Start small.

It's easy to get carried away when you've made the decision to sort your shit out.

You've decided to go to the gym 5 times a week, have no takeaways, no chocolate, no sweets, no cake, no cheese and inadvertently chosen to have no fun. What you've done is gone from absolute beginner to choosing the life of an elite athlete, as though the discipline to do this comes from thin air.

The most successful way to reach weight and fitness goals is to take small steps.

1. Choose to eat healthIER. By simply cutting out your daily latte could save you 200cals a day, that's 1400cals per week! Choose snacks that have less calories or have more nutrients in such as fruit and veg. Have a smaller portion of complex carbohydrates such as pasta, rice and potatoes and bulk up on veg such as broccoli, cauliflower, squash etc.

2. Choose to be more active. Walk 15mins a day if you're completely inactive. If you've decided to go to a gym then have a go at some classes and aim to start with 2-3 gym sessions per week and this will prevent you becoming overwhelmed. If you've got a dog then walk them for longer or even do a little running with them.

3. Choose to drink more water and less caffeine. Being hydrated is so important for your health, it may not affect your weight loss but it will improve your well-being.

4. Bedtime routine. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a good nights sleep for your health, weight loss, mental well-being and gym fitness. Everyone should be having approximately 8 hours a night, so start getting yourself to bed earlier, get off your fucking phone, read a book and switch off from the world.

Once these have become habits you can start to step things up, if you want to lose weight then maybe consider calorie counting, or adding in an extra gym session. You can even just increase your steps and see if it makes a difference. Circling back to calorie counting, I am a fan of this if it's done in a non obsessive manner. It can be very easy to become fixated on calories BUT it is also very educational. You will soon have an 'OMG HOW MANY CALORIES ARE IN THAT CERAL BAR?!?!?!' Something that you considered to be 'healthy' isn't what you thought. The world of food marketing is very misleading and once you have a general jist for calories and portion sizes that you won't need to calculate everything.

More often than not people get disheartened when weight does 'fall off' or they still find gym classes hard. NEWS FLASH the gym is hard for everyone, it's just fitter people can train at a more intense rate and as for the weight, just do more and consume less.

Don't give up, just try to be consistent and don't withhold any happiness from your life. If worse comes to worse then get yourself a PT to keep you accountable.