Why exercise is bad for you

When you treat exercise as something 'you should' be doing, you could soon be in trouble.

You go through a cycle of 'being motivated' and start training obsessively. Then you miss a training session and feel bad about yourself. You've failed. After that you punish yourself by exercising more intensely. Of course this cannot last, and ultimately you'll come to a halt again and pretty much stop exercising altogether. Until you feel that motivation again.

I had a client in the past who was training a lot. She lost over 5 stone. I have a degree in psychology and very much use that to my advantage in dealing with clients, but sometimes it's hard to know whether they are training because they genuinely enjoy it so much, or whether it's become an obsession that's going to lead to bad things.

I found out this client tried to kill herself not so long back. Training had become an obsession. No matter how much she achieved, she never felt truly happy.

Important note: Nobody is ever going to be 100 % happy with their bodies. That's just something we need to try and live with. So if you strive for perfection, you'll never get there. Those Instagram babes only show their best sides, and sometimes cry themselves to sleep because they're not 'good enough' (to who?).

In a way my old client's fitness journey was a true success story. She lost all that weight and looked absolutely incredible after having been overweight for so long. But that's of course just the snippet of her best possible fitness achievements. On the other hand it's a tragic story of how any extreme behaviour nearly always ends up in what we percieve as failure. During her recovery she's had to work with really understanding that being as thin as possible is not a route to happiness. Now she's put all the weight back on, and then some.

So when you see incredible weight loss transformations, don't assume they've 'done really well'. It should be so much more important to understand that getting to true fitness and eating healthily should be about feeling better, not worse about yourself.

Only then, even if you're still classed as 'overweight' by the rubbish official BMI standards, you can truly be happy. Just strive to be a little better.

Eat when you're hungry. Chew your food well. Notice how good you can feel after a balanced healthy meal. And how terrible and lethargic you can feel for days after eating too much crap. When you eat better, your body will reward you with more energy and a better hormonal profile, which will automatically lead to a healthy weight as a side product. Focus on adding good things to your diet, not taking anything away.

Weight loss is nothing more complicated than eating fewer calories than what your body burns. Whether you exercise or not, you'll lose weight if you're in a calorie deficit. So use exercise as a tool to feel better -- choose a sport you truly enjoy, or even just get out for a walk to get some fresh air to burn a few calories. Anything helps. And seriously, training less than 10 minutes a day a few times a week can get you in the best shape of your life. Move little and often, and don't use exercise as some sort of punishment. Humans were born to move. I don't believe in wasting your life doing something you don't enjoy (like going to the gym for many people), so choose to do nice things. Try out a new sport, you might love it.

Exercising too much can destroy you. But more importantly, exercising can also truly heal you. Just enjoy it. That's a great start.

YOUR 7 BEST FAT SOURCES

erika

Fats.... lovely fats. Including good fats in your diet is so important for your body to function properly. It also helps your body get rid of bad fats. I made a simple list of my favourite sources of good fats -- make sure to include some in your everyday diet.

Oily fish (salmon, mackerel... great for your brain)
Extra virgin olive oil
Nuts (not peanuts, nuts like walnuts, cashews, pistachios, almonds or hazelnuts)
Seeds
AVOCADO (the best possible types of fats found in nature... Eat your guacamole)
Nut butters
Eggs (the yolk is super nutritious and the egg white provides loads of protein)

There you have it! Do you think there's anything missing from this list? Just comment below. You can also add yourself to my team's Facebook group for all fat loss nutrition and exercise related support xx

5 SIMPLE NUTRITION RULES (for better health and fat loss)

erika

I'll make it as simple as possible, because it's not supposed to be complicated. Nutrition is a topic which often gets people confused - there's so much contradicting information out there, and advertisers are shoving all sorts of bullshit (on top of the good information) your way constantly. No, you don't need the latest fat loss pills, superfoods, supplements or bullshit shakes they make you believe are good for you (often quite the opposite, actually). So how are you supposed to know how to eat to be healthier and to aid fat loss as well as you can? I want to make things clear and straightforward, so here's a list of the things that'll guarantee you'll get better fat loss results from training, as well as nourish your body optimally. No starvation, no restrictions, no fad dieting. Ever.

