Tag Archives: fitness

Let’s Talk About Diet and Fitness

Let’s Talk About Diet and Fitness

Work with a partner or small group to practice your speaking and listening skills and talk about diet and fitness!

New Vocabulary   Mark the stressed vowel sound in each word or phrase:

  1. BMI
  2. bodybuilder
  3. calories
  4. cholesterol
  5. comfort food
  6. crash diet
  7. dietitian
  8. endurance
  9. fasting
  10. gains
  11. gym
  12. metabolism
  13. obesity
  14. personal trainer
  15. reps
  16. scales
  17. six-pack
  18. stamina
  19. veganism
  20. willpower

Discussion Questions   Ask and answer them with a partner or small group:

  1. Tell me about your diet. How healthy is it? Have you ever been on a diet? Did you have enough willpower to see it through? Did you see positive results on the scales? How many calories do you need to function each day? Do you consume too many or too few? Why? Why do some of the most delicious foods contain the most calories? Is a slow metabolism a barrier to losing weight?
  2. Do you think crash diets work? What is your favourite diet? Is it effective? Why do we find it easy to diet for a few days rather than a few months? Is it possible to change deeply ingrained behaviour? How?
  3. How often do you eat comfort food? What is your favourite? Why are the foods we love so bad for us? Why does the human body crave sugar and fats? Is there an evolutionary reason?
  4. Do you know your BMI (body mass index)? Is this kind of statistic important to you? Why? / Why not?
  5. Have you ever checked your cholesterol level? How did you do it? What was the result? Are you concerned about obesity? Why is it important to reduce the level of cholesterol in our bodies by eating right? Which foods should we avoid to have low cholesterol, and which should we consume?
  6. Do you go to the gym? How many reps do you do on each machine? Are you obsessed with gains – i.e. getting results from your training? Do you use a personal trainer? How do they help you reach your goal? Why do so many people join a gym in January but quit in February? Do you stay motivated? How?
  7. Would you like to become a bodybuilder? Why? / Why not? Why do some people want to have large muscles? How do they get them? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of giant muscles?
  8. What does a dietitian do? Imagine a day in the life of a dietitian. Have you ever used their services? Do you like taking advice from other people regarding what to eat and drink? If not, why not?
  9. Do you prefer endurance training or short intense bursts of training, e.g. HIIT (high-intensity interval training). Why? Have you ever run a marathon or swum a thousand metres? Do you have enough stamina?
  10. How many times do you eat during the day and at night? Do you think you eat too much? Fasting is the habit of going without food for 16 or 18 hours per day. Is it a good weight-loss method for you?
broccoli

Eat up your greens – they’re good for you!

English Idioms and Quotations about Diet and Fitness   Say a new sentence with each idiom:

  1.  ‘15% gym, 85% diet. Abs are made in the kitchen, not the workout room.’ – Anonymous
  2. a little of what you fancy does you good
  3. an apple a day keeps the doctor away
  4. be as fit as a fiddle
  5. be in good shape / out of shape
  6. eat to live, not live to eat
  7. feel the burn
  8. ‘Food is the most abused anxiety drug… and exercise is the most… underutilized antidepressant.’ – Bill Phillips, Author
  9. go for it!
  10. gym bunny
  11. have a sweet tooth
  12. lose your spare tyre
  13. no pain, no gain
  14. pig out
  15. see something through
  16. stick to something
  17. you are what you eat

Discussion Situations about Diet and Fitness   What would you do if…?

