5 Reasons Why You’re Not Seeing The Weight Loss Results You Want

It can be frustrating. We get it.

You feel like you’re making all the effort but just not seeing the fat loss progress you want.

Here are 5 reasons why that might be the case and what you can do to help yourself accelerate your results.

Lack of accountability

Who’s in your corner, objectively supporting you? Someone that will ask at the end of the week how everything’s going?

When you ride through solo and without the right foundations, you can easily talk your way out of eating well, training and all the good habits you need to put in place to get results.

Because who’s going to notice if you’re not doing them?

Having someone there that will ask you about your week instantly provides added motivation to eat well and workout - partly because of our human nature and you don’t want to let that person down (even though, none of our clients could).

And if it’s a coach you’ve invested financially and your time into, you won’t want to waste that by not following the training program and nutrition guidance they’ve laid out for you.

So especially when starting out, your quickest route to success will be having a good coach that genuinely cares and holds you accountable.

We’re essentially your sat nav to help you get to where you want, redirecting you around traffic (any obstacles in the way of your results) and guiding you with each turn (supporting you week by week).

Whether that’s an online coach, a one-to-one personal trainer in person or even group training that has support and a community outside of sessions.

They can all hold you accountable to differing levels to help fast track your results.

Patience

You want to drop that jeans size in a week and 7 kilos in a month.

Now if changes in our body happened that quickly, we’d be screwed. Because think of the opposite of that and question if that makes sense - do you think you can gain a jeans size in a week and be 7 kilos heavier in a month? Probably not.

We all want everything NOW and love instant gratification. So it’s not surprising to see that desire in wanting your results so quickly.

But take a step back and have some patience.

What’s the rush?

Are you competing in boxing and have to make a certain weight on a certain day?

Or are you wanting to feel more confident in your clothes, be fit enough to keep up after the kids and not feel out of breath climbing 2 sets of stairs?

If it’s the latter, then don’t try to rush things and expect instant results.

If you’re taking positive steps with your fitness and nutrition consistently then the results will come.

Just don’t expect them next week.

You’re in this for the long game, so have patience.

It’s the hard truth sometimes that we don’t want to hear but it’s important to be honest about it.

Because there are hundreds of false promises and over hyped diets and programs out there which will make bogus claims of how quickly you can lose weight.

Focusing on the outcome too much

RESULTS, RESULTS, RESULTS!

It’s the reward that we all chase from time to time.

But when you become so focused on the scales going down, how your jeans fit or your visual progress in the mirror you can quickly lose focus on the actual stuff that will get you there.

Having an outcome goal is good, don’t get me wrong. Especially when you set mini milestones and feel the progress between them.

But focusing purely on the result itself won’t make it happen.

If I focus on just wanting to buy a car or buy a house, will I have it by the end of the year by focusing on that?

Nope.

It’s the effort put into your process goals that over time will help you get there.

So rather than just focusing on losing 10 kilos, shift your energy to the actions that get the result.

All the things we won’t stop talking about - your nutrition, your workouts, your steps, your water, your sleep.

Focus on those things and funnily enough, you’ll be seeing your results a lot quicker than before!

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The fuck it ATTITUDE

We’ve all been there - me included.

You’ve enjoyed a pizza on a Friday night and some ice cream with your loved ones.

Maybe a few beers or a bottle of wine.

And that’s the weekend started.

When Saturday comes, you think “Well I’ve already ruined the week with dinner last night, what’s the point in the weekend now? I might as well go all in - fuck it!”.

So on Saturday the next bottle (or two) of wine comes out. This time it’s a Chinese take away and since we’re going for it, a family sized galaxy bar whilst enjoying a movie at home.

Then we’ve got Sunday where a bit of guilt settles in during the morning. But we’re this far in now, what’s the point? So UberEats is the plan for breakfast and it’s a McDonalds double sausage and egg meal, with extra hash browns of course.

Not forgetting the last foray into Sunday night just to round things out nicely with a full pack of oreos and whatever else is left in the snack drawer.

Sounds ridiculous when you look at it like that right?

But it’s entirely possible and it happens for some people every weekend.

