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Saturday, 6th December

Sometimes the biggest inspiration you can get is people telling you, you can’t.

That you aren’t “good enough”.

That it’s not “possible” for you.

That success isn’t “really you”.

Don’t let anyone else tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are, and what you are not good at, because usually that just isn’t true. I see individuals proving people wrong every single day, and going on to achieve things considered “impossible” just a few weeks before.

Many people don’t like to see others achieving and don’t have the guts and determination to leave their comfort zone themselves. Leaving your very own comfort zone is tough, but your achievements and things you will be proud of only begin at that exact moment when you really give things a go, and promise this time to finally see it through to the end.

If you listen to everyone’s opinions, especially the negative people, then the chances of you really reaching your deep down goals (the ones you really care about), are going to derailed or at least slowed down a lot.

Once you realise that you are biggest contributor to creating your own destiny, then you will move forward quickly and real-life meaningful changes will happen for you.

Once you start overcoming obstacles/reaching and beating targets you set yourself, you will develop momentum and developing the necessary habits to be successful will become totally natural and something you do every single day without even thinking about it.

Your beliefs about your true ability are crucial, and please never let others “decide” what that ability actually is, because chances are that they are holding you back getting the big things that really matter to you.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 1st December

All the individuals we have training right now are ones highly motivated to make yet another change in themselves in the last month of the year. December is just as important as any month to us, we have never been a “January gym”, we always look

longer term and cater for those who want sustainable and long lasting results and health benefits.

These are the people who know that constantly good performances are key to raising themselves for one more measurement this year.

They know the benchmarks that they have set themselves against, and the ones they really want to overcome.

Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, because maybe a lot of people they know don’t exercise at this time of year, they are striving for more because they see so many inspirational people training next to them in the gym all the time, and encourages them to push further even sometimes they don’t even feel like it.

Nothing worth achieving was ever attained by “run of the mill” efforts, or “going through the motions”. Everyone knows now that you only get out of this what you put in.

The more you come out of your comfort zone, the more likely you are to deliver consistent, impressive and staggering results you will be proud of.

We are proud to be in a programme you never stay still, you always want more out of and when you reach one level then there’s always going to be an even better more fulfilling one again.

The first of the month is an excellent time to think big again, dig deeper and really explore what your body is capable of again, and finish the year off with a massive high.

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

Monday, 17th November

Keri’s Leaner faster stronger challenge

Seasonal and local – day 1

What is seasonal food?

For a long time now we have been hearing posh celebrity chefs and health food experts telling us to eat seasonal and local. This can be extremely frustrating since they rarely explain exactly what that means and how you go about it.

We have been brought up in a generation of supermarkets and processed foods that come in a frozen box or plastic bag. The truth is that we have, as humans lost our connection with nature and more importantly with our food and where it comes from. Walk into any supermarket aisle on any given winter’s day and you will see an abundance of every fruit and vegetable from root vegetables, to asparagus to strawberries and cherries.

However what we don’t realise or understand anymore is that most of those produce doesn’t naturally belong there. Have you ever bought a punnet of strawberries around christmas time, only to find the flesh really hard with a strange white cap near the leaves, instead of the all soft red luscious flesh you would get in the height of summer? One taste of the cardboard like flavour leaves you disappointed and unsatisfied at best. Worse of all, you have ended up spending your hard earned cash on a substandard, tasteless product brought in from abroad only to keep the consumer happy all year round, and money in the till for the supermarket.

The reason the strawberries taste so bad? They are not naturally in season in winter.

Fruit and vegetables naturally grow in cycles, and ripen during a specific season each year. When fruit and vegetables are allowed to ripen naturally, they are at their nutritional best and taste fantastic.

Cherries are ripe and juicy in June so cherries are ‘in season’ in June. Asparagus grows and ripens in spring whilst tomatoes and red berries late summer.

Modern technology means we can buy produce such as strawberries and tomatoes all year round, however this is only possible because they are grown in massive greenhouses, or flown from warmer climates such as Spain, Egypt and Israel. In this case, they are picked before they are ripe and have fully developed their flavours, making for bland and nutritionally substandard produce.

Tomorrow – Out of season food – should I eat it or not?

Eat to train,

Nicola.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 3rd November

An old saying is that you need to be willing to sacrifice what you are for what you could become.

That moment when you become ultimately successful is amazing when you change your body and mind for the better. That journey though is full of bumps on the road that often tries to throw you off course.

Here’s what I notice just before our most successful members get the huge results they want, something really unique happens.

If you rewind slightly before they get over the finishing line, just before they were about to achieve their greatest successes, they too also go through the self-doubt, the thoughts whether they could carry on or not, whether they were really making the staggering changes that everyone was telling them they were.

Most people we train are very humble people, and sometimes they only believe their success when their clothes are suddenly falling down on them!

They only believe it when people they haven’t seen for a while ask them what the heck they have been doing! The change is often so dramatic that it makes friends comment so much on a regular basis.

It’s a fact that most people when they try to achieve anything in life often quit when their victory and success is only a yard or so away, the final bit of self-belief and seeing it through are so important to complete the journey.

Success comes when you stick it out a bit longer, even when times are tough and you think you can’t get through it.

Change is often uncomfortable but change is the essence of life, and is the main reason why people ask to join our gym. They want change in their lives, and it’s our job to deliver that change, even if it’s very tough at times, I know the individual concerned at the end though will be extremely happy with the results and very proud of their achievements.

Twitt