When 10 more minutes in bed is more important than a proper breakfast

Is that extra 10 minutes in bed worth missing breakfast for?

As the days get shorter and it gets colder, I don’t know about you but I find it harder to get up. The snooze button comes out of retirement to help me stay in bed for just a bit longer.

For many people including myself at times it often seems like a good plan to have more time in bed and either miss breakfast or have something quick on the run.

Honestly, a good quality breakfast is worth far more than that extra 5/10 minutes between the sheets.

It has been shown in studies time and time again that people who miss breakfast make up the missed calories later on in the day or they get through the day by taking stimulants.

Neither of these approaches are good when it come to either losing weight or improving health.

Most people who miss breakfast end up feeling nibbly throughout the rest of the day, which is made worse by the high sugar snacks which is often the first thing that they have to eat.

For example one of my clients used to miss breakfast, waiting until she got to work at 9 where she would have a croissant or toast with jam and a coffee. By the time an hour had passed she was feeling nibbly again so had a high sugar snack and a coffee at 10 / 10.30ish. By lunch 1.00pm time she would be hungry again and would have a sandwich, fruit and a drink. This would satisfy her more, but by 3 pm she was ready to nibble again so she would only have 1 biscuit and a tea. She would manage to get through until dinner at 7 which would be a stir fry on a bed of white rice, but then throughout the evening she would have a glass of wine…. or 2 and some chocolate/biscuits/crisps and then to bed for 10.30/11pm.

The calories that she missed at breafast were made up plus extra throughout the day. Over a 3 year period she put on 3 stone!

The changes we made to her diet were simple but effective. If you’re not doing these, make a list and start.

1. Plan your food knowing what will happen throughout the week
2. Start your day with a protein based breakfast such as an omelette with meat or vegetables in or cold meats with some cheese and fruit
3. Take a snack with you such as goat’s cheese and grapes, olives, small meat chunks left over from Sundays roast or mixed nuts.
4. Cut the coffee and drink water
5. Take a lunch with you so that you do not buy sandwiches. Prepare it the night before possibly by cooking more dinner. Place it in a container in the fridge and take it with you for lunch. See how much money you will save over buying lunch everyday
6. Only have 2 or 3 spoonfuls of rice with your dinner. To make up the amount on your plate increase the amount of meat and vegetables

On these guidelines most people nibble less throughout the day and the evening, their health improves and they lose weight. If you don’t then you need to take things a little more seriously, come along to the boot camp for £1 or book a free consultation to find out whats best for you.

Committed to your success

Keith

Step By Step

Sometimes what you need to achieve is just to bigger a mountain to climb.

Yesterday I was working with a personal training client one on one. He has a multitude of problems, some are structural, some are internal lifestyle related diseases, and then he has the weight that he needs to lose. All of these problems make it seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, it has been turned off and you can’t seem to be able to see the way ahead.

This client turns to me and says… ‘I feel like giving it all up’

I asked him what he meant and he told me. There are too many problems too much to do and I don’t know where to start with it all. Plus the usual problems in life when you have a family to support, a job and a girlfriend. It all seems too much.

You see,  if your body does not work well as its painful, but you need to lose weight, but your metabolism is messed up making it difficult to and then you have medication that also stops you from losing weight it’s almost a catch 22 situation.

Can’t exercise to lose weight as your body hurts, can’t lose weight because your metabolism has been knocked out of balance, need to exercise to get metabolism and blood sugar levels right, but can’t as it hurts!

You see how difficult this problem could get in someone’s head.

So what do you do?

In this case we are starting with the structural problems, with massage and some specific strengthening exercises; he can now walk round the field without his back seizing up.

This means that we can exercise and slowly as he gets stronger and more stable we can increase the intensity and therefore his metabolism.

At the same time we are starting to talk about diet and nutrition, so that we can get the internal environment right to increase metabolism and control blood sugar levels.

Once these two things are in place we can start to lose weight, as we’ll have a body that works inside and out.

But what has this got to do with your boot camp session?

Sometimes your weight loss or toning goal will seem like you have bitten off more that you can chew, it’s too much and it will take too long. Don’t let yourself succumb to these negative thoughts. Make sure that you know what you have to do every day, each week to get yourself the result that you want.

Make sure that you are doing all the small things every day and getting the basic right all the time.

What are the basics I hear you ask?

Step 1, get enough sleep
Step 2, only eat whole foods, nothing processed
Step 3, water water water
Step 4, have some you time! Relax, unwind and de-stress

If you are struggling then make yourself a flow diagram of what you need to do step by step. For instance if you want to lose weight, but have painfull areas box one in your flow diagram would be to address your painful areas, get them working, stable and strong. A brilliant way to start the process is to get a full body diagnositc done; http://absolute-training.org/body-diagnostic/

Your next box could be to address your lifestyle and diet. The personal nutrition course will address nutrition and lifestyle, helping you to build healthy habits. To focus on your lifestyle and food go here www.absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/

Your next phase could be the introduction of……. da da daaaaar, exercise! There are two ways to go about this but both start the same way. Book yourself in for a free consultation and then you and I can work out whether you’ll get more out of a boot camp or more from personal / small group training. 

To find out more about the fit body boot camp go to www.fitbodybootcamp.co.uk

To find out more about Personal training go here http://absolute-training.org/personal-training/

Committed to your success

Keith