Introduction:
The 12 Point Plan is a gathering together of my ideas on exercise, nutrition and other tools I’ve used, both on myself and with my clients over the last 15 years of working as a Personal Trainer. They represent a “holistic” approach to health, that whilst not exhaustive, I feel is extremely effective when put into practise. The 12 Points are broken into 3 different realms, which are Movement, Fuel and Mind, with 4 Points in each.
Everyone knows they should be exercising and trying to eat a healthy diet. I detail in those sections how I think you should be spending your training time, how you can prioritise simple nutritional changes and then go into more detail with the nutrition by creating a personalised nutrition plan.
But I feel that the 3rd section, Mind, is the one that most people fail to acknowledge they need, plus most fitness and diet books neglect to address in their prescription. I believe that is why so many people fail in sticking to their exercise and diet plans, or don’t get as good results as they possibly could. Life can be stressful and it’s tempting to make yourself feel better temporarily with some unhealthy food if you don’t have any tools in place to deal with that stress. It’s also more tiring if you’re carrying the excess baggage of stress and it’s harder to motivate yourself to exercise when you’re tired.
By taking action in all 3 areas, I believe you’ll maximise your chances of success. And if you eventually manage to get all 12 Points into your daily/weekly life, I predict you’ll fly towards achieving your health and fitness goals.
The 12 Points:
Here are the points:
Movement:
1. Walking
2. Balance & Strength
3. Conditioning
4. Energising
Fuel:
5. Water
6. Vegetables
7. Protein
8. Personalised Plan
Mind:
9. Sleep
10. Journal
11. Gratitude & Affirmations
12. Meditation
In each section I will talk about the benefits of that point and I’ll give suggested actions to work towards putting in on a weekly basis. Then in the final section we will talk about how you might go about implementing the 12 Point Plan.