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Day 49 The 4 minute solution!

Since we have hammered the point about not making excuses so far, we have hammered the fact that you need to take action, we have beat the drum on really training with purpose, we have pushed the fact that 80% of the time you need to be eating well and the good, fresh natural foods that are going to serve you well.

What happens if truly circumstances don’t allow you that day to put in your scheduled workout?

Here’s the best way to look at it. If you are really struggling, is something better than nothing? Of course it is!

Look at it from this perspective and you have to go back to the start to appreciate your starting point. When you first started training and 10 squat thrusts, 5 press ups, 8 arm dips etc could have been your standard, with breaks this workout could well have taken 20-25 minutes if you had taken your time if you did 3 circuits.

Now your standard may well be 80 squat thrusts, 25 press ups, 25 arm dips and another 3-5 exercises too in the same workout. Now this is mightily more impressive of course, and your body now is performing to impressive levels.

So one day when you’re trying to train, the kids are super busy, work is calling, the phone is ringing and everything in your day or week is going wrong, how do you get around that?

The value of doing ONE circuit at maximum intensity cannot be underestimated, and one circuit will take 4 minutes if you really push it and cram in the big exercises (squat thrusts, press ups, arm dips along will be good). Say your previous best was 25 press ups and for 3 circuits, chances are you will be able to do at least 30-35 or even more in ONE go, therefore expanding your abilities and reaching a NEW standard, all in 4 minutes or less!

Is 4 minutes enough? You know i encourage you all to work for 3 circuits which takes around 20-25 minutes which is still pretty intense i think you will agree. However, that maximum effort for 4 minutes will be enough to get your metabolism burning at a higher rate for that day, and will mean you get closer to your goals which is always good. I will repeat it again, if you beat your previous best, you have set a new personal best. Even if you don’t, you will have still done a very positive amount for your physical condition and got your metabolism racing and burning calories at an accelerated rate, and then you can get straight back to the trials of life!! How’s that sound?!

For example, my hardest cycle of the week was my ride from my house to sandy water park and back once a week, kind of a time trial where i judged my own personal fitness standards, if i was over 22 minutes, i was out of shape, if i was under 20 minutes, my condition was very good indeed. My best workout of the week and 20 minutes? That’s a fact.

I think the misconception is sometimes we all have to be in the “right workout clothes”, have the ipod looking trendy hanging from our arms, and wearing the right “shades! That’s absolutely not the case and some of the fittest people i know have some of the oldest workout gear there is, but they have an amazing attitude that would put some of these “poser’s” to shame. In fact, most of these show off’s lack any real fitness conditioning because they concentrate on looking the part, instead of really getting stuck in there and having an amazing workout!

Great workouts are about improving or at least doing your best, whatever the circumstances we have that day. Nobody i know has “all day” to exercise, that person doesn’t exist, at least i’ve never met them (and i’ve met a lot of people who some people think they have “all the time in the world)  and that way of training is the least productive anyway.

Nobody trains for 6 hours a day, nobody does that apart from pro cyclist in season so don’t let the papers and magazines fool you time after time, this way of training DOES NOT HAPPEN with these so called celebrities and actors, they are not only not capable of it, but where does that time come from!!!!

Whatever your circumstances, i think 4 minutes as an emergency measure is not too much to ask to make sure your body still gets a workout and still allows you to make progress on this challenge, and for the rest of your life?!!

Another big excuse taken care of!

Have a great sunday and let’s get going again!

Twitt
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Day 48

The news today in the papers that an anti-obesity drug is causing some worrying side effects should be of no surprise to most of us. Many of you who know me will remember that i predicted such worrying problems at least ten years ago. If you could take a pill and all of your worries would go away, then i think we all may as well start belieing in father christmas again!

It’s the same with just about anything in life, many people try to cheat their way to a result, and in the end, when they get found out, they realise they would have found it easier to put the work in first time around.

There is no substitute for hard work and doing things the right way, although many people will tell you otherwise.

You know that there’s another miracle diet book around the corner, you know there’s going to signs on traffic lights promising you to lose 30 pounds in 30 days, you know there’s going to be some kind of miracle piece of exercise equipment that promises to get you in your best ever shape, only to end up as a clothes hanger in your cupboard approximately two months after purchase.

