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Friday, 28th December

Glad to be right back into it all and get a great couple of workouts in yesterday, and some today too!!!

The great energy that these bring can be fantastic, and being back in routine again will make you realise all of the energy you have been missing, especially when you were not training, and eating badly.

For all of you who are back on track, or at least partially so, will know what i am talking about!

For those of you who are yet to get into it, i strongly encourage you to do so. The new year is going to hit you like a truck otherwise. The last thing you will feel like is making a flying start to the new year when you feel all groggy and sluggish. Feeling this way can give you a major disadvantage in anything you want to do.

Just think of what job you have? You have to give effort to make a living, and if you have no energy, that’s going to be a challenge.

The prospect also of losing the body fat and weight in general can be daunting. That’s why once you decide to muster up all of that effort, it’s important to make the right choices!!

They were talking on the radio this morning about the latest seaweed diet! Apparently Victoria beckham is an endorser, as well as Brittany Spears. Seaweed is a superfood but relying on seafood to drop all your weight and feel better has to be one of the most desperate measures you can undertake?!!!

What’s wrong with eating sensible natural food, in moderation? What’s wrong with drinking enough water at regular intervals throughout the day? What’s wong with getting enough sleep and not drinking too much alcohol? What happened to these reliable common sense methods that really work ALL of the time?!!!

I urge to avoid the faddy diets, the weight loss clubs who only help for a very short period, then they pile all your weight back on (plus 5% more according to reliable research). You should know by now that these products make me feel sick, and they should be exposed for the frauds they are, and the long term misery they create.

Lighter life, herbalife etc? The ultimate waste of money and con artists! Save your money now and use your common sense this year to avoid these disgusting products!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 20th December

In an ideal world, the body of your choice would just happen, good food would be just put in front of you and getting into shape would be the easiest thing in the world!

There would be no problem getting to the gym, and all the chores in life would be done for you.

This is an imaginary world of course, especially in the week before christmas, so we had better get back in the real world!!!

We are in a world where we make mistakes and we make them often.

So what we have to do is DO what we can do!

Life shouldn’t revolve around your diet or some kind of totally strict never have a treat regime either! This will not work. Frequently i hear from individuals that they have some big party and trying to be perfect somehow, they say that for some reason that they need to avoid the party!

This is nonsense of course and there is no need to avoid ANY social occasion or bring your own food just because there’s not a healthy meal already prepared there for you! Using common sense in these situations always works and as long as you don’t pig out too much, or don’t drink the bar dry, then put it down to a one off and make sure you get a workout done the very next day!!!

I have always said that you need to just concentrate on eating healthy at least 80% of the time, this should be enough to keep you healthy and energised for your workouts. If you constantly try to be at 100%, then you will be heading for failure and such plans never work for any length of time!!

If you allow yourself treats on one day a week for example, or two maximum, then you always have something to look forward to, and your diet will never become over-bearing. Common sense will always work for you, especially right now in the festive season.

Moderation always works, and keeps your mind very fresh and positive for your upcoming workouts that should always be at least a small part over the next two weeks.

Twitt
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Tuesday, 18th December 2012

Having done many measurements over the last week, and most people fulfilling a lot of their goals and ambitions that they made at the beginning of the year, one question comes up all the time from most individuals i train.

“How much should i expect to lose in a set period of time”?

To answer that can never be exact.

It all depends on the effort you put in, how well you are eating, how much good sleep you get, do you keep yourself hydrated, do you miss workouts regularly or do you hardly ever miss, how much intensity to you put into your workouts, are your performances constantly improving, do your drink too much alcohol too often or do you keep it in moderation, is your workout plan good or is it more haphazard, do you stay positive in times of stress or do you let stress stop you from doing your workouts?

These are all potential helps or hindrances and are are definite factors when it comes to determining progress. No two months are exactly the same and i can spend as much time councilling people on their problems sometimes as much as i do training! This is what it’s like in the real world, “life” happens and you have to keep doing your best with it!!!

Baseline figures are possible though and here’s what has been typical for me working with individuals for a lot of years now!

Waist-1.5-2 inches a month off, sometimes more

Hips-1.5-2 inches a month off, sometimes more.

Resting heart rate-2-3 beats per month down OFTEN MORE

Blood pressure-big success in getting people back into a normal healthy range

Body fat-1.8% down a month, often more!

These are exciting changes you can make your life, and all deserved to be measured!

More on this tomorrow.

Twitt
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Friday, 14th December

For more uplifting cycling workouts that you may or may not have time for this year, it’s time to get specific about your cycling efforts and with it you can save a bundle of time!!

Most pro cyclists will work at a specific revolution per minute. When you see the rpm screen on a bike machine for example, try and work out your intensity by concentrating on that particular part of the screen.

The desired number you need to look for is the magic figure of 80. If you can cycle at this intensity, then you know you should be getting some good workouts in. It doesn’t really matter on the difficulty level on the bike, that level has to match your ability to keep 80rpm up full stop!

It may seem easy or relatively easy for the first minute, but i guarantee that you will start feeling it far earlier than a normal workout!!! Keeping at the 80 rpm is extremely difficult after a while, but if you practice working at this level, you are likely to become a far better cyclist.

Another tip to become a good cyclist is work heavily on your core. Work with the swiss ball three times a week working on a mixture of back strengthening and flexibility exercises, this will enable you to cycle harder up hills and to keep up an intensity level up for longer.

Most people do not realise the amount of work that goes through your back when you cycle especially up inclines/hills of all kinds.

Working on your core is the number one to increase power, endurance and explosive strength for your cycling efforts so i wouldn’t keep ignoring this very valuable piece of training advice. Most of my programmes now put a heavy focus on all sorts of core exercises, due to the fact that you should consider internal benefits of exercise, and not just the cosmetic side. Look after your insides and your outsides will look after themselves.

Twitt
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Wednesday, 12th December

While we were talking about different alternatives for exercises yesterday, the number one thing you must do is just concentrate on doing SOMETHING!!!

The time it takes you to think about doing it, the facts are that you could have done something in your time.

If you have a dog for example, and typically walk the dog for 20-30 minutes a day, then what is wrong with running your usual course so it only takes you 10-15 minutes?!! This will qualify as a big workout for you.

If you constantly pass your training shoes in the hall way every day feeling quilty about not putting them on, then how about JUST DOING IT and putting them on and just get out there and run, even if its for ten minutes! Chances are that if you plan on going just for ten minutes, that will then turn into 20 minutes!! You willl enjoy yourself much more when you get going!!

Instead of waiting for the famous christmas jumper or whatever new clothes you get for christmas that you usually start wearing on boxing day for that famous “walk”, how about doing it now!!!

Now is the time and time waits for no man or woman as the saying goes, stop wishing your life away and stop making excuses for piling on body fat. You know those excuses are not going to wash on here!!!

The power of DOING far outweighs any talking about how you need to get fit, how you could have been a good runner if you only had tried, how you could have been a good cyclist only if you had the right bike etc etc!!!

If you always talk about how good things “could have been”, then you become one of those people who forever live in the past and you can be termed as a “couldhave wouldhave shouldhave” type of person.

Christmas is a week tuesday, please do not make the big mistake of giving up right now because its going to be twice as hard after christmas!!!

Twitt