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31st January 2011

End of the month time and its time to reflect and look forward.

Was january that bad, was it that gloomy, was it that terrible and was it your worst nightmare?

Or did we all blow it out of all proportion and figure out that january was not really a problem at all?

The way i see it considering the people i have dealt with, most say that early january was tough getting into things, but now they are over the worst, and the initial pain has well and truly gone.

Exercise seems to be going a lot better and while january is traditionally the month where we all just put our heads down and get on with it, january this year seems to have gone better than most!!!

As we look forward to february, the nights are definitely getting lighter and picking up pace, same with the mornings and the only thing that can slow us down at the moment is the ice and cold of course.

Once the prospects are looking up, you should be more encouraged to back yourself and achieve a lot more from here, if your goals are self-improvement and a better body and better health.

Andy Murray unfortunately lost the australian open yesterday, and all the tennis analysts seemed to comment on the negativity he was giving out. He seemed to cus and scream at himself at the slightest opportunity, and a ton of negative energy seemed to come out of him each and every time. He seemed to show every emotion vividly to the camera, and his opponent seemed to be lapping it up and went on for a good victory!!!

The facts are that most champions seem to lose in semi’s and finals earlier in their career, before learning how to win, maybe that’s what murray is going through right now. hopefully it is as none of us really know how hard it is to be at that ultra top level where margins between losing and winning are so fine.

The lesson you can take out of it is to move forward with confidence and celebrate your progress, and avoid focusing all your energy on negative things going on, the time is now to be positive and build on your success already in 2011 so lets have another great start to the week and get some real momentum going!!!

Twitt
Posted on

28th january 2011

This sugar addiction subject seems to be gathering pace this week, as i have had many conversations with people who are still trying to throw the christmas bad old habits. There are also conversations going on with people who started off well in january, but are now back on the sugar train!!!

The good news is that once you stop consuming REFINED sugar, your body will gradually want less and less of it. Those first few days though are crucial and a lot of people do not make it past those first few days. Those who do genuinely find things a LOT better and will never bring sugar into their lives again on such a large scale.

So you have to make the jump from where you are now to the better place or you will struggle with a range of problems both in the short and long term.

Off the top of my head, the problems medically associated with too much refined sugar in your diet include;

Diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, aching joints, joint problems, lack of blood circulation, mood swings, irritability, lack of drive, up and down energy levels and mostly down, more visits to the dentists, more visists to the doctors for a whole range of problems from A-Z, weight gain, bad skin, fat gain, inability to lose weight even with lots of exercise, inability to perform well in exercise because your energy levels “blow up” too early etc  etc!!!!

If you buy the chocolate, crisps, sweets, wine, beer, ready meals, processed foods, chips, burgers, hot dogs, full fat cheeses etc, you WILL have problems if you consume these foods on a regular basis.

IF YOU DON’T PUT THESE FOODS INTO YOUR TROLLEY, YOU ARE LESS LIKELY TO EAT THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!

You may get chances when you’re out and about, but if they are not in the house in the first place, you’re going to consume less of these sugar based foods full stop, and a massive step forward for you in your health and fitness and your goal to look and feel amazing!!!

You really have to make that jump RIGHT NOW and stop putting it off, that jump is key to you ridding yourself of this vicious cycle forever, so come on lets do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

January 27th, 2011

Following on from yesterday’s conversation about too much fruit and not enough vegetables, let’s defend fruit a little bit more before it gets too much of a bad rap!!!

I went over yesterday on how fruit is often blamed for putting weight on, and often mistakenly unless someone consumes vast quantities of fruit, and you would know you were eating too much because you would be on the toilet most of the time!!!

One big thing to back up why you should consider fruit a good thing is the benefits it gives you. The obvious one to think about is boosting your immune system, vital at this time of year with all the colds around. Then you have the energy fruit gives you and as i always tell everyone, you should be eating fruit because of all the untold things it does for us internally that we don’t even know about, but will become public knowledge in the next few years as we make new discoveries!! You should be eating fruit as a preventative measure against future illness, scientific studies tell us this continually!!!

The big thing for you though in practical terms should be the fact that your sweet tooth is never going to get worse should you choose fruit over chocolate for example. If you eat sweet things as snacks, then you will tend to eat more and more sweet things, and this will be very destructive for your body, this spiral can never end as we all know!!!

