No, this is not metaphorical. One of the main things we encourage our clients to do is to walk more. Walking is low impact, low fatigue, and can allow for simultaneous brain gainZ or socialising (e.g. audiobooks, phone calls, meeting a friend). Therefore, you get the benefits of doing more exercise without the burden. Why start running 3 hours per week if you hate running and just want to increase your energy expenditure a bit? Start with walking.

 

Action Point: Track your steps for 1 week. Assess the average, and increase it by 25% for 1 month. If you can sustain it and have more time, bump it up again*.

 

 

 

 

High protein meals keep both your tummy and your muscles fuller for longer, both of which are important for successful fat loss (vs just weight loss). Therefore, you should prioritise having protein at each meal, aiming for somewhere between 1.6-2.5g per kg of bodyweight in total (not a hard rule, just a sound range). Less than that is probably suboptimal for keeping as much muscle as you can while you lose fat, and somewhere in the middle seems to work best for most from our experience.

 

There is a literal interpretation of this also. Eating your protein source first as part of a meal can sometimes lead to you deciding you're full before you finish those cheesy potatoes served with it. Mindful eating in the form of paying attention to how full you feel is quite helpful for many people, and playing around with what foods you eat first and how that modifies fullness is one part of that.

 

Action Point: At each meal this week, ask yourself if you have an adequate source of protein. As an easy rule of thumb, aim for at least 20-30g per meal, at least 3x per day.

 

 

 

To be completely honest with you, while I know we do a great job at Triage when it comes to providing our clients with exercise and nutrition guidance, a huge contributor to client success is the accountability. While this can come in the form of a coach, it doesn't necessarily need to. You could simply have one day per week where you review the week gone by, which will enable you to be a bit more objective with yourself about your progress and commitment to the process.

 

Action Point: Pick one day per week that you take progress photos, review your weekly weigh-ins, reflect on adherence to your plan of action, and use that information to choose the behaviours that you are going to commit to for the week ahead.

 

 

If you want to check out more of our recommended resources, visit the link below, where we have archived all recommendations from previous newsletters.