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March 11th Supermarket shop

Hope you are having a stronger end to the week and if you are in the majority, you will be doing your weekly shop in the supermarket either today, yesterday or tomorrow.

Are you improving in this area or not? Do u visit only the healthy aisles of the supermarket or are you doing down every aisle such as the chocolate and crisps part, the ready meals part, the alcohol part, and savoury part etc?

The important parts of the supermarket remain the fruit and vegetables to start, depending on how it is laid out.

Here you can get your apples, oranges, blueberries, pears, bananas, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, jacket potatoes, new potatoes, tomatoes, etc etc. These are the foods that need to be in your diet every single day to look after your body inside and out, fight disease and give you plenty of energy.

Next you probably come to the lean meats such as chicken, turkey, lean beef, lean steaks, lean mince etc, its important to make the right choices here. You can have some red meat, but don’t plan on eating it more than once a week, the health dangers have been well documented in the press lately again so a bit mof moderation is called for here. The lean meats though can form an excellent foundation for your diet.

You may next see some fish, im talking tuna, mackerel, haddock, trout, salmon is always a favourite of mine and you can get all of these either fresh or in a tin, nothing wrong with either in my book and depends on how much you have to spend.

How about some carbs? We mentioned potatoes earlier, but next we have brown rice, wild rice, wholegrain and wholewheat pasta, there are all types of spaghetti and variations (keep it to wholegrain if possible). While we are talking about wholegrain and wholewheat, you can and should apply this to everything and you know i mentioned wholewheat pancakes earlier in the week.

Bread is a big subject for many of you so lets keep it wholemeal if possible, the slower release of energy the better and you want to avoid white bread like the plague, full of bleach, sugar and other cooking agents that you really don’t want to be putting in your body.

Then there’s nuts such as brazils, almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazlenuts etc which are excellent along with dried fruit such as dates, apricots, raisins, figs, prunes which can work as excellent snacks or food sweeteners in a natural way!!

Hows that for a start and making your week go along without too many hiccups, more like plenty of energy and making sure you stay lean and energetic!!!

Twitt
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February 15th

Already you should be celebrating more light in the evenings and mornings, allowing you more inspiration to get into shape and actually imagine that spring might really be around the corner!

Now that we are through the new year resolutions part, its time to view 2011 as a positive opportunity.

No matter what your age is, and I sincerely mean that, it is  entirely possible to have a better year in 2011 than 2010, and its easily done.

Getting  older is no reason to scale down your programme, if you do then something shuts down in your mind and you allow yourself to settle for mediocre results which are a lot easier to attain of course.

That’s not to say that you should allow yourself to still do all of those crazy lifts you used to do when you were 18 and you’re now 65, but I have a few 65 year old’s who still train with real intensity and could put many youngsters to shame. Its always good to have safety as your number one concern, but as long as you’re doing things in good form, then the effort should never be compromised.

If you look at every week this week and approach it in a simple way, you WILL improve over the next 45 weeks or so left in 2011.

If you were prone last year to eating a sugary snack most days, how about tightening up and eating only good food Monday to Thursday at least, this means the majority of your days in the week are as close to perfect as possible.

Instead of having 2-3 days per week drinking in the week, make it just that ONE day, this will make a surprising difference to you for all sorts of reasons, 2011 automatically becomes a better day for you when you do this.

Promise yourself that in your workout programme, you will push and test yourself at least ONE day a week when you will try and do better than the week before. It may be one more rep in a weights exercise, it may be 10 more squat thrusts in a set in your indoor workouts, it may be a little sprint at the end of your run instead of just coasting it in, it may be one extra hill on your bike ride, or attacking that hill a little bit harder than normal, attacking a hill sounds a lot better than just “lasting it out” doesn’t it?!!!!

2011 is all about attacking and improving your programme, which leads to much better body fat levels, more energy and better health in  general.

Twitt
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Feb 4th 2011

A massive day for anyone who likes sport today, wales versus england at the millennium stadium and it doesnt get better than this surely!!

The game has been spiced up by various comments on different players and as i write this, i hear than ben foden, who is england full back today, claims that it is time england put its “little brother” wales in their place!!! This will surely get most welsh people’s blood boiling as we read this!!! God knows what effect it will have on the players, but my wild guess is that it will add even more fury to tonights game, which is great in my book and will only add to the entertainment and the whole occasion in general!!!

Anytime you get riled by something, its good to use it as a tool and not let it control you and you become your worst enemy.

For example, if tonight when a lot of people in pubs are drinking quite a bit, then its not beyond the realms of possibility that a fight could break out in some places. This is sad of course and the next day, both parties would probably regret it.

A lot of people actually get motivated to do positive things when they are riled and angered in some way. Wales in rugby tonight will probably be best to use those verbal taunts as a positive and play their very best rugby, instead of using it by being ill-disciplined. This is probably what england expect of course and i really think tonight that discipline will win the game tonight, who can keep their head’s when everyone else is losing theirs!!

Making the most of negativity towards you can be a great tool for you. If someone makes fun of your weight, then prove them wrong and use that anger to get into great shape, it will literally make those same people making the comments speechless and you will probably or make that definitely earn enormous respect for your transformation.

There is a positive out of every negative situation, all you have to do is read it properly and use the angle you want to properl you to new heights!!!

Twitt
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February 2nd 2011

Some people are in shape already this time of year, some people are not of course, and as its early in the year still, its safe to say that not many people are in their top shape.

One way to improve is to seek out someone or even a group of people who at a slightly higher level than yourself.

For example, if you are cycling for instance, it can be hard getting out on a day like today for instance, the wind is tough and rain is hammering down hard.

On a normal day though, if you went out with a better rider than yourself, and sat back in his “draft”, in other words try and stay close to him/her by riding almost directly behind his/her bike. This has been proven to save around 40% of work, in other words you will be saving around 40% of energy by riding with the better rider.

Chances are that you will ride for longer than you originally planned too. You won’t give up so easily and won’t be tempted to cut your workout short. You will undoubtedly ride harder than you originally planned and you will be inspired to put a very good effort in.

Over time, this tactic of exercising with someone of a slightly higher fitness than yourself can be very productive.

If they are a lot better than yourself, then it may not work so well but slightly better than where you are now will make a very achievable goal for you happen much quicker than you ever thought.

Also, if you’re training with someone fitter than you, ask them how they got to be so fit in the first place, what were the “secrets” to their success, and what do they eat and drink on a daily basis that makes them look and feel so great.

If you’re a bit slack on your swimming, running, weight training, use the same tactic. Modelling yourself on someone who is currently performing at the level you really want to be is an ultra-smart move and get you where you want to be in ultra-quick time!!!

Twitt