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Wales v South Africa

Wales versus south africa today is a strange occasion. Normally a huge game, this perhaps means a little less to most because technically we are out of season and it may be that we have had enough of rugby for this season!!

The season used to be septermber to april if you were lucky, now it seems as if it goes on all year with summer tours etc.

Anyone who plays the game knows though that the game really goes on all year, with training and pre-season going on throughout the summer, with some pre-season’s actually starting now. No player can afford to be off-season anymore, its all about improving your conditioning year in year out and improvement being the operative word.

You should be having the same attitude too, being in shape all year round is tough, but being in generally good health all year should be no problem for you now!! You have all the tools to stay in shape, you have the motivation and you know what to do.

It comes back to the same old saying “there’s heck a lot of difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it”!!

Enjoy the game!

Twitt
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Fundamentals

So how’s the basics/fundamentals in your life going? These never change after all.

When you’re doubting your progress towards your goal, why exactly aren’t you getting there? There is a set path to get to wherever you want, and whilst nobody expects you to be perfect, there are some basics you need to practice on a daily basis if you want to make the kind of transformation you’re looking for.

Someone who never eats breakfast, snacks on crisps, and has a bit of what they fancy every night for evening meal is not really taking their health seriously. A lean athletic body won’t happen when you fuel your body like this, you may get away with it for a couple of years when you’re 18 if you do lots of exercise, but the situation is likely to be highly different in your 30’s and 40’s!

The person who has a good breakfast full of good nutrients, snacking on nuts and fruit, has a lunch full of goodness, and finishes the day off with a variety of healthy food is likely to be looking good as well as FEELING good, which is the name of the game of course.

What about the person who trains now and again, doesn’t train with much intensity and tends to do a bit of what they fancy? They are likely to have mediocre progress at best.

The person who shows some commitment to their training, throws in 3-5 sessions per week, trains with real purpose and tries a variety of different training sessions (resistance work and runs or cycles or swims etc) is very likely to be at the top of their game, and be in this kind of shape year round.

Some people think that its hard to be in good health all year, in fact its not. If you like feeling and looking good, you are likely to continue to do so, that makes sense surely. Okay it means some sacrifice here and there but the benefits are much more rewarding than the 2 minute pleasure of eating rubbish all the time and laying down on the settee all night.

It all comes down to doing the basics and fundamentals, its not rocket science so let’s get your behind off the settee and get out there and do something and achieve something worthwhile this week, no time to waste!

Twitt
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Getting leaner means eating smaller

 To answer some of your questions i have had this week, there is one theme running throughout.

Its vital for you now not to get too downhearted about your lack of weight loss if you’re having a bit of an up and down time. If you have been signing in most days, you have made significant improvements lately and for a long time now so its no time to quit and go off track, you’ve come too far.

If you have put an enormous amount of effort in your training and eating, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that you are burning more calories, burning more body fat in the vigorous nature of your workouts. You have complete confidence that you are getting fitter and healthier, now we have to fix the area which is dragging some of you down by your texts and emails

Portions size and inconsistency of eating is the area you need to look at, and getting some very stable habits into your life. Lighter lunches one day, then heavier lunches the next will not let you get used to the same desirable quantity of foods. Your body will like regular, smaller portions and will make you lose weight if done on a regular basis. Your body likes stability.

This one area is making a lot of you deeply unhappy when it comes to measuring and weighing times, and all that unhappiness is not worth going through if it makes you feel like that. If you change your eating habits that much more again, YOU WILL DO IT AND YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!!

Some of you said you don’t eat the chocolate, the chips, the crisps, all the stuff everyone else is eating around you, as your priorities are being fit and healthy, and you should be proud of yourself showing such control, when in the past you would have caved in and joined everyone else so you have moved forwards significantly further than even you previously thought.

Many of you show guts and determination EVERY TIME you workout in adverse conditions (snow, ice and extreme heat), and the times you don’t really feel like it in the first place, some of this dedication has to go in now during the private moments when you’re struggling to control your eating binges, when some damage can be done.

Even if you eat smaller portions, and often you will still have much bigger portions, you’re not really teaching your body that you want to get smaller. You won’t be teaching your stomach to get smaller and smaller because you will still keep your overall long term capacity for food quite high. If you eliminate these bigger portions for good, you will be saying to your body that the old days are over, and that you want to get down to your desired weight/body fat levels very quickly indeed.

Smaller portions cannot support higher weight, remember that and if you 100% begin eating like much smaller and leaner people, you will struggle to start with but your body will get used to it, YOUR NEW BODY THAT IS SO LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN AND BE PROUD OF YOURSELF AGAIN, you should be proud of your workouts and athletic ability, but imagine how good you will be if you didn’t carry all the excess weight you don’t need in your life anymore!

Its time to make it happen and that time is now! The fittest people aren’t always the leanest, so workouts don’t do it all, healthy structured eating counts big time when it comes to being in shape and at your very best so let’s do it!

Twitt
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Move and eat less?

The move and eat less way of doing things is always going to work isn’t it?

If you concentrated this week and moving around more than last week, pushing your workouts a little harder, trying new activities maybe, just doing more, plain and simple!

What about your eating, a key tactic i find is to control your portion size at each meal. I may have said eat less but i still recommend eating often, every 3-4 hours, it keeps your blood sugar levels steady and stops hunger pangs from ruling your life. So portion size is always important.

A good tactic would be to use smaller plates which will automatically get you used to less calories. Stick to the smaller plates and don’t be tempted to grab the big dinner plates, because this will be a good way of putting on weight, exactly what you don’t want!!

When looking at portion sizes, use your carb and protein portions wisely and look to have them the size of your fist, a rough but good guide when serving up your favourite dishes, another way of keeping your waist down long term.

This is a big week and it starts tomorrow for many of you, after the bank holiday so lets move around more and definitely eat less and smaller portions. This is a simple and forgotten strategy.

Twitt
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Eating together

This may be one of the most important ways to stay lean and healthy, all sorts of research shows.

When we eat as a family, a couple or even on our own at set times, we are likely to be eating in a controlled manner, and are not as likely to overeat as we would be if we just grabbed some food on our own in no particular order and just “got on with it”. This can be especially true in stressful situations.

How many of us have just grabbed some food and eaten far more than planned, as we got in from rushing from somehere and just “went for it”! I KNOW I HAVE, more than once!

This is when a structure matters in our day, breakfast with kids is always great (i only get to do it on the weekend due to my very early starts), lunch is not often a possibility for most of you in the week but tea time certainly is.

The practice of eating together works on so many levels and these two important feeding times should be part of life.

It’s like drinking in the local pub, most of you will be drinking at a decent pace and not throwing those pints back in too much of a hurry. It’s anti-social to be falling around in any public place these days and being in control of yourself is something we are all looking to do.

If you compare that to drinking at home, you have no reason to control yourself at all, you can fall around the place and nobody’s going to know about it. Plus you can drink bottles of wine and cans of beer very cheaply too, at a fraction of the price in fact so “control” is not a word often used when drinking at home.

 I’m not saying that most people drink wildly every night at home, but hopefully you get my point that eating and drinking in more controlled atmsophere’s tend to make us think a bit more about what we’re eating and drinking, therefore leading to less calories and less potential to blow all the good work we are doing with our workouts?

Back to the eating at the table part as a family, its also a great time to introduce new foods to kids, new vegetables and new fruits, if they see you eating all good foods, they are likely to follow given time and if the new foods are introduced in a slightly more imaginative way.

Have a great weekend and hope everyone has put in some great workouts this week?!!!!!

Twitt