i know nothing about healthy eating, or what is good for you or not.
im 24, fairly active through everyday life, but i dont work out or exercise regularly. ive read books and all but none really seem very significant and they all seem to contradict each other.
1- TAKE CONTROL
Losing weight and toning up is going to take commitment and not just wishful thinking. Have you got it in you?
One way to kick-start a new regime is to list all the reasons you want to shape up.
Write down your goals – and the reasons you want to reach them.
Are you lusting after that (too small) summer dress in your local boutique? Do you want to be dancing at 2am to the local marimba band rather than dropping through exhaustion?
Would you like to be able to last a full 90 minutes on the pitch with your work-mates when the footie season starts up again after the summer lull?
As part of your "review" you can note the times you have been successful at achieving ambitions in the past. It will prove to you that you can reach goals.
Mark down your weight, and as your programme develops you will have a visible record of your progress.
You might not like the numbers the bathroom scales are greeting you with now, but by the time you’ve lost those extra pounds you will be pleased to know exactly what you have achieved.
At the outset, set yourself realistic (and responsible) goals.
There is no point in shedding half a stone in one week by starving yourself. It will be muscle that you are losing and not fat.
About 2lb of weight-loss per week is perfectly acceptable.
If you are exercising a lot, progress could seem slow – muscle is heavier than fat.
Instead of worrying about weight, look at your shape, and ask yourself whether your clothes feel looser.
It could mean the difference between giving up and living with your old self for another year, or staying motivated and having a healthy, energy-filled summer.
2 – KEEP A FOOD DIARY
It can educate, guide and inspire – and it will be the first thing a nutritionist, personal trainer or dietitian asks you to do.
If you are not engaging the services of any of these, then do it for yourself.
A food diary can reveal all sorts of patterns in your eating habits of which you are probably unaware.
Keep a log of everything you eat for at least seven days: note the time, the food consumed, the quantity and any symptoms (tired, energised, bloated, etc) you experience around eating the food.
It is also useful to write down how you felt before eating. Were you stressed, had a craving, were you tired or bored or lonely?
This could reveal patterns surrounding the choices you are making about what you eat.
Be honest: don’t lie. There is just no point.
Write down absolutely everything you eat and drink.
As Judith Wills points out in The Diet Bible (Quadrille, £12.99): "We are creatures of habit, we love our rituals, and food and drink fit neatly into most rituals and habitual situations. The cure? A good first step is to become aware of what you are doing."
She suggests asking yourself, before you eat, "Is it hunger – or habit?"
If it is the latter, you can train yourself to say, "No."
3 – BUY A DECENT PAIR OF TRAINERS
Preventing injury is better than cure. Recovering from a sports injury can be a tedious process involving osteopaths, physiotherapists and a slow build back to full fitness, so avoid putting yourself in that position in the first place.
The right footwear is essential, whether you are road-running, dancing or playing tennis.
Don’t exercise in worn-out shoes. Your feet need to be supported and comfortable.
The last thing anyone needs in their first week of an exercise regime is to have the motivation knocked out of them by blistered feet and aching shins.
Mass-produced sports shoes have to be miracle workers and deal with myriad foot shapes, weight differences and biomechanical anomalies (pronation, supination, and the different demands of gender).
There are, however, more and more specialist shops springing up.
Runners Need (www.runnersneed.co.uk) has four shops throughout London, and in three they will do video analysis of your running gait.
Run and Become (www.runandbecome.com) have shops in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Here, too, they will analyse your gait and advise from there.
But any decent sports equipment shop should have sales assistants able to answer your queries, so don’t be afraid to ask.
If you have very particular foot issues, think of visiting a podiatrist. The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists is a useful resource (www.feetforlife.org, 020 7234 8620).
Take time when buying new shoes. And forget fashion. Just listen carefully to what your feet are telling you.
4 – PORTION CONTROL – YOU NEED IT
The amounts we put on our plates have, on average, grown by 30 per cent over the past 10 years, both in restaurants and at home.
Stylistically, plates have got bigger – and we are filling them.
It makes sense, therefore, to start off your portion control by using smaller plates, then fill them up with green vegetables or salad.
