But parts of the health and fitness industry are designed to keep you fat and attached to the product. I believe in healthy eating and keeping food as natural as possible, the body works best this way. And manufactured food I consider to be plastic food as it has been put together in a plant and comes in either foil or brightly coloured packets. Anything that comes in a packet is manufactured.
In all gyms you will find energy bars, for 'energy' please read 'manufactured full of sugar bars'. These are sold as bars that will give you energy (not wrong there, but the wrong kind of short lived energy) and because they are sold in a 'health' environment you make the association that they are healthy... even more wrong. Sugar is the one thing that will make you and keep you fat, so by eating these bars you will stay fat. I agree that energy needs to be replaced after exercise, but it needs to be replaced with proper food that contains the proper balanced nutrients that the body requires. So along with planning your trip to the gym or exercise class or personal training session you need to plan for your recovery post exercise.
Protein shakes and energy drinks, now unless you are following a strict training plan that results in a specific goal (sub 3.30 marathon) or you are expected to become an elite athlete (100m world champion) then these products should not be in your hands, they are for people training 3- 5 times per day.
The shakes and energy drinks contain sugar and sugar makes you fat. Whilst you continue to give your body sugar it will use it (good) or store it (bad) and when it is stored it becomes fat. The body can and is able to use body fat for energy BUT only when there is NO SUGAR present. Therefore if you are really trying to lose body fat, there is only one choice but to stay off the sugar, this includes glucose, fructose, saccharose, dextrose, galactose, maltose, anything that ends in 'ose' (and steer clear of the artificial sweeteners they may do instead - they just feed your addiction).
The health and fitness industry will let you believe that these products will help you lose weight and then when you don't you are either doing it wrong or not doing enough and you should buy more, so you do and then you either stay the same or increase weight and the health and fitness industry gets richer.
There are much better ways to be spending your money than on weight loss products. My advice would be to get educated, learn about your body, take some time and invest in yourself and your body... it's only too late if you don't start now!
'For things to change you need to stop what you are doing'. Anon
Want to break free from your sugar addiction? Book your place on the next The Real Truth About Weight Loss seminar to find out how.
Alison Graham
Director at N4 Training,
Personal Trainer and Sports and Remedial Massage Therapist,
Completed 2 London Marathons and several half marathons