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March 2nd

Your progress doesn’t mean much unless it impacts your life in a positive way.

It also doesn’t matter much if you feel that nobody cares about your progress. Having someone interested in what you do is a very underrated factor in your progress and confidence.

This is why people join diet clubs and gyms, its nice for people to talk about their progress with like minded people.

The weekly weigh in’s with diet clubs are a ritual for some people, and the pat on the backs or lets pull your socks up attitude seems to work for some people.

I’m definitely in that line of work too, a serious part of my job is not only constantly analysing an individuals performance and pushing them onto new highs, its also about motivating the individual and pushing the right buttons, especially when things are not going their way.

You can do it another way. You could ask a friend to help you out and witness your progress. That could be from measuring your waist with a tape measure once a month, to witnessing your weigh in’s every week, or just once a month.

Having a friend you can trust to help you can be very valuable with your training too. If you have someone who will become a training partner of yours, then you can keep pushing each other to new heights. Perhaps on one day, you will not feel great and your training partner will be able to push you to get through the workout, then on another day you will feel top of the world, and you will be able to get the best out of your friend.

This is why its always good to share your progress, it matters heck of a lot more when you share success, unless you are a very private person and like the rewards of purely individual pursuits, and don’t need to share it with anyone else.

Whatever works for you, then use it and keep using it time after time. The only thing that matters is sustainable progress and you being in great health. You always have to think about your health and fitness programme and change your approach from time to time. Life never stays still and you have to change to keep up with it, but as long as you train a minimum of 3 times a week and eat well 80% of the time, you’re going to be doing well!

Twitt
Posted on

March 1st-start of the year for many!!

March 1st is a big boost to all of us, January and February are traditionally the darkest months and when our motivation is lowest. It is usually quite high in early January after the new year resolutions, but by February, everything slips back into the status quo and a gloom seems to set over everyone.

March 1st signifies new possibility with spring coming and everything seeming fresher.

So now that perhaps unrealistic expectations made on January 1st are seemingly over, its time to get some real plans together and stop kidding yourself you can eat all those weight watchers biscuits and still stay lean, you really can’t.

The sooner you realise that most diet organisations have got their own greedy agendas for selling you their products and versions of food, then the quicker you progress, start eating good proper food and actually start saving some cash on all those empty promises.

From the weight watchers biscuits and ready meals, to the slimmers world green and red days, to the lighter life £75 a week you will need to spend buying all their shakes and snacks. Of course you’re going to lose some weight, sometimes a lot, but as the media has shown this week, most if not all of those examples they use have put all the weight on and usually 5% more on your body that you never had even in the first place.

Here’s a challenge for you this week, visit the supermarket and try to only go down the aisles that will help you out big time physically and in terms of health.

Go down the fruit and vegetables section, in fact spend most time here, and start learning how to cook again using good fresh ingredients and GET USED TO IT, its not a fad, ITS GOING TO WORK FULL STOP.

Also get some lean meats in there, chicken, turkey, lean beef and get some fish in too, mackerel, tuna, salmon etc, lets make this a staple of your diet.

Make sure there’s some good carbs in there too, wholegrain and wholewheat pasta, brown rice, jacket, new and sweet potatoes, porridge etc, if the quality is good, then you’re going to look and feel good so lets give it your best!!!

Twitt
Posted on

February 25th 2011

You have around 5 weeks until the clocks go forward and the already lighter nights become even longer and  the weather becomes warmer hopefully. You then have around 11 weeks until its may, when it definitely should be warmer and light until at least 8pm.

This all means that its the best time of year to be in shape. You cannot hide in big jumpers at this time of year. You cant wear big coats and the colour black can make anyone look slimmer, but it can’t make miracles!!!!

Being in shape by may will be a great challenge for you, and having the confidence to wear anything you want will and should be a huge incentive for you. If you’re in shape, then anything will look good on you, you don’t have to be so fussy because you’re in shape, your body fat is low and all of that strength work, resistance work has paid off throughout the winter!!!

