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Ever tried?

For those who don’t have heavy weekends now and again or dont go out for drinks, or stay in for drinks, this doesnt really apply to you, but have you ever tried not drinking alcohol at the weekend, especially if you usually drink every weekend?

I have a few drinks the weekend now and again, not so much as i used to when i was a kid, but i know the difference now certainly between  not drinking and drinking!!

Drinking the alcohol on the weekend can mean a subdued start to the weekend for me and most people i know. I get around this by going for a very early sunday morning run, and the result is usually amazingly positive, i feel great after that run and hit monday hitting the ground running very quickly, if you pardon the pun!! I have mentioned this many times of course.

So what about the rest of you? Do you practice sunday morning workouts to get rid of your excesses?

Most of you must have and although it seems a horrible thought to do a workout after a big night out, but the results are always more than worth it!

What about the moments when you eat lots of rubbish and instead of giving up the ghost for the weekend or even the week and continue to eat badly, it encourges you to get out there and train and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

I have had many such moments and you could even use this food which you normally don’t eat as EXTRA energy on your longer bike rides, your big running workouts or your tough inside workouts, how about seeing it as an opportunity rather than a feel sorry for yourself moment?

Every situation can be a different opportunity for you, good or bad.

None of us are perfect, and its about how we react to what life throws at us is the most important factor every single time!

So the title to all of this shoud not really be have you ever tried not drinking the weekend and feeling amazing on monday.

It SHOULD be have you ever tried reacting hugely positively to each and every situation that comes your way?

I didnt say it was easy but it can become a very valuable habit for you and transform your workouts, your health, just about everything!!!

Twitt
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Faster, stronger, better!

Faster, stronger, better are words to describe ultimate progress in your programme, your development and all possible in 2010.

All of this will/would have been possible if you just did one VERY IMPORTANT/VITAL thing so far in 2010. If you have been truly consistent with your training and eating through every month of 2010, you WILL be celebrating great health by now and feeling as strong as a bull, and a great eagerness to get better and better.

This is not fantasy land and if you look back at your progress over the last few months, you will understand where you went wrong and where you went wrong.

Chances are that you’re truly honest with yourself, you will sit down and have a plan of attack. You will look back at the very good months, and be dismayed at the mediocre months, wondering “if only”.

Its not time to look back though and feel sorry for yourself, as this becomes a very dangerous habit. Being down and looking at the most negative possible outcome often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Its time to break this once and for all, and look at the brighter side of things and life in general.

Chances are that if you think things are not going to work out, then they won’t. If you’re bright and optimistic, you have every chance of getting into seriously good shape.

Back to the opening sentence, yes you will have become faster if you’re lighter, you have less body fat and your fitness is good, which is should be by now.

You should be stronger by now, a lot stronger as I always encourage you to do strength  work a minimum of twice a week.

For all this effort this year in 2010, the 12 week challenge, everything really, you should be considerably BETTER than the start of 2010.

If you’re not, re-examine why everything fell off the rails and realise you can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! Sorry for shouting but I’m serious, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW AND STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF!!

Its only august, you have 4 months left to become faster, stronger and better, time to get a move on!!!

Twitt
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Monday’s the driver

I go on about it now and again, but isn’t it so that monday is your number one driver for a new week?

Here we are again, we are right here again, right at the heart of your decisions on whether you’re going to have a good week or not. That is correct, your “decision” on whether to have a good week or not!

It’s not somehow “beyond your ability” to have a great week is it? Of course not!

I may sound repetitive here but monday is so important to your week and good week”s make a good month, which means SUBSTANTIAL progress. This is what we’re after at the end of the day, so your momentum starts right here for the next 5days right up until friday night.

If you stop your excuses right now, you could be well on your way this week to making a substantial dent in your body fat, to a more impressive hard body, to lots and lots more energy, if you want to be one of those people who seems to attack life head on and get results, then you have to get out there today/tonight and get a great workout under your belt.

Then you have a shower, you have a meal of good protein such as chicken, turkey, lean beef, any kind of fish, with some good carbs such as wholewheat pasta, brown rice, sweet/jacket/new potatoes, with a wide variety of vegetables. Then you have a well-earned sleep and wake up on tuesday feeling well-rested, full of energy and full of wonderment on what your new day has to offer.

REALLY THIS CAN HAPPEN!!

If you manage to have a week full of these habits, you are on course, you are on the road to amazing health and fitness. Does this sound far-fetched, hope it doesnt because you are very capable of doing it.

