The Walk Slim Breakfast.

Many nutritionists agree that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you are trying to lose weight, and skip breakfast, you will probably be tempted into overeating later in the day-a good breakfast can help to prevent this. And it has been shown that people who have breakfast woke more efficiently than those who make do with a cup of tea or coffee to start the day. Porridge is a good source of energy and is very satisfying. Tomatoes, mushrooms or baked beans with wholemeal toast make an excellent low-fat breakfast. Fruit is very refreshing, is low in fat and can be a good source of fibre- for example, 4 ounces of prunes contain 8 grams of fibre. As a change from eating them on their own, try making a dries fruit salad.

Fish is rich source of vitamins and minerals. Kippers and smoked haddock are traditional breakfast foods and make an appetizing and mourishing meal.

Eggs are an excellent food, but cook them without extra fat a poached or boiled egg with wholemeal toast is very nourishing .And a scrambled egg or an omelette cooked ina non-stick pan and served with fresh bread makes a good breakfast.

Fruit and vegetables freshly juiced provide immediate energy. A glass first thing in the morning gives instant vitality and a feeling of well-being. Juices contain vital vitamins and minerals and they aare quickly assimilated by the body. Try different combinations of fruit and vegetable juices ­– a good juice to start with is carrot mixed with apple.

Entertaining

If you are entertaining use a Walk Slim main-meal recipe and, as a first course, serve one of the light-meal recipes such as Smoked Fish Pate, Chicken with Mango or one of the salads. A fresh fruit platter makes a lovely dessert-choose 3 or 4 different fruits, slice or cut as appropriate, and arrange on a serving plate, garnished with a spring of mint. It is appetizing, nutritious and low in fat as well as being delicious to eat.

The Walk Slim Diet plan.

The Walk Slim Diet Plan, based on the healthy eating pyramid, is the easiest way to weight loss without calories. The recipes based on low-fat, high-fibre foods easy to follow and quick to prepare. They are nutritious and offer a balanced diet either for an individual or the whole family.

The Walk Slim Diet Plan gives you a 30-day plan of light meals and main meals (page numbers are included and the recipes can be found in Chapter 6). With each recipe, serve fresh vegetables and/or a salad – in the food pyramid we suggest that you eat 3-5 portions of vegetables every day. A further source of fibre is wholemeal bread which makes a satisfying addition to a meal. Finish with fresh fruit. Or eat recom- mended in the food pyramid. If you prefer to substitute some recipes in the 30 –day plan then make your choice from the recipes in Chaper 6, balancing the meat, fish and vegetarian meals within each week.

You can choose whether you want the main meal or light meal an lunch time or in the evening. If you are out at work all day, you may wish to take your light meal with you. Many of the light meals can be put into a food container. A salad pocketed in pitta bread makes an appetizing light meal. If you are making up a lunch box, add a few crudités (raw vegetables such as carrots, celery and red some fresh fruit for a satisfying slices), a low fat yogurt and some fresh fruit for a satisfying meal. For young children, prepare the fruit, such as cutting an orange into segments and putting in a food bag, as it is much easier for them to cope with and far less is wasted.

Make your shopping lists for The Walk Slim Diet from the following:

GREENGROCER’S LIST

apples _______ pears ________ bananas _________

lemons ________ limes______ graperfruit _________

oranges ________ tangerines __________ gtapes ________

melon-Cantaoup ________

Increase Complex Carbohydrates Foods.

A well-balanced diet is the key to health, vitality and successful weight control. British and US government guidelines are now urging us to reduce our fat consumption and balance this by eating more complex carbohydrates foods (bread, potatoes, cereals, pasta and rice) and more fruit and vege -tables.

All over the world the people least likely to suffer from certain cancers and heart disease are those whose diets are rich in plant food – starchy carbohydrates foods, fruit and vegetables. The good news for slimmers is that the same diet is also the best way to lose weight and keep it off. So eating more CC

Foods and more fruit and vegetables is the quickest, easiest and best way to lose weight and eat healthily.

The healthy food pyramid (above) shows the main food groups at a glance. The idea is to eat most of the foods at the base of the pyramid and least of the foods at the top, eating at least the minimum number of servings suggested on each level and using fast, oils and sweets sparingly.

Making permanent change in your own and your family’s eating habits is the key To success and the diet pyramid shows you what to do. Don’t think in terms of foods being good or bad; simply as foods to increase. This means giving a higher profile to some foods rather than others.

