Learning to be healthy is a habit worth working for but it takes time. Losing excess weight and keeping it off is key. Every step you take is a step in the right direction and the key is to never give up!
- Understand which foods are good for us and which foods are just a waste of calories so we should try to avoid them – and don’t snack!
- Realise which type of exercise does what and why activity pays such enormous dividends - internally, externally and mentally. Aerobic exercise burns fat, Strength exercise builds muscle which increases our ability to burn fat whilst Stretches increase mobility and range.
- Combine healthy eating habits with regular exercise and you can become a success story – no matter what your age.
As Mary and I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have each been teaching classes for 50 years and our loyal members encourage us to keep on going as so many of them are now slim and fit, and have maintained it for years, epitomising everything we have been teaching during that last half-century. They acknowledge and embrace the benefits of being a healthy weight and exercising regularly, particularly as they have grown older. They know it works.
Eileen and Sandra have been coming to my classes for decades and both reached their goal weight 20 years ago. ‘Isn’t it lovely to be slim’ they say as they step off the scales each week! I also have three ladies, Gwen, Pam and Rachel, who are all over 80. They love being healthily slim and fit, eating sensibly and working out with me every week as well as going for regular walks. Carole joined me when she was 19 and has been coming to my classes every week since – for 41 years! Three years ago, Carole was diagnosed with bowel cancer but now she has completely recovered and is fighting fit again. These, and so many others, are an inspiration!
The point of all this is to highlight the benefits and the importance of choosing to live a healthier life. If you are overweight, you will almost certainly struggle physiologically and medically as you get older. If we don’t exercise, our muscles will weaken and it is highly likely that we will not be able to live an independent life in later years. These are really serious implications that could drastically affect your health and happiness. The great news is that you have subscribed to this Newsletter and therefore care about staying young and healthy and that is a massive step in the right direction!
Here are some habits to consider:
- THINK about what you are eating and ask yourself, ‘Is this doing me good?’
- MOVE more and get those muscles working!
- MOTIVATE yourself by buddying up with a friend for a walk or to play a sport.
If you need further inspiration, have a look at these short videos:
How to Lose Weight Ageing and Activity Positive Attitude – the Key to Success
You may like to watch a short piece that was on BBC East Midlands Today featuring the inspirational women mentioned above as we celebrated my 50 year anniversary of running classes.
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Often thought of as a creamy, high-calorie soup, this recipe offers minimal calories with maximum flavour whilst embracing heaps of goodness. This low-fat recipe was created by my friend and expert cook Millie Eggleston.
This soup is suitable for freezing but is better frozen before adding the milk, then when reheating for use, add the milk but avoid boiling.
Serves 6
Per serving: 182 calories, 5.5g fat
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into small pieces
1200ml vegetable stock, (use two vegetable stock cubes or stock pots)
340g Broccoli, cut into florets
84g Stilton cheese, crumbled
150ml semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
Freshly ground black pepper
- Heat a non-stick pan and spray with rapeseed oil. Dry-fry the onion with the freshly ground black pepper until the onion is soft.
- Add the stock and the potatoes and bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the broccoli and boil for a further 10 minutes until cooked.
- Liquidise until smooth.
- Add the crumbled Stilton and the milk and gently heat through without boiling and serve in warm dishes.
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Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.
The path of helping people to lose weight and to keeping it off is not a smooth one. Mainly because we are all individuals (thank goodness!) and what may work for one may not for another.
However, there are some basic rules that need to be followed to achieve long-term success. Rosemary has certainly alluded to those that relate to eating – particularly with regard to snacking. Snacking is a habit that needs to be stopped in its tracks. Your meals should be enough – those snacks are just a bad habit!
In our profession it is always hard to work with someone who is 'desperate' to lose weight and despite doing very well initially they cannot find the right path that gives them long-term success. Basically, I am referring to those who do lose weight but cannot maintain that weight loss. This ‘maintaining of lost weight’ is, in my experience, harder for many to achieve than the actual weight loss itself.
