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52 week hero

52 week hero

Why do people like so many short cuts and so many easy but non-productive ways to do things?

I seriously think that the true hero’s are the ones who can train throughout the year, never miss a workout unless they are ill and always look for improvements and consistent progress.

Yes, these people ARE out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I get questions all the time about the best training programme, whether the power plate vibration system is any good, whether the masai based trainers with the big heel’s are truly the answer, whether the vibration belt’s you put across your stomach really work, whether the latest gym opening is really going to work this time, whether the latest fitness dvd is any good, whether the 2 minutes a day workout can really change your life, whether the flimsy machines you see on the shopping channels are really any good?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are the questions I always get and they get the same answers.

If you show up 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

If you eat well 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

If you train with purpose 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why look for questions and answers and try and re-invent the wheel?

Cyril is back in good form, and yes he is a hero because he does show up consistently, and that mean he “gets it”!

Isn’t the time you don’t train for an extended period the least productive part of your year?

That time you give up again doesn’t really HAVE to happen does it? Do you really want to go backwards that much, because im telling you now that’s what’s going to happen unless you start showing up to your workouts, instead of making the same old excuses why you can’t train again.

A week off turns to a month off, and this can turn to the whole summer off! In my book, that’s not acceptable and all of those endless and big talk promises you made to yourself don’t count for nothing!!

That’s why this is called 52 week hero, that person who achieves that (allowing for the odd cold/illness, holiday etc) really is a hero in my book. When you think about it, how many people do you actually know who make that kind of commitment in their life.

Someone who achieves this deserves all the benefits they get, because they quietly beaver away at achieving the most important thing you can get, GREAT HEALTH!!

The time for talking a good game is over, its time to go for it and be your best once and for all!

Twitt
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Weather not a factor mentality!

Strange topic to talk about on such a nice day, and a nice couple of weeks really but we have to talk about nice weather mentality, and “bad” weather mentality regarding your training.

I know some of you love getting out on the bike and going for it on a day like this, and some of you have had  a whale of a time the last couple of weeks. Your fitness has improved, some of you tell me you feel so much better and you’re revved up to get more out of yourself and reach new highs.

 Some of you who are competing the Mumbles Childline Triathlon on sunday will have been swimming, running and cycling the last few weeks or even months to prepare yourself. The great thing about this weather is that it gives you great incentive to get out there and do it, and straight after you complete your ride, or your run, or even you walk, i’m going to put everything i have on you feeling so much better about yourself!

So life is good with this weather, and you are able to do exactly what you want, and the great thing is its not too warm either.

With all of these favourable weather conditions, your fitness is about to go to new heights, and new levels of what is possible in your life and with your health in particular, this should be a very exciting time for you as long as you’re taking action and really want the best for yourself and your family.

Let’s turn it around the other way when the weather is wet, and cold and being outside doing a bike ride, a run or even a walk is not the most attractive thing in the world!

Does your mood dip a lot when the conditions aren’t working for you. Mine certainly does a touch when the weather isn’t so good.

I try to make up for all of this by hitting it really hard inside, and to be honest with you, the rain doesn’t really scare me as i accepted a long, long time ago that it will rain around here at least 9 months a year, or close to 12 months of the year it seems like at times!

Once you accept the weather isn’t always going to help you out, you are likely to just get on with it and make the very best out of the cards you are dealt. I find it invigorating sometimes getting out there in the rain and wind, and sometimes realising that i am the only one out there, and the person i am training of course!

I find these the most valuable workouts, the times when nobody expects you to get out there! The times when most people “chicken” out and slump in front of the television when they get home from work! Once you feel guilty about not doing your workouts, the closer you are to having a healthy and active lifestyle as truly part of your life, this is actually a GOOD thing!!!!

So the bottom line is not to worry about the weather, don’t ever let it put you off (unless dangerous of course!), and tell yourself that you CAN be really commited to being in amazing shape, all it does take is that extra effort and extra push in your mentality. Once you adopt these successful strategies, life will feel a whole lot better!

Twitt
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Day 77 80% is enough for me!!

Another great sunday morning run done today, and the sun was out loud and proud this morning again!

This great harbour scene was overshadowed a bit by the presence of church goer’s in cloaks at burry port lighthouse having a sermon, or chanting or something really weird, they could have been devil worshippers?!! Who knows, but what i do know is half those people pretending to be christians are usually the biggest sinners in our community, you know them so i say no more!

Anyway, how’s your sunday morning going? Has there been a workout in already before you get on with easter sunday? Have you had a great breakfast packed with vitality, or is it your weekly great british breakfast? Is this a day of rest for you or is it a day when you hit several beers, as easter sunday has come to mean this for a large part of the community.

Whatever your choice, i’m cool with it as long as you keep hitting your 80% target.

80% in school used to mean you were really intelligent, were very at good exams and likely to go on to college and have a very good career.

80% as a goal kicker in rugby is phenomenal in terms of coverting penalty kicks. Johnny Wilkinson and Neil Jenkins are the best of all time, and i would doubt even these great kickers ever achieved this success record!

If you were successful in something, it could be assumed that you were doing things right most of the time, not all of the time as that is impossible, but 80% or more would be classed as being a master in your chosen field.

This 80% i keep going on about is your target with your eating and training. If you can do this, you can see by comparison with everything else, you will be highly successful without a shadow of a doubt!!

I think the problem sometimes is that people often have to go 100% or nothing! You will see some on this site at either remarkable highs, or depressing lows (for a short time only i hasten to add!!). You can see that being perfect is not only impossible, its stupid to beat yourself up for not achieving it or even close to it!

