I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine cranking out an abacus and performing calculations to find out how many points this meal is going to add up to and if I am allowed to eat it.

I also can’t be bothered spending an hour jogging on a treadmill in “Fat Burning Mode” staring at the blank wall ahead of me.

When I want to lower my body fat % I want it to be dead simple, efficient and effective.

Here are a few tips to make your body fat loss program a little more simple and therefore easier to stick to.

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1. Set out your weeks workouts in front of you.

This has saved me procrastinating, wondering what I am going to do and making excuses. If I have booked in a session of staircase sprints and it is raining… Too bad. A light patter of rain on the body isn’t going to kill me, in fact I feel fantastic after I get home from a run in the rain, although I don’t make a habit of it. I allocate times for the gym and a bit of interval training throughout the week and make sure I keep those times free.

2. Keep your diet simple.

I have found through intense experimenting that when I have a diet that allows too many foods, I find that it is easier for me to cheat the diet. At the moment my diet consists of pretty much the same sort of meal 4-5 times a day, even for breakfast. I can whip it up in about 5 minutes and eat it in another 5 minutes, simple as that, no slaving over a hot stove for me :)

3. Make your exercise a challenge, but fun.

I enjoy beating my old records, so most times I go out for a run I try go further in a shorter time. Obviously the effect plateaus after a while but you can always change it up for a new challenge e.g. swapping interval sprints to just a 20 minute all out run for a few days aweek, then back to sprints.

On the weights, it is pretty obvious that every time you go to the gym you want to lift heavier weights, or lift the same weights more times. I find it a great challenge and after a while, just as anything, progress plateaus. So then one might go to doing some 1 rep max lifts (lifting the heaviest weight you can lift for just one repitition), a body split (training different parts of the body on different days) or a full body workout.

These are a few things that have helped keep me motivated, because motivation is the key. Make a game of it and you will not want to stop the game! If you can stay motivated, no matter what you are doing, you will eventually get there, don’t let minor set backs such as injuries, missing a day, bad weather, arguments with a spouse, lack of money etc get you down. I have been through times where I have simply not had the $7 to go to my local gym and so I have to pump out some body weight exercises and get creative about getting money for the gym.

I have had arguments with my partner that have left me feeling so annoyed, down etc that I find it hard to do anything, but if we can get over these hurdles and just focus on the training, becoming a better and stronger person then it will be a huge blessing to us for our whole lives.

Until next time, sort out a rational, logical answer to your challenge and get into it!

Johnny