Minimum 2.5 litres of water daily (plus tea/coffee on top if you like)
Protein with every meal
Vegetables (or fruit/berries) with every meal
Healthy fats every day (avocado/oily fish/nuts/extra virgin olive oil...)
REAL food 80% of the time (you'll recognise real food by checking out the ingredient label in the supermarket. If there's a single ingredient in it, it's real food.)

Dedicate the next 2 weeks to following these principles. You'll notice just how easy it is to lead a healthier lifestyle. Note, that I'm saying REAL food 'just' 80% of the time?! That's right, you can have #naughtyfood freely, as long as it's not the basis for your diet. It means being able to eat chocolate and drink beer, guilt free, WHILST losing body fat.

[[More about the Freedom Diet here]]

/Erika

BEST PROTEIN SOURCES for meat eaters and vegetarians

erika

Protein helps you stay fuller for longer - it is the macronutrient with the highest satiety factor (over carbohydrates or fats). Protein also, very importantly, helps build and maintain lean muscle mass in your body, which is super important in keeping your metabolism high throughout your life, and helps in building and maintaining a lean body that burns fat effectively.

To oversimplify, if you are currently inactive, make sure you get an absolute minimum of one gram of protein per every kilogram of bodyweight, every day. So if you weigh 80 kg, you should aim to get at least 80 grams of protein daily. You can track your protein intake easily with an app like MyFitnessPal (by going to the nutrition section in your food diary).

Here's a simple list of the best protein sources:

Poultry (chicken, turkey...)
Red meat (beef, pork, lamb...)
Seafood (tuna, salmon, mackerel, prawns, scallops...)
Eggs
Dairy (yoghurt, cottage cheese, fromage frais, milk, cheese...)
Whey protein powder (not necessary, but great if you struggle to get enough protein in)

And if you're a vegetarian, here are the best foods to help with your daily protein intake:

Beans (kidney, chickpeas/hummus, haricot...)
Legumes (lentils, peas, peanut butter...)
Nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews...)
Seeds (sunflower, flax, pumpkin, hemp...)
Milk alternatives (almond/cashew/hazelnut/soya/rice drinks etc. ...)
Soy/tofu
Whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, oats, bread...)
Veggies (peas, broccoli, spinach, kale etc. ...)
Protein powder (hemp protein/pea protein/rice protein etc. ...)

For optimal health and best results from any training you do, try to include a source of protein with every meal you have.

Good luck, and make sure to join The 10 Minute Body team on Facebook where you can ask nutrition and exercise related questions.

/Erika

10 minute Pop-eye chicken & chorizo pasta

erika

Here's the latest delicious 10 Minute Meal food vid.

Healthy recipes, the best workouts and supporting fat loss materials will soon be available for members on this website!

https://youtu.be/BjOKnPQh8Ts

Lose weight easily with these swaps

erika

Here's my quick list of simple food swaps that you can easily take advantage of, starting now.

What's crossed over is your TREATS - they should not be your everyday diet staples.

(There's nothing wrong with having them, but remember moderation. If you go for the crossed over options habitually, you've got some work to do.)

SO:

~~ONLY AS A TREAT~~ - HAVE THIS INSTEAD

~~Cereal~~ - nutty muesli (less sugar than fruit muesli), porridge with fruit, low sugar cereal (e.g. Weetabix), or go for a cooked breakfast of eggs, beans and brown toast.

~~Chocolate~~ - have a glass of water, then eat a piece of fruit. You get natural sugars from fruit, which is far better than refined sugar from sweets and chocolate. If you still find yourself craving sweet, distract yourself by going out for a walk or doing housework.

~~Creamy sauces~~ - tomato or vegetable based sauces

~~Fatty red meat like bacon and sausages, chicken thighs and wings~~ - chicken breast, turkey breast, lean red meat. At least trim the fat off your bacon. Fatty fish like salmon and mackerel you should still have!

