Should this not mean that my entire existence is pointless?

Well, as it is my job to ensure that my clients get results, I need to make sure I am up on all the latest research, and when research tells me exercise doesn’t work, I need to take notice – as do you.

A study by researchers at the University of Texas came up with this conclusion, after studying 100 previously sedentary participants – half of whom stayed sedentary and half began exercising. The exercisers followed a programme of 5.5 – 6 hours of activity per week, including weight training and interval training for a total of 12 weeks. The rest did nothing. The subjects were between 35% and 40% body fat to begin with. All the training was designed by Dr John Berardi, a highly respected trainer and nutritionist, although significantly there was no dietary intervention.

The shocking result was that the exercisers didn’t do much better than the non-exercisers.

Yep, without changing their nutrition, 12 weeks of high intensity training resulted in a loss of only 1 pound of fat with 2lb gain in lean muscle (weight gain!).

Another recent study published in April 2008 issue of Nutrition and Metabolism showed a very similar result – 10 weeks of intense training showed hardly any change in body composition – there was some fat loss, but nothing exciting. Not when you consider that most of us really want to ‘burn fat fast’ and are desperate to get results, this is not encouraging.

Most of us would be so discouraged that we would give up on the exercise altogether – which is absolutely not what we should be doing.

So what is the ‘take-home’ point I’m making here?

Well, that you cannot out-train a bad diet for one! And you definitely cannot exercise and then ‘reward yourself’ with a larger portion at dinner or a dessert!

It is absolutely critical that you look at making changes to your diet as well as increasing your exercise levels, otherwise all your efforts could be a waste of time. So, where to start?

Eat 5-10 portions of vegetables EVERY DAY! -

Eat a portion of lean protein with every meal (and ideally some protein in each snack) Eliminate white, starchy, refined carbs (wheat-based products, sugar, pastries, cakes, cookies, white rice, white potatoes, white pasta etc.) and replace with smaller portions of wholegrain carbs (sweet potatoes, oats, quinoa, brown rice, wholegrain pasta, wholegrain – ideally sourdough – breads). Focus more on veg though.

Include good fats: cook with coconut oil, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on veggies or salads (with apple cider vinegar for extra fat burning and health promotion), have small portions of nuts (almonds / walnuts) with fruit as a snack or in your salads, try avocado instead of mayo…

Drink plenty of water, eliminating sodas altogether, even the diet ones! Tea and coffee in moderation and without sugar or excessive cream (a little organic cream in coffee can be OK)

Keep an overall check on calories – to reduce without counting calories just reduce your current intake by 10%. If you see no results after a couple of weeks, reduce by another 10%.

Think 90:10% – let yourself off the hook occasionally, but make sure it is only 10% of your weekly total, so as not to obliterate all your results.

Experiment! Try a new whole food every week and make it your mission to find healthy foods that you positively love to eat – I certainly love my food, eat plenty of it and feel great, as it is nourishing me, not sapping me.

Exercise is definitely a vital part of the fat loss equation – as well as having a hugely important impact improving health, wellbeing, energy and performance. Dieting alone to lose weight results in muscle loss and a reduced metabolism, propagating the ‘yo-yo’ weight loss / gain cycle most people are well aware of. But exercise alone is not enough!

Exercise and nutrition, along with sufficient rest and recovery, are the keys to losing fat and maintaining your new physique for life.

Goals help steer you through the rough patches: when you wake up feeling a bit tired and think ‘I can’t be bothered to train’, it is all to easy to hit the snooze button.

However, if you have set yourself short, medium and long term goals, today’s behaviour becomes part of a bigger picture, and the consequences of not getting up are harder to ignore.

If you have a short term goal, such as ‘I will train 3 times this week’ that is linked to an outcome that you truly want, such as ‘losing 5lb of body fat’ or a longer term goal, such as ‘I will run the Race for Life in 3 months time’ then the single training session is no longer an isolated event that can be missed out. It becomes part of a chain of events that will take you, step-by-step, to your ultimate goals.

You should set yourself compelling goals, that you actually want to achieve.

