So here I am, a Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor and Weight Loss Coach, blogging away for over four months now without really talking about any specific “how to’s” of weight loss or fitness. Not saying that today is much different, but just clarifying that I’m aware some of you may be confused. 😉 haha

I think a lot of people thought that the blog was going to be more about “how to lose weight” or “how to get abs” and while ya sure, I get why it might seem like a natural assumption, that was never my intention here.  This is more about the mindset to those things because in my experience that is the biggest hurdle…if you have the right mindset the “how” part of weight loss and fitness and healthy living in general is a lot easier.  The HOW is not complicated…even though the internet makes it seem like it is…the WHY is what’s complicated.

But, for anyone really trying to make changes, and wanting the “how to” post, today I will give you what you’ve been waiting for, a little crash course in how to be healthier without losing your mind.  

  1. Move your body as much as you can every day – doesn’t have to be intense workouts and extreme cardio all the time.  Get up more if you sit a lot. Do micro workouts throughout the day. Go for walks.  Find a form of fitness you enjoy and prioritize it.  Do some resistance training at least a few times a week for a half hour or more.
  2. Eat ingredients, not food that has ingredients, the majority of the time.  As in whole, unprocessed foods.  You don’t need to avoid fruit because it has sugar; eat all the fruit you want, but limit the pastries.  Eat a banana instead of an energy bar. Eat veggies with every meal.  If you are eating things that have ingredients (like say bread) check the ingredients; you want a short list that consists of things you can pronounce (for the most part).
  3. Having said that…don’t force yourself to choke down a bunch of stuff you hate – if you don’t like celery (gag) then don’t buy celery.  There are hundreds of foods to choose from, you don’t HAVE to eat some specific list of them because someone decided they were superfoods – that is an exaggerated label.  They’re just foods that happen to contain a lot of vitamins and minerals and guess what?  If the fruits and vegetables you choose aren’t labeled as superfoods, it is still far better to have healthy food you WILL EAT than it is to have rotting superfoods in your fridge…vitamins and minerals in foods are completely useless if you won’t actually swallow them.
  4. Meal Prep.  I cannot stress enough how big of a difference it makes to have healthy food options ready and easily available.  It is the secret weapon of healthy eating (unless you’re just so wealthy that you can have someone else do it for you.)
  5. Change the narrative you’re telling yourself about exercise and nutrition.  Stop sending yourself the message that you “HAVE” to exercise or eat something that you don’t want…change that message to you work out and eat healthy because you love your body and want to take care of it.  Because you want to be strong.  Because you want to be a good example to your kids.  Because you feel better when you do it.
  6. Stop beating yourself up when you have treats.  There are no bad foods (unless you’re allergic and then ya…don’t eat those).  There is nothing that is off limits.  There are things you eat less because they don’t serve your goals – it doesn’t mean you can’t ever have them.  I eat one, reasonably sized, chocolate chip cookie almost every single day.
  7. If you are not actively in a place where you have the mental or emotional energy/focus to be trying to lose weight, stop weighing yourself.  It’s asking a question you don’t want the answer to.  If you aren’t wanting to do something about it, then why are you checking?  Exercise anyway.  Eat as healthy as you can anyway.  Stop fixating on the scale; it’s just a tool, and one that you only need to use for information purposes.  If that information isn’t currently needed then don’t collect it.
  8. Prioritize yourself and set boundaries.  Make time for the things that are important.  Period. If you aren’t making time for it, then it isn’t important to you right then.  That’s not a bad thing.  It’s just a fact.
  9. If you drink a lot of alcohol – cut back.  I am never going to tell you to never have anything ever again but I will flat out tell you it’s empty calories and isn’t doing you any favours health-wise so consider how much you’re having and if there’s something you can swap out for a few of them then try to switch out at least a few in a week. (We drink a lot of non-alcoholic beer in our house – still empty calories but fewer per drink, doesn’t get you drunk so you’re likely to eat a bunch of junk and doesn’t leave me hungover!)  Again, not saying NEVER have any if you really enjoy it, but just consider the amount.
  10. Sleep.  Not sleeping enough will mess up everything else in your body.  (As will sleeping too much actually, but if you’re a grown up with the usual responsibilities, too much is unlikely to be an issue.)  Keep your phone out of your room.  Avoid electronics before bed if you can.  Have a consistent bed and wake up time. Get a good bedtime routine.  Treat sleep like a top priority.

That’s it.  Seriously.  You can do all the detox cleanses and juice fasts, and drink all the green tea fat blasters or wear all the waist slimmers (please don’t) IN THE WORLD…but none of it will result in permanent changes if you don’t change the way you do things. (Also starving and not being able to breathe sounds like a super shitty life, just sayin’.)

This is not complicated or revolutionary stuff…it’s largely pretty monotonous and boring actually…what it looks like though, is a lot of work. As in, you have to show up consistently in the places that need it and do the work; every day.  

The thing is though, is it more work to just do the little things consistently OR to make these massive efforts that we do every so often?

Think about the process when you decide “That’s it!  I’m done with the junk and feeling like shit; Monday I go back to exercise and eating healthy!” You exert a TON of effort to get yourself psyched up and motivated.  And then more to get rid of all that “bad food” and stock yourself up with all the “good stuff”.  Then you spend most of your time obsessing about it.

Instead, if you just did a few little things every single day (and sometimes some bigger ones), over time, you’d actually be exerting less energy (or at the very least, the same amount, but with much less stress) and instead of it being so big and all consuming and inflexible that it takes massive amounts of willpower to stick with, it’s just about your day-to-day habits with a much lower consistent input; a part of the daily routine that can just become an automated thing. (If you haven’t already, check out my earlier post about habits being superior to willpower.)  

If you want to stop spending your one precious life fighting the same battles over and over, all I can tell you is to stop fighting.  You’re not at war with your body the way you’ve been convinced you are.  It isn’t TRYING to sabotage you.  But if you’re in an on again – off again relationship with taking care of yourself then you are sabotaging yourself.

Stop buying into the gimmicks.  Stop believing the too good to be true promises.  Stop trying to find shortcuts.  Stop treating your health and body like it’s in a 100 meter sprint when it’s actually in an Ultra Marathon.  

I know in some ways it would be a relief for me to tell you that you’re right, there is a complicated series of things that you NEED to do in order to be healthy/lose weight/build muscle…it actually would take some of the pressure off of us.  But it just isn’t the case.  Our bodies are actually pretty spectacularly designed and most of the time the answer is not that you need to buy a ton of expensive superfoods or supplements or devices…most of the time you just need to eat real food in reasonable portions, move your body more and rest appropriately.

Mystery solved.