Ciaran Russell

There are 6 months gone in 2022, already! I have 6 simple ways for you to get back on track with your health goals and make some progress toward achieving them by the end of this year. My advice here is to implement these over the course of July and not all at once. If you try to go all-in at the start of the month, you may get overwhelmed and give up, leaving you back at the start again.First, start keeping a food diary. Not with the aim of reducing what you’re eating straight away but to create awareness of what food and how much of it you are consuming. Include everything you eat and drink. Then at the end of the first week take some time to read it. Next, increase your water intake. Being hydrated is very important for many bodily functions and will improve your energy levels. Get a water bottle and keep it beside you all the time. Aim for 1 litre of water for every 25kg that you weigh.Then start to walk more. You don’t have to hits 10,000 steps a day but gradually increase your step count from where it is now.Next, start taking a look at your sleep. Aim for at least 7 hours per night. And if you want 7 hours you’ll probably have to give yourself an 8-hour window to get it. Once you’ve implemented these 4 habits, then you can start to look at exercise and protein. Find some sort of exercise you enjoy doing and do it 2-4 times per week. Whether it’s going to the gym, playing a sport or something else. Do something you find challenging and gets your heart rate up. Protein is generally not eaten enough by most people. Things like greek yoghurt, eggs, lean meat, beans & lentils and fish. If you are over 60, 1.2 grams per kg of body weight would suffice. However, if you are younger and are exercising regularly, especially in the gym you should aim for between 1.6g - 2.2g of protein per kg of bodyweight. If nothing else taking care of the first 4 things above will have a big impact on how you feel and your health.Follow me on Instagram for more tips for simplifying weight loss and improving fitness, @ciaranrussellcoaching.

By Ciaran Russell

It can be hard to know where to start if you want to lose weight, let alone what’s important. Let me introduce The Hierarchy of Weight Loss as I see it. First and foremost you can create a calorie deficit, have the best training plan, spend lots of money on supplements and still not see any results. Why? Because doing all those things may every so often but if there is no conistsncy over a long period of time results will be hard to obtain. Adherence to a plan is the key component to long term success with losing weight and improving fitness.Energy balance is the driving force of weight loss. This is calories in versus calories out, which means the amount of calories you eat and drink versus the amount of calories you burn.Daily movement is essentially moving your body everyday and finding more ways to do that. This is not exercise. It’s what you do during work hours, it’s taking the stairs instead of the lift, it’s walking to the shops rather than driving. Increasing your general physical activity can have a huge impact on your weight. One of the most underrated components of life is sleep. The importance of sleep is massively overlooked in relation to health, not least weight loss. If you’re tired, it means energy may be impacted which can result in reaching for quick snacks to give you an energy boost during the day. If you truly want to get a handle on weight loss for good, start taking better care of your sleep.While training is not solely important for weight loss, at least not as much as people think it is, exercising regularly has massive benefits to your health and body compostition. Finding exercise you enjoy is the key to particiapting for a long time. Keep things simple for weight loss; adhere to a plan for a few months at least, ensure you are in a calorie deficit, move your body daily, improve your sleep, do exercise you like and only take supplements if you are deficient.Follow me on Instagram for more tips for simplifying weight loss. Go to this link - instagram.com/ciaranrussellcoaching/

Ciaran Russell

Stragtegic quitting for fitness is a conscious decision you make based on the choices that are available to you..When people quit they are often focused on the short term benefits.”The short term benefits being, not going for the walk because it is cold out so you stay in to watch some tv with some snacks instead or opting for a takeaway every night because you cannot be arsed cooking. This all feels good in the moment, but forgets the bigger picture. When you find yourself in the dip, that is when you need to keep going! While you may not feel like you are making progress, because the weighing scales says so, you need to remind yourself that it is not just about the scales here. Being clear on what your long term game plan is and recording your daily wins will help get you through the dip.So if the scales goes up this week by 1kg but you know, you are hitting your steps every day,you are training well and you are staying in a calorie deficit, you can persevere knowing that you are showing up every day and if you keep doing what you are doing that you will achieve results long term.Whereas if you decide to quit while you are in the dip, you may be giving up too soon and will inevitably put yourself back where you started or back to something that you have always done.. joining slimming clubs or cutting out bread.On the other hand, creating a strategy for quitting something may be of benefit to you.You decide you want to start running, to lose weight. But before you start you set a reason or quitting; if you done it like it or have not seen any progress in a few weeks then you’ll quit running and try something else instead. So you are then 3 weeks into your new running programme, you’re not seeing progress and you absolutely detest putting on your running shoes.Guess what.. it is time to quit because those were the terms you decided on at the start. Think about what you need to quit and what do you need to stick with keeping the bigger picture in mind. Follow me on Instagram for more tips for simplifying weight loss. Go to this link - instagram.com/ciaranrussellcoaching/ or scan the QR code in the image.