March 29, 2024

Teens and Fitness by Maggie Ayre

The Safest and Most Effective Way for a Teen to Get Fit This Summer

From about the age of 14 we begin to think about our bodies and become body conscious. From this age many teens start wanting to look fit.

As a teenager I always felt fat and went from one diet to the next trying to lose weight. Now when I look at photos of myself as a teen I can’t believe how skinny I was. It’s lucky I was never any good at sticking to diets because I really didn’t have any excess weight to lose. Now that you’ve heard that, you may be thinking I’m crazy giving girls, many of whom are in the same situation, tips to lose body fat. But, that’s the great thing about my approach, if you’re slim/skinny and you follow them nothing will happen, you’re not going to get too thin following these tips like you may do following a calorie controlled diet, your energy levels wont drop, you wont get poorly, you won’t become grey and withdrawn in your complexion. In fact, the worst that will happen is that you will get healthier! Having said that, if you do have excess fat that you should really be shifting for health then these tips will be highly effective in helping you achieve your aims.

Getting a fit body comes down to a combination of healthy diet and exercise. Some diets encourage you to starve yourself to lose a few inches from your waist line, but this is counterproductive – starvation actually encourages the body to store fat. Instead learn to listen to your body and eat when you are hungry – but eat healthily.

Let’s educate our teens on the healthy and sustainable way to a fit AND healthy body! Start to include the following seven ingredients in your diet:

Nuts and seeds – a great filling snack, especially when combined with grapes, raisins, apricots or other fruit.

Berries and citrus fruit – bursting with Vitamin C which helps our bodies burn fat when we exercise. In fact research suggests that consuming insufficient quantities of vitamin C can severely hamper any efforts to lose weight.

Eggs – packed full of nutrients eggs at breakfast will leave you feeling fuller for longer.

Fish – the omega-3 in fish improves insulin sensitivity which helps build muscle and decrease belly fat.

Lentils – high in proteins and soluble fibre lentils are a proven belly flattener!

Yoghurt – natural live Greek yoghurt can boost your body’s fat burning mechanism, speed weight loss and trim your belly. But don’t be tempted by fat free or flavoured versions with lots of added ingredients instead flavour your own yoghurt with honey, raspberries or other fruit.

Water – if you want a fit body you must drink plenty of water. Eight glasses a day, every day is about right.

Maggie Ayre is the UKs leading Fitness Coach for Teen Girls. As well as one-to-one and small group nutrition and fitness work with teens she has developed the 3G Program designed to be run at schools as part of the PE curriculum. She also offers mentoring for PE departments on how to re-engage teen girls with PE and has recently published her third book; “Nutrition for Exam Success – A Parent’s Guide” which is now available as a Kindle and paperback at Amazon. For more information go to www.maggieayre.com or www.femalefitnessrevolution.com

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