How many of you have failed to stick to Healthy New Years Resolutions in the Past?

Raise your Hand?

 If you want to be in the same position again next year, skip this article, have a cup of tea and biscuit, put your feet up. If however you are an action taker, and you have had enough of being out of shape or are looking to start a body transformation then you have landed in the right place.

Does this Sound Familiar?

Jayne has a pulsing headache, and has been sleeping poorly. The prospect of going back to work tomorrow after the Christmas Break fills her with dread. She jumped on the scales this morning and was horrified to find out she had gained 7lbs. To make matters worse her pretty dress, which she trained herself into last year no longer fits. She inhales taking a deep breathe and an influx of thoughts momentarily flow across her consciousness . . .  this is the year to transform my body! What she fails to remember is those are exactly the same thoughts she had last year! but 365 days later . . . she’s back to square 1.

Feel familiar?

Most people start their path of resolutions with good intentions but never fully follow through or manage to sustain them. In this article I have put together insights, hints and tips to make-sure your not in this position again next year.

Dietzzzzzzzzzzzz can bore off!

I’m sure the word diet has got to be one of the most used words in todays society, it’s a nuisance right? Diet, diet, diet, diet, diet! diet! Diet! It drives me crazy!. People associate diets with being in a state of deprivation, having low energy and being miserable throughout the diet. What if I told you it doesn’t have to be like this?

You are going to be exposed to a tsunami of crap the next few weeks, inundated with marketing, quick fixes, pseudo diets, and systems to get you in shape fast, blah, blah, blah.

Before reaching for the quick fixes, i have a question . . . have any of these short term strategies worked for you in the past? and over the long term? If you said ‘yes’ your lying to yourself, no point in reading further. If you said ‘no’ then i have some tips and insights for you . . .

No#1 Keep to the Plan

It’s basically all about ‘consistency’. It’s not the fact that people are not following things through but are actively inconsistent with the things they are doing. People start well, stray, then try to compensate, and end up going round in circles! Finally giving up. Be consistent with the plan and aim for the longterm.

No#2 Ditch the Herbal Life, Body VI and magic potion cr*p!

These systems work by putting you in a severe calorie deficit. They work short term but you will run into problems very quickly and 75% end up back at square 1 and with more weight gain. Sounds great to me? Huh! If you want to go this route live off 2 Mars Bars per day and I guarantee you will lose weight just as fast. It’s not the product that makes you lose weight it is the deficit of calories. I would strongly advise you to stay away from these diets and products, they dont work in the long run. Also ask yourself if you would feel happy living of juice diets for the rest of your life? Is it sustainable? Just the thought of that makes me depressed.

No#2 Foods that Rot!

Cereal bars are classed as ‘healthy foods’ yet most of them have more sugar in them than a chocolate bar and cause internal damage (inflammation). With Real Foods we are looking at foods that rot, these foods are great. If you left it on a shelf for a week would it turn mouldy and greener than the incredible hulk?

Then it’s a Super Food!

If the food rots your body can break it down extremely well. Look at the Sell-by-date if it says 23rd March 20580938383 your about to purchase processed rubbish! Most foods today are full of additives, preservatives and look the same week after week.

If food doesn’t rot, how will your body digest and use for energy?

No#3 Calories : Don’t be Stupidzzzzz!

Let’s assume that you consume 3,000 calories each day over Christmas and 50% of them (1,500 cals) come from crap (sweets, chocolates, puddings, roast potatoes, etc, etc). What most of you will do after the Christmas binge is cut calories with the thought . . . If I eat less I will lose more weight! You will for the the first few weeks but then you will quickly hit a plateau and  probably end up putting on more weight once you return to a sustainable diet. You will also feel pretty miserable and tired due to low calories.

If you drop calories, let’s say you take all the crap out, which means you dropped calories by 50% then you metabolism slows down. Your body says “i need 3000 calories in order to function but because you have lowered that number by 50% your body starts to slow down systems your body is saying . . . “look I need to slow things down here!” your energy levels drop and you end up feeling deprived of food. You slump, fidget, and feel rubbish and waitloss comes to a hault faster than you can say Bobs your uncle! Binging then usually occurs as you have had enough of your deprivation diet.

No#4 Overeat Healthy Foodzzzz

Just try overeating Real Food it’s pretty much impossible. Try overeating vegetables, root vegetables, protein, meat, fish, eggs, herbs, spices, oils, nuts, seeds. These foods are substantial in quantity, making you full, amongst many other plentiful health benefits.

Most people don’t have a calorie issue, it’s a turnover issue. They don’t absorb food properly, if you can’t turnover food it does not have a job and what happens your store fat. You should never be starving, if you eat high quality foods you will be full and lose weight.

No#5 Top Up Petrol or Breakdown . . .

