, have a predominantly seated job or have not been active for some time, it is well worth conditioning your body first before ploughing straight into the running regime. You can do this through resistance training, stretching, yoga or Pilates. 3) Walking can burn more calories You may be surprised to hear that walking quickly actually burns more calories than running. This means brisk walking (that special type of walk, the type you see in the Olympic Games), at a speed of 8 kilometres per hour or faster. At this speed it is less economical for the body to walk than it is to run, and as such it makes it harder to do, burning more calories in the process. 4) You might not like running See point two in pros. If you prefer another form of exercise, don’t run! There are plenty of other choices available to you. Key messages: 1) If you haven’t exercised for a while, have poor posture or tight muscles, or are very overweight, consider doing something else in the earlier stages of your exercise routine. As you increase your fitness and lose weight, you can gradually add running into your routine. 2) Mix it up. Don’t just run; mix it up with stretching and resistance training to ensure your muscles, bones and joints can take the stresses and strains placed on them. 3) Learn to run – this might sound daft but ensuring you run with good posture and technique, and have the appropriate footwear to suit your style, is key to you getting the most out of it. 4) Run if it’s fun! Don’t slog through exercise if it is a chore, you won’t stick to it in the long-term. Find what you enjoy and mix it up regularly to keep it fun and varied. 5) Little by little – if you are going to take up running, build up gradually and be sure to get yourself a proper programme that includes periods of rest to prevent you overdoing it and to decrease your risk of injury or boredom. If you have a question about your own running programme, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to offer some friendly advice. balance your exercise routine, balance your scales
balance on keenwaaaaaaaah
Whether you pronounce it properly (keen-wah) or the less posh way (quin-oh-ah), it’s still worth adding this food to your trolley next time you’re in the supermarket and having it in your cupboard as a healthy ingredient to add to main meals and lunches. What is it? Whilst many think that it’s a grain, it’s not actually a member of the cereal family, sharing more in common with beetroot and spinach. It’s actually a Chenopod! Sounds like a Doctor Who villain but it’s just a subspecies of flowering plant. It originated in South America and has been consumed in places like Peru for thousands of years. After the bitter coating is removed, the quinoa seeds can be used just as rice would be as an accompaniment to a variety of dishes. Up until a few years ago it wasn’t a particularly common or popular choice on a British dinner plate and you’d be scouring the shelves of only the healthiest of health food shops to find it. These days you’ll find it in most supermarkets, certainly Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose do a good range. It’s not the cheapest but it does pack a fair load of health benefits to make it worth the money. Even good old Ainsley Harriott has it in some of his ready to cook packet foods! A healthy grain??? Like we said, it’s not really a grain like some wheat products are, so if you’re worried about wheat or gluten content as many are these days, you needn’t be. We’ll leave that debate for another blog; instead let’s play Health Top Trumps with our lovely little Chenopod and find out what’s in it: It packs in all of the essential amino acids. These are the building blocks of protein in the body, and the essential ones are those that must be consumed in the diet as the body cannot produce them. One such essential amino acid is lysine, which quinoa carries in abundance. An important factor in a healthy immune system and for muscle repair, lysine may also contribute to blood pressure regulation, decreased risk of stroke and possibly even help protect against some cancers. It’s abundant with a range of minerals needed to keep the body functioning at it’s best, including calcium, phosphorous, iron and magnesium. It’s high in fibre, which as a well-known brand of cereals once said, ‘keeps hunger locked up ’til lunch!’ We’re pretty confident this is a healthier choice, although we don’t expect you to have it for breakfast with some milk and a cup of tea!! Keeps you fighting fit with phytonutrients – as you know we’re big on plant foods here at balance and with high levels of quercetin and kaempferol, quinoa has a range of substances within that help fight inflammation in the body. Good fats – surprisingly there’s a reasonable amount of our good friend Omega 3 in here too in the form of alpha-linolenic acid, as well as being high in another health fat, oleic acid. OK so it’s not quite oily fish but it can contribute towards a healthier diet. Check out these recipes online for some ideas on how to add a little quinoa into your diet: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/quinoa http://www.cookinglight.com/food/recipe-finder/cooking-with-quinoa-00412000073996/ http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/quick-recipes/dinner/healthy-quinoa-recipes/ Love and hugs, balance think, eat, live, move
Exercise is medicine, but which type should you prescribe?
