Monthly Archives: September 2014

Diet dilemma? Part 1 the 5:2 diet

What is the latest fat loss craze known as 5:2 diet? The 5:2 diet is where on five days of the week you eat whatever you like sticking to the recommended calorie intake for either male (2500 cals) or female (2000 cals). Ideally on the other two days of the week you limit yourself to 500 calories a day if you are a female or 600 calories a day if you are a male, theory behind this is that it sends your body into a fast. Or some people are eating whatever they want for 5 days then nothing (or just a small dinner) for the other 2 days.

The 5:2 diet is really just a fancy name for intermittent fasting. It works especially with people who are very unhealthy or when they have more than 10-20 kgs overweight. Its basically eating with your instincts as you shouldn’t feel hungry the next day after eating too much the previous day. Right?

Fasting is seen as an effective way to lose fat because by cutting down on your calorie intake intermittently, rather than all at once, your body goes into repair mode instead of starvation mode, PLUS it is busy digesting food you’ve just eaten right? This repair mode causes the body to restore damaged cells, which causes the body to use more energy; whereas starvation mode causes your body to grow and store fat cells.

With that being said lets go through the pros and cons of this diet and you can decide if it’s right for you (I have to say here you won’t know until you try it, but it shouldn’t give you the right to binge eat for 5 days then eat nothing for 2 days. The 5:2 diet will help you:

Burn fat: Because there is evidence that intermittent fasting helps promote more fat loss than muscle loss.

Boost your mood: Fasting may help improve the mood in adults. People who have participated in intermittent fasting have found they sleep better, have higher energy and concentration and a greater sense of overall well-being. (It’s called giving your digestion a break)

Repair your body: We all naturally produce a growth hormone called IGF-1

and while it’s great at keeping the body on the go, in later life it can also speed up the aging and the onset of age-related diseases. When we fast, IGF-1 production is inhibited, and our bodies go into ‘repair’ mode, giving cells time to rebuild themselves more effectively.

Now time for the cons; looking at this from a psychological perspective, when individuals have restrictive diet it can cause them to think about food more and more. This can lead to binging (especially for females) which can be caused from either being hungry or hormonal fluctuations like blood sugar levels going up and down. Now you have to ask yourself if the 5:2 diet is for you, on one hand you might just be sitting at a computer all day and have a low energy demands but on the other hand you could be a busy mum with three kids that goes to the gym everyday. High chances that if you are cutting your calories when you have a high energy demand you will be left feeling tired and not to mention you will be battling extreme hunger and cravings (just take it easy on the low calorie days if that’s the case). And get to know yourself if you find calorie restricting leads you to binge eat at the end of the night and you feel bad as you were unable to control yourself.

What we’d suggest is that you fast over the night for 3 days per week especially for females we’ve noticed this seems easy for us girls, for example eat your last meal at 5/6pm and then fast until 8am the next day, leaving around 13 hours without food, giving you all the benefits of fasting.

With any diet, no matter how positive the results are reported to be, it’s important to make sure it is sustainable long term and, most importantly, do no damage to your body and you should be able to maintain your energy levels after a few weeks.

More diet reviews coming soon. What else would you like to hear about? Please comment below.

Plus to see more about my take on ‘why I believe the calorie theory is incomplete’ click here.

For help on choosing the right diet for you click here to contact us.

Article written by Teena Kyriazis and Kate Martin

Results are 100% a mental game. Here’s my take on what it takes..

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Well the reality is getting results requires a slightly different approach for everyone, but some things, like the mental approach to change and implementing habits I’ve found from coaching clients and observing my own self talk, is similar regardless of the special diet or exercise regime you are asked to follow.

The following is what I believe goes through our heads (including my own) and some tips to overcome the self talk and FINALLY get results;

1 a. I’m going to start the new diet (or insert new habit here) Monday.

1 b. You really mean it when you say it but unless you are planned with your time and preparation for whatever needs to happen, and understand that stuff ain’t going to go your way on Monday AND you will have to have an iron will and wits about you (especially on the first day or two of a new regime).. You Will likely cave.

How do I know? Because I often do the same thing! In fact sometimes I make the rules so hard for myself I can’t start for months of Mondays in a row :).

What you can do: The best prep is to know that the first day isn’t going to go your way and that you are going to do it anyway. Start with a habit at a time, this really does help. Be prepared.

Trust me as the days go on, it DOES get easier, a lot easier.

2 a. It’s not fair that all the other girls eat drink xxxxxx (insert your favourite food or drink here) and they ARE skinny, I must just have xxxxxx (faulty genes, a slow thyroid or insert excuse here).

2 b. We absolutely have to stop blaming other peoples luck and our misfortune and instead take full responsibility for where we are and how we are going to there, and yes some people have a different body composition to you, but really so what? What makes us think it was always easy for them? Or that they aren’t suffering from a terminal illness.. Heaven forbid.

But my message here is to be grateful for what you have that DOES work, your arms and your legs if you have them and stick to the plan and get on with it.

What you can do: Focus with ninja like focus on YOURSELF and your own game and try to compare yourself to others less. A lot less.

3 a. I’m not changing/I can’t see results – so there’s no point!

3 b. I beg to differ, In fact if you don’t already feel a lot better after the first week of your new habit, I bet you are possibly already getting compliments (if not you will by the 3^rd or 4^thweek) and of course, in typical female manner (sorry fellas) you’re not taking the compliments on board.