A lot has been said on keeping your goals SMART:

Specific: ‘I will lose 6lb’ rather than ‘I want to lose a bit of weight’.

A word of caution here, however. We should focus on our ‘sphere of influence’ – the things we have direct control over. We have control over the actions we take – so training regularly and eating right – but the actual amount of weight / fat we lose is actually not within our direct control. It is an outcome of our behaviour, so we should focus the goals on the behaviours that are required, in order to achieve the desired outcome.

So a goal of: ‘exercising with my trainer 3 times per week, walking for 30 minutes 3 times per week and eating according to my diet plan for the next 6 weeks’ is a goal we have direct control over. Take measurements (and photos!) on day one and remeasure regularly to track progress.

If you’re not moving in the right direction then you need to change your methods – looking at your exercise and nutrition more closely. If you are building up your running then ensure you know the distances you are running and the time it is taking – I have a GPS that I take with me when training clients so we know exactly how far and how fast!

Measurable: Aiming too high can be demotivating: if you have never run before, then a marathon in 3 months time is not the best idea, but a 5km might be! Aim for 1lb a week fat loss, rather than 10lb in a fortnight – you may lose quicker, in which case you can always revise the goals later.

But on the other hand, do aim high enough. It can be hard to imagine that losing a stone is possible, but it is, and in theory should take no more than 14 weeks on the 1lb a week timescale – if you ensure goals are broken down into shorter term goals you can see how it can be achievable.

Achievable: Setting unrealistic goals can be counter-productive – some people do this as it offers them an excuse to fail with a bit of dignity intact, whereas if you fail to achieve a more realistic goal you will feel more of a failure. Counter-productive, of course, and if you follow good goal-getting methods and take action on your goals you don’t need to worry about failing as it won’t happen!

Realistic: However, sometimes you truly have to ‘dare to dream’ and keep a long term goal in mind that might seem totally unrealistic at the moment. So long as you are achieving short term goals and taking things step by step you will be getting closer to this ‘crazy dream’ and you just might well make it a reality.

Visualisation is important too – regularly imagining yourself having achieved your goals is a very powerful tool indeed! How does it feel in your new body? How much do you now love ‘bikini-time’? A daily day-dream of how life will be when you achieve your goals tricks your mind into thinking it has already happened, and makes getting there much easier!

But remember also to appreciate yourself as you are – focus on your good points and let your visualisation include these: for example how great it is that your thighs are more toned because you can finally show off your tiny waist in a bikini.

Your nutrition and exercise plan is all part of truly making the best of yourself: adding lean muscle and shedding excess body fat, improving your posture and increasing your energy. There is no need to compare yourself against unrealistic (and probably airbrushed) targets as it’s all within you, waiting to come out!

Time-Bound: Give yourself a deadline and stick to it! If you want to improve your running, pick an event and get signed up! Project manage your goals like you would any other important task. Bear in mind that weight and size is an outcome, so make sure that you are focusing on the behaviours first. Log your success in a journal to show you are sticking to your plan.

If goals are clear, SMART and compelling, broken down into short, medium and long term goals, they are much easier to achieve. It can be hard to reconcile today’s behaviour with achieving a goal that is too distant or too vague so keep it real and close to you by visualising and reflecting upon your goals daily.

Obviously the element we haven’t discussed is the behaviours needed to succeed – thinking about goals is only going to work when matched with the appropriate action!

Taking goal-setting into goal-getting requires action – so whatever you do, make sure you are taking steps every day to get closer to your goals. When your goals are vivid and clear then you will know that each and every action you take will either take you a step closer, or a step further away. Remind yourself of the ‘why’ and make sure that each decision is taking you a step closer to your dreams.

As a trainer, my love for the gym waned rapidly. The lighting, the incessant repetitive music, the fact that most people jump on machines thinking that they will get results by just attending, the mindless plodding away on a cross trainer while watching TV…

As a freelance trainer, I began to get much more creative. Skipping, boxing, bodyweight exercises all began to feature more in my programmes, as I didn’t have the ‘fall back’ of all the shiny gym equipment.

