Drinks and Calories

I regularly listen to the Jillian Michaels Podcasts and there is a regular guest doctor who appears on the show. We all know that fizzy drinks/sodas/pop, or whatever else you may call them, are not good. However, the doctor suggested that what we drink has had a major impact on weight gain, and suggested another major drink that can really hinder with regards to calorie intake. The drink(s) in question is fruit juice. I decided to investigate all of this further and so this blog will look into drinks and calories.

Fizzy drinks/sodas/pop

Firstly, fizzy drinks/sodas/pop. A medium coke at McDonalds (this is based on UK data) contains a massive 170 calories. For a drink this is quite remarkable to me. Too many of these drinks and the calories really begin to mount. It is really important, with regards to weight control, to not drink too many of these drinks.

Diet fizzy drinks

When choosing diet drinks the calorie intake and sugar intake is reduced significantly. However, other additions to the drink maybe even worse for us! So in terms of weight control these are good, but there are many issues with other things added to diet drinks.

Fruit Juice

It is pretty common knowledge that fruits contain plenty of sugar. However, this is not really a problem as fruits contain a lot of vitamins and minerals to make them worthwhile eating, plus the calories are not that high. Fruit juices, however, contain a large amount of calories. For example, 200ml of orange juice can have around 90 calories in it. The main issue, in my mind, with fruit juices is that we automatically expect them to be good for us and so have no worries when drinking them, however, the calories can easily add up through drinking them.

Overall fruit juice is the best of these types of drinks as they have far more nutritional value to them than the others but it is important to watch just how much we are drinking because of the relatively high calorie amounts.

The importance of a treat

 Treats (listened to a great playlist while writing this, find it here)

When focussing on a fitness regime and diet plan it is very easy to get yourself in a mode where you feel you must resist all ‘bad’ foods. This blog post, however, will encourage the occasional treat and explain why it is (or at least can be) quite importan to weight management. 

It is important to understand that a ‘cheat day’ is not being promoted here. A bingeing session can easily undo all the good work that has gone on before. The point of this blog is to encourage the occasional treat in order to keep our fitness aims on track.

First of all there is a simple psychological issue to deal with. The less we are allowed something, the more we want it. If we have it in our mind that we are not allowed to eat cake, we will want it even more. Having a treat now and again will help to stop this craving happening and therefore we can stick to our regime far easier, without so much temptation!

Another problem is just how easy it can be to punish ourselves is we do ‘slip up’. This can lead to things like comfort eating (a big problem that I know all too well) and overtraining (which I have discussed here). It is important to remember that if we do ‘slip up’ we can always rectify it. We can easily change the diet plan to fit in treats and we can always put in some extra exercise sessions. 

It is also possible that, through depriving ourselves completely, when we reach our fitness or weight loss goals, we simply go off our diet plan and then all the hard work is ruined.

To conclude then, as long as we still get the right energy and nutrients from our diet through fruits, vegetables, wholegrain, protein and the right fats there is still a place for a treat. It is important, however, to know that they are a treat and should not replace meals. Be aware of the extra calories and alter the diet to incorporate them. Small treats every once in a while will help us to control ourselves but depriving ourselves of all sweets will more likely lead to binge and over eating.

10 Minute Workout

I read of an interesting workout from Craig Ballantyne, C.S.C.S. on the Men’s Health website. The workout is, according to the website, designed to get our body off to the right start first thing in the morning in order for us to burn fat. This is a short, explosive workout! The workout comprises 5 exercises and requires NO equipment at all. I really like the idea of this workout and, after completing it a few times myself now, it really does work the body in this short space of time. This is why I wish to share it.

1. The first exercise is 20 repetitions of jumping jacks (star jumps). To do this we begin with our feet slightly apart and hands by the side. We jump, spreading our legs shoulder-width apart, whilst at the same time raise our hands above heads, before jumping again bringing the arms down and the feet back together.

2. The second exercise in the workout is prisoner squats. To do a prisoner squat we stand with our chest out and our hands behind our head. We sit back at the hips and lower the body as far as possible by bending the knees, without moving the back. We then push back up. We should aim to complete 12 repetitions of this exercise.

3. The third exercise is one of my favourite exercises; push ups. To complete push ups we get our legs straight with our backs and rest on our hands that are beneath our shoulders. We bend our arms, maintaining the straight line from feet to head, until the chest reaches the ground, and then we push back up. This exercise requires 15 reps.

4. The fourth exercise of the workout is forward lunges. These are quite difficult to master but are beneficial. From our standing position we step forward with one leg. We bend both knees until the front leg is parallel to the floor and we hold this position briefly before returning to the standing position. The aim here is to complete 12 reps with each leg.

5. The final exercise of the workout is one that I had not come across before and is known as stickups. We stand with our back to the wall and feet slightly off the wall. We then place the back of our arms against the wall with the upper arms parallel to the floor and the elbow bent at 90 degrees. We keep the arms against the wall at all times while raising them above our head and slowly returning to the start position. We aim to complete 10 repetitions.

So this is the workout and it really is effective. I would suggest trying this out first thing on a morning once of twice a week and see what results you get from it. I would also suggest adjusting the number of repetitions to suit your needs.