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?

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

Picture B:

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

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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