Let's explore a few basic rules to help you:
- The extensive restriction of a strict calorie-controlled weight loss plan is never intended to go beyond the term of the ‘diet’ but it is hoped that some ‘changes’ to our eating habits will carry on afterwards. We then enter into what is termed a Transitional Phase which is not so strict but hopefully continues with those aspects of the eating plan that, for us as an individual, we are able to embrace as realistically possible. For instance, you may now really enjoy your daily walk and you’ve stopped the snacking habit. The key is to keep that up!
- It has been clinically proven that we underestimate how much we have eaten and overestimate how much activity we do! We also overestimate how many calories we think we have burned off with the exercise we do!
- Think of exercise as the icing on the cake. If you follow The 28-Day Immunity Plan it is loosely based on 1400 – 1500 calories a day and you will lose weight because it combines daily exercise as an essential part of the Plan. Maintaining our daily exercise and activity is absolutely key to our long-term maintenance success.
- There is also a HUGE value in moving regularly throughout our day. As many as 500 extra calories can be worked off daily just by doing this. Just standing up burns almost double the calories of sitting!
- When we find ourselves slipping back into our old habits that made us gain weight in the first place, we are very likely to end up where we started unless we take action. Change nothing... nothing changes! Talk to yourself about those aspects of The 28-Day Immunity Plan that you can manage. e.g unlimited vegetables, portion size, fresh-cooked lower-calorie foods, a daily walk, an exercise class you really enjoy and plan to keep up.
- Check your weight weekly. Don’t panic but take action as soon as you see it rising. You probably know why... a birthday party, a leaving-do at work or just a big night out. Get back on track fast and the weight will disappear quickly!
- Have a way of monitoring your step count. Research has shown that regularly achieving less than 6000 steps a day is not helping weight maintenance. Make 6000 - 10,000 steps daily a physical goal.
The true value of exercise is only experienced when it becomes a habitual part of life. It only takes two or three full-body strength programmes a week to see your shape change significantly, giving you more confidence in everything you do. Increasing the intensity of your walks to include some short intervals of higher calorie burning makes enormous improvements in the function of your heart and lungs (see this week’s Weekly Challenge) as well as helping you maintain your lost weight. Finally, whilst you may still find getting out there and doing it is hard, remember how you feel when you have finished… very, very proud of yourself, and know that you are likely, at the very least, to have not put any weight on this week. Success!
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This Week's Fitness Challenge
- Maximising calorie burning is your goal this week. On your daily walk do some ‘interval walking’. Do this by walking steadily for 3 minutes then really push hard for 1 minute. Use the timer on your mobile phone to time yourself so you can be fairly accurate. You can do 7 ‘intervals’ in a 30-minute walk and potentially burn off an extra 100 calories! Your metabolism is also boosted with ‘higher intensity’ work and continues to be boosted long after the workout has finished... even when sitting on the sofa!
- Do a Full Body Strength Programme with weights 3 times this week: Either the Standing Weight Workout or the Floor Weights Workout. More muscle burns three times the number of calories of fat!
- Do the Post Walk Stretches or the Stretch Programme after your walks or strength workouts. A more flexible body moves more efficiently and through a greater range – and more movement burns more calories!
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Did you know...
According to the Stilton Cheesemaker's Association, the first person to market Blue Stilton cheese was the owner of the Bell Inn in the village of Stilton, Huntingdonshire, (now part of Cambridgeshire). Tradition has it that in 1730 he discovered a distinctive blue cheese while visiting a small farm near Melton Mowbray in rural Leicestershire.
He  fell in love with the cheese and made a business arrangement granting him exclusive marketing rights to it and soon wagonloads of cheese were being delivered. The Inn stood on the Great North Road, the main stagecoach route between London and the North, and the fame of Stilton spread rapidly. Nowadays Stilton Cheese is legally protected and can only be made in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - but never in Stilton!
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And finally...
We all go through life making choices - some we get right and some we don’t, but working towards a fit and healthy body has to be the most important goal we ever aim for. Let’s just do it!
Have a great week!
With love and best wishes,
Rosemary Conley CBE DL
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LIVE LONGER | LIVE HEALTHIER | LIVE HAPPIER
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