One day in Madrid the other week, I checked my phone and we’d done nearly 25,000 steps.
For me, that’s roughly 11 miles.
Which sounds ridiculous when I say it like that.
But it didn’t really feel like exercise.
The weather was good.
We wanted to see as much of Madrid as possible.
So we walked.
Royal Palace.
Plaza Mayor.
Puerta del Sol.
Football.
Tapas bars.
A few wrong turns.
Probably a few unnecessary detours because none of us really knew where we were going.
And by the end of the day, there it was.
Nearly 25,000 steps.
No treadmill.
No cardio session.
No motivation required.
We just had a reason to move.
Fast forward a few days and I’m back home.
It’s peeing it down.
It’s dark earlier.
And strangely enough, I’m not casually knocking out 25,000 steps while wandering around my village.
Funny that.
I’m finding it harder myself.
But I’m still averaging somewhere around 8,000–10,000 most days.
And that, really, is the point.
Not 25,000.
Not some perfect number.
Just doing enough, often enough.
Around the same time, I saw an article about where the famous 10,000-steps-a-day target actually came from.
I’d always assumed it was a fairly arbitrary number anyway.
A good round target.
Easy to remember.
Turns out it goes back to a Japanese pedometer marketed in the 1960s called the manpo-kei — essentially a “10,000-step meter”.
The 10,000 figure wasn’t some magical threshold discovered by scientists.
It was a memorable marketing number that stuck.
And I still think it’s useful.
Because simple targets help.
If you look at your phone at 7pm and you’ve done 4,500 steps, you know you’ve probably spent too much of the day sat on your backside.
You can go for a walk.
Job done.
But here’s where people get themselves tied in knots.
They start looking for the perfect number.
The perfect diet.
The perfect training plan.
The perfect supplement.
The perfect time to eat.
When most of getting lean is painfully boring.
Train properly three times a week.
Walk roughly 8,000–10,000 steps a day.
Get a good serving of protein with your meals.
Around 30–40g is a decent target for most people.
Eat proper meals rather than picking at food all day.
Drink mainly water instead of drinking hundreds of calories without thinking about it.
Get 7–8 hours sleep when life allows.
Build meals around foods that actually fill you up.
Protein.
Fruit.
Veg.
Potatoes.
Rice.
Oats.
Stuff you recognise as food.
And give your eating some structure.
That doesn’t mean you need a prison-style rule that nobody is allowed near the fridge after 7pm.
But if every evening turns into three hours of picking at biscuits, crisps and whatever else happens to be in the cupboard, that’s probably worth looking at.
None of that is remotely exciting.
That’s the problem.
People dismiss simple things because they don’t feel powerful enough.
Surely there must be something else?
Something quicker?
Something we haven’t tried yet?
So Monday starts with a new plan.
No carbs.
Fasting.
New supplements.
No food after 6pm.
Perfect meals.
Then Friday comes.
Life happens.
You go out.
Have a takeaway.
Miss your steps.
And suddenly you think you’ve blown it.
Then we start again Monday.
Again.
That’s exhausting.
And completely unnecessary.
Nobody at Transformation HQ has ever messaged me saying:
“Ryan, I absolutely nailed Monday. Am I lean yet?”
You’d think I’d lost the plot if I expected your body to change after one good day.
But we’re very quick to think the opposite after one bad one.
Your body doesn’t care that you only did 6,000 steps yesterday.
It doesn’t care that you had a meal out on Saturday.
It cares much more about what your normal week looks like.
That’s why I like 8,000–10,000 steps as a target.
Not because step 10,000 suddenly does something magical.
Research actually suggests you can see meaningful health benefits below that, particularly if you’re currently doing very little.
It’s simply a useful target that gets you moving.
And if you currently average 3,000?
Don’t obsess about 10,000.
Get to 5,000 consistently.
Then maybe 6,000.
Build from there.
The same applies to everything else.
Three training sessions done most weeks beats five sessions you can only keep up for a fortnight.
Three decent meals beats eating perfectly until Thursday then attacking the cupboards.
A reasonable bedtime most nights beats one perfect eight-hour sleep followed by five nights of rubbish.
The boring habits don’t look impressive on Monday.
That’s why they’re easy to underestimate.
Give them 90 days and it’s a different story.
And I’ll include myself in this.
Walking 25,000 steps around Madrid in the sunshine was easy.
Getting myself out when it’s sideways rain and miserable back home?
Less appealing.
That’s real life.
You don’t need to be perfect at this.
You need your good habits to survive normal life.
Work.
Kids.
Dark nights.
Weekends.
Holidays.
Bad weather.
That’s where the results come from.
So if you feel like you need to change everything at the moment, you probably don’t.
Go back to the boring stuff.
Train three times.
Walk regularly.
Eat enough protein.
Have proper meals.
Drink your water.
Sleep.
Eat foods that fill you up.
Do it again tomorrow.
And then keep doing it.
Maybe the answer you’ve been looking for isn’t a better plan.
Maybe it’s doing the boring one for longer.
-Ryan
P.S
If you’re reading this thinking, “Yeah, but I know all this already”…. that’s probably the point.
Most people don’t struggle because they need more information.
They struggle because doing the simple stuff consistently is hard when work gets busy, weekends get messy and motivation disappears.
That’s exactly what the 6-Week Meltdown is built around.
You’ll get structure, coaching and accountability so you’re not left trying to work it all out on your own.
You’ll train three times a week, get clear guidance around food, build better habits around your normal life and have someone there to keep you moving when you’d usually drift off track.
You do not need to be fit before you start.
You do not need a perfect diet.
You do not need to give up your social life for six weeks.
You just need to be willing to follow the plan and give it a proper go.
If you want to lose body fat, feel fitter, get stronger and finally get some momentum going, hit the button below and have a look at the 6-Week Meltdown.