You’re ready to get fit and healthy, but there’s so much conflicting advice out there right now, it’s difficult to know where to start. What’s useful, what’s not worth bothering with, and what’s just a load of crap? If you want to get fitter and slimmer, feel confident and happy in smaller clothes, and generally achieve great results that last, this blog post is for you.
Here’s my top 10 tips for 2017:
- Avoid the quick fix diet
‘I’ll just do X diet for a month or two to lose the weight, then I can go back to eating normally again’.
Nooo don’t do that! 99.9% of the time, this approach will leave you back at your original weight or heavier in a year’s time. Fast weight loss usually doesn’t stick. Any diet can make you lose weight by causing you to dramatically restrict the amount of calories you eat. But it will only last for as long as you stay on that diet. Once you come off it and start eating a little more, the weight will gradually creep back on. So it needs to be a lifestyle change. To lose weight and keep it off, you need to find an easy way to consistently consume less calories than you currently do, and an enjoyable way to exercise more.
Usually just a few changes is all it takes to start seeing the weight drop off. Depending where you’re starting from, a pound a week is brilliant progress. Two is even better! More than that for any length of time is likely to be muscle and water loss as well, and is usually not sustainable. Some weeks you might not lose weight at all. But keep going. If you’ve made a lifestyle change that works for you, it won’t be that hard anyway. Look at the progress over a month, rather than just weekly, and take measurements and progress photos too. As long as the general trend is going down and/or you feel your clothes fitting you better, things are happening. Slow and steady is a more enjoyable and more successful approach.
- Aim for 80/20
It can be good to cut out things like alcohol / refined sugars for a while and go on a little detox, and if you feel that it would help you reset your system, quieten your sweet tooth and/or give your liver a much-needed rest, by all means go for it. Long term though, an 80/20 principle is a good one to follow. There’s nothing on it’s own that will ruin your progress or make you gain weight, and it can actually be good to include a little of what you fancy into your week so you don’t feel constantly like you’re on a diet.
The big picture is what’s important. Assuming you’re eating the amount of calories your body needs to be (or become) a healthy weight, if 80% of those calories are coming from quality natural foods, that remaining 20% can come from wine, chocolate, a curry or whatever else you want to have. A simple way to look at it might be to eat healthy meals during the week, have 2 meals over the weekend that are whatever you fancy (just don’t eat past the point of feeling full), and then enjoy 2 or 3 little ‘treats’ over the week like a small bar of chocolate / glass of wine. Whenever you have something you fancy, make sure you really enjoy it! Having that balance and not feeling the need to be perfect all the time is what leads to long term success.
- Eat more protein
Protein is so beneficial for women (and men), and most of us ladies aren’t getting enough. It’s a fantastic thing to eat if you want to lose weight, because it will keep you fuller for longer than carbs or fat. And it takes more effort for your body to digest, so you burn around 25% of the calories it contains just as your body works to break it down.
Eating more protein also encourages your body to keep hold of very important muscle (which helps you burn more calories during the day) and burn more fat instead (as long as you are exercising too, especially using weights). This means you get that nice toned look as opposed to just looking skinnier but still with wobbly bits.
Some of the best sources of protein are: chicken, turkey, lean meat, eggs, fish, whey protein powder, puy lentils, tofu, tempeh and Greek yogurt.
- Healthy fats daily for happy hormones
Is fat bad or is it good? It can get very confusing. Fat contains more calories per gram (9) than carbs and protein do (both contain 4), so this means you need to be aware of portion sizes as it’s easy for calories to add up. And even if they’re the healthiest foods around, they’ll still make you gain weight if you eat too much of them. It’s easy to see how a generous ‘drizzle’ of olive oil could add a good 300+ calories to your meal when you know that one tablespoon is around 120 calories.
BUT certain fats are VERY good for us and contain a lot of nutrients that women need to make healthy hormones and a happy, well-functioning body. This gets even more important when you start to approach the menopause (which often starts in early to mid forties) and hormone levels naturally start to become more unpredictable.
The best fats for your body are listed below along with suggested portion sizes, and I would aim to have two or three of these included in what you eat on most days (just be aware of what else you have too, as if you eat some less healthy fats on the same day, you could easily end up too high on calories).
- Flaxseed or flax oil (1 tablespoon of either)
- Avocado (half)
- Salmon (small/medium fillet)
- Eggs (two)
- Coconut oil (2-3 tsp)
- Olive oil (2-3 tsp)
- Nuts – almonds, brazil nuts and walnuts all contain vitamins and minerals that can be helpful for women. Very calorie dense though so just a small handful / around 25g is about right.
- Seeds – pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds in particular (small handful / 20g)
- How many steps are you taking?
