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Monday, 15th November

This is supposed to be a dark time of year in terms of weather and light, but exactly the time of year to put in the hard yards and make the gains ready for christmas! I personally get excited by making so many gains this time of the year because of the lack of distractions. It’s monday and start of another week, but im very excited to see how i can get the best out of myself and of course, other people. When you get into a culture of trying to motivate and improve others, it rubs off on myself too and im fired up even in my own workouts.

The summer months are full of distractions and options on how to spend your time and a big contrast to right now. It stays light until 10pm at its best and brightens up early in the morning sometimes at 4.30am. The weather is usually up and down but mostly much warmer and sunnier than right now. For many, summer is the favourite time of year and with obvious good reasons. 

Personally i love the seasons and although lots of people hate this time if year, im serious when i say that right now IS EXACTLY the right time to put all your serious workouts in and really make some amazing progress. As ive been banging on for some time, we have this period up to christmas to really transform ourselves and reach a new standard that will propel us into a brand new body into christmas!!!

We talked about 12 weeks to christmas some time ago and now believe it or not, it is only 5 weeks saturday!!! This period has allowed me to get my focus and 100% and i can honestly say that my performance levels are at their best levels for a long, long time. This is true for most of the individuals i train too, never has so much scrutiny come into my training in terms of analysis and making sure people reach their goals. It really is that exciting!

I urge you right now to make the very most out of every day, the weather is very cold today but DRY, and thats more than enough encouragement for me to get going, get excited, get fired up, get energised and start the week with some absolute blasters of workouts!!!!

One thing you need to watch out for when the temperature drops is that you will gasp for breath more in cold weather. It’s very important to you to keep your workouts up to allow you to get used to colder and colder temperatures. This allows your body to adjust gradually and still keep your standards up. Get used to it because we have around 4 months of cold weather. There’s no reason to complain or put anything off, see it as a challenge and a chance to show how great condition you’re really in!!!

Twitt
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Friday night is blow your diet night……………

Or not?

What time exactly do your good intentions go down the pan?

Is it straight after work, lunch time in the pub today, are you going to have a massive takeaway tonight?, are you going to a restaurant tonight and have pudding for the first time this week (dont you hate it when the waitress says “have you any roon for dessert in a sickening voice”?) Can’t they come up with an original line? or are you simply going to go down the pub tonight and have your fill of beer and wine? Or is it the petrol station on the way home with the bottle of wine and all the chocolate and ice cream you can handle?

Whatever it is you decide, you have to think about exactly when your good intentions disappear and how much weight you will put on the weekend. Then some may blame their workouts not working when they weigh in next, not the weekend’s avalanche of calories!!! You simply cant get away with a whole weekend of excess eating and expect to be somehow in shape on the monday morning.

I always recommend having a bit of what you fancy definitely, it keeps us sane and it stops us from totally giving up our favourite treats. The danger becomes when you start off on the friday with a cheat of your choice and then it becomes EVERY meal until sunday night! Somehow justifying it by saying you have worked hard in the week!! This is the easiest way to spoil all that hard work in the week and put on the weight you worked so hard to get rid of all week long.

This is why its always better to pick your cheat day, when you have treats that you don’t normally have.

When the subject of cheat day came up, a LOT of people took it as you could get up as early as possible and then force feed yourself ice cream, chips, chocolate ALL day long and night, and then you were totally justified in doing this. Nothing was off limits and it was compulsory to have lots of spare chocolate in the glove department when you were driving. Eating until you are sick is never acceptable AND THIS IS NOT cheat day i can assure you as it was meant to be in terms of helping your diet!!!!

Cheat day is a day of having a bit of what you fancy in MODERATION and not an eating competition like many believe!!

This also assumes you EAT VERY CLEAN in the week. If this is not the case and you have treats most days, then cheat days are really not recommended for fat loss.

Enjoy your friday and all weekend, and try to work out whether you’re training for an eating competition, or you’re really just having a well-deserved break from eating very healthy all the time!

Twitt
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Breakfast really IS for champions!

You have heard off me and about another million people, breakfast is absolutely, definitely, seriously, no doubt, the VERY most important meal of the day!!!!!!!!

Familiar excuses you may be

 “i don’t have time”

“i’m not hungry in the morning”

“i don’t like breakfast foods”

“i’m on a diet”

“if i eat breakfast, i feel hungrier all day”

These are just some of the excuses i hear and just about everyone hears and makes from time to time.

If you start missing breakfast, you are likely to concentrate less effectively in the morning, all morning in fact, you are likely not to be so good at work and if you are in school or college, you will struggle to study as well.

No breakfast also means you will be more irritable and be short-tempered, and generally struggle in terms of energy levels throughout the day, becoming very tired indeed during the afternoon.

For every excuse you may make up for not eating breakfast, there’s about 10 more good excuses TO eat breakfast.

