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January 7th, 2010

So how’s your first week back going? Was it tough like for most people? Did you take it easy? or did you not even get going and feel totally sorry for yourself?!!!

Whatever your answer was, as long as you got going in the first place, then that was the main thing. Those of you who were not sure how to exercise, how much, how long, how many days etc, will have now got a week under your belts and realise that for the first month or so, its just important to go steady and get your body used to exercise. Confidence comes with experience and as long as you have a good guide, then you are likely to experience very good things.

In general terms, i would say that 3 times per week is enough for a beginner, someone who is used to exercise but wants to take it to another level would be advised to go up to 4- 5 times per week. An individual who has specific aims or wants to exercise at a high level AND has a lot of exercise experienced, could possibly workout 5-6 times per week quite comfortable as long as that person was experiencing good amounts of sleep and particularly good with their food.

Most people don’t realise that exercise is a stress on your body but a very positive stress. To regularly experience this good stress without any problems, you have to replenish your body with adequate nutrition and that mainly comes from an abundance of natural foods. You can do all of that and if you don’t get enough sleep, you can still fall down and fail to progress. The triple whammy of proper exercise, eating well and sleeping well has to be in place or there’s not much point in trying to get amazing results in your health and fitness programme.

No matter on how people to try over-complicate their programmes and do the latest cutting edge routines from the latest faddy magazines, unless you have strong fundamentals underpinning your helath, progress will be brief if any at all.

People ask me all the time “shouldn’t i be on this machine, this routine or this way of training?”, all valid questions but i tell people all the time it always comes back down to the basics. You can train in the most fancy gym in town, but if you’re not doing the basics right, then results WILL NOT come your way full stop. In fact in my experience, most of the fancy gyms have the least results with usually “instructors” who have been “qualified” in a couple of weekends.

I trust you don’t want to continue going round in circles so let’s keep it simple, hit your training hard, never miss a session unless you’re ill, eat well, rest well and leave your body experience great results!!!

The weekend is supposed to be dry so no excuse for you not to get out in the fresh air!!!

Twitt
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Thursday, January 6th 2011

The efforts you may be now making with your diet ought not to be wasted, and you need to be adopting some simple strategies to make the most out of your new exercise and dietary habits.

The most important difference you can make right now is to give alcohol up for a while. The improvements your liver will see in the next month will be huge if you avoid drinking for the next four weeks and it’s a great month to do it, with not a lot going on.

Hopefully, after the four weeks, you will be feeling so good that you won’t want to go back to a lifestyle of excess alcohol and the dangers that come with it.

Absolutely nothing wrong with having a drink but moderation is the key. We all overdid as kids and some of us are learning now that perhaps its not such a great idea anymore to try and drink like an 18 year old into our old age!!!

Another huge disadvantage of alcohol consumption is the hunger it suddenly gives you. You start craving things you never thought possible, and those cravings are usually high fat and high sugar items, the very foods and drinks that are guaranteed to put a lot more weight on.

The statement that is perhaps factually correct more than any other is that ALCOHOL MAKES YOU FAT FULL STOP!! A bit harsh for some to take perhaps, but very true in my experience nonetheless!!

 If you give up alcohol for a month, you will notice the bloated feelings going almost straight away. Any problems you have with blood pressure will subside a bit and substantially over the longer term, any overeating problems will be helped no end, any irritable behaviour you may have developed will subside too hopefully.

There are only positives to giving up alcohol this month and your enthusiasm for exercise can literally go through the roof!!

What are you waiting for!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, January 5th 2011

To give yourself a great start to 2011, you need to give yourself a big boost and you need to get used to eating every 3 hours. This will prevent you getting too hungry and this will keep your cravings at bay. Don’t forget you need enough energy to train, or the whole thing will fall down so let’s get it right again.

Breakfast

Starting your day with some protein is important. An omelette is fine but making your omelette with egg whites is much better when it comes to losing body fat. Including mushrooms or tomatoes or both in your omelette will be a bonus, spinach is also great.

Studies have shown that those individuals who include protein in their breakfast are likely to want to eat less throughout the rest of the day.

Most people start the day off with carbs, which is fine as long as its porridge, shredded wheat or weetabix.

The easiest way to blow your plan is NOT to eat breakfast, keeping your blood sugar levels is highly important to stop bingeing and to stop you eating late at night. People who eat breakfast don’t tend to want to eat too late in the day.

Mid-morning

Some fruit is fine of any kind, or a snack of 3-4 ounces of tuna is fine as well. Keeping some protein even mid-morning will keep your energy levels from crashing.

