John's Weekly Health Hub: Planning Your Weight Loss Journey

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! In this weeks hub, I want to start talking about some basic tactics to get you started on your weight loss journey. The first one I want to talk about is planning, planning is very important in my opinion as it gives you a clear path of where you are going and how to get there. It can also provide clarity on objectives so you can avoid going off track.

The first thing I want to talk about is the difference between "what works" and "what works for you" In the fitness industry, a lot of people talk about "what works" based on scientific research, the question I raise is that if this was so solid, why are we staring down the barrel of a global obesity crisis? I believe it is down to emotions, if you really hate the latest "wonder diet" you won't stick to it. For the sake of marketing, fitness professionals launch products that can produce massive results, if they are followed, sound like common sense? Well it is! The problem is that if I tell someone that there is a possibility of a diet or exercise quick fix, people will buy the product, but could then realise that it is actually hard work and never use it again.

In my opinion, it is important to start off with something that works for you, especially when it comes to diet and exercise, when I say works I mean that gets you on the path to successful weight loss. If you are not getting results then this quite clearly doesn't work for you. This isn't to say that what works for you needs to be easy, because (despite BS quick fix marketing) sustainable and life long health is not always easy, it can be simple, but never easy!

I would advise getting down a plan of action that focuses on successes and things that have worked for you in past. This is a great place to start as it can give you belief in your own abilities. Whilst "mirroring" what other people have done can work, something that can be as challenging as weight loss may need to be more individual.

As a personal trainer, I have made the mistake in the past of trying to get clients to follow my behaviour rather than identify their own strengths. What works for me, may not work for other people. The other side to this is that my weight loss journey is six years down the line and I have learnt a lot in that time. If I was just starting again, it would be as easy to change habits as sometimes people make out.

In conclusion, plan your journey and start at the beginning. In my opinion, it can be distracting to focus on the end too much, start on the beginning, get going and celebrate every little success!