By Brian Foley from Activate Fitness

If you want to make huge changes to your life but are not sure how then start by making tiny changes, one at a time.

In 2003, Sir Dave Brailsford took over the British Cycling Team. He wasn’t a professional coach, and he’d only been an amateur cyclist.

Instead of trying to rebuild the perennially weak cycling team from scratch, Brailsford implemented a business strategy called the aggregation of marginal gains. He simply tried to improve every aspect of the cyclists’ lives - training, nutrition, sleep, and equipment - by 1%.

He didn’t go out looking for new sponsors; some bike companies even refused to sell to the team because they were so bad. Instead, he first improved their seats to make them more comfortable. And he didn’t implement a radical diet change or workout regime; he simply improved each by 1% at a time. When a tiny new gain had been realised, he asked himself, “How do I improve this feature by 1% now?”

In 2008, the British Cycling team won eight gold medals, four silver, and two bronze: More medals than in its entire history combined. Then Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, two members of the team, won the Tour de France four times combined over the next decade.

Aggregating small wins works.

You don’t need a radical new diet. You don’t need a “detox” (they’re fake anyway). You don’t need to start jogging five kilometres every morning. You just need to take one tiny step.

My training has been very focused on running for the last six months, and I’m training hard. But my nutrition has left a lot to be desired: Working and studying long hours from home most of the time means every food is available all the time, and it’s all amazing, coupled with often too much caffeine. I knew I needed to get my nutrition back in line for my brain’s sake … and my body’s. But recently, I didn’t jump right back into counting macros or anything too fancy. I just started writing it down.

I downloaded the MyFitnessPal App because it integrates with the other Apps we use at Activate. I started recording my food. Guess what? I immediately started thinking more before each meal. I didn’t track calories or make use of the macro balancing feature. I literally just started entering my food into the App. That’s it.

If your diet is already solid, you can start by just doing 10 squats. Call it a day. Try for 11 or 10 push-ups the next day. But don’t think about that yet: just move.

I love having a coach. I just have to show up, and the coach tells me what to do. Maybe that’s your first small step: Sign up for a free No-Sweat Intro and let Angela tell you what you should do first. Or just do one squat and start tracking your food. After 365 days, if you improve by 1% each day, you’ll be over 30 times more fit!

Book your free no-sweat intro today at www.activate.ie/free-intro.