I’m still fairly new to the personal training business, been doing it a bit over two and a half years. What I have found is my clients seem to pretty much nail the exercise side of things every time, I mean they’ve only got to see me 2-3 times a week and maybe do another 1-2 exercise sessions in their own time.

That’s the easy part.

What’s not so easy is the eating.

You see you can get loads of benefits from exercise in as little as 2-3 hours a week.

With your eating though you’ve got to be switched on all week.

Which is where a lot of people really struggle. (and is also why a lot of my articles are aimed at improving your nutritional habits).

Why is it so hard to eat clean?

It could be down to:

• Poor will power
• Being in the wrong company/social pressure
• Boredom
• Stress
• Lack of knowledge on healthy eating
• Lack of cooking skills
• Family
• Cost

I could go on and on with reasons (excuses).

For all of you out there who are trying to lose weight/get in shape and get frustrated about their diet and nutrition I have one question for you.

How much do you really want it?

So how important is it to you that you eat healthy and get into your target shape? How much does it mean do you?

E.g. If you want to look great in a wedding dress or for the men look in awesome shape for the beach this summer then you need to put excuses aside. If you 100% want it and it means so much to you then the reasons/excuses I mentioned above shouldn’t be an obstacle.

If you are serious about weight loss then ‘I didn’t have time to cook’ or ‘I don’t fancy eating salad all the time’ isn’t going to cut it.

There is always a way around it. If you haven’t got time then get up a little earlier, check out some quick healthy recipes, prepare your food in the morning, cook extra and freeze. There’s loads you can do.

If you think eating healthy just consists of eating salads all the time then make the effort to find some recipes and use some imagination.

You can spend as much money on a gym membership or a personal trainer as you want but if you aren’t eating right then you won’t get to where you want to be I’m afraid.

So remind yourself of your goal and tell yourself how much you want it.

Think how much better being there will make your life.

Is it enough to pass up on a chocolate bar or have vegeteables instead of chips in a restaurant?

I reckon it probably is.

So just think about this before you make your food choices.

I’m not saying you have to eat perfect all the time but try to do it 5-6 days a week and then have a few treats to reward yourself once you’ve built up a good habit.

Think about what foods you want in the house. If you’ve got a big tub of ice cream/bag of crips/chocolates you’ll find you’ll eat it plus a lot of the time once you start you’ll struggle to stop. Before you know you’ve gone through 1000 calories which is more than likely going to be stored as fat.

If you want to have a treat then don’t buy such big quanitites. If you find you mindlessly eat junk food without even thinking about it just buy what you want to eat for your treat and leave it there.

So I hope this post helps.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s easy. It is difficult which is why the country has such a big obesity problem.

But with a bit of hard work it is achieveable.

Health is the most important thing, eating good is good for your health, eating bad isn’t.

Jamie ‘Think Before You Eat’ Stedman

PS For more advice on fat loss and healthy eating just hover over the nutrition and fat loss tab and check out some of my other articles to help you out.