Today Pete Wade, one of Essex’s most respected delivery drivers, has spoken to us about his own fitness and wellness lifestyle.A few years ago Pete worked in a London office, was overweight, unfit and was forever suffering from a cold. Now he is slim, lean, fit and healthy.
The Metabolic Factor
The constant stop and start of activity throughout the day keeps metabolism racing. Unlike when you just exercise intensively for 45 minutes 3 times a week, if you are active on and off all day long, you keep your metabolism high all day long. So a combination of fewer calories as a result of zero comfort eating and being active all day makes you a healthier person.
The Hunger Factor
If you have ever gone to the gym before you had time for dinner, you may have noticed that once you have exercised you actually lose your appetite. Many people that eat in the evenings are not doing so because they need those calories to function, it is really just a form of comfort eating.
A New Healthy Lifestyle
Pete wants to make it clear that his meal habits are more or less the same. Snacks are reduced massively though, he eats for energy that is required to work. So a day may look more like this.
Wake up in the morning and have breakfast at home, taking his time and eating a good balanced breakfast. Then checking for new messages in case any clients contacted him during the night.
Can An Office Worker Ever Be Like A Working Man?
Not really. Things you can do to help are:
- Stop snacking altogether in the office
- Go for a long walk at lunchtime
- Get out for a shorter break in the morning and afternoon if possible, walk for 10 minutes around the block
- Get home and instead of comfort eating on the sofa do some exercise
- Increase activity at the weekend – so lots of chores around the house, improve the garden, go for long walks, cycles or hit the gym for a long session
- Reduce stress – stress leads to comfort eating and overeating accounts for 80% of weight gain
A Typical Weight Gaining Officer Worker
Pete’s typical day would start with a 90 minute commute into London, driving then sitting on a train. Then he would have breakfast at work, sometimes cooked, sometimes toast, always pretty unhealthy. Then a hard morning sitting at a desk would be done, with possibly a toilet break and a trip to the coffee machine.
Often lunch would be purchased in the staff canteen (4 floors down in the lift) and then eaten at his desk while surfing the net. Some days he would step outside to buy something in a local shop, often he would not.
The afternoon would be spent working at the desk, with breaks for more coffee and often a chocolate snack. Then work would finish, a 90 minute commute home followed by sitting on the sofa resting his weary feet.
Does that sound familiar? Probably, as thousands of people following this lifestyle and put on weight as a result.
State your weight loss aims and focus
Because changing your eating habits for the long term is the only way to successful weight loss it is important to spend a bit of time thinking about your aims. There are many good reasons for losing weight but you may have a priority. It may be your health, your self esteem, or to look more attractive. Having a clear idea of what you want, a focus, will help keep you on track.
Mental preparation for weight loss
It is important to spend a bit of time preparing yourself mentally for the changes that you are going to make because to be successful you have to think of the long term. You are going to have to make some changes to what you eat and your patterns of food intake. Eating out at your favorite places may need to change, especially early on when diet change is the most difficult, but once you’ve established a routine things should get easier.
Get help from meal delivery service
Meal delivery service can help a lot to the people who want to lose weight. It provides you food according to your specific requirement to your workplace or any preferred place. So, you don’t have to be worried about your calorie intake or other things if you are in a weight loss process. You have to give them instructions according to your diet cycle. They will do a diet review and provide you food according to your health condition. The meal plan is however customizable anytime. Whether you are looking for an organic diet meal or regular meal, these meal delivery services are lifesaver for the working people.
Keep a food diary to monitor weight loss
This should be part of your preparation. Write down what you eat, when and where. Make a note of your mood. All of this information can contribute to your aims and the changes that you are going to make. Unless you understand your relationship to food and your food patterns you will not make the changes you need that leads to successful long term weight loss.
You can continue with a food diary for as long as you think it is helpful. It can help to keep you focused, help with discipline, reflect on and change eating habits.
Lifestyle and weight loss
A lot of the food we eat is fast food and so much of it is packed with excessive amounts of sugar, salt and fat. Just by cutting back and paying more attention to the type of food and changing to a more healthy alternative will mean you can still eat well but you will lose weight at the same time.
Be realistic about weight loss
Aim for a loss of two lbs max in weight per week. Although we all like to see the pounds dropping off quickly it is not helpful or healthy. More than that and you will just be burning up muscle rather than fat which will slow down your metabolism making it harder to loose weight long term. Weight can fluctuate for all sorts of reasons. Don’t be disheartened because you’ve agonized for a week but the scales say you haven’t. Stick with it.
Cut out snacks to maintain weight loss
Snacking is all too and the majority of snacks are high in calories. The best thing is not to snack between meals but if you have to eat low calorie healthy foods like fruit.
