Four simple habits to boost your energy levels

One of the most common goals I work on with clients, and something that will definitely have its own page on the new-look website, is boosting energy levels.

Feeling tired, lethargic, and lacking that spark for life is something that is all too common these days, and it's often down to a host of factors.

Here are four healthy habits, one each from the think, eat, live, move elements that form the balance method, to provide you with a truly holistic approach to putting that spark back in your life and a spring in your step:

1. Think: Get checked out

If you've been feeling low on energy for some time, before you do anything else, have a chat with your GP. It's important to rule out common medical causes of fatigue or, in some instances, to diagnose the issue and begin to take appropriate actions.

2. Eat: Small and often (and healthily)

Nutrition can play a powerful part in boosting (or crashing) your energy levels. Food contains calories after all, and it's that energy that you need to make every aspect of your body function optimally.

But it's not just calories that are important. Many nutrients play a role in providing and delivering energy to your body and mind, whilst refined foods and stimulants can have a negative impact.

Before you get overwhelmed by what to focus on though, try this simple technique first:

Eat smaller healthy meals with a good source of protein (think chicken, fish, nuts, seeds, peas, beans, or legumes) more often.

This advice comes straight from the Harvard Medical School, and it's based on the knowledge that smaller meals can prevent you from getting those big energy spikes after eating, followed by that even bigger slump.

Eating small and often, including a good source of protein, can help to better regulate your blood sugar levels. It also prevents too much blood from being diverted away from your brain and muscles to your stomach (to digest the large meal you've just eaten), keeping you more alert as a result.

3. Live: Establish a sleep routine

If there's one thing you can do quickly to improve your sleep, it's to practice going to bed and getting up at the same time EVERY DAY. Yep, that means weekends too.

It helps to reset your body clock (fancy name, Circadian Rhythm), which manages your energy levels, alertness, and all of your major bodily functions throughout the day on a set timer.

Do the same things each day and you help it to literally get into its rhythm, leaving you tired when you should be, and full of beans when you need it too!

4. Move: Feeling tired? Go for a walk

Research has suggested that a short, gentle walk outside (just 20-30 minutes) may be more effective for boosting your energy levels than a nap, using stimulant substances like caffeine, or even stimulant medications.

Why? It doesn't seem to make sense, does it? When you're tired, doing exercise should surely make you even more fatigued. But, much of how energetic you feel is to do with your hormones, and gentle exercise is brilliant for balancing them.

Being stressed all day can lead to constantly high levels of adrenaline and cortisol, but moderate activity can help to bring these down, whilst at the same time boosting levels of feel-good hormones. The result: more energy. Oh, and better sleep too, which will give you even more energy. And better blood sugar control, which...you get the idea! More energy!!!

Getting outside and active early in the day seems particularly effective but, as long as you're not pushing yourself hard too late in the day (when it can delay sleep), being active at any time can help you to feel more lively.

Make a change the balanced way

If increasing energy is your goal, pick just one of the four tips above to work on this week.

Start small. Be consistent and don't be afraid to ask me for help if you need it. I’ll be happy to chat and offer advice to help you find your balance.

Love your heart

I’ve had this blog piece in mind for a while and I thought, what better time to write about the heart than on Valentine’s Day. The belief systems of both the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks believed that the heart was connected to the soul, with the latter believing it was the seat of reason. During Roman times the Greek philosopher Galen built on these ideas, arguing that emotions came from the heart, rational thought from the brain and strangely, passion from the liver!

In Mediaeval times, the symbol of the heart began to appear as a sign of love, although originally the image much more closely resembled an anatomically correct diagram of the heart, something that most of us wouldn’t find too romantic these days.

The use of the image continued and was gradually adapted to look more like the heart we know today. Martin Luther, the major figure of the Protestant Reformation, used the image of a traditional love heart surrounded by a white rose as the symbol of Lutheranism from around 1530, and by the Victorian era, the practice of sending love notes on Valentine’s Day was born.

The Lutheran symbol - reproduced from https://stainedglassinc.com

What your heart can tell you

Anyway, enough of the history lesson, the real reason I wanted to create this blog was to show you how you can use your resting heart rate for all sorts of useful things.

Your heart is a muscle and just like those in your arms and legs, it contracts to create movement. Its job though is to move blood around your body, pumping used blood back to the lungs to be topped up with oxygen and freshly O2-enriched blood out to your muscles and organs where oxygen is in constant demand to keep you functioning. It has some unique properties that distinguish it from the muscles of your skeleton:

• Unlike skeletal muscles, it’s involuntary, meaning you don’t have to think about it for it to beat. It would be slightly annoying if approximately every second your train of thought was interrupted whilst you remembered to contract your heart and keep oxygen-rich blood passing round your body.

• Instead, it is switched on automatically by its own electrical current. This passes through continuously, causing your heart to fill, contract and push blood around your body, then refill.

• Your heart muscle, or to give its fancy names, cardiac muscle or the myocardium, has to have oxygen to work. Your skeletal muscles can for a short period work anaerobically, or without oxygen, but this is bad news for the heart, one of the reasons why it beats continuously to ensure it gets what it needs.

Here’s how you can use your resting heart rate to learn more about yourself.

1. Fitness and health

Like the muscles attached to your skeleton, with exercise your heart becomes fitter. Regular cardiovascular exercise; walking briskly, running, cycling, swimming and gym work, causes the cardiac muscle to grow, in much the same way as your muscles grow if you lift big weights often enough.

As the heart grows in size and strength, that means it can pump out more blood with each beat and in response, it can perform its job more easily and not have to beat as often. This why measuring your resting heart rate is a good marker of your health and fitness. You can test it by feeling for your pulse in your wrist or neck using two fingers (don’t use a thumb as it has its own pulse), or many sports watches these days will provide data on your heart rate constantly, including your current average at rest.

Make sure you take readings when resting, having drunk no caffeine or alcohol, done no exercise and ideally not when stressed. First thing in the morning when you get up is a good time.

Here’s a guide to what the scores mean

60-80 beats per minute: a good resting score, well within the normal figures and showing that your heart is working at a normal level whilst at rest

Less than 60 beats per minute: If you’re active and generally lead a healthy lifestyle, this shows that your heart is strong and not having to pump too often to meet its demands. If you’re overweight and live an unhealthy lifestyle e.g. drink or smoke excessively, it’s worth visiting your GP to discuss this as low resting heart rates for you can be a sign that it’s not quite working as it should

Over 80 beats per minute: your heart is having to work hard even at rest. If you live an unhealthy lifestyle, you might want to consider what you can do to lose weight, increase your health or fitness and visit your GP to get a check-up. If it’s over 100, you should definitely see your GP to discuss actions and lifestyle changes.

2. Recovery

Resting heart rate will vary constantly by a couple of beats, but if you notice that yours has increased by 5 beats or more, it’s likely that you’re a bit fatigued. It could be that you haven’t recovered from a hard training session (or late night), or it could be a sign that you have a cold coming. For example, mine was hovering at around 45-48 last week, then all of a sudden it went up to 60 and was followed closely by a bout of man-flu.

Monitoring it daily can help you to keep an eye on training intensity, knowing when to ease back, and also to help you evaluate whether you’re on top of healthy habits like fruit and veg intake, water and sleep.

3. VO2max and other markers

Some of the fancier sports watches use something called Heart Rate Variability. Basically that’s the time-gap between your heart beats. When you’re fit and well, not too tired, training at the right level for you and free from colds etc, your heart naturally speeds up and slows down. That means that the time-gap between beats naturally changes too. Some watches can measure this change and actually use it to calculate an estimate of your cardiovascular fitness, known as your VO2max

V = Volume

O2 = Oxygen

Max = the maximum amount you can take in

The watch can provide you with a score, likely somewhere between 30 and 80 depending on your age and fitness, that shows you approximately how many millilitres of oxygen you can take in per kilogram of your bodyweight every minute. Fitter people can get more oxygen in, hence why they can work harder during exercise without getting tired.

You can find out more about VO2max here.

Love your heart

As you can see, your heart is a wonderful thing that can tell you all sorts about how well it’s working with some simple checks. Give it some exercise a few times a week, it loves it when it can see its muscles growing! ;-)

Stay balanced,

Paul

A balanced take on the scales: weighing up the pros and cons

Weighing scales have been around for millennia (if you’re a geek like me you can read more about their history here). They’re probably the most used health measuring tool on planet Earth (and maybe other world’s too, who knows), and they’re responsible for their fair share of strong opinions, heated debates and full-blown arguments. Many swear by them, sometimes to the point of unhealthy obsession, whilst opponents, particularly from the modern-day fitness world, espouse throwing them out of the nearest window or banishing them to far-away lands.

I thought then that it was high time for a balanced view on the matter, so I’ve weighed in with this blog (couldn’t resist, sorry), dedicated to guiding you through whether you should use them at all, and if so, how often.

Weighing in weekly…or even daily

I’ll be the first to admit, for many years I would discourage my clients from this approach, rolling out the justifications we’ll review in a minute. I’ve mellowed in my old-age and those of you who’ve worked with me or been taught by me on a course will know that one of my favourite sayings is ‘it depends’. That said, I’ve never gone as far as thinking that weighing yourself daily was a good idea, especially as I once worked in a gym with a PT who weighed herself in ounces (something I thought was only reserved for the ingredients of Bake-Off contestants) and would be devastated at the tiniest changes.

Imagine my surprise then this week when, whilst researching for the next balance book/online offering (titled Think: Developing a mindset for lasting success, part 1 of The Art of Balance: How to be fit, healthy and happy), I came across a decent amount of research suggesting that weighing yourself daily might be highly effective. My flat world had just become round!!!

One study of 294 college students found that people weighing themselves daily lost significantly more weight over a 2-year period than those who weighed in daily. Another began with a single weight-loss seminar, after which, half of the 162 attendees were asked to weigh themselves daily, whilst the other half were offered no advice on weighing regularity. Over one year, the men asked to weigh daily lost significantly more than those who were not given advice on weighing frequency. There was no difference for the women though. In the second year of the study, the half originally not advised on weighing frequency were also asked to weigh-in daily and again the men in this group went on to lose significant amounts of weight whilst the women’s weight remained constant.

A review of a wide range of studies on the topic found that both daily and weekly weigh-ins were equally successful, regardless of the other features of the weight loss programme, and one study of over 11,000 participants in Israel discovered that when people visited their GP’s or dietician frequently for weigh-ins on a weight management programme, they were up to 13% more likely to lose a significant amount of weight, in this case at least 5% of their starting weight. This figure is commonly used in the medical world and is considered a decent marker of success.

Consider my eyes opened to new possibilities. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Weight Watchers (now WW of course) and Slimming World had so much success built around their weekly weigh-in models. Regular weighing may of course not be right for everyone, so here’s some guidelines that might help you to decide if it’s right for you.

Weigh yourself daily or weekly if:

• You know you’re impatient for results and become demotivated without them. Regular weigh-ins can help provide focus by providing evidence of quick wins. See my recent blog on why so many people love quick wins here.

