You’re on the computer day and night while munching on burgers and sinking RedBulls like they’re going out of fashion, not quite the fastest way to achieving that 300 Spartan body that will have ladies hanging around you like flies.

Ok, this is not exactly the 300 workout but it will get your started and on track, and may even get your a few admiring stray eyes. There’s no one silver bullet that’s going to do it, the secret lies in the sum of the parts. These four keys will unlock your potential by taking a rounded balanced approach, and keep you motivated and on track to discovering your inner Spartan warrior.

The four keys

1. Mental: It starts and ends here. Only by being motivated, inspired, and committed are you guaranteed to taking action and follow through.
2. Fitness: Shed that pesky geek chub by using these tried and true simple techniques.
3. Diet: Exercise is essential but it’s actually diet that will contribute 80% of the weight loss.
4. Gear: With the gadgets available these days it’s never been easier to lose weight.

Discovering your inner Spartan warrior

1. Mental

1.1 Motivation: It’s common sense that when you’re enjoying something you are most likely to keep doing it. Even better if your not only having fun but learning at the same time it kind of gets addictive, that’s the level of motivation we want if your going to stick to something long enough to reap the rewards. Why not start that Martial Art you’ve always wanted to have a crack at. You not only learn balance, self discipline, but also a life long handy can of whoop ass to unleash on a flying assassin, should the need arise. Oh and you’ll also shed the weight at the same time. There’s quite an array to choose from, check out these two to get you started: Kyokushin Karate and Muay Thai.

1.2 Inspiration: There will be times when you are feeling like a bit of a slack ass, especially after the first few weeks when the novelty of starting something new wears off. You need a constant guiding light to keep you on track. If you’re doing Martial Arts then you not only need to turn up to training but you need to feed that motivational beast within you with with a bit of inspirational fuel. You’ll snapping round-house kicks on the way to your class after watching some of these classics: Enter the Dragon, Kill Bill Vol 2, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Police Story, Bloodsport. If Martial Arts ain’t your thing check this guy out: Oscar Pistorius.

1.3 Commitment: Once you commit to something you always, ALWAYS follow through. If you don’t then it makes it easier not to follow through the next time, that’s then a quick path to chucking the whole ‘lose the unwanted geek chub’ plan in. What will keep you following through is your level of motivation and inspiration, to keep feeding yourself with inspiration to stay motivated you need to track what your doing and plan goals - more on goal setting later - to set realistic goals you need to measure where you’re at and track each improvement step - this will make sure your accountable to yourself. There’s a useful website to help you do this called www.traineo.com you can register and get started in seconds, it lets you set goals and has some cool Web2.0 features to make it a breeze to use - you can also connect with motivation buddies… very cool.

2. Fitness

2.1 Walking: You have to exercise, there’s no magic diets, pills or machines you can plug yourself into (yet) to get out of burning those pesky calories. So you need to firstly build a bridge and then get over it ;-P exercise is essential. Walking you say? that’ ain’t gunna get me a spartan bod! No it won’t but you have to start somewhere and it’s the first step and easiest step to get you off that damn computer. It needed be so boring either, a little imagination can help, and a few sexy gadgets to spur things along - more on that later too. Start slowly but surely, lock in 3 walks a week for the first two weeks. Just 40min around the local block will do, don’t go the same way each time, mix it up a little, go a different way you normally go - even try going without the ipod strapped in and just take notice of the things around you. You might find that you see things that you’d normally not notice, concentrate on your breathing taking big deep breaths - best to keep off busy roads if you want to save a lung or two.

2.3 Running: If you’ve got to the 2 week stage then start with a small jog, don’t get all excited and try and run the whole way, you’ll drop dead the next day and will use that as an excuse of feeling sore to skip your new routine for the next day or so, just keep it slow and steady for now. You want to work up to running, when your body is not used to something even after a month of not running it can take a few weeks to get your body back to shape, you also run the risk of getting an injury which will put you back even further - you may never get back on.

2.3 Martial arts: As mentioned above, this is a great way to get back in shape in a fun way in which you’ll learning new stuff. They also start your off slowly and closely manage your fitness level so you build your body and new routine slowly which is the key.

Click here to view Part 2 of this article where we cover Diet and cool fitness Gear.