When it comes to health and fitness there are 1,001 things you could or should or maybe shouldn’t be doing at any given time.

It’s tough to know what’s right and wrong, so having a professional on call makes things a lot easier.

We gave Sam Wood (of The Bachelor and 28 by Sam Wood fame) a call and asked him straight up: what five things do you wish everyone would stop doing?

His answers below.

1. Quit Counting Calories

Sam’s all about food being something you look forward to, not something you dread.

“Food is to be enjoyed, not counted,” he says.

Instead of focusing on the numbers in food, you need to think about what the food you’re eating is doing for your body.

“It’s about the nutritional value of the food, not just how many calories are in it,” says Sam.

2. Quit Making Excuses

“People who continually blame other people or things in their life, and never accept responsibility, inevitably never get results,” says Sam with a tough-love edge to his voice.

“Stop making excuses.”

3. Quit Wasting Your Money

Sam runs a gym so he’s a big fan — but only if that expensive membership is working in your favour.

Same goes if you’re spending a fortune on classes that aren’t doing all that much. “I want you to stop wasting your time and money when it comes to working out,” Sam says.

“You need to train efficiently and do something different every day. Doing the same thing every day and expecting a different result is madness.”

4. Quit the Scales

“Stop obsessing over the scales,” says Sam.

“Don’t weigh yourself every day. If weight loss is a primary goal, it’s OK to weigh yourself every two or four weeks, but you need to focus on how you feel, how much energy you have and how your clothes fit. Obsessing over what the scales say isn’t healthy.”

The proof is in the pictures with this one — many people can stay the same weight but drop an entire dress size when they’re eating well and working out.

Why? As you shed fat, you gain muscle — you might weigh the same but your physical shape changes, and you become smaller, leaner and fitter.

Scales can’t tell you that! Take before and after shots on your phone to really track the changes in your shape.

5. Quit Stalling

“Stop saying, ‘I’ll do it next time,'” says Sam.

“The hardest part is starting, but how many times have you said, ‘This month or this year will be different?’ You need to pull your finger out and get it done.”

This article originally appeared on Popsugar Australia. Read the original here.

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