10 Habits I Use To Stay In Shape.

Today I'm going to give you 10 habits I use day in day out, week in week out, to help me stay in shape. But before I do I want to give you some context. I've been lifting weights since I was probably 14/15 years old. Since then, there has probably been only one time in my life where I've been significantly heavier than I should be, and that was intentional (get huge or die trying right?). There's also probably never been a time when I've gone longer than 10 days without training in some way. Apart from that 6 month venture into daily 3 course dinners and a Ben and Jerry's subscription, I've always had visible abs and a lower bodyfat percentage than most. Some will say genetics. Other will look towards the 20 years of focussed exercise and supporting habits that I've built up over the years. My industry has been on a path for the last few years of promoting the transformation. The 6 Week shred. The 8 Week Program. The 12 Week Challenge. And with that has come attention to coached who share their own weight loss journey, and base their business off the back of having lost X stone or kilos. But if you're interested in losing the weight and keeping it off forever, there is a lot to be learned from those who have been in shape for a longer time. Those who have built lifestyles that have supported them for years... maybe even decades. Those who know what it really is to live the active lifestyle you crave, and enjoy the long term sustained progress you really want. So allow me to share 10 habits I've used over the last 20 years to stay in shape. 1) Strength Train 3 Times Per Week Even when losing bodyfat has been a focus, I have always focussed my training on lifting weights and getting stronger. The only time I have ever done high volumes of cardio was last year in preparation for my first ultra-marathon. Even then I still strength training 3x per week. This is because strength training: - Helps build muscle, which helps you burn more fat when training AND resting. - Is very quantifiable - Is very time efficient - Is very scaleable - Is a great source of performance goals for motivation and reward 3 times per week is the minimum for me if you're serious about this, and even then you have more rest days than training days each week. So if you want to be in shape for life, commit to strength training 3 times per week, ever week. 2) High/Low Training On that note, I generally employ a "high/low" training approach. That basically means that when I'm training, I'm training hard or heavy, and when I'm not training I'm taking it very easy. A common mistake in the gym is to train too hard too often, resulting in every workout being done under fatigue and having the edge taken off it. It is much more productive to avoid this constant mediocrity in your workouts. Intensity drives progress once you've been doing this for a while, and to find true intensity you need to rest and recover as much as you train. So train with intensity like you mean it. Thrive in your workouts and push yourself to new limits. Then stop, initiate a proper recovery process and chill TF out. High/Low is the way to go. 3) Walk Daily Walking is 100% the most underrated form of exercise out there. Barring injury or disability, everyone can do it. You can do it alongside high intensity training, on the same day, without affecting your recovery negatively. It benefits your physical and mental health, and it really does accumulate over time. The times in my life where I have been my leanest, I have always been walking more. Whether it was walking 60 minutes to college every day, or walking 45 minutes to my first job out of uni, or walking my dog for 45-90 minutes each day now. Whatever it is, that constant accumulation of low intensity activity that you don't necessarily count as intentional exercise (NEAT), is so important. Shoot for 7500 steps per day as a starting point, and anything up to 15000 is a bonus on top. 4) Eat A Simple Menu When it comes to eating well over the long term, high variety is the enemy. I eat a very simple menu, and recommend you do too. I alternate between a couple of breakfasts, do the same with my lunches, and then rotate around 5-7 dinners at and one time. This makes everything about eating simpler, including doing a good food shop, cooking quick and healthy meals, eating the right portion sizes, and allowing for meals out and social events. Go much beyond that level of variety and the moving parts that you need to manage multiply. Keep your menu simple, especially when you're short on time in the week, and use the freedom that gives you when you want to be more social or have more time to shop and cook. 5) Higher Carb Training Days When I say I alternate between a couple of breakfasts and a couple of lunches, which one I have often comes down to if I'm training that day or not. If I'm training early in the day, my breakfast will be higher carb (oats/granola with protein). If I'm not it'll be eggs. If I'm training later in the day, my lunch will be higher carb. This is because: 1) I'll need more energy on training days to train to a good intensity. 