“Take care of your body; it’s the only place you have to live” Jim Rohn, US motivational speaker.
Our movements reveal volumes about our vitality, youthfulness and enthusiasm.
When we plod around from place to place, one foot in front of the other without a spring in our step, it’s a given that others will perceive us as elderly; aged people are expected to move slowly without energy or direction.
Youthful people step out with purpose, confidence, energy and excitement. They know where they’re going and how they are getting there!
Perhaps the most difficult thing about exercising is summoning up the motivation to begin! Then the second most difficult thing is sticking with an exercise regime once you have started! The trick is to do something you enjoy. It’s pointless accompanying an enthusiastic friend to the swimming pool every morning if you aren’t in the least bit excited about getting your hair wet. Your interest will quickly wane and you’ll be looking for excuses not to accompany your friend!
If you haven’t exercised to a while the secret is to start gently and build up gradually. The great thing about walking is that it costs nothing except the dollars for a decent pair of shoes (good walking shoes are essential). Studies have shown the best time to exercise is early morning when the body is fresh, we feel more energetic and the temperatures are cooler. If we put off exercising until the afternoon or evening we are more likely to find excuses not to do it.
The same experts tell us our bodies become accustomed to repeating the same regular exercise and that we should mix it up a bit.
While you might not be up for alternatively running, jogging, skipping, walking or hopping your way around your neighbourhood streets you could consider switching around your circuit and walking in the opposite direction every alternative day. Apart from it being free, walking provides us with precious time to ourselves. We can stride off frustration, mull over problems, solve the current world crisis (wouldn’t it be a better place with us in charge?) plan your dinner menu or decide what to wear that day.
And while we’re discussing apparel – for goodness sake ditch the daggy old trakkie daks and the paint-splattered tee shirt! You’ll exercise with more heart, vigour and confidence when you’re wearing clothes that you look and feel good in. Step out in style – a colourful tee shirt and a slick of lipstick do wonders for the self esteem!
Mass retailers always have stocks of current, reasonably priced exercise-wear.
Try on lots of different styles and take a selection of sizes into the changing room.
Dark coloured exercise pants will make you look and feel slimmer.
Exercise pants or shorts with pockets to hold your door key and mobile phone are more useful than sleek Lycra numbers without pockets.
A bum bag containing your paraphernalia bouncing and flapping around your butt is unattractive!
Are you tightening your belt?
Have you noticed you haven’t been able to tighten your belt lately? If you’ve found you’ve had to let it out a notch or two you’re not alone. We’re not talking about the housekeeping budget here; another ageing issue is that when our estrogen levels drop our bodies redistribute the fat stores and usually this involves thickening of the waist.
According to the Australian Better Health Initiative, a waistline measurement of over 80cm for most women increases the risk of chronic diseases such as some cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Of course does not only pertain to Aussie women!
The risk rises as the measurement increases, so isn’t it worth doing all we can to maintain a healthy body? It’s the only one we’ve got!
Body shape is largely genetic, take a look at photographs of your female family members; it’s likely they share a common shape and pattern of fat storage.
It’s worth knowing that even though there might be a family tendency towards love handles and muffin tops, you don’t necessarily have to follow suit; a healthy lifestyle can overrule genetic tendencies. All the experts tell us that while menopause can cause a change in body shape, regular exercise can help maintain muscle, boost metabolism and prevent weight gain.
We are so influenced by the media and fashion’s quest to show the latest creations on slim bodies that we forget that not every body is made to wear single figure sized clothing. Our genetics dictate the size of our bone structure and body frames.
There is such a thing as bone scale - being big boned or small boned. Our goal really should be to maintain body weight within the healthy range.
Sometimes a mid-life woman who diligently works out at the gym finds that although she is not eating any differently and she’s exercising more, her clothes don’t fit as well as they used to. Sit-ups, crunches and ab-exercises will improve the muscle tone but the only way to lose body fat in the long term is to eat fewer kilojoules and burn off the fat with exercise.
