I’m not a big fan of Christmas and New Years (ba humbug!). Well that’s not strictly true. I love spending quality time with my family and reflecting on another year gone by and what’s in store for the year ahead. As a Personal Fitness Trainer though it’s a disaster. Clients are basically hit for six over the festive period with many of them struggling to find the time to get to the gym and they are also faced with numerous social responsibilities where they are now faced with all types of bad foods and fluids, many of them hard to resist!
The biggest problem then comes after the New Year where it can difficult to just swing right back into things. Some of the chocolates and alcohol given to us for Christmas are still with us in our homes and we find it hard to get back to low-carb meals as we normally have had a good carb surge over Christmas and New Years and our bodies are craving them again!
I’ve listed below ten great weight-loss tips for 2010:
Set realistic goals
You should aim for 1-2 lbs per week and just looking at the bigger picture. I always show my new clients weight loss progress from my current successful clients and it’s a simple case of chipping away every day. One of my clients has lost two stone (28 lbs) and seven inches off her weight. She didn’t do this in 5 weeks, it took her 16 weeks. Some weeks she would weigh-in the same weight as the previous, some weeks she weighed a little less, and some weeks she put on a little weight.
It really is a case of chipping away every day and doing more to help you lose weight than to hinder it. Committing to exercising on a continuous basis and eating well on most days of the week. You will have your up and downs but keep fighting the good fight and in time the riches will be yours, don’t give up.
If you have 10 lbs to lose, set a target of losing it in 5-10 weeks, not 5 days! J
Read the food labels!
This makes a big difference believe me! Make sure you look at the weight of the food and calculate the total amount of calories, fat, sugar and salt. Some food labels are sneaky, it may give you the amounts for 100 grams and you may think everything seems ok, but your dish may be 300-400 grams! So if the label reads sugar 12 grams and you think it’s fine, it may be that the dish is actually 3-4 times more than this!
Try and have no more than 40 grams of sugar a day, saturated fat at 20 grams per day, sodium about 24 grams and try and get at least 100 grams of protein a day.
Get into your favourite music!
Listen to your favourite music whilst exercising. Music stimulates us, makes us want to dance, and it can generate powerful emotions. Spice up your IPod with great music, get right into it. Don’t listen to the same tunes you have been for months, new music, like new exercises can really liven up your workout.
You don’t have to stop eating bad food!
Just because you’re trying to lose weight it doesn’t mean you have to stop eating your favourite treats. As long as the majority of foods and fluids you’re putting in your mouth are helping you lose weight then you’ll be in a positive balance. It’s when you’re doing more harm than good on a consistent basis that your weight goes up.
So by all means enjoy some pizza or ice cream, just make sure these are not consistent indulgencies.
If you’ve hit a plateau then you need to change things!
If my clients have not lost weight in three weeks then we change things. Insanity as defined by Albert Einstein is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If you’ve hit a plateau, then change things, turn the heat up on your workouts, add more physical activity, or make a few changes to your diet, just don’t keep doing the same thing.
Know your numbers!
You don’t have to calorie count necessarily, but it’s good to know how many calories you’re aiming for on a daily basis. If you’re trying to lose weight are you shooting for 1800, 1600? Cycling your calories and carbs is a great weight loss method that I use in my ebook, where you have 1800 on certain days and 1600 on others, depends on a few factors obviously, but you get the jist.
Don’t beat yourself up over your crashes!
It’s inevitable that you’re going to crash and have a big night out and just let yourself go. If it happens then just acknowledge that you’ve had a blip and get right back on track. Remember it’s not what you do once in a while that matters, it’s what you are doing every day that counts.
If you don’t drink enough water you’ll retain it!
There are so many benefits to drinking water that I could be here all day writing about it. One myth that is around is that if you drink a lot of water that you’ll retain it and get heavier. This is nonsense. In fact the opposite is true. If your body thinks it’s not getting enough water then it will go into survival mode and hold onto it, so drink up! At least 3 litres a day.
Stick to the colours!
Maybe I should put it another way…avoid the whites! White pasta, bread, rice, etc. Stick to the colours, colourful fruits, vegetables, etc. the white stuff just contributes to big time fat storage.
Do not eat 2-3 hours prior to bed!
I like people to eat smaller meals more frequently, but if you’ve got some stubborn pounds to lose then have your evening meal and then eat nothing more 2-3 hours prior to sleep. Your body still has to work even when you’re sleeping so you’ll be burning energy during this time. If you can workout first thing in the morning with some caffeine you’ll be in a full throttle fat burning zone!!
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