Weight Loss Tips From A Personal Trainer

There is simply too much information floating around on the subject of nutrition... I just Googled "nutrition" and there are 148,000,000 pages listed on this topic, on "diet" 184,000,000. Scary.

I would hazard a guess to say that a huge proportion of this information is incorrect and/or repetitive. This might be a little harsh but unfortunately some of it comes from within the fitness industry, even from personal trainers, who I have no doubt just want to help their clients but we often give you information that to us sounds wicked, but to you it's another language. I heard a story of someone a while ago telling potential clients to eat no more than 8-10 almonds as a snack. Seriously...

Throw in your job (would be great wouldn't it!), a few kids, and a busy schedule into the mix and let's see even the most determined fitness seeker maintain a strict nutrition plan for longer than a week or so. I fall off the wagon every now and it's my job so to speak to be good at it!

I don't proclaim to have all the answers but here are some really simple tips that I use personally and give to clients (and my Dad!). I suppose I should make some disclaimer about this being general advice just in case there are any sensitive folks out there reading this.

Ok, in no particular order here they are:

• Remove as many processed foods/drinks from your diet where possible. Some fruit juices from the supermarket are just loaded with sugar. To help with this, start thinking "how far removed from it's original state is this food?", eg. What are the ingredients of an avocado? Hmmm... I will let you figure that out. (Note: avocados are very cool). Basically, the fewer ingredients the better!
  
• Artificial sweeteners (even though they have no calories, the chemicals can cause the metabolism to go haywire)
• Soft drink (especially diet soft drinks! Again, artificial sweeteners)
• Reduce alcohol (noooo!) to a couple of times per week instead of every night if that is your current intake or just reduce in general (Yes, Christmas season is upon us so do the best you can)
  
• Junk food in general is rubbish hence it's name and we all know it
• If it comes in a box and is wrapped in plastic chances are you don't need it, yes there are a few exceptions but not many
• Many white breads and boxed cereals from the supermarket are also loaded with sugar and no real help to the body or fat loss if that's your target
• Remember, "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper!" Generally speaking, you need most of your energy to begin the day not end it. And don’t forget your mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks... 8-10 almonds! (I should say here that maybe a better way of saying that would be to eat a handful of almonds, the delivery of nutritional advice is sometimes the main problem. My sincerest apologies in advance if I have committed the same offence in this post - comments welcome.)
• Be good most of the time... if you stuff up, dust yourself off and start again the next day. The worst thing you can do is overly criticise what happened. Just move on, but be careful this doesn't happen all the time.
  

One a lighter note... I like Lamborghini’s, Gallardo's in particluar (pictured) and if you had one, what type of fuel would you put into it? Premium unleaded ONLY, there is no way you’d be filling it up with empty, sub-nutritious fuel (junk food, soft drink, etc.) ie. “unleaded”. Even if you are a Datsun 180B right now, you could soon be a Lambo with the right fuel/food!

I realise that I could go on forever here and have merely scratched the surface but I hope this is a start. Maybe I will do a part two of this soon and if you have anything in particular you want clarified just let me know.