~~Flavoured yoghurt~~ - plain yoghurt (natural probiotic yoghurt/Greek yoghurt) with fresh berries/fruit if you want sweetness in it

~~Main meal at a restaurant~~ - go for a starter or a soup, or ask for a doggy bag if you're going for a main meal. Portion sizes in most restaurants are mahoosive, rarely under 1,000 kcal, so save half of it until later.

~~Dried fruit~~ - fresh fruit. With dried fruit, you'll quickly have way too much sugar. It's still better than sweets, but the fresh stuff is the real thing.

~~Juice~~ - water. If you really want a bit of sweetness in your water, infuse it with berries or lime/lemon

~~100% fruit juice~~ - fresh fruit. Not only does it satisfy you more, you'll end up consuming fewer calories and getting much more fibre from the real thing.

~~Fizzy pop~~ - sparkling water (infused with fruit, berries, cucumber, fresh mint leaves etc. if you like)

~~Latte/hot chocolate etc coffee shop high calorie drinks~~ - swap for an espresso or an americano, and add a bit of milk yourself.

You can also consider whether you need to use oil in cooking. If you have a good teflon pan, chances are you don't. Or grill your meats, no added fats needed!

Note! Do not go for advertised diet products. Low fat items are often higher in sugar, low calorie meals won't keep you satisfied and will make you more likely to crave naughties, and just generally bear in mind that the flavour has to come from somewhere. Food manufacturers want to add as much (addictive) flavour to foods as possible so they can make more money when you buy their products again. Also, Artificial sweeteners are added to tons of processed foods, and some research suggests they're even worse for you than pure sugar, so do your best to steer away. Science has also shown that people who consume more artificial sweeteners and 'diet foods' are heavier than people who don't, so

focus on eating real, unprocessed food.

The best and worst breakfasts

erika

People who have breakfast are slimmer on average: FACT

You need to have breakfast if you want to be fit and healthy: UNTRUE

Breakfast is just as important as any other meal during the day. You don'd need 5 meals a day, just have as many as suits your lifestyle. Just log your foods to make sure you're not overeating, i.e. putting on weight.

The most important thing to have in the morning: A pint of water.

The worst breakfast options:

Most cereals (too much sugar. Have a look at the ingredient list!)
Granola (packed with sugar)

Best breakfast options:

Eggs
High protein dairy (plain yoghurt/fromage frais/cottage cheese)
Porridge (if it keeps your hunger at bay... Also make sure your portion isn't too big)
Nutty muesli

My best tips to go by:

Always include a source of protein
Minimise sugar
Keep fat content in check

A full English wouldn't necessarily be a terrible option, but the super high fat content easily makes it exceed 1,000 kcals. So only have it if you're not intending to eat much else during the day to keep your waistline in control.

If you really don't feel hungry in the morning, you don't need to have breakfast. Just grab a pint of water and go, and eat when you get hungry.

High sugar breakfasts like most cereals do the most havoc to your diet. They're more likely to get you derailed with nutrition from the start and won't make you feel satisfied.

/Erika

P.s. In case you were wondering which cereals are nutritionally slightly better... My faves are Weetabix, Shredded Wheat and Shreddies. Purely because there's less added sugar. But I'd still personally rarely have cereal because the high carb and relatively low protein content makes my belly scream with hunger within an hour, and that's not great for insulin levels and makes silly snacking more likely.

My 5 top tips for building a healthier diet

erika

I did personalised calorie & protein calculations for a young lady recently. She started using MyFitnessPal, and despite hitting her fat loss eating targets she's struggling to know where to start in terms of building a healthier, more sustainable overall diet instead of eating crap within her allowances. Both will make you lose weight, but of course it's better to focus on good quality nutrition to keep your body healthy and mind sharp. Now I know it's much more media attractive to promote a simple unsustainable shitty juice diet than make BALANCE an attractive idea. If you've done several diets in the past, you're used to being given specific rules on how to eat for a short period of time. Unfortunately, this is very rarely sustainable and the cold truth is that if you want to lose weight and keep it off for good, you have to work on finding your own balance with nutrition. A professional can help you build up good basics, but you must do the hard work of integrating the new habits into your lifestyle yourself.

