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Making your mark in the sand

Making your mark right now is tough given the economic climate.

When things seem dark and depressing as I write this in the pouring rain, its easy to curl up in the corner and give in to everything and not even try.

This is what a lot of people will do this time of year especially when it comes to their health, even if they are not even active to begin with, so things continue going down the pan for them. This is a slippery slope that is desperately hard to get out.

Try this for an experiment though.

If you are inactive and don’t do anything really to move around much, this could change things around for you in an instant.

Promise yourself that tomorrow you will do some exercise. It may be a walk, a bike ride, or whatever but lets keep it simple as say a walk.

Plan on walking for 30 minutes and take a bottle of water with you.

Then, when you get back in the car or you get into the house, if you don’t feel 100% better in terms of wellbeing and increased energy, I owe you £50! Be honest about this as I don’t feel like selling the house to pay up!!

This is your first step.

Then, have your shower and promise yourself that you’re not going to spoil all of that good work and you’re going to put some good food to maximise that very good feeling you have.

This is your second step.

Then, after all of this, you promise to hit the sack earlier than normal that night and you have a good sleep. Then I promise you that you will wake up so much brighter the next day it won’t be true!

You add all of this up and you have had a great 24 hours and then you need to try it all over again the very next day, because IT IS possible to feel that good again.

Try this for one week and see if your mood changes, you are slightly more optimistic about your chances in life, you are more hopeful and you will be on the road to developing more self-confidence and self-esteem.

These are the early things you need to do ever so slowly to get you on the road to discovering how important your health and fitness is to your future success-IN EVERYTHING!!!

Let me know if I have to pay you £50 or not!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twitt
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Showing up IS success

Many or probably most of you have had real problems with your training on and off for many years.

The problems though tend to stem from you being “on and off” with your training.

How many of you have stories about how you “used” to be in shape, how you were always going to be in your best ever shape one last time, how you were going to rediscover your youth and feel like you did when you were 21 again?

These are familiar thoughts and while you may not have shouted it loud, you would be feeling those thoughts at certain times in your life with at first hope, and then maybe regret if you never did anything about it!

I see it all the time with people, they make romantic stories up on why they never really got into shape. They forget the one thing that will make them ultimately very successful. SIMPLY SHOWING UP!!

If i didnt show up and write this every day, i would soon make excuses until i never showed up, and this blog would collapse. Some days i feel like writing more than others, but once i get pushing the keyboard again, i realise i was trying to help people again, which is important to me and gives me great satisfaction.

If you dont show up for work when you’re supposed to, you dont get paid so its a must.

If you dont show up to the supermarket, you dont get food and you dont get fed, so this is a must if you want to eat!

If you dont wash every day, your personal hygiene will be a problem and people will stand a few feet away from you! Washing your body and brushing your teeth is a must!

So how about getting shape? How the heck are there all of these romantic stories you tell yourself? I hear many stories all the time. I quickly come to the point though these days as my patience is usually short with people who talk a good game.

Lets come straight to the point. If you show up all the time for your workouts and you eat well, then you WILL be in shape full stop and please lets not make it complicated. Please, please lets not do that!

Its quite hard to keep on thinking of more and more elaborate excuses, if you dont show up, you’re cheating yourself and you will not get into shape full stop!!!

Good luck and its about time you cut the mustard if you’re still not getting where you want to be!!

Twitt
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It’s all worth it!!!

Cyril has made a great post today about his peak flow metre test has almost doubled in performance since he was a stone heavier!! If you have had asthma problems in the past or have it now, you may be very familiar with this test.

This means he has made great strides and the results of training hard and eating well are not just restricted to the scale-as we all keep telling each other!! Cyril is a great example of someone who just gets out there and does it! There have times when cyril has wondered if its all been worth it, but with results like this and his obvious weight loss, he must be flying high today.

As soon as you realise that its not all about which gym you train at, which class you go to, which trainers you train in, which fahionable kit you wear, who you know, what people think about you, how much people may try to put you off, etc etc, thats exactly when you step forward and decide that particular moment to be somebody and get into very good shape!!

You will get a million people talking about, and you may sometimes think that certain people are somehow “better than you”! What rubbish, i used to think that myself and once i decided i was going to show some consistency, i started racing past the big heads around the place and starting putting them to shame. This is EXACTLY WHAT CYRIL HAS DONE and each and every one of you can do the same-AS LONG AS YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT!!

