Keri McKibbin Personal Training

Okay, a big welcome back to cyril, who has obviously been very busy, but has fallen off some of his excellent habits. Doing the stuff in the garden though remains a very tough job which burns lots of calories and works different muscles so well done on that cyril.

The facts don’t change when you want to keep measuring your progress and keeping yourself on an even keel, or even progressing.

So if im looking at my week, i look at it and ask myself have i done my all over weights workout twice a week?

I then look have a done some cardiovascular work and for me that includes cycling and running, for you it may include walking, swimming or anything that gets your heart rate up for an extended period.

I then look at my weekly eating, has it been quite tight with a good structure or have pizza’s and alcohol slipped in there somewhere, after all it was the world cup wasn’t it?

So if i indeed manage to do all of these then thats great, i am at least staying healthy and probably improving my health.

So what’s your story? Do you have week’s like these and if you don’t, what do you do the following week? Do you start exercising again or do you lose motivation already and by mid-week promise to start “next week” or “next month?

All of you tell me that you feel like death warmed up when you dont do your workouts, when you dont eat properly, and when you have poor night’s sleep. or you start drinking in the week and more than you should.

This seems like the eternal battle, is it going to be the good, well structured week or the bad, haphazard week’s that can lead to a pretty hefty downward spiral for some of you?

When this “eternal battle” ends, and you make working out and eating well totally part of your lifestyle, and exercise an absolute must in your life, THIS IS TOTALLY WHEN YOU GET IT!

Like yesterday’s post, “showing up” is 80% of the equation when you want to be successful so the minute you start analysing your week’s honestly and ask yourself how committed you truly are, that is exactly the time you progress.

It only takes a moment to change the way you are looking at your health.

How on earth could jean go from more or less giving up to going on a one hour 15 minute bike ride? Thats quite a reversal and turnaround!

Thats why i get annoyed when some people think about starting an exercise programme, they do exactly that only, THINK about it and usually never get started.

This usually involves going around all the shops to get the perfect workout gear, that looks all fancy as this time you’re really going to do this BIG STYLE!

Then you may think how you’re going to get fit. Do you go to a gym, and if so which one?

Do you buy one of those exercise dvd’s? If so, which one?

Do you buy the really expensive training shoes or the cheap ones?

Do you start your diet straight away or do you just start exercising and then change your diet “gradually”?

All valid questions but shouldn’t you follow someone like jean, who has more experience than most people i know. She JUST DID IT!

She didnt think about it too much, she just got on the bike and went for it. Tell me, is that such a ground-breaking thing to do? Is it rocket science or do you have to study nuclear physics to do such a thing?

I have seen lots of individuals change their lives around by taking on such an attitude.

The power of saying “im not going to take this crap anymore, this time no matter what im going to do it” is amazing! This is extremely powerful and if you do get in bit of a rage with yourself over the way you’ve let yourself slip, then that GREAT, use it as a motivational tool to get more out of yourself in your workouts!

My best workouts are usually when im pretty steamed about something, and i take it out on the weights or a run or  a cycle.

Being fed up may actually get you to do something.

Forget about prancing around fancy clothes shops, forget about talking a good game, change it around right now and get off your behind to make a massive difference to yourself.

Its not too warm, its not too humid, if it is then get out there early tomorrow morning and JUST DO IT!!!

Your moment of change is right here, time for action!

Most of you are probably just as bored as me of the general election fiasco, and the never ending story 24 hours a day on the news channels!

This is a bit like some people’s exercise programme at times. Plenty of talking but no action.

The time it takes to talk about your programme, you could have usually done the actual workout, had a shower, had lunch and evening meal and moved on to the next day, and your next workout!

We all know people who talk a good game, talk about past glories and pretend life really was amazing in a past life!

Isn’t really time to get it sorted once and for all?!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used to work in the public sector and more than frustrated by the way life moved at a snail’s pace there. Its probably like trying to get hold of the council on friday afternoon, didn’t realise we had to pay so much tax for so much inactivity and so many incompetents!

IF YOU TAKE ACTION EVERY DAY and actually do your workouts, shop for good natural foods, you will be definitely one of the minority-that’s a fact!

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the minority or are you one of the crowd? I find being one of the crowd soul destroying and tends to destroy any independent thoughts you have left.

There is nothing more liberating than making your own decisions, achieving things off your own back and not relying on others.

