The 5 Worst Carbs to Eat

Following on from the post last week about the 5 Best carbs to Eat, here are the 5 worst offenders when it comes to carbs in your diary and if you can cut them right down or out completely, you'll feel much better and lose weight more efficiently. Having any of the foods in the list a couple of times is fine, but just be aware that they wont fill you and are high in calories.

1. Corn Flakes
Marketed as a great star to your day but this cereal will have you hungry by 9.30am and that's when the snacking will begin to compensate. Avoid if you can.

2. Croissants
These should always be a treat and not a daily breakfast choice because they have virtually nothing going for them - they're fattening, wont fill you and are way too moreish.

3. Cheesy Puffs
As far as snacks go, these are like fattening air. Usually loaded with preservatives and colourings, if you want something like this, try nuts or plain popcorn instead.

4. Instant Mashed Potatoes
No, no, no. If you are going to have mashed potato, make it yourself and add no butter. This is plane food not real food.

5. Sugary sodas
May surprise you that these are carbs but they are full of artificial sweeteners and make you hungry straight afterwards. Why not have a cold sparkling water with fresh lemon or crushed strawberries / raspberries etc. instead?


Photograph by izaeus|argazk (flickr)

The 5 Best Carbs to Eat

When it comes to trying to lose weight, the finger is usually pointed at carbs and as a result, they are the first thing most people remove from their diet.

However, sometimes, we're being a bit hasty. There are good carbs and the problem with cutting out carbs all together is that we often don't feel full after a meal which leads to lots of snacking and we are losing out on some essential nutrients and fibre. So what should you keep in your diet that's good for you and will help satisfy those hunger pangs?


1. Wholewheat Pasta
Perfect for favourites like spaghetti bolognese, pasta and sauce and even wholewheat noodles which are more widely available now. Once cooked, you'll barely notice the difference.

2. Multigrain and seeded wholemeal bread
If you're watching your weight, you should be avoiding white bread anyway but keep an eye that your bread doesn't have sugar added and aim to get some nuts or granary at the very least into each slice.

3. All Bran
Start your day off the perfect way and stay full till 11am at least when you should have a couple of pieces of fruit. This is a great way to start losing weight.

4. Porridge / Oatmeal
Brilliant for cold mornings and even when the weather gets better - great for your heart, your waistline and quite addictive once you get into the habit. Make with fat free milk and sprinkle to top with berries, nuts, fruit.

5. Chickpeas
Great for adding to casseroles or making soups with once blended. Very filling and flexible.


Photograph by rachelandrew (flickr)

The Truth About Celebrity Fitness

Staying in shape when you’re rich and famous must be the easiest thing in the world. What with your own personal trainer, a yoga instructor on call, your own dietitian, nutritionist and chef, how could you possibly go wrong?

Most people look at celebrities in magazines or on television and assume that keeping a killer figure must be simple. After all, what else do they have to do with their time? And for many years, celebrities themselves perpetuated this idea by claiming to be blessed with good genes and saying that they’re lucky that they don’t have to work out much or watch what they eat to preserve their great physique.

Well things are a bit different now.

When Gwyneth Paltrow appeared on Oprah last year, she shared with the world video footage of her fitness workouts. The most amazing thing about this was just how hard she trained: 6 days a week and for 2 hours at a time. Her incentive was to get her post baby body back into shape for the red carpet. But she didn’t once say that it was easy, she didn’t say her slender shape was a result of fate or genetics and she didn’t claim to be able to eat whatever she wants without any weight gain. She said it was tough going but well worth it for the results she achieved.

The idea that celebrities do nothing but party and still look fabulous is now well out of date. The truth of the matter is that they spend as much time keeping their bodies trim and toned as we spend flicking through magazines marvelling at how fabulous they look. Take Madonna for example. Can you imagine anyone who isn’t a professional athlete training as much as she does? Probably not. She works out hard 6 days a week and eats the strictest of diets and never, ever lets up. This is the realty of an age defying body and is the new face of celebrity fitness.