THESE THINGS DO NOT WORK, get used to that fact!

There are celebrities who often get a free degree or an honorary degree from their home town university, but do you honestly believe that these people value that certificate the same as if they had studied for 3-5 years? Of course not!

There’s no such thing as a free lunch they say and that’s a very true statement. We have all tried to prove that wrong but it’s always come back to bite us once we thought we had somehow got that “free lunch”.

Hard work and efforts rules every time but the great thing about that statement is that the hard work gets easier once you are in a routine and focus on constant improvement. Once the first month is over with your exercise programme, you tend to get used to the exercises, they become a little easier, your food becomes a little more tasty, a little more inventive and this very natural process ennables you to feel that the whole thing becomes a lot easier than you ever thought.

The reason i write this every day is because a healthy lifestyle, like life in general is a kind of repitition every day, i don’t mean that in a boring way, each day is likely to happen for you so you may as well live it in the best quality way you can?!

We all know people who preach “only one life we have” so get down the pub mentality, and that’s true the first part anyway (the one life we have), but why live destroying your health every day which means you have even less of this one life! If you keep doing the simple basics every day of more fruit, more vegetables, your white meats and fish, enough water, some exercise and some good sleep, your life is likely to be longer not only according to me, but top scientists who are trying to make us not only live longer, but have a better quality of life too.

Nothing wrong with a couple of beers now and then, and all i’m asking is do the right things 80% of the time, that’s after all an 8 out of 10 success rate! Do this and the results will be spectacular over a lifetime!

Twitt
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Day 47

Day 47 and many of you are starting to get through some of the limits you had previously set on yourselves. It may have felt as if you have been dragged through a hedge on here sometimes, but some of the best things in life are like that.

Think of a woman giving birth, absolute agony that is unimaginable but worth it in the end! Think passing your hardest exams, horrid doing all the work for them but worth it in the end, and makes you proud of yourself.

 Some people I have trained for a marathon never thought they were capable of doing it, yet six months later they achieved their lifetime ambition, or one of them anyway! Absolute hell doing the longer runs sometimes, but prepares you for the big day and you can enjoy the scenery even more if you’ve prepared properly, and getting a decent time which is always good!

This challenge is a bit like all of those things for you, and the same end result will be true. A sense of achievement, a sense that you have overcome your own demons, your own previous physical limits, your own previous discipline levels, and most importantly in my view, you have discovered you have to take action for a sustained period of time to become truly successful.

This talk may be a little premature for some of you, but those of you at day 47 will have already become a lot more powerful mentally too, and hopefully, your life and decision making process will never be the same again.

Those feelings you had when you left school and anything was possible may have been extinguished by life’s twists and turns over the years. Maybe some of those feelings have come back to the surface again? Maybe you have discovered you weren’t finished physically, and you’re ready to become a warrior again, and are not prepared to be pigeon holed by people’s perceptions of you?!

Most people have opinions of us, and sometimes its hard for people to accept we are transforming ourselves from a couch potato to an accomplished athlete. You may laugh at that but that’s what you are, an athlete if you are following this programme. I encourage different training based on you being your best athletic self. You may not be at the next Olympics but you can be at your own personal best?!

There is not one person I train who has gone back in fitness due to their age, I don’t people in categories that because they are 50 or 60 years of age, they are finished! That is not true, and if you go out to southern California like I have many times, its not unusual to see packs of 70-80 year old’s running in packs, its not unusual to see new mothers running in packs with their prams and new born babies, it’s not unusual to see healthier menu’s as the norm in restaurant, and not just as a token gesture, this place is always true inspiration for me and gets me fired up every time I go there.

So what’s the difference over here? Do we have to take a different lifestyle view because we are british? Do we have to base our lives around the pub, around the takeaway, around supermarket ready meals, or have we got a mind of our own? Those of you who really want to change but are too afraid too for some reason, I urge you to do so right now and really don’t put up with feeling so lacking in energy any more, it doesn’t have to be that way!

Don’t put up with being too afraid to go to the swimming pool, don’t be afraid of the beach, don’t be afraid to chuck all that rubbish like the ready meals and all the junk in the bin and take it down the tip! There is a way out that really works, but it depends on hard work, and a lifestyle that you need to practice before getting used to it, this is what this challenge is all about!

