Most people have treid at least one variation of diet, whether successful or not, we all assume we know what comes along with it…
Fatigue, hunger, cravings and usually a reduced lack of willpower over time, leading to what would be consumption of higher calorie foods.
What if i can teach you some very basic and easy steps to ensure you are successful in the pursuit of fat loss??
Here we go..
Firstly, have a plan. Sounds super basic and simple, but hear me out. Too often people fall into the trap of following or even buying a meal plan off someone that literally takes in none of their likes, dislikes or eating habits. Not going to last if you don’t like anything on the menu.
So why not make your own meal plan? I do this with new clients, i get them to write down all the foods that they have in the cupboard and what they habitually eat. We start there, make meals out of them and calculate the calories and protein in them to get us going..
Secondly, stick to a schedule, now again this sounds super basic but theres a lot of science behind this. Try to eat your meals with a time frame about 2 hour windows, this could be 7-9am for breakfast, 11-1pm for lunch and 5-7pm for evening meals. The reason is two fold; 1) The structure is easy to follow and allows your body to adjust to the times, which will start to spike hunger signals. 2) Eating without a structure and eating at different times can reduce the amount of calories you burn through digestion. Up to 25% of your daily calories are burnt through the thermo effect of food, eating at random times can reduce this by half.
Thirdly, don’t make decisions on food when you’re hungry. When youre tired and hungry, you get mentally fatigued. going to the shops, picking foods at a restaurant or even opening the fridge van offer you opportunity to make less than positive choices.
This can also happen when you’re hungry. Stocking your fridge with foods that are conducive to your goal, like high protein foods or even pre made foods from batch cooking etc.
If you end up tired and hungry, you will start to eyeball the foods, and inadvertently overeat because you start to think ‘this has protein’ in or ‘this has vegetables in’ so it’ll be fine. Fatigue brings these poorer decisions to the forefront. Make sure you’re eating regularly and aren’t making nutrition decisions when you’re too tired.
Number 4, be flexible. You don’t need to start stretching, but life is full of chaos, and being able to embrace what life throws at you will set you in great stead.
A great quote on this is:
‘ Life is 10% what happens and 90% how you deal with it’
This is so true, your response dictates your success. Flexibility comes with not being overly restrictive and unsociable to avoid opportunities of overeating, but embracing the imperfections of dieting and fat loss. You can socialise and accept that tracking or calorie intake wont be perfect, but just getting on with it will set you in a much better position than fretting the smaller stuff.
Lastly, and arguably the most important thing..
BE PATIENT, i tell all my clients this, because it just doesn’t take 5 days to get lean. Your goals should definitely be longer than a week or 2, think bigger. Where and why do you want to be? Arguably you’ll be thinking months, if not years down the line.
You have not gotten into the position you feel like you need to change in a week, it will not reverse in a week. You have probably tried time and time again and lost patience, this time, dont.