Here's my top 5 tips on how to make the process as painless as possible:

Eat only when you're hungry. Wait for it, and then really enjoy your food. Always have a healthy snack handy though (fruit/nuts/natural yoghurt/even just a glass of water), because the time when you're most likely to make bad choices with nutrition is towards the end of the day when you're tired and hungry. Kill off the biggest hunger whilst you're making a quick healthy meal.
Focus on colours. The more colours you have in your diet, the more vitamins your body gets from the food you eat. Now obviously this doesn't include artificial colourings. Stock up on different coloured veg to get up to a great start, or have a side salad with your meal. If you're not a huge fan on veg, just chop it up small to hide it in great traditional dishes like spaghetti bolognese or various oven bakes. I tend to throw in onion, garlic, peppers, grated carrots and even celery for a great tasting, authentic spag bol.
Eat from a small plate. This has all to do with your brain - research shows that if you eat the same amount of food from a small plate versus a larger plate, you'll be full sooner eating from the smaller plate. This is because your brain will perceive that you've had more food when you've finished off a full plate. If you're genuinely still hungry after finishing it, feel free to top up. Another related tip that can work wonders is to eat with a smaller fork, or even just a teaspoon.
Focus on the positives. There are no foods you can't have if you're trying to lose weight. Your brain is very bad at processing negatives - if you tell yourself you "can't have chocolate", all your brain hears is "have chocolate". Traditional dieting - where you're only allowed certain types of foods - and not allowed others, is based on a deprivation mindset. This won't help you build long lasting habits. To build a sustainable healthy diet, you are in fact allowed anything you want, but you should learn to not want a lot of it. Just think about the reasons of why you want to eat it. To successfully maintain your dream weight, your diet should consist 80-90% of real foods and 10-20% of treats (this can be readily processed foods, chocolate, alcohol... whatever you fancy). When your overall diet is based on real, nutritious food, you'll feel fantastic and full of energy... So why would you want to ruin it with tons of junk? Remember, the first bite of your favourite foods/treats is always lovely.... And the experience doesn't increase on the 10th mouthful. You can learn to just have a bite of chocolate, not the whole bar at once.
Balance out your macros. Try to find a balance with having all three types of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) in good proportion with every meal. Fats are highest in calories, so although you need fats to be healthy, you also want to be careful not to over consume them. For portion control, take a handful (not more) of carbs with each meal (that's pasta/rice/potatoes...) and limit added fats to a minimum. You'll get enough fats pretty much with any diet, so focus on foods that contain great quality fats like avocado or salmon. Also, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil a day has great health benefits, so you can make sure to top your side salad with that every day. Processed fats (transfats) are the worst and super unhealthy, as these are produced in factories just to make your processed food palatable. Most importantly, try to make sure to have protein (meat, dairy, eggs...) with every single meal of the day and you're off to a great start - it's also the macronutrient with the highest satiety factor, i.e. it'll make you feel full for the longest.

I hope these tips will help you build a healthier, sustainable diet that'll get you the body you deserve. Maybe you can share it with a friend to help them out too.

Peace out, love yourselves.

Erika xx

The secret behind EVERY successful diet

erika

Low carb, 5:2, the alkaline and blood type diet, bullshit “detoxes & cleanses” (Forever, Juice+, Cambridge etc), paleo……. you name it.

None of them are ‘good for’ you and most likely only make you gain weight afterwards.

But here’s the secret as to why “they work”:

YOU

ARE

CALORIE

DEFICIT.

If a diet makes you lose weight, it’s simply because your body is burning more than what you’re eating, no matter what the method

Some of you may have tried eating a shit ton of vegetables once and noted that you can in fact eat more and lose weight. This is true, because vegetables are not calorie dense foods

[a kilogram of carrots = 410 kcal, whereas

a kilogram of vegetable oil = 8,115 kcal]

Which also makes them a great food group to have when you’re trying to lose weight (on top of the fact that they’re packed with vitamins).

So STOP giving shitty diets credit, when in fact it’s nothing to do with

what you eat

but rather

how much energy you consume (vs. burn)

Then there’s what I hear all the time… “I know what I need to do to lose weight, but…..”