Of course, it’s sod’s law that the bits of our bodies that we really would like to thicken - eyelashes, hair and lips - all go in the opposite direction and get thinner!
The soles of our feet also lose some of the fatty cushioning that protects the balls of the feet. Every step we take puts pressure on the feet – have you ever wondered why you find it uncomfortable to stay on your feet all day? Now you know, your soles are probably thinning.
Good walking shoes are essential for exercise. Look for a pair with great underfoot cushioning and padding. A pair of decent walking shoes can be expensive but they’re worth investing a little bit more in.
I’ve worn the same Nike walking shoes to go “waddling around the docks” as my son so eloquently puts it, for 40 – 50 minutes nearly every day for the last four years. Although the shoes are starting to look a bit ordinary, they’re still in good walking nick. I bought them for around AUD$146 which is less than 1c per day – not bad!
Incidental exercise is extra everyday exercise and every single step helps towards overall fitness.
- Lose the remote and get up off your butt to change the television channel.
- Walk upstairs each time you need to put something away instead of leaving it all to accumulate at the bottom of the stairs for one big upward haul in the evening.
- I have a friend who never uses a long handled broom to sweep her kitchen floor. Instead she gets down on her knees to clean it, or she bends over and sweeps up fallen debris with a dustpan and brush. Excessive perhaps, but she does have an enviable waistline!
- Peg the washing onto the line instead of bunging it into the dryer.
- Stop buying stuff on eBay and get out to the shops.
- Walk to the local shops instead of driving.
- Park your car as far as possible away from the lifts or pedestrian exit in car parks and walk.
- Return the supermarket trolley to the trolley bay instead of leaving it tucked between cars.
- Take the stairs instead of lifts or escalators.
Once you put your mind to it you’ll be surprised how many ways you can incorporate a little extra incidental exercise into your day, so up off the gluteus maximus and out you go!
A Weighty Problem
There are some things that only women can understand: cat’s facial expressions, fat clothes, why bean sprouts aren’t weeds, and the inaccuracy of every bathroom scale that has ever been manufactured!
There are hundreds of weight loss programmes available to us and it’s a difficult task to sift through them all to find The One to suit our needs.Food supplement sachets, protein powders, fat dissolving tablets, pre-assembled diet meals that are delivered to the home, a bewildering choice of frozen diet food in the supermarket freezers and pages and pages of fad diets accompanied by glowing testimonials, are all there waiting to tempt us and extract copious dollars from our pockets.
Weight loss is a trillion dollar business world wide, and weight loss companies have generous marketing budgets to promote their products. It’s easy to succumb to extravagant advertisements for regimes that don’t actually fit our individual needs, our lifestyle or our pockets.
The key is to establish a programme to suit you and your lifestyle.
If you know that your proposed regime is sustainable before you embark on it, you’ll have a better chance of following the programme right through to your goal weight and then maintaining your new weight.
Some programmes offer minimal education about healthy eating. Participants can end up with severe headaches, death-breath and minimal weight loss. These quick-fix programmes produce results if you follow the instructions to the letter. Often the weight that was lost whilst on these ‘all fluff and no substance’ regimes is regained within weeks of finishing the programme simply because information on wise food choices, kilojoule intake and good health guidelines were not offered.
A great weight loss programme is one that provides you with the knowledge to develop the skills to lose weight safely and effectively, and keep it off.
Look for a system that provides a maintenance programme once you’ve reached your ideal weight to help you retain it. Many people find that losing weight in a supportive group environment is a major key to success. The other participants in group situations are interested in your weight loss and are happy to share their successes and the pitfalls they’ve encountered. Most people lose weight more steadily with group encouragement. Commercial weight loss companies such as Weight Watchers offer sustainable scientifically backed programmes and realistic goals at a reasonable cost.
If you have medical issues it is worth approaching an accredited practicing dietician to tailor a weight loss programme to your medical history and your lifestyle. Surf the internet to find a dietician near you.
