FREE - Transformation plan!!
Intro to the Free Transformation Plan
I got into the this industry, this line of work because I wanted to help people. I wanted to improve the quality of life for people who didn't know how to do it themselves, or those who need the support to see it through. Being a doctor wasn't on the cards, not intelligent enough for that haha, so i settled for the next best thing - becoming a coach!
Some of you might be lost and need the help to make changes to your health, fitness and lifestyle but at current, cant afford a coach. I get it. Things are tight for most people. In reality, alot of people I speak to can afford coaching because they currently over spend on the areas they need to cut back on to make the changes. I've actually had a few clients SAVE money by signing up for coaching lol.
Below, I'm going to give you a FREE plan you can use to help you lose fat, build some muscle, improve your health and feel better in general physically and mentally. Obviously, this is how I make my money, so what I give for free is naturally generalised. If you wanted something more bespoke, please email me or message me on social media to discuss a more personalised plan. What I will outline below is a great start point for most people who have probably never trained before or returning from a lay off.
#1 - managing expectations
Firstly, it's important to go into this process understanding the true possibilities. As mentioned, this plan is to kickstart some changes and is rather generalised. Someone starting this plan who has no structured eating, lifestyle or exercise regiment will get significant results over a few weeks. However, please don't think following this style of plan for 8 weeks will take you from 30+% bodyfat with a gut that hangs over your belt to shredded washboard abs. Its just not gonna happen. This is a spring board to use over 6-10 weeks to start your journey, then you will need to transition into something more intense and specific to you and your goals.
#2 - managing stress
For most people, stress is a regular occurrence of every day live. The reality is that most of it is your own fault. You need to sit and determine your values and what you are willing to accept and what you are not in all relationships you have. That's your relationship with yourself, your partner, your family, your friends and work. Most people have never done step on (boundaries and values for yourself) let alone the rest of it. Most people (i say most, not all!) put up with stress purely because they aren't willing to do the hard thing and say 'NO, I don't accept this' then change or remove that situation. Work especially for most people is a big cause of stress yet they accept it and dont even try to look for another job. And hey, thats fine if you stay where you are, but then you are responsible for accepting the stress.
Once you have eliminated all extra stress you can, you can then focus on handling the stress you cant avoid. Meditation, box breathing drills, journaling, spending time alone to process your thoughts and feelings are great ways to handle stress. Alcohol, drugs and food are not productive, proactive measures!
#3 - managing food
I cant give you specifics on what calories you need, as that is personalised, however there are lots of calorie calculators online you can use - click here for one.
In regards to what diet, the only correct diet is one that is manageable and maintainable. You want to find something you can commit to for a long time, not a short sharp starvation diet. If you like keto, great do that! want to follow carnivore, go for it! A balance diet in general is always going to be best but you can have whatever eating method you like and can stick to. For most, having a structured plan will be new and challenging as is. The important part is getting the calories right for what you need.
Calories want to be 300-600 below maintenance and you will want to evaluate this number every 2 weeks (as your weight drops so will your calorie requirement). There are lots of free calorie tracking apps such as MyFitnessPal you can use to monitor your food to stay within your calorie needs. Try to follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of your calories want to be clean/ on plan, whereas 20% should come from the foods you like/enjoy. You can use the 80/20 on a daily basis (so a snack or dessert each day) or a weekly basis (such as a treat meal a week).
In regards to fluids, remember drinks contain calories! try to make the majority of your liquids calorie free: water, 'zero' fizzy drinks, sparkling water, herbal teas, fruit teas, tea and coffee are all calorie free so try to consume mostly those. If you drink alcohol, that will count as your '20%', so having one drink a night, or saving it up to have 3-4 on a weekend is the best way.
#4 - daily movement
First and foremost, you do NOT need to do 10,000 steps a day. This is something that got taken out of context then health professionals just ran with it and make it a generalised rule of thumb. FYI it would take the average person approx. 3 hours to walk 10k steps: no ones got time to be doing that!
With that being said, a lot of people live sedentary lives. Walking from front door to car, car to office desk, back to car, back to home: some people will struggle to hit 1000 steps a day! So, be proactive in your daily step making. Park the furthest point of the carpark. Take the stairs. Go to the other toilet block further way. Go for a 10-20 min walk on your lunchbreak with a pod cast on. Go for a walk around the block after dinner instead of binging Netflix before bed. Offer to do the food shop for the Mrs. Do the house cleaning.
