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Before starting the diet, people tend to anticipate that they will find it easier to implement either the exercise or eating principles. Once they get into the diet, however, they soon see how clear and simple both principles are to put into practice. You may find it best to buddy-up with someone who feels they will find it easier to implement the principles you expect to find harder. This matching will give both of you a boost when your motivation drops.
“At first, John was quite obstructive and ordered Indian takeaways. But after a year of seeing me stick to the suppers in the evenings and thinking before I ordered in restaurants, he has now embraced the diet. Also, as much as people were telling me I looked good and had lost weight, they were telling him he had put it on! So by following Joanna’s Carb Curfew he has since lost about two stone.”
Keep it in the Family
Just about anyone can apply the exercise principles, so why not buddy-up with a family member. They don’t have to live near you; arrange to e-mail or text each other your step tally. The pedometer is such a simple device that you can get the whole spectrum of the family involved: your children, parents, aunts and uncles. And because the targets are designed first and foremost to improve your health, everyone wins!
You and Your Loved One
When my female clients start doing Carb Curfew meals, many of them cook a few potatoes or some pasta or rice for their partner, thinking they will want it. What is interesting, though, is that the men soon see and feel the benefits of Carb Curfew, and naturally start to apply it themselves.
“I did the plan with my friend and found having a bit of competition between us helped spur us both on. It worked well. We’d compare steps we did each day, and what lunch we had eaten. It gave me motivation when I needed it.”
Coping with Kids
If you and your partner are doing the diet together, and you have children, you may find it harder to get the walking done in the evenings, especially if the children are too young to be left on their own. In this instance it may be more practical to have a buddy for your eating principles (such as your partner/husband) and another buddy for your exercise principles. And remember to get your children involved – let them be your walking buddies at the weekends, and allow them to fill in your charts and step targets. This can be a real motivator, and you are giving them a fantastic health message about looking after their own bodies too.
So if you are ready let’s …
Plan ahead
Be prepared
Become empowered
CLIENT FEEDBACK: ZITA
I have worked in the music industry for 17 years, running my own company managing producers, songwriters and artists. My job is very full-on. I have three children aged ten, eight and five. I also had a child adopted, who would now be 20. So, having had lots of babies, my stomach and navel area has always been the most problematic. After the first baby the weight just disappeared within weeks, but I piled on weight after each of the others. I gained four stone and looked like a womble!
When I went to have my annual medical recently, I found I had put on a stone without realizing it. My body fat was too high at 34 per cent, and my cholesterol was high as well. My doctor recommended Joanna’s programme. He had followed it himself, lost over a stone and felt so much better. I have bad habits and drive everywhere. I’ve gone through phases of personal training but have never managed to exercise on my own before – until now.
I found the first week really hard. But once the endorphins start to kick in because of the walking and tummy exercises, I think that starts to make it easier. I just knew I was not going to stop after the first week.
I am a huge fan of Joanna’s 28-day plan. I can’t call it a diet – it really is a lifestyle change. I think that makes it easier in a way, as there’s no beginning and end, just an ongoing programme. The Carb Curfew has kept my weight and inch loss constant. When I first started the programme, I really craved carbs in the evening. Now if I do eat carbs in the evenings, at other people’s houses or at restaurants, I feel full very quickly, and often a little uncomfortable. I used to feel very heavy and tired after eating. I now feel light and have more energy. I love salads and have always enjoyed meat or fish and vegetables. The best thing is that if I stick to this I can still have my naughty treats during the day like crisps, a few squares of chocolate and an occasional slice of cake.
The exercising and the clear, easy-to-follow plan definitely affected my inch loss. I lost 6kg and 5 per cent body fat. My cholesterol went down from 6.75 to 5.5 in nine weeks, which was great.
Even with my busy lifestyle as a mum of three, running my own company, going out a lot and entertaining a fair bit, I have still managed to keep most of the weight off.
2 Recording Your Progress (#ulink_8ad2706a-a3c1-5ddf-8020-e18687380367)
CALCULATING YOUR BODY MASS INDEX
Recording your measurements is an important part of tracking your progress. Calculating your body mass index (BMI) will enable you to determine how much weight you need to lose. To calculate your BMI, divide your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared. You’ll find an automatic BMI calculator on my website, www.joannahall.com (http://www.joannahall.com/)
If your BMI is between 25 and 29, you are overweight.
If your BMI is between 30 and 39, you are obese.
If your BMI is 40 or above, you are morbidly obese.
