Welcome to day 3. You're probably wondering 'what could it be, what's the big thing everyone is made do?'.

Well, this piece of advice is incredibly important. Back in 2017 I hired my own nutrition coach/mentor and spent a year working with him. I got in to the best shape of my life and also got the top mark possible on the nutrition course I had enrolled in. Aside from that, I learned a lot from Alex (you can read about my experience here, it's a great piece).

I remember chatting about losing weight and keeping it off. 

'You'll lose weight, and you'll keep it off, but you must stay busy'.

Everyone has heard about steps and their daily step count. Most people have fitbits or wearable devices that measure how many you get per day. It's great, because your general activity other than exercise is so important when it comes to managing your weight and leading a healthy lifestyle.

The one thing I make everyone do is focus on their activity outside of exercise. Not only is it better for managing your weight, but it has a whole host of physical and mental health benefits as well. 

Have a look at the images below and you'll see that the more we sit around being inactive the less energy our body burns throughout the day. If we move around and stay active we burn more, and subtle movement adds up a lot over the course of a day or days.

You don't have to set out on a big walk up some hill every evening to succeed here, it's making conscious decisions throughout the day to move around. 

Have you been sitting around a lot? 

Can you walk to the shop or even park further away in the car park?

Can you take the dog for a quick walk? 

Can you take the stairs in work instead of the elevator?

These are all small decisions that add up over time. You can see how this applies to everyday life from the images below. (replicated from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland's healthy eating/living guidelines).

The person who is active and stays busy will lead a healthier life long term and will be more likely to successfully manage their weight.

There's a good chance you've heard about the 10,000 step target that people aim for every day. I prefer to aim for a range, and that range is 7,500-10,000 steps. You've got a nice window of success here. Some days we might not be able to get to the 10k mark, but 7,500 could very well be doable.

It's all about setting achievable targets that can be implemented practically into our lives. 

TASK

Your task is to try to get 7,500-10,000 steps daily for the rest of the challenge and to mark your progress in on the tracking sheet. This is something we do on my coaching programme, and once you focus on it enough times it'll become a habit and part of life.

You'll get to a point where you most likely don't need to track it. You're used to being more active, to staying busy.

It's a great lesson which mirrors to nutrition and training as well. There are no secrets, you need to make important habits part of your lifestyle and be consistent for months and years.

This is how we achieve the weight we want and how we live a healthy life.

I'll be back in touch tomorrow to discuss training and what is the best way to go about it for fat loss and health.

P.S

I've added another download for you to have. There are 8 delicious sides and salad ideas in the PDF below. All you have to do is click or tap on the image and it's yours. Let me know if you try anything.