Lunch

Try and make sure you have a good meal at this very important time of day. It’s a good time because you are still likely to be active the rest of the day, burning your  biggest meal of the day off in the hours left in the day. We talk about lean sources of protein all the time, such as chicken, turkey, cottage cheese, lean beef even or any kind of fish, as long as its not battered of course!! If you’re looking to create a quicker fat loss, keep it to a large salad with it or some steamed spinach, broccoli or carrots, or any vegetable you like really, a variety is always good and recommended.

Try not to have a salad alone, always make sure the recommended protein sources are in that meal every time. Remember that protein sources always keep blood sugar levels steady, which means your appetite stays under control.

Mid-afternoon snack

Fruit should be consumed mid-afternoon to keep your energy levels going, we talk a lot about energy levels as in simple terms, you won’t feel like doing anything without a good supply of energy which helps greatly with enthusiasm!! I would also try around 3-4 ounces of turkey or chicken, lean white meats to keep you away from cravings sugary or fatty foods, this will help greatly in keeping everything going well and keeping you full. A SMALL handful of almonds will be excellent at this time for essential fats and studies have shown that almonds are excellent when it comes to fat-loss.

Dinner

By this time of day, your normal cravings can be higher than normal, BUT if you have followed this, you will have eaten throughout the day, felt much fuller than normal and less likely to grab a cheese sandwich as soon as you get home!!

I would go for the trusted formula once again of your lean protein source of chicken, turkey, fish etc with an array of fresh vegetables, the more colourful the plate the better to give you a wide variety of nutrients.

This eating plan will make sure you sleep well too. Feeling full is key to sleeping well and this time you’re not going to have wide swings in blood sugar either, which can affect sleep. The better your sleep, the better you exercise and the more body fat you lose, its all good when you’re doing everything sensibly and working from your inside out.

Give this a good go and watch your body change!

Keri

Twitt
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January 4th 2010

Most people are back in school or work today, and are struggling to come to terms with the realities of a dark and wet january! Add to this the increase in VAT, increase in rail fees, national insurance and the cost of just about everything going up right across the board. People as a result are likely to spend less as a result so George Osborne better know something we don’t, just as soon as he’s come back from his £11,000 skiing holiday. On average, there must be many conservative and liberal voters reading this so you can’t really complain, as you knew this in advance. The Americans on the other hand are spending their way out of this crisis, and according to most analysts and economists, it seems to be working! Whatever side of the fence you’re on, hope everything works out well for you this year!!!!

To avoid turning this into such political debate, this is an excellent time to prioritise your money into healthy quality foods and not waste it on alcohol and fast food full of sugar and saturated fat. What a perfect excuse to get into shape and give yourself a flying start into january!!

Times like these dictate that your spending gets scrutinised more than ever before, so every penny counts so give yourself an old test to see if you’re spending wisely. If the food you puchase is natural and good for you, then its worth buying because its going to make you feel good, look good, give you lots more energy and therefore make you far more positive.

If you keep spending money on junk, and fill your body full of rubbish, then you must really have more money than sense, and these spending cuts are not really affecting you. As a family, its our responsibility to get as much good food in as possible, there’s no room for rubbish anymore, but theres always room for better quality foods full of high quality nutrients that are going to boost our immune system and keep us well prepared for the cold months still ahead!

This year is going to be about much more than losing weight, its going to be about being the best you can be in the harshest economic environment since the 1930’s!!! With a bit of though, it can be a huge year for you discovering what really matters!!!

Twitt
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January 3rd 2011

The people who trained over christmas are really finding now that their workouts are becoming much easier. I found that this morning on my early morning run. To be honest, i found it tough gettting out there to start with as the temperature has dropped quite a bit, but 10 minutes in, everything seemed to be getting much easier and my last hill even involved a sprint, or at least a faster run!!

These are signs to me that christmas habits of staying active bearing fruit. The ability to start the new year in good shape takes the whole “lets get back into shape in january” out of the equation. The focus should easily go away from january now, and you should be already looking at getting into shape into january. If you are a faddy dieter, then your sole concern is just january because life is all about short term fixes for you, and no strong foundations are ever laid.

So if you are already in the swing of things or nearly there anyway, the target now must be a couple of weeks of conditioning and easily by the end of january, the target should be to be at the very top of your game. This will give you a great satisfaction that by the end of january, you will be looking and feeling very good indeed. This will be just as most diet club members will be tearing their hair out and about to see their “diet programmes” collapse in front of their very eyes.

Anyone who doubts that last statement should look at the fact that i have rolled out before, about the numerous studies that diet clubs and faddy diets in general DO NOT WORK 97% OF THE TIME. That is not my statement, these are independent studies done over numerous years over numerous clubs and diets.

Let’s concentrate on getting some good foundations in, eating more natural foods 80% of the time, exercising regularly, drinking enough water and sleeping well.

No matter what stage you are at, if you want to make 2011 the start of something special, then you have the SAME opportunity as ANYONE else.

Let’s get it going even on this bank holiday monday!!

Twitt