Maybe it’s because of its simplicity and unsexiness that it doesn’t sell a ton of books. Or make splashing headlines in the newspapers. Or lead to sexy Instagram posts. And maybe that’s why I am so drawn to recommending a daily walk for fat loss. Let’s explore why even a seemingly insignificant 20 minute daily walk can lead to serious result over the course a year. Since I am known to making obvious more obvious than necessary, I’ll dig deeper…
A detailed guide to a sustainable fat loss and healthier eating. When trying to lose fat (get toned, lean out and all the other sexy marketing terms), the default action for most of us is to count calories. Spending multiple moons deep in the dietary math to figure out how many calories each food item has. Did that pink lady apple weigh 100 grams? Or perhaps it was closer to 95 grams? Then painstakingly entering it into a calorie counting…
This is about how my client Niss was able to turn the negative COVID restrictions into a learning opportunity and break through her weight loss plateau. And as the weight came down, so did her back pain. When the shroud of COVID restrictions came down in the late March, they bulldozed Niss’ training routine overnight. Her goals to build strength for running, keep back pain at bay, and drop 10kg got an unwelcome flavor of difficulty. Pour in a cup…
“I train so I can eat.” This is something I often hear when people state their reasons for training. Everyone’s entitled to have their reasons but I don’t like this one. It’s a doomed thought process that easily leads into train more, eat less-, or train more, eat more – mentality.
I had a great dinner the other night when I caught up for beers with few mates. I ate beer battered fish and chips with tartar sauce and shared two massive plates of chilli cheese fries. I flushed it all down with four beers and two ciders. It was glorious. And although some people might call it a “cheat meal”, it wasn’t anything of sort. It was just another meal.
There is no doubt that training more and with higher intensities will give you more flexibility with your diet. It can help you build a buffer zone calorie-wise so that the extra piece of aunt Betty’s cheese cake is less likely to park itself on your hips.
For most people the first introduction to exercise is all about losing weight or keeping the weight off. Sure, there are those few rare exceptions that just start because of some other reason, but even then it’s often “I have a [insert a non-fat loss problem or an injury]. But I would also like to lose weight”.
When a long-lasting fat loss struggle has been synonymous with your life it might be tempting to jump into a short, extremely restricted diet that promises the loss of 10kg in 10 weeks. It is tempting because these programs are marketed as those shiny, silver bullets that I, so greatly, despise. I mean that’s what you see in the Biggest Loser and other shows so it must the way to go. Well, no.
“There is another word for self-discipline. It is patience”. – Henepola Gunaratana There is no “secret sauces” in achieving the body that you want. There is no magic tricks or lifestyle hacks to speed up your process of improving how your body feels, looks and functions. There’s only so many books you can read because eventually you’ll have to bite the bullet and do the hard stuff. And fat loss can be as hard at it gets. There is no special…
There’s some habits that are crucial for your quest to getting lean (and staying there) while maintaining sanity and balance in life. I can guarantee that if you work towards owning these habits (one at a time, course), you are well on your way to become a healthier version of yourself.