After reading an article on the BBC News website this week about how a study has shown that exercise can be as effective a treatment for managing the risks of a stroke as medications, we got to thinking about why this idea isn’t already more embedded into society. If you read any of the government reports on exercise, you’ll know that it has been well established for some time that picking your body up off the sofa and moving it around, however hard those first few steps might feel, is very good for you, and that whilst medications certainly have their part to play, activity comes without all of the unwanted side-effects. This is why a few years ago, the American College of Sports Medicine started a campaign they called ‘Exercise is Medicine’, and what a wonderfully clever title that is! The notion that exercise could, and indeed should be prescribed by doctors is a brilliant one, and hopefully one that will seep through more and more in the coming months and years. Some exercise schemes run for those with medical conditions in the UK are known as ‘exercise on prescription’, with funding provided to make the exercise sessions cheap or even free for people to attend. The problem is, doctors have specific medications for conditions, but there’s a huge variety in the types of exercise available, it’s like having a medicine cabinet full of pills and not knowing which one should be taken. And in the fitness industry you’ll often hear debate about which type of exercise is ‘the best’ for people. The truth is, it depends who you are, what you want and on a whole host of other factors, but the one thing that is certain, is that regardless of what it is, it does you good. One debate that has raged on in those of us who spend our days getting up at 6 to train someone, pop to the gym ourselves before the day begins, work in the gym all day, train a few more people and then go home and read a book about exercise, is that of cardio versus resistance. Or for those who aren’t familiar with these terms, rhythmical exercise that makes you hot and sweaty (those with the filthy minds can stop right there, research shows that doing that probably doesn’t count as you’re probably lying down and not getting the heart rate up enough) versus lifting weights, or your own body weight for that matter. So which is better? Let’s have a look, but obviously we’ll be giving you a balanced view, hence the name. It can be very uncomfortable sitting on this fence all the time, those splinters in your backside can really hurt! 😉 Well, cardiovascular exercise has been shown time and again to benefit the body if done effectively. I can help to reduce blood pressure, manage stress, depression and anxiety, boost energy levels and of course burn a few calories along the way. Too much of it can be a bad thing as it is catabolic, this means that it can actually cause muscle wastage if people overtrain. It can also increase the risk of injuries if supporting exercises are not done to help the body cope with the stresses of regularly, repeatedly performing the same movements, often with impact in the case of running. But this doesn’t make it bad, it just means people need to find a healthy balance. Resistance training has been exalted in recent years as the answer. It is certainly true that resistance training, whilst not burning as many calories during an exercise session, can lead to a greater overall calorie burn through EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. This is the amount of energy expended after a workout in helping the body to recover and repair, and challenging resistance training sessions can increase this more than cardiovascular workouts. Also, resistance training develops muscles and muscles consume energy, helping you to burn calories even when you are sat on your sofa. Lean people who have low body fat levels and decent muscle mass, the ones who people see on the front cover of magazines and think ‘I want to look like that’, not oversized bodybuilders, will be at a decreased risk of ill health over the years, and certainly at less risk of weight gain. Thin people who have a small frame but low muscle mass and high body fat percentage are at a surprisingly high risk of illness, it’s about how much fat you have and not just how much space you take up. Resistance training is anabolic, in that it builds lean muscle tissue. But there can be downsides, people can overtrain if they do too much just like with cardio, and the risk of injury is just as great if lifting too much or using bad technique. Some will fear entering the weights area of a gym, but you on’t have to, there are many ways to add it in to your exercise schedule: Body weight exercises such as squats and press-ups can be done anywhere and are great because they use so many muscles. Classes such as Bodypump have become very popular these days and are a great introduction to resistance training for some, although be careful as the repetitions are fairly high and done at a reasonable speed with the music. Start with sensible weights and just do one to two classes per week to begin with, you can always mix in other exercise sessions to get a good balance. Pilates and Yoga all involve bodyweight-based exercises and count as resistance training. Swiss balls, dynabands, suspension training and a host of other tools mean that it’s easier than ever to find something that you enjoy and that fits into your lifestyle. But what about keeping your heart healthy. Well, if resistance training uses big muscle exercises and is suitably intense then it can do this too. Research shows that circuit-style training can keep the heart
balancing light and dark
