10 Tips To Make A Health & Fitness Change

The decision to make a change in your health and fitness can often be a daunting one, but with the right tips, it can be made a little easier. It is the time of year when the motivation will be high and the promise of change is here. Yes I am talking about the good old New Years Resolution.

Motivation is very easy to have in short bursts, but making sure that you can capitalise on it is crucial. The reason that most of the resolutions made in the new year fail, is because of the drop in motivation that always happens.

There is no point making a change in the short-term if you are going to go back to how you were in the long-term. The whole aim of change should be to ensure that you put in the effort initially that will allow you to keep the results forever.

Below are 10 tips to make a change to your health and fitness and ensure that the change you want to make will be for the rest of your life.

Tip #1 – Exercise Regularly

If you are looking at making a change to your heath and fitness, exercise will always be a major factor in the success that you have.

As a result the biggest tips that we can give to help to make a change to your health and fitness revolve around exercise. It is very hard to develop a habit if you are only doing something every now and then.

That habit of checking your phone every 5 minutes? That would not have occurred if you only had access to your phone twice a week. It is exactly the same with exercise.

If you want to ensure that you are going to make a lifestyle change, you need to make it a regular occurrence, and it needs to be at a time that will consistently work well for you.

Do you always have afternoon/evenings events? Probably not the best time to try and commit to exercise.

We should all aim for a minimum of 4-exercise moments p/week!

Tip #2 – Eat Regularly

The amount that we eat will (or should) always out-pace the amount that we exercise. We are eating with a much greater frequency throughout the day, and the week, than we are exercising. As a result, we have an increased chance of doing the wrong or right thing for our goals.

Eating is different to exercise in that if we do not do it regularly, we unfortunately will not be on this earth very long.

Of course, you are eating every day, but how many times?

Not only do we need to eat with great consistency to keep our bodies functioning properly, but it needs to be the right food as well.

If you want to get your body burning up energy at a high rate, you need to ensure that you are eating every 3-4 hours and it has to be the right stuff…

Tip #3 – Eat Green

“The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison”

Fact: You will not die if you eat bad food for a day, week, month or even a year. If you eat it for a lifetime?

Yeah you probably will not be around for as long as the rest of us.

The great news is that it is never too late to take control of what you are eating and make some fantastic life-changes. The best way to start this?

Eat green. Load up on fantastic green leafy vegetables throughout the day, cut out the processed crap and you will be amazed at how quickly you will notice a result.

Tip #4 – Understand Your Food

You have just been told that you need to eat regularly and to eat green, but there is no point doing this if you do not know the WHY behind it.

Do you know why your body needs carbohydrates?

Do you know what a carbohydrate is?

Are you aware of the importance of protein and fat in your daily food plan?

Having a very solid understanding of the impact of food on your body will go a long way to helping you achieve the long-lasting result that you are after.

Tip #5 – Plan Ahead

It is nearly impossible in this day and age to be in complete control all the time. Once you start to understand this, it is very liberating.

Sitting down for an hour on a Sunday afternoon and mapping out what your week is going to look like is a crucial tool when it comes to making health and fitness part of your lifestyle.

Have a party on Thursday night? Awesome! What can you eat during the day to allow for a bit more leeway at the event?

Maybe plan a workout for the next morning to get the body pumping again.

That definitely sounds a bit better than not going at all because you might not be in control of the food and drink there.

It is also a great idea to do this with your food and your food shop. There is no point going to the supermarket and free-styling it when you get there. It will only increase the risk of buying food that is not good for you or that will not help you achieve your goals.

Tip #6 – Stay Hydrated

Easy to say, hard to execute.

With life being so busy these days, it is not uncommon to look up from what you are doing and realize that it has been 4 hours and you have not moved!

Water is vital for life and your body, if you do not drink enough your body will not function at its optimal rate.

Also the more water that goes in, the better your body becomes at flushing all those nasty toxins out.

Solution?

Keep a water bottle on your table, in your bag or around you all the time. When it gets empty? A great chance to stand up, have a stretch and fill it up.

Tip #7 – Sleep

“Sleep is the most important part of the recovery”

Your body can only truly recover and fix itself when you are asleep. If you are denying yourself the chance to recover, not only from your exercise, but also from everything else that life throws at you, you are always behind the 8-Ball. It won’t be long before you starting noticing the negative impact. It is vital that sleep is a priority in life, with a minimum of 7 hours always the goal.

Tip: If you struggle to ‘turn off’ your brain at night, keep a notepad next to your bed, sometimes simply writing down everything on your mind is enough to clear it so you can get quality sleep!

Tip #8 – Listen To YOUR BODY

Developing the ability to listen to your body is crucial when it comes to making a long lasting lifestyle change. If you are really really struggling to get exercise in at certain times, it could be your body telling you that you need to find a different time.

If you are forcing yourself to eat something that you really do not like, you are not going to be able to eat it forever. So try something else.

That pain in your back/neck/knees? That’s your body telling you something is wrong, so go and get it looked at!

Remember: There is a difference between listening to your ‘inner voice’ and listening to your body. Your ‘inner voice’ is the one that reminds you that 6am is early, and that beer tastes good on a Friday night. Your body is the one that tells you that certain movements hurt and that certain foods just don’t work for you. That does not mean your ‘inner voice’ is bad. When you get your ‘inner voice’ on the same wavelength as your goals, it is amazing what you can achieve.

Tip #9 – Get A Friend Involved

“Surround yourself with great people and great things happen”

This is one of the more fantastic tips that will not only make your health and fitness change more enjoyable, but also provide an extra layer of accountability.

When your ‘inner voice’ tells you that it is too early to go for a run, it is your friend that reminds you why you are doing it and that you have organized a time to do it with them.

If you have someone in your corner, wanting to achieve similar things as you, then you are 100% more likely to achieve your goals than if you do it alone.

Find someone you know or ask your trainer if they know of anyone with similar goals.

Tip #10 – Mix It Up

“Change is as good as a holiday”

Doing the same thing day in and day out is a recipe for disaster.

It is incredibly hard to keep the motivation up at a high level and it makes it seem like it is a never-ending journey. If you want the lifestyle change to work, then you need to do different things all the time.

Sick of exercising inside? Go outside!

Sick of just running to get some km’s in? Try an obstacle course.

Try not to do the same thing for more than 4 weeks in a row and you will never get bored!

In Summary

Making a change to your health and fitness can and should be and enjoyable process. Where it becomes challenging is when you do no know what to do or when to do it. Whilst these 10 tips do no guarantee a complete health and fitness change, they will definitely go a long way to helping you achieve that result you are looking for.

Give them a go and good luck!