Working in the fitness industry I see peaks and troughs,for example every December as New Years day approaches, many promise themselves to finally lose weight and transform their body. By February the vast majority have ‘fallen off the wagon’. Then, as Summer approaches and Summer holidays are imminent, I see those peaks again with many desperate to get a beach body for their upcoming holiday. Do any of these situations sound like you? If they do let me tell you why you are failing with your resolutions and short term goals.
The mere fact that many of these situations are short term goals, short term fixes with an end date.
Transformations should be a lifestyle,not a short term transformation do you really want to lose weight and keep repeating that vicious cycle?!
Short term goals usually require extreme measures and extreme measures can NEVER be sustained.
Implementing a crash diet or an intense vigorous fitness program is a sure way to set yourself up to fail long term and ensure you give up very quickly,especially if you have gone from eating a poor diet high in calories with little to no training, to a crash diet low in calories and training intensely 6 days a week,chances are you will not be able t sustain such an extreme change.
You must think of your transformation as a life long journey and not a sprint.Why would you want to be in shape for a few weeks then go back to being out of shape for the greater majority of the year?
The road to personal health & fitness is your journey and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, encourage you, motivate you but nobody can walk it for you.So take the time to plan your journey carefully and with thought.
As diet plays the biggest role in a successful transformation,below are some of my diet tips so you don’t quit, they are ones that I implement for myself and are the same ones that all of my successful clients have incorporated into their own fitness journeys- so they work!
Diet tip 1 -Unrealistic goals, unrealistic expectations and aiming for perfection. First thing’s first, if you need to lose weight you must remember your weight gain did not happen overnight so you cannot expect your weight loss to happen overnight. I understand this may not be what you want to read but it is important. Until you are prepared to give yourself at least the same amount of time to lose the weight as you did putting it on, every day will be a very difficult mental and physical battle for you and when your stress levels rise, when the body is stressed your cortisol levels are raised and when your cortisol levels are raised fat/weight loss pretty much STOP DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS
Diet tip 2. Set smaller goals. You should only be aiming to lose a maximum of two pounds per week in weight. This ensures that your weight loss is mainly body fat rather than muscle. At the start of any new diet weight loss can be high but this is mainly water weight at the beginning and will almost certainly slow down. So do not be disheartened, slow and steady is the best way to get in shape and stay in shape.
Diet tip 3– Slip ups happen! It’s a given. It’s human to slip up. Everybody does it. What is important is that you pick yourself up and get back on track. You may have read that a good body is 30% exercise and 70% diet. The truth is that a good body is 100% commitment and commitment can be difficult to sustain for many. But if you have already started, don’t give up. Anytime you feel like it, remember why you started. Success is not linear. You will take three steps forward, two back, five forward, maybe six back… whatever the case may be, only one rule holds true. You must keep going
Diet tip 4. Use the reduce and replace method. If you eat pizza every day or once a week, then cut down to half a pizza. If you have white bread every day, then replace it with wholemeal bread. If you have 3 sugars then reduce to 2, then 1 then none. Stop trying to do everything at once, you will almost certainly fail. Why do you think I give myself at least 16 weeks to get ready for one of my fitness competition’s? Getting into top shape is more a mental battle than a physical one and it is important for me to do the journey over time not just to look my best physically but to protect my mental well-being, remember what I have already mentioned about stress levels.
So there you have some valuable #diettips to get you started.Remember to set your goals in incremental levels,do not be too hard on yourself, stop worrying about those times you mess up your diet and focus on getting it right as much as you can. Be positive, things will always go wrong even with the best made plans but that doesn’t mean, the whole plan is or has to be a failure.
Learn from things when they go wrong, that’s the only way to progress and, often when things go wrong, in the long run they can be the best thing to happen to you.
If you would like to work directly with me on planing and implementing your own transformation journey then please look at the different plans I offer and contact me so we can get started today!