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Wednesday 2nd November

One of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is what you need to do, and what is considered enough!

There are a lot of people who dont do ANY exercise at all, and unfortunately never will, perhaps because they think that they “know better” somehow??!!

Then there’s the people who think that just walking is enough, they think that walking is the ultimate exercise, is the most enjoyable exercise and you would be a lunatic to do anything more than this!!! I agree that walking is a very good exercise indeed, but to say it covers all your body and health needs is at best misguided and to be frank, downright wrong!!!

Fitness is about so much more than having a walk, walking is part of it no doubt because its a great activity, but isn’t there so much more?!!!

Of course there is more and what about resistance training? Weight training of all kinds strengthens your joints, bones, tendons and ligaments, it tones your body and in particular muscle tone, it speeds up your metabolism because lean muscle tissue burns far more calories per 24 hours, for instance one pound of fat burns around 2 calories a day, one pound of lean muscle tissue can burn up to 50 calories a day.

Then there is walking as we have previously mentioned here and there are great walks all around us.

You can also take part in running on many of the great coastal paths around the county, and cycling gives you an opportunity to do the same routes, but a lot quicker and no strain on your joints! Swimming is a favourite for many and again doesn’t stress your joints and can become a serious part of an individual’s day, i know many whpo participate daily and absolutely love it.

Then there is stability, balance and endurance work which anyone who has ever trained with me, will know an awful lot about!!! This will solve any back trouble, hip weakness and most joints problems if done cautiously, and can apply to a pro athlete or an absolute beginner!!!

There are a million and one options so please don’t restrict yourself just to walking please!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 28th October

Being a father of three small children, i still struggle with the demands of lack of sleep and disturbed sleep in particular.

This usually sets off a chain reaction in your body of not burning fat as efficiently, increased hunger and increased lathergy. These are factors that most people can do without, especially in my job!!!

Once you realise what is going on, there are simple and tried and tested ways to get around it.

First thing you have to do, and i have seen this in many, many people of course, is to re-evaluate everything!!

Are you eating breakfast in a healthy way?

Are you eating a good lunch?

Are you eating a good evening meal?

Are all of these meals in sensible portion sizes?

Are you drinking enough water throughout the day?

Have “little snacks” creeped into your day without you noticing?

Are you drinking alcohol more than once a week?

Are you missing workouts?

Are you not training with as much intensity?

Do you have any goals?

Are your clothes not fitting you so well anymore?

Are you having comments off others that you have possibly put weight on?

Are you missing energy in your life?

Are you finishing off your kids meals sometimes?

Have your weekends become one long binge?

Has that “cheat meal” become a “cheat weekend”?

Whichever one of these or if many of these apply to you, then fear not, most of us have experienced some of them if not all!

Simply getting back on to the straight and narrow and sticking to your usual meal times will make a huge difference and cause instant fat loss!

Give it just one week and will see the big difference, give it four weeks and you have a massive difference!!!

Time to look at yourself again and realise its time to get back to your original plan.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 18th October

Warren Gatland admitted today he thought about cheating when it came to saturday’s disappointing loss, by faking an injury to one of the other props so Wales could achieve uncontested scrums. This would give a big advantage to wales, especially when it comes to the fact that they were already playing 14 versus fifteen, and the game would end up more evenly balanced, instead of being under constant pressure in the scrum!

For the sake of the spirit of the game, he didn’t resort to that but that are plenty of teams who would, without naming individual countries, but cheating has been a part of professional sport since the year dot!!

Drugs are the most well known form of cheating, and there are numerous sports such as athletics, cycling, american football, baseball etc that are rife with widespread drug taking unfortunately.

You may know yourself someone who takes drugs in order to get ahead in whatever field they are in. It could be recreationally taken steroids, it could ephedrine type products for sport, whatever it is, it comes down to one thing-CHEATING!!!

Performance enhancing drugs are not only illegal, but like the gatland comments, they are totally against the spirit of the game and sport in general.

Once you have resorted to them, you have given up your right to offer advice to others on performance, because you will not have played on a level playing field. You won’t know the hard work it takes to do it naturally, to suffer more, to recover more, to hit the sack earlier to recover, to have greater attention to detail in your food, to make every training session count etc etc.

To aspire to get to the top of any sport naturally is a very noble thing, and unfortunately becoming more and more difficult.

The good news is that it is possible to do it, as long as you make the use of the latest science and have a monumental work ethic.

 The other route is cheating, plain old fashioned cheating and that doesn’t impress anyone, and when you take the longer term health side effects into consideration, it can’t be worth it surely?!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 10th October

Saturated fat is always the bad boy when it comes to having a bad rap in the press, and with good reason. If too much of that stuff blocks your arteries, you can have a heart attack anytime unfortunately, and is always a danger when consumed at regular intervals.

The other bad twin of the food family is refined sugar and its existence in a lot of foods, this is why i always try to encourage you to eat well! If you consume a lot of products packaged up too much, you can bet your life it has regined sugar in it.

Most cereal boxes are loaded with refined sugar, this is a fact and far from being your best start to the day, it can end up your most sugary start to the day and really trip up your day before its even started. Fruit and fibre for instance is loaded with refined sugar when examined in tests, but tries to mention “your healthiest start to the day” all over the box. Porridge is always a better choice, giving you an excellent slow release of energy and avoiding the temptations of yet more sugar!!!

Anyone who has had to do a diabetes test and carried that thing around when you prick your finger and continually test your blood sugar levels after food, will definitely know what im talking about!!!! Refined sugar is in a lot of foods, too numerous to mention here and the usual suspects contain the most, white bread, biscuits of all kinds, sweets and most man made food, if not all!!! That test is very valuable and any chance you get to take it, the eye opener you get will be extremely revealing and educational for sure!!!

There are refined sugars in fruit of course, and this is why even fruit should be eaten in moderation.

This is also why i always recommend you dillute your organge juice, instead of having a big glass, this brings your refined sugars down substantially while still containing the benefits of the juice.

So its saturated fat and REFINED SUGARS, they are the real bad boys of your food intake, guaranteed to stop fat loss in its tracks and deprive you of any sustained energy!

Twitt
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Monday 22nd August

The system out there in diagnosing and healing injuries and illnesses out there is usually very good, medical science has come on a long way since even i remember around 10 years ago.

Then there is a worrying side, you have antibiotics for everything these days, some people i know must be on antibiotics most of the year, because they always seem to be ill and fragile, and antibiotics seem to be the “answer” to everything apparently for some.

You hear every month or so it seems about a new superbug. This new superbug will usually be immune to  the new antibiotics on the market, so yet MORE antibiotics have to be invented to counter the new superbug!!!! Im sure you have many friends who seem to live on antibiotics, and im already fed up of writing that word, and im sure you’re already about hearing that word!!!

Then you have another word that seems far too common in people’s vocabulary these days-IBRUFEN or any such product that reduces inflammation!!! I am not criticising anyone who takes that product but what i am saying is please don’t rely on it, or start taking that product for the slightest reason.

Some people take a pill if they have a sniffle, and isnt that a sad situation.

If most people ate healthily, drink drink too much alcohol, didnt use salt in cooking, eat ready meals, eat sugary food every day, their system would work A LOT better and be less prone to illness and injury!!!

When you do have an injury, try using ice to get that inflammation down, ice is a natural product that works, that you dont have to ingest and compromise your internal workings in your body.

When you have an injury or illness, rest up a little more, get to bed earlier and stop relying on all those pills, I’m not a doctor of course but surely there’s a time to be sensible and let nature fix your problems, your body will thank you long term!!!

Twitt