The only way I know of to overcome this is to stop putting yourself down and have your results measured somehow.

What you can do: Either do your circumferences with a tape measure weekly (eg. Around your waist , butt etc). Take a photo of yourself weekly, get your body fat tested weekly. (I prefer not to encourage people, mainly women, to use the scales as it’s not an indication of gaining muscle tissue and gaining muscle tissue IS what you want. Plus us women use the number on the scales to dictate if we are going to have a bad day or not…. It’s just silly really).

Measure your results until you CAN be objective with yourself. This personally took me two years of having my body fat measured weekly until I thought, you know what I can tell the reaction food is having with my body and I’m happy with it and understand how to adjust it. More importantly, I love and respect it anyway.

Click here to see more about my personal fat loss journey.

If you would like more ideas on how to measure your results or get out of your own way, don’t hesitate to drop me a line, I’ll be more than happy to call you to see if I can help.

See more about my online program for women here.

Do your friends think you are going crazy for ‘getting healthy’?

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I’d love to get results but my friends think I’m weird or crazy for… (Fill in the blank).

So in your attempt to get healthy you may sometimes feel like you may lose your friends?

Every week clients say to me that they feel like as they implement their new health habits they are going to have to ‘Not see their friends’, ‘Never go out again’, ‘Not start the new healthy routine until after the x y z weekend or event has finished’.

I know how you feel trust me, it’s normal to feel this way what starting something you haven’t done before and someone is asking you to do something ‘way out there’ as far as you are concerned.

Not only do you feel isolated in that you can’t hang out with your friends at social occasions because everything involves food, but that you can’t drink? What? Is your trainer crazy? What do they think this is? that you have no life? How are you suppose to be able to go to boozy lunches with friends, a beer with the fellas, have a latte with a weekend breakfast, socialise and not be the odd one out because you are ordering something separate or different on the menu at your friends dinner, or heaven forbid your trainer expects you to ‘take your own food’ to an event??

Who are these people, your trainers, do they not have a life? Do they not know what it’s like to have to socialise? Have friends? To go out to dinner, the party, a wedding, a bar mitzvah? whatever.. you get my point.

Well let me share this with you my dear client 😉 Actually we do know how it feels as we are part of society too remember, it’s just that we have discovered something, a little thing called results and how to get them, and you came to us, remember, to ask how to get them.

And no we are not asking you to join some weird club where you are not allowed to hang out with your friends, go to any more social events, or that you have to stay home and not go out ever again. We are not telling you that for the rest of your life you have to do anything at all. What we are telling you is a few ‘big bang for your buck’ lifestyle changes that once made, will give you enormous results, usually within a couple of weeks if you can do what we ask. We are purely here to help you shortcut the time it take you to get results and lessen your frustrations when it comes to exercise and nutrition and how to get the body you want.

No matter the diet, or exercise regime you go on, things only work when you do. Yep that’s the magic secret sorry, you are going to have to put your head down bum up and follow something strictly (no I don’t believe in making clients go hungry, but you do have to follow the rules, so to speak, especially if it’s only the last 5kg, or a half to a dress size that you have to lose).
If you want to get results fast or at minimum implement 1-2 of the habits that your trainer asks you to do per week. (I find the later gets the best long term results for clients)..

My suggestions when it comes to socialising/friends and influences:

I suggest you don’t use google, use the references your trainer gives you or ask if you need more info. And I really suggest you don’t ask your friends opinions (unless they have the body and health or lifestyle you want?) … So yep this might mean you can’t tell your opinionated friends about the health advice you are following and you probably don’t want to be enlightening them with your new found knowledge either, unless of course they have told you that they definitely want to hear about it.

Yep, you may have to stop telling some of your friends every little detail about what you are doing, unless you want them to tell you how crazy or stupid you are for doing ‘x y z’.

I personally have some super healthy friends that I discuss some things with and some others who I discuss other things with and I love all of them but I try not to force my opinions onto others ears about health unless they really want to know, something I’ve learnt over the years is they don’t usually want to know.

So my suggestion to you would be sometimes you are going to have to ‘suck it up’ if you want results. Things you can do to get results now:

Eat before you go to your event.
Take your food with you.
Keep your healthy lifestyle changes to yourself unless someone asks.
Make more friends that eat carrots 😉
And take me with a grain of salt. Everything in moderation.

Cheers! I’m off to get a Cocktail because life is about balance and I’m out of the office at the moment 😉

My version of fat burning cardio.. Plus download a free program for you to do

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Here’s the program for you to download: Click here Full body circuit A and B

In the video I added a few extra exercises and also increased the repetitions from 12 to 20! yep it was an ‘ouch’ experience.

Please feel free to ask any questions below;

My Personal Journey of Weight Loss Post Baby

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This series of videos has been a long time coming. I wanted to share with you the tough times I had over a period of 4 years to get my body back. From mindset challenges I had to overcome to trying and failing at many different theories on exercise and nutrition, getting back up and then trying again. I discuss everything including the bad (personal) stuff.. what worked, what didn’t and why. I hope you or someone you may know can get something out of these videos. Please feel free to share them if you think someone else may benefit.

It’s a challenge I certainly wasn’t ready for (the one of becoming a mother), so if this helps someone know not to give up on their quest for health and to learn to love themselves, then the aim of the videos has been reached. Let me know what you think in the comments below;