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Tuesday, 14th February

Valentine’s day is a big day for some of you, and its a day of vast 0ver-commercialism for others. You may either be preparing to go off your diet tonight, and you may be out of pocket after paying double money for your flowers, whatever you do, have a great evening and enjoy yourselves.

Valentine’s day is no excuse though to quit on your training, and please do not use that “lack of time” excuse, because its definitely not going to “wash” here!

No time for a run?

Not even 10 minutes?

If you swap your steady jog you were planning, then how about doing some interval running instead. You know the one, we have talked on here a lot about it, do a couple of minutes warm up run, then use lampposts as a guide for the intervals you need to train in.

You jog for one post, then sprint the next, jog one post, sprints the next and so on until you can’t do anymore. 10 minutes of this will be MORE than enough!!!

How about hitting a punch bag?

If you can manage 10 minutes on this great training tool, then you will be doing very well indeed. Even three times one minute rounds will be enough to get your heart pumping like never before, scratch the ten minutes, think THREE minutes!!! No excuses!

If you work in an office in a town or city, there must be a group of steps around the place. Just 5 minutes up and down steps can be like a 20 minute steady jog, and give your body a workout to remember, this is tough but over in a flash with a big bunch of benefits thrown in!

Bottom line is if you don’t train before you go out tonight, you won’t feel so energised, you will have to work harder tomorrow night, and you will be letting your commitment levels slide. Use time to your advantage by working out smart, instead of mindless boring long workouts control you!!

Twitt
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Friday, 10th February

If you are exercising hard throughout this very cold period, then you ought to congratulate yourself because you are getting through the hardest time of year, this is the time for those of you who have the courage to “do”.

Not only in weather terms but you have managed to get through to February, which is longer than most of the population who often quit by now after the January surge in dieting and exercise. If you are active now, you have some serious momentum in your life.

Better times are coming with lighter nights, warmer days and even more inspiration for your training simply because “summer is coming”!

The spring and summer is the time when you really hoped you were in good shape. Most people at the end of the summer promise themselves that “next” year will be the summer they finally get into great shape,  and they will be proud to show their body off.

The reality is often quite different unfortunately.

It’s a good idea on a Friday to evaluate how you have been doing, and whether you have come close to achieving your goals? You should be able to know right now whether you have come up short, or have you over-achieved this week and actually taken yourself higher than you thought?!

If you can most fridays, deliver on the promises you made to yourself on a Monday morning, then being in shape is probably a reality for you and a healthy lifestyle an everyday reality that you enjoy.

Dieting on some crazy faddy diet is no fun, never has been and never will be. Plus they never work long term.

Living healthy by eating healthy and training sensibly and often has never been more enjoyable, given all the options we all have in front of us these days.

There is more known about exercise and nutrition these days than ever before, yet according to statistics, most of the population ignores all of this research and never gets active, and constantly fall for all the foods high in sugar and saturated fat, sad but true!

You will discover that living a healthy lifestyle is not being part of the crowd, but more of an individual journey that will develop more and more the further you travel, in age and in health terms.

Its Friday and lets be honest where you are at the end of the week.

Twitt
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Thursday, 9th February

To continue about the importance of a strong healthy heart, its vital you start with a proper foundation in order to create it in the first place.

Number one is you need to exercise regularly and in general stay active.

Number two is you need to eat healthy at regular intervals, and in sensible portions.

Number three is that you need to avoid excess alcohol. Drinking a few times a week will especially put great strain on your heart, as well as other vital organs.

Number four is to avoid smoking, if you smoke you are doing the single most destructive thing against your body. You are destroying cells, ageing your body throughout and putting amazing strain on your most important muscle.

Number five is to try and cut down on stress. If you have a lot of worry in your life, self-induced or otherwise, you are putting strain eventually on your heart. It is no coincidence that exercise and eating well are the best for combating this stress.

Number six is sleep well. Sleep deprivation can literally affect everything you do. Hate to be like a broken record but all of the above helps you sleep better!

Number seven is stay positive. Being positive about life can be one of your best habits to develop, negative people are usually full of stress and never actually do anything for the greater good. If you stay positive, then you tend to take action and approach life in an optimistic way, one of the secrets of quality of life especially in old age research has shown.

Number eight is to show consistency in all of these keys to having a successful strong and healthy heart, don’t be a “flash in the pan” when it comes to your health or let a doctor tell you all of this when its too late. If you practice these most of the time, then you will reap huge benefits!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 7th February

Sometimes your biggest enemy can be the reliance too much on routine.

For example, if all you did in the gym or wherever you trained, was to work on the treadmill or bike, then your gains wouldn’t be as strong as they would by mixing your training right up.

If you don’t do your weights/resistance work, then you’re going to be missing out.

If you don’t workout aerobically, and this means working out with big gulps of oxygen, and getting your heart rate up quite a bit, then you’re also going to be missing out.

However, even if you every exercise under the  sun, and simply “go through the motions”, you are not likely to get very much at all out of your training programme.

When you get going on your workouts, please make sure you train with purpose, you’re not there to look good and show off, you’re not there to watch the clock and just last until an hour is gone, you’re not there so you can work to levels well beneath you, and you’re not there to stay in some kind of comfort zone.

Today is another day to prove to yourself that you’re still alive, that you have enough energy to test yourself physically to new limits, even if you have seen the wrong side of 50. Age is never a deciding factor either, in my experience it is training experience and conditioning that matters, and definitely not age.

I have many 60 something’s who could destroy 21 year old’s in terms of physical performance, and having a leaner and harder body. When you get older, it seems that we value our health much more sometimes due to our inactivity of the past.

The bottom line is that its never too late to do something about it, and discover the power of actually “doing it”!!

Twitt
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Friday, 3rd February

I know i have posted on a lot of different issues regarding health and fitness, there are some i tend to mention more than others.

One of the ones that is very relevant to the month of february is the fact that today in the press, a story was focusing on people’s lack of success in terms of weight/fat loss since christmas, and the lack of success in terms of new year’s resolutions too.

In fact, some papers have christened this month as “FLABRUARY”!!!!

The vast majority of those questioned had failed miserably on their plans to get rid of the christmas weight, not only that but the weight from the previous year too!! People were feeling flat, disappointed, fed up and all the usual negative feelings that leave a lot of us disillusioned.

If you have been following this blog for a while, we always examine why people do not succeed in their “get in shape” plans.

We have gone through a million reasons by now, and we have come to the conclusion that success can only come from sustainable training efforts, sensible healthy eating in smaller portions and at regular intervals, drinking less alcohol, drinking enough water, sleeping well and having a bit of what you fancy occasionally so you don’t go totally mad!!

So expect to see stories such as these in the media all the time. There is no one faddy tactic that’s going to solve the puzzle for you, its a combination of different tried and tested factors that will make the difference in the long term, so being in shape never becomes a struggle again.

Working out for life sounds like a tall order for some, but why not treat every week and day as it comes, try to do your best when you become educated about food, try and not make excuses to exercise, try not to overdo it on the food or booze, try and hit the sack at a decent time in the week and try and stay positive at all times, even when roadblocks come up and test our patience to the full!

Forgot the marketing rubbish you hear daily and let’s put the foundations in place to be very successful with your health full stop!

Twitt