Posted on

Monday, December 10th

We need to understand why we put weight on during the christmas period, and what we can do to get away from this situation that affects most of us every single year.

Most people in this country put on 7-14 pounds, and new year’s resolutions usually last 14 days on average!! This mean you are likely to hit 2013 in an overweight mode!

It’s particularly cold today so guess what happens? We don’t move around much and tend to wear warm baggy clothes. This makes us “comfortable” and being in shape always gets put on the back burner!!

It’s a deep human instinct within us to eat more and move less, something thats been around for thousands of years, but there are ways to get around it.

A good tactic is to keep an eating diary for example this week, when its likely to be cold. Also, try and plan your meals in advance, and try to keep your portion size as normal as possible, all of these things will keep your eating under control and you will be thankful by the end of the weak that you still look and feel lean.

The problem this time of year also is that food is the centre point of things when people get together and meet up.

Even if you have several parties to go to, you should try the tactic of eating before you go. This way you will feel full and be unlikely to pig out in the party.

The christmas season can be stressful at times too, and what’s the first thing a lot of people do when they are stressed? Eat excessively or eating the wrong thing is a typical trait for most, and drinking more alcohol is a close second!! These two habits are going to be guaranteed to put weight on full stop. The less excess food and alcohol you have in the house the better!!!

Fight the weight gain, and with a bit of smart thinking you can do it!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 7th December

Following on from yesterday, you need to determine the rut you may find yourself in, or at least realise that you may have hit a plateau that you HAVE to get over!!

Determine how serious the situation is, what you can do about it and what goals you may have once you get over this temporary hump in the road!!

Has it been a few days you have been stuck in your training plateau?

Has it been months even since you can remember serious progress?

If it has only been a few days, then you shouldn’t worry anymore because all of us can have the odd bad week here and there!

Getting back on track after one bad week could be as easy as getting a few nights of good quality sleep, this can fix a lot of problems and get you fired up on all levels!!!

If it has been a few months, it is serious and you need to make dramatic change right now!

If you havent had progress for a while, then there’s always a reason, and probably several reasons!!!

Go over your diet, go over your training, and go over your sleeping habits. Three simple things right there but three massive subjects!!! Get all three and you reach all time highs in your physical conditioning, get all three wrong and you end up in poor shape!!

This time of year offers a stark choice on how you should eat, drink and sleep.

If you make the poorest choices full of sugar, saturated fat and alcohol, then prepare to be wearing baggy jumpers all winter to try and avoid all that weight you’re going to put on.

Make consistently good choices even when those around you are eating and drinking all sorts of rubbish, and you will get the body and overall health you really want!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 6th December

All of us get in a rut from time to time,but we have to make sure we get right back out of it!

First of all, one of the best ways of changing is to change what you do.

For example, if you ideally do 8-10 reps of each exercise and have done for years maybe, have 4 weeks of doing 12 reps per set. You will have to reduce the weight of course, but the extra reps will bring your body a new challenge and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results!

If you do a split routine, in other words you may be doing chest and arms in one workout, shoulders and back the next and then you do this twice each which means 4 days a week with this type of training, then i always find it beneficial getting individuals on whole body workouts that can be done just twice a week with a three day gap in between. This is well proven to bring some spectacular results in a short period of time.

Do drop sets! Say you do a set of curls with your best weight, do 8 reps and instead of ending there, pick up a lighter weight and hit another 8 reps, then pick an even lighter weight up and do 6 reps with that. This will absolutely crucify your muscles and you will find that if you pick just four exercises to do this in a workout, then that will be enough to get the job done in super-quick time!!!

When is the last time you kept an eating diary? This is one of the most overlooked things i see every week, and often explains why many of us don’t get into the shape we really want! Unless we realise how much we eat, what we eat and when, its tough for us to find out whether we are sticking to our plan or not?!!

No time for getting stuck in a rut, reaching a plateau or getting medicore results, you have the chance right now to turn it all around!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, December 3rd

Breakfast is always the key to your big start on Monday.

Having a good healthy breakfast can make the big difference between setting yourself up for success or setting yourself up for failure.

A good breakfast will make the difference between feeling fired up and full of energy, or feeling like your day has already become a damp squib!

A good breakfast will satisfy your hunger levels totally, and make sure your blood sugar levels are steady for the next 3-4 hours.

Once you get your blood sugar levels steady, then you are far less likely to grab sugary snacks such as chocolate. The chocolate will be far more likely to be consumed when there is a void created by an insufficient breakfast meal that doesn’t hit the spot!

Have you noticed that on holiday, if you don’t get a healthy breakfast in, you will automatically feel like eating sugary and fatty stuff throughout the day, as you end up never being truly satisfied with any meal and you end up consuming empty calories throughout the day.

Always remember that I bang on about the fact that breakfast can only be considered “breakfast” IF it is consumed within one hour of getting up. This is the magic time when you can really boost your metabolism, and get your body burning calories at a much faster and accelerated rate all day wrong.

You should realize by now that its not all just about the workout you do, it’s the other 23 hours a day that is just as important, and will really dictate the way you look and feel!

How many people do you know who train like dogs, yet always look a little overweight. This is always diet related, this is completely why we are talking about breakfast today, and why a good healthy breakfast will always start your day off in the right way setting you up to be successful in your efforts to be in great shape!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 30th November

Don’t want to seem like some scrooge like character with Christmas coming up, and it’s the first of December tomorrow would you believe!

Anyway, the big question is what kind of Christmas do you think you’re going to have this year?

Apart from the presents and general giving and receiving, we’re talking how you’re going to feel throughout the Christmas period, and how you set yourself up for the new year.

Im all for enjoying myself, its great to have a couple of drinks over Christmas, and letting your hair down from time to time can be a great thing to do.

The big question is if it turns into an everyday affair, and when do you stop?

Do you buy lots of “party food” this year or not? Isn’t it true when we do, that nobody really wants it when they call round the house anyway? Isn’t it true that most people decline it (usually saying that they have eaten already) unless you have an organized party?

This is a great example then of buying rubbish, empty calories into the house that will eventually get eaten by one person usually, and that’s you! From what starts off as a “pick” here and there, will eventually end up in you consuming the whole lot!

Then you will get a taste for it all, and then you are bound to end up getting stuck into the rest of the food, you know the food that you initially bought for “other people”. This is a familiar process I think we have all gone through and it’s

REALLY hard then to get back to normal in eating terms!!!

How about saving yourself some money this year, get yourself a limited amount of treats in, stuff you may actually eat and you know you can control!

Let’s face it, if you need more food or run out, most shops are open right up until Christmas eve, and open sharply on boxing day!! It’s not as if you’re going to be holed up in some bunker for a couple of weeks with no way out, and you have to get as much food in as possible in case you end up “starving”!!!

In these times of austerity, it’s the perfect opportunity for you to buy less junk this year, buy less sugar-laden products, and those you get given to you, please give them away to someone else who hasn’t got the same high ambitions that you have, or give them away to someone who you know that these sweets will make happy!

Time for a fitter and healthier Christmas, and with wiser buying choices, you’re bound to feel and look a whole lot better for it, far better than a normal Christmas anyway and you will thank yourself a lot for it!!!

Twitt