Health
Lose Weight and Stay Fit the Natural Way by Walking
Updated on January 3, 2017 Andrew Spacey moreAndrew has a daily walking regime which has been going for many years. He eats a balanced diet and enjoys high fitness levels as a result.
Contact Author Lose Weight By Walking
With walking as part of a fitness and diet regime you can lose weight and stay fit at the same time. It costs next to nothing, helps promote longevity and is a guaranteed no stress exercise. This article will give advice and guidance on using walking and other exercises to enable those struggling with weight to take control of their destiny.
In addition there is common sense applied to diet and food. At last! How many crazy diets are there on the market, Too many you might say. For example, there's the banana diet which involves eating dozens of bananas. There's the raw food diet which does have its advantages but tends to lack a protein base. And causes bloating. The green vegetable and fruit juice diet is great if you want to boost your mineral intake but isn't that satisfying on the palate.
Many of these diets don't take into account the fact that we need taste, texture, colour and nourishment when we sit down to a meal. We still need good, sensible food if we're to stay happy!!
I’m not following any book, fad, programme or ‘name’. I’m doing this naturally because I know that has to be the best way. And it will work! As always, the main aim is to lose weight whilst staying fit.
Think about your first meal of the day - breakfast. It's vitally important. To help you get off to a great start I've compiled 50 recipes for low calorie filling breakfasts if you're stuck for ideas.
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Up to 100 calories can be burnt off with a 1 mile walk. Do that seven times a week and the numbers soon add up. It's that easy. Or is it,
Yes. It's a basic fact. Walk and your body will naturally shed calories.
Don't forget that carbohydrates (sugars) burn off first, then the fats, then the proteins. You need to get to the fatty tissue!! This means walking a little further each day for best results.
Make sure you don't go eating a 300 calorie chocolate bar each time you step out the door for your walk!
And your diet, The realistic approach is to personalise your diet, make it your own, and take sure but small steps to losing weight. After all, you are unique. If you individualise the diet you will gain ownership of it.
This doesn’t mean you can’t seek support whilst cutting down your intake but it does mean the emphasis will be on you to carry it through to the end.
If you read the calorie section later on you'll see that it's possible to burn off calories slowly to start with - to get your body and mind used to a new regime - then to increase burn off rate as you become more confident.
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Find Time to Walk at Work
Many of us work in offices and find that, once sat down at the computer screen or desk there's a good chance that we won't be moving for hours at a time. Recent research has shown that the majority of office workers, 50-60%, do not walk during a working day. The only walking they'll do is to the bathroom/toilet! Many don't even go out to lunch but prefer to sit at their desk or table and eat, so heavy is their work schedule.
I believe that workers should walk for 20-30 minutes a day at least.
Steps Towards Weight Loss
Week 1 - Change Your Breakfast Intake ONLY. Keep every other meal and snack the same. Walk 10-15 minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner if possible.
Weigh yourself. Write the weight down on a piece of paper and pin it next to the lists.
Breakfast. Eat the same food you normally do but lower the amount. For example: you eat 2 eggs, a bowl of cereal and 2 pieces of buttered toast most mornings. You use full milk and often drink three cups of coffee.
Scale it down. You don’t have to be scientific but you should be smart and subtle. Measure the amount of cereal you usually put into the bowl. Let’s say it’s 10 table spoonsful. Lower it to 8.
Use semi skimmed or low fat milk. Pour on the same amount.
If you use a teaspoonful of sugar, cut this in half.
Only drink two coffees.
Eat 2 pieces of buttered toast, as normal.
Eat 1 egg.
At the end of the week do not weigh yourself.
This is the start of a systematic reduction of calorie intake.
· Week 2 - Maintain new breakfast intake, change lunch, keep dinner/supper the same. Walk 20-25 minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Weigh yourself. Write it down and pin it next to week 1.
Maintain your new breakfast diet.
If you have a drink and a cookie mid morning keep this up.
Lunch. Eat the same food you normally do but lower the amount. For example you eat two meat and salad sandwiches, a yoghurt, a coffee, a bar of chocolate and an orange juice.