The pyramid highlights the key action areas for a balanced diet. At the base of the pyramid are the CC foods: bread, potatoes, cereals, pasta and rice. These are the foods you need most of, so build your meals around them. Fruit and vege – tables form the next level of the pyramid and you should eat at least 5-9 servings daily. The Walk Slim Diet provides most of your daily energy intake from CC foods and fruit and vegetables on the first two levels of the pyramid.

Moving up the pyramid, you can add moderate amounts of white meat – chicken and turkey. Foods towards the top of the pyramid should play a reducing role in a low-fat nutritious diet. Red meat is higher in fat than white meat, and dairy products are all high in fat so use them sparingly. Watch out for ‘added’ sugar in the from of seets, sugared drinks, cakes and biscuits.

Remember, it’s the fat in your diet that makes you fat. So cut down on it and try using low fat substitutes:

Instead of : USA

Full-fat milk skimmed or semi-skimmed milk

Butter and lard low-fat margarine or spread

Cream natural yogurt or reduced fat cream

Cream-or cheese-based sauces tomato-or yougurt-based sauces

Salad dressing or mayonnaise lemon juice, lime juice or reduced calorie mayonnaise

Desserts fresh fruit or low fat yogurt

Biscuits, cakes and crisps fresh fruit or crudites

Easy Steps To Lose Excess Weight in 30 Days

Easy Steps To Lose Excess Weight in 30 Days

Step 1 Walk To Win

Brisk fitness walking is an aerobic exercise. If you walk in the low to moderate range of your target heart rate, you will burn stored fat as fuel after the first 20 minutes. And the longer you walk, the more fat you will burn.

Compared with being sedentary (sitting at a desk, watching TV) you will burn around five times as many calories when you walk aerobically at 3.5-4 mph and on average you will lose up 200 calories every 30 minutes.

During aerobic walking the heart and respiratory rates increase and your metabolism (performance level) speed up. Metabolism is the process where food, as fuel, is broken down and, with the help of oxygen, is ‘burnt off’ and converted into heat and energy. Many dieters use the excuse of not being able to do anything about their metabolism, but in fact meta-bolism can be altered by the type of you eat and the exercise you take.

It is the extra oxygen provided by aerobic – ‘with air’ – walking and higher metabolic rate that burns off the excess calories and keeps them off forever. And that’s not all.

Try walking first thing in the morning before you have eaten. Research shows that if you want to lose weight then this is the best time, because glycogen reserves are very low in the morning so energy by using body fat.

Glycogen is a form of carbohydrate stored in the muscles and liver. When you start out walking, a major part of the energy provided is drawn from your glycogen pool. But as you continue to walk you begin to draw energy from your fat stores. So the lower your glycogen level the sooner you will start to pull on these fat stores and lose weight.

Try the appetite- suppressing powers of walking and walk before meals. Don’t be concerned about your appetite increase-ing with walking. It is only very vigorous exercise that tends to increase aapetite. As long as you walk at a moderate pace (around 70 per cent of your target heart rate) then you should feel less hungry than you would if you did no exercise at all.

Try walking after meals. Not a brisk aerobic walk- just a short, relaxed stroll. It will help digestion, relieve that bloated feeling and give you renewed energy to get on with the rest of the day. Research carried out by Bryant Stamford, PhD, exercise physiologist and director of the Health Promotion Center at the University of Louisville, USA, suggests that a moderate workout right after a meal gives you a fat-burning bonus. Whereas a 30-minute pre-meal walk would burn up around 200 calorise plus a fraction from the ‘afterburn effect’ – the tendency to continue burning calories after the walk is over –a 30- minute post walk could burn another 15 per cent of the total.

So the first step is to get outside and walk to win.

10 THE WALK SLIM DIET

More than 90 per of people who lose weight on diets put. the weight back on again

Most diets are temporary solution to a permanent problem-which is how to lose weight and maintain that weight loss. Most diets fail because:

o On their own, without exercising, you lose weight rapidly and much of this is lean tissue, not fat.

o Your metabolism slows down-your body thinks it’s being starved so it conserves fat, the opposite of what you want!

o They are extreme, impractical and simply boring.

With some slimming foods offering miracle weight loss without exercising, and some fitness plans offering quick weight loss without dieting, it’s easy to see why some people think that can diet without exercising or exercise without dieting.

But the answer is not that simple.

