Managing your weight is not rocket science and it’s certainly very achievable with a bit of planning.
Executing this plan is another problem altogether. Once you have your “ideal” plan, which can be sorted into yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and even daily segments, it is easy to think that the road to your ideal level of health and fitness is all smooth sailing.
The reality is, once you stop planning and start doing, things can go downhill very quickly.
Life’s distractions and excuses will inevitably give you every conceivable reason to not work out, not eat the right food at the right time and not to keep pushing on.
The “Rule of 5″ is a simple yet effective way of breaking things down to a very achievable plan:
Train five days a week and eat 5 small, healthy meals per day for 5 weeks straight.
Then after the fifth week, assess your progress, evaluate what has worked and where you need to improve, then get ready to go immediately into the next phase.
The 5-week stretch gives you enough time to achieve measurable progress but not such a long period that you feel the end is nowhere in sight.
The reality is that you need to put in the effort over a prolonged period of time, ie. the rest of your life, to manage your weight, however this time frame seems insurmountable to most and can be very demotivating.
So try the rule of 5 every day and every week for the next 5 weeks, then relax, take stock of your progress and adjust the “settings” of your program to make the next 5 weeks even more productive.
Short term, achievable goals are far easier to go after than lofty, long term goals, so simplify things and go for it!
About the Author
Ryan Mitchell is the owner of Evolution Fitness Centre and is a qualified personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach. Ryan is dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals and draws on his experience and knowledge gained from training people of all ages and fitness levels. Ryan is a former Australian Powerlifiting Champion and Australian team member.