Celebrities who work to get their bodies fit and healthy don’t just lounge in front of the TV, eat take-outs and hope for the best. They don’t drink alcohol most evenings and they don’t overeat. They take their body image very seriously indeed because looking better than good is how they make their money.

So isn’t it time to stop envying the results celebrities achieve with their workouts and start being inspired by their dedication and single mindedness? We should stop poring over images of them looking lean and toned only to feel resentful that we’re not as lucky as they are to be famous and fit – we should see their great bodies as the fantastic end goal we too could have if we were willing to put in the same amount of work or, in many cases, just a fraction of the effort they put in.

Not every celebrity is as strict as Gwyneth and Madonna. There are some who have great fitness levels that are more achievable and just as aspirational. Take Evangeline Lily or Anna Friel as examples. They are regularly photographed out running. Jennifer Aniston works out everyday to maintain the bikini body of a 25 year old despite being 40. And look at any of the contestants from Dancing with the Stars who rightly boast about their fabulous new figures gained from tough, daily 8 hour dance sessions. Working hard for your body is very much a badge of honour these days and great results are well and truly earned.

Celebrities who still yo-yo diet are out of favour because we all know how it will end. The new era of celebrity sees their body as their tool of the trade and shortcuts and fad diets simply won’t do. Sad to admit but everytime you see Oprah lose weight from a different faddy diet, in the back of your mind you wonder how long it will be till it all piles back on. We’re always suspicious of sudden weight loss and not very respectful of it but it’s time to focus on the positive role models who show us what hard work in the gym can achieve.

There’s no denying that there are great advantages to having a personal trainer on call but the single factor that gets results is free and you wont find it in a private gym or on a Balinese Yoga retreat.

It’s in your head and it’s readily available.

A good dose of determination is what it takes for anyone to have their dream figure. Celebrities have this motivation in bucket loads because they know they will be photographed wherever they go and they know women and men the world over will be scrutinising the images in search of saddle bags and cellulite. The key to making this principle work for you is setting your own goals and focusing completely on what you will achieve if you put the effort in. Model the celebrity approach and think about all your forthcoming social engagements and situations where you may be photographed or you’ll be ‘on display’. Imagine how great you’ll feel if you’re in the best shape of your life whenever you meet friends, colleagues or someone takes a family snap.

Focus on the exciting aspects of looking stunning and feeling confident and you’ll find it much easier to follow in celebrity footsteps and embrace regular fitness and make it a fundamental part of your life.

Does an underactive thyroid really make you gain weight?

For many years, someone complaining about being overweight because of ‘a thyroid problem’ was usually greeted with the roll of eyes by others who presumed they were making excuses for their over indulgences when eating and laziness when it comes to exercise.

Thankfully, doctors and the public have become a little more sympathetic and aware of the impact on weight that having an under active thyroid can have.

An under active thyroid, otherwise known as Hypothyroidism, is something that you could have without knowing about it, especially during the early stages. Its symptoms include chronic exhaustion, weight gain, dry, flaky skin, hair breakage and hair loss, brittle nails, foggy brain, poor concentration, infertility and depression. Not a pleasant state of affairs.

Many people don’t know much about the thyroid but its role in helping our bodies to function properly is major.

The thyroid is a gland which sits in front of your larynx in your throat and is responsible for regulating your body’s metabolism and controlling how quickly reactions in your body take place. So, small as it is, the thyroid is responsible for how efficiently your body burns fat and for how much you weigh.

When your thyroid stops functioning efficiently, your metabolism slows down, the weight gain begins and the other symptoms of hypothyroidism start to reveal themselves. It’s estimated that 20 million Americans and 4 million Britons suffer from a thyroid disorder and there are many more who don’t know yet that they have the disorder.

A visit to your doctor for the blood tests to read the levels of your thyroid hormones is how this is done. Unlike the US,  in the UK, patients receiving medication for hypothyroidism receive free prescriptions.

