Drinking water helps you manage your weight by speeding up your metabolic rate and regulating your appetite.   

Most of my clients take on the challenge of improving their hydration levels and find it harder than anticipated. The trick is not to attempt three litres on the first day! Aim to increase your intake by around a third a week, so if you’re currently on around 5 glasses a day try for 7 in your first week and 9 in your second.   

Some people have a well developed thirst mechanism but for most people getting enough water is a discipline that requires a system.  Without a good plan it’s very easy to get to 4pm and realise you’ve only had three glasses. Start early in the day and make a schedule. For example, if you’re aiming for seven glasses try for one with breakfast, two before 10am, one before 1pm, two before 4pm, one before 6pm.    Knowing you have to drink a glass or two of water before you next eat is a good reminder and motivator!  

Choose water in a variety of formats. Your first two might be decaffeinated herbal tea. The bulk of your daytime water might come from bottles in the fridge with slices of lemon and the remainder from the cooler at work.   Sparkling water is another great option.  

Look for opportunities to add water to your daily life. Make it your policy to never say no to a glass of water when one is offered.   Create healthy habits such as always drinking water in meetings and while waiting for takeaway coffee. If you’re struggling to keep count of your water try lining up multiple bottles in the fridge at the beginning of the day. Invest in cool bottles you enjoy using and grab one every time you hop in the car.   

As you build up to your goals you may need to load your water towards the times of the day when you’re close to the bathroom. You’ll probably need different goals and habits for the weekends when your routine is different.  

Drinking more water will help with your health, energy and weight loss. Try it, you won't drown! 

If you can identify emotional eating patterns and triggers you’re well equipped to make constructive changes. Try to anticipate vulnerable red zones that connect moods and foods. Red zones are as inevitable as feelings themselves, but there are things you can do to make them more of a dark orange.  

Keep your mood and blood sugar stable by keeping rested, fit, hydrated and eating regularly throughout the day. Try to be organized and manage your time appropriately to avoid creating crises that flood your body with stress hormones unnecessarily. Don’t keep supplies of comfort foods in your home if they’re too hard for you to resist and try not to shop for groceries when you’re in a potential red zone. Consider ways to break entrenched patterns, for example curb evening cravings by going for a walk or having a shower after dinner. Make a habit of filling the car with petrol earlier in the day if a late afternoon stop tends to have you loading up on chocolate.  

Be clear with yourself on what constitutes a treat food and what constitutes emotional eating. Don’t kid yourself that something from the vending machine is a treat. That’s not fun. A treat is going out for cake and coffee with a friend, not sneakily scoffing the kids’ Tiny Teddy biscuits in the corner of the kitchen. It’s wine and cheese with a loved one, not wine and chips in front of the TV.  

In my experience people can lose weight very successfully while still enjoying two treat days per week. I recommend that people use their social schedule to choose their treat days. It can also help to consider your female cycle. Most women have two points each month where they crave unhealthy foods with unusual intensity. Obviously it’s not ideal to eat unhealthy food just because it’s a hormonal time. You’re supposed to be eating unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods to keep your blood sugar stable. You should definitely do that. Responsible disclaimers aside, if you know you’re likely to succumb to treats anyway you might as well schedule them, anticipate them and enjoy them. It’s not really emotional eating in the true sense if it’s finite and premeditated. That’s calculated chaos!

However many safeguards you put in place it’s inevitable that unscheduled cravings will strike.   Fortunately there are lots of tools and tricks you can use to keep control of your choices, even when you’re in the middle of a red zone.

Winter is upon us. As the days get shorter and the nights get colder it’s easy to make excuses to skip your workout. But exercising through winter brings so many benefits it’s worth making the effort.

The most obvious reason to keep up your exercise routine is to maintain a healthy weight year round. Don’t hibernate like a bear or you’ll end up looking like one!  Confidence and vitality is just as important in winter as it is in summer, especially if you’re planning a tropical getaway.

Another great benefit of exercise is that it improves your sense of wellbeing at a time of year when you can feel a little flat. As daylight hours decrease the balance between our serotonin and melatonin can shift. Seratonin and melatonin are hormones that regulate various human functions such as sleep, mood and appetite. These temporary imbalances can be levelled out by endorphins, the "happy hormones" we produce when exercising. Endorphins moderate the appetite and reduce cravings for the carb-packed comfort foods we look for in the winter months when serotonin is lower. A good workout tires you out and helps you sleep better at night.

A third benefit of exercising through winter is boosting immunity. We all need protection from the germs that are circulating around the office or being brought home from school and kindy.　 Exercise improves immunity by increasing circulation. And of course the restful sleep and alleviation of stress that exercise provides are great for immunity too. If you’re already under the weather it may pay to take the day off, check out my article Be Careful When You’re Sick to find out how sick is too sick to exercise. 

For many people the winter period brings a change of schedule to accommodate different sports and activities. You might need a revised exercise plan. Many of my clients find it more difficult to get to the gym as often as usual so I give them a backup exercise program they can do without leaving the house. Check out my weekly Workout Wednesday post for some great ideas on exercises to try at home. 

Don’t let winter weather come between you and your health. Keep up your exercise and enjoy the benefits of wellbeing, strength and confidence through the current season and beyond.

Anybody who knows me knows that I always love to have a plan. This means all my clients get one too!　

Many clients come to me because they are exercising regularly but not getting the results they are looking for. Often they are exercising in an ad hoc manner without clear goals or direction. Easily fixed! The two most common reasons that people are not getting results are lack of treat control and not having the mix of exercise right. I wish I could say treat control was easily fixed but that’s an ongoing challenge. 

The exercise plan is much simpler! When writing an exercise plan I start with activities my client already does and enjoys. This forms the base of the plan and then activities to balance out the exercise mix go in next. Appropriately scheduled rest days are important so that the body can repair and recover.

Whether exercising in or out of the gym many working parents find it easier to set their attendance goals by the fortnight rather than by the week.   This means they can plan around challenges such as childcare. For example, one busy working Mum client of mine has set the goal of exercising five times per fortnight – three sessions of resistance training (either a Les Mills Pump class, or a personal training session) and two sessions of cardio training (walking/running outside if the weather permits, or an RPM class). The client chose the realistic number of sessions a fortnight and and specified what types of exercise she enjoyed. I chose the mix of exercise and tracked her progress.

I like to re-evaluate plans every month so that they can be adjusted if necessary. We don’t always hit the right formula first time and sometimes the plan needs to be tweaked if it doesn’t fit into the client’s lifestyle.

Having a plan doesn’t mean you can adhere to it 100%, we all go through stressful times where we are unable to make our exercise goals top priority. But a plan is a great structure to be able to return to. Targeted, effective exercise plus food diarying equals results – in over a decade of personal training I have seen few exceptions. A robust plan that can evolve and adapt is a great asset in achieving your weight loss goals.