Fairly fit within a few weeks

Just as you would accept that weight management is a permanent commitment, you should also accept that an unfit body does not respond as well as it should to any attempt at dieting. Being physically active and fairly fit is as much a part of optimal health and fat loss as oxygen is of sustaining life.

Again the question is "So what now?' Here we are, living in a crime-infested society where outdoor walks are mere memories of times gone by or distant dreams of some day yonder. Our chances of enjoying normal, natural and pleasant physical activities have become lean - anorexic in fact. Picnics and playing in the veldt with the children and the pets? Dream on, unless you have a large enough garden to play picnic in a secluded corner. Dinner and dancing once a week at a fancy restaurant with a lively jazz quartet to keep the feet tapping and hips swaying? Forget it. Those joints just don't exist any more because the demand has disappeared. Why? Because walking arm-in-arm with your dance partner to and from the parking lot has not only lost its romantic appeal, it has become positively dangerous. And gyms? They are for the ones who have already lost - or perhaps never had - any excess weight and we-with-the-hips feel more intimidated by the sight of those svelte bodies than we would by the sight of a scorpion in our training pants!

So what now? Now that were ready to commit to an active lifestyle, we have nowhere to go! So well just have to stay at home and try some of the following suggestions.

This is the magic that will help you regain that which you've lost: your lean body. Denser muscles mean you are allowed more food, on account of the higher metabolism. They also mean glowing looks because of the increased oxygen supply to the cells, better health and prevention of disease and best of all, a lean, trim body. Muscles weigh more than fat, so they take up less space, giving you a taught and toned appearance.

The first thing to do is to buy yourself a pair of strap-on ankle weights and wrist weights. They are available from most sport shops. Start with ¹/2 kilogram per leg and 250 gram per wrist. Strap them on and go about your daily business as usual. If you wear long pants nobody will even notice the ankle weights and on the wrists they are not that noticeable or unattractive. You will be amazed to find out how much you move your arms and legs during an ordinary day. And wearing the weights, every normal movement turns into a mini workout. This builds new muscle tissue without much effort on your part! It takes time - about 6 to 12 months - to regain those muscle tissues lost through poor diets, but it will be worth persevering. Try to wear your weights for at least two hours every day and of course, try to make it during your most active hours when you're preparing dinner or doing shopping. At first you might experience stiffness, but that is normal, so don't give up. This is one of the best gifts you can give yourself!

If you have the money, hire a personal trainer. If you can further afford to have him or her come to your home, so much the better. Alternatively you can make use of the trainer at your local gym. But check them out beforehand. As with everything, this industry has its fair share of chancers. Check out his or her references and if you're happy, discuss your requirements with them: you want to build muscle density and improve your percentage of lean muscle tissue. The key is using light weights and doing many repetitions. Hiring a good personal trainer, albeit expensive, is probably the most effective way of reaching your physical goals. Somehow it just works when you have to do it with somebody, and a good trainer is also a master when it comes to motivation.

Fat trapping in perspective Part 1

While on the subject of supplementation, I thought I'd mention one of the most intriguing crazes, fat trappers, and how just about every dieter is joining the stampede to buy them.

Although there are several different kinds of fat trappers available, what is important to know is that there are basically only Iwo kinds of dieters: the perpetual dieter and the desperate dieter. Once in a while, a dieter comes along, diets furiously and sheds all her excess fat. She usually keeps it off. But she's the exception. The rule consists of perpetual and desperate dieters and they are the ones who find the idea of fat trapping so exciting and liberating. Let us briefly examine the motivation and aspirations of the two main groups of dieters.

The perpetual dieter will jump from one diet to the other, dumping the most recent diet in a heartbeat whenever personal circumstances - such as a wedding or a dinner party, work stress or relationship troubles - require it. This is the dieter who originally wanted to lose lust a few kilograms' but refused to commit to certain lifestyle changes. She demands a diet that will produce quick results to 'get it over and done with'. This lady wants to return to her old lifestyle as soon as possible. She has seldom - if ever - reached her natural weight on any of her chosen diets, and usually dumps her diet the moment she starts looking 'better' than before, or whenever she becomes disappointed, frustrated or tired of it. Or when life takes a wrong turn for her and she reverts to what she regards as 'real' food for comfort. After every abandoned diet she regains her weight (plus a few kilos as bonus) and starts the next diet fatter than before. And even more determined that it should be 'over and done with' very quickly so that she can return to her 'normal life'.

