The No Carbs after 5pm Diet: With the new step counter plan
Joanna Hall
Joanna Hall, author of Drop a Size in 2 Weeks Flat, offers a special 28-day plan to lose up to 5 inches off your waist. A great alternative to Atkins, Joanna’s Carb Curfew method (banning carbs after 5pm) has been hailed as the healthiest, simplest way to diet the low-carb way.The healthy way to follow a low carb diet and really see the benefit. For all those who have tried Atkins or South Beach and found it difficult, Joanna’s Carb Curfew system is fantastic. Joanna Hall presents a day-by-day diet plan specifically designed to help you lose up to 5 inches from your waistline in a month – watch your belly disappear, while your health improves and fitness soars.Fat on your stomach is a potential killer and Joanna shows how simply using a step counter (pedometer) and her quick abs routine will help you lose those 5 inches.The book also includes:• Special ‘Do It Together’ plan for partners• Trouble shooting daily tips• Carb Curfew recipes
Joanna Hall
The NO CARBS
AFTER 5pm
Diet
with the NEW step counter plan
SUCCESSFUL NO CARBS AFTER 5PM DIETERS (#ulink_8ddc4791-2695-500c-a85e-eb0ceb9ba338)
KATIE, 36: mum of 18-month-old Josh. ‘The baby belly won’t shift!’
Dropped 10 pounds and 6 inches off her waist.
TIM, THE DOCTOR, 42: ‘But I’ve never had to diet before.’
Dropped 7 pounds and 5 inches off his waist.
STEPH, 34: mum of three children under five. ‘I don’t have time to exercise.’
Dropped 7 pounds and 5 inches off her waist.
BRONWYN, 28: newly married doctor and dedicated carb lover.
Dropped 5 pounds and 6 inches off her waist.
ZITA, 39: music manager and rock chick mum of four.
‘I don’t do exercise.’
Dropped 10 pounds and 7 inches off her waist.
HENRY, 58: retired property lawyer. ‘You’re never too old to party!’
Dropped 9 pounds and 6 inches off his waist.
CARMEN, 24: secretary, loves her social life.
Dropped 5 pounds, 4 inches off her waist and 6 ½ inches off her thighs.
JO JO, 36: businesswoman and mum of two, a diet cynic.
Dropped 7 pounds and 4½ inches off her waist.
TASH, 26: administrator and Aussie traveller, loves her food ‘too much to lose weight’.
Dropped 4 pounds and 4 inches off her waist.
JUDITH, 68: ex-smoker, granny of seven. ‘Tried every diet there is.’
Lost 10 pounds and 7 inches off her waist.
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#ub456771c-ef7f-5ae2-87c5-ff9f60315284)
Title Page (#u2f5723d2-3dde-5033-a707-903416dde4ca)
Successful No Carbs After 5pm Sieters (#u9856535c-740a-53fa-9952-4dd90d73188b)
Introduction (#ucfdda599-6627-5d4d-b2ec-63066f4addba)
Part 1: How the Diet Works (#u5c9ca910-e3d0-5797-89c1-6c27729b5763)
1 Setting the Scene (#u8ddfb4c5-5992-5f73-807b-adf12b5016da)
2 Recording Your Progress (#u98fa4301-051e-5ba4-baf8-f1371ede5505)
3 The Eating Principles (#u511d0a91-9064-59ad-a211-f2e366b31939)
4 The Exercise Principles (#litres_trial_promo)
Part 2: The Diet in Practice (#litres_trial_promo)
5 The Eating Principles in Practice (#litres_trial_promo)
6 The Exercise Principles in Practice (#litres_trial_promo)
7 The Countdown Begins (#litres_trial_promo)
8 Your Personal Daily Charts (#litres_trial_promo)
9 The Step Trade Offs (#litres_trial_promo)
10 Carb Curfew Recipes (#litres_trial_promo)
– Meat Dishes (#litres_trial_promo)
– Fish Dishes (#litres_trial_promo)
– Vegetarian Dishes (#litres_trial_promo)
11 Stop a Lapse Becoming a Collapse (#litres_trial_promo)
12 Questions and Answers (#litres_trial_promo)
By the same author (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Introduction (#ulink_23e8b0a1-d6a1-5685-b29b-9c465612696d)
Twenty-eight days is exactly four weeks. Just imagine: in four weeks you could have lost inches off your midriff. It is not impossible and you can do it. Twentyeight days is just long enough for you to get great results. In less than a month you can change your body, lose inches off your waist, feel your fitness levels soar and fit into clothes that look great. Your health will improve and you’ll enjoy so much more energy. In just 28 days …
I’m sure you’ve heard the Beatles’ song I Want to Hold Your Hand. Life is full of hurdles and sometimes we need someone to hold our hand to give us extra strength. Losing weight and keeping it off is a hurdle. In this book I want to hold your hand as you follow my diet and exercise plan, giving you my advice and guidance every step of the way.