WHAT YOUR WAIST MEASUREMENT REVEALS
While BMI is widely recognized as a measure of obesity, it does not give a strong indication of your health risks. Storing your weight around your waist or midriff is known as ‘abdominal obesity’. This measurement is much more closely related to your risks of developing chronic disease than your BMI value alone. So, on this diet, the number you need to know and are specifically going to track is your waist circumference.
Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is the term for a cluster of disorders that place you at increased risk of chronic disease. Your waist measurement is one of the strongest indicators of whether you are prone to metabolic syndrome and its associated disorders. These disorders include:
Excess levels of triglycerides (‘bad’ blood fats)
Decreased values of high-density lipoproteins (‘good’ blood fats)
High blood pressure
A high fasting blood glucose value
Increased insulin resistance
Waist measurements indicating risk of disease are different for men and women:
Men with a waist measurement greater than 102cm (40 inches) are at risk.
Women with a waist measurement greater than 88cm (35 inches) are at risk.
Please note: if a person has a short stature (under 5 feet in height) and a BMI of 35 or above, waist circumference standards may not apply. If this applies to you, ask your GP to assess your risk of metabolic syndrome.
Quite simply, the medical conditions that worsen with weight gain will improve with weight loss:
High blood pressure
Dyslipidaemia (adverse blood fats)
Sleep apnoea
Infertility
Cardiovascular disease
Type 2 diabetes
Osteoarthritis
TEST YOUR MOTIVATION
“The motivation kicks in as soon as you start to see the results and realize you can maintain them. I felt results within four days. Also, quite early on, my skin felt better and people were saying I looked so much healthier.”
Improving how we look is a strong motivator for us to take action and lose weight, but our health is important too. To test your motivation to follow my programme, complete the table below.
Read through these medical conditions. If you suffer from any of them, tick whether you want them to improve or worsen. If you don’t have these conditions, tick whether you would like to increase or decrease your risk of developing them.
I appreciate that no one wants their health to get worse. Despite this, some people refuse to face up to the impact their lifestyle is having on their health. I have found this chart useful with clients, serving to give them a wake-up call.
HOW MOTIVATED ARE YOU TO CHANGE?
Look at the side of the box you’ve ticked and then take action. If you’ve ticked any of the columns on the left, give this book to someone else because this diet is about you getting healthier, losing weight and feeling better about yourself. If you want to do something about this then read on. We’ve got some work to do, but I’m here to help – so let’s get going!
BODY MEASUREMENTS
Before you start my 28-day programme you will need to take the following measurements:
Your weight
Your waist measurement
Your navel measurement (around the midriff level with your belly button)
Record these measurements on days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28 of the plan in the chart overleaf.
You may also want to take additional body measurements, such as your chest, hips and thighs, so you can track your progress. Many of my clients have found this very motivating, as you will see your body change shape elsewhere too! Use the chart below to record these additional measurements. I suggest you record them on days 1 and 28 only as it’s likely that changes will be slower here, although your clothes will most definitely feel more comfortable as you progress on the diet.
Over the 28 days I will ask you to record your weight and waist measurements on the chart every 7 days. If you have a tendency to weigh yourself every day I’d strongly urge you not to do this when following my plan. Daily weight changes tend not to reflect real changes in body shape and are more reflective of shifts in fluid retention.
RECORDING YOUR FITNESS
Just as you record how your body measurements change, I’d also like you to record how your fitness improves. This can be done very simply, by walking a set distance as fast as you can and recording the time it takes you and your heart rate. You will need to do this test at the very start of the plan and also on day 28. You will surprised at how much your body can improve in just 28 days.
On my 28-day programme we walk as fast as we can for one kilometre. If you are a complete novice to fast walking and exercise I suggest you complete a timed walk for half a kilometre. Your route should be as flat as possible. The route I use is beside a park. One length of the park is 250 metres, so we walk the length of the park four times to complete a kilometre as fast as we can.
Before you start your timed walk, record your heart rate for one minute. This can be taken at your wrist or your neck. Take your heart rate for one minute immediately after completing the walk, and then again after one minute of recovery. Record your heart rate results and the time it took you to walk on the chart below. Take a piece of paper and a pencil with you to jot down your results, and fill in the chart when you get back home.
HOW TO TAKE YOUR HEART RATE
You can take your pulse either at your wrist (radial pulse) or at the side of your neck (carotid pulse). You can feel your radial pulse by tracing a line down from the base of the thumb. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers over the artery and apply light pressure.
Some people find it difficult to locate their radial pulse. Your exercise pulse, in particular, is much easier to locate at the carotid artery, to the side of the larynx. Do not apply heavy pressure to the carotid arteries because they contain baroreceptors that sense increases in pressure and can slow the heart rate.
