An optimal health and fitness program has many components with important benefits. If you want to look and feel your best, and give yourself the best chance to lose weight and keep it off, make sure you have addressed each of the points below.
- Get enough sleep. Inadequate sleep leads to an imbalance of hormones that play a part in weight gain. In addition to that, you just can’t operate optimally when you are tired.
- Exercise aerobically 3 – 7 times per week for 20 – 60 minutes each session at varying levels of intensity. Use a heart rate monitor to monitor your intensity for the best results. Activities such as walking, stair climbing, running, cycling and rowing are all great exercises for weight loss.
- Condition your muscles with a full body weight training program 2 times per week. Do a variety of functionally based exercises for the best results.
- In addition to your prescribed exercise, try to move more generally as much as possible. A pedometre can help you monitor your general activity level. Aim for at least 7,500 steps per day. More than 10,000 steps per day would be great!
Eat a balanced diet high in fibre consisting of real foods with a minimum of 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit each day.- Drink an adequate amount of water considering your body size. This should be approximately 0.03 litres of water per kg of body weight. Have a water bottle on hand to help you get enough water.
- Endeavour to eat every 3-4 hours and control your portion sizes. Small regular meals rather than fewer big meals are generally best.
- Where possible, remove unhealthy food options from your environment.
- Control and manage your stress levels. Firstly, identify your stressors and then put a plan in place to limit these stressors. Make your stress busting plan a habit. Excessive stress is often a huge factor in weight gain.
- Find a means of keeping accountable whether that is a friend, family member, coach or personal trainer. A training and food diary can also help with accountability.
- Surround yourself with people that will support you in your endeavours. Be specific in your request of what you want from a particular support person, e.g. a friend to exercise with, encouragement, etc.