Weight Loss Guru

Yesterday at the gym at 6.30 am. Resistance first then cardio. Quite enjoying early morning exercise. I feel invigorated for the day. Lots of messages of support from my work friends and patients. Continued support from my loved ones. Followed Amanda's nutrition plan throughout the day and not missing any foods. Ate at friends last night - baked salmon and stir fried veggies - delicious. Suddenly became very tired and found it difficult to keep my eyes open when driving home. Really wanted caffeine but refrained and slept like a baby. I feel pretty good and really motivated.

The kind folks at Telegraph.co.uk have put up one of my clips too.

Here's some excerpts from the first of a series of pieces in The Daily Telegraph: 

...Through this specially designed programme I’m going to personally coach you, support you and guide you every step of the way so that you learn how to take on the habits necessary to not only lose weight but keep it off FOREVER! Through a simple four-step process and a unique set of daily coaching videos I’m going to give you all of the support, encouragement and motivation you’ll need to reach your goal.... Access free trial or sign up at a £10 discount for a unique video and e-mail based weight loss program. No meetings, no weigh-ins, no dietary analysis, no exercise routines.. Just a simple, easy-to-follow, 28 day weight-loss programme where you'll learn to apply habit changing tools for a healthier lifestyle.

Read more at telegraph.co.uk/health... 

This week sees the start of The Daily Telegraph newspaper's feature on my weight loss website petecohen.tv. There will be some interesting editorial that I know you will enjoy reading.  The feature starts this Tuesday (tomorrow) and runs through till Thursday. Pick up a Telegraph if you can...

I remember growing up hearing my mum say to me that “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”...

I heard this so many times it became a very strong belief and I've made a habit out of eating them regularly to improve my health and to 'keep the doctor away'. What about you? Also, do you know what makes an apple so special?

Why is it that we never hear that an orange, or even a banana a day keeps-the-doctor-away? An apple has a combination of properties that no other fruits have and the benefits have been proven over time. Of course you could match the health potential of an apple with other fruits but it would require a bit of a cocktail, whereas an apple combines everything and keeps it simple.

Apples also contain Vitamin C which greatly helps your immune system. A lot of people who lack Vitamin C in their diet have poor healing, bruise easily and have bleeding gums. Your apple is also low in calories; a regular size apple has between 70-100 calories and eating an apple when a craving for chocolate occurs can relieve the desire since the apple contains sugar, but gives you only ¼ of the calories.

On average, British people consume around 20 pounds of apples a year, which comes in at around 1 apple per person, per week. Unfortunately, while an apple a week is better than nothing, it is nowhere close to being able to harness the advantages apples have to offer.

Eating apples is part of a balanced and healthy diet approach than can increase your longevity. So, why limit yourself to only 1 per week - how about one a day? Keep the chocolate away!

Our fabulous Inch Loss Girls have agreed to make some posts on the blog in the coming weeks... they've also got access to my petecohen.tv on-line weight-loss programme. So, if you're interested in learning some more Inch Loss secrets, watching their progress and even offering some words of encouragement, please watch this space. You can get an RSS feed here or subscribe to the blog-feed by email here so you don't forget to come back. See you soon. Pete

Well it’s Friday and Inch Loss Island has come to an end. Our recruits have done so well, not only losing weight but also loads of inches!

Gail
Lost 8 pounds
Lost a total of 15½ inches
On her hips she was 53 inches - now 49 inches
She’s gone down three dress sizes

Kaz
Lost 9 pounds
Lost a total of 14½ inches
On her waist she was 54 and is now 49 inches
She's gone down nearly 3 dress sizes

Karen
Lost 10 pounds
Lost 13½ inches
She lost 4 inches off her chest
She has gone down 2 dress sizes

It has been such a pleasure to work with them as they where really up for it. The real challenge starts now as they return to the real world. We will keep in touch with them and support them as best as we can. GMTV plan for us to go back and see them in May so watch this space.

It has also been fab working with personal trainer Mark Anthony and Nutritionist, Amanda Hamilton. We have formed a great team and plan to work together to inspire people to lose weight, get fit, increase their energy and live the dream. We are planning to do a workshop together in London in May. I will keep you all informed.

