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Sunday, 7th December

Those indecisive times that come in your life when you feel like you can’t exercise due to work commitments, it’s not “convenient” any more, you’re having a holiday or time off, you just can’t make it, etc .

These are called your “HOLY MOMENTS”.

These are the exact moments you either just do it, you stay with your programme or you just “don’t” do it!

I learnt this off many individuals over the years, those times when you know that something you eat will be bad for you, you know that missing your workout will not do you any good, and you can totally justify it, as you’re so busy.

If you make the RIGHT decision to not eat the junk and actually train instead of skipping your workout, then you had a “holy moment” because at that exact moment you did the “right thing” even when there was a million reasons not to.

Making the right decisions are never easy, they are very tough normally, but you have to keep making them to keep your momentum going, the progress coming and your feel good factor turned right up as high as it will go.

These decisions will define you and separate you totally from those who have “average” results. If you think about the average level of fitness in this country then you know they are not that impressive, if you think the average dietary habits, then you know by looking at others’ supermarket trolley then that’s not usually that good.

Lifting yourself up to another level and leaving “average” behind requires lots of holy moments.

Often your best workouts are the ones you didn’t even feel like doing in the first place, but are always the most important.

So when you’re stuck for time next time, your day or week may not be going for you, it’s then you have to make it happen, you better just get your kit on and go training, it WILL be worth making a much healthier meal, and you will DEFINITELY feel better right after it all-YOUR HOLY MOMENT doing the “right thing”.

Twitt
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Monday, 1st December

All the individuals we have training right now are ones highly motivated to make yet another change in themselves in the last month of the year. December is just as important as any month to us, we have never been a “January gym”, we always look

longer term and cater for those who want sustainable and long lasting results and health benefits.

These are the people who know that constantly good performances are key to raising themselves for one more measurement this year.

They know the benchmarks that they have set themselves against, and the ones they really want to overcome.

Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, because maybe a lot of people they know don’t exercise at this time of year, they are striving for more because they see so many inspirational people training next to them in the gym all the time, and encourages them to push further even sometimes they don’t even feel like it.

Nothing worth achieving was ever attained by “run of the mill” efforts, or “going through the motions”. Everyone knows now that you only get out of this what you put in.

The more you come out of your comfort zone, the more likely you are to deliver consistent, impressive and staggering results you will be proud of.

We are proud to be in a programme you never stay still, you always want more out of and when you reach one level then there’s always going to be an even better more fulfilling one again.

The first of the month is an excellent time to think big again, dig deeper and really explore what your body is capable of again, and finish the year off with a massive high.

Twitt
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Monday, 24th November

32 days until Christmas and many of the general public will have stopped exercising and eating healthy until 2 weeks AFTER Christmas too.

Can you really afford those extra 32 days plus another 14 on top to get even more unhealthy? Forget about being unhealthy for a moment, wouldn’t it be much better just to FEEL better, to breathe well, not get out of breath even doing the most simple of tasks? Wouldn’t it feel better to have a lot more energy in your life-all the time?

All of you must remember that awful feeling of your first workout two weeks after Christmas, the tight chest, the breathlessness, the inability to move without pain the morning after, the gloom of January and the prospect of “trying” to get fit again.

Then the “groundhog day” feeling comes of reaching the end of January and giving up again.

Most people’s exercise commitment lasts until January 28th according to recent studies, despite the fact that they may have signed up to a 12-18 month contract with a gym that doesn’t care if they show up or not.

The next 32 days are an opportunity to change all of that, because at the moment you must feel relatively okay, the Christmas parties haven’t hit yet and you are probably living your “normal” lifestyle without the excesses of Christmas usually bring.

Most of our members train throughout the year, even when it’s dark at 4pm, even when it rains and its freezing, even when it would be easier to go home and sit on the settee all night, even when maybe their work colleagues say they should give it a rest for the winter, even when they are asked “why do you even do it”?!!!

Of course we have many, many individuals trying to look better all the time, but the overriding factor I find all the time, especially at this time of year, is the desire to FEEL better in all ways.

To have the energy to function in everyday life, and usually out-perform is a very powerful reason in itself.

The “added benefits” of losing body fat, being stronger and moving without pain, having more endurance, having much better balance, not having to hide under a big baggy winter jumper all the time, all will happen, but if you focus on just having a good end to the year right now by moving more and watching what you eat more, then you’re going to FEEL much better and start next year with a real spring in your step that you may have never had before!

Twitt
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Monday, 17th November

Keri’s Leaner faster stronger challenge

Seasonal and local – day 1

What is seasonal food?

For a long time now we have been hearing posh celebrity chefs and health food experts telling us to eat seasonal and local. This can be extremely frustrating since they rarely explain exactly what that means and how you go about it.

We have been brought up in a generation of supermarkets and processed foods that come in a frozen box or plastic bag. The truth is that we have, as humans lost our connection with nature and more importantly with our food and where it comes from. Walk into any supermarket aisle on any given winter’s day and you will see an abundance of every fruit and vegetable from root vegetables, to asparagus to strawberries and cherries.

However what we don’t realise or understand anymore is that most of those produce doesn’t naturally belong there. Have you ever bought a punnet of strawberries around christmas time, only to find the flesh really hard with a strange white cap near the leaves, instead of the all soft red luscious flesh you would get in the height of summer? One taste of the cardboard like flavour leaves you disappointed and unsatisfied at best. Worse of all, you have ended up spending your hard earned cash on a substandard, tasteless product brought in from abroad only to keep the consumer happy all year round, and money in the till for the supermarket.

The reason the strawberries taste so bad? They are not naturally in season in winter.

Fruit and vegetables naturally grow in cycles, and ripen during a specific season each year. When fruit and vegetables are allowed to ripen naturally, they are at their nutritional best and taste fantastic.

Cherries are ripe and juicy in June so cherries are ‘in season’ in June. Asparagus grows and ripens in spring whilst tomatoes and red berries late summer.

Modern technology means we can buy produce such as strawberries and tomatoes all year round, however this is only possible because they are grown in massive greenhouses, or flown from warmer climates such as Spain, Egypt and Israel. In this case, they are picked before they are ripe and have fully developed their flavours, making for bland and nutritionally substandard produce.

Tomorrow – Out of season food – should I eat it or not?

Eat to train,

Nicola.

Twitt
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Tuesday, 2nd September

Practicing doesn’t make you perfect, but practicing a lot WILL make you attain a peak performance more often than not.

If you look at your habits every day, then you will realise why you are being successful or not by now surely.

What do you practice most in your day and week?

When was life working out best for you, and which habits did you used to practice on a daily basis back then?

What were you doing? Who were you hanging around with back then?

What were you eating? How often were you getting your training sessions in on a a weekly basis?

Who did you learn most from on a daily basis to create new productive habits? Did you have a coach back then and were you in any kind of programme to get the best out of yourself?

So from this you should be able to realise which habits work best for you, what inspired you to get into shape in the first place and isn’t it time you replicated all of those habits again and got into fantastic shape, both mentally and physically?

You know it’s going to take a lot of hard work to be at your best physically and mentally again, but dig out that roadmap again of how you were at your peak once in your life, and you will soon be getting the very best out of yourself once again.

Your daily and weekly habits will determine how successful you are full stop.

Twitt