Category: nutrition

Energy, a good mood, enthusiasm-are all synonymous with Christmas, at least they are in the films!

Energy as flat as a pancake, irritability, and a “can’t be bothered attitude” are quite unwelcome to be around Christmas time, those “qualities” certainly don’t add to the atmosphere!

Here’s a fact, if you want more good energy, be in a good mood most of the time as well as infectious enthusiasm, you NEED to be working out most days, you need fresh air every day and 80% of what you eat needs be as natural as possible (still giving you plenty of room to have what you fancy over Christmas).

If you want poor energy levels, be snappy to everyone around you and be moaning all the way through Christmas, then I urge you to eat rubbish all the way through, have a big drinking session every day and then lay on the settee all day moaning about how your head hurts.

Nothing wrong with a few drinks, but next day get out for some fresh air straight away, drink plenty of water and get some good food in you, and there’s nothing wrong with a nap the next day too, it will actually help you and all of this will revitalise you and stop you being the Christmas Grinch, however “heroic” that lifestyle is portrayed in the pub (by some).

Having fun is important, but flushing out all the rubbish along the way is a great strategy not only for your body, but to keep you in a great mood and help you enjoy yourself far more than those who usually moan all the way through it!!

Most conversations I have with everyone at the gym are very positive, I tell you how well you are doing, what you can work on to do even better, and point out the things that you could never do in the past but are second nature now.

Whilst I hope that positivity sticks, I also get a reply off many of you “well thats fine, but I still can’t do this or that”. 

This is sign of continuous self-doubt and whilst we all have moments of this, it can hurt our confidence and our willingness to take on new tasks, and really believe we have actually come a very long way already,  however much success we have had in the past.

There is failure in every workout and it is GOOD for you.

Think of your weight training, you can only do so many reps before you have to put the weight down, that is failure technically of course but if you are doing much easier than a month ago, it is total SUCCESS in my view.

Plenty of you have started on the bike and only lasted 3 mins first time for example, and then a few sessions later 10 mins seems relatively easy, but some of you still won’t give yourself credit.

What you have to realise is at the gym there is ALWAYS another level to go to, and it will seem tough and it will never happen, and to get there we have to practice having a go at it, and expect to “fail” before you have success because growth is never possible without risk, effort, disappointment and fighting back sometimes against the odds (these are often the sweetest victories).

Realise how far you have come, praise yourself for your non-stop effort throughout the year, and celebrate how incredibly better you now feel.

Muller rice, Crunchy nut corn flakes, Coco pops, Coca-cola, Sausages, ready meals-if you had these put in front of you as a taste test, you would almost certainly like the taste.

It wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination that you could eat another bowl or portion of most of these.

The taste is cultivated to make them almost irresistible (just like the adverts say they are!).

No matter what the claims are for these foods, and some may actually claim to be “good for you”, you will naturally want to eat more of them, you will soon even be hooked on the taste, and want to keep eating these type of foods.

If you replaced these foods with plain porridge for starters, you wouldn’t likely want to eat a second bowl.

If you had a glass of water, you would likely want another one straight away like you do the coke.

If you had a piece of chicken (no additives), or a plain steak, you would likely be content with that, with maybe a normal unprocessed potato and vegetables, you would be fuller quicker and have no desire to eat any more.

When you eat ultra processed food, they are designed to want you to love them, with ingredients often invented in a lab full of chemicals, and guess what? This food will often last for days, weeks or even months, and its nutritional value is often zero. Which will not help you energy wise, recovery wise or even make you feel good, creating a quick energy high but then a big energy low (which then makes you want to eat a lot more ultra processed foods)..

Eating whole foods in their natural form will not only fill you up much quicker, it will inevitably make you eat less in quantity wise, keep you fuller for longer and keeps all of those dangerous chemicals OUT of your body.

A diet with as little chemicals as possible sounds like a lot of common sense, it sounds like you will have a lot more energy, it will lead to a lot less sickness and pain in your body, and maybe the easiest non-faddy way of living healthier and keeping a healthy level of body fat the same time.