My No Carbs After 5pm Diet works! It is based on my 28-day Carb Curfew Plan, which I run in London. You can feel confident that you are following a programme that works and delivers results. It’s been tried and tested in GP practices on men and women just like you. It has worked for them and I know it can work for you too. All you need to do is have some faith in me and in what I’m asking you to do, and give me a bit of commitment over the next 28 days.
The plan gives you clear information about what to do and why you are doing it. You’ll find lots of tips from my successful clients along the way, as well as my advice and experience from running weight-management programmes. Your success will involve a little planning ahead, being prepared and becoming empowered. So if you want to follow a plan that works, drop inches off your tummy, lose pounds on the scales and feel fantastic in just 28 days – come on – let’s get going!
Be active!
1 How the Diet Works (#ulink_8165c41e-c89c-51ad-910c-7366e55d46a0)
1 Setting the Scene (#ulink_a01d5e42-4fa1-5224-9d26-1c08d7473eb8)
I am not going to wave a magic wand so you can experience the benefits of my 28-day diet without the effort. Putting in a little effort is very important for three reasons:
1 Making an effort means you value yourself. Achieving something with little or no effort often has no value and we don’t really appreciate it.
2 The diet is simple to follow. You’ll feel the benefits almost as soon as you start. What you may perceive as a little effort at the start of the plan will become part of a healthier lifestyle habit by the time you reach the finish line, without you even realizing it.
3 Your efforts will reap you major health improvements over the 28 days. As well as losing significant inches and weight, participants have recorded decreased blood pressure, improved cholesterol levels, improved moods, better sleeping patterns, better sex and greater energy.
“You’ll notice the difference in a week. The programme is so worth pursuing. My advice would be to get the first seven days done, and after that you’ll find it quite easy to follow. ”
At the start of every weight-management programme I run, the participants are always impatient to see their body change – they have heard about the fantastic results people have experienced and want to see and feel the benefits straight away. But we need to get one thing straight – and this is where the straight talking begins.
We may all have the desire to lose weight, to have that fabulous feeling of inches falling off, but the crux of the matter is how willing you are to fulfil that desire. Having the desire to lose weight and follow the programme will not get you anywhere without the willingness to put in a bit of effort. This means you will need to plan ahead a little, but I have taken all the hard work out and tried to make it easy for you.
WHAT WILL THE DIET DO FOR ME?
Many men and women have had fantastic success with the diet and I know you can too!
You will lose weight.
You will lose inches.
You will feel more energetic.
You may benefit from lowering elevated cholesterol levels.
You will be fitter.
You will feel back in control.
You may enjoy better sleep.
Many people have reported having better sex!
Everyone who has completed this programme with me has lost inches and felt fantastic.
“Lots of people have noticed the change in my body shape – I feel so much more sexy!”
HOW THE DIET WORKS
This diet is about getting results and making it work for you and the life you lead. It is a focused eating and walking plan designed to help you lose weight and inches, especially around your middle and waistline.
I am also concerned about you keeping the weight off long term. The National Registry of Weight Loss in Denver has compiled the details of people who have lost over 60 pounds in weight and kept it off for five years. And what is it that has helped these people succeed?
They eat fewer than 2,000 calories a day.
They average an hour of moderate-intensity physical activity each day.
They don’t follow fad diets or high-protein diets.
The principles of the diet and exercise plan are simple to put into practice. You’ll soon see how they work and how easily they can be slotted into your life. The menu plans in Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo) put all the diet principles into practice for you, but are flexible enough to adapt to your own preferences.
“I loved the flexibility and the fact that the plan is not a rigid regime where you have to eat this food at 11am and that food at 4pm.”
The exercise plan is based on walking and five tummy exercises. That’s all – you don’t need a gym membership, expensive exercise kit or flashy trainers, just a pair of comfortable walking shoes and enough space on the floor to do your exercises. And absolutely anyone can do it – I promise you.
