Steps and tracking equals loss of calories
How many steps have you done today? Does anyone know what these steps equal to, what they mean to your general overall health? How many calories have been burnt by the number of steps you have completed?
What speed do you have to walk the steps to achieve anything?
CONFUSING!
Well, here is a brief breakdown on steps.
If you walk 10,000 steps a day at a moderate pace, you would have used 400-500 calories of energy.
TRACK
If you do this everyday for a week on a 2,000 calorie a day diet for example you will lose roughly 1lb a week. This is because you are only having 1500 calories a day total as you have used 400-500 for energy and now are in calorie deficit.
Combine this with drinking 3 litres of clean fluids daily and sleeping 7-9 hours a night and you are on your way to a healthy lifestyle.
Next is looking at how to maximise those calories eaten that make up the 1500-2,000 by aiming for high protein meals and cutting back on the processed and sugar laden foods/drinks so readily available.
Watching your sugar intake and salt intake, keeping hydrated and rested is so important too for maintaining a healthy life.
Watch the sugary drinks, flavoured water is the biggest fake in health terms.
The trackers that are available now are amazing, apple watches and step counters on your phone, sleep trackers and stress trackers and so it goes on.
We have no excuse with the technology created now in 2018 we have everything tracked and we can improve, we are even shown how to, many free videos and free healthy recipes available online all at the touch of our fingers.
The internet is amazing.
So, why in the UK only are we rated 5th in Europe for obesity. We have all this technology and some of it free so no excuses regarding income being too low to gain access to online help.
Obesity is already the leading cause of premature death after smoking in the UK alone. The BBC reports that today, 25% of us are obese. If things don’t change, by 2050 that will be 50%.
That is incredible isn’t it?
I asked a few random people what they thought the reasons could be that we still remained obese?
FIRST RESPONSE…
1/Summer holidays stress me out and are really expensive, outings and childcare are no joke.
This is from one mum in the coffee shop I visited today, she went on to say…
‘My weekly wine intake equals 22 cans of coke’
I was impressed with the fact she knew that.
So the reason?
Stress makes this particular mum drink more and it is her way to de-stress, in this particular way of de stressing it accompanies poor food choices made the next day, when out with the kids she may feel lethargic and actually unable to cope with simple situations.
A lot of mums feel pressure in the summer holidays, they feed the children well and they leave themselves to last. Picking instead of eating a meal and then eating junk for the much needed energy spike.
It becomes a hard habit to break by september when the kids go back to school.
Another response…
This time a gentleman at the garage filling up with petrol…
2/I blame the advertising and then this heat?
Ok, well the heat he said makes him eat ice cream and cold foods rather than home cooked foods. I did say “Salads are cold, tuna and fish salad and chicken and ham salad”
He gave me a confused look. He explained to me that the advertising on ice creams and cold sugary drinks is very appealing in this heat and he loads up with them, especially when filling the car up at petrol stations. He did say he likes salads too though;0
It seems such a slippery slope of making bad habits, what if we resisted all the magnum adverts and ice cold Lucozade adverts and went about our daily lives really looking after ourselves.
IDEA!
What if we really put ourselves first for one day only, we get up earlier than needed. 20 minutes only and have a coffee or tea in peace.
Collect your thoughts and plan your day.
Aim for an end goal by the time you finish work and settle down to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual.
Cut back 30 minutes for one day onmobile phone and social networking.
That is it.
The next day you can see how it went and felt, really make the effort and then start withyour diet.
Contact me for meal plans and advice
Maria1tait@gmail.com
Have a great evening
Maria Tait Nutrition
The Friendly Family Nutritionist
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