But counting calories, eliminating food groups and generally spending hours every day thinking about what you can and can’t eat isn’t healthy or sustainable.

So what should I eat?

When the word diet is mentioned, most people associate it with controlling what they eat, and even denying themselves foods they really love. As a consequence, telling yourself you’re ‘on a diet’ is a little like setting yourself up to fail.  

Rather than focus on what you can’t eat, instead think about all the delicious foods you can enjoy that will nurture your body. Having a positive relationship with food is incredibly important to maintaining a healthy weight range.

The most effective diet ever is simply a balanced diet. Once we realise we have the ability to make choices, good or bad, the closer we come to success.

Getting the balance right

Food is comprised of macronutrients the body needs to stay healthy and perform at its best. Each of these nutrients has a key role within our body:

• fats and carbohydrates provide us with daily energy;
• protein assists to build and repair tissue, such as skin, hair, muscles and bones;
• vitamins and minerals help us maintain optimal health; and
• hydration facilitates bodily functions.

We can’t ignore one aspect in order to satisfy another – that’s just not sustainable eating.

There are three key factors to consider when establishing whether you have a good balanced diet. Ask yourself…

• Am I eating good quality, fresh foods?
• Am I eating appropriate portion sizes (palm-sized protein, twice as many vegetables, and a small serve of wholegrain carbohydrates) at each meal? This should apply to breakfast, too.
• Am I drinking enough water? Place your water bottle on your desk in the morning and fill it up at least twice during the day.

Make it easier to stick to nutritious eating by planning your meals for a week, doing the shopping, and getting ahead with some prep on the weekend. That way you’ll be less likely tempted by takeaway when you get home from work and feel too tired to cook.

Eat this way most of the time, and when you do occasionally have a slice of birthday cake or fancy a bit of chocolate, you should enjoy it to the max without feeling guilty. After all, it’s all about balance, not about denying yourself.

The post The best diet for weight loss appeared first on The Harley Clinic.

It’s been months now … You’ve been eating a good, balanced range of wholefood in reasonable portions. You get your 10,000 steps each and every day, plus you’ve been putting in three or four decent workouts as well. You’ve been ensuring you drink at least two litres of water daily, too. But for some reason you don’t seem to be able to shift any weight.

If that’s the case, you should make an appointment to see your GP to ensure there’s not an underlying medical condition, such as an underactive thyroid, that can be treated. If it’s not that, however, start looking at an other lifestyle factor.

How are your stress levels?

When someone explains it to you it seems so obvious. We are primeval creatures, controlled partially by our subconscious. Way back when we were roaming the earth and clubbing predators, stress meant our lives were at risk. Adrenaline increased the heart rate, elevated blood pressure and boosted energy (so we could run fast), while cortisol increased the amount of glucose in the bloodstream and shut down other systems – immune functions, reproduction and digestion – to give the body its best chance of survival.

The problem is that our modern brains don’t know the difference between stress caused by being swooped by a pterodactyl or living through a famine and stress caused by a difficult boss, problems at home and money worries. It reacts in the same way. So, if you’re constantly stressed, your body is constantly creating cortisol and its having the same effect on your body, which is unlikely to be experiencing famine.

Managing stress levels

You probably can’t make the annoying boss, constant deadlines and relationship issues vanish (although you’d be well advised to do anything possible – changing jobs, seeing a therapist – to help get them under control), but there are some strategies you can use to lower stress levels for the majority of your day. Here are 10 simple ways to lower stress levels.

1. When you wake up in the morning, stand tall in the shower and take four or five deep breaths. Anxiety causes short, sharp breaths into the chest, but breathing deep into your belly can give you quick relief. You can even say, “I breathe out stress and tension” when you exhale. If you have more time, sit or lie on the floor (or anywhere else that’s comfortable), close your eyes and practise deep breathing for 10 to 20 minutes.
2. Make regular meditation part of your self-care routine. If you don’t know how to start, find a local class or download an app for your phone. Some people meditate by lying down and clearing their mind; others are more prone to be able to stop their thundering brain if they’re in nature. If active meditation – some people swear by swimming, staring at the black line and counting strokes (one, two, three, four, breathe), as a way to clear the mind – suits you then go with it.
3. Practise yoga or stretching.
4. Fill a bath with water and Epsom salts and have a good soak.
5. If you feel as though you have to be doing something every minute of the day, actually diarise yoga, meditation, sitting watching the birds or deep breathing, so that you do it.
6. Look at other activities that make you relax by clearing your mind, whether that’s reading a book or doing some colouring in.
7. Put away your phone. Constant scrolling through news reports and social media is a sure-fire way to raise anxiety levels.
8. Go easy on yourself. When it comes to blame, we often give other people leniency for bad behaviour. We need to be able to give ourselves the same latitude to make mistakes and forgive ourselves.
9. Practise gratitude. Before you try to go to sleep at night, write down the three best things that happened during the day and the three things for which you feel most grateful. If you’ve never done it before, you’ll be amazed at the difference it can make to your state of mind, flipping it from the negative and anxious thoughts that flood our mind to an attitude of positivity.
10. Of course, you should always try to get eight hours of sleep each night. Not only does it help with stress levels but you won’t be tempted to control exhaustion during the day with caffeine and sweet treats.

The post Other reasons for weight gain appeared first on The Harley Clinic.

Genes are handed down through our family’s DNA and it can seem like an easy way to explain certain physical attributes. ‘My family has a history of diabetes, so what can I do?’ ‘I’m not designed for running.’ ‘Being overweight is in my genes.’

What role do genes play?
In the early 2000s, Danish researchers studied 2,900 sets of same-sex twins who’d been born between 1870 and 1910 to determine how genetics and environmental factors affect lifespan. By comparing medical records and conducting interviews, the researchers found genetics were far less important when it came to longevity than factors like smoking, low socio-economic status, exposure to sunshine and depression.

So, while DNA does affect an individual’s overall health and lifespan, having family members with predispositions for weight gain or health issues doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t take some control over how your DNA is expressed.

The most important thing your parents pass down are habits and beliefs. The huge rise in the incidences of obesity and diabetes isn’t due to a modern gene mutation, but rather a dramatic decades-long shift in people’s eating and physical activity patterns. In fact, a recent study from the University of Sydney found that mutations to the MC4 receptor gene – the gene commonly associated with appetite control – accounts only for 0.5 to one per cent of obesity cases.

It’s your decision
The beauty of the human body is its ability to change. Genetics may leave you prone to certain medical conditions, storing fat in certain places or being good at sport, for instance, but they’re not something that will necessarily defeat a good healthy lifestyle. By exercising regularly, maintaining a nutritious, balanced diet – one full of quality whole foods, especially fresh vegetables – and ensuring stress levels are minimised, you will give your body its best chance to live a long and healthy life.

The post Do genetics make you fat? appeared first on The Harley Clinic.