Obesity, Goals & Smart Goals.

Obesity is as the government calls it now an epidemic. A lot of people do not do enough exercise or eat healthy food. When you can get take out delivered to your door within the hour and a gym membership costing an arm and a leg (in some sad cases literally) its hardly a surprise.

Studies and surveys have shown that in the UK between 1993 and 2005 the level of obesity almost doubled to 23% of men and 25% of women. Looking back at the list of diseases an inactive lifestyle and poor diet can cause, these figures are distressing. We are essentially killing ourselves slowly and painfully. Only about 35% of men and 24% of woman meet the governments recommendations for daily exercise.

What are the governments recommendations?
The government recommends that adults get 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day, five or more times a week. 30 minutes? that doesn't sound to hard now dose it? Now what people don't seem to understand is that these 30 minutes doesn't have to be 30 minutes in the gym every day of the week. It could be taking the dog for a walk, walking briskly to and from work or even playing games with the kids, as long as the activity is getting your heart pumping more than usual your meeting the governments daily recommendations and getting yourself on your way to a healthier lifestyle. It really is that easy.

So if it is that easy then why are 65% of men and 76% of women failing to be active? How could we help them to be more active? Saying your going to get active is all well and good but you need to think of two things before you do, these things are;

1. Where are you going? (What is your goal? I.E. Loose weight? improve health?)
2. Where are you coming from? (Your current state I.E. BMI, General Health etc)

Setting goals is always a good plan, but setting a smart goal is going to be considerately more effective.

The Difference Between Goals & Smart Goals:

What is a smart goal you may ask? well we will get to that shortly. Everyone has one or more reasons they want to be, are, or plan to be more active, the most common are;

• To look good (Reduce fat or to gain muscle)
• To be healthy
• To feel good
• Enjoy competition or activity.

Everyone is different, and someone who is exercising to be healthy will not do the same training as say an Olympic athlete. However two people may have the same reasons for exercising but they may have different goals, this is where Smart goals comes into focus.

A smart goal is much more effective than a general goal, this is because a smart goal is;

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Attainable
4. Reasonable
5. Timely

This is because a general goal is basically just words, for example you may say you want to loose weight, but decided you want to drop three dress sizes in a month. This is never going to happen, here is an example of a general goal and a smart goal.

Goal: Get fitter

Smart goal: In three months time, I will be able to run two miles with out needing to stop.

See the difference? This should be a reasonable goal (depending on your fitness levels) Its set to a time frame and sets a specific measurable outcome. So in three months if you can run two miles without needing to stop you have achieved your goal, where as with a general goal you would never know if you have achieved you goal as you have nothing to compare it to.

As I Learn, You Learn.

As I said in my first post, Im currently studying a Diet, Fitness & Nutrition adviser course. So as I learn, you learn. Trying to get fit is one thing, but knowing about fitness is the best way to achieve it.

For example could you explain health. activity & fitness? do you know the health risks of an inactive lifestyle? Do you know the risk of poor diet? and can you name the components of fitness?

If you had have of asked me this question before I would have said, a little, yes, yes and no. I mean we all know these things to an extent, but most of us ignore what we see on TV or read in magazines as they can be boring and drone on and on. Where as I hope not to bore you but to help you. By using what I'm learning and what I have experienced hopefully you will get the know how you need to change you life.

Activity, Health & Fitness: The definitions.

• Physical activity: Any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure. Examples of physical activity are, walking the shops, playing sport, house work, walking the dog or weight lifting. 

• Physical fitness: A set of physical attributes that are health or skill related. The ability of the body to do what's required of it. The five components of health related fitness (which will be discussed later)

• Exercise: Physical activity that is planned, structured & repetitive. Is done to improve or maintain physical fitness. Examples of this are, swimming, aerobics classes, running, yoga, weight lifting etc.

• Health: Now health can be distinguished in two ways. 1) plain and simply being the absence of disease or sickness, if nothing is wrong a person is considered healthy. 2) taking care of your body. 

Physical activity, Health & Nutrition: Why we do it & the benefits.

The most common use of physical activity & exercise is to loose and/or gain weight. However it is also good to help reduce the risk of a lot of disease's & health conditions such as;

1. Anxiety
2. Blood cholesterol
3. Cardiovascular disease
4. Cancer (Colon, Breast, Uterine, Prostate etc)
5. Diabetes
6. High blood pressure
7. Lower back pain
8. Osteoporosis
9. Obesity/over weight.

That's just to list a few of the benefits to physical activity & exercise, they also help with;

1. Quitting smoking  (speaking from experience again here, I tried the nicotine patches, the chewing gum and nothing worked until I tried to get fit)
2. Improves life expectancy
3. Quality of life in the elderly
4. Keeps children healthy (also sets an example to children to keep fit in the future)
5. Improves sleep
6. Improves quality of life in people suffering from many diseases (such as arthritis, asthma & HIV)

With all this in mind, isn't this enough reason to want to get fit & healthy? surely our vanity cant be the only reason to motivate us into getting fit? I find listing the benefits alone are sometimes not as effective. so if look at it this way. If all the above are benefits of a 'active' lifestyle think of all the health risks to a 'in-active lifestyle' aka sedentary lifestyle & poor diet. Diets high is alcohol, caffeine and low in fruit & veg carry a number of risks such as;

1. Cataracts
2. Colon Cancer
3. Diabetes
4. High blood pressure
5. Heart Disease
6. Lung Cancer
7. Liver Disease
8. Mouth & Esophageal Cancer
9. Osteoporosis
10. Stress
11. Stomach Cancer

And that's just a few. But don't get me wrong I'm not saying that I'm perfect and don't eat this and don't drink that, everything is OK in moderation. A good diet will inverably give you more energy, keep your mood up (so your not as stressed/depressed/moody as you are with high levels of caffeine as my mum said I was) and a good diet will also keep you at a healthy body weight.

