Often during my fitness journey I’ve set big goals and wanted to achieve them quickly. I would list all the changes I felt were necessary and attempt to apply them all at once. The point was to make big change happen in two or three months. It was forced. It was a lot of effort. It didn’t work.

For myself I like fitness model physique, and that means I need to have lower body fat levels. It took me forever to achieve this goal, but that’s because I kept insisting that big change should happen fast. At one time I needed to get rid of about fifteen pounds of body fat to look the way I wanted to. I wanted that to happen over eight weeks. Two pounds a week actually is a reasonable goal. The problem is, I was skipping important steps. 

There are three parts to my fitness plan. They are diet, weight lifting, and cardio. When all three happen consistently, I have the body I want. 

My “lean diet” consists of lots of chicken, vegetables, and sweet potato. I drink a gallon of plain water ever day, some sparkling water, and tea. One day a week I will have a cheat meal. This isn’t painfully strict. If it’s not cheat day but my body is telling me it wants cookies, I’m going to eat cookies.

My weight lifting routine includes the usual bench press, squats, shoulder press, pull-ups, arm curls, and crunches. I have a specific number of sets and reps, and I tend to lift heavier. The actual numbers aren’t so important. What’s really important is that at the end of my workout, I feel like I actually worked. If it doesn’t feel like I could do anymore arm curls, I did my job.

I use cardio mostly for heart health. In terms of shedding fat, I don’t believe cardio alone is efficient. In my experience, when people are using cardio without paying attention to what they eat, they burn extra calories but wind up eating more. Cardio in combination with attention to diet will absolutely get the job done.

With this ideal combination of diet and exercise, I start dropping the fat. The problem for me was that I would try to change everything at once. I’d pick a start date and expect everything to strictly adhere to my ideal fitness plan. The result was a serious of fat loss efforts that only lasted three weeks. 

Eventually I would learn that the secret to change is intention. I needed to change things one thing at a time. It’s my opinion that the most important thing to change first is diet. Contrary to what many people might think, I believe that it’s better to add food, as opposed to taking food away. Rather than cutting the chocolate cake desert, I’d add fiber to dinner. Everyone has different needs but the FDA recommends 25 grams of fiber per day. Don’t cut the cake, just eat the fiber first. Honestly, 25 grams throughout the day is very filling. You likely will not want the cake. You’ll be so full that eating desert will be a chore. Suddenly sensations of discomfort are being linked to eating a sugary food. Meanwhile the fiber is offering feelings of satisfaction. 

Ideally, changes to diet occur slowly. The mind and body have a chance to accept and learn to appreciate the change. Adding a single change each week has both immediate and long term results. The effect of making a change stick is a boost in self esteem and  motivation. That will happen quickly. The next change to occur will be a change in the way you feel. Finally, a noticeable physical change will take the longest, but will be so worth it. 

My suggestion is to set a new intention every week. The changes will be astonishing!

-Mike Humphreys