If you tend to rely on others, they often don’t deliver and tend to take credit for your success, making the scale of your achievements seem a little smaller than they really are.

Once you start reaching your goals, it will become addictive and you will start setting new ones all the time. This is when your life truly changes for the better because of this succession of extremely positive events.

You don’t need anyone telling you that you can’t do this or can’t do that, YOU ACTUALLY CAN!! Look at the person writing you off, are they jealous of your success and is their life a mess in their world?

Taking advice is great but encouragement goes a long way in my book. I would rather encourage than put down. Be positive rather than write someone off.

You will find that most people are negative, this is why you need to be independent and take action ON YOUR OWN, don’t pass it through various “committee’s” because nothing will ever get done!

It’s time for action, let’s sort it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the biggest transitions you can do is make the difference in thinking about purely weight, and thinking about your health overall.

If you purely think about weight, then healthy food can sometimes take a backseat and it doesn’t seem to matter what the quality of food is.

I have seen a ton of people eat things because they are “only 80 calories”, they will only drink things because they are only 80 calories. The next time you do that i challenge you to do this, count how many ingredients there are in that drink. I’m serious, you would have a tough job writing them all out in one go as its such a lengthy list! PLUS it does a very good job of representing a chemistry experiment, just about everything artificial you can think of is thrown in there!!!

Another way to look at it is the energy value in foods.

For instance, things such as green veggies, fruit and nuts will have a greater energy than processed foods, which are lower in calories of course but not so good for your stomach, and interal workings. These foods were put on earth for a reason,so you need to take advantage of them!

Nobody i know wants to feel terrible all the time, and if that is the case with you at the moment, do you even believe that life could feel better than it is right now? A massive part of this is to enable you to feel better and the facts are that whatever you put into your mouth will have a direct effect on how you look  and feel, its that simple for you so you take your choice on where you want to be!

Making your goals become real all start with looking after your insides, and although it could be a sizeable change for many of you right now, once your eating habits do change, even though it will be a struggle to start with, you WILL feel better inside, and as i keep saying, you will feel a lot better when you get it right from the inside out.

The biggest transition i made was saying to myself “is this piece of food going to any good for me”? Once you get to this stage and are very aware of your nutrition, life will be more full of energy and your immune system gets some serious boosting!

That monday feeling works in the opposite way for me.

Most people are very tired on a monday, life can be dreary and not much fun, and it can take a while simply to get going monday!

I use  monday as my day when i cleanse myself and give myself energy for the rest of the week.

My multiple runs start on a monday, all my emails start on a monday, all my multiple phone calls start on a monday, all this gives me energy and power, and does not drain me as you may have thought.

The minute i have a shower on monday evening, i feel better and i feel energised, i use exercise as a tool to give me all the power i will ever need.

Monday is a great day to straighten your eating out too, it feels fantastic right now to have eaten pasta with salmon steaks, along with some vegetables, im serious, i feel that good right now and its all down to monday being the day when im back in a routine and im super-charged to get going all over again.

Lots of water cleans my system out too, and i feel that great about it that i want to broadcast it loud and proud right now!

I get lots of energy of others too on a monday, i feed off their enthusiasm and their progress, and it inspires me to get more and more out of them, and myself too!

Monday should be used as the start to a new week, and a fresh beginning to make you feel amazing, and to renew yourself from the excesses of the weekend.

Its in your power to do it, so lets go!!

Although the principles of your training and nutrition may always remain the same, the variety of what you do can vary greatly.

Take your eating for instance, if you made the same shop every single week, with exactly the same foods, and you made exactly the same foods, life would be EXTREMELY boring for you, your family and whoever else you eat with or make food for.

You always need to have the staples in your shopping trolley.

You will always have your lean proteins such as lean meats, fish, good carbs such as wholemeal bread, wholewheat/grain pasta, brown rice, porridge, plenty of fruit, a wide variety of vegetables all supported by plenty of water throughout the day.

I have ideal shopping lists printed on previous posts so give them a look and they will be very helpful for you.

As long as you have a wide variety of each food group, you will not become bored and as long you get enough cooking ideas, and there are thousands of recipes for healthy eating all over the internet.

How about your exercise?

Is going for a run the only thing you do? How about cycling? How about swimming? How about walking? How about weight training? There are countless options for you to choose from, and as long as you tend to put some strength work in there twice a week with a 3 day gap in between, you’re going to firing on all cylinders and likely to get very good results.