That time of year has come. Your alarm goes off, your eyelids peel open slowly, feeling heavier than a truck full of elephants. You press snooze, they close, your alarm sounds again. Surely that wasn’t five minutes? You fight back, hitting snooze for a second time, managing a rather smug grin for cleverly setting your alarm ten minutes before you actually needed to get up. But there it goes again! Have you entered some sort of time warp??? This time, there’s no back-up plan, and no wry smile. Instead a reluctant hand creeps from beneath the nice warm duvet and pulls slowly at the curtain, looking to let in a bit of light and stir your brain into action ready for the day ahead. But to your disappointment all you are greeted by is yet more darkness, somebody has stolen the sun. And the warmth you’ve become accustomed to in summer, especially this year for a nice change. Zombie-like you rise, arms hanging loosely by your side as you shuffle to the bathroom in your fluffy animal slippers. You know you’re still half asleep as after getting out of the shower you find yourself trying to comb your hair with your toothbrush. Time for a coffee. If you recognise the scenario above you’re not alone. This scene, and many like it are repeated at least five times a week across Britain between the months of September and March. And that’s over half the year! So what’s going on? Well it’s all to do with your big warm friend in the sky, the sun. As well as offering warmth in the summer months, he also gives you something essential for life, light. Sunlight is a rich source of vitamin D which helps build healthy teeth and bones. It also helps your food to grow and gives it the nutrition you need to perform at your very best. And very crucially, it helps to regulate levels of hormones like cortisol, melatonin and others that play such a big part in regulating your mood and energy levels. A lack of sunlight can leave you feeling down, as in Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD, lethargic and demotivated. Obviously too much can be bad for you too with sunburn and the associated risks, but in British winter you’re far likely to get too little. So what can you do about it? Well, quite a lot actually. To start with, you can realise that your body clock, or circadian rhythm changes with the seasons. In the shorter days of the year you’ll probably need more sleep and be more tired. Up until Thomas Edyson interfered with nature with the invention of his now fairly widely used lightbulb (you may have seen them in the shops), people generally went to bed much earlier in the winter months. In fact, research shows that before TV’s, the internet, 4G phones and electric lighting, people slept for many more hours than they do these days, averaging over 9 hours a night if not more. OK, so you may not be able to hibernate for winter (some remote villages in France and other parts of the world still effectively do this) but you can get yourself to bed at a reasonable time and prepare your sleeping environment as best you can to wake feeling refreshed in the morning. Try these tips to help manage your way through the darker months: Get to bed before 11pm. In fact get to bed and switch off by 10:43 pm as on average it takes just over 15 minutes to fall asleep. Sleep in complete darkness. Get good curtains and switch off standby lights on electrical goods, or remove them altogether. Charge phones elsewhere or away somewhere if possible. Even the tiniest amount of light on any part of the skin can interfere with sleep quality. Don’t have it too hot. Sleeping in a cooler environment can help improve sleep quality. Light up your mornings. Try a Lumi clock, it wakes you up with a gradually increasing light instead of the stress of a noisy alarm clock. Not convinced it will work? Try it on a weekend morning when you don’t have to get up, you’ll be surprised. Get outside – make the most of breaks at work and in life to get some light in the day. Wrap up warm and get out for a walk, a run or just a trip to the park with Autumn in full splendour. Get away – plan a winter sun holiday, it’s amazing what an energy boost it can supply. Try a classical wake up – ditch the aggressive alarm for a calmer start to the day. Annoying alarms can be stressful causing big surges in adrenaline levels, which may be followed by a subsequent slump and not particularly good for you. Synchronise – if you can rise with the sun. This isn’t possible for everyone, but if you can, try it and watch your mood rise like the warm orange ball over that hill you can see out of your window. Sleep well, wake better. balance your light and dark, balance your life, balance your scales 🙂
balance on…….booze
It’s the weekend again and no doubt alcohol consumption may increase for some of you, so here’s a few pieces of information on how alcohol affects your body short-term and long-term: Beer bellies – alcohol consumption is strongly linked to the size of your waist. This is because it’s high in calories, packed full of sugar and enters your blood stream very quickly. Research in men shows that increased alcohol intake equals increased trouser size. In women, one study did show that moderate drinking (one to two small glasses of wine) did not affect the size of your outfit, but anything above that did. Beer goggles – a study recently scooped an award for showing that alcohol consumption makes people see themselves as more attractive, but at the same time had no effect on how attractive they appeared to others. If this is the case, it means we should be chatting ourselves up on a night out! Image courtesy of cbenjasuwan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Wine head – it’s not just your belly and your eyes that alcohol has a bad relationship with. Alcohol decreases the quality of sleep, decreasing the amount of REM sleep, making you wake up more often and making you sleepier and low in energy during the day. Wine head doesn’t just affect