11th April 2011

April 11th is another turning point for us in this country.

The weather has been absolutely fantastic over the last week, signifying summer is just around the corner, and all the positive benefits it brings.

We have talked about all winter, that then was the time to put all the work in because summer would be here before you knew it? Well spring is here and summer nearly here, and the time when you all will be wearing less and less clothes, so you will feel like being in better and better shape. If you have been working hard all winter, then you should be looking heck of a lot better by now and feeling on top of the world.

If your winter has  been all about lazing on the settee instead of training, and wearing big baggy jumpers to hide all the weight gain, then you may be dreading summer coming in terms of choice of clothes.

So April 11Th could well be the turning point for you whatever shape you are in, and this moment right now can literally change your life.

Do you decide that the bloated and sickly feelings of fast and processed food is no longer for  you OR do you accept the fact that you are always going to be overweight and never in shape?

OF COURSE YOU SHOULD NEVER ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU WILL BE OVERWEIGHT AND OUT OF SHAPE!!!

April 11th could easily be the day when you DECIDE to do something about from this Monday, to get back into shape, or to get into really great shape for the FIRST TIME!!! If that sounds far more exciting than settling for a mediocre existence, then continue reading every day, and keep discovering the endless possibilities and benefits that come from living a very healthy lifestyle!!! There truly is another way to live your life in terms of health and its time to leave the faddy diets behind for good this time, THEY DO NOT WORK LONG TERM as 97% of scientific studies show!!!!!

31st march 2011

The reasons why we exercise, why we don’t give in to temptations in the week, why we drink water instead of pop, why we make time for a healthy lifestyle full stop are many.

When you are very young, its all about looks usually, when you get a bit older and perhaps have more responsibilities such as children, your reasons change pretty fast in terms of order of importance.

If you are a father or mother, you want to be in shape to look after your kids, while still looking good and proving you’re not ready for the knackers yard just yet!!!!!

Then when you become older again, you want to be in seriously good shape to be around to help your kids, and perhaps even your grandchildren, this is when a lifetime of keeping yourself in good shape is really going to be worth it. Like we always say though, its never too late to change your pre-conceived ideas about exercise, nobody is ever too old to get into good enough shape to totally transform their quality of life.

Its not all about six pack’s and rippling muscles either, this is just an extreme version of a healthy lifestyle. Most models you see of all kinds in magazines have been airbrushed to different degrees and digitally enhanced to make their bodies seem like the perfect version, in reality this level of conditioning doesnt exist for long because these low level of body fat are kept only for short periods of time, due to the extreme diets and mental discipline required. To get in this shape is to be admired because it is quite a feat, but it shouldn’t be considered the normal expection from working out and eating well and this is the point i’m trying to get across!!

I am away tomorrow on a family weekend break until monday, so thats enough reasons right there for me to be in shape, as i get older, i appreciate my health more and more and never take it for granted, like perhaps i did when i was 18!! Having enough energy to do everything is no longer a distant dream anymore for most people, it is essential in these busy times we live in and training smart and eating fresh and healthy foods are number one and number two in order to achieve these very important goals!!!

March 16th 2011

The ability to get out there on such a beautiful day and exercise should never be taken for granted.

Most people will tell you that if you have spent any time at all in hospital, then being out in the fresh air and actually being able to exercise is a very powerful statement indeed.

Most people will also tell you that if you have spent any time in a cemetery, it will definitely make you realise how important your opportunity to exercise and live life in the fresh air actually is.

Most people if not all, would swap with you every time if they had the chance, and that’s a fact!!!

To brighten the conversation up a bit, isn’t it time you got much more active than you may be currently, perhaps you are but if you’re not, then you really need to start putting things into perspective and creating as short and long term plan for your health.

The short term plan could involve making a massive difference to yourself in the next 12 weeks or so, it is entirely possible to make such a short term difference to yourself if you’re willing to change your everyday habits for a better existence.