May will also be a good time for you to get compliments too. Your hard work in the rain right now may seem unrewarded right now, but another 11 weeks of effort will bring a raft of compliments for sure, especially from those people who don’t see you so often. Theres nothing better than that feeling of being told you’re in shape, you’re looking so much younger because you’ve lost the weight, you’re looking in so much better shape because you’ve been workout out with weights etc etc!!!!!

Every day now you should be telling yourself that you’re getting better and better, your food is getting even better in terms of quality and you are setting new records in your training. Theres no alcohol in the week any more and health may have gone from bottom to top in your life!!!

Once your priorities involve health, being fit and energetic, and looking and feeling your best, then good things should be about to happen in your life!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

February 24th 2011

We have discovered that a calorie is not a calorie certainly. We know there is a difference between a doughnut and an apple, at least i think we do and we have really ditched the 1000 calorie a day workouts haven’t we? Those days of beverley callard in the paper advising people to do her exercise videos and eat cardboard all day are surely at an end arent they?

The difference between now and then is we have even more knowledge than we did back then, perhaps 15-20 years ago, but somehow the obesity levels are still going up, alarmingly so in fact!! So how does that happen?!!

It happens most of the time because we eat too much refined sugar and too much saturated fat.

Then we go on a diet, and then severely restrict our calories, lose some weight, get fed up with it all and pile the weight back on again, and we miss the point every single time.

We talked about it yesterday, not once do we care about the quality of our food, its all about calories, calories, calories, calories and thats why a lot of us become unstuck and lose the plot………….once again.

I have said it a million times, how about concentrating on what we actually put in our mouths, rather than the calories. The food can be full of chemicals designed to destroy your insides over time, give you high blood pressure, put strain on your heart, clog your arteries up, yet we still eat those foods because they are ONLY 100 CALORIES!!!!! This is absolutely no reason to eat rubbish, because its always going to be destined to fail.

Lets get this one straight, PROCESSED FOOD IS NO GOOD FOR YOUR BODY AND NO GOOD FOR YOUR LONG TERM WEIGHT LOSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this wonder theory i have about asking yourself every time you eat food, “is this food really going to do my insides good?”, isnt this a valid question to ask? If you can answer yes very much most of the time, THEN YOU WILL LOOK AND FEEL GOOD!!!

Hows that for a straight answer, simplifying everything and getting fired up for your fat loss efforts, keep it simple and you get very simple but powerful results!!!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

February 23rd

The issue with calories intake associated with diet and weight loss/weight gain has been around for a long time.

There have been 2000, 3000 and all the way down to 800 calorie a day diets.

Most people think, especially when they are in the mood to diet, that less is always best.

They are right partly but only to a degree. A calorie is not always a calorie.

Look at the difference between an apple which is approximately 50 calories and a doughnut which is a good couple of hundred calories.

If you used the logic of a calorie is a calorie, then you could class an apple the same as a quarter of an apple? A lot of people would consider this a fair trade off and take the doughnut every single time.

So what should you do?

If you take the doughnut every time, you will get the following.

An increased sugar rush, followed by a sugar low, leading to a craving for you guessed it, yet more sugar!!!!

If done regularly, you will heighten your chances of becoming diabetic, which can lead to a change in your life that you definitely wont enjoy!!

Your skin wont have a glow, in fact increased refined sugar like this is likely to lead to skin problems such as acne, rashes, redness and speeds up the ageing process.

Like we said at the start, there is absolutely no way you will be able to stop at one doughnut, especially a quarter of a doughnut!!! Once you have a craving for sugar, its very difficult to stop and will lead to a diet rich in sugary and fatty snacks, studies have shown this time after time.

If you consumer the apple every day and focus on natural, nutrient giving foods, you are likely to stabilise your blood sugar levels, which means more regular and constant energy levels.

You are likely to fend off serious disease, as most fruit and vegetables contain cancer fighter anti-oxidants, as well as a host of other vitamins and minerals vital for good health.

Any time your diet is healthy, your skin in healthy and you WILL have a glow about you, try it and see if im right.

Once you get used to good healthy food, you wont want to go back to the sugary foods, not only for their downside but because you simply wont feel good when you eat them.

Time to change your life!

Twitt