We are now well into The National's fitness challenge and it is clear that attitudes are changing.
The workout of the day (WOD) group, one of the three groups that staff members have been put into, has had two weeks of gruelling sessions that have left us with immobilising pain in muscles we never knew we had – and yet, we keep going back for more. We are done with complaining.
But now we have to change what we eat and, for some of us, that’s going to be the even harder step.
Last week, the WOD group met dietician Fatima Sadek from the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre. There was no talk of fad diets, no detox juices, no zero-carb diets or vegan anything. Sadek’s nutrition plan is a smart, balanced diet that isn’t really a diet at all.
“Never follow a diet,” Sadek says. “The worst way to live is to live a daily struggle with food. If you’re balancing your calories from the different food groups, you should be healthy.”
That's something Mary Gayen, a copy editor at The National, was happy to hear.
“I definitely like [Sadek’s] take on not dieting,” she says. “It annoys me how people go on about diets. It was encouraging to know that I won’t fail just because I am not on some extreme diet.”
Sadek started with the basics of healthy eating – which many of us forget – and during a 90-minute session broke down what healthy eating really looks like.
She stressed the importance of counting calories correctly – a task many of us don’t do well.
“The biggest issue is for people to identify how much they’re eating,” says Sadek. “I have people say, ‘I eat very healthy. I don’t know why I’m not losing weight.’ But as soon as they actually count calories, they find they’re eating excessive amounts.”
We might remember to count the calories in the bread or pasta we are eating – but are we accurately counting the calories in the butter on the bread or the oil in that pasta sauce?
This is important – one tablespoon of butter has 100 calories, and a tablespoon of oil has 120.
“Some people think fruits don’t have calories or that they can have as many fruits as they want,” adds Sadek. “It’s totally not true. One serving of fruit is 60 calories.”
"The concept of calorie counting was new to me, and it makes a lot of sense," says Rosemary Behan, The National's travel editor.
“Now I’m eating smaller portions, inspired by the fact that it’s an easy way to slash your calorie intake. If you can’t change your diet, just cutting down on the amount that you eat will have an effect.”
Sadek says portion control is indeed important, but you also need to make sure you get enough key nutrients. It is vital that you read food labels, paying close attention to the amount of calories, fat and fibre – try to choose food that has more than 5g of fibre per serving.
“Fibre is very similar to a sponge,” says Sadek. “Every time you eat fibre, it’s as if you’re passing a sponge through your digestive tract. You’re cleaning your body from the inside.
“It also absorbs carbs and fats and it becomes very hard for the body to absorb them back. This is why fruits and vegetables and whole grains are very important, because they are very rich in fibre.”
Your level of activity is closely linked to how many calories your body needs. Since the WOD group is burning thousands of calories each week at Haddins Fitness, we all wanted to know how to fuel our bodies before workouts and how to refuel them afterward.
Sadek told us what we were all hoping to hear: “You should not be on a low-carb diet when exercising. We need carbs to help build muscles and it helps with recovery as well. And to build your muscles, you need protein. You have to have the right balance between carbs and proteins.”
To get the most out of our workouts, Sadek suggests having a balanced, healthy meal four hours before exercise. Two hours before the workout, have a snack, such as half a cup of oats with berries. An hour before exercising, she suggests eating a piece of fruit.
“That will help you fuel your muscles and be ready to exercise without feeling fatigued,” she says. “And it will help you build your muscles after the exercise.”
Still, she acknowledges, this is not the only way to achieve success and different approaches suite some people better.
“Some people exercise in the morning without eating,” Sadek says. “It’s not right or wrong. That will help you burn fat. But within one hour after the workout, try to have a meal so that you are completely refuelling your muscles and replenishing your body. There really isn’t a right or wrong answer.”
While Sadek did not assign a strict diet plan to the WOD group, she did gives us plenty of tips that should help our waistlines long after our fitness challenge ends. We all walked away with motivation, inspiration and fresh ideas on how to eat smarter.
“I just wish we had had the meeting before I ate a 180 gram bag of Doritos,” says Behan as we leave. But don’t worry, she adds, “The other two packs have been hidden in my building’s store room.”
sjohnson@thenational.ae
