Posted on

Wednesday 17th August

As we were talking about sports performance yesterday, its remarkable how similar a diet that you should be implementing yourself to get into shape and stay in shape, and the diets of footballers are often remarkably similar.

David beckham for example, when he was playing out in Italy credited the team’s nutritionist with helping his career go on for a few more years than he previously thought it would.

Get this, he was really speaking about some “revoultionary” foods that perhaps you have never heard of, what were these magical foods that set beckham on an indian summer in terms of his career?!!!

These “magical” foods were salmon and other fish in their natural state with no sauces or breadcrumbs, just plain old fish cooked in a healthy way with good old fashioned way with olive oil!!!

Then there was “magical” vegetables to go with it, and a whole array on wonderful veg in many different colours!!

Then he would eat a variety of fruit throughout the day for snacks and even had a small handful of nuts, such as almonds, brazils, cashews etc!!!

Also, he amazingly drunk water throughout the day, and insisted on going to bed early every night.

He very rarely drunk either, alcohol that is, and only a little during off season!!!

The result?

He was in the shape of his life, and he looked and felt fantastic, the porridge for breakfast had really energised him too apparently!!! The great man was feeling great going into his late 30’s!!!!

Okay sarcasm ended but what i describe is the truth regarding his diet, and he did and IS in incredible shape as we speak, anyone who reads the papers can see that!!!

So what we talk about on here every day, is very similar to beckham’s “magical” diet isn’t it? Or is it less than magical and more like just a healthy diet?!!!! Or does it sound more mystical if it comes from Italy, so they can take all the credit again and call it the meditterranean diet!!!!

Whatever marketing angle is used, you know that this diet, these foods and this way of life will work every time for you!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 26th July

The issue of post workout nutrition has never been so important.

If you are currently going through a tough pre-season for sport for example, what you put back into your body is going to be of extreme importance.

If you train very hard and then don’t care what you eat, then you’re not making things very easy for yourself at all.

There used to be a saying in the 80’s, 90’s and still sometimes today, that “as long as you train hard, then it doesn’t matter WHAT you eat afterwards”!!! What rubbish but what’s even sadder is that some people believe this!

Let’s look at it logically.

When you train hard, you break down your body.

You will lose a lot of nutrients out of your body.

You will break down muscle tissue down.

You will disrupt the chemical balance of your body and lose vital nutrients that need to be replaced.

So does a takeaway really cut it as an after workout meal?

Does the chip shop meet all your needs?

Is a bottle of wine really going to help you replace what you have taken out?

Is a couple of pints of lager going to repair your immune system or help destroy it?

So let’s get one thing completely straight. YOU CANNOT EAT EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT AFTER A TOUGH WORKOUT IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET IN SHAPE!!!

Okay, i’m glad i have got all of that off my chest.

So what should you eat?

White meats, lean red meat once a week, any fish as long as it hasn’t got batter, eggs, cottage cheese are all EXCELLENT protein sources!!!!! These are vital!

You don’t need a bucketload of carbs after either.

A moderate amount, the size of your fist will do and avoid white bread, white pasta and you will be fine.

Vegetables will provide a lot of the nutrients you need to replace in your body, you will be so much better off by having a good variety of veg in your meal after training for all sorts of reasons. This along with proper hydration will be vital in your athletic goals.

I have tried to make it plain and simple, lets just do it!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

19th april 2011

Blueberries, strawberries, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazils, kiwi fruit, carrots, broccoli, apples, oranges are all great examples on how to deal with the colds, flu and sorts of illnesses sweeping the country at the moment.

All of these foods offer remarkable support for your immune system in all sorts of ways.

I would much rather take these foods in every day, than lower my immune system and accept the seemingly inevitable of colds flu etc and in general feeling run down, it doesn’t have to be that way if you eat a lot of fresh natural foods and exercise well throughout the week.

This is always a powerful combination is keeping your general feeling of wellbeing at its highest level.

Contrast that with individuals who consume alcohol most days, eat ready meals or low quality food, and eat little or no fruit and vegetables.

