Wednesday, 28th November

The individual that you see when you first start an exercise programme is always a reflection of that person’s patterns of action, in other words their habits, the things they do day in day out without even thinking about them.

In order to completely change and tranform yourself to a better you, to a leaner, stronger and fitter you, its obvious and indeed critical that those everyday habits absolutely need to change.

The bad habits are always going to be viewed as the things that hold you back, they stop you from moving forward and achieving long term success.

If you are looking for a higher quality of life, then you had better start adopting a lot better and higher quality habits in your daily life.

The first way to do this is to recognise your lowest level habit, i am talking about the habit that drags you down the most, the one that makes you put on weight or the habit that stops you training regularly, or the habit that makes you think negatively!!!

This bad and ultimately negative habit needs to be transformed into a much more positive pattern of action!!

You will find that as your standard gets higher and higher, it will be a case of continuously raising your standards.

For example, if you currently eat badly 7 days a week, then suddenly eating well 3 days a week would have a big difference to your body.

Once you made that change, you would find that you would want to improve again. The target may well go up to eating well 6 days a week, creating another massive difference. The goals would go higher and higher, depending on what standard of life you want to achieve!! The habits would need to change upwards accordingly.

Set your stall out and make that standard in life as high as you can!!!

Tuesday, 27th November

We spoke yesterday about the important of pushing on this month, and never settling for where you are, and the negatives and dangers of that attitude!

This is why measuring is so important for your mind and body.

I have had feedback time and time again that measuring does so much good for your physche!

If you can back up your efforts in black and white with inches off your waist, then this HAS to lift morale!!

If you can show on a blood pressure machine that your physical efforts have been that worthwhile that it has significantly strengthened your heart strength and health, then is always an instant tonic and will back up your training methods to the hilt!

If you can possibly lose 1-2% body fat in the toughest month of december, surely this says that you are indeed mentally strong, that you are working on a good programme and your clothes are fitting you better and better, probably to the point where some may be hanging off you, proving your overall shape is far better and the excess body fat you once had is quickly disappearing!!!

Doing things the scientific way will take the guess work out of your training and eating plan. I learned a long time ago not to leave your improvements to chance, to stay on top of all your training, and to nip any temporary slipping in progress well and truly in the bud!!!

Any process that is deemed to be successful has to be transparent, and i guarantee you that as long as you do 2-3 strength workouts every week, and you do 2-3 workouts that your hit your cardio in the right way, you are going to surprise yourself on how quickly you come on!!

Measuring every four weeks is complete transparency and is a proven system to achieve ultimate success.

Monday, 19th November

Five weeks tomorrow is christmas day, but the biggest mistake you can make is taking your foot off the gas, and “settling” for nominal effort in terms of workout efforts, settling into poor eating habits already way before christmas, and drinking alcohol much more, just because the “festive season” is almost upon us!!!

If you fall into any of these categories, then i urge you to re-think your habits right now and set yourself new targets for year end, rather than worrying about how much weight you are likely to put on!!!

You don’t have to make it complicated either.

Keep it simple by making your performances better.

For example, if you are running a mile in 11 minutes, then your aim over the next 5 weeks would be to bring that down to 10 minutes and 30 seconds, this would be a big achievement!

I would look at a 6 second reduction per WEEK, and you should be able to get there. Plus when you’re able to run that mile 30 seconds quicker over a 5 week period, then you are bound to be in better shape, your body fat will be less and you will get leaner.

The same can be applied with cycling, inside or out. 5-10 seconds off your time every week can make a big difference to the way you look. Not only that, but your view on food choices and drink choices will change too. Will you really want to blow all of that hard work christmas time? You will of course cheat on your diet but studies show that those who train with improvements in mind all the time, will usually eat a lot better than those who have given up, or lost complete interest in their training!!!

The basic message is train hard, look to continually improve by setting shorter term goals and the whole run-up to christmas will be far more productive for your body than usual!!!

Wednesday, 14th November

Not appreciating how far you have come is a surprising trait amongst many individuals I deal with.

This is the due to the negative kind of mental conditioning that weight loss clubs have given many of us in the past.

For example, if an individual who has been training for 4-6 months, and they are not a tiny person in terms of waist size, then I would consider 4-8 inches off their waist as a totally conservative estimate.
Some people achieve even more but I’m trying to offer you the least/bare minimum I see individuals achieving in this time frame.

So if during this time they training consistently, eat pretty well most of the time and don’t overdo it on alcohol, you would assume that most people would be happy with this kind of impressive progress?

The problem I often see with those who have gone to weight loss clubs for years is that they still rely on the scale as their true measure of progress, and this is where the negative thinking and problems start.

So if I give you an example of someone I have trained for one year, and has lost 12 inches off their waist, you would have to accept that this is a truly inspiring and wonderful achievement!!!

Then what would you say if that same individual was still a little bit unhappy because they had only lost “15-20 pounds off the scale”, and why wasn’t it 3 stone because she had come down 4 dress sizes and 10 per cent body fat after all, and she had lost 3-4 stone in the past!!!

This is an example of not accepting the scientific approach to weight/fat loss, despite the fact that the same individual was looking incredibly better right now than she had EVER LOOKED, and especially better now than when she lost 3 stone because she was now toned, had a lot more energy and her waist and hip size now allowed her to fit into clothes she had never been able to even think about wearing before.

Its time to throw out those negative images and heresay given to you by these dubious weight loss clubs, and use the latest science to get your fat loss plan correct. Don’t put up with false claims of these clubs, and weight loss plans that are according to every single study over the last few years, to not only put the weight back on, but another 5% on top!!!

The science is here, if I were you I would use it wisely and not waste a penny more of your money!!!

Tuesday, 13th November

We talk about the struggles of getting into shape here all the time.

It is often difficult to keep going when “life gets in the way”, and definitely even harder to keep your performances at their peak for any length of time.

There are different ways to overcome this and i recommend the following.

First of all, make your weight loss, fat loss. muscle gain, endurance efforts whatever you are looking for in other words PUBLIC!! Tell you close friends that this is the path you are on, and you would appreciate their support when times get tough, because you’re definitely going to need someone who bats for you in your corner!!

It may be something like your closest friend measuring your waist every month, and hips too.

You know by now hopefully that i do not consider the weighing scales a true record of your progress.

Put up a calender in your kitchen and mark off your workouts AS YOU DO THEM!! If you start skipping your workouts, make yourself accountable to your friend, and ask them to kick your behid if you start slacking!!!

Try this old classic, put a photo of yourself on the fridge, you know the old photo when you looked terrific!!! That should be a constant daily inspiration on how you really can look!!!

This getting in shape “thingy” is an ongoing process, and you need a structure right behind you thats going to help you in the tough times, as well as pat you on the back all the fun, fat loss get in shape moments start to happen!! These times are just as important!!!!

By making yourself truly accountable to yourself and at least to one person you trust and respect, you are far more likely to achieve those goals you promised yourself in the first place!!!