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Friday, 15th November

Hitting a Friday for many people means hitting the alcohol, hitting a takeaway and totally NOT hitting any kind of workout. This can apply to those who exercise or those who never exercise at all.

The weekend for many last from Friday tea time all the way until sunday evening and there’s nothing that’s going to stop that!!!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a drink once a week, but when it comes to more than that, I have seen many, many people put on weight and not progress much at all. It can and will make that kind of a huge difference to you, and your performances usually, and when I do my usual monthly measurement, the results are usually not that impressive.

So once a week drinking alcohol should be your maximum IF you are committed to improving and progressing with your body full stop, no if’s and but’s!

If you are not eating well 80% of the time, as discussed in the past, then you are not going to be able to fuel your performances at the level required for fresh improvements. You need to change right now, and this is why eating badly all weekend (from Friday tea time until sunday night flat out) is NOT going to help you reduce body fat, build lean muscle tissue like you really wanted.

Always make a promise to yourself, if you drink and eat badly on Saturday night, then exercise first thing in the morning the very next day, this case a sunday morning. This will help enormously in getting the rubbish out of your body, and make you realize that eating badly ALL weekend won’t do anything good in terms of future results.

By all means have a bit of what you fancy, but there’s no need to trash it all weekend!!!

Twitt
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Monday, 11th November

Another big start to a Monday is needed if you need to get fired up for a big start to the week!

If you’re training hard, and trying to do that for maximum gains, then you had better be prepared to take your eating a lot more seriously.

Pro athletes consider it a cardinal sin to miss meals, to eat foods that are lacking nutrients and a routine of eating nutrient-packed food is vital for them every 3-4 hours. This is why they are professionals, they are prepared to perform better for longer, and are more consistent in what they do for longer than anyone thought possible.

It all starts at breakfast, when they make sure they eat well and nourish their body for the demands of the day ahead.

There are no rubbish cereals like crunchy nut corn flakes or most cereal in bright colourful boxes, when they have breakfast it is food in its natural state. Weetabix, shredded wheat, porridge are great examples.

Poached/scrambled eggs are great on wholemeal toast without any kind of spread on the toast. Toast with banana spread on it can work very well for energy.

A glass of water is needed first thing to clean your system out, and hydrate you so your energy levels start climbing already after a long night’s sleep.

If you’re having orange juice, make sure you dilute it heavily as you don’t want too much refined sugar.

Breakfast is classed as what you eat within ONE HOUR of getting up.

Mid-morning is a time when you may be hungry if involved in heavy training, so two pieces of fruit will work fine. Cottage cheese plain or with flavourings such as onion and chives can work well on wholemeal toast, again with no spread.

When it comes to lunch time, then you had better make sure you get good nutrients in your body.

Ideally, you need to put protein in your meal (white meat, any kind of fish without batter or sauce, cottage cheese is fine etc).

Your carbs need to be away from white flour, all sorts of dangerous chemicals and this means white bread, white pasta etc is off the menu!

Replace with sweet, new, jacket potatoes, wholegrain pasta, brown rice etc. This will give you proper fuel to give you longer lasting energy.

Always underrated are vegetables. They give your internal health vitality, and keep everything working inside very well, and give your body all the vital nutrients it need. Tomatoes, broccoli, carrots etc need to be in most meals. If you are having sandwiches, try wholemeal bread or wholemeal wraps/pitta bread.

So you should be flying by this stage? Then it comes to mid-afternoon when many people feel really tired, then is when you need a couple pieces of fruit, or even a bowl of porridge if you’re hitting some training around 4pm, which can provide you with vital energy at a time when you need it.

After training, your evening meal is critical! First of all, you will notice how full you are compared to normal? Eating regularly throughout the day will make sure you have a steady supply of energy, and you’re not as likely to make poor choices at this time, such as grabbing a cheese sandwich because you have been starving yourself all day and you need something right now!

So lets follow a good example meal in the evening.

A good protein source such as salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel etc, or a white meat, and combine with good carbs such as new potatoes, wholegrain pasta, brown rice etc, and make sure again you have an array of vegetables, to make sure you are being nourished properly.

Training although very positive for you, can deplete your body of a lot of nutrients, so you need to replace them straight away, allowing yourself to recover quickly from exercise, and when you eventually go to bed, you will be fully relaxed and its at this time your body fully recovers, builds up broken down muscle tissue and gets you ready for the next day and your next day. If you do not do this, then you will always struggle!

Follow these guidelines and everything will pick up considerably for you.

Twitt
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Monday, 28th October

Monday is a recurring theme in terms of the need to get off to a good start in your week, especially on here when we always like to discover what it takes to be in your best shape.

The need for a big workout is obvious.

What we don’t always talk about are those snacks or meals that can give you a bundle of energy that will power you through a workout.