If you have been on both sides of those examples, I don’t need to tell you then how good it feels to be eating well every day and how energy giving it is to have good quality exercise in your life. These are facts, and everyone who lives this kind of healthy lifestyle will testify them to be true!!!

When you are exercising hard, you also need these foods to replace nutrients lost during exercise. Good quality foods are needed even more when engaged in tough physical efforts because you want your body to repair itself in a good way, and not feed it junk because as you break your body down by exercise, you want it built up with high quality nutrients and not low grade chemical junk found in low quality meals such as ready meals and all of their cheap copy cat products on the  market!

Its all fine to concentrate on looking lean and worry about the slightest weight gain but surely its far more important to look and feel good ON THE INSIDE?!!!

If you look after your insides and feed it with quality fresh and natural food, your body will look after you a thousand times more!!!

Give it a go!!!

Twitt
Posted on

8th April

Definitely the warmest day of the year and definitely a day to get out there and do something constructive with your health and fitness. The term health and fitness doesnt mean just appear to be doing something, it means adopting a whole lifestyle and living it for the rest of your life. This is where its at!!!

It doesnt mean going to extremes, or it doesnt mean playing at it either, you dont have to be 100% perfect as nobody ever is, all it means is giving things a good go and doing your best 80% of the time.

The weekend is here now and you have two choices. Either you have worked extremely hard on your fitness  this week, eaten very well and you deserve a day off tomorrow, or you have been working hard in an office for example, havent been able to train like you know you should have all week, missed workouts and the weekend now actually offers you a wonderful opportunity to make up for all of that.

The weekend offers you a great opportunity to get up early tomorrow and train early before anyone else is around. The shopping can wait until later!!! There is no excuse to stay in bed on a scorching morning particularly after the winter we have just had. If you do, then you’re prone to making excuses all the time, which means you’re going to be prone to having mediocre results!!!!

I remember someone told me once that they had GIVEN UP their training because their training partner had temporarily stopped training!!!! This was as pathetic an excuse as i have ever heard and i knew right there that this person would never achieve anything worthwhile with that kind of weak attitude!! For the record we have all had weak attitudes, but its always a question if you can recover from a weak attitude or not?

This is why individuals with the weakest genetics can get into great shape quicker than those with great genetics, its all about attitude and desire, and whether you’re willing to do the things you need to do to get into shape for life!!!!!

Saturday morning is a great chance to show your character, i will be up at 6am walking the dogs, this is no time to laying in bed feeling sorry for yourself, lets do it!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

31st march 2011

The reasons why we exercise, why we don’t give in to temptations in the week, why we drink water instead of pop, why we make time for a healthy lifestyle full stop are many.

When you are very young, its all about looks usually, when you get a bit older and perhaps have more responsibilities such as children, your reasons change pretty fast in terms of order of importance.

If you are a father or mother, you want to be in shape to look after your kids, while still looking good and proving you’re not ready for the knackers yard just yet!!!!!

Then when you become older again, you want to be in seriously good shape to be around to help your kids, and perhaps even your grandchildren, this is when a lifetime of keeping yourself in good shape is really going to be worth it. Like we always say though, its never too late to change your pre-conceived ideas about exercise, nobody is ever too old to get into good enough shape to totally transform their quality of life.

Its not all about six pack’s and rippling muscles either, this is just an extreme version of a healthy lifestyle. Most models you see of all kinds in magazines have been airbrushed to different degrees and digitally enhanced to make their bodies seem like the perfect version, in reality this level of conditioning doesnt exist for long because these low level of body fat are kept only for short periods of time, due to the extreme diets and mental discipline required. To get in this shape is to be admired because it is quite a feat, but it shouldn’t be considered the normal expection from working out and eating well and this is the point i’m trying to get across!!

I am away tomorrow on a family weekend break until monday, so thats enough reasons right there for me to be in shape, as i get older, i appreciate my health more and more and never take it for granted, like perhaps i did when i was 18!! Having enough energy to do everything is no longer a distant dream anymore for most people, it is essential in these busy times we live in and training smart and eating fresh and healthy foods are number one and number two in order to achieve these very important goals!!!

Twitt