• You need a disciplined structure to keep you on track. One of the other big reasons for the success of Slimming Clubs is the public weigh-in; it’s nice to get praise for success and equally it’s nice not to feel like you’ve failed in front of others. If you know this works for you, join a club or replicate it by weighing in with colleagues at work, family or friends. I was amazed by the successes on a weight-loss challenge I helped run for the Bank of Ireland a few years ago which contained a weekly weigh-in and a competition element, people like to win and hate losing (except weight of course).

• You’re ok seeing progress in smaller chunks. You may have a goal of losing a few stone and daily or weekly weigh-ins will see you chipping away at this pretty slowly, sometimes not at all if weighing daily.

• In fact, only weigh daily if you can always keep the big picture in mind, the long-term goal. Weight is affected by so many things; hydration levels, food in your stomach, whether you’e been to the loo or not, the menstrual cycle and more besides, that it’s highly unlikely you’ll see a consistent drop in weight. If you’re happy to look for trends over time but need that regular check to keep you on track, it can work for you.

• You use other monitoring methods alongside it. For example, you might weigh-in daily but do a waist measurement every 1-2 weeks as well. You can also use other tape measure readings, clothing fit and body fat tests if you have access to them. Often if people perform exercise whilst attempting to lose weight, muscle mass increases and so can weight. That doesn’t mean you’ll end up big and bulky though; muscle is very dense and so you actually get firmer and smaller the majority of the time, which is what most people are after. Changes to size and muscle mass will definitely be gradual so performing them fortnightly or even monthly is better.

One of my favourite food psychology researchers, Brian Wansink, suggests that if you do weigh weekly, Wednesday is a good day to choose. Presumably that’s because it’s as far away from the weekend as possibly and you’re more likely to be in the middle of a more structured eating routine. If this isn’t the case for you, just be sure to pick a consistent time and day to make the measurement more consistent. First thing in the morning before food and after going to the loo is always good, and keep clothing consistent (or don’t wear any…unless the scale is on the gym floor)!

Do not weigh yourself daily or weekly if:

• You’ve suffered from an eating disorder or body dysmorphia, suspect that you might do, or feel that doing so could become obsessive and negatively impact your mood.

• You’re motivated by seeing bigger changes; some people like the fact that they’ve shifted 7-8 pounds as opposed to just one or two, bigger numbers might be better and if they are, weigh-in less frequently for a higher likelihood of success.

• Weight is the only measure of progress you are tracking; it’s too easy to get disheartened with the frequent fluctuations caused by other factors.

If this is you, consider weighing less often and pay particular attention to the following essential points…

1) Choose a frequency of weighing that achieves the right balance for you; enough to keep you motivated but no so much that you get disappointed by slow progress or fluctuations from day-to-day

2) Use scales as just one tool in your armoury to track progress. On their own, they only tell a tiny part of the story. Use tape measures, clothing size and body fat percentage alongside these. That way, if your weight increases but you’ve lost fat and you’re smaller, you’ll know you’ve built lean muscle and you can stay happy and motivated

3) Remember to track the process too. Often we focus on the outcome, the weight or shape we want, and forget that it’s the things we do each day that will get us there. One of the three key tenets of the balance approach is ‘You are the sum of your most frequent recent behaviours.’ In other words, if you’re doing the right things, it will happen.

4) If you’ve had or have body issues or an eating disorder, always discuss options for tracking your progress and behaviours with your GP, counsellor or dietician in the first instance. They can help you to find a balanced approach that’s right for you.

Please do pop me a message or post on the balance Facebook page if you have questions about what you can do to track your progress, I’m always happy to help anyone find a little better balance.

Body Clock: What makes you tick?

A fantastic Horizon special this week saw Ella Al-Shamahi, a paleo-anthropologist, standup comic and excellent presenter, working alongside a team of scientists following former commando Aldo Kane, equipped with lean physique and fashionable strongman beard, as he spent ten days inside a nuclear bunker. With no phone or watch and no other way to tell the time, Aldo was observed on camera 24 hours a day to see how it affected his natural rhythms, almost like a Body Clock Big Brother.

They put him through various experiments to see how his internal clock deep within the hypothalamus in the brain (known as the biological clock or circadian rhythm) was impacted. Watch as Aldo struggles to guess the time (he’s out by around 2-3 hours generally) and his mental and physical state alters over the course of a week and a half underground. He’s a super-fit chap so there’s a funny bit when he says how hard the experiment is hitting him, so hard that he’s finding it tough to do even an hour’s training!

They show how there are generally three types of people according to the research:

• 25 per cent of us are ‘early birds’, better in the mornings and early to bed ideally

• 25 per cent of us are ‘night owls’, better lying in late and more alert in the evenings

• 50 per cent of us lie somewhere in between

They meet a range of experts and everyday folk to uncover ‘hacks’ you can use to live more in sync with your particular body clock, and be fitter, healthier and happier as a result. Now of course, I don’t call them hacks, they’re behaviours, things you may be able to add to your routines to make improvements. Here’s a selection of the behaviours they uncover. How many do you do? Is there one you could change to help you find a little better balance?

1) Eat bigger meals in the mornings and smaller meals if eating late in the evening. That’s because your digestive system is actually most active first thing and less active just before you go to bed.

2) Carry out tasks that require lots of brain power in the late morning. This is when we tend to excel at complex processes and things needing logical thought.

3) Exercise late afternoon/early evening. This is when strength, power and reaction time tend to peak meaning you can perform at your very best.

4) Get outside as much as possible during the day. Exposure to natural light helps to sync your body clock and leads to better sleep. The light that we’re exposed to in cars, homes and workplaces, even with windows is hundreds of times lower and doesn’t have the same positive impact. Our balance events are a great opportunity to get out into nature and improve your sleep in the process of course! ;-)

5. In an ideal world, live by your clock. Today’s society doesn’t always allow for this, so if you can’t, read below for more helpful tips.

6. Whatever clock type you are or your daily routine, stick to the same sleep schedule ALL the time. Avoid lying in and catching up on sleep at weekends or days off as it throws your rhythm out again, find something that works and stick to it. Here are those tips I promised:

Night owls

If you can’t work to your rhythm and you struggle to get up in the mornings…

• Get as much natural light as possible when you wake up. Get the curtains open, get outside, or make your commute active an active one.

• Shut out/cut down on blue light after sunset. Body clock expert Professor Till gets people in the show wearing special orange sunglasses to do this, but if you don’t have access to these then avoiding tablets or phones after dark or switching them to night shift function can make a difference

Early birds

If you need more sleep but find yourself awake and alert early regardless of how little you’ve had…

• Block out the morning light. Use eye masks or blackout curtains to make the room darker. This is especially good for nightshift workers who need to get some shuteye during the day.

• Get as much light as possible in the late afternoon/early evening. This can help to synchronise your body clock to your new time schedule.

Similarly, if jet lag is a problem for you, when you fly east, get out into daylight as early in the morning as possible, whereas if you fly west, get natural light as late in the day as is possible.

Better balance

Remember as always, if you feel it would help you to make a change, do ONE thing only. Try it, don’t expect it to work every time straight away, be patient with it and you’ll get there.

Oh, and here’s the link to the show in iPlayer if you fancy watching it for yourself:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bn5ys4/horizon-2018-9-body-clock-what-makes-us-tick#

Full of beans or running on empty?

It’s an often talked about topic in health and fitness. Many of us say ‘I’d like to have more energy’ or 'I want to feel less tired’. What actually is it that we’re asking for? How do I get more of it? Is it a real 'thing’ or some mystical force like the powers superheroes possess in the movies?

As with most things health and fitness, the answer is far from black and white. There are numerous reasons why you may feel more or less energetic. Let’s have a look at what they are.

Food energy

Your body needs calories from carbohydrates, fat and protein to live. You get these from food and drink which in turn get this energy from the sun. If you eat plants they absorb the energy directly and if you eat animal produce they’ve absorbed energy from sunlight and from the plants they’ve eaten. These foods are converted inside you to something known as ATP. This is the energy currency of your body and it’s the only one it accepts.

It’s easy then. If I just eat more I’ll have more energy! Well yes to a certain extent, if you don’t eat enough your energy levels will be lower, much like if you don’t fill your car with petrol it can’t run. However, it’s not simply about quantity but also quality. For your body to convert the food into usable energy, it needs vitamins and minerals. This means you need foods that provide these in order to best access the energy, one of the reasons why getting your five-a-day is so important.

The quality of the food also has an impact on what your body does with it. High sugar, refined foods cause your blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. Your body panics as too much sugar in your blood is harmful and so it rapidly releases a hormone known as insulin. Its job is to store away this energy to bring blood sugars back to normal and make you safe. This increases the likelihood of your body storing this food as fat, especially when your energy stores for your muscles and organs are already topped up because you haven’t done much exercise (we’ll look at that in a bit).

Because your body panics when it senses rapid rises in blood sugars, it releases lots of insulin. This often means that too much sugar is removed from your blood and you feel really weak and tired. You know that feeling mid-afternoon after a big lunch or shortly after you’ve indulged in a sizeable treat? So rather than these energy rich foods giving you more energy, they actually make you feel more tired.

Key messages for food energy:

1) Are you eating enough? Your body needs enough food to make enough energy.

2) Are you eating the right nutrients i.e. a mixture of healthy carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals?

3) Are you eating too many refined, processed foods? Even though they’re full of energy, they’ll leave you feeling exactly the opposite.

Fluid energy

Water plays a key role in keeping you energised too. That’s because your blood is mostly made of the stuff and it’s your blood that carries the nutrients we’ve already talked about around your body.

So how much should you drink? Multiply your weight in kilograms by the figures below to help you work it out:

Age (years)

Multiply your weight in kg by  this figure

16-30

0.035-0.04 (dependent on the  individual)

31-54

0.03-0.035 (dependent on the  individual)

55-65

0.03

65+

0.025

There are other things to consider too:

   How much exercise do you do? If you train regularly, use this guide created by the American College of Sports Medicine to work out how much extra fluid you need: https://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/selecting-and-effectively-using-hydration-for-fitness.pdf

   Warmer climates will mean you need to drink more than normal, as will illness.

   There is water in food too. If you’re eating your five-a-day and a normal diet you’ll get around 20% of your daily fluid needs.

   Caffeinated drinks probably won’t dehydrate you like you may think. Most of what is in a cup of coffee is water so this will actually offset the dehydrating effects of caffeine.

   Alcohol on the other hand will definitely dehydrate you.

   How do you feel? If you’re dehydrated you need to drink more. You can also use urine colour as an indicator; it should be light or straw coloured.

Key messages for fluid energy:

1)   Are you drinking enough water for your needs?

2)   Are you dehydrated? Use how you feel and urine colour as an indicator.

3)   Are you getting fluids from healthy foods like fruit and vegetables?

