With an overwhelming amount of information and unfortunately miss-information online in regards to how to loose weight, it can be difficult to know where to start and what to do! The aim of this 3 part guide is to give you some structure and a pathway towards potentially changing your life and becoming a healthier and happier version of yourself.
In part 1, the aim is to follow 3 simple steps to start your journey. This sequence of steps is designed for anyone who is looking to loose weight, with part 1 especially aiming at beginners who really don’t know where to start.
Firstly, we need to keep things simple. Technically speaking, weight-loss is actually a very simple process in the fact that all you need to do is regularly burn more calories than you consume. But of course that does not mean that it is easy to do. It requires some direction, discipline, and a little motivation of course.
Although these may be important further down the line, initially we need to forget about calorie counting, macro measuring, and advanced workout techniques. The start of the process is actually looking more at the mindset of things and getting organised! The first 3 steps are as simple as possible, and are more to do with the overall holistic approach to being healthier, rather than the finer details.
Step 1: Where are you now?
If you’ve read one of my recent blogs, “Comparison is the thief of joy”, you’ll know that it is important to compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to someone else. We often see someone on social media, who may be in great shape (presuming they’ll not using filters of course), and get upset because we are not in the same sort of condition. However, that person is on a different journey and a different timeline. It is not realistic, nor is it productive, to compare ourselves to others (outside of doing it very fleetingly to gain a little inspiration of course)
So all you’re going to do initially, is think about many times a week you go to the gym, if you do go, as well as what you’re roughly doing. I.e strength training /cardio/classes. Record your steps for a few days, or even a week, and work out the average. And finally, be aware of what you’re eating! I wouldn’t even bother recording this initially. Now that we have this information, we are just going to try and get a little bit better each day. Feel free to right a goal down too! That can help for sure, but it’s the process that is the most important thing.
Step 2: Sustainable Routine!
Now that we’ve been honest and humble enough with ourselves to establish where we are starting from, we can start to plan the process! A goal will give you the vision, but the process will get you there! And you need to set a process by setting some basic targets and getting into a simple routine that focuses around creating better habits. This routine must be something in which we can be consistent with and is therefore sustainable. It certainly helps if it’s fun and basic to begin with. This is also where step 1 is important. If you’re a busy working professional and have 3 kids to look after, and are currently sleeping 5 hours a night, doing 2000 steps a day, and not going to the gym, then it’s probably not best to aim for hitting 3 runs a week and 3 gym sessions! Remember, we need to be better than we were yesterday, but we need to do this in small steps, aiming to get 1% better each day. This way it is sustainable, and you wont crash and burn! For any significant weightloss, or any performance related goals for that matter, we need to be consistent and sustainable! So don’t go too hard too early, or you’ll crash and burn and end up demotivated.
Step 3: Make small changes!
Okay, so now we are on to the practical steps and on our way to weight-loss. We will focus on these 3 things. Follow these steps, and then we’ll talk about the next 3 steps in my next blog! 😉
- Sleep: Go to bed a little earlier. If you’re currently sleeping 5 hours a night, then the aim will be to increase this to 6. Of course, some people need more/less sleep than others, but extensive research shows that under 6 is pretty certain to negatively effect you in numerous ways if done consitently.
- Steps: The gym is great and will definitely help you loose weight and become a whole lot healthier! However, in regards to sustainable weight loss, it’s essential to be aware of your overall activity levels throughout the week. Even a regular gym goer might only be in the gym 3 hours a week! So that leaves a lot of time outside of that, which is great opportunity to do some low level activity to burn some calories, or to be very sedentary and put on weight! Track your steps for a few days, then try to increase it. If you’re currently doing an average of 4000 steps a day, the aim for the first week or two would be 6000, then 8000, and then 10000! You might think walking a bit won’t achieve anything, but over time, it adds up massively and increases your activity levels in a massive way! Stick on a podcast and do an extra lap! You’ll feel great for it mentally too!
- Food/Water: We’re not worrying about tracking or being overly strict straight away, we are just going to focus on being in the mindset of making ‘smarter choices’ and being a little more aware on what / how much we’re eating. This also related to drinking water. A smart choice might be to have a glass of water when we wake up, before we have that coffee. It might be having a water or diet coke, rather than regular. It might be a bit of home cook food, and cutting the take aways down from 2 a week to 1 a week initially. Remember, small changes that are sustainable!
Hope you found this useful! Get started with these and i’ll be in touch soon with the next 3 steps.
And remember, don’t worry if you have a bad day! Don’t let this ruin your flow! With a bad day, we can still have a great week!
Cheers,
Mark.