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Day 53 Take pressure off yourself!

Many people started this challenge with a bang, and achieved great things in the first month, and some have started well, then fallen off a bit, and now are bang on course to achieve big things of course. Whatever your situation, I don’t think it is realistic at all to expect you to be perfect all the time, that simply isn’t possible!

It’s always good to take the pressure off at times, and you will realise by now that 12 weeks is quite a long period of time to give your very best effort.

This is why I give everyone a 80% target on eating good natural food. I gave you a target of 8 out of 10 in each workout you do, because 10 out of 10 is highly unlikely each time.

If you manage to get these kinds of averages in, you’re going to be classed as working amongst the top percentage, and pretty much guaranteed to reach your goals in your programme in a relatively quick period of time.

Putting undue pressure on individuals to do well has never been a tactic I’ve considered successful. I remember in my teens, we had a captain in our cricket team who would berate you if you bowled slightly off the mark, or it wasn’t your day when you batted you would have a verbal outburst directed at you.

 Hammering someone because they weren’t performing at their best proved to be a potentially damaging tactic to myself and destroyed my confidence.

I remember another captain years later who would always give me a reassuring pat on the back if I was having a bad day, and told me that he was sticking with me no matter what. The result? My game and confidence came back sooner than I thought, and that meant my performance was up to its normal standard very quickly and that reassuring pat on the back helped me an enormous amount, and put a spring back in my step.

All of us need someone to show confidence in us from time to time, and you have seen it on this site with some members seemingly be at all time low’s recovering to be at all time high’s in just over a week sometimes!

 I tend to use the tried and tested method of showing great encouragement when someone is a bit down, and having a harder time than usual. I’m in the business of getting the very best out of people, and less is more sometimes!

So when you are looking to assess your progress so far, try and look at the big picture.

If you are getting it right most of the time, then there’s no problem and your condition will be improving naturally.

If your food and training is all over the place, and you’ve gone back to your old ways, then you need to reassess your priorities, and ask yourself if you really want to be in the best shape of your life, or not?

Answering this question honestly will help motivate you to take immediate action, and make you realise if you have put too much pressure on yourself, or too little even?

The focus should not only be on this 12 weeks, but creating the trends and patterns that will serve you well for the rest of your life.

Nobody’s perfect all the time, so if your lifestyle is healthier now than when you started, you are still making steady progress, then that’s perfectly acceptable to me and keep having confidence in your abilities, that is the vital element you always need!

Twitt
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Day 52 pain versus pleasure

Day 52 Pain versus pleasure

We all have this choice every day in our lives, and making the right choice is critical at it will usually shape our future.

If a couple of weeks ago like jean, you were frustrated by the scales and whatever you seemed to do, the scales wouldn’t come down, then the easiest thing in the world would have been to wrap it in.

 This is avoiding the pain that you think will permanently be there if you carry on what you’re doing, so you go for pleasure instead and that could be instant gratification of fish and chips you haven’t had for a while? It could be a bottle of wine, it could be two bags of crisps, it could a big huge tub of Joe’s ice cream, whatever it is, that idea of pleasure in that precise moment seemed highly attractive!

Through looking at the reality of her progress once again, jean realised that the scales were not reality, and there were in fact lots of positives she has achieved so far, enough to carry on with the programme and not only that, but to have the confidence to raise her performance several notches, to a level she hasn’t been for years.

 This is now HER pleasure, the joy of feeling out of this world and making rapid physical improvements that take her back in time almost!

So you can see, the power of pain and pleasure can literally shape your destiny.

The feeling of throwing it all in must have happened to all of you at times, and it’s interesting to find out what keeps you going.

It’s also interesting to see what happens when you do “come off the wagon”, the way you feel after a binge on food or alcohol, or both! Most of you tell me that all of that sugary/fatty food actually makes you feel sick now, gives you a bad stomach and even headaches! This is actually a positive sign!

A positive sign in the fact that your body has now become used to good, natural healthy food, and it doesn’t tolerate “chemical experiments” going off in your body any more with all that junk you used to put in. Your body wants to be “looked after” now and wants the good life!

