If YOU want to lose weight and get fitter FOR GOOD, then you must read this – it will only take a few minutes and may, just may, change your life.
With over 65% of the UK population now officially overweight, it’s probably time for us to do something about it.
But what?
Diets, whether short term fasting or longer term (and much more expensive) calorie-counting plans are normally doomed for most people – and rushing down to the gym once a week won’t really have an impact.
And who wants to go on a lifetime diet anyway?
So, if you feel you need to lose some weight and get fitter, stop thinking about HOW you can lose the weight and start thinking about WHY you weigh more than you want to.
What we eat and drink is a function of our daily habits and routines – maybe habits and routines we’ve had for years – and it’s these we’re going to have to change to achieve our weight and fitness goals.
Whether it’s sugar in our tea, meeting with friends at the coffee shop, having second helpings, taking the lift, eating late, snacking, always finishing the food on your plate even if you’re full or being inactive – all these things become part of our life and unfortunately a lot of them involve over-eating or being sedentary!
So the key thing is to start making changes to the way you live your life – but don’t try and change things too quickly! If you do that, it won’t work.
Set yourself realistic goals – “In 3 months time, I will have changed this”; “In 6 months time, I’ll be able to do that”.
Think of your weight loss and fitness journey in terms of learning a new language, or learning to drive – you won’t do it in a day, or a week, but a little bit at a time will succeed in the long term.
As soon as you understand this, then you’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals!
So, how to start?
Start by setting yourself an easy objective for just one day – for instance:
Today, I’m not going to eat any snacks between meals.
If you make this statement just after a good breakfast, it’ll sound pretty achievable, but by 11.30am, when you’re normally having maybe a coffee and biscuit break, it will suddenly seem a huge mountain to climb! It’s so easy to just say to yourself, “one biscuit won’t hurt…and I’ll have less at lunch”, but even that objective will become difficult to sustain when lunch comes around…and so on.
So, here’s what to do.
See if you can achieve your objective of the day and if you do, then that’s fantastic. You’ve proved to yourself you can do it and if you can do it for a day, you can probably do it for the next day and the next.
If you find it hard to achieve your day’s objective straight off, then cut it down to a two-hour or even one-hour objective. Put off having a snack, for instance, for an hour. If you can do that, then congratulate yourself. If you can do it for an hour, then you can probably do it for another, and then another and so forth.
If you find even an hour tough, then don’t worry about it, just cut the time down even more…say to ten minutes. If you can put off having a snack for even ten minutes, then that’s a big step forward. If you can do it for ten minutes, you can probably do it for for another ten minutes and so forth. And once you can do it for six lots of ten minutes, you’ve done it for an hour, and then a day and then you’ll be well on the way to getting the belief that you can make the changes!
To many people, this may all seem a bit pointless and slow. Why not go the whole hog and start a full blown 5:2 diet on Monday and be done with it? Big action for big results!
As we’ve pointed out, this approach just won’t work for many people. It’s much better to make lots of very small, but very positive steps on your journey because these will self-perpetuate. If you end the day having had no snacks, you’ll feel a lot better than if you’ve starved yourself!
Use this “small step” approach on all aspects of your lifestyle. Drink more water on one day, go for a brisk walk (however short) on the next, avoid sugary drinks on the next, take the stairs instead of the lift, give up on seconds – and so on.
By doing this, you’ll feel better about yourself, because you’ve actually DONE something instead of only SAYING you’ll do something.
And because you’ve done something, you’ll have more belief…which means your next “mini” objective will be even easier.
Good luck!
The New In 90 team
New In 90 has been specially designed for people who want to lose weight and get fit FOR GOOD. It works by gradually changing your daily habits and routines so that you eat less and exercise more – leading to long term weight loss and improved fitness.
Download it now from the app store and get started TODAY.
