Leading Sydney fitness and wellbeing expert Mark Moon, of Mark Moon Fitness, shares his tips on how to sustain your weight loss and overall fitness
Spring typically heralds the beginning of a new weight loss/fitness program with a desperate dash to lose those unwanted kilos before summer. And while most of us seek the easiest and fastest way to achieve the ideal bikini body, is this quick fix option something we can sustain?
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I advocate a marathon, not a sprint, mindset to truly sustain your weight loss and fitness goals. If you want to achieve long-term results then you need to create a lifestyle that you can easily maintain on a daily basis.
I help my clients to create a mindset that will develop a sustainable lifestyle that involves regular exercise, healthy meals, healthy relationships and a social life that isn’t controlled by food and alcohol anxiety. I call this the three M’s of mindset; Motive, Meals and Movement.
MOTIVE
– Always know why you are doing what you do. What’s the motive or intention behind your desired goals? This can often be a tough question for people to answer, as it requires honesty and taking a good look in the mirror to get to the core. Why do you want to lose weight? Is it to improve yourself or impress someone else?
– Know your triggers. Identify the things and people around you that will either push you forward, pull you back, or worse yet completely knock you over. Take action to eliminate negative energy and influences from your life.
– Stop comparing yourself to others. You don’t need to break records every day of the week. Some days you will want to climb a mountain, other days you will want to stay in bed. They are both completely fine. Work on completing yourself rather than competing with your self.
Remember your thoughts control your feelings, your feelings control your actions, and your actions will control your outcome.
MEALS
The food you eat is simply the fuel for your vehicle of life. The question is for how long and how well would you like your vehicle to run?
– Forget about the stereotypical breakfast being yogurt, muesli or eggs, or lunch being a sandwich or salad and dinner being meat and three vegetables. Your meals just simply need to cover your dietary requirements it doesn’t make any difference to your weight loss results when you consume a certain type of food.
– Spend less time obsessing over calories and more time knowing your portion sizes, how your food is packaged and processed and how it is prepared. I haven’t met a person yet who has consumed too many calories in a day by eating salads, vegetables and lean proteins. I’m talking real, chewable foods, not shakes, bars and supplements.
– Eat your food instead of trying to drink it! The easiest way to consume less food is to eat slower and chew properly. When consuming weight loss drinks, you are missing the valuable fibre and brain signalling that tells your body you have had enough.
MOVEMENT
You need to move more, and get as active as possible!
Unless you are a budding athlete or an up-and-coming Miss/Mr Universe, your fitness routine really doesn’t need to be that complicated.
Full-body workouts that cover all the big muscle groups, some light cardio and regular mobility to maintain flexibility, posture and body alignment is all you need.
Continual small steps will cover more ground than the occasional big leap, so five 30 minute sessions a week is better for you in the long run that three 60 minute sessions.
Remember that you body requires energy to function effectively, so the longer you exercise the more you will want to eat.
Overtraining can become counterproductive.
Choose simple things each day to get moving: Walking rather than taking the bus, taking the stairs instead of the lift all add up. Why sit when you can stand? Why stand when you can walk? Why walk when you can run? You get the idea. Preparing meals rather than eating out, and being mindful or your alcohol and processed drinks.
It’s the synergy of all components of health and fitness that will create the mindset necessary to achieve fitness and weight loss goals. It really is quite simple and getting down to basics.
