GETTING FIT IN 2010
By Nutrition Expert
Friday, January 29, 2010.
It’s that time of year again gentlemen, time to reflect on your bad habits and resolve to introduce lots of new good ones into your life – yes, those New Year’s resolutions are just calling out to be made!
After the Christmas excesses, you might be feeling the pinch – both in your wallet and around your waist! If you overindulged during the festive season, chances are you’ve had to loosen your belt buckle and are dusting down your gym membership card, which hasn’t seen the light of day since before the summertime.
Sound familiar? Well if you’ve hit a brick wall with making your resolutions for 2010 why not resolve now to get fitter and healthier over the next few months. I can guarantee that you won’t be making this particular resolution again once you are used to your healthier new lifestyle because you won’t want to give it up!
Eating healthily isn’t just for girls and it’s not just about eating lettuce leaves either! The first thing you need to do is get rid of all the Christmas goodies you have left from the party season like mince pies, Christmas cake, chocolate, beer – it’s the perfect excuse to have a “resolutions” party and let your friends eat all this leftover food, so that you can start afresh!
Then when your cupboards have been purged of all things bad, sit down and take a good look at your diet. Maybe even write down everything you eat for a few days and then identify where you can make improvements. You might need to start cutting down on high fat foods (burgers, chips, pies, sausage rolls) and introduce more fruit, veg, and complex carbs like rice, brown bread and pasta. Forget that breakfast roll in the mornings and start the day off with a bowl of wholegrain cereal like Shredded Wheat. It will fill you up for longer and you won’t get those hunger pangs at 11am so you’ll be less tempted to grab a Danish or bacon sandwich. Try to snack on fruit instead of high fat convenience products like chocolate or crisps.
At this stage you might also want to have a check up with your GP, just to get the all clear. After years of women traditionally being in the health spotlight, men are being reminded and indeed encouraged to have regular check-ups and to ditch the “ignore it and it will go away” attitude. Even if there’s nothing wrong, why not go and simply get your cholesterol checked so you can start the New Year and your new healthy lifestyle with a clean bill of health!
Believe it or not, you won’t be the only man around adopting healthy new habits this January. Research has shown that with two-thirds of men now classified as overweight or obese, one in four men are on a diet. With growing health concerns linked to obesity, men mostly diet to improve their health but some also want to improve their self-esteem. In particular, men prefer to use internet based weight loss plans due to the privacy element.
You already have a head-start on us girls because men almost always find it easier to lose weight than women do. This is mainly because men usually have a much higher muscle mass than women, and since muscular people burn calories more efficiently, they lose weight more quickly.
So plan that resolutions party now and get working on your list of what you need to change in your diet. And while you’re at it, dust down the mothballs on your old tracksuit and take yourself out for a power walk – you’ll start seeing the difference in no time!
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