Scale it down like you did for breakfast. The idea is to half the amount of any ‘main course’ element of your lunch. So you’ll eat one sandwich. If it’s soup and buttered bread cut down on the bread.
Eat the yoghurt, drink the coffee and juice.
Half the bar of chocolate. Save it for later or offer it to a friend.
Do not weigh yourself at the end of the week.
This is the second phase of your diet. You’ve cut breakfast and lunch down to common sense amounts. Try not to be too obsessed with your weight at this early stage. If you have lost a few pounds then great, if not don’t be deterred. What you are doing is taking control over your intake. This is far more important at this point.
You’ll have noticed how a gradual approach helps reduce psychological and emotional stress.
Week 3 - maintain new breakfast and lunch regime, change dinner. Walk 30-35 minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner.
· Weigh yourself. Write it down and pin it next to week 2.
Maintain both new diet breakfast and lunch.
· If you have a juice break or fruit snack in the afternoon keep this up.
· Dinner. Eat the same food you normally do but lower the amount. For example you eat a starter then pasta, meat you may want to go on a trekking holiday, or you simply want to get back into reasonable shape.
You could follow any one of thousands of crash diets; choose one out of the dozens of celebrity diets. But think about those two words- crash and celebrity. You fear one and idolise the other. Reason tells you to leave well alone.
The best way to lose weight is to do it gradually, naturally and with the emphasis on no stress. If you keep to the plan outlined later on in this article you should succeed in your goal and, more importantly, stay safe whilst doing so.
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Warning - Don't starve yourself
If you suddenly stop eating, your body will change its thinking. It could go into a kind of starvation mode!!
This means it'll start storing fat ready for the famine it envisages and your metabolism will plunge. Plus your organs will change the way they function.
You may get the shakes and feel weak and unsteady.
All these things happen because your body is intelligent and needs respect. So be careful of quick fixes and 'starve yourself' diets. They often lead nowhere.
Water Weight
Water is a great cleanser. It will help keep your cells healthy and stop dehydration. But be careful how much you drink in one go! Take sips at regular intervals rather than gulping down gallons! 'Water weight' is burnt off quite quickly if you exercise on a regular basis.
Important Things To Remember
· If you eat large portions at late dinners or close to bedtime you will naturally tend to put on more weight.
· Emotional/psychological issues may impact on your regime.
· Snacking on high calorie food could undermine your regime.
· Tiredness could mean you end up sitting or lying down for long stretches of time.
· Seasonal weather patterns can affect the rate of weight loss.
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Protein Drinks
Handle with care! Protein drinks tend to have a lot of calories. You can overdo it! The best way to use them is for muscle rebuild after work outs. Some people drink a quarter before exercising, three quarters when they finish. Adjust amounts to suit the intensity of the work out.
Dieting should not be a drastic all-in-a-couple-of-days kind of experience, nor should it be a blind cut out of fats and carbohydrates all at once type of thing. It should be a relaxed and manageable affair.
Illness could ensue if you don’t give your body time to realise that lower levels of proteins, fats and sugars are coming its way.
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Your Food Intake
There are two things I want to emphasise.
1. First thing is - you need to stop what you’re doing and think about what you last had to eat and drink. Then take another minute and write it down. You need to get an accurate picture of how much you eat and when. Try to be true to yourself and list all the pasta, fried potatoes, chocolate, bread, cake and biscuits that were on the table when you last sat down for a meal! Oh and don’t forget the milk shakes, candies and puddings,beers,cokes and juices.
Keep this up for a week until you have a complete list for each of the 7 days. Include snacks, every little thing you eat. Quite a list eh,
Now spend a few more minutes going through the lists. Monday to Sunday. Meal by meal. Pin them up somewhere prominent and don’t lose sight of them .
You are going to start to reduce your carbohydrate intake and work on shedding those extra layers you don’t need.
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2. Measurements - One of the best ways to standardize your intake is to use the same size serving spoons. Use a same size spoon for measuring out food such as rice, or pasta, stews and soups. Vegetable helpings can also be dished out with a same size spoon.
Meat can be weighed before cooking. Sausages, fish fingers, chicken nuggets and so on can be easily counted.
