Posted on

Tuesday 8th March 2011

You will get periods of ups and downs in your week when perhaps you could do with constant motivation to get you through slumps in your life.

Whatever your circumstances, life is going to happen for you, good or not so good. How you react to these bumps  on the road will mean a lot more than you think.

What happens if you have a new job and you have new demands put on you and overtime becomes normal, what happens to your training?

What happens if you have just had a baby and then a couple of months later, its no longer crowds of people visiting and offering support, and life becomes very hard 24 hours a day? The reality of bringing up a child is very tough and how does your training and eating fit into all of this, is it as important anymore?

You may have to move away to find a job in this harsh economic environment, and whats it like living in a small room every night and the only option is the pub every night, what happens to your fat loss aspirations then?

These challenges are every day realities for a lot of people I know, and the one thing I can say with certainty is that good nutritious food will give you energy to get through a very tough day.

Doing your workout early in the morning before everything “kicks off” will make sure you are fit and strong, and will be able to perform much, much better in your job or specific role in life, such as being a mother.

The most dangerous thing you can do is pay no attention to your food because it leads to a slippery slope.

 Grabbing food when you can always means eating ready meals or fast food of some kind, things that cook quickly in the microwave soon become the core of your eating programme, and this long term abuse of your body will possibly lead to blood pressure problems, heart problems, and ill health issues of all kinds. If you constantly put rubbish full of chemicals into your body, then don’t expect good things to happen.

So even if you are in one of the groups I mentioned and your life is stressful, then see HEALTHY EATING AND EXERCISING AS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT FOR YOU.

You can train first thing in the morning, you can have an array of healthy food around you and you can do your best and develop a body and health you can be proud of. Buy the food in, get rid of the rubbish and commit yourself to a training plan.

If circumstances are tough, then chances are a lot of people are relying on you and you being healthy is an absolute must!!

Lets do it.

Twitt
Posted on

March 4th 2011

SO how are you finishing off the week?

Is it really hard to keep this thing up as cyril said?

Is it getting easier with the lighter, more steady and sunny weather?

Are you in charge with your food?

Are you in control of your workouts?

Are you managing your time really well, or are you letting your life control you?

Do you give in easy when someone tries to put you off exercise and eating well? Or are you determined to get through this thing very strongly and reach new levels of physical conditioning? Are you your own person or not?

Life is all about decisions because every decision will shape who you are.

For example, if you like to call in the pub every night after work, then you are unlikely to be very active in your life, nobody i know could ever train after alcohol, unless you train first thing in the morning of course, but in general, the habit of drinking straight after work can lead to blood pressure problems, diabetes, coronary disease and all sorts of nasty things that could go on with your body. Everyone needs to give themselves a fighting chance, and the drinks after work thing will destroy any fighting chance you have got!!! It may be trendy for some, but putting yourself at risk of serious disease has never been cool in my book!!!

These may be harsh comments, but its my experience of training and observing many people live their lives over many years. Its best to say it how it is, rather than pander to anyone to be popular!!!

So if you want to be really fit and healthy, please avoid alcohol in the week and keep it to once a week, then theres no reason to get trashed on that once either. We have all done it of course, including me, but having the next day wiped out is not an option for me anymore. I try and treat my body with a lot more respect, and sundays i have to contribute to family life, not sleep on the settee or go to be all day, thats the ultimate selfish way to live your life in my view.

The same goes with eating, has that magical 80% been reached yet in terms of 80% of what you eat being good quality food? If it hasn’t, then you need to stop messing around and get with the programme if you want to be and stay in shape!!!

Have a great weekend and theres no excuses to enjoy the great fresh air and scenery!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 25th November 2010

As debbie has just posted, you shouldn’t take for granted good health, and when you’re ill, you obviously have a new appreciation for being fit and healthy. Thanks for posting that debs!

I also hear stories about people who drink every night down the pub, and they suddenly get into a healthy lifestyle of exercising and eating properly. Within a month, the drinking down the pub soon disappears and they soon appreciate what it feels like to have much better health. The pub in the week and good workouts definitely don’t work and anyone who has ever tried will tell you that!