Hormonal energy

Your body has a range of glands that produce special messengers called hormones. These perform a vast range of roles in your body, from making you feel good to ensuring your metabolism works properly. Some of the key hormones are:

   Insulin and glucagon

   Thyroxine

   Serotonin

   Adrenaline and cortisol

Between them they can play a huge part in how energetic you feel. Let’s have a little look at why.

Insulin and glucagon – this pair of hormones work together to control your blood glucose levels. This is important, as your brain needs a steady supply of glucose to enable it to function. You know that confused, weak, irritated or dizzy feeling you can get when you haven’t eaten for hours? If your blood glucose drops too low, glucagon leaps into action telling your body to release some it has stored away for emergencies like this. That’s why sometimes you can be hungry, not eat and your hunger goes away. You only have a limited supply though, so it’s important to top up with quality carbohydrate.

Insulin on the other hand goes to work when your blood glucose is too high, like after a big meal or that half packet of biscuits. When you overindulge your body can overreact, releasing too much insulin and sending blood glucose levels lower than normal. This makes you feel lethargic and sleepy, like after that big Sunday roast. So you see, get the balance of these hormones wrong and you’ll feel much less energetic. Do it too often with overeating or unhealthy foods and you can develop diabetes. This is when your body becomes resistant to the insulin it produces and will have an even more dramatic impact on energy levels.

Thyroxine – this is one of the hormones made by your thyroid gland that has a big impact on your metabolism. People with underactive thyroid will find they feel tired and can gain weight easily, whilst those with an overactive thyroid may be unusually energetic, have a racing heart, high temperature and sweating. Both obviously cause unusual fluctuations in your energy levels. If you recognise any of these symptoms and they are unusual, you should definitely visit a GP to discuss it.

Serotonin – along with other substances, this has a big role to play in your mood. Technically it’s not a hormone, it’s a neurotransmitter, meaning it creates connections in your brain but let’s not split hairs. Research is fairly clear here; low serotonin is linked to higher rates of depression with mood increasing as levels increase. Depression is often linked to a feeling of lethargy and low energy so again we have another possible explanation for how energetic we may feel.

There are some lifestyle changes we can make to boost our levels of serotonin, namely:

   Get outside – sunshine plays a big part in our levels.

   Exercise – movement also increase serotonin. And what’s better, if you link to the first point you can get a double whammy. This is one theory for why exercise makes us feeling good, often more energetic after than we were when we started which if energy were just calories would be completely illogical.

   Nutrition – your body makes serotonin from a substance called tryptophan and you can find this in certain foods. Eating them regularly may boost levels although this certainly isn’t proven yet. The foods contain plenty of other nutrients so they won’t do any harm though. Good sources include turkey, chicken, eggs, milk, bananas, corn, nuts and seeds, beans and lentils.

Adrenaline and cortisol – these are your ‘fight or flight’ hormones. They kick in when your body is faced with a stress, be it a physical or mental one and cause a chain reaction of events that supply your muscles and brain with more energy. Too little and you’ll feel lethargic, almost like having your foot constantly on the break in the car. Too much and you can burn yourself out. Imagine driving with your foot flat on the accelerator constantly. Get the balance right and your energy levels will rise. So how can you do this?

   Get the balance of exercise and rest. Don’t train hard or long every single day. Your body gets fitter whilst it recovers, not when it’s actually exercising. If you don’t give it time to recover, well it won’t recover and you’ll be left feeling more tired and less fit than before. Some think that overdoing exercise (or work) can cause your adrenal glands to struggle to produce as much as you require. This is referred to as ‘burnout’ and leaves you feeling constantly exhausted and able only to perform short, low intensity exercise before getting tired.

   Sleep – moderate exercise has been shown to improve sleep. There are lots of other things you can do to and I’ll be telling you more about these in my new ‘Balance Guide to Better Sleep’ coming soon.

   Mix light with dark – cortisol is triggered by light so if you spend too long indoors you’ll get less and may feel less energetic. Leave the lights on or expose yourself to TV’s, computer screens and even standby lights late at night and you can elevate levels when you’re trying to nod off. It all comes back to getting that balance just right.

Key messages for hormonal energy:

1)   Control both portion size and food quality to ensure balance of your insulin levels and help maintain a steadier supply of energy to your brain and organs.

2)   Boost levels of serotonin and other happy hormones by getting some sunshine, exercising and eating healthily.

3)   Moderate exercise with enough time for rest and recovery will also help keep your adrenaline and cortisol levels in balance.

Positive mental energy

Call it what you like depending on your view of the world…happiness, emotional energy, positive mental attitude, spiritual energy, chi; your mind plays a huge part in how energetic you feel.

Ever noticed how certain sportspeople seem to be injured more when they’re losing? And how five minutes later when they’re winning again they seem to be able to jump higher, run further and faster.

Maybe then there are things we can do to create this mindset for more energy. I’m not saying I know all of the answers here, but in my experience the following seems to help:

   Do what you love. Having a job or a hobby that you’re passionate about increases your energy for it.

   Surround yourself with positivity. Being in an environment full of energetic people tends to lift us up with them.

   Focus on the positives. Set goals about thinks we want rather than things we don’t. See the learning to be gained in things that haven’t gone quite to plan. Be optimistic. As Monty Python once sang…’always look on the bright side of life.’

On the flip side there are things that can sap us of energy. These include pain, negative emotions, arguments, physical and mental illness. Seeking help from medical practitioners for physical ailments or counselors for psychological ones may be a great way to help manage or overcome some of these instances and move us back to a feeling of greater energy.

Key messages for positive mental energy:

1)   Control both portion size and food quality to ensure balance of your insulin levels and help maintain a steadier supply of energy to your brain and organs.

2)   Boost levels of serotonin and other happy hormones by getting some sunshine, exercising and eating healthily.

Physical energy

As mentioned earlier, logically exercise will leave you feeling more tired than when you started. If you do a very long or very hard exercise session then it certainly will, but moderate exercise seems to leave you feeling more alert, awake and energetic than before you started. Why is that?

   Chemicals – as you’ve already seen, exercise changes levels of a wide range of hormones and neurotransmitters including adrenaline, serotonin and dopamine.

   Fresh air – light and nature have both been shown to boost mood and energy, particularly green spaces and water.

   Movement – being seated causes joints and muscles to tighten, leading to aches and pains and less energy as a result. Standing or moving around can help to wake up your body leaving it moving more freely and increasing your energy levels.

   Socialising – often we exercise with others and human interaction is essential to happiness. Happiness is a big part of energy and so the two go hand in hand.

   Distraction – exercise can take our mind off of our daily stresses and as they ebb away we feel our energy levels start to rise.

Key messages for physical energy:

1)   Moderate exercise can leave us feeling more energetic than before we began for a wide range of reasons. Just 30 minutes a day getting a little breathless will make a difference.

2)   Hard exercise can work too but we’ve got to be careful to get the balance right or we’ll end up feeling more tired. Imagine it like your bank account, too many withdrawals and not enough deposits and you’ll put yourself in the red.

Summary

Why we feel more or less energetic is not as simple as we might at first think. It is a complex mix of our nutrition and fluid intake, physical and mental wellbeing and the changes these bring about to the numerous chemicals and systems in our body.

If you’ve been feeling sluggish or low on energy, have a think about what we’ve just covered and maybe choose just one thing to change to see if it makes a difference. If it does, you may have found your answer, if not simply try changing another. Change too much at once and it can be quite stressful, making you feel even less energetic! You also won’t be able to work out which of the things was the route cause of your low energy levels.

I hope you’ve found this useful. Remember you can get in touch at any time if you’d like more help.

Stay balanced,

Paul

0775 200 1203

The great outdoors

With summer finally here for most of us, it’s time to take exercise outside. There’s a whole host of reasons why getting outdoors is good for you:

Sunlight – natural light increases your vitamin D levels and boosts your mood by raising levels of important hormones.

Nature – believe it or not some research has shown that being active in picturesque settings improves mood whereas the same activity in unpleasant surroundings can actually make it worse. You’ll know this feeling, there’s something about the greens of the grass and trees and (hopefully) the blue of the sky, the blaze of colours in autumn or at sunset.

Immune strength – being stuck in an air-conditioned office with fellow workers can increase the likelihood of picking up coughs and colds. As exercise boosts the immune system, a little walk outside may help strengthen your defences.

Smells good – the fragrances of nature, like fresh slowers, cut grass or the smell of rain leave us feeling relaxed and happier.

Feel energised – research has suggested that in as many as 90% of people, being in fresh air surrounded by nature increases how energetic we feel, and it’s cheaper than coffee!

Here are four exercises you can do to ensure your abs look in tiptop shape for a spot of sunbathing!

The front squat – squats actually activate your stomach muscles far more than sit-ups and adding a little weight to hold increases the challenge further.

Press-ups – another great exercise for the deep muscles of your core, as well as your chest, arms and shoulders too.

Side Plank – firm up those love handles with this simple exercise.

Back extensions – to ensure your entire middle is strong and toned and you look after your back, add this great exercise in to your workout.

Fancy exercising outdoors? Why not join our weekly balance boot camps.

Wenesday’s, 6-7pm, up on Clifton Downs (at the corner of Ivywell Road where it meets the Downs). If maps isn’t your thing, it’s about 250 yards up from where the ice cream van is always sat at the lookout point! :-) 

Want to know more? Get in touch.

Her are a few snaps from some of my own recent outdoor workouts!

From white stuff to right stuff: Five alternatives to sugar

Weaved throughout many of the ‘Ten Steps to a Balanced Diet’ is the importance of decreasing sugar intake. Sugar is a highly refined substance and as you already know, foods high in sugar will contain a lot of calories and soon leave us feeling hungry again and ready for more. 

In its highly processed state it offers few if any health benefits, and over time excess sugar intake can lead to weight gain, diabetes and tooth decay so we’re all told we should reduce how much we consume. Trouble is, that’s not always as easy as it sounds. Here I honestly review a few sugar alternatives that you could consider using to wean yourself off the white stuff, looking at the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Honey

Made by bees using nectar from flowers, honey has been used by various empires through the ages, including the Greeks and Romans. 

The good: Rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, there’s certainly more goodness in honey than in refined sugar. It’s been shown to contain iron, calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium which all keep your body functioning optimally. 

Over the years it’s been proposed that it might treat wounds and infections, control allergies and manage gastrointestinal problems, although these claims need a lot more research to prove one way or the other. It has been shown in one study to ease night-time coughing in those with colds.

Drawbacks: Manuka honey is often purchased by people in an attempt to alleviate their latest bout of cold/flu. Whilst it may work as an antibacterial treatment for wounds, it’s cold-fighting properties are not yet proven, nor are the other claims made about it lowering cholesterol, treating diabetes and even cancer.

In fact, honey is around 80% sugar, half of it fructose, meaning whilst it’s probably slightly better than sugar, go easy on how much you use or you’ll be adding calories and increasing your insulin levels just as you would with refined sugar.

Panela

Pa what I hear you say? Panela….what’s that? Well it’s unrefined cane sugar, or certainly less refined than sugar. When sugarcane is cut down, it is boiled and the sap oozes out. This sap is then further refined to produce sugar, but Panela is just hardened blocks of this sap.

