Chris and Heidi Powell hosted a popular television show in the United States, Extreme Weight Loss, and these days the peppy couple — they have a family of four kids — are focusing on helping more than 30,000 people get and stay fit through their app and website, Transform. During a visit to the 2018 Dubai Fitness Challenge they gave livehealthy.ae their top fitness tips.
Do this one simple thing to make a huge change
Drink more water. Research suggests that 90 percent of us around the world are chronically dehydrated. That leads to all kinds of issues like mental fogginess and sluggishness — and it’s been proven to lower your metabolism.
So absolutely, drink more water. We always recommend drinking at least an extra liter of water a day if you can. The US medical system recommends drinking half your body weight in ounces of water every day. Add eight ounces for every 15 minutes of exercise you do beyond that.
It will make a ton of difference, from mental clarity to increased metabolism to curving cravings.
Forget extreme weight loss – any change takes time
Don’t take on too much too fast. The moment people decide to take on this fitness journey, they think, ok I’m going to work out 45 minutes a day, I’m going to drink three liters of water, I’m going to measure my food.
But that’s taking on way too much too soon.
By taking on so many different commitments, you’re setting yourself up for failure. These commitments all require a lot of time and energy. The moment you fall off one, most people throw their arms up in the air and decide they can’t do any of it. It begins that downward spiral of negative self talk.
We want to avoid that all together.
Start your fitness or weight loss journey with this one thing
To begin any journey of change or transformation, we have our clients take on one commitment at a time. We don’t let them take on another commitment for one or two weeks. So it’s doing one thing daily with excellence, proving it to themselves. Then adding something after a week or two. That’s how you make a genuine lifestyle change.
Everyone thinks they need to do a million things. They don’t. They just need to adopt a few little changes and over time and the body will change.
Find the one simple healthy snack that suits you
We are all very different, with different genetic makeup. If you’ve found a plant-based lifestyle, your body responds the best, then you can have some amazing snacks like tree nuts (like pecans, almonds and walnuts). These are amazing, they pack a protein punch with fiber and you’ll feel fuller longer.
For our paleo or keto friends, they can do great with cheese or beef jerky, or even a lot of the protein bars these days — they’ve got rid of a lot of the junk.
Try this one workout trick to get fit
One thing we always have everyone do when they start their journey with us is to do five deliberate minutes of movement a day. This could be marching in place while you’re in your living room watching TV, or it could be five minutes of intervals doing burpees with 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.
The workout we prefer everyone does is to find the one they love the most. If you don’t like it, you aren’t going to do it.
Remember this one quote
The journey of transformation and health takes time. If you’re patient, and you give your body and mind that time to change, eventually not only have you changed your mindset by realizing that it’s way easier than you thought, your body will also change. You’ll realize a healthier and happier life.
Featured photo: Chris and Heidi Powell
