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Version of reality

Most of us have our own versions of reality, some more ambitious than others.

For example, getting into shape requires us to train a minimum of 3-4 days per week.

It also requires us to eat very healthily most of the time.

Then we need to hit the sack reasonably early every night, so we can recover and get ready for another workout the day after sometimes.

This is the version of reality i try to adhere to, and i know its pretty truthful when expecting results.

Some people’s version of reality is eating what you want, slamming in a couple of light hearted session in the week and hoping for the best. When the desired results don’t come in, the common response is either to feel sorry for yourself type of attitude, or not really be truthful with yourself type of attitude.

The sooner you realise that two walks a week will not get you in amazing shape the better.

The sooner you realise the gardening for 30 minutes a day will not get you in great shape.

The sooner you realise that 30 minutes of housework will not get you in shape the better.

These are all daily mail types of claims, or claims from the government, and im here to tell you that they are BALONEY AND FALSE.

Im not saying that housework and gardening are not good for you, but you DO need to do some structured workout regularly if you want to change your shape, lower your body fat, strengthen your heart and flat out get yourself in shape full stop!

Enough of this namby pamby daily mail attitude to exercise, its not going to do much. It will improve your health but not make real life-changing effects on the way you look and feel.

Lets make sure you do your workouts with purpose and still do the household tasks anyway, whats wrong with that? Then you can have the best of both worlds!

The facts are if i gave you every bit of advice they give in the newspaper or some government leaflet, i would be out of a job because nobody would be getting into the shape they really want.

Let me also say that ANY activity is good and i encourage ALL OF IT. This site is all about getting into shape in a reasonable amount of time, its not the ramblers walking club, although they do some fantastic work and long walks are good for you.

This is all about grabbing the bull by the horns and getting it done, which reminds me, lets do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Twitt
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New season coming!

Now that i’m back in the land of the living after my food poisoning, i have to say how fantastic it feels! It is great to be full of energy and not aching from head to feet! I’m back and it feels great to be going back to work tomorrow!

September on wedneday and this is always a critical month.

This is the month when you can really do something about it again, in fact you can do something about everything if you really want to.

I know a lot of people who get back into their training in september, as if the summer was one big excuse to go on the beer and have barbecues most days!

So see september please as a season where you can throw out the old, and bring in the new!

Some people use it as another excuse to cry off from their training.

Its dark too early, its too cold, its too depressing etc etc, these are just a few things to help you along with your excuses if you want to?

Or

Are you going to throw out the old rubbish excuses, eat the foods you know will get you in top shape, avoid the rubbish that keeps you in the same old situation and finally BREAK OUT this time?

Is that a YES?!!!!!!

If it is, im going to right behind you and be really excited about your progress, im very serious about that.

Its a road ive seen a million people travel, but only a few travel all the way and reach that heavenly place of being in great shape and feeling fantastic too. The great news is that ANY ONE of you can do it, im convinced of that and im here to help you.

Most of you will be back in work tomorrow, im fired up so lets start your week on a big high and get ready for a big september!!

Twitt
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Food trouble

Spent yesterday on my back believe it or not. I cooked some salmon friday night and ended up with countless visists to the bathroom saturday! Felt weak all day but glad to report that now (sunday morning) my strength has come back quickly and have got a good walk in this morning. I usually do a run on sunday but thought it best not to push myself.

This is an example of reacting to your body when it breaks down and doing the right thing.

We have all tried to fight against illness, but sometimes it is better to go with the flow and surrender for a while.

The great thing is that my immune system is usually under a lot of exercise stress, so the idea of me laying down on the settee all day and night is a strange one.

What this allowed me to do though is recover far quicker than normal. All my body had to do was fix itself and not do anything physically stressful. All i did is lie down and watch sports all day, and couldn’t even raise my voice, that was even too much of an effort! I felt awful yesterday but the good news is today i am nearly back to my old self.

I encourage anyone not to exercise if they feel unwell, as all you are doing is putting off your recovery, sometimes putting it off quite a lot. Your immune system is hugely important of course and you have to manage the stresses on your body at all times.

This is why i always recommend at least one dayoff a week, if you don’t, your immune system will struggle with this and eventually break down, causing colds and many types of illness.

