ML Coaching
We all know the problem: over Christmas and New Year, it's all too easy to indulge in endless treats and let the gym slide. After all, it's the holidays, a time for being together and enjoying yourself. Plus, it's far too cold to leave the house and go work out.
But before you know it, summer is right around the corner. The holiday kilos are still on your hips, and exercise still hasn't become a routine again. The thought of lying on the beach in swimwear doesn't appeal to you at all. Stress and panic set in.
When it comes to getting fit and healthy, there are no shortcuts. Miracle diets promising you'll lose 5 kilos in a week don't help, unfortunately, the pounds come back just as fast as they went.
Instead, here are a few tips to help you get lastingly fit for summer, in a healthy way.
Make small, consistent changes
If you're trying to get fit, you should treat it as a change to your lifestyle, not something you focus on only right before summer. Many of us make a ton of changes at once, going from 0 to 100. That can bring quick results, but we take on too much and can't sustain it long-term.
Instead, focus on smaller, consistent changes. Numerous studies show that this makes it far more likely you'll stick with your new habits permanently. That can start as simply as drinking a green smoothie in the morning instead of eating cornflakes, or skipping the cola at lunch.
Moving more in everyday life is also an important step in the right direction. You can get off one stop early before work and walk the rest of the way, take the stairs instead of the lift, or start similar small new habits.
They're much easier to put into practice and sustain long-term, and soon you'll see progress despite the small effort.
Throw away the scale
As a personal trainer in Zurich, I keep seeing the same mistake with my clients: they put far too much weight on the number the scale shows. Don't get me wrong, weighing yourself now and then is a good way to track your progress. But weighing yourself every single day isn't a healthy habit.
Our weight fluctuates constantly throughout the day, and it can be extremely demotivating when you step on the scale and it looks like you've gained a few pounds in no time.
So I always recommend measuring your progress in weight and health differently. A body fat measurement every two weeks, for example, is far more meaningful. You can also simply track how many healthy meals you ate in the last week compared to unhealthy ones. Or track how much weight you managed to lift at the gym or how many kilometres you jogged.
If your scale is becoming a source of stress for you, throw it out and focus on other things.
Get your heart rate up
If you're trying to fit more exercise into your everyday life, I recommend at least 20 minutes a day. For most of my clients, though, going to the gym every single day isn't realistic long-term, there simply often isn't time for it.
Instead, you could get yourself a few free weights for home, for example, or other training equipment like TRX bands. Sure, the equipment at the gym is far better and makes your training more efficient, but if you can't make it to the gym, that does you no good at all. In that case, a home workout is 10x better than none.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a great way to really get your heart rate up. Compared to slow cardio, it has the big advantage that your metabolism keeps working at full speed long after training too, still burning calories while you're already sitting at your desk.
Forget about diets
When I say you should forget about diets, that of course doesn't mean you should stuff yourself with junk food. As already mentioned, it's better to gradually change your entire lifestyle rather than force crash diets.
Just start by adding more healthy foods to your diet. Try to eat something fresh instead of something packaged as often as possible. Eat more vegetables, drink less alcohol, all these small things make a difference. Nutrition is a fascinating topic, and it's genuinely interesting to learn how you can get your body into peak shape with the right foods.
Healthy eating doesn't mean you can only eat salad from now on. The most important thing is that you keep everything balanced. You can eat what you want, just in moderation.
If you've got an all-inclusive lunch planned, for example, you could eat a salad in the evening to balance out the calories, or skip breakfast. Just try to fit in as many healthy foods as possible. On request, I can also create an individual nutrition plan for you, tailored exactly to your metabolism. Just email me!
Focus on yourself
The road to health and fitness is a very personal journey, and that's exactly why you should focus solely on yourself and your own progress, instead of comparing yourself to others.
If you compete with friends or others at the gym, you can quickly get discouraged if they make faster progress. Our bodies all work differently, and you're starting from completely different baseline conditions than everyone else. Every path is individual, and as long as you're moving in the right direction, you're making great changes!
I'd be happy to help you get fit for summer with my personal training in Zurich. Send me an email and we'll figure out together what the right path is for you!