The good: As it is produced from the juice of the cane plant, it’s been shown to contain all of the vitamins and minerals found in the plant; everything form vitamin A to zinc, with plenty in between including calcium, copper, vitamins C and D, iron, potassium and polyphenols. It scores very highly on its levels of antioxidants too.

I use it myself, grating it into porridge to add some sweetness. It tastes good and a block lasts me a long time.

Drawbacks: It’s still over 70% sucrose, so the usual advice to consume it in moderation applies.

Carob

Carob is produced form the pods of the carob tree, found in the Middle East. They are ground and roasted to produce a chocolate-like substance.

The good: It is lower fat than cocoa powder, half as much in fact. It is also caffeine free, in fact it has no stimulants at all yet it still tastes like chocolate.

You can find it in 9bars or use it to make these very tasty cookies suitable for vegans.

Drawbacks: Yep, you guessed it. It’s still high in sugars and therefore calories too.

Maple syrup

A completely natural substance made from the sap of that maple tree, synonymous with Canada of course where the majority is produced.

The good: Another rich source of nutrients - magnesium, zinc, manganese and zinc to name a few. It’s also rich in phenols, powerful antioxidants more usually associated with grapes and berries, and wine by those who need to justify their slightly elevated intake! :-)

Drawbacks: Groundhog Day!! High in sugar and calories, say no more.

Dried fruit

Ok so you know what this is. There are lots of different types of course; apricots, figs, dates, prunes, raisins and sultanas, pineapple and many more.

The good: Dried fruits are actually higher in fibre than fresh alternatives and fibre is essential in the diet to keep your digestive system healthy, fill you up and keep cholesterol levels low. Some dried fruits seem to be higher in nutrients than their freshly picked counterparts too, check out this interesting article on the Livestrong website to find out more.

The drawbacks: Dried fruit has lost all of its water and so may have a higher sugar content and higher glycaemic index. They’ve also been shown to have a laxative effect in some people so eating them before a run is not advised!

In summary, all of these may offer a little more nutritional benefit than plain old refined sugar, but as the first and arguably most important step of the balance 'ten steps to a healthy diet’ says, go easy on the quantity. As the old saying goes:

                           'Everything in moderation’

Or to put it another way, you need to find your balance. :-)

How to have yourself a balanced little Christmas: five festive coping strategies

It’s that time of year again. Parties, work nights out, seeing friends, three course meals, mince pies, wine, mulled wine, hot wine, more wine, beer, cheese, hot dogs at the German market, Christmas cake, biscuits, chocolate, oh and maybe a bit more wine!

How do you, and more to the point your scales, survive all of this? To help you through the festive minefield I’ve included below five ways to fight the festive flab.

1) Don’t!

I bet that surprised you!? The key question you need to ask yourself is do you want to be conscious of your eating, drinking and exercise for the next few weeks? If the answer is yes, read on for the next tips. If it’s no, then why beat yourself up about it or go through the pretense of saying “oh I won’t eat this” or “I’ll just go and have one or two drinks”?

If you’re well balanced for 11 months of the year, and you want to lose balance just for one, then so be it, accept it and get planning to get back on it in January. Alternatively, ask yourself, is it really worth potentially giving up all of those valuable improvements you’ve made this year for the sake of a few weeks?

2) Use a buddy

Friends, work colleagues and partners can be extremely valuable. In fact, everybody can benefit from having a “Santa’s Little Helper”. Get them to remind you of your goals at the office Christmas party, plan your meals with you or help in any way that you agree with them.

3) Get an advent calendar

No not the chocolate type, but use a proper calendar to plan your Christmas schedule. Plan in your Christmas parties, evenings with friends, shopping expeditions etc and then make sure you plan in some exercise sessions around it. If it’s in the calendar it’s far more likely to get done.

4) Choose your own presents

Not the ones from Santa obviously, they’re made by the Elves at the North Pole so you can’t change what you get, that depends on whether you’ve been naughty or nice this year of course.

You can choose which of the festive treats you will indulge in though and which you will say no to. Select a couple of your absolute favourites and plan to have these as your treats. I’ll be choosing mince pies with Baileys clotted cream and Lindt chocolates. I’ll be saying no to Christmas Pud and Christmas Cake as I don’t really like either that much.

5) Write to Santa

Instead of writing your present wish list, write out your goals for the holiday period. It might be to maintain weight, exercise a certain number of times, consume 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day to balance off the festive goodies, or even to set a realistic goal for weight gain, whatever works for you.

However you choose to do it, may your days be merry and bright….and balanced of course.

Paul

Detox.......debunked

I’ve been asked to put this blog piece together by a good friend of mine Emma. She’s a very good runner who works in an office and regularly sees colleagues go on juice detox diets, losing a substantial amount of weight in a short space of time, only to put it all back on again and more in the following weeks.

She’s not alone in being frustrated by the ‘detox’ industry. There are numerous detox diets out there that claim to guarantee weight loss, rid your body of harmful toxins, revitalise you and improve your health. They vary in their structure but generally advocate the complete removal of unhealthy foods from the diet alongside a large increase in water, fruit and vegetables whilst at the same time cutting calories quite dramatically. So what is the truth behind all of this?

The evidence 

Well, in reality, there’s a very limited amount of data on the benefits of a detox diet. Searching through the journals I came across one study from 2012 that asked 31 volunteers to go on a 4-week detox plan. At the end of the period the participants had lost an average of 9 pounds each, which in fairness is not far above the recommended guidelines of 2 pounds per week.

So what’s the issue here you might ask? It works doesn’t it? Well yes, but it most likely worked because participants consumed between 850 and 1000 calories per day. There was likely no miracle detoxification process going on inside the body; it was simply a reduction in calories. And as you’ll know if you’ve read my previous pieces, decreasing calories below what your body needs to function normally will:

1) Lead to rapid decreases in weight loss as your energy stores and the water that binds to them are used up.

2) Leave your body with too little energy for what it needs, forcing it to go into a kind of 'starvation mode’.

3) Make you very hungry and likely to crave foods in the long term that are less healthy and will lead to weight gain above the point where you started.

4) Possibly cause your body to turn to itself to provide energy. This can lead to a decrease in muscle mass, lowering your overall metabolic rate and making it even harder to lose weight and keep it off in future.

Let’s take a balanced look at detox diets in general then and see what we can learn and use from them.

What’s good and bad about detox?

1) It encourages an increase in water intake. This is not a bad thing for most of us. Water is essential to make our bodies work properly and many don’t get enough. It’s all about balance though; too much water can also be harmful so stick to the sensible guidelines of 1.5-2 litres per day alongside a healthy diet, increasing of course if you exercise a lot or live in a warm environment (not the UK)!

2) It emphasises the need for fruit and vegetables. We all know they’re packed full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants so getting our 5-a-day or possibly even slightly more is going to help keep us healthy. Again though, too much can be a bad thing; raw food diets and too much sugar from large amounts of fruit can cause health problems. Emphasise vegetables over fruit and be sensible on the quantities.

3) It helps us to minimise processed foods. Of course, detox diets will demonise things that come in packages, telling you they’re the reason the world is in the state it’s in. They’ll also tell you that we are all allergic to these foods, but whilst some can be, this 'fact’ is certainly yet to be ascertained by science. So whilst there’s some truth to this, there’s room for a more balanced approach. If cutting processed foods completely is what you feel you need to do to lose weight and get healthy, then there is nothing wrong with that. As long as you get enough calories and of course can sustain your new eating routine in the long run, go for it. For many though this is seen as too extreme, and so after a short spell avoiding certain aisles in the supermarket and hiding behind a pillow when that chocolate advert comes on, they give in to temptation and binge, hiding the evidence by putting the wrappers in next door’s wheelie bin. If this is you, then find a middle ground, choosing the more processed foods as occasional treats to be enjoyed instead of making yourself feel like you’ve committed some sort of crime just by peeling open the packaging.

4) It prays on our weaknesses. Yes it took us five years to gain that weight steadily, but we can get rid of it all in just four weeks, can’t we? Well, sadly no we can’t. The old saying 'slow and steady wins the race’ applies to weight loss more than almost anything else. To avoid impacting the functioning of your body, you need to fuel it right. Over time it can then start to bring itself back into balance, decreasing weight and improving health. I’ve borrowed a few quotes here from a very good article I found online by Kathleen Zelman, director of nutrition for WebMD. She spoke to some nutrition experts and here’s what Connie Diekman, a registered dietician said.

“Detox diets prey on the vulnerability of dieters with fear tactics while gaining financially by selling products that are not necessary and potentially dangerous.”

5) There’s an over-reliance on juicing. If using lots of fruits, the sugar content here can actually be very high. Recent studies have suggested that consuming too much fruit juice regularly may be as harmful as using fizzy drinks. Some do emphasise vegetables instead which do have a lower sugar content.

6) It implies that we need to drastically change the way we eat and drink regularly to 'detoxify’ our systems. This is a myth. Our bodies are designed to detoxify themselves on a daily basis, as Frank Sacks from Harvard Medical School points out.

“Your body is designed to remove toxins efficiently, with organs such as the kidneys, liver and colon. You don’t need detox diets, pills, or potions to help your body do its job.”

What are the alternatives?

You can take some of the principles of the detox diets and apply them to a more balanced approach. In fact, you’ll find them all in the balance weight loss 'ten steps to a balanced diet’.

1) Drink plenty of fluids; water, milk, a little diluted fruit juice and even sensible amounts of tea and coffee (the caffeine content in a few cups will not kill you, in fact there’s quite a few antioxidants in there).

2) Get your 5-a-day, 7 if you can. Emphasise vegetables and berries with some other fruits, making sure to vary them regularly and get a wide range of colours.

3) Use whole grains; apart from the small amount of people who are truly wheat allergic, using whole grains alongside fruit and vegetables will give you adequate fibre to help you remove waste products (your body detoxing itself again). Vary the grains used to get the most nutrients; wild rice, spelt, rye, oats, barley, couscous and quinoa can all add taste to your diet as well as giving you the energy you need to function.

4) Limit processed foods, fizzy drinks and alcohol. We all know it; we know what’s really healthy and what we shouldn’t eat as much. All you need to do is work out how; it might mean choosing certain days for treats, limiting the number per week, not putting them in your shopping basket, avoiding times and places where you consume them, coming up with alternative foods and drinks to eat instead. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it’s sustainable and it works for you.

There’s one other advantage to all of this of course; your blender should last longer! ;-)

Start finding your balance today.

Paul :-)

The 5 best websites containing the 3 best magazines with the 7 best articles on the 10 best foods to eat and 5 best exercises to do to lose weight

Do you know what the 5 best exercises are for weight loss? Do you know which 3 foods will boost your energy levels more than any other food on the planet? What about the 10 best workout DVD’s? 6 most effective cellulite busting tips? 7 most effective running workouts to improve your marathon time? 

