Your GOOD. strategy

your starting point, your plan, and the four weeks that make the difference

Anyone heading somewhere needs a starting point first. That is what you capture today. Not to judge yourself; it is simply where you stand right now, and from here it goes forward. No calorie counting, no athlete-level training schedule. This sheet takes you through three steps:

Your starting point

Capture 4 things today. Takes fifteen minutes, including the most entertaining fitness test you have ever done on a stair step.

Your plan

Pick one goal. Not three. The weekly rhythm is already filled in; you only choose what suits you.

Your strategy

Follow it for 4 weeks and tick the boxes. Then simply keep going; somewhere along the way you notice it starts running on its own.

1Capture your starting point today

Waist

Measure on bare skin, exactly at navel height, breathing out and relaxed, tape level all the way round. Measure twice at the same time of day and note the average. This is your most important number: if your waist keeps getting smaller over the coming weeks, you are very likely losing fat, even when the scales do nothing.

Today: ______ cm

The GOOD. Recovery Test (from my book GOOD.21: your-good-life.com/good21)

Take a sturdy step or the bottom stair. Step up and down for 3 minutes in a steady rhythm: up-up-down-down, one footstep per tick (free metronome app at 96 ticks). Straight afterwards, count your heartbeat for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. Sit down for 1 minute and count again. The bigger the difference, the better your recovery: more than 25 beats is excellent, 15 to 25 good, 10 to 15 moderate, under 10 deserves attention. Use the same step every time and compare with yourself above all. If you feel dizzy, short of breath or any chest pain: stop at once.

After the test: ______ · after 1 min: ______ · difference: ______

Your movement in a day

If your phone counts steps, note an ordinary weekday. No counter? Estimate it: 500 metres (once round the block, to the bakery and back) is roughly 650 steps. How many stretches like that do you walk in a day?

______ steps or ______ x round the block

Count your protein meals

Look at your 3 meals today. In how many was a protein source the centre of the plate? The list on page 4 shows what counts.

Today: ______ of 3 meals

Your plan and your strategy

one goal, four weeks, done while you are living your life

2Pick one goal (really just one)

Stronger

Strength training twice a week, 20 to 30 minutes, plus a daily walk. You make it heavier in small steps: one repetition more than last week, or a small weight added. No idea where to start? Page 3 holds a complete home circuit.

Fitter

A daily walk, plus intervals twice a week in whatever form suits you: 30 seconds as briskly as you can (on a bike, the stairs or simply walking faster), then rest until your breathing settles, 4 to 6 times. Japanese walking counts too: 3 minutes brisk, 3 minutes easy, for half an hour (how it works: your-good-life.com/blog). Strength training once a week keeps the base in place.

Leaner

Strength training twice a week, a daily walk and a protein source with every meal. Cardio is welcome if you enjoy it, but do not expect the main result from it: that comes from your muscles (they burn energy even at rest) and from your daily movement. Desk job? Stand up every half hour and move for 2 minutes (why that matters so much: your-good-life.com/blog).

Strength training, but where? On the machines at a gym such as Basic-Fit (www.basic-fit.com): they guide the movement, so you can safely go heavier. If you are a beginner, book one session with a personal trainer first and have a circuit put together for you; it is the cheapest injury insurance there is.

3Tick off your 12 weeks

I start on: ______________ · After 4 weeks (on ______________) I take first stock; after 12 weeks I see the full difference.

Week	Strength	Walk (15+ min) or intervals	Water (daily goal)	Tape measure
1				—
2				______ cm
3				—
4				______ cm
5				—
6				______ cm
7				—
8				______ cm
9				—
10				______ cm
11				—
12				______ cm

Walk and water: one box per day (7 days). Strength training: two boxes per week. You work out your daily water goal on page 5.

