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Monday, 24th December

Christmas Eve is finally here, and a very busy time is about to kick off for a lot of us!

One unknown fact is that i know quite a lot of people who will/indeed have trained today already with me and on their own at the gym, there will be a few on christmas day and particularly boxing day. These are the people who still don’t want to pile the pounds on, they don’t want to have a shortness of breath from eating all the rubbish/fast food, and they generally don’t want to waste a lot of the hard work they have put in all year long!

A piece of breaking news from the states on the weekend i think a lot of you would be interested in. Herbalife, the company that promises quick weight loss and apparently “everyone was doing it”, has hit massive problems.

Herbalife is listed on the US stock exchange and has been “shorted” by two very big name analysts and investors. “Shorting” is when you predict the stock will go DOWN instead of up and the analysts have a new stock target price of ZERO dollars. They claim the stock is a ponzi scheme that will end up losing investors all of their money. One big pyramid scheme they say.

Not only this, but herbalife has been found selling their products in starving african countries, where you thought a weight loss product would be needed the least!! It seems as if they are having problems ethically and financially. Good on these stock market investors exposing such a company.

I have been banging on for years about how these companies fleece would be weight loss victims out of their hard earned monies. The same goes for weight loss clubs and the whole industry is fake and a sham and i urge you to show common sense in the new year and avoid these charlatans.

You can’t beat good natural food in sensible portions, with a bit of what you fancy in moderation.

Enjoy christmas and see you for more later on in the week!!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 20th December

In an ideal world, the body of your choice would just happen, good food would be just put in front of you and getting into shape would be the easiest thing in the world!

There would be no problem getting to the gym, and all the chores in life would be done for you.

This is an imaginary world of course, especially in the week before christmas, so we had better get back in the real world!!!

We are in a world where we make mistakes and we make them often.

So what we have to do is DO what we can do!

Life shouldn’t revolve around your diet or some kind of totally strict never have a treat regime either! This will not work. Frequently i hear from individuals that they have some big party and trying to be perfect somehow, they say that for some reason that they need to avoid the party!

This is nonsense of course and there is no need to avoid ANY social occasion or bring your own food just because there’s not a healthy meal already prepared there for you! Using common sense in these situations always works and as long as you don’t pig out too much, or don’t drink the bar dry, then put it down to a one off and make sure you get a workout done the very next day!!!

I have always said that you need to just concentrate on eating healthy at least 80% of the time, this should be enough to keep you healthy and energised for your workouts. If you constantly try to be at 100%, then you will be heading for failure and such plans never work for any length of time!!

If you allow yourself treats on one day a week for example, or two maximum, then you always have something to look forward to, and your diet will never become over-bearing. Common sense will always work for you, especially right now in the festive season.

Moderation always works, and keeps your mind very fresh and positive for your upcoming workouts that should always be at least a small part over the next two weeks.

Twitt
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Tuesday, 18th December 2012

Having done many measurements over the last week, and most people fulfilling a lot of their goals and ambitions that they made at the beginning of the year, one question comes up all the time from most individuals i train.

“How much should i expect to lose in a set period of time”?

To answer that can never be exact.

It all depends on the effort you put in, how well you are eating, how much good sleep you get, do you keep yourself hydrated, do you miss workouts regularly or do you hardly ever miss, how much intensity to you put into your workouts, are your performances constantly improving, do your drink too much alcohol too often or do you keep it in moderation, is your workout plan good or is it more haphazard, do you stay positive in times of stress or do you let stress stop you from doing your workouts?

These are all potential helps or hindrances and are are definite factors when it comes to determining progress. No two months are exactly the same and i can spend as much time councilling people on their problems sometimes as much as i do training! This is what it’s like in the real world, “life” happens and you have to keep doing your best with it!!!

Baseline figures are possible though and here’s what has been typical for me working with individuals for a lot of years now!

Waist-1.5-2 inches a month off, sometimes more

Hips-1.5-2 inches a month off, sometimes more.

Resting heart rate-2-3 beats per month down OFTEN MORE

Blood pressure-big success in getting people back into a normal healthy range

Body fat-1.8% down a month, often more!

These are exciting changes you can make your life, and all deserved to be measured!

More on this tomorrow.

Twitt
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Monday, 17th December

Finally in the week before Christmas and how’s it going for you in terms of your exercising and eating?

It’s always a “finally” moment for all of those who have given up the ghost for their training in 2012. I must say i am lucky to train a relatively large number of individuals right up until christmas eve, as most people i am involved with now know the benefits of training all the way through.

If you expected some piece today about me agreeing with those of you who want to knock their training on the head right now, and pig out on mince pies and all the alcohol you can muster, then no, i’m really not going to do that.

I like to think i am very understanding but agreeing with people so they can feel out of breath, put lots of weight on, and feel nowhere NEAR as good as they normally do is a point of principle for me. I remember a lot of years ago that i had a couple of weeks off myself, and felt so bad that i said i WOULD never do that EVER again, the pain was really do much!!!

Those of you who are continuing to train (and there a many of you) have your monthly measurement come up. This is awfully brave of you late into december when everyone else seems to be losing their heads, but the feedback i get from most of you is that still doing your monthly measurement keeps you off the sugary and fatty foods, it keeps you exercising and in general keeps your standard very high.

If you’re involved in our way of doing things, then i take my hat off to you all who don’t want to be part of the crowd who are falling for all the christmas massive excess, and really want to fight it and stay in great shape ALL YEAR ROUND!!!

The choices are there for you, no excuses to get totally out of shape after working so hard all year!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 27th November

We spoke yesterday about the important of pushing on this month, and never settling for where you are, and the negatives and dangers of that attitude!

This is why measuring is so important for your mind and body.

I have had feedback time and time again that measuring does so much good for your physche!

If you can back up your efforts in black and white with inches off your waist, then this HAS to lift morale!!

If you can show on a blood pressure machine that your physical efforts have been that worthwhile that it has significantly strengthened your heart strength and health, then is always an instant tonic and will back up your training methods to the hilt!

If you can possibly lose 1-2% body fat in the toughest month of december, surely this says that you are indeed mentally strong, that you are working on a good programme and your clothes are fitting you better and better, probably to the point where some may be hanging off you, proving your overall shape is far better and the excess body fat you once had is quickly disappearing!!!

Doing things the scientific way will take the guess work out of your training and eating plan. I learned a long time ago not to leave your improvements to chance, to stay on top of all your training, and to nip any temporary slipping in progress well and truly in the bud!!!

Any process that is deemed to be successful has to be transparent, and i guarantee you that as long as you do 2-3 strength workouts every week, and you do 2-3 workouts that your hit your cardio in the right way, you are going to surprise yourself on how quickly you come on!!

Measuring every four weeks is complete transparency and is a proven system to achieve ultimate success.

Twitt