But, despite seemingly ‘compromising’ I began to get better and better results! The workouts were more fun and dynamic, and could be done absolutely anywhere. Both me and my clients were benefitting from the fresh air and wellbeing effects of the great outdoors.

However, it was not until I discovered kettlebells that my clients (and my) results began to skyrocket. I invested in a selection and cleared space in the garage. I bought a few DVDs and was blown away! I was not even moving from the small space I had in the garage, yet I was getting the best workouts of my life.

Kettlebells allow you workout in numerous different ways, all with the same tool. You can work strength, strength-endurance, endurance, power and flexibility all with one object. The key is manipulating the set and rest periods, or the way you are holding the kettlebell.

One of the main factors in choosing equipment for working out at home is maximising space, and kettlebells are great in that respect. You really can have 1 or 2 and get a wealth of great training in, and they are easy to stash in a cupboard or under a bed (and make great doorstoppers!) while you’re not actually using them. You can throw (well, place) them in the car and take them to the park or the beach, so you can start enjoying your exercise surroundings as well as the workout.

So, efficiency all round: time efficient as you don’t have to travel to the gym, space efficient as they can be neatly stored and you don’t even need much space to actually use them, and workout-time efficient as you get more bang for your buck, burning more calories and getting a more effective workout in minimal time.

Give them a try!

1. MINDSET.

A can-do attitude is so important. The foundation of this is a real desire to achieve. Think about what you want and why. Think about how highly you prioritise a healthy lifestyle and what you are prepared to change to achieve this.

2. GOAL SETTING & GETTING.

Be clear about what you want to achieve. Write it down. Write it where you can see it regularly. Be precise and aim high! Then break it down into manageable chunks and work on one piece at a time. Remind yourself of your goals regularly and don’t be afraid to update them. Keep an index card in your bag or by your computer (or on the fridge…) so you can keep your mind on the prize!

3. ACTIVITY.

Increase general activity any way you can. This is so important and can cover the effects of the odd missed workout! There are people who never ‘work out’ officially but are still fit as they are naturally active in their daily lives – walking or cycling around, using stairs not lifts, performing manual work etc. Look honestly into your life and seek out the pockets of activity you can exploit.

4. PLANNING AND PREPARATION.

Without planning, how can you expect to succeed? We don’t leave for a journey with no map, otherwise we would only end up getting lost, or back where we started if we are lucky! This applies to planning your approach (what am I going to eat, how and when am I going to exercise etc.) as well as planning the details (e.g. menu plans for the week’s meals feeding into a shopping list that you stick to). Plan what you are going to choose when you go out, looking online for menus if you can so you can make healthy choices in advance. On the exercise side, you need to decide which activities you want to take part in and schedule them into your diary – if you wait for a free 30 mins you are never going to find it! Schedule it in and commit to your appointment.

5. NUTRITION.

Clean it up! Eat lots of veggies, plenty of fruit, lean proteins, good fats and plenty of water. Minimise anything packaged or that does not fall into the above categories. Experiment, play with your food! Focus on enjoying the good stuff rather than the foods you are minimising or avoiding. Improving the quality of the diet should automatically result in the weight dropping off, but you also need to pay attention to eating moderate portions and ensuring you don’t over-do the more calorie-dense foods, as ultimately calories do count.

6. EXERCISE.

Daily activity is one part of the equation, and the other is including periods of more structured intense activity. This should cover both resistance and cardio training and ideally you should aim to spend around 45 – 60 mins, 3 – 5 times a week on this element.

7. RECOVERY.

Yes, rest is encouraged! Ensure you have adequate rest between intense training sessions. A common error is going too hard at the outset and putting yourself off or causing injury. Plan your workout days in advance and stick to it, letting yourself recover but staying active. Active recovery is great and can include walking, cycling, swimming etc. to help keep the blood flowing through the muscles and actually ease out any soreness from a previous session. Getting enough sleep is also crucial: 7-9 hours a night is optimal. Your training will suffer if you are not getting enough sleep, as will your mood and energy levels.