Here’s the thing though - if you were driving home on the motorway and developed a flat tyre, would you:

1. Pull over to the hard shoulder and call the AA

2. Pull over to the hard shoulder, slash all 4 tyres and crack your window whilst you’re at it, before driving home (or just 1 mile)

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The “fuck it” attitude leads people to do 2) with their weekend.

Why?

Well it’s multi-layered and I couldn’t possibly tell you why exactly.

But many reasons why people do it involve - too much restriction during the week, labelling foods “good” & “bad”, thinking a cheat meal will boost your metabolism, not feeling like you deserve to be better, dropping into a “binge & restrict” cycle.

There’s clearly a lot going on.

But here’s what I suggest you do next time you feel like you’ve messed up your diet and before you enter the “fuck it” stage.

Remember that you’re only one meal away from getting back on track.

And have a conscious thought of what’s happened - did you just enjoy a Friday night with loved ones that you don’t have to feel guilty for. Or did you actually ruin your diet?

It’s unlikely and almost impossible to be the second from just one meal. So don’t beat yourself up about it.

Enjoy your time with loved ones and those social occasions.

And know you don’t have to be perfect so don’t let things spiral downwards from one meal.

Fixating on just the scales

I’ve lost 2lbs - hurray, let’s celebrate!!

I’ve gained 2lbs - shit, I must be doing everything wrong and this diet isn’t for me.

Even worse is when you’ve made an effort but it doesn’t budge and think what’s even the point of trying?!

Whether you’re weighing yourself daily or once a week, when trying to lose weight we all want that number to drop.

But it won’t always, despite your best efforts, because your body weight fluctuates soooo much.

And we know that - just look at the memes online about taking a poo before weigh in day.

So constantly focusing on the number on the scales is likely to lead to more stress than what it’s worth and a lot of the time, emotional decisions around what to do with your nutrition and workouts.

That number is just that - a number.

It’s ONE indicator of progress and not the only one to look at.

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Because a year from now, you could be a similar weight but be much fitter, a lot more toned up and have a completely different shape to your body.

Would you get angry at the scales then if that was the case? Probably not.

Take a scale weight, sure. And do it what feels comfortable with you - whether that’s daily, weekly or even every fortnight.

But don’t let that be the only thing that decides if you’re making progress.

Are you feeling fitter?

Stronger?

Noticing you’re more toned up and your shape changing?

Clothes feeling like they fit better?

Able to keep up with the kids or run for a bus without feeling like a lung is about to fall out?

Your progress is more than just a scale weight number.

What’s next?

Want to join a community that can help you avoid some mistakes like this? Discuss this blog with other like-minded people in our free Facebook group here,

OR…

Grab our free easy to follow recipe book where you can become your own fat loss chef at home here.

And if you thought this was super useful to you, we’d love for you to help us share what could be a life changing message with someone else!

5 Tips To Make Healthy Habits Last

We all want to have healthy habits that last longer than a week so that when we lose weight & tone up, we can keep those dream goals for life.

That’s the ultimate goal.

Nobody wants to end up in a vicious cycle of losing weight and then regaining it.

So how do we make healthy habits last?

Below you’ll find 5 top tips on how to make the chance of success with your habits higher so that you can keep those amazing results.

1) Make Your New Habits Easy To Achieve

Sounds simple right?

And it is.

But it’s quickly overlooked because it is SO simple.

We often want to look for the harder answer because we might believe that will get us the better result.

So how do we go about keeping our habits easy to achieve?

By removing the barriers that are in the way.

Let’s practically look at it. You want to improve how much water you drink.

And think… “let’s aim for 2 litres a day.”

Fab. Now what?

Sometimes that’s as far as some peoples work on their habits go. Just the OUTCOME.

Instead, look at the PROCESS and what barriers are in the way to achieving it.

Find yourself caught in between looking after the kids & working from home, so regular trips to the kitchen for some water are hard?

Keep a nice big bottle with you at your desk.

And when you give your kids a glass of water, take one for yourself too.

Look at what barriers are in the way for you to achieve a habit and put things in place around it.

2) Make your habits harder to achieve

“What?! You just told us to make them easier”…

Yes, and now think of the habits you want to develop that involve any sort of reduction.

