Knowing that most of us are overweight in the UK and a third of us are obese. It literally is a growing problem and will have a serious impact on us and the ability for the NHS to exist.
So what can we learn?
1) There are genes that influence if you are more likely to be overweight or find it harder to feel full, in some people.
However this means if you think you are that person then you need to work harder making the right lifestyle and diet choices to influence your genes in a positive way. This is known as epigenetics.
Did you know your thoughts and emotions also change your genes... they can turn on genes and switch some off. This is how I help my clients by changing these with NLP and hypnotherapy.
2) Worryingly in some parts of the country fast food outlets have increased in numbers by 30% over last 3 years (and an overall total increase of 10%) and where there are more fast food outlets a study found that people were found to eat more at these places, probably due to accessibility and temptation and concerningly are then over 2 times more likely to become obese!

-The average meal from a fast food outlet is 65% more calorific than a home made meal.
- It would take a 30 min run to use up the same amount of calories you'd eat in just a slice of pepperoni pizza, and a 30 min bike ride would be equivalent to half a portion of chips.
So just be conscious not to waste all that effort exercising only to put on more weight by eating a fast food option.

Did you know we under report the amount we eat by 30-50%! We con ourselves how little we eat to make ourselves feel better.
One of my clients that I had, said she "couldn't believe how little she ate and was still overweight."
I asked her to keep a food diary and after 3 days she called and said she'd forgotten each day she stopped at the garage and had a latte and often a bar of chocolate. This habit was giving her over 1 days extra calories each week, which was causing her to get fatter.
So good tip is to keep a food diary and be honest with yourself and aware of our loss of awareness of what a real portion looks like.

6) In addition to the benefits of low fruits and vege helping keep our diets lower in calories, the fibre in these foods act as great food for the trillions of microbes in our gut.
A study has found people who ate more fruit and vege, had more fibre in their diets and a more diverse array of microbes in their gut. These same people were also found to be slimmer that those who had poor fibre intakes.
So top tip is to eat fibre from a selection of fruits and vege to help your microbes look after you and keep you slimmer.
In addition to eating fruits and vegetables (I'm better at eating vege rather than fruit), I also take Symprove, which in my opinion based on the growing evidence out there, is the best probiotic on the market and really helps me look after my gut health and keep me feeling my best.
7) Studies have shown by working with the unconscious mind we can train ourselves to avoid unhealthy food choices. Cardiff uni are working on an app, and getting great results. Being a Registered Nutritionist (aligned with medicine) and Master Hypnotherapist & NLP Life Coach my job is to help my clients lose weight by changing their negative beliefs and emotions around food and their associations with specific foods so they want to choose better choices. |

9) The key to a good weight is the food we choose and exercise can then support these benefits and optimise our overall health.
10) Eat our main meal in the day and eat lightly in the evening as our body's ability to deal with blood sugars and fat works more efficiently during the day than the evening. People who ate their meals in the day when its was light had a lower BMI than those who ate late. Interestingly, over last 10 years our dinner times have moved from 5.30pm to 8pm currently. So maybe a big part of why we are getting fatter as a nation. |
11) A study showed that those people who were generally active throughout the whole day (this is known as NEAT) used more calories than when they were sedentary for most of the day except a blast at the gym. So tip is to find ways to keep moving throughout the day, taking stairs rather than a lift, parking further away from the building you want to go into and getting up and moving regularly if at your desk. |
Very excitingly, there is a lot of work being done to focus on the hormones that make us feel hungry and those that make us feel full. This has evolved to producing a drug that contains 3 hormones to make patients feel full very quickly. This comes in the form of it being injected over the day.
Patients who have trialled it are very pleased with the effects. Fingers crossed it becomes available to many very soon.
So it's important to remember that moving from an obese weight to a healthy weight halves our risk of cancer and can stop diabetes, reduces Cardiovascular Disease (heart attacks and Strokes) and Alzheimer's significantly.
So what can you start doing differently that over time will make a huge impact on your quality of your life and health?
#letsmaketherightchoices #aimforaqualitylife #optimisehealth #notoobesity
If you'd like any help with changing your mindset and help you make small changes to your life that make a big difference to you, then please get in touch. Call me on 01252 706995 to arrange a chat.