your sleep, as you’ll know it carries on the next day. Your hangover may lead to stomach problems, headaches, low energy levels and blood sugar imbalances. These imbalances may cause you to crave sugar foods and undo all of the great work you’ve put in to get yourself healthy. Just the one? One to two small glasses of wine or a half/pint per day may offer some protection against type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is likely that women should drink less than men, probably one drink compared to two for the guys. Small amounts of alcohol appear to increase HDL cholesterol and also to decrease the likelihood of clotting. Ask yourself when you go out if you drink lots because you enjoy it and you crave that Sunday morning wine head, or do you think that it’s the done thing? Are you easily led or do you just have a few and lose track? If any of these apply to you, have a plan for a more balanced evening: Drink water in between alcoholic drinks Take a set amount of cash and no card Team up – there’s power in numbers and if a few of you are keen to decrease your alcohol intake, decrease your weight and increase your health, then your gang will become the social norm and others will follow you. Move abroad – ok so this is a bit extreme, but many cultures see drinking as a sociable event without having to consume copious amounts. We could learn a thing or two from our worldly-wise neighbours. These are just a glassful of ideas, you can plan your own that works best for you. balance your beer, balance your scales 🙂
balance on………….The Men Who Made us Thin
Having finally had a chance to sit down and watch all four episodes from this BBC 2 series back to back (the joys of Sky+), it’s worth reviewing what Mr. Jacques Peretti had to say after delving deep into the belly of the weight loss world. Whilst we don’t normally recommend sitting on your backside for hours on end, we nobly did it for you and reviewed the key messages here so that you could use that time on moving and being generally healthier and happier! What did we learn? Diets don’t do it Jacques was quite scathing of some of the larger weight loss companies in his earlier episodes, sometimes fairly although sometimes the reporting was a little on the sensationalist side and arguably not always a balanced view. At balance we’d certainly agree that heavily processed shakes, bars and meal replacements is not the key to long-term success. Interestingly though, having spoken to some people who use them recently, they said that it helped them to ‘kick-start’ their weight loss, increase their motivation and then adopt healthy lifestyles to maintain it. One of the balance values is in empowering people to find out what works for themselves, and whilst you won’t find us selling you a powdered mix to add to milk or water instead of having breakfast any time soon, we do recognise the value for some of getting things moving to help motivate them. Remember though the story of the hare and the tortoise!! And remember that if you do go down this route it’s not a long-lasting solution, so you’re only going to have to make yet another change at some point to maintain it. Fit doesn’t necessarily mean thin The piece on exercise in episode 2 is worthy of some attention. It is certainly true that exercise on its own may not be THE solution to weight loss, but then again, as the world’s population grows larger day by day, it is fairly clear that no one single solution has been found, or ever will be! Jacques’ negativity towards exercise for weight loss was clear, although he did rightly point out that there are numerous other reasons for moving from a health and wellbeing perspective. He also neglected one fundamental point when looking at exercise; type! The focus of the show was very much on cardiovascular workouts, which certainly can make the heart healthier and increase fitness. They also burn calories so can have a part to play in a balanced exercise routine. However, resistance or weights training received little or no attention, yet there is evidence to show that it reduces fat levels and also improves insulin sensitivity, decreases risk of falls and improves cardiovascular health in everyone from athletes to elderly adults an type 2 diabetics! There was a very nice piece about the ‘fat but fit’, showing a couple of ladies who were super-fit but overweight; it emphasised that fitness was key, even if you were overweight. OK, so the exercises they were given weren’t always the safest or most appropriate in terms of injury risk, but they were moving! The science says is also clear in showing that exercise helps to keep weight off, so when it’s combined with a healthy diet you can get some pretty good results. Exercise should form part of a holistic approach and the focus should not purely be on weight loss but on changes in shape, energy, self-confidence and health as well. Do this and weight loss will come anyway! What tastes sweet may not be so neat There was a short but interesting piece in one episode around sweeteners. Jacques pointed out that rats eating them surprisingly gained weight, when it would be assumed that consuming less sugar would lead to weight loss. In an interview with a scientist, she noted that in human beings there was a change in a part of the brain called the amygdala when consuming sweeteners like aspartame. It seemed change occurred in the brain with regular consumption of sweeteners and that this could actually lead people to eat even more calories as it created a weaker response to sugar. Weight gain and weight loss has numerous reasons Peretti brilliantly portrayed the complex interplay between society, the food industry, the medical world, drugs companies, the media and fitness industries. We could take a cynical view of many of these, but that’s not what we’re here to do. All we ask is that you go on your own journey through weight loss, ask yourself the questions: • Will what I am about to do make me fitter and healthier? • Will it help me to lose weight and keep it off? • Is it helping me to gain a realistic view of what I can achieve? We don’t think that the diet toothpaste or magic weight loss soap fits into this category!! Think, eat, live, move, and balance your life, balance your scales. 🙂
