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‘How come that woman on Instagram can stuff her face with tacos and soured cream but her thighs are the same size as my arms and I’m sitting here with a crispbread and cottage cheese?’
Galling, isn’t it?
In these chapters we grasp the concepts of why and how we put on fat and we look at the part our hormones play and how their groove can upset our groove. We’ll also take a good, close look at the food groups and see how they can both help and hinder our fat-loss efforts.
It’s four glorious chapters of entertainment but deadly serious facts. Let’s call it preparation.
PART 2: THE BLAST EATING PLAN & RECIPES
The food, the rules, the tools
‘They devoured the meals with relish and never even noticed I was following a fitness programmme. And my husband lost weight too . . . he wasn’t hungry once! Thank you so much, Annie, this has really changed our lives.’
V.W., Derby
This is the nub of the book and the section that equips you for success. It tells you exactly how you’re going to be eating for 21 days, how you will focus less on sugary foods that soothe your emotions and more on the right food to fuel your body, soothe your gut and bring power to your muscles.
It’s packed with really delicious, inspirational cooking ideas, not just to fuel you through the day but to satisfy your heart and your head too. You don’t have to be a gourmet chef (if only . . .) and you’ll have most ingredients already in your store cupboard. There are full-blown recipes as well as simple meal suggestions, which involve more assembling than creating, for busier days.
The Blast guidelines adapt perfectly to everyday family eating, so you won’t find yourself confronted by a plate of diet-y food, while the rest of the family tucks in to something different. Yes, there will be changes to make and change means effort, newness, unfamiliarity. But it also means swap around, improve, revamp, convert. That’s all we’re doing.
The third part of this section is given over to positive strategy advice as well as practical tips on how to gauge your fat-loss progress – seeing your results will become your motivation.
PART 3: THE WORKOUT SECTION
Getting fit, firm & strong . . . and maybe a bit sweaty
‘What a fantastic plan. I loved (and hated) the workouts. By week 3, I was getting an endorphin rush after the exercise and finding it a great de-stress after a hard day at work.’
K.H., London
I can hear you inwardly groan. It won’t go away. Yes, you could tear the pages out and pretend they weren’t there but you’d be chucking out half the fat-loss equation. These workouts are the vital factor in accelerating and sustaining your results.
I’ll say that word again . . . sustaining. Not for a week, not for Christmas, not for 21 days. For always.
Check out the different levels, decide which is yours and then follow those workouts, using the pictures and instructions to help you.
Towards the end of the section there’s advice for those who want to go above and beyond the Blast call of duty and do extra workouts, plus helpful motivation in maintaining a workout habit after the 21 days are finished.
PART 4: FILLING IN THE GAPS
Knowledge is power!
‘I have totally changed the way I eat now . . . I can still have treats, but they’re no longer a daily crutch. Thank you so much.’
G.P., Shropshire
This section is devoted to helping you make informed decisions about what’s worth listening to and what isn’t. I talk about intermittent fasting and its benefits and how you can incorporate it into the 21 Day Blast plan, if you choose. Well-known myths are given the once-over and I tackle common fat-loss questions.
There’s also a special section towards the end. This is a great place to come for a ‘tell it how it is’ dose of motivation. Days 1 to 21 are little paragraphs of fun for you to read as you work your way through the 21 Day Blast plan. They’re similar to the daily email I write to all who take part in the online version of the Blast plan. They will help to keep you on track and fired up.
The section ends with a chapter about life after Blast. During the Blast plan you are going to experience some new eating habits. This chapter offers helpful guidance on how to continue to lose fat while adapting those habits to your daily life for ever.
‘So, Annie Deadman, what do I get for investing in this book and handing my body and soul over to you?’
Oh, goody. I was hoping you’d ask that. Gives me the chance for one of my lists. Here are the benefits of Blast, in all their glory.
• You will lose fat and therefore inches
• You will have stronger, firmer muscles and better tone
• Your sweet tooth won’t know what to do with itself
• Your gut will be calm – less gurgling, wind and bloating
• Symptoms of eczema, hay fever and mucus congestion will lessen
• Your fitness will increase, which means your heart can push more blood around the body with fewer pumps . . . win, win!
• We are at the mercy of our hormones and Blast helps regulate them and their more negative effects
• Your sleep will be deeper and your skin will shine
• Habits you thought you would never crack will become old crutches of the past
• You will be firing on all cylinders – you will have boundless energy
• You will be giving your body the greatest chance of staying in the best possible shape and health
So, lovely people, shall we find out what Blast is all about?
