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25th January, 2011

A tribute today to the late Jack Lalanne, to some the godfather of fitness who died at the great age of 96.

He famously said that that he could never die, it would be bad for his image!!!

Jack started off addicted to sugary foods and was thought of as a lunatic, he even took an axe to his brother, was a nightmare at school and was thought of as someone who had a bleak future in front of him.

In desperation, his mother took him to a lecture by a nutritionist who preached the virtues of eating natural food. Lalanne spent 30 minutes backstage with him afterwards, enthralled on what he had just heard about the power of natural foods.

He then gave up all the sugary and fatty food almost overnight, and almost immediately his behaviour changed overnight. He became a good student very soon and became the school’s champion athlete in just one year. He then became a health and fitness advocate with a high profile.

He then started a health club with a  juice bar before anyone else, but due to the depression, these went bankrupt. He eventually started them up again after the war creating a chain which he eventually sold to Bally’s for a lot of money.

He had a television series running for 35 years in the states on fitness, and created the famous jack lalanne power juicer, which is still famous today.

He was also famous for his physical feats such as swimming from Alcatraz towing an entourage of boats with his teeth! He performed such feats on his 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays!!

A huge advocate of physical fitness and eating natural foods, he became a member of the president’s council on health and fitness and a motivational speaker.

This is a just brief description of his life in the simplest terms, and if you put a google search for his name, you will learn a lot more very interesting and entertaining stories about the great man.

When he first encouraged people to exercise and eat well, doctor’s said you would get a heart attack if you exercised like that, or you would get all ailments under the sun, you would get high blood pressure and if you were female, you would get bulky and huge muscles!

The opposite of all of this is true of course, science has proven this!

The athletes always knew first before the doctors, so rest in peace jack!!!!

Twitt
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January 24th 2011

How’s your january going?

Have you started exercise yet? Have you moved a bit more or are you still struggling to get off the sofa?!!!

Have you started another diet and already come off it, because its too stringent, too about “points” or “green and red days”, are you really putting yourself through that rubbish again? Have you fallen for the mass marketing? Don’t forget coca-cola is the most popular drink on the planet, so absolutely nothing surprises me any more.

Every year is just like the year before and that’s how sad it has got, with the same old people trying to make the same kind of money, perhaps only a little bit more making more claims they could never prove.

Hopefully, most of you have concentrated on the quality of your food, and ate in proper portion sizes. Have you filled your shopping trolley with good nutritious food? If you have been affected by government cuts and the cost of living, and who hasn’t, you should really be looking at making every penny count, so the money you used to spend on rubbish should really be spent on food thats actually going to be good for you? Hopefully, that didnt come across in a too patronising way?!!!

Same for your workouts, have you finally got away from measuring your workouts purely on time rather than performance. My workouts are valued in terms of am i doing better week in, week out? If i am, then my body should be showing some good results, especially over a period like 6 weeks.

If you do the same old thing, you will get the same old result and thats what we are trying to get away from. There is absolutely no reason why we all cannot improve as we get older and i have proved this time after time, and its a great feeling seeing everyone i train getting fitter and stronger every month and every year.

Whoever we are, we know we can get better as long as we adopt a valid plan, and this means you need to get away from faddy diets and plastic workout equipment. There are a thousand ways to get fit and healthy, and that includes getting off the sofa 6 times a week so lets make it happen big time starting right now!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

21st january 2011

Another week when the cold and ice has definitely played its part. Its been tough to get out there and run most of the time, unless you were running on some grass where there has been no frost, or on the beach of course. Even with the beach, there was frost on the areas where the sun hadn’t hit the sand!! In parts, it was like running on concrete so you had to be careful wherever you were running/walking!! I love it outside though so its my job to seek out all the best places!!!

Another issue in this weather is the cold weather when running, especially when you are putting, or trying to put in good performances! Its not uncommon to experience a shortness in breath when temperatures are so low, so i wouldn’t worry too much about putting your absolute best workout in during weather like this, unless you’re inside of course which will be no problem of course!!

A big positive sign this week has been the lighter mornings and lighter nights, its only 21st january and things are looking up already!!! The shortest day was already a month ago so you should be experiencing more and more opportunities to get some quality workouts in. When there’s more light out there, you are more encouraged to do more and your enthusiasm to do well should be returning quickly.

