Friday, 4th November

Massive changes in your body will happen if you are training in a proper manner.

For instance, i was doing a one off session with someone yesterday and this person claimed she always did fit ball/swiss ball group classes and was also a regular a pilates classes.

Since a lot of my sessions are now focused on balance and stability work, i was ready for this person’s valuable input on my session.

The result was the exact opposite of the one i expected.

Out of 20 exercises i did on the fit ball, she had only done one of them before, i was stunned.

On the pilates moves i usually do, she had never done one of them.

Guess what too? She still had a bad back despite her appearance at all of these “group classes”!!!

I asked how she found all the new exercises i had given her, and she said she felt relieved because her back was so much looser and the exercises i had given her she felt would quickly strengthen her back. This was good for me to know too, as you are looking for good feedback on the work you do, and getting the right exercise prescription is always important.

It shows that if you do the right exercises, then not only do you get substantially better results, but you spend less time exercising too because you will be getting the job done a lot quicker!

It is like seeing someone who only does treadmill work every session, every week, every month for years. They may appear quite lean, but you know they are missing out on so many elements of health and fitness. For example, they are not doing a lot of muscle toning, bone strengthening, muscular endurance etc etc.

They will need resistance training in their lives if they are to reach their true potential. Sometimes we don’t like leaving out self-enforced comfort zones, but we must do it to reach our true ambitions.

Thursday, 3rd November

Alarming figures today regarding our dietary habits in wales.

It turns out that we consume a lot more sugar and saturated fat than our English counterparts.

This leads of course due to serious health worries such as diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease and certain cancers.

The NHS is a ticking timebomb and unless we change our habits now or at least very soon, the NHS really wont be able to fund the massive increase in money its going to need from the government.

The biggest problem is the lack of genuine solutions.

They try to encourage kids to eat better in schools, yet are cutting budgets in school canteens to impossible levels, meaning the lowest quality of food is going to be served every break time and lunch time in schools.

I have worked previously in two large comprehensives in the area, and was appalled at what they were serving our future generation. I interviewed the canteen manager and she was desperate to be able to serve more nutritious food, but was stopped doing so by the local authority manager for school budgets.

I then met the local authority manager in charge of this, and she flat out denied that there was rubbish being served every day. I tried arguing my point, AND the canteen manager’s point, but she tried unsuccessfully to shout me down. The person concerned in charge hadn’t the first clue about proper nutrition, she was much more concerned with her figures, which was in my book disgraceful and I told her so!!!!

Then one large comprehensive school near trostre shopping area we all know, actually HAD A SWEET VAN ALLOWED TO COME INTO SCHOOL EVERY DAY!!!

I wanted to meet the headmaster on this point and he refused, or at least try to put me off 6 weeks until he retired!!! What a coward and an example of a public service official more interested in his gold plated pension!!!

With leadership like this in schools, our future and our kids future, AND THE NHS FUTURE is definitely NOT SAFE!!!!

Unless we get kids educated and their parents educated, then we are not going to get fitter and healthier as a nation, that’s for sure!

These high profile campaigns always lack substance and are always just photo opportunities!!! To be honest, seeing ministers trying to fake joining in exercise turns my stomach, the leadership if you can call it that stinks from right from the top, and if that happens, what hope have we got!

Fortunately, there are some good teachers out there still trying to carry the message in the right way, its about time our so called “leaders”  start walking the talk!!!

Wednesday 2nd November

One of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is what you need to do, and what is considered enough!

There are a lot of people who dont do ANY exercise at all, and unfortunately never will, perhaps because they think that they “know better” somehow??!!

Then there’s the people who think that just walking is enough, they think that walking is the ultimate exercise, is the most enjoyable exercise and you would be a lunatic to do anything more than this!!! I agree that walking is a very good exercise indeed, but to say it covers all your body and health needs is at best misguided and to be frank, downright wrong!!!

Fitness is about so much more than having a walk, walking is part of it no doubt because its a great activity, but isn’t there so much more?!!!

Of course there is more and what about resistance training? Weight training of all kinds strengthens your joints, bones, tendons and ligaments, it tones your body and in particular muscle tone, it speeds up your metabolism because lean muscle tissue burns far more calories per 24 hours, for instance one pound of fat burns around 2 calories a day, one pound of lean muscle tissue can burn up to 50 calories a day.

Then there is walking as we have previously mentioned here and there are great walks all around us.

You can also take part in running on many of the great coastal paths around the county, and cycling gives you an opportunity to do the same routes, but a lot quicker and no strain on your joints! Swimming is a favourite for many and again doesn’t stress your joints and can become a serious part of an individual’s day, i know many whpo participate daily and absolutely love it.

Then there is stability, balance and endurance work which anyone who has ever trained with me, will know an awful lot about!!! This will solve any back trouble, hip weakness and most joints problems if done cautiously, and can apply to a pro athlete or an absolute beginner!!!

There are a million and one options so please don’t restrict yourself just to walking please!