From all of these things, you must achieve a balance or your plan eventually fails and you simply say “this isn’t for me after all”!!!

I always like everyone to have enough sleep, enough exercise with at least 1-2 days off training over your week to refresh you, and allow you to make further gains and really feel like approaching your workouts with enthusiasm every time, this is the optimum attitude to have, but you must keep yourself fresh as you always want your performances to improve.

Another good idea is to plan your activities for the week, and if you do this, you’re not likely to skip workouts and you can keep a record of your progress. A training journal is always handy, as you can write down what you have actually done. As we talked about before, you will develop your own “success map” on how to get in great shape, and you will always be able to refer to it whenever you want to get into great shape in the future, or to even help others get into their shape of a lifetime.

Have a great day and lets use the great weather to your advantage!

“Your own personal excuse list”

How many of you are hindered in your health and fitness because of your circumstances?

Is life really hard and you have no time on your hands to exercise?

Do your friends tell you that exercise is not worth the hassle because of that old favourite story about some jogger somewhere on this planet dropping dead on a run, so you should never run again, as it is “dangerous” as all these joggers all die young?

Do you have little time because the kids are keeping you too busy and you REALLY have no time?

You can’t join a gym because you have no time AND no money?

Exercise never worked for you anyway?

Now is “not the right time” in your life to get fit?

Are you too old to get fit?

Are in you skinny so you don’t need to be fit?

Work comes first so getting fit is the last thing you need to do?

Your grandkids come first, and it keeps you fit just running after them?

You can’t eat healthy food, its too “boring”?

You can’t exercise, you have asthma?

Exercise is no fun for you?

The gym is boring and you can never get on the machines anyway, and it is full of posers?

Life is a bitch to you, and nothing goes right for you?

By the time you get home from work, you haven’t the energy to do anything!

Life is so busy for you, ready meals are the only option!

Diet clubs are the only thing for you, as you want a “kick start” to get you going!

You don’t want to do weight training as “it makes you too big”.

You can’t commit for the rest of your life to exercise?!!

Its always raining and too cold, and too warm in the summer to exercise!

My knees are bad!

My back is bad!

I will start exercising when I “lose weight”.

I can’t resist my treats and after all, only one life I have!

I have to drink every day, life is boring without it!

IF YOU ARE KIDDING YOURSELF THAT THESE EXCUSES ARE ACTUALLY TRUE IN SOME WAY, JOIN THIS PROGRAMME AND LET ME PROVE YOU WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can do something about every single one of these excuses, and turn your life around so let’s be honest with yourself and lets get it done once and for all!!

Strange topic to talk about on such a nice day, and a nice couple of weeks really but we have to talk about nice weather mentality, and “bad” weather mentality regarding your training.

I know some of you love getting out on the bike and going for it on a day like this, and some of you have had  a whale of a time the last couple of weeks. Your fitness has improved, some of you tell me you feel so much better and you’re revved up to get more out of yourself and reach new highs.

 Some of you who are competing the Mumbles Childline Triathlon on sunday will have been swimming, running and cycling the last few weeks or even months to prepare yourself. The great thing about this weather is that it gives you great incentive to get out there and do it, and straight after you complete your ride, or your run, or even you walk, i’m going to put everything i have on you feeling so much better about yourself!

So life is good with this weather, and you are able to do exactly what you want, and the great thing is its not too warm either.

With all of these favourable weather conditions, your fitness is about to go to new heights, and new levels of what is possible in your life and with your health in particular, this should be a very exciting time for you as long as you’re taking action and really want the best for yourself and your family.

Let’s turn it around the other way when the weather is wet, and cold and being outside doing a bike ride, a run or even a walk is not the most attractive thing in the world!

Does your mood dip a lot when the conditions aren’t working for you. Mine certainly does a touch when the weather isn’t so good.

I try to make up for all of this by hitting it really hard inside, and to be honest with you, the rain doesn’t really scare me as i accepted a long, long time ago that it will rain around here at least 9 months a year, or close to 12 months of the year it seems like at times!

Once you accept the weather isn’t always going to help you out, you are likely to just get on with it and make the very best out of the cards you are dealt. I find it invigorating sometimes getting out there in the rain and wind, and sometimes realising that i am the only one out there, and the person i am training of course!

