Secrets to burning more fat

The real deal with healthy eating is not often explained properly. Most people are repelled from healthy eating sometimes because they are TOLD what to do! Nobody likes being told what to do like they are little kids, and will rebel often and do the complete opposite of what they are supposed to do.

There are government campaigns on food all the time it seems, but most people i know havent taken much notice about them.

There has to be a reason deep down for that person to change, and it has to be a strong one, or the self-discipline and determination to get a programme started will soon go by the wayside.

When you eventually change to the healthy way of eating, its important to keep your protein in most meals and of a healthy nature, your carbohydrates in limited amounts (about the size of your fist per serving) and of slower release in terms of energy, keep your healthy fats coming in through fish and a small handful of nuts, and keeping a variety of fruit and vegetables coming in is ultra-important in the winter months to come, keeping your immune system strong and your body functioning well.

Another overlooked point when it comes to eating is how many calories you burn simply by digesting your food.

To cut a very long story short, you will burn a lot more calories for instance eating wholemeal bread than white bread. It takes longer for your body to break down the wholemeal and wholegrains than it does the rubbish you often get in white bread.

I always recommend protein in most meals, and there is good reason too. It takes a lot more calories to break down the protein you consumer in meals than just eating carbs. Protein takes longer to go through your system, creating a nice long calorie burn without you working too hard!

The process of eating and the way your stomach breaks down your food is often forgotten, and its heck of a bonus that the healthy way of living is the most calorie and fat burning too.

Next time you do your shopping, make sure you pick the foods that will help your metabolism burn calories at a fierce rate. This is an easy to follow secret to burning fat and you dont have to do any work for it so keep it up and have a great start to the week!!!

End of week assessment

How’s your  end of week looking just before halloween?

Is it full of hope and progress or is it full of a lack of action and disappointment?

The great thing about it is  that this ship never leaves the port completely and leaves you stranded. We are always here to help you, even if you have bad week, if you have made a pig of yourself on food and drink, or if you just “down in the dumps” again, thats the way things are sometimes!

So if we plan for no longer than a week, i am going to be encouraging you at the start and end of every week. This is because not only am i an eternal optimist, but literally ANYONE can change their lives around ANY week of ANY year!! It’s that easy to get going, all you need is to make that first vital step. I may have the odd rant in the week sometimes because im frustrated at something, but in the main, everything on here will be positive to get you going again, and to give you that vital leg up when hopelessness takes over sometimes.

So how’s your strength work going and inside workouts? Don’t forget one pound of muscle burns up to 50 calories per day and one pound of fat burns a pathetic 2 pounds a day! The leaner you are carrying a healthy degree of lean muscle tissue, the quicker your metabolism is 24 hours a day, that’s the true secret to fat loss and being in the shape YOU really want!!!

Have you experienced the joys of being outside this week? From the low’s of the freezing conditions at the beginning of the week to the wilder winds of today, this ever-changing climate will often give you four seasons in one day but one thing’s for sure, it’s NEVER boring!! You have every chance to get out there the weekend too, no excuses for saturday and sunday as you should have enough daylight hours to get some quality work in. There are numerous routes to train on all the way throughout the area as previously discussed, all of them different and a lot of fun!! 

NOW is the time to do it, not everyone has the attitude to get out there in all weathers but now is when you really progress and make the big gains. That’s why you don’t see many people training in this weather, and they will never make sustained progress either. If you want to be different and make a tremendous difference to yourself you can be proud of, get your trainers on tomorrow and lets have a big weekend outside!!!

Your list of priorities

How high you put your workouts up your list of priorities will usually be a very good indicator of how good shape you’re in.

Someone who says “I train when I get time”, or “I do my best when I’m not busy” or “I have to be in the mood” or “I’m waiting for my ‘training partner’ to call me” are destined to get zero results and be guilty of being the pub “bore”.

Someone who says “I have to train a few days a week to feel good” or “I have to train a few days a week to be in shape” or “I have to train a few days a week because its so important for my health” or “I have to train a few days a week to create all the energy I need in my life” or “I have to train a few days a week to perform the way I need to in my life” is likely to be in great health and good physical condition full stop.

Attitude is always paramount, you are either going to be putting your head in the sand and hope for the best with your health, or you will always be honest with yourself, care about your health and the way you can help your friends and family out because you will have outstanding health and an abundance of energy to be productive every day.

You don’t have to be perfect either like these airbrushed pictures in media magazines. Carrying a couple of extra pounds is no problem, as long as your lifestyle is health most of the time, then your health across the board should look really good.

