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Monday, 26th November

Personally i got through a lot of measurements on different individuals last week, and one thing was hammered home to them……………that this next four weeks are absolutely critical.

It’s always vital to finish off the year strong for all sorts of reasons.

If you finish off 2012 well, you set the right tone straight away for 2013!

If you have a good december full of hard training, you are less likely to overdo it on the food side of things, you won’t want to blow all the hard work.

It’s always nice not being “part of the crowd” too. Whilst most of your friends or relatives who exercise from time to time have probably long given it up for the year, doesn’t it feel good realising that you do actually have the grit and determination in you to carry on and finish off the year very strong?!!

If you have reached a partiicular level in your training, or for example you have taken off 8 inches off your waist all year and surely you don’t want to put 2-3 inches back on? Just as you are doing so well?

What if you have dropped 10% body fat this year? It doesn’t sound as good if you put 3-4% body fat on in december!

To reach these particularly high levels in development and progress, you must have worked hard, you must have shown great courage and my guess if that you already have a good degree of mental strength.

All i want you to do is show that courage for one more month, and really enjoy your christmas far more this year being in the best shape you possibly can!!! Wouldn’t it be great having compliments on the way you look before christmas, and have absolutely no pressure in getting into shape AFTER christmas because you are ALREADY in top shape!!!

Let’s put everything together and hit it hard one last time!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 22nd November

The famous christmas “let’s settle for no improvements, let’s just hold what we have” is alive and well this year again, perhaps even more so. This is your most dangerous mindset to avoid if you possibly can because its bound to end up in you putting ON weight, in my experience.

“Settling” for mediocrity shuts off something in the brain that usually makes you strive for success.

Once your mind isn’t in the right gear, then your workouts will soon become “go through the motions” events that will give us little in terms of benefits.

The next stage after settling for medicore returns is giving up your programme for december, another disasterous decision.

The next stage after that means “i will start back after christmas”! Many people actually do this!! Then they find out that they should never have stopped training in the first place because training after christmas after a break is EXTREMELY TOUGH!!!

When things are tough, the prospects of following through on a programme diminish dramatically, as not everyone has got the right in them to see it through!

This is why most people who start a programme after christmas tend to quit by Valentine’s day at the latest!! Please do not end up as one of those sad statistics!!

This is why i come back to saying that you need to aim to improve from RIGHT NOW again and maybe for the first time, december can really become one of your BEST month’s, instead of becoming one when you end up piling on the weight, you end up becoming breathless just climbing a flight of stairs, and your friends and family start asking you that dreaded question “have you put weight on?!!!”.

I have seen all of these stages work out different ways, but taking my advice and actually acting on it will mean a great deal for your overall christmas happiness and success starting off in 2013!!!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 21st November

Hopefully now that you have realized that the so called “wonder” supplements I mentioned yesterday, are not really the super cure all’s that they claim to be!

My feelings on weight loss clubs are well documented, and I will leave it to the last few scientific studies who show they give false hope and continually make false claims to dupe people into buying their nutritionally deficient and chemically enhanced products that are somehow called “food” for some reason!

Unfortunately, many people will still go there in January and fall for the same old story after putting lots of weight on over Christmas. Groundhog day again I predict!

Surely by reading this thing most days, isn’t it time you simplified matters and your whole life by going into a supermarket and buying most of your food NATURAL and where possible, FRESH!!!
DRINK 1.5 LITRES OF PLAIN TAP WATER A DAY instead of buying drinks full of chemicals that people will promise you that will suddenly help you lose a lot of weight.

YES, YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

Decide not to accept the rubbish you are constantly fed by organisations who are trying to steal your money out of your pocket and bank account for methods of weight loss that will END UP PUTTING IT ALL BACK ON AND MORE!!!!

Get out there and exercise more, get on a proper plan, walk for 30 minutes a day, and I guarantee you will sleep well every night!

Don’t drink alcohol more than once a week, this will keep your body fat low, your blood pressure healthy and your heart much stronger!!!

I have been blunt today, but this is designed to save you money and actually to get you to do something that works, it’s a free country and up to you to decide if you really want to get in good physical condition or not!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 20th November

I continue to get questions on food supplements.

How much creatine should i take? Does it actually work?

Should i be taking vitamin C in vast quantities? Should i be taking it at all?

What about calcium tablets? Do they really strengthen my bones and joints?

I could go on and on with this one, as most people still ask about so called wonder cures?!!!

If you consider this, the european until wants to ban 70% of the supplement industry in europe, at least 70% that is!!

It’s not that they consider all of it dangerous, it’s just that that according to lengthy studies, they have found that most of them have no positive effect whatsoever!!! That statement pretty much sums up my attitude on the supplements already mentioned, if they work for you then fine, but there is little or no scientific evidence to back ANY of their claims.

Then you come to one of the most popular supplements on the markets, the “fatburner”!!!

I seem to have more questions on this than anything else.

The scientific answer is again that they have little or NO effect on your body whatsoever in terms of fat loss. However, the negative impact includes raising your heart rate including putting extra stress on your heart (which is of course very dangerous).

Sports drinks are only beneficial after 60 minutes of CONTINUOUS exercise, which is why i don’t recommend them for most people. For most people, they only end rotting your teeth and putting unwanted body fat on. Drink water, lose body fat and get just as much energy full stop!!

Then you have the other energy drinks, such as the ones full of caffeine. I have been against these for years, and i will mention that right now that one big company in the US, is facing a massive law suit and being accused of causing death by heart attack after consumption. There are several cases in the US right now, so i think that says it all but make up your own judgement!!

You can see that a lot of the supplement industry is based on false claims, pure lies and downright dangerous ingredients.

Fresh natural food and plenty of water will take you a long, long way!!!

Twitt
Posted on

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!!!

Twitt