Medication will usually recover the thyroid function to ‘normal’ after a few months but for many women this doesn’t automatically signal the return to their slimmer shape as they would hope. In many cases, the weight gain will continue. This is because the damage to the way your metabolism functions can be far reaching and so a low calorie diet will not necessarily get the same results as it would have done in the past.

So what can you do if you have an under active thyroid to get your weight back to normal?

The fastest way to boost your metabolism is to exercise. Dieting alone is unlikely to shed pounds but in combination with a regular exercise regime, the weight will start to come off. The effects of exercise and a low calorie diet may take longer to have an impact than they would on someone with a normal thyroid function and metabolism, but over time, the effects will definitely be noticeable.

The key is to develop a routine and stick to it. By incorporating a lot more vigorous activity into your life, your body will begin to respond to your new diet and fitness regime.

Reducing stress is also key to encouraging more efficient thyroid function so, despite the frustrations of weight gain you can’t seem to control, it’s important to stay calm and focused on your fitness routine knowing that the results will come, even though they may not arrive as fast as you would like.

For more information on thyroid weight gain solutions, visit www.ThryoidWeight.com

For more articles like this, visit the Women's Fitness site.

Does smoking help you stay slim?

Whenever you see models puffing away on their Marlboro Lights or even school girls sneaking a cigarette, the excuse more often than not is that it helps them lose weight either by suppressing their appetite or speeding up their metabolism.

But does smoking really increase your metabolic rate and enables you to control our weight more easily?

Some studies have shown that smoking does indeed increase our basal metabolic rate – the rate at which calories are burned by the body each day as it takes care of essential functions such as the rhythm of the heart, breathing, digestion, thoughts and movement.

Around 60-75% of our daily calorie expenditure can be accounted for by basic bodily functions and experts believe that one way smoking raises metabolic rate is by stimulating the nervous system to produce catecholamines – hormones which cause the heart to beat faster, thus making the body burn more calories. Nicotine also produces more thermogenesis, the process by which the body produces heat. This too, causes the body to use up more calories.

Some research suggests that the increase in metabolic rate during smoking could equate to smokers burning up to 200 extra calories a day more than non-smokers.

Examining all the evidence together it would seem that each cigarette smoked will contribute to a temporary increase in the metabolic rate and that the more you smoke, the higher a proportion of the time you will be experiencing this faster running metabolism. But does this actually help you control your weight more easily?

Many believe that smoking suppresses the appetite and that smokers eat less than non-smokers. In fact, most studies comparing the calorie intake of smokers and non-smokers show that smokers actually eat as much or more than non-smokers. The reason they are sometimes able to manage their weight more easily is not that they eat less but rather that they burn off more of the calories consumed due to their metabolism running faster when they smoke.

The increase in metabolism while smoking may also explain why some people gain weight when they quit. It is true that many ex-smokers reach for more food than they are used to just to fill the gaps created by not using cigarettes, but even those who maintain a steady amount of food will run the risk of increasing in weight due to the fact that their metabolism is now running at normal speed for most of the time now rather than being artificially boosted by smoking.

So, rather than smokers being their ‘normal’ weight when they smoke and then gaining weight when they stop, it may be more accurate to say that smokers may be artificially slim while they are smokers and then they return to what is a more natural weight when their metabolism is allowed to regulate itself without interference from nicotine. Longer term studies comparing people who smoke for a period and then give up with people who never smoke show little difference in weight gain at the conclusion of the studies though those who smoke experience periods of being thinner.

Having said all that, smoking does not rank highly as a weight management strategy. Exercise and healthy eating will guarantee you positive results in this area by speeding up your metabolism but without any of the potentially fatal and critical negatives such as lung cancer, emphysema, leg amputation, heart disease, clots in the lung, stroke, infertility......the list goes one. And of course, shortened life span.


*Thanks to ash (action on smoking and health) for research. Visit ASH for more information.

Find more articles like this at the Women's Fitness site.