Aim to lose your weight in 5 kilogram blocks! This is less daunting than setting a weight loss goal that when you start the programme seems very far away and almost unachievable. Every five kilos you lose will take you down about one dress size.
The way to really burn kilojoules is to be generally active and doing regular, planned exercise. Walking is the easiest fat-burning exercise, and it’s the exercise most recommended by experts and let’s face it - walking at a reasonable pace four or five times a week for thirty five minutes is a small price to pay for a healthy body
Every gram you lose is a step closer to a healthier, slimmer, gorgeous you!
My Magic Diet
My family calls this “The Dynamite Diet” because it blasts away the kilos. Movie stars and celebrities will often go on a similar plan when they need to quickly shift a kilo or two to look their best at public appearances.
This diet is sometimes known as “The Cardiac Diet”. Occasionally doctors place obese cardiac patients on it for two weeks prior to cardiac surgery to encourage weight loss.
My doctor gave me the diet when I wanted to kick-start a weight loss regime. She advised that I do it for two weeks. I figured this wasn’t a long time out of my life so I followed the diet to the letter. At the end of two weeks I was so over vegetable soup, but I had dropped a dress size! I then went on the Weight Watchers maintenance programme to sustain my weight loss.
I share the diet with you, exactly as my doctor gave it to me.
Vegetable Soup
3 x tomatoes, peeled
2 x 500ml tetra packs of Campbell’s Beef Consommé
2 x 800ml cans crushed tomatoes
2 x cups water
1 packet Continental Spring Vegetable dry soup powder
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch celery
300g fresh or frozen green beans
2 red peppers
3 carrots
4 zucchini
2 corn cobs
2 chicken stock cubes
Wash, peel and chop all the vegetables into small pieces. Combine all the ingredients in a very large stock pot. Add some cracked black pepper and stir well. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes, reduce the heat and simmer until all the vegetables are tender. Add more water if you want a thinner soup.
This soup can be eaten any time you are hungry. Eat as much as you want whenever you want. The soup contains minimal kilojoules. The more you eat the more weight you’ll lose. Fill a thermos with the soup if you are going out or to work during the day.
For drinks use unsweetened fruit juices, tea or coffee without milk or sugar, cranberry juice and water.
Day 1
Eat any fruit (except bananas) and soup today.
Rockmelon and watermelon are lower in kilojoules than most other fruit.
Eat only soup and fruit (as much as you want) today.
Day 2
Eat vegetables and soup today (eat as many fresh, raw, frozen or canned vegetables as you like). Eat the vegetables with the soup.
At dinner time reward yourself with a jacket potato and butter.
Don’t eat any fruit today.
Day 3
Eat all the soup, vegetables and fruit you like today.
Don’t have the jacket potato today.
If you have eaten as above for three days and not cheated you should have lost between 2.5 and 3.5 kilos.
Day 4
Eat bananas, skim milk and soup today
Eat at least 3 bananas and drink as much milk as you can today
Eat as much soup as you want
Bananas are high in kilojoules and carbohydrates but you will need the potassium. You will need the calcium from the milk.
Day 5
Eat, beef, tomatoes and soup today
You may have half a kilo of beef today (or skinless chicken if you prefer). Cut all the fat off the beef, don’t eat it. Grill or BBQ the meat without oil or fat.
Eat as many as six tomatoes
Eat the soup at least once today
Day 6
Eat beef, tomatoes and soup today
Eat to your heart’s content –lean beef and vegetables only. You may even have 2 -3 steaks if you wish, with leafy green vegetables. Grill or BBQ the meat without oil.
No potato today
Be sure to eat soup at least once today.
Day 7
Eat brown rice, vegetables, fruit juice and soup today.
Be sure to eat as much rice and vegetables as you like, and eat as much soup as you can.
By the end of the seventh day if you have not cheated on the diet you should have lost 5 to 8 kilos – depending on your activity/exercise level. If you lose more than 5.5 kilos stay off the diet for 2 days. Then start day 1 again.
The recipe makes enough soup to feed one person for at least 3 days. Store it in the refrigerator.
