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Hey team, Mikki here, welcome to another mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. This week I am going to go through some super practical tips to help someone improve their body composition. They're going to be based on diet, lifestyle or exercise based changes that someone could make to either push past a weight loss plateau or begin their body recomposition campaign.

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In training, we often talk about marathon campaigns, triathlon campaigns, so hence the use of the term campaign. Quite like it, actually. It gives you a focus, I think, and places an importance on it, regardless of how big or small those changes are. It sort of focuses you in on some of the important things that do make a difference, regardless of size. So, I've got a hundred of them.

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not sure that I'll get through all 100 today. And in fact, if I don't, we will just do fat loss number two, part two, and I'll do half of them next week. And obviously, I will just caveat this by saying that you can't adopt all 100 of these, as some may even contradict each other depending on where you're at and what your current situation is and what your goals are.

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The purpose of doing this is to provide tips that may help inspire someone to make small changes. And for example, you might wonder why drinking two glasses of water in the morning could help someone lose weight, or why moving regularly could help. But, you know, part of the way that these change in habits work isn't just down to the habit itself. It is often how this then influences…

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the next decisions made, and what you do later in the day. For example, drinking water as soon as you wake up can help immediately hydrate you, which is important because we dehydrate overnight. And dehydration is one of the biggest courses of fatigue, and everything feels so much harder when we are dehydrated. Our heart literally has to work harder to pump our blood around our body. And if energy is low,

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we can often turn to sugar to get a quick boost to try and feel better. And this can then create fluctuating blood sugar that makes it so difficult to regulate and stabilize, going between energy lows and cravings, and feeling the thargic, and blood sugar peaks, which is not the same as an energy high, because we very seldom get that energy high as adults. And moving regularly, such as getting out of your seat to move around, not only helps

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burning slightly more calories, that is important actually. We also get the increase in energy that comes from moving, you just feel a bit fresher, you're able to dial in your focus, you can be more productive and you're not looking for that other energy hit or sugar. Because this is another avenue with which we can increase energy. So you're less likely to eat to boost energy in this instance as well.

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very minor changes can make pretty big differences to your overall habits. Some of these habits are bigger dial movers than others, but all can help someone in their efforts to improve body composition in a sustainable way. You guys know I am all for a big old overhaul. I mean I really am. That is fundamentally for some people what they need in order to make sustainable change, even if that sounds counter intuitive.

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It's the quick wins that really sort of get them to buy in, which is one of the reasons why I love Mondays Matter. However, these small changes really do make big differences over time. And my recommendation for you, if you're looking to make a change but are not sure where to start, is to listen to this episode and the one next week where I will go through the other 50 of these habits. And choose 10 that you think

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could be things that you can adopt to change your own behaviour with. Like I said, not all of these will be applicable to you, or anyone. Then, out of that list of 10, prioritise two of them. Start there, writing down the two that you are going to try out, and do them for two weeks. Note what differences you feel by doing them, and how easy or otherwise it is to adhere to these change in habits.

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it's beginning to feel like habit, move on and choose another two. If not, continue to work on these behaviours until they do feel like habit, then move on. Remember, hopefully for most people, these sustainable changes, they're not about doing it all within 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, or 16 weeks. They're about adopting sustainable change, and that can take time, so don't berate yourself if it takes longer than you anticipate.

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Once you've nailed those first two, choose another two from your list of ten. Write them down on the same piece of paper that you wrote the first two on, and then repeat. That way, not only do you get an opportunity to continue to bring in these new behaviours which over time become habits, you're able to also reflect back on the things that you've already dialed in and nailed. And I really think that that sense of achievement is often lost because there's

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are seemingly small things, but they're just so important for helping you continue to be motivated through your fat loss journey. So you can see really that if you do this every couple of weeks, after about 8 to 12 weeks, there is a potential to have really shifted what you're doing and you'll really notice a change in your habits and behaviors and the changes in your body composition, but in small increments that are achievable. So

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Let me go through then the first 50 for you. One, you already know number one, drink two glasses of water is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning. That's it, before coffee, before pre-workout, anything like that, drink two glasses of water. Number two, stop adding cream to your coffee, especially if you do this more than once during the day. There's nothing inherently wrong with cream in your coffee, but clinically speaking, a lot of people underestimate