Things off the top of my head include raising your metabolism, which means the very important rate you BURN calories which means how quickly your body fat is going to disappear!!!

Other good things will include having MUCH more energy, very important if you want to be successful in your day.

How about having a good digestive system, it IS good for you going regular to the toilet believe it or not and your body needs to function well INSIDE as well as outside!

People who eat breakfast have always been proven to have healthier levels of weight and body fat than those who don’t. There are numerous studies to back this up. Eating breakfast alone is such a great catalyst for your day!

Breakfast also stops you having from wild binges. If you start off your day with healthy energy levels, you feel full, you are likely to have a healthier attitude to food full stop. Food is there for you to be enjoyed and savoured and is not the enemy.

Make the best start to the day you can by getting your breakfast in within one hour of rising.

Twitt
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Wednesday, 10th November

Fixing any holes in your programme is the biggest thing you can do if you’ve not being getting the progress you would like.

Its similar to the old story about the farmer who had a hole in his fence and sheep kept escaping out of it all the time. He would spend all day chasing sheep down, picking them up again and returning them to the field.

Once he got all the sheep back into the field, he found he had no other time to do his other farming work. He was literally the most inefficient farmer around and worst of all, he was dog tired every day and not achieving anything!

One day he woke up and realised that all of these sheep were pouring through the very same hole in the fence following each other out. It occurred to him that if he actually fixed the hole, then he would have no sheep escaping, and could get on with his normal productive farm work and actually earn some money!

If you’re not achieving what you want out of your programme, its time to fix those holes that are causing continuous problems.

The “holes” in your programme could be any of the following, or even worse all which creates one big hole and this is when your programme collapses and you go backwards very quickly and start piling on weight quickly! You then wonder where the weight is coming from and may start feeling sorry for yourself, lets stop that right in its tracks and figure out why your programme isnt working!

Number 1- you’re not doing at least 3 workouts a week

Number 2-you’re not doing any strength/resistance work to stimulate lean muscle tissue, which automatically makes your metabolism burn faster!

Number 3-You’re not doing any outside workouts, running, cycling, fast walking, are all great workouts guaranteed to make you feel so much better!

Number 4-80% of your food isn’t good nutritious food. The bulk of your food needs to be fresh, natural and good for you, theres time for treats too, but only in moderation and only once or twice a week max!

Number 4-you’re not eating regular and leaving too long in between meals and snacks. You need to eat small amounts every 3-4 hours to keep blood sugar levels steady, stopping wild binges on food.

Number 5-You’re not consistent. If you’re not doing a combination of all of these things, at least 3 good workouts a week, at least 80% of your food of good quality, drinking enough water throughout the day (1.5-2 litres), then you wont be successful!!!

Let’s keep it simple and fix those holes and save yourself a lifetime of heartache and frustration!!!!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 9th November

We go over the ways to get into shape and how to stay there all the time on this blog. We develop plans and discuss when things go wrong as well as things go right. It doesn’t matter how many times we go over the correct way to do things, it still seems as if many of you “get lost” on your quest to get active, stay active and create long lasting good health and fitness.

When we do most things from DIY to fitness, we tend to do things “our own way” or our own version of the right way to do things.

Cyril this week has commented he needs to get back to eating properly, or finally settle into a sustainable healthy eating plan because he knows the great value of this. He says he needs to be drinking more water, something he knows that has clear benefits but is not as consistent as he should be.

He also knows that he should be doing his resistance work at least a couple of times a week, and is eager to get it back in to his schedule. Riding the bike is no problem for him, and long may that continue!!

So you can see it is so easy not to do the simple things that will get you into shape time after time. People get good at things when they practice a lot. Most of you i should imagine are pretty good at brushing your teeth, simply because you’ve done it a lot (although the dentist will sometimes put you right on the correct way). Most of you will know how to wash your clothes and dry them, because again you’ve done it an awful lot and most of you like smelling good and personal hygiene is important to you and your family.

 Most of you will know how to get up on time for work, because it has become routine and you won’t get paid if you don’t  show up for work!! Getting up on time also gives you a purpose for your day and your life in general, human beings respond well to routines and having targets and challenges in their lives.

The secret really is to make your exercise plan firmly a part of your week without fail. Shopping for good food should be the norm and not something you do in january only to get rid of the excess christmas pounds. With a concerted effort, living a healthy lifestyle will become the norm and the way you live your life.

Those of you who don’t do anything right now, i urge you to try it and i guarantee you will feel SO much better for it almost immediately. Getting on a programme that will increase your health can be started anytime, anywhere without any cost. It’s never too late to start and how about today?!!! Don’t wait for the new year as you can and will make substantial progress right up until christmas as long as you put your mind to it and commit to a healthier life.

The time is now, lets make it happen!!!

Twitt