Thursday, 11th October

The subject of goal setting is often underestimated. In the workplace you have often over zealous managers doing their often boring, non-effective management speak telling you on your annual report that you need “to set goals” for the year ahead.

The result in practice is often that those so called goals never get reviewed until the next year, every 3 months at best. This is very inefficient at best!

I try to get everyone to set new goals every week at the most.

This sounds a bit over the top to many, but those who go through it always see the huge benefits of doing so.

Real meaningful goals that matter to individuals are always important to write down!!

I have found too that through my own research, that people often lose their focus on their original goals very quickly indeed.

Either that or they reach their initial goals quickly, and often just go through the motions after that, not raising their game because they do not know the next level that they want to get to!

When you think of life, most people’s lives change on a weekly basis, a daily basis and an hourly basis when you think how quickly events can change, so if you really want to improve you had better get used to reviewing your progress and changing it to suit how fast you are progressing!

Also, the reason why I get everyone writing their goals down is that automatically become more meaningful when you write them down!

A study by Harvard university showed that goals are 80% more likely to happen when you write them down, rather than just “talk about them”.

We have a white board in the gym for this very process, and its already very productive, helping everyone who want big changes for the better in their lives!!

Time to stop talking about it all, write it down and you will get there quicker!!

Monday, 8th October

Shortcuts are always there for you, but you secretly know they aren’t the way to get what you want with your healthy and body.

If you cheat in an exam, copy someone else’s homework, you know its not really sustainable and your long-term progress will end up in tears.

Shortcuts end uo creating more work and ultimately more disappointment. Your long term development is always based on putting a lot of hard work in and reaping the benefits on a consistent basis.

Instead of taking shortcuts, start making yourself much more accountable.

Try training with someone of a similar level, if they’re willing to push you.

Make your goals public, and tell your closest friends and training colleagues what you really want to achieve, and you’re not going to rest until you get there! When you make your goals public, you will find that you will get more support than you ever imagined.

If you train in a supportive environment, then nothing is out of bounds and its great to talk about your frustrations, goals, disappointments, great moments with people who have more than likely been through many of those experiences themselves.

For example, i have had experiences when people have told me that they want to be pushed, that they want to achieve big things with their body and health, and for me to give it everything in order to get them to that amazing level. On every occasion, that person as long as he or she was committed to his/her training, then lofty goals were indeed achieved.

When someone wants to start training, one of my main questions is how committed they really are to achieving their goals? If they seem disinterested in the whole thing, then i am not going to waste my time on getting involved with someone who is not willing to show any committed, in fact its obviously going to be a waste of time for both parties!!

If you show commitment to your goals, and listen well, then you are 100% likely to achieve something very special!!!

Friday, 5th October

Metabolism talk rounds up our week, and if you can get this vital subject under control, and firing FOR you 24 hours a day, then you are likely to be burning fat and likely to achieve the body you always wanted, AND STAY THERE!!

One of the most unlikely tips i can give you that you wouldn’t have thought about regarding metabolism is water!

Most people don’t regard water as boosting your metabolism but they couldn’t be more wrong!!!

Water is paramount to a lean healthy physique.

Water is crucial for flushing fat out of the sytem, and is crucial for your body’s messaging system to fire correctly. And drinking water can actually raise your metabolism!

Being dehydrated can give you sugar cravings, tricking your mind into thinking you are hungry, rather than thirsty! Keeping hydrated keeps your body in balance, keeping you in tune with your body’s actual needs.

The less cravings you have, the more fat you lose because you’re less likely to make poor choices.

A recent german study showed that subjects who drunk healthy amounts of water, compared to others who didnt drink enough, BURNT around 30% more calories, and their metabolic rates were proven to increase for the same amount. This started within 10 minutes of drinking the water, and reached a peak 40 minutes after drinking the water.

The moral of the story is drink more water, and if you train hard in the gym, drink even more!!!

One minor point is to say that you should keep it to water too. If you fall for misleading information about energy/sports drinks, then you will be consuming almost pure sugar for no real reason apart from some dodgy marketing claim that has no basis. Your performance will go up 33% if you keep fully hydrated, so don’t fall for similar sports drink claims. Sports drinks are only worthwhile after 60 minutes of continuous exercise.

Time to get your metabolism working at its best levels, and make fat loss much easier than you ever thought!!!

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!!

Tuesday, October 2nd

The word metabolism has become very fashionable these days, but in real terms it refers to the amount of energy your body uses.

We all think about energy in our workouts, but our body uses vital energy resources in just about everything we do.

Your heart beating, sustaining your lean muscle on your body, breathing and regulating your temperature among other functions all require calories, so your metabolism is truly the rate your body burns calories 24 hours a day!

How many people do you know who blams their “slow metabolism” for their lack of progress? I know a huge number for starters, and have spent a career disproving that statement!!

The word metabolism is so misunderstood, that the often corrupt weight loss industry will take advantage of this ignorance by making false claims.

How many times have you fallen for pills that claim to “raise” your metabolism without the need for diet and exercise?

Like i said, how many times have you been told me the media that you cannot lose weight due to your “slow metabolism”?!!

How many times have you been told that “thin” people were born lucky because of their fast metabolisms”?!!

A big myth exploded is the fact that overweight people have actually higher metabolisms than so called thinner people because it requires sometimes a lot more calories to SUSTAIN a much higher weight. The bigger weight person also burns more calories in exercise too, because it is usually a bigger effort.

Genes DO play in metabolism but it has been proven by science that they prove a far smaller role than previously thought!

Luck doesn’t really have anything to do with it, action and eating well has about a thousand times more to do with it so the sooner you realise that the better, and the sooner you realise that actions speak louder than words the better!!!

The main point is we do not have to become “victims” of our so called slow metabolisms at all!

We will talk about many ways to boost your metabolism A LOT tomorrow!!!