Deserts can be weighed if necessary. Cookies, biscuits, bars and cakes again can be counted.
Get a friend or family member to help you and give you moral support. At this stage you are not going to get confused or tangled up in the exact number of calories each food may or may not contain.
Common sense should tell you that, if you reduce the amounts of the same foods, you will ipso facto reduce the calorific content. End of story.
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To make sure you lose weight you'll need to keep physically fit. Maintain your exercise levels! If you go for a short walk every evening, keep it up. If you like to run, run the same distance. Alter nothing at this stage.
Calories - The Rise and Fall
A fried egg has approximately 100 calories. A boiled egg only 75.
A tuna mayonnaise baguette has 500 calories. A chicken salad sandwich 257.
An avocado has 275 calories. An orange only 59.
A quarter pounder with cheese has 515 calories. Egg fried rice 250 calories.
One pound of fatty tissue = approx 3375 calories. To lose a pound you'll need to burn off the same amount of calories.
If you walk a mile at a decent pace you'll burn off between 70 - 110 calories.
This rate of burn off will change with speed, distance and environmental factors such as temperature and type of clothing.
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The average healthy male needs - 2500 each day.
The average healthy female needs - 1900 each day.
These amounts can differ for each individual depending on age, job, weight, lifestyle, metabolism and mobility.
Walking for Health Buy Now To Binge or Not To Binge,
You may want to go out for a special celebration meal some day but what do you do if you're following this small steps guide, The answer lies within you. Learn to listen to your body. There's no way you should miss going out with friends and family but be wise and moderate your intake. Give yourself a cut off time and stick to it. No more food after 8.30pm, only a drink,
It's better to help your body learn to handle sensible amounts of food each day, rather than binge one day and have little the next.
The Mediterranean Diet
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All photographs by chef-de-jour unless otherwise stated. Please contact the author if you suspect this article has been stolen. Lose Weight the Proven Way and Keep it off.
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Comments
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AuthorAndrew Spacey 2 years ago from Near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire,UK
Thanks for the visit Kimberley, appreciate that. If you can get to walk each and every day, a mile or more, it helps lose weight plus, you feel much better! Walk solo, with a friend and keep the small challenges to your body ongoing.
Kimberley Clarke 2 years ago from England
Great article! I've just discovered the Leslie Sansome Walking YouTube videos - what a brilliant way to exercise. When I'm doing well with my exercise I like to eat more healthily...the thought of sabotaging my efforts with bad food choices is too awful!
AuthorAndrew Spacey 4 years ago from Near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire,UK
Many thanks for the visit and comment jabelufiroz. The natural way is the best. Take care.
Firoz 4 years ago from India
Great tips. Voted up.
Alecia Murphy 5 years ago from Wilmington, North Carolina
I like that these tips aren't crazy and obsessive about losing weight but rather a balanced approach. This is definitely going to be something I keep in mind.
Thank you kelleyteam. I wish you well. Stay on course and you should get positive results.
Willette 5 years ago from Michigan
Now this is what I'm talking about. Its sensible, simple, and realistic. I honestly plan to give this a try. Just worried about that sweet tooth, but I'm going for it. Thanks so much for stopping by and answering my question today. This hub is really informative, inspiring and well written. Keep on hubbing!
Thank you again, much appreciated. I have seen many failed attempts by people to change their eating habits because they go too quickly into a radical regime, instead of basing change on principle.
carozy 5 years ago from San Francisco
Helpful article. Voted up! :)
Many thanks for the visit and comment. So many people i know who go from diet to diet lose sight of the basic principle - eat the same food but less of it!
Shelley Watson 5 years ago
Wow, this is truly a well thought, logical way to lose weight, maintain your health, without the see sawing that often occurs. Voted up, interesting, useful, sharing and pinning!
AuthorAndrew Spacey 5 years ago from Near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire,UK
Many thanks for your visit and comment. The natural way to lose weight has to be the safest and best in the long run.
Christy Birmingham 5 years ago from British Columbia, Canada
These are great tips that make sense. They are more realistic measures than a crash diet!
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