8. STRESS AND TIME MANAGEMENT.

You need to prioritise your health in order to effectively deal with all that life throws at you. Once you have acknowledged that you are going to make this a priority it is then time to look into how you can achieve this. Are there things cluttering up your life? Are they all really that important? Could you spend 30 mins less time on the internet or watching TV in the evenings and use that time to squeeze in a training session? Can you delegate certain tasks? We often feel that ‘to get a job done properly I might as well do it myself’ but sometimes we need to let it go, allow someone else to ‘learn’ to do it for us! It may not be perfect, but it will free you up some time!

9. CONSISTENCY.

No matter what nutrition or training plan you choose to follow, you will get success if you stick with it, so long as it is a quality approach and not some quick-fix fad. Any ‘magic bullet’ promise means you start out with the view that you will deprive yourself for a short period of time and then go back to ‘normal’. You will find that certain approaches work better for you than others, but you need to focus less on the detail and more on ensuring the changes are being implemented consistently and ongoing on a regular basis.

10. LOG AND REVIEW.

In order to find out if things are working, you need to take measurements at the start and then re-measure on a regular basis. Logging what you are doing is also very important. Logging food intake is one of the most important things you can do to ensure success as it provides you with some accountability, as well as an historical record so you can look back on things that worked well and things that didn’t.

So, to conclude, you are in the driving seat and it is up to you to take control! No plan or advice is worth anything if the plan or advice is not implemented, and only you can do that. So you need to decide to make changes and to visualise success, acknowledging the fact that there will be obstacles to overcome. The important thing is to take action – moving, no matter how slowly, in the right direction!

Exercise will increase your energy levels and reduce your stress levels, but at this very point in time, when you most need to reduce stress levels, the idea of taking on more tasks can seem daunting and likely only to increase stress levels further – it can become a catch 22, as you feel too stressed to fit everything in.

So how do you deal with this catch 22 situation? How do you make sure that adding an extra time commitment into your already busy life doesn’t increase your stress levels even further?

Firstly, you need to take some time out of your busy life, and assess where you are and where you are going. Goal setting and analysing what you want from life as a whole can often make us see life from a slightly different perspective. A lot of the things we are busy doing are not the ones that we really want to be focusing on, or the things that are most important to us. It is this that makes us stressed – that nagging feeling that we are really busy, but not managing to do the important things.

You need to make the commitment to becoming healthier and remind yourself what the results will be – it’s not purely about aesthetics and looking good, but it really is about being healthier and more energised. You need to prioritise your health in order to effectively deal with all that life throws at you and remind yourself that once you have made the time to fit in exercise, you will have more energy and be able to achieve more throughout the rest of the day.

Until your health and fitness is high enough on your priority list you will always find other things that get in the way.

When you have fully accepted its importance you can then set about making time – as this is the key, time is not something that is just found! Once you have acknowledged that you are going to make health and fitness a priority it is time to look into how you can create space in your life to fit it in.

Are there things cluttering up your life? Are they all really that important? Could you spend 30 minutes less time on the internet or watching TV in the evenings and use that time to squeeze in a training session? Can you delegate certain tasks?

We often feel that ‘to get a job done properly I might as well do it myself’ but sometimes we need to let it go, allow someone else to ‘learn’ to do it for us! It may not be perfect, but it will free you up some time!

Consciously looking at the way we respond to stressful situations can make a huge difference, too. Are you stressed because you are in a rush, or rushed because you are stressing? I practice a lot of yoga, and often have to remind myself when in traffic between clients that while a few good deep breaths won’t make the traffic move any faster, or get me there any quicker, it certainly will make me calmer and the journey more enjoyable – I can’t change the time I arrive by being stressed, but I can change the way I feel when I arrive!

Another important element is matching your exercise intensity to how you feel on a particular day. If you are truly frazzled, then a really intense session may just wear you out even further, so choose exercises that are more energising, or perform a strength training session with plenty of rest between sets, rather than an intense circuit style approach.

There are days when I know that I need yoga, rather than anything else, in which case that is what I will do. My body and mind thanks me for it and I ensure I am ready and raring to go for my next intense training session.

This is not an excuse to slack off just because you can’t be bothered, mind you, and you will often find that once you get started your energy levels increase!

