30 Something Tips For A Faster Body Transformation [Part 2]

Some will argue that Bumblebee is the most popular transformer, but I think Christian Bale has him beat. He has changed so dramatically for the roles that he has played that we can learn a few things from the guy.

He is committed.

He has some serious discipline.

His habits towards food and exercise are very solid.

You can do the same, if you choose to.

Embrace these habits and own them, until you don’t have to think about them, and transforming your body will become simple.

Above all else, chase good health. Always be trying to get that little bit healthier.

Identify where you aren’t feeling the best and work on a nutrition or exercise strategy to combat it. Maybe see a functional medicine practitioner or naturopath and add supplements that help boost your system.

In the meantime, aim to adapt as many of these things as you can.

[If you want to skip the list and jump straight to a strategy call with a coach, where you can discuss your health and fitness challenges and make a plan for your individual goals and needs – Click HERE Now].

16 Sleep More

The best diet and training program will not succeed if you are only getting a few hours sleep a night. Somewhere between 7-9 hours is the sweet spot.

But sleep quality is just as important. If you’ve got a highly stressful life, leaving work for daylight hours and winding down in the evenings is paramount to your success. If that’s not possible, don’t pursue fat loss too hard as it’s just not that likely to happen. Wait for a less stressful period of your life or consider switching to a different job that suits the lifestyle you want.

17 Interval Training or Sprints

Sprints burn fat fast. They also get your fitness pushed to higher levels, faster. So do them once or twice a week.

Sprints can be running, swimming, rowing, bike riding, whatever really.

Some times they will be more intense such as 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds rest (tabatas) or 10 x 20m sprints. Some times they should be less intense such as 30 seconds moderate 90 seconds easy. Listen to what your body needs on the day.

18 Measure Servings with Your Hand

Use your hand to measure serving sizes to estimate how much you need. The good people at Precision Nutrition have been teaching us this for years and using it with great success with their clients. It’ll take the think work out and leave your calorie calculations unnecessary.

19 Train Harder

Sometimes you’ve just gotta pick up the pace and ante up the intensity. Hit a plateau? Maybe got hit some HIIT or high intensity interval training with some weights and cardio combined.

A leisurely bike ride to work is great, but maybe it’s time to take the way with all the hills?

Your arvo run is going great, but why not start it with some hill sprints for 5 minutes?

20 Train Easier

If you’re busy or stressed or injured, training easier might be better for you and yield better results.

Skinny guys like me seem to do better with more rest between exercises and less total volume.

People who look at carbs and put on weight will do better with high intensity interval training, rather than heavy training, and it’s easier on their system for some reason.

Got an injury? Maybe it’s time to work on your core strength or flexibility or switch training styles up altogether or forget the intense cardio and instead start walking or doing yoga.

21 Watch Your Fat Intake

It’s so easy to eat too much fat. I was deceived about this for a long time, mostly because I like eating foods that are full of fat.

But when you look at the numbers, it’s so easy to eat more fat than you need for the day by overindulging in chocolate or chips or ice cream or pizza in one meal!

It’s even easy to have too much good fat like nuts and avocado, so use the hand servings size measurements to figure out how much fat you can eat each meal.

22 Build Your Habits Slowly

While we all want results yesterday, the reality is, it takes time to build the habits necessary to maintain the healthy lifestyle required to own that body. So work on one new habit every few weeks and don’t move to another one until you are doing it every day and don’t have to think about it.

Also important is choosing a habit that you know you will be able to do, rather than one you think is important but you probably won’t be able to do regularly. As you get fitter and healthier, some habits become easier.

23 Reduce or Cut Out Alcohol

In the context of fat loss, it’s way too easy to drink too much alcohol and blow your daily and weekly calorie needs. One leads to another and often another.

You may be able to get away with a few drinks a week while on a fat loss mission, but going without liquid calories is far easier. Yes it may hamper your social life, but lime and soda looks deceptively like vodka soda so people won’t harass you about why you are not drinking.

Whether you choose your social life or your transformation is your choice, but you must understand the difference. And yes some fit people can drink seemingly without the consequences on their physique, but they probably went without alcohol to get where they are anyway.

24 Lower Your Stress by Doing Less

If stress is killing you and a hectic lifestyle is impeding your ability to shop and train regularly, why not simplify?

You could:

• Cut back on some of your weekly commitments.
• Go to bed earlier.
• Order your shopping online and have it delivered.
• Order prepared meals.
• Have a cleaner come make your house look pretty.
• Work less or consider a different job.
• Move closer to work.

There’s plenty of ways to simplify your life, if that’s what you want or need.

25 Do a Good Warmup

A good warmup will leave you feeling ready to move a little faster, train a little harder.

If I don’t warm up before I train, my body feels so sore and I can’t get into the right positions for some of the exercises.

Once I stretch and do some mobility drills, my hips and back and shoulders feel ready to do something and I have a better training session. The older I get, the more important it is and often the longer it is.

10-15 minutes is usually plenty to get you feeling good, but if you’re tight on time, just choose a few exercises you know leave you feeling good.

26 Reduce Rest Periods

Train harder and push up the intensity by changing your rest period from 60 seconds to 45 seconds or 30 seconds.

You could also do a few exercises back to back without rest (a superset, triset, or compound).

This won’t suit everyone and won’t be necessary or good all of the time, but it certainly helps for a short blast.

27 Track Your Food

The hand measurement for serving size works well, but others need more discipline.

Those who are going for very low body fat or muscle gain will benefit here too.

But it’s also good to keep a food diary for a whole week every so often so you can see how much of everything you are eating.

You can use a spreadsheet or paper diary, but I prefer My Fitness Pal’s phone app as it adds up your calories, macronutrients and all the little details.

Those little details can be very important to a coach like me when you want to break through a plateau. I like to use My Fitness Pal for 1 day every few weeks just to see if I’m still on track.

28 Don’t Drink Your Calories

It’s so easy to drink your daily calories in the form of juice or milk or alcohol or whatever.

These calories are far better coming from whole foods including the fibre, and you’re less likely to just finish the bottle or carton or whatever.

29 Eat Your Veggies

Throw some spinach in with your morning smoothie or on your scrambled eggs with some tomato and capsicum.

Snack on carrot, cucumber and celery with hummus.

Choose some different colours on your lunchtime salad or ask for steamed veg with your steak or fish.

Stir fry veggies with your evening meals and keep frozen veg tucked away for those times you don’t get to the shops.

Again, this is a habit you’ve just gotta get under control so you are getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs to run.

30 Get a Coach.

I’ve worked with countless coaches and mentors who have helped me transform from the shyest kid in my school to someone who is happy talking to strangers, from barely able to get out of bed to a social butterfly, from a kid dreaming of dunking a basketball to a dunking machine and from someone with a broken body that couldn’t run or jump without pulling a muscle to a limber athlete who can play almost any sport or activity.

A good coach can motivate you, push you, encourage, console you, challenge you, empathize with you, change something for you, make adjustments to a plan, look at your progress objectively and all sorts of other fun stuff.

Most of all, they will want your goals for you as much or more than you do.

Coaches work. If you think you may want a coach to help you sort your nutrition out or get you on a quality training program, Click HERE Now and we’ll discuss your situation, your goals and your dreams and we’ll discuss how we can help you reach them.