The diet runs over 28 days. You can follow the 28-day plan strictly or take a more relaxed weekly approach, depending on what suits you. Throughout the book there are tips from me and many people who have followed the diet successfully, so you need not feel you are alone. The question and answer section in Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo) addresses frequently asked queries. You’ll also find lots of advice in the question and answer section of my website, www.joannahall.com (http://www.joannahall.com/)
“The most important thing for me has been the fact that it isn’t really a diet but more of a lifestyle change.”
Building a Template of Success
Being successful does require a little prior preparation. In the following chapters I’ll outline how the plan works and how you can prepare for it. The easy-to-follow five-day countdown in Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo) not only helps you get organized before you commence your 28 days to success but also gets you into the right mindset. This is vitally important and, in my experience, can be a deciding factor to you achieving your goals.
You deserve the best opportunity to have a fitter, healthier and slimmer body, but many individuals don’t give themselves the right starting platform for success. They doubt their ability, feel guilty for taking the time out to feel better about themselves, or base their programme on previous diets that have been too rigid and impossible to fit in with their life. My whole programme is geared towards helping you achieve success whatever may be occurring in your life. Navigating the challenges life throws our way are all part of the programme. How you handle these and still achieve success is part of you feeling confident about the diet and about yourself. I call this building a Template of Success.
These little challenges can so often throw us off course, despite our good intentions. We can give up, thinking the time is not quite right, promising to start again soon. But the right time never seems to come, leading to feelings of frustration and building a Template of Failure, feeling you will never succeed. If this sounds like you, don’t panic. ‘Stop a Lapse Becoming a Collapse’ in Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo) will keep you on track. You may also want to look at my book Drop a Size for Life, as this contains my seven-step approach to getting you in the right ‘head space’.
DOING IT TOGETHER
I have written this book exactly as I run the programme, with tips and advice from me and my clients along the way. This should help you stay the course and feel the benefits my clients have experienced, and also make you feel you are not doing the diet alone. However, doing the diet with a friend or partner can be a real bonus, helping you get over the little hurdles and keeping you on track.
You can set up a little system with your buddy – why not text or e-mail each other your daily step totals, or set up a standard text message such as ‘Carb Curfew successfully completed’ when you have had your supper.
Choosing the Right Diet Buddy
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.
The first thing to do is acknowledge them by writing them down in the Challenges section of your Preview chart, and perhaps to adjust your walking goals and times when you can commit to doing your abdominals. Remember, the 28-day plan is about building on a Template of Success. Over-committing yourself will only make you feel like you have failed.
Next, tick which of the following categories you think the following week will fall into: ‘progressive’, ‘maintenance’ or ‘damage limitation’.
A progressive week is one where you feel 95 per cent confident you can complete all the aspects of the plan you have committed to on your Preview chart. You feel good about yourself; you feel motivated that you have planned ahead and happy that you can deal with any little blips that may come your way that week.
A maintenance week is one where you feel 75 per cent confident that you can complete your programme goals for the next seven days. You feel you may not be able to achieve all the daily walking goals, and you may have a few things to deal with that could make it difficult to follow the plan exactly, but you feel you can give it your best shot. You are confident that these little blips are not going to make your efforts lapse.
A damage limitation week is one where you feel your life is not conducive to following the plan – perhaps the children are breaking up from school, the washing machine has flooded the floor, it’s your time of the month, you have major hassles at work and you have guests all weekend. Damage limitation weeks happen – you do need to acknowledge that – but rather than thinking ‘I’ll drop the plan this week, have a complete rest and pick it up again next week’, DON’T! Limit the damage and pick one thing on the plan you can do all week. Perhaps it’s your Carb Curfew or your daily accumulated walking targets, completing half the daily walking goals instead of all of them. Think carefully and plan – you can limit the damage, and this is all part of building that Template of Success The first step to limiting the damage is acknowledging it is a damage limitation week on your Preview chart.
“I am not the most motivated of people so I found the weekly review and preview helped keep me on track.”
Navigating all the challenges life throws your way is actually a success. OK, you may not always be able to complete the daily walking goals but the aim is for you to do something each day and feel good about it. This is success and this is building on your Template of Success. Many of my clients have blips on the programme when they aren’t able to do all the daily walking goals they wanted or perhaps slipped off the eating principles, but the trick is not to let a little lapse become a collapse. Even if you have a lapse, you will still see a huge difference in your body if you stick with the plan (see Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)).
