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Your weekly shop

One of the key basics is your weekly shop of course.

I have banged on about this for a long time. As long as 80% of your shopping is good nutritious food, then you are in a good situation. After all, how many tmes have you bought sugary/fatty foods and promised yourself you’re only going to eat them on “special occasions”?!!

Those special occasions happen quite a lot in my book and its always surprising how quickly all those extra treats are gulped down in record time!

I keep telling everyone, if you are REALLY shopping for healthy food and get used to the supermarket layout, chances are you wont visit many of the aisles, as most of them are full of you know what! It shows the supermarket really bets on most of its visitors filling up on junk, and how many times have you looked at someone’s basket and how many clues does that give to the owner’s appearance and body in general.

If a shopping basket/trolley is full of white bread, biscuits, multi-pack chocolate bars, value packs of crisps (around 10 packs in one big bag), bottles of wine and lager, full fat milk, not much veg or fruit, lots of orange squash, lots of ready meals and other processed versions of real food, you get the picture!! If this is indeed the case, you can be sure the owner of this trolley and most likely their family is suffering from obesity issues, which include diabetes, blood pressure problems, cardiovascular problems, bad circulation and a whole host of life-changing problems.

Compare this to someone who has a trolley full of porridge, low fat low sugar beans, fish of all kinds (no batter), chicken, turkey, lean beef, cottage cheese, lots of fruit and vegetables, wholegrain pasta, brown rice, sweet, jacket and new potatoes,  all the good stuff guaranteed to make you look and feel fantastic.

Put your treats in if you must, but 80% plus of the trolley needs to be good nutritious food, hugely important to get in the habit of this and not to be sidetracked into the aisles full of junk!

You all have worked hard for your money, spend it on food thats actually going to make you feel good and help you reach all your goals!

Twitt
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Do the basics change?

So we have made all of these posts, over a whole range of topics, and the big question is, has it made things easier, do the same problems exist and has your approach to solving them changed?

We started this blog off preaching the basics, and no matter what, these basics will always serve you well and will be key elements in your progress. This never changes.

Your progress will naturally go down a bit, and go up a bit, but when you REALLY want to get in your best shape, if you revert to eating well and every 3-4 hours, eating the right portion size, snacking healthily, as well as putting some quality training sessions in, you know that big things will happen for your body and your health in general.

I think society always looks for the “magic” cure, the one way that will really work this time and if you can only keep it up for two weeks, you will somehow be in great shape!

You know by now that this is nonsense and many of you will have spent A LOT of money finding out the hard way, which is never good!

That’s why many of you are here, you’re fed up with people who lead you a merry dance, people who promise short term weight loss, and are not around to pick up the pieces when everything falls apart and you put all the weight back on. How many times has that happened?!!

I see many times of people, from a professional rugby player who suddenly finds out that his training methods are not so great after all and needs to be put right, to senior people who are worried if their joints are going to seize up on them, from teenagers who are all consumed with their appearance, to housewives who have been on every diet going, and see me as their last resort!!

If you’ve followed this for a while, you know i always keep on about the importance of doing the right things, day in day out if you are interested in long term success, both inside and out. It can be done and i have huge evidence to say so right now, and seen it with my own eyes.

This is week of the basics, so lets make sure we’re all back on the same page!!

Twitt
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Weekend sights on the coastal path

Hall of fame inductee from my point of view goes to Alan Thomas of Llangennech, who if you’re on the coastal path any morning from 5am to 7am, you will see happily not only riding his bike from llangennech to pembrey country park, but also SINGING along the way!

I see Alan on saturday mornings and now and again on  sunday morning riding his bike, and i have never seen anyone happier to be riding his bike, and his voice would also give Tom Jones a run for his money!

Alan used to make as a Metallogist with the old Duport Steel works. Once the steel works was shut down by the Thatcher government in 1981 i believe, Alan moved to Alcoa who he worked for many years. He also has a job in 1987 setting up the first steel plant in dubai, when it was a desert of course. He also worked in new orleans for a bit with Alcoa and then worked with them until his retirement around 6 years ago.

Alan smoked until he was 43 and still regrets it until this time, worst thing he ever did he said!