Just get started with your warm up and have a plan, but be prepared to alter it slightly if need be.

On the subject of recovery, you must make sure you get enough. With the correct training plan, you do not need to exercise for hours every day to get results. You are far better off training intensely for 3 hour long sessions a week (or 4-6 shorter sessions) than training for hours on end at a mind-numbingly boring level.

This is perfect for the busy person in today’s hectic world as you can rest and recover, safe in the knowledge that you are actually increasing the efficacy of your programme by recovering properly.

Exercise is a vital tool for reducing stress and increasing energy, so it is worth making the time to fit it in. You will soon wonder how you coped without it!

We also need to take full responsibility for making these changes, and doing all we can to make them work for us.

Incremental changes to our diets and lifestyles mean that our new habits have a chance to become second nature. If you follow the newest ‘fad’ approach you will have some success while your willpower is involved, but these approaches do not stand the test of time as the minute you stop focusing on the diet you will slip up, going back to old habits.

This highlights another problem with relying on willpower, especially while following some faddy or extreme approach. By definition you are thinking about your diet a lot more than you would otherwise – so you are essentially tormenting yourself with your deprivation! Being aware of ‘being on a diet’ all the time, which is needed if you are going to succeed with willpower, means that your chances of success are immediately lowered – it is much easier if you are not constantly focussed on what you can and can’t eat, and if you can just get on with your life and keep yourself busy.

So, how can you avoid this all-too-common pitfall?

Well, firstly, a long term approach is vital. You can force foods you dislike down you in the short-term in order to achieve a short-term goal, but where does this leave you in the long run? Still reaching for the old favourites, that’s where.

Instead, think about finding foods you actually do like and incorporating these into your life – this takes a bit of trial and error to get right, but means that the healthy foods you are eating are ones you really enjoy.

Then, who needs willpower? Over time you will proabably also find your tastes change and eventually the foods you used to eat or even crave no longer have the same appeal. Once you realise how good you feel when you eat healthier foods, junk really does lose its appeal.

We need to enjoy the changes we make to our lifestyle, although I would also add that change can be hard and uncomfortable. We need to persevere with certain things even if we aren’t that excited about them immediately, adapting our approach to find ways to make the changes as enjoyable as possible.

For example, we all need to up our vegetable and fruit intake to 5 – 10 portions a day, but for many this is extremely hard. At first you may resist, insisting that this nutritional programme cannot work as you absolutely hate vegetables. But there are universal laws of good nutrition, of which vegetables are one! The solution is, again, in the long term approach. So try out several different methods to find something that works for you. When it comes to eating your veggies you may realise that while you hate boiled broccoli you love it when it’s added to a stir-fry with herbs, spices and garlic, for example. If you struggle with this side of things, you will need to begin experimenting with new foods and methods of preparation: you can try stir-fries, mashes or purees (mashed cauliflower and / or butternut squash is a fab alternative to regular white potato mash for example!), roast veggies (roasting sweet potato or celeriac ‘chips’ instead of regular chips!), various salads, exotic foods, new combinations, spices and herbs.

You can always find healthier alternatives to your favourites and all these small replacements can add up to big improvements to your diet as a whole – which will be evident in both your energy levels and your waistline!

For any plan to succeed for you in the long term you need to have the freedom to make choices. It is freedom to choose that empowers you, and as you learn which choices are going to support your goals and which are going to take you further away from achieving them. Rather than focusing on deprivation and willpower, focus instead on how you can make yourself feel great, while eating foods you enjoy and that take you a step closer to your achieving goals.

If you can take this a step further and imagine how it will actually feel to achieve your goal you are even closer to achieving your dreams.

Be as detailed as possible, get truly involved in your visualisation of the experience you will have when your goals and dreams have become reality. The aim is to take a few minutes each day to think about what life will be like when your goals are realised.

So, if you plan to embark on a 12 week fat loss programme, make sure you spend a bit of time each day visualising how fantastic you will look and feel in that new dress you’re going to buy, when you go out for dinner with your partner to celebrate your new body.

Or, if you have a holiday planned in a few months time, imagine how you will feel when you step onto the beach, feeling confident in that bikini you bought last year but couldn’t quite pluck up the courage to wear.