The soup freezes well. Divide it into 2 cup portions and freeze each portion separately.
Adapt mainstream recipes to suit the diet – fat-free chicken san choy bow, stir-fried vegetables, handfuls of herbs into the soup, minced steak to make beef kebabs on rosemary skewers with smoky eggplant puree and on the 7th day a fat-free pumpkin and vegetable risotto… but this is not a cook book!
I went on the diet because I’d quit smoking and gained fifteen kilograms. With all the will in the world there was no way I could have continued for longer than the maximum two weeks without cheating!
Whenever your scales begin to tip towards the top of the radar you can always revisit the diet again for a few days.
Dieticians advocate that steady weight loss on a healthy eating programme is more sustainable than weight lost on fad diets (such as my diet!).
When we first embark on a weight loss programme we’re enthusiastic and motivated. We want fast results. Many schemes recognize this and introduce an austere eating plan for the first week to encourage good results.
- We all have “OMG-I’ll-never-do-it-so-I-might-as-well-have-some-chocolate-and-be-done-with-it” moments!
- If you succumb to a binge - chocolate or anything else, don’t beat yourself up about it. Put the binge behind you and jump right back onto your programme. The worst case scenario is that it could take a few more days to get your weight to where you want it.
- Plan your meals and eat them at regular times.
- Plan snacks ahead – carrot and cucumber sticks in the fridge are clichéd and boring but they do work for mindless snacking - i.e. when you poke your head into the fridge in the vague hope that some fabulous treat has wafted itself in there without your knowledge and you find it hasn’t but a carrot or cucumber stick will do.
- A crisp snack will make you feel as though you’ve had something to eat. An apple cut into a zillion (or at least 40) slices works, and so do mini rice cakes impregnated with vegemite/marmite flavours (or vegemite/marmite spread on top).
- Drink plenty of water to ensure you’re getting enough fluid. Water is kilojoule-free and a glass of water can help to quell hunger pangs.
- Introduce extra flavour to meals with good quality balsamic vinegar, fresh herbs and interesting spices all of which you would need to eat truckloads of before any difference is made to your kilojoule intake.
- Sit down to eat.
- Weigh yourself just once a week, on the same day, on the same scales and at the same time.
- Eat more slowly. Put your cutlery down while you chew each mouthful. This gives the brain a chance to assess how full you are feeling and it does make a difference.
Portion size control will help to keep weight under control. Weighing food is not neurotic; it is all about health measures. If scales aren’t available Weight Watchers suggest simple household items as a guide to evaluate healthy portion sizes:
A small skinless (140g) chicken breast fillet, an 80g bunch of grapes, or one medium sized (125g) potato are all about the size of a computer mouse.
A medium portion of dry spaghetti (60g) stands vertically on a 5c coin.
A medium portion of uncooked rice is ¼ cup which swells to ½ cup when it is cooked – about the size of a medium can of tuna
A single scoop of ice cream is about the size of a lime
A medium portion of fat-reduced cheese (30g) is the size of a small matchbox.
Excess weight didn’t go on overnight; (it probably took you quite a long time to put it on) and it won’t fall off overnight. It will take time to shift. Be patient and persevere.- If you’ve a bad day and blown your diet; it’s not the end of the world! Forgive yourself, put the day behind you and continue with your programme the next day.
- It’s a very bad idea to go shopping for clothes when you’ve just started a weight loss programme or are just a few weeks into one. If you have to buy clothes for an occasion, purchase garments in simple classic shapes and in solid colours. These are the clothes that can probably be taken in by an alteration expert when you have lost your weight. A better idea is to shop for stunning accessories that will boost your self esteem while you are losing weight, and still be very wearable once you have reached your goal.
- Simple measures for better health include at least 2 serves of fruit and at least 5 serves of vegetables every day, limiting “treats” such as unhealthy snacks, takeaways and alcohol, varied activity and at least 30 minutes of physical exercise.
“Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels!” Kate Moss. Don't believe everything you read or hear - skinny isn't all that fabulous! Dawn Short!