No, I didn’t think so. And I suspect and hope that this is because you realise that there aren’t 5 best exercises for weight loss, or 3 miracle energy-giving foods. There’s nothing wrong at all with the media highlighting effective exercises to help you stay fit and healthy, or to promote foods that you may not have tried or that have possible health benefits identified in scientific research.

The problem comes when you’re led to believe in these things as miracles and cure-alls. Stocking up your cupboards with acai berries will not mean you never get a cold again, drinking endless litres of grape juice will not mean you’re guaranteed not to suffer from heart disease and eating a grapefruit a day is the not answer to all of your weight loss goals.

So what can you take from these articles? Think of yourself as a plumber, your aim should be to expand the number of tools you possess. You may learn that there are one or two exercises you’ve never done before and you can add them into your weekly exercise routine. Or you’ll see a food that you’ve just discovered might support your goals in doe way, so you think you could add that to your weekly shop occasionally. No single exercise or food will provide the answer or everybody would have done it a long time ago and somebody would have earned a lot of money in the process. Similarly, there is no one tool that a plumber can carry to provide a solution for all jobs they do. The best and most effective plumbers are the ones that literally have a tool for every job. 

When I teach Personal Trainer courses, one of the most important pieces of advice I give to any budding PT is to build up their toolkit as much as possible. Know a wide range of exercises and methods and different ways of helping people to change. Many business in health and fitness these days have been built on the notion that their way, or their piece of exercise kit is the best, the one for you, the answer to everybody’s problems. As a public we believe in this, probably for a few reasons:

1) It is a quick fix - it looks pretty easy. I just stand on that wobbly thing three times a week and I’ll look just like I want to.

2) It doesn’t take me much effort - I don’t need to think. I just eat add water to those powders twice a day and then eat dinner and I’ll be the weight I want to be in no time.

3) It might work - i’ve tried so many things and I’m desperate to get back to the weight and size I used to be so I’ll give it a go.

And of course it may work, but it also may not. People are different and some respond better to certain types of exercise than others. Equally, one diet may make a real difference to one individual whilst at the same time having no effect on another, or even worse cause another to gain weight. Unfortunately there is no ‘wonder test’ that tells you which eating pattern works best and which exercise routine is right for you. And of course what is right for you can change over time as your life changes. Age, stress levels, sleep patterns and a whole host of other factors can affect your energy levels, metabolism and hormones, which in turn change how much physical exertion you can cope with and which foods will help you.

Over time a personal trainer gets a good 'feel’ for how these factors work together, and can advise you on what may well be the best options for you, but cannot say with 100% certainty that it will definitely work. It often does, but even then your life situation may change and things will again need adapting to best suit you. Even without a PT to support you, it’s important to remember:

1) There is no such thing as failure, only learning. Trying a new exercise routine and eating pattern may not work in its entirety for you but you’re bound to learn something, even if it’s what not to do in future. I read a wonderful quote this week from Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players of all time. It encapsulates this idea wonderfully:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

2) The best way to achieve long-term success in health and fitness goals is to become attuned to your body and its needs. It will always tell you what it wants and you can learn from its reactions what the '5 best exercises’ and '3 best foods’ are for you. 

So, remember to take any 'x best’ lists with a pinch of salt, learn from them and use them to try changes in your own lifestyle but whatever you do, don’t rely on them as gospel and don’t be disheartened if these miracle cures don’t work for you. Note what you’ve learned form your attempts and then adapt, maybe make a small tweak if you think that will work better or try something completely different.

Over time you can make your own 'x best’ and 'x worst’ lists for you. Here’s a few examples of things I’ve learned about my own body through my journey through health and fitness:

• If I try to train hard without getting enough sleep (8 hours for me), I am likely to pick up a cold, especially if I train in the mornings.

• Whilst I know they’re good for me, apples and nuts don’t fill me up when having a snack, oranges and bananas on the other hand do the job nicely.

• I work best on a reasonable amount of carbohydrates. If I don’t eat enough wholemeal bread, rice, quinoa etc I find it harder to concentrate, feel hungry more quickly and don’t perform as well in the gym and in any races I take part in.

• Cheap muesli tends to give me stomach ache after eating it.

• I work best on low to moderate volume training at a good intensity as opposed to doing lots and lots of exercise.

Take time to learn about you and it will pay dividends, helping to keep you fit and healthy, and looking and feeling like you want. If you don’t know where to start, please get in touch, I’ve designed lots of ways to help you through my company balance weight loss and I’ll always answer any questions you may have.

Be happy and healthy,

Paul

info@balanceweightloss.co.uk

0775 200 1203

The hare and the tortoise….on a weight loss programme

Once upon a time there was a hare and a tortoise, and they were good friends. They had once had a race and surprisingly the tortoise had won! The hare was much faster but when he was far ahead he’d become cocky and decided to have a rest. He dozed off to sleep and the tortoise had sneaked by and ended up winning.

Image courtesy of digitalart at freedigitalphotos.net

After the race, both lost their motivation to exercise. They had trained hard for their event, the tortoise, victorious and pleased with himself became complacent and lazed around all day eating chocolate and chips instead of lettuce. The hare felt down after his loss and consoled himself with beer and takeaways in front of the TV.

A few months went by and one day and Mr Fox came to visit. He couldn’t help but notice how much weight both had gained and felt he should say something. He was in fact a doctor, he didn’t use the title as there had been an unfortunate incident when he had been confused with a radio DJ and followed by the paparazzi on holiday in Turkey. He offered to help the hare and the tortoise to lose weight, and although surprised at first, they agreed. The tortoise did say that his shell had been feeling a little tight recently and the hare had noticed he could no longer see his big paws.

Mr Fox started the pair off on a healthy eating routine, carrots and lettuce leaves, as well as a sensible amount of daily activity. They both had to go for a walk in the park for half an hour every day which they could do together so they had some moral support and to make it a sociable task. Both felt motivated by having a new challenge and encouraged each other by preparing healthy evening meals, taking it in turns to cook.

A week passed by and Mr Fox came to carry out his weekly weigh in with the pair as he had promised. Both had lost 2 pounds and were on the right track. Tortoise felt pleased with himself and could feel that his shell was already a little looser and easier for him to curl up into at night. Hare was less happy; he wanted to lose one and a half stone, and he thought that at this rate it was going to take him forever. He decided that he would cut back on his food and do more exercise, but he didn’t tell tortoise as he wanted to lose more weight than him to impress Mr Fox.

Next week the pair continued to do their walks together, but tortoise became frustrated as hare would speed off and he would struggle to keep up. Hare started to run off into the distance and then run back to tortoise, jogging on the spot next to him. This annoyed tortoise, but he didn’t say anything as he was focused on his own goals and he knew what he could and couldn’t do.

Hare found that if he skipped breakfast in the morning and got out for a quick run he could be back before tortoise woke up and then still be able to do their exercise session together. At the next weigh in tortoise had lost another 2 pounds. Fox congratulated him for continuing to work hard. Hare though had lost 4 pounds and Fox praised his hard work but warned him that losing too much weight too quickly could be unhealthy. Anything more than 2 pounds a week was likely to mean that hare was not just losing fat but probably not eating enough. This meant his glycogen stores (carbohydrate supply) were being depleted and with it he would be losing water. His body may also start to break down his muscles to supply him with energy if he continued for a long period of time at this rate.

Hare though was pleased that he had lost more weight, and determined to reach his goal as quickly as he could he decided to ignore Mr Fox’s advice. He continued on his strict diet and did as much running as he could. He stopped exercising with tortoise as he felt he was not fit enough to keep up with him. Tortoise decided to add a little weights routine into his program as he did not want to get bored of doing the same thing and had heard that weights training could build lean muscles, which in turn would increase his rate of calorie burn and help him reach his goals.

At the next weigh-in hare had lost another 4 pounds and tortoise another pound. Fox was now concerned that hare wasn’t eating enough to fuel his body properly and had a chat with him after the session. Hare reacted angrily and was confused; why was Fox not pleased that he had done so well? He told Fox that he no longer needed his help and that he would carry on alone. Fox, not wanting to argue, asked hare to reconsider his weight loss methods but wished him good luck.

Another week went by and tortoise lost another pound. Hare was now weighing himself and was surprised and upset when he fund he had gained two pounds when he was so close to his goal. How could this have happened? He had barely eaten all week and he had exercised very hard! But he had been starving and gorged most of that cake the one day. And he had treated himself on Friday night with pizza and ice cream as he had been good and only eaten one lettuce leaf all day.

Hare decided to up his training so he joined the gym and spent hours on the cardio kit and went in the sauna as he though he might be able to sweat out more of the weight. Tortoise joined too and took up Body Combat, although it didn’t work as every time the instructor told them to kick or punch he automatically hid in his shell! Instead he tried Yoga which he found more to his pace.

Each weighed themselves again as scheduled and tortoise had lost another pound; he was now 7 pounds lighter than when he’d started 5 weeks ago and very pleased. Hare had gained another two pounds, how could this be? He had noticed he’d been starving after all that exercise and feeling weak so he’d been eating sugary foods to stop himself feeling dizzy. Tortoise had now lost more weight than him which was ridiculous as far as he was concerned.

Tortoise continued with the small changes he’d made to his life and went on to return to his race weight. He now competes in marathons, OK it takes him a while but he gets there. Hare joined a slimming club and drinks shakes for breakfast and takes tablets to help him burn fat. His weight has fluctuated up and down over the last few months and he is currently one pound heavier than when he started his programme. Mr Fox has changed his title back to Dr Fox and has a regular slot on morning TV advising animals about weight loss, exercise and health.

The moral of the story? Slow and steady doesn’t just win the race, it wins hands down for weight loss too. Weight gain will happen slowly over a number of months or even years, expecting to lose it all in a matter of weeks is unlikely to be realistic and can have many effects on the body that make it harder to maintain weight throughout life. Aim to lose one to two pounds a week through sensible changes to diet and an exercise programme combining cardiovascular and resistance training.

Super foods: fact or fiction?

You can’t have failed to escape the press coverage over the last few years about ‘super foods’ and all of the good things that they contain. The idea is simple; these foods are supposedly healthier than their counterparts because they contain high levels of a wide variety of substances, including:

    •   Vitamins

    •   Minerals

    •   Isoflavones and flavonoids

    •   Phytoestrogens

    •   Polyphenols

    •   Antioxidants

You’re probably thinking, they all sound very fancy, but what are they and what do they do for me? Well, without getting too complicated, here’s a brief description of each and their importance.

Vitamins

These are a diverse range of organic compounds that the body needs to get from diet to be able to work properly. They help your body do everything from grow and repair to producing energy and boosting your defences against disease.

Minerals

These are different to vitamins as they are inorganic, that is they have never been alive. The body still needs them to function and stay healthy though. They are always solids and made up a range of chemical elements. Sodium and potassium are examples of minerals, and roles include maintaining fluid balance in your body, ensuring your heart pumps effectively and building strong bones and teeth.

