The last time you needed to lose weight, did you go on a diet?

When you wanted to get fit, did you join a gym?

If you answered yes to those questions, how long did you stick to the plan? If you “fell off the wagon”, what was the catalyst for you falling off it? It’s ok, most people who start diets and fitness plans end up failing. 

If you have tried and failed, did you find it hard to maintain the regime you were on? The problem isn’t your lack of will power. It’s more likely that you tried to do these without making any other changes to your daily routine.

The key to your success lies in changing your daily routine

In order to achieve your goal, regardless of whether it’s weight loss, getting fit or something else, you need to think about making changes to your daily routine.

The mistake we often make is trying to squeeze in new eating habits or a new training plan into our already busy schedule. We tend to fail when we’re no longer able to maintain the extra work we’re trying to do.

Things you can do

Here are a list of things you can do to get the ball rolling:

• Create a new daily routine with the things you’d like to do alongside the things you need to do
• Look for things in your current routine that are not serving any purpose and remove them
• If time is an issue, why not plan your meals and batch-make some for the week so you don’t have to keep making dishes every day.
• Make time for yourself. Improving your quality of sleep and reducing your stress levels could have a greater impact on your chances of achieving your goals than diet and exercise. When was the last time you were able to perform at your best or crave a salad when you were exhausted?

How to do them

• Think of the changes you need to make as a result of creating your new daily routine.
• Think of these changes as creating new habits and focus on practicing and becoming better at the new habits rather than taking the old ones away.
• Make just 1-2 changes at a time and focus on practicing them every day.
• After a week, each change you’ve added in will likely begin to feel easier and perhaps you’re now doing them without thinking.
• After you’ve practiced 1-2 changes for a whole week, think of the next change and start practicing it.

When you focus on practicing 1-2 changes at a time, they become easy to manage and there’s less pressure. Very soon you find yourself doing them naturally without thinking. Before long, you’ll realise that you haven’t been doing some of the things that haven’t been serving you well and you haven’t missed them.

I’ve been following this myself. I got into a rut and realised that I needed to make some changes in order to feel better, more energised and more importantly, I’ve got a marathon coming up in October that I need to train for!

The changes I’ve made are:

• Drink 2 litres of water each day
• Go to bed earlier and get up earlier
• Go for my run early morning
• Read something positive at breakfast time.

Last week I started by getting up at 5.30 and out for my run. The first one was sluggish but the second one was a lot better. On the days I’m not running, I’m going out for a walk at the same time to get my body used to getting out at that time.

Exercising early in the morning helps me think through my plans for the day and come up with ideas for my business. I always come back feeling refreshed, energised and ready to crack on with the day. This is a good way to get your day off to the perfect start.

I used to read the news sites at breakfast so now I read a blog post instead. Much more interesting!

This week, I’ll be focusing on going to bed earlier so that I’m asleep by 10pm. This means that when I wake up around 5.30am, it’ll be easier for me to get out of bed and go for a run. Drinking 2 litres of water a day is usually quite easy for me but there are days I haven’t managed to drink as much and I just feel sluggish.

What changes do you need to make to help you achieve your goals?

What’s the first change you’re going to make?

Would you like help making the changes? Try my new Starter Package for just £99 where you will receive 3 x 1 hour Personal Training sessions either face to face or online, get your body moving better and discover how easy it is to get on the right path to getting the results you want.

Reply to this post or email me here for more information.