If you want to get fit, lose weight and maintain your fitness and weight loss for the rest of your life, then you need to diet and exercise. Most people fail on diets because the diets are temporary (the yo-yo syndrome), unpleasant and nutritionally unsound – and the exercise suggested is often difficult to keep up and boring. The diets leave you feeling deprived, bad tempered, depressed and yes – hungry!

But don’t despair. New research now shows that adding exercise to a moderate diet is a far more effective way to lose weight than dieting alone. According to researchers at Stanford University Medical School, Stanford, California, USA, combining a walking programme with a healthy diet results in a greater loss of total body fat and dangerous blood cholesterol than dieting alone. Exercisers in the Stanford study lost almost double the percentage of body fat than those who only dieted.

Moderation is the key to successful dieting and exercise.

Moderate exercise (brisk, aerobic walking) with a moderate diet plan (The Walk Slim Diet) is the easiest and quickest way to lose those unwanted pounds and keep them off forever.

Aerobic walking works because it speeds up your metabolic rate (performance level) anad burns fat, not lean tissue. Aerobic walking works because it is an exercise that you can keep up for the rest of your life. When it comes to achieving results, aerobic walking is simply the best.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently pub- lished worldwide scientific research recommending the amount and type of food we should eat. The key to both healthy eating and weight loss is to revamp your eating habits – eating more complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables and cutting down on fat, sugar and salt.

Sounds simple? It works. And to add to the growing debate on healthy eating, the Food Guide Pyramid (see page 54) which makes similar recommendations to the WHO guidelines on healthy eating.

The message that comes across loud and clear is that we should eat fat sparingly. We used to think that if we are 3,500 calories more than we needed than we would gain a pound, whatever the source of those calories. Recent research, thought, has overthrown this idea. It now seems that the body is more efficient at making body fat from dietary fats than from proteins and carbohydrates. Put simply - it’s the fat in our diet that makes us fat. We now know that:

Each fat gram we contains 9 calories Each carbohydrate gram we eat contains 4 calories

And this is only part of the story. For every carbohydrate calorie we eat, the body uses up more than 25 per cent of those calories internally. But for each fat calorie you eat, only 3 per cent is used up to convert it internally. Our bodies burn carbohydrates and store fats.

And that’s not all Those same fats are also raising your cholesterol level, damaging your vessels and possibly contributing to cancers and other degenerative diseases.

The good news, though, is that you don’t have to count calories with The walk Slim Diet. All you need to do is to focus on those in the healthy food pyramid which will lower your fat intake and increase your carbohydrates.

So forget past diets. This diet is simple, easy to keep up and it works. So step to it and eat healthy.

9 DAYS 22-30 JUST STEPS AWAY

For your final nine days you will increase your walk time gradually from 50 to 60 minutes and you will walk for 8bof those days. Remember to very your routine with morning walks, work-break walks, lunchtime walks, late afternoon walks and evening walks. Persuade a friend to walk with you or get the family out for a walk. You are also going to think this week about the best speed to walk at for cardiovascular health (how to build a strong heart and lungs).

Day 30 – congratulations, you’ve made it! You should feel proud of yourself. you have more energy and you should want to continue walking for the rest of your life. In future, if you put on a few extra pounds you will be able to just walk them away.

Target Heart Rate- Is It necessary?

What has all this to do with weight loss? Well , it’s true that walking will burn away the calories however fast you walk, but generally speaking a brisk aerobic walk between 3.5 to 4.0 mph will burn more calories, more quickly and more efficiently. The key thing is getting into a rhythm- your rhythm, one that works for you.

And remember, no matter how you measure it, when you walk aerobically, you are not only getting weight loss benefits, but also cardiovascular benefits (stronger heart and lungs) and benefits to your fitness and long term health.

Walking can be aerobic, even without checking your pulse and measuring target heart rate. However, this simple tech-nique ensures that you are walking within your aerobic ‘heart training zone’ and it is simple and safe.

You need to walk intensely enough to raise your heart beat between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of its maximum. (for the very unfit 50 per cent to 60 per cent is an adequate goal.)Work out your ideal pulse rate (called target heart rate) this way:

1. Subtract your age from 220. If you are 40 then that will be 220-40=180. That’s your maximum heart rate.

2. Now calculate 60 per cent and 80 per cent of your maximum heart rate: 180*60=108and 180*.80=144. Your goal when walking is to keep your pulse between 108 and 144 beats per minute. Get into a good walking rhythm, say for five minutes or so, then check your pulse at the carotid artery in your neck, or at writs. Look-ing at your watch’s second hand count the for 6 seconds then multiply by 10-that’s your pulse.