Isoflavones, flavonoids phytoestrogens and polyphenols

A range of compounds that you get from things that were alive, namely plants and animals, the latter containing them because they have eaten plants. These compounds have a lot in common with vitamins; in fact flavonoids up until the 1950s were often referred to as vitamin P. Today you’d probably only use that term in relation to the colour of your wee when you've taken your effervescent vitamin c tablets! 

Collectively, any nutrient that comes from a plant is called a phytonutrient.

Antioxidants

Have you ever watched Star Wars? It's the classic battle of good versus evil, light versus dark. Inside your body there’s an interstellar war going on every day to keep you in balance. An army of Antioxidants, think of them as Jedi Knights, defend you against Free Radicals, or Darth Vader’s army, hell bent on destruction. 

As you know, your body needs oxygen to survive, that’s why we have to breathe to live. Unfortunately, oxygen is a highly reactive substance. We know this as we can see the effects it has on cars and boats over the years. As they are exposed to air and water, they begin to rust, and there is a process that occurs in your body every day known as oxidation, which is effectively internal rusting. It is one of the things that causes you to age.

This process occurs as a result of using oxygen to produce energy for life. As a consequence, free radicals are produced. These are atoms that have effectively lost an electron and as a consequence go a little bit haywire, or to use our earlier analogy, have gone over to the dark side. They search around the body looking for another electron to get back into balance and back to the light. In their efforts though they can leave behind a path of destruction.

Your antioxidant defence system come armed with spare electrons, which they donate to any free radicals that they meet, turning them back into stable atoms that function normally. Remember when Darth Vader becomes good again in Return of the Jedi? This happens in your body every day, as long as you have the right amount of antioxidants available to defend you. And this is where the notion of 'super foods' comes from, with some things that you can find on the supermarket shelves containing a wide range of these healthy substances.

It certainly cannot be argued that some foods contain a massive amount of these health-promoting goodies and it is worth having them in your diet. The truth is though that your body needs a wide range of these nutrients to function at its best; as with everything it’s about balance. You can eat tonnes of blueberries, knowing that they’re packed full of antioxidants, but if this is all you eat you won’t be getting many of the other substances that you need. Instead of thinking about super foods, focus instead on Super Diets, consuming a wide range of plant substances to give your body everything it could possibly need to stay healthy, grow and function at its best. Remember here that the word diet simply means the foods that you eat; it has absolutely nothing to do with restricting foods or calories.

How are super foods measured?

One helpful measurement is the ORAC value of a food, or the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity. This tells you how many free radicals a food can turn back from the dark side, stabilising them and decreasing the risk of damage to your body. So which food is the Yoda or Luke Skywalker of your diet? Learn about the ORAC values of different foods here.

Below I’ve provided you with ten foods that can contribute effectively towards a Super Diet. You’ll notice that there a wide range of colours on show here and a great little rule to remember is the 'Rainbow Rule’, ensuring that your shopping trolley always contains foods that are a wide range of colours. Sorry to disappoint you here, but Skittles don’t count!

Image courtesy of Kangshutters/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1) Broccoli

Extremely rich in vitamin C, as well as good amounts of vitamin A, B6 and calcium. All dark green vegetables are a superb source of folic acid too, particularly essential for women during pregnancy

Perfect with stir-fries or traditional roast dinners

2) Blueberries

Rich in flavonoids called anthocyanins, blueberries have been shown to be   effective in reducing blood pressure and managing blood sugars to help control diabetes

Perfect as a healthy snack or in yoghurts or porridge

3) Tomatoes

High in levels of lycopene, an antioxidant that has been strongly linked with cancer prevention. Also a good source of vitamin C

A food that pretty much goes with anything, from salads to sandwiches, or even roasted and served with fish

4) Kale

Just 50 grams will give you your daily requirements of vitamin A and C, helping with your immune system, eye health and a host of other benefits

Perfect steamed with meat or fish, or as part of a warm casserole on a cold night

5) Ground cloves

Spices and herbs are packed full of antioxidants, in fact they contain more than any other food on earth. Cloves are particularly rich in manganese, a mineral important for healthy bones and skin

Perfect in game  recipes, try one of these instead of the usual Sunday roast.

6) Dark chocolate

The cocoa, or cacao plant is packed full of antioxidants and linked to heart health, blood sugar control and brain function

Opt for 70% dark chocolate and have one or two squares as a snack

7) Raspberries

Another food that provides lots of vitamin C and manganese, they are also rich in fibre for bowel health

Mix into a salad with sunflower seeds to add extra flavour, or add to porridge for additional sweetness

8) Raw ginger

Another spice packed with a massively high ORAC score, reported to help with digestive health and as an anti-inflammatory

Add one or two slices of raw ginger to hot water with lemon and honey

9) Walnuts

Rich in Omega-3 fats that are vital for energy production, brain health and in preventing inflammation

Mix with berries and take to work in small Tupperwear pots for mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks

10) Turmeric

A rich yellow-orange spice related to Ginger, rich in curcumin, an antioxidant linked to relief from stomach problems and arthritis

A great addition to curries to add vibrant colour and flavour

Hopefully this has given you some thoughts and ideas about what to put in your shopping basket next time you’re in the supermarket. Remember the rainbow rule and you’ll go a long way towards boosting your health. Also bear in mind that a healthy body is much better to able to process energy, build lean muscle to boost metabolism, and remove waste.

Focus on a healthy diet and a healthy weight is far more likely.

Balance your life, balance your scales

Paul

PS, if you’re keen to know more you can now follow me on Twitter @paulw_fitness 

balance on…..Brussels Sprouts

Love them or loathe them, there’s no denying that Brussels Sprouts are an incredibly healthy addition to any plate. At balance, we’re determined to get them on the dinner plates of Great Britain in less than two weeks’ time, and also controversially, on days other than Christmas Day!

So why do we want to ‘shout about the sprout’? There are so many reasons!

Image courtesy of -Marcus- at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1) They may prevent against cancer.

Sprouts contain Glucosinolates, organic compounds containing sulphur and nitrogen which may offer protection against carcinogens, those substances that cause cancers. It appears they may be particularly effective in protecting the organs in the body but more research is being carried out to find out why. All of the Brassica vegetables, broccoli, cabbage and sprouts convey these benefits so be kind to the sprout and don’t leave it out.

2) They lower cholesterol.

Because they are high in fibre they are an excellent foodstuff for controlling cholesterol levels in the body. Given that Christmas tends to bring with it a lot of substances that do the opposite like alcohol, cake, milk chocolate etc, the sprout is definitely worth adding to those Christmas dinners.

3) They’re anti-inflammatory.

Sprouts contain Omega-3 and other specialist Glucosinolates that help decrease inflammation in the blood vessels, whilst other research has shown that they may even protect our DNA from damage. All this means in the long-run they may form part of a great team of foods that’ll help you to enjoy even more Christmas dinners!

4) Special K.

Sprouts are rich in Vitamin K which has numerous important roles in the body, helping blood to clot properly when required, looking after bones and acting as a strong antioxidant.

5) They taste great!

If you’re not a fan of the sprout on his own, then get inventive this Christmas. Steam enough sprouts for a handful per person, chop them finely and add them into a pan with your choice of chopped walnuts, roast chestnuts, cubed pancetta or bacon, and even grapes or slices of satsuma orange. Cook in a little bit of butter or duck fat to get the pancetta nice and crispy and then serve with your Christmas dinner and for the rest of the winter.

Hopefully we’ve persuaded you that this little green fellow is worth adding to your shopping basket, so we’d politely ask you to:

SHOUT ABOUT THE SPROUT!!!

A balanced view on running for weight loss

Come January, as the New Year’s Resolutions start to kick in, you will see many people hitting the roads for a run, some to get fitter or dreaming of being the next Mo Farah, others because they want to lose weight. You’ll see the same increase in jogger numbers in the weeks after the London Marathon has inspired the British public in the middle of April.

So is running a good option for weight loss? We’ll present both sides of the argument for you here and let you decide for yourself, after all, we’re not called balance for nothing!

The pros

1) Running burns calories

This is an undeniable fact! You’ll hear some say that cardio is no good for weight loss and they’ll upsell the virtues of resistance training (and they’ll be absolutely right to do so on the latter). But let’s be honest, you don’t see very many overweight professional long-distance runners do you??? OK so cardiovascular training doesn’t build muscle and increase calorie burn after workouts in the way that weights training does, but it burns plenty of calories in the process.

If you want to know how many calories you burn during a run, Runners World provide a nice simple calculator here:

http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator

Of course, this is an estimate but it gives you some idea and shows how much of a dent you are making towards your goals.

2) You might like running

Doing something you enjoy is fundamental to success in any weight loss or health programme. For those that enjoy running, it may well be a good idea. If you don’t, we guarantee there will be an alternative that is just as effective for you, be it cycling, swimming, walking, weights training or whatever works for you.

3) Running improves health

From improvements in blood glucose and blood cholesterol to better control of mood and mental health, running provides a range of health benefits. We’ve also shown many times that getting outside amongst nature has important effects on health and running is a great way of doing this.

4) Running can improve bone density

Various studies have shown that bone mass is increased, maintained, or the rate of loss with ageing slowed through running, in both the lower limbs and lumbar spine. Running is of benefit because the strain frequency is high. This means that during a running session the number of times the foot comes into contact with the floor are high, putting repeated stresses on the bones and causing adaptations to occur in order to cope with these stresses and strains.

The cons

1) It places stress on joints

Yes we know, we just told you that placing stress on bones and joints was a good thing, and it is, for the right people at the right time. If you are overweight and deconditioned however, it may not be the best place to start. When running, up to five times your bodyweight can pass through your joints. For those who are normal weight or slightly overweight, this may not pose too much of a problem, but if you carry more weight then running may place too much stress on your joints, increasing the risk of injuries.

2) It is repetitive

The nature of running means that you have to perform the same movement time and time again. This increases the likelihood of overload on specific muscles and joints, again increasing the likelihood of injury, especially if the body is not conditioned enough to undergo these pressures. Running with poor posture or technique, or doing too much, are the things likely to cause issues here. If you have tight muscles, have had injuries, have a predominantly seated job or have not been active for some time, it is well worth conditioning your body first before ploughing straight into the running regime. You can do this through resistance training, stretching, yoga or Pilates.

3) Walking can burn more calories

You may be surprised to hear that walking quickly actually burns more calories than running. This means brisk walking (that special type of walk, the type you see in the Olympic Games), at a speed of 8 kilometres per hour or faster. At this speed it is less economical for the body to walk than it is to run, and as such it makes it harder to do, burning more calories in the process.

4) You might not like running

See point two in pros. If you prefer another form of exercise, don’t run! There are plenty of other choices available to you.

Key messages:

1) If you haven’t exercised for a while, have poor posture or tight muscles, or are very overweight, consider doing something else in the earlier stages of your exercise routine. As you increase your fitness and lose weight, you can gradually add running into your routine.

2) Mix it up. Don’t just run; mix it up with stretching and resistance training to ensure your muscles, bones and joints can take the stresses and strains placed on them.

3) Learn to run - this might sound daft but ensuring you run with good posture and technique, and have the appropriate footwear to suit your style, is key to you getting the most out of it.

