Tuesday, 11th June

The reason you are doing this is often forgotten, but this reason is often what will pick you up when you’re down, when you don’t feel like training that day or week, this reason will also help you shop better for food, not stray into eating junk food at times, and generally keep you on track.

Some people use a photograph of themselves when they were really in shape all those years ago, and sometimes stick it on the fridge to incentivize them to eat well, even when they have the strongest of urges not to!

Some people use a photograph of themselves carrying TOO MUCH weight! This can also help them get fired up so they don’t look like that ever again!

We need these little cue’s on often on a daily basis, so eating well really does become part of your daily life.
I always use the brushing teeth example. Ask yourself why you really clean your teeth and you will realize why you clean them every morning and every night before bed, these types of questions you need to ask yourself when it comes to exercising and eating well.

Ask yourself what it really means to you, how much you’re going to benefit from an improved healthy lifestyle, and how much better you’re going to look and feel from it?

Then ask yourself what it would mean to your lifestyle if you DID NOT adopt a healthy lifestyle? What would the negatives be? What would you lose in terms of the way you look and feel?!!
Whether it’s a diary you keep, or the photos you put on the fridge, the photos you have of yourself on your phone or computer, whether its your new years resolution you may actually achieve this year, or the life-changing decision you made to get healthy in the first place for WHATEVER reason, keep reminding yourself and you’re bound to keep improving!

Monday, 10th June

Fibre is something we all know we need to eat, some of us need to eat more than others, but many of us just think of a couple of foods when it comes to fibre. Seeds and grains are the ones we all think about, and both of those foods don’t seem the most appetizing!

Fibre helps us control our weight better, helps us control our blood sugars, helps our internal system work far better such as our bowels and digestive health too. An added factor is it helps lower cholesterol levels, which is becoming an increasing problem for everyone.

Pears are usually the last thing you think of when it comes to fibre. When we have fruit, it seems we go for apples or oranges, but pears contain a decent amount of fibre and will always give you big benefits. Pears contain a lot of the benefits of apples but in different quantities, and contain nutrients that look after your general health, also helping in the fight versus free radicals.

Dried plums are another overlooked food, giving you a third of your day’s fibre needs, and can help you absorb iron in the body better.

Beans of any kind are great for your body containing fibre and iron, pinto, kidney, cannellini are all great examples and wil do you nothing but good, plus they help bulk out many of your favourite dishes in a good way!
Split peas are another great source of nutrients, and can be used in a classic pea and ham soup, which will be very good for you and often delicious.

Coconut flour is proving to be a great addition compared to regular useless nutrient empty white flour. Coconut flour has extra nutrients, protein and essential fats as well as a healthy amount of iron of course!

Artichokes are something many avoid because of the way they look. If you boil them, you wont get a greater source of iron and fibre in such a small piece of food.

All of these are great choices so make them a part of your diet over the week to enhance your health in all ways!

Friday, 7th June

If you’re going to be looking good this summer, i have told everyone i know that is in the hard winter months that the real hard work is done, and the work you are doing right now will keep on improving you, but the monumental changes to your body should have been done by now.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should stop trying at all, it should mean that you had better get a move on and get your food in good shape, as well as your body!

The methodology shouldn’t change too much, and the longer you keep talking about it, instead of actually DOING it the better.

It’s friday today, but please don’t write yourself off too much, and don’t say it’s the end of the week so i may as well start “next week”! Next week never comes for most people so you had better get going today, and make your weekend one of activity instead of sitting down all day, eating food that could be classed as “treats” for your body, but in fact you are just piling more weight on, compounding the problem of an inactive lifestyle which usually leads to ill health of some kind down the line.

It’s never too late to start getting more active, it’s never too late to discover the joys of fresh food, and it’s never too late to stop drinking alcohol every day, with all the negatives that brings to your life.

It could be a big friday for you if your change it all today!!!

Thursday, 6th June

As I said at the start of the week, this has been a week of separating the hard trainers from the people who will often miss a week like this due to the warm weather.

This has been my all time best week in terms of the number of individuals wanting to work hard. This has been due to a strong start to the year, and regular and fast improvements for all of those people concerned.

The tactics I have used this week is to combine outside and inside workouts. I will spend say 10 to 15 minutes outside, then bring people inside to cool off and do some work in a different environment.

The most important thing is to keep people drinking water, and have them bring the water outside. This makes sure your body’s core temperature is kept more constant, and never gets into dangerous levels. Anytime your body’s core temperature rises too quickly, then your health will be severely compromised, and in extreme cases death for those who workout in extreme temperatures, such as deserts and those which have extreme humidity in the summer such as Miami and hong kong as we shown in the British lions rugby match last Saturday!

The precautions of taking onboard enough water are lifesavers for professional tennis players for instance, who perform great feats in ridiculously humid temperatures. These precautions apply in every single sport now.
If you keep adopting habits that professional athletes treat as commonplace now, then you wont go far wrong and will keep on performing at a high level, even in the most testing of temperatures, and humidity which is often overlooked but always unpleasant to exercise in.

So this week, make sure you cover all bases, adopt a professional attitude and you’re likely to still have great workouts without any ill effects.

Wednesday, 5th June

If i am starting off with an individual for the first time, or trying to keep helping someone i have been training for 15 years, then the principles have to remain the same.

When i first meet someone, one of the important things i tell them is to change their running shoes every 6 months, or 500 miles.

This will ensure that they stay injury free (events that we can control anyway), and put less strain through their knees, ankles, back and spine.

If you ask any foot specialist, or running expert, or anyone who makes a professional running shoe, then they will tell you that the constant and regular changing of running shoes is absolutely paramount. I change mine every 8-10 weeks, but i do wear out my running shoes a lot quicker than most people.

You don’t need to go to a specialist shop either. As i said, i just change my regularly, and it seems to work just fine for me!

It also puzzles me when i tell some people to change their trainers regularly, that they protest so much, even though that they may have ten pairs of stillettos!!! You don’t have to spend a fortune, just make sure you get a decent pair of running shoes, NOT cross trainers and remember that the running shoe is the shoe with the most technology spent on it in terms of millions of pounds!

Mark out on the calendar right now when you need to change!!