So despite the fact that sugar is contained in fruit, it is natural sugar your body can use and DOES NOT create sugar addiction like processed foods like cakes, chocolates and biscuits will do EVERY TIME. If you are currently in this spiral of wanting more and more sugar all the time, you have to switch to fruit immediately IF you want to reach your potential full stop, AND vegetables as this combination is especially powerful so you need to start putting your mind to this straight away, depending if you want great things to happen for your body and health of course!!!

Almost the end of january and this is the tried and tested way to go forward, to make sure your results are long lasting and health is your number one on your list of priorities!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

26th january 2011

Debbie makes a great point in yesterday’s comments about the importance of fruit and vegetables in your diet, and the dangers of taking in too much fruit, and the importance of taking in your green vegetables.

She is totally right of course because if you consume TOO much fruit, just like too much of anything, YOU WILL put on weight.

The green vegetables are great right across the range and will give you a huge range of benefits, without the sugars and the calories of course will be very low.

Let’s look at the broader picture too though. How many times have you heard someone say, “grapes put weight on me like nothing else”, bananas pile weight on me and i don’t know why”, “whenever i eat fruit, i pile on weight full stop”.

In my experience, and working with individuals who have told me such stuff, i have found deep down that the fruit is not exactly the problem. The problem tends to be the sugary chocolate and crisps they are tending to eat AS WELL as the fruit!!! This is the case 100% o the time in my book, and blaming fruit for putting weight on is usally a copout, or just another excuse. As i said above, it is entirely possible to put weight on eating too much fruit, but the reality is that not too many people actually get around to eating that much fruit anyway!!!!!

You have to be honest with yourself when analysing your diet, are you ignoring the glass of wine every night that definitely will cause weight gain? What about the full fat milky coffee you consume every day with biscuits, or a piece of cake, have you really factored that in? How about all of those low fat sauces and mayo, are you still eating that rubbish because it can be extremely destructive to your weight/fat loss plan for sure!!!!!

Another thing with fruit and vegetables, you should be eating them for what you don’t know too. We all know they offer plenty of good nutrients, but they also give an enormous boost to our immune systems, so as long as the fruit is eaten in moderation ,of course its going to be good for you, excellent for you in fact and give you a ton of benefits that perhaps we don’t know even exist right now, scientists are constantly finding new benefits of fruit so keep your diet varied and you won’t go far wrong at all!!

Don’t forget that the sugar from fruit will give you energy too, far better than the rubbish sugar you get from energy drinks, plus will be better for your teeth!!!

Benefits all the way in my book so lets get them into your body every day but in moderation!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

25th January, 2011

A tribute today to the late Jack Lalanne, to some the godfather of fitness who died at the great age of 96.

He famously said that that he could never die, it would be bad for his image!!!

Jack started off addicted to sugary foods and was thought of as a lunatic, he even took an axe to his brother, was a nightmare at school and was thought of as someone who had a bleak future in front of him.

In desperation, his mother took him to a lecture by a nutritionist who preached the virtues of eating natural food. Lalanne spent 30 minutes backstage with him afterwards, enthralled on what he had just heard about the power of natural foods.

He then gave up all the sugary and fatty food almost overnight, and almost immediately his behaviour changed overnight. He became a good student very soon and became the school’s champion athlete in just one year. He then became a health and fitness advocate with a high profile.

He then started a health club with a  juice bar before anyone else, but due to the depression, these went bankrupt. He eventually started them up again after the war creating a chain which he eventually sold to Bally’s for a lot of money.

He had a television series running for 35 years in the states on fitness, and created the famous jack lalanne power juicer, which is still famous today.

He was also famous for his physical feats such as swimming from Alcatraz towing an entourage of boats with his teeth! He performed such feats on his 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays!!

A huge advocate of physical fitness and eating natural foods, he became a member of the president’s council on health and fitness and a motivational speaker.

This is a just brief description of his life in the simplest terms, and if you put a google search for his name, you will learn a lot more very interesting and entertaining stories about the great man.

When he first encouraged people to exercise and eat well, doctor’s said you would get a heart attack if you exercised like that, or you would get all ailments under the sun, you would get high blood pressure and if you were female, you would get bulky and huge muscles!

The opposite of all of this is true of course, science has proven this!

The athletes always knew first before the doctors, so rest in peace jack!!!!

Twitt