After 4 weeks: waist smaller, recovery better or more protein meals? Then simply keep the same plan going; your body composition only shifts measurably after 8 to 12 weeks. Nothing changed yet? Turn one dial (one extra session, or protein with every meal), not everything at once. Repeat the Recovery Test every 4 to 6 weeks. And one day, for some after four weeks, for others after two months, you notice you forget the tick boxes because your week simply looks like this by itself. From then on it is no longer a strategy; it is simply yours.

Week 12 · the new you

The home circuit

20 to 30 minutes of strength training, starting without a single weight

This circuit is your starter version for home; every exercise has a lighter and a heavier form, so choose what suits you today. Per round: exercises 1, 2 and 4 are done 10 to 12 times, the lunge 10 times per leg, and the plank is held for 20 to 30 seconds.

→

↻ After exercise 5, start again at exercise 1 · go round 3 times · that is 1 workout

Exercise	How to do it, with love for your joints
1. Standing up from a chair (squat)	Sit on a sturdy chair, feet hip-width, arms crossed over your chest. Stand up without using your hands, then sit back down so gently you barely hear the chair. That is 1 repetition. Lighter: push off with your hands on your thighs. Heavier: only touch the chair briefly; later, hold weights.
2. Pushing against the worktop (push-up)	Hands on the worktop, feet a good step back, body in one straight line. Bend your arms until your chest almost touches the top, then push back. Lighter: hands against the wall instead of the worktop. Heavier: hands ever lower: table, sofa, and finally a mat, first on your knees, then on your feet.
3. The lunge	Stand tall with one hand on the back of a chair. Take a big step forward and let your back knee sink calmly towards the floor, as far as today allows. Push yourself back. Alternate, 10 per leg. Lighter: a smaller step, less depth; the chair back stays your friend. Heavier: without support; later, hold weights.
4. The bridge	Lie on your back on a mat (or on your bed if the floor feels too far away), knees bent, feet flat. Push through your heels and lift your hips until knees, hips and shoulders form one line. Hold for two counts, lower slowly. Lighter: lift your hips just a few centimetres; that trains too. Heavier: extend one leg while lifting.
5. The plank	Start on hands and knees. Lower onto your forearms and slide your knees back until your body is one straight line from head to knees. Brace your belly and hold for 20 to 30 seconds, breathing normally. Lighter: hold for less time, more often. Heavier: on your toes instead of your knees; 5 seconds longer each week, up to 1 minute.

Done with exercise 5? Start again at exercise 1. Repeat the whole circuit until you have done 3 rounds, with a minute of rest between rounds. Three rounds of five exercises: that is your 20-to-30-minute workout. Too much for today? Start with 1 or 2 rounds and build up calmly; that is training too. If an exercise speaks up in a joint rather than a muscle, stop and take the lighter form. Rather train on machines, with guidance? You can at a gym such as Basic-Fit (www.basic-fit.com); as a beginner, book one session with a personal trainer first for your own circuit.

Protein: where to find it

and what every source costs in calories

Guideline for healthy adults doing strength training: 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day (if you have a kidney condition or medical protein advice, check with your doctor first). Build every meal around one source from this list, and mind the right-hand column, because not every protein source is a lean one.

Your sum: body weight in kilos x 1.8 = your grams of protein per day. Divide by your number of meals. Example: 70 kilos gives 126 grams a day, so 42 grams per meal across 3 meals. My daily goal: ______ g · per meal: ______ g

Source (portion)	Protein	Calories
White fish such as cod, 150 g	26 g	± 120 kcal
Protein shake, 1 scoop (30 g) (v possible)	23 g	± 120 kcal
Mature cheese, reduced-fat, 40 g (v)	13 g	± 135 kcal
Unsweetened soya yoghurt, 250 g (v)	10 g	± 135 kcal
Low-fat quark or skyr, 250 g (v)	27 g	± 150 kcal
2 eggs (v)	13 g	± 155 kcal
Chicken breast, cooked, 100 g	30 g	± 165 kcal
Lean beef such as steak, 100 g	28 g	± 170 kcal
Pork tenderloin, cooked, 100 g	27 g	± 175 kcal
Tofu, 150 g (v)	19 g	± 180 kcal
Lentils, cooked, 200 g (v)	18 g	± 230 kcal
Peanut butter, 3 tablespoons (50 g) (v)	12 g	± 300 kcal
Mixed nuts, 50 g (v)	10 g	± 300 kcal

