Posted on

28th january 2011

This sugar addiction subject seems to be gathering pace this week, as i have had many conversations with people who are still trying to throw the christmas bad old habits. There are also conversations going on with people who started off well in january, but are now back on the sugar train!!!

The good news is that once you stop consuming REFINED sugar, your body will gradually want less and less of it. Those first few days though are crucial and a lot of people do not make it past those first few days. Those who do genuinely find things a LOT better and will never bring sugar into their lives again on such a large scale.

So you have to make the jump from where you are now to the better place or you will struggle with a range of problems both in the short and long term.

Off the top of my head, the problems medically associated with too much refined sugar in your diet include;

Diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, aching joints, joint problems, lack of blood circulation, mood swings, irritability, lack of drive, up and down energy levels and mostly down, more visits to the dentists, more visists to the doctors for a whole range of problems from A-Z, weight gain, bad skin, fat gain, inability to lose weight even with lots of exercise, inability to perform well in exercise because your energy levels “blow up” too early etc  etc!!!!

If you buy the chocolate, crisps, sweets, wine, beer, ready meals, processed foods, chips, burgers, hot dogs, full fat cheeses etc, you WILL have problems if you consume these foods on a regular basis.

IF YOU DON’T PUT THESE FOODS INTO YOUR TROLLEY, YOU ARE LESS LIKELY TO EAT THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!

You may get chances when you’re out and about, but if they are not in the house in the first place, you’re going to consume less of these sugar based foods full stop, and a massive step forward for you in your health and fitness and your goal to look and feel amazing!!!

You really have to make that jump RIGHT NOW and stop putting it off, that jump is key to you ridding yourself of this vicious cycle forever, so come on lets do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

January 27th, 2011

Following on from yesterday’s conversation about too much fruit and not enough vegetables, let’s defend fruit a little bit more before it gets too much of a bad rap!!!

I went over yesterday on how fruit is often blamed for putting weight on, and often mistakenly unless someone consumes vast quantities of fruit, and you would know you were eating too much because you would be on the toilet most of the time!!!

One big thing to back up why you should consider fruit a good thing is the benefits it gives you. The obvious one to think about is boosting your immune system, vital at this time of year with all the colds around. Then you have the energy fruit gives you and as i always tell everyone, you should be eating fruit because of all the untold things it does for us internally that we don’t even know about, but will become public knowledge in the next few years as we make new discoveries!! You should be eating fruit as a preventative measure against future illness, scientific studies tell us this continually!!!

The big thing for you though in practical terms should be the fact that your sweet tooth is never going to get worse should you choose fruit over chocolate for example. If you eat sweet things as snacks, then you will tend to eat more and more sweet things, and this will be very destructive for your body, this spiral can never end as we all know!!!

So despite the fact that sugar is contained in fruit, it is natural sugar your body can use and DOES NOT create sugar addiction like processed foods like cakes, chocolates and biscuits will do EVERY TIME. If you are currently in this spiral of wanting more and more sugar all the time, you have to switch to fruit immediately IF you want to reach your potential full stop, AND vegetables as this combination is especially powerful so you need to start putting your mind to this straight away, depending if you want great things to happen for your body and health of course!!!

Almost the end of january and this is the tried and tested way to go forward, to make sure your results are long lasting and health is your number one on your list of priorities!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

26th january 2011

Debbie makes a great point in yesterday’s comments about the importance of fruit and vegetables in your diet, and the dangers of taking in too much fruit, and the importance of taking in your green vegetables.

She is totally right of course because if you consume TOO much fruit, just like too much of anything, YOU WILL put on weight.

The green vegetables are great right across the range and will give you a huge range of benefits, without the sugars and the calories of course will be very low.

Let’s look at the broader picture too though. How many times have you heard someone say, “grapes put weight on me like nothing else”, bananas pile weight on me and i don’t know why”, “whenever i eat fruit, i pile on weight full stop”.

In my experience, and working with individuals who have told me such stuff, i have found deep down that the fruit is not exactly the problem. The problem tends to be the sugary chocolate and crisps they are tending to eat AS WELL as the fruit!!! This is the case 100% o the time in my book, and blaming fruit for putting weight on is usally a copout, or just another excuse. As i said above, it is entirely possible to put weight on eating too much fruit, but the reality is that not too many people actually get around to eating that much fruit anyway!!!!!

You have to be honest with yourself when analysing your diet, are you ignoring the glass of wine every night that definitely will cause weight gain? What about the full fat milky coffee you consume every day with biscuits, or a piece of cake, have you really factored that in? How about all of those low fat sauces and mayo, are you still eating that rubbish because it can be extremely destructive to your weight/fat loss plan for sure!!!!!