Another very accurate and easy method of measuring your heart rate is with a portable heart monitor. There are a number of these on the market and they consist of a chest strap with electrodes that pick up the electrical activity of your heart. These are generally a lot more accurate as they are picking up your actual heart rate as opposed to your pulse.
THE DAY CHARTS
For every day of the 28-day plan, there is a chart to fill in. The day charts are easy to follow. They allow you to track the progress you make in both your eating and your exercise.
“Writing everything down in the food diary may seem a hassle but it’s the best way to ensure you are being totally honest with yourself. It may not be a coincidence that the first week, when I was most diligent in writing food down as I ate it, was the week I lost the most weight! ”
Recording What You Eat
All you need to do is record what you eat and tick the portion distortion symbols to keep your calories on track! It’s that simple.
Here’s what you do:
Each day record your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack on the chart. You can select meals from the menu plans in Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo) or fill in your own choices applying the eating principles in Chapter 3 (#u511d0a91-9064-59ad-a211-f2e366b31939).
BREAKFAST AND LUNCH
Choose one from the breakfast and lunch suggestions. Each breakfast and lunch contains fewer than 400 calories. The breakfast choices are made of foods that release energy slowly so you will keep your hunger at bay right through to lunch. The lunches are made up of some protein, starchy carbs and at least two portions of fruit and veg.
DINNER
Choose one of the quick and easy-to-prepare ‘Carb Curfew’ meals in Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo) and serve with two portions of veg.
SNACKS
You can choose any snack you wish but it must contain no more than 150 calories. In addition, you need to drink a pint of skimmed or semi-skimmed milk. This provides you with an important source of calcium, which has a crucial role to play in helping your body fight fat. You’ll find more about this in the eating principles in Chapter 3 (#u511d0a91-9064-59ad-a211-f2e366b31939). A pint of skimmed milk will provide you with 150 calories. Even if you don’t like skimmed milk and can only drink semi-skimmed, it will still provide you with only 180 calories.
“The food diaries were especially useful to me. Filling them in gave me a real sense of achievement.”
WATER TALLY
Water is a vital component of our diet, and most of us don’t drink enough of it. We often read that we should be drinking 2–2½ litres a day, which sounds a lot, but this can come from fruit, vegetables and soups as well as from water and other liquid foods. To put things in perspective, the British Olympic Committee encouraged athletes to drink 8 litres a day to avoid a decrease in performance during the Atlanta games.
However, like anything else, drinking more water than you need does not increase its health benefits. Indeed, drinking excess water can cause a dangerous condition called hyponatraemia.
To spread your water intake through the day, try to drink two glasses of water before or with each meal. Simply tick the box each time you have a glass. The water tally column will naturally guide you to consume eight glasses a day, but if you drink more simply add these to your drinks section of the chart.
PORTION DISTORTION
The portion distortion symbols are your easy calorie-control guide. Simply tick the symbol that represents the size of the food item you have eaten. If you eat more than one portion size of a food, you’ll find space next to each symbol to record how many more servings you eat.
“Portion distortion has changed my life – I’ve never felt better. It’s so clever, simple and easy to do that no one need ever know you are following a diet!”
When to Fill in Your Daily Chart
The most important aspect of filling in your charts is to be accurate. I know filling them in may seem a chore, but it really will make you focus on the plan.
In my experience with clients, the more time you leave between eating and recording, the more errors occur. So do try to keep this book with you so you can record at each meal. If you find this book a bit bulky to carry around, visit my website and print off these charts for free. Then you can keep them in your handbag, on your desk or on your PC!
Another approach I have found very effective with clients is to write down what you plan to eat for the whole day at the start of the day. This can be particularly helpful if you are the sort of person who tends to get very hungry before meals and grabs things on the run to stop the hunger pangs and energy slump. Filling in the chart this way will mean you need to be more organized but more focused. If you record what you plan to eat in one colour and then add any other food you have eaten in another colour, you can easily keep a hold on reality.
PREVIEW AND REVIEW CHARTS
On days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28 you need to complete your preview and review charts.
Preview Charts
These help you plan your week ahead. They guide you to plan when you will be able to take your structured walks and do your abdominal exercises. They also address the difficulties you anticipate over the next seven days that may hinder your efforts.
Previewing is so important. I’m in no doubt you will come across a few challenges over the 28 days – maybe you are going to a huge blow-out party, it’s your child’s birthday tea party, you have deadlines at work, or an ill family member needs care. This is life, and how you deal with these events is part of your road to success.
