Introduce small changes into your life – that you can stick to.

Small steps lead to great things. Even two years ago I don’t think I would have ever seen me following an actual weight lifting program and sticking to it.

I’m a great believer in slow and steady. I think that was my favourite fable as a child, particularly as I was never very fast (hello short stumpy legs!) and I do like it when the underdog triumphs

In terms of reaching an end goal, whether it be weight, health or fitness related, the best first step is to identify small things that you can gradually change. One step at a time.

Be realistic with your goals though. Not everyone is the same. There are different genetic and environmental factors that can come into play and you need to work with them. Take into consideration your individual needs and abilities. Don’t compare yourself to others – they have different bodies and different genetic makeups and with different responsibilities. The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself.

When I finally decided it was time to lose that excess weight that had crept up on me over several years, I started by looking at my diet and deciding what I could change. When I say ‘diet I mean what we eat. Not a ‘lose x amount in 2 weeks doing y’ fad-type diet thing. Just swapping things around, cutting back on stuff, having a good hard look at how much I was eating.

I started really simple. Drink more water. I bought a filtered water bottle (I prefer the taste) and my first aim was to drink one of them a day. These days that water bottle goes everywhere with me and I drink at least 2 each day. No more problems with water, and yes, initially I was all ‘but I don’t like water’. Trust me, you learn to like it and even crave it. It really is my preferred drink of choice now.

There’s a lot of talk these days about how sugar or carbs or grains are ‘evil’ and ‘toxic’ and somehow ‘bad’. That’s a load of hogwash. It’s just food. We need all three macro nutrients – protein, fats and carbohydrates. The amounts may differ from person to person, but we still need them in one form or the other. As I said, everyone is different.

That said, yes, I agree that our modern western diet contains a little too much in the way of added sugar. But it’s fairly easy to cut back on that if you need to.

I have Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and the insulin issues that come with it. I also have a family history of diabetes on both my mother & father’s sides. So for me (and I stress the for me individually part), reducing the amount of added sugar in my diet was important. I mean, did I really need 3 teaspoons of sugar in my tea? (yes, seriously). That was the easiest thing to cut back on. It took me a little while, but now I drink both my tea and coffee with no sugar, and sometimes black. Which is handy when you’re out and there is no dairy-free milk available (I’m lactose intolerant).

Look at what you eat each day, and how much. Identify areas where you can cut back or swap out particular things. It could be as simple as reducing your daily coffee intake, researching proper portion sizes or carrying a water bottle with you everywhere and reminding yourself to sip it throughout the day.

I still eat cookies by the way. And brownies (I make awesome brownies). I just eat less of them. And I changed the way I cook, partly through necessity (when my son was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease) and partly because I became more aware of what I was eating and how different ingredients work together.

As Michael Pollan says, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

I pretty much stick to that.

I really like food. This was a really yummy burger from Grill’d. I had to try their gf low-carb bun at least once – it was definitely a winner with me.

Once I got my food intake sorted and to a point where I thought I was okay (although it’s an ever-evolving process), I started to think about exercise.

At least once or twice a week I got together with a group of school mums and we started walking around the oval after school pick-up while the kids had afternoon tea and played. I still do this actually. I go with one friend on Monday and I’m going this afternoon with another. Sometimes we run, sometimes we walk. We keep each other motivated, but also the kids keep us motivated – they don’t want to miss their afternoon of hanging out with their friends!

I also slowly started added 20-30 minutes of deliberate exercise into my day. I looked at my weekly schedule and the only time I could fit it in was in the morning. So I guess I forced myself to become a morning person. I started with the basics and the 30 Day Shred (Jillian Michaels) – 20 minutes, quick and effective at 6am lol Eventually I moved onto longer DVD sessions (I highly recommend Fitness Blender on YouTube – all free and all good) and during this time I rediscovered my love of strength training. I’d always done a lot of gymnastics and bodyweight exercises while growing up, but now I realised I was in a position to be able to do real weight training and I devoured every piece of information I could find and decided upon Lou Schuler’s New Rules of Lifting for Women.

I get up at 5am three times a week to lift. It’s only at 5am because that’s the only time I can fit it into my day around kids, school, work and husband. Otherwise you can pretty much bet I would be staying in bed and getting it done later lol but those lifting sessions are my sanity-keeping time. They allow me to focus on the given task at hand without any input from all the other stuff flying around in my life. They are my time to myself, and probably my form of meditation.

Find an exercise or sport that you enjoy doing and make it a part of your life. It’s all about getting up and being active. Choose what works for you – everyone is different. I like lifting weights, hanging off pull-up bars and kayaking, you might like running, swimming, yoga or basketball. Start with a little, and keep adding to it. Don’t rush it. Eventually the change will happen.