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Friday, 3rd December

We are all learning or we get passed by and no longer become relevant it is said.

That is why its so important to keep on learning and re-tuning our bodies and minds.

For example, how many of us on here have found we have either forgotten how to eat properly or never knew in the first place how to eat properly. The need to school ourselves in the fundamentals of proper nutrition have never been more important.

It’s funny how people are willing always to go on courses to improve their work situation, or enhance the way they do their job. Yet when it comes to taking some advice on how to eat properly, there is often nodding of heads but there seems to be a complete lack of action. People will often worry too late about their health, instead of taking preventative action in their early years. I’m going to change that actually, its never really too late so i stand corrected there and i have encountered many, many so called lost causes with deep problems in health terms, but they can and have been fixed in the past!!

If someone tells you that all day every day they eat porridge and chicken salads, and then they end up 2 stone overweight, they may be a little economical with the truth! We all bend the truth slightly from time to time to suit ourselves but owning up to going wrong is the best thing you will ever do. Its at that exact point that you move forward in the right direction and that means you’re ten times closer to your original goal. The old saying that an inch in the right direction is better than a mile in wrong direction has never been more right! Let’s focus on hitting the right trail and forgetting about past mistakes, its time to be flexible and forget about being stubborn because of your ego!

So instead of bragging up all those one day courses on how to become a better worker, let’s start re-schooling yourself on food and training properly. Don’t over-complicate things and lets try and get the fundamentals right from yesterday’s post. I have really tried to simplify it all and im not expecting you to be perfect, but i am certainly expecting you to give it a good go, thats for sure!!!

There are many things i, and many others have realised are perhaps the wrong way to do things over the years. The best response to that is to accumulate all that information and make it so valuable so that we never make the same mistake again. I am proud to say i am a life-long learner because i know i won’t develop if i don’t, and i simly get left behind.

Commit to learning and realise there is a right and wrond way to doing things, and its never too late to change. From eating right to doing exercises the right way, its never too late to make the kind of progress you always imagined!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 2nd December 2010

Eating seems to be continually over-complicated by many of you or not even implemented at all at times.

The basic recommended plan goes like this

Breakfast

Weetabix/shredded wheat or porridge

 or scrambled eggs on toast on dry wholemeal bread

 (egg whites are better but can take some getting used to)

Mid-morning

 would be one or two pieces of any fruit

Lunch

Would be chicken/turkey/any fish with wholemeal bread/pitta bread even better and vegetables included if possible, this would  be an ideal choice if working

or if you are not working and have time to make a meal, the same principles apply and you still need your protein source which is the chicken/turkey/fish or even cottage cheese (with pineapple or onion and chives often liven the taste up), again with vegetables you like if possible. You can also put some healthy carbs with this such as wholegrain/wholewheat pasta and brown rice which are excellent choices.

The reason why some people think carbs put weight on is simply because the average person eats too much at any one sitting. Think pasta and we think of a big plate full, in fact the portion size should really be the size of your fist, quite a culture shock for some but will stop you putting any unwanted body fat and give you  the energy you need to continue your day.

The simple rules are size of your fist when it comes to portion sizes for carbs AND protein, and vegetables can be the rest of the    plate and the more varied they are the better.

Have to slip it in here about water intake by this time of the day? Have you relied on coffee’s and tea’s, or have you done the right thing and drunk a steady supply of water since you got up from bed.

Most people don’t realise that water intake burns fat too and makes your body work far more efficiently, and importantly makes you feel fuller than if you just relied on caffeinated drinks such as the tea and coffee.

We move on to now snacks in the afternoon and we think of fruit again and a handful of nuts this time for essential fats, which are vital for just about everything in the body. Nuts may be calorific but it’s important to consume them and really try to keep them in very small handful’s. Brazil’s, cashew’s, almond’s, hazlenut’s are all great examples of essential fatty acids your body needs.

Evening meal’s should follow the same simple formula as lunch. We are talking once again the importance of protein to fill you up, the good carbs to give you energy but not put fat on, and the vegetables to make everything in your body work well and be healthy from the inside out.

So we’ll go over it again, we’re talking chicken/turkey/fish for protein, wholegrain pasta or brown rice for carbs, also new potatoes are very good, sweet potatoes are amazing because of their slow sugar release in the body too. Your vegetables coming into your body at this time of day will give a massive boost to your immune system and really repair the damage that has come and gone from the trials of your busy day.

Hopefully, you wouldnt have forgotten about drinking water throughout the day, it really will make the massive difference you may be missing in your life. It just makes things go a lot smoother with your day both internally and the way you look and feel full stop. Don’t wait until your thirsty either, this means you’re dehydrated already so you need small amounts from dawn till dusk, and beyond this time of year due to the dark nights of course!!

Another familiar problem as you know is eating late at night or after dinner, you really dont need it at this time of day and you will be consuming extra calories at the wrond time of day, ironically when you’re burning the LEAST amount of calories!

How’s that for a day or eating and drinking? If you stick to that, then you will be in serious shape and feeling as energetic as you’re ever going to feel. The long term effects of eating like this cannot be overstated so let’s try and get in to it gradually and watch the amazing results flood in every single week!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 30th November 2010

Putting off your health and weight problems is the biggest mistake you can ever make. Throwing in the towel right now for christmas is one of my pet hates, and fortunately i help a lot of people who are really commited to working out right up until christmas, through christmas and straight after christmas. This is a great strategy because you really want to be flying into 2011 in the best possible shape.

