let them eat cake
Back in the day, we had a strict policy on cake in the Connections office. You had to buy everyone cake, or the alternative Greggs’ sausage roll, if it was your birthday, your anniversary of joining the company, your wedding anniversary, if you got engaged, married, pregnant, gave birth or divorced, if you made a placement, concluded a contract, did your target, made it to the end of the Q, enjoyed a promotion, celebrated a new starter, got a new girl/boyfriend or dumped the old one. Yep, cake, then, was pretty much a daily occurrence and piling on the pounds a constant worry. If only you could lose weight sitting at your desk…
In actual fact, burning off the ol’ blubber at work isn’t as difficult as you’d first think and it doesn’t mean you have to resort to biceps curls with lever-arch folders or chin-ups on the door-frame. Simply being a bit more active during the working day and watching exactly what you’re stuffing in your cake-hole can go along way to putting you on the right track.
I don’t know about you but I’m forever hearing people banging on about their metabolism and how the…er, larger ones amongst us, invariably have a slow one and that’s the reason for their seismic weight gain. There’s no denying that we all have different metabolic rates as we are all genetically unique but is this the whole story and do these people understand their metabolic rate? Basal metabolism is the amount of energy your body uses just to keep you living, pure and simple. Some have a higher rate than others and this means that at complete rest, their body burns more calories than those with a lower one. As activity burns calories, this naturally translates to those individuals with a high metabolic rate (ie more active) being able to consume more calories without increasing body-fat. Lucky b*ggers.
Your metabolism is affected by a number factors, principally your genes, your age and hence, maturation. Youngsters have a higher metabolic rate as they are constantly growing and building muscle and bone. As you get older it becomes slower and the dreaded middle-age spread makes an unwelcome and uninvited appearance. This is where you have to sit-up and take notice. It’s up to you to do something about it – either cut-back on the calories you’re putting into the engine or increase the amount of work the engine’s doing. It ain’t rocket-science. It’s all about taking personal responsibility for your own shape and your own health. Claiming a low metabolism by the time you get to this point ain’t cutting the ice and it’s more a case of slow on the up-take as opposed to slow on the burn-rate! You don’t really need to be Nobel-award-winning mathematical to get your head around the calorie-activity-weight equation.
Luckily, there are also a few ways you can boost and speed up your metabolic rate:
1. Eat regularly – small regular snacks keep your metabolic fire stoked, which in turn helps to burn more fuel ie calories. It also keeps your energy levels high, naturally encouraging more activity.
2. Protein’s good – Protein is more filling than carbohydrate, which will help you more easily control the number of calories over the course of the day. Lean chicken, tuna, hummous and cottage cheese all hit the mark.
3. Five a day – OK we all know it’s hard to achieve but it’s good for you, irrespective of the sugars within fruit. A handful of nuts (no, not salted or dry roasted with your after-work pint!) are also OK.
4. Move to the beat – Incidental exercises like taking the stairs, moving more quickly, carrying the shopping, occasionally walking somewhere as opposed to taking the car, or even standing up when on the phone, will all increase your calorie burn rate.
5. Get sweaty – I don’t care what you do just make sure you get hot and sweaty at least once a day!
6. Make mine a green tea – Many supplements and products claim to be ‘metabolic-boosting’ but the only one that has been shown to consistently achieve this is green tea. If you can put up with the taste be my guest and put the kettle on.
If all else fails, resist the temptation and don’t be the first to the cake-stand but wait until all the other gannets have descended and had their fill of éclairs, tarts and pastries. All that’ll be left is the marzipan swirl and coconut macaroon and you’d have to be far greedier than you are to have one of those!
