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Wednesday, 21st December

We talked about the benefits of eating well the last couple of days, but don’t beat yourself up if you are not eating “perfectly” from day one, because that perfect world doesn’t exist in the first place.

You have to develop your own personal standards, nobody else’s, just your own when you measure how much progress you get.

For example, if you have a 44 inch waist and you have lost 1-2 inches over the first month of january, then you have been very successful.

If you continued at that rate of progress for the first 6 months of the year, and it is totally possible, that could be 6-12 inches off your waist!!!

This would turn you from a 44 inch waist to at best a 32 inch waist!!! This is an incredible transformation, and the great news is that not only your waist will see the difference.

If you are using weights or some kind of resistance training, your arms are likely to be much more toned and more shapely, all that fat that was hanging on your back will disappear and tighten considerably, your legs and calves will become much more defined, you will get more energy and your “mojo” will be back for the first time in a long time!!!!

So to achieve all of this, you need to start following the advice on here all week and click on the diet section immediately.

Lets take breakfast, you may be having a bash at porridge and fruit juice, trying to be “healthy” for the first time!

Ideally, you will get used to porridge with water and you will find no need for sugar or honey. You will dilute your orange juice with some water, cutting back on the natural sugars. This will get you burning body fat.

A lot of people cannot to do this first time, or for the first few weeks, so how about having porridge with milk, having a LITTLE sugar or honey or dried fruit to start, to get you into it all, and so it still tastes sweet enough? You can have your normal orange juice too, if dillution is too hard for you at this stage with water.

The point im trying to make is you CAN get into things gently and you can’t go from point A to point Z in a week, getting used to more natural plain foods definitely takes time. This will still bring you excellent results, especially if your diet was very poor before.

Its about your own personal standards and how you constantly rise them over a period of time, theres no rush, as you have the rest of your life to get used to it!!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 16th December

Using anger and stress as a viable workout tool can make a hopeless situation turn into your best performing workouts!

How many of us have hit a workout in no mood to train, only feeling stress and anger at whatever situation presented itself that particular day?

Those of you who decided to carry on with your workout will usually feel ten times better at the end of the workout. All that anger and negative feelings can usually be absorbed into the workout, and sometimes your best performances are achieved.

I have seen people in gyms who work shifts, and after some night shifts have approached the gym with little or no sleep, and really hit the workout hard, and you can visibly see the anger subsiding after a few tough sets of high intensity weight training. They always leave the gym a different person, and they use the workout as the ultimate de-stresser!!!

I sometimes dont wake up in the best of moods after a night of little sleep with the kids,  but after my first run, i always feel 200% better, and its usually the same with the person i am running with.

If you want to categorise stress into different sections, think positive and negative.

Negative stress would be work pressures, money worries, relationship problems, family problems, job security, personality clashes, etc etc.

Positive ways to deal with it would be exercising, eating well, avoiding alcohol, avoiding negative people, sleeping better and more regular etc etc.

If you follow these rules, then the anger and negativity is likely to subside. We all have these feelings, lets not pretend otherwise, but if some sort of exercise is a daily part of our lives, we have the ultimate natural medicine for it!!!

Have a great weekend, the weather is clear and snow free so lets get out there in the fresh air and enjoy the benefits!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 15th December

We talked about interval training last week, and how to develop it from a simple treadmill exercise, or outside running exercise of walking for one minute, running for the next minute, then walking one minute etc, all the way through to non stop training in all sorts of ways.

This week I have already taken a number of individuals through to the next stage of training, that can be brutally hard but extremely effective in terms of benefits.

It’s a simple concept but again, you really need to be very conditioned to do this.

All it involves is light running and press ups and arm dips at various intervals in your run.

For example, a lot of paths such as the one in mumbles or parks in Llanelli, burry port and surrounding area have park benches.

So the concept is to run for say 30-50 yards before you come to a park bench, then you do 10 arm dips (lowering yourself down on bench working arms/shoulders).

Then run again for another 30-50 yards and get down for 10 press ups, or 5 press ups or whatever your capability is?

Then its 50 yards and hit the next bench with 10 arm dips and so on.

The first time you do it, you will probably only be able to hit 3 benches and you have to stop. Then you will need a rest. Start up again when you get your breath back and go for it again.

To give you an example of progress with individuals who have been of average/to good fitness levels, they sometimes started of being capable of doing a total of 50 press ups/arm dips on one run, that typically went up to 1000 and the record was 2500, and this was a 58 year old!!! I am totally serious and the numbers although seemingly unbelievable, can be achieved by a lot of people as long as they eat very well, rest well and are very consistent with their training.

This type of progress could take 6-12 months and would apply to someone of a high standard of fitness and capability.

The results as I said are phenomenal but this workout should only be done under supervision by an exercise professional.

Twitt
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Tuesday, 13th December

If funds are low and you’re out of a job at the moment, then you can still get around it all and spend absolutely nothing to get fit!

I love sessions outside myself, and you have some great hills and trails all around us. If you still have a bike, get it in shape and let it take you to whatever you want to go. You can walk/cycle/run for free, so theres no excuses there.

If you’re broke at the moment, this may also suit. You will have no money for “treats” and luxuries that will harm the bank balance, this should enable you to shave a few inches off your waist no problem!

If you’re having relationship problems or family problems, then alcohol is the number one way NOT to go!! Alcohol is the number one depressant out there, so avoid at all costs! Plus it likely to pile a lot of weight on and make your situation a whole lot worse!

A better route would be to exercise and eat well, exercise is the best ANTI-despressant you will have in our life! I suggest you get an early morning workout in to manage your stress levels well and set the tone for the rest of your day!!

If you find that time disappears for you, then its time to re-assess what exercise does and can do for you in the future!

If you commit yourself to exercising 5-6 times a week for 20-30 minutes a day of quality training, your life will AUTOMATICALLY take an upturn for the better!!!

I know a lot of individuals who get anxious and frustrated if they DON’T exercise on a daily basis, this is the number one way to become a moody, snappy individual!!!

Life is full of making the right decisions, all of us will get some of them wrong throughout a lifetime, nobody’s perfect, but the ones i have mentioned today will make a hugely positive difference to you and life’s different situations EVERY DAY!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 9th december

Before we go over more training methods, i would like to comment on all the feedback i had to last friday’s post of having a christmas party, enjoying the whole process but suffering terribly the next day from drinking too much alcohol!!!

Most people who have been through the process over the last week or so tell me it goes like this!

You go out on the party, drink far more than normal, have a great time, and then reality starts biting hard the very next morning!!!!

If you wake up early like me, you wake up with a vile headache and a feeling of sickness.

You need a walk to clear your head, but because of the amount of alcohol, it doesnt make the usual big difference!!!

Then you come back home and try and eat food, drink water and a coffee. Somehow this doesnt cut it this time!!!

Then you have lunch which helps a bit, and then with every meal the feeling gets a little better, but you cant wait to hit the sack the following night!!!! And early too!!

Then the next day, you expect good performance but even the next day after that you feel lousy, and getting your body to feel good is a conundrum of the highest complexity!!!

Then the next few days, you are so glad to get back to eating well, and getting your body used to exercise again, but you will notice that your body doesnt respond quite as prompty and as freely as usual!!! These feelings can go on all week long!!!

Most if not all of the feedback i have had is like this! This means that alcohol in excess SEVERELY AFFECTS PERFORMANCE and wrecks progress, and if you’re looking to keep on improving, or even FEEL normal, then heavy drinking over christmas has to be the LAST thing on your mind.

I’m glad i learned my lesson last week and dont intend repeating it any time soon!!!

Twitt