balance on…..blogging beginnings and counting calories
Welcome to the the first ever balance weight loss blog! It’s taken a fair bit of reading web pages that we didn’t really understand to get to this point, so it’s nice to be able to start writing! We’ll be posting regularly on weight loss, health and well being, including: News – the latest research and press coverage for all things weight loss, health and well being. Recipes – we’ll be giving you a range of healthy alternatives to your all-time favourites, ideas for healthy snacks and recipes using a range of healthy foods. All will be based on our ‘ten pillars of nutrition’. Exercise advice – at home, outside, or in the gym, we’ll show you how to fit activity into your everyday lives with practical examples of awesome exercises and simple, effective training programmes. Success stories – we love to praise those who’ve achieved their goals, so we’ll be sharing their achievements and how they did it with you, to motivate you and give you ideas for your own journey. Our own research and reading – we like to keep on top of the science and we’re keen to share what we find with you. We’ll put together articles on a range of topics, everything from sleep to stress management, from food to fitness, from what works for your mind to what works for your body. If you want us to write about anything in particular, just ask and we’ll create a post just for you! We thought we’d start with a look at something that appeared in the news recently. These days, you can’t go more than 24 hours without seeing a TV programme or a news story about weight loss, food, exercise, health and well being!! In many ways this is fantastic as it raises people’s awareness of the subjects and gets them thinking about their own health. We do however work with people who tell us they’re confused by all the conflicting information that they read and see from day to day. “Fish is really good for you as it’s packed full of Omega 3” or “the seas are polluted so be careful with fish as it may be full of chemicals”, “make sure to get your five portions of fruit and vegetables each day”, or “fruit is high in sugar and may increase your risk of diabetes.” Which one is true? Who should I trust? Sometimes it’s not easy to know, so we’ll be helping to make it simple to understand by offering you a balanced view (pun very much intended)! Last week the Daily Mail had a story about a research study that they say tells us that counting calories is meaningless. Is this the case? Have a look for yourself . The findings suggest that the calories on food labels might not be correct, especially in processed foods where they may often underestimate the calories. It also showed that different people processed foods differently and as such may absorb different amounts of calories from the same foods. There’s a lot of good messages in this article to take away, including: Just counting calories may not be an effective way of losing weight, and certainly won’t guarantee good health. People are different! Foods that work for one may not work for another. You’ll need to learn over time how you respond to different foods and use a little trial and error to discover what works for you. Real foods are best! If it grew in the ground or on a tree, or it lived and died and not much happened to it afterwards, it’s probably good for you. If it was processed, and it’s advertised on TV, it’s probably not! Healthy cooking can be a recipe for success – steaming is particularly good for you and the odd bit of raw food can be great. Don’t go mad on this, there have been a number of cases of people experiencing severe health issues with extreme raw food diets, and there is research to suggest it lowers HDL cholesterol and raises levels of markers of inflammation in the body. In fact, most fad diets like this purely work because they restrict you from consuming as many calories as you normally would, there’s no magic going on. To count or not to count? When we work with clients we don’t ask our clients to count calories and arguably you don’t need to. If you eat real foods you’ll get full fairly quickly and absorb the nutrients you need. If you eat processed foods it’s easy to over-consume as they don’t contain what your body needs, leaving it hungry for more. They do however have refined sugars, trans-fats and other unhealthy substances that play around with your blood sugars and insulin levels, making you hungry again soon after. This is not to say that calories are irrelevant, far from it. If someone eats too much they can gain weight, if they don’t eat enough they can lose weight. This is undeniable. If somebody finds it helps to count calories by measuring portion sizes and it works for them, well that’s great and it should not be discouraged. People need to find their own ways to achieve balance in life and balance on the scales! If you’re considering making lifestyle changes to lose weight, remember that for thousands of years before food labelling and ‘low-fat’ or ‘lite’ foods existed, people successfully managed their weight by being in tune with their body’s, eating when they were hungry and stopping when they were full. Oh, and you won’t see a fat lion very often!! We hope you enjoyed our first instalment, we’ll be back soon with lots more to help you balance your life and balance your scales. 🙂