Photograph by bizzyb0t (flickr)

6 Ways to make exercise easier

We all know how good exercise can make us feel and look and yet sometimes, motivating yourself to go to the gym or go for a run can be impossibly hard.

So here are 6 tips that will make working out easier. No more excuses.

1. Do focus on how good you'll feel by the end of the workout. Don't focus on the effort your workout will require.

2. Work quickly, work hard...then relax.

3. Know yourself. Have a variety of options including tough workouts which progress when you're feeling energetic, and easier workouts for maintaining fitness when you have less energy.

4. If you don't feel like exercising, don't just do nothing. Try something new like walk into a class at the gym that's about to start and go for it or walk for 30 mins at a good pace or go swimming. Just do something.

5. Get competitive. Set targets for yourself and focus on trying to beat them. Stick your progress chart on the fridge door and take pride in what you've achieved week to week.

6. Have company and make exercise fun with friends rather than a solo slog all the time. Games in the park, jogging buddy, walking with friends.


To read more fitness tips like this, visit the Women's Fitness website.

Can a fat person be as fit as a thin person?

We've all come across someone in the past whom we made fast judgements about when we saw them. Perhaps someone overweight at school or at your local gym who just happens to be much better at swimming or spinning than everyone else. It doesn't tally with our belief that fit equals thin. But can a fat person be as fit as a thin person all depends on what we mean by fitness.

There are sports and events where extra bulk is a positive advantage and so anyone who is overweight will be ‘fitter’ for that activity than their slimmer counterparts Sumo, Worlds Strongest Man....). These sports are relatively rare however and even those who partake in them would admit that while experts in their own fields they probably don’t shape up that well when measured by more generally accepted indicators of what it is to be ‘fit’.

Fitness for most people means fitness for life and long-term health. How we look, how our bodies perform and how we feel as we go about our regular routines. To get optimum results in these areas, many people will embark on one type of exercise routine or other. Often as we go about these routines, putting ourselves at a better advantage for the rigours of life, we may choose to add in some new challenges along the way in the form of fitness events, charity runs, bike rides, swimathons and so on.

If we were looking at general fitness and fitness for endurance events such as these, would a fat person perform as effectively as a thin person?

Sure, they would. There’s no good reason why they shouldn’t, provided they have trained specifically for the event and are properly prepared. Judging someone’s fitness by his or her size is ridiculous and even implies that all thin people are fit which is clearly not the case.

I can remember taking part in a sponsored bike ride at school where the father of one of my friend’s was leading a group of 15-year olds on a 45-mile ride. He looked completely out of shape but his appearance hid a fit pair of legs and an experienced set of lungs and he left us all trailing on the bike route and then cycled home again as we all collapsed into the train. I’ve also run many a Sunday morning race where I’ve seen, and been overtaken by, runners who look like they’re carrying too much excess baggage but are clearly very fit.

The bottom line is that it’s not how much weight you’re carrying; it’s how you’ve conditioned your body for specific events that matters.

If you want to read more articles like this, visit the Women's Fitness site.



Photograph by hellochris (flickr)

How to Choose the best home workout DVD

Look at your library of DVDs? How many fitness DVD's have you got that you only watched once and never did again? Chances are that you have at least 2. Choosing the wrong DVD (i.e. one that won't motivate you to use it every week) is easy to do. This guide is designed to save you all the hassle and expense of doing that again. Some things to think about before you buy your next DVD....


• Be honest about your fitness level. Are you a beginner, intermediate level or advanced? Pick the right DVD for your level. If it’s too advanced, you’ll probably only use it once and if it’s too easy, it’s a wasted purchase.

• Don’t buy a DVD just because you like the celebrity featured. Check they are being guided by a professional, experienced and qualified trainer. You need to make sure that the DVD is safe and not just gimmicky. There are many DVDs on the market by Fitness professionals who know the most effective and safest ways to exercise and these are the best ones to look for.