Yep yep. There’s just one thing that might come as a shock to many - even healthy eating does NOT guarantee weight loss. Shocking, right? It’s definitely a wise idea to make your eating habits healthier and include a lot of colour in your diet, but……. too much of any food can make you gain weight. I remember watching this documentary when I was young on a morbidly obese woman who did not understand why she was dying because of her weight… seen as she had 52 (!!!) oranges a day. They’re healthy, right?? This is an extreme example, but just let me tell you

that in 52 average oranges

there are 3,796 kcal and

884 GRAMS of sugar

That’s close to a fucking kilogram of pure sugar!!!

So yeah, fruit is not bad for you

as long as you have it in moderation

just like anything else

There’s a BIG problem if you follow diets that others have made for you without knowing anything about your general eating habits and preferences

And the problem is that you’re not going to be on that diet for the rest of your life, so it WON’T WORK [here’s why]

So the solution?

Learn what’s in your food

Start tracking your calories today by downloading MyFitnessPal

And no matter what you eat,

if you stay under your average needed calories you will lose weight.

(Check how many you need here)

You can achieve anything you want. Just decide you're going to do it, and figure out why you want to do it. Then go get it!

Good luck!

Rant: STAY AWAY FROM DIET PLANS

erika

Fuming, angry, just so upset this morning.

A childhood friend told me this morning she'd bought a diet plan online from a TV PT.

This made me so sad and I just wanted to swear and be all open about why that was such a stupid idea. Need to hold it back sometimes to protect others' feelings.... I mean she'd just wasted £50 on a generic diet plan.

I've got this plan on my PC too (my naughty aunt had also bought it before [grrrrrr] and forwarded it to me for professional purposes) and it's SHIT.

The big problem is that only dieticians are qualified to prescribe precise diet plans, and this is always done on an individual basis.

Here's the rough outline of the crap plan:
1,800 kcal per day for everyone, no exceptions. MUST attend gym 4-6 times a week AND do other physical exercise outside of gym several days a week. Diet is very strict with a 'cheat day' once every 12 weeks or something - EVERY morning starts with porridge and basically you eat the SAME SHIT EVERY DAY.

And in the 'rules and guidelines' the plan tells you that you have FAILED if you get sidetracked at all.

Can you see the BIIIIIIG problem?

This is a DIET. Someone else's life (eating like this is like having an eating disorder). It doesn't encourage you to change your habits, and makes you see 'healthy eating' as strenuous and boring. So... you might lose weight while you're following the plan (d'uh, who wouldn't with that amount of calories + exercise??) BUT

AND THERE'S A BIG BUT

You'll put the weight back on as soon as you "have failed" and return to eating normally. And the lesson of the plan was?? To make losing weight a f***ing chore and to make you feel guilty if you don't follow it.

But that's not YOUR LIFE, is it?? Would you really give up all your social time to go to the gym/jogs and to prepare meals? I think (and hope) not.

I certainly wouldn't. That's pretty close to my idea of a horrible nightmare. The kind of life I wouldn't enjoy living.

The dieting mindset is 95% of the time (at least) going to results in failure.

-----

Today I've enrolled myself on a course to study weight loss via NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and hypnosis
so that I can even better help my clients lose all the weight they want

the way through which they can keep it off for good
by changing the mindset.

There's only so many private PT clients I can have onboard, so I'm determined to spend my time wisely to be able to help more people outside of the 'inner circle'. The fat loss challenges I've ran in the past have been massively successful, so I'm going to invest in coaching more people online in the future - and focus on optimised fat loss through good nutrition and the change of mindset.

Once you learn the proper way of managing your nutrition (to HAVE a good diet overall, not to "be on" a diet, EVER), you'll never need to worry about your weight again.

If you need help with your diet, just let me know and I'll do what I can to help. The methods I use work 100% of the time, you just need to realise that you have to take responsibility, learn some shit and put it into effect.... WHILST being able to eat the foods you love.

Peace out & lots of love,
Erika

P.S. The friend said she already thinks the plan isn't going to work. Hungry straight after the first meal... *sigh* expected.

Erika Helsinki
Health & Fitness Lifestyle Coach

erika@fitashel.com
0789 719 7818

[[this is an email I sent today to people on my email list -- subscribe here]]