Life is full of big headed people, people who have all the gear and no idea, the “posers”, you know all about them. Im challenging you all to blow all of these out the water because they are always all talk and very little action.

I guarantee if you knuckle down this week and really try to achieve your goals again and use absolutely no excuse at all, NOT ONE, then you WILL feel 100 times better by friday knowing you are on path to real success and real results. It is possible andit is not saved for “certain people”. ANYBODY can do it and this means you!!

Let’s get some aggression and purpose going and get yourself in the right mood to achieve great things!!! No time to waste, every second counts so lets get your big plan into action, all it takes is doing your best each and every day, nobody expects you to be perfect, if you slip one day, just pick yourself up the next and so on!

Its time for action because its all worth it!!!

Twitt
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Same old situation………..needs to change!

Jean makes a very good point in her comment in the last 24 hours. She says she needs the discipline of training with someone and going to a gym because she needs routine and wants to get the job done.

This is fair enough for her to say that and i know many of you will be in the same boat.

We always talk about the availability of outside workouts in this area in particular due to the natural beauty and coastal paths, beaches, hills, mountains etc.

If i take jean for example, nobody has trained more than her in the beautiful natural surroundings available, but is now perhaps going through a lack of motivation despite achieving great things in the natural environment.

Training with a partner as jean says does help heck of a lot and makes you turn up on time, and makes you schedule in workouts in the first place, so that side of things is really good. Training partners usually make you train a little harder too, theres nothing like pushing yourself further to achieve even better results.

The only downside of training partners is what happens when they don’t turn up? It would be easy to call off your gym visits then so make sure you’re disciplined to go on your own if necessary.

These are common situations that most people find or have found themselves in at one point or another in their training careers.

The bottom line is that nobody can make you train, nobody can make you lose weight, nobody can tell you a million times that you need to get fitter and suddenly you get off your behind and actually do it.

You have to WANT to do it yourself and setting yourself new goals is heck of a good start.

What about some new goals before christmas? I mentioned the other day that there is only 14 weeks left to christmas and how about trying to lose a stone and half before then? Two stone could be done if you really went for it, but a stone and a half is very realistic.

Its the tried and tested formula that will get you there. You NEED to get out there and train most days. You need to get a healthy shopping list in and actually eat good food most of the time. You need to drink more water and feel energised for the workouts to come. You need to get to bed earlier so you recover well from your workouts and you are well up for the training to come the next day.

This is the formula you’re all going to need to be in shape by christmas and thats a fact! Urgency is the key word right now so lets not put it off and say you’re going to start next week or even next month. By then, you will have forgotten why you wanted to lose weight in the first place. Its time for action, lets get training and lets get shopping for some good food!!!

Twitt
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Fast food eating

Its always a battle to eat well in fast food establishments but here’s a few ways to make the most of it and still stay lean.

Bottom line is that if you spend most of your time eating in such places, the chances of you being in shape are usually nil.

However, the first thing you can learn is portion control. If you control the amount you eat of anything, you will be consuming less calories full stop. This can take some of the guess work when eating in restaurants.

When you have your food, the next thing you look at would be your drink. If you order a milkshake or full sugar drinks, you can consume 300-500 calories straight away, on top of your food depending on what you select. Water would be the best selection of course and although i don’t like diet drinks, they would be a better choice than the most popular drinks available, loaded with destructive calories.

When it comes to burgers, try and select one burger in a bun to cut down on the fat per serving, with a more wholemeal bun if possible rather than a white bun loaded with bleaching agents and sugar.  They do offer these selections in certain restaurants. Also, make sure you ask for the burger without the ketchup, the mayo or whatever other rubbish they decide to put into it.

When it comes to chicken burgers, always go for the grilled chicken burgers rather than the fried, crispy version. There is a substantial difference in calories. Also, the salad cream that comes with the chicken burgers can really take your saturated fat intake tenfold, so try and avoid that if you can or at least use sparingly!

If you’re having taco’s, try and avoid the big cheese element that is usually added. The added salsa is not much of problem usually as there are some good ingredients in there, unless it is a totally sugary/fatty version.

Salads you would think would be fine but you can have some high-calorie versions often worse than a burger and fries! If you must have the dressings, keep the servings to an absolute minimum. Other things to avoid can be bacon bits, croutons and noodles which are usually cooked the wrong way and loaded with calories.

Next time you’re out in such places, you can be healthy as long as you’re sensible.

Twitt