Now before you get fed up, or I start to drown on and become boring, I'm just going to discuss one more thing in this particular post. At the start of this post I asked you if you new what the components of health related fitness where. Well when I first started out I didn't, I was completely clueless, but now I know, its simple, and turns out I knew it all along, and I bet you do too. There are five components of health related fitness, they are;

• Body composition: The balance of fat, muscle, bone & other tissues in the body aka BMI.

• Cardiorespiratory fitness: The ability of the heart, blood vessels, respiratory system & muscles to work together to use oxygen to fuel the body during sustained exercise.

• Flexibility: The range of motion around a joint.

• Muscle Endurance: The ability of a muscle to sustain or repeatedly exert a force.

• Muscle strength: The force a muscle can produce  

If I Can Do It So Can You! :-D

Me & My Fiance.

A Little About Me.

Hi :-)

I'm Nicole & before I tell you how 'If I Can Do It So Can You' I want to tell you a little about me & why I started this blog.

I'm 22 from Liverpool, I work as a Sales associate for Holland & Barrett, and i'm engaged to the most amazing man in the world. My beautiful Fiance Abu, is actually the person who gave me the confidence to finally do what i wanted to do with my life. I recently started a Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Adviser course. I'm using my experience to hopefully eventually help others see, if you want to do it, you can. Its not too hard. 

I have struggled for years with my weight, I've tried diet after diet and have never been able to find an exercise class that I didn't eventually get bored off.

I'd always read stories in magazine of woman who had turned their lives around, took control and lost weight, but I always thought "I could never do that"  But after suffering the loss of my beloved daddy, I lost 4 1/2 stone and went from a size 24 to 14.

If I Can Do It So Can You. :-)

For as long as I can remember I have struggled with my weight, at school I was badly bullied die to my size, and even some of my family members always seemed to have something to say. For years I had tried diet after diet but nothing worked, I tried to exercise but always got bored and gave up.

My Beloved Daddy R.I.P

Eventually I'd come to terms with being the size I was (which at that time was a size 24) I just thought "I give up, this is me, if the world doesn't like it tough" I acted all happy and fine with it in front of everyone else, but secretly I still loathed being over weight. 

After my dad died I was a mess and needed something to keep my mind occupied as I was slowly sinking into a state of bad depression. I was not coping well at all. I started working for Holland & Barrett and my colleague Andy was always very fitness minded, after a lot of long and educational talks with him plus the knowledge I was getting from my work training, I decided enough was enough. I joined the gym with my friend Busayo. At First I was terrified, I even tried making excuses not to go, I hated the thought of others seeing me exercise, but with the encouragement of my friend Busyao I battled against my inner demons, & when I got inside, I suddenly realised "why was I so worried?" Everyone was different, different shapes, different sizes and no one card what I was doing, they where all too busy with what they where doing. When I started talking to people they where lovely. I soon saw that the only thing stopping me, was me. The fear of going to the gym was actually bigger than it needed to be. 

I started going the gym 2-3 times a week as I was working a lot, and when I couldn't go the gym I was getting off the bus sooner and walking the rest of the way to work, I even started walking 5 miles to work and 5 miles home. But exercising alone is not the answer, you have to eat healthy too. Id come to the conclusion that a diet wasn't going to help me at all. Why? because when Id hit my goal weight Id stop dieting and start eating what I wanted again. Loosing weight is one thing maintaining it is another. I opted for a complete lifestyle change. Being a girl with PCOS (Polly cystic ovarian syndrome) my body doesn't process carbs and sugars like everyone else, so I started only eating carbs early on in the day. If I was going to eat carbs Id eat them at breakfast, so I was getting the energy my body need from them through out the day, and my body would burn them off through out the day rather than storing them as fat, as the body dose if carbs are eaten later in the day when the metabolism is slowing down and you sitting around not doing anything. I cut down my portion sizes, started eating a lot more fruit and veg and as I was spending a lot of time with my friend Busayo who loves spicy food I was eating a lot of chili. Just because I was trying to eat healthier didn't mean I didn't eat some of my fave foods, Id still have a treat but only once a week and I wouldn't over indulge, Another way I found to stick to healthy eating was to play around with food, I tried a lot of different recipes so I wouldn't get bored and also so I would enjoy it. I love food and healthy eating doesn't mean food has to be boring and tasteless.  

After a while I noticed my clothes where getting bigger, people where commenting on how much weight Id lost and how good I was looking. I didn't notice it myself until I was shopping with my cousin Laura. I picked up a per of jeans sized 16 and she said "Nicole they are too bug try the 14" after a lot of debating if I could fit into them I tried them on, and to my surprise they fit. I actually started crying in the shop, I never in a million years thought Id loose as much weight as i did. But like I said loosing it is one thing, maintaining it is another. I'm still eating healthy, and exercising, as Ive found now I enjoy it. I'm determined not to go back to the way I was. All it took was determination, motivation, finding something I enjoyed, support from Friends & family and a little will power. Don't believe me? here is the proof. And If I Can Do It So Can You. :-)

If I Can Do It So Can You!