Posted on

Wednesday 17th August

As we were talking about sports performance yesterday, its remarkable how similar a diet that you should be implementing yourself to get into shape and stay in shape, and the diets of footballers are often remarkably similar.

David beckham for example, when he was playing out in Italy credited the team’s nutritionist with helping his career go on for a few more years than he previously thought it would.

Get this, he was really speaking about some “revoultionary” foods that perhaps you have never heard of, what were these magical foods that set beckham on an indian summer in terms of his career?!!!

These “magical” foods were salmon and other fish in their natural state with no sauces or breadcrumbs, just plain old fish cooked in a healthy way with good old fashioned way with olive oil!!!

Then there was “magical” vegetables to go with it, and a whole array on wonderful veg in many different colours!!

Then he would eat a variety of fruit throughout the day for snacks and even had a small handful of nuts, such as almonds, brazils, cashews etc!!!

Also, he amazingly drunk water throughout the day, and insisted on going to bed early every night.

He very rarely drunk either, alcohol that is, and only a little during off season!!!

The result?

He was in the shape of his life, and he looked and felt fantastic, the porridge for breakfast had really energised him too apparently!!! The great man was feeling great going into his late 30’s!!!!

Okay sarcasm ended but what i describe is the truth regarding his diet, and he did and IS in incredible shape as we speak, anyone who reads the papers can see that!!!

So what we talk about on here every day, is very similar to beckham’s “magical” diet isn’t it? Or is it less than magical and more like just a healthy diet?!!!! Or does it sound more mystical if it comes from Italy, so they can take all the credit again and call it the meditterranean diet!!!!

Whatever marketing angle is used, you know that this diet, these foods and this way of life will work every time for you!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday 16th August

Swansea didn’t get off to the most promising starts in the premiership last night, losing 4 nil but it wasn’t all bad of course.

They played some very good football in the first 20 minutes and held their own most of the first half. The problem was when the first goal went in, the floodgates opened and Swansea were opened up regularly.

Apart from the fact that manchester city have the most expensive squad in the world, there was another major difference for me.

When a Manchester player had the ball, he usually just brushed away a Swansea city player with ease, because he was bigger and stronger, not necessarily quicker!

The same happened when Swansea had the ball, they were often pushed off the ball in a legal way by a stronger man city player, in fact it happened heck of a lot!!!

I trace this problem to what I saw of local football players over the last 15 years, they simply ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH, they are quick enough but not strong enough and need some serious strength work!!!

It makes me puzzled when I hear that Cardiff city for example only had their magnificent training facilities in place 2 years ago, despite getting £24 million in debt by spending on players, isn’t that crazy?!!!!!

My recent work with younger football players confirm what I expected, they are encouraged to do lots of running but little or no advice on strength work and certainly not much on diet!!!! I could go on record and be really blunt about the way they train at junior level in the professional clubs, but I want to come across as constructive and not negative, but things HAVE TO IMPROVE!!!!

It is criminal the lack of knowledge these clubs have and are too pig-headed to do anything about it!!!!!

Why are they spending money on all these players yet they could easily improve on what they have by making their current players fitter and stronger, and getting their diets so much more efficient and nutrient rich, I repeat again, THIS IS CRIMINAL IN TERMS OF WASTING TALENT!!!!!

The highest paid sport in the world and you have a proportion of their organisation at best ill-informed and if you had to be nasty about it, you would call them amateurs!!!!!

Welsh rugby is in far better shape now with conditioning.

I blogged before about the junior international I was training, and in his WRU diet, he was told to eat jam sandwiches as a snack!!!! Jam sandwiches I need to repeat that!!!!! What a joke they were and this was back in 1998/99!!!!! LUCKILY, they have come from there and got their act together!!!

It seems to me that football needs to get its act together and the swans need to get bigger and stronger, and could even improve their speed. How they are light years behind some sports is mystifying and must be very frustrating for their fans!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 15th August

If you have been reading this for a while, then i congratulate you for your perserverance and commitment, which shows you have qualities that should enable you to be and get into shape.

There are three types of people when it comes to getting into shape.

The people who are keen to start with, yet find some reason or excuse to quit early in their quest to get into shape.There is an endless list of excuses they pick from and none of those reasons to stop training are usually strong, and will often apply to other areas of their life.

