Often when a new client approaches me with questions, they have the idea that getting fit and healthy and achieving a lower body fat level is complicated.  Even though there is no magical bullet, they keep looking for it anyway.

Most of us know what has to be done, but it seems way to simple and if it was really that simple, everyone would be doing it-wouldn’t they? Yes and no. The actual methods are not that hard to learn, its the getting it done that’s the hard bit.

I like to start with these simple questions:

Where Am I Now?
Where Do I Want to Go?
How Do I Get there?
It’s really that simple. Then it’s a matter of following through-which is the hard bit.

Where Am I Now?

You first need to work out where you are in relation to where you want to be. It might be as simple as jumping on the scales and taking some measurements. It could be do conduct some fitness testing if improved performance is one of your goals.

Where Do I Want To Go?

You need to work out what it is you want to achieve. For some, that’s really easy-I want to be able to wear my size 10 jeans again, or I want to get back to my prepregnancy weight. For others, it might be more complicated. They may want to drop a certain amount of time from their best performance or have more energy or improve their immune system function so that they don’t get sick so often. Or you could have a stack of health/fitness goals that you want to achieve at the same time.

Whatever it is that you want, it really must be measurable in some way. Otherwise, how will you know when you get there. A goal weight, waist measurement or body fat percentage is something you can aim for and know when you’ve achieved it. Something airy fairy like, I just want to lose some weight, will leave you feeling like you’ve never completed your journey, even if you do indeed lose some weight.

So work out where you want to be and how you’ll know you’ve arrived.

How Do I Get There?

This is really the easy bit. I doubt anyone reading this doesn’t know the basics of a good training program and healthy nutrition.

So why aren’t we all achieving our goals? It’s not because you don’t know what to do. It’s not because you lack the knowledge. It’s because you look for something more complicated. A magic powder or gadget. You’re looking for  the latest best kept secret. A new breakthrough that’s just been discovered, a magical herb or extract……….The list goes on. But none of these things will help you at all unless you follow the basic steps to health and fitness.

Eat healthy, non-processed foods at least 95% of the time. (100% compliance really does work best till you’ve reached or almost reached your goals.)
Train with intensity. Train frequently and train hard. You don’t need marathon 2 hour sessions. In fact, every session need not even last an hour. Short 20 minute sessions in between your core longer workouts are a very effective way of maintaining a fired up metabolism and everyone can fit in 20 minutes here and there.
Get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water. Heck, if you don’t do either of these now, just doing this will get you some results for a start. A dehydrated and/or tired body will not burn fat effectively.
So there you go. Work out where you’re starting from, where you want to go and head out and get there.