In 12 weeks, it'll be 6th January 2025

 Hello and welcome friends to my little corner of the fitness space where we gather motivation, discuss all things fitness, mindset, motherhood and our genuine and unfiltered feelings! It's Sunday night for me right now as I'm writing this and it's important for me to be completely honest and authentic when it comes to the things I discuss and the thoughts I have. So tonight I want to treat this as a little journal entry as I write down my goals and plans for the next 12 weeks, because I sure as hell do not want to be stepping into 2025 feeling like I have wasted the last 12 weeks of potential progress. I have goals that I want to achieve like I'm sure many of you do too!

So let's get into it. First thing's first, what do I want to achieve in the next 12 weeks? At this point in my health and fitness journey I have moved away from the scale weight being one of my goals as such, however as a numerical commodity that we can measure I am going to be weighing myself each Sunday morning to see how my weight fluctuates or changes over this time. My actual goals are a little different as they are less easy to measure!

1. Continue to hit my 10k+ steps everyday, but 10k minimum.

2. Complete 3 sessions a week in the gym every week - workout split Push/Pull/Legs.

3. Take progress photos each week so I can track my progress.

That's it. I don't believe that we should be inundating ourselves with a millions things at once. By doing that we are setting ourselves up to fail. The trick with sustainable weight loss is to start small and work your way through the habits that will get you to where you'd like to be. I spent over a year in a calorie deficit in 2021/2022 so I am pretty comfortable with eating intuitively at this point, plus I am still breastfeeding my son so I would never want to cause problems with my supply for the sake of weight loss. It's not worth it! I will continue to fuel my body each day with what feels right, I prioritise high protein and fibre sources as well as micro nutrient dense foods like fruits and veggies but I also allow myself tea and biscuits and I have recently become a bit obsessed with dark chocolate! 

I have chosen goals that I know will fit in with my routine and my work/family life. There's no point in chasing after goals that you know you'll never be able to achieve. I'd love to say, I will train 4x a week plus at least one run every week but I know that they are unrealistic expectations. If I manage to squeeze in a run or extra session sometimes then great, bonus points for me! But if I don't it's not going to demotivate me as I will still be on track to hitting the goals that I'd laid out for myself. Yet I am still challenging myself. 10k steps a day is a lot and although my daily step count has been on an upward trend for the last few months there are still some days where I don't reach it. So by laying out this goal I am making it a non-negotiable. 

I will be holding myself accountable and tracking my progress here on this platform. Because accountability is a massive part of your success, it's why I am training to be an online fitness coach in the first place. Because I want to help people achieve their goals. Regards my second goal, I am currently on a 3 week streak of actually getting in the gym three times a week so I know that with good time management between my partner and I with the kids that I can make this work! I bang on all the time about how lifting weights is so important if you're on a fitness journey due to the sheer volume of benefits. For me, the important ones are building strength so that daily tasks are less difficult, for my improved mental health because being a mum comes with it's mental strain and therefore, weightlifting is an outlet and lastly because I like it. It's as simple as that. Being strong excites me. 

My last goal may seem small and maybe, to some, pointless, but since becoming pregnant and basically all the time I have had my son (he's 7.5 months old) I've not taken a single progress picture. Which means I have lost over 20kg and don't have the pictures to look back on for me to see how my body has changed. There's nothing wrong with being motivated by visual changes. So at least for the next 3 months I will be able to track these changes and share them to potentially inspire someone to make some positive changes to their habits. Because that's what it all boils down to in the end! The small choices we make every day that become habits. The habit of going for a walk everyday with my baby in his carrier is one that has taken 7.5 months and a charity fundraiser to build! But it is one that is serving me well. My cardiovascular strength is constantly improving, I am always in a better mood after a walk outside and I have slowly been losing weight in a comfortable and healthy way postpartum. 

The title of this post is there for a reason. Because the Amber of old will have probably given up her New Years Resolutions by January 6th, after setting her calorie target to 1200 on MyFitnessPal or telling myself I would go for a run 3x a week (even though it's the middle of Winter and I don't like running in the dark). Together, if we start enforcing these good habits now that will set us on a path to achieving our goals then there will be no need to come up with some fancy New Years Resolution, we we have already taken a massive step. Motivation can be really high that time of year too, so you could find a new goal that excites you more than losing a few pounds. Maybe set yourself a goal to be able to run a certain distance or lift a particular weight in the gym. These are the numbers I really care about, the ones that measure what our bodies can actually do. My sister and I have even dabbled the idea of signing up to a half marathon together next year - this properly excites me and I would be buzzing to start training for this. 

For now though, my goals are laid out. I'll be ticking off each day that I hit my 10k steps and each session I complete in the gym as well as creating a separate folder on my phone for my progress pictures. Nothing fancy needed here, just a pair of trainers for walking in and some clothes to train in! And of course, all of you holding me accountable! 

Sunday 13th October - 70.8kg

Progress photos:

Thank you for being here.

Love Amber, xo

AMBER PUTTOCK | FITNESS COACH (@amberloufit) • Instagram photos and videos

P.S. I have been raising money for Tommy's - the pregnancy and baby charity by walking/running 5k a day in October. So far I have raised an amazing £170 but I am still holding out hope to raise up to £1000. It's not a charity I plucked out of thin air, it's very close to home having lost two babies during pregnancy in 2020 and the work they do needs to be funded from somewhere. Grateful for anyone who is able to donate or spread the word, my JustGiving fundraiser is below. 

Amber Puttock is fundraising for Tommy’s, the pregnancy and baby charity (justgiving.com)

Thank you again x