This lady is playing a dangerous game with her body. She has the biggest chance by far, somewhere down the line - a few years from now or even a few decades - to come face to face with one of the hardest physical baffles of her life: The Bulge, plus perhaps its Morbid Medical Side Effects, By now you know what they are ....

The desperate dieter has a dieting history that looks much like the one I've just described - the one who perpetually dieted until she was hopelessly obese; severe, chronic and spiralling obesity being one of the most damaging results of perpetual dieting. But this is the dieter who finally has to commit to permanent lifestyle changes if she wants to reverse the damage caused by her perpetual dieting. She is the dieter who is emotionally desperate, who is suffering from a low self-esteem, and who is probably also suffering from one or more of the obesity-related diseases such as insulin resistance, high cholesterol, diabetes or hypertension. She is the dieter who needs more than just a diet. She needs a long-term plan of action and in most cases, professional intervention.

The complexity of obesity can never, ever be over-estimated and I believe one of the major complications is our need for instant gratification. We want to shed fat easily, quickly and painlessly.

Dream on Girlfriend, there is no such thing. To shed fat is tough, because doing so requires a drastic departure from what has become a way of life: eating fat-rich food, following an unbalanced diet and having very little physical activity. Emotionally it requires devotion, commitment, determination, tenacity and yes, permanence!

This is precisely where the marketing of diet products scores big time: you are vulnerable and stand emotionally naked before their lures and empty promises. The thought of throwing your weight - so to speak - behind permanent, comprehensive and successful slimming strategies has a sting: it is called change - something we humans have an innate fear of or a resistance against.

But here you are at a crossroads it were, and like us all, you too want to take the easy road; the fast lane to leanness. And what do you know? Just at that moment you happen to see an advertisement for an amazing diet pill or product or service with the promise that you can go on enjoying all the foods you love and still lose weight. Yes, anything you can imagine, pizza, KFC, fish platters, steak, ribs, chips and everything else on the fatty menu. All you have to do is take these tablets or drops or powders or injections or whatever and your eating habits will have no bearing on your weight!

But not so fast. Just think for a moment how many over-the-counter diet products are sold, claiming some or other 'scientific' formula or theory. Theories that often cause more confusion (and in the long run, spiralling and chronic obesity) because of their incorrect - and often unfounded - claims. Yet, as you also know, obesity is on the increase at an alarming rate. Clearly, very few of these hundreds of products and services ultimately deliver on their promises of physical leanness.

Giving up dieting?

We need to give up dieting. We need to stop wanting to be thinner and we need to stop supporting the dieting industry.

It is necessary to realise why you diet and then to find a substitute. Dieting serves a function and this function cannot simply be removed; it needs to be replaced.

WHY DO YOU DIET?

• I am unhealthy

Is your weight damaging your health? If it is then maybe you should try and lose weight. But for the majority of dieters this is not the case.

• I do not like my body

Most women do not like their bodies. It is very rare that we see ourselves fully naked in a full-length mirror. When we do, we criticise every inch, prod at our flesh with disgust, pull our stomachs in and tighten our bottoms. Or alternatively we dim the lights and walk away.

Overleaf is a questionnaire which highlights how self-critical we are. It deals with every aspect of the body, not just weight, and illustrates that nothing is ever just right. To find out how critical you are, score each bodily part as either too large, too small or just right. There is also another column for you to add in your own criticism such as too hairy, too spotty, too blotchy or whatever you feel is appropriate, since large or small is not always relevant.

Are you critical of yourself? How many aspects did you feel were just right? Do you like your body? Do you feel proud of it?

If so many women dislike so much of their bodies, what is left as the right way for a woman's body to be? To whom are we all comparing ourselves? For our bodies to be wrong, there must be a woman out there who has just the right one!

If we diet because we don't like our bodies then we need to learn to accept our bodies and to appreciate what we have. It is only us who criticises us, no-one else notices that your nose is too large or that your bottom droops, unless of course we point out to everyone that our bodies are a problem. Women dislike their bodies and believe that others dislike them as well. Many of the men whom I interviewed in Chapter 8 reported that, even though they would prefer to weigh less, no-one noticed and this wasn't a problem. But women translate their own feelings of body dissatisfaction into a problem which they feel is equally important to everyone else. Their dislike of their bodies is a central component of their identity, which influences their feelings of self-worth.

