Monday 18th July

Good news on a Monday always settles you on a steady course for the rest of this week. Start with effort and you get a whole lot of confidence straight away and your results are likely to be very good indeed.

What helps me sometimes is going through the lists of food I give out to new clients, so they are always worth a visit in the diet section. The lists on breakfast ideas, lunch and evening choices and snack ideas reinforce my thinking on what I should be shopping for on a weekly basis.

I know if I REALLY want to be performing and feeling my best, then these foods HAVE to be a big part of my week.

I talked about the stress of moving home last week, but these foods have helped me an awful lot when it comes to re-energising me and getting me fired up to get through my working week.

“You are what you eat” has never been more true.

If you want to look like something really soft and spongy, then please go ahead and eat the ready meals, the cakes and biscuits, the chips, the greasy options in most café’s, these are the foods that will make you feel like you have NO energy and no enthusiasm for life!

If you are reading this, then it shouldn’t be a wild guess that you are looking for excellent results when it comes to looking amazing and feeling fantastic.

This is why I am banging on about diet today, because you can train ALL YOU WANT, but you can NEVER make up for a poor diet and deep down you know there are no short cuts to long term success with your health and fitness.

If you do click on the diet section on the right hand side today, you will refresh your mind and sometimes open your mind again to the extreme good value of changing your diet for the better.

Monday is a day to rebalance your body and put it on sustainable and energetic path for the week. It all starts with good nutrition, no excuses and lets get it right starting today!

Friday 15th July

By the sight of more and more fast food establishments opening all the time, you would think there was no problem in this country with obesity?

Is everyone now a lean mean fighting machine?

Does everyone exercise now?

Is everyone in their swimsuit this summer flaunting off their body loud and proud?

Are all of those individuals and groups with “gym membership” cards who never go suddenly in shape by watching television and talking a good game on the settee every night?

The answer to these questions has to be “you have got to be joking”!!!!

So the obesity crisis goes marching on and everyone who has a problem doesn’t do too much about it!!!

In fact, it may be trendy to become overweight because so many people are, in fact over 60% of the population is!

So what can we do about it? There are many things of course but it comes down to the fact that we are a democratic country and people have the right to do exactly what they want to do.

This is the bad news of course, but the great news is that we CAN get in as great a shape as we want, as long as we are willing to put in a ton of hard work on a regular basis!!!

This is what a free country is all about too, we can strive to become better, to become fitter, to become stronger, to become very healthy in body and mind, the choices are there for all of us and you know it secretly!!!

So the big question you have to ask yourself every day is are you going to become one of the majority according to latest government statistics, that means being overweight and inactive?

OR

Are you going to become one of the minority who takes pride in their appearance, takes pride in the fact they are fit and healthy and takes pride in the fact that they can make it good on their own terms, through their own effort and hard work and become successful through being consistent with their eating and training with purpose.

Its all a choice and up to you whether you make the right one!!!

Thursday 14th July

Apologies about the wait again but BT broadband required a 10 day stabilisation period when it comes to moving house, that this would explain all the delay in me posting my daily message!

The technical difficulties though are outweighed by the joy of moving to a bigger house, make that bungalow.

A move or fresh change in anything can be very valuable to one’s training.

Now I have different walks and runs for the dogs, and this spices up my  weekend running no end, anything fresh and different should inspire us to reach greater heights.

Fresh and different also brings greater enthusiasm. When you do the same thing all the time, boredom can set in plus your body can get used to exercise.

This means that you are far more likely to plateau sooner in your training.

For example, if im going for a run at the weekend, then the total change of terrain and more importantly, the new challenge of a new terrain will ask new and more challenging questions from my body. This means I should be getting a fresh and new set of results when it comes to muscle hardness and body fat loss.

You don’t have to move home to achieve this of course.

You can drive to different venue’s just to run.

You can run in woodland, 2 days later you could run on the beach, a few days later you can try hills with a great view, next time after that there could be a great run in a park involved etc etc.

Its this chopping and changing that can be very good for you, both for body and mind of course.

If you like everything much more fresh and exciting, change things around as much as possible and all it needs is a little bit of thought.

Tuesday 12th July

 I notice some of the little changes you have made lately have become big physical changes for you, or definitely turned into big physical transformations for some of you.

Take one of the easiest, most tiny changes you can make and the results are usually staggering.

If you stop taking butter and margarine on your toast, then you will be saving yourself at least 100 calories per sandwich, and more likely up to 200 calories for some people who slap it on their bread. I have found this tactic enormously successful for everyone who has stuck with it!

Then there is another obvious one. Mayonnaise! This is a serious weight gainer and if you can’t eat your fish or even meat without it, then you must change right now because every time you take some on your food, you are filling your arteries up with saturated fat in a very serious form, this only has a bad ending I can assure you!

No need to try the low fat versions of these either, you really need to get rid of the taste of these products and they are prime examples of how people continually never get “weaned” off high fat and high sugar foods, because you’re not really getting rid of them.

You may get a lot less calories in the “low fat” varieties, but you’re not getting rid of your taste for all of these products, and you’re not stopping the endless chemicals in these products coming into your body.

If you want your body to become a chemical experiment, then carry on but my guess is most of you care what happens inside your  body and you don’t want to take chances with your health.

Eat fresh when possible, eat natural at every opportunity, eat in moderation  and you give your body a great chance of having outstanding health!

Monday 11th July

Having just completed my house move, its a good time to be thankful that we again have the spare time to do some good workouts again.

I am also thankful that i have the time to eat some good fresh natural food again, and i can tell the difference between eating not so good and now very nutritious food today. I have more energy, more get up and go and i am recovering well.

This is the power of food when used in the right way, and when you use it as an excellent fuel source. That statement doesn’t mean that healthy food isn’t tasty, because it REALLY CAN BE!!! In fact, if you google search any healthy food cook book on the internet, they are usually packed with lots of ideas to do really good and exciting things with fresh and natural produce.

If you don’t believe that last statement, then you are relying far too much on sugary and fatty food, or you are scared of eating regular meals and snacks, if this is the case, i have to sincerely tell you that you must try and get past it.

Food IS NOT the enemy and it has never has been, good food that is!

The rubbish that most supermarkets sell really IS the enemy if this is most of your daily consumption!!

Yes, you can eat well when you go out for lunch or in the evening, you just need to eat better and more plain if possible. You don’t need all that food soaking in all the fatty sauces, or with lashings of cream and butter, or loaded with so much salt, you could probably drink ten pints of water afterwards!!!

Its monday and im energised again because my habits are good again ,fresh and natural food is stocked high in the fridge and my workouts today are already full of energy and enthusiasm!!!

Lets make it a great monday as usual and set the tone for the new week!!!