Even With all the training I do my weight continues to rise year in year out to the point that it is now effecting not only my training but also my health. Like many of you I have tried many different diets with varying degrees of success losing a few pounds to only put them back on with a few more to keep them company.
So as usual I looked on the net to find a solution and after reading article after article my problem was a familiar story that I am sure you will have heard of.
My biggest problem was and is I love my food and I found diets to be either boring or just plain punishing this did not work for me. I work hard and train hard so when I get home a good meal and a drink was something I always looked forward to, it almost felt like a just reward for all that effort.
Nothing seemed to work and believe you me I looked at them all from Atkins to weight watchers. With all of them I had to sacrifice to much and would soon settle back into my usual routine. This I believe is the root of the problem with any
So what is the answer how do we keep our interest and motivation? Well for a start stop punishing yourself for needing or wanting to lose weight. Make sure you are doing it for yourself not because others have told you you are fat, this is one time you can be totally selfish and do what you want to do.
For me and I suspect for a lot of you healthy food and drink just does not taste as good and even looks less appetizing than other foods. For instance a plate of broccoli and a skinless chicken breast the healthy option or breaded chicken mashed potatoes broccoli and a good gravy. I know which one I would want to eat every time, you have to give up so much its no wonder so many people fail and seem to be on a diet all the time but do not have any real substantial
Since I was in the martial arts business running a school and training very hard most days how was it I could not lose the excess weight I had put on over the years. I was shocked when I weighed myself for the first time in I don't know how long I weighed just over sixty pounds more than when I was twenty that was a weight gain of two pounds a year for the last thirty years. This frightened me and made me determined to find a solution that I could live with.
As luck would have it I went to a pressure points seminar run by one of my friends and as usual three or four of us took along our favorite home- baked cakes to share at the break. Its quite funny really a bunch of so called tough martial artists spend the break eating and talking about baking. One of them brought along some blueberry vanilla muffins and they were spectacular. We all asked for the recipe and was shocked at how little fat and sugar was used but how good they still tasted.
Russell told me about this new recipe book he had bought called Anabolic cooking the cookbook, in it was over two hundred recipes for healthy and just as importantly in my opinion tasty meals. Here was an eating plan that was easy to prepare and cook using real food not those pre packed diet meals you see in the shops with adverts like half the calories of a normal shepherds pie. Failing to mention half the normal size yet we fall for it all the time another reason why we fail we eat like a sparrow and are always hungry is it any wonder we give up.
With this cookbook you can still eat the foods you love but cooked in a healthy way with fresh ingredients. Just this week I have had pizza,curry,roast beef chili and sweets and have still lost weight with little or no extra effort except in preparing my food. This is certainly a lifestyle I can live with good tasty healthy food and believe it or not actually saves me money. Its true the fresh ingredients cost a lot less than the takeaways and ready meals I used to live on so all in all I have found my answer.