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the number of calories that they accrue during the day because of cream and coffee, particularly if they follow a fasting protocol where all they have are multiple cups of coffee and cream before they have their first meal at about 12 o'clock. 3. Include nuts as part of a meal and don't eat them as a snack. Nuts could be considered for some people a trigger food. And again, people underestimate what one

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2 or 4 handfuls of nuts actually ends up being when they do the calorie count on them. 4. Eat 3 meals each day. Cut out the snacks. I already did a mini-micropedia on snacks. So go and revisit that if you didn't listen and you can get my reasoning behind that. 5. Include half a teaspoon of salt in warm water in the morning.

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and again midday if dropping carbohydrate intake. A lot of people talk about the keto flu, and I will do an episode on keto flu and how to mitigate and what might be responsible, but very briefly, it may not be the drop in carbs. It's much more likely to be a drop in electrolytes that we are unable to hold onto as effectively when we follow a lower carb approach. So, half a teaspoon of salt and water. Six, set an alarm to get ready for bed

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20 minutes earlier than you normally would. Sleep is crucial to fat loss. 7. Break your fast with 150 grams of high protein yogurt, a quarter of a cup of berries, a handful of walnuts, and a couple of hard boiled eggs. Try that. 8. Shorten your eating window to 12 hours. If you're already at 12 hours, shorten it to 10 hours. 9. Don't sit for longer than 90 minutes at a stretch. Get up.

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and move around for a couple of minutes. Remember what I said about increasing energy expenditure? This is awesome for that. 10, increase your step count by 10% each week. If you're not yet at 5,000 steps, make that your initial goal. What I will add, if your step count currently is about 12,000, this is not the one that you need to work on. 10, that was 10. 11, take the bread.

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rice or pasta out of your lunch meal and replace it with a green leafy salad or vegetables. 12. Roast non-starchy vegetables to include in lunches to help you feel more satisfied, i.e. carrots, pumpkin, eggplant, zucchini. Celery is great roasted, by the way. 13. Get into the routine of doing resistance training, starting with press-ups, squats,

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Tricep dips is a 10 minute circuit every second day for people who are currently not resistance training. 14. Swap your tonic water for diet tonic water or soda water. Tonic water is such a big source of sugar that people don't realise. 15. When you're eating out, ask for your dressing on the side. 16. Cut the visible fat off your meat when you eat it. 17.

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Double the protein in the salads that you purchase from your salad takeaway shop. 18, remove the skin from your chicken, or eat half of what you would normally eat of the skin on your chicken. 19, include carbohydrate in your evening meal if you're struggling with sleep on your low carb approach. That is critical. Probably do another mini-macapedia going into details on that one. 20, include a protein shake.

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and or a banana around your training in the morning if you are used to training in a fasted state. Now, this added fuel will help propel you in your workout, increasing metabolic output, burning more calories, getting fitter, faster, stronger, and then you'll be able to recover better to do it again tomorrow or the next day. There is not great evidence to suggest training fasted is better for fat loss and in fact probably with that highly glycolytic

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activity, the reverse would be true. 21. Write down everything you eat for a week. And that is everything. In real time as you eat it. 22. Walk 15 minutes in the morning before your breakfast and 15 minutes after dinner. 23. Swap your potato mash for cauliflower mash in your meals. 24. Don't cook your potato and kumara in with your meat sauce.

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and swap half of the serve for non starchy vegetables. Reason for this, it is bloody delicious, don't get me wrong, but all that starchy stuff soaks up all the fat from the meat. Again, delicious, probably not helpful for your body composition goals. 25, use zucchini noodles or cognac noodles, otherwise known as miracle noodles, instead of regular old pasta. 26.

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by a single-serve packet of chips as opposed to a family-sized packet of chips or crisps. 27. Put all of your treat foods in an opaque container and out of eyeline in your house because out of sight is out of mind. 28. Instead of a cheese board, fill your pre-dinner platter with vegetables, sundried tomatoes,

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Honestly, the calorie savings that you will make from being able to choose from this array of foods rather than just cheese and crackers, you won't know yourself. 29. Double the amount of protein-sourced foods in your meals. Just double it. 30. Eliminate dairy from your diet for one month. 31. Remove bread from your diet for one month. 32.