Less junk food, less processed food, less mindless snacking, less alcohol.

Whatever it is that you choose you want to reduce, make the habit of doing that harder.

Let’s take the classic example that a lot of our new clients want to work on - reduce snacking on less healthy foods between meals.

Firstly, have you got an abundance of it in the house? If so, you’re making it easy to stick with this less healthy habit. So think of reducing the amount at home to make the habit harder.

So you now keep less of it at home, great.

Up next, what can you do to make what you have left less accessible?

You don’t need to padlock it up into a safe - that’s just ridiculous!

But if it’s out in the open for you to see every time you walk into the kitchen, that’s far to easy. Make the habit harder by storing it out of eye sight such as a cupboard or an drawer that’s not easily visible.

What ever habit you are trying to do less of, think of what extra barriers you can put in place from you easily doing said habit.

3) Don’t do everything at once

I’m going to increase my water, reduce my snacking between meals, walk 10k a day, exercise 5 times a week and learn to juggle 3 balls at the same time whilst skipping.

You’re setting yourself up to fail right away.

But that’s not your own fault. You see other people managing all of that. (Maybe apart from the skipping & juggling).

Yet what you don’t see is it’s taken them months, if not years, to get to that stage.

So focus on yourself instead and think of what you can do.

For the next week or two that might just mean looking at your water intake. Putting the other tips I’ve shared in this blog into action to really nail that habit consistently.

Before adding the next layer of habits on top.

Sounds slow? And it is a little slower than doing all of them at once.

But after a few months, you’ll be in a far better place with solid foundations in the habits you want to achieve.

4) Link habits together

By it’s very nature, we’ve already got a set of habits in place. Whether they work for or against the goals you want to work towards, that’s another question.

If you look at your current habits, you can begin to notice patterns and either add or remove other habits into the mix.

Let’s take a look at some simple and easy examples which James Clear does a fantastic job of using:

• After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.

• After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.

• After I put on my running shoes, I will text a friend or family member where I am running and how long it will take.

Notice a trend here?

Here’s the formula for the magic:

After/Before [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].

Why does it work so good?

Because you are building on pre-existing habits that have probably been established for you for years that at the moment require ZERO thinking about.

Let’s say you want to get better at eating fruit. Something a lot of our clients work on with us initially.

What can you link it to that you already currently do?

• Feed the kids fruit

• Eat breakfast

• Have an afternoon walk

Whenever you do those each day, add your new habit on top.

Here are some more examples of what you could implement to help you develop AND maintain better healthy habits:

• When I make my coffee in the morning, I’ll do a few stretches whilst the kettle boils

• When I go toilet, I’ll grab a glass of water or refill my water bottle

• When I eat lunch, I’ll eat a piece of fruit afterwards

Ultimately, think of what you already do currently that requires ZERO thinking (e.g. shower) and think of what you want to take action on (e.g. spending 2 minutes a day to meditate).

5) Be realistic

Sounds obvious right?!

But I wouldn’t state it if I didn’t see the opposite happen, time after time.

Even when people decide they want to work on ONE habit, find ways to make it easier and link it to other habits.

If it’s going from 0-100mph, it’s going to be difficult to hit it consistently.

And that’s the whole point in developing your habits. To get to a place where you can consistently do them without the need to put much effort of thinking about them.

So when I see people wanting to go from doing no exercise for years, to wanting to train 5 times a week, I do get a little nervous for them. Even if they appear super motivated and excited about it.

I applaud the desire to change. But would advise them, both from a realistic goal & health aspect to reconsider it.

If they keep it up for 3 weeks and then feel they’ve burnt themselves out so stop - that’s no good for their progress long term.

But if they were to aim for 2 sessions a week to start out with and build it up from there, I bet they are more likely to stick with it over the months and hopefully years.

Same goes with nutrition.

Going from zero fruit/veg to aiming for 10 portions a day is rarely the answer.

It’s going to be super hard and you’ll probably feel like a failure by the end of the week if you’ve only managed to eat 4 portions each day.

But if the goal was for 3-4 portions a day, you’d feel amazing with that result because you achieved it.

Achieving the exact same result but having a different goal in mind can change entirely how you feel about your progress.

What’s next?

