Why I think faddy diets are a load of crap.

I’ve posted on this before (see: diets make you fat) and I will post on it again, because it’s a subject that gets a lot of people riled. By now, you will probably have all seen at least one person on social media, selling a product such as Herbalife, Juice Plus, Weightwatchers etc.  The majority of people just get annoyed that they post all the time, are shoving their lifestyle in other people’s faces and are actively selling products through Facebook statuses. I mean, come on, that’s what Facebook PAGES were invented for. But I dislike them for another reason – this post is explaining why I think these diet plans are all a bunch of crap.

Calorie counting

If people don’t know a lot about nutrition (and I used to be one of these people, so no judgement here!), they think that they need to count calories. Women are supposed to have 2000 calories a day and men are supposed to have 2500, so if I only intake 1200, that means I should lose weight, right?! WRONG. Yes, a calorie controlled diet can work, but you have to look at the nutritional value of the foods you’re putting into your body. Something like an avocado is high in calories and is 8 WeightWatchers points, but that’s because it’s naturally high in GOOD FATS (yes, they’re a thing). Plus, ya know, they’re a natural, healthy fruit. So I find it so wrong when someone will cut it out of their diet due to the calories.

Nutrients, vitamins & minerals

Another thing that really annoys me are all the artificial food supplements that have surfaced in the last 10 years or so. There are different categories of this… The people who get a Weightwatchers ready meal and think that’s healthy… excuse me, that’s not real food. That’s artificial food, manufactured to contain a certain amount of calories, fat, carb, protein and salt. Forgive me for being old fashioned, but I really think that the food you put into your body shouldn’t be chemically engineered.

Then there are the people who take on a faddy diet, such as Juice Plus (*shivers*) or Slimfast or similar. I’m sorry but if you can’t see that taking tablet substitutes for your fruit and vegetables is wrong, then there’s something wrong with you. Your body needs food to survive and when you deny it, it only holds onto your fat tighter because it doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from.

The simple truth

We all know deep down how to lose weight. You eat healthy food (and not too much) and you do exercise. And when I say healthy, I mean salads, soup, fresh meat, fish, fruit & vegetables.

Weekend antics

So I had a lovely weekend in London.

I love doing something on a Friday night, because it always makes the weekend feel longer. This week, I went up to Angel to meet up with some friends. We started at a pub called the Angelic and moved on later to a trendy bar between Shoreditch and Old Street called Floripa. I had such a great laugh with friends and with people I’d only just met. I’d recommend Floripa if you like your cocktails and a bit of salsa dancing but by the end of the night, we were dying for some cheese.

 

 

Then on Saturday, I headed back into London with a work friend, as we had booked a deal on Groupon for a 2-course lunch at a floating restaurant on the Thames. We were very excited about this and expected it to be extremely fancy, but were very disappointed with the decor, the food and the experience in general – although buying a bottle of Prosecco did help!

 

After our late lunch, we headed over to the Heron Tower and went to Sushi Samba for a drink. I had never been before but my work friend had raved about the views. They did not disappoint – the view over London from 40 floors up was pretty impressive. We grabbed a cocktail and sat outside in the cool rooftop champagne bar, equipped with huge orange tree!

 

Unfortunately it was a bit chilly thanks to the brewing storm that hit England Sunday night, which wasn’t helped by the ice in my drink! So we headed back towards Waterloo station, but grabbed a coffee at a cute little patisserie by the river.

 

With all that packed into 2 days, it left me Sunday to chill! Just how I like a weekend. I did manage to head to the gym though for a much-needed workout. I’m on a mission to get back to fitness after all my injuries, so watch this space!

 

xx

No pain, no gain

Bad food eaten: none (hurrah!), trips to Starbucks: 2, kms run on treadmill: 5

Today has been a very good day.

I arrived at work this morning happy to be back in the office after a day of lounging at home with a gammy eye. I unintentionally ended up replacing my breakfast with a hazelnut soya latte from Starbucks and got to about 12 o’clock and began shaking! A small handful of mixed nuts and seeds and a green tea sorted that out and lunch today was a chicken salad.

I proceeded through the afternoon with a lemon and ginger tea and then another trip to Starbucks, in which I bought a soya coffee frappucino – I blame Groupon, they have an offer on that ends tomorrow, go look everybody!

Work was good today as well, I got lots done and managed to run a load of errands in my lunch break too. When I got home I was feeling a little faint again, so I made some porridge with soya milk and mixed in a little organic peanut butter as a healthy, protein-rich snack before I headed to the gym! Proceeded to do 5km on treadmill in 34 mins and felt uber proud of myself.

I haven’t been to the gym in 10 days you see. To the vast majority, that will not seem like a long stretch of time, but considering I had stepped it up to going around 5 times a week, 10 days have felt like 10 years to me! I went on a trip with work and then I got injured but now I’m back. I managed the 5km in the normal pace that I run it so I was pretty happy, but I went as red as a tomato once I’d finished! In fact I’m still a bit red now, even after a cold shower!

No pain no gain though ladies! I’m not writing this post to rub into everyones faces and say “Look how amazing I’m doing, I haven’t eaten a single carb all day”. Just look at yesterday’s post called Food Bipolar, where I was good all day then ate a massive pizza from Dominos. With brownies for dessert. Yeah, I left that bit out yesterday, ah well. I just hope that I can help inspire/motivate at least one other person to believe that they can tone up and better themselves. Once you start going to the gym, you actually enjoy it!

Food Bipolar

So, as I’m going on holiday on Monday, I’ve been busying myself trying to eat healthier and work out more. I have to say, it is definitely working, but I haven’t cracked it just yet.

I am not one of those who can starve myself. If I go more than 5 hours without eating (unless in special circumstances) my stomach will start moaning and groaning and it all gets very embarrassing. And I think it’s just so bloody HARD to try and cut out anything bad, or cut out carbs completely, if you’ve had them before and know how bloody good they taste.

So I am a massive advocate of curb your eating (everything in moderation, but 80% healthy and 20% bad) and exercise. You’d think this sounds like a winning combination and I think it would be, if the unhealthy stuff I consumed wasn’t as bad as the stuff I end up eating.

Take yesterday as an example. I was incredibly good all day… I had soya yoghurt, nuts and apricots for breakfast and a salmon salad for lunch. I also drank plenty of water and fruit tea during the day as well, which will help curb cravings. But when the evening came and I couldn’t decide what to eat for dinner, only one thing popped into my head. PIZZA. And once pizza is in your mind, it’s very hard to ignore it.

So last night was a carb overload and undid all the good work I’d done throughout the day. Why do we do that? When we’re trying to lose weight or tone up we end up sabotaging ourselves! Was that pizza last night really worth it? Sure, it tasted great and satisfied my cravings for the rest of the evening. But when I’m in my bikini on the beach next week, will I really be thanking myself for ordering that Dominos?

One way I know I can avoid this is planning my meals. The moment of pizza weakness came from a place of indecision so, if you’re cooking for yourself girls, plan your meals and make them healthy ones.

I also love to follow instagram accounts and Facebook pages that share pictures of healthy meals. Check out @DailyFood_Diary and @mybikinibody on instagram and Rhitrition’s Facebook page. And follow my instagram! I share loads of pics of healthy meals and promise I won’t share pics of Dominos. @KellyWolf91 – thanks!

Kelly xo

It’s #teatime!

This lunchtime I’m opting for Twinings Cranberry and Raspberry