The majority of people coming through our doors at Brickhouse CrossFit have a similar (at least on the surface) goal: weight loss.Some may want to see the number on the scale drop; others are more interested in the way their clothes fit or how they look in a bathing suit; still others just want to tone, lose fat and feel better!
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All of these are related and they’ve come to the right place for help, but the work is not always easy and/or fast. The hard truth is that just signing up and showing up is not going to guarantee a result.
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We need a planned, consistent and individualized approach to your weight loss that is going to work for YOU – your lifestyle, your history, your personality. The same workout volume, intensity and diet plan that works for one person might not work at all for another. You live completely different lives. This is where true coaching comes in, but more on that later.
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For now, let’s knock off some “low-hanging fruit” that will move the needle in your fat loss journey. If you’re not optimizing the following areas, we need to get them in check before we look at more complicated strategies.
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1. Prioritize Whole Foods
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Let’s fill our diet with real, whole foods. Think “perimeter of the grocery store” to avoid the majority of process foods. We’re looking for vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts, rice, potato, beans. Whole foods that haven’t been tampered with or don’t contain lots of chemicals.
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The IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) approach is not going to be the best long-term, sustainable option for weight loss. Filling your diet with cookies and ice cream that happens to fit within a certain macro prescription is just not a healthy way to diet and can hinder progress. Stick to the real, unprocessed foods!
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2. Sleep More
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We need to be getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night for optimal fat loss. Sleep is when the body repairs itself and hormones are on that repair and optimization list. If you’re lacking in the sleep department, your hormones are not going to be optimal which makes it that much harder to lose weight.
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So, get to bed at a decent hour! Put the electronics away, set alarms telling you to get to bed and let’s grab a solid 8 hours to make sure we’re optimizing recovery and doing ourselves a big favor on this fat loss journey.
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3. Reduce Stress
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When you’re stressed out, your cortisol levels are elevated. When cortisol is raised, you can’t optimally burn body fat. It’s just not going to happen. This can actually become a nasty cycle because the increased cortisol can lead to more fat gain, less sleep (and terrible quality), more hunger and cravings, etc…
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So, let’s audit our daily schedule and list all the things in our life that cause us stress. Take a pad and pen, make a T-chart and put all your stressors on the left side. Put your stress relievers on the right side. How’s the balance? If you’re like most, the stress side is going to far outweigh the stress relief side!
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Fix this imbalance by A. removing unnecessary stressors from our life, and B. adding in more stress-relieving (para-sympathetic) things to our day: meditation, starting a gratitude journal, drinking tea, going for a walk, spend time stretching or working on mobility each day. Let’s balance the T-chart!
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The above ideas are truly the “low hanging fruit”, meaning we’ve gotta make them happen. Does it 100% guarantee a successful result? No, of course not, but it’s the foundation of a successful plan.
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The rest of the process and journey can get detailed, can be tedious, and can take a big effort on your part. But this is where coaching comes in, and what we do at Brickhouse is help you lay out a plan around your training, nutrition, sleep and stress management that gives you the tools to create the change you want.
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Whether you’re a client at the gym already or not, email or DM us to have a conversation around where you are currently and where you want to go with your health and fitness.
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We’ve got options, from training programs to nutrition and one-on-one coaching, that can change the game for you and move the needle in the right direction.
