| 1. | When am I most physically active? |
| - between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. | |
| - after 6 p.m. to bedtime | |
| 2. | When do I consume the majority of my food? |
| - between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. | |
| - after 6 p.m. to bedtime | |
| 3. | When is my willpower at its strongest? |
| - first thing in the morning | |
| - midday | |
| - mid-afternoon | |
| - evening |
Invariably what happens is there is a mismatch between when we need to receive energy from our food and when we are expending energy through our everyday activities. Generally we expend most energy between 7 a.m. in the morning and 6 p.m. in the evening. However, we actually receive the vast majority of our energy from food after 6 p.m. when we are less active. While some studies suggest that it makes no difference whether your calories from food are consumed during the day or all at night, what these studies fail to take into account is our personal willpower. At the end of the day when we are tired, especially when we have not eaten much during the day, willpower will be low and we will be much more likely to overeat. This means long-term there is a situation where at the end of each day there is actually a build up of excess calories which we are not burning off prior to going to bed – and these calories are being laid down in the fat cells as additional body fat. Carb Curfew will show you how to make the right food choices at the right time of the day, so you receive energy when you need it and you don’t end up with a build up of excess calories before you go to bed.
Your Attitude to Food
What we were introduced to as a child defines our relationship with food in later life. If you ate a lot of sugar and sweet things as you were growing up and your diet did not include a variety of tastes, it is likely you now crave calorie-dense sweet foods rather than savoury foods. Maybe your mother used to say to you, ‘You must finish everything on your plate’, and now you always finish everything on your plate thinking it is rude to leave even a morsel. Or alternatively you had a mother who was always on a diet and never ate the same food as the rest of the family. Our mums are great but we need to be aware of how their attitude to food influences our attitude to food later in life. These attitudes have had a long time to become ingrained and they will take a long time to diminish. Carb Curfew will help you re-evaluate your relationship with food, showing you how to draw up a sensible eating plan that will help you realize your weight and body fat goals, as well as providing a positive message for your children.
Your Motivation
What is your motivation to lose weight? Is it to squeeze into that little black dress for a certain event or is it about looking better for a significant A.N. Other? Whatever your motivation you need to identify it and shift it from an external motivation such as an important event to an internal one such as wanting to feel more in control of your eating habits, have more energy and feel better about yourself All of which translates into a strategy that you can incorporate and build on to achieve your long-term weight and body fat goals. Think about this: what we weigh in seven years will not be determined by what we do for the next seven minutes, seven hours or the next seven days but how well we eat for the next seven years. Following an action plan that you can keep to will be crucial – Carb Curfew will show you how to do this. Seeing results is a huge motivation and with a little effort that motivation can be your driving force.
Your Friends
Early on in your efforts you need to establish who are going to be saboteurs and supporters of your aims. Within your circle of friends and family there will be individuals who will encourage you and help you with your efforts. It is also likely there will be individuals who either intentionally or unintentionally try to hinder you – this may be because your effort and seeing you look and feel better makes them feel less comfortable or they are just genuinely unaware of their intentions. Identifying who are your diet friends and foes will help you apply the Carb Curfew strategies more effectively and successfully.
Personalizing the Diet
As you work through the book you will be able build up your own personal plan, using the nutritional strategies to help you realize your goals. It is important to understand that there is no one diet that works for everyone; instead Carb Curfew contains strategies that can accommodate many different lifestyles. As you read through think about the best method of fitting the strategies into your life, for instance which lunches are most appropriate if you work in an office, how you can reach your water intake goal while running after the kids all day, or how you can use the Carb Curfew concept to continue enjoying your busy social life.
A Final Word
So, remember, Carb Curfew is about losing weight whilst still living the life you wish to live. Yes, it does require a little bit of effort but you don’t have to make any big sacrifices or radical changes to your lifestyle to get the results you want – all you need to do is apply the four strategies outlined on pages 3–4 and you will achieve your weight and fat-loss goals not just for now, but for the future too.
Take Action
We all know we have to steer clear of a diet that contains too much fat and we feel proud of ourselves if we have said no to chocolate or ice-cream. So why are we still struggling with our weight and body fat? These days one of the most common reasons for our weight-loss frustrations is that we have come to rely on low-fat starches and we are lulled into a false sense of low-fat security, thinking we can eat more of these foods. A high consumption of starch however can provide more calories than we need. If we are unable to burn off these calories they become stored as fat, all of which leads to the scales and belt notches not moving in the direction we want.
So the first part of the Carb Curfew strategy is to operate