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In order to achieve your fitness or body composition goals for this year (or this decade) you need to get a system for success in place.
I have created the M.I.R.A.C.L.E.S. Success Solution to help guide you through the process. If you only have half of these factors in place, you will hit a brick wall and not get the results you are after:
Mindset: Create a will to win! Get out of the ‘excuses’ mentality right now. Set your mind on your goal (check out the Magic Hundred if you need a hand with goal setting and getting). This is the foundation upon which your results will be built – make it strong!
Intense Exercise: Ensure you are following a training programme that challenges you enough to ensure your body adapts. 2-4 times per week your exercise should be intense. This is not to say that there is no place for less intense exercise – but that comes under another category. Check out KettleBelleBody for an intense workout programme (well, multiple programmes), come to Outdoor Fit for Life Group Training or contact me for one-to-one coaching if you are lucky enough to live in Southampton, England, and if not, contact me for online and phone based remote coaching. Or check out the fabulous TRX to take your at-home training into a new dimension – I especially love the Surf Stronger workout you can download!
Regeneration, Recovery, Rest and Relaxation: Yep, you need to rest! If you train hard enough (see above!) then you must balance it out with rest but also regeneration, or active recovery, such as self massage with the foam roller (you can get your free guide from the community site: http://carolineradway.ning.com/forum/topics/self-myofascial-release-manual. Also consider incorporating yoga practice into your daily routine: there is a sun salutation manual in the KettleBelleBody programme, or you can invest in a DVD. I love my new Sadie Nardini DVD but yoga is quite an individual thing, so investigate the options on Amazon to find something for you.
Adequate sleep is also essential – without enough sleep you disrupt your hormonal balance – and we’re not just talking PMS here. Sleep is essential for regulating cortisol (the stress hormone responsible for dangerous abdominal fat deposits) as well as promoting growth hormone (involved in losing fat and becoming lean). To assist with sleep I recommend a pre-bed zinc and magnesium supplement and / or a magnesium lotion (applied to the skin), an eye mask to shut out ambient light, and a relaxing pre-bed ritual (no lap tops for a couple of hours and dim the lights for starters!).
Activity: So, you want to exercise intensely 2-4 times per week (in some cases more can work but recovery is the limiting factor) but you also want to create an overal calorie burn by being as active as possible throughout the day. Even fidgeting can result in a calorie-burning boost, but you want to get up and moving as much as you can, ideally. Walk 30-60 mins a day – invest in a pedometer and ensure you are getting 10-12,000 steps a day. All the usual advice here – boring but effective – take the stairs, park further away, walk or cycle rather than drive when you can, take a walk-break rather than a coffee break (then take a coffee to your desk if you must)…
Commitment, Consistency & Compliance: Whatever you decide to do, stick with it! It is hugely frustrating for me when clients skip sessions on a regular basis (in fact, if they do this, I actually sack them), as I know they will not get the results I can actually GUARANTEE if people just apply a little consistency! You have to commit to make changes to your activity and nutrition on a regular, ongoing basis. You may have changed your diet 50% and think that is great, but to lose fat you need to make sure you are averaging 80-90% compliance to get great results. Make sure you don’t stop just short of the mark – that extra step may be all you need! And on the other hand, don’t beat yourself up about the odd digression – that ‘all or nothing’ mentality is the enemy of consistency!
You can download your free copy of the S.I.M.P.L.E. Nutrition System: http://carolineradway.ning.com/forum/topics/simple-nutrition-system as well as the compliance/splurge grid from my blog: http://www.kettlebellebody.com/2009/12/compliance_splurge/ which will help you clean it up and track your compliance simply (and effectively)
Lifestyle Changes: Linked to the above – success is not about a quick fix, but about long-term lifestyle changes. You may go through a ‘stricter’ phase at the outset, but you are also building habits for life (in both senses of the word!). Get out of the ‘all or nothing’ or ‘black and white’ thinking that is too easy to get into, and instead focus on balance. You can indulge on occasion without it ruining everything, so long as you keep your head in the game. Make sure you find foods you love to eat within the healthier parameters. This is way easier than most people think – some recipes and ideas in the community site: http://carolineradway.ning.com/forum/categories/nutrition-guides-recipe-books/listForCategory
Isabel De Los Rios’ Diet Solution Program is one of the most healthful, sustainable yet effective fat loss programs out there and she has ‘done for you’ meal planning with some fab recipes if you want to take the guesswork out of things.
You might also be intrigued to find out that the 10% of being ‘non-compliant’ on a programme is actually key to getting results! Joel Marion explains why, and focusses on how you can maximise this effect in his ‘Cheat Your Way Thin‘ programme. If you overly restrict you mess up your hormones, especially ‘leptin’ which stops you being hungry. Strategic manipulation of calories and eating your favourite foods can actually help you lose fat. I personally prefer not to eat the high GI and high fat foods he appears to recommend (give me champagne over pizza any day), but you can work these principles while sticking with a ‘clean’ diet too.
Evaluate & Evolve: You need to track progress to ensure you know whether things are working or not. Use the scales with caution, instead using tape measurements, caliper / skin fold bodyfat measurements and the best and most satisfying of all – a pair of jeans that don’t quite fit yet!
Usually when the results are not being seen, it is because you are not working the plan as you should (assuming you are following a solid plan), so you need to check you aren’t exploiting ‘loopholes’. If you are following a plan to the letter, then maybe it isn’t appropriate for you, so you might need to tweak it or find another plan, but make sure you are working all these principles BEFORE changing! If you have been on a plan 2 weeks and haven’t seen the 10lb fat loss you have been duped into believing is realistic or sustainable but shady marketing (of other products), don’t panic! Give it more time and remember that the best, sustainable fat loss is slower (great article from Tom Venuto here: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2009/02/the_2_pounds_per_week_rule_and.php
Social Support: This can really make or break your success. If you have a ‘team’ of supporters you are so much more likely to get the results you are after. If your partner or family is not supportive, you need to do everything you can to get their support, making it clear just how important your goals are to you, and to them. Once they realise it is your health that is as stake, not just aesthetics, no-one who loves you can not support you.
Online support groups, such as our free community site: http://carolineradway.ning.com are a great way to get support from like-minded indviduals (even if your family support you they might still not ‘get it’ or understand what you are going through). This is why the newly launched Precision Nutrition ‘Lean Eating’ Programme is so effective – it has a huge amount of social support, as well as the ‘carrot and stick’ approach through their New Year Competition where you can win $10k.
Of course another great option is to hire a trainer either in person or remotely (one-to-one coaching or online and phone based remote coaching) or attend group training, such as Outdoor Fit for Life Group Training.
So, there is a summary of my trademarked M.I.R.A.C.L.E.S. Success Solution – use it to achieve your goals in 2010 and beyond! Let me know if you have any comments or questions in the comments section…
