Guys, I know we've all been there. We've put our fave pair of jeans on and, whoops, they don't want to button up! More of us will have been in this exact position with the numerous lockdowns during the pandemic. Let's face it, most of us are surviving in active wear; they're our new daytime staple, right?! The thing about activewear is it's forgiving, it's stretchy and it doesn't require a zip or a button to be fastened around the waist!
Ok, so you've discovered your jeans don't fit. What do you do? There are realistically three options here: you go on a mad, crazy low calorie diet, you resolve to eat healthy and balanced meals plus exercise or you do absolutely nothing. What option should you choose? What delivers fast results? What delivers lasting results? What's better for you?
Option one will deliver results quickly. You'll be eating low calorie meals and the weight will drop off quickly. The bad side of this is that it's not sustainable and the impact on your health. Eating super low calorie diets aren't good for you - plain and simple. Your body needs a certain amount of calories, and that's specific to YOU - your weight, height and activity level. Try eating super low calorie for any more than a short amount of time and you'll feel tired, lethargic, even possibly dizzy. . . add to that the fact that the weight will come back the minute you return to eating a balanced diet.
Option two see you revamping your nutrition to include balanced and healthy meals, tailored to your specific caloric requirement, again this is according to your weight, height and activity level. You'll add in exercise of varying types (think cardio, Pilates, yoga, weights) and you will adopt a slow and steady pace of weight reduction. What's fantastic about this option is the slow weight loss is much more sustainable and research shows the weight is much more likely to stay off with this approach, all whilst keeping you healthy without lethargy, tired spells or extreme hunger.
Option three is pretty simple: do nothing. The weight will, more than likely, increase and then be even harder to shed, notwithstanding the physical effects on your joints and organs. Kind of a no brainer, isn't it, to get healthy?!
Does this sound like something you're thinking about - quick fix vs long term solution? I would love to hear your experiences with fad diets and long term lifestyle change.
