Teach every child about food

Jamie Oliver makes some great points here in his talk on TED.

Check it out.

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What does good look like? Part 2 - Healthy Eating

Following on from the post on what a good exercise week looks like - what does good look like? Exercise - let's examine what a good food routine looks like.


I've touched on this before in the post Why a food diary keeps you slim so here's the next step.

Keep track of everything you eat and drink for one week only.


Then review your diary asking yourself the following questions:

• Did I eat / drink the right things?

• Did I eat / drink at the right times?

• Did I eat / drink the right amounts?

You'll now be wondering, 'Right for what?'  The answer is right for what you are trying to achieve.


What we eat and drink dictates how we feel, our energy levels, our mood, our weight, our body shape and our confidence.


Whichever of these areas you're looking to improve, judge your food diary by the results you're getting in this area.  Then experiment with different approaches until you know the routine of what you eat, when you eat it and how much you eat in order to achieve fantastic results.  


Bear in mind the golden rules of eating for great results though, which are...


Hold on, this post is too long already, I'll let you know the golden rules in a few days...

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Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)

What does good look like? Part 1 - Exercise

How do I fit exercise into my busy week? is one of the questions I hear most often.  It's usually followed by, I love exercise but there just isn't time, what can I do?

Here's my simple strategy for overcoming the idea that you don't have time for exercise.


Instead of blasting through everything on your agenda and hoping that you'll have time for exercise somewhere during the week, adopt a different approach.


Take a few minutes to plan out what good looks like for you when it comes to exercise.  How much, how often, what kinds of activity, who with, for how long.


For one week only, make your exercise the first thing you write into your diary, planner, calendar or schedule.


Then add everything else.


For one week only complete every diary appointment to exercise.


At the end of the week, review what happened.  Did you enjoy the exercise sessions, were the activities right for you, did you need longer or could you have got away with more time efficient options?


You'll be pleasantly surprised to find that by aiming to follow through with this approach for just one week, you'll have completed a lot of exercise.  The good news is that if you manage it for one week, you can manage it for other weeks from now on.


Use the feedback to plan for the next exercise week.


After a few weeks of refining the process you'll find that you have a routine that works for you and that's easy to stick to.


You'll also find that you've become more creative at fitting other tasks around your exercise.


I guarantee with this approach you won't miss out on anything and you won't get less done.  In fact, with the extra energy you generate by taking regular exercise, you'll get more done.


And you'll relieve yourself of a whole lot of guilt at not exercising as much as you thought you should.


Give it a go this week.  It works.

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Photo by sindändùne (Flickr)

How Much Do You Drink?

A while ago I wrote about how easy it is to 'accidentally' consume an entire extra day's worth of calories over the course of a week by drinking alcohol.  You can read the post on Boozy Nights here.


What's shocking is that you can find yourself in this situation even with moderate drinking.  In fact, chances are you'll be consuming these extra calories even if you stay within the UK Government guidelines of 14-21 units of alcohol per week.


What's also shocking is how quickly you can rack up the units of alcohol that make up our recommended 'allowance'.  A common mistake people make is to think that one drink equates to one unit of alcohol.

In fact, the guidelines for units were created when alcohol was weaker and typical measures of drink smaller.  Here's how many units there are in current popular drinks:

·      A 500ml can or bottle of 5% beer or lager contains 2.5 units

·      A 175ml glass of wine, many of which are now around 12% alcohol by volume, contains 2 units.  A 250ml glass which is often served in bars is nearer 3 units

·      Bar measures of spirits are often 35ml which is closer to 1.5 units than to 1 unit

I'm not highlighting these issues to make you feel bad about drinking - everything in moderation after all - I simply flag them up so that you can make more informed choices as part of your overall plan of what you eat and drink in relation to how you want to look and feel.


If you want the best results with your energy, fitness and body shape, keep in mind how much you drink and how often and experiment with different patterns of drinking until you find a routine that suits you.

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