4) Run if it’s fun! Don’t slog through exercise if it is a chore, you won’t stick to it in the long-term. Find what you enjoy and mix it up regularly to keep it fun and varied.

5) Little by little – if you are going to take up running, build up gradually and be sure to get yourself a proper programme that includes periods of rest to prevent you overdoing it and to decrease your risk of injury or boredom.

If you have a question about your own running programme, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to offer some friendly advice.

balance your exercise routine, balance your scales

balance on keenwaaaaaaaah

Whether you pronounce it properly (keen-wah) or the less posh way (quin-oh-ah), it’s still worth adding this food to your trolley next time you’re in the supermarket and having it in your cupboard as a healthy ingredient to add to main meals and lunches.

What is it?

Whilst many think that it’s a grain, it’s not actually a member of the cereal family, sharing more in common with beetroot and spinach.

It’s actually a Chenopod! Sounds like a Doctor Who villain but it’s just a subspecies of flowering plant. It originated in South America and has been consumed in places like Peru for thousands of years. After the bitter coating is removed, the quinoa seeds can be used just as rice would be as an accompaniment to a variety of dishes.

Up until a few years ago it wasn’t a particularly common or popular choice on a British dinner plate and you’d be scouring the shelves of only the healthiest of health food shops to find it. These days you’ll find it in most supermarkets, certainly Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose do a good range. It’s not the cheapest but it does pack a fair load of health benefits to make it worth the money. Even good old Ainsley Harriott has it in some of his ready to cook packet foods!

A healthy grain???

Like we said, it’s not really a grain like some wheat products are, so if you’re worried about wheat or gluten content as many are these days, you needn’t be. We’ll leave that debate for another blog; instead let’s play Health Top Trumps with our lovely little Chenopod and find out what’s in it:

• It packs in all of the essential amino acids. These are the building blocks of protein in the body, and the essential ones are those that must be consumed in the diet as the body cannot produce them. One such essential amino acid is lysine, which quinoa carries in abundance. An important factor in a healthy immune system and for muscle repair, lysine may also contribute to blood pressure regulation, decreased risk of stroke and possibly even help protect against some cancers.

• It’s abundant with a range of minerals needed to keep the body functioning at it’s best, including calcium, phosphorous, iron and magnesium.

• It’s high in fibre, which as a well-known brand of cereals once said, ‘keeps hunger locked up 'til lunch!’ We’re pretty confident this is a healthier choice, although we don’t expect you to have it for breakfast with some milk and a cup of tea!!

• Keeps you fighting fit with phytonutrients - as you know we’re big on plant foods here at balance and with high levels of quercetin and kaempferol, quinoa has a range of substances within that help fight inflammation in the body.

• Good fats - surprisingly there’s a reasonable amount of our good friend Omega 3 in here too in the form of alpha-linolenic acid, as well as being high in another health fat, oleic acid. OK so it’s not quite oily fish but it can contribute towards a healthier diet.

Check out these recipes online for some ideas on how to add a little quinoa into your diet:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/quinoa

http://www.cookinglight.com/food/recipe-finder/cooking-with-quinoa-00412000073996/

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/quick-recipes/dinner/healthy-quinoa-recipes/

Love and hugs,

balance

think, eat, live, move

Exercise is medicine, but which type should you prescribe?

After reading an article on the BBC News website this week about how a study has shown that exercise can be as effective a treatment for managing the risks of a stroke as medications, we got to thinking about why this idea isn’t already more embedded into society. If you read any of the government reports on exercise, you’ll know that it has been well established for some time that picking your body up off the sofa and moving it around, however hard those first few steps might feel, is very good for you, and that whilst medications certainly have their part to play, activity comes without all of the unwanted side-effects.

This is why a few years ago, the American College of Sports Medicine started a campaign they called ‘Exercise is Medicine’, and what a wonderfully clever title that is! The notion that exercise could, and indeed should be prescribed by doctors is a brilliant one, and hopefully one that will seep through more and more in the coming months and years. Some exercise schemes run for those with medical conditions in the UK are known as 'exercise on prescription’, with funding provided to make the exercise sessions cheap or even free for people to attend.

The problem is, doctors have specific medications for conditions, but there’s a huge variety in the types of exercise available, it’s like having a medicine cabinet full of pills and not knowing which one should be taken. And in the fitness industry you’ll often hear debate about which type of exercise is 'the best’ for people. The truth is, it depends who you are, what you want and on a whole host of other factors, but the one thing that is certain, is that regardless of what it is, it does you good.

One debate that has raged on in those of us who spend our days getting up at 6 to train someone, pop to the gym ourselves before the day begins, work in the gym all day, train a few more people and then go home and read a book about exercise, is that of cardio versus resistance. Or for those who aren’t familiar with these terms, rhythmical exercise that makes you hot and sweaty (those with the filthy minds can stop right there, research shows that doing that probably doesn’t count as you’re probably lying down and not getting the heart rate up enough) versus lifting weights, or your own body weight for that matter.

So which is better? Let’s have a look, but obviously we’ll be giving you a balanced view, hence the name. It can be very uncomfortable sitting on this fence all the time, those splinters in your backside can really hurt! ;-)

Well, cardiovascular exercise has been shown time and again to benefit the body if done effectively. I can help to reduce blood pressure, manage stress, depression and anxiety, boost energy levels and of course burn a few calories along the way. Too much of it can be a bad thing as it is catabolic, this means that it can actually cause muscle wastage if people overtrain. It can also increase the risk of injuries if supporting exercises are not done to help the body cope with the stresses of regularly, repeatedly performing the same movements, often with impact in the case of running. But this doesn’t make it bad, it just means people need to find a healthy balance.

Resistance training has been exalted in recent years as the answer. It is certainly true that resistance training, whilst not burning as many calories during an exercise session, can lead to a greater overall calorie burn through EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. This is the amount of energy expended after a workout in helping the body to recover and repair, and challenging resistance training sessions can increase this more than cardiovascular workouts.

Also, resistance training develops muscles and muscles consume energy, helping you to burn calories even when you are sat on your sofa. Lean people who have low body fat levels and decent muscle mass, the ones who people see on the front cover of magazines and think 'I want to look like that’, not oversized bodybuilders, will be at a decreased risk of ill health over the years, and certainly at less risk of weight gain. Thin people who have a small frame but low muscle mass and high body fat percentage are at a surprisingly high risk of illness, it’s about how much fat you have and not just how much space you take up.

Resistance training is anabolic, in that it builds lean muscle tissue. But there can be downsides, people can overtrain if they do too much just like with cardio, and the risk of injury is just as great if lifting too much or using bad technique. Some will fear entering the weights area of a gym, but you on’t have to, there are many ways to add it in to your exercise schedule:

• Body weight exercises such as squats and press-ups can be done anywhere and are great because they use so many muscles.

• Classes such as Bodypump have become very popular these days and are a great introduction to resistance training for some, although be careful as the repetitions are fairly high and done at a reasonable speed with the music. Start with sensible weights and just do one to two classes per week to begin with, you can always mix in other exercise sessions to get a good balance.

• Pilates and Yoga all involve bodyweight-based exercises and count as resistance training.

• Swiss balls, dynabands, suspension training and a host of other tools mean that it’s easier than ever to find something that you enjoy and that fits into your lifestyle.

But what about keeping your heart healthy. Well, if resistance training uses big muscle exercises and is suitably intense then it can do this too. Research shows that circuit-style training can keep the heart rate elevated above 140 beats per minute for an hour and that is the same as a reasonable cardiovascular workout. Obviously some may find these intensities too challenging to begin with and should build up gradually.

With all of this in mind, if you held us at gunpoint and made us choose, resistance training would probably have the edge. It’s also vital for women especially as it’s a great way of maintaining or even improving bone mass, decreasing the risk of osteoporosis in later life. But in the ideal world, you’ll find a nice balance and a place for both of these wonderful types of exercise in your life. What many often forget is that ultimately, exercise must be enjoyable, and so finding the thing you love doing, or at least like doing is they key.

So get your notepad out and write yourself a prescription, take it at least five times a week for 30 minutes if its cardiovascular, and combine with 2-3 capsules of resistance training for maximum effect. Take with water and enjoy the benefits.

balance your life, balance your scales :-)

balancing light and dark

That time of year has come. Your alarm goes off, your eyelids peel open slowly, feeling heavier than a truck full of elephants. You press snooze, they close, your alarm sounds again. Surely that wasn’t five minutes? You fight back, hitting snooze for a second time, managing a rather smug grin for cleverly setting your alarm ten minutes before you actually needed to get up. But there it goes again! Have you entered some sort of time warp??? 

This time, there’s no back-up plan, and no wry smile. Instead a reluctant hand creeps from beneath the nice warm duvet and pulls slowly at the curtain, looking to let in a bit of light and stir your brain into action ready for the day ahead. But to your disappointment all you are greeted by is yet more darkness, somebody has stolen the sun. And the warmth you’ve become accustomed to in summer, especially this year for a nice change.

Zombie-like you rise, arms hanging loosely by your side as you shuffle to the bathroom in your fluffy animal slippers. You know you’re still half asleep as after getting out of the shower you find yourself trying to comb your hair with your toothbrush. Time for a coffee.

If you recognise the scenario above you’re not alone. This scene, and many like it are repeated at least five times a week across Britain between the months of September and March. And that’s over half the year!

So what’s going on? Well it’s all to do with your big warm friend in the sky, the sun. As well as offering warmth in the summer months, he also gives you something essential for life, light. Sunlight is a rich source of vitamin D which helps build healthy teeth and bones. It also helps your food to grow and gives it the nutrition you need to perform at your very best. And very crucially, it helps to regulate levels of hormones like cortisol, melatonin and others that play such a big part in regulating your mood and energy levels.

A lack of sunlight can leave you feeling down, as in Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD, lethargic and demotivated. Obviously too much can be bad for you too with sunburn and the associated risks, but in British winter you’re far likely to get too little.

So what can you do about it?

Well, quite a lot actually. To start with, you can realise that your body clock, or circadian rhythm changes with the seasons. In the shorter days of the year you’ll probably need more sleep and be more tired. Up until Thomas Edyson interfered with nature with the invention of his now fairly widely used lightbulb (you may have seen them in the shops), people generally went to bed much earlier in the winter months. In fact, research shows that before TV’s, the internet, 4G phones and electric lighting, people slept for many more hours than they do these days, averaging over 9 hours a night if not more.

OK, so you may not be able to hibernate for winter (some remote villages in France and other parts of the world still effectively do this) but you can get yourself to bed at a reasonable time and prepare your sleeping environment as best you can to wake feeling refreshed in the morning.

Try these tips to help manage your way through the darker months:

• Get to bed before 11pm. In fact get to bed and switch off by 10:43 pm as on average it takes just over 15 minutes to fall asleep.

• Sleep in complete darkness. Get good curtains and switch off standby lights on electrical goods, or remove them altogether. Charge phones elsewhere or away somewhere if possible. Even the tiniest amount of light on any part of the skin can interfere with sleep quality.

