Posted on

Tuesday, 5th May

Visualisation is the first key to a successful future.

The best way to predict the future is to see it and then create it by doing it.

The hurdles and challenges we face are sometimes very tough, but being able to see what is ahead unleashes your ability to persevere and come out on top.

All of the success stories we have had have involved a lot of courage, a lot of bouncing back when all seemed lost, and usually meant carrying on even when it was easier to quit.

The best success stories involved the word RESILIENCE. The word resilience comes from a latin word “resilire”. It means “back” and “leap”. When we are resilient, we LEAP BACK up after getting knocked down.

If we are unable to rebound from setbacks and disappointments, we will never be able to reach our true potential.

We can do one of two things when adversity crosses our path.

We can view our life as if we are in pit, as if the rug has been pulled underneath us, and we’re in this deep hole we can’t get out of.

Or we can maintain our clear vision of what our life is about, how we want our bodies and minds to be again, and harness that adversity to take us to higher ground again.

If we have a strong and clear enough picture of what we want to become, if we feel it in our hearts and with reason in our minds, we can and will overcome anything.

If we view life as constantly looking forward, it means our greatest work and contribution is always ahead of us.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 30th June

We try to make you accountable for your efforts by our constant measuring process. This shows if you are improving, falling back and what rate of progress to expect in the future if you keep eating and training like you currently are.

All of this will be a proven way of success.

An excellent way of strengthening your longer term success is having an “accountability partner”. In life, you have friends, family and work colleagues who will often share in your experiences in getting fit and healthy. This is your “circle of support”.

If this circle of support is filled with negative people, who don’t offer support when things get tough and encourage you to go back to your old ways, then your chances of failure go dramatically up. The easiest thing will be to quit because these people usually never exercises themselves, never eat well and will want you to stay at their level.

This is why it’s important to have one very positive person at least who will go through it all with you, one person who has your real interests at heart, and will support and encourage you even when you want to throw in the towel.

They will offer realism when you are only pretending to try and you could do better, they will offer support to help make sure you actually make it to your training sessions, and they will celebrate in your success when it happens.

I find that if the person I train is living in a household where one partner eats and drinks rubbish, then that person will always struggle. The entire household needs to support each other, because if the supermarket shop is full of sugary and fatty foods, don’t pretend that those foods will not be eaten at some stage, because they will!

A healthy lifestyle cannot be a short term commitment, and if everyone buys into it then the household will feel so much better that it will never want to go back to the old unhealthy lifestyle anyway. Working as a team is always better than fighting against others who aren’t supportive of your goals to be fit and healthy.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 20th August

The biggest surprise that individuals have when they come home from holidays is their first measurement immediately after returning home.

Depending on what type of holiday they have had, the measurements across the range can vary wildly!

Someone who has drunk alcohol every night on their trip and eaten heavily will be the worst offenders and their first measurement usually shocks them!

Blood pressure is usually way up!

Their resting heart rate is usually way up!

They usually put 2-3 inches on their waist and hips.

They usually add 2-4% body fat which is a significant number!

Their energy levels have vanished and show no signs of returning.

Their motivation is at an all-time low.

Their start back to exercising again is usually delayed by a series of minor excuses.

So you can a two week holiday of this kind of indulgence can have a serious effect on one’s ability to get back to where you were before the holiday!

It’s up to you what kind of holiday you want but beware the consequences of constantly overdoing it EVERY night on holiday. The best advice is to get straight away into it, take your time the first week back especially, and within 2-3 weeks, you will soon be feeling yourself once again!!

This shows the benefits of measurements too! If you weren’t constantly checked, you wouldn’t know the damage caused internally, as well as how you look in the mirror of course compared to when you went away!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 25th June

Much controversy has reigned over the last few years what diet you should be on, what time of the year you should adopt a different way of eating, whether protein and carbs are bad for you, is all fat bad for you, should you take supplements, should you take fat burners, are hard spirits such as whisky, vodka etc better for you than wine because of the lesser amount of calories, should you drink energy drinks instead of water, etc etc!!!

The best thing to do is ignore all the faddy diets because they are all out to make a fast buck out of you.

Once you realize how your body works, you will realize how your body works when you put food into your body and how it converts into fuel.

Remember the atkins diet? The one where it was pretty much all protein and you somehow went into “ketosis” and all you burned was fat as an energy source? Of course you would lose weight on it simply because you were eating less calories (protein has 4 calories per gram), and you were avoiding simple sugars, plus protein does make you feel fuller for longer.

The bad part was when people realized you needed carbs for energy, and science tells us that carbs are the body’s preferred energy source, please read any medical journal or paper on that.

Most if not all people who went on the atkins diet fell off it as its unsustainable, and the weight piles back on when you begin to eat normally again that’s for sure!

Most supplements on the market are scams, don’t only take my word for it, the EU is trying to ban 70% of the supplement market, and you should realize all that false advertising promising the earth is really one of the biggest scams so please don’t fall for it.

The alcohol part of hard liquor being better for you is false, wine will go through your system far easier, whiskey etc takes longer to go through and pouts undue stress on your system. The more natural a product or food going through your body, the better full stop!!

Energy drinks are needless unless you exercise over 60 minutes at a higher intensity, most people don’t do that so save your money again and drink natural water which most of the time doesn’t cost anything!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 3rd June

With the temperatures finally rising, there is even greater opportunity to train hard and expand your options! This is what you would think anyway.

My experience with people i bump into in general life says that people usually get diverted in the warmer weather, and the summer months are not usually the best throughout the year. My own experience with the people i actually train is that because they have a good level of commitment, and i do a lot of early morning sessions, then the weather becomes less of a factor and my summer months of training individuals can be very productive indeed.

I do a lot more cycling sessions in the summer. I run more in the summer, i even do swimming sessions sometimes in the summer! I do some hiking up mountains in the summer due to the much more pleasant conditions, and i still manage to get a lot of indoor work done too. I love the variety at this time of year due to the extra light, the better surface running conditions and generally everywhere is so much more accessible!

So the message here today is to get away from thinking that its “too warm” to train, or you could be doing “other things””, its time to be more positive and realise how many more different options you now have in your training, and have the courage of your convictions and actually do them, instead of talking a good game!

Plan your training sessions in advance, work hard when you get to your training venue, follow through on what you planned to do, drink enough water and make sure you have some available at all times, and eat well afterwards.

This is a successful way to do it, then keep planning your sessions and exactly what you intend to do.

Don’t gie up on yourself, recognise what all this nice weather has to offer and embrace it for much better results!!

Twitt