Month: July 2016

When it comes to losing weight and getting into shape, there is one thing that matters more than any other aspect of your new diet. And that one thing is ‘adherence’.

Adherence is essentially just the technical term that describes how well you are able to stick to the diet rules you’ve set yourself.

• Do you stick religiously to your new calorie count?
• To reducing your carb intake?
• To getting more fruits and vegetables?

Because if you don’t stick to the rules you’ve set yourself, then it really doesn’t matter how effective that diet would have been.

Thus the priority becomes not only thinking about how you’re going to eat but also how you’re going to fit your new diet plan into your lifestyle.

And one of the biggest considerations in that regard is the role of socializing and how this will impact on your diet…

Eating is Inherently Social… And That’s a Problem!

Because what many of us forget when we set out on a diet is that eating is inherently social. Many of us will enjoy family meals around the table, while couples might see dinner as a great chance to catch up on each other’s days and to inject a little romance.

This is a great thing about eating but it’s also a problem – seeing as you’ll often find that having to avoid chocolate becomes a problem when you’re eating out with friends, or enjoying Valentine’s Day!

The Solution To Social Eating

There are a number of solutions to this problem. One option is to just make sure that you’re very strict with yourself during the non-social meals of your day.

For instance, try to keep your calories as low as possible when you’re eating lunch and breakfast and keep these consistent as well. This will give you more flexibility to eat well in the evenings.

You can still be healthy but you can also stop being quite so strict.

Another option is to use that social aspect to your advantage – by dieting at the same time as a partner and getting them to experience the diet with you.

This way, you can support one another and help each other through the process!

When eating out at restaurants you might find it hard to turn down dessert. One option then is to share a dessert (making yourself more social, not less so!) while another is to order a coffee instead of a massive cake!

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This weekend, well most of the weekend anyway, my son and I were hanging out together while my wofe was out at a wedding Stagette with my daughter.

I haven’t posted about this before but Pokemon Go is a big hit with my son and I and with no rules we had lots of time to hang out and walk and ride around.

My son Jaiden is 12 and like any 12 year old kid he becomes obsessed with things pretty easily and drops them just as fast. He loves to play computer games and often it is difficult to get him out of the house, even with two parents that love to exercise.

Did I mention that he is obsessed with Pokemon Go?

So between noon yesterday and dinner tonight we were out, hanging out as a kid and dad together and trying to catch them all.

I am getting a bit tired and he seems to be keeping going really well.

It is pretty warm today and Jaiden hasn’t been drinking enough water so after dinner he was going to go out again and then late tonight.

My wife is very much against Jaiden going out at night by himself (a paranoid mom) so she said no!

Jaiden, like any 12 year old hates to hear no and is always looking for a reason instead of just NO. This led to him coming up with the best quote of the day

You can’t overdose on exercise mom

 

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The right diet can do incredible things and this is something I believe very strongly.

Our body is physically composed of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other nutrients that we eat. Thus our health and physical performance are intrinsically tied to diet and if we don’t get everything we need, we simply can’t feel or act our best.

And that’s why I really enjoy finding examples of foods that really demonstrate this power.

Take the banana honey sandwich for instance. This might sound like an innocuous enough meal but in fact it is packed with some incredible goodness that makes it the perfect antidote to any raging hangover!

Why the Banana Honey Sandwich Works as Well as it Does

So what is it about this concoction that makes it so effective? On the face of it, it will quite likely seem like exactly the kind of thing that you don’t want to eat when you’re hungover! Sickly sweet and stodgy is not what you crave!

But in fact the sandwich works wonders in various ways.

For starters, the bread will line your stomach and soak up alcohol. This in turn helps you to immediately slow down the effects of any lingering alcohol in your system.

At the same time, all three components provide you with more energy in the form of simple carbs. You’ll feel instantly more awake after a rough night’s sleep and the honey in particular will work to provide both fructose and sucrose.

But it gets a lot more impressive…

You see, the bananas also provide lots of potassium. This is an electrolyte that gets depleted when you drink and that leads to cramping. This will help to reduce that muscle soreness and weakness you feel the next day.

Simultaneously, the bananas are very alkaline, meaning that they will act as a natural antacid and neutralize the acids in your stomach, reducing sickness.

Best of all though is the effect that honey has on acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is the primary toxic substance in honey that makes us feel as bad as we do. It is created as the body breaks down alcohol and is what causes headaches and many more symptoms.

But acetaldehyde is neutralized by fructose – which is found in honey in large quantities! In other words, honey can help you to break down the very toxins making you feel rough in the first place!

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