Your Weight! Your Health! Your Skin!

A few years ago I woke up after a shocking night’s sleep and hazily thought “How did I let myself get in such a bad condition with all these ‘niggling’ health issues”?  Over the next week or so I thought about the best way to start getting back into some kind of shape.

My waist was around 41.5” which on my light bone structure wasn’t healthy. I knew I needed some form of exercise but I also needed it to be at a basic level. Being a tried and true ‘frugalist’ I didn’t want to pay for a trainer. It had to be something low impact, enjoyable and eventually have a progression element to it.  Where to start?  Something basic!

By chance not far from where we lived were some designated bush tracks so I decided to start tackling these. Under the guise of taking my old dog for a walk I got started. I thought the dog would give me an excuse for the lack of pace on my part.  Funny how much we worry about what other people think.

The first few walks were around 20 minutes and some areas of the bush tracks were quite steep so at times I was breathing quite hard. Not good. I had absolutely no cardio fitness. But I stuck with it and after a couple of months things were getting easier and I was setting a nice pace.

Eventually I left the dog at home and took him for separate walks from my ‘fitness walks’ and was able to build up to 45 minutes using some of the steepest tracks.  Now 2 years later I can run those same tracks.

So for those of you that are so out of shape, where a walk from the couch to the refrigerator leaves you out of breath, I highly recommend starting a walking program.  No matter what your age or how out of shape you think you are, walking can be beneficial for you.  It doesn’t have to be far to start with as long as you do it.  Try for 15 minutes 2-3 times a week at your own pace.  Or even 10 minutes.  Eventually each time try to go a little further or a little faster or start to time it and try to knock off a few seconds.

The Japanese have a saying or word kaizen, the technique of achieving absolutely incredible improvements through very small, regular and steady increments. So make the steps so small that you can’t possibly fail.

Further down the track set yourself a goal and within 6 months aim for everyday for 30 minutes and upwards at a pace that gets you breathing harder.

Remember the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

It is no secret that losing weight is challenging.  It requires a lifestyle change that includes exercise and healthy eating. Many people exercise regularly and eat healthy meals, but give into the temptations of snacking.  Snacking is completely fine, and in fact, encouraged to help keep your energy up and metabolism moving, but the wrong snacks can really hurt an otherwise great diet and exercise plan. There is a huge selection of healthy snacks for weight loss available.

Easy Healthy Snacks For Busy People

Most people are busy. They work, take care of their family, and somehow try to squeeze in a workout. It takes time to prepare a healthy meal or healthy snack and many people simply give in to something easier like grabbing fast food on the way home. People wish they could find healthy snacks for work so they are not forced to visit the vending machine or local fast food place.
For those looking for healthy snacks on the go or healthy snacks for weight loss, the easiest options are fresh fruits and vegetables.  Many can be packed and eaten without any sort of preparation.  One great idea is to cut and pack a bunch of different fruits and vegetables on your day off.  This way, you can grab a pre-sliced and pre-packed healthy snacks for weight loss.  If fresh fruit and vegetables are not an option because you worry they will spoil before you have a chance to eat them, there are always dried fruits and vegetables available. Dried fruits and vegetables taste great and pack nutrients too. The upside is that they will not spoil and can be stored for later snacking.

Healthy Snacks on the Go!

For those people looking for a little more flavor in the way of easy healthy snacks for weight loss, there are a lot of other options. Many brands make healthy granola bars that not only taste good, but are packed full of nutrients and minerals. They are also now making healthy versions of typically unhealthy treats, like popcorn, cookies and cakes.  It is now possible to feed your sweet tooth without completely wrecking your diet for the day.  Pre-packaged items like apple sauce and almonds make excellent healthy snacks for weight loss. The benefits of purchasing pre-packaged items is that it is easy to identify serving sizes and nutrition information.

Tempting snacks do not have to be the downfall of your otherwise healthy lifestyle. With all the different fun healthy snacks available today, it is possible to quench any craving and still feel good about what you are eating.  It really boils down to making good choices when deciding what to pack for a snack.  There is no longer the excuse that you did not have time to get a healthy snack for work.  Put a box of granola bars or bag of dried fruit and keep it at work; this way you will always have healthy snacks for weight loss on hand.

