As often as necessary to achieve your goals!!
If you have a clear idea of what you truly want to achieve, whether losing weight, burning fat, or a complete body transformation, visualise the end goal first and, with this goal in mind, strategically plan the entire process. This technique will allow you to engineer your entire fitness journey by using the vision of your end goal as a means to motivate yourself until you achieve the very best results. I like to call this "reverse engineering your health".
It is optimal to organise your fitness routine meticulously and be time efficient. For example:
If my goal is to lose 4kg in order to fit into a dress that is two sizes too small in 4 weeks, I would have to organise my time strictly to ensure that I could put in the maximum effort when training in order to reach my objective as quickly and efficiently as possible. Surely, this sounds simple enough?
However, many people think that fitness and weight loss can come from occasional exercise or a magical diet, but the truth is that you need to plan ahead and structure your time properly.
So here are my five top tips that I give to my clients to help them succeed and realise their goals, no matter how far off they may seem.
Add daily walks to your exercise routine.
Fast paced walking has been proven to burn as many calories as jogging or running. It is low impact exercise that will ease you into a workout routine without the risk of causing any damage to joints and muscles that aren’t used to exercising. Furthermore, this type of low impact training will not aggravate previously sustained injuries.
Walking drains the lower body of excess fluids, helping your lymphatic drainage system and even preventing the development of varicose veins. Our bodies are designed for walking! So you can see how something so simple can have such a huge impact.
Walk for 45 minutes to 2 hours a day. One of my clients managed to lose a remarkable 7.5 stone (47kg) in just four months by walking everyday for 2 to 3 hours. He simply walked to and from his place of work.
If you are overweight and out of shape, it is understandable that entering into a crowded gym can feel intimidating. Walking everyday is a way to focus solely on your fitness goals, free from any pressure and after only 3 weeks of consistent walking you will begin to see your body changing.
Exercise before you go to work.
The most successful people exercise first thing in the morning. Waking up earlier to train pushes you out of your comfort zone and your body will respond in kind. A comfortable and sedentary routine will encourage a lazier and less enthusiastic attitude when it comes to losing weight. The more active you are and the higher you aim, the more likely it is that you achieve your goals!
Not having enough time in the day is never an excuse. Wake up earlier and make more time for yourself! Push yourself our of your comfort zone and you will no longer feel like you don’t have enough time and you will no longer be tempted to procrastinate.
Add variety to your training.
Albert Einstein classified insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We can apply this theory to training. In other words, if you practise the same training program, with the same intensity all the time you cannot expect to see the best results. This is not the way to progress. Change up your routine and discover different ways of exercising. This way you won’t begin to feel bored and you might even find pleasure in challenging your body to do new things. There are many ways to get your body moving; weight training, yoga, spinning, pilates…The list is endless! Diversify and find the best possible way to achieve your goals and make your weight loss journey enjoyable.
Weight training at least 4 times a week.
Weight training is undeniably the best way to change and sculpt your body. What I mean by weight doesn't necessarily means doing squats with 200kg on your back, you can start by body weight training which is highly efficient when it comes to fat loss.
You can always find a competent coach to assist you if you are unsure of how to weight train properly. Keep track of your workouts by recording the content of each session. Record the weights used, the amount of reps and the number of sets, increasing intensity as your strength increases and increasing complexity as your technique improves to ensure that you’re always pushing yourself further.
Restrict your calorie intake to only 3 meals a day.
You have probably heard that you need to eat every two hours to keep your metabolism in a fat burning state. This is a common strategy adopted by many professional athletes and bodybuilders, but you are not a professional bodybuilder!
Keep it simple by aiming to have three decent meals a day, targeting your macros correctly and ensuring that your meals are calorie dense, giving you a good amount of nutrients and stimulating your body to get you through the day. You do not have to eat every time you feel hungry; sometimes we grow hungry out of boredom when we are not really hungry. You need to rid yourself of your old eating habits and train your brain to ignore these cravings.
If you take this advice on board you will be surprised by how quickly your body changes. Try it for 3 weeks and get back to me, I would love to hear from you!
Remember, it takes 3 weeks to break a habit and 3 months to change it entirely.
Picture curtesy of HVP photography. Model Tanya Etessam
