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March 1st-start of the year for many!!

March 1st is a big boost to all of us, January and February are traditionally the darkest months and when our motivation is lowest. It is usually quite high in early January after the new year resolutions, but by February, everything slips back into the status quo and a gloom seems to set over everyone.

March 1st signifies new possibility with spring coming and everything seeming fresher.

So now that perhaps unrealistic expectations made on January 1st are seemingly over, its time to get some real plans together and stop kidding yourself you can eat all those weight watchers biscuits and still stay lean, you really can’t.

The sooner you realise that most diet organisations have got their own greedy agendas for selling you their products and versions of food, then the quicker you progress, start eating good proper food and actually start saving some cash on all those empty promises.

From the weight watchers biscuits and ready meals, to the slimmers world green and red days, to the lighter life £75 a week you will need to spend buying all their shakes and snacks. Of course you’re going to lose some weight, sometimes a lot, but as the media has shown this week, most if not all of those examples they use have put all the weight on and usually 5% more on your body that you never had even in the first place.

Here’s a challenge for you this week, visit the supermarket and try to only go down the aisles that will help you out big time physically and in terms of health.

Go down the fruit and vegetables section, in fact spend most time here, and start learning how to cook again using good fresh ingredients and GET USED TO IT, its not a fad, ITS GOING TO WORK FULL STOP.

Also get some lean meats in there, chicken, turkey, lean beef and get some fish in too, mackerel, tuna, salmon etc, lets make this a staple of your diet.

Make sure there’s some good carbs in there too, wholegrain and wholewheat pasta, brown rice, jacket, new and sweet potatoes, porridge etc, if the quality is good, then you’re going to look and feel good so lets give it your best!!!

Twitt
Posted on

February 23rd

The issue with calories intake associated with diet and weight loss/weight gain has been around for a long time.

There have been 2000, 3000 and all the way down to 800 calorie a day diets.

Most people think, especially when they are in the mood to diet, that less is always best.

They are right partly but only to a degree. A calorie is not always a calorie.

Look at the difference between an apple which is approximately 50 calories and a doughnut which is a good couple of hundred calories.

If you used the logic of a calorie is a calorie, then you could class an apple the same as a quarter of an apple? A lot of people would consider this a fair trade off and take the doughnut every single time.

So what should you do?

If you take the doughnut every time, you will get the following.

An increased sugar rush, followed by a sugar low, leading to a craving for you guessed it, yet more sugar!!!!

If done regularly, you will heighten your chances of becoming diabetic, which can lead to a change in your life that you definitely wont enjoy!!

Your skin wont have a glow, in fact increased refined sugar like this is likely to lead to skin problems such as acne, rashes, redness and speeds up the ageing process.

Like we said at the start, there is absolutely no way you will be able to stop at one doughnut, especially a quarter of a doughnut!!! Once you have a craving for sugar, its very difficult to stop and will lead to a diet rich in sugary and fatty snacks, studies have shown this time after time.

If you consumer the apple every day and focus on natural, nutrient giving foods, you are likely to stabilise your blood sugar levels, which means more regular and constant energy levels.

You are likely to fend off serious disease, as most fruit and vegetables contain cancer fighter anti-oxidants, as well as a host of other vitamins and minerals vital for good health.

Any time your diet is healthy, your skin in healthy and you WILL have a glow about you, try it and see if im right.

Once you get used to good healthy food, you wont want to go back to the sugary foods, not only for their downside but because you simply wont feel good when you eat them.

Time to change your life!

Twitt
Posted on

February 18th 2011

When we measure ourselves against everyone else, there will always be someone better than you if you give yourself enough examples.

If you are training well consistently, you may be training up to 6 days a week, you may be eating smaller nutritious meals, you may be resting and sleeping very well, in short, you are doing extremely well with your health  and fitness programme.

You may cycle a lot, you may swim a lot but perhaps you don’t run because you may have a knee problem.

Despite all of this, an excellent example in anyone’s language, some people may write themselves off or talk themselves down because they may be comparing themselves to a david beckham. They may say that they can’t run up and down the field like him, and therefore not measure their fitness in a very accurate or positive manner.

I have had such conversation with many 50 somethings believe it or not!! In one way it is great that they are comparing themselves with beckham and his amazing fitness levels, on other level though, its not great when you put yourself down when doing it!!

