There’s no doubt that it’s the happy marriage between exercise and sensible eating that produces the best long-term weight loss results: it’s not exercise that is failing to make you thin, it’s the discord between diet and exercise.
How do you make sure you succeed?
- Make sure you’re eating well, simply by making wise choices. If you’re not sure exactly what those choices are, make an appointment with a dietitian.
- Exercise soundly and safely. Consult a qualified trainer for a tailor-made programme.
- Manage your choices by giving yourself the incentive to succeed. Exercise need not be a “boot camp” of sacrifice and denial. Make it fun, find positive rewards and affirmations for what you’re doing, and you’re far more likely to succeed.
- Find an activity you love, train with friends, recognise your achievements, and remind yourself of your goals and reasons for embarking on a fitness journey.
The only golden rule is that you stick with it, and enjoyment means you will. So don’t allow doom and gloom prophets to undermine your plan or your progress. Exercise is energising, and if you do it right, then health and wellness — and your ideal weight — are within easy reach.
Five tips for making the most of exercise:
1. Marry exercise and diet together — consult a dietitian, find simple, sustainable options for dietary changes, and use them in conjunction with exercise for best results.
2. Work the plan and the plan will work — consistency is key when it comes to exercise. People fail because they jump from one plan to another and never benefit from consistent, long-term planning. So get yourself a sound programme (from a qualified biokineticist or trainer) and then trust the plan.
3. Be patient. One of the biggest challenges is that early on it’s tough to exercise at the right intensity for long enough to see results. As your fitness improves, so too will your ability to hit the right training volumes and intensities, and your results will improve. So be patient, get to the top of that first hill — you’ll coast from there.
4. Don’t be pre-occupied with the scale. When you exercise, you can expect to increase lean muscle mass and plasma volume (literally, you make more blood). This will naturally increase your weight at first. But don’t worry too much about a number when you start — focus on fitness and allow the weight to take care of itself.
5. Find a friend. Don’t go it alone — whether it’s diet or exercise, the biggest predictor of success is your adherence to a plan for a long time. And what better way to ensure you keep at it than by making it fun and sociable.
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