Posted on

February 9th 2011

Talking about improving your training efforts, here are some easy ways to achieve exactly that.

A very good start would be to keep a training record of what you do. For example, if you go for a run on monday for 20 minutes on a hilly course, write it down and try and state how you feel too, was it easy, hard, did you have to walk most of it, did you do more than planned for example?

Then the next week you can go into the same run fully aware of what it would take to improve on that. If the previous week you managed 20 consecutive minutes but had to then stop, the a run of even 21 minutes would be seen as an improvement, so set that as your goal if time exercising is your goal. A better goal would be run a little bit further, so even if that takes the same 20 minutes, its a very real improvement. Going more distance in the same amount of time is a major achievement and is much more meaningful in my book.

If your training diary says that that you only trained twice last week but planned 3 times, then work out why you didnt do it. Did you expect to do it in the evening around 5pm, but something kept coming up? The best solution for me would be to switch the workouts to first thing in the morning, you’re less likely to have so many things going on before work or even before breakfast.

Working out in the morning takes the excuses out of your life, and can set you up to have a great day. It works for many people i know and now that they have got into early morning training, they would never go back to evening training. Plus you tend to burn body fat quicker before breakfast so it can work on many levels.

The key to improving your training is your training diary, write your progress down and you will feel much more motivated to improve, putting good pressure on yourself is a great way to keep you moving forward, instead of being stuck in a rut!!!

Twitt
Posted on

February 8th

Now your basic level of conditioning is in, its time you thought about raising your performance!

Before getting into different ways of doing so on a traning basis, i would look at your diet before you do anything at all. If you keep eating rubbish foods full of fat, sugar and salt, you will be HIGHLY unlikely TO GET INTO GOOD SHAPE FULL STOP!!! This is the first thing you need to do before you move forward, or everything becomes a real struggle for you and things will not be easy for you, no matter how hard you work on your training. Its time to be honest, realistic and blunt if it means you getting to your goals quicker, if at all!!!

The old saying that you can eat anything you want as long as you train hard is totally false, and perhaps one of the most misleading claims you have heard for years but was foolishly wrong! You lose nutrients out of your body when you train hard, so it becomes vitally important to replace them as soon as possible.

Good food is good for your body in so many ways, in fact don’t see it as good, see it as vital in your goal to become the best you can be.

It makes sense to say that if you are 15 stone to start, and begin training hard, life will become a lot easier when you are down to 14 stone. Simply being lighter allows you to move more free, you will have less strain on your joints, you will have more energy and you will be far more positive because you have already lost a stone. You will develop the required momentum to easily come down from there.

The key to this remains your eating, without repeating myself too much, this has to be in place before you waste too much effort. Approach your eating and training with equal effort, and this way you get double results!!!

More on training improvements tomorrow!!

Twitt
Posted on

Feb 4th 2011

A massive day for anyone who likes sport today, wales versus england at the millennium stadium and it doesnt get better than this surely!!

The game has been spiced up by various comments on different players and as i write this, i hear than ben foden, who is england full back today, claims that it is time england put its “little brother” wales in their place!!! This will surely get most welsh people’s blood boiling as we read this!!! God knows what effect it will have on the players, but my wild guess is that it will add even more fury to tonights game, which is great in my book and will only add to the entertainment and the whole occasion in general!!!

Anytime you get riled by something, its good to use it as a tool and not let it control you and you become your worst enemy.

For example, if tonight when a lot of people in pubs are drinking quite a bit, then its not beyond the realms of possibility that a fight could break out in some places. This is sad of course and the next day, both parties would probably regret it.

A lot of people actually get motivated to do positive things when they are riled and angered in some way. Wales in rugby tonight will probably be best to use those verbal taunts as a positive and play their very best rugby, instead of using it by being ill-disciplined. This is probably what england expect of course and i really think tonight that discipline will win the game tonight, who can keep their head’s when everyone else is losing theirs!!

Making the most of negativity towards you can be a great tool for you. If someone makes fun of your weight, then prove them wrong and use that anger to get into great shape, it will literally make those same people making the comments speechless and you will probably or make that definitely earn enormous respect for your transformation.

There is a positive out of every negative situation, all you have to do is read it properly and use the angle you want to properl you to new heights!!!

Twitt
Posted on

January 27th, 2011

Following on from yesterday’s conversation about too much fruit and not enough vegetables, let’s defend fruit a little bit more before it gets too much of a bad rap!!!

I went over yesterday on how fruit is often blamed for putting weight on, and often mistakenly unless someone consumes vast quantities of fruit, and you would know you were eating too much because you would be on the toilet most of the time!!!

One big thing to back up why you should consider fruit a good thing is the benefits it gives you. The obvious one to think about is boosting your immune system, vital at this time of year with all the colds around. Then you have the energy fruit gives you and as i always tell everyone, you should be eating fruit because of all the untold things it does for us internally that we don’t even know about, but will become public knowledge in the next few years as we make new discoveries!! You should be eating fruit as a preventative measure against future illness, scientific studies tell us this continually!!!

The big thing for you though in practical terms should be the fact that your sweet tooth is never going to get worse should you choose fruit over chocolate for example. If you eat sweet things as snacks, then you will tend to eat more and more sweet things, and this will be very destructive for your body, this spiral can never end as we all know!!!

So despite the fact that sugar is contained in fruit, it is natural sugar your body can use and DOES NOT create sugar addiction like processed foods like cakes, chocolates and biscuits will do EVERY TIME. If you are currently in this spiral of wanting more and more sugar all the time, you have to switch to fruit immediately IF you want to reach your potential full stop, AND vegetables as this combination is especially powerful so you need to start putting your mind to this straight away, depending if you want great things to happen for your body and health of course!!!

Almost the end of january and this is the tried and tested way to go forward, to make sure your results are long lasting and health is your number one on your list of priorities!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

January 4th 2010

Most people are back in school or work today, and are struggling to come to terms with the realities of a dark and wet january! Add to this the increase in VAT, increase in rail fees, national insurance and the cost of just about everything going up right across the board. People as a result are likely to spend less as a result so George Osborne better know something we don’t, just as soon as he’s come back from his £11,000 skiing holiday. On average, there must be many conservative and liberal voters reading this so you can’t really complain, as you knew this in advance. The Americans on the other hand are spending their way out of this crisis, and according to most analysts and economists, it seems to be working! Whatever side of the fence you’re on, hope everything works out well for you this year!!!!

To avoid turning this into such political debate, this is an excellent time to prioritise your money into healthy quality foods and not waste it on alcohol and fast food full of sugar and saturated fat. What a perfect excuse to get into shape and give yourself a flying start into january!!

Times like these dictate that your spending gets scrutinised more than ever before, so every penny counts so give yourself an old test to see if you’re spending wisely. If the food you puchase is natural and good for you, then its worth buying because its going to make you feel good, look good, give you lots more energy and therefore make you far more positive.

If you keep spending money on junk, and fill your body full of rubbish, then you must really have more money than sense, and these spending cuts are not really affecting you. As a family, its our responsibility to get as much good food in as possible, there’s no room for rubbish anymore, but theres always room for better quality foods full of high quality nutrients that are going to boost our immune system and keep us well prepared for the cold months still ahead!

This year is going to be about much more than losing weight, its going to be about being the best you can be in the harshest economic environment since the 1930’s!!! With a bit of though, it can be a huge year for you discovering what really matters!!!

Twitt