Eat more frequently, this means you don’t have to eat as much per meal and you will feel fuller. Aim to eat 4-6x per day. 6 is a great aim, that could be 3 main meals and 3 snacks. A large problem with most clients I see is not the fact that they overeat but actually under-eat. It’s very difficult to eat all your calories in 3 meals, let’s say you need 3,000 cals per day over 3 meals, that means you need to eat 1,000 cals per meal. That’s a lot! Spread it out over 6 meals, 500 cals per meal.

By keeping meals frequent you keep energy levels stable and you can train harder in the gym (coming up shortly). You have all dropped calories before and it hasn’t worked. Otherwise you would not be reading this. Just go with me here. Trust me. Keep calories high, step up meal frequency, and keep protein levels high (a small amount with every meal). You need to hold on to muscle. Alot of people on diets lose a lot of muscle and little fat. Muscle will help you burn calories. You need to keep it.

No#6 Inconvenience

The dog ate my homework!

If I had a pound for everytime a heard a moan about how inconvenient eating healthily is I would be richer than Richard Branson!

Eating well does require inconvenience. But ultimately you are in the position where you are now based on your daily habits. Your in this position because of convenience and your not going to change if you keep reaching for convenience! Grab fresh food, lots of vegetables, herbs, spices, meat, fish, and make everything form real food. You have to be consistent, it takes 3 weeks to make something a habit, before 3 weeks most people have quit! Back to square 1! they wait until January next year for GroundHog year 2020202020202!!!

Also, make-sure you increase water intake, if you don’t like water add in a lemon or lime, drink falvoured water. You have to create these daily habits they will not form on there own.

No#7 Train like a Spartan. But get ZERO results.

Training and exercising are different. Exercise is where you burn fuel, with no end product, it’s about increasing calorie output. If you want to exercise then run endlessly on a treadmill, hoover, dance to Spice Girls, just move about. Training on the other-hand is specific to the outcome you want i.e. fat loss, aesthetically pleasing body, etc. Training is what you need to get specific results. If you are not sure at what to do, hire a personal trainer. Let them take you through a 45 minute exercise session with you. If your untrained you are not going to manage more that that if it’s at a decent intensity level. If it’s easy and you can do 1hr you simply have not worked hard enough.

Most of you follow people on social media who inspire you to workout. Many guys follow Mens Health models, athletes and bodybuilders, and a lot of women follow fitness, physique and bikini athletes. When I speak to people, these are the physiques that many of you aspire to achieve. Of course there are many of you who simply just want to lose some weight, but everyone has a vision of what they’d ideally want to look like. So let me put this to you. How many of you follow endurance athletes for inspiration on social media? If not why not? I’d say that most of you don’t aspire to be skinny with low muscle mass right? So why are so many people still spending 80% of their time in the gym doing cardio? Take a few clues from the people you follow, switch that ratio around and spend 80% of your time lifting weights. If you don’t know how, find someone to show you.

No#8 DO NOT go to the Gym Everyday

You are not an athlete. Don’t go to the gym everyday! It is a mistake. If your not a regular gym goer “more is not better”.

When it comes to diet “less is not always better”

When it comes to training “more is not always better”

You need a plan which you can sustain for a lifetime. After 6 months then by all means step it up. When you train, train your backside off! And do this only 3x per week to start with.

No#9 Lift Weights! Lift Weights! Lift Weights!

Alot of people are afraid to lift weights I hear people say “i don’t want too get too big!” It is extremely difficult to gain muscle and in all my years of personal training I have never heard anybody get on the too BIG diet! Lol it is laughable but it never happens. Weight training pumps blood around your body and is the best way to improve your body composition. Most people are wanting to improve how their body looks but spend 80% of their gym time on cardio machines. If you wan’t to be a marathon runner or distance runner, then of course run. But if you are overweight and want to lose weight stay away from running and hit the weights. Running if you are obese or overweight is like beating a broom-handle against a wall. Sooner or later something bad is going to happen. If your overweight keep your fit firmly on the floor and hit the weights.

Good Luck . . .

By following my passion for the past 10 years, I have witnessed the pitfalls of others and developed a formula that gets results. I hope you have found the ** 9 Healthy Tips for 2015 ** article to be helpful. All these tips above will see things moving. Not always straight away as you have to get your digestion back on track. You have trashed it over Christmas with junk food and alcohol. It could take upto 4 weeks to see improvements in digestion and progress. But be patient. It will happen but not overnight.

A majority of you will read this and say I will do X & Y but then ill modify this and that because that’s what I want to do. Most think they know best.  Trainers and coaches know best. The amount of people who will walk away after free advice and not use it is frightening. Take this free advice, I 100% guarantee it will work.

Those that do follow the advice please get in touch with me, let me know how you are getting on. Please put your comments below if you have any questions. Please ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ this post with others who it could help. The positive feedback received from these articles is what keeps me writing them so if you like what you read please show your appreciation.

Thanks and make-sure you never read an article like this again! You should have no need! Stay positive, be happy and make your goals come to life through daily action.

Nick