Five Footsteps on the Way to Weight Loss

If you know anything about wellness (or you’ve seen The Hobbit) you’ll know that nothing that is worth doing is comprised of just one step to complete. Weight and wellbeing are difficult entities to fully understand, and setting goals around them will take several steps to accomplish, and won’t magically come into being overnight. You need to prepare yourself and get a clear idea in your mind about what you need to do and then stick to the plan. There are no exceptions to this rule, regardless of your current weight and fitness levels, or where you want to be, but in reality you can break down this complicated enigma into simple, individual steps. Anyone can eventually eat an elephant if they do it one bite at a time (although I would hardly recommend that for weight loss!)

Step 1 is to clean up your eating habits. Diet is the more important factor in fat loss and lean muscle building over exercise, though activity is important too. Above all things get rid of junk food from your diet – that’s the first step you should take.

Step 2: long, slow cardio exercise is a waste of time (and money you spend on the gym), so for the best way to get the best results, substitute long, slow cardio exercises with high intensity cardio interval training. This requires more energy, but for shorter bursts of time, and will most importantly burn far more calories. It will even increase your resting metabolism, which means you will burn even more calories after you’ve stopped exercising.

Step 3 goes hand in hand with step 2 – use heavier weights. Commonly, women tend to not lift enough weight while men are more likely to overdo it. Using the appropriate weight will burn far more calories, as well as helping you to avoid injury from using the wrong amount of weight.

Once you’ve got the first 3 steps down, move on to step 4 and limit your consumption of alcohol. Even a few beers a night can derail your hard work that you’ve put in that week – so what’s the point? Try alcohol-free alternatives, switch to half-pints or try a shandy instead.

However, if you do choose to add lemonade to your favourite tipple, make sure it is sugar-free because step 5 is to restrict sugar in your diet, and cut out soft drinks as much as possible. Once you see results from these steps, you’ll be motivated to carry on and add more to your plan. Maybe it’s time to look online to see how else you might improve your wellness and weight loss, and be the envy of everyone you meet.