Want to improve your habits to make living a healthier life & fitter life easier? Discuss this blog with other like-minded people in our free Facebook group here,

OR…

Grab our free easy to follow recipe book where you can become your own fat loss chef at home here.

And if you thought this was super useful to you, we’d love for you to help us share what could be a life changing message with someone else!

3 Key Differences Between Being Coached Online & YouTube Home Workouts

There is so much online coaching, YouTube home workouts and dozens of fitness apps to keep you active from home right now - it’s incredible.

But it’s also incredibly overwhelming to know where to start and what’s the difference between it all.

So this short article will go over 3 key differences between online training & YouTube (or Instagram) home workouts.

Feedback

This is such a big & important difference but often it gets overlooked. Being coached online is a 2-way conversation. It means we see you, and you see us. So it gives us (the coaches) the chance to see your form, provide useful feedback on how to adapt things for you (not just your form but either make it more/less challenging if needed) & to give you a push through the final few reps.

Exercise aside, it also means we can have something so important right now. A conversation. You know, an actual conversation between two people. One of our values that is key to how we work is caring & giving a shit about our members. We’ll check in to see how you’re doing, your energy levels, any niggles, your nutrition outside of training and your overall feelings for the day. If you’re not quite feeling up for a solid leg burning session, that’s actually okay. We’ll adapt it for you on the day with more of what you need - stretching, mobility, more upper body.

We’re only human so every day will be different. Why have the exact same 30mins workout every Monday then.

Accountability

I could call this a number of things, but ultimately it’s accountability to show up. Having a set day of the week & a set time to show your face for a workout makes a huge difference compared to being able to pass on the latest Instagram Live workout.

Especially given that a lot of the time, we’re doing the workout next to the sofa or from our bedroom where other things look a lot more tempting than getting a sweat on.

People often start with us thinking they lack motivation. What they actually are missing from their life that’s leading to a lack of consistency is accountability. We help keep our members accountable, check in with them regularly and support them across a week to ensure that training doesn’t become a once every fortnight event.

Community

One of our pillars for starting Eat Lift Lose was community. A place where everyone’s welcome to help them improve their lives through fitness & nutrition. It’s raising each other up & celebrating other people’s wins. It’s getting to know the other people you train with and making friends.  It’s sharing a drink on a Friday at our Eat Lift Lose “virtual pub” with friendly faces.

Another area that’s not considered when it comes to work outs is who you’re doing it with. Over YouTube, Facebook or Instagram you have ZERO idea who else is doing the workout. When it comes to being coached online in our group sessions though, you get to virtually meet the other people taking part and share in the experience.

If you want to find out for yourself exactly what it’s like to experience first class online coaching, you can try it out for 7 days completely free with our home workout challenge.

5 Top Tips To Help With Staying At Home

Staying and working at home has probably brought you a big upheaval in your habits, routine and schedule.

What even day is it any more and is it acceptable to stay in my PJs day before changing into nighttime PJs?

Amidst all of the chaos that surrounds us in these unprecedented times, knowing where to start or what to work on can be a minefield.

So today, here are 5 top tips to help you manage with the massive changes in life right now.

All designed to help look after both your physical & mental health. Because both are important, especially right now in these uncertain times.

Plan your day out

Stopping to plan your day out might seem initially like a waste of time. But in the long run, you’ll be better off. It doesn’t need to take long. A simple 5-10 minutes at the start of your day can make all the difference. Areas to think about are: work, house admin, eating times, time with the kids if you have any, downtime for yourself, exercise.

Go for a walk

If you can get out, a walk outdoors is great for giving yourself a bit of energy, allowing you to refresh your mind and get some headspace. Staying at home all day can feel a bit like a drag by day 2 or 3 in a row. So break it up and stretch your legs. If you are getting out, please follow the current guidelines from the government.

Keep set meal times

It’s easy when working or staying at home just to eat whenever you want. Grazing on food across the day without actually having a proper meal. Before you know it, it’s 4pm and you’re super hungry, left wondering why when you’ve had snacks all day. But you’ve probably had zero protein all day and little fibre. Two areas of nutrition that will keep you feeling fuller for longer. By keeping your breakfast, lunch and dinner at regular times you can give yourself some much needed structure and actual meals to enjoy.

