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The train has left the station!

Getting some momentum in your training makes all the difference, as debbie is obviously discovering now that she is off the alcohol. Things are moving in the right direction for her, and she says she hasn’t had to make this  huge kind of effort to get there. Once she got into a new routine, and one that she has been very familiar with in the past, she is continuing to make the right choices and she is confident to post it here, and to inspire others.

She says its never too late, and although she didn’t do as well as she could have in the challenge, she is certainly making up for it now!

It’s like a train leaving the station, it chuggs away very slowly and with a lot of noise when it leaves the station, but when it leaves eventually, it gathers momentum and when at full pace, is a sight to behold and has huge momentum and nothing’s going to stop it!!! That sounds like what debbie is moving like now, and with that kind of mometum, the results and overall progress could be huge.

Now if you ask someone what feels better, is it a few beers and a life of takeways and chocolates? Or a life of feeling good about yourself 24 hours a day, full of energy, occasional treats and a good balance in your life of eating well 80% of the time, exercising well 80% of the time and sleeping well?

Heck of a choice there and i know some of you will go with the beers and takeways!! And its your choice because we are still a free country and you can make any choice you want. However long it takes you, as long as you get your life on a more healthy level, then thats great news to me and it will be for you i’m sure!

All i know is that anyone who has had a few years of eating rubbish, and not training at all, and THEN changing it around by eating the right things, and suddenly putting exercising into their life, ALWAYS TELL ME that their life is now better, and should have done it years ago, THIS HAPPENS 100% OF THE TIME!

If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a go, you never know you may like it!!

Twitt
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Decisive moment

What was the decisive moment you decided to get fit?

What was the decisive moment you decided you change you health around and actually do something about it?

That particular moment that decides whether you get on a health and fitness programme can be very poweful.

For instance, ive seen lots of people ignore health warnings about their weight and lack of activity and pay the price down the line. We all know people who smoke too much, eat too much, dont move around much and can end up having a stern lecture often too late in a hospital bed. The person concerned would have much preferred to have taken the preventative approach, of exercise and eating healthier.

Decisive moments also include the time when you lose confidence in your own health and fitness programme, about the lack of results you may be having. I find some people are either very enthusiastic (which is good) about their programmes or are over-pessimistic about their programmes and their chances of success.

You see people posting all the time on here either on top form, or a couple of weeks later, in despair because a couple of things have gone wrong, they have panicked and their progress has well and truly collapsed!

Little do they realise that if they hadn’t blown their programme off the rails, and had kept their heads that they would have in fact stayed on track, and got a bit mentally tougher from staying the course and greatly enhanced their chances for being overall very successful and for the long term too!

We are here on a monday again and whats your plan this week?

I ALWAYS find that if you have a good monday, that means a good workout to start the week off, that you are motivated to get it right for the rest of the week, and you are very likely to eat better too, as you don’t wish to blow all your efforts!

So have you got your week sorted out? For example, personally i have hit some good runs today, and am doing a weights workout later with a client so today is massively productive for me.

Not only that, but my energy levels are up too which is ultra-important to me. My job is highly energy based so if i am not raring to go each day, then i have little motivation to give people!

We have already done the 84 day challenge this year, we have the childline triathlon in mumbles sunday morning which we organise every year, and we have 120 people all raring to go over the three disciplines. So this year already, there have been a lot of goals being met by all sorts of people from all walks of life.

The opportunities are there for you, all you have to do is take them.

Of course it is easy to sit down every night after work and have a beer, and to eat “easy” food that may have been made for you such as a take away. But guess what? “Easy” doesn’t do anything for yours self-esteem, self-confidence, body fat levels, energy or performance and simply feeling good, it DOES NOT GET YOU THERE!

Hopefully, you’re having a great week so lets make sure a big monday happens to put you on a great course for the rest of the week!

Twitt
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Benefits of being strong!

Back on my schedule today again, the 6.10am run and the day off yesterday did me no end of good so im hitting this message today with no end of energy too!

 I like to talk about balancing your schedule throughout the week, and how important it is to have your week planned in a broad sense to make sure you are successful each week full stop.

You always need to be doing some strength work a minimum twice a week to boost your metabolism, increase the rate your body burns calories 24 hours per day, really firm you up all over, get you stronger and fitter all round.

For many years, doctors argued that weight training and resistance work of all kinds would simply give you a heart attack if you pushed it too hard and would give you high blood pressure too. We all know now that the opposite is true.