EVEN the so-called masters are not perfect, and don’t achieve perfection, or anything close to it. Their magical number is closer to 80% rather than 100%.

Johnny Wilkinson often said that his pursuit of perfection nearly destroyed him mentally. He has since become a buddhist and now has a different view on life, which he says, has helped his rugby as now he doesn’t put so much pressure on himself. He still has hugely high standards, but doing his best and what comes from that is now enough for him.

Being yourself is often frowned upon but shouldn’t it be encouraged? Your best should and always be enough in my book, and whatever the result, then so be it. You willl be happy, i will be happy and when everyone’s happy, results nearly always go up and up!

Twitt
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Day 67 Never give up/ride out the storms!

The confirmation when someone improves so much that it takes your breath away always makes this job all the more satisfying. I have had many times when individuals have come down 5-6 dress sizes and the funny thing is, you are less surprised right at the end at the amazing progress for a very good reason.

The hardest thing in any programme is getting people over the biggest challenges along the way.

An individual will always improve at the start, as exercising, eating well and sleeping better will always create a positive result. When the challenges come up, some bigger than others, its at that exact time that you need to hold firm and stick to your principles.

For example, if someone had started off well, it is a shock when their eating come off their rails and they think it is the end of the world. There are many people who post on here who that has happened to, but have come back so strong the next week it is truly inspiring!! This has been fantastic and even inspiring for myself!

The doubt is in the mind and people often doubt their ability to carry on at times. The ability to stick at it and come through the other side is invaluable, and adds so much to self-belief it can be incredible.

We all want to take the easy way out, the quick fix, the faddy diet that ultimately doesn’t work and screws your metabolism up. We have all been through that, and thats why i do my best to encourage all of you not to taker that route that many take.

The facts are that less people travel the path we  are treading because it’s a little bit harder to follow to begin with. The rewarding part though is that for the long term and the rest of your life, it is the most viable and most productive.

Of course, none of us are perfect and all of our weight’s will go up and down. However, if we adopt the approach as i have said around ten million times already on here, eating well 80% of the time, allowing ourselves a treat here and there, we will be making substantial gains over the short and longer term.

It is heartbreaking to see people like Chris who did amazingly well to start with doubt his progress after getting a job away. Hope his programme is back on course and he’s overcome the challenges he had. It’s heartening to see jean reach former glories despite having many headwinds against her at times. She has now overcome them, and all credit to her for making a diary of her ups and downs, i have found that truly valuable for my experience and increased ability to help others in the future.

 We are all learning, and that includes me, and if we don’t we get left behind. It heartens me that people are still as enthusiastic to train at 5am, everyone asks me if its a hardship to get up at 4am every day, really its not when you consider you have some people enthusiastic to see me at 5am, that means a lot to me and keeps me fired up to reach new standards of service in my business.

In fact, i have never called it work (what i do), its something i really enjoy every day and read about every day in my spare time even. One of the best sayings i ever heard was that if you love what you do for a living, you never work another day in your life. What a statement, but very true!!

Will get a new recipe posted later!

Twitt
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Day 60

What you are eating now has hopefully changed quite a bit in the last 60 days, and as cyril said yesterday, he doesn’t feel well now unless he eats good, natural food and feels better avoiding food overloaded with sugar and fat. I’m sure many of you feel exactly the same!

Another big thing for you to overcome may be the expectations people now have of you. A lady i train was talking about such an instance this morning. She told me that she was having dinner with friends last week, and was asked what did she want for dessert and she politely declined.

The other eight ladies on the table had a go at her for not eating  dessert! If you change your habits in life towards more successful ones, many people don’t like it and this is called peer pressure of course. Some of the comments even became quite distasteful!

We encourage each other on here to eat little and often, which can result in six feeding times every day. This in unacceptable to some people! They are not happy that your stomach has shrunk, you can no longer handle the same quantities of food that you used to! Reasons for this may include they do not like to see change, they are jealous of your success, they are not happy that they cannot imitate your new found strategies, etc.

This is quite common when anyone tries to change their lifestyle, and who would have thought that turning down a dessert would cause such a stir!!

You may find it the same when you buy your supermarket food, if you have a partner or members of the family not willing to change, it can hurt your overall and long term chances of success. Let’s face it, it never helps if there are treats in every cupboard! Temptation needs to be taken out of the house to reduce the challenging nature of this programme to get into great shape, if someone is still buying junk into the house, temptation never really goes away!

That’s why it is always a good idea to make your ambition of a healthy lifestyle public as soon as possible. Your family will be more understanding and will perhaps be inspired themselves to join in and give it a go!

I know people who have up alcohol or at least cut down severely. They always get serious flack about this, and worried that their “social life” will go down the pan. The reality is always that they feel so much better, their social life was pretty boring after all, and they have plenty more cash in their pockets!! Also, they seem to have so much more time in their life, and wonder how they found so much time just to drink in an empty pub!

All of these examples show that if you want to get to that special place of being in amazing physical condition and great mental strength, the path is full of obstacles but ones you can CLEARLY overcome every day!

 When you’re aiming for the top and get there, you will find that fewer people than you thought had the guts and determination to stick it all the way through, and you will be even more proud of yourself of your remarkable achievements. This is how your self-esteem and self-confidence goes to a whole new level and eventually goes through the roof, and you won’t be scared to take on any challenge in the future after you’ve been through this!

Day 60, now doesn’t that sound as if we have been at this for a long time!!!!!!!!!

Twitt