Does this distract you?

Almost certainly. You should keep the doughnut tray away from your desk area because, according to 2017 research from Johns Hopkins University in the US, junk food is twice as distracting as the healthy stuff. When volunteers were shown carrots and apples or non-food imagery during complicated tasks, they slowed down, but high-calorie, high-fat foodstuffs saw double the damage. Eating a fun-sized snack bar before testing eliminated the effect (though that’s not helpful for dieters).

Other studies suggest you’ll eat more when food’s in view – so nab the desk away from the vending machine

Walk off the wobble

For some people looking to drop significant amount of weight, strapping on a pair of running shoes may not be an option. If a run hurts too much, try burning calories by walking.

Indoors
If you decide to join a gym, commit to walking three to five days per week for 20 minutes per session.
Once that’s easy, step it up. Think in tens – a 10 percent increase in the amount of time you’re walking or a 10
percent increase in your incline or speed.

To keep from getting bored, set goals. If it usually takes you 10
minutes to cover a kilometre, aim for nine minutes next time

.
Outdoors
If you’d rather start outside, you should still plan on walking three to five days per week for at least 20 minutes. Begin at your
regular pace. When you’re ready to go harder, look for a
marker (a telegraph pole or a stop sign) 40 metres ahead of
you and walk as fast as you can until you hit it. Then return to
your regular speed.
Repeat every couple of minutes so you can slowly build up your
conditioning level.
Basically, it’s beginner level interval training.

Your goal
keep walking regularly until you can clear 5km in less than 60 minutes. Once you can do that, you should be ready to move on to running.

Pulp fiction

Did you know that a glass of fruit juice contains as much sugar as a can of Coke or a bar of chocolate?
Or that drinking your five-a-day in a fruit smoothie can increase your risk of gaining body fat, rather than reducing it? See, many of the essential nutrients that make fruit so good for you, such
as fibre, are found in the peel, pulp and core, which are all discarded in the juicing process.

People who eat whole pieces of fruit are less likely to get obesity-related type 2 diabetes, while drinking fruit juice puts you at an increased risk, according to research from the British Medical Association. If you do whizz up a batch of juice, leave the skin and pulp in (and the lid on).

To get the most nutrients, eat your fruit whole and skip the juice.