I’m a Personal Trainer based in Galway, Ireland and I’ve had a tonne of success with my client over the last five years. Both online and in-person training has seen my clients totally transform their lives. Today I’m essentially going to tell you how you can achieve what my clients have without paying a cent. Costs are rising in Ireland at an exponential rate and I really believe that nutrition and fitness fundamentals should be available to everyone regardless of their financial situation.
I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to be in a position where there’s extra cash lying around for investing in your health. As they say though–your health is your wealth. I believe that basic nutrition and fitness information should be accessible to all to improve their well-being. People are struggling in Galway and Ireland overall in 2022 leading into 2023. I truly want to help empower you to take control of your fitness and nutrition decisions. Let’s take control of the controllables and work towards a better you!
So here’s how to lose weight without hiring a personal trainer, or without spending any extra money.
Free Accountability for weight loss
One of the major benefits of having a coach or personal trainer working with you is accountability, and the reason it works so well is that without it most of you give up on yourselves, it’s a lot easier to let yourself down than it is to let someone else down.
Think about a time when you made plans to meet a friend for a walk, or maybe even to go to the gym or take part in an exercise class. Because you made the promise with someone else, you probably went. Now, remember the last time you told yourself you’d start something exercise-related, how did that work out?
So accountability is important and here’s how to get it for free. Tell a friend who’s in a similar position as you are and wants to lose weight or build muscle, or better yet ask them to join you once a week on a walk or a gym session. You’ll be accountable to each other.
Another way to be accountable is to tell a partner or a family member, they don’t have to be on the same path but just voicing your goals and telling them what you’re doing (and then acting on it as that’s the important part) can help. If there’s nobody coming to mind, then even being accountable to yourself works.
Write a letter to yourself from the perspective of you in the future, having already achieved your goals. Write down how you feel, what you did, and how it would’ve felt if you’d given up and even writing something motivational to yourself can help.
Here’s the important bit, stick it somewhere in plain sight like the fridge door. You’ll be reminded of it multiple times a day that way.
Break down your goals
Once you have some accountability in place, and you are clear on your goals, you can start taking action steps towards achieving your goals.
The best way to start taking action is to first break down your goals into daily targets, weekly targets and monthly targets. I like to work with 3 things.
- What 3 things will I focus on today? (Small action steps)
- What 3 things will I focus on this week? (Medium action steps)
- What 3 things will I focus on this month? (Big action steps)
So now you have accountability and know the specific action steps that are needed to get you to your goals.
Weight loss goals
Time to address the elephant in the room, if weight loss is your goal, how are you going to achieve it? By creating a calorie deficit – ah yes simple !
Calculating Calories
But being able to sustain one isn’t actually simple. Firstly you want to use a calorie calculator like a calorie calculator. Net to figure out how many calories you’ll need to be in a deficit. A good place to start is with 300-400 calories under your maintenance calories.
Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats and Fibre
You also want to be somewhat mindful of protein intake, and aim for 1.2-.1.6 G protein/kg of body weight, to help keep you full and assist with building muscle. Then let carbohydrates and fats fall into place. Do aim for a fibre target too because fibre is important for gut health (who really cares about that) and creating a sense of fullness, it’ll also help you poop better and with better poop comes a better life. Aim for somewhere between 15-25g fibre each day, or simply focus on getting fruit or vegetables in at each meal and ensuring there is at least one plant-based food with each meal (this includes bread).
Tracking Apps– My Fitness Pal
Now you want to download Myfitnesspal, chronometer or any other calorie tracking app that’s free (because that’s the title of the blog). This is going to allow you to track calories/units of energy the same way budgeting allows you to monitor your money.
To track the calories you simply enter in the name of the food. Be as specific as you can about the brand name and the exact weight. The more detail you give the more accurate the result will be. It will show you the number of calories and macronutrients in the food. It will calculate everything for you and give you a really good overview of your daily intake.
So now you’ve got accountability, clear action steps needed to achieve your goals and your monitor your food intake.
I could continue and go into detail about exercise plans or hitting a step count, but being honest if weight loss is your goal you don’t need those things, especially at the start. They can be things you look to incorporate and set as your goals once you have a week or two of monitor food under your belt.
Managing your stress
One important step that is often not talked about with weight loss is learning to manage your stress. When you’re stressed out tend to eat more food. You also tend to sleep less. What happens when you sleep less? Your hunger hormones increase leading to even more eating.
So pencil in stress management techniques each day such as breath work (box breathing is a great place to start), meditation, listening to music, going for walks in nature and practicing mindfulness by taking in your surroundings as well as switching off from work and doing things you enjoy in the evenings after work or mornings before work.
When stress comes down, sleep increases and when that happens it becomes a whole lot easier to lose weight because you also tend to make better decisions when you’re getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
So there you have it, that’s how to lose weight without hiring a coach or online personal trainer. I work from Galway Ireland and online and help hundreds of clients every year but you can certainly start this journey yourself for free. It’s harder to do it alone, but it can be done.
