"I really want to lose weight and make a difference to my body!
And I really want the results to last!"
If the above statement applies to you, then here are 5 simple rules to help make this a reality.
Number 1: Throw Away the Scales!
Although monitoring your weight can be a good way to measure progress, I believe that it is given far too much importance by society, by magazines, on tv and even in the supermarket. We obsess with the scales and weigh ourselves when we wake up, before our workout, after our workout, before we go to bed and at weight loss groups where we stress if we have put on an extra pound during the week. The truth is that our weight is always going to fluctuate slightly due to reasons which could be related to hormonal changes, illness or stress levels amongst other things.
Once you have disposed of the scales, replace them with that really lovely pair of jeans or dress or suit in the back of your wardrobe that no longer fits. Try it on and be honest about how it feels, make a mental note of the way it fits or doesn't fit, maybe even take a photograph of yourself wearing it (don't even look at the photo for now... It's for future reference). This might be a really difficult and emotional thing to do, but it is the first step to making a positive change.
Put the item back in the cupboard, circle a date in your diary for 4 weeks time when you will next try it on and then another date for 4 weeks after that.
Put the item back in the cupboard, circle a date in your diary for 4 weeks time when you will next try it on and then another date for 4 weeks after that.
Number 2: Set Process Goals!
Process goals are all about doing! They are the steps that you are going to take in order to achieve your ultimate 'outcome goal'. Examples would be making sure you attend your weekly kettlebell class, or ensuring that you walk a certain distance every day, or maintaining your pledge to eat a good healthy breakfast every day!
Process goals are all about doing! They are the steps that you are going to take in order to achieve your ultimate 'outcome goal'. Examples would be making sure you attend your weekly kettlebell class, or ensuring that you walk a certain distance every day, or maintaining your pledge to eat a good healthy breakfast every day!
Each time you achieve one of these process goals, you are one step closer to reaching your outcome goal as well as giving you shorter term goals to aim for.
It makes sense to sit down with a trainer or someone else who you trust and set out your overall outcome goal and a series of process goals needed to achieve it. Keep a good record of this to see how you are progressing.
It makes sense to sit down with a trainer or someone else who you trust and set out your overall outcome goal and a series of process goals needed to achieve it. Keep a good record of this to see how you are progressing.
Number 3: Lift Bigger Weights!
Weight training needs to be a challenge...
Weight training needs to be a challenge...
I'm happy to inform you ladies (and sorry to break the news to you gents) that weight training will NOT make you look like a bodybuilder!
Female PT clients have informed me in the past that they build muscles very easily and therefore want to avoid weight training. I have had to explain to them that this is not true due to he small amount of testosterone in the female body which makes muscle building extremely difficult even for women want to achieve this. If it was easy to increase muscle mass from weight training, all the men in the gym would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger... but they don't despite having testosterone levels that are 7-8 times higher than women.
What a well designed weight training routine will do for you is turn your body into a calorie burning machine!
Female PT clients have informed me in the past that they build muscles very easily and therefore want to avoid weight training. I have had to explain to them that this is not true due to he small amount of testosterone in the female body which makes muscle building extremely difficult even for women want to achieve this. If it was easy to increase muscle mass from weight training, all the men in the gym would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger... but they don't despite having testosterone levels that are 7-8 times higher than women.
What a well designed weight training routine will do for you is turn your body into a calorie burning machine!
Number 4: Higher Intensity Training!
There is an old fashioned idea, which I believe is mostly promoted by those who sell heart rate monitors, that working out for a long time at a slow steady heart rate in the so called 'fat burning zone' is the most effective way to lose weight (fat). The truth is that although a higher percentage of the calories burned at this intensity may be in the form of fat, the overall amount of calories burned is a lot lower.
Higher intensity workouts such as interval training and HIIT will burn a much greater number of calories per workout than steady pace training. These kind of sessions are better for improving muscle tone, strength and power with the added advantage of much shorter workouts. A 45 minute high intensity workout is far more productive than plodding away on the treadmill for 2 hours in the 'fat burning zone'.
There is an old fashioned idea, which I believe is mostly promoted by those who sell heart rate monitors, that working out for a long time at a slow steady heart rate in the so called 'fat burning zone' is the most effective way to lose weight (fat). The truth is that although a higher percentage of the calories burned at this intensity may be in the form of fat, the overall amount of calories burned is a lot lower.
Higher intensity workouts such as interval training and HIIT will burn a much greater number of calories per workout than steady pace training. These kind of sessions are better for improving muscle tone, strength and power with the added advantage of much shorter workouts. A 45 minute high intensity workout is far more productive than plodding away on the treadmill for 2 hours in the 'fat burning zone'.
Number 5: Eat Clean!
I have saved the most important for last...
I have saved the most important for last...
Without going into very complicated technicalities of nutrition and amounts of carbs, protein and fats you need, the best nutritional advice for anyone who wants to improve their body is to 'eat clean'.
This simply means...
- Prepare your meals from scratch and avoid processed foods.
- Stay away from anything which calls itself a 'diet,' especially those which make you cut out a food group.
- Cut down alcohol (it is full of calories and not much else).
- Watch your portion sizes... Avoid overeating!
- Give yourself a treat day once a week and be really strict with yourself the rest of the time.
These 5 rules may go against what you have traditionally been told. My aim is to get you to stop the cycle of doing the things that you have always done, where you always end up getting nowhere, falling off the wagon, feeling demoralised and then starting the whole thing again only to repeat the process. I want you to make these 5 simple changes which you can maintain for life!
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