LOSE 10 POUNDS BY JUNE IN THREE SIMPLE STEPS.

LOSE 10 POUNDS BY JUNE IN THREE SIMPLE STEPS.

STEP 1 EAT MORE

I’ve been in the weight-loss coaching business for thirty years, this year. The first client I coached was in June of 1995 and she was a woman in her late forties. I though she was quite old at the time! What did I know? By today’s standards, she’s a teen! But I do remember her dilemma. And it’s a dilemma I’ve met more times than I can count since.

She had dieted for years, tried every quick-fix known to man & had arrived at a place where she was eating very little, but struggling to lose weight & in fact, gaining steadily, year after year. Sound familiar? This was the low-fat era, which happened to be the high carb era, as a result (you take fat out, you need to add something!) The problem was that the carbs we were eating were abysmal! Weight-watchers had introduced us to the notion of low-fat desserts. Carrot cake & lemon cake comes instantly back to mind! Low-fat chocolate dessert is, by definition, all wrong in my book. The notion was that you could “have your cake & eat it too”. Have dessert, lose weight. But your teeny tiny slice of lemon cake begot another four teeny tiny slices, such that you ate the entire pack in one sitting & were still craving more at the end of it. Sad times!

My client, like everyone else, had been fed the notion that you had to tamper with food to make it acceptable! This is, of course, all wrong. Today we know that ultra-processed foods are killing us. I never recommend them.

Instead, from today, to lose weight, EAT MORE. YES, MORE. But more of the good stuff. Whole foods are what I am talking about here. Eat lots and lots of fresh vegetables. Eat lots of fresh fruit (no, it will not cause a crazy blood glucose spike). Eat lots of whole fish, meat, eggs, cheese, as part of balanced meals. And eat lots of fibre, as your focus.

Create meals that you enjoy, that are reasonably low in fat (but NOT FAT-FREE), reasonably high in protein (BUT NOT CRAZY HIGH PROTEIN), reasonably high in fibre (GO MAD WITH VEGETABLES). Enjoy eating three meals per day. Stop starving yourself. Stop bingeing on ultra-processed “pretend” foods & eat well to lose weight. Then, DO NOT EAT BETWEEN MEALS. This is when the magic of fat-loss kicks in. As long as you follow my next step.

 

STEP 2 MOVE MORE

How many steps do you take in a day. I mean, every day? Do you know? Do you measure?

If you have a smart watch, then the information is to hand (literally). If not, then, perhaps borrow one, just for a week, to observe your number. I meet clients often who take between two and four thousand steps a day, regularly. They may do more on a weekend or on an exercise day & that number might reach six thousand then. This is not enough!

MOVE MORE. If you are serious about weight-loss for these next six weeks then take at least 10k steps per day. This is not hard work as such. And its not exercise either. This is simply an approach to how you address your day. Do you sit all day or do you move? Do you take the stairs or not? Do you potter around of an evening or do you sit stock still (as if you haven’t been sitting long enough all day)?

If you move more (while eating better) you will expend more calories, which equals energy, which has to come from somewhere. When you are eating really well & creating those gaps I mentioned above (between your three meals of the day) then you are going to have to eventually & then consistently, reach into fat stores to fuel it. Simple!

Exercise is where your body is stressed somewhat. You are out of breath or at least strained of breath, your heart is beating faster and you are feeling warmer as you go. Exercise is ideally what you insert into your day, five days per week, if not every day, for at least 30 minutes. You know this stuff. But do you do it? From today, let the answer be “yes”. Then we are on to step three.

 

STEP 3 GET SUPPORT

One of the keys to making behaviour change & then getting it to stick, is to have a positive & supportive environment. You are not “superhuman”, you cannot expect to go-it-alone. Where do we get that? If your partner, your family or your work colleagues have no interest in getting in shape & putting healthier habits in place then the journey can be tiresome & to be honest, can be doomed before it even starts. So get yourself some support!

What do I mean by support? Well, it can be as simple as joining a walking group, a running group, a fitness class. Whatever takes your fancy. Join a group at the start. I love yoga for instance & have done yoga for over 25 years. I do it on a fabulous App these days, but for the first fifteen or so years I did it as part of a class. I didn’t have the knowledge, confidence or support to do it at home on my own so I enlisted the support of some amazing teachers over the years. These days I can self-correct in a pose, I can make a commitment to do so many sessions per week because I love it & I can lean on the App to structure my practice, but only because I became part of a supportive yoga environment many years ago.

Equally, you may need to enlist some help. Its normal. You cannot expect to be all knowledgeable & all motivated over night These things take time & experience & learning. So look to enlist the help of a fitness instructor, a personal trainer, a Salsa teacher. Whatever makes you happiest is what you should pursue. That is what will stick!

I am available to you to support you in healthy eating and weight-loss specifically. Movement & fitness is always part of any programme I deliver. Drop me a note to schedule a free consult & we can take it from there!