Posted on

Friday, 13th July

Making the commitment to be fit, stay fit and always be fit is totally overwhelming for almost all of us.

This is why i encourage everyone to take one day at a time, and just do your best that particular day.

Chances are you will improve much quicker like this rather than somehow trying to plan your year!

I can totally see how you can plan your week,  but your month or next couple of months is extremely difficult for all of us.

If you focused on one day then, you can see from the following how it can work very well for you.

For example, if you concentrated on eating a good energy filled breakfast every morning, full of slow-release energy, then you’re not going to go too far wrong.

This can be fairly easy if you only buy good quality cereals with only natural ingredients.

If you go for the likes of porridge, shredded wheat and weetabix and stick to the basic versions of these fine cereals, then you’re not going to be taking excess sugars into your sytem, meaning you will be energised and still lose body fat.

Lunch from monday to friday for most people is again fairly simple, make sure you eat some vegetables, good carbs of wholegrain variety where possible and a good quality protein source.

Your evening meal will be fairly similar, and trying to make sure you get some fruit in the day along with plenty of water, at least 1.5 litres.

On the exercise side, try and commit to being active most days, there is a huge variety on offer and we talk about exercise all the time.

Sleep is often underrated, so make this a priority.

Get these things right and you will taking one day at a time very well indeed!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 9th July

The pursuit of excellent is continuously being shown by Andy Murray.

He may not have won yesterday, but in his own words, he is “getting closer”!!

It didn’t help of course he came up probably the greatest ever player, but he did have Federer on the back foot for some considerable time.

Hopefully, he will get at least one grand slam and hope  to see it soon.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of hate and vitriol he seems to get especially online, when most of it is surely unjustified. I think everyone will agree he showed his “human side” after his tearful speech while accepting his runner up trophy.

Another sporting hero who is getting a hard time at the moment is Bradley Wiggins. You would think that being the first ever British cyclist to be favourite for the tour de france would be a big thing, but apparently not.

The press have turned it into a personal hate and smear campaign against Wiggins, and this time mainly from the french and spanish press. They cannot accept that wiggins is NOT on drugs, and that he MUST be doing something illegal to be such a favourite!

They forget that wiggins won three g0ld medals, and should really have had a fourth gold medal if mark cavendish had shown up on form that day.

Wiggins was also fourth in the tour de france three years ago, was tenth the year after after losing form, and was in great shape last year only to crash out with a broken collarbone.

This year he was won the paris-nice classic, the tour of romandie, the dauphine de libere so i hardly think he has somehow got “lucky” this year!!

Wiggins has shoved two fingers up at his detractors this year, as has murray.

Wiggins will surely be a grand tour champion in perhaps the world’s toughest sporting event, Murray needs one more step.

Time to stay positive and get behind our sporting stars.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 2nd July

Heard the one about its too expensive to eat well and healthy? Well, i have too! Plenty of times!!! Too many times to mention in fact!

Well, statistics don’t necessarily back this one up!

Times have moved on and its heck of a long time since Tesco was the only game in town!

In llanelli, now there are far more choices and we do not have to put up with a lack of service or rudeness from any type of business anymore!

We have Aldi’s, Lidls, Morrisons and Asda of course, all offering extremely good value for money.

Due to the harsh economic climate, they are all going out of their way to become cheaper, especially on a lot of the basics.

Some people used to look down on aldi’s and lidl’s a few years ago, but when you actually try some of their fruit and vegetables, they are often much tastier than most of the bigger supermarkets. And the price difference can be substantial!

So if you are committed  to eating well and healthy, this may be the place for you!

If you say you havent got time to cook healthy, then a stir fry doesnt take long.

A great invention has been the slow cooker, which works big time in my house especially with three children!!! This is a great way of getting all your veg into your meals, and tasting absolutely fantastic too!!! You need to try it!!

Please don’t give the excuse of “whoever i live with cooks for me and i cant eat well”, because this is absolutely unacceptable!!!

Take charge now, use the so called “discount” supermarkets, in my book Aldi and Lidl blows away the big boys in terms of freshness and taste, so act on it now.

If you still say its too expensive, then how can you justify all the other junk thats usually in the trolley?!!!

Get your priorities straight and get eating well and right!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 27th June

Heart strength has got to be your most vital reading whether you exercise regularly or not.

If you do not exercise in any way, your heart rate and strength is likely to be weaker than it could be and this is a negative factor when it comes to assessing overall health.

If you DO exercise, then you should know all about the massive benefits of having a strong and healthy heart.

Your heart is a muscle that needs to be trained and conditioned like every other muscle on your body.

If you do exercises that require larger amounts of oxygen, this is called “aerobic” types of exercise, or “cardio” as is often mentioned by people who go to the gym.

Aerobic by definition is defined as “with oxygen”, which shows how important this type of work is.

Running, power walking, swimming, cycling just to name a few could be described as the best examples of aerobic training or cardio as is much more trendy a term to use these days.

These types of exercises should be included prominently in anyone’s programme, and are highly beneficial.

Most people are unaware that you can achieve this state of training that requires high amounts of oxygen by weight training/strength training.

The trick is to keep the tempo of the workout quite high and this will get you working harder and you will need to take in deep gulps of oxygen throughout.

This is achieved usually through cutting your rest periods in between sets right down. For example, if you usually rest 3-5 minutes in between everything you do, then cutting it down to one minute would be a start and immediately get you working harder.

When you get to a decent level of fitness, try getting to a stage of picking 6-8 exercises in a row, and having NO rest in between. You will need to cut your weights down in terms of kilos/poundage, but the effect will be dramatic and terms of heart benefits.

I train most people using this philosophy now, and have done for  many, many years. The benefits across the board are huge, and will make sure your heart will be very strong and in tremendous health ready for anything!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 12th June 2012

Nine days off the longest day of the year already, and to most people, we haven’t had much of a summer!

The cooler weather conditions can have their benefits though.

How many times have you NOT trained this time of year due it being too hot?

How many times have you not trained due to things being organised last minute just  because the weather was too nice to train in, and “more important” things like barbecues etc took precedent!

The cooler weather conditions are my ideal training conditions, my heart rate takes longer to get up to higher levels (which is a good thing), i am never in danger of over-heating from it being too hot, therefore my performance is likely to be high, and its quite pleasant when you are exercising and there is a lovely breeze around the place!

The wetter weather like we have been having is far less pleasant, but sometimes theres nothing better than running in the wetter conditions to cool us down. The wetter weather also gives more opportunity for gym workouts, sometimes being the much more pleasant and productive option for many of us. Home workouts again will work big time for you, use the weather to work FOR you instead of against you!!!

If you realise that in the UK, its likely to be wet or cool at least nine months of the year, then everything will be in a proper context and you will be more content with your training conditions!

Personally, i have had a great week of training already, helping people set new highs in their training, i have experienced far less excuses from everyone and everything is being very productive indeed!

Its a tuesday and im already feeling hugely energised so use it to your advantage too!!!!

Twitt