I remember many years ago when I was doing an overseas working holiday I got a temporary job in a precious metal foundry. The particular section I was assigned to wasn’t overly pleasant but the older chap running it was a great guy. He was a short wiry man probably in his late 50’s.

During the time I worked with him, I found out that he used to be a professional jockey and quite good at it. He still helped with the occasional early morning training session at the local track.

Over the breaks he sometimes talked about his career and I remember him mentioning the problems jockeys had ‘making weight’ all the time. They constantly had to watch what they ate and sometimes had to drop a few pounds or lose weight quickly for a race.  His ‘secret’ was vegetables.  For him any vegetable was fine but especially leafy greens were the best vegetables for weight loss.

If he needed to quickly drop weight then vegetables was all he ate. If he was just maintaining then he made sure the vegies were the main component of the meal with a small amount of clean low fat protein.

He still ate that way, maybe it was a habit now, he certainly didn’t need to lose weight, but I always remember the amount of work he got through and his high energy levels.

Maybe it’s something to try. Pick one or two days a week and go low protein and low fat and see how you feel on it. In this fast paced world we find ourselves in when we’re searching for a quick fix or the latest product out there we sometimes overlook the basics, such as eating fruits and vegetables to lose weight.  Often the simple things can be the way to go.

It is an unfortunate fact that many of us are not including enough raw foods in our diets.  This might be partially due to the fact that putting together healthy meals takes planning and preparation.  However, if you’re anything like me, you already spend plenty of time on meals.  Making slight changes to your culinary routine does not have to be excessively time consuming and can be extremely rewarding.

The most important thing that is missing from the average diet is raw foods.  Consider the vegetables you eat: green beans, carrots, cabbage.  Are they cooked?  If so they have lost most of their nutrients.  When foods are cooked their cell structure breaks down and they lose most of their vitamins, minerals and enzymes.  When your body does not receive the necessary nutrients it will be unable to function at full capacity, decreasing your energy and stressing your immune system.

Including more raw foods in your diet improves your health in several ways.  First, it ensures that your body is receiving the proper nutrients, which increases your body’s energy and natural immunity.  By eating raw foods you consume less trans and saturated fats which decreases the risk for heart disease.  It can also help you lose weight since your body receives more nutrients but fewer calories.  Many people who switch to eating raw foods also experience improvements in their skin and complexion.

Lastly, eating raw foods is essential for colon health.  Fruits and vegetables are good sources of fibre which is necessary for maintaining a healthy digestive track.  If you do not have enough fibre in your diet you can experience uncomfortable digestive problems.

Many people take vitamins and other supplements to compensate for the lack of nutrients in their diet.  However, these synthetic substances cannot provide the same nutritional value as raw fruits and vegetables.  Our bodies can digest raw foods more easily and absorb their nutrients more thoroughly than they can chemically designed supplements.  Similarly, organically grown foods tend to be more nutritious since they have fewer harmful substances such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Adding more raw foods to your diet can improve your overall health and does not need to be time consuming or extremely expensive.  Simply adding a side salad to your dinner or a piece of fruit with breakfast is a good place to start.  If you want to buy vegetables that can be stored, buy frozen rather than canned; less nutrients are lost during the freezing process than the canning process.  If you want to follow a more nutritious diet but find it hard to eat or digest uncooked foods, you can steam your vegetables.  Steaming depletes fewer vitamins than any other form of cooking.  These are some simple steps for improving your diet and overall health.

One tip I’d like to share that I have found useful in my dieting especially in the beginning was the use of Guarana. A natural berry originating from the Amazon it has a few handy characteristics.

One benefit I noticed was a definite decrease in my appetite during the day. This was obviously very helpful especially while I was trying to reduce the amount of food and portion sizes. When you get so hungry that all you can really focus on is food then I find that can lead to bingeing or overeating and generally going for the wrong food choices. For me that generally happened around late afternoon. Apparently research has shown Guarana may affect how quickly the body perceives itself to be full.

Second was the slight increase in energy levels and physical endurance. Again a very handy benefit when dieting.  As with other forms of caffeine it also increases alertness and has an effect on mood. I also didn’t find it had any negative effects on my sleep patterns but that was just me.

The FDA has also recognised Guarana as ‘generally safe’ and is widely available.
So all in all I recommend at least looking into it to see if it would be suitable for you especially in the beginning of a weight loss programme when you’re at the most vulnerable to giving up due to low energy levels or hunger issues.