So its the start of the year and your jeans are a little tighter, you feel lethargic, your face if looking a little puffy and the last time you had a sweat on, was after too much meat on Christmas day.

Well the time for new year new me is now, but you are asking yourself, where to start and what you need to do to make it happen?

Where to start my fitness journey

• Evaluate your current physical position
• Implement basic nutrition and steps
• Start training
• Drink water
• Do minimum 10,000 steps a day
• Make sleeping well a priority
• Make a plan

Lets start at the beginning.

How to evaluate current physical position? 

First and foremost as soon as you wake up in the morning, go to the toilet and once you have done your business get on the scales (there are several different types of scales but we would recommend a good set of digital scales). Once you have your base weight make a note of it either using a note pad or an app such as target weight.

After you have your starting weight and you have made an note of it, you will need figure out how many calories you currently consume, what it does to your weight and how your weight fluctuates over time. This will be done by making a log of your weight, what you eat and how much activity you do over the course of 7 days including the day you start.

We are in a time where almost everyone has a smart phone the whether its Android or Apple there are apps to log food myfitnesspal is everybody`s favorite and very easy to use and almost all smart phones have a pedometer to log steps… So you have no excuses not to log your food or to note how many steps you are currently doing.

When it comes to activity, that should be fairly self explanatory, if you work at a desk 9-5 and the only time your heart rate rises is if your boss catches you watching memes then your activity is fairly sedentary. However if you are a laborer that is grafting all day, in the gym 3-4 times a week and have a 3 year old running you around when you get home then you are at the complete opposite end of the scale.

Remember when logging anything, if you lie or hide things you are only kidding yourself. sitting down shaking your phone to up the steps or eating 4 slices of toast and only logging 2, missing out the slice of cheese as “it was only a snack” all count and will effect your goal.

YES LOGGING FOOD DOES INCLUDE ALCOHOL, SAUCES, OILS, BUTTERS, MILK, SWEETS ETC ETC

Once you have a week of data you will now know what works for you and how you can use this information to create a plan to move forward, for example over the test week, you genuinely eat 3000 calories per day, do 7500 steps a day, have average daily expenditure and you lose 2lbs in that first week then you are not to far off track, however if you gain 3lbs then you will need to make some adjustments in all 3 variables.

How to implement basic nutrition and steps

Unless you are disabled there is no excuse for you not to do 10,000 steps each day, if you are sat on your ass all day move around! walk to the shop instead of driving there, park further away and have longer to walk, put your headphones in go for a stroll, if you have a dog take them for more than one walk per day (they will thank you for it by not chewing the sofa when they are bored and full of energy).

As far as Nutrition goes, that will all depend on the data from your first week, what you have eaten, the amount of activity and how many steps you did.

What you should be eating to aid your weight loss journey will completely depend on three things

1. How many calories did you eat in your first week?
2. What activity did you do?
3. How many steps did you complete?

We could create an individual diet plan “email here” but each one is different there isn`t a “one size fits all” for diet plans and if your mate says just follow this diet or Ronaldo eats it and hes ripped so must work. Different people move more, train more, eat small portions the list is endless.

So as a starter use the first weeks data as a bench mark for your calories, activity, steps and obviously your weight.

Try and aim for

• 10,000 steps every single day
• If your weight went up drop your calories by 1000 calories
• If your weight went down keep your calories the same
• If your activity was low, regardless of gaining or losing weight, try to move more as they say you need to walk before you can run and if you are lounging about all day it is no good for your mental health or your cardiovascular system.
• Drink between 8-10 pints of water each day, yes you will need to use the toilet but believe me you will feel better.
• Try to stay away from high calorie foods, obvious things are chocolate, sweets, cheese, processed foods, alcohol.
• Eat things that you like to eat, this process is a marathon not a sprint and you need to be in this for the long term (especially if you have a lot of weight to shift). Eating foods that you enjoy that are still sensible make dieting feel like its just an every day meal plan and something you will stick to for the long term.
• Make better food choices and substitutes: unsweetened almond milk, low fat cheese, cauliflower rice, rice cakes, popcorn etc and weigh your foods, not just the main foods but also sauces and liquids as it all adds up.