Review Charts
These allow you to look back over the past seven days and see how you did. They encourage you to give yourself a pat on the back with your progress but, equally, to assess whether what you are expecting from yourself is realistic. Perhaps you ticked that you would do your abdominal exercises every day in the previous Preview chart on day 7. When you come to review it on day 14, however, you find you didn’t actually do your abdominals once. This means you need to reassess how you fill in the Preview chart for the following week. The Review and Preview charts act as a reality check, keeping you on track and building a Template of Success. You’ll find lots of ideas on how to deal with challenges and to stop a lapse becoming a collapse in Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo).
THE ENERGY GAP
If you want to lose weight you have to create an ‘energy gap’ – put simply, you need to create as big a gap as possible between the number of calories you consume through food and drink and the number of calories you expend through moving your body. The amount of calories you consume through food and drink needs to decrease while the amount of calories you expend through moving your body has to increase. The bigger the energy gap you create on a consistent basis, the greater your success. The No Carbs After 5pm Diet will help you create an energy gap, with simple-to-implement exercise and eating principles. This will help you to lose weight and inches, and at the end of 28 days your body will burn more calories even when you are sleeping!
3 The Eating Principles (#ulink_791aafd3-7331-5f0d-9018-0bad1e44c3e7)
The No Carbs After 5pm Diet is based on a number of eating principles. Knowing the logic and science behind the diet will help you understand how and why it works. To make things simple, all the meal suggestions and recipes in the book put these principles into practice for you.
PRINCIPLE 1: CARB CURFEW
This is your Golden Rule.
Carb Curfew means no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes or cereal after 5pm for your evening meal. You can eat them for breakfast, lunch and snacks but you can’t eat them after 5pm. You just say no at this time! But don’t panic: you aren’t going to feel hungry as there are still plenty of satisfying foods to eat. For your evening meal you can choose from a variety of nutritious foods including lean meat and fish, fruit, vegetables, pulses, dairy products and essential fats. You will find a whole host of delicious and easy Carb Curfew recipes in Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo). Once you’ve got the hang of my Carb Curfew you’ll soon see how easy it is to adapt some of your favourite meals.
“I noticed almost immediately that cutting the carbs after 5pm meant I was not nearly so hungry, and my cravings disappeared. This gave me so much confidence.”
Why Does Carb Curfew Work?
Carb Curfew is a tool. It’s not about saying carbs are bad for you. Carb Curfew does three essential things that help you get the inches off and the weight down simply and easily:
1 It helps you get a better balance of nutrients.
2 It helps you cut your calories without having to try too hard!
3 It reduces uncomfortable tummy bloating.
The Food and Drug Administration in the US recently reported that people are consuming significantly more calories than they were 20 years ago, and that these extra calories are coming from carbohydrates. Any excess calories you consume will be converted and stored as body fat if they are not burnt off through increased physical activity. Simply cutting out the carbs after 5pm will automatically help you reduce your calorie intake without having to count calories continually, or deprive yourself of some of the important carbs you can enjoy at breakfast and lunch. In addition, consuming slightly more protein than usual will help you stay fuller for longer.
Putting Carb Curfew into practice will also help you get a better balance of nutrients. Not only will you get more essential vitamins and minerals from fruit and vegetables in your evening meal, helping you to hit the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day, but the whole plan is designed to optimize your nutrition without you having to work too hard.
Reducing tummy bloating is one of the quickest benefits you will notice with my Carb Curfew. Eating carbs after 5pm can cause uncomfortable bloating for several reasons:
As your body digests carbohydrates they are broken down into glucose and either stored in the form of glycogen in the muscles or converted into fat and stored in the fat cells. Your body prefers to store these starchy carbs as glycogen but to do this it has to store three units of water with every one unit of glycogen. The net result is a bloated, puffy tummy and uncomfortable clothes.
Bloating can also occur when you have gone too long without eating. When you do give your body some food, your digestive system goes into shock, there is a surge of excess enzymes and the pH balance of your digestive system is distorted, creating abdominal discomfort.
Without stating the obvious, bloating can also occur simply because you have each too much too quickly. One reason individuals overeat is because they are too hungry, and when they start to eat their body does not have the ability to register when it is satisfied as opposed to over-full.
Following the Carb Curfew eating plan will take care of your bloating for you. It has been designed so you do not go too long without eating. Your energy levels stay elevated as your calorie intake is more evenly distributed, giving your body the energy it needs when it needs it. This means you will actually burn off more calories when you exercise. Many people have marvelled at the fact that they no longer crave biscuits and sugary processed snacks. If you follow the plan I am confident you will feel the benefits too.
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