Want LONG TERM results; not just in a challenge?

So I thought I would have a chat to you guys today about goal setting and how get and keep long-term results. The main word here being ‘keep’; because it is actually easy to lose the weight. The hard part is to maintain it.

So many times we go through different stages; different kinds of challenges or fat loss transformations where we lose a bunch of weight or body fat and then as soon as the challenge is over we put the weight back on. This is a vicious cycle for so many people and I really think it's time that we start to find the truth as to why.

I was thinking about this the other day because not everybody has holidays coming up, or weddings, or need to get ready for 50th birthdays when they need to look the best for.

And I thought you know, what happens to the people who don't have something coming up; who just want to look good all year round and feel confident and have energy?

What happens to those people when they just can't seem to get their focus and are consistently going on and off different diets and meal plans. They eat well for a few days, and then they eat bad for the rest of the week. And the cycle continues not just for weeks, or months and years but for some decades.

Sometimes so many people just cannot get their body back on track after they do a challenge and they really just don't understand why they can't because they seemingly are seeing other people doing it and they wonder why they can't have the same control and focus as others.

So what I wanted to speak about today was how we can actually hone in to lifestyle choices rather than quick fixes. Because I think until we can truly find what it is that we want to achieve in our life; start really finding that healthy balance, then we will be for ever searching for the best diet or the quickest fix. We rarely think about the consequences of what happens after a 12 week block ‘challenge’. Why? Because we think that we will have set in place structure and be able to continue with our fat loss program after a challenge takes place, however why is it that it doesn’t happen?

So my tips for you to stay on track all year round are…

NUMBER 1

Find a meal plan and find a way of eating that suits your lifestyle. So What I mean by that is I don't want you to trying to be counting macros or calories if you just don’t have the time or aren’t going to be filling every single thing that goes in to your mount every day. Or you don’t need to remove carbohydrates just because you feel like that’s what will give me a short term fix and then I can add them back in once I lose the weight. What is sustainable?

NUMBER 2

I don't want you to feel like you're restricting yourself with anything. MPT really tries to get that right balance for you when 90% of the time you adhere to your meal plan and another 10% of the time you have flexibility; missing your meals or going out for dinner or having cake for someone's birthday or having some chocolate or having a glass of wine if you feel like it when you have a party on you go and see friends.

Having that mindset of “I can't ever eat this” eventually we just cave in and eat in excess of what we should ever be having. I think if we have in the back of our minds that we can have this flexibility and enjoy some foods every now and then, and then we are more likely to stay on track rather than feel restricted.

NUMBER 3

I want you to find a friend or someone on the same journey as you. Someone you know you can speak to when things aren’t going as great as you would hope. Who can motivate you when you just don't feel like getting up to go to the gym or who can motivate you to push out a couple of extra reps for your workouts. Someone who is going to be there for you and keep you accountable and help you stay on track. This could be a friend, it could be a personal trainer or it could be someone that you work with. And it's really important to have someone there who is on the same journey as you and wanting the same kind of results and success just as much as you do.

NUMBER 4

Start really making better choices more consistently than we probably currently are. So many people I see want results and they want them now and they want them quicker than ever before. But the thing is we have spent so many years abusing our bodies and going on and off different diet meal plans, sometimes our metabolism and bodies need a longer time to adapt in order to get results. Take it from our trainer Kerrie who suffered anorexia for 5+ years; it then took her 3 years to start actually losing any weight. Read her story HERE!

So it's really important that most of the time we make the correct choice; not having dessert every time we go to a birthday party, not having chocolate every day, not eating takeaway every night. There are so many healthy options now available at different restaurants and cafes that serve delicious food that is healthy and that will get you closer to your goals and not further away from them. I

As soon as we start to make healthy choices most of the time eventually our body will catch up and you will start to look better and feel better and other people start to notice it as well and sometimes you don't even need to really try.

NUMBER 5

We still need to make sure that we try and choose foods that we enjoy eating. If we continue to eat chicken and broccoli every meal and you hate chicken and broccoli, you will eventually go off track and eat whatever is on offer regardless of your goals.

What I like to do is still keep it basic for a lot of my meals; plenty of lean proteins, salads and vegetables. But I also like to make up 1 delicious recipe each week. Something different that is a bit more exciting and then keeps me excited to eat. Sometimes it might be cauliflower fried rice, a pork/chicken slow cooker, a turkey korma, or even an eggplant lasagne.

It also means when going out to restaurants or cafes, that you stil stay on track. You can choose more delicious meals, but choosing options which will still get you closer to your goals can make all the difference (especially if you are a lover of brunch, just like us)

It's just about making a few different changes; changing a few different things every single week and eventually in time it will make a huge difference to your overall body composition, your mindset and your confidence.

Everything just falls into place when we have that mindset of yeah I can still eat something off track, something naughty; but I choose to eat healthy because my body likes it better. I feel stronger, I feel more confident and I have more energy so I'm going to fuel my body with a healthier choice.

It’s definitely fine to complete fitness challenges and set goals within a certain timeframe. But it’s even more important that we choose lifelong and sustainable health habits because that is what will give us the body we want ALL YEAR ROUND.