When people start out on the fitness path I have found that they focus heavily on the diet side of the equation. There appears to be a couple of main reasons for this, one is that there is a large amount of main stream advertising promising people unrealistic results with minimal effort simply by changing their diet, this marketing usually comes in conjunction with purchasing their diet package or some other weird supplement.

Companies are compelled to do this as there is little money in telling people that by eating a well balanced diet, doing plenty of exercise and drinking water they will achieve fat loss, muscle gain and numerous other health benefits.

The other is that people focus on diet as they see exercise as simply too painful and use the excuse that they will get their diet in check first and then focus on the exercise regime later if necessary.

I am here to tell you that exercise is the key and is the first area that someone looking to reduce fat, gain muscle and feel fantastic needs to focus on. I also don’t necessarily subscribe to the go hard or go home philosophy and advocate more of the continual improvement style of changing your lifestyle.

Exercise needs to be gradually built into your daily routine slowly at first and gradually increasing duration and intensity until you are achieving at least four days per week of around 35 to 40 minutes per day of fairly moderate to intense exercise combining cardio, resistance and flexibility training.

This does not necessarily all have to be performed in the gym, there are plenty of out door activities that will give you massive fitness benefits without the regimented feeling of a gym session, think going for a paddle board, a surf, a run and or riding a pushbike to name just a few.

Tiff out Surfing at Mermaid Beach QLD

Once you have incorporated exercise into your lifestyle and are starting to reap the rewards, then it is time to tinker a little with your diet, again starting at the fringes with things like ensuring correct portion sizes, that you are consuming adequate and the right types of vegetables, salads, meats, carbohydrates and water to help accelerate the results you are already getting from your newly honed exercise regime.

For more information on diet I would advise you to check out the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, it has loads of useful information that is backed up by reliable data and science.