That time of day when you may need it the most is around the 4 o’clock time when you may have just finished work, you are rushing around everywhere, and the last thing you need is going into your workout with zero carbs inside you.

For instance, don’t worry about eating a second bowl of porridge at this time too, even if you have had one for breakfast earlier in the day.

Porridge is the ultimate slow release energy provider, giving you real energy just when you need it.

If you don’t get enough energy in at this time, not only will you have a poor workout, but you are very likely to overeat in your evening meal, because just think of the time you have left it without a meal. Lunch at say 1pm, then an evening meal at 730pm is far too much of a gap!

4PM has become a crucial time for many people I have found in your 7 day eating diaries, so start filling in the gaps and you will perform far better, and lose more body fat in the meantime!

Twitt
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Thursday, 24th October

Carb up or get left behind

In the minds of many athletes, carbohydrates often plays second fiddle to protein. This is partly due to misinformation about how truly important carbohydrate is to the athletic endeavor, but also may be due to common misunderstandings about what carbohydrate is.

Although protein is critically important to health and certainly plays a role in sustaining and enlarging muscle mass, reducing muscle soreness, and improving muscle recovery, consuming excessively large amounts of protein does little to improve athletic performance when it replaces carbohydrate.

Carbohydrate is needed to fuel almost every type of activity, and the amount of glycogen (which is what carbs turn into in the body) stored in your muscles and liver has a direct effect on your exercise performance. Over the years carbs have had a bad rap what with all the low carb high protein diets making an appearance in the media. It is true that you do lose a lot of weight fast on a high protein diet sometimes within days, however what you lose is not fat. The body loses its glycogen stores and water, making you drop weight quickly. The result is you look leaner however you have depleted your body of its muscular energy source.

The truth is that the human body’s preferred choice of fuel is carbs and this is most critical at higher levels of exercise intensity, where there is a greater reliance on carbs as a source of muscular fuel. Like filling a car up before a long journey, you should be stocking your glycogen stores up before, during and after a workout (depending on duration and intensity of the workout).

There have been scientific experiments conducted in this area to determine the importance of carbohydrates in relation to exercise performance. In a pioneering study, three groups of athletes were given a low-carbohydrate diet, a high-carbohydrate diet and a moderate-carbohydrate diet (Bergstrom et al.,1967). The scientists then measured the concentration of glycogen in their leg muscles. The high carb athletes had twice as much as the moderate-carb athletes and seven times more glycogen than the low-carb diet athletes. They were then asked to cycle to exhaustion on a stationary bike. The high-carb athletes managed 170 minutes, the moderate carb diet 115 minutes but the low carb diet athletes only managed a mere 60 minutes.

This experiment shows how quickly you fatigue on a low carb diet. What’s more, athletes who train in a glycogen-depleted state tend to choose a lower workload or intensity because the exercise just feels harder.

Many are scared of loading up the carbs for fear of putting weight on however if you rely on protein as your main source of fuel you will fatigue much sooner or drop your exercise intensity and therefore end up burning fewer calories – and less body fat! It should be noted that when muscle glycogen and blood glucose levels are low, your muscles will burn more protein for fuel. So you end up losing your hard-earned muscle along with a reduction in your endurance levels. You will ultimately stay a certain level of fitness where your time in the gym is not particularly enjoyable and your training average to say the least.

If you are a sportsperson who is involved in a sport that requires endurance and explosive strength, this would include rugby, football and hockey, getting your training to the next level would be advantageous.

Serious exercisers who train at a high intensity at the gym 3 times a week or more would benefit from a carb rich diet, especially if you take part in the prowler sessions with Keri. Also people who enjoy endurance sports such as running, cycling and swimming need to fuel with carbs on a daily basis.

A good guide as to whether you are eating enough carbs or not is to notice how energetic you feel during your workouts. If you feel easily fatigued, this suggests low glycogen levels and an insufficient carb intake. Try upping your carb intake a little at a time, a fistful of pasta or rice in the evening meal to see how you feel during training sessions. Fruit and vegetables are also made of carbohydrate so include plenty of these in your daily diet. We recommend that some form of carbs be eaten during every mealtime.

However on the other hand, over-eating carbs won’t increase your energy levels. This is due to the fact that the human body only has relatively small amounts of storage in the muscles and liver for glycogen and excess carbs will indeed get stored as fat. You will feel heavy and lethargic with over-consumption and so portion control is hugely important. Little and often is key throughout the day.

The best advice we can give you is to listen to your own body. You will know when you have sufficiently carbed up as you will have increased energy levels and explosive power and strength during training sessions. Ultimately as far as I’m concerned, there is no better feeling than knowing you can finish the session and still have enough petrol left in the tank…

Eat to train
Nicola.

Twitt