Millions of people worldwide are in this predicament every day - you have reached breaking point, you are ready to change your life, do something drastic, in order to feel better and potentially look better. Maybe your doctor has told you to lose weight in order to alleviate other health problems, maybe you have a big event coming up, or the weather is turning warmer.
And what do people naturally do?
- drastically cut calories
- cut out food groups (carbs etc)
- start running
- join a gym
- buy a 'quick fix' plan off the internet (kept/detox/pills etc)
Problem is, these things do more harm than good. More often than not they are a waste of time and money.
So this series is a series specifically designed to help you get started on your health journey in the proper and longer lasting way.
Week by week for 8 weeks I will give you specific tips to implement in order to change your habits for the long term, accompanied by an IGTV video on instagram (vanessaphoenix____) and a 15 minute workout on YouTube (search Vanessa Jakubowski). Each week you add to what you were doing the previous week, in order to really become healthier and fitter in the long term.
So, here goes....
WEEK 1
WATER
The first and most important thing to implement is drinking a sufficient amount of water. Coffee and tea don't count (unless its green tea) as they are actually dehydrating rather than hydrating. The easiest way to start drinking enough water is to drink a large glass when you wake up, first thing, and then a large glass with every meal. if each glass is 500ml, that adds up to 2 litres a day which is the very minimum I would recommend. You can drink coffee and tea and soft drinks in addition, but I need you to start drinking at least 2L a day, everyday.
Why is this? Water is the basis for every system in your body! Water gives you life! Energy! Vitality! It flushes through fat that you burn and any toxins you need to get rid of. Helps with digestion. Will make your skin clearer, eyes brighter and hair better. Also, many times thirst signals are misunderstood as hunger signals, and a glass of water can save you from eating extra unnecessary calories. So first habit to establish is drinking at least 4 large glasses of water a day.
BREAKFAST
Eating a meal before 9am is the second habit that we are going to implement this week. Breaking your fast after sleep (breakfast) is super important to get your body going and reassure your body that you aren't in starvation mode. If our body isn't sure when our next meal is coming, it will go into a survival mode and cling onto fat that it would otherwise happily burn off. So the more consistent we are with breakfast, the happier our body is to burn unnecessary fat. What to eat for breakfast ? For now, this is flexible. You can go for bacon, eggs in any form, or oats, fruit, a smoothie, whatever you prefer. We will go more specific with what foods to eat further down the line of this series.
EXERCISE
Head on over to my YouTube channel and copy my Week 1 workout as many times as you can this week. It is a beginner level workout - at home - and you don't need any equipment. We are getting the body used to movement, we are stretching and we are practising the primary movement patterns. It is low intensity to aim to do it everyday or at least every other day. This video can be found here https://youtu.be/ty7cPySgMtk.
As I said, we are starting this health journey gradually and forming new healthy habits each week. So make sure to focus on these things for one week, watch the IGTV video on my Instagram profile for more info and come back next week for the next steps!!!
