David's Journey so far;
David has gone from weight loss program to a maintenance and now to muscle gain. He has lost over 10kg and transformed his mindset to live a very balanced lifestyle. Here is what David had to say:
Things I had to change:
- Definitely cut down on alcohol. Went from 3-4 bottles a week to one or two, then to zero alcohol for 12 weeks (the crazy phase before Italy)
- Watched the diet. I have always eaten 'real food' and never touch junk food, but just cut down on saturated fats from butter and olive oil, upped the protein using lean meats instead of fatty cuts, used some supplements like protein powder and fish oil, and increased vegetable intake.
- Increased weight training which in turn resulted in getting much stronger and leaner. Had always thought that cardio (which I hate) was the be all and end all, so absolutely love weight training and seeing the results from it!
- Definitely had to change lifestyle in terms of gym every morning (I've always been an early riser but never a gym person in the morning). Now it's just a habit
Advise:
- Get out of bed in the morning and walk out the door within 5 minutes. Don't even think about it
- If you have a day where you eat some 'bad' food or have some booze, just be ultra strict the next day. It's not a bad thing to do this at all and won't make the slightest difference to overall results.
- I've found in any challenge I've done that the results come in the last third or quarter of the time. In 12 weeks, I only saw huge results in the last 3 weeks. Keep at it, set a foundation and don't get discouraged.
Top 3 tips:
Track and weigh your Food - It has been shown the number one thing to do to lose weight is to track food. This way you know what you are putting in rather than guessing and then over consuming, because what looks like 100g of something could turn out to be 150g!
Weight Training - Resistances training helps create more muscle. This leads to an increase in resting metabolic rate, so you burn more energy while not doing anything as there is more muscle to feed
Don't be too strict - cutting everything out of your day to day life can have a negative impact as then all you do is think about this and then are more than likely to binge on it later. By keeping it in your meal plan it will stop you craving it and make the plan more sustainable over the long term.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