Pelvic Floor Exercises
Regular pelvic floor exercises are vitally important to us as we mature. The exercises can be done any time, anywhere and they are so secret that no one even knows you are doing them! Simply, they strengthen the pelvic floor and help prevent the nuisance and embarrassment of a prolapsed uterus and a leaky bladder.
Basically all you do is this:
Use your internal muscles to squeeze your front passage as tightly as you can.
Hold for 5 – 10 seconds, then release.
Repeat 10 times.
Do this as often as you can, whenever you think of it. If you can’t isolate the front passage (urinal tract) then just clench the lot!
Cellulite
There’s no ultimate cure for that long term un-budging enemy called cellulite. It is often attributed to stress, lack of exercise or a build up of fluids. In reality cellulite is actually fat. Nothing else! Sorry!
Some foods are known to contribute towards cellulite – caffeine, fizzy drinks, buttery pastries and croissants – but we know they contribute to weight gain anyway; we don’t need clever scientists to tell us.
Cellulite has its enemies – water and good circulation. Drink plenty of water (side benefits are that water keeps skin hydrated from the inside and can hold hunger pangs at bay). Get your body going under the morning shower with a stimulating body brush to increase the circulation and you are halfway there!
Use a medium bristle body brush on your dry body, brushing from your fingers and toes towards your heart. Jump into the shower and continue brushing, use a body scrub containing menthol. If you have the discipline to do this daily and if caffeine, soda drinks and buttery pastries never pass your lips again you will have some success in shifting cellulite.
The Model’s Roll
Have you seen women walking around with their shoulders hunched over? How old do they look?
Poor posture is not youthful and it’s easily corrected.
‘The Model’s Roll’ was shown to me by Caroline Byrne, a beautiful young model who taught catwalk modelling at the June Dally-Watkins Model School in Sydney.
The model’s roll instantly relieves those knots in the shoulders that come from crunching over a keyboard, or from physical and emotional stress (often associated with irksome family members!), from poor posture or from too many years of toting a heavy bag around on your shoulder. It can also temporarily ease muscle-induced pain in the neck and upper torso.
Stand up with arms dangling your sides, hands empty and relaxed. If your palms are facing behind you and your thumbs are brushing your body, your posture is hunched and you need to carry out the model’s roll posture realignment.
Keep your arms by your sides and roll your shoulders backwards in large circles a couple of times, the more exaggerated the better.
Now circle your shoulders forward. You should feel your palms naturally turn to face your sides and your thumbs face the front as the hunches dissipate and your shoulders drop.
That’s it! Simple! If you remember to do this whenever your palms are turning inwards or you feel your thumbs brush your sides you will retrain your body back into a relaxed and normal posture.
Retail details and magic products
Exercise clothes
Mass retailers such as Target, Big W, K-Mart and M&S carry a good choice of exercise gear all year round at reasonable prices. They tend to be on the small side so you may find you need to go up a size. Rip the size tag out when you get home!
Aches and pains
Nurofen Adhesive Heat Packs $10 for a pack of 2, from Supermarkets and pharmacies
Dietician
To find an expert dietician near you by either locality of specialty go to www.daa.asn.au
Try Weight Watchers, there are meetings world wide or you can make an individual appointment for a one on one consultation at Myer. www.weightwatchers.com.au
Next time we're going to uncover your own personal colours! My simple foolproof formula will allow you to determine your skin tone and then you'll find clothes shopping will be a breeze. When you are confident of your skin tone there'll be no more agonising over colour choices, you'll know what does and doesn't suit you! We'll also discuss colours that have the power to make us appear taller and slimmer (and those that make us look shorter and wider), menopausal colours, how to look fantastic in black, the impact colour has on personality and self esteem and how your favourite colours work best for you. Did you know that every person can wear a shade or hue from every colour family (green, red, purple, yellow etc)? It is personal preference that makes us hesitate, I'll show you how to choose colour and get it right every time! Until then, kisses, Dawn
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