Posts tagged diet advice
Biggest Loser…..Reality TV? I think Not!
Feb 17th
Reality Television. That’s what they call it, don’t they? Let’s explore this for a moment. Putting fifteen strangers into a house with T.V. cameras watching their every move and then have them secretly vote each other out on a weekly basis . What is real about that? How about we Get 12 obese people, and have a competition to see who can lose the most percentage of body weight over the duration. Now I might be pointing out something ridiculously obvious but if networks are willing to refer to these type of programs as reality I would like to offer them a suggestion………Here we go……you ready?
Ask the biggest loser contestants to
- Work full time during the duration of the competition
- Live in their own home for the duration of the competition
- Pay for and cook every meal that they consume for them and their family
- Attend every function they are invited to by friends or colleagues
- Look after their kids if they have them.
- Pay for the 3 P.T sessions a day that they are afforded on the show. (Going on 1hour sessions at $50 per session) Estimating at a cost of $1050 dollars a week!
- Drive through peak hour to get to the gym after a full day’s work all while their families sacrifice time, money and re arrange their schedule to accommodate your gym time.
- Have to worry about their Husbands, wives, kids and life/society problems like drugs, alcohol, depression etc.
- Pay for physio, dieticians, massage therapists and any specialists associated with starting an exercise program.
Ask the producers to
- Include participants who live with obesity related pre existing health conditions such as, Heart disease, diabetes, High cholesterol, stress injuries, high blood pressure, gout, bladder control and psychological disorders.
And they call this reality TV!! To me it would be more realistic to have the competitors have to deal with all these external life factors as opposed to what is served up to the general public every night.
Secondly I would like to discuss what I see from my end as a Personal Trainer. I consider the biggest loser as a “double edged sword”. I actually get a bit of business from the show and some of my best clients have initially come to me because the show inspired them to get off their back sides and do something about their situation. This is outstanding! A TV show that has the ability to do that is not all bad. Unfortunately the situation I’m faced with on a daily basis (when the show is on the air) is that I constantly have to reinforce “healthy” weight loss principles to my clients and dispel the false ideals and unrealistic expectations that the show thrives on. What am I talking about here?? Well I don’t know about you but to me it seems that the sheer amount of weight that these contestants lose in such a short period is not only unrealistic but unachievable in the real world. Would you agree?
If you have bad eating and exercise habits and this has lead to obesity like in the case of the BL contestants then a key to successfully turning this around is to make changes that are lifelong ( get used to that idea) . To undo a lifetimes worth of self inflicted damage on your body in eight weeks to me is completely unrealistic. To make a change in your habits for eight weeks is one thing but these changes have to be lifelong!! Yes there are contestants that have successfully kept off their weight but I would be interested to see how many contestants have put their weight back on or never got it off in the first place. You would never see them on the cover of New Idea.
The practices of this show are questionable at best, if they really cared for these obese people they would not let them gorge themselves for the first week of the competition, tempt then with yum cha and subsequently shove a camera in their face while they are stuffing theirs. It seems to me that every time a contestant breaks down and tears are cried, the executives see this as more dollars in the pockets. What makes me say this?? Well I’m glad you asked!!
A couple of days ago I was told by a little birdie that when they went to audition for the biggest loser “as a laugh” they were told basically that they were too mentally stable, confident and strong psychologically to be accepted on the program. Obviously “stable” people wouldn’t make good tv. Stable people don’t cry enough!
But hey, let’s finish on a good note. I will share a piece of advice that I give to my clients that love the show and to anyone who wants to listen…..For the duration of the series, which is four nights a week for 10 weeks………..set your VCR (if you still have one) your tivo or whatever, record the show and for the hour that it’s on………go for a walk, ride your bike, have a swim, take your kids, wife, husband, raise a sweat, spend time with those important to you or have some time to yourself and your I-pod, be consistent. And maybe, just maybe you might find yourself in a good habit by the end of the series. Maybe you might find yourself setting some realistically achievable goals. As for The Biggest Loser, you can make your own mind up, but please, pretty please, with a sugar encrusted temptation on top, see it for what it is….TV.
Reality? I think not!
X-man out!
6 steps to effective weight loss.