If you have a fried breakfast, snack on chocolate and crisps, fry everything and eat a lot of processed food, and then wash it all down a few times a week with some wine and/or a few beers, then its highly likely you’re going to be on a one way road to ill health and problems down the road sooner rather than later, its all a matter of time.

If you changed that to some porridge for breakfast, snacking on fruit and natural nuts, drink plenty of water throughout the day, and keep making lean proteins such as chicken, turkey, fish etc the foundation of your week , then avoid alcohol 6 days a week only drinking in moderation a maximum of once a week, then you’re going to transforming your life in a bigger and better way than you ever though possible. High energy levels, a lean harder body and very positive levels of general health will become the norm in your life.

Time to do it and what are you waiting for!

February 21st 2011

I dont know about you but i find myself at my heaviest weight on monday morning. I try to relax more the weekend and although i do slam in a run every sunday morning, i tend to allow myself a treat on saturday and eat a bit of what i fancy. Also, nothing wrong with having an odd beer or two the weekend either, and everyone needs to unwind at least once a week.

That process of the weekend undwinding brings me back to monday, and makes me determined to get the week off with a bang.

There is a tremendous amount of drive within myself and most people i train to get the week off to a flying start. My idea of a flying start involves some running, sometimes cycling, some weight training and plenty of good food and water throughout the day. Making my mark early on in the week is hugely important for my mind too, and resets my thoughts to huge positivity for the rest of the week.

Have you noticed sometimes if you drink more than once a week, your thoughts become a little more cloudy. Your training is nowhere near so good and the “i will sweat it out” mentality doesn’t really work does it? Nothing can make up for messy eating and drinking habits, you need a structure in place and implement it right now!!!

The conditions of a successful healthy week don’t often change. Please don’t waste your money by going in some health shop, spending a fortune coming out with two big bags of supplements, and expecting to look great in a couple of weeks, thats the most ineffective route you could ever take.

 Most people are looking for the easy way out, and there’s a whole range of people looking to take your money and run, because they know they can’t really back up their promises. Most of them make me want to throw up, and most of them have holes in their programme so big that you could dry a bus through them.

Its monday, its back to work time, lets put it in and kick it off in a big way!!!!

Feb 11th

Friday is usually seen by many of you as the last workout of the week, and often the best for some of you!

Just before the weekend is a time to measure up your gains, and if you’ve stayed off alcohol all week, a good session should wait.

Let’s get over this “eating well is boring”!!! That’s absolute rubbish and you know it!

Eating healthily is really not about eating the same old stuff all the time, its really not.

If you’re struggling to make healthy eating “exciting” or other such adjectives, then theres plenty of ideas in cookbooks around the world on how to cook healthy AND interesting!! In fact, you don’t really have to buy any books if you don’t want to, although they will be handy to get out whenever you want. There are literally thousands if not millions of recipes on the internet, and most of them are free!! So there is really no excuse to eat badly, or to eat processed food out of a freezer out of your local supermarket, or to eat takeaways every night, or to eat on your way home in the local petrol station which often doubles now as a min-supermarket too!!

I’m all for having occasional treats, it keeps you sane after all, but the frequency and the quantity are key elements in the equation and you have to keep getting it right. One bar of chocolate doesn’t have to turn into two or three, your version of chocolate could well turn to green and blacks, which is famous dark chocolate made from the finest Trinitario cocoa beans for an intense taste, or so the packet says anyway!!!

 This is a more guilt free way of eating chocolate, not to everyone’s taste of course but less fat and sugar, far less sugar than most chocolate in fact, which is great news in not expanding your stomach and hips of course!!!! The most guilt-free options are often valid substitutes for the more well-known brands, which are of no nutritional value at all, and definitely no help to your ttraining, the worst of both worlds then!!!

Have a great end to the week and a great weekend of training, saturday and sunday is when most people have got more time so one less excuse to worry about!!!