How To Lose Weight This Month

How To Lose Weight This Month

Summer is over and you have freaked out at the sight of yourself in your holiday pictures. It’s time to lose weight this month!

Follow these tips to get you back on the right track after a summer of indulgence…

1. Get Organised.

Have a look at your life and spot the patterns – when and why do you eat bad foods? Is it because of boredom? Lack of alternatives? No inspiration? No time?

When you know where the problem lies you can address it.

If you are bored, look for a hobby. Get to the gym, take a walk, ride your bike, learn a skill. I don’t know, just do something to keep your brain away from food.

Do you have a lack of alternatives? That’s your fault. In the western world food is abundant. If there’s ‘nothing healthy’ at home, that’s not an excuse, it’s an opportunity. Get yourself to a shop and right the wrong.

No inspiration? Check these out…Healthy Recipes or the Hoyles Fitness recipe page.

No time? Prepare. You don’t always have to spend hours preparing a healthy meal. Often my lunch is soup – today for example, I had this one. I will often eat this one. Ok, they aren’t A*, but for less than the price of a shop sandwich you have a relatively low calorie, healthy and filling meal. Plus all you need is a microwave and a spoon – eat it out of the tub like I do!

Now autumn is starting to rear its ugly head, it’s time to invest in a slow cooker. Get your meat and veg prepped, throw them all in this little gadget with some stock and go off to work. When you arrive home there is a gluten free, low fat, high protein bowl of awesome just waiting for you as soon as you get home.

2. Exercise Regularly.

Not once per fortnight. Be consistent with your training. If you are serious about losing weight, exercise a minimum of 3 times per week.

You will need to have a good weight training programme put together for you. If you do a half-arsed job in the gym, you won’t see the results. If you don’t know where to start, try one of these two workouts.

If you are new to exercise or need some help getting started, try enlisting the help of a personal trainer. That will ensure your exercise is effective, efficient and safe. Don’t worry about being ‘bested’ – just explain your goals and explain where your current fitness level lies. A good personal trainer will get more out of you than you expected or thought possible!

3. Address your shopping habits.

Shopping for me is easy – I go to three areas of the shop. Fruit and Vegetables, Meat, Dairy. If you venture off track, you are likely to find yourself in the pudding aisle and wonder why you still carry excess weight.

Some people like to shop online whereas others prefer to go into the store – my suggestion is to do which you think will prevent you from wandering down the chocolate aisle. If you trust yourself to stick to the healthy areas of the shop, I’d always go to pick my produce myself – I want to choose what I’m buying, not have it done for me. If you can’t trust yourself not to buy biscuits, stick to online!

4. Drink Only Water During the Day.

I could tell you all about how amazing water is, but that’s not my point. What I will say is that it’s zero calorie and the best substance to hydrate you on the planet.

In work, rather than get sucked into a coffee or tea round, just drink water. One of the things I ask my personal training clients to do is to fill out a food diary, including all fluid intake. In 99 out of 100 cases I see people drinking upwards of 5 coffees and teas per day, but less than half that amount in water. It needs to be reversed.

I’m not saying stop drinking coffee and tea, just keep yourself to one or two per day. As for sugary soft drinks, stop them altogether.

If you get bored of water, squeeze some lemon or lime in it to change the taste.

5. Stay Accountable With a Goal.

Set yourself a goal of weighing less at the end of the month than you do now. It doesn’t need to be big, clever or complicated. Ease yourself back in with a simple goal like the one I have just said.

Adopt the principles I have set out in the this blog post and you will lose weight this month, without question.

Good luck – remember, it’s not difficult, it just needs consistency.