I didn’t realise how few steps I took until I got a fitbit. Once you have one of these little gadgets, or a similar tracking device, it’s amazing how it motivates you to do more. I now deliberately take myself out for a 45-60 minute walk most days (listening to a podcast or audiobook if alone – double whammy). If you can walk in nature, even better. It’s SO good for your body, mind and spirit, especially if you are normally rushing around looking after everyone else.
All activity adds up, aids weight loss, and builds fitness (if done intensely enough to get you at least a little out of breath – power walking and going up hills should do this). For women, as we age we gradually lose bone density and become at increased risk of osteoporosis after menopause. A good power walk can improve this by giving your bones some impact to deal with, encouraging them to stay strong (weights training really helps with this too). 10,000 steps per day is a great target to aim f
or.
- Eat chocolate every day
Ha! I threw this one in because as a female, this is the kind of advice I LOVE to hear. I heard a great suggestion recently from another women’s health coach to do this: every day take one piece of good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa or above), sit quietly and let it melt on your tongue.
Stay totally present to the flavours, the smooth texture as it melts, the delicious taste and aroma, and general feelings of pleasure you experience. It’s a little treat just for you. A small chunk of time just for yourself, being completely in the moment and doing something that makes you feel good. Dark chocolate (in small amounts) is good for you; it contains antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that support the health of your cells and hormones. And it’s chocolate, so it has special powers that make women happy. If you’re not so keen on the dark stuff, give it a chance. Usually your taste buds will start to adapt to it and eventually you’ll appreciate it more than the lower quality alternatives.
- All women need weights in their life
There are so many benefits to lifting weights. A lot of women are worried that it might make them big and bulky, but as females we just don’t have enough testosterone to build significant amounts of muscle. So all weights will do is make you appear lean and toned, and help you burn fat. Definitely worth doing!
As well as that, lifting weights will improve the strength of your body as a whole, but also your bones, which (as mentioned above) need to be put under a bit of stress to keep them as strong as possible as we age. A strong, toned body that lifts weights has a faster metabolism, meaning you can also enjoy a bit more food and drink without gaining body fat.
You don’t ever have to go a point where you’re at risk of hurting yourself by lifting something really heavy – it should always be doable, just a bit tough by the end. If it isn’t at least a little bit tough by the end, chances are the weight isn’t heavy enough and you’re not getting much benefit. An 8 out of 10 for effort (10 being really tough, 1 being easy) is a good number to be at, but if you’re unsure or you haven’t done weights before, ask a gym instructor or Personal trainer to show you. It’s nowhere near as bad or scary as it can first appear, and it’s well worth it, I promise!
- Interval training to be slim, fit and healthy
Interval training is where you work really hard for a short period of time (usually 20-60 seconds), then slow right down and recover (usually for 40-90 seconds), and then go again. This gets your heart rate up high for multiple short periods of time, improving your fitness and burning a good amount of calories in a short amount of training. It also stimulates your body to produce a range of hormones that improve heart health, fat burning potential, and reduce stress.
Some suggestions for interval training would be –
- 1 minute run, 1 minute walk (on treadmill or outside)
- 20 second sprint on stationary bike or rower, 40 seconds slow recovery
- 30 seconds power walking up a hill, 60 seconds walk down and recover
- 30 seconds fast on a tough resistance on the cross trainer, 60 seconds slow on an easy level to recover
It can be pretty tough so 10-20 minutes is all you need to do in a session, which could equate to 5-10 intervals (don’t forget to spend a few minutes warming up before and cooling down after). Be prepared to work hard and get sweaty and out of breath, but don’t push it to a point where you feel unwell, and check with your doctor first if you have any health concerns. Two or three sessions of this per week can have huge benefits for weight, fitness and health, and it’s another thing that becomes more important as we age.
- Dark green veggies for optimal health
All vegetables are of course, brilliant for us, but dark green leafy veg are in a class of their own for women’s health. Here we’re talking broccoli, spinach, kale, sprouts, cauliflower, leeks, and also samphire and other seaweeds. These contain fibre to aid digestion, plus vitamins C and K, iron and calcium. All super important for women to get enough of for bone, heart and hormone health, and a strong immune system. Lightly cooked (especially steamed) is the best way to eat them to make them easy to digest while still keeping the majority of their nutrients. Aim for a couple of servings a day (of course the more the better), alongside more colourful veg and some fruit too.
- Please do yoga
I discovered in 2016 just how great yoga is. Everyone knows it’s a good thing to do, but I hadn’t done a proper class until last summer. Then I realised it was brilliant, and just how much we all could benefit doing it regularly. There were ladies in the class who were in their fifties and sixties with balance and flexibility much better than mine. It all comes from consistent practice, and they were in fantastic condition. It’s great for you physically and mentally, to the point where it can actually make you look, feel and move as if you are getting younger rather than older. If you want to be more flexible, reduce stress, improve your balance, reduce your risk of back, hip and knee problems, improve problems you already have, and generally feel stronger and in control of your body, do yoga.
