Round of applause for Jess Armitage! She has just hit the 10 week mark in her 1-1 program. Jess's original goal was to simply look and feel better about herself. Fitness was the main priority, with fat loss as a side goal.
Jess had got herself into some bad, but very familiar, habits. Snacking too often. Moving too little. Occasionally attending the gym or a class, but struggling to get out the the rut and find a real rhythm with her exercise.
When it comes to fat loss, I favour frequency over intensity. People fail early on because they take the 0-100 approach. Coach potato one minute, HIIT classes 4/5x a week the next. Too much of a shock to the mind and body. Not sustainable.
Lets get you moving at a moderate intensity, but lets do it everyday. Walking is my go to. A hugely underestimated from of cardio amongst general population. Commit to 30 minutes everyday and build from there. But walk with intent - the intent of feeling your heat pumping and getting a good sweat on.
After a few weeks, some of those walks might become gently runs. Some might become classes, weigh sessions etc. But commit to movement everyday and get that habit into your weekly routine. This is breaking down the psychological barrier of exercise being something thats always hard.
That's the approach I took with Jess. We're now at a point where she's able to push herself through 2/3 HIIT or conditioning sessions a week alongside her sessions with me and the walking we've been doing from day 1.
Fortunately for me, Jess is a food marketing student who loves home cooking, particularly healthy, nutrient dense foods. Winner! She's fantastic as piecing together her own meals and although she has her nutritional plan, most days she'll take the lead on what foods to have.
Her meals change day to day (great, lots of variety) but she sticks wishing the guidelines I've set i.e. timing of specific macro's, quantities of protein, veg with every meal etc. I over see anything through MyFitnessPal, which again, Jess is always on top of.
And finally, I have to touch on the work rate this girl has in her locker. During our 1-1 sessions Jess can really go the distance. She's able to push her heart rate into extremely uncomfortable area's and even then, I'm able to squeeze that little bit more out of her. This gives me great peace of mind that Jess is pushing herself away from sessions and the quality is super high.
Really good so far Jess!
Ryan
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