In the 21st century, everyone wants to look and be their best! One of the ways to look and be our best is by ensuring our body is at peace. A popular method to keep our body at ease is by exercising regularly. Though all of us want to do, it is an extremely tough activity to get done regularly. Through this article, we tried to design your diet and a workout plan. I hope you can stick to it for the longest period with this!
Throughout the article, we shall cover the following topics:
- Why is a diet plan needed?
- Steps to create your diet
- Building your workout plan
- How to stick with the plan
Why Do You Need A Diet And A Workout Plan?
This might seem a silly question! But it is essential to understand why you need to have a diet and a workout plan. Once you are firm with the reason, you can then move to plan a solid diet and workout plan that you can use. Let us look at some of the common reasons people want to have a plan:
- To lose weight
- To develop good muscle mass.
- To train for the desired job.
- To keep yourself healthy and fit.
Most of the time, your reasons fall under one of the above categories. Now that you have identified the cause, it is crucial to have agile goals.
Your goals should be:
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Precise:
You have to be a clear idea about what you want to achieve with the plan in your head. For example, instead of saying I want to lose weight, you can be more specific and say I want to lose 5 pounds in a month. This ensures that you have a target that drives you.
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Perceptible:
Every goal should be something that is seen. In other words, it should be something that you can easily measure. Whenever you set a goal, make sure you have your numbers straight. When you include numbers while planning, it is more likely that you succeed.
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Realistic:
Many times, we tend to make the mistake of overestimating ourselves and set unrealistic goals. Always start with small goals. As you start achieving these goals, your motivation levels up. When motivated, you can slowly start increasing your goals.
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Significant:
Your goals should be aligned with your lifestyle. Do not try to achieve something just because someone else is doing it. For example, a sportsperson might exercise 3-4 hours a day to keep fit. But as someone who sits at a desk to code, you do not have to spend so much time exercising.
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Well-Spaced:
This is another essential factor to consider. You should always have a start and an end date. This helps you be accountable and also keeps you motivated. As you customize your plan, you can easily make sure you make it fit into your schedule.
Steps To Create Your Diet Plan:
Once you have set up your goals, it’s time to create a diet plan accordingly. Every diet plan has rules, and these rules decide whether you make or break the plan work. It is always a good idea to have regulations. This is because it helps you to know what to do. It gives you a structure. A few of the common diet rules are:
- Eat three meals and two small snacks every day.
- Do not skip breakfast
- Eat X calories a day
- Keep Carbohydrate intake under X percent
- Eat X kind of foods
- Avoid Y kind of foods
Not everyone would be able to follow these rules. There might be many factors that might regulate these rules. You might be in a region where a particular food type is a staple diet. In such a scenario, it becomes next to impossible to stick to a diet that doesn’t include the staple food. Thus, as an individual, you have to have your own set of rules that align with what you want to achieve. Let us look at how to create your own rules and diet plan now.
Step1: Ask yourself the following questions
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Which Time Of The Day Do You Need More Energy?
Based on your everyday schedule, you can decide when you want to have you three solid meals. Once this is decided, you can then know when to have the two snacks.
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Are You A Stress Eater?
Many people tend to eat more when they are worried about something. They are also easily influenced by people around them and tend to follow their eating habits, good or bad. Make sure you identify if you have any such weakness. Try and overcome it as soon as possible. One of the effective methods that help you relieve stress is through meditation. You can also check other ways to relieve stress.
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How Much Food Makes You Happy?
Everyone has different tastes and different amounts of food that makes them happy. You also feel full faster when you are happy rather than when you are sad. It is also proven that when you enjoy the taste of each dish you eat, you feel full faster than usual.
Once you answer these three questions, you can start building a diet plan. While developing a diet plan, keep the following things in mind:
- Have more of a plant-based diet rather than a Mediterranean diet.
- Fresh fruits and vegetables have to be prioritized.
- Include a good amount of dry fruits
- Do not forget to take the right amount of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats
- Have a meal plan in place so that you know what you are eating well in advance.
- Start with a weekly diet plan and slowly stabilize yourself for a monthly plan.
You will build a great diet plan for yourself if you can follow the pointers mentioned above.