YOUR TARGET HEART RATE

AGE	MAXIMUM HEART RATE	60% LEVEL	80% LEVEL
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70	200 195 190 185 180 175 170 165 160 155 150	120 117 114 111 108 105 102 99 96 93 90	160 156 152 148 144 140 136 132 128 124 120

If you are below the lower end of your target range, then speed up a bit to bring yourself within it. If you are above the higher end of your target range, then slow down until you are back within your target zone. If you find measuring your pulse on the move difficult, then measure it immediately you end your work out and adjust your effort next time out. You can use this simple table to work out your upper and lower target limits.

Don’t let pulse taking take the fun out of your walking. Once you become experienced, you will be able to keep within your target zone simply by knowing how it ‘feels’. One way to know how it ‘feels’ or how you ‘perceive’ it, is to use the following Rating of Perceived Exertion, or RPE:

RPE: Rating of Perceived Exertion

Maximum Exertion 20 Extermely Hard 19 18 Very Hard 17 16 Hard 15 14 Somewhat Hard 13 12 Light 11 10 Very Light 9 8 Extermely Light 7 None 6

The RPE relies more on your feeling, or gut sense, of how hard you are exercising. It works on the assumption that if you think you are getting a hard workout, then you probably are, and your heart rate is likely to be in the aerobic target zone.

The RPE runs from 6 to 20. Each number represents a phase that describes your perception of how hard you are exercising. Six, for example, means ‘no exertion’; 20 means ‘maximum exertion’. By adding a zero to each number, you get a rough represents a workout which is ‘somewhat hard’ in the target heart range of 120-130.

The RPE is a rough guide only and converting it to heart rate older is difficult for older people and for those out of condition. For older people, the maximum heart rate is much lower, and for those out of condition, even moderate exercise can set their heart racing. But studies show that the REP scale repre-sents a close relationship between a person’s perceived ecer-tion during exercise and heart rate.

Instead of using target heart rate or RPE, an easy guide to effectiveness is to walk at a speed which will leave you slightly breathless but still able to carry on a conversation. For most people this will be a speed between 3.5 mph and 4 mph. This should be sufficient to achieve an aerobic workout and develop a healthy heart.

8 DAYS 15-21 STEP IT UP

This week you are going to step up your daily walk time from 40 to 50 minutes, you are going to walk one day and you are going to think about all the different ways you can knock up those extra miles. You don’t have to do all your walking in one session. Many of you will not be able to find the time during the week to do this, so let’s look at all the ways where you can fit in those extra weight-loss miles. Try not to walk for less than 20 minutes at one session, as it takes several minutes to warm-up and to get into a good walking stride and once you get going it’s easier to keep going. Think about all those calories that you are losing-around 200 for every 30 minutes walking, and up to a few hundred more when you finish due to your increased metabolic rate.

When and Where to walk

o Walk in the morning- This is a good time to prepare your mind and body for the day ahead: a quiet time to think and make plans to give you a physical and psychological boost for the day.

o Walk to work- If it’s practical, this is one way of fitting in all chose weight-loss miles each week. If your work-place is too far, walk the bus or train station. Try getting off the bus or train a stop early on your way to work or returning home from work and walk the rest of the way.

o Park further away- Whenever you take the car, either to work or shopping, park a distance way from your destination and walk the of the way.

o Walk in your lunch hour- This is one way to get outdoors and re-charge yourself for the afternoon. A brisk aerobic walk will lift your energy and afternoon. A brisk aerobic walk will lift your energy and vitality and will give you the ‘zip’ you need to get you through the rest of the day. Take a friend or friends with you.

o Walk the stairs – Use the stairs instead of a lift. Stair climbing tones the legs and builds cardiovascular fitness and you can walk away up to twice as many calories as normal aerobic walking.

o Walk in the evening- This is a time to relax and ease away the stress after a busy day. Evening walks are a time to reflect on the passing day; a time to let go; a time to try ‘walking meditation’ (see Chapter 4).

o Walk with the family – Walking is as opportunity to spend more time together with those you love most. Walk together helps you to talk together and the dog. Walking together you to talk together and spend more quality time with each other.

o Start a walking group- At home or at work get a few friends tighter and walk regularly. It will help to keep you motivated and give you a chance to talk.

o Take a walking boliday- Onec walking becomes part of your life you will want go on walking holidays or on a hiking trip. In countryside.

o Walk with the weather- Don’t let the weather put you off walking. Dress suitably and enjoy the changing face of the seasons. Each season has its own special pleasures to offer the observant walker.

