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Monday, June 20th

If you’re looking for your big start to the week, then you need a fundamentally good start to the week and it all begins with some solid eating plans!
 
 
Nothing wrong with up to 3 cups of tea or coffee a day, but you do need plenty of water on top of that, 8-10 glasses a day or around 1.5 litres if you are consuming by the bottle.
 
 
Breakfast is always going to work best when its a natural choice, weetabix are always fine, and porridge can be a great selection giving you a nice long steady supply of energy to start the day off. Dried fruit can be a great sweetener.
 
 
If you are having some fruit juice in the morning or at any other time, its always an excellent idea to dillute it as you wont be consuming as much sugar as a whole glass of juice, therefore saving on needless calories too.
 
 
Fruit is usually a matter of personal taste, some people like certain fruits and tend to stick on the same ones. Its always good to mix them up a bit so you get different nutrients, but the bottom line is that fruit of any kind should come in on a daily basis.
 
 
Vegetables are a must have in anyone’s day, a lot of people ignore these at their peril, because they provide a lot of what your body needs when it comes to supporting good health.  Again try to keep it varied and your body will feel all the better for it.
 
 
Your protein selections should be the lean choices, such as white meats and fish, and if you keep to this, you will feel full and your calories consumed will be relatively low, red meat is fine but only once a week.
 
 
One of the biggest mistakes people make with carbs is portion sizes, and if they are bigger than the size of your fist, then everything you eat will be putting on body fat rather than giving you energy.
 
 
Portion size for some people is one of the most difficult thing to change, but once you do get used to the smaller amounts, then your appetite gets smaller, and your ability to eat big meals goes down, which means a smaller and flatter stomach of course.
 
Put in a great workout today and add of all this great food, and you’re off to a flier early on in the week!!!
Twitt
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Thursday 16th June 2011

Progress and improvements don’t need to stop if you are injured as we have proved this week. Jean has clearly been able to improve herself this week with some attention to eating and not succumbing to the treats that most people have when they are not training.

The incentive to train hard and eat well is there when you are doing both hand in hand. As soon as you stop training, we somehow automatically become drawn to higher sugar content foods as well as foods high in saturated fats. This is an obvious recipe for disaster of course.

Then once we get back to training again, discipline usually kicks in and our food intake all of a sudden becomes sensible again. It seems madness to do this each time because its another version of yo-yo dieting, in other words your weight going up and down all the time, and every time you go through this process, your body becomes more resistant each time, so your body will find it harder and harder to get into shape, exactly what you DO NOT want!!!

This is why its always ideal to keep your weight, body fat and waist measurement within a tight range. It maybe within 7 pounds for your weight, within 2-3 inches for your waist and within 4% for your body fat.  Keeping within these ranges will mean you are successful short and long term.

This ensures higher standards are kept up even if it may be bit of pain to keep on measuring yourself.

This is why you should always look to your training on weekly basis, and not accept having terrible weeks here and there, unless you are ill of course, when its always a bad idea to try and train through it, unless it’s a minor cold.

Constant re-evaluation may seem over fussy but in reality it’s the best self-assessment tool you have, and will make sure you are ALWAYS in shape, never go on slippery slopes and you maintain the high standards you have set yourself!!!

Twitt
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Wednesday June 15th 2011

The best way to get in shape for now, and for life is to stop everyone scamming you out of your hard earned money and do the things you KNOW that will work.

I really think that some of latest diet books really think we are stupid, that we have too much money and we want to give it to them, or they may actually believe that some of their stuff actually works in a short term faddy type of way despite the longer term consequences?

Someone asked me about the dukan diet again this morning, you know the one which advocates mostly protein in your diet. The great news is that this diet DOES work to lose weight, just like the atkins diet works and its a simple principle they use. One gram of protein has around 4 calories just like one gram of carbs has. One gram of fat on the other hand has 9 calories.

So you can see if you eat mostly protein and not in huge quantities, you will be ingesting less calories every day and therefore be successful at losing weight. Also, protein in no bad thing and will make you feel full for around 4 hours at a time, which is a good thing.

The negatives only start some way into the diet.

