Fresh bout of enthusiasm!

So how is all your progress looking right now?

Are you saying “god it’s cold outside and autumn is coming early”?

Are you saying “im fed up with all this rain, its making me down”!

Are you saying “its august, i’ll start back when the summer finished”?

If you fall victim to any of these, lets make a promise to yourself and cut the you know what, get a bit more aggressive about your health and training and really get your mojo back!!!

Being enthusiastic has to happen and you will achieve absolutely nothing if you don’t start adding some passion into your workouts and your health in general.

If you don’t feel you can, then who the heck is telling you can’t do it anymore, or even you can’t do it in the first place? Thats almost twice as bad!!

Just look at the person putting you off, are they a picture of health and coolness themselves? Are they an example you should follow?

Do you really believe that being inactive is really going to make your health somehow “better”? Good health doesnt happen by accident and sometimes you have to make radical decisions to change things around for the better? Surely you can do this and im backing you do it, in fact im offering all my support and advice.

Lets get to the facts, its getting darker in the nights, its getting colder and its certainly wetter. These ARE NOT MAJOR OBSTACLES though so dont think for one minute that this can possibly stop you all in your quest to become in the best possible shape you’ve ever been in. THESE WEATHER CONDITIONS CANNOT STOP YOU FULL STOP!!

So now that we are clear, this is 7pm on a thursday night and its still not too late to throw in a great workout, or is EASTENDERS somehow an obstacle to all of that!! You’ll be glad you fitted in and you will be well on your way to making your favourite clothes feeling heck of a lot better!

Lets get enthusicastic, lets get motivated, lets feel the drive inside of you again and lets get unbelievable performances out of yourself!!! Have you got the heart deep down or are you willing to throw the towel in again? Lets make it happen right now and make it to the weekend in much better heart and physical condition.

You will breathe better, feel in better shape and face everything with far greater confidence! Lets do it!

Water burns fat every time!

The news that drinking an adequate supply of water in your diet burns a lot of fat should come as no surprise.

Studies show that most of us suffer from mild dehydration from time to time.

The latest studies show that if you have a couple of glasses of water before food, it makes your brain signal to your stomach that you feel full, and this means you are likely not to overeat.

Adding a healthy supply of water to your diet also helps in everything internally in your body function that much better. This means that you will get rid of the bad stuff in your body that much quicker and keep your bodily functions working very well indeed.

A big thing for me when i consume enough water is feeling more energy in my life. I feel as if my concentration is spot on and i’m raring to take on any task, honestly that’s true!

You can always tell if you’re dehydrated when you’re thirsty. This is why sipping at water throughout the day is always better than trying to take huge amounts in one go.

Sipping throughout the day will help you not go to the toilet so much too. Nothing worse than consuming huge amounts in one go, and then going to the toilet 3 times an hour afterwards!

When you go to the toilet, have you noticed your urine is sometimes cloudy or bright yellow. You need to get it more clear if you can, as being clear in appearance would be a sign that most of the impurities in your system have been passed out and you are fully hydrated.

This is probably the most important element for you if you really examine the evidence.

For example, remember the hunger strikers in northern ireland in the 70’s and 80’s?

Well, i remember bobby sands famously went 56 days without food, and this brought him close to death.

When it comes to water, the human body can usually last around 5 days before coming close to death! 5 days!! In 3 days you are likely to harm your health so this shows how vital water is!

The bottom line from all of this is stay hydrated and raise your performance to their maximum levels, which brings all sorts of benefits!! This may be the missing element for many of you. Forget all the faddy sports drinks full of sugar, get your water in to much needed levels 1.5-2 litres and feel fantastic on all levels!!!

Ever tried?

For those who don’t have heavy weekends now and again or dont go out for drinks, or stay in for drinks, this doesnt really apply to you, but have you ever tried not drinking alcohol at the weekend, especially if you usually drink every weekend?

I have a few drinks the weekend now and again, not so much as i used to when i was a kid, but i know the difference now certainly between  not drinking and drinking!!

Drinking the alcohol on the weekend can mean a subdued start to the weekend for me and most people i know. I get around this by going for a very early sunday morning run, and the result is usually amazingly positive, i feel great after that run and hit monday hitting the ground running very quickly, if you pardon the pun!! I have mentioned this many times of course.