In a restaurant, have a starter as a main course.
And no matter how you were brought up – "Think of all those starving children in Africa" – don’t be afraid to leave food on your plate. If you have eaten your fill, stop.
5 – THINK LITTLE AND OFTEN
Let’s face it, there are some people out there who are just not five-times-a-week-to-the-gym health freaks.
This is where the tortoise and hare theory comes in. A small commitment to exercise on a regular basis is better than no commitment at all.
Research has proven that people are more likely to stick with their exercise programme if they do it for shorter periods but more often.
Instead of pushing yourself for an hour once or twice a week, it is far better to make time for 30 minutes of cumulative exercise every day – even taken in 10-minute bursts it has been proven to improve overall health.
Tailor your physical activity to your personality.
There is no point in trying out for the company’s football team if you are an introvert who hates mixing it in the communal changing room.
If you are competitive, choose a competitive sport such as tennis or golf; if you are extrovert, try a team sport such as football, cricket or rugby; if you are introverted think about Pilates, yoga or swimming; and if you like the great outdoors, get on your bike, or take to the hills and hike.
Whatever you choose, make every step you take achievable, because the last thing you want to do is give up.
6 – MOVE MORE
This is the 10,000-steps-a-day argument. We are getting heavier because we are moving less.
Our bodies were designed to move. We have been walking for two and a half million years, and now, all of sudden (evolutionarily speaking), we are sitting down – at desks, in cars, in front of televisions.
Most Britons take a very poor 4,500 steps a day.
The British Heart Foundation recommends 10,000 steps to keep in good cardiovascular health.
Research has shown, however, that by walking a mere 30-60 minutes a day we could lose weight (an hour of well-paced walking can burn as many as 400 calories), and that’s without changing any other part of our daily routine.
So, stride out. You’ve got nothing to lose.
The key word, however, is "power" (see Lucy Knight’s Walking For Weight -Kyle Cathie, £12.99).
A little light window shopping is not going to burn off the calories or strengthen one muscle fibre.
Including hills in your walk can increase your calorie-burn much more. So, too, can walking on softer surfaces such as sand or grass.
7 – LAUGH IT OFF
Laughing boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, and increases muscle flexion.
It therefore pays to laugh as much as you like every day.
Researchers have also found that laughing can burn up 2.31 calories a minute, so just think how many naughty "treats" you could neutralise by watching a production of Noises Off every night, or revisiting the whole oeuvre of Monty Python, or spending quality time with your pet (studies have shown that dog owners giggle more during the day than cat owners).
8 – HAVE A BALL
How have so many of us lived without a "Swiss" ball for so long?
It seems that every fitness trainer and physiotherapist in the land swears by one.
Most of us just swear on them – until we learn how to use them properly.
According to Kathryn Freeland, the personal fitness trainer and founder of Absolute Fitness, just sitting on a ball – developed in the 1970s – will benefit your core strength.
The body automatically responds to the ball’s instability, and acts naturally to stop you falling off, working mostly your back and abdominal muscles.
The more you work with the ball, the stronger these muscles become.
It is possible to get a pretty good workout with just the ball and your own body weight, and doing crunches and reverse crunches using one will do more for the abs than working out on the floor.
But start simply: a great beginner’s exercise involves sitting on the ball with your feet hip-width apart.
Establish your balance, and once you are comfortable, raise one foot off the ground and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat with the other leg.
If you feel confident enough, raise your arms out to the sides and hold them at shoulder height while you do the exercise. Repeat three times.
After this, there are plenty of ways to progress: from stomach stretches to ball press-ups, from bridges to obliques.
A ball can cost from about £21.95 (www.johnlewis.com) to £80 (www.technogym.co.uk).
9 – FIND A DIET THAT SUITS YOU
As a nation, we have lost the ability to keep control of our weight.
Statistics show that as many as 53 per cent of women are overweight or obese, while the figure for men is even higher: 63 per cent.
Yet we probably talk about our waistlines more than at any time in the past.
To have any lasting effect, a diet has to suit the dieter – their lifestyle, their likes and dislikes, their budget – so that they can keep up the good work.
10 – RUN
Higher intensity exercise equals more calories burnt, which means
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