Posted on

Monday, 22nd October

Fat loss tips that will work for you
Stating the obvious with a few of these, but its always good to re-visit strategies that will help you look and feel your best!

Portion control

Eating larger portions will get you used to eating big and therefore make you put weight on!
Studies have shown that when people are given larger portions, even when they didn’t like that particular food, ate 33% more calories during that meal.

A simple way to judge is to use your fist as a guide for carb and protein sizes, and no limit on your vegetables.

Don’t ban your favourite treats completely
If you still eat your favourite foods in moderation, you will likely lose more fat in the long run and make your eating plan far more sustainable!

If you keep some of your favourite foods in there, then no food will be classed as “forbidden”’. When foods are classed as off limits, they are more likely to be binged on when you have them. The trick is to make suure the portions are much smaller than normal.

Don’t miss breakfast

Still the most important meal of the day, and if you eating a filling healthy meal to start the day, your chances of eating well for the rest of the day go dramatically up!

Your body needs energy first thing in the morning, it raises your metabolism straight away and you will have all day to burn those calories off. Eating well first thing in the morning stops you from over snacking in the morning and piling your plate up too high at lunch!

Study after study shows that people who eat breakfast lose more body fat than those who avoided it, and consumed less calories throughout the rest of the day because they were less likely to overeat.

Limit your food choices at each meal

Studies have shown that the more simple you keep your mealtime, the less likely you are to overeat.
The less food alternatives you have on each plate, the quicker you are likely to be satisfied and therefore eat less. The pleasure of eating is highest up to the third of fourth bite, then it slows down. The more foods on the plate, the more you prolong the sensory pleasure, which means you delay feeling full for longer, causing you to eat more.

Keeping it simple come food time makes perfect sense all round!
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Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 10th October

Being optimistic about your progress is one of the most important habits you need to get into, or you will forever be like the economy, you will be going through “boom and bust” for the rest of your life, in health and fitness terms.

For example, you can do really well in your training, and be really pleased with your progress.

Then all of a sudden it may take one thing to doubt your progress.

You could have an illness, an injury or just go through a period of training when you’re not able to reach your previous highs in terms of performance in your training.

During all of these times, you still could be losing inches off your waist, losing body fat, and your heart rate may still be getting stronger all the time.

Despite all of this, you will doubt your progress somehow!!!

I have encountered many individuals like this, and I think it’s a human trait to doubt ourselves even when evidence suggests we should never doubt for one second!

This is when hard numbers have to take over!

If your waist measurement is coming down or already in healthy range, then you are DOING VERY WELL!!!

If your body fat is coming down or in a healthy range already, then you should be very pleased at your level of conditioning.

If you have a healthy strong heart rate 72 beats per minute or less, then you are doing everything right, and you are performing and recovering well from exercise.

Like I said, despite all of this overwhelming evidence, people sometimes still doubt themselves. This is exactly the time to change your mindset and start celebrating where you are, and be optimistic that not only can you sustain this progress, but you can actually improve it each month!!

Justified optimism is the one big thing that will take you forward, and keep doing so. Doubt is the only thing that can hold you back!!

Reinforcing your optimism on a daily basis is vital so get practicing right now!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 9th October

Lots of little colds and annoying little illnesses around lately, and some of them taking at least a couple of weeks to finally go!!!

So it’s a probably a great time to discuss how you should play this situation from a training perspective?

The rule of thumb should be the following.

If you are feel a little bit off above the neck, then its still okay to train as long as you are sensible, and i’m talking about little sniffle’s and not heavy cold’s!!!  If you have a heavy cold or really bad headache, then you should not train definitely!

If you are aching below your shoulders, then you should not train as you are probably going down with something. Aching from a cold or flu perpective means you should rest your body right now, and try and still keep drinking water to keep you hydrated, this will help in the recovery process for sure.

You must realise that exercise can be a massive positive for your immune system, and protect you against future colds and illnesses.

However, IF your immune system is already compromised, and i mean run down and not feeling well, then it definitely is not a good time to exercise, as exercise can put extra stress on your immune system and can mean a 2-3 day recovery from a cold turning into a 2-3 week recovery from a much heavier cold. This is why you must treat your body with care and respect your immune system.

You know how to boost your immune system by now? Eat a wide variety of nutrients, eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, eat nuts in sensible portions, get plenty of sleep, avoid alcohol, certainly avoid cigarettes, which could be considered as the worst thing in creation for your body!!

Autumn is a delicate time for all sorts of colds, so make sure you eat well, eat natural when you can and respect your body by doing all the right things you know that will work very well for you!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 4th October

It’s metabolism all the way this week, and here’s some more ways to get it fired up!!

If you eat 5-6 times a day, then you are raising your metabolism nicely, as the act of eating alone will make you burn more calories.

Its vital these meals though are not over-sized, and are smaller in general as you will be eating every 3-4 hours. The idea is to eat breakfast, lunch and evening meal, with mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks keeping you full and energised in between.

So if you eat three meals a day, you will be raising your metabolism 3 times a day, instead of 5-6 times a day with the smaller meals and snacking method.

Another benefit of eating multiple times a day is that you never get hungry, your body will expect food regularly and this will make sure you are not tempted to binge!

Another great way to raise your metabolism is to eat real foods. That may sound strange but eating real vegetabls, real fruit and most importantly, AVOIDING PROCESSED FOOD whenever you can.

Most of the processed food you get in the supermarket these days doesn’t take much digestion, therefore burning less calories and also playing havoc with your digestive system.

If you eat fruit, real vegetables, real oatmeal for example, your body’s whole digestive system is working at its full capacity to break down the food, then use it as an energy source.

This process will not go on when you eat processed rubbish, that seems to fill most of the aisles in supermarkets!! Ready meals are the most guilty example, but anything that takes a minute or so to heat up and eat is usually going to be very poor for your internal digestive system.

Eating natural isn’t always possible, so try to use processed foods before your training session. This way you can at least use the food as energy and get it out of your system as soon as possible!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 3rd October

We talked about the value of trying to raise your metabolism yesterday, here are some key ways on how to do it!

Number one is to lift weights. If you just do normal cardio that most people do (treadmill, bike etc), then your metabolism will be raised but only for the duration of your workout.

The difference with weights/resistance training is the effect will last a lot longer!

Scientific studies show the elevated metabolism you will experience can last up to 39 hours!!! This is why weight training is so important! Weight training breaks down muscle tissue and usually needs that amount of time to recover.

We have always talked on here about the benefits of weight training, and obviously this another big reason to lift!!

Number two is to train intensely. Whatever workout you do, make sure you train with purpose and if you put a good intensity into it, your metabolism will be raised that much more again, meaning you burn more calories and burn more fat.

Number three is embracing the process of building lean muscle tissue. Experts suggest that for every pound of muscle gained, your body will burn an extra 35-50 calories a day!! Compare that with just 2 pounds for every pound of fat. This is why people who are lean and muscular find it easier to stay like that, whilst people who carry a lot of fat struggle more to get it off.

Number four is eating more  protein, not too much but a sensible amount. With all of this good training, you should also a healthy amount of protein such as the size of your fist in each meal. Not only does it fill you up that much longer than carbs and fat, it also takes 25% more calories for the body to break down protein.  These 25% of the calories in protein are broken down through the digestion process, compare this to 5% of carbs and just 2% effort to burn fat when ingested!!

More tomorrow!!

Twitt