Getting the physique of your dreams is never something that happens by accident. It can take months, if not years, of intentional choices that get you closer to your long-term goals day by day. Many people never get that far because they don’t have a solid plan to help them along the way. Others never even try because they assume it will be too challenging, expensive, complicated, or take up too much of their time.
The truth is, the path to getting in great shape doesn’t have to be any of those things. It can be an enjoyable process that fits within practically any lifestyle and at any budget. The secret is to avoid fad diets, suspect supplements, and shady wellness gurus. Just a few basic principles for good health will be the fastest path to the body of your dreams, and here are the 3 steps to get you there.
Cultivating the Right Mindset
Before anything else changes, it’s helpful to take a long hard look in the mirror and determine your reason for wanting to build muscle and lose fat. This will be your essential source of motivation. For example, if you start skipping breakfast to “lose weight” because you feel unhappy with your body when trying on that old pair of jeans, chances are this misguided attempt at changing your body will be short-lived and unhealthy.
Instead, your goal of building muscle and losing fat should be deeply connected to a value that you hold dear. For example, maybe you want to be strong and healthy so you can play with your kids and grandkids for many years to come. Or perhaps you admire people with discipline and want to cultivate that within yourself.
Whatever your reason is, you need to write it down, remember it, and recite it on the inevitable hard days when you need extra motivation.
Creating a Fitness Routine
The essential step to building muscle and losing fat is creating a sustainable fitness routine. Much like diet, this needs to be something you enjoy so that you can stick with it for the long term.
There are countless ways to exercise, and contrary to popular belief it doesn’t have to be an intense and sweaty debacle 7 days a week! In fact, it’s far better to start slow and cater any physical activity to your current fitness level and abilities.
There’s never any reason to feel shame for what physical shape you’re in, and many times people get in their own way by thinking they’re “too out of shape” to begin. Beginner exercises could be as simple as going for a brief walk or doing chores around the house. Over time as fitness develops, you can choose any activity you enjoy that gets your blood pumping and your muscles working.
You don’t need to join an expensive gym. A simple calisthenics workout done at home can be just as effective at building strength, endurance, and muscle size. Other low-cost or free methods of exercise include jogging, swimming, yoga, pilates, tai chi, biking, roller skating, or tennis.
The most important thing to keep in mind with exercise is what’s known as “progressive overload”. This essentially means that as your body adapts to your physical activity and becomes fitter, it will need more stimulus in order to continue along your fitness journey. This can be done by longer training sessions, more intense training sessions, or more frequent training sessions.
Changing Your Diet
The first thing most people think of when they want to lose weight is what “diet” will help them with their goal. There is no single ideal diet that will work for everyone, and overly restrictive diets can even do more harm than good to your health in the long term.
The best approach is to slowly make healthier food choices so that the changes aren’t so jarring and you don’t slip back into old habits. Essentially, you want to shift into healthier eating so seamlessly that you barely notice any changes and don’t have the chance to miss your old ways of eating.
Healthy eating is a complicated topic, but these are the most important principles for a balanced diet:
- Prioritize whole foods over highly processed ones
- Cook more meals from scratch and eat out less often
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables
- Consume a balance of foods from each food category
- Eat enough calories to keep you energized, but not so much that you feel lethargic
- Avoid skipping meals (unless you’re following an intermittent fasting protocol)
- Eat plenty of protein for satiety (if trying to lose weight especially)
- Eat plenty of fiber for gut health
The important thing to remember is that you’ll likely have to learn some new skills to eat healthier, and you’ll definitely have to change certain habits. As with most habit changes, it’s best to tackle them one at a time until they’re solidified.
For example, if you eat highly processed sugary cereal for breakfast every day, a good habit could be to swap out this meal for something healthier like oatmeal or eggs and toast with fruit. This single change can help you feel fuller for longer and even lessen cravings for sugary sweets later in the day.
Adapting to healthier eating habits gets easier with time. You may even find yourself preferring healthier options and wondering how you used to eat the things you ate so often before. That being said, it’s better to make meals you still enjoy at every stage of the process. Forcing yourself to constantly eat meals you hate is a sure way to develop an aversion to healthier food!
Summary
Although building muscle and losing fat may seem overwhelming at first, if you take it one step at a time you’ll be sure to reach your goals. The best part is, that the most effective and sustainable way of reaching a state of high physical fitness also aligns with good health. This means that you’ll not only look better over time, but you’ll also have more energy, better mental health, and an overall increased zest for life. That alone should be reason enough to get started today.
