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14 weeks to go

Christmas is a pivotal point in the year, the end of the year for most and a time you really want to be in great shape, with social functions and its a time to look back at the year with either pride or a feeling you could have done better!

The 14 weeks to go headline can be a little scary and it doesnt really sound like a long time does it? It’s actually longer than you think and it can provide a great period of time to get into the shape you’ve always wanted. Autumn is almost here and my favourite season. This is a great time for instance down pembrey country park, when you can witness the falling leaves and changing colours of some of the trees.

I prefer it down there when its a little quieter too. Nobody likes an audience when they are training and this allows me the opportunity to do some great workouts with clients who don’t like the pressure of training in front of people.

This time of year also gives you the chance to get your tunnel vision glasses on! You can really knuckle down to some serious workouts and getting 3-5 workouts per week now ought to be totally achievable for you all.

Its in the news especially now about the terrible spending cuts to come. With most people looking to save some money, its always recommended to do some free workouts. It doesnt cost anything to run or cycle on our beautiful coastal paths and parks.

It doesn’t cost anything to do some sprints up hills that really test you to the max. A great workout awaits on you on these hills and the great thing about it is that its over very quickly, and given you some serious results. 10 sprints forwards, 10 sprints backwards for 30 yards each on the toughest part of the hill WILL get you in serious shape, and for free in these tough economic times.

You dont need treadmills or any machines to get you into very good shape. People are voting with their wallets in america for instance and going to gyms now where expertise is offered, and using body weight exercises rather than mindless hours on a treadmill. The body weight exercises always give more results for your fitness and body as a whole.

The inside workouts recommended contain all the exercises necessary to get you into good shape. All it takes is a decision right now from you to be the best you can be and to do your workouts and eat right.

14 weeks to go and more than enough time for you to get where you want to be!!

Twitt
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Fast food eating

Its always a battle to eat well in fast food establishments but here’s a few ways to make the most of it and still stay lean.

Bottom line is that if you spend most of your time eating in such places, the chances of you being in shape are usually nil.

However, the first thing you can learn is portion control. If you control the amount you eat of anything, you will be consuming less calories full stop. This can take some of the guess work when eating in restaurants.

When you have your food, the next thing you look at would be your drink. If you order a milkshake or full sugar drinks, you can consume 300-500 calories straight away, on top of your food depending on what you select. Water would be the best selection of course and although i don’t like diet drinks, they would be a better choice than the most popular drinks available, loaded with destructive calories.

When it comes to burgers, try and select one burger in a bun to cut down on the fat per serving, with a more wholemeal bun if possible rather than a white bun loaded with bleaching agents and sugar.  They do offer these selections in certain restaurants. Also, make sure you ask for the burger without the ketchup, the mayo or whatever other rubbish they decide to put into it.

When it comes to chicken burgers, always go for the grilled chicken burgers rather than the fried, crispy version. There is a substantial difference in calories. Also, the salad cream that comes with the chicken burgers can really take your saturated fat intake tenfold, so try and avoid that if you can or at least use sparingly!

If you’re having taco’s, try and avoid the big cheese element that is usually added. The added salsa is not much of problem usually as there are some good ingredients in there, unless it is a totally sugary/fatty version.

Salads you would think would be fine but you can have some high-calorie versions often worse than a burger and fries! If you must have the dressings, keep the servings to an absolute minimum. Other things to avoid can be bacon bits, croutons and noodles which are usually cooked the wrong way and loaded with calories.

Next time you’re out in such places, you can be healthy as long as you’re sensible.

Twitt
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Your option to decide

So here we are at the start of yet another week, and believe it or not, im still excited about what i do!

I look forward to going to work, in fact i don’t call it  “work” anymore and have a problem calling it that.

I enjoy what i do and how many people can say that? I used to have jobs where i totally DID NOT like what i did, i found it unfulfilling, unrewarding, not mentally stimulating, all the negative adjectives you want to use, go for it and they could be possibly the right descriptions!

Then i changed it all round and to cut a long story short, i am here right now trying to inspire you to do something really important, valuable, hugely rewarding, fulfilling, enjoyable, fantastic for your health. There can be no denying that this statement is true so hopefully more than a few of you are going to take the offer up and change your lives very much for the better.

If you say you’re too old, my oldest client is 84 and started training at 75 years of age, so no excuses there please.

If you think you have gone “too far” the other way and your belly is too much to reduce, then i have had many, many clients lose over 10 inches off their waists, so that excuse will not wash with me either!