1 (#ulink_b7919ad9-deae-518f-ad3f-12898a1dda13)
FOOD & OUR BODIES (#ulink_b7919ad9-deae-518f-ad3f-12898a1dda13)
THE BACKGROUND TO BLAST FAT LOSS (#ulink_b7919ad9-deae-518f-ad3f-12898a1dda13)
Chapter 1 (#ulink_a470f568-dffa-590b-8df0-9e462d515279)
A CLOSER LOOK AT FOOD GROUPS (#ulink_a470f568-dffa-590b-8df0-9e462d515279)
(or . . . if we want to be posh . . . the macronutrients and micronutrients) (#ulink_a470f568-dffa-590b-8df0-9e462d515279)
Recently, I met up with an old friend who had some outpouring to do. We hadn’t seen each other for a while and we were chewing the fat (pun intended) over a bottle of Chardonnay. By the second glass the floodgates had opened and we were on the sticky subject of her weight gain.
‘Look at me, Annie, what’s happened? I hate myself. Years ago I could at least run for the train and not pass out. I knew the importance of green veg and I slid into a size 14 like a dream. I wore lipstick every day and I strutted my stuff up and down the office. I knew how to fight my corner and I enjoyed life. Now I’m a size 18 . . . on a good day . . . and I wobble when I walk, let alone run. My trousers dig in, my thighs chafe, my feet are always swollen and I’m hot with a damp top lip all day. I buy outsize clothes and I eat outsize meals but I haven’t been hungry since 2004. Bar amputation I have no idea how to get this weight off.’
She and I, we go way back, so I allowed myself to hoot with laughter. But deep down, I knew my lovely friend was begging to peel back the years and the layers to find her old self again.
Before any of us can do that, we need to understand how important food is when trying to lose fat. No, not necessarily eating less, just eating better.
‘I can feel a double biology lesson coming on . . .’
Yes, but much more fun. Stick with me.
Stand in front of the mirror. Starkers. Go on. Now, when no one’s looking, grab hold of a handful of the spare flesh that lies in places you don’t like.
We’re going to take a brief look at how that got there, how it’s affecting your health, your personal harmony, wellbeing and happiness, and how we can get rid of it. By and large, it gets there through the stuff you put into your mouth, and how your body reacts to it. You may even discover that you have a slight intolerance to the foods you’ve been eating all these years and maybe that has held you back from achieving what you want. The 21 Day Blast plan will give you the tools to make discoveries about not only your own fat-losing potential but also other minor health issues. One woman who took part in a 21 Day Blast plan in early spring was shocked to find that her hay-fever symptoms totally disappeared during the 21-day period.
So, this next bit is the background knowledge you’ll need. It will cement your understanding of why Blast is going to help you lose fat.
In order to stay alive and function properly, our bodies need nutrients. If we’re being pernickety, the true meaning of nutrient is ‘a substance that provides nourishment essential for the maintenance of life and for growth’.
Macronutrients make up the bulk of our food. We need big quantities of these and they can be divided up into carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Alcohol is also classed as a macronutrient but doesn’t actually provide any life-giving nutrition. I know . . . shame.
Micronutrients come in the shape of vitamins and minerals and we only need small amounts of these. They will be present in a whole range of natural foods. They are not present in processed foods and they are vital for completing the healthy picture. They are the icing on our cake . . . or rather the broccoli on our steak and chips. Let’s take a closer look at both these groups.
THE MACRONUTRIENTS
CARBOHYDRATE
Everyone flinches when you mention carbohydrates.
They’re not bad for you. They’re the petrol in your tank and they give us energy to move and think. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Good natural carbohydrate-rich foods are absolutely vital for our muscles, for energy and for our brain function. They are also essential for our digestive systems. They have received bad press because if we eat too much carb-rich food but don’t actually move that much, then the body stores the surplus as fat.
Carbohydrate covers a whole range of foods: fruit, vegetables, oats, pasta, rice, potatoes, sugar. And then there’s processed sugary foods such as cakes, biscuits, buns, chocolate – which I sometimes refer to as drug food – impossible to stop at one!
They are ALL carbohydrates and so they tend to be tarred with the same brush because they are the first food group to be modified in any fat-loss plan. Which is why their reputation in the media has gone from bad to worse.
We at Blast HQ like carbohydrates. A lot. But we like them at the right time. And we like them to be the right sort. The more natural the food, the more vitamins and minerals they will contain, and the better they are for our health, our wellbeing and our body shape.
‘Yawn. Heard it all before. Got to do the whole green, wholefood, wholegrain thing . . . How come those lovely little chocolate biscuit thingies I enjoy each evening don’t do the same job? They’re carbs, too, aren’t they?’
