…and create some new hurts whilst I’m doing it! Giving away my age a bit with that song lyric, but it’s on my gym playlist so I went with it.
2 weeks in, I’m starting to see change and not just on the scales. Belly is gradually being beaten in to submission!
Aside from the shape change, I feel physically better for having done more exercise. In the mornings I feel more alive and alert having done my gym session before work.
Sweating out endless hours of cardio is fine if it is needed for your goals, it’s not needed for mine. So all my workouts have been under 20mins, from warm up to cool down.
Overall body fat percentage has dropped along with weight, down 2%, but that still leaves around 14% left to go.
Weight loss has been steady and I’ve been paying lots of attention to my macros tracked on MyFitnessPal. Again, it’s important to know your goal and if what you are doing supports that goal.
Strength is building nicely, I’m not trying to get big, but I’m already able to do more reps in my circuits.
Going for some tech talk briefly here, NEAT being “Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.”
So what’s that when it’s at home? Well, basically it’s any and all energy used which isn’t through eating, sleeping and exercising.
This is really the crux of the “eat less, do more” school of thought for weight loss. The thing that makes it great is it’s really easy to do.
Take the stairs, not the lift or escalator. Walk to the shop instead of taking the car. Go to the toilet at the other end of the building, not the one just across from your office.
Sure, I’ve not been perfect, I’ve not hit my target steps every day. Check out the average though, 2,500 more steps a day so far this year compared to last year.
It’s simple changes like this that can make a real difference in your activity levels and overall weight.
One of the subjects we talk about a lot in coaching is smart goals, or rather SMARTER goals;
The goal is where you are going, the actions provide the steps to get there. So January’s actions for me;
1 week in, 6 workouts down, 1 Sunday of rest. Weight loss is slightly ahead of target for my goal of losing 30lb in 12 weeks, but that’s good because it’ll get harder the further down the road I get!
