Dieting is like riding a bike – you have to expect to fall off every now and again!

If you started your New Year diet and exercise regime with all of the enthusiasm of a 4 year old boy in a soft play centre the chances in recent weeks you have struggled to keep up with this new lifestyle of yours and reverted back to the old you!

 

So why do so many diets fail?

Trying to remain on a diet is like learning to ride a bike – You’ve got to expect to fall off from time to time! And unfortunately the more extreme the diet or exercise regime for that matter, the more often you fall of.

 

So if you have been following some sort of fad or extreme diet since the New Year and fallen off too many times that you have given up, now is the time to get back on that bike and a begin a more sensible diet.

For many people diets which prohibit particular food groups or require you to semi-starve yourself for X amount of days per week are just too hard to follow for any real length of time. They either restrict your food choices so much that you are constantly craving that forbidden food or they leave you feeling too hungry too often.

So rather than trying to cycle the equivalent of the tour de France with an extreme diet and training regime just make a few changes that will make it less likely that you fall of that diet bike again.

For example, the single most important factor when it comes to weight loss is calorie restriction. This does not have to be done by following a fancy diet, it can simply be done cutting down on your portion sizes through serving your food on a smaller plate!

If you’ve been following an extreme high intensity interval training DVD and found it so hard that you have injured yourself or been left so exhausted that you simply cannot bring yourself to continue with it any more, remember it does not have to be this way. People often ask me what is the best form of exercise and invariably by common response is ‘it depends’. At this point I could baffle you with various pieces scientific research to support various training methods but I am not. The ‘it depends’ simply refers to it depends on what the individual enjoys doing. Find something you enjoy doing which gets your heart rate up and make a commitment to keep doing as often as you can.

In short…

Diet and exercise should not be like a form of extreme religion which guides your whole life. It should be viewed as something that compliments you but does not define you! So choose a diet and method of exercise which can fit in with your lifestyle with the minimum of fuss this way you are more likely to stick to it for the long haul not just a few weeks of the year when you are feeling highly motivated.

Thanks for reading.

For any training advice please feel free to drop me an email matt@mlrpt.co.uk

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