If you struggle with visualising unaided you should consider creating a ‘vision board’. You simply create a collage of images that you associate with success in your goals, and place it somewhere that you can refer to it regularly. Include a picture of a person who has the figure you aspire to sculpt, or it a photo of you when you were at your ideal weight. You can even add visuals of the deadline you have set – if your goal is to be super-fit for a trip to the slopes then an image of someone skiing, or if you want to look great in your bikini on the beach, get a picture of the resort you are actually going to and use that on your vision board.

You can take it a step further still and create a ‘mind movie’. It’s basically a movie version of a vision board where images that you relate to how you want your life to be are interspersed with positive mantras and statements. Watching this daily, especially before going to bed, can be extremely motivating as it resonates on an emotional and subconscious level. You wake up feeling inspired and empowered.

Visualisation works so effectively as we need to be emotional about our goals in order to truly make long term changes. The power of our subconscious mind is such that it can help us achieve our goals when we aren’t really thinking about them – meaning we rely less on willpower so challenges become far easier to overcome.

I spent a recent camping trip being pretty healthy – sticking to my usual healthy eating with a few little extras sprinkled in here and there, along with plenty of activity windsurfing and surfing – but I still came back a couple of kilos heavier than when I left!

Some of this is fluid retention that usually goes in a couple of days (which is why I know it’s fluid as fat won’t shift that quickly!) but I think a kilo I can attribute to fat weight – and this was by no-means an indulgent trip!

Most of us experience this with every major holiday or even long weekend.

Despite being ‘good’ most of the time, the cumulative effect of these indulgent periods will really make a huge impact on the waistline if some action is not taken to immediately get back on track. This is one of the big reasons why people gain weight each year – without getting back to where you were previously you can easily keep gaining and gaining weight without even realising it.

It’s a good idea to develop healthier holiday habits: a holiday is a treat in itself but all too often we think we need to eat loads of the wrong things in order to enjoy ourselves! But if you can make the healthier choices while on holiday you can actually enjoy the treats all the more.

How many times have you looked through your holiday snaps to see photographic evidence of the weight gain?

Some tips:

- Drink plenty of water: You will dehydrate much quicker in the heat and we often mistake thirst for hunger.

- Avoid liquid calories: That ‘virgin’ cocktail is still choc-full of sugar! Juices may seem tempting but you are better off having a glass of water and a piece of fruit.

- Set yourself a ‘beer o’clock’ time: Alcohol does massively impact weight loss and will cause weight gain very quickly. If you skip lunchtime drinking you can save a load of calories, plus you will feel much better for it. Keep the alcohol to a pre-dinner drink and then while you are eating.

- Alternate water with alcoholic drinks: You will thank me for it when you wake up feeling fresh and able to enjoy your precious vacation! Plus you will halve the calories you take in.

And we haven’t even got to the food!

- Choose lean protein and fruit and veg first: If you have access to a buffet breakfast you are onto a winner: fill up on the good stuff first then if you must add the starchy carbs keep them to a small treat afterwards. You will still enjoy the taste but won’t need as much. If you don’t have time to make omelette and veggies at home you can ‘treat’ yourself to this when someone else is cooking!

- Enjoy new foods: Try a new fruit and vegetable each day!

- Have healthy snacks to hand: Buy fruit and unsalted, unroasted nuts to have as snacks throughout the day. If you are unprepared you will be more tempted to eat the treats that are everywhere.

- Enjoy the treats: Savour every last mouthful of the things you wouldn’t normally have: there’s no need to eat ice cream all day but make sure you fully appreciate it when you do!

- Think of it as ‘damage limitation’ so you can enjoy yourself without feeling deprived whilst also coming back from your holiday looking even better than when you left.

- Make sure you get straight back on track as soon as you get home, too. Consider a few weeks of extra-focussed nutrition and training to reverse any weight gain, or even to boost your results even further.

You often find that after a week off, or a period of ‘maintenance’ (holidays are usually a little over maintenance) you actually lose at a faster rate, so make the most of this turbo-charged window of opportunity!