• Does the DVD programme offer a good warm up, varied workout and cool down? The best DVDs will offer various levels of intensity so that you can stretch yourself and improve your fitness over time.

• DVDs can be quite expensive so try renting one out initially from an online rental service or library before you commit to buying it. This way you can try it out a couple of times to see if you rate it.

• Read a few reviews of the DVD you like before buying it – not just on the DVD cover, but in magazines and on the internet. The reviews on the cover will always be glowing. Make sure you get the low down from real people like you who have tried and tested the product.

Too busy at work to make it to the gym much?

If your workout time is limited through the week, the first thing you can do is make sure that the little time you do have in the gym is used wisely. Here are some helpful tips to get you started.

1. Your cardio vascular workouts should be punchy, spending no more than 10 minutes on each machine and working really hard on each one.

2. Using the treadmill or the rowing machine can help you to work harder than the step machine or the bike as they force you to use your whole body rather than just the bottom half.

3. Strength training should be focused on exercise that use many muscles at once, such as upper back pull-down, seated rows bench or chest press, shoulder press, squats and lunges. Working different muscle groups by alternating exercises also helps improve your fitness and burn more calories, as you have less time to recover during your workout.

4. Try and fit as much activity into your daily and office work routine as possible. Practice good posture at all times to look after your spine, relieve shoulder pain and ensure that your body is in its proper position so that you can target all all the bits you want to focus on in the gym. Make every journey a fitness burst by singing your arms, squeezing your bum when walking and increasing the speed with which you walk everywhere. Every stride is a calorie burning opportunity.

5. Finally, watch your food quality and portion sizes. Eat for energy and performance, rather than because you are bored or are simply eating out of habit. Cut out all unhealthy snacks during the day and replace with fresh fruit and nuts and glasses of water.


Why not bring health and fitness to your office? Staying healthy during the working day not only benefits your waist line but the company bottom line as it helps to improve productivity. Find out more about wellness schemes at www.the-tonic.com.
Mention this blog for a free consultation and find out how they can help your company out.

To get more fitness tips like this, visit the Women's Fitness site.


Photograph by richardmasoner (flickr)

Best Exercise Classes for Fat Loss

Following yesterday's post about the Best Activities for Fat Burning, here's a guide to the Top 3 Exercise Classes for Fat Loss. These classes are all great for getting your heart pumping and your body working hard to banish the extra pounds you may have gained over the holiday period and get you fit fast.

1. Spinning

This is such an effective class because there is not one moment of inactivity. You’re pedalling the whole time so there’s consistent, steady fat burning followed by bursts of high activity to really get the heart, lungs and metabolism going. This repeated interval style training will work you much harder than if you were to simply sit on a stationery bicycle and pedal away at a steady rhythm for the same period of time.
Calories burned per class: 350 – 700

2. Circuit Training

Like spinning there is very little rest during a circuit training class. Once you’re warm you’re either working on a station or moving quickly between stations so the level of intensity remains high throughout the class, as does the effectiveness of the calorie burning. Each class has a variety of exercise combining cardio stations such as jumping jacks or rowing or cycling with strength stations like press ups, dips or squats which means that you burn plenty of calories during the class and also build muscle which helps to keep your metabolic rate high and calories burning following the class as well as during it.
Calories burned per class: 300 - 500

3. Boxing Fitness

There aren’t many overweight boxers around and you’ll know why if you attend one of these classes. The combination of cardio exercise and strength moves along with the sheer adrenalin rush of getting the gloves on and punching the bag or the pads always results in a great fat burning workout. There’s something about boxing training that appeals to everyone. It may be because you’re legitimately allowed to be aggressive or that you can finally channel the stresses and strains of the day. Or it might just be that because you have to concentrate you forget all your other concerns but I’ve yet to see anyone leave one of these classes who didn’t look like they’d pushed themselves and had great fun doing it.
Calories burned per class: 400 – 600


If you'd like to see more fitness tips like this, why not visit the Women's Fitness site.

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