“All the Mocha lattes, you gotta do Pilates”

Just back from a week long, all inclusive holiday and delighted that I have only gained a couple of pounds. As well as 3 meals a day, there was a copious amount of cocktails (Pina Coladas and Kir Royals being my favorites) and with hardly any movement apart from walking to and from the bar and restaurant AND for the first time ever I did not bring my trainers, my kit (despite there being a gym) or my yoga mat.

So it’s back on the bike every morning, gym, yoga and trying to eat clean.

And I’m not on my own. According to research, two thirds of British people are on a diet… that’s over 40,000,000 of us!

The UK diet industry is worth £2 billion (I would not even know how to write this in numbers!).

A mum who ate 100 packets of cheese and onion crisps a month and weighed 19 stone decided to go on a diet as she was trying for a baby. Tina from Tamworth shed over 8 stone by giving up her 3 packs of crisps a day and walking 30,000 steps a day.

If I ate 3 bags of crisps day (Adam does), I would have to at least mix up the flavors: salt & vinegar, prawn cocktail and cheese & onion for me.

Slimming clubs were not for her, so she chose her own workout and diet plan. It worked for Tina just to eat less and move more. It’s simple mathematics, but of course it takes a lot of determination, focus and willpower.

Read the full story here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/obese-woman-who-gorged-100-16863271

According to the NHS, who incidentally spends £5 million a year on overweight and obesity related illnesses, the most popular diets are these:

5:2 diet – eat normal for 5 days and limited calories of about 500 for 2 days

Dukan diet – low carb, high protein – 4 phases – it’s complicated

Paleo diet – eat like a caveman, only what you can hunt: meat and fish and what you can pick from trees and from the ground… so fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds

Atkins diet – high protein, limited carbs – designed to turn your body into a fat burning machine

Alkaline diet – this one is based on the theory that modern diets create too much acid – so involves cutting out acid producing food that is damaging for the liver and kidneys, so removing meat, sugar , dairy and alcohol.

The NHS are not recommending any of these diets, just giving us the facts. They give all the pros and cons of all of the above and a few more: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/top-diets-review/

I talk to Dom about this all the time and he always says “Ronnie, all diets work on calorie deficit”, and you know, he is absolutely right.

To summarise, being healthy is eat less junk and move more. It’s simple.