Lose Weight and Get Fitter - Guaranteed

Stick to the plan and success will follow

It's generally accepted that a habit takes around 21-28 days to form, and you can turn this to your advantage. Most people think of habits in the negative. A smoking habit, a drinking habit, habitual chocolate cravings, there are so many bad habits to pick up aren't there!

A new habit is formed

But habits can be formed in a positive way too, by consciously deciding to create one. You could consciously decide, right now, to get up every morning at 5 a.m., and as long as you associate this with a genuine reason to do so, a positive benefit which you could gain from making this change, you will do it quite easily.

However, will you still wish to do it after one week? It may be a struggle, but as long as you don't burn the candle at both ends, it should be achievable. After 2 weeks you may wonder why you are still getting up so early if no positive gain accrues from your early rise, but it is up to you to establish some real, measurable progress right from the start.

After 3 weeks you will have gained momentum and also found that you have achieved so much along the path you decided to follow that it would be counter-productive to stop now. You have taken on this new habit as the new normal.

During the third to fourth week you will be cementing this habit so that it would seem an odd thing to revert to type. You may well not even think of it.

Thus your new 5 a.m. habit is just 'what you do'.

Of course you could quite easily slip out of this habit if you begin to see no good reason why you should keep it up. You may be feeling tired if you have tried to burn the candle at both ends (bad!) or, if you no longer have anything to occupy you, you may wonder what on earth you are doing being up at that hour with nothing much to do.

Your new exercise habit

This won't be the case when you form a new exercise habit, I can assure you. Particularly so if you have some weight to lose in the process.

The key to making real gains through exercise is consistency. This is one of several reasons why joining a gym can become virtue signalling.

"Here's my paid-up membership, I'm going to go every day... well, maybe five times a week... OK, 3 times will be enough won't it?... I'm busy at the moment - isn't once a week better than nothing?"

Of course. But once a week can turn into once a fortnight, and then pride obliges you not to cancel the membership because that would be admitting to yourself that you have no intention of ever going to the gym, wouldn't it!

True consistency comes from establishing a set routine of exercises which you do daily, come what may. It need not even be all that much. Starting off small encourages you to keep at it, and to build up from there. Ultimately, twenty minutes a day and 30-60 minutes of walking should do it. That's all I do to stay as fit as I need or want to be for my age.

A daily routine - let's call it a habit - such as this, is very easy to achieve and to find time for, and yet very few people do it.

Exercise can be easy, it will be highly beneficial, and it will become a habit after just three or four weeks.

How will this help you to lose weight (if you need to)? 

Firstly, exercise in itself may or may not help you to lose weight, depending on your diet, and depending upon how much muscle you put on. Muscle weighs more than fat, but with regular, relatively low impact exercise, you won't put on a great deal of muscle. Nonetheless, more muscle and less fat will be the trend.

Secondly, the main reason why you will either lose weight or find yourself consciously eating better when you exercise is quite obvious. When you exercise regularly you begin to notice positive changes in your body. They may be small at first but, trust me, you will feel the difference.

You will also feel the difference if you have an eating - or drinking - binge. That hard-won positive body image that you have become so proud of will be eroded. You will look at the calories of what you have just consumed and think to yourself - "it took a significant amount of exercise to look and feel this good. Now I have to exercise even harder to lose what I have gained."

Or, in fact to gain back what you have lost.

This is the wake up call that you need, to consider the consequences of your negative dietary actions, to decide that you don't want to have to exercise harder because you fell off the wagon.

That isn't to say that everyone who is fit and well-exercised is an angel, of course. We all have our weaknesses, but we also recognise the pain of having to do it all over again. Fitness and a healthy weight is hard won and, once achieved, is too good to lose.

Find out how to be 90% certain that you will achieve what you set out to achieve in my next article (which you can read here).