Another exciting way to look at things is that spring is only around 10 weeks away, the sort of time you need to look absolutely fantastic!! You really CAN make the necessary changes in your life by spring IF you decide to do it right now. This is the exact time of year when everyone seems on a diet anyway, so you may as well try and start eating healthily and starting an exercise programme.

Its all very well these presenters in the media saying taking a brisk walk, which is great, but you also need MEANINGFUL exercise with a PURPOSE!!! This is what really brings results and theres plenty of workouts in the training/exercise section. It all starts with you deciding to change and you giving it everything you have. If you can get this mindset, then you’re already halfway there so lets give it your best!!!!!

Twitt
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20th January 2011

Mixing up your training is the hardest thing to come to terms with, besides actually doing the training in the first place. Most of us prefer to do one form of training and be comfortable with something we are fairly good at.

I know many people over the years to be obsessed with running and that’s it, that’s all they would do and a steady run would be all the variety they would want to experience.

They had never tried sprint training, hill running, running on beaches, or any form of resistance/weight training, it simply didn’t suit them in their opinion of course.

The facts are that they were/are depriving themselves of an all round programme that could be designed to work far better than the one they are on right now.

Weight training/resistance training is used in every single sport in the world now as science proves its value, and has so many benefits it would be impossible to list them here.

Then there’s the trainers who would never leave the gym, the “gym” was everything to them and no other training existed. A run or cycle in the great outdoors was alien to them, after all it couldn’t really be better than a “gym workout” could it?!!!

These types of individuals are also missing out, training should be a very enjoyable journey for you, taking in different experiences in as the weeks, months and years hopefully go by. If you don’t offer variety into your training, that horrible word “plateau” will soon come into your life.

Deep down, you know you want to be experiencing the kind of results that impress yourself as well as everyone else. You want your health covered too, no point in looking great and internally, you are sick and need attention.

Fortunately, looking good inside usually leads to looking good on the outside. If you’re fired up to make a difference in your life, then you need to open your mind up to all different types o training, and different kinds of food too.

I you’re a one trick pony, you will tend to get one dimensional results. Any programme has limited results for a certain period of time, so open your mind to change and try something new this weekend and that will usually mean getting outdoors, you never know, you may get to like it, never look back and love being outdoors!!!

Twitt
Posted on

19th January, 2011

Most people who are overweight lose or have lost control of their eating and sometimes a long time ago.

It could be the over-sized lunch full of mayonnaise and salad cream, it could be the over-sized take aways every single night, it could be the chip shop every night, it could be the big fried breakfast every single day, it could be the bakery and special of the day (every day!), whatever it is or indeed i have met some individuals who do ALL of the above, and thats when it gets really scary and you’re totally out of control. It’s like being in charge of a car with no brakes, you know you’re out of control and the ending is not going to be good.

If you live your life like this, then heart disease, diabetes and blood pressure problems are likely to be big parts of your life.

Its very likely you have a food addiction and you have to face the fact that your life more than likely revolves around food.

This theory is supported by science in study after study.

Recent research found that people with a family history of alcoholism had increased risks of being overweight, suggesting that both conditions might be driven by the same tendency towards addictive behaviour.

A lot of researchers also believe that food addiction is the number one cause of the civilised world’s obesity ticking time bomb.

Fat, sugar and salt are such a major part of our diets these days that its no wonder more and more people are developing addictions to food.

A lot of people if not all eat too much food because they are finding comfort from other pain in their lives. Its ironic then that the massive weight gain and ill health always associated with eating in such quantities becomes the NEW source of pain and unhappiness in people’s lives. It then becomes a vicious circle and explains why despite many attempts, most people go back to the old way of eating, and also explains why most people are on a diet now, but are likely to fall off by mid-february, when life unfortunately goes back to “normal”.

You have to try and make the big leap now, get away from the life of salt, sugar and saturated fat, its only got misery for you to come if you don’t!!! Get back to plainer and more natural foods, avoid sugary drinks (the quickest way to put on weight), drink more water, don’t buy in sugary snacks (they only lead to more and more and are addictive.

The sooner you give up the junk, the sooner your life is back on track and you get close to where you want to be!!!!

Twitt