If you went to the supermarket right now and filled your shopping trolley up with doughnuts, white bread, cans of lager, bottles of wine, biscuits, multi-pack bags of crisps, chocolate bars etc etc and then tried to exercise every day, then something would have to give!!! All of these foods are what we call “empty calories” meaning they don’t have much to offer us nutritionally, other than putting more body fat ON us, which is the opposite of what we are trying to do!!!

Add on to the fact that we will get lousy workouts from this fuel (the fatty supermarket trolley) and we will be on a one way course to an expanding waistline and no energy in our lives.

Debbie will take some time to return to her former levels, but she will get there as long as she takes her tried and tested approach of solid workouts inside 3 times a week and any other activity she decides to undertake. She also knows that good food, full of essential nutrients are just as important toget her back to normal, or her progress will be bumpy at best.

Say point A is being ill and feeling terrible, and point B is feeling great and energetic, debbie has been bad for 5 weeks so far and is on her way back. It should take 5-10 weeks to get back to normal based on scientific studies. The exact time it takes will depend on how good she is in her lifestyle and daily habits with food. It will be interesting to see how she gets on so come on debs, keep us updated on your progress!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 19th November 2010

The colder weather to come for the next week (as cyril says) is actually a wonderful training tool and you should definitely celebrate it!!

The reason?

Your  body has to work harder to get up to its core temperature. What this means is that your body likes and even needs to be at a certain temperature to maintain balance. If your body’s temperature goes up even slightly, there will be health issues. It’s like when you were a child, you often had your temperature measured and were prescribed medicine if it was too high. You would even be taken to hospital if your temperature was really high!! Your body cannot function properly unless it has a balanced core temperature full stop.

So your body has to burn more calories in colder weather just to maintain itself at proper levels. This will not happen of course if you just stay indoors in front of the fire!! You need to get outside and DO SOMETHING if you really want to benefit so plenty of fresh air should definitely be on the agenda for you not only in the summer but colder winters too. I wouldn’t recommend you go out in the ice of course as that would be dangerous. As long as you’re sensible and use some solid routes with good footing, you shouldn’t have a problem.

The effect the cold has on your body is called a “thermogenic” effect. You may have heard of this word when it comes to “Fat-burning” tablets often sold in health shops etc, even supermarkets.

They claim to strip fat off you, but the reality is often an accelerated heart rate which in turn burns more calories. This is in my view dangerous and many of these tablets have been taken off the market. I could name you at least two big companies in the states that have been sued for hundreds of millions of dollars. The negatives can be extremely worrying and nobody wants to be putting extra strain on their hearts, thats for sure so beware these bogus companies and their claims!!!!

So in summing up, you need to get out there and have some fresh air, this will be your own thermogenic effect on your body in a NATURAL WAY. If you ever needed another reason to get outside, this is just another one of many so lets not just talk about it, lets get out there and do it!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 15th November

Use this opportunity to work even harder inside on your strength and resistance work. Some people buy a treadmill for indoors, what a waste of money when you get some cracking workouts inside.

If I want to keep it basic for myself and for everyone I train. I always think of working the whole body in one go to maximise the amount of energy and fat my body uses in the workout. If I wanted the easy option, I would isolate different body parts but I’ve discovered that’s the easy way out on so many different levels.

Right now, I’m all about discovering and proving which workout works best and it turns out those workouts tend to be like eating your greens as a kid. Those exercises that are best for you tend not be the easiest or even the ones you enjoy the most. They may be harder right now because they are very challenging and it may take your body getting to another level before you can do them without too much problem.

Anything that periodically takes you out of your comfort zone and drags you sometimes kicking and screaming to the next level is hugely positive for you. Don’t see it as a hardship though, see it as growth and an exciting time in your life.

If you’re one of these people who thinks your body declines after the age of 30, then im here right now to tell you that you’re wrong.

With a well-structured training and eating plan, you can literally improve each and every year, seriously I’ve seen that happen to everyone who takes their health seriously and takes action every week to look after their body.

The natural evolution for people who have such a great attitude is that so many good things happen when you attain very good health. Some people treat high energy levels, low levels of body fat and good levels of strength as NORMAL now. Most people however haven’t got that luxury so that’s why I’m urging your right now to take action and make health a huge priority in your life once again!!

38 days to Christmas so an excellent time to make it happen in a hurry starting today!!!

Twitt