Oct 31st
Hi team, today I want to discuss some key points that I address in my work as a Personal Trainer that I thought worth sharing. Frequently I have people come to me who are looking for change. Some of which include such things like losing weight, getting fit and becoming overall healthier and happier, so I thought I share with you some key points that I recommend to my clients
The big 6……
- Eat less: C’mon X-man, there’s got to be more to it than that!! Sorry folks but it’s pretty simple. One of the most important things involved with weight loss is eating less. If you are looking to loose weight, then simply reduce the size of your meals by about 10 to 20% (don’t go back to the pot for more) and you will see a significant difference over time.
Not only is this method so effective that a medical procedure has been developed to help people achieve this called Laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery more commonly referred to Lap Band surgery. This is a procedure that in layman’s terms ties a band around your stomach to let less food in and is usually given to obese people. Lap band surgery can help to achieve eating less but can it change your mental approach to what you eat? Can Lap band surgery change your ability to make better food choices? Is it going to help you eat some fruit when you feel like ice cream? Or choose to eat nothing instead of the chips or party pies that are on offer at a function. Lap band surgery can physically stop you from eating too much but is it addressing the real issue. It comes down to choice and making the correct choices in your life to achieve your goals. - Eat well. Good quality, low fat, sugar free food. A general rule of thumb that I use is that if it comes pre packaged then don’t eat it. What you are looking for is to eat a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean proteins e.g. chicken, beef, fish, lamb etc. (If it has eyes than it has protein) and complex carbohydrates, oats, rice, bread, pasta, potatoes etc. Don’t go over board and eat these at the right times, if you want more info on this hit me up on Facebook or at xavier@sunfitness.com.au or contact a dietitian.
- Making life changes and finish what you start. What we are discussing today is about making a change in the way you eat so it will be “life long” not “week long” (The soup diet- I’m sure you’ve heard of it- is a good example of week long). Do you want to loose weight fast only to put it back on just because you are not willing to change your habits for good? In my experience what’s not going to help is soup diets, lemon detox diets, cabbage diets, milkshake diets, the cookie diet (I’ve seen it), diet pills, Atkins diet, grapefruit diet, Diets full stop!! Aaaaarrrrrrrggggggg!!! (A diet infers that it has a start and finish date!!) I have seen it before on many occasions and every time the dieter always ends up stopping because it’s too hard to stick to because of its unrealistic approach and ends up in a worse position mentally and physically as a result. Don’t look for the easy way out! This is fraught with danger and can ultimately lead to failure.
- Move more. Pretty simple really, I would aim to do something every day for a minimum of a half an hour. No excuses! Walking, swimming, bike riding, boxing, gym time, weight training, pt sessions, etc. (For those of you who are active in your work unfortunately that doesn’t count). Don’t have time? Make time!
- Don’t make excuses. They will only hold you back.
- Set realistically achievable goals and focus on the process, not the result. How many times have you heard the coach of a sporting team talk about “the process”?
“Yeah nar, we are just going to focus on what we can control, and if we play to our plan and execute that plan the best we can then the result will take care of its self.”
Listen out next AFL season, the coaches can be a great source for life lessons (when put into context of course). Geoff Huegill at the recent Commonwealth games was another who put it very simply when asked how did he lose 40 kgs, to the best of my recollection it went something like this…….
Reporter: “Tell us about your journey from a couple of years ago to now. How did you lose the 40kgs?”
Geoff: “Surround your self with good people who want you to achieve and focus on the little things, the daily tasks.”
Reporter: “Like what”
Geoff: “Well I had to really focus day to day on not eating so much.”
Geoff you legend!!! How refreshing to hear someone come straight out and say it as it is.
What are the little things I hear you ask, well…….. points one through six are a good start.
See you next time, X-man out.
The Breakfast Asile, the good the bad and the ugly.
Sep 6th
The breakfast aisle ….The good, the bad and the ugly!!!
Hi there team, and welcome to the latest “SFB” (Sun Fitness Blog). In the ongoing crusade for health, well being I find my self some times over whelmed at the amount of things that are presented in the media to be the “latest in advancement in weight loss” shortly followed by an average Joe or Jane proclaiming “I lost 15 kgs and I didn’t even have to do anything” (true story, I’ve seen the ad).What is also distressing and hilarious at the same time is the constant barrage of the latest fitness equipment that comes on to the market and our TV screens that will turn you from “Flab to Ab” just by using the product for 3 minutes a day. Distressing for many reasons, one being the false promises and unrealistic expectations portrayed in the ad. Hilarious because some things are just funny, (Anyone seen the “Shake weight?”)
