Let’s go back a couple of months to the beginning of the year. Chances are you joined a gym in January, right? You probably also threw yourself into a daily fitness routine involving lots of cardio in order to lose those extra kilos you piled on over the festive season. And probably, you swore that you would never drink alcohol again or allow another high fat, high sugar, highly processed piece of food to enter your mouth!
We are already 4 months into the new year. In a perfect world, you will have achieved some great results by now if you have been consistent with your goal plan and disciplined with your food intake. However, for many of you, that might not be the case. By mid February, most of us are getting bored with the discipline and grilled chicken and are feeling just a wee bit disappointed with the lack of results! Most of you will have dropped some weight to start with, but after this initial shift, you might find yourself stuck with the last few kilos that stubbornly refuse to budge no matter how little you eat or how many hours you spend on those cardio machines. By March, most of our good intentions have been dropped by the wayside along with the winter coats and heavy snow boots and our visits to the local gym have all but ceased to take place.
There are many obstacles to deal with during the winter months. We often start the year feeling tired, sluggish, overly fed, and with weakened immune systems. The lack of sunlight and short days can leave us feeling miserable and de-motivated, making it very hard to follow any sort of fitness programme or be consistent with our healthy eating plans. Losing weight in the winter really is hard! However,it could just be that you are not following the right path.
Why do so many people fail to stay on track after their initial enthusiasm about getting fit and losing weight? Well, everyone has a different answer to that question, but it is probably because they need to change their appoach. One big mistake that a lot of people make at the beginning of the year is to go on a strict diet. By drastically reducing calories and eliminating important macronutrients, we simply end up feeling depressed and underfed with barely any energy to do our chosen workouts! Denying your body the right to eat will also send signals to your brain that you are being starved and that it should hold on to every little gram of fat, just in case! Diets do not work and trying to lose weight by starving yourself may show some results initially, but will have a negative effect in the long term. Finding what works for you is the road to success. Basing your meals around a healthy combination of proteins, carbs and fats is the solution if you want to follow a plan that you can stick to. If you feel that you are eating well but not losing weight, then simply reduce the overall quantity but stay with the quality and variety of your food.
The second mistake that is often made is to believe that the best way to lose fat is to do as much cardio as possible. Yes, it burns many calories and it strengthens the heart, lungs, bones and boosts our mood, but is it the best way to lose fat? No. Well, at least not on it’s own. Research has now proven that the best way to really burn away the fat and build a strong, muscular physique is to combine cardio with weights. We call this type of training Metabolic Resistance Training or MRT and it can be considered a far superior option to even High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT. Why is it better? Well, firstly, you will burn far more calories on a minute to minute basis and you will also stimulate muscle activation, thus maintaining your lean muscle mass even when you are reducing calories and trying to lose fat. But the best bit is that you will torch a large amount of calories even when you are at rest. During an MRT class, you will complete a circuit alternating upper body exercises with lower body exercises, while using various pieces of equipment. Each exercise can be progressed from bodyweight to heavier weights depending on each persons fitness levels and capabilities. This type of training really does work and anyone wanting to get real results in a short period of time would be crazy not to include it into their routine.
Once you have tweeked your diet and your exercise, you might want to consider other limiting factors in your life. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you piling too many things into your day un-necessarily? Are you living in a negative environment? Are your habits getting in the way of your success and is your mind preventing you from staying on track. The one excuse that I hear above all others is lack of time. Our lives are just too busy to exercise. My answer is always the same, it is not a lack of time that we have, but a lack of motivation or commitment. Many people see exercise as a punishment and something that they don’t have to do. But it is important to take your health and fitness seriously if you want to be able to live your life in a body that can move well and that is void of modern disease. It is more important than ever before to schedule in time to exercise as we are becoming a society of sitters. We sit at our desk all day, we sit in the car to go from a to b, we spend our evenings sitting in front of the TV or computer and then we go to bed and lie down for 8 hours after having spent the previous 18 sitting on our butts! I know this is not everyones typical day, but it is a very common scenario. You do not have to join a gym or employ a trainer in order to stay fit, but you do have to put time aside as a priority to go and do something active. Focus on your health and you will see that being fit will enable you to live a more fulfilling life. Losing extra weight will not only make you look good in your clothes, it will also keep you away from the doctors surgery, improve your digestion and sleep and will allow you to take part in a variety of activities and sports that you may not have considered before.
Look after yourselves and stay healthy!
Tamara
