How to lose weight when you are not a gym junkie

In a previous article called “Expand Your Brains Plasticity” I wrote about keeping the brain healthy and expanding with neuroplasticity exercises.

But what about the body … which you probably don’t want to expand?

As a corporate trainer, educator or teacher you would know that an active body means an active brain and when you are facilitating training you need to be “active” both physically and mentally.

But what if you just don’t like gyms but desperately want to (need to) lose weight and increase your training room energy?

Here are some tips to set you on a gentle weight loss program (the examples are Australian but global readers can find similar assistance in your own country):

IDENTIFY YOUR WEIGHT GOAL. Medibank Australia has an excellent Kilojoule Calculator. You punch in your gender, age, height, weight, amount of exercise you do (or don’t do) and it asks whether you want to lose weight or maintain your current weight? ?Based on that information, the calculator then tells you what daily kilojoule figure you should aim for.

KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU EAT. There are free Apps like the Easy Diet Diary (EDD) where you can keep track of everything you eat and how many kilojoules were consumed. The EDD App asks you to list what you ate at breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and any exercise you did? It then helps you to calculate the consumed kilojoules.?If you want to lose weight your goal should be to eat less than the kilojoule goal set by your kilojoule calculator.

SEE AN EXPERT. In Australia your doctor can refer you to a dietician and/or an exercise physiologist for 5 free visits (I completed 2 with the dietician and 3 with the exercise physiologist). Show two weeks of your EDD diet App to the dietician and they will advise what will work for weight loss and what should be eliminated (sugar, full fat milk or butter, chocolates, soft drinks are definitely out). The exercise physiologist will advise what exercises will assist depending on your gender, age, current fitness level, weight goal etc.

REWARD YOURSELF. Instead of half a bar of full cream chocolate just eat 2 or 3 squares (or change completely to sugar free dark chocolate). Better still, if you are a Qantas Frequent Flyer member download the free Qantas Wellbeing App. This App measures the number of steps you take and gives you daily and weekly frequent flyer points. For example, if you aim to do a leisurely 10,000 steps in a week you get 5 frequent flyer points but 40,000 steps will give you 7 points. It may not sound much but psychologically getting a small or big reward enthuses you to do better. Between my partner and I we have added 1000 points to our QFF rewards in the past year, which all goes towards the next holiday.

DON’T BE A DUMMY – GET A DUMBELL. The 2kg dumbbells (see pic above) cost around $8 each at Kmart. Your exercise physiologist can give you appropriate dumbbell exercises to add to your fitness regime. Alternatively download exercises from the internet. Hint: place them in a prominent position so that you are guiltily reminded each time you pass to do 5 or 10 minutes of exercise. When you lose 2kgs just lift one of those dumbbells … that’s how much fat you were carrying!

FITNESS WATCHES HELP. You can also track your steps, heart rate, O2 levels, and even the kilojoules you consume on various fitness watches such as Fitbit or Healbe GoBe3. They can be expensive so do your research and choose the one which fits your budget and weight loss goals.

IT’S WORTH IT. For my gender, age and weight range I’m in the overweight category. In two months, I have lost 7 kgs and expanded my energy levels simply by applying the above simple steps at my own pace. The increased energy levels alone in the training room will convince you that this gentle approach to weight loss is worth it.