Look after yourself

Do something for yourself. Self care is hugely important because when we take care of ourselves, it’s then easier to look out for others. It’s ironic thought because when we want to look after others, we neglect ourselves. Make some time to treat yourself. Take a relaxing bath, read that book you’ve been meaning to get to, get your guitar out for some fun or if a face mask is your thing, go for it!

Have a conversation

Right now, everyone is going through a bit of a confusing and challenging time. So how you are feeling is going to vary day to day. If you’re feeling anxious about something, find someone you can confide in. Or if you are feeling positive, be an ear to someone that needs to chat. By maintaining those conversations with loved ones, we can all help each other. Keep regularly checking in on your loved ones that you don’t live with and see how they’re doing.

That’s it! 5 top tips to help with staying at home so you can make the most of it.

If you enjoyed that and want some more support with your fitness, nutrition and staying active - check out our free Facebook group here.

And if you’re ready to start making yourself a priority again, our 28 day shape up from home program is now available. We coach you live online so it can be done from anywhere in the world, in any room that you’re in (or the garden!).

To find out how out how our group training and stretch & mobility sessions can help you stay active whilst at home, just hit the big button below.

Results Beyond The Gym

If you’ve trained with us in the gym in Wanstead or been part of our Eat Lift Lose Bootcamp, you’ll know that results are beyond the physical changes you see or the weight loss from the scales.

Whilst both are major goals for a lot of people that start with us and achieving them is amazing, it’s not the only progress you can make from training in the gym.

Here are five other ways we encourage all of our members to view their fitness progress so it’s not just a case of chasing a certain scale weight.

Energy Levels

For us, training should improve the other aspects of your life. One big impact a lot of our personal training clients and bootcamp members tell us about is how much more energy they have. Even from those that haven’t done any training in years, they notice the difference in how they feel. Having better energy levels for every day life is huge. Just think of the areas it impacts - as a parent, as a partner, at work, as a friend. Being able to give more to the areas of your life that are important to you is powerful.

Gym Confidence

Most people that start out with us aren’t expert lifters with 10+ years of going to the gym. In fact, most haven’t stepped foot in a gym for years because they find them boring, intimidating and not their scene. One thing we’re proud of is when people find the confidence in themselves with their training. It’s not a result you can measure with a number but that doesn’t make it an less important. As your confidence with training grows, you’re more likely to both make it a part of your life and try new things such as an obstacle course run which you might never had thought as possible before.

Consistency

We can all struggle with this for different areas of our lives. So to achieve more consistency with your nutrition and training is huge. How many times have you said you’ll start going to the gym, make a good effort at the start but then fall off and never return? So when someone who hasn’t done much training over the last 5 years or paid much attention to the way they eat, can find some consistency with either, we’re celebrating that.

Control Of Your Nutrition

This is similar to seeing our members grow in their gym confidence. A lot of time people have the information and knowledge of what to do with their diet but don’t implement it, for a multitude of reasons. People can hop from one diet to another without ever feeling like they know what and why they’re doing it. So when you’ve worked on your eating habits, how your home is set up for you to succeed and it starts to become second nature, it can be hugely empowering to feel in control of your nutrition.

Health

A simple one but often overlooked because it’s not as easily visible to us until it starts to deteriorate. Regular training will improve so many markers of health and help us to reduce the risk of many lifestyle related illnesses. Cardiovascular disease, heart disease, depression, cancer and diabetes just to name a few. Keeping up a consistent exercise routine and one you enjoy (most of the time!) is key to keeping up good health levels. When you stop to think about it, being able to improve your health and reduce the risk of many chronic diseases is going to be one, if not the biggest, result from your training in the gym.

We’d love to say that everyone can step into their local gym, find what they enjoy first time and start training x3 a week for most of their life. But we know and appreciate it’s not that simple.

Two things thought that make a huge impact on your consistency with training is the community and support that’s available to you. It’s something we know is missing from big scale gyms and often lacking from even smaller local gyms.

If you want to find out more of how we’re bringing together the people of Wanstead to live a healthier, fitter and more energetic life with our bootcamp - you can find out more here.