I find these the most valuable workouts, the times when nobody expects you to get out there! The times when most people “chicken” out and slump in front of the television when they get home from work! Once you feel guilty about not doing your workouts, the closer you are to having a healthy and active lifestyle as truly part of your life, this is actually a GOOD thing!!!!

So the bottom line is not to worry about the weather, don’t ever let it put you off (unless dangerous of course!), and tell yourself that you CAN be really commited to being in amazing shape, all it does take is that extra effort and extra push in your mentality. Once you adopt these successful strategies, life will feel a whole lot better!

Getting some momentum in your training makes all the difference, as debbie is obviously discovering now that she is off the alcohol. Things are moving in the right direction for her, and she says she hasn’t had to make this  huge kind of effort to get there. Once she got into a new routine, and one that she has been very familiar with in the past, she is continuing to make the right choices and she is confident to post it here, and to inspire others.

She says its never too late, and although she didn’t do as well as she could have in the challenge, she is certainly making up for it now!

It’s like a train leaving the station, it chuggs away very slowly and with a lot of noise when it leaves the station, but when it leaves eventually, it gathers momentum and when at full pace, is a sight to behold and has huge momentum and nothing’s going to stop it!!! That sounds like what debbie is moving like now, and with that kind of mometum, the results and overall progress could be huge.

Now if you ask someone what feels better, is it a few beers and a life of takeways and chocolates? Or a life of feeling good about yourself 24 hours a day, full of energy, occasional treats and a good balance in your life of eating well 80% of the time, exercising well 80% of the time and sleeping well?

Heck of a choice there and i know some of you will go with the beers and takeways!! And its your choice because we are still a free country and you can make any choice you want. However long it takes you, as long as you get your life on a more healthy level, then thats great news to me and it will be for you i’m sure!

All i know is that anyone who has had a few years of eating rubbish, and not training at all, and THEN changing it around by eating the right things, and suddenly putting exercising into their life, ALWAYS TELL ME that their life is now better, and should have done it years ago, THIS HAPPENS 100% OF THE TIME!

If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a go, you never know you may like it!!

What was the decisive moment you decided to get fit?

What was the decisive moment you decided you change you health around and actually do something about it?

That particular moment that decides whether you get on a health and fitness programme can be very poweful.

For instance, ive seen lots of people ignore health warnings about their weight and lack of activity and pay the price down the line. We all know people who smoke too much, eat too much, dont move around much and can end up having a stern lecture often too late in a hospital bed. The person concerned would have much preferred to have taken the preventative approach, of exercise and eating healthier.

Decisive moments also include the time when you lose confidence in your own health and fitness programme, about the lack of results you may be having. I find some people are either very enthusiastic (which is good) about their programmes or are over-pessimistic about their programmes and their chances of success.

You see people posting all the time on here either on top form, or a couple of weeks later, in despair because a couple of things have gone wrong, they have panicked and their progress has well and truly collapsed!

Little do they realise that if they hadn’t blown their programme off the rails, and had kept their heads that they would have in fact stayed on track, and got a bit mentally tougher from staying the course and greatly enhanced their chances for being overall very successful and for the long term too!

We are here on a monday again and whats your plan this week?

I ALWAYS find that if you have a good monday, that means a good workout to start the week off, that you are motivated to get it right for the rest of the week, and you are very likely to eat better too, as you don’t wish to blow all your efforts!

So have you got your week sorted out? For example, personally i have hit some good runs today, and am doing a weights workout later with a client so today is massively productive for me.

Not only that, but my energy levels are up too which is ultra-important to me. My job is highly energy based so if i am not raring to go each day, then i have little motivation to give people!

We have already done the 84 day challenge this year, we have the childline triathlon in mumbles sunday morning which we organise every year, and we have 120 people all raring to go over the three disciplines. So this year already, there have been a lot of goals being met by all sorts of people from all walks of life.

The opportunities are there for you, all you have to do is take them.

Of course it is easy to sit down every night after work and have a beer, and to eat “easy” food that may have been made for you such as a take away. But guess what? “Easy” doesn’t do anything for yours self-esteem, self-confidence, body fat levels, energy or performance and simply feeling good, it DOES NOT GET YOU THERE!

Hopefully, you’re having a great week so lets make sure a big monday happens to put you on a great course for the rest of the week!