Tuesday, 10th July

Talking about elite athletes yesterday, its important to take some vital lessons from how they train.

Perhaps most people wont be able to show the extreme dedication they show to training, diet and basically living like a monk, but reaching our own personal best can be just as important for our own needs.

This is why we talk about constant improvement on here, and how to achieve exactly that and the processes involved.

It all starts with the monthly measuring and it follows from there. Its all about accountability and this is what you will have in common with these elite athletes, they are constantly being measured and constantly analysing their performances.

Nothing can make up for results and you need to make yourself accountable as much as possible.

If an elite athlete loses a race, or performs really badly in the race, there will be a lot of reprecussions, usually resulting in losing money or sponsorship or both.

There won’t be any such penalties if you don’t lose two inches off your waist in a month for example, but you can usually tell if you have had a good month of training and eating-or not!

There aren’t many good reasons to just go through the motions in your training, if you do then you need to find some motivation from somewhere and re-assess what you are doing.

If its lack of intensity, then change it and get much more fired up about your training.

If you have been in  the same exact routine for 6 weeks or more, then change it now and you will see an immediate result for the better!!!

If you wonder why you still train, then remember why you first started, why you are doing it now and what you really want to achieve, deep down, from your training and eating efforts!

This is what we can learn from the star athletes, and the accountability they constantly have to go through, use it in a positive way and you will automatically get better results!

Tuesday, 3rd July

We looked at the importance of getting your eating right, and how it doesn’t have to cost the earth to do it either!

Cost is a barrier for most people at some stage in their lives, but due to competition, this cost issue has been helped a lot.

Another way of stressing how important eating is would be to remember why you are doing this thing after all!

When you first started, you must have had a vision of how you really wanted to be? The goal you really wanted in life, whether it was just good health, or fitting in clothes you haven’t done for five years for example!

Most of us will put on weight at certain stages in our lives, but all of us can come back from that stage if we really put our minds to it.

Carrying that vision of how we eventually want to look is vitally important in my view.

That vision should be an ever-present in our minds or we will frequently lose sight of why we are training hard, why we are eating so well all week long, why we are going out for a run in the pouring rain for example!

You have to keep your ambition high and whether its ten inches off your waist or two inches you need to lose, the focus has to be retained.

I have plenty of individuals who want to look their all time best for this year’s summer holiday. Looking good in your swimsuit has been an age old goal for most of us, but few of us really make it happen.

If we retain our best vision of ourselves, this means our workouts will become more intense, our foods  more natural and less sugary and fatty, we drink less alcohol and the whole process become much more inspiring and exciting!!

Monday, 2nd July

Heard the one about its too expensive to eat well and healthy? Well, i have too! Plenty of times!!! Too many times to mention in fact!

Well, statistics don’t necessarily back this one up!

Times have moved on and its heck of a long time since Tesco was the only game in town!

In llanelli, now there are far more choices and we do not have to put up with a lack of service or rudeness from any type of business anymore!

We have Aldi’s, Lidls, Morrisons and Asda of course, all offering extremely good value for money.

Due to the harsh economic climate, they are all going out of their way to become cheaper, especially on a lot of the basics.

Some people used to look down on aldi’s and lidl’s a few years ago, but when you actually try some of their fruit and vegetables, they are often much tastier than most of the bigger supermarkets. And the price difference can be substantial!

So if you are committed  to eating well and healthy, this may be the place for you!

If you say you havent got time to cook healthy, then a stir fry doesnt take long.

A great invention has been the slow cooker, which works big time in my house especially with three children!!! This is a great way of getting all your veg into your meals, and tasting absolutely fantastic too!!! You need to try it!!

Please don’t give the excuse of “whoever i live with cooks for me and i cant eat well”, because this is absolutely unacceptable!!!

Take charge now, use the so called “discount” supermarkets, in my book Aldi and Lidl blows away the big boys in terms of freshness and taste, so act on it now.

If you still say its too expensive, then how can you justify all the other junk thats usually in the trolley?!!!

Get your priorities straight and get eating well and right!!!

The Longest day, 21st June

Another situation some of you may have experienced in the past is trying to keep on losing more body fat and weight when you don’t even need to anymore.

For instance, I was training a teenager this week who has literally transformed himself from someone who could be regarded as seriously overweight (he would say that himself), to someone who looks extremely athletic and powerful, and now looks the picture of health.

So he lost all his weight, is now starting to do very well in a few different sports, and is almost unrecognisable in every single area compared to one year ago.

The danger is now that he is tempted to still cut down on his food portions. This can be a common mistake to make, and can be detrimental to his future progress.

I explained to him that the focus now should switch from cutting back, to slightly increasing portion size due to the activity levels he now has in his life.

It makes sense that someone who played very little sport before, and now plays 5-6 times a week requires more energy. The weight and fat loss has put an enormous amount of energy into his life, but the stage has come that he needs even more now to increase his performance.

This is now alien to him, as cutting back has got him to a great situation. This is where relationship with food changes his again.

Seeing food as fuel is ultra-important now to this individual, as opposed to seeing food as something negative because it may put weight back on.

It wont put weight back on because the quality of the food he eats is so much better now.

I explained that one gram of protein and carbs in just under 4 calories, and that one gram of fat is 9 calories. So in theory, he could eat quite a bit more food and still not be eating the calories he was when he was a lot overweight. Overeating is still not advised, and all I meant was an increase to cover his energy requirements.

This individual has changed his life considerably, but should now be using food in a very positive way, seeing it as a very valuable tool in allowing him to perform at the highest level possible at his chosen sports.

Everyone’s relationship with food is different, but keeping it a positive one will allow you to move far more smoothly and productively through different phases in your life.

Tuesday, 19th June 2012

There is a great programme on at the moment investigating why we get fat, and all the cunning ways that food businesses of all kinds try to fool us into consuming much more fat than we need to, and certain kinds of “dangerous” fats.

The inventor of corn syrup (which is extremely big in the food industry and is in most foods to sweeten it up) was scrutinised and was blamed for bring obesity levels to epidemic levels that are in existence today.

The problem is when you get used to foods with a lot of sugar added, as is mostly the case, it is extremely difficult to “get off” these foods, due to sugar being addictive.

Fats in foods are always given a bad rap, and most of the time deservedly so, you have to remember though of course that there are “good fats” that are vital for our bodies from foods such as fish (eg salmon, mackerel etc), nuts (almonds, cashews etc) and oils such as olive oil, flaxseed oil for example.

So if saturated fat is getting this terrible name, then sugar very much is the “evil twin brother”!

Sugar according to many leading nutritionists is in fact worse, due to its addictive qualities.

You can see it when kids eat, you try giving them a sugary breakfast cereal, and then change it back to something more natural and less sugary, you will have a major job on your hands!!!

Cutting sugar out of your diet is extremely tough, but the sooner you make the big jump, the sooner you will “come off it”, and the urge to eat and drink sugary products will fade sooner than you think.

One instant benefit is you immediately lose weight and body fat, you start performing better and you will be getting more sustainable energy, rather than the up and down type you get from sugar.

The sooner you make the change, the better!!!