2) Because I've training to a good intensity I'll simply be hungrier. If I'm not training, I don't need that energy and I'll be able to go with less food as I won't be hungry. And before you know it, you're 100% used to it and not craving food and sweet stuff at times you don't need it in your system. 6) Calorie Cycle Alongside higher carb training days, if I change nothing else (which is generally true), this will lead to a higher calorie day when I'm training. This is great because: A) I'll have more energy to train B) I'll have more energy to recover and repair C) I'll have room to eat calorie dense foods and/or bigger portions on a regular basis D) If I have a social event coming up that will lead to higher calories going in, I can make that a training day and have more calories going out. The key is to align more food with more activity as much as possible, and when that activity is regular and intense, the leeway you start to have becomes really manageable and supportive of your goals. So if you're having more food, make sure you put it to use. 7) Eat "Bad" Foods Post Training Following on from calorie cycling, as I alluded to I'll use those calories extra calories to eat "bad" foods, and put those foods in close after my workouts. By "bad", I generally mean processed high sugar and/or calorie dense foods. This does a few things: 1) Reduces risk of overeating on calories. 2) Increases chances of sugar being used appropriately (fast use energy source for recovery). 3) Works as a "reward" for training hard, which can be key in habit formation. 4) Identifies a firm place for potentially problematic but highly enjoyable foods in your diet on a regular basis. Remember, it's about restraint not restriction, and if you can limit "bad" foods to the post workout window and not throughout the day every day, you'll likely be on a much better path than you are right now. 8) Eat Mostly Whole Foods Now that I've found a place in my diet for hyper-palatable (aka really tasty), calorie dense foods, I know that the rest of my diet needs to generally be whole foods. Most of my main meals will be based around: Proteins: - Read meat - Chicken - Fish Carbs: - Oats - Rice - Potatoes - Fruit Fats: - Dairy - Olive oil - Nuts Plus a bunch of salad/vegetables with my lunches and dinners. There will be some other things in there, but these make up the bulk of what you'll see on my plate, and I truly believe you should be basing your meals on the same things. They're packed full of nutrition, make you feel and perform great, and when eaten more often make it harder to overeat on a daily basis as you'll be satisfied and well fed. 9) Eat A Higher Protein Diet I put proteins as the first thing on that previous list for a reason. For me a higher protein diet is a non-negotiable. I mean that I'm looking for 1.5-2g of protein per kilogram of my bodyweight per day on average. So for me at around 86kg currently, I'm looking at 130-170g per day. I recommend you get this from animal sources as they are undoubtedly the best. Sure, you can get enough protein on a vegetarian or vegan diet, but I don't think you should from a health, nutrition, environmental or ethical standpoint... but that's for another email. A higher protein diet will help you recover from your intense resistance training, build and maintain lean muscle mass, get stronger over time, feel fuller for longer after each meal, and help you stop overeating on other food groups. It's a huge win, and I make sure I have four 30-40g servings of protein per day to hit this target. Because my meals don't change often and I prioritise protein dense foods in my meals, this is really easy to do. 10) I Make It Enjoyable Finally, for all of the above my aim is to make it all enjoyable. If I don't like doing it I'm not going to do it often enough to reap the rewards. I've found a style or resistance training that I love doing 3 times a week and adds to my day every time I do it. I value my low training days and love going for a slow jog with Kate and my dog a couple of times per week. I love walking the dog, or used to love walking to work with my favourite music in my headphones each day. I eat meals I enjoy, that are easy enough to make that I don't resent the process. I find room for high calorie, high carb, and super tasty "bad foods" every day and every week. I eat ingredients that I love, make me feel great, and support my environmental and ethical beliefs. When those things become unenjoyable, they won't keep happening, so you have to move with the times. Freshen things up when needed. You're in control. You can do it your way just as I'm doing it my way. Thanks, Ian.