  1. Your friend has given up meat, dairy, and all animal products, and tries to convince you to embrace the benefits of veganism.
  2. You are too embarrassed to use the equipment at the gym – apart from the treadmill – in case you are doing it all wrong.
  3. You would like to cut out refined sugar, but your housemates keep buying sweet treats and leaving them in the kitchen.
  4. Your partner leaves you for a bodybuilder with a six-pack.
  5. Your sweet tooth is rapidly leading to a spare tyre.
  6. You don’t know how to cook, so how can you eat healthily?
  7. You go jogging but get lost in the forest.
  8. Your uncle Tony goes on a crash diet and loses 50 kilos (8 stone). He looks and feels like a completely different person.
  9. You are happy being overweight and eating whatever you like, but your family wants you to join a gym and lose weight.
  10. While out jogging you are overtaken by a child on a tricycle.
  11. Your doctor keeps warning that your cholesterol is too high.
  12. Your personal trainer won’t stop checking his emails while you are feeling the burn.
  13. Your local all-night garage runs out of soya milk and quinoa.
  14. You visit a dietitian but they are disgusted by your food diary.

Talking about Pictures

  1. Describe the pictures below.
  2. Discuss them.
  3. Compare them.
  4. Create a quiz about them using different question types: comprehension, wh-, yes/no, true/false/unknown, etc.
  5. Improvise a dialogue or story.

Picture A:

Let's Talk About... Diet and Fitness - Picture A

Let’s Talk About… Diet and Fitness – Picture A

Picture B:

Let's Talk About... Diet and Fitness - Picture B

Let’s Talk About… Diet and Fitness – Picture B

Answers:

Let's Talk About… Diet and Fitness - Answers

Let’s Talk About… Diet and Fitness – Answers

Note: vowel sounds are indicated with Clear Alphabet. For more about Clear Alphabet, please click here.


 Images: https://www.canva.com/; Irina Ilina from Pixabay; Sander Dalhuisen & Trust “Tru” Katsande (both from https://unsplash.com/)


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Learn 20 New English Phrasal Verbs! Doreen’s Problem

sharonang / Pixabay

a) Translate fifteen phrasal verbs connected with diet and fitness below. Read the dialogue then complete each gap with the correct form of one of the phrasal verbs:

Doreen is talking to her good friend Barbara at a bus stop:

Doreen: ‘You know, Bar, I just can’t seem to 1. _______________. It doesn’t matter what I do. I 2. _______________ for that gym in December, the one that I told you about, and I’ve been 3. _______________ there really intensively, you know, to try and 4. _______________ the calories – honest! – but it’s just no use. When I get home from work there’s my husband Bazza tucking into a lovely chicken sandwich, and I can’t help but join him. After that I might fill up on crisps and popcorn, then in the evening I’ll probably 5. _______________ a few more chicken sandwiches in the kitchen… It’s no wonder that I 6. _______________ weight, is it, Bar?’

Barbara: ‘I don’t know. Maybe you’re just big-boned. Do you still 7. _______________ at different restaurants every weekend?’

Doreen: ‘Yes, but I always mean to have the healthy option. You know, I can’t help wolfing down a delicious plate of chicken and chips and then 8. _______________ a huge cake for pudding.’

Barbara: ‘You know, you mustn’t pig out, Doreen! How many times do I need to tell you? It’s no good for your body. You know, you’ve got to cut back on your food, right, and 9. _______________ your calorific intake.’

Doreen: ‘You what, Bar?’

Barbara: ‘Try to 10. _______________ the fatty food and sweets for a few weeks, and 11. _______________ the crisps for good. Have you thought about 12. _______________ jogging? That would help you to 13. _______________ the calories in a controlled kind of way.’

Doreen: ‘I did try that once – with Bazza. We were exhausted after a few hundred metres and walked to the nearest pub, where we met some pals and 14. _______________ a few drinks – and the landlady 15. _______________ a fabulous chicken pie…!’

b) Find five more phrasal verbs connected with eating in the text. Translate them and write two sentences with each phrasal verb.




Answers:

a) 1. slim down. 2. signed up. 3. working out. 4. burn off. 5. knock up. 6. put on. 7. eat out. 8. putting away. 9. cut down. 10. cut out. 11. give up. 12. taking up. 13. work off. 14. knocked back. 15. dished up.

b) tuck into; fill up on; wolf down; pig out; cut back. Answers will vary.