• Don’t have it too hot. Sleeping in a cooler environment can help improve sleep quality.

• Light up your mornings. Try a Lumi clock, it wakes you up with a gradually increasing light instead of the stress of a noisy alarm clock. Not convinced it will work? Try it on a weekend morning when you don’t have to get up, you’ll be surprised.

• Get outside - make the most of breaks at work and in life to get some light in the day. Wrap up warm and get out for a walk, a run or just a trip to the park with Autumn in full splendour.

• Get away - plan a winter sun holiday, it’s amazing what an energy boost it can supply.

• Try a classical wake up - ditch the aggressive alarm for a calmer start to the day. Annoying alarms can be stressful causing big surges in adrenaline levels, which may be followed by a subsequent slump and not particularly good for you.

• Synchronise - if you can rise with the sun. This isn’t possible for everyone, but if you can, try it and watch your mood rise like the warm orange ball over that hill you can see out of your window.

Sleep well, wake better.

balance your light and dark, balance your life, balance your scales :-)

balance on.......booze

It’s the weekend again and no doubt alcohol consumption may increase for some of you, so here’s a few pieces of information on how alcohol affects your body short-term and long-term:

Beer bellies - alcohol consumption is strongly linked to the size of your waist. This is because it’s high in calories, packed full of sugar and enters your blood stream very quickly. Research in men shows that increased alcohol intake equals increased trouser size. In women, one study did show that moderate drinking (one to two small glasses of wine) did not affect the size of your outfit, but anything above that did.

Beer goggles - a study recently scooped an award for showing that alcohol consumption makes people see themselves as more attractive, but at the same time had no effect on how attractive they appeared to others. If this is the case, it means we should be chatting ourselves up on a night out!

Image courtesy of cbenjasuwan at 

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wine head - it’s not just your belly and your eyes that alcohol has a bad relationship with. Alcohol decreases the quality of sleep, decreasing the amount of REM sleep, making you wake up more often and making you sleepier and low in energy during the day.

Wine head doesn’t just affect your sleep, as you’ll know it carries on the next day. Your hangover may lead to stomach problems, headaches, low energy levels and blood sugar imbalances. These imbalances may cause you to crave sugar foods and undo all of the great work you’ve put in to get yourself healthy.

Just the one? One to two small glasses of wine or a half/pint per day may offer some protection against type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is likely that women should drink less than men, probably one drink compared to two for the guys. Small amounts of alcohol appear to increase HDL cholesterol and also to decrease the likelihood of clotting.

Ask yourself when you go out if you drink lots because you enjoy it and you crave that Sunday morning wine head, or do you think that it’s the done thing? Are you easily led or do you just have a few and lose track? If any of these apply to you, have a plan for a more balanced evening:

• Drink water in between alcoholic drinks

• Take a set amount of cash and no card

• Team up - there’s power in numbers and if a few of you are keen to decrease your alcohol intake, decrease your weight and increase your health, then your gang will become the social norm and others will follow you.

• Move abroad - ok so this is a bit extreme, but many cultures see drinking as a sociable event without having to consume copious amounts. We could learn a thing or two from our worldly-wise neighbours.

These are just a glassful of ideas, you can plan your own that works best for you.

balance your beer, balance your scales :-)

balance on………….The Men Who Made us Thin

Having finally had a chance to sit down and watch all four episodes from this BBC 2 series back to back (the joys of Sky+), it’s worth reviewing what Mr. Jacques Peretti had to say after delving deep into the belly of the weight loss world. Whilst we don’t normally recommend sitting on your backside for hours on end, we nobly did it for you and reviewed the key messages here so that you could use that time on moving and being generally healthier and happier! What did we learn?

Diets don’t do it

Jacques was quite scathing of some of the larger weight loss companies in his earlier episodes, sometimes fairly although sometimes the reporting was a little on the sensationalist side and arguably not always a balanced view.

At balance we’d certainly agree that heavily processed shakes, bars and meal replacements is not the key to long-term success. Interestingly though, having spoken to some people who use them recently, they said that it helped them to ‘kick-start’ their weight loss, increase their motivation and then adopt healthy lifestyles to maintain it. One of the balance values is in empowering people to find out what works for themselves, and whilst you won’t find us selling you a powdered mix to add to milk or water instead of having breakfast any time soon, we do recognise the value for some of getting things moving to help motivate them. Remember though the story of the hare and the tortoise!! And remember that if you do go down this route it’s not a long-lasting solution, so you’re only going to have to make yet another change at some point to maintain it.

Fit doesn’t necessarily mean thin

The piece on exercise in episode 2 is worthy of some attention. It is certainly true that exercise on its own may not be THE solution to weight loss, but then again, as the world’s population grows larger day by day, it is fairly clear that no one single solution has been found, or ever will be!

Jacques’ negativity towards exercise for weight loss was clear, although he did rightly point out that there are numerous other reasons for moving from a health and wellbeing perspective. He also neglected one fundamental point when looking at exercise; type! The focus of the show was very much on cardiovascular workouts, which certainly can make the heart healthier and increase fitness. They also burn calories so can have a part to play in a balanced exercise routine. However, resistance or weights training received little or no attention, yet there is evidence to show that it reduces fat levels and also improves insulin sensitivity, decreases risk of falls and improves cardiovascular health in everyone from athletes to elderly adults an type 2 diabetics! There was a very nice piece about the ‘fat but fit’, showing a couple of ladies who were super-fit but overweight; it emphasised that fitness was key, even if you were overweight. OK, so the exercises they were given weren’t always the safest or most appropriate in terms of injury risk, but they were moving!

The science says is also clear in showing that exercise helps to keep weight off, so when it’s combined with a healthy diet you can get some pretty good results. Exercise should form part of a holistic approach and the focus should not purely be on weight loss but on changes in shape, energy, self-confidence and health as well. Do this and weight loss will come anyway!

What tastes sweet may not be so neat

There was a short but interesting piece in one episode around sweeteners. Jacques pointed out that rats eating them surprisingly gained weight, when it would be assumed that consuming less sugar would lead to weight loss. In an interview with a scientist, she noted that in human beings there was a change in a part of the brain called the amygdala when consuming sweeteners like aspartame. It seemed change occurred in the brain with regular consumption of sweeteners and that this could actually lead people to eat even more calories as it created a weaker response to sugar.

Weight gain and weight loss has numerous reasons

Peretti brilliantly portrayed the complex interplay between society, the food industry, the medical world, drugs companies, the media and fitness industries. We could take a cynical view of many of these, but that’s not what we’re here to do. All we ask is that you go on your own journey through weight loss, ask yourself the questions:

• Will what I am about to do make me fitter and healthier?

• Will it help me to lose weight and keep it off?

• Is it helping me to gain a realistic view of what I can achieve?

We don’t think that the diet toothpaste or magic weight loss soap fits into this category!!

Think, eat, live, move, and balance your life, balance your scales. :-)

balance on.....blogging beginnings and counting calories

Welcome to the the first ever balance weight loss blog! It’s taken a fair bit of reading web pages that we didn’t really understand to get to this point, so it’s nice to be able to start writing!

We’ll be posting regularly on weight loss, health and well being, including:

• News - the latest research and press coverage for all things weight loss, health and well being.

• Recipes - we’ll be giving you a range of healthy alternatives to your all-time favourites, ideas for healthy snacks and recipes using a range of healthy foods. All will be based on our ‘ten pillars of nutrition’.

• Exercise advice - at home, outside, or in the gym, we’ll show you how to fit activity into your everyday lives with practical examples of awesome exercises and simple, effective training programmes.

• Success stories - we love to praise those who’ve achieved their goals, so we’ll be sharing their achievements and how they did it with you, to motivate you and give you ideas for your own journey.

• Our own research and reading - we like to keep on top of the science and we’re keen to share what we find with you. We’ll put together articles on a range of topics, everything from sleep to stress management, from food to fitness, from what works for your mind to what works for your body. If you want us to write about anything in particular, just ask and we’ll create a post just for you!

We thought we’d start with a look at something that appeared in the news recently. These days, you can’t go more than 24 hours without seeing a TV programme or a news story about weight loss, food, exercise, health and well being!! In many ways this is fantastic as it raises people’s awareness of the subjects and gets them thinking about their own health. We do however work with people who tell us they’re confused by all the conflicting information that they read and see from day to day. “Fish is really good for you as it’s packed full of Omega 3” or “the seas are polluted so be careful with fish as it may be full of chemicals”, “make sure to get your five portions of fruit and vegetables each day”, or “fruit is high in sugar and may increase your risk of diabetes.” Which one is true? Who should I trust? Sometimes it’s not easy to know, so we’ll be helping to make it simple to understand by offering you a balanced view (pun very much intended)!

Last week the Daily Mail had a story about a research study that they say tells us that counting calories is meaningless. Is this the case? 

Have a look for yourself

. 

The findings suggest that the calories on food labels might not be correct, especially in processed foods where they may often underestimate the calories. It also showed that different people processed foods differently and as such may absorb different amounts of calories from the same foods. There’s a lot of good messages in this article to take away, including:

• Just counting calories may not be an effective way of losing weight, and certainly won’t guarantee good health.

• People are different! Foods that work for one may not work for another. You’ll need to learn over time how you respond to different foods and use a little trial and error to discover what works for you.

• Real foods are best! If it grew in the ground or on a tree, or it lived and died and not much happened to it afterwards, it’s probably good for you. If it was processed, and it’s advertised on TV, it’s probably not!

• Healthy cooking can be a recipe for success - steaming is particularly good for you and the odd bit of raw food can be great. Don’t go mad on this, there have been a number of cases of people experiencing severe health issues with extreme raw food diets, and there is research to suggest it lowers HDL cholesterol and raises levels of markers of inflammation in the body. In fact, most fad diets like this purely work because they restrict you from consuming as many calories as you normally would, there’s no magic going on.

To count or not to count?

When we work with clients we don’t ask our clients to count calories and arguably you don’t need to. If you eat real foods you’ll get full fairly quickly and absorb the nutrients you need. If you eat processed foods it’s easy to over-consume as they don’t contain what your body needs, leaving it hungry for more. They do however have refined sugars, trans-fats and other unhealthy substances that play around with your blood sugars and insulin levels, making you hungry again soon after.

This is not to say that calories are irrelevant, far from it. If someone eats too much they can gain weight, if they don’t eat enough they can lose weight. This is undeniable. If somebody finds it helps to count calories by measuring portion sizes and it works for them, well that’s great and it should not be discouraged. People need to find their own ways to achieve balance in life and balance on the scales!

If you’re considering making lifestyle changes to lose weight, remember that for thousands of years before food labelling and 'low-fat’ or 'lite’ foods existed, people successfully managed their weight by being in tune with their body’s, eating when they were hungry and stopping when they were full. Oh, and you won’t see a fat lion very often!!

We hope you enjoyed our first instalment, we’ll be back soon with lots more to help you balance your life and balance your scales. :-)