Coronavirus Fitness – The Way Out of Lockdown

1) Accept Where You Are – I read a report that about a third of the population has gained over 3kg (~half a stone, 7 lbs) during the crisis. That means around 20 million people in the UK have put on some weight. Many bad habits have also increased with alcohol, cigarettes, take-away meals and junk food sales all up. So if you have gained some bad habits or extra weight I wouldn’t waste much time worrying about it. Simply acknowledge it and commit to making some changes going forwards from today. 

2) Identify Your Circumstances For The Next Few Months – Though lockdown is easing you may find that you will not be going back to the office anytime soon, it could be August, September or even longer before your old routine has fully returned. Likewise, it could be that your gym is restricted to limited numbers making it harder to use.

3) Create A Plan – Now you know what you have to work with then you need a plan of action to move things forwards. This will need to be something involving your food, your movement and exercise. There is no right or wrong, if you need help with it then message me, I can help you in person or online.  I have filmed over 400 exercises that you can do at home as well creating effective nutrition and exercise programmes to get results. 

4) Get Started Today –  Take action now, there is no point in delaying things a day further. I have chatted to a few people who are the waiting three and half weeks for the gym to open, you can make great strides in that time between now and then, especially if you have not been great during the lockdown so far.

If you are motivated, then go full steam ahead, start a plan, go crazy if you so choose. You could do a 5 day juice fast, eliminate obvious junk, train an hour a day perhaps. However, if you are not motivated, which is more likely, then you can look to build motivation by edging your behaviours. This means asking yourself what is the lowest level of behaviour you will actually do, start small then build. It is amazing how in a few days to a week you can transform your motivation levels and then you are up and running.

5) Think About Possibility – One issue that you may have with your goals is a lack of excitement about what you are trying to achieve. Too often you fall back on your limited beliefs about what you can achieve and never even go after what truly excites you. This means there seems little upside in making a change today. The other side to this is thinking about the impending disaster that awaits if you don’t change things up now. This should scare you enough to take action. One thing that is for sure, do not give into that voice in your head. You have endless potential and what has happened in your past with your health & fitness efforts does not prevent great things going forwards.

Just this lockdown one of my clients continued his great progress and is now just short of 20kg lost (50 lbs – 3 1/2 stone), I have another guy in his mid fifties preparing for his first bodybuilding show, crazy things can happen if you aim for it.

Even if you are in a bad place I would still dream, just before lockdown I had a lady come to me who was all over the place with her food, drinking too much and not exercising. She felt things were a lost cause but she committed and now has turned things around to get control of her behaviours once more and lose 7kg (14 lbs – 1 stone) during the process. The best bit is that she is still progressing. All this can come from committing to a goal that excites you.

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