Another thing with fruit and vegetables, you should be eating them for what you don’t know too. We all know they offer plenty of good nutrients, but they also give an enormous boost to our immune systems, so as long as the fruit is eaten in moderation ,of course its going to be good for you, excellent for you in fact and give you a ton of benefits that perhaps we don’t know even exist right now, scientists are constantly finding new benefits of fruit so keep your diet varied and you won’t go far wrong at all!!

Don’t forget that the sugar from fruit will give you energy too, far better than the rubbish sugar you get from energy drinks, plus will be better for your teeth!!!

Benefits all the way in my book so lets get them into your body every day but in moderation!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

20th January 2011

Mixing up your training is the hardest thing to come to terms with, besides actually doing the training in the first place. Most of us prefer to do one form of training and be comfortable with something we are fairly good at.

I know many people over the years to be obsessed with running and that’s it, that’s all they would do and a steady run would be all the variety they would want to experience.

They had never tried sprint training, hill running, running on beaches, or any form of resistance/weight training, it simply didn’t suit them in their opinion of course.

The facts are that they were/are depriving themselves of an all round programme that could be designed to work far better than the one they are on right now.

Weight training/resistance training is used in every single sport in the world now as science proves its value, and has so many benefits it would be impossible to list them here.

Then there’s the trainers who would never leave the gym, the “gym” was everything to them and no other training existed. A run or cycle in the great outdoors was alien to them, after all it couldn’t really be better than a “gym workout” could it?!!!

These types of individuals are also missing out, training should be a very enjoyable journey for you, taking in different experiences in as the weeks, months and years hopefully go by. If you don’t offer variety into your training, that horrible word “plateau” will soon come into your life.

Deep down, you know you want to be experiencing the kind of results that impress yourself as well as everyone else. You want your health covered too, no point in looking great and internally, you are sick and need attention.

Fortunately, looking good inside usually leads to looking good on the outside. If you’re fired up to make a difference in your life, then you need to open your mind up to all different types o training, and different kinds of food too.

I you’re a one trick pony, you will tend to get one dimensional results. Any programme has limited results for a certain period of time, so open your mind to change and try something new this weekend and that will usually mean getting outdoors, you never know, you may get to like it, never look back and love being outdoors!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday 13th January

As there continues be a lot of press for brief workouts and in particular the 4 minute workouts this week, I have had a lot of questions on how to start them off in terms of ideas of workouts.

 I posted the original 4 minute solution blog some time ago as most of you know so lets go through the basics again.

For example, if you did this, it will give you a good start to exercise, but you CAN SUBSTANTIALLY improve from there, the 4 minute solution is not the end, its more the beginning of how you can progress and reach your potential.

If you started off with around 4-6 exercises, then you should be able to get through this workout very quickly, especially If you’re new to fitness and a complete beginner.

If you did an amount which was comfortable of the following

Press ups

Arm dips

Squat thrusts

Sitting on a chair and then standing up

Sit ups

Then this shouldn’t take you more than 4 minutes, and to progress from there in a fast way whilst still maintaining very quick workouts in terms of time, you need to think in the following way.

For example if you started off with 5 press ups in this workout, and did the workout on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then week 2 you need to aim for say 8 press ups Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then  week 3 aim for say 12 press ups for the Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Anyone who has ever trained with me will know that its entirely possible to get from 5 press ups in week one to at least 20-25 press ups in week 6.

If you applied this to every exercise, then you may start off on 10 squat thrusts and maybe graduate to 50 squat thrusts in 6 weeks, which is quite impressive in everyone’s language.

If you stick at your programme and progress in this way, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t, then after 6 weeks you should easily attain progress that you have never had before.

The results will mean less body fat, usually a couple of inches off your hips and waist, much better energy levels, better sleep, a leaner harder body and this would be just the start!!

As I said earlier, please treat the 4 minute workout as just the start of your journey to achieving anything with your health. I have seen individuals truly go from these type of workouts to climbing some of the most famous peak’s in the world, to running marathon to dropping at least 10 dress sizes, the opportunities that will present themselves are limitless, all you need is a plan and consistency with your workouts and food.

Please try and have a look at my original 4 minute solution from last year, as well as the workouts section which explains all sorts of workouts. The site may not be the best organised as I have limited time,  but these pages are all about tried and tested quality information, its here for you so its your choice how well you use it.

Any questions either subscribe for free or email me on fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk

Twitt