7 Days 8 - 14 Steps.

You are now making progress. You should be getting into your stride and a good walking rhythm and you should be starting to see the pounds fall away. This week you are going to gradually increase your daily walking time from 30 to 40 minutes and you are going to think about the way you walk-your posture, stride length, heel-toe motion and breathing. You are going to think tall and walk tall and note how your body feels in contact with the ground. You are going to feel the rhythm in your feet, calves, things, arms and shoulders. And you’re going to let go- and relax.

Posture Perfect

Walk straight.

Aesop’s Fables, 6ooBC

As you walk along the road look at other people. Notice how many are slouched, their shoulders hunched and rounded. Notice how many have their heads down, seeming to move almost in a world of their own, unaware of others. They seem to shuffle rather than walk. What does this suggest to you?

Now look at yourself. The way that you walk says a lot about you to other people and it tells you a lot about yourself. So think about your posture and walk naturally. Good posture helps you tone your body; it improves oxygen and blood circulation; and it helps to prevent injuries, particularly as you start to walk faster than normal.

Good posture helps you more alert and in command of the situation. And you will feel more positive and have more energy to get where you are going. Good posture gives you can walk for longer without tiring.

Here are some posture pointers and sense of balance and niques:

o WALK TALL- As you step out, your back should be straight and the weight of your body should be slightly in front of your ankles, not back on your heels. Pull in your stomach and flatten the small of your back by tucking in your buttocks under your spine-the pelvic tilt. Walk tall with your head level and eyes focused straight ahead (not looking down). Your shoulders should be level and relaxed.

o LAND ON YOUR HEELS, PUSH OFF YOUR TOES- As you walk, push off with tha ball and toes of your back foot and land in the middle of your front heel; then continue with a heel-toe rolling motion. This motion holds and supports your whole body. You walk tall from your heels upwards-the Chinese say that ‘the true man breathes with his heels’.

o MAKE YOUR STRIDE LONG- Take the longest stride that is comfortable, leading with your hips, letting your arms swing naturally in opposition to your legs (right arm forward with left leg), and keeping your elbows close in to your sides. If you relax your shoulders, then your arms will swing by themselves, finding their own natural rhythm. As you walk faster, you will find that your arms bend naturally and quicken up to keep pace with your legs. Your hands should be softly closed, not clenched and tensed. Striding will loosen your hips, making them more flexible and it will tighten your lower abdominal muscles, giving you a stronger, flatter stomach. Think hips and tight-fat goodbye!

o YOUR WALKING CENTER- Imagine a straight line going down the road between the centre of your feet and stretching ahead of you,This represents your walking center. Keep your legs parallel to this line and your toes pointed ahead and walk with your normal stride. Regular, rhythmic walking in this way can have a bene-ficial psychological and meditational effect upon you, and help you to center yourself within your own personal space.

BREATHE NATURALLY- As you increase pace, breathe naturally and inhale and exhale rhythmically through the nose. Try abdominal breathing. This is used by singers, meditators and athletes and can double the volume of air you inhale with each breath. To breathe deeply, inhale by first moving your abdomen outwards. You will feel your stomach rise, Then breath out by letting your stomach relax. Take one breath one per breath per step, or as you walk faster, one breath every two steps.

6 Day - STANDING SHOULDER STRETCH.

1.       STANDING SHOULDER STRETCH

To ease and stretch muscles around the shoulder.

                 

Stand tall, feet hip width apart, knees slightly bent, bottom tucked under (pelvis tilted forward to prevent lower back from arching). Clasp hands tighter, breathe easy, pull in abdominals and extend arms up above head. Hold for 4 counts, rest and repeat

2.       STANDING CHEST STRETCH

To stretch across front chest.

Stand as above, adopting pelvic tile and keeping shoulders down and relaxed. Clasp hands together behind back. Slowly extend and lengthen arms as you lift up behind back. Hold for 4 counts, rest and repeat.

REPEAT FOLLOWING STRETCHES AS IN WARM-UP PHASE.

                                                            3.       Quadricep stretch   

                                                               4.       Hamstring stretch    

 

                                                                 5.       Calf stretch        

                        

         

                                                                   6.       Achilles stretch                          

Muscles shorten and tighten when you walk,  so these stretches will allow the muscles to return to their original length.