#5 - sleep routine
Sleep is one of the best fat burning tools we have, yet most people do not prioritize it. Choosing to stay up late to watch your favourite shows, then getting into bed answering work emails or dooms scrolling social media. You fall asleep early hours of the morning only to be woken up what feels like 20 mins later by the alarm. Ideally, we need 6-8 hours restorative sleep each night to get the full health benefits and have our bodies operating hormonally correct. Here is the best way to fix and improve your sleep quality. Firstly, have a bed time. I know, your not a child anymore. But you need to ensure you have the ability to get at least 6 hours sleep each night. Secondly, ban electronics from the bedroom. No tv, laptop or phone. Put your phone on charge downstairs and get an oldschool plug in alarm clock. Wear blue light glasses of an evening to protect from the excessive screen time (great to wear if your job is based sat in front of a screen all day!). Make your bedroom cold and dark - use blackout blinds/curtains and leave a window cracked open.
#6 - exercise
This will be a generalised plan on how i would program for someone who is a complete gym newbie for the first 6 weeks of training.
The best thing would be to train 3 times a week, spaced out. A typical split is usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday - or similar pattern. Try to avoid days back to back.
In the gym, focus on strength training. Lifting weights has tonnes of benefits. It burns calories to perform the sessions, but also helps you build muscle. The more muscle you have, the greater the demand on your metabolism and more calories you burn throughout the day anyway.
Your gym sessions will start with afew minutes of cardio just to raise your heart rate, then some active stretching/ mobility work to get your joints and muscles ready for the sessions. Try this routine here. The rest of the session will focus on compound movements. These are lifts that require multiple muscles to get the work done and provide the biggest band for your buck. you are going to have 2 different routines - 'A' and 'B'. alternate sessions every time you go to the gym so week 1 will go A-B-A and week two will go B-A-B, and so on.
Routine A - Back squats, Bent over rows, Bench press
Routine B - Front squat, Deadlift, Over head press
There pare plenty of videos on YouTube of the above mentions exercises for you to learn from. For each exercise, you will perform 6 sets in total.
The first set is with an empty barbell just to go over the movement. the next 2 (sets 2+3) sets are warm up sets using between 40-60% of the work weight you intend to use and the final 3 sets (sets 4,5&6) are working sets and will all be at the same weight. All sets will be for 8 repetitions and have 90 seconds rest between each set. the goal is to use a weight for the final 3 sets that you could do for 10 repetitions. If you manage all 3x8, then next time you perform that session, increase the weight by 2.5kg. Continue in this manner until you cant complete the 3x8. When that happens, stay at the weight until you have completed the 3x8.
Once you have completed the weights routine (which should take around 30 minutes), you would then jump on some cardio equipment such as a bike or a rower. You will perform 10 intervals of 30 seconds at a relaxed pace with 20% effort followed by 30 seconds of a fast pace at 80+% effort. that will take 10 minutes then finish with 5 minutes at a relaxed 40% to allow your heart rate to return to normal.
"but what about cardio? I need cardio for fat loss, right?"
You don't need to be doing hours of cardio to burn fat. Cardio alone doesn't burn fat: it's just a tool to spend calories. However, if we are in a calorie deficit and doing resistance training, we have our calorie drop there. I would only prescribe additional cardio at this stage if you psychologically could not handle the calorie deficit in food. If that was the case, I would increase daily calories by 300, but perform at least 350 calories of cardio (purely to create the deficit missing from the food). For most, performing cardio is boring and extra time they just don't have. I would rather you spent less time in the gym and just ate a little less to make the deficit.
In conclusion
Everything I have mentioned above is the basic steps I get any client to think about and be proactive in changing. Most people think its just about brutal workouts and strict diets and that's simply not true. Sure, when you get 'lean' and then want to get shredded (I'm talking single digit bodyfat levels) then yes, we have to get a bit more 'extreme' and restrictive. But for most of us, we simply need to manage our stress, sleep more, eat better and move a bit to see results. Going off the deep end before you can swim usually causes you to drown. Going for an extreme diet will get results, but usually its short lived and most who try end up taking 2 steps forward, 3 steps back and return to binging eating patterns and having to repeat the cycle all over again!
Focus on the basics above and I promise you will see results. If you do put this into practice, please send me your results and progress, id love to see what you can achieve!!
If you try this and then get stuck, or maybe you've already tried it all and not seen results, just reach out to me for a chat. Online coaching is like having me in your pocket 24/7. I create your training plans and schedule them in your diary. I give you your food for the day with 'how to' videos and options to switch meals you don't like and repeat your favourites. More importantly, I'm always available at the end of the phone. I want my clients to be able to ask me any questions - its kind of what you pay me for!!
The important thing about coaching though, is that I am a tool to guide you. YOU have to put in the work, be committed to the plan and follow it through daily.