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Monday, January 2nd

Most New Year resolutions never last past Valentines day, some last just days.

It takes a change in mindset, and choosing a path to create long lasting change for both your body and mind.

If you have hit rock bottom, that’s sometimes the best place to be because you are really ready to change, and immerse yourself into a healthy lifestyle.

You need a plan that challenges yourself and takes you to the next level continuously. Most people try to do it their own way, but lack direction after a couple of weeks on how to keep improving, despite endless information out there that only confuses people more.

You must know by now that doing a little treadmill and bike occasionally doesn’t create real change for your body, even worse signing a contract to a gym where nobody ever helps you, and hopes you never show up.

You need to accept there is a better way and that includes making training to get stronger the foundation of what you do. This will change your body shape above anything else.

Set realistic expectations, aim to be the best you can be, don’t worry what you were like when you are 18 or 21, being a great version of yourself at 50 is going to be an exciting challenge, and entirely within your capability, and there’s every chance you will look better than ever.

Eat real food, “powder” as meals is not only unsustainable and dangerous, it’s downright miserable and you know it. Be creative with your meals and don’t buy rubbish into your house into the first place.

Occasional treats are great but that’s no reason to bring multipack versions of anything into your home, constantly leading you into temptation. You WILL eat junk if it’s there.

Strive to get just a little bit better every week, choose healthy habits 80% of the time and a rewarding healthy lifestyle will stick if you keep giving it a chance.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 2nd August

Once we start exercising, we all assume we can train normally forever, never have an injury, never have any aches and pains, and this type of thinking and lack of preparation causes many people to get derailed in their programme, leading to quitting your exercise plan sometimes not long after it has started.

Most people get pain every day not from well designed exercise plans, but everyday life and failure to be active.

If you are sitting around too much, then some kind of pain will eventually enter your life as your body is designed to move regularly, and not to be stationery. You need to get more active right now, in however small a way to start.

If you never stretch, then everything will feel a little tighter leading to pain and niggly injuries. Flexibility needs to be worked on and everyone is included in this.

If you don’t sleep well, then all that tossing and turning can lead to inadequate rest and you waking up already struggling, your body is not recovering properly and not fighting off fatigue properly. You will likely be irritable and pain be part of your life.

Forget about eating healthy so you can just look leaner, you should also eat healthy because your body needs to recover from exercise and everything else life throws at you, and give you the energy to be productive in your day. Healthy foods helps heal your body, and keep you out of pain.

An ever-increasing number come to us with severe back problems, these issues develop usually because you overdo things on one side and the other side becomes weak, or you may carry too much weight being a major cause, or a specific injury may have happened and you wonder how to get pain free again or your job may encourage back pain, i notice for example that hairdressers and dentists suffer in particular as they lean over people most of their day.

Most people have never heard of fascia, that cobweb like substance that’s all over our bodies protecting everything. By making sure we work on this daily, we make sure injuries heal quicker and most injuries never develop in the first place. Prevention is always better than anything else so make sure your programme is comprehensive, hits all areas of your health and looks after you both inside and outside of the gym.

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday, 18th January

Most of you are doing exceptionally well in the first two weeks, but there will be plenty of ups and downs to come.

If you are looking to complete the 12 weeks perfectly, then that’s totally unrealistic. You will slip at times, but staying positive with your eyes on the overall improvement you’re making is vital. Your mind plays tricks with you, and making these changes may make you want to go back to your old ways at times.

If you have had a measurement this week, and your last one was BEFORE Christmas, then expect to have put body fat and inches ON because you haven’t been training as much, you have been eating as well, and you have probably been drinking more too.

You’re encouraged to be as consistent as possible with your training, this makes ALL the difference, and not listening to people who will put you off because deep down they don’t want you to be more successful than they are..

If you start skipping sessions, missing a week here and there, expect to feel de-motivated and finding it hard to get the same results. Don’t blame others why you’re not getting great results, when you analyse it all, if you have been eating poorly and missing training, then we cannot somehow conjure magic up for you and get you in shape.

Don’t tell yourself “stories” why you would have done it if so and so happened, why in the past body fat would have “dropped off quicker”. Be honest, you need to put the work in CONSISTENTLY and don’t miss sessions for the easiest of excuses. You have to want to do this because there’s plenty of people who will try to talk you out of being successful.

