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Monday, February 26th

To maximise your gains in fitness, i cannot stress enough how vital your eating is, and what eating CLEAN really means.
To me, eating clean means eating food as much as possible in its natural state, and keeping refined sugars to an absolute minimum.
 
All the foods we always talk about will always bear fruit for you if you pardon the pun!
 
Porridge is a natural food that gives you long term energy, and stops you snacking.
 
Any oat based products or porridge with added “apple pie” type flavourings, WILL NOT DO YOU ANY GOOD.
 
Wholemeal bread in moderation is a sign of good clean eating, White bread is the equivalent of a disaster zone, full of refined sugar, bleaching agents and lots of chemicals and rubbish designed to put weight on you, it will be really unhealthy on all sorts of level for your body, and you have to avoid this rubbish if you are to be successful in weight/fat loss.
 
The margarine and butter on top should be avoided, this is saturated fat and can never be any good. Saying that, butter is the natural product and helps your body more than margarine, which can be horrid for your body and contains needless calories.
 
White meats are very welcome, fish is fantastic (no batter or any fatty sauce on it), cottage cheese is great, lean cuts of red meat are fine once a week.
 
White pasta is not acceptable when you can eat “clean” and have wholegrain and wholewheat pasta.
 
New potatoes and sweet potatoes are great examples of potatoes with a nice low sugar release, and offer a lot of nutrition.
 
White potatoes wont work as well, more refined sugar.
 
Fruit is fine in moderation, although classed as refined sugar, is a food in its natural state and offers far more than any negatives.
 
Fruit juice should be dilluted, and this will will give you far less refined sugar per glass.
 
All vegetables are classed as eating clean, and offer an abundance of nutrients and is nature’s way of making you healthy and helping your body to function properly.
 
Eating clean means trying to be as natural as possible in your food choices, this will automatically cut down on your refined sugars, and give you dramatic changes in bringing your body fat down!!
Twitt
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Monday, 20th February

Losing can often teach you more than winning, or so the saying goes in sports.

The same goes for your health and fitness programme.

How many diets have you crashed and burned on?

How many times have you tried to exercise and thrown the towel in?

How many times have you said “this time i’m going to do it no matter what” and still failed?

If you have been through all of these, and most of us have if we are honest, then they can become very valuable experiences believe it or not!!!

As long as we remember where we went wrong, then perhaps next time we will learn and not do it again?

If someone suggest we join them in a weight loss class, that we know that didnt work last time, and probably never well, isn’t it madness to go through the same useless process again?

The programme we did in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s may not have worked out too well, because some of us didnt train too smart, and got obsessed with doing cardio all the time maybe for example. We know that doesn’t really work and we need to mix it up with weights/resistance work.

So we have all the knowledge now on how to train effectively, so you would think that most of us would do it right, having failed so many times before? It is madness to go through the same process time and time again and expect a different result!!! But still some peope do it believe it or not.

Would you attempt an exam in school or college and say you only had 40%, then the next time you had 41%, the time after 35%, wouldn’t it be time to change your approach and work in a far more effective manner? Unfortunately a lot of people don’t get this and never get the very most out of their training, when sometimes all the solutions thhat they need to achieve their goals are right in front of them!!!

Learn from your past mistakes, and as long as you do, you will find the right approach and achieve great results faster than you ever thought possible!!!

Twitt
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Monday, May 9th 2011

When you miss a workout, you can’t be blamed for that as things happen, life happens and something may have come up last minute.

This doesn’t usually explain a week off training though, and definitely not two weeks!!! I find those who do take time off their training for whatever reason, always struggle to get back into it, and regret the time they took off. I am not talking about annual holidays of course here, when a break can actually be good for you if you have trained hard all year!!!

For example, over the last couple of weeks, we had more or less two three day weeks with the big bank holidays, and those i had to miss training for two weeks have really struggled to get anywhere near where they usually are!!! This is a fact and you may be going through exactly the same feelings yourself!!!