Making gains in your health and fitness plan is impossible without having resistance training in your plan.

Another myth that used to be put around was that strength training slowed you down a lot.

The heaviest users of weight training in the running world are always the sprinters. Try telling someone who can run under 10 seconds for the 100 metres that weight training/resistance training slows you down!

The realities are that the athletes were the ones finding out first what worked before the doctors. The doctors would then research the claims made by athletes and then verify all the amazing benefits that they were constantly reporting.

Now any sport from tennis, to football, to squash, to canoeing all use strength training as vital parts of their weekly training, year round!! None of this rubbish “i don’t want to get too big”!! If only that was possible that easy!!! Sportsmen are discovering the benefits of strength training in all sorts of different ways for their chosen sport, and are not “getting big and slow”, they are getting sharper, fitter and lasting a lot longer into their 30’s than ever before.

A lot of strength training is about avoiding injury too. Most people dont know that you are strengthening your bones and joints when you use resistance too. This makes your body work together in harmomy more, making the chance of injury much less.

When you get in old age, you want strong tendons and ligaments, as well as strong joints and bones to avoid falls for instance, and to do things that will still give you a high quality of life. We all want to be active into old age but you have to create a strong base and foundation first.

You need to do your strength work AND cardiovascular work (running, walking, cycling, swimming etc), thats a perfect balance!!

Have a great sunday and thanks for visiting!

Twitt
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Drive

Without drive, you’re not really going to get where you need to go. You will have no impetus, no inspiration, not much energy, not much determination, and you will find things a really struggle when times get tough.

The things that usually drives us is our thing inside of us that really motivates us. It can be either inspiration or desperation!!

How many of us have done things because we are really inspired by something to get off our behind’s and actually do something with our lives. We have usually seen something motivating or someone has shown that it can actually be done, and we have often said “if they can do it, then i can do it”!!

Another situation is getting desperate. I know a lady who would struggle with her weight, and not really do anything about it. Then one day, she was told by the doctor that she needed an operation, but she couldn’t have it until she lost 3 stone! This is a common story for some i know.

She approached me to put her straight and to cut a very long story short, she lost 5 stone which was incredible. She has since had the operation and now continues to lead a very active and happy life, and can now enjoy the pleasures of her grandchildren a whole lot more!

So by inspiration or desperation, you know you have the capabilities to get there. People with the biggest handicaps of done it before and you can do it too, as long as you take action of course.

Finding out what really drives you is ultra-important, its the thing that gets you up in the morning, its the thing that gets you out there in the cold and wet to do your workout, when the easiest option would have been to cancel it!

It may the new dress, it may be the need to have an operation like the lady mentioned, it may be the desire to get yourself in great shape, after abusing yourself for years with alcohol and sugary/fatty food and no exercise, it may be to simply feel better after feeling low in energy and low in confidence all these years, it may be to get in shape for holidays, it may be to improve your love life, it may be for a wedding, it may be to keep up with your children or grandchildren, it may be too help your asthma-YOU GET THE PICTURE!

Here’s a test for you, write down all the things you really want in life, short term and long term, give it a go and really go for it, and you may be surprised how many things you write. Then, i will bet right now that all of those things will be severely ENHANCED with exercise and eating healthily.

Give it a go and have a great weekend!

Twitt
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Re-charging

Everyone gets tired from time to time, even me. 12 weeks of a new born eventually take their toll with lack of sleep and general tiredness.

Also,  i made the mistake of training 7 days in a row and just carrying on the next week as well, with no break. I know this never works for me long term and eventually i get tired, and lack energy. I didn’t follow my own advice and am paying the price!

Can’t wait for a day off tomorrow, and some well-deserved rest, perhaps you never get complete rest with two little ones, but i will try my best!!

Saturday is always good for having a lay in, although that only means 6-630am to me, but its still better than most. An early morning walk is great for me too with the dogs, and generally a day relaxing gets me ultra-enthusiastic again, and ready for a great early morning sunday run, which i thrive on!

Rest is always the understated third component of the thre essentials.

Everyone knows about how important training is, as well as eating is of course, but rest and recuperation is just as important so we all need to use the recovery phase properly. I am charging myself up now, and the next 36 hours recovery phase will mean i have overwhelming energy again.

Have a great evening and im going to raring to go tomorrow after a good nights sleep (5 hours would be great!)

Twitt