From research, theres plenty of evidence that successful people who get really fit and healthy, achieve sometimes staggering tranformations, often get “talked out” of their lifestyles by friends, usually because they are jealous of your success.

“Don’t do that anymore, you’re slim enough now”, “don’t lose ANYMORE weight for god sake”, “whats the point in getting fit anyway!!!”, “why don’t you come walking with me instead”, “you’re obsessed with being healthy!!!”.

These are classic signs of people close to you or you may work with who hate to see you doing so well.

Time to get your head down and focus on the huge change you are making to yourself. Be the one who says “no” at times, be the one who is a little different, be the one who doesn’t follow the crowd, and then you will achieve the extraordinary!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 19th November

Keri’s Leaner faster stronger

Seasonal and local – day 2

Is out of season food healthy or not?

Unless you live a life like Barbara and Tom from the good life, tending to your fruit and vegetables day in day out, you probably have little knowledge of seasonal food and it’s health benefits.

Since eating within the seasons is the advice given by health professionals these days, it makes you wonder if eating out of season food is in fact healthy or bad for us?

From a health perspective, food that’s not in season has been grown in huge greenhouses or shipped from warmer climates travelling thousands of miles before arriving in our supermarkets. This has many consequences for the consumer. Firstly, they are picked before ripeness so that it can endure the long distance shipping experience. This means that it’s nutrient profile is lower than a local and ripe product. Vitamin C for instance, which is abundant in most fruit and vegetables, is notoriously unstable and so would be lost in transit so to speak, making out of season food less nutritious.

Also transporting produce sometimes requires them to be zapped by a burst of radiation to kill germs. Preservatives such as wax is also added before refrigeration.

Taste wise there is absolutely no comparison. Locally grown food tastes amazing, has great texture and looks appetising. Most local food grown by farmers are also healthier due to having less pesticides and chemicals used for preservation too.

Air miles is another issue for many people. Local food usually travels only a few miles from farm to table ensuring less pollution to the environment.

Another quite interesting argument for eating seasonal is the fact that our bodies actually crave seasonal food due to the weather. Have you noticed how you fancy salads in the summer and crave stews and soups made of root vegetables in winter?

It’s all great saying that local and seasonal is better,tastier and cheaper, however how practical is it to eat like this all the time? If you lived in Italy or California, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, Burry Port however?

Unless you love pigging out on carrots and caulis for the whole winter, you are going to get pretty bored very quickly. Not many fruits are in season in cold and wet Wales in winter.

Our advice would be to try and eat as much seasonal food as you can to get a good amount of natural vitamins and nutrients, as well as getting a tastier and better value product. However supplement with imported fruit and veg as well. We have no intention of giving up bananas anytime soon as they are a great addition to the sports diet.

Seasonal food are in abundance in supermarkets these days, as they do try and cater for popular demand. Many supermarkets buy produce from farmers in Wales and the UK these days, you can usually find the grower written on the label.

Another option for tired and busy workers is frozen fruit and vegetables.

Studies show that these are actually healthier in terms of vitamins and nutrients than many fresh out of season produce, due to the fact they have been picked and frozen within hours, and so have not lost any of their nutrients. It also means you can eat strawberries for instance all year round.

Choosing frozen also means less wastage for the family too. No more shrinking yellowing broccoli lurking in the back of the fridge, which everyone forgot about!

Here is a list of what’s in season in November, helping you to make good seasonal and local choices in the supermarkets and small local shops.

Eat to train,

Nicola.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 2nd September

Practicing doesn’t make you perfect, but practicing a lot WILL make you attain a peak performance more often than not.

If you look at your habits every day, then you will realise why you are being successful or not by now surely.

What do you practice most in your day and week?

When was life working out best for you, and which habits did you used to practice on a daily basis back then?

What were you doing? Who were you hanging around with back then?

What were you eating? How often were you getting your training sessions in on a a weekly basis?

Who did you learn most from on a daily basis to create new productive habits? Did you have a coach back then and were you in any kind of programme to get the best out of yourself?

So from this you should be able to realise which habits work best for you, what inspired you to get into shape in the first place and isn’t it time you replicated all of those habits again and got into fantastic shape, both mentally and physically?

You know it’s going to take a lot of hard work to be at your best physically and mentally again, but dig out that roadmap again of how you were at your peak once in your life, and you will soon be getting the very best out of yourself once again.

Your daily and weekly habits will determine how successful you are full stop.

Twitt