I’ve been working in the fitness industry for over 15 years now. I love my job and I love helping people improve their life by providing them with an opportunity to become fitter, stronger and healthier.
Over the years I’ve worked with what may be close to 1000s of people and I have always tried my best to help them make some progress and help them work towards a goal.
However, there are also 1000s of people that I have spoke with about their health and fitness that have never made any progress, never started and each year they get fatter and fatter and in my opinion unhealthier and unhealthier.
The UK has an obesity problem. The majority of the country, including kids, are overweight and obese. They don’t get enough exercise, they don’t eat enough nutritious food and they over eat junk food.
Obesity related diseases and illnesses are shafting the NHS resources which impacts the level of service others receive, like my wife for example.
Now I know what you might be thinking – “Who the fuck is this guy telling me how I should live my life?” And yes, I totally agree with that statement, everyone has a choice of how they live their life and some people might want to be fat, unhealthy, struggle to climb a flight of stairs or play with their kids, lack confidence, feel uncomfortable on nights out, get diabetes and lose a leg or have a heart attack and die before they walk their daughter down the aisle.
Might sound harsh, but unfortunately it’s the truth.
If people are happy going down that route then that’s their choice. I’m not here to judge, criticise or beg people to do something they don’t want to however I will always recommend people do some form of exercise, eat better and have a healthier lifestyle. Not to do with vanity reasons but purely to live the best life they can for themselves and also for their loved ones.
I am not going to be one of those people who complain about a problem without offering a solution.
So if you are wanting to make a change then here are some things you may need to consider.
- JUST START – most people wait until the situation is perfect, they wait for Monday, for next month, after their holidays or next year. They think they will have more time and more money and everything will be easier. The reality is this isn’t true. There will always be obstacles but you can still get shit done. Pick one thing and get the ball rolling. Go a walk, drink water instead of a coke, do 20 Burpees. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, it’s not coming.
- TAKE OWNERSHIP – If you are fat, it’s your fault. There is maybe a very very small percentage of the population that have a medical problem that may hinder their weight loss goals but this excuse isn’t valid if you’ve spent the last 10 years not doing any exercise or ate like a teenager since you left school. Once you realise that the position you’re in was caused by your choices you can then fix the problem and start making better choices. You are not a special snowflake. I’ve worked with loads of clients who are busy AF, have kids and other commitments – but they still get in shape.
- START WHERE YOU ARE AT – I hear it all the time – “I used to play football”, “I used to run marathons”, “I used to bench 850kg”. Focus on what you can do now, not what you thought you used to be able to do. If you haven’t done any exercise since PE at school, chances are you might not be as fit as you were 20 years later. Accept the position you’re in and do what you can, with the resources you have at the present moment. You are not the Rock.
- YOU NEED TO MAKE A SACRIFICE – Unfortunately, if you want to lose weight you will have to make some form of sacrifice. You will need to change some habits. This doesn’t mean you have to completely change everything. You will make progress by eating less junk food and being more active without completely cutting out all junk and going to the gym 7 days a week. You’re in the position you’re in due to the choices you have made, if you expect to change the outcome then you have to change the decisions you make.
- IT IS HARD – If the whole process was easy, everyone would be walking around like Greek Gods. The reality is that it’s not easy to change years of habits overnight. Immerse yourself in the process, accept it won’t be easy and stick to the plan.
- DON’T YO YO – You will have periods of time that you do well and periods that you don’t do so well. The key here is to just keep going. Try and be as consistent as possible, even if you couldn’t be arsed training or eating well for a few days. Just get back into it as quickly as you can. Giving up for weeks and months will not help. Consistently average will trump sporadically perfect every time.
Losing weight sucks, eating healthy instead of take aways is not easy, going to the gym instead of watching Netflix is not fun but feeling like shit, unhappy with your appearance, developing heart disease and dying early than yoi should also sucks.
Coach Milligan 