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Wednesday, 12th February

The ability to eat well in social settings is one of the biggest difficulties most people face.

Some people eat the likes of pizza, Indian/Chinese takeways, party food “just to be sociable”, this is what many of you have told me over the years. The same could be the said about the pressure to drink alcohol every single time you go out no matter what.

Absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional treat, it keeps you fresh and you shouldn’t have to feel you are on some kind of “diet”!

To make the change publicly to eating healthily in front of your friends, or at least not making “quite as bad” choices is a difficult path for some of you to follow.

It is though a powerful sign that you are prepared for people to see that you are on this healthy path, that you don’t want to eat the fast food on offer all the time, and usually people I train are pleasantly surprised how positive it goes down with their friends.

Changing your behaviour and associations with food and alcohol is always difficult, and people will have a few comments to say about your new choices in public, but apart from that initial change and surprise, after that others will almost expect you not to eat all the rubbish in future, even if they are piling in themselves!

To get into shape and the physical conditioning you want to really achieve, you have the change your lifestyle for good. There is no other way and everyone I know who has had the best results over the longer term has changed their lifestyle and will never go back to the way they were.

Nothing feels better than being fit and healthy, to being close to your optimum body fat levels, and being capable of regularly improving your performance levels.

Nothing can beat that!

Twitt
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Friday, 8th November

It’s normally this time of year that things are starting to get really busy in terms of everyone’s individual commitments all the way up to Christmas.

I see some kids have exams starting one maths exam Monday, I know there’s a build up to the main exams before Christmas, and I know there’s plenty of exams after Christmas.

I know of many mother’s in the gym who are getting stressed by the run up to Christmas, school plays are happening in three weeks or so, and there’s plenty of other commitments.

Then you have the usual pile up of sporting commitments with games called off because of the non-stop rain. This adds to the stress of non stop games needing to be played. This can interfere a lot with everyone’s commitments and training.

The main point here is TIME or lack of it!!! This is why I have to convince people that even 20-30 minutes sessions are still very valuable, especially when you are time-crunched!

The goal should be to make time to exercise, however short. What matters really is what you do in that allotted time, and great workouts can easily be achieved.

What you need to have is a proper plan, set out over the week and implemented with commitment.

These are the most popular workouts I do this time of year so I will give you much more detail next week!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 5th November

The best part about training is the overwhelming feeling of wellbeing afterwards!

The scientific community accepts and fully supports now the notion that you cannot be healthy and maintain healthy levels of body fat without doing both-training AND eating well.

This is how slimming clubs fall down every time. They don’t give you that great feeling of wellbeing afterwards. When losing weight Is your sole aim, you tend to forget all the enjoyable things you should be experiencing along the way.

Exercise will give you real long lasting healthy results, scientific research tells us that slimming clubs lead to you putting all the weight back on, PLUS another 5%!!! To me and most other people who rely on science, exercise is an absolute must!!

When you exercise and eat healthily in sensible portions, you will lose body fat no doubt but there are so many other benefits. Blood pressure normalization, healthy skin tone, strong lungs and heart, feeling good 24 hours a day, fitting into your favourite clothes for the first time in years, people giving you compliments on the way you look, etc etc are all good examples of what a proper exercise programme will give you.

So if on a cloudy, wet and miserable November day you are at all feeling sorry for yourself, then a good solid effort in your workout will sort a lot of those feelings out, and immediately give you the feeling that you are about to have a better day!

Twitt
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Monday, 28th October

Monday is a recurring theme in terms of the need to get off to a good start in your week, especially on here when we always like to discover what it takes to be in your best shape.

The need for a big workout is obvious.

What we don’t always talk about are those snacks or meals that can give you a bundle of energy that will power you through a workout.

That time of day when you may need it the most is around the 4 o’clock time when you may have just finished work, you are rushing around everywhere, and the last thing you need is going into your workout with zero carbs inside you.

For instance, don’t worry about eating a second bowl of porridge at this time too, even if you have had one for breakfast earlier in the day.

Porridge is the ultimate slow release energy provider, giving you real energy just when you need it.

If you don’t get enough energy in at this time, not only will you have a poor workout, but you are very likely to overeat in your evening meal, because just think of the time you have left it without a meal. Lunch at say 1pm, then an evening meal at 730pm is far too much of a gap!

4PM has become a crucial time for many people I have found in your 7 day eating diaries, so start filling in the gaps and you will perform far better, and lose more body fat in the meantime!

Twitt
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Friday, 20th September

So we went through some ideas on strength work yesterday, and the importance of charting out your programme to get stronger.

Just as importance is your speed and agility work. While those words may give the image of youngsters jumping around full speed and going flat out, the facts are that I do speed and agility work with people of ALL ages.

Anyone can do speed work on ladders, and anyone can develop fast feet, anyone!!

Anyone can run around cones in different directions.

Anyone can run in and out of hurdles, you do not have to jump each time. There are non-threatening things you can do to keep your joints safe.

Anyone can run with parachutes.

Anyone can do our bungee sprints, slow or fast.

Anyone can use a sledge hammer safely when taught properly.

Most people can use our “prowler”, our famous addition to our training the last few months! Again, proper tuition is vital on this piece of equipment.

When you combine all of these things, you are destined to get faster, stronger and much more agile, which would be a major asset in anyone’s life!

If you learn to do these things properly from the start, you are likely to thrive in our environment due to the exposure you will be having constantly to professional training!

Twitt