In any endeavour in life, whether it be physical mental or spiritual, it always pays dividends to master the basic’s from the very beginning. Not only does mastering the basics ensure you’re proficient in the skills fundamental to success in your chosen endeavour, but it also prevents you from overcomplicating things and making things more difficult than they need be.
This is an important thing to understand, it’s important because a lot of the time what holds beginners back at the start of the process is not just their lack of understanding or ability, but it’s their confidence in themselves to successfully complete the task at hand. When we are faced with an enormous task, or change that is radically different from what we’re used to, we often feel anxious and overwhelmed at the very thought of taking such a challenge on. This can affect the decisions we make and the actions we take, often to the detriment of our progress.
By starting small and gradually increasing the difficultly of the challenge of time, you allow your confidence to grow in proportion to the task at hand. This in turn leads to a greater chance of success. This simple process is essential for novice’s and should be given special attention at the start of any nutrition or training intervention.
Whilst this may seem obvious you’d be amazed at how many trainee’s, and unfortunately coaches, make things difficult when it comes to nutrition. Instead of focusing on building up their confidence, discipline and skill set over time they force a plan on themselves or the client which is restrictive, ___ and ultimately unsustainable in the long term.
So to help you avoid this trap, and in some respects to help save you from yourselves, I’ve listed my top three nutrition tips for 2016. Whilst individually each one will prove effective at helping you lose weight, be sure to combine all three for optimal results!
- Keep A Food Diary
One of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways I can recommend to take control of your nutrition and lose weight is to keep a food diary. Food diaries are an excellent way to capture different forms of data which can then be used to make informed decisions about how to improve your nutrition.
Whilst keeping a record of what you eat using a pen and paper is a good place to start, online food diaries are extremely effective as they can record and collate vast amounts of data, which can be used to identify trends over time. Apps such as My Fitness Pal can be dowloaded to your phone and be used to capture everything from calorie and macronutrient intake to meal frequency and satiety.
A big problem we have when it comes to losing weight is that we are simply unaware of the foods we eat, the quantities we consume them and the effect it has on our bodies. Think about when you fill your car with petrol at the filling station. Without the little gauge on the pump that tells you how many litres of fuel you’ve put into the car and what it’s going to cost you, you’d simply guessing as to how much fuel is in your tank.
Your food diary, is that little gauge on the side of the pump. It let’s you know if you need a little more, or if you’ve already had too much. It will keep you honest, enable you to make realistic, sustainable changes to your diet and ultimately enable you to lose weight and keep it off in the long term.
2. Make Your Diet Easy To Follow
Rigid diets have grown in popularity in recent years thanks to the success they’ve had in helping people lose weight. People have found that by cutting out foods that are either high in sugar, salt, artificial flavourings, total fat, saturated fat or otherwise labelled ‘unclean’ they can experience significant amounts of weight loss. Now in principle this is a good thing, people are making positive changes to their diet and at the same time achieving the all important results that increase motivation and compliance.
There is however a down side – rigid diets are notoriously difficult to stick to. The level of abstinence required during such diets often leads to an intolerable level of social, physical and psychological stress. This stress often amplifies as the diet progresses, and as time goes on it becomes harder and harder to resist the temptation to indulge in foods we enjoy eating. Of course at some point, the dieter will give in to his or her cravings. What usually follows is an episode of binge eating that undoes weeks (and in some cases months) of hard work leaving the dieter feeling guilty, depressed and demotivated.
The reality is that whilst some degree of stress while dieting is inevitable, we can take measures to minimise it or in some cases avoid it altogether. By incorporating foods that you enjoy into your program and granting yourself a degree of flexibility, you can significantly reduce many of the down sides associated with rigid dieting which in turn, will greatly increase your chances of success.
Remember, the greatest predictor of long term success in any diet is how easy it is to stick to it.
3. Maintain The Balance
Energy balance is simply the relationship between the calories consumed through eating and drinking compared to the calories burned through maintenance at rest, physical activity and for food digestion, absorption, and transport.
In order to shed unwanted body fat, you’re going to need to be in a calorie deficit or what’s referred to as negative energy balance. Put simply, all this means is that you are depriving the body of the calories it needs to meet it’s daily demands. This results in the body being forced to produce energy by mobilising it’s reserves of fatty acids stored throughout the body. Now the are three mains ways through which you can create a negative energy balance.
- Keep calorie intake the same and increase your activity levels.
- Keep your activity levels the same and reduce your calorie intake.
- Reduce your calorie intake and increase your activity levels.
It’s important to understand that whilst all three of these methods will work and stimulate fat loss, some are more effective than others. Without going into too much detail, option three is the most effective. This is because it combines the benefits of reducing your calories – with all the benefits of increased activity levels – retention/accretion of muscle mass and increased metabolic output.
This approach is not only effective it’s efficient as well, reducing the amount of time needed to spent exercising in the gym. A welcome relief for those already struggling to meet the demands of a hectic work, family and social life.
Closing
For many people starting out, nutrition remains one of the most confusing aspects of losing weight and it’s the exact reason why Personal Trainers like me exist. My job is to help you identify the habits and behaviours that are holding you back and then provide you with the credible, up-to-date and trust worthy information that helps you achieve the exact result you are looking for. Combined with a healthy dose of accountability, and of course one to one training, it’s the perfect combination to help ensure you reach your goals – not matter how large or small they might be.
So if you’re determined to lose weight in 2016 but not sure where to start email me at [email protected] to arrange your Free 30 Minute Consultation. Not only will you get expert advice on how to improve your training and nutrition for optimal results, but you’ll also be able to get information of my 12 week rapid fat loss program, LEAN. Designed specifically to help busy professionals that want to look, feel and perform at the very best in 2016.
Alternatively if you’re not ready to book a consultation then visit my website www.thebodysmith.co.uk to find out more information about me and to download my Free Four Week Whole Body Workout Routine which will enable you to get 2016 off to the healthiest of starts.
