5.1 - Building More Confidence

Be confident in who you are and accept where you are currently. It does not matter if you are overweight, unfit or the thought of exercise scares you. Everybody has to make a start somewhere and well done for deciding to make that change. Don’t pay attention to what other people think and don’t compare yourself to others, just focus on working on yourself and you confidence will begin to build.

5.2 - Changing Your Current Habits

How long did it take you to get to where you are today? Did it take you 4 weeks? No! If it was years of bad habits then don’t expect them to be undone in 4 weeks. Start forming new habits that will put you on the right track, this is the first and most important step.

5.3 - Increasing Your NEAT

Non exercise activity thermogenesis has made a second appearance as it is such an important factor that everyone can easily incorporate into their daily lives. By increasing your NEAT it will help you to move more, become fitter and burn more calories daily, which will result in positive changes internally and externally. Keep your NEAT up!

5.4 - Focus On Your Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important aspects to our health and well-being and we are currently a society that actively deprives ourselves of sleep. This is due to the amount of technology around, we are constantly on our phones before we sleep or watching episode after episode of our favourite TV shows and as a result always feeling tired and do not want to get up in the morning for work. In this video I take a look at the important’s of sleep and why we should start prioritising it!

5.5 - Limiting Your Alcohol & Smoking Intake

Alcohol & smoking are both very detrimental to our health if they’re abused on a regular basis. I just wanted to make you aware of some of the negative impacts they can have on our health and well-being and leave it up to you to consider whether you should give them up or cut back on the amount you consume.

5.6 - Cheat Meal & Days

The term cheat meal or cheat day is something I disagree with. The idea that you need to have a cheat meal or cheat day isn’t necessary, if you would like to have a cheat meal basically a highly dense calorific meal which is considered unhealthy then that is ok. You don’t need to class it as a cheat meal and then have the mindset the diet is ruined and turn it into a cheat day or worse give up on the process. Its just another meal which will likely have negative implications of helping you hit your goals but it is ok, it happens so just understand the negative implications and allow for it and move forward.

5.7 - Managing Your Weekends & Events

Similar to cheat meals and cheat days, weekends and events can be catered for and be part of a successful weight loss journey. If you have an event coming up or you like to indulge on the weekends then cater for this throughout the week or on that day. This approach will help you still enjoy the weekends and events that you have coming up whilst keeping you on track.

5.8 - Implementing Small Sustainable Changes

It takes someone months or years of bad habits in order to gain weight and people always look for the quick solution. We need to understand that we need to slowly relearn the good habits in order to make long term lifestyle changes. That all starts with implementing some small sustainable changes that be can stick to for the long term. More good habits and lifestyle changes compare to bad. Will lead you in the right direction of long term success.

5.9 - Lifestyle Changes Summary

Here are my take home points and aspects I want you to focus on within this section in order to keep you progressing.

Lifestyle Changes Top Tips

• Have confidence in your ability, focus on improving where you are today and don't pay attention to any negativity. FOCUS ON YOU!

• Change your habits one step at a time.

• Increase your NEAT - Keep active and try to move more.

• Try and improve your quality of your sleep, 7-9 hours is a good target.

• Limit your smoking and alcohol intake.

• Don't create this idea that you need a cheat meal/day. Just enjoys the foods you like in moderation.

• Try and manage your weekends and events. Save some calories in the week to counter act the weekends.

• Implement these small sustainable changes over time.

Next Topic - Tracking Progress