As some of you may have read, I put my weight loss journey on here a little while ago, (if not here's the link). Today I wanted to share 5 simple things that I implemented into my life that had a big impact on me and helped me in achieving success.
1. Learn to understand Food.
The first thing I had to learn was how to understand food, which sounds kind of silly, but learning to do something as simple as turn the box of food around to read the nutrition facts was something I never thought of when I was younger. I had the mentality of "if it tasted good I would buy and consume it". But as I worked my way through my weight loss, I learned how important things like the nutrition guide were. This is something simple that you can do, and I am not saying that you need to track macro's or always carry around your phone with MyFitnessPal on it or a food journal, but mindfulness of how many calories is in food is sometimes enough when just starting out as you work your way towards your goals.
2. Get moving everyday.
The next thing that I did that helped me was to simply get active everyday. For me this was getting in to the gym and lifting weights, and on days I don't do that I get moving in some other way. Getting moving doesn't just mean that you have to go to a gym at all, something as simple as going for a walk is sometimes enough to help jumpstart your weight loss journey. If you look at it this way, if you do 15mins of walking everyday, that is 15 mins more that you were doing the week before and that simple task can give you something to work towards and improve on. There is no reason to go full potato on a exercise routine for it to only just wear you out and burn you out to the point where you throw in the towel. The goals that you want to achieve are meant to be life long and starting your fitness journey with sustainable forms of exercise is key to long-term success.
3. Enjoy the Process.
Speaking to the last point the next thing that I learned to do was enjoy the process. By enjoying the process I don't mean that its all sunshine's and rainbows, but enjoying the hard work because you know what the result is going to be is key to keeping you on track. If doing something like weight lifting doesn't and will never interest you, then find something that does. You can go swim at your local pool, or go for a walk with your friends that live in the area. There are so many things that you can do when it comes to getting active that you can do that are also fun. But on the food side this is where maybe you experiment with some new foods that you have never tried before or even new spices on a healthy alternative. I always believe in the moto of "make yourself a science experiment", which doesn't mean that you do dangerous things, but you can be a bit adventurous. Try a new food that is a healthy alternative to something you like, like chickpea pasta or something. Remember that sustainability is the name of the game and I feel that something that is for the most part enjoyable will make sustainability that much easier.
4. The 5 P's
Next is one that was a game changer for me and it the 5 P's. Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. The importance of meal prep is key when it comes to keeping yourself on track, because when life happens and the time that you thought you had to make a healthy supper goes away, you can always pull out a premade meal out of your freezer and have a good meal and still be on point with your goal. The saying goes "the worst time to go shopping, is when your hungry" and believe the same goes with your meals. If your hungry and have nothing made you are more likely to just throw together a quick and most likely less than healthy meal or worse yet get some fast food take out. But if you implement the 5 P's you can ensure that you are ready at all times when you need a meal, or a nice healthy lunch for at work that's ready to go. But this isn't just something that can be used in the kitchen, it is very important to have a plan when it comes to how your going to be active that day. Maybe you have a scheduled class that you do during the week at a local gym or a set night that you go for a walk with your friends, knowing what the game plan is the best way to ensure that you have the highest chance of you be successful.
5. Understand What it means to be successful.
Lastly, the biggest thing that helped me and that I think will help you. Understand what you are doing and what it means to you to be successful. Health and Fitness and an all around different view of a healthy lifestyle has literally saved my life in more ways than I could have ever imagined it ever would or could. This tip is the hardest but without it the other tips that I gave you don't really matter, because going in halfcocked is a recipe for failure.
Trying to lose weight is not an easy task and lists like these can provide some early results but the one thing that I have stressed throughout this entire thing is sustainability, which all comes down to how much you really want this thing. Because real talk, this is not easy. People will talk calories in v.s. calories out, which is accurate but there is so many variables that people don't talk about. Things like stress and metabolic adaptation can move the goal post of what calories have to be going in or out to achieve the desired results.
I hope that you can take something of value from my ramblings here today. If you can part here with even 1 piece of advice or information, I feel that I had done my duty here today, because I know what its like to want to change physically for the better and I know the pride it feels to achieve that goal. Now my goal is to try to help you achieve yours and hopefully this blurb can help you do that.
If you ever want to reach out to me to chat you can email me at: kylecroftnuritioncoaching@gmail.com and I would be happy to talk to you about whatever you would like.
Thanks
Kyle Croft.