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instead of three times a week. 33. Don't save your calories during the day in preparation for a social occasion, particularly your protein calories. You do just run the risk of overeating at that next meal. There's a caveat to there though, of course. 34. Have two hard-boiled eggs before heading to a late afternoon barbecue. 35. Share a beer with your friend, rather than have one each.

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That's one of my favorite things to do, to be honest, particularly with the craft beers that you guys know that I love. Unfortunately, I tend to prefer the higher percentage alcohol ones. When you look at the back of a can, that is not one beer, that is like four standard drinks. 36, get a lettuce wrapped burger from the takeaway burger shop and ditch the bun. Now, when I was over in Santa Barbara with my mates in my business course, we ordered protein burgers.

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and the cafes or the restaurant I'm sorry knew exactly what it was that we were ordering which was basically a bunless burger. I find it funny that in New Zealand we call it a bunnance. 37 use raw apple cider vinegar and salt you know get that salt and vinegar flavour on steamed greens with one teaspoon of olive oil rather than a big glug of olive oil so you get that delicious flavour.

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and you will also lower that glycemic response to the overall meal with the inclusion of that raw apple cider vinegar. 38, include vegetables in your breakfast meal. Spinach and zucchini in a protein smoothie, grated carrot in your omelet, have greens with your salmon, increase the volume and the fiber there because that will absolutely keep you going across the course of the morning. 39, include at least three serves of vegetables in your lunch and dinner meals.

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40. Remove Paleo or Keto bread from your meals. I'm not saying that these aren't delicious, but they can contain significant additional calories that are quite processed, so they have less of a favorable impact on your appetite and you can overeat your calories in this instance. 41. Be consistent with your bedtime and the time you get up in the morning, even on the weekends. 42. Give away.

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Most of your hot chips from your meal before you enjoy just a few of them when you're eating out. 43. Sour the salad with your fish and chips and eat it alongside your fish, leaving your chips until the end and then doing what I've just said, sharing them around. 44. Remove half of the batter from your fish. It probably won't leave you with a lot of fish, to be honest, from what I know of battered fish in my experiences. The better place is you'll still get a decent amount of fish.

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but you will save a truckload of calories, but still get that delicious flavor of a good old beer-battered fish. 45, and this goes with 46 actually, get a kebab on salad rather than as a wrap or with rice. So when you order a kebab, get a kebab on salad, ask for sauces on the side, then you have control over how much sauce you might add. 47, enjoy your favorite biscuit.

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just twice a week, rather than every night after dinner. And 48, brush your teeth after a meal to cut that sweet craving. 49, aim to drink 750 mils of water in the morning and 750 mils of water in the afternoon. Again, going back to what I was talking about with number one, the more hydrated we are, the less likely we are to dive into

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sweets to help boost our energy. And we're not going to confuse hydration with hunger. And number 50, where I'm going to end it today, put devices away 45 minutes before heading to bed. Interesting on that note actually, whilst we do think that the blue light that is emitted from these devices down regulates or decreases melatonin production, I think that and

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In my anecdotal and clinical experience, there will be people who will be more sensitive to this than others. However, that sort of activity in the mindless scrolling that occurs when you're on your device can mean that you're up way later than you otherwise would be if you're pretty disciplined about putting it to the side. So put your device down 45 minutes before headed to bed. Alright team, there's a lot going on there. That's 50 tips that could potentially...

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help you on the path to breaking through a plateau or improving your body composition if you're absolutely just starting anew. And like I said, not all of these will be applicable. Some may be more relevant for some people than others, but all of these are things that I talk to clients about to make small behavioral changes that enable them to reach their body composition goals. So, that is Mini-Micipedia for this week.

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Next week we will do fat loss part 2 and I will go through the next 50 things. So have a think about these first and if this is relevant for you, start jotting down some of those ones which you think you could likely tackle. And as I said, just choose two of them to begin with. Let me know your feedback, I always love hearing it. And you can find me on Facebook at Micky Willard in Nutrition, over on Instagram and Twitter.

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at mckewalladon.com or head to my website mckewalladon.com where you can sign up to one of my meal plans, join the waitlist for Mondays Matter or book a one on one nutrition call with me. Alright team, have a great week, speak soon.