Dietary education | ||
Written by Rachel | ||
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Diet
People tend to think of the word 'diet' in terms of losing weight. This
is not accurate. Your diet is what you eat. And drink.
Who taught you what to eat?
This is a reasonable question, and most people could not give a decent
answer. Often people acquire eating habits from their parents. They may even
learn about diet in school.
Usually people just eat what they feel like eating.
Fat
When most people think of the word 'diet', their interest is fat loss. The
amount of body fat you are carrying around is an important concern.
Let's imagine that a person is carrying an unnecessary stone of fat...
If you put a 1 stone rucksack on your back, how much would this inhibit your
ability to move? How much stress would be placed on your knees/your back? Would
it be easy to bend and squat?
What if the rucksack contained 2 stones?
Alcohol
What
alcohol does to
your body, brain & health | Huberman Lab podcast #86
Reality check
Let's say that you're 5 feet 10 inches tall and 13 stone 8 pounds in weight...
This is a weight you've grown accustomed to and it may not seem so heavy
relative to many people around you.
Try putting your height and weight into the NHS BMI calculator. You're
overweight.
Now try inputting different weights until you reach exactly halfway in the
healthy range... It will be around 10 stone 8 pounds. The conclusion - you're 3
stone overweight.
We get used to being a certain weight and even though BMI isn't perfect, it is a
useful guide. Unless you're a body builder (or very short) it's worth using.
Psychological barriers
The biggest real impediment to losing fat is psychological. People want to keep
on eating the things they like eating and yet shed the fat. This is a fantasy. A
delusion.
Shedding the fat also means shedding the food that made you fat in the first
place.
Debt
Consider diet in terms of debt... If you're in debt, there are 2 steps to keep
in mind:
Pay off the debt
Manage your daily/weekly/monthly budget effectively
Step 1 is obvious.
Step 2 is just as important. If you manage to pay off your debt but don't
change your spending/lifestyle habits, then you'll soon be back in
debt once again.
Fat again
People lose fat by following a low carb diet or a calorie controlled diet.
Then they put the fat back on again. How come? They have only done step 1.
Step 2 is just as important. If you manage to lose the fat but don't change
your eating/lifestyle habits, then you'll soon be fat once again.
Also, a low carb diet is unhealthy. The initial loss is water. This type of
diet causes the body to shed water and potassium; the outcome being
significant on-going dehydration. Which isn't good...
Step 1
Losing fat is necessary. There is absolutely no upside to carrying around
unwanted/unused fat reserves. Excess fat can lead to cancer, joint problems,
heart attack. You name it.
There are many different approaches/programs for shedding the fat. Do some
research. Find one that sounds viable for you.
Expectations
The bad news here is that getting fat is easy. But losing fat is not. Expect
a tough time of it. It will not be easy at all and the results may not be as
quick as you expect.
You may well feel ill at first, have headaches, disrupted sleep, mood
swings. Endure this. You can do it. Have faith in yourself. This will pass
quite quickly...
Strong mental attitude
During the fat loss stage you must commit time to addressing your thoughts.
Your perspective, attitude, resolve, commitment and hopes will shape the
outcome.
e.g. If you feel light headed, don't reach for the biscuits. Instead,
recognise that this may well indicate that your body is undergoing change.
Maybe you're shedding fat.
You cannot reasonably expect fat loss to be straightforward, fast and
permanent. It takes work.
Unfamiliar
Fat loss will not involve familiar physical sensations and experiences. You
may feel out of sorts. That is good. Habits feel familiar. Change does not.
False notions
If you are carrying 2 stone of unwanted fat around every day, there is no
point in speculating how it is going to feel to have shed that fat.
You cannot anticipate what the lighter, low fat you is going to be thinking
or what their priority/goals/plans will be.
For starters, you are not in that place yet. Right now, you have 2 stone of
fat to lose. Focus on that.
Step 2
Having lost the excess fat, do not resume your old eating patterns. This is
the most important thing to remember.
If you eat the food that got you fat in the first place, you will get fat
once again. It is inevitable.
Instead, figure out how much you need to eat in order to maintain your ideal
body fat ratio whilst eating a balanced, nutritious, sustainable, healthy
diet.
Base line
Most people skip step 2. Don't. It will take some work to figure out your
dietary requirements. You will need to monitor, experiment and make
mistakes. This is fine. Just avoid being blasé or complacent.
Once you have determined approximately how much you can and cannot eat, you
need to see what happens over time. If you put on unwanted fat, adjust,
return to step 1 if necessary.
Crash dieting
Some calorie calculators will suggest an 'extreme fat loss' calorific value
which is exceedingly low. This should be avoided.
Typically a 500 calorie daily deficit is adequate. If the calorie drop is
too extreme, your metabolism will slow down, your sleep may be affected and
any fat loss will be short lived.
Toxic habits
If you are wanting to shed fat but still want to drink alcohol or smoke,
what's the point? Toxic habits will wreck your body just as much as
excess fat will.
There's no point losing fat if you're still drinking a glass of wine every
night.
Yo-yo
Sugar creates a yo-yo effect on your blood stream. You go through highs and
lows continuously. This is mistaken for hunger.
Only by cutting out sugar (and any food that might remotely have sugar in
it) can you stabilise your body and find equilibrium.
Once you have operated without sugar for a few days you will discover that
you are no longer as hungry as you once were and that you do not need to eat
as much food.
Mental representation
One of the key tools for successful fat loss and on-going healthy
eating/lifestyle habits is to cultivate a good mental representation of what
'diet' constitutes.
Don't think of diet as just being fat loss or weight loss... Instead
recognise that diet is about what you eat. After all, short-term loss of fat
is pointless if you just put it all back on again.
Think about food differently. Food is about obtaining the necessary chemical
constituents for good health and optimal functionality.
Beyond food
Food alone is not enough. Unless your lifestyle is healthy, eating well will
only produce a partial result.
Being slim is fine, but if your body is stiff, inflexible and tense, or your
emotions are unhealthy and you are feeling stressed out, there's still a lot
of work to do. Find balance in all aspects of your life.
Worth reading
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Detox
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Diet
•
Fat loss
Page created
21 May 2008
Last updated
06 October 2023
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