The idea of working out through the most icy and snowy January and February for some time has been off-putting, and even seemingly impossible for some. Those of you that managed it probably worked through the pain and got the instant pleasure afterwards when you had a bath or shower, knowing deep inside that you had improved yourself that day, and you actually felt better because you got some fresh air in your body, which as you know by now gets rid of dead cells and regenerates your body.

The pain of doing 84 days straight on this challenge is too much for some before they start, this is “too long” they say, but how can 84 days seem too long if it changes your life for good?

Those of you in day 52 today will be thankful you have made it this far, and have that warm feeling inside again because you know you have found new things out about yourself again, overcome all those challenges I have thrown you, and are still here to tell the tale!

 This should now give a lot of pleasure because you know you now have a diary of success, the fact that you’re still here means you are becoming truly successful, and are beginning to master the emotions that have troubled you in the past, and not allowed you to become the person you really wanted maybe?

Pain and pleasure are facts in life, but using them to our own advantage and not taking the easiest option every time are great strategies that allow us to become our true selves, and finally achieve what we know we are capable of.

Twitt
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Day 51 Use your imagination and let’s mix it up!

Day 51

One of the reasons why some people give up and some people keep with their exercise programmes is down to flexibility and variety. I’m not talking about stretching or anything such thing, I’m talking about being flexible with your workouts, and if you can’t do your scheduled workout, then do a variation of what you were aiming to do in the first instance.

For example, if you were planning to run for 30-40 minutes, and somehow you only had 10-15 minutes, and were still focused on great progress, I would rush over to the nearest most vicious looking hill, and hammer 6 sprints forwards, and 6 sprints backwards, each for a total of 30 yards of so. If you go flat out, you WILL get a great workout in!

Jean asked about interval training, should she do it? I think Jean already knows the answer, of course you should jean and show everyone what you can do! I always say that most people are only limited by their imagination when it comes to training variety.

Jean is talking about interval training, which could be described easily as jogging between one lamppost, then sprint the next post, then jog the next, then sprint the next one and so on. Now THIS is a workout that you will struggle to last more than 5 minutes each time, it is that intense!

Now we are starting to use our minds for our workouts, please don’t end up like some mindless zombie doing boring treadmill runs all the time, PLEASE, PLEASE vary it, not only because it brings great results doing different workouts, but freshens up your mind too!

One word of caution before doing ANY type of sprint work. In my experience, it is always advisable to do some kind of warm up before you sprint flat out, the always present threat of pulling a hamstring or groin never goes away, and the more weight you carry, the bigger danger there is. I’m not being prejudiced there, I’m just saying that I’ve done a million sprint sessions, and although you will get massive benefits from the session, the goal should also be not to get injured, in which case you probably wouldn’t run for a month at least!

The different ways of training are literally endless, and although you must still have a good structure in place, any type of workout is good as long as it’s safe and you’re capable of doing it. The more experienced you are, the more options you should have and as you should realise by now, it’s not simply a case of training for longer the fitter you are, that’s simply not true. It’s about doing “higher quality” training sessions in the time to suit you, and as long as you are improving physically, that’s a great sign surely you are doing all the right things.

Always stick to your fitness standards and we all have our benchmarks on how we are doing. Most people training with me may have a very tough hill as a benchmark, if they can do that consistently, they know they are in great shape. If you can do 40 press ups in one go, and your new limit is just 25, you know you have been slipping and you need to re-examine what you’re doing.

Being in shape physically and mentally can be easier than you think, as long as you know what your good standard in life is, and you try your best to stay there, even through the highs and lows that life often brings.

Twitt
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Day 2

The talking is over and we’re off and away! We are in it now and all those promises you made to yourself need to be carried out. I never said it’s going to be a bed of roses all the way, indeed you are going to make some tough decisions along the way, perhaps some you have always found hard in the past. You will face two choices on certain days, do i do my workout or should i skip it? One missed workout won’t matter will it? You can see how your mind will offer you different choices that each will lead to different outcomes?