Start training

Whether you are training from home or using a gym, you need to choose something that suits you and something you enjoy. You may look at Instagram and think that person does this workout so it must work for me, but in the real world the Instagram model has been dieting and training for years and they look the way they do because of this and not because they have done a band assisted, squatted, pull up with a dumbbell in their mouth.

When looking into training routines the best advice is again to do something you enjoy. If you enjoy running, lifting weights, tennis, rowing, yoga then do it.

If you are more advanced or looking for a specific routine or something else to do at home then we would be more than happy to help you out, contact us via email to speak to one of our experts.

 Drink water

Staying hydrated throughout the day has many benefits when it comes to fat loss, things like aiding digestion and muscle function but also helping you stay fuller for longer, not to mention flushing toxins out of your system.

If you are planning on walking, moving and training more as part of your diet plan then staying hydrated is a must and drinking at least 8 pints of water each day should be a starting point for almost any adult.

Do minimum 10,000 steps a day

Doing 10,000 steps per day may sound like a lot of effort and you will probably make every excuse possible not to do it, “you work to hard during the day”, Your to tired”, “Your legs are sore”, “You need to watch Boris” the list goes on… If you are not naturally doing 5000 steps in a day are you even leaving you bed?

If you are awake for 16 hours each day, which you absolutely should be at a minimum, then get up and get moving, go for a walk, take the dog out, park further away from the shops, walk instead of driving, move around the house more, make the most of your breaks, set aside an hour a day to walk around and clear your head.

Walking 10,000 steps per day will help a long way towards losing weight when coupled up with a calorie deficit.

Make sleeping well a priority

You may think that the hard work is done in the gym but you actually recover outside of the gym when you are sleeping, your body recovers, your food digests, your mood improves and you actually burn calories during a good nights sleep.

You may think you sleep well but you really need to become a professional at sleeping and be as addictive at getting 8 hours solid sleep as you are to your diet, steps and training.

So how do you get a good nights sleep? There are several obvious answers that people seem to overlook

• Get into a routine – Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every single day
• Don`t eat or drink an hour before bed
• Turn of your TV, Tablet, Mobile – Blue light stops you from shutting off
• Only spend time in bed when you are sleeping – There maybe one or two other reasons but stay in bed but if your not doing that, stay out of it
• Stop thinking – If you are thinking about drama or problems the same issues will be there in the morning, so deal with it then
• If all else fails, try and stay awake… It may sound counter productive but if you try and stay awake, you will eventually fall asleep naturally and as you are waking up early the next day you will be sleepy when it comes to the next night

Make a plan

Making a plan to implement the things you need to do to help yourself is the ultimate priority, the journey is a marathon and not a sprint, this will take time to implement and dedication to complete. Weight loss is something that is accomplished over a 3-12 month period and any plan needs to be implemented for at least that period of time.

You may not think you can achieve everything at once, so work your way up, cut out foods, do more steps, move more, sleep better, get up earlier and day by day improve on the previous day.

Get a note pad and write down a to do list

1. I will eat less than 2000 calories tomorrow
2. I will track everything I eat
3. I will be asleep by 10 pm
4. I will do 10,000 steps
5. I will read 20 pages of a life improvement book
6. I will write down all the best things in my life and appreciate every single one of them

Day by day improve on everything a little but. you cant go from sitting in your pit all day to running a marathon, but you can go from only moving when you absolutely had to, to creating another sub list with things like walking to the shop, cleaning the car, tidying the bathroom, organising paper work, thinking of something nice to do with or for a loved one.

Making a plan should be the easy part, along with having a goal. if you are 250 lb and want to be 200 lb then that is going to take a minimum of 6 months hard work and your plan should reflect this.

Good luck with everything, if you think anything should be added or you would like anymore information contact us via email and let us know.