So how do we learn to love what we have spent so long hating? One of the best ways to like your body is to look at it. The following exercise is helpful.

Get yourself a good full-length mirror. Make sure that it is accurate and that it does not distort your image. Mirrors which make you look larger than you are can be depressing, unless you tell yourself 'I am actually smaller than that'. Mirrors which make you look smaller than you are can be flattering except that you will probably end up telling yourself 'I may look thin but I know I am actually fatter than this'.

Then set the scene. Have a relaxing bath and pamper yourself with nice soap or a new shampoo. Then go into the room with the mirror. It is best to be on your own to start with although doing it with a friend can make it more fun! Have the lights either dimmed or on full depending on whichever makes you happier; your favourite music can add to the scene along with a glass of wine.

Then look at yourself in the mirror. Examine every inch and get used to looking at the parts usually ignored or hidden. First look at your body objectively; examine it as if it were someone else's. If you don't like your stomach, examine it. Do not criticise, but get used to looking and accepting. Thighs are a common area which are conveniently difficult to see. Turn around and watch them as you move. Ask yourself questions such as 'why do I not like my body?' and detach your emotions from it. Try and see it as it actually is.

Then examine yourself subjectively. Notice which parts of your body you are fond of and which parts you dislike. Do certain parts arouse different emotions? Are you proud of some areas but not of others. Focus first on the 'loved parts' and then on the 'unloved parts'. Notice whether there are any actual differences between the two or whether it is just your perception of them.

Eat Local, Eat Seasonal

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato."

The whole idea eating local foods becomes especially alluring if we think in terms of seasonal foods. Start by refusing the tasteless, bloated, and artificially dyed grocery store strawberries that have been picked far away—unripe so as to travel better—in anticipation of the mouthwatering local ones that will be ripe late June and early July. They will be especially delectable if they are organic and free of the chemical pesticides and fertilizers that concentrate in the flesh of thin-skinned fruits like strawberries. I can no longer eat any other kind of strawberry.

When I was young we had no option but to eat those things that were in season. We waited eagerly for the first green beans or the first brussels sprouts, vegetables that came just once a year. We couldn't grow much in the sandy soil of Bournemouth, but we did grow runner beans and some other vegetables. In the summer my grandmother Danny made gooseberry fool, rhubarb and apple pies, and blackberry and apple pies with custard, and blackcurrant jelly. Uncle Eric used to make chutney with green tomatoes—his own special secret recipe. In the autumn Danny bottled fruit and made jam. We could never lay out appl_es to dry because of the salt sea air of Bournemouth, but I used to taste them when I went to stay with friends. They became more and more wrinkled but sweeter as autumn gradually changed to the long, dark days of winter. Today, fewer and fewer people lay in stock for winter days—for now foods are packaged and shipped from all around the globe so that customers can buy just what they want, just when they want it. Only when we decide to return to eating more local foods shall we regain our appreciation for the gifts of the different seasons and once again live in harmony with nature's cycles. Then, even as we grieve the last, now tough and stringy runner beans, we shall be eagerly anticipating the first of autumn's plums that are soon to be ready for the picking.

Nutritionist Joan Dye Gussow, an esteemed pioneer in the local foods movement, tells the story of walking out of her front gate one snowy February day in her upstate New York home. On the ground, peeking through the snow, she saw a bright orange-red object. The color was so out of place in the winter landscape that she leaned down for a closer look. There she found a nectarine with one bite taken out of it. "I thought of how it probably came from a foreign country," she said, "and was picked unripe, then put into a refrigerated shipment, and ripened artificially as it was hauled all the way up to New York state where someone bought it at a supermarket, bit into it, and of course finding it tasteless, mushy, and disgusting, just thoughtlessly tossed it away. In that one nectarine I saw all the waste and senselessness of our travel-dependent food supply." If only that person had simply waited until local fruits ripened on the trees—there is nothing quite like biting intothe sweet flesh of a fresh, utterly ripe nectarine. So succulent that the juice is sure to run down your chin.