So what about the rest of you? Do you practice sunday morning workouts to get rid of your excesses?

Most of you must have and although it seems a horrible thought to do a workout after a big night out, but the results are always more than worth it!

What about the moments when you eat lots of rubbish and instead of giving up the ghost for the weekend or even the week and continue to eat badly, it encourges you to get out there and train and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

I have had many such moments and you could even use this food which you normally don’t eat as EXTRA energy on your longer bike rides, your big running workouts or your tough inside workouts, how about seeing it as an opportunity rather than a feel sorry for yourself moment?

Every situation can be a different opportunity for you, good or bad.

None of us are perfect, and its about how we react to what life throws at us is the most important factor every single time!

So the title to all of this shoud not really be have you ever tried not drinking the weekend and feeling amazing on monday.

It SHOULD be have you ever tried reacting hugely positively to each and every situation that comes your way?

I didnt say it was easy but it can become a very valuable habit for you and transform your workouts, your health, just about everything!!!

Fruit doesn’t make you put on weight

A common myth used to be that you shouldn’t eat fruit because “it put weight on”.

Too much of anything will put on weight of course, but in reality, fruit is the least of your problems.

Of course fruit is regarded as a simple sugar, and people always think that all simple sugars cause rapid rises in blood sugar. This usually means weight gain and problems possibly with diabetes in the future if you keep consuming simple blood sugars.

We now have a scale though that shows the impact of sugar of all foods.

In the scale called the glycemic index, the funny think is that white rice and white potatoes come out a lot more sugary, and raise sugar far quicker than fruit!! Not saying that rice and potatoes are desperately bad foods for you, they’re not! It’s just important to consume them in smaller portions, and use brown rice if possible, sweet potatoes or new potatoes instead of white potatoes, you need to make the switch here for all sorts of good reasons.

This is why on here we always talk about balance and combining protein, good carbs and good fats, along with some vegetables and the problem of rapid blood sugar rises will not arise for you full stop!

Fibre and fats help slow digestion, improve absorbtion of vital nutrients, an even when you’re trying to lose body fat, the nutrients in fruit are vital in helping you do so!!!

So unless you eat around 5 bananas a day, a huge bunch of grapes, 10 pears, a box of cherries and a box of strawberries (not only will you start putting weight on but you will start to visit the toilet an awful lot), you will NOT put on weight with a moderate 5 a day on your fruit, it simply cannot happen. Time to stop blaming the fruit and analyse the chocolate bars/biscuits that may still be in your diet!

Moderation in food and a wide a variety of nutrients as possible are golden rules, you know this is common sense and you should not be scared of any natural food out there.

Faster, stronger, better!

Faster, stronger, better are words to describe ultimate progress in your programme, your development and all possible in 2010.

All of this will/would have been possible if you just did one VERY IMPORTANT/VITAL thing so far in 2010. If you have been truly consistent with your training and eating through every month of 2010, you WILL be celebrating great health by now and feeling as strong as a bull, and a great eagerness to get better and better.

This is not fantasy land and if you look back at your progress over the last few months, you will understand where you went wrong and where you went wrong.

Chances are that you’re truly honest with yourself, you will sit down and have a plan of attack. You will look back at the very good months, and be dismayed at the mediocre months, wondering “if only”.

Its not time to look back though and feel sorry for yourself, as this becomes a very dangerous habit. Being down and looking at the most negative possible outcome often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Its time to break this once and for all, and look at the brighter side of things and life in general.

Chances are that if you think things are not going to work out, then they won’t. If you’re bright and optimistic, you have every chance of getting into seriously good shape.

Back to the opening sentence, yes you will have become faster if you’re lighter, you have less body fat and your fitness is good, which is should be by now.

You should be stronger by now, a lot stronger as I always encourage you to do strength  work a minimum of twice a week.

For all this effort this year in 2010, the 12 week challenge, everything really, you should be considerably BETTER than the start of 2010.

If you’re not, re-examine why everything fell off the rails and realise you can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! Sorry for shouting but I’m serious, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW AND STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF!!

Its only august, you have 4 months left to become faster, stronger and better, time to get a move on!!!