Do you know what you are eating every day?

A simple question, with an apparently obvious answer. Or is it?

I suspect that if you were to write down everything that you eat and drink over a 24-hour period you would be surprised, even shocked. It's easy to forget the odd biscuit, packet of crisps, sugar-enriched coffee, or soft drink, as they blur together throughout the day.

As for business lunches, well I have had enough of them in the past to know the route that can take you down if you are (un)lucky enough to have a few in your schedule. In those circumstances it can be very hard to quantify exactly what you are eating, unless you go for the plainest food on offer.

However, if you try this as an exercise, writing down what you eat or drink as accurately as possible, and then take the trouble to calculate the approximate calories in everything which you have consumed, the odds are that they will be higher than 2500 (for an average male) or 2000 (for an average female).

The good news? If you exercise well, and regularly, you can consume more than that amount of calories, unless you want to lose weight. The even better news, however, is that once you have embarked upon an exercise regime of some sort, you will find that the benefits of fitness trump your dietary cravings and you will tend to lose the desire to consume anything which will negatively affect your new-found fitness.

The Passion Killer

There is nothing that kills the passion for a lavish meal as much as the recognition that it will take several days of additional exercise before you can return to your newly svelte shape. Nevertheless, it is worth it sometimes!

As an example of this, I can point to the exercise sequence which you can start today, as part of the 90-Day Easy Fitness for Over 50s Challenge.

The following are just warm-up exercises, before the full routine begins: 

The first exercise is part of the warm-up sequence, and involves standing on your toes, stretching upwards, then returning your feet to the ground and bending forwards to touch your toes (or as close to them as you can comfortably reach). Repeat this for 10 toe touches in total for now.

A fit person could easily manage 30 of these, but I would be inclined to increase this - and all the forthcoming exercises - by up to 50% for a couple of days after I have eaten or drunk excessively. That would normally take care of any significant calorie intake, and would normalise my body once again, removing feelings of sluggishness. This is easy to do once you have become fit enough, and your fitness then lies within your own hands, to maintain or improve at will.

The second warm-up exercise is to stand with your feet approximately 25-30 cm apart, placing your hands behind your head, then lean to one side as far as you can. You will feel the pull on the opposite side, around your waistline. Hold briefly, then straighten up and repeat to the other side. You should build up progressively over a number of days to complete 20 repetitions in total.

Over the next few days I will be introducing more warm-up exercises, followed by the main routine. If you are already reasonably fit you may be finding this progression somewhat slow, but rest assured that it will be worth it if you stick with the schedule.

I have no way of knowing how fit or unfit you may be, nor your age, sex, or medical condition, unlike the detailed knowledge I normally have of each client within the Easy Fitness program, which is a bespoke service tailored exactly to each requirement. Because you may well have not undertaken any significant exercise for several months, or years, and perhaps be more than a few pounds heavier than the optimum, I have a responsibility to ensure that you begin at a low level at this early stage.

However, if you can do more without stress, by all means do so.

Nutrition and Diet

Being fit means you have no need to diet, in the sense of feeling the need to lose weight. However, when I use the word diet, I refer to a good diet, a healthy diet, foods that should keep you healthier over time. I recommend the Mediterranean diet - and more specifically the traditional Greek diet - which is known to be one of the healthiest diets in the world.

Lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, infrequent consumption of red meat, and few foods which are lacking in genuine nutrition.

I would encourage you to try it, and compare the results with what you may have discovered your present diet looks like, having taken a snapshot over a 24-hour period.

After all, you can look fit superficially by exercising well, but that can hide what goes on inside.