The peanut butter trap

“It is high in protein” is true on paper, but every gram comes with a lot of calories attached. For the same 300 kcal, quark delivers over 4 times as much protein as peanut butter. Peanut butter and nuts are still fine as a flavour maker (1 tablespoon), just not as the meal’s protein source. Vegetarian? Combine quark, eggs, mature cheese, soya yoghurt, tofu, lentils and a shake; that gets you to the guideline without any tricks.

GOOD. · The 5 GOOD. minutes · page 4your-good-life.com

Peckish between meals? My 2-minute shake

For the moment the biscuit tin starts calling: 1 scoop of protein powder (vanilla, mine: your-good-life.com/supplements/protein), 250 ml unsweetened soya milk or semi-skimmed milk, a handful of frozen berries and a spoonful of fibre stirred in (I use the Fibre myself: your-good-life.com/supplements/fibre). Everything in the blender, 30 seconds, done.

A good 25 grams of protein for roughly 220 kcal (your powder’s label is what counts), extra filling thanks to the fibre, and the hunger is genuinely gone rather than quiet for ten minutes.

This is what your plate looks like

the GOOD. bowl, the order of eating, and your water

1The GOOD. bowl: the easiest healthy meal there is

Learn to build a bowl once and you can do it for the rest of your life, no recipe needed. You build from the bottom up:

1. Carbohydrates as the base, at the bottom: 100 to 150 g cooked rice, potato or quinoa (2 to 3 serving spoons, not half the pan). Clever trick: cook them a day ahead and let them cool; part of the starch becomes resistant starch, which keeps your blood sugar calmer.
2. Protein for satiety: 150 to 180 g chicken or fish, or 3 eggs with a generous spoonful of quark.
3. Vegetables on top, generously: lettuce and raw vegetables (pepper, cucumber, grated carrot) plus steamed vegetables (broccoli, green beans, cauliflower).
4. The dressing over it: it brings the flavour and the fat in one go.

Recipe: sesame tahini dressing (4 portions)

3 tbsp tahini · 2 tbsp tamari · 1 tbsp sesame oil · juice of 1 lemon
Mix everything and stir in warm water spoon by spoon until the dressing pours. In a screw-top jar the rest keeps for 5 days in the fridge. Over the bowl: 2 tablespoons, then scatter sesame seeds on top.

From my book GOOD.21, which holds three more weeks of meals like this: your-good-life.com/good21. When you eat the bowl, keep to the order below.

2The order of eating

Eat your vegetables first, then your protein and fats, and your carbohydrates last. Same plate, same calories, but the blood sugar peak after the meal turns out milder; what it does to your appetite, you will notice yourself within days. How it works: your-good-life.com/blog.

3And your water

Your sum: body weight in kilos x 0.03 = your litres of water per day. At 70 kilos that is a good 2 litres. Officially all fluids count, tea included; I keep to water and herbal tea myself, then I know it adds up. Easiest strategy: set out your day’s supply in the morning, then there is nothing to remember, only to drink. My daily goal: ______ litres

FROM MY OWN CUPBOARDMetaPWR softgels

I take the MetaPWR softgels every morning myself, and often with dinner too (the label allows up to 5 a day). Why I started and how I fit them in: your-good-life.com/supplements/metapwr-softgels. A supplement remains a supplement; the rest of this sheet does the real work.

And now you.
Put your starting point on paper today. And in four weeks, do write and tell me what has changed; I read every mail myself.
Let’s go!