 As jean says, its about moderation so have a bit of what you fancy at  the weekend, as long as it doesnt turn out to be one huge blowout!!

Anyway, back to right now and the job at hand, its monday and lets make it happen, a big future awaits for you if you do!!

Twitt
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Don’t waste your efforts

Everyone seems to give a different effort into their training.

Those who give little effort and tend to go through the motions tend to get some mediocre results, often drifting in and out of their training programmes and not really achieving a whole lot. They promise themselves that “next time” they will really do it.

If you have had some outstanding results lately, you are really in the category of giving an enormous amount of effort and you are willing to suffer heck of a lot to get some great sessions in. You are expecting harder and harder sessions, and you adapt to these very well by showing the level of commitment you show on a regular basis.

You are creating a deficit of calories in your body that should be prime time for body fat loss. The times that this ideal situation is disrupted is if you consume more calories than you need.

I know most of your calories may be good, and its not as if you eat rubbish every day.

The biggest problem when you’re trying to reduce your calories is the initial hunger pangs you feel in the first week. If your body is used to a certain amount of calories, a certain portion size etc, it is very difficult to feel satisfied that first week of trying to cut down.

This first week is so critical in laying the foundations of portion control. Always remember that if you eat too much of anything, you WILL put weight on, this is the fact you need to remember.

This is why its always recommended to eat with good guidelines in mind. Think size of your fist with carbs and protein portions, and have as much veg as you like. A pack of cards is a good way to describe your carbs and protein portions too, think smaller portions and you will get smaller full stop.

So now we are thinking a lot more about food and portions control, imagine how powerful this will become with the enormous effort you put in your training. Whenever you put the powerful combination of hard training with disciplined, well controlled eating, you are going to have serious results full stop so let’s get it going!

If you can do this, and not pick on things in the kitchen just because nobody is looking, you will be given yourself a big guarantee of superb results.

Always think of the incredible efforts you put into your training, do you really want to waste ANY of that by over-feeding yourself? None of us are perfect but the serious eating control will make you have 100 times more reward than if you just hope for the best on the eating side of things.

Twitt
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Day 82

Okay day 82 and we are approaching the last weekend of your challenge! What a weeekend with all the nice weather hitting us too, so no excuses not to get out there and enjoy the sunshine!

People in new york i can imagine use more exercise equipment because there tends to be extremes of weather there, it can be freezing in the winter, and the humidity can be a killer in the summer! So whatever you are doing, you tend to do indoors, spring and autumn apart of course when it can be fantastic!

Then, you have the likes of california, when all year round tends to be fantastic to workout outdoors, and do things where you have plenty of fresh air. We in the UK tend have mediocre weather which makes us feel pretty low sometimes, and then we tend to get over-excited when its sunny, and nothing worse than the sight of people taking their tops off for no reason at times, especially when its not the prettiest of sights!!

The number one thing is doing things you enjoy, and if you do them quite often, you are likely to get better and better at them, which means getting fitter and healthier of course.

Saturday is usually my day off, but i’m always looking for balance to my week and this week will be no different. I haven’t run so much this week as i’d like (which is a rarity) so i’m throwing a run in there at 6am tomorrow morning. A bit early for some maybe but as most of you know by now, 4am is my normal wake up call every work day. I know i will feel amazing at 7am!!

Nothing better then getting out there and getting some fresh oxygen in your blood. This process will help you repair all the cell damage we all go through every week due to the environment, be it pollution from smoke, eating food with too many chemicals, drinking too much alcohol, passive smoking, direct smoking or just about anything.

The bottom line is that we need to treat our bodies very well if we want it to be in good shape for our old age. Your retirement is there to be enjoyed in great shape, not some kind of meaningless existance that’s a constant struggle, you can turn it around right now and prepare yourself for some amazing health into your golden years.

So tomorrow morning, when i go for my run, not only will i enjoy it with all the great scenery, my dogs will enjoy it because they will be on a great run which they love and they get to swim, not only all of that, but i will be flushing all the toxins out of my system and re-charge my system, re-charge my blood cells, re-charge my vital organs to new levels of health and vitality, and i’m revving myself up with boundless energy too!

This is a great way to feel better, and its all free of course!! The best workouts are usually free, not stuck in some gym waiting for some exercise machine, with lots of germs circulating the air. Your best venue’s are all inside so enjoy them while you have the great weather around us.

Use your inside workouts for the mediocre weather, so you have a nice mixture all year round.

Two and a half days to go, finish them off strong!

Twitt