It’s in the moments of indecision that your eventual destiny is shaped. You know if you do your workouts, eat well at least 80% of the time, you’re going to look and feel better. Swing it around and if you have haphazard weeks, training only here and there, eating off and on, you will have mediocre results at best!

The second day for you now should be met with enthusiasm, and you should be filled with a deep desire to not only do well, but finally get this thing right once and for all. You don’t need to be settling for second best anymore, or use excuses such as “fitness isn’t for me”! That’s rubbish and you know it, you are capable of what your mind tells you. If you think big and focus on your overall goals the whole way, you’re going to be achieving some pretty things, as long as you have taken action to get there.

Taking action as you know by now, is really name of the game. You can talk a good game every day if you want, but putting things off to another day will not get you anywhere. You know the old saying “the road named someday needs to a town called nowhere”! If you get inot the habit of really doing these workouts i talk about every day, if you get some fresh air at least a couple of days per week, if you eat a lot of healthy produce, and try to eat fresh whenever possible, i’m telling you now without any shadow of a doubt, you’re going to be in great shape full stop, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, if they do, then they don’t want you to succeeed. There are plenty of people who all want the same thing on here, to be healthy, successful and happy, and really achieve something special in the next 12 weeks.

Don’t let anyone put you off this road, you’re going to learn that being consistent is the true secret of being fit and healthy, and mentally strong. This is your time, let’s do it!!

Keri

Twitt
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12 week challenge

The 12 week challenge starts this monday, 17th january.

Things to do

1 do your very best for 12 weeks to get in your best physical condition, both inside and out, no faddy diets and calories under 1200 calories per day (which is technically being malnourished).

2 to become mentally stronger, the discipline of eating and training well will automatically bring more mental strength and help you overcome life’s challenges

3 to take photographs of yourself from this weekend, and then at the end of week 12.

4 to take your waist measurement in inches, and then work out your height in inches, try to get your waist less than half your height in inches. This is a great sign of increased health and wellness, and that’s what we are looking for. Let us know your progress.

5 you are welcome to take other measurements of yourself, for example, neck, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf, bicep and forearm, as well as getting your blood pressure checked out.

6 try and keep a daily diary, and a list of your progress and accomlishments. This will act in the future as kind of a success map on how you got into great shape.

7 log in here daily for updates on your progress, help from like minded people and support from myself. Everything changes here every day in case you didn’t notice before!

8 list your goals from what you want out of this challenge in the next 12 weeks, and even what you hope this next 12 weeks will lead to. Perhaps, if you have lots to lose, it will increase your career chances, most employer’s now look for fit and healthy workers to contribute to their business/organisations. OR you may want to get into amazing shape for the summer or fix some health issues that you’ve been avoiding for sometime, whatever it is you can do it!

9 i want you at the end of the 12 weeks to write a brief essay on your experiences, the best ones i will post online and they will be extremely valuable for new members when they discover the highs and lows when trying to get into shape, we want the truth on here and members posting here have already been valuable.

10 if you need extra support, drag an extra member to do it, maybe a family member, work colleague etc, all the workouts and eating ideas are already on this blog, and literally more are appearing daily, so let’s throw the excuses out the window and really get it done in 2010!!

This goal setting question and answer may help you get focused

Personal record and goal setting

Name…………………………………………………………age…………………………….

What i want out of this programme…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What do i know that i can improve on in health and fitness terms?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What’s stopped me reaching my goals before and how can i overcome these challenges?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How would it improve my life, and what would it mean if i was at my healthiest, both physically and mentally? First of all in the short term?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

In 5 years?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………for the rest of my life?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What if i don’t challenge myself and don’t try, how would it affect my life in the short term?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

In 5 years?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

For the rest of my life?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What are 2 things i can do immediately that will show i am committed to this programme, and i really want the best for myself?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

This is a contract with myself showing that i am committed to making major changes in my life and demonstrates i can see things through once i put my mind to it

Signed………………………………………………………date………………………………..

 

Twitt