He then took up the bike when he was 60 years of  age, and enjoyed it so much, he said not a day goes past when he’s not on it!

His breakfast of porridge, a tomato, some figs and some water is consumed at 4.15am every morning and leaves Llangennech at 4.55am every morning, come rain or shine.

The only days off he has are due to ice or snow, which we had quite a lot of this year. He said he got fed up of coming off his bike this winter so had days off instead!

So next time you tired and are feeling sorry for yourself, think of alan who gets up at 4.15am every morning, no matter what the weather is! Plus add the fact that he feels stronger than ever, even though he is advancing into his 70’s!!

Have a great day and hope you’re putting a big one in today!

Twitt
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Friday…………are you proud?

So we have done a week of day by day emotions and what played out, or at least what was likely to play out in your week.

So what happened? Did you have an ideal week or did you throw in towel early?

Has the weekend started early already or perhaps it never ended at all for you?

Living the lifestyle you want is entirely up to you, are most of you are grown adults able to make responsible decisions in your life. It shouldnt really have anything to do with me on what you do in your life, how many workouts you put in during the week, what your shopping basket is like, and how guilty you feel by not exercising in the first place?

I am here to help though as many people i train or have trained use the site from time to time, and thats what its all about, helping other people simple as that, no money involved and no catches!!

If you have had a good week already, then you deserve something special the weekend, or a treat or two you don’t really do anymore in the week, good for you, you deserve it!!

You will find on your treat days, you’re probably living your life like most people live every day or their life. Most people accept the fact that they will never re-discover their lost youth and powers of being able to be as active as they liked. They really believe those days are behind them, and those of you who have transformed your life, will know they are talking rubbish as ambition has left their lives. Sometimes temporary, sometimes forever unfortunately.

So im taking it lots of people have had a good week, congratulations on it and you’re in a perfect position now to inspire others, so do someone a good turn and tell them they can really turn their lives around just like you!

Twitt
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10 reasons why you don’t “just do it”!

Here’s a set of conditions which may be hanging around with you this Thursday, and causing you not to have as great a week/month as you’re really capable of.

  1. You may not have had your Monday blast, as I suggested on Monday, increasing the chances of you not having the week you’d like to have.
  2. You may have carried on your weekend treats into Monday and Tuesday, therefore not exactly developing the drive and energy to train hard or not even train at all.
  3. You may be worried about your job or business, with all the government cuts coming, I hear of a lot of pessimism again and it is very worrying for a lot of people.
  4. You may have emotional strife, worries on a personal level that make it hard to get workouts done and certainly not big performances.
  5. Your shopping list may not have been done last week, instead you are relying on bits and bobs from the local shop, petrol station and the odd takeaway, after all it seems a lot easier doesn’t it?
  6. Your sleep is terrible, its unsettled and you wake up shattered, leaving no energy and your irritability is at an all time high!
  7. You may have a glass of wine every night, that turns into a bottle sometimes? Number one way to destroy your training for the week and put extra body fat on!
  8. You hang out with friends who make fun of exercise, who ridicule exercise and give you pearls of wisdom such as the famous “one life you have, its too short to exercise”! This is one of my “favourites”!
  9. You have turned into a story teller, you tell your kids and maybe grandkids that you were really in shape “once upon a time”, but that was in the past and those days are “behind you now”. This is getting pitiful isn’t it?
  10.  You have lost all self-belief and self-confidence and reached the bottom of a big deep rut, nothing can help it seems and life is now one big day to day struggle! Desperation is good, it will mean to you that you are finally desperate to change it all around, as life is unbearable surely being that much overweight, inactive and depressed? The ONLY way is up surely?

 

EVERY SINGLE ONE of these reasons why you’re not performing well is helped TO A GREAT DEGREE by exercising and eating a whole lot better, this is an absolute fact and the big question is, like every day this week, are you going to actually do it or is life going to be one big feel sorry for yourself exercise?

I don’t say this to pick on anyone, but im saying that I know the truth and the all natural remedy for your lack of energy, lack of optimum health and lack of real attitude to conquer all TEN of those scenario’s.

The big question is are you going to do it right now or not? It all starts again with the first step and im right behind you so lets do it!!

Twitt