Thanks for all your support this week

It’s the fourth day of Inch Loss and what a great time we’ve had. I am sure our three girls have lost weight and inches. They look great, their fitness levels have gone through the roof, and the day detox they did has given them a whole load of energy. The session they did with Anton De Beke was so funny but not as funny as getting me to do the dance with them live on GMTV yesterday. I just hope no one saw me as I was trying to hide at the back.

Yesterday saw me do some dynamic karate style board breaking on GMTV. I then got our three recruits to have a go but only Kazza was able to break it. Gail and Karen failed but their determination was great and after the show they had another go where they succeeded. This was filmed and will be shown live on GMTV today. It was all a good exercise for them because just like in the real world; we don’t always get results when we try things for the first time.

Many peoples attitudes affect the results they get and all too often when people fail at something, they give up. I believe the exercise will benefit our ladies because when they return to the real world I am sure there will be days when things don’t work out and they feel like giving up.  I think our ladies won’t because they know that in order to win, you need to learn to get comfortable with making mistakes as success is on the other side failure.

Amanda Hamilton, Mark Anthony and myself have become great friends and love working together so much so that we have decided to run some events together in the future to inspire people to lose weight and improve their health.  Watch this space and I will let you know where and when these events will take place as you might like to attend.

Take care everybody

If you can boil a potato you can make soup, even if you’ve never tried before. Now that there are good quality fresh soups sold in cartons, it’s easy to enjoy soup more often, but they are expensive to buy. You can make your own in large batches and freeze some in individual portions ready for when you need to eat in a hurry.

The Facts
For the past few years various soups have been associated with diet programmes, the ‘Cabbage Soup’ diet being the most famous: The Cabbage Soup diet (or yummy yum diet, as it’s also known) still attracts a big following by promising ten pounds of weight loss in a week. As only two pounds of that could possibly be fat there doesn’t seem to be much point in it and certainly doesn’t sound like fun.

But don’t let that put you off your soup, because soup is great and there’s even some evidence that it really can help you lose weight.

In a recent study normal weight women are given a lunch of either chicken and rice casserole, chicken and rice casserole plus a glass of water, or chicken and rice soup. The soup contained the same ingredients as the casserole, but the women who ate the soup felt much fuller on fewer calories. Drinking water with the casserole made no difference. Interestingly, the ones who ate the soup didn’t go on to make up the calorie deficit later in the day.

Elizabeth Bell, one of the researchers, said, ‘A lot of the explanation is physiological. The women were presented with a huge bowl of food and it felt like a lot. If it could trick normal weight women, who successfully regulate their food intake, then it could be more successful with overweight women whose food regulation is less good.’

That seems to show that the best way to lose weight is to eat normally but, where you can, substitute vegetables and watery things for fat and high energy, dense food. But it doesn’t have to be cabbage soup – in fact, the more variety you can introduce into your soup the better.

Making your own soup... 

Serves: 4-6. Cooking Time: 15-30 minutes

Be adventurous and make up your own soups with your favourite ingredients and seasonings. See what you have in the fridge or store cupboard, use leftovers and take the opportunity to buy fresh foods that are cheap and in season.

What you need: 

• 500g-1kg/1lb 2oz-2lb 4oz solids: vegetables, canned tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans, potatoes, rice, onions, garlic, pasta, etc.

• 1-1.5 litres/1½-2½ pints meat or vegetable stock, seasonings, spices and flavourings

How to do it: 

1. Simply sauté the chopped onion, garlic and any other hard vegetables in a tablespoon of oil, or soften and turn them a light golden brown, which brings out their sweetness and flavour.

2. Using a non-stick pan and covering it while you sauté the vegetables, so that they sweat as well as fry will mean using less oil, (you can speed up things by leaving out this stage and simply cooking all the ingredients together but it won’t taste as good).

3. Next add any softer vegetables (like tomatoes) and beans, rice, pasta, etc., plus the stock or water and simmer until everything is tender.

4. Taste and adjust seasonings. Decide whether you want to eat rough and chunky, blended with hand held blender bar until roughly chopped with a bit of texture, or completely liquidised until it’s velvety smooth.

Soupy Suggestions...