In my last blog post I focused on the importance of protein for fat burning as promoted by the Diet Solution program. Today I have a video put together by David Petersen who is a personal trainer in Clapham, London. He goes through a basic outline of fat burning.

It all focuses on the number of calories that come in that is balanced out by the number of calories you burn. David says you only need to do a number of small changes to really make a difference and I love his approach to fat loss.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDkHA06nFHg&feature[/youtube]

More information about the importance of making sure you are eating the right food to help you burn fat and ultimately lose weight.

A really important lesson that I have learnt about fat burning is the need to increase the amount of protein I was eating in a very carb heavy diet. All of my snacks were carb based like toast or crumpets and maybe even oven chips. The Diet Solution recommends a good healthy source of protein with each meal. You don’t need to over do it but stuck to a sufficient amount.

Your body breaks down protein into amino acides and amino acid is used to help your body build muscle. Protein is also used to repair muscle and your major organs. Your body can not store protein so it is broken down and what isn’t used leaves your body but it can store carbs which is used for energy. When you eat a high carb meal your body will do all it can to remove all the extra flow of carbs (which turns into glucose) out of your body but what is already stored on you will stay behind. It is hard work for your poor body.

Protein is also a blood sugar stabliser which helps to keep your blood sugar stable. if you eat only carbs (e.g. a portion of chips, some toast, etc) your blood sugar levels go up and down if there is no protein to stablise it.

This taught me that eating a plate full of oven chips and following that hours later with a couple of slices of toast and a cup of tea was a bad idea. I began to wonder whether this was the cause of my weight gain problem – a lack of enough protein. My meals used to consist of

breakfast – cereal like rice krispies or Alpen (a little protein from the milk)
snack – 2 slices of toast
lunch – a sandwich with some meat in the middle but very little – eg two slices of ham
dinner – a huge serving of rice/potatoes, some meat and veg

Years and years and years of eating that ways has had an affect on my body, and thanks to the Diet Solution program I have now been re-educated and I understand the importance of eating protein.

The source of protein is also important and so I buy

• organic eggs
• grass fed beef (organic)
• wild fish
• free range poultry
• raw nuts
• nut butter

Now my eating habits include a good healthy natural source of protein served into each meal

2 eggs with an apple as a snack

Raw nuts with a yoghurt

Raw nuts added to my breakfast porridge (sometimes I buy the omega 3 spread)

Nut butter spread on oat cakes

Lunch wild fish or salmon, turkey or poultry

I drink Nikken Barley Grass powder – barley grass is a great source of natural protein and a healthy green drink

I use coconut oil to cook with and I also add some to my porridge

Every single one of your meals must have protein in it and if you are like me and love your carbs you could probably half the amount of carbs you eat right now to help you.  I never gave them up completely but I do my best to eat a lot less than I used to on most days.

You can find out more about the diet solution program here http://www.onlydietsolution.com

I have been looking at why I keep starting the Diet Solution then going back to my old ways of eating and I came to the conclusion that I was doing it for a reason, the first reason was my holiday, then there was a christening and a new man…. there are all these reasons for me to focus on weight loss but what happens once I no longer have the reason is I stopped.

So I took a long hard look at what I was doing and what I wanted to achieve and now I am following the Diet Solution again (which I understand is a lifestyle eating program not a diet!) and this time doing it for no other reason than I want to be fit and healthy.

My journey to lose 110lbs has been an interesting one and as it took me 5 years to put it all on I am not expecting to lose it without some effort but it sure has been a roller coaster.

I have tried eating only following the Diet Solution

Exercise only but eating all the old carbs and junk I used to eat (crumpets and oven chips)

Now it is time to eat and exercise and I wanted to make sure I could keep it up before I started blogging again. So I am a few weeks ahead and will update you on how I finally made this week in future blog posts.

I have given myself 90 days to reduce my dress size (I am more focused on fat burning than weight loss now) and once I reduce it by at least 2 sizes from a size 20 (yes I went back up again when I went back to my old eating ways and non exercise) to a size 18, then 90 days later from a size 18 to a size 16 then 90 days later from a size 16 to a size 14. Right now I feel being a size 14 will be slim enough for me and when I get there I will decide whether I want to go down even smaller to a size 12 (which I can never actually remember being in my whole life – maybe when I was a young girl…)

Don’t give up on me yet! I think  I am proof that an effort to lose weight can mean going down, back up a little and down again – it doesn’t always go in a straigh downward line.

Now though, I am doing this FOR ME and no one else and that is enough motivation for me. What I used to help kick start me was the services of a London Hypnotherapist called Jenny O’Kelly and I will blog more about that later.

In the meantime you will find The Diet Solution HERE

A few years ago I recognised that I was an emotional eater. Whenever I was annoyed and upset I would reach for food. It took me a while to recognise that the food I reached for the most was chocolate bars like Snickers and Mars! Mix that in with a packet of cheese and onion crisps (yes eaten together) and I was in heaven!

Today, I received a great email from  Jon Benson about emotional eating called “Are you an emotional eater?” – I hope you enjoy it

Are you an emotional eater by Jon Benson
[Printed with permission from the author]

Emotions can be deadly.

At least when it comes to eating.

And the VAST majority of us are “emotional eaters.” And that leads to excess bodyfat.

We eat when we are stressed-out.

We eat when we are overly happy.

We eat when we are depressed.

And when you eat like this you can kiss your fatloss goodbye.

There’s a 4-minute video that I want you to watch today.

It is touching, funny, and very powerful all at the same time.

And it will help you come to terms with emotional eating.

Go here –

— > click-here:  http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/go/fatblastin/emotional-eating

P.S. This is a very unique video. I know you will love it.

And I KNOW you will benefit from it.

Please share this with others too.

— > click-here:  http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/go/fatblastin/emotional-eating

————————————— End ————————————–

I hope you enjoy watching the video. I changed my habit once I was ready to acknowledge it was there and begin asking the question “how do I overcome emotional eating?” – I hope you can do the same thing.  Emotional eating wasn’t something I wanted to continue doing  and once I became aware of it I had the power to consciously decide to do something different (and the only thing I could think to do was NOT eat!)  – fast forward a few years and I now have it under control but if I get very emotionally upset it can easily be triggered and it becomes a battle between my will to not emotional eat and my will to stuff my face! So far I haven’t given in to it

The overall goal when it comes to weight loss is to burn fat and the best way to achieve fat burning is to raise your metabolism so when I saw the title of this video – being the lazy exerciser that I am – I decided it must be worth trying!

Four minutes of exercise with 20 seconds of fast pedal action and 10 seconds of cooling down. Make note that you should also do 5 min warm up before and pedal slowly for 4-5 minutes afterwards to cool down.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piGyvhq2eTk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]