The Top 25 Principles and 5 Top Priorities For Lasting Weight Loss

 My career has spanned over 18 years, from training kids to professional athletes & taking CEO’s/entrepreneurs to being healthy, thriving and athletic AF…

Here are the Top 25 Principles we use with high achieving female execs & entrepreneurs when it comes to weight loss and optimising their health…

Successful and lasting weight loss has 5 areas of priority.

All of these are important. But they also have an ORDER of priority, as follows:

1. Mindset

2.Nutrition

3.Sleep*

4.Steps*

5.Exercise

(*Steps and sleep can sitch places depending on the individual and goals)

The Top 5 Mindset Principles:

1.Establish a foundation of self worth and self acceptance. Low self worth & self judgement are the precursor to emotional eating and many coping mechanisms which increas stress, overwhelm & emotional eating even further. Find an expert to guide you, instead of trying to figure this out by yourself. Hello!)

2. Learn the difference between perfectionism and high standards, and the difference between appropriate deviations, and lying to yourself.

3. Identify all the ways that you use food (and drink) to meet your emotional needs. Then upgrade your identity and your lifestyle to meet those needs in new ways that are aligned.

4. Focus on upgrading your life in a way that eliminates FOMO. This will ensure that your new lifestyle feels like a choice instead of a begrudging obligation, and doesn’t feel like a “diet”.

5. Learn to handle emotional cravings in a way that enables them to dissipate, and then disappear altogether, instead of using techniques like willpower or distraction techniques which only make things worse. Once again, find an expert rather than trying to figure this out by yourself.

The Top 5 Nutrition Principles

Focus on whole minimally processed foods 90% of the time. Keep processed foods in your diet, to train your brain out of scarcity, and the all or nothing mindset, but keep them 10% or less.

 Eat 1.5 to 2 palms / 30-40g of protein at every meal from meat, poultry, fish, or eggs. These foods have the highest thermic effect of food, and the highest satiety & satiation.

Eat 3 to 4 times per day. If cravings and snacking are a problem, eat 4 times per day. Eat meals instead of snacks to make sure that hunger, energy, and cravings are as easy to handle as possible.Eat cooked vegetables or raw salads with every meal, with the possible exception of breakfast. Fast for 12-14 hours overnight, and stop eating any food 2-3 hours before bed. This will improve sleep quality, improve metabolic flexibility, and help to reset hormones such as growth hormone. It will also eliminate one of the key moments that you could be tempted to snack - in the evening.

Don’t shortchange yourself! Inadequate sleep is a disaster for fat loss. It increases cortisol, increases your appetite, increases food cravings, and impairs executive function and decision making. 

Get at least 8 hours in bed.

Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day. For optimal results, do not deviate much beyond 30 mins from this on the weekends either. 

Avoid work 3 hours before bed, food 2 hours before bed, and screens 1 hour before bed.

Avoid all screens and as much artificial light as possible during sleep hours.

The Top 5 Steps Principle

Stop undervaluing N.E.A.T! (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) will increase your daily energy expenditure more than traditional exercise without increasing stree or appetite, and help with your mindset.

Get 10k steps everyday for general health. If fat loss is a priority, hit 12-15k steps everyday consistently.

 Structure it into your day and into your lifestyle. Do a walk before work and after work. even if only 10-15mins. take 5 minute walking breaks. Use the time to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, or to send voice messages or even better - without your phone.

Do walking meetings, either in person or on the phone. You’ll be more creative, more alert, and you’ll tend to keep any idle chit-chat to a minimum.

Get a standup desk and a walking pad underneath so that you can walk at a slow pace during meetings and even during some types of work.

The Top 5 Exercise Principles

Treat exercise as a tool to get fit and strong, NOT as a tool to burn calories during the workout.

 Learn to lift weights - properly. 3 x 45 min workouts per week is an excellent place to start…and maintain.

If fat loss is your top priority, and you’ve had disappointing results in the past, then ditch traditional cardio. This risks increasing your appetite & physical cravings beyond your ability to cope, to read the signals, or to know how to adapt.

Lift heavy weights, and keep learning and improving your lifting technique. If you’re anything less than a strength and conditioning coach, then find a pro to help you! Most of the “I’ve been lifting for years” crowd  have horrendous technique and don’t know it!

Learn the big movements - squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls and then the endless variations of these movements which can also be used for beginners.

WARNING: 

 Once you become aware of the fat loss order of priorities, the next typical response is DENIAL.

 There are usually 3 stages people go through:

 STAGE 1: Unawareness. You’re unaware that you’re making these mistakes and so you keep making them and you keep getting frustrated and disappointed.

 STAGE 2: Denial. You’re aware of this topic, but neglect its importance, don’t want to believe it’s true, or you don’t know where to start so you put it off for another day, and you keep doing what you’ve always done.

 STAGE 3:Acceptance. You make the same mistakes and have the same frustrations enough times to accept the truth!

 If you’re interested in being in outstanding physical and mental shape year round, without having to compromise your business, your career, or your hard earned reputation, then do yourself a favour… implement these top 25 principles immediately… and if you get stuck… ask for help! 

 Those that make it don’t fear asking for help. They fear wasting years thinking that they’re “doing everything right” when they are in fact doing everything wrong and destroying their self confidence and self belief in the process!

 Thanks for reading. Be sure to follow for more unfiltered advice that actually works.