I have found if you take the pressure off someone and encourage them to be healthy, you will tend to get amazing results. If you tell people to abstain from everything, then its not realistic at all and they are likely to go the other way and have massive binges from time to time, totally unhealthy behaviour of course.

If you can accept someone can have a couple of drinks, eat a bit of what they fancy from time to time, not always have their best ever workouts, then I think the scene is set for an individual to blossom and show their real talent with all the pressure OFF!

This is when this whole thing becomes a lifestyle choice, your way of life forever in a non-threatening way. This is the best way I’ve found for most people, unless of course they have to be in absolute prime condition for a particular reason (actress landing a role for example or a lady having to lose weight for an operation or that person wanting to be in amazing condition JUST BECAUSE they want to be and it feels fantastic!!).

This is the whole message today and the great thing about is that every single one of you are capable of achieving it!!!

Never short of workouts

You really do have several workouts available this weekend.

All these posts are designed to get rid of any excuses you may have left in your cupboard!

So we have gone over inside workouts this week, you can do them in ANY weather, there are no snow storms in your living room or spare room? It is not too cold or wet either in your living room and you can even have music on in the background! This is a workout you can do ANY time, so if you have an excuse, you know its not possible for me to believe you!!!

What about your outside workouts?

Are you going to get out there and do them? Or are you going to put on your dressing gown at 6pm in the evening and drink a bottle of wine a night, a takeway most nights or the biggest bar of chocolate its humanly possibly to eat? Lots of people really do live their lives like this, and need rescuing from themselves and need to be introduced to an active lifestyle, it really will change your life and make you far more optimistic for the future!!!

If its cold inside, get out there and do your workouts outside, you will soon get warm, you will soon get some adrenalin through your vains and pretty soon you will be invigorated to go and do something!!! I bet you when you get back inside, you will switch the heating off and wonder how you felt it cold in the first place!!! Staying indoors all weekend and complaining its “cold” doesnt wash either, it really doesnt, and sometimes you need to shake yourself to get out of this vicious circle of feeling sorry for yourself.

Theres a million things you can do this weekend, and getting out there and being active is guaranteed to make you feel better, give you more self-confidence in your abilities and really set the tone for all weekends coming up to christmas!!!

For starters i would look at it this weekend for walking up and down some very challenging terrain but with great scenery. These place include pembrey country park, burry port beach, burry port harbour, sandy water park, mumbles promenade, mumbles mountain, beaches-langland, caswell, llangennith, rhosilli, swiss valley reservoir, millennium coastal path, any cycle path!, burry port park, and there are about a million other places i could list right now for you to try out but i think the above list is enough to get you started!!!!

I know many of you will know more “secret” places so please try them all out, it makes life far more interested if you try different and fresher venues!!

No time to waste in shops the weekend, get out and there and do something that will get your blood going again!!!

Having a go is the number one thing!

We touched on the fact that we need to be more performance orientated in our training and hopefully, im not trying to say here that half hearted exercise is a waste of time because its not.

We all have times when we are not really in the mood to exercise. For example, some of us may go out on a Friday or Saturday night, have a few drinks and wake up with a bad head. The first thought on our minds may not be going for a run or any workout of any kind!

However, I have said on here countless times how important it is to train the morning after  the night before. Anyone who has done this will tell you that “performance” is definitely not as important on that Sunday morning!!

Simply the process of getting through a workout is the big achievement, and it will make you feel incredibly better. This whole attitude makes you realise that nobody’s perfect, not one single person and we all like a laugh from time to time.

Jean I think is doing so well now because she still has a drink at the weekend and the odd treat, because she has been so good in the week. I don’t think its sustainable for ANYONE to go without a treat for too long.

Remember this workout plan and eating regime is not really just that, it’s the lifestyle change that’s the important thing!

Simon from Chicago has been e-mailing me about his progress and about the fact that he likes the short intense workouts inside. He loves them too because of chicago’s notoriously freezing winters, when outside workouts are almost impossible, especially with his asthma.

Simon asked the other day should he do 5 inside workouts per week instead of 3? I said not to and include 2 other cardio workouts instead. This will keep him fresh, still keep his performance high and avoid injury.

Its natural to want to do something a lot if you’re getting big results from it, but in this case more is definitely not better.

You need to let your muscles rest and recover ready for your next workout. Remember I keep on saying, this is a lifestyle change and it means that. For the rest of your life you need to have an achievable workout schedule and a good eating plan.

As I said, nobody’s expecting you to be perfect, but as long as you keep having a go week in week out, you will be very satisfied with a lifetime of good health!!