In order to reach your fitness goals, whether large or small, there are only two proven techniques to get you there: diet and exercise.
While it might seem like ancient common knowledge, many people underestimate the importance of combining these two factors when striving to achieve their 2017 fitness goals.
DIET
While exercise is important, your diet is responsible for around 80% of the result that you are hoping to achieve. If you want to lose fat, put simply, you need to clean up your diet. My suggestion would be to cut all processed food. This includes anything that comes in a packet (if you need to buy something that’s in a packet, look at the ingredients list and choose something with 4 ingredients or less as it is more likely to be in a semi- natural state, white bread etc). Minimise your alcohol intake and be smart about your snacking. I’m not saying that you need to go on a crash diet, in fact far from it as calories are needed if you are hoping to burn fat, but eat food close to its natural state, boost the antioxidant intake from vegetables and berries and eat protein with every meal!
Here are 4 tips for adjusting your diet this summer:
• Cut your portion sizes in half! This won’t apply to everyone, but for a lot of us, we do tend to fill up our plates and then polish them off. If this is you, then consider this advice.
- Eat seasonally. By eating fruit and vegetables that are in season, they should have more nutritional value (as they are less likely to have been in storage for a while or shipped internationally), they also should be more affordable (as they are again, less likely to have been shipped internationally) and they are providing your body with different nutrients from the fruit and veg that you were eating in winter.
- Add metabolism boosting ingredients into your meals. Think lemon, cayenne pepper and chillies.
EXERCISE
Once you’ve incorporate key changes in your diet, try these 4 tips for revving up your fitness routine in 2017:
• Make a schedule and stick to it. If you are not someone who is super motivated to workout or eat healthily, I suggest you make a plan over the weekend for the week ahead. Book into all of your gym classes for the week on Sunday so you know what you will be doing and try to get as much meal prep done over the weekend too. If you are prepared, it will be a lot easier to stick to your plan!
• Sign up to a weekly session with a friend. I suggest this for a few reasons… for starters in winter we tend to hibernate, or we catch up with friends for food, so in spring why not get your friends to come out and be active and social with you. Secondly, you don’t want to let your friend down, and therefore you are now held accountable.
Most importantly have fun it’s what it’s all about!
