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Tuesday, 10th September

The worrying news is that the faddy diets never stop coming.

Apart from the herbalife disaster, lighter life horror stories, the Cambridge diet example of perpetual yo-yo dieting, and you add a ton of other so called “diets” to these in the “hall of fame ruin your health and mind faddy diets list”, there comes a new one over the horizon.

Have you heard about the eat for 5 days, fast for 2 days diet?

Well, you may have because its been gaining some traction lately!

They claim to lower cholesterol, help with diabetes and generally help you lose weight-quickly! Interesting that nobody in the medical community is willing to back it, in fact they have come forward to publicly dispel its claims, and urge the public not to do it!

The downsides include a big hit to general health and immune system, some women have found themselves becoming infertile under medical tests, and all sorts of fainting and general not so pleasant side-effects.

Fasting has been around for many, many years and some people claim it works wonders but only now and again is it supposed to be practiced.

I have never tried it but I know there can be dangers with anything extreme, especially as not eating for 24 hours, but this new one says you shouldn’t eat for 48 hours, just drink liquids!

A lot of the medical community is up in arms and rightly so. The horror stories are likely to continue if you are doing without food for 48 hours. Of course you will lose weight by not eating, it doesn’t take a genius to work that one out, but the cost physically and emotionally cannot be worth any temporary short term weight loss!

15 weeks to Christmas today, and it’s a perfect opportunity to save your money, go and shop for good wholesome nutritious food that will do your body good, you will end up feeling a whole lot better, and in the process you will most likely drop a significant amount of body fat, especially when combined with a sensible exercise programme over those 15 weeks!

Twitt
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Monday, 9th September

Monday’s blog is as important to me as it is to everyone else. I always go on about the importance of starting Monday with a bang, and its vital for me to get that spirit going for myself too.

My Monday morning starts at 420am when I get up for breakfast and prepare for my first session. I know that if I show up for that first session a bit tired, a bit sleepy and in general “not up for it” then I know I am not serving that individual who is paying me to train them.

So my preparation has to be good and methodical and it all starts with an early night on Sunday and a good breakfast of porridge, water and one coffee to get me going.

Once I get into my first session, I know I am set up for the day and revved up to perform at my best.

I know once I get my first run of the day under my belt, I feel so much more energized and the energy and adrenalin soon starts to flow at a rate of knots!

This is why I tell people all the time, and the ones that are new to exercise especially, that you actually CREATE energy and future energy by exercising and eating well. It may seem that you are burning energy up by exercising, but once your body recovers, you will feel so much better after you have had a bath or shower.

It’s the constant regularity of your exercise programme that will literally make you feel better by the week. This is the addictive feeling that people enjoy so much from exercise, and this is why practically every single person I have spoken to feels so much better from exercise, and never wants to let that emotional uplift disappear!

So here we are at another Monday, so please try and make it happen today not only to get into shape and set the week up nicely, but to create an abundance of energy for yourself every day this week!

Twitt
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Friday, 6th September

Once you finish the marathon, you may think that’s it but its really not.

After the aching has subsided, and your toes, blisters and back has recovered, you still will likely stay in this very positive mood and state of mind for around 3-4 months afterwards.

The marathon often gives you a thought process where you start to think that anything is possible.

Six months later, you may develop an urge to do a marathon again the year after the last one you did. This is not uncommon.

The shorter runs you get back into after a marathon are both a relief and make you think that maybe you are cheating yourself.

The lack of injuries and minor niggles are great, but somehow you get to miss the aches and pains of the ultimate challenge.

All of these thoughts and deliberations are likely to go through your head for a year or two after the marathon, after all you have accomplished so much by going through the marathon in the first place, and you have overcome so many obstacles, then maybe it is true that nothing really is impossible!

Twitt
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Thursday, 5th September

So after I hit the 6 mile mark in the marathon, I knew I would be up against it carrying a 2 stone object for the next 20 miles. What made it worse was that I couldn’t put it on my back, and I had to carry it one handed.

The next 8 miles wasn’t too bad, but soon after I hit tower bridge I started to feel it much more. Believe it or not, you can run 14-15 miles in the London marathon and there are huge amounts of people right in front of you, to the side and right behind you, I found at the 16 mile stage things began to space out a bit and you tended to be in groups of 5-6 runners instead of about 200!!

What got me to mile 20 was the abundance of people still shouting at you to carry on, even speed up! You have your name written on your vest and number so everyone knows your name!

By 20 miles, my shoulders felt as bad as my legs because the pie was still in one hand at a time, my legs were feeling very bad because the extra weight was being transferred to my legs too.

From 20 miles onwards, I felt every single mile took A LOT longer somehow! Each mile was dreadfully painful and long, and nothing could get rid of the pain and tiredness, and even at the late stage 0f 24-25 miles, I saw the odd person collapse, or get injured, or simply couldn’t go any further, their dream ruined for the day and year.

What keeps you going from mile 20-26, known as the “wall”, was the much bigger again crowd support! I actually knew one or two people in the crowd and when the roads open up again, you know you aren’t far from the finishing line! This is a massive lift, let me tell you!

The 20-26 mile area is the hardest emotionally, as you really want to stop, you may lose a couple of toe nails, you may have very painful blisters, and everything will be aching like never before, but the crowd are the biggest part of the equation getting you through, anyone who has taken part will tell you all that!

This is also when your training plan comes into its own, this is when all the good preparation really counts and gets you home in one piece!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 20th August

The biggest surprise that individuals have when they come home from holidays is their first measurement immediately after returning home.

Depending on what type of holiday they have had, the measurements across the range can vary wildly!

Someone who has drunk alcohol every night on their trip and eaten heavily will be the worst offenders and their first measurement usually shocks them!

Blood pressure is usually way up!

Their resting heart rate is usually way up!

They usually put 2-3 inches on their waist and hips.

They usually add 2-4% body fat which is a significant number!

Their energy levels have vanished and show no signs of returning.

Their motivation is at an all-time low.

Their start back to exercising again is usually delayed by a series of minor excuses.

So you can a two week holiday of this kind of indulgence can have a serious effect on one’s ability to get back to where you were before the holiday!

It’s up to you what kind of holiday you want but beware the consequences of constantly overdoing it EVERY night on holiday. The best advice is to get straight away into it, take your time the first week back especially, and within 2-3 weeks, you will soon be feeling yourself once again!!

This shows the benefits of measurements too! If you weren’t constantly checked, you wouldn’t know the damage caused internally, as well as how you look in the mirror of course compared to when you went away!

Twitt