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Monday, 4th February

Two big sporting losses for me at the weekend, Wales of course lost against ireland with such a poor first half performance,it was scarcely credible! This left wales too much to do in the second half and so it proved.

You cannot continue to make such serious mistakes at such a high level so often and expect to get away with it!

Then the san francisco 49ers lost againt the baltimore ravens last night in the superbowl!

The 49ers didn’t really perform to anything like what they could normally do, and left the first half so far down,it seemed impossible to get back in front.

They nearly pulled it off though and finally lot 31-34 in a classic superbowl!!

This is the magic of sports,and the theatre is creates. This is why a lot of us watch it in such big numbers!!!

If wales and the 49ers were more consistent, and play like they could play, the result could have been much different.

This is exactly the same with your training and eating.

If you lack consistency with either,you are going to be struggling to perform well, lose body fat and feel as good as you know you could.

If you do not start the week off today by being consistent with a good training session and solid nutrition, then you are likely to struggle the rest of the week.

You should be concentrating on getting a lot of good food in during your supermarket shop. You will need the nutrients to power your workouts, recover from your workouts, and keep your immune system strong, especially in the cold and wet winter we are having.

Consistency will always be your best friend, and the more you practice it, the more it will seem like totally the most natural thing to do!!

Twitt
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Friday, 1st February

Cereals and breakfasts in general can be a difficult subject for most, ranging from people who miss breakfasts to those who fall for the cereals to the masses that often come in pretty boxes.

Let’s get the first one out of the way, if you miss breakfast you WILL NOT BE successful in your fat loss and performance targets FULL STOP!

If you think that by missing breakfast, you will lose weight because you’re not eating any food, then that’s totally wrong. You need to eat breakfast to get your metabolism going, the rate at which your body burns calories 24 hours a day. If you miss breakfast, you are giving your metabolism every reason NOT to get going, every reason TO hold on to body fat stores, and you’re creating no incentive for your bodily functions to get going in a normal and healthy way.

Missing breakfast is the VERY worst start to your day.

Then when you go down the supermarket aisles and come to the breakfast choices, you are often faced with seemingly hundreds of cereal boxes! They hve catchy names, some have actually the words “fitness” or playson that word in the title!!

It’s a shame then that this particular one and all of the ones with catchy names or have cool characters on the front, are the ones that are loaded wth sugar and often salt. At least 80% of the cereals on offer are exactly the sugary options you do not want to take up for breakfast.

The ones you want to take notice of and buy are still the all natural ones, the weetabix, the shredded wheat, porridge in particular is wonderful, and free range eggs are fine products too, full of goodness, full of nutrients and full of energy.

Wholemeal toast is fine, just avoid the spread and try chopping a banana and using that as a spread.

You get some people who say do not eat bread, but most people are unlikely to be off it longer term. The trick is to be sensible and have a couple of slices a day, avoid the butter and margarine and eating bread in moderation will be fine.

Eating right matters so keep up the good efforts!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 31st January

Mixing up your training is something we are always keen on talking about, and the benefits and freshness this can bring to your programme.

The same thing can and should be done to your eating efforts.

How boring can it be to eat the same thing all the time?

The trick is to use natural products in your food choices whenever you can.

The aisles in supermarkets sadly contain mostly processed, salty, pre cooked sometimes, and other choices of food that will definitely NOT help you one bit when it comes to supporting your training efforts.

If you stick to the aisles that contain mostly good natural produce, then this will give you more variety and give you different ideas.

You have the fruit and vegetables aisles, these are always going to be good for you. Simply picking different fruit and vegetables each time you go, or every other time you go shopping will give you different tastes and different choices when it comes to meal preparation and selection.

If you are a meat lover, how about changing all of that around and waking up to the delights that fish can offer.Whenever i tend to go in supermarkets, there tend always to be deals on fish.

You don’t have to eat the same fish all the time, as the deals will usually offer a different fish most weeks.

You don’t have to eat ALL of it the same time either, especially when you buy bulk purchase such as a whole salmon on half price for example. It’s easy to freeze it, and get several meals from the remains of the fish you froze.

Changing from meat to fish will not only freshen up your tastes but also give you the essential fats you really need in your diet that are vital for proper function in your body!

Fish is not as expensive as it can be earlier in the week, friday is always a good day in certain supermarkets.

Please don’t stick to the same thing all the time, the last thing you want to get is bored with your diet!!!

Twitt
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Monday, 21st January

Assuming you are still building your programme up, one big thing you should be making sure of is the importace of a big workout on a monday to start off your week in the right way!!!

You may have had a workout before breakfast, lunch time or you hit your workout at tea time, whatever that time may be, you need to make sure you hit it with intensity, aiming to do a little bit better than last week, and setting yourself up for a very strong week.

When you do train hard, you will be more inspired to eat well and less likely to make poor choices.

When you train hard, you won’t want to waste any of that effort you have just put in.

This is why monday is SO important. How many times have you had a bad monday in terms of missing a workout, and then you went on to have a poor week in general? You may think that because you missed monday’s workout, then it will not be so bad to miss tuesday too, and by the time wednesday comes along, you may as well wait until next week!!!

Missing a week of training usually goes with softening up on your diet too. The attitude of “putting everything off until next week” is very common, and i hear anecdotal evidence of this all the time.

Being in shape is all about creating good momentum, getting into shape in the first place is very much about getting that momentum going strongly, and the only way you get momentum is getting a succession of good workouts together along with feeding yourself in a highly nutritious way.

The great news is that once this momentum does get going, it can be very hard to stop and results at this stage are much easier to get, almost without even thinking about it!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 8th January

Following the theme of getting right back into it this week, let’s move on from the importance of getting a good shop in to preparing yourself for training.

Once you have decided which way you are going to get fit and healthy, you had better avoid these pitfalls which are guaranteed to disrupt and sometimes stop your progress completely.

Make sure you wear clothes that are not too tight to bend and move around in, wear training clothes that you are comfortable in, rather than trying to follow the latest fashions.

Wear good running shoes-even if you have no plans to run! Not wearing the right footwear or wearing training shoes over 6 months old can lead to a series of problems. Many knee, ankle and back problems can be traced to poor footwear choices. I recommend running shoes purely because they offer the most protection, they tend to receive the most research in terms of money spent on them by big companies, and will generally do a great job of protecting you.

Buy a decent pair but you don’t need to spend too much. Last season’s pair will be fine and usually greatly reduced. When you buy them mark off on the calendar when you need to change them next, always 6 months from the date of purchase. This will become an excellent habit for you and help you avoid needless injuries that can seriously derail all your hard efforts to get into great shape!

Drink enough water throughout the day. Not keeping hydrated is a dangerous practice when you want to get into shape. Sip water throughout your day and you won’t be going to the toilet all the time. Your body will feel better, maintain its core temperature better and actually make you feel like training because your awareness and energy levels will be right up there. Drinking water through your training session is vital too, it will keep you cooled down and help you perform much better.

One big no no is iced water! You wouldn’t put freezing water into your car engine and putting freezing water into your body whilst exercising can be extremely dangerous! Your body likes working out in a healthy temperature range, it doesn’t like to heat up too quickly or cool down too fast!

More tomorrow!

Twitt