Making the connection!

Making the connection between feeling good through exercise and eating better, is critical to your long term success in following a sound health and fitness plan. If you keep on complaining everything is hard, you make excuses not to exercise, you complain all the time that healthy food is boring, and life is not worth living without all those sauces on top to flavour them, then you are clearly arenot “making the connection”.

Let’s go over the same message once again, your body can take 12 weeks to get used to a more natural way of eating, with no artificial additives, no harmful sauces, no excess sugar, no excess fat that isn’t  needed, those are the facts and sometimes you have to face the facts, and stop making the same old lame excuses, if you want to be in shape, or at least get leaner and get more energy in your life, you’re going to have to eat better full stop, drink more water and exercise with purpose, although exercising at all would make a nice little start for some.

This is a big secret for some, but making that connection is vital and numero uno!! There are many ways to get it and enjoying your exercise would be a start, but sometimes that enjoyment doesn’t come until you get a few workouts under your belt, get a routine going and start to eat well, then the feeling better process really begins and things suddenly get “enjoyable” remarkably!

Most of us do things for a reason, to avoid pain and gain pleasure. Contrary to popular belief, exercise and eating well does bring us pleasure if we do it right, and for instance, when we get compliments on how well we are looking and maybe we have lost some weight, there’s nothing better than that feeling. The short-term discomfort of getting yourself into an exercise plan will soon be outweighed by about a thousand different benefits, let’s get out there and make the connection once and for all!

Inspiration and desperation!

Most people will actually get off their backsides for one of two reasons. It will be either be out of inspiration or out of desperation! How many of you have never applied for a job because  although you knew you had the ability to do the job, it would be “easier” to ignore it and stay in your “comfort zone”, even if being in that comfort zone didn’t make you particularly happy, you were worse off financially and emotionally.

You may be inspired to do things sometimes by seeing others battle and win against all the odds, and you will be encouraged to follow suit. It’s always great when others have shown you the way to do it, and will often give you the nudge to lift your game a level or two.

I certainly followed the desperation route, I remember working in a fairly mundane office job, having already passed my health and fitness qualifications, I saw an opening for a job in a new health club. Someone in the office questioned me loudly and doubted my ability to get that job (although secretly I was not prepared to settle for that job anyway, I wanted to work for myself). I was already fitness instructing 4 hours a day and decided I needed to do something big with my new qualifications.

My response was out of desperation and I wanted massive change in my life, the next step was I phoned the local paper to put myself on trial and train the chief reporter, and if she found me not that good-report it, if she found it good-report it, the results thankfully turned out very well and my one act of desperation allowed me to get real momentum in my career and encouraged me to keep taking action. I didn’t listen to the “you’ll never do it” brigade (and there were plenty), I just kept my head down and did it, and momentum became very powerful indeed, so much so that it became like second nature.

This piece is not to “big myself up”, its to encourage you to take action as it can become a habit, a very good one, and it was desperately hard for me to take the first step too!

If you keep on working hard, keep on doing good things often without receiving any credit, do things because you want to and help others, and you will be on the road to being more successful in your chosen field.

Staying on course

So how’s it all going? Have you managed to stay on course, and if you have, does it feel better? Have you avoided getting blitzed in the Christmas party? Have you managed to train the day after consuming all those goodies?

Have you hidden behind the excuse of “I have no time”? What about training before work, even one set of everything will make a difference, anything is better than not doing a thing? What doing even something means is that you are still keeping your hand in, you are still keeping your metabolism going, you are still helping your mood stay high even with the upcoming or ongoing stresses, you are still in the “game” of exercise, and that means you are not going to give in that easily.

I started a workplace class off today in Llantrisant, and the great thing about it, they were all keen to get going as they were either new to exercise, or hadn’t exercised for a long time. There’s nothing like that enthusiasm of getting going for the first time, and real sense of excitement and wonder of how exactly how far you can take yourself. This is one example of a group determined not to slip back over Christmas, and I actually think they will improve, and hit the ground running in 2010, which is always a great situation.

Your choice, you either collapse under all the rubbish food and booze, or you still have a bit of what you fancy, put some good food in there too, and get a couple of fresh air workouts in and really feel energised about the big start to the new year!

Sunday lazing

If you’re laying around, feeling in a coma like state after a big night out, then a huge sunday lunch, then maybe a workout or two/three and some good eating will give you this starting monday;

Reduced stress levels

More control of appetite

Increased confidence

Put you in a better mood

Make you look younger!

More confidence

Shiny skin, hair and nails

More protection from osteoporosis

Improve your attiude to EVERYTHING in your life!

Give you better sleep

Increase your co-ordination

Improve your posture

Help you burn more calories at rest

Give you lots more energy

Give you increased lung capacity

Increase muscle tone

Protect your bones and jonts

A fimer body in every area

Give you more control of your life

Help you with any sports you play

Make you actually want to do things!

Give you a sense of wellbeing

Don’t reach for the headache tablets, get out there and do something, it’s not too cold honestly!

Start monday off well and you won’t regret it!

Keri

Worst to first

I don’t want to get up at 4am for work half the time, but my mind is soon changed and i am flattered that someone wants me training them at 5am.

Many clients say they didn’t really want to start, but so glad they did because they have achieved great things. This came about by doing things that they thought for the very worst thing in the world, running up hills, going out when it was freezing, wet, windy, and even snow! They tell me that initially eating foods that taste terrible could actually become very tasty given just a few weeks. Another of the “worst” things was allowing a photo to be taken of themsevlves, and actually admitting for the first time, they were in bad shape and needed to dig themselves out of the hole they were in. It was a incredible journey for some, and still is has they continue to face life’s challenges.

It’s like eating all your greens when you’re a kid, you don’t really want to do it and could be the worst thing in the world at the time, but you know you have to because it’s good for you, and after some practice, the greens become a lot more tasty somehow and i could lisr many examples with a lot of foods!!

Isn’t it funny if you keep on practicing things you may have considered horrible (linked to good health) to start with, your life changes for the better, you get lots and lots more energy, and you start looking and feeling better, the more you practice! The more you develop your weaknesses, the stronger you will become, and those weaknesses will soon become your strong points, and make you much more of an all rounder knowing you can attack any challenge.

Sometimes the last thing you think you need to do, or eat or train, should be the first thing you should do.

Keri