Posted on

May 17th 2011

Some of you are going through a fresh start at the moment, and that’s always a good thing.

Don’t look back at your failures of the recent past, you can learn from them. They can only be classed as failures IF you don’t learn from them, simple as that. They can be classed as “learning” experiences if you proceed with confidence in the future, knowing you’re not going to go back to the place that caused misery and unhappiness before.

Unfortunately, the process of putting on weight, then taking it off, then piling it back on and this time 5% more again, can be deeply distressing! Some of you have been through it a number of times, and it doesn’t make it any easier of course.

This is an opportunity to put them to rest, and tell yourself you simply won’t accept the faddy diets you used to go on, you won’t fall for buying a faddy piece of exercise equipment again that you never use, you wont accept mediocrity in your training attendance.

For example, how many times have you wondered how you’re putting weight on in a particular month, and if you go back through that month in your head, you would have realised you may have missed a lot of scheduled workouts, the one day a week drinking rule has become a two-three day a week rule, and your stricter eating habits have now become somewhat less than strict, and the one day a week “have what you like” rule has become a three to four day a week rule!!!

So coming back to our point, making a fresh start is exactly that, there is NO GOING BACK this time.

If you are focused on getting your mind and body in top shape, you have to choose which lifestyle you really want. Is it the pain of constant disappointment and regret? Or will you be brave and actually DO IT this time and make it sustainable for the rest of your life? No regrets and no going back, you have to remember that so lets go!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

April 6th 2011

April is a great month for health and fitness full stop.

We all are complaining about the ridiculous prices on food at the moment, but with more local produce being available soon because of the better weather, there should be better and cheaper fruit and vegetables around, plus more fresh and tastier food full stop.

It really pays sometimes to visit your local farm shop once in a while. Theres lots of fresh everything and a lot of home made food even for you to get stuck into. For example, the difference in the price of eggs these days compared to even the supermarket can be phenomenal, plus you know where those local eggs are coming from in the farm shop.

The closer you can get to eating fresh food the better, in terms of the way you look and feel, after all what goes on internally in your body is critical to the way you’re going to look.

People are becoming more aware of health full stop now, as was illustrated in the report this week on our shopping habits. White bread for example is now on the decline for the first time ever in 30 years of shopping analysis. This is a clear sign that a lot of people are making small steps to make sure they live longer and have a better quality of life.

Small steps will always mount up into one massive big step if you stick by simple rules.

Refined sugars have no place in your diet, neither do ready meals or “low calorie” biscuits and cakes, nor does alcohol in the week or so called “low fat healthy” cereals such as frosties, perhaps the biggest false description of all time, of course it has little fat but it is absolutely LOADED with sugar, that will be detrimental to your health in the long term.

Surely it is better to take the plunge now and spring into summer with plainer, more natural foods that will give you a lift right now and for the rest of your life? The natural way has to be the only way so lets get ready to work hard in the good weather to come over the next week!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

31st march 2011

The reasons why we exercise, why we don’t give in to temptations in the week, why we drink water instead of pop, why we make time for a healthy lifestyle full stop are many.

When you are very young, its all about looks usually, when you get a bit older and perhaps have more responsibilities such as children, your reasons change pretty fast in terms of order of importance.

If you are a father or mother, you want to be in shape to look after your kids, while still looking good and proving you’re not ready for the knackers yard just yet!!!!!

Then when you become older again, you want to be in seriously good shape to be around to help your kids, and perhaps even your grandchildren, this is when a lifetime of keeping yourself in good shape is really going to be worth it. Like we always say though, its never too late to change your pre-conceived ideas about exercise, nobody is ever too old to get into good enough shape to totally transform their quality of life.

Its not all about six pack’s and rippling muscles either, this is just an extreme version of a healthy lifestyle. Most models you see of all kinds in magazines have been airbrushed to different degrees and digitally enhanced to make their bodies seem like the perfect version, in reality this level of conditioning doesnt exist for long because these low level of body fat are kept only for short periods of time, due to the extreme diets and mental discipline required. To get in this shape is to be admired because it is quite a feat, but it shouldn’t be considered the normal expection from working out and eating well and this is the point i’m trying to get across!!

I am away tomorrow on a family weekend break until monday, so thats enough reasons right there for me to be in shape, as i get older, i appreciate my health more and more and never take it for granted, like perhaps i did when i was 18!! Having enough energy to do everything is no longer a distant dream anymore for most people, it is essential in these busy times we live in and training smart and eating fresh and healthy foods are number one and number two in order to achieve these very important goals!!!

Twitt
Posted on

28th March 2011

Another fresh week and the clocks have gone forward at last!!! The weather is considerably warmer and brighter, and winter seems to have gone away. I have seen this situation before though and end of march and early april can still surprise us by being very cold, so we will wait and see!!! Anyway for now, things are good so hopefully you’re going to be making the most of it.

Not all of you are well of course as jean has said, she is suffering terribly with her chest infection that even has involved hospital visits like the one this saturday just gone. Nothing i can say can make it that much better right now, but all jean has to remember is that she can get back to health again, and when she does, it won’t be too long at all before she gets to being back out on her bike, or whatever she feels like doing. Health is number one, and she can make it happen!!!

Cyril is also struggling, this time with his back and i have been encouraging to blow up his swiss ball and do some exercises on it to relieve pressure on his back. The problem is that most people don’t realise that its not just your back is usually the problem, its your hips and your hamstrings that are all related.

For example, if your back is bad, usually you have limited mobility in your hips, and if you play some sport, your hamstrings will usually be tight too, causing strains and pulls in all of these regions, which can put you out of training for weeks, even months so its an issue that needs resolving.

The number one cause of back pain is weight around the trunk area, so carrying excess weight triggers off a whole host of problems that cannot be solved long term until you lose the weight. It sounds like a vicious circle but if you understand how your body works, it starts to sounds better because you will be attacking the problems head on and not repeat your mistakes!

More on how to get rid of the bad back, tighs hips and stiff hamstrings tomorrow!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 25th 2011

Okay, so we have covered your cycling and running over the last couple of posts, but hows your inside work/gym work going?

You know how it should be going and this doesn’t involve hanging around talking around to everyone while you “train”! Taking it easy on yourself is not acceptable unless there are extraordinary conditions, or you’re just starting out.

There are a few things and indeed, mistakes i see every time i’m in a gym.

Number one if you’re working out with weights (and everyone should!), there’s too much rest in between sets, sometimes even 5 minutes, this is a painfully slow and ineffective way to train and get into shape, i should correct that statement because you’re never going to get into shape training that slow. I would assume there’s far more talking going on than training, and this is always a bad sign!!!

Number two is training with too many people, by that i mean there’s sometimes two training together and thats great, but if theres three of you and you’re all friends and want to train together, it can’t work because you will have too much rest in between sets. You will struggle to get any intensity up, so keep it to yourself and one other if possible.

When you train and there’s just two of you, try to do one set, then your partner does the next, then immediately again you do the next and your partner goes straight away. Try to keep this up throughout the whole workout and you will be out of puff and had a very beneficial bout of exercise, which will automatically lead to fat loss and seriously toning up your body, which is what most people want of course.

Avoid the fancy exercises! By this i mean you should pick the exercises that have most benefits, and they are usually the toughest!!!! The basic exercises are usually the most beneficial because they make you expend a lot of energy each time, meaning you burn more calories, speed up your metabolic rate, in other words, 24 hours a day you will be burning more calories a day, more body fat every day and keeping your body closer to the fat burning machine you really dreamed of!!! Yes, it is possible!!

Have a great weekend and lets exercise with purpose, its all about results so lets do it!!

Twitt