Achieving your weight loss goal

Happy new year to you all and welcome to my new blog. As a fitness professional I have clients ask me how they can go about losing weight. If the truth be told there is no easy way to weight loss. In fact the two major approaches of dieting and exercise are quite difficult to sustain.

I have been asked quite frequently on the most effective approach to weight loss, as a fitness professional, I must confess to my bias, I will always advocate exercise over diet, by diet I mean fad diets like the Atkins, Dukan, cabbage soup etc. However, I do understand that a sensible nutritional practice is essential if you want to achieve meaningful and sustainable results.

The first step in my view will be to set SMART objectives I am sure you are all familiar with this acronym. Most people do not do so and is the biggest reason for peoples failure to achieve weight loss. You have to be specific, know exactly what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it, saying you want to lose weight is not specific. You need to include figures like one stone in three months.
Next you have to focus on how you will measure your progress. Using a fat loss monitor or calipers is the most effective way of monitoring your progress. A fat loss monitor or calipers will tell you your percentage of fat in relation to your total body weight. From the percentage of fat we can easily work out what your total fat weight is, and also your lean weight. The aim of any effective weight loss or fitness programme is to reduce your percentage of fat and increase or maintain your lean weight. Using bathroom scales on its own will not give you a true picture of what is going on. Using a tape measure is very useful in capturing the inches lost.

How will you go about achieving your goal? Nutrition will play an important role, by some people's estimation nutrition is 60% of the work, so it follows that you can not achieve weight loss without a knowledge and application of sound nutritional principles. But this is not the same as embarking on fad diets. Exercise will also feature prominently in your programme, the right type of exercise must be employed. What is the right type of exercise? Exercise will differ according to an individuals fitness level and medical disposition. If you concentrated on only exercise paying no attention to nutrition, you may not lose weight. In a nut shell sound nutrition coupled with appropriate exercise is the way to achieving your weight loss goal.( I have not gone into detail regarding nutrition and types of exercise as it is beyond the scope of this article)

How realistic are your goals? I have had some one tell me that they intended to lose two stones in a month. Does that sound realistic?That is a classic example of setting yourself up for failure. Losing a pound of fat a week is challenging and also realistic. It is advisable not to aim to lose too much too soon.

The next step in tackling your weight loss goal is to focus on your mind. Your mind and body work together.
You can not achieve any goal if you are not tuned in. Your sub conscience mind will assist you in achieving any goal you set. When you set out your goal as illustrated above, it is not a dream. It is reality. If you have a desire to achieve your weight loss goal your sub conscience mind will kick in.

You will need to use imagery, and picture yourself the weight you want to be. Can you see yourself being slimmer? If you can see yourself in your minds eye then you can achieve that goal. You also have to believe in yourself that you can do it. The power of the mind should not be neglected, we all have it within us to achieve weight loss, when your plan is not going well it is will power that enables you to continue. You do not give up on minor set backs, you engage your mind, mentally regroup, review your plan and then continue.

Learning how to break your goals into smaller units may make a big task seem easier to achieve It is easier to exercise three times a week than every day. It is easier to gradually cut out unhealthy foods than cutting it out all at once. Successfully losing weight is all about gradually acquiring good habits and dropping your bad habits. There are many approaches to weight loss, you have to find a strategy that works for you and stick with it. You also have to believe that it will work.