Most 18 year olds would never achieve beckhams fitness levels, and im talking about a lot of gym goers too! To get to beckhams level, a lot of things need to happen along with extreme dedication, which most people are not prepared to give in the pursuit of athletic perfection. In fact, a lot of professional footballer’s aren’t!!!

So when you’re comparing yourself, if you are exercising 3-6 times per week, you are in the upper half of the population, because most of the population doesn’t do this.

If you are eating 5-6 smaller nutritious meals per day, you are in the best half of the population, because most of the population doesn’t really care what they eat, according to recent statistics.

If you drink water throughout the day to keep you hydrated and performing well, then you are definitely in the best half as most people drink tea, coffee or sugary drinks.

So the bottom line is, as long as you are doing the simple things very well, you are much healthier than most people and likely to be that way for the rest of your life, as long as you keep practicing these habits!!

Have a great weekend and stay active!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Feb 11th

Friday is usually seen by many of you as the last workout of the week, and often the best for some of you!

Just before the weekend is a time to measure up your gains, and if you’ve stayed off alcohol all week, a good session should wait.

Let’s get over this “eating well is boring”!!! That’s absolute rubbish and you know it!

Eating healthily is really not about eating the same old stuff all the time, its really not.

If you’re struggling to make healthy eating “exciting” or other such adjectives, then theres plenty of ideas in cookbooks around the world on how to cook healthy AND interesting!! In fact, you don’t really have to buy any books if you don’t want to, although they will be handy to get out whenever you want. There are literally thousands if not millions of recipes on the internet, and most of them are free!! So there is really no excuse to eat badly, or to eat processed food out of a freezer out of your local supermarket, or to eat takeaways every night, or to eat on your way home in the local petrol station which often doubles now as a min-supermarket too!!

I’m all for having occasional treats, it keeps you sane after all, but the frequency and the quantity are key elements in the equation and you have to keep getting it right. One bar of chocolate doesn’t have to turn into two or three, your version of chocolate could well turn to green and blacks, which is famous dark chocolate made from the finest Trinitario cocoa beans for an intense taste, or so the packet says anyway!!!

 This is a more guilt free way of eating chocolate, not to everyone’s taste of course but less fat and sugar, far less sugar than most chocolate in fact, which is great news in not expanding your stomach and hips of course!!!! The most guilt-free options are often valid substitutes for the more well-known brands, which are of no nutritional value at all, and definitely no help to your ttraining, the worst of both worlds then!!!

Have a great end to the week and a great weekend of training, saturday and sunday is when most people have got more time so one less excuse to worry about!!!

Twitt
Posted on

10th february 2011

Good to see some comments about asthma here today!! As i mentioned before, i used to be a heavier user of pumps in my childhood and exercise did the trick for me, it gave me confidence, it give me some clear breathing, i stopped wheezing, i started getting better at sports, i started getting more confidence, i felt better full stop and that was the bottom line!!! And i developed more confidence!!!

You noticed i used that word CONFIDENCE, CONFIDENCE, CONFIDENCE THREE TIMES!!!! and it was deliberately for sure.

Most of you only need that-confidence, there i said it once again didn’t i?

The world is full of people who don’t have the confidence to carry out a fitness programme and succeed in it for this every season.

You are not too fat, too negative, too weak, not talented enough, too emotionally weak-that really is NOT you and you can turn it around right now. Please believe it, its all you have to do, no but’s, you have to believe in yourself!!!

As i keep telling you, harry redknapp who is the manager of tottenham hotspur football club or Spurs as many know them, said the true secret of management is CONFIDENCE, theres that word again!!! All he does, he says is install belief and confidence in his players. He says that a football player can have all the ability in the world, but if they don’t have belief, they will founder and not achieve anything!!!

When you go on a journey to your favourite shop, you have total belief that you will get there in one piece, you may have traffic jams on the way, you may get diverted, but in the end you get there.

With your fitness programme, you really need to believe you can get there, in the end, by a diversion or even in a straight line!!! The “in a straight line” doesn’t happen often i can tell you. There are always challenges along the way, but if you are consistent and you always take action no matter what, it WILL happen for you and you HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT.

If you believe or don’t believe you can really get amazing health and fitness, then you’re right. What you believe in and have confidence in is what will decide your outcome.

One of the goals must be no more asthma pumps long term, start today by taking action and having confidenc!!!!

Twitt