Building Your Workout Plan:
A diet and a workout plan always go hand in hand. Your diet plan determines how many calories you are taking in. Your workout plan helps you understand how much those calories you are burning. Thus keeping you fit. A workout plan can be broadly classified into three categories:
- A plan to reduce weight
- A plan to increase your muscle mass
- A plan to stay fit and healthy
The weight-reduction plan:
If you are working out to reduce your weight, then here are a few workouts that you should include in your workout plan. Ensure you have a good mix in your plan to don’t get bored doing the same thing every day.
- Lunges: These exercises help you workout multiple muscles at once. Thus has been proven to be very effective for weight loss. An ideal lunges exercise should include ten reps and three sets.
- Full body burpee: The classic burpee ensures that every muscle in your body is tended to. Your core, chest, and legs would be the maximum beneficiaries.
- Squats: Age-old squats never die out! This is an exercise that should be included in all workout plans. It helps you reduce fat and also to build your body strength.
- Mountain climbers: The mountain climbers are easy to do and effective workouts. They help you burn fat in your obliques, butt, and hamstrings.
- Jump rope: Another classic workout. This helps you move your complete body. Even completing a minute of continuous jumping can show great results.
The muscle gain plan:
If you’re a lean person and want to gain muscle, you should always note that your workout and diet plan is essential. We shall discuss bodyweight exercises that should be included in your workout plan as everyone can do it at any place of choice:
- Press-ups: Press-ups or more commonly known as pushups, are among the most common and result-oriented exercises for gaining muscle mass. It helps you work out your upper body. You can increase your strength a great deal through press-ups.
- Step up with knee raises: This unilateral training helps you strengthen your muscles. The exercise also helps you develop a better balance of your body.
- Groomers: The name may not be all that overwhelming, but this is one of the best ways to pump blood across your body. It helps you work out each of your lower body parts.
- Spider crawl: This is another full-body workout that helps you work out your legs, arms, chest, and shoulders all in one go! A great way to build even muscle.
- Wide grip pull-ups: The wide grips pull-ups help you burn maximum fat and increase your core and back strength. It might be tough to get the pull-ups right the first time. But practice will get you there.
Sticking To The Plan:
Building a diet and a workout plan is the easy part. But being able to follow it regularly is the tricky part. This is the main difference between an achiever and a dreamer. You can learn a few things that will help to stick to the customized plan that you have built for yourself to see great results:
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Do It Because You Need To, Not Because You Have To:
Exercising is a great way to stay fit and healthy. Any amount of exercise is good. Remember that you are working out because you want to stay fit and healthy and not because you want to show off. This will help you stick to the plan.
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One Step At A Time:
Nobody can climb Everest in a single shot, can they? You must have small goals to begin with and work your way up. This helps you keep motivated and ensure that you stick to the plan.
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Keep Doing It:
Another important factor is to remember that consistency can help you achieve great things. You might be through very slow progress. But never give up. Keep doing it, and you will reach the end goal.
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Have A Good Mix:
While planning, ensure that you have a variety of diets and workouts for each day. If you have a mundane plan, you tend to lose interest very soon.
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Don’t Beat Yourself Up:
You might end up taking more rest than needed or skip a day or two in the initial days of your workout plans. Don’t get bogged down by this. Do not overthink it. It’s ok if you skip a few exercises and days of working out in the beginning. It is essential to keep going.
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Focus On Intensive Than Extensive Workouts:
Results have shown that working out intensively for 20 – 30 minutes a day is way more effective than working out 1-2 hours every day. Thus, make sure when you are working out, you concentrate on it and make the most of it.
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A Buddy Is Always Good:
It is always good to have a friend. Try to see if you can get a workout buddy. It makes you feel more responsible, and also, there will be a person to motivate you at times.
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Celebrate:
The actual result might take weeks to yield. But that does not mean that you should not celebrate your smaller successes. Try to reward yourself with small treats every time you achieve your small-term targets.
Summing It Up:
Exercising and having a diet to go with your exercise is one of the most effective ways of staying healthy. To make sure you are doing what your body needs, it is always best to have your personalized plan. You can certainly take help from experts to develop a customized plan for you. But remember, you know what you need the best. We hope that our guide above helps you build a scientific diet and workout plan that you can stick to. Follow your plan consistently with regular updates, and you will surely see great results.