 What happens when your energy levels eventually go down? Your training suffers due to your lack of energy and therefore endurance? What happens when you have problems going to the toilet (it had to be said) due to you eliminating certain food groups? Are you really never going to eat carbs ever again? And what happens if you do? Are you going to have some almighty splurge on bread and potatoes or chocolate and chips? Going mad on carbs because you haven’t eaten them for so long? Nobody i know has successfully eliminated carbs long term without any side effects!

So if you want to be healthier in losing weight, trying eating healthy proteins such as fish, chicken etc with plenty of vegetables, for lunch and evening meal, eat fruit in moderation as well as a small handful of nuts, drink more water for added fat loss and keep your carbs under control, its all about portion sizes the size of your fist, that includes rice, pasta, and potatoes, and wholemeal and wholegrain versions too.

Everything in moderation and a wide variety of foods, this is the best and most SUSTAINABLE way to lose body fat AND firm up!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday 14th June

Going through the motions when doing anything is bad news for results, enthusiasm, excitement, fun, meaning, being truthul or just about anything worthwhile.

Once you start showing up for your workouts and you just want to “go through the motions” and are not fired up anymore, then its time to have another look at your programme and why you’re doing it in the first place.

There’s nothing like that first time i meet someone to begin their training programme for the first time, and their enthusiasm and drive to want to do well. This is exciting for everyone because once someone is determined and committed to get results, then results are more of less guaranteed unless they are on a programme thats unsuitable.

You can have the best programme in the world, but if someone is not committed to getting results, then its going to be a long slow road every single time. This is why i like to come straight to the point these days, and cut straight to the chase in my first few meetings with someone.

Being interested in results and not just making friends with someone is the way to go, and i have to be able to feel i can upset someone if they insist on not doing the right thing.

 I have to be able to tell someone that this or that is the wrong way, and we have to get on the right as soon as we can or the big result they hoped for in the first place is likely to never happen. Most people appreciate honesty and you have more of chance of becoming friends with someone if you’re truthful with them, instead of leading them up blind alleys!!

This is a great week to revive that enthusiasm and drive you had deep down when we first started, if you can get it back, its going to guarantee a few weeks automatically of substantial progress. Its time for fresh momentum as well as consistent committed actions, lets do it!!!!!!!

Twitt
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Monday 13th June

Hello There!!
 
Can’t believe three weeks have passed already..
 
I got on the dreaded scales this morning and I have lost 4lbs. Happy Days !!!!!
 
Thing is I actually know how I’ve done it. I haven’t been able to train very hard as I have had a rotten  sinus head cold (and I mean rotten!!).
I became more aware of my portion sizing and cut out bread and potatoes for a couple of days, eating rice and crispbreads instead.
 
I have honestly not been hungry. I have snacked on fruit, nuts and raisins in between meals. I even watched my friends eat desserts when I went out one evening and just had a coffee instead.
 
Last week I saw a friend who has lost 3.5 stone on LighterLife shakes. She looks like a different person.
I admire her for her ability to stick to the regime. However, I could not and would not do it.
 
I don’t have to ask Keri what he thinks of these diets, he has commented enough on here about them.
I do know that I want to look that good and feel that positive. 
 
Going to do the same again this week, and will train more as I feel a bit better now.
I am on holiday next week, hotel breakfasts and evening meals out. Oh Oh !!!!
 
I’ll get a good week in and be as careful as I can next week. It’s the things you eat without thinking that can cause the rot to set in,
butter on toast, scrambled egg which usually contains cream, alcohol (yum yum) and desserts. Oh yes, and milky coffee, so easy to enjoy!!
 
Will get back in touch when I return and will report honestly how I have progressed.
All the best,
Deb xx
 
 
 
 Excellent effort to say the least debs!
It says a lot that you are not willing to put up with any of the faddy diets anymore, we all know they are not sustainable and the main objective seemingly is to get you hooked on their “products” and take some serious money out of your bank account!!
The big thing that strikes me is that you know your own body and mind even better than before, and your experience now of all the ups and downs tells you now what is rubbish and pure lies, and what is tried and tested and likely to work very well.
Keep posting debs and showing everyone that it is indeed possible to get into great shape, as long as you give some commitment and have a great attitude, despite what life throws at us from time to time!!
Twitt