keri mckibbin personal training – Page 111 – Keri McKibbin Personal Training

January 6, 2011

Thursday, January 6th 2011

The efforts you may be now making with your diet ought not to be wasted, and you need to be adopting some simple strategies to make the most out of your new exercise and dietary habits.

The most important difference you can make right now is to give alcohol up for a while. The improvements your liver will see in the next month will be huge if you avoid drinking for the next four weeks and it’s a great month to do it, with not a lot going on.

Hopefully, after the four weeks, you will be feeling so good that you won’t want to go back to a lifestyle of excess alcohol and the dangers that come with it.

Absolutely nothing wrong with having a drink but moderation is the key. We all overdid as kids and some of us are learning now that perhaps its not such a great idea anymore to try and drink like an 18 year old into our old age!!!

Another huge disadvantage of alcohol consumption is the hunger it suddenly gives you. You start craving things you never thought possible, and those cravings are usually high fat and high sugar items, the very foods and drinks that are guaranteed to put a lot more weight on.

The statement that is perhaps factually correct more than any other is that ALCOHOL MAKES YOU FAT FULL STOP!! A bit harsh for some to take perhaps, but very true in my experience nonetheless!!

If you give up alcohol for a month, you will notice the bloated feelings going almost straight away. Any problems you have with blood pressure will subside a bit and substantially over the longer term, any overeating problems will be helped no end, any irritable behaviour you may have developed will subside too hopefully.

There are only positives to giving up alcohol this month and your enthusiasm for exercise can literally go through the roof!!

What are you waiting for!!

January 5, 2011

Wednesday, January 5th 2011

To give yourself a great start to 2011, you need to give yourself a big boost and you need to get used to eating every 3 hours. This will prevent you getting too hungry and this will keep your cravings at bay. Don’t forget you need enough energy to train, or the whole thing will fall down so let’s get it right again.

Breakfast

Starting your day with some protein is important. An omelette is fine but making your omelette with egg whites is much better when it comes to losing body fat. Including mushrooms or tomatoes or both in your omelette will be a bonus, spinach is also great.

Studies have shown that those individuals who include protein in their breakfast are likely to want to eat less throughout the rest of the day.

Most people start the day off with carbs, which is fine as long as its porridge, shredded wheat or weetabix.

The easiest way to blow your plan is NOT to eat breakfast, keeping your blood sugar levels is highly important to stop bingeing and to stop you eating late at night. People who eat breakfast don’t tend to want to eat too late in the day.

Mid-morning

Some fruit is fine of any kind, or a snack of 3-4 ounces of tuna is fine as well. Keeping some protein even mid-morning will keep your energy levels from crashing.

Lunch

Try and make sure you have a good meal at this very important time of day. It’s a good time because you are still likely to be active the rest of the day, burning your biggest meal of the day off in the hours left in the day. We talk about lean sources of protein all the time, such as chicken, turkey, cottage cheese, lean beef even or any kind of fish, as long as its not battered of course!! If you’re looking to create a quicker fat loss, keep it to a large salad with it or some steamed spinach, broccoli or carrots, or any vegetable you like really, a variety is always good and recommended.

Try not to have a salad alone, always make sure the recommended protein sources are in that meal every time. Remember that protein sources always keep blood sugar levels steady, which means your appetite stays under control.

Mid-afternoon snack

Fruit should be consumed mid-afternoon to keep your energy levels going, we talk a lot about energy levels as in simple terms, you won’t feel like doing anything without a good supply of energy which helps greatly with enthusiasm!! I would also try around 3-4 ounces of turkey or chicken, lean white meats to keep you away from cravings sugary or fatty foods, this will help greatly in keeping everything going well and keeping you full. A SMALL handful of almonds will be excellent at this time for essential fats and studies have shown that almonds are excellent when it comes to fat-loss.

Dinner

By this time of day, your normal cravings can be higher than normal, BUT if you have followed this, you will have eaten throughout the day, felt much fuller than normal and less likely to grab a cheese sandwich as soon as you get home!!

I would go for the trusted formula once again of your lean protein source of chicken, turkey, fish etc with an array of fresh vegetables, the more colourful the plate the better to give you a wide variety of nutrients.

This eating plan will make sure you sleep well too. Feeling full is key to sleeping well and this time you’re not going to have wide swings in blood sugar either, which can affect sleep. The better your sleep, the better you exercise and the more body fat you lose, its all good when you’re doing everything sensibly and working from your inside out.

