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Wednesday, 9th January

So we’re in the first proper week of the year regarding exercise, and its vital you keep doing the right thing at the right time.

So assuming you’re still full of enthusiasm and you’re still in the stage of “this time i’m really going to do it”, then you need to stop looking far ahead and go through your training sessions in a more methodical way.

One common mistake to start with is trying to over-complicate your workout, you try to do too much too soon and these factors often lead to injury and frustration.

If you haven’t exercised for some time, please remember that a professional athlete for example, every week they have off from training, it will take them 1-2 weeks to get back to normal. So if they have had 6 weeks off training, then it could possibly take them 12 weeks to get completely back to normal-and this is a pro athlete!!!

If you have had a year or two off for example, then it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it’s going to take you a good while before you approach anywhere near your former levels!

This is not a piece to put you off, its urging you to seek professional help when beginning a new exercise programme, and also urging you to proceed with caution, giving your body time to adjust to your new schedule is of paramount importance.

This is why you should take one step at a time, take one week of training at a time, and set your goals by the week.

It shouldn’t be too hard to improve BY THE WEEK if you have a good plan. If you allow your body to adjust slowly, then you are still capable of improving greatly in 6 weeks, and very impressively in 12 weeks!!!

Hopefully, you are now engaged in a solid plan, just focus on showing up for your workouts and executing them well. Then look forward to getting good results on a weekly basis, if you are not then please look again at the programme you are on and are you really getting good advice?

Twitt
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Tuesday, 8th January

Following the theme of getting right back into it this week, let’s move on from the importance of getting a good shop in to preparing yourself for training.

Once you have decided which way you are going to get fit and healthy, you had better avoid these pitfalls which are guaranteed to disrupt and sometimes stop your progress completely.

Make sure you wear clothes that are not too tight to bend and move around in, wear training clothes that you are comfortable in, rather than trying to follow the latest fashions.

Wear good running shoes-even if you have no plans to run! Not wearing the right footwear or wearing training shoes over 6 months old can lead to a series of problems. Many knee, ankle and back problems can be traced to poor footwear choices. I recommend running shoes purely because they offer the most protection, they tend to receive the most research in terms of money spent on them by big companies, and will generally do a great job of protecting you.

Buy a decent pair but you don’t need to spend too much. Last season’s pair will be fine and usually greatly reduced. When you buy them mark off on the calendar when you need to change them next, always 6 months from the date of purchase. This will become an excellent habit for you and help you avoid needless injuries that can seriously derail all your hard efforts to get into great shape!

Drink enough water throughout the day. Not keeping hydrated is a dangerous practice when you want to get into shape. Sip water throughout your day and you won’t be going to the toilet all the time. Your body will feel better, maintain its core temperature better and actually make you feel like training because your awareness and energy levels will be right up there. Drinking water through your training session is vital too, it will keep you cooled down and help you perform much better.

One big no no is iced water! You wouldn’t put freezing water into your car engine and putting freezing water into your body whilst exercising can be extremely dangerous! Your body likes working out in a healthy temperature range, it doesn’t like to heat up too quickly or cool down too fast!

More tomorrow!

Twitt
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Monday, 7th January

It’s the first full proper week in January, and for those of you starting off for the first time, or the 30th time, the essentials need to stay the same.

If you are the one who is responsible for the shopping in your household, then you need to make a statement of intent in terms of what you need to do.

If you go to the supermarket, shop locally or shop online, then you have a great opportunity to make sure all or least most of the food and drink coming into your household is mostly natural and fresh where possible.

There will probably be a massive difference between this week’s shop and the one you did in the week before Christmas.

The one before Christmas will have made you feel terrible eventually, the one you make this week should enliven you again, build some really strong foundations for your immune system again, and really set in stone the back up system you’re going to need for a far more active January!

A good way to plan your shop is write down a lot of the meals you intend making as part of your new healthy regime, and buy accordingly. This takes needless waste out of the equation.

If you are truly serious about getting into shape and getting healthy, then please stop making excuses to yourself. This includes “reasoning” that you can still buy lots of treats as you will “never eat them”, YOU WILL!!

Stop buying the alcohol because it will be so tough not to have “the odd glass that turns into two”.

This week is about taking away the temptations away again, so you’re not so easily tempted.

This week is also about giving yourself every chance of success, and it all starts with your biggest shop of the week for the essentials in life that will eventually shape the way you look and feel.

For more info, click on the diet/food section on the right hand side.

Twitt
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Friday, 4th January

Happy new year and hope you’re ready to make a strong start to the new year!

Sorry about the late posting but i picked up a really nasty virus myself on new year’s day it seems, and its only now i am recovering properly. First time i have had something like this for many years, and i have to say a big good riddance to it!

Anyway, this makes me realise the importance of getting back to proper food, putting enough nutrients into my body again and protecting myself against any future ailments that could be heading our way.

This is the role of food or should be anyway, protecting us against illness and disease, and this is why the nature of our food should be of paramount importance.

Once we get this right, then we should be thinking about energy and how we can get it. Put good food in every day and we should get plenty of energy.

Once we have energy, then this puts us in a good place to actually exercise!

When we get through a workout, then its down to food again to replace lost energy, and build our bodies back up after breaking down all that muscle tissue!

You can see why food has many roles to play in the whole cycle of energy and training, and without it things would be pretty impossible to achieve.

This is the important lesson to learn early on this year. No starving yourself, no diets that will put all the weight back on and more, no shake and bars only diets. How about nourishing yourself properly for a change and reaping the rewards this year in a big way!! Most people i train never go through this faddy time of year anymore, because they were put on a lifelong path a lot of years ago.

It’s all about being on a sustainable path and really putting yourself on a path for a lifetime!!!

I’m fired up again so lets get ready to work hard in 2013!!!

Twitt
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New Year’s Eve, 2012!

Exactly the time today to make new year’s resolutions!! Not the kind that everyone breaks or that are unrealistic of course, but ones that are absolutely sustainable and will work!!

Committing yourself to eat as much food that is fresh and natural, and plain without artificial sugar added has to be a worthwhile goal. I tuly believe that would be a major worthwhile new year’s resolution for you!!

Comitting yourself to being MORE active would be as much as most of you can realistically do. The time for setting olympic records may be over for most people, but fitting in an extra workout per week is not really that difficult to do surely?

Committing yourself to being better this time next year is something i have always aimed at doing, and it tends to work. This way you tend to do the little things each day, each week, each year to get yourself better, stronger, healthier and fittter, and it can really pay BIG dividends for you trust me!!!

Commit yourself to doing less of things that are bad for you, and you know which things they are by now surely?
Drink a little less alcohol, drop one day of alcohol consumption and no more binge drinking!!! How about eating less junk in the week, and serving a wholesome meal EVERY evening after work and really treating your body as something special and important to you.

These four commitments will be exactly what you should be looking at over the next twelve months, and ensure you WILL be better all over this time NEXT year!!!

Don’t fall for the fads and scam merchants, and please save your money and invest it on things that are really going to help you and your health!!!

Have a great new year’s eve, enjoy yourselves and get ready to hit it big in 2013!!!

Twitt