Lifestyle with Lynsey

In Scotland, a massive 65% of adults are overweight, with 29% of these people being classified as ‘obese’. Although this is a huge statistic, it is not a majorly shocking one as we all know how readily available convenience foods are.  With stores like Poundland, Home Bargains and B&M popping up in every town, it is becoming easier and easier for us to purchase ‘junk food’ items such as chocolate and crisps for a fraction of the price of most large supermarkets. This majorly contributes to the obesity problem in the UK as people who are strapped for cash have no option but to purchase the cheapest option which mostly will be processed rubbish.  For example in Tesco you can purchase a 2 litre bottle of lemonade for 50p however, a 750ml bottle of smoothie is £3! So for a student with a tight budget it is obvious that their decision will be swayed by the £2.50 price difference.  If people make a life choice to eat unhealthily then that is their decision but it then becom

As you know from a previous post ' Can Diets Make You Fat ' , I do not agree with Crash diets as they are very unsustainable, unhealthy, and weight gain is almost guaranteed when you inevitably give up after a week. So to elaborate on that, I wanted to write some more about sustainable living and my personal experience with dieting. Within a year of leaving school I had put on almost 2 stone. I had never been heavy before and it hit me hard, I couldn't fit into my clothes and the ones that did fit I felt too self conscious to wear. I decided to put myself on a ‘diet’ (by this, I mean I cut out all the rubbish I was eating and had very small portions for breakfast lunch and dinner) - I was miserable and my family were fed up with my constant moods. The weeks went on and I was never losing weight and became obsessed with calorie counting. Looking back, I was uneducated and my ‘diet plan’ was completely unsustainable.  My mum could see that it wasn't working for m

Do you have a sweet tooth? The poll I posted on twitter showed that many of you do. The results displayed that 42% of the 83 people who voted, said that chocolate was the ‘junk food’ item they craved the most when trying to eat healthily.  Not to worry, I have some good news for all you chocoholics out there. It is proven that you are more likely to stick to a healthy eating regime when you satisfy your cravings. By this, I do not mean you can binge on chocolate and sweets all day and still expect to see results on the scales. But there are many ways that chocolate can be incorporated into healthy diet. It makes it sustainable, so that you can still enjoy all your favourite foods. In todays post, I have decided to provide two of my favourite healthy chocolatey snacks.   1. Dark Chocolate   I'm afraid a bar on Galaxy doesn't quite cut it. But dark chocolate which is more then 70% cocoa, lacks all the added fat and sugar of classic milk chocolate and can

Many of you reading this are students, and are very well acquainted with stress eating before that big exam. Or stumbling home with a Kebab at 3am might sound a little more familiar. Either way, we all eat junk food.   Why? Because its cheap, and lets be honest, we’re all skint! Because we simply don't have time to whip up a fresh meal everyday To be quite honest, it tastes amazing! Even if you are not a student, we all eat our fair share of rubbish. However, when it comes to junk food how much is too much? In the UK, over 100 million take-aways and ready meals are being consumed each week. With young adults aged between 18-24 being more reliant on convenience foods than any other age group.  Many people are unaware they are even eating junk food. Chances are, your microwave dinner is just as bad as eating a Big Mac Meal. Additives and chemicals are far more common than most people know. Those ‘fresh chicken bites’ that have an expiry date of June next year, ha

These days everyone wants a quick fix. Need that new jacket? There’s next day delivery. Craving that pizza? Order it and it’ll be at your door in 20 minutes. Weight loss is no different. People want to drink a magic green juice before they go to bed, and wake up a size 8. Its unrealistic.  However, it doesn't stop us trying everything in the book to make it work. There’s the ‘Cabbage soup diet’, the ’Vinegar Diet’, even to the extreme ‘Baby food diet’. People will try anything to lose a quick 10lbs before an event. In theory it all sounds great, until reality hits when you sit down to a plate of baby food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The truth is that these diets are very unsustainable and are a short term answer to weight loss. According to the Clinical director of weight and eating disorders program at the University of Pennsylvania, only 5% of people who go on crash diets keep the weight off.  You know yourself, the minute you decide you’re going to deprive you