If you think two weeks off is not good, what happens to those of you who take a month off, three months off or even a year off? What happens to your get up and go during this period? My educated guess would be that your get up and go would be very low, and the lack of spring in your step would make you almost a different person, kind of like the opposite of the huge beneficial effects that exercise normally have on everyone.

Coming back from a lay off can be tough on the mind, as well as your body of course. Getting confidence back is half the battle when it comes to committing to getting yourself back in shape again!!!

Confidence comes from doing the right things every week, that means training a minimum of 3 times a weeks, eating well 80% of the time, getting some good sleep most nights, drinking enough water and generally being positive about your prospects about getting into shape over a reasonable amount of time.

Consistency is my favourite word, and the true secret to success!!!

Twitt
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11th April 2011

April 11th is another turning point for us in this country.

The weather has been absolutely fantastic over the last week, signifying summer is just around the corner, and all the positive benefits it brings.

We have talked about all winter, that then was the time to put all the work in because summer would be here before you knew it? Well spring is here and summer nearly here, and the time when you all will be wearing less and less clothes, so you will feel like being in better and better shape. If you have been working hard all winter, then you should be looking heck of a lot better by now and feeling on top of the world.

If your winter has  been all about lazing on the settee instead of training, and wearing big baggy jumpers to hide all the weight gain, then you may be dreading summer coming in terms of choice of clothes.

So April 11Th could well be the turning point for you whatever shape you are in, and this moment right now can literally change your life.

Do you decide that the bloated and sickly feelings of fast and processed food is no longer for  you OR do you accept the fact that you are always going to be overweight and never in shape?

OF COURSE YOU SHOULD NEVER ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU WILL BE OVERWEIGHT AND OUT OF SHAPE!!!

April 11th could easily be the day when you DECIDE to do something about from this Monday, to get back into shape, or to get into really great shape for the FIRST TIME!!! If that sounds far more exciting than settling for a mediocre existence, then continue reading every day, and keep discovering the endless possibilities and benefits that come from living a very healthy lifestyle!!! There truly is another way to live your life in terms of health and its time to leave the faddy diets behind for good this time, THEY DO NOT WORK LONG TERM as 97% of scientific studies show!!!!!

Twitt
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Monday 22nd, November 2010

Think of your proudest physical achivement and it could be anything.

It could be the sprint you won in school when you were 10 years of age, it could be the first time you swum a length, it could be the first time you completed a triathlon, it could be the first time you scored a goal or a try, it could be the time you got picked in the first team at school, it could be the first time you did a 5k after recovering from a heart attack, it  could be anything!!!

Like we talked about last week and the way you think and perform at certain ages, the WAY you think is often the problem and NOT your actual physical ability, whatever your age right now maybe.

There is a hill in pembrey that i know if i can’t get up in one go, i have lost a significant amount of fitness and have somehow let myself go! The remedy will not be to try and try again over that particular week to get up there in one go, it won’t work that way. I will analyse my food intake and work out how badly my eating was going.

Have i been taking in too many takeaways, too much chocolate, too many pastries and how about alcohol, have i been drinking a lot more than normal? These are all valid questions to be asking if im not performing!!!

How about my workouts in general? Have i got lazy on a sunday morning? Am i not running or cycling as much?

If all of that is worked out and i’m still not getting up the same hill in say, a month’s time, am i lacking drive? Don’t i want it anymore? Am i telling myself i’m getting old and can’t hack it anymore?

These are all valid questions i ask myself from time to time and you should be asking yourself too!! What exactly is the litmus test for you in terms of physical effort, and the one test you KNOW will tell you exactly what kind of shape you’re really in!! Come on, be honest with yourself and those great feats from yesteryear REALLY are possible again!! Ask yourself the questions i ask myself, then work a plan so that you can get to your best.

The ability to perform at your best levels will keep you in great shape, both in mind and body. To do this, you need WELL-DEFINED goals so dig deep, have a good think and really remember what level you want to get back to. Be ambitious, aim high and dont you dare be embarrassed to think big!!!

Twitt