Fortunately, if you eat properly and include a wide array of nutrients in your diet, your chances of falling sick go down dramatically.

Your imune system is always protected best when you exercise regularly with at least one day off a week, your diet is packed full of nutrients with a variety of healthy food, and the most forgotten element-sleep! If you don’t sleep properly, you won’t recover and won’t feel like doing much full stop.

All of these three elements must be in place to achieve a good strong immune system!

Twitt
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Weekend plans

So what’s your weekend plans looking like?

Is there a bike ride in there? Is there a scenic walk going on? Any swimming efforts going in? Any activities at all?

Or

Is the weekend revolving around the pub? Have you noticed that on a nice warm day like today, there is always the awful sight of people with their tops off drinking outside the local pubs? Enough to put you off your food some of them!

Sometimes its a mix of the two and nothing at all wrong with having a drink in moderation AND doing a workout! What a concept!

Seriously, when you go all out at  something with no room for anything else, you are sometimes less successful because you miss out eventually on a balance in your life.

The bank holiday is fun no doubt and the advice always is to do your workouts, and chill out a bit.

This weekend also signifies the end of summer, the last week of summer means we are usually preparing to go into the start of autumn, and the run up to christmas for most retailers.

This is your chance this year to get into shape BEFORE christmas, you can really do it if you show some consistency and have a solid plan.

Check out the workouts on here, check out the eating ideas, go through the hundreds of blogs designed to inspire youto new highs. Its all here if you want it and if you have a question, click on subsribe and its all free, no catches and you’re guaranteed a well-thought out answer.

My plans this weekend include my usual 6am walk of the dog tomorrow for an hour, the early sunday morning run, and my bank holiday run and i may throw some weights in there too.

It may seem like a great idea to relax completely and do nothing. It works against me though because i start back work on tuesday feeling like a 70 year old man IF i don’t do anything. I have found this to my cost and swore to never let it happen again.

Like most of you, exercise actually makes me feel good, it inspires me to do more things in my life and helps me be a better parent too. If you live your life with health being the main theme throughout, good things tend to happen and you’re capable of more full stop. Nothing worse than puffing and panting through life (in a bad way i mean), the more you can do without too much effort seemingly because YOU ARE fit and healthy is worth its weight in gold.

Have a great weekend and lets get out and do things!

Twitt
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Two women on a charge!!!

Different levels of fitness requires different levels of effort.

Achieving those different levels though is a gradual process as member Annette is finding out, and she sent me this message last night.

“My first week of training went quite well.

  I am definitely feeling more alert and my diet is much better although I could probably still improve on it.  Drinking loads of water which is making me feel less tired.  I have stuck to my workouts, even when I went camping because I don’t need to use any gym equipment.

 I can do them anywhere plus they are pretty short which is always a bonus for me!! 

 Cardio workouts are the ones I look forward to most but feel absolutely lousy while doing them ( I am soooo unfit).

  Never mind, I’m sticking with it no matter what!

Annette”

Annette is clearly on a path to where she wants to get back achieving big things once again. She knows she has to work through different levels before she is anywhere near where she was before. She knows she will get there though as long as she sticks with it!

She also knows that she can do her workouts literally anywhere, and shes not tied to a gym and the limitations that can bring.

Debbie is clearly back in the swing this week, and enjoying something new that has done a lot to stimulate her interest and reawaken her passion for health and fitness again.

She also has great experience with injuries, and has the know how on how to avoid any pain in her workouts.

These are people who have done it all before, who have been at their peak and for various reasons, have slid back a bit in terms of their fitness and maybe body fat, and want to experience the big high’s they had from being at their best.

They both know though that they have to experience those different levels on the way before being ready to make the jump up, one level at a time.

The good news is though that because of muscle memory, their bodies remember where they’ve been before, and the rate of progress this time is likely to be far more rapid than first time around.

Once your body has experienced big highs of low body fat, a leaner harder body, more energy, more self-esteem, more self-confidence, looking great in clothes, having more enthusiasm for everything in life, an all time level of health and vitality etc etc, you really want to get there again and once you start believing again, you know you will want to get there as soon as you can, and to me that’s a great thing!

So what are you waiting for? Let’s finish the week on a high, and get ever closer to your best condition and the way you feel. No slowing down now, lets go and get it!

Twitt