Posted on

Monday, 29th October

We are coming up to november quickly and this means you have a whole month to get where you want to be by the start of decemember, and definitely the run up to christmas!

Everyone i know wants to be in shape by christmas, and they know all of the excess calories are going to hurt their bodies by the end of it, in terms of putting on weight and feeling stodgy and low on energy. Before we get to that stage, we have to start right now by eating and training to get as lean as possible!

The evenings are already a lot darker, so please use this month as a big positive and there’s absolutely no need to retreat into your shell because of the lack of light, its an opportunity to get your head down and work harder than you have ever done before!!!

Mondays are always the biggest opportunities to start off as you mean to go on, not to leave yourself down and fill your body with energy on the very day you need to make a statement for the rest of the week.

This is an excellent period to set new personal bests too, whether its in endurance or more metres covered on a rowing machine in a certain time for example, or you may just find yourself recovering quicker from each exercise, a sure-fire way of telling that you are getting much fitter. You will always have a favourite exercise so use this month as an opportunity to turn it something you are proud of, one exercise you’re able to do better than most other people, certainly better than you have done it before anyway.

When you set new personal bests, its usually guaranteed that you will see amazing physical benefits in all areas so use this as the perfect springboard for a fresh batch of improvements coming your way in november, which will set you up for a christmas in great shape!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 26th October

October 26th is the day before the clocks go back, and automatically things get darker from now on, and you may have noticed a lot colder!!!

This is the true test for me on an individual’s hunger to show up and really get into shape. Its much easier in the summer when things are mostly bright and sunny, but the dark, wet, cold nights can be something else to get over.

If you look at the situation quite a bit closer though, there is absolutely no reason for you to miss sessions and snuggle up on the settee every night feeling sorry for yourself! You will feel a lot more sorry for yourself if you pile a lot of weight on, when your self-esteem goes down and you become one of those people who say “i used to be fit and healthy…………..once upon a time!!!!

This statement is one of the saddest you will ever hear so let’s turn it around right now and not fall into that trap for one second!!!

Look at it another way, there are 8 whole weeks to christmas and nobody wants to look overweight and sluggish christmas time, especially with all the drinking and eating yet to come!!!

Use the winter evenings as an excuse to train, to put in the hard work in your baggy clothes, knowing when it comes to wearing your christmas dress or christmas suit, you know you have the opportunity to look incredibly better than you do right now!!!!

These are the choices you have right now in front of you, if you really think of it there aren’t many reasons you could use as an excuse!!!

I have had this discussion with everyone i train who are struggling at the changing of the seasons, and all of them without exception have ramped up the pressure on themselves to put in such great performances in the run-up to christmas!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 24th October

I always get questions on the difficult subject on which foods are best to eat before exercise.

Studies have shown that consuming foods with a slower sugar release (porridge, potatoes etc) will work far better than foods with a fast release of sugar (chocolate, sugary snacks of all kinds).

This wise choice will keep your blood sugar levels much more long lasting especially during longer training sessions.

Latest studies have also shown that slow release energy based meals eaten around 3 hours before exercise have burnt more fat than those people who ate sugary snacks 3 hours before the same workout, and the same amount of carbs.

This is not to say that a small amount of sugary product cannot be beneficial before exercise, but having too much sugar can cause dizziness and make you feel faint, especially if you overdo it before intense exercise.

Some ideas for pre-exercise meals

Sandwich/roll/bagel/wrap filled with chicken, fish, cheese, egg or peanut butter

Jacket potato with beans, cheese, tuna, or chicken

Pasta with tomato based pasta sauce, vegetables and cheese

Lighter macaroni cheese with salad

Rice with chicken or fish and veg

Porridge made with milk

Wholegrain cereal such a weetabix, shredded wheat, no salt no sugar muesli.

Noodles with stir-fried prawns or tofu and veg

Pre-workout snack ideas
2-3 portions of fruit, eg grapes, apples, peaches, apricots

1-2 bananas

Approx 40g raisins, dried apricots or sultanas

One 300ml smoothie home made preferably

1 or 2 pots of natural fruit yoghurt

1 all natural cereal bar, not the more or less pure sugar type!

1 large glass fruit juice

3 rice cakes, thinly spread with all natural peanut butter

See how you get on with these!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 23rd October

Unless you fully appreciate each stage off your development, and try to go from A-Z in record time, you are unlikely to achieve sustainable progress.

For example, we talked about some basic but very handy tips on your eating again.

The big question is do you practice all of these habits on a daily basis? If not, then perhaps you need to visit these again before moving on. How many of us have told ourselves that we know it all anyway, and we do not need to be reminded?

I have heard plenty of people use this attitude and guess what? They are always the ones who continually show LEAST progress!!

The ability to be a “sponge” and absorb every scrap of information you possibly can is always undervalued.

I often see the people with the least individual athletic ability over-achieve and better the results of so called more gifted athletes purely because they have applied themselves a lot more, and the same goes for every area in life.

The people who don’t take advice from a post such as yesterday are also the ones looking for some “magic” supplement that will somehow strip fat at a massively fast pace and somehow get you into your best shape, even without eating really well somehow!!!

Those of you who have been down such a route (and most of us have let’s admit it!), will relish the fact now that we don’t need to use such a complex and usually such an expensive route that is ultimately futile!!!

The tips yesterday will offer you stratagies that cost you absolutely nothing, but you will be able to keep up for a lifetime!

They offer you easy ways to get into shape, to speed your metabolism up, to help you make the right choices, and definitely put you on the road to feeling healthy and getting into the kind of shape you always wanted!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 22nd October

Fat loss tips that will work for you
Stating the obvious with a few of these, but its always good to re-visit strategies that will help you look and feel your best!

Portion control

Eating larger portions will get you used to eating big and therefore make you put weight on!
Studies have shown that when people are given larger portions, even when they didn’t like that particular food, ate 33% more calories during that meal.

A simple way to judge is to use your fist as a guide for carb and protein sizes, and no limit on your vegetables.

Don’t ban your favourite treats completely
If you still eat your favourite foods in moderation, you will likely lose more fat in the long run and make your eating plan far more sustainable!

If you keep some of your favourite foods in there, then no food will be classed as “forbidden”’. When foods are classed as off limits, they are more likely to be binged on when you have them. The trick is to make suure the portions are much smaller than normal.

Don’t miss breakfast

Still the most important meal of the day, and if you eating a filling healthy meal to start the day, your chances of eating well for the rest of the day go dramatically up!

Your body needs energy first thing in the morning, it raises your metabolism straight away and you will have all day to burn those calories off. Eating well first thing in the morning stops you from over snacking in the morning and piling your plate up too high at lunch!

Study after study shows that people who eat breakfast lose more body fat than those who avoided it, and consumed less calories throughout the rest of the day because they were less likely to overeat.

Limit your food choices at each meal

Studies have shown that the more simple you keep your mealtime, the less likely you are to overeat.
The less food alternatives you have on each plate, the quicker you are likely to be satisfied and therefore eat less. The pleasure of eating is highest up to the third of fourth bite, then it slows down. The more foods on the plate, the more you prolong the sensory pleasure, which means you delay feeling full for longer, causing you to eat more.

Keeping it simple come food time makes perfect sense all round!
www.kerimckibbin.co.uk
Tel 07968 980808

Twitt