"Fail to plan and plan to fail".   You can't get truer words when it comes to achieving a goal but it's especially true when it comes to health and fitness.   It's going to be a massive advantage if you know how to flatten those different barriers that could stand in the way of you and your goal.   The key to reaching your target is to begin with a day at a time and build upon your foundation a layer at a time.   The ingredients to a perfect day starts with the ingredients that go in your mouth as well as the work/life/exercise/sleep balance within a 24-hour period we call a day.   Some will swear that there isn't enough time in a day to follow a healthy lifestyle while others will blame work or family commitments for their lack of commitment.   Well I've heard every excuse and its time to face up to your responsibilities and accept that you are the master of your destiny.    

Become organised

Ask yourself what you want to achieve and plan a schedule, this can start with planning what time you need to wake up each morning to what you are having for breakfast.   Set time parameters for each little job that needs to be done each day, this way you will get a lot more done with more time to do the things that matter.   For example, only check emails twice a day, try and make your calls between certain times and try not to get bogged down with anything time consuming that leads to nowhere.   The more organised you are the more free time and energy you will have.        

Shopping

Decide what foods you need and how you are going to shop for them.   You could either shop every few days or even once a month.   The Internet is a brilliant option and convenient for a lot of people because it can save heaps of time.   If you decide to shop online for everything all it will take is a little time at first to set up an account etc but after that you will have yourself a self automated food-ordering system in place.   For example this is what you could do, once a week: order organic fruit and vegetables to be delivered to your door, buy meats and dairy products from your local farm shop (check to see if they deliver) and once a month order non-fresh and household essential items to be delivered from the supermarket.   You can't get more convenient and time saving than that.   

The kitchen

Make sure you have all the useful appliances in your kitchen to help you with food preparation.   Store food in glass or ceramic containers, toxins can leach into the food when using plastic or cans.   Label meals that you freeze for future reference, you may decide to freeze leftovers to be used for a weeknight after you've been to the gym after work.                

Meals

Decide what you are going to eat for the week ahead, use pen and paper once a week to plan and rotate your meals.   You may only need to do this once before establishing a routine.   By doing this you will know what to shop for and there will be less chance of rubbish finding its way into your cupboards and fridge.     

Training schedule

The wrong training programme for your goal is still going to be unproductive even with the right nutrition and healthy lifestyle.   Seek professional help to make sure you are doing the right kind of exercises to help you with your goals.   Putting together a routine and fitting it into your week is something that can be flexible and doesn't necessarily need to be carved in stone.   All that matters is making sure you train intense doing the right workout 2-3 times a week.                      

Lights out

People overlook the importance of sleep in their quest for better aesthetics and health.   I was guilty of this up to a few years ago; I would always go to bed after midnight regardless of what time I had to be up the next morning.   The more I studied about health & lifestyle the more I learnt about the body and its sleep/wake cycle called the circadian rhythm.   Before the invention of light bulbs our bodies didn't know any different other than falling asleep at sunset and waking at sunrise, this is the way Mother Nature intended our bodies to operate and the reason why our hormones are naturally released at certain times throughout the day.   If we disrupt this cycle by going to bed late, watching TV or staring at a computer screen late at night we stimulate awakening hormones that rob the body of repairing itself and eventually leading to health problems.               

Summary   

I kicked off these four articles talking about how our subconscious mind influences our actions and how this can be a disadvantage if the information we soak up is distorted through the media or incorrect through folklore.   I also went on to say that we are creatures of habit and our mind is the main driving force for applying change in our lives.  

In part two I discussed how eating habits are normally driven by convenience rather than function and compared the daily diets of four people with different body shapes to see the difference in the quality and variety of their diets.   I also touched on the subject about maintaining blood sugar levels and why it is important for weight management.                    

In part three I outlined some training tips about how to spice up your exercise sessions to give it a boost towards achieving goals and what to be cautious about.

The final part to transforming everything has been recommending the need to plan a route for all this information to be applied into your lifestyle so you can successfully reap the benefits of what exercise, nutrition and a healthy lifestyle can offer you in return.     

Enjoy the journey!