For example, some people take up tennis and start hitting the ball better and better within the first couple of weeks, and they get enthused.

Then, all of a sudden the progress can dry up and they quit at the first sign they have to work a  bit harder and show more commitment to practice.

These people are known as the “could have, would have, should have” type who usually talk a good game too, but offer little action!

Then you have the second type who get really enthusiastic straight away, go at things like a bull at a gate, then often try and train every day, sometimes twice a day because they are so keen!!! They are  often so keen they will buy books on diet straight away, buy exercise equipment and have all the latest training gear.

Then around a month later, because they have gone at it so hard, they more often than not lose enthusiasm completely or get injured and throw the towel in!!!

This type of indidual then usually moves on to something else, immerses himself in that activity or hobby, with usually the same frustrating results.

The third type is the most successful because they work at the fundamentals every day, constantly looking at how to become better.

These people usually approach things in a more moderate manner, and know they are in it for the long term. A healthy lifestyle is exactly that, a “lifestyle”. These people look to become masters at what they are doing, getting fitter despite getting older by working smarter. Eating better and healthier despite having a busy family life but shopping smarter.

They develop more energy by paying more attention to sleep and rest and recovery.

This type of people are smart and will be honest about their improvements and how they can pick themselves up again if they fall down from time to time.

The question is what type of you? The bottom line is that if you are consistent at eveything in your healthy lifestyle, then group number three could easily be you and means you are likely to be in shape for life!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 8th August

The world may still be a bit uncertain this monday, but perhaps is people are naturally worried about the fundamentals of the global economy, and whether we are going into another recession or not?

Hopefully we are not of course, but thats what it comes down to at the end of the day-fundamentals and are they working for us.

Its become a lot easier over the years to spot when people are going wrong as well as right of course.

Its easy to spot whether the fundamentals are going well or even going in at all!!!

Someone who trains hard but pays no attention to diet will never reach more than 40-50% of their potential!!!

Someone who shows no commitment to their training and eats what they like shouldn’t expect to improve their physical wellbeing, its not really going to happen and this hope for the best attitude won’t work in a million years.

Nobody is perfect of course but those who train well and eat well are great to work with because there is always lots of enthusiasm in the workouts and life in general. There is usually lots of energy in their lives and with that comes drive and excitement in my experience.

The people who train well and eat well on a consistent basis are the ones who show the best illustration of individuals implementing the ALL IMPORTANT fundamentals!!!

This is what you need to work towards, and it should all start today-thats m0nday and its all a question of whether you are prepared to get stuck in or not?!!

Now is not a time to talk about it, you know what the fundamentals are and you know they will bring certainty to your life, all you have to do is give them a chance to work, and show some guts and grit when everything doesnt always go your way!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 5th August

Your way of thinking dictates how you look, how you perform, how you feel, just about everything you do will be affected.

For example, if you were trading on the stock market the last few days, you would probably be seriously worried by now, in fact you would have been severely tempted to sell all your stocks because your personal wealth was quickly being destroyed.

The last stock market crash happened in 2008 of course, and the feelings are familiar now, so what do you do, sell or hold? Its all to do with emotions and your longer term view, market psychology makes millionaires every day, it also destroys them!!

So with your health and fitness, isn’t it true that the shape you’re in is decided by emotions?

You eat chocolate if you’re emotionally upset by some event in your day, you have a drink if someone upsets you, you have a drink to celebrate something, you pig out sometimes because you are happy, you go out for lunch and write off the entire day because it just “felt good”!!! All emotions that will help you get into shape or destroy your ability to be in shape.

Your emotions can be influenced by bad influences in your life. Perhaps your best friend is an all weekend drinker, so thats what YOU do?

Your emotions can be greatly supported by very good influences, perhaps your friends are all into keeping fit and healthy, and you’re able to train with them and shop with them for good healthy natural food? This support system can be very valuable for you and give you sustainable results in the way you look and feel!!!

Your emotions need to be steady above everything else, and stop the roller coaster weeks when you have two good days, then write off the rest of the week, then you have a good week, then someone upsets you and you have a terrible week again, thats no way to have sustainable results.

Emotions and controlling them can be one your most valuable assets!!!

Twitt