Tuesday, 1st November

Two key elements that will ensure you get into shape and stay in shape include portion control and making sure you keep that “full” feeling in your stomach, which means you wont be tempted to binge.

For starters, breakfast is always the big cliché now, THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY, and that is definitely the truth still and will be for another thousand years!

Start the day well with the following;

Porridge with milk is a great choice with dried fruit as a sweetener.

The sweeteners you buy in shops are absolute garbage, rubbish and are usually under investigation by the authorities, plus they keep your sweet tooth alive and well and that means it makes you still crave sugar, which is bad news!!!

Porridge with water will bring your body fat down even quicker so your choice.

Weetabix with  milk is fine

Shredded wheat is fine with milk

A small omelette is fine with a piece of wholemeal toast and no butter or margarine

An egg white omelette is even better because you lose the saturated fat, a win win situation and I know lots of people who have got used to it.

A piece of wholemeal toast is great with cottage cheese and chives for example.

Please forget about spread forever, it’s a needless source of saturated fat and wont help you in your dietary goals one bit!!! You will save between 100-250 calories per meal easily!!!!

Mid-morning snacks are vital to keep energy levels constant, usually around 10-30am depending on your working day.

Any fruit will do.,

Or  a piece of wholemeal toast with plain cottage cheese, onion and chives flavour or any flavour, as long as its natural and there more and more on the market now.

Lunch is usually on the run for most busy people so food on the go is essential, but most pre-prepared food in the supermarket doesn’t cut it it, due to excessive saturated fat, salt and sugar in sandwiches.

Did you know sushi now has overtaken sandwiches as the most popular snack in supermarkets, and this is a very simple choice with just fish and rice in all different types of varieties. Unless you have the one that is stacked with salt, this can be a great choice and much better than supermarket sandwiches.

Wholemeal pitta bread is a good choice, because you have a slow release of energy, vegetables usually in there too and protein of your choice such as white meats or fish. The great thing about this is that its usually made by you, so you will know exactly whats going into it, there will be no “hidden” lots of fat, salt and sugar which the supermarkets seem to specialise in!!!

Mid-afternoon is another critical time when you don’t want to leave you energy levels crash. Plus if you don’t eat mid-afternoon you are likely to be starving by evening meal time and are likely to want to eat far more than you need of course.

A small handful of nuts, and im talking cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts (natural versions) will work very well for you in terms of giving natural fats for you body, essential fats that is to make sure you are giving your body what it needs for essential function all the way through your body.

Fruit is always a great choice and try to mix it around, variety is the spice of life!

A bowl of porridge is fine sometimes too, especially if you are training around 5pm when you will need to added energy, I find this a great help at least a couple of times a week myself.

Evening meal should be one of your best meals of the days, and im not talking about  a big meal, im talking about the quality.

However busy you may be in the day, theres no excuse not to get plenty  of vegetables in this meal, theres no excuse to get a good quality protein such as white meats or fish, theres no excuse not to eat good carbs such as sweet potatoes or new potatoes, jacket potatoes are very easy to make too.

If you follow the rules you will do very well. Keep the size of your protein the size of your fist, the size of your carb serving the  size of your fist, and veg serving plentiful.

Drink water throughout the day, no need to gulp lots down in one go to try and make it up. This adds a lot to fat burning and general function of your internal system.

Eat every 3-4 hours, the smaller “grazing” way of eating can make a huge difference to you, eat little and often and this way you solve the problem of being hungry all the time and eventually eating too much in one meal, which will always lead to weight gain because your body can only handle so much food in one sitting of course.

Time to make it happen and let a common sense and tried and tested way of eating take over your life, big results will always follow!

Monday, 31st October

Most people think about their training in terms of splitting up body parts, splitting their cardio and weights workouts, splitting up between morning and evening training sometimes.

Then we come to food, some try to split carbs from protein, some try to not eat much in their day so they can drink alcohol in the evening,

Some people split their eating into different diets through the year.

They may  do red and green days for a month (protein on one day, all carbs the next), then they may do the no carb diet just before summer, then they may do a shakes and bars diet for a while, of they are looking for very quick weight loss even if none of these are really sustainable of course!!!

When you split up all of these aspects of your health, your body will suffer because you’re confusing it too much and you’re not allowing it time to settle on a healthy diet with a good amount of nutrients it can rely on every day.

The same thing can happen with your training, if you do just running one week, then just weights the next, your progress will slip back in  both these types of workouts.

These types of workouts should always be included WITH each other in every week you train. You must do resistance/weights AND cardio (run/walk/swim/cycle for example) EVERY week to have good results.

With time seemingly a lot shorter for most these days, IT IS entirely possible to do whole body workouts in EVERY session, and the great news is that the best results are usually from this way of training!

You will burn far more calories per workout, you will break more muscle tissue down (which speeds up your metabolism), you will develop a lot more endurance and become much more of an all round athlete!

The benefits are overwhelming so give your body the best possible chance by employing these methods and your body will appreciate very much the stability you give it!