Here’s a great example of someone who has changed her life in an instant, a lady called Caroline has joined the programme and eaten 5 bars of chocolate since the beginning of time. I challenged her to not eat chocolate for a week, she initially had headaches for the first 3 days as the chemicals leaved her system and managed the whole week without chocolate.

Most people expected her to go on a chocolate binge after the week, but guess what? She hasn’t touched one since and her training performance has literally gone through the roof. Her squat thrusts have gone from a typical 30 to 100 in a week! That is the power she has given herself and from a lifetime of sugar intake, she now has changed her life in ONE WEEK! True story and there are many like hers on here too. That is the power you have, so are you can be pigeon holed as having as someone who can’t excel in life, or are you going to join the many, many people on here changing their lives on here every day?!!!

The time is now so let’s turn it all around in an instant!

Twitt
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Day 46 Fork in the road?

As we are still around the half way stage in the challenge, just gone in fact, the challenges in your mind will be coming thick and fast right now.

Life’s ups and downs are happening for many of you now, and that’s why we call this a “challenge”, and not a “breeze” or “easy street” or “fun in the sun” or “get in amazing shape in 2 weeks” rubbish like you here from some marketing men trying to part you with your money!

So the situation i would guess for most of you is at its toughest right now?

Q My food is getting “bland”, what can i do?

A. Maybe try being more inventive with your food, use good basic ingredients still but there is no end of stir fries you can make and versions of any so called junk food, and no end of healthy recipes you can follow. I will be giving more input myself on this over the coming weeks, and listing many examples.

Q My body shape is changing but because of that, im noticing my fat on my body more!

A This is a good point, and you will be “breaking up” a lot of body fat on your body, and indeed, this is a sign your body is re-shaping! Your body firmness is improving as well of course, so once the fat reduces more, you will actually see some good definition!

Q I am frequently tired and am feeling run down sometimes?

A If you feel like this, then you have either caught a bug/cold, or you need to boost your immune system as we spoke about when we first started this programme. If you don’t eat fruit, veg, nuts every day, your immune system won’t be at its best. If you don’t exercise, your immune system won’t be at its best, if you don’t get enough sleep, your immune system won’t be at its best, if you exercise excessively, your immune system won’t be at its best.

You can see from this that its all about balance and living life in moderation, and doing the right things more often than not. A health and fitness programme will actually make you avoid the run down feeling when done correctly, but everyone has a cold now and again so don’t worry about it too much!

Q My clothes are better fitting but my scales say i haven’t lost weight?

A This is another common one we talk about all the time on here!! Throw the scales if they make you unhappy, if you are truly eating well, exercising with purpose, then surely you are moving quickly in the right direction so don’t look back at the negatives that can play with your mind. Your clothes, other people’s complements, the way you feel, the way you look in the mirror are hugely more reliable than the weighing scales! SO chuck them please if you want to, and that’s one problem out the way!!!!!!

Q I have followed your plan up to now, and surprised myself at my progress, but i don’t know if i can keep this up for life?

A This really IS a question and a common one. You have evidence you have done amazingly well, and made the HARDEST steps already, yet you still doubt yourself. Trust me when i say the first steps are the hardest and most of you now have made great big leaps. If you haven’t made the leaps, then theres still plenty of time!

The best part of making these leaps is that you truly discover your inner self again and what you really are capable of. Most people are capable of anything they want, the facts are that most people never achieve WHAT THEY REALLY WANT DUE TO A LACK OF SELF BELIEF!!! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE FOLLOW THROUGH on what you really want to do, change can really happen in an instant and you are developing the tools now for lasting change for the rest of your life.

Nobody knows what’s really ahead of us, but life will taste better for you all when you are fitter, healthier and stronger, as well as being mentally stronger too! It’s all here for you to do, seizing this opportunity is not only vital right now, but it can change your life!

If you condition yourself for success, then life seems to become less of an effort and you will accomplish even more. You will realise that most people are down or negative on most things, then have a look at how successful they are at their chosen endeavours for your answer on which attitude is best. It’s tough being “up on life” all the time, but it will become a major asset in you becoming hugely successful in achieving anything you want.

No fork’s in the road anymore, we are going one way so jump on!

Twitt