If you say “im going to try and do a bit on my own first” or “i can do it myself”, then fantastic, please do!!! However, if you’ve been making these statements year in year out since you left school, college, work, whatever, then obviously YOU ARE NOT GETTING IT DONE all by yourself, and you’re not moving around quite enough are you?!!

What you should be certain about today though is that you have the same OPTION TO DECIDE your fate this week just like everyone else reading this today, the 6th of september 2010. Either you make the same old excuses that you know are absolute rubbish or you decide to devote the rest of the year to discovering that you can actually get into shape again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whether its the first time since school, the first time since you gave birth, the first time since you lost your job, the first time since you got divorced, the first time since you got married, the first time since you bought a house, the first time since you suffered rejection in your life and you havent been able to recover etc etc! Whatever the situation, you have this option right now to decide to change your life today and forever.

All of us have this choice and people do it every day, or they put up with mediocrity.

Are you are “do’er” or just a “talker”?!

Commit “to do” and you will be shocked how much everything in your life improves.

Twitt
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Got your week covered?

Bit of a sleepless night myself but thats what comes from having kids 2 and under i suppose!!

The positive news is that i didn’t have a drink last night and you know by now that the lack of alcohol makes me feel so much more alert on sunday mornings. We talk about it all the time and a few of you have mentioned how alcohol can ruin the following day for you, and that sunday seems a write off for many of you.

Having a fresh feeling sunday means the world to me.

I get to plan my week better and the chances of me starting monday morning with a bang are very high, and i’m quite excited about that too so hope you’re going to join me in having a big week!

What i mean regarding having your week covered is hopefully, you have most of your workouts planned, and a substitute if you can’t get it done.

Cyril has already posed how positive he feels, after having an awful few weeks of real pain, stopping him doing most things. His spirit has comes through at 100 miles an hour and he is looking to get out there this week, whatever the weather!

Whether you’re about to embark on an exercise programme today or you’re an advanced athlete, you need to be ready to execute a plan this week.

For me its always about doing at least two all over weight training programmes, and the normal runs and cycles i get to do with clients. The efforts range on a personal level from comfortable to totally out of my comfort zone. The range of individuals and businesses i train is vast, so i have to have enough experience to accommodate every body.

The support system i have around my week is always proper eating, sound nutritional choices and a wide variety of nutrients. If its man made, i don’t usually want it!

Then there’s my sleep needs, if i don’t get enough sleep, my body doesn’t repair itself and i don’t replenish the energy needed for my next day, which usually starts at 4am.

I don’t feel sorry for myself getting up at that time of day because people are paying me a reasonable amount of money to be there, so the least i can do is show up alert and full of energy ready to make a difference for them!

Enjoy the rest off your sunday and prepare for another big week!!!

Twitt
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Different approaches

Using different approaches in getting into shape is to be applauded, because there is always more than one way to get things done.

I do lose a bit of patience though when we hear all about the latest celebrity diets, the latest “cleansing” diets, the latest diet maple syrup diet for example for 14 days and you lose lots of weight promises, etc etc.

We all hear them all the time but the reality is that these diets will only take you further from your overall goal. Losing 14 pounds in two weeks makes your body all the more INEFFICIENT because you tend to lose valuable lean muscle tissue. This makes the longer term process of losing body fat very difficult as your metabolism will be undoubtedly slowed down.

The more lean muscle tissue you have on your body, the more calories your body burns 24 hours a day. Any time you lose some of the muscle tissue, you burn less calories and quite often, much of the shape you set out to get in the first place.

Most of us lose weight first in the areas we don’t really want to. I know many people who lose it first in the shoulders, so you get to look thin and shapeless straight away. The problem is that society puts so much emphasis on the weighing scale, and not enough on actual body fat loss and how you look in clothes, plus how your actual energy levels really are.

If you’ve been reading this since last October and you still try out faddy diets on a regular basis, either im not communicating with you at all or it could be a waste of time you reading this. If you like doing short term fixes, then great, go and do them.

The chances are though that you will be doing quite a lot of short term fixes over the rest of your life. If you want to relieve the stress of all of this, then you need to face facts and start eating food that was actually meant for your body. All those chemicals were not meant for consumption you see in lots of foods.

The way you live your life 24 hours a day in terms of food and drink will always reward you or come back to haunt you.

What you put into your fitness programme is always what you get out. If you eat in public all healthy and then behind closed doors, you eat rubbish, then its time to come clean and EAT CLEAN for a change.

The facts are all on here how to do it, the tick is clocking so the quicker you get on with it, the quicker you’re looking and feeling like the way you want to be!

Twitt