Let's keep fat loss simple...

Now I know you guys have heard me say this before, but fat loss is really, really simple. Now I'm not saying it's easy, but it's really, really simple. The catch for many of us though is we love to overcomplicate it because it gives us an excuse to stay stuck where we are. Sometimes we don't even consciously realize that we're overcomplicating it, but we do so because that will justify us kind of staying stuck and putting it off until later, always putting ourselves last, essentially putting ourselves off and our own needs off until a later stage. Let me just do this in my business and then I'll get around to me. Let me just do this for my family and then I'll get around to me, and so on. Now, despite the fact that we have all these other things to do, there is still an underlying need to, of course, take care of ourselves, and we know that. But it's very difficult sometimes to get that mindset shift that says, well, I need to put me first, and so on. But what we can do during the transition, before we actually have that exact mindset that says I must be number one priority and so on, before we become the non-negotiable, what we can do is just learn to implement the basics and keep things as simple as possible. Now, what I mean by this is ultimately we're looking to take the 5% of action, of habit and behavior that's going to essentially get us 95% of the results. Now, I know that sounds like a bold statement, 5% to equal 95% of results, But it's true because, as I mentioned, the game is simple because ultimately all we need to focus on is metabolic meals, metabolic movement, metabolic melatonin, and metabolic mindset. Now, mindset has to be in there because it's our mindset that will determine how we show up in the other three domains— our meals, our movement, and our melatonin. But we don't need to think about anything fancy, no gimmicks, fads, starvation diets, and so on. We don't need to do anything complicated. We just need to get the foundation or the basics nailed down. Once the basics are taken care of, results tend to just naturally follow. And if they don't, it's likely because we've either not implemented them at a high enough level or we just haven't yet been consistent enough to get the result that's going to come from them. Now, let's take, for example, metabolic meals. Most of us know that we should be eating better and that in an ideal world, if we want to lose weight, if we want to be healthy, we're going to have a healthy diet. Now, the truth is in the beginning, we don't need it to be perfect. If I'm eating way off plan, a majority of the time I'm eating convenience foods and junk foods and so on, processed junk, then there is a good chance I don't need to be perfect, I just need to be better. So rather than be thinking, oh, I need exactly this many grams of protein and this much veg and this many carbs and so on, we don't need to count or weigh or measure anything in reality at any stage of the game. But particularly in the beginning, instead we just need to be better. So what better might look like at the moment, and again, to keep it simple, is, okay, I'm just going to reduce the amount of processed stuff that I have. And along with that, maybe I'll increase the amount of high-quality protein I'm eating. So each of my 3 main meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, I'll make sure I'm getting at least 1 to 2 palm-sized portions of protein per main meal. Along with that reduction, in the junk. Simple. Now, again, doesn't necessarily mean easy. Maybe there are a few things that you need to tweak and change in your lifestyle in order to make that possible. But we have to understand, of course, that in order for things to change, we have to change. So there's going to be some work required. But as I mentioned, keep it simple. So that simplicity could be reduce the junk, increase the protein. So that's meals taken care of. Now, when it comes to movement, that might just be a case of, well, move more. Perhaps you're stuck at your desk most of the day and then with family you're not really super active because perhaps you're overweight and you don't feel like you, you can do much physically, like with the kids and so on. And that's fine at this stage, but of course if we want that to change, we need to do a little bit more. So now it might be, okay, well, every day I try to get in a 30-minute walk of some description. It might be that you get yourself a standing desk because standing at your desk will allow you to burn more calories than sitting. Of course, it's relatively minimal, but at least it's extra. You might start parking at the far end of the car park when you go to the superstore, for example. So when you get to work, if you work in an office building, maybe you take the stairs instead of the elevator and so on. So what we're now doing is increasing our non-exercise activity in order to increase the overall amount of calories that we burn. Yes, of course, we could add in an exercise program if we want, which will help accelerate our results even more. But if you're not ready for that, it might just be a case of, well, I need to do more movement in order to encourage more muscle use and therefore increased caloric expenditure. So that could be movement. Again, keeping it as simple as possible. Then third, we've got metabolic melatonin. Well, this is essentially our rest and recovery protocol. Now, if we are super busy, super stressed, and often quite overwhelmed when we're running our own business and being an entrepreneur and, and and all that. Then we've got business obligations, sorry, family obligations and taking care of our partner and our children and, and everybody else's needs as well. Often with that, that will use up a lot of our available capacity, which means we have a relatively limited capacity to take care of ourselves. But of course, we need to recover from that the same as we would need to recover from any physical activity that we now choose to partake in. So this is going to look like one of three things. We might be focusing on duration. So perhaps at the moment, you don't get enough sleep. So in order to improve rest and recovery, maybe you'll increase the amount of sleep you're getting. Maybe you'll improve the quality of the sleep you're getting, which could mean that you need to improve your sleep environment. For example, make it dark, make it cool, make it quiet, and so on. Things like that that will improve sleep quality but not necessarily duration. And then, of course, we could be looking at timing. Okay, well, at the moment, I go to bed a bit too late. It's around midnight, 1:00 AM. Then I'm up at like 8:00, 9:00. So I'm getting enough duration, but it's at the wrong time in relation to the circadian rhythm, as in the day-night cycle. That, yes, you're getting enough sleep, but can cause compromised recovery because we're not getting that sleep in the optimal window where our hormones are at their best for allowing repair, recovery, regeneration, and so on. So again, we want to keep it simple. That doesn't mean you have to do all of those things, the duration, the timing, and the quality. You might pick one thing in one of those categories and then start working on it. Then as soon as you start getting results, you will see how much of an impact it's having. Once you start taking action— oh, I've just reduced some junk, I've increased some protein, I've started moving a little bit more, and I've decided to add 15 minutes to the amount of sleep that I'm getting. Now let me check week by week what type of result this, this leads to. Am I losing weight consistently? Am I Am I feeling better? Is my fitness improving? Is my strength performance, et cetera, improving? Now, if it's not, we know we need to do a little bit more. But if it is and while it's working, there is no need to change anything. We can keep it as simple as we've made it and continue to just go as we are. That will become easy as consistent daily habit. And then when we're ready, we can step things up to the next level to consistently ensure that we're moving towards our goals and not reaching what we call plateaus or bottoming out where we're getting to points where, well, I'm still doing things, but I'm no longer getting results. Now, of course, if you'd like help to dial this in specifically for you around your particular lifestyle, and then we'll tie in this metabolic matrix, those 4 things, mindset, movement, meals, and melatonin, specific to what you have going on and specific to your goals, feel free to drop a comment or reach out to me in the DMs, and I'm more than happy to sit down with you for 15, 20 minutes over Zoom, and we can go through that completely free of charge. But I'm more than happy to help you dial this in if you're not quite sure where you want to begin for you. But as I say, for most of you, you kind of know what you need to do. We just need to make it less complicated, stop trying to do the all-or-nothing thing, and be confident enough to take small actions that are actually going to move the needle. Once we get to that place where we're confident enough to do that and to take those actions that will move the needle, then we see the results come quite naturally as a byproduct of this small effort that we're putting in, as long as we are consistent with it. So that's what I'll leave you guys with today. As I always say to you, if you have any questions or want me to get into anything in particular or specific around your, your particular problems or health and weight loss in general, let me know in the comments below. And if not, I look forward to chatting with you all in my next video. Take it easy, people.