Posted on

Monday, 31st October

Most people think about their training in terms of splitting up body parts, splitting their cardio and weights workouts, splitting up between morning and evening training sometimes.

Then we come to food, some try to split carbs from protein, some try to not eat much in their day so they can drink alcohol in the evening,

Some people split their eating into different diets through the year.

They may  do red and green days for a month (protein on one day, all carbs the next), then they may do the no carb diet just before summer, then they may do a shakes and bars diet for a while, of they are looking for very quick weight loss even if none of these are really sustainable of course!!!

When you split up all of these aspects of your health, your body will suffer because you’re confusing it too much and you’re not allowing it time to settle on a healthy diet with a good amount of nutrients it can rely on every day.

The same thing can happen with your training, if you do just running one week, then just weights the next, your progress will slip back in  both these types of workouts.

These types of workouts should always be included WITH each other in every week you train. You must do resistance/weights AND cardio (run/walk/swim/cycle for example) EVERY week to have good results.

With time seemingly a lot shorter for most these days, IT IS entirely possible to do whole body workouts in EVERY session, and the great news is that the best results are usually from this way of training!

You will burn far more calories per workout, you will break more muscle tissue down (which speeds up your metabolism), you will develop a lot more endurance and become much more of an all round athlete!

The benefits are overwhelming so give your body the best possible chance by employing these methods and your body will appreciate very much the stability you give it!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 28th October

Being a father of three small children, i still struggle with the demands of lack of sleep and disturbed sleep in particular.

This usually sets off a chain reaction in your body of not burning fat as efficiently, increased hunger and increased lathergy. These are factors that most people can do without, especially in my job!!!

Once you realise what is going on, there are simple and tried and tested ways to get around it.

First thing you have to do, and i have seen this in many, many people of course, is to re-evaluate everything!!

Are you eating breakfast in a healthy way?

Are you eating a good lunch?

Are you eating a good evening meal?

Are all of these meals in sensible portion sizes?

Are you drinking enough water throughout the day?

Have “little snacks” creeped into your day without you noticing?

Are you drinking alcohol more than once a week?

Are you missing workouts?

Are you not training with as much intensity?

Do you have any goals?

Are your clothes not fitting you so well anymore?

Are you having comments off others that you have possibly put weight on?

Are you missing energy in your life?

Are you finishing off your kids meals sometimes?

Have your weekends become one long binge?

Has that “cheat meal” become a “cheat weekend”?

Whichever one of these or if many of these apply to you, then fear not, most of us have experienced some of them if not all!

Simply getting back on to the straight and narrow and sticking to your usual meal times will make a huge difference and cause instant fat loss!

Give it just one week and will see the big difference, give it four weeks and you have a massive difference!!!

Time to look at yourself again and realise its time to get back to your original plan.

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 27th October

Hows your week of portion control and food selection going this week?

  1. Has it been plenty of fruit and vegetables, white meats, oily fish, good carbs, healthy nut selections and whole grains in relation to your supermarket shop?

2 or has it been no fruit and vegetables, white meats and fish but heavily coated with batter and butter, has it been white flour products, and have there been plenty of treats thrown in, even boxes of sweets thrown in?

3 and how is your alcohol intake? Are you thoroughly taking advantage of the mega deals on alcohol in the supermarket or do you drink just once a week and when you do, the volume is quite light?

These three points will provide big clues in the way you look and feel.

Whether your clothes are fitting a little better this week, or are they getting a little tighter again? Your food selections have the answer!

Have you plenty of energy and you have already put 3-4 workouts in already this week?

Or have you wrote off another week and have consigned yourself to just “treading water” for the next 8 weeks. One thing’s for sure, if you do try to somehow tread water, you are definitely destined to put on weight before Christmas, no matter HOW many baggy jumpers and black clothes you wear!!!!

So to avoid all of this happening, try making the right choices NOW you will probably do anyway in January, and avoid all the pain you were going to have then!!!

Nobody I know wants to feel sluggish and horrible now and up to Christmas should be a time of celebration and fun, being in your best shape and having compliments, and not of wearing baggy dark jumpers to hide all the abuse you have given your body all year in food and exercise terms, and everyone asking you “have you put on weight”!!!

Lets get it together!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 26th October

Halloween coming up and traditionally a big time for sweets and this means lots of sugar of course.

Most of us consumed lots of sweets as children and some of us are still consuming sweets on a regular basis now, but its when we become adults that the problems usually begin to hit home!!!

First of all, if we continue to get sugar from refined sources such as sweets, we can soon enough develop cardiovascular trouble and thats really bad news, especially when you start thinking about heart disease.

Eating a lot of sugar can increase the levels of “fluffy” fat that is between our arteries. This can form plaque and globules of fat that can lead to big trouble for us anytime.

When these forms of plaque break up, they travel to the heart, brain or kidney and can cause heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.

The added sugars are just as bad if not worse, all of those names such as corn syrup, white sugar, brown sugar, dextrose, crystal dextrose etc etc are really devastating for your whole system if you continue to base your diet high in sugars!!

Sugar itself will not give you the heart attack, its just the sorts of conditions it brings with it. If you eat sugary foods every day then it doesnt take a genius to work out you will become overweight!! And from being overweight, diabetes, certain cancers and many other diseases become a lot more likely according to numerous studies!

A startling fact is that 36% of most overweight people’s sugar intake comes from liquid sources, pop, sports drinks, energy drinks are heavy contributors to ill health, and if most people just drunk water instead of sugary drinks, the obesity problem would be substantially decreased!!!

The bottom line is that a little sugar is needed by everyone, but fruits and grains are the preferred sources for good health and if you take this route, you are likely to regulate your health very successfully!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 25th October

Following on from yesterday, have you started to cut down on the things that cause you the distress of putting on weight, or better still, have you CUT OUT the things that cause you all of that distress of piling on the weight?!!!

It is a painful experience  to have someone ask you if you have put on weight, and there are usually two responses you decide to undertake.

1. You get really depressed about it, saying to yourself that you can’t do anything about it anyway, and you exercise even less and eat even more, after all, it “tastes good” doesnt it?!!!

2. You get the fire in your belly again and immediately the next day you go back to the tried and tested strategies that have served you so well in the past, and promise yourself that you’re not prepared to live your life again with all the extra weight, and you are going to do something about it right now!!!

Number two is something i have experienced myself and nothing makes you madder than someone telling you have put on weight. You either do this or you bury your head deep in the sand, and somehow hoping that it will all turn out okay in the end!!!!

The first couple of days of getting your eating to well-controlled and sensible levels is admittedly very hard, but once you break the back of it, it WILL get easier i promise you, and DOING SOMETHING about your body instead of “wishing it could be better somehow” is heck of a lot better and you know it!!

Plus there’s no better feeling of losing body fat, getting clothes to feel better and showing the commitment needed to do so, the pride and self-satisfaction you get from achieving this worthy goal will beat any short term uncomfortable feelings of cutting your food down a little bit!!!

Time to get onboard now and make yourself feel the best you could possibly be by christmas time!!!

Twitt