Where To Start?
Do you want to look, move & feel better?
But… you’re not sure where to get started.
In this article we’re going to look at the 3 Key areas you need to address in order to start seeing the results you deserve!
The Problem
As busy people we tend to be spinning a lot of plates:
Family Life
Work Life
Social Life
Any other responsibilities we have
If you’re someone who isn’t yet prioritising health and fitness in the way you’d like, the question is:
How can we get that plate spinning without the others toppling over?
Best Approach
When seeking to improve Health & Fitness, it’s easy to slip into the ‘All or Nothing’ mindset.
We’re either on our diet… or off our diet.
Training Often… or not exercising for months.
All… or nothing
My role as a health and fitness coach is to help people break free from this vicious cycle.
The priority needs to be on creating consistent, sustainable, healthy habits!
So… with that said…
What healthy habits do we need to build?
Training
Many of us appreciate that when trying to improve our health and wellbeing…
Exercise will play a major role.
The initial thought for many people is to burn some calories, perhaps by going for jog.
Moving more with cardiovascular exercise is definitely a good idea for managing weight and improving health in many ways.
But… is the most effective use of your training time?
Resistance Training offers the biggest ‘bang for your buck’ compared to any other form of exercise.
(Whether you are Male or Female, Young or Old, trying to Lose Fat, Development Muscle, reduce pain or improve performance)
That’s not to say other forms of exercise are bad…
But for someone who is short on time and wants a big result, Resistance training needs to be the top priority.
Remember…
It doesn’t require an all or nothing approach.
At our facility Fitness Studio 46, we get fantastic results for our clients in just 2-3 hours of training per week.
Nutrition
Nutrition can be a very complicated topic.
There are 100’s of diet’s out there, each one professing to be the solution to Health & Fitness.
They can’t all be correct can they?
So where can we look for accurate nutrition advice.
… Only to a few proven Scientific Principles.
“Methods are many. Principles are Few. Methods always change. Principles never do.”
Specifically we are looking to 2 fundamental principles:
Calorie Intake - Calories are a unit of energy. We have a constant exchange of calories in and out of the body.
We consume calories in what eat / drink.
We burn calories to perform all functions in the body.
Adjusting the quantity of the calories we consume will determine our daily performance and energy levels as well as our physique goals.
Nutrient Intake - Improving nutrient intake is more about the quality of the food we’re consuming as oppose to just the quantity.
The goal is to eat highly nutritious foods the majority of the time.
We believe there is no such thing as a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ food.
We have had tremendous success with moving toward the idea of:
‘More Frequent’ or ‘Less Frequent’
Again… Let’s avoid the all or nothing approach.
No food is ‘Off-limits’ we just need to control the frequency we eat certain foods.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle factors cover a broad range of topics relating to health and wellness… such as smoking, alcohol intake and other lifestyle choices.
But the 2 biggest areas to address are Sleep & Stress.
Sleep
Sleep is the cornerstone of our health and wellness.
Also… If we are sleep deprived, making progress in the areas of Training & Nutrition becomes very hard!
The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
If that sounds like a lot…
You need to start working on your sleep!
There are many ways to improve sleep quality, but here are 3 Top Tips:
Set a consistent bedtime
Sleep in a cool room
Keep a pen and paper near to your bed, to clear everything in your head onto paper!
The list of benefits from better sleep is too long to list! Trust me.
Stress
Usually we think of stress in the context of emotional stress.
But even the most laid-back individuals are subject to the effects of stress.
Stress can come in many forms e.g. a lack of sleep!
So we need to create awareness of the many stressors in life…
Avoid them where possible and have stress management tactics to minimise the effects of the stresses we can’t avoid.
Summary
We all want to look, move and feel better … not just for a few weeks, but for forever!
As busy people with lots of other priorities in life, we need to make our blows count when it comes to getting a result from Health & Fitness!
Focusing on the Training, Nutrition & Lifestyle factors I’ve highlighted in this article is going to be enough to deliver exceptional results to any individual.
Avoid the all or nothing mindset…
Make sustainable improvements to each of the 3 key areas…
And watch the magic!
Yours in coaching,
Harry