Have a look here…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHUdvvHTkw&feature=channel
This is quite possibly the funniest thing ever!! C’mon people, get on board with the shake weight!!
Anyway, at the risk of my head exploding at the endless jokes that can be made about the “Shake Weight” the point of all this is a little bit more general. I want to have a look at Advertising on our food packaging, now I’m not talking about an ad for “Packed to the rafters” on a tub of yoghurt, but the advertising that manufactures use to help sell their product, generally these are claims plastered on the front of the product to make it more appealing, I’m sure you have all seen the stock standard “99% Fat Free”, “No artificial colours , flavours or additives,” type of marketing, it’s actually quite hard to find products without something like this on the front.
My crusade began with the attempt at hitting the entire supermarket and collecting as much info as I could but realising the magnitude of this undertaking I decided to limit myself to one aisle. “Which aisle?” I hear you ask, well…….. what about the breakfast cereal aisle!!
So I grabbed my favourite trench coat, magnifying glass and looking a dodgy as possible, and with some awkward sideways glances from disturbed shoppers I hit the Breakfast aisle! Before we get into specifics about particular packaging, claims and actual nutritional information one thing really stood out. This was the amount of cartoon characters, bright colours, and snappy marketing all directed at children. 
Now we all know that the kids do not buy the products, the parents do. So why market to kids?? Well, because kids make great targets. They are innocent and impressionable. Now as parents it’s our job to help our kids to see the bigger picture, to do this we need to stay sharp and aware of the differences between Marketing and Facts! I like to call it a “Bull sh*t Filter”
The best way I think to do this is to compile a list and you can make your own mind up. I have put it into a table which will make them easy to compare. Please take a close look at the Marketing “Claims” on the front of the box and the subsequent nutritional information
Here we go, for the sake of the supermarket closing time I just took a good cross section of cereals, im sure you will know most of them, One thing i want you to have a look at on this table is that the overall amount of kilojoules in all the cerials are quite similar, but the way those kjs are made up is another story. I will also highlight a few things on the table that are worth having a look at.
|
Cereals |
Claims/advertising on front of box |
Kilojoules per 100 grams |
Sugar per 100 grams |
Sugar in teaspoons |
Fat per 100gms |
||
|
Crispix with honey |
|
1630kj |
24gms |
4.80 tsp |
0.3gms |
||
|
Nesquik |
|
1610kj |
31.5gms |
6.3tsp |
4.0gms |
||
|
Frosties |
|
1610kj |
41.3gms |
8.26 |
0.1gms |
||
|
Milo duo |
|
1638kj |
29.5gms |
5.9 |
4.3gms |
||
|
Nutra-grain |
|
1600kj |
32.0gms |
6.4 |
0.6gms |
||
|
Weet-bix |
|
1490kj |
3.3gms |
0.66 |
1.4gms |
||
|
Corn flakes |
|
1580kj |
7.9gms |
1.58 |
0.2gms |
||
|
Just right |
|
1490kj |
31.2gms |
6.24 |
1.6gms |
||
|
Uncle Toby’s “Plus” fibre lift |
|
1431kj |
26.0gms |
Sorry, I missed this one! |
|
||
|
Special k |
|
1570kj |
14.5gms |
2.9 |
1.9gms |
||
|
Uncle Toby’s oats |
|
1590kj |
1.0gms |
0.2 |
8.8gms |
||
|
Home brand rolled oats |
|
1580kj |
2.5gms |
0.5 |
7.7gms |
||
|
Carman’s classic (muesli) |
|
1940kj |
8.3gs |
1.66 4.479 fat |
22.4gms/2.4gms saturated |
||
|
Home brand muesli |
|
1570kj |
8.9gms |
1.78 |
8.3gms |
||
So there it is, in my opinion, and its pretty plain to see, Oats and Weet bix are the only two that I would recommend, boring I know but it’s the truth. Add some fruit to your cereal and you are on a winner. Most of the others have excess amounts of sugar no matter what they claim. See you next time!!
