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Tuesday, 14th December

We are what we repeatedly do.

Never has there been a more true statement. That’s what we go on about every day on here. Its getting everyone to repeatedly eat well, train well and rest well, there truly is nothing else! Doing these things repeatedly well really is that hard for most people, until it become routine and second nature. The moment you don’t have to think about healthy eating and training as some kind of achievement, thats the time when you will have finally arrived in your programme.

Healthy eating is not something you have to “get back to” at a later date or next year, its something that should be with you each and every day. Having a blow out now and again should be the one off, and not part of daily life.

Repeatedly doing something good in your life is bound to be a good thing and an excellent habit to develop every day. How many people can say that? If you’re going down the pub everyday and grabbing takeaways for your evening meal, that “repeat” action will put you on course for having a visit to the hospital in the longer term. Most people who embark on this course sooner or later have to change to healthier ways, so it comes to all of us eventually so why not start right now?!!!!!

The boozy and rich food habits are very much the fashionable way to go around this time of year. Its a question of how hard you hit this lifestyle and how quickly you get back on track in 2011. Whether you will do things in moderation or 2011 starts off with one long binge, never really getting going. The resulting binge will undoubtedly make you overweight, lacking in energy and compromise your health.

It’s what we repeatedly do that makes us who we really are. Having some fresh air daily, eating healthy foods daily, and sleeping well will make us close to our bests so up to you!

Twitt
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Monday, 13th September 2010

Those who finish off strong in the next couple of weeks deserve all the rewards this year. The classic put weight on before christmas is here right now, and its entirely your choice whether you want to fall for that one again this year or not!

Its no excuse to say that there’s too many temptations around this year either. One party on saturday is not going to do too much harm. Having a bit of whatyou fancy in terms of chocolate, cakes etc is not going to pile on too much weight. What will put on the weight is the having a lot of what you fancy every day or certainly most days.

 The excuse “all i have to do is look at chocolate and i put on weight” is not really going to cut too much mustard here i’m afraid!! I have heard many people say such things, yet drop 4-5 dress sizes when they have put their minds to it!! Chocolate must have been in the room at times then, yet somehow it didnt come piling on then! Most people have their excuses already prepared, and if you’re on of those, its time to get real and get out of that horrible rut you’ve got yourself in!!!

Once you take the excuses out of your life, you will stop right then looking for excuses and get on with the hard work for a change. Indeed, the effort of looking for excuses would be much better spent starting your workout,making a decent meal for yourself or drinking some water instead of opening yet another bottom of wine!! If you judge your efforts simply on looking to feel better, then this attitude will take you a long, long way, thats the way i work anyway and its a great start for most of you to look at things again.

12 days to go, hopefully you remember me saying there was only 12 weeks to go and it would fly, well it certainly has now! Those 12 weeks were also an opportunity for you to get in shape too. If you havent done so, then theres always another 12 weeks so lets start by finishing off 2010 strong, to enable you to make a much better start in 2011!!!

Twitt
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Wednesday 8th December

The biggest mistake over Christmas I try to avoid is letting all the condiments come into my life again, which give me a shortness of breath, a lack of energy, make me irritable and get my sweet tooth back, plus the inevitable weight gain of course. Making myself and you aware of it is half the battle when we all start buying the “party” food etc in for Christmas.

Tomato sauce, mayonnaise (full, half or reduced fat versions), salt, salad “seasoning” products, salad cream, brown sauce, branston pickle, full sugar pasta sauces, anything under party food banner’s wreck my breathing, anything with added sugar in their product (corn syrup etc).

Also the chickens in indian sauces or ”hot  and spicy” chickens get me breathing heavy.

I also find if I have too many days of drinking alcohol, my discipline with food goes out the window and my choices become far more questionable! A familiar pattern  for you maybe?

So when does the point come when you say “that’s it I’m starting back after Christmas”! The sooner that point is reached, the more weight you are likely to put on over Christmas for sure, and the harder it is to come back strong after Christmas.