They are. Read on.
Complex carbohydrates from natural sources (oats, potatoes, brown rice) will be converted much more slowly into usable energy (glucose) than simple carbohydrates (sugary products, some fruits, your chocolate thingies). The more processed and sugary the food is, the quicker it will be converted into glucose.
So there you are on the sofa nibbling your family bag of chocolate things creating lots of glucose. But you have no intention of using up that glucose (you’re still on the sofa), so the body has to do something with it.
Yes.
It drives that glucose into the fat cells and locks it up. And what’s worse, it takes a lot of effort for those fat cells to give it up, unless we make some small changes to the way we eat. I talk much more in the next chapter about what happens to that glucose in those fat cells, but for now, let’s have a look at another food group: protein.
PROTEIN
Protein is pretty top dog, in terms of the food on our plate. Every cell in the human body contains protein, so that gives you some idea of how important it is. We need protein not only to build and repair these cells but also (I can feel a list coming on, stay awake) . . .
• For the making of enzymes and chemical reactions in the body (stuff that happens without us noticing)
• In muscle contraction (you’re going to need to do a bit of that)
• In the manufacture of hormones, which send messages around the body
• To make haemoglobin, which carries oxygen around the body
• The repair and strengthening of bones, hair and nails
Protein is made up of building blocks called amino acids, of which there are twenty different types. Twelve of them can be made in the body but the other eight must come from our food. Meat, fish and eggs are known as ‘complete proteins’ because they provide all twenty of the amino acids.
Nodded off yet?
The eight amino acids that we must get from our food are known as ‘essential amino acids’. It’s an odd term since they are no less important than the other twelve. They are – brace yourself – leucine, lysine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, methionine, tryptophan, threonine and valine.
The best sources of these eight essential amino acids are animal products. However, if you’re a vegetarian who eats eggs and dairy, then you will manage to obtain all of them. If you’re vegan and opting for a more plant-based way of eating, then you should focus on foods that contain high levels of lysine. That’s because foods that contain even very small amounts of lysine will also contain substantial amounts of the other essential amino acids, so you will be sure to get enough of the whole package. Examples of lysine-rich foods are tofu and tempeh (also a soya product but more flavourful than tofu). Pistachio nuts, black beans, quinoa, soya milk and pumpkin seeds are also good sources.
Protein repairs our muscle tissue. During the 21 Day Blast plan you will be doing some exercise, and during that exercise your muscles will be challenged and placed under stress, but in a good way. Ensuring that you have enough protein in your meals will help the muscles repair, recover and keep them strong and firm. This also means that the body’s systems are more likely to use your body fat for fuel rather than to start breaking down this muscle. Holding on to our muscle is vital for successful fat loss and I will be droning on about this in Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo). To aid protein awareness, so to speak, I’ve added the grams of protein per portion to each recipe in Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo).
Now, on to fat. That’s dietary fat, not the stuff round our middle.
FAT
Fat is absolutely essential in your diet. Don’t let any book, newspaper, magazine, bloke down the pub fob you off with some story about fat being fattening. Yes, it’s high in calories (9 calories per gram, compared to protein and carbohydrates, which are both 4 calories) and that’s probably where the reputation has come from. So you only need a little dose to give your health and weight-loss processes a massive leg-up.
So why is fat important?
• It is vital in the production of those hormones
• It provides you with energy
• Fat makes your food taste delicious
• Every cell in the body has a layer of fat, so fat is essential to keep these cells healthy
• Fat cushions and protects your organs and nerves
• It is a powerful aid in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K . . . that’s eyesight, bones, skin, immune system and heart-disease prevention, in a nutshell)
This next bit is worth learning off by heart – and reciting to anyone who will listen . . .
Back in the day, fat was hailed as a major contributor towards heart disease, strokes and a challenge to good health. We were sucked in and we believed it. This led to a whopping rise . . . and rise . . . of the ‘LOW FAT’ label.
The fat was taken out of food products and sugar was added in its place. This meant it was cheap and its shelf life was long.
‘Yesssss . . .’ thought the food manufacturers, thumping the boardroom table. ‘Result!’
Alas, it was us, the consumer, who lost out. The added sugar made them moreish. Too moreish. Addictive even. If you dump this book and read no further, make a promise to yourself that you’ll scrutinise a few labels on your next food-shopping trip. You’ll see what I mean.
Nearly done with fat. We just need to gen up on the different types. Couple of matchsticks for your eyelids for this next bit.
