Drop a Size in Two Weeks Flat! plus Collins GEM Calorie Counter Set. Joanna Hall

but spent the rest of the time immersed in the convenience culture. So what about those other 165 hours? Move more, more often!

       PUTTING THE MOVE MORE CONCEPT INTO PRACTICE

      It’s a really simple concept and it’s free – it’s about being creative with your available time to expend more energy without putting on your gym clothes. If you can navigate your day to find opportunities to move you body, you will find it makes a big impact on your daily calorie burn and your health.

       WALK THIS WAY

      It’s been known for a long time that walking is good for our health, but the exciting thing is that we are now able to quantify this. Studies have shown that we need to walk a minimum of 4000 steps a day to achieve minimum health, 7000 steps a day can contribute to fitness, and 10,000 steps a day to weight loss. An hour’s walk, five days a week, also helped women reduce their cholesterol levels significantly in a recent study. Taking 10,000 steps a day roughly equates to a calorie expenditure of 500 calories. If you manage this for seven consecutive days, that is equivalent to 3500 calories, which leaves you potentially 1lb of fat lighter. But the really good news is we can accumulate these steps right through the day. You don’t have to do them all in one go. That is why in Get a Grip I tried to get you into the habit of taking walks throughout the day.

      When I started the plan, I thought exercise was going to be a problem, as with two children, I never seem to have time to do anything for me. I take the children to school, go to work, pick the children up, take them dancing, swimming or to gymnastics, make their evening meal and then it’s time for bed. When Joanna asked me to think about whether I was mentally active, geographically active or physically active, I realized that, although I’m constantly on the go, I am normally just driving from one place to another or sitting down for hours on end. I now swim while the children are dancing and walk while they’re swimming. Now fitting in exercise isn’t a problem at all. Carol

       TAKE A MINUTE

      If you have a desk-bound job, try to get up and move your body for 60 seconds every hour. In an average working day that could be an extra 8 minutes of exercise you are currently not doing. OK, it may not sound much, but if you did that five times a week that is an extra 40 minutes of physical activity that you are currently not doing. If you are able to move your body for 2 minutes each hour of the working day, that would equate to an extra 1 hour and 20 minutes of physical exercise – well worth the effort!

       DON’T LABOR SAVE, LABOR SPEND!

      We are surrounded by labor-saving devices and gadgets. You don’t need to get up to switch TV channels, or answer the phone, you can stay in touch by email or cellphone – you don’t have to do washing by hand or even put any effort into mashing potatoes! An American study recently reported that using email for 5 minutes out of every hour in your working day will cause a pound of weight gain a year – that’s 10lb of surplus fat in the next decade!

      All of this labor-saving is adding to our waistlines and undermining our health, so think of one labor-saving gadget you could do without and put it away – or even better, get rid of it all together. The list below provides some ideas.

       ACCUMULATE ACTIVITY

      You may now be a regular exerciser, but outside of your allocated training times you neglect your base physical-activity levels. Accumulating physical activity throughout the day has been shown to positively improve our health, and incorporating this consistently can have a big impact on the total energy we burn each day. Here are some ideas:

       Always walk up the stairs

       Leave your cellphone in the other room, so you have to move to answer it

       Think of something you do religiously each day (such as watch a favorite TV show or even brush your teeth!) and resolve to move your body for 5–10 minutes beforehand

       Walk for 10 minutes before buying lunch

       Walk up moving escalators

       Park the car at the farthest end of the parking lot

       Get off your bus a couple of stops before your usual stop and walk

       Resolve to always walk to mail a letter, buy a newspaper, etc.

       Increase your walking pace by 10 percent

       Walk an extra block to collect your lunch

       Walk to the next bus stop rather than the one nearest your home

       Don’t email colleagues in the building – get up and talk to them

       When you are shopping, only use a cart if it’s absolutely necessary. Otherwise carry it in a basket

       Do 10 squats or counter push-ups every time you are waiting for the coffee to brew

       Stand up on the train or bus rather than sitting

      The great thing about physical activity is that it can be achieved without you having to put on your gym clothes. While there are certainly good reasons to do structured exercise (see point 3), if you get into the habit of being more physically active on a daily basis you will find it a great support strategy when life becomes a little too hectic to stick with your structured exercise sessions. Remember, our ancestors didn’t have gyms and they were far fitter and slimmer than we are!

      HABIT 2

       OPERATE THE STARCH CURFEW

      When you started the Get a Grip plan, you may have found the Starch Curfew, which effectively limits carbohydrate intake, a surprising strategy. After all, we’ve been told for years that carbohydrate is the nutrient of choice when it comes to health and weight control. But think about it: if the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet was the solution, obesity levels would surely have fallen, not risen, over the last couple of decades. The problem is, we’ve come to believe that as long as we don’t eat fat, we won’t get fat – and that simply isn’t the case. Too much of the wrong type of carbohydrate plays havoc with metabolism and blood sugar levels, which consequently affects satiety. Dr Walter Willett, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, points out that we shouldn’t be thinking of cutting out carbohydrates but simply being more choosy about the type of carbohydrate we eat. Initially, this can feel like a difficult strategy to take on. After all, most of us are accustomed to eating pasta, potatoes, or rice with our evening meal. But if you’re anything like our volunteers, you probably found that not only did you get used to starch-free