One of the most overlooked aspects of losing fat is the ability to change your current habits into those that are conducive with healthier ones and fat loss.
People often fail to succeed at losing body fat for a very simple reason, they take on way too much and they try to change everything at once. I’m not saying that certain people can’t take a lot of information in at once and make it work very well, but there are a large proportion of people that can’t. They fail to realise that the world they’re bringing the new change isn’t necessarily ready for it yet!
We get to see so many people that say they’ve tried absolutely everything to change the way they look. They’ve tried every diet going, every workout out there and they’re still nowhere nearer to the change they want. One thing in common with all these people is their inability to make anything they’ve actually tried stick!
We all live our life’s by habits, but they’re not necessarily the ones that are going to get you in the shape you’re looking for.
Definition
A habit is defined as an acquired pattern of behaviour that often occurs automatically.
You don’t realise it but your current habits away from going to the gym and working with a trainer are the very ones that are stopping you get in shape. There’s more to fat loss than just working out and following a program, you have to take accountability for what you’re aiming to achieve.
So here are a few of the classic habits that people do everyday:
- Get up late
- Have a drink in the evening after work with leads onto a takeaway
- Having no structure in your day, or letting having someone book your appointments all day at work, which leaves you no control over your time
- Staying up late watching television or on social media
- Not planning your meals and resorting to buying takeaway or grabbing what you can on-the-go
These aren’t the habits that someone would follow if they wanted to be in shape and enhance their energy levels.
So how could you change these around to make them more like habits of someone who wanted to lose fat and get leaner, and what benefit would it be to you?
1.Getting up 45 minutes earlier
This would mean you have enough time for yourself and to prepare healthy food before you start your day.
2. Get motivated and exercise with a group or partner in the evening
This would keep your activity levels high and inject some fun in the evenings – swaying your time from having that drink after work and having a takeaway.
3. Take ownership of your diary
When you take ownership of your day and schedule and write times in when you want to exercise, you will always have time.
4. Set a time to go to bed by, say 10:30 every night
By going to bed around the same time every night you will find it much more easier to wake up and you will also have a lot more energy to train in the day
5. Prepare or plan your meals ahead to avoid grazing or buying fast food
When you have food prepared for the day, you will not be hungry and therefore avoid snacking when you can on-the-go.
Habits have a knock on effect with each other. For example, getting up earlier will make sure you drink enough water and prepare your food, you’ll then not snack on poor choices later in the morning or at work and you’ll have more energy to train in the evening. So choose habits which reinforce the other.
Top tip on how to change your habits:
To avoid taking on too much in one go, pick one habit at a time, for example another could be to drink half a litre of water first thing when you wake up. Stick to it solid for exactly 21 days. Don’t introduce a new habit until the first once you set to work on is fixed firmly in place.
Try these habit changing tips for 21 days and let me know how you get on.
Coach Paul