So the sun finally revealed its hand and now anxious faces are on display.
Are you ready for the great unveiling or is there a bit more sculpting to be done?
Or are you resigning yourself to hide underneath shades of black, overcoats and baggy clothing.
Do not fear, as I will be sharing with you a few tricks to tighten up the waistline and leave you feeling proud of what you can do.
So, put that ‘accidental slip on the mat and falling face first into the biscuit jar’ behind you and move on.
Here are a few key points in order of importance:
1. Tighten up your diet
If you fill your stomach with junk your body will repay you with excess fat. It is really that simple.
We use a compliance grid if you need to tighten up your nutrition. What this means is that if you ht around 90 per cent compliance for the week you will see progress with your waistline, hips, backside (fill in the blanks).
How to score this is to divide your day up into opportunities to make a good or bad decision. You may have 3-4 opportunities that you need to ‘get it right’ by eating a meal that adheres to good fat loss behaviours i.e. not a mars bar. Multiply this by 7 to give you 21 opportunities through the week. Your 10 per cent could be a couple of glasses of wine on a Saturday, a dessert. All in all you have 2 ‘tokens’ to deviate off the plan. The rest of the time you are on!
Every meal should have the following items: some form of protein, raw or lightly steamed veggies and some dietary fat. Keep the grain choices to immediately after you train.
2. Give yourself 28 days
I like this number. It is short, intense and long enough to give you good results. Most people give up after 4 so if you are going at it for 28 days then great! The bottom line is this – rapid fat loss is all or nothing. If you want to get in shape quickly then you can’t be dilly-dallying over wanting to tuck into your ice-cream fund or wonder if you have the energy to train today. Those that do-do. Those that don’t, don’t.
That is why your nutrition is so important. Believe it or not, some foods can actually lift your mood to give you the motivation to train. In here excellent book, The Mood Cure, Julia Ross outlines several strategies to give you that extra va-va-voom to get up and actually do some exercise without dreading it!
These include upping your intake of protein at every meal ( yes that includes breakfast ) avoiding the white flour products COMPLETELY and supplementing your nutrition with a liberal dosing of specific amino acids, vitamin D and Omega 3 oils found in plant based products and fish oil.
3. Get some exercise!
It is a good idea to actually break a sweat every day. This is our way of using what our bodies are designed for – movement and also the perspiration acts in excreting acid waste build up for overall health and vitality.
I would recommend a minimum of 30 minutes exercise 3 times a week. This could include a brisk walk, jog or a run. Alternatively you could break a sweat playing sports, hitting the bike or the pool.
4. Train
There is a difference between ‘exercise’ and ‘training’. Training involves taking you out of your comfort zone. Training involves pushing your beyond what you think you are capable of doing to elicit the ‘stress’ response. When this happens you improve.
You can become fitter, stronger, more toned.
The key is to get the right amount of stress through training to spark this response. Too little and nothing happens (so put the pink dumbbells down – they are doing nothing for the bingo wings) and too much and you will burn out (so twice a day for an hour is really unnecessary in most cases).
5. Specific Training
I would recommend 3 training sessions a week combined with a 90 per cent compliant approach with your nutrition. Your training session could be a mixture of heavy weight training and ‘interval’ type training leaving some room for direct abdominal work (if you REALLY have to).
Here is one exercise to tighten you up and give your back a boost. Lie on the floor face down. Now raise up on your toes and pick your hips up too. Rest your weight on the blades of your forearms and hold this position for up to a minute. If you find it hard at first keep with it but build it up in 15 second intervals, beginning with a 15 second hold.
Simple guidelines with simple principles. There is one that we haven’t mentioned. Hard work – and lots of it.
John Lark is a personal trainer in dublin. Why not try out our services? We are offering all subscribers to our free newsletter a 14 day trial to our facility? Pop your email in the box and find out for yourself