Give this a good go and watch your body change!

Keri

January 4, 2011

January 4th 2010

Most people are back in school or work today, and are struggling to come to terms with the realities of a dark and wet january! Add to this the increase in VAT, increase in rail fees, national insurance and the cost of just about everything going up right across the board. People as a result are likely to spend less as a result so George Osborne better know something we don’t, just as soon as he’s come back from his £11,000 skiing holiday. On average, there must be many conservative and liberal voters reading this so you can’t really complain, as you knew this in advance. The Americans on the other hand are spending their way out of this crisis, and according to most analysts and economists, it seems to be working! Whatever side of the fence you’re on, hope everything works out well for you this year!!!!

To avoid turning this into such political debate, this is an excellent time to prioritise your money into healthy quality foods and not waste it on alcohol and fast food full of sugar and saturated fat. What a perfect excuse to get into shape and give yourself a flying start into january!!

Times like these dictate that your spending gets scrutinised more than ever before, so every penny counts so give yourself an old test to see if you’re spending wisely. If the food you puchase is natural and good for you, then its worth buying because its going to make you feel good, look good, give you lots more energy and therefore make you far more positive.

If you keep spending money on junk, and fill your body full of rubbish, then you must really have more money than sense, and these spending cuts are not really affecting you. As a family, its our responsibility to get as much good food in as possible, there’s no room for rubbish anymore, but theres always room for better quality foods full of high quality nutrients that are going to boost our immune system and keep us well prepared for the cold months still ahead!

This year is going to be about much more than losing weight, its going to be about being the best you can be in the harshest economic environment since the 1930’s!!! With a bit of though, it can be a huge year for you discovering what really matters!!!

January 2, 2011

Jan 2nd 2011

The extended holiday means you won’t be back in work until at least tuesday, which means you have had more than enough time for exercise, if you haven’t then perhaps you may need to re-examine your time management or lack of!!

Anyone who has had a severe thrashing on the beer should be sick of it by now too. You should really be looking at giving your liver a break and flushing it out after all the abuse you have given it over the festive period.

What about the chocaholic’s? Have you said “lets finish the box off/boxes off, may as well they’ll only go in the bin”! If you have finished off, then do it now and give your body the break it finally needs after the attack of huge amounts of sugar christmas time. Christmas is associated with sugar nearly as much as it is with santa claus in some houses. It is the “must have” christmas toy every year and there’s always room at the inn for chocolate is a lot of people’s houses. Getting from this situation is mindset change and it can be done. How long depends on a lot of things and your commitment levels in particular, so make it 2011 the year that it all finally changes!!

Monday tomorrow is a bank holiday, but an excellent chance to freshen your life up in all ways so lets give it a new start!!

January 1, 2011

New Year’s day

Already been for my new years day run this morning and it felt pretty good indeed!!! Strangely quiet always on new years day, perhaps because most people were having a heavy one the night before.

Actually, recent polls don’t back that up anymore. According to latest research, 92.5% of people in Wales were spending new years eve at home at 12 o’clock, a dramatic change that started i believe in 2000, when pubs and taxi drivers got very greedy and started charging to get into their pubs, and taxis wanted double and sometimes treble time for their services. That greed has led to most pubs being full to the rafters, to being sad places where you are luck to get 10 people in at your local pub on new years eve. Sad but true down with us anyway.

New years day is the ideal time to get going, not talk about it, just get going!! Actions should be talking louder than words this year for you. Never have the words “just do it” been more important!! You can talk about it all you want, but it all really begins to matter when you get out there and exercise. If you have a hangover or not, then today is the ideal time to get out there and do something worthwhile, burn some body fat and fill your lungs with fresh air.

We will be doing another 12 week challenge this year, and im looking to start it around 17th january. I always think that people are not really ready until then, because it takes that long to get back into routines of work, family etc. In fact, this year studies proved that to be true. People who start their weight loss programmes after 15th january, tend to be more successful in their programmes. People who start on january 1st tend to fade away in late january according to a number of studies, this does not surprise me one bit!!

So try and get in some kind of routine, and kick off lighter activities today, and promise yourself that you’re going to stick it out for the whole of 2011 this time!! Its not a sprint and the tortoise will really beat the hare this time!!!