Party food for the most part has nothing to do with quality and more to do packaging of low or NO nutrient food up as something you would be “boring” not to go for! Unless you had a trolley full of “party food”, then you are the biggest stick in the mud there’s ever been and you’re not “enjoying” Christmas! The Ken Barlow of Christmas shoppers maybe!!

Personally I would say that there’s nothing more boring that gorging yourself all of December and drinking nearly every day, then complaining about your heartburn, your clothes never fit you anymore and after Christmas, going on YET another diet. This may be the most boring version of Christmas ever? The time everyone rolls their eyes at you because its like Groundhog Day all over again!

Wouldn’t it be far more refreshing and less predictable this year to keep on buying good food this year right up until new year. Don’t buy all that rubbish and “party food” that you throw out anyway after Christmas. A fresher and more energetic version of you is far more appealing to everyone than the complaining, irritable, boring version of you come January? Is that the case or am I over-exaggerating?!!

Keep having your treats over Christmas, you deserve to enjoy of course you do, but you don’t have to totally destroy yourself from now on in and make the start to 2011 totally miserable!

Moderation works as long as you have your basic foundation in place.

Twitt
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Tuesday, 7th December

As the cold continues, my running sessions have all dried up and we are stuck inside. It shouldnt and it doesnt stop the quality of workouts though, and the attitude remains.

Hitting a workout hard is almost as all about mindset as its about physical ability. I know people with the best attitudes are far more likely to over-achieve than those who may have all the tools in place to look great, but somehow don’t make the grade when it comes to getting in shape. Your mind will take you a lot further than just your body and resting on all your laurels ever could.

This weather also allows you to concentrate on areas that you may have ignored the last few months when the weather was a lot better?

How about your stomach, have you been avoiding this area for a while? Instead doing things maybe that are in your “comfort zone”?!!

I now enjoy the process of attacking my weaker areas. There was a time when i only wanted to concentrate on my stronger areas, but now i realise what i have to show more attention to, and a lot of self-honesty did me a world of good i can tell you! It always takes somone to pick out your weak points to make you realise that action needs to be taken and the sooner the better!!

The hardest part when training someone is telling them that they need to change from a certain way of training, to a more productive way. Most people think that the more exercises they do in a workout, the better it is. The truth is that making your workouts more simple and with more basic exercises really IS the best way to go.

It all comes to intensity and effort and mark yourself out of ten. If you can honestly say you always hit at least an 8, sometimes a 9 and once in a while a 10. you should be in your best condition and have a great balance in your life. Nobody’s perfect as you know but as long as we keep on working on the imbalances, then the closer we become to the way we really want to look and feel. It starts with self-honesty and give yourself a truthful assessement on the way you look and feel, or get someone you trust to give you an honest and accurate opinion.

Then you step forward!

Twitt
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Monday, 6th December

We are currently in the coldest weather i can remember, bearing in mind it was the coldest winter for 30 years last year, this statement is a very strong one. The perfect excuse then not to do any exercise you would think? Absolutely wrong!!

Yesterday morning is my usual run with the dogs and early yesterday you would have been barely able to walk on the pavement, running was a total impossibility. I could have done a workout inside but i like some fresh air on a sunday morning, so i made sure i got a workout in through a tried and tested method  which turned out to be a lot of fun.

I hit the steep cemetery hill for sprints and obviously the normal road would have been impossible of course. The GRASS next to the road though, while covered in frost, is actually very receptive to running believe it or not, and reacts favourably to sprints up and down the hill.

This is the ONLY workout i could do yesterday but not the only choice had i thought about it a bit more. If i had waited a couple of hours and driven down the beach, i could have run as far as i liked on the sand, which is never a problem and is perfect in any weather, even though there were icy patches on the beach this morning!!

So two things i was looking at yesterday and they were accomplished very easily. A lot of fresh air which cleared my head, and a very decent sprint workout which i havent done for a long time, and my thighs are still a little stiff this morning which is great!! 

We always go on about the power of the mind here, and here it was again, just sit back sometimes and ask yourself is there a better way, or even is there a way at all?!!! More often than not, you’ll find that there’s ALWAYS  a way so lets continue to battle through this harsh winter and get some great workouts in!!!!

Twitt