Why we won’t be asking you to Shape up for this Summer
It’s been a really interesting week. It started off with an amazing photo shoot with the woman who helps to make my business tick. Caroline does the number crunching for both Baby A-Wake and Body A-Wake, and without her – I’d be a little in the dark to say the least! We met through our Body Back Classes . She was one of the first Mums to venture in to a Baby A-Wake class! You know the story – one mummy chat leads to another and in a very mumpreneur way – we ended up working together. Never underestimate the power of MUMS! I quite honestly think if we were allowed to rule the world? ….. Ok - I’ll stop now.
Onto my main subject this week and the reason for the title of this blog….
Last Wednesday I was asked to sit on a panel in front of journalist and influential bloggers. The subject …‘Do Diets Work’?
The diet industry is HUGE. And I have been, as a fitness leader, entwined into its clutches. On a number of campaigns on the Lorraine show I had to work under the title of “diet’. It grated on me then as much as it does now but we were told that – ‘healthy eating ‘ plans are just not sexy enough and no one would be interested if we didn’t use the word ‘diet’. Despite us saying live on air multiple times this is a ‘for life plan’ not a ‘diet plan’. We couldn’t get away from the fact that ultimately everyone was fixated on showing weight loss in a matter of a few weeks. As much as we advocated changing health habits for life, the programmes were only ever aired for 4 weeks! Say no more!
This kind of short term support typifies what we see in so many diet industry led programmes and is why I decided this year to change the way we operate our Body Back programme within Baby A-Wake.
Diet of course can mean any kind of eating plan but unfortunately, in the same way that exercise is often seen as just a way to burn off calories, the word diet has become synonymous with restricting calories.
Calorie counting obsessions was one part of our panel’s debate – another was diet type.
If you’ve been listening to the news over this past week you’ll have heard the argument between government officials and the National Obesity Forum over the Low fat v Low carb debate. According to our government we should still be eating a diet that is high in carbs and low in fat. The National Obesity Forum however believe that this advice is what’s making us fat as a nation and that the government needs to start waking up to a different way of tackling our Obesity problem , ‘Saturated fat is good for us and doesn’t make us fat!’ The problem, as our debate highlighted, is that gram per gram - fat has over double the number of calories of carbohydrates and how can the majority of people begin to manage this?
What do you think? Take a look at the govenernments new Eatwell Guide. If this gets your blood boiling then I’d very much like you to help me carry on the debate! From today I have set up a group specifically for all of the women who attend our Body Back classes. The idea is to create a supportive community where we can post links to research, swap recipe ideas, ask questions , answer questions, be as opinionated as you like and most of all help us all to find a long term solution to our own health, fitness and nutrition goals. It is a private group and only open to those who attend our classes but you can of course make comments below on this blog. If you are one of our clients – make sure you request an invite to the group. If you are interested in joining us – please check out our class details here.
One overriding factor that came out of our panel’s debate was that we are all individual and what works for one, doesn’t necessarily work for another. This is why our new Body Back programme is all about ditching over restrictive, calorie counting diet plans, discovering more about you and making your mind and body the driver of your very own unique food and fitness plan. It’s also about making it a real life plan – which is why we wont be asking you to Shape up for Summer - it's for now, tomorrow and forever!