Frequent Questions about Diet and Health – Explained

“Losing Weight Quick”

The answer to this is simple. There is no quick way to change something functionally within your body. There are a few reasons for this.

1. Your body doesn’t want to change if it doesn’t have to. If you are functioning right now, your body doesn’t understand why it needs to change. So, changing your appearance is hard and takes time and dedication as there is really no logical reason for doing so unless you are overweight or unhealthy. With exercise and a caloric deficit, you are essentially tricking your body. When you push yourself through exercise – the body adapts because it doesn’t want to have to be physiologically challenged like that again: essentially adapting to make it easier next time.
2. It takes hard work.
3. Drastically cutting your food intake = starvation mode. This is when the body stores as much fat as possible from your food in order to prevent death from starvation – when we eat drastically less this is the state of our body.
4. All you can do is exercise more and eat 200 (roughly) calories less. Which is a SMALL deficit BUT manageable, sustainable and the ONLY healthy way to lose weight. Example, stop snacking, eat fruit/veg when you are hungry/
5. THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE AND THERE NEVER WILL BE. YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE.

“Losing Motivation, reaching a plateau”

This is inevitable. Motivation isn’t a constant. Your motivation will always change and that is totally normal and expected. Determination is more than motivation. It is a habit and a choice that a person makes for a specific or many reasons.

If you are starting something new or becoming bored/ unmotivated by what you are doing, remember why you love it or why you are starting. If you are struggling to be motivated after a long time, try something different or new.

When you start a new sport or skill your brain firstly has to adapt to the new experience. This is called neuromuscular adaptations. This is essentially responsible for the concept “beginners gains”. An improvement in coordination, motor recruitment and motor units. These are all benefits when learning a new skill. This is responsible for the rapid increase in performance/ muscle mass.

After this, muscular adaptations take over = functional changes due to muscle hypertrophy – increase in muscle size. This takes many repeated training sessions. After doing the same type of exercise for many years this process slows down and it becomes harder and takes longer to see results.

Try something new! Learn new skills! Find something to be motivated by! Keep trying and perceive!

“Meal Prepping”

Meal prep can be very helpful but can also take up lots of time and energy. It is certainly NOT a requirement to a healthy diet and good exercise performance.

Personally, I think that meal prepping is overrated and eating the same food every day or similar foods is BORING. You can eat a variety of foods and have a healthy diet. A larger healthy food variety increases your nutrient intake.

It can definitely take the stress of off cooking every day and it may possibly work very well for you! Try it!

However, it does not = health or fitness or ensure you are eating a healthy diet. It is always a good idea to experiment and find out what works for you and what makes you happy!

“Healthy Meal Recipes”

Many, many meals and food can be healthy if you understand the right way to do it.

Unhealthy foods/drinks that should be limited and that are problematic in our diets:

• saturated fat
• free sugars – refined sugar
• alcohol
• salt

Food we don’t eat enough of:

• fibre = gut health
• omega 3 fatty acids – found in fish = brain health
• fruit and veg = oxidative stress (preventing disease – such as cancer)

It’s hard to say a few healthy meals and better to recommend a lifestyle and choices.

So,

• choose whole-wheat over white breads/pasta etc
• Eat as much fruit and vegetables as you can!!!
• Have oily fish
• have fruit instead of chocolate, sweets
• choose unsaturated fat (olive oil) instead of saturated (butter, vegetable oil)
• limit takeaways and processed foods – foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat

REMEMBER TO EAT IN A WAY THAT IS SUSTAINABLE NOT IN A WAY THAT WILL DRIVE YOU CRAZY. Make small changes and make a difference!

Thank you for reading. Follow for more 🙂