WAKE THE FORK UP! Something is driving me to write this - hopefully its the man upstairs & I havent gone completely mental. Since we opened our place, Ive had a lot of heartfelt & emotional conversations with frustrated people who CANT LOSE WEIGHT, have tried every diet under the sun, hate going to the gym and in general feel like theyve somehow FAILED because they dont look like Kate Moss or Tom Daly. I just think its terrible that society & our environment has conditioned us to think like this. Whilst the weight loss industry helps some individuals, for the majority, it is just creating a bunch of fat, unhappy people. For every diets before & after cover model, there are many more people whove wasted their money and been made to feel unhappy. Maybe lost some weight temporarily and then piled it all back on again and more. Stupid bikini body for summer short term targets, drastically cutting out foods you love or forcing yourself to do stuff in the gym that you hate. Thats simply unsustainable for the vast majority of people and is commercially driven by people looking for a fast buck. Someone famous once said, when you renounce your demons, you empower them - all this denial and forcing yourself to do things that make you unhappy is just stupid. Yes stupid! FORK THAT! Its emerging that there is a proven way, to help you get to a more healthier, fitter, lifestyle SUSTAINABLY. Here we go! 1. MAKE SMALL LIFESTYLE CHANGES, like drinking less sugar loaded soft drinks and replacing crappy processed food with MORE real food, taking less sugar in your tea, are examples of things that are much more likely to stick. Going from watching eastenders every night of the week to boring yourself to death on a treadmill, for some reason might not be that sustainable. Find a form of exercise THAT YOU ENJOY! Youre much more likely to keep doing it then arent you? Walk the forking dog, ffs. To be clear, Im not trying to say that bootcamps, the gym or other more strenuous forms of exercise arent brilliant (see point 3 as well). Theyre tools in your box and the key is to find something to do THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY! 2. SET MODEST GOALS & dont beat yourself up if you have a hiccup. This doesnt mean not holding yourself accountable - just make your goal a strong preference rather than a need. Its not worth having a bad day over some water retention. Speaking of which, studies show that much dietting related initial weight loss is simply your body getting rid of water, not fat. These initial big losses are one of the reasons that people get initially hooked because they are conditioned to believe that its really working when they lose 7 pounds in their first week. Thats the equivalent of a 24,500 calorie deficit if that weight loss was due to fat loss alone. Its simply nonsense and shameful that people working in that industry either dont know that or dont want to be truthful about that and tell you. 3. GET EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FOR YOUR JOURNEY Heres where dietting groups might have a positive role to play. IF (& its a big one) their culture is one of NONE JUDGEMENT, mutual support and encouragement. Telling a grown man or woman that theyve been bad this week because the scales say theyve put on a pound is not the way forward. Support can be found in all kinds of ways, eg at the bootcamp, gym, running club - anywhere where others will help you build good habits. 4. Repeat ad infinitum. Whys nobody telling you all this? Because simply speaking theres no money in it. Wheres the money in eat better, do some exercise? I heard a great quote recently, we eat the food, that is the most profitable. What this means is that the people who make the most money in the food business, are the people who produce the most highly processed food, who spend the most money on advertising, to get the biggest market share, that make their costs low that drives even higher profits and that cycle just keeps repeating. The broccoli farmer cant compete! Anyhow, rant & brain dump over. If you like what Ive said please like & share the post and leave a comment. If theres enough interest, we might even start up a support group at FIT chef. If you dont like or agree with what Ive said, feel free to comment - I dont pretend to be the fountain of all knowledge. Im just on my journey of learning like everyone else. Tom
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 07:38:08 +0000