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One little thing have recommended for years and years is using no spread on anything.

Typically, this will be butter and margarine.

Theres a big piece in the papers today about non butter products, in other words butter “substitutes”. You know the ones, the heavily marketed ones, advertised all the time as being in some way healthy.

These products have turned out to be associated with heart attacks, as well as other diseases.

Butter is not wonderful for you, but is a far more natural product!!!

There is the old study regarding butter and margarine left out in a field overnight. The animals scoffed the butter no problem, but totally left the margarine!!!

The margarine contains hydrogenated fats, which is a total enemy for your body, and can really speed up ill health unless you take steps to avoid this terrible product!!!

The other side of eating spreads on food, apart from the ill health angle is avoiding needless empty calories, which ultimately will also lead to health problems!!!!

Each bit of spread you scrape on will have around 150 calories of needless rubbish for your body, almost pure fat going into your arteries speeding up the process of piling on weight!!!

This 150 calories, and often more will be the silent killer for your diet and when you’re wondering where the excess weight is coming from, just when you have eliminated a lot of high calorie foods, then THIS is the one area you really need to go after!!!

It only takes a couple of weeks and you will soon get used to being without spread forever! This will affect your diet and overall shape you eventually get in FAR MORE than you could ever imagine.

No time to waste so throw any spread out of your fridge right now!!!

Following on from yesterday, we move on to treadmills.

As soon as you are able to jog for 20 minutes without a break, its time to break that up because you are going to get very bored, very soon!

Plus the following way is better, much better!

Start off with one minute steady, one minute fast, one minute slow, one minute fat, one minute as slow as you want to get your breath back, one minute fast and so on until you can’t do this sequence anymore!

This will improve as the weeks go by.

Then you need to try the elevation button.

Try one minute elevated at a level you fee you can handle, possibly two minutes you can handle it, then 3 minutes at a steady pace on flat (bring treadmill back down), then back up to an elevation you can handle for 2 minutes, back down for 3 minutes, and see how you get on from there on that sequence.

The Ultraslide is a great device we use at the gym, and is amazing for speed and agility. It is great for thighs, hamstrings, stomach and hips, and will definitely give you a great workout in 5 mins!!

Apart from side to side, you have sliding in the same place which is very tough, and one of my favourites is alternate squat thrust on it, it is much harder even than normal ones and hits your core far harder than the normal version.

The ropes we use are fantastic too in terms of workout intensity too! They work your core like you wouldn’t believe, and you shoulders, chest and arms in a brand new way!!

These workouts have to be seen to be believed and anyone who has tried them will never stop doing them once they experience them!!!

The drug scandal that has rocked the world the last few weeks has reached a crescendo this week, with the Lance Armstrong scandal reaching a climax with the two part Oprah Winfrey interviews on thursday night (friday morning our time).

The discussion means that no athlete from now on is immune from suspicion and the double standards shown by the authorities have been staggering.

The big case i have been banging on about for years is the spanish doctor Fuentes doping scandal back in 2007. To cut a long story short, he had around 400 blood bags ready for transfusion with athletes from many sports.

Just before the tour de france in 2007, dr fuentes was arrested and raided by the police.

The whole house and underground building was cleared out, and each of the blood bags had secret coded names. Ivan basso, the italian rider had a blood bag names “brillo”, which was the name of his dog.

Jan Ullrich had his name on the blood bag ready for transfusion, and he was promptly banned and immediately had to pull out of the race.

The cyclists in that case ALL got banned from cycling for two years, WITHOUT EXCEPTION.

Alberto contador was implicated, but got off with it as it was unclear evidence about him. One year later he won the tour de france before being caught two years later for doping, which he kept on denying, he is now free to do this year’s tour de france!!!

The most interesting part about the 2007 dr fuentes case was that TENNIS and FOOTBALL players were implicated in that case, including 6 barcelona players AND prominent spanish and french tennis players!!!

They DID NOT PROSECUTE the footballers and tennis players-FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON!!!

One very famous spanish grand slam tennis player has been suspected for taking drugs for years, especially by the french press. Somehow though, he was never investigated?!!!!

Double standards and corruption is rife in all sports it seems, at least cycling IS TRYING to get its house in order!!!

The scandals in other sports are waiting to come out, give it time!!

Jean brings a good comment up after yesterdays post, regarding the dangers of running on sand?

I have done many, many years of training on sand pretty much everywhere, and enjoyed it immensely.

There are downsides too though, and let me explain.

I tend to love training on hard sand, the surface is much better, is firm and likely to keep your footing much more sure.

The looser softer sand can be a different kettle of fish.

It can make your footing less sure as stated, this is simply because the sand is often loose, and you have to work hard just to get a good footing.

Soft sand can sometimes put more stress on your knees, and especially your knees and ankles. Your body has to do a lot of work just to stay still seemingly, and everything seems much harder!

This is not to say that soft sand training is not any good, in fact it can be very beneficial for leg strength, leg toning, lung power enhancement and overall fat burning. As said, i have used this method extensively. Once you have a problem though with knee or ankles, it may be prudent to avoid that type of training, especially if you have longer term problems.

I always like to play the safety first game though. Always assess your options first, what’s going to work best in terms of not only results but never threaten any injury too!!

It’s never pleasant to do a workout and worry about the pain afterwards!!!

The hard sand like grass will never give you any issues. Loose sand by its nature will take much more getting used to and create an unstable surface at times. You never get any guarantees in life but taking out any unnecessary risks may be just the smartest thing you will ever do!!

Keeping yourself hydrated is easily the most important area you need to keep covered.

You can do without food maybe for 50 days, and this is if you are on hunger strike!

You can do without water for…………5 days and you will be close to death!!!!

It’s the middle of january and the priority for you maybe just to keep warm, have warm drinks and cold water may not be a priority for you. This is a big mistake for you.

To enable you to perform well and close to your potential, sipping water throughout the day can and will be a big help to you. During exercise, it is even more important and cools down to your body’s temperature, which is vital during the time you exercise.

Avoid the sugary energy drinks too, they are not needed UNLESS you do 60 minutes of continuous exercise or more. So for most people, all they do is put excess sugar in your system, and rot your teeth!!!

Since your body is slighly over 70% water, then it makes perfect sense for you to take your hydration levels very seriously.

A sign if you’re dehydrated is if you’re thirsty, the problem is that you are already a fair bit dehydrated so this will significantly hinder your performance and the way you feel! Don’t rely on your thirst to tell you when you need water, sipping at regular intervals throughout the day will help you overcome this stage.

Water is the number on way to make your skin healthier too. You will have a glow about you and there will be no need for so called “wonder” moisturisers!!

The bottom line is that water is your number one important friend for your day, don’t leave home without it!!!