So assuming you’re commited to being the best you can be, and maybe you’re having a few problems with getting into the kind of shape you want to be, maybe 10-15 pounds short of your best weight?

The first thing to do is be honest with yourself and tell yourself the truth. What would you give to lose that extra weight and everyone tell you how great you look? Could you put up with eating food a lot plainer without the additives?

Assuming you have the odd treat anyway, these are the things i would get rid of without hesitation! 

These are the things i have got rid of when i’ve raided fridges and cupboards in a lot of houses. Get a black bag and get rid of the following right now, no messing around so lets make it happen please!

Ketchup-when i eat it, it makes me wheeze and brings my asthma back and i hear this a lot from other people, this has no place in your cupboard if you want to be in great shape full stop and no but’s!!!

Salt-the best way to get your blood pressure up! Which is really bad of course and very bad for making your body hold water, another pet hate of many of you, looking and feeling bloated is not the most attractive look in the world!!!

Mayonnaise-full fat or half fat or very low fat, this stuff is rubbish and will do absolutely nothing to help you get into shape, in fact it will make things extremely hard!!! Whatever the marketer’s tell you, its very harmful for the body!

Salad cream-same as mayo, a nightmare for getting into shape, if you want to be at your best, then why are you buying this rubbish!!!!

Flora margarine or any margarine-DESPITE what they say again, its not good for you, in fact butter is much better. Another example i was told of today, if you put butter in the garden all day, the animals will eat it, you put margarine out all day and the animals won’t go near it!! True story so be careful on what you put into your body!! Flora won’t get you healthy, honestly!!

White bread-full of bleaching agents and shocking ingredients, this stuff should be banned from your house full stop, its making your get in shape plans go up in smoke, get it out and get it out now please!

These are examples of things that will destroy all your great training efforts, get them out of your life and start seeing amazing results with your health, your body and the way you’re going to feel!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 26th november

Whether the snow has reached you or not, your workouts should absolutely not be affected!!

Unlike a tennis coach who relies on outside work only (unless he/she is involved with inside courts), i never lose work to the weather. I realise that inside workouts are just as important as outside work. Accept the fact that in this country it rains around 9 months a year and you will be adequately prepared!! Your workouts are only limited by your imagination so let’s take the excuses right out of the equation right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, you should be adequately prepared to switch workouts when you have to. For example, if you were supposed to cycling today and the cyle path is snowed over, then it doesn’t take a genius to work out that you could skip the cycling and workout tremendously hard inside?!!! There’s a million things to do inside so lets pick up the pace, pick your attitude up off the floor and aggressively attack your strength work just because of the amazing results its capable of bringing you!!

See this situation as a positive too! Have you noticed if you exclusively run or cycle and thats all you do, when you do an inside workout or do any other activity out of the ordinary, sometimes you are stiff for days!!

This will be telling your body that you need to be more diverse in your approach if you are serious about being a well-rounded athlete. Your muscles need to be worked from different angles if you want to feel and look your best. Variety is the spice of life so lets make it your priority and start thinking about the many ways you can be fit and healthy!!

Four weeks tomorrow is christmas day and hopefully you have and are making the big push to a tremendous christmas body. Quitting now before christmas is the easy way out and nobody ever achieved ANYTHING like that. Let’s think and grow your mindset into something very strong thats going to support your physical efforts very well!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday 24th November 2010

If you remember your best ever week of training, you will remember you will have probably been very tired at the end of the week from the huge effort you would have put in. You will have also noticed that your body will have felt a whole lot tighter at the end of the week. This will have brought you a huge amount of satisfaction because you would have signifcantly improved yourself.

I don’t know about you but i find the week AFTER very tough sometimes. Your best ever week is unlikely to be followed by another mind-blowing week of training straight away, so this is why a proper programme is important to follow. Getting into shape and staying in shape is very much a matter of following routine and progressively OVER A PERIOD OF TIME. You won’t improve every week in a big way, but even tiny improvements will matter big time in the end as long as your nutritional needs are being met.

So if you look at a 10 week period, your first week may have been unbelievably good, the next may have been tough to get through, the next after that i guarantee will have been easier, and if you manage to keep these good weeks up for 10 weeks, you WILL SIGNIFICANTLY trasnform your body. I repeat, you will change your body in a way you thought not possible!!!

Let’s talk this through again, you need to be HUGELY CONSISTENT if you want this amazing progress and it is totally possible!! You don’t have to have these super person genetics, you don’t have to have any money, you don’t have to “know the right people”, there are no catches in this and im totally confident that anyone can pull this one off.

So when cyril posts regularly how well he is doing, or even if he is having a down week, he is still interested in improving himself and usually VERY consistent. This is such a more powerful secret to success than any fat loss pill, faddy diet, faddy piece of exercise equipment etc. Showing up as i keep saying is such a strong way to make sure you are improving all the time, and in my mind the most powerful get in shape tool you could ever use.

Being consistent means being successful full stop!!!

Twitt