Thursday, 21st February

With the food industry seemingly at an all time low, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that there is much more to come. With the current investigations likely to take months to sort out this mess, I believe they will then move on to other food areas.

Milk and the production of milk has long been controversial, and seeking the freshest and most natural produced milk has to be a priority for you.

You know I always advise wholemeal bread, which although still contains a little sugar and other not so good ingredients, is a million times better than white bread. The sugar, salt and bleaching agents in this awful product would scare most people, yet some are still not willing to change! Eat white bread daily and you will never get in shape full stop, plus its going to be a negative for your health.

Changing to wholegrains is a massive step you can take right now, to improve your health, improve your bodily functions and reach your target body fat levels A LOT sooner and stay in that good zone for life!

So when I have talked about shopping in supermarkets before, I have always advised to IGNORE most of the aisles. You should ignore the ready meal and pizza aisles, the frozen vegetables etc are fine because they are non-processed.

Avoid the full fat cheeses, avoid the frozen chip ailes, avoid most of the cereal boxes aisles but please select porridge, shredded wheat, Weetabix which are known 100% natural products.

Select wholegrain pasta which is going to be good for you and a nice slow release of energy, brown rice better than white rice, spend a LOT more time in the fruit and vegetable section, this will be a good investment in your health right there!

The fish section is always good, plus the tinned fish can be a much cheaper option and more sustainable option. All fish options are good, apart from the ones which have heavy sauces included in the product.

So in shopping terms, only trust the fresher, most natural products because you cannot go wrong with them. Avoid chemically enhanced and pumped up products because you know they are not going to help you on bit, plus you know by now you’re going to have to worry about their long term effects.

Eat natural and feel and look good full stop!

Thursday, 6th December

All of us get in a rut from time to time,but we have to make sure we get right back out of it!

First of all, one of the best ways of changing is to change what you do.

For example, if you ideally do 8-10 reps of each exercise and have done for years maybe, have 4 weeks of doing 12 reps per set. You will have to reduce the weight of course, but the extra reps will bring your body a new challenge and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results!

If you do a split routine, in other words you may be doing chest and arms in one workout, shoulders and back the next and then you do this twice each which means 4 days a week with this type of training, then i always find it beneficial getting individuals on whole body workouts that can be done just twice a week with a three day gap in between. This is well proven to bring some spectacular results in a short period of time.

Do drop sets! Say you do a set of curls with your best weight, do 8 reps and instead of ending there, pick up a lighter weight and hit another 8 reps, then pick an even lighter weight up and do 6 reps with that. This will absolutely crucify your muscles and you will find that if you pick just four exercises to do this in a workout, then that will be enough to get the job done in super-quick time!!!

When is the last time you kept an eating diary? This is one of the most overlooked things i see every week, and often explains why many of us don’t get into the shape we really want! Unless we realise how much we eat, what we eat and when, its tough for us to find out whether we are sticking to our plan or not?!!

No time for getting stuck in a rut, reaching a plateau or getting medicore results, you have the chance right now to turn it all around!!

Wednesday, 5th December

So we have discovered there are two sides of the fence in december, those who have given up and those who remain on track to have their best december in years!

The best thing about that statement is that as long as you continue to read, its never going to be too late to get out of the “given up” crowd!!

We have talked a lot about food, but how’s your workouts going?

Are you going through the motions? Are you watching the clock all the way though, can’t wait to get it over with?

If you are one of these individuals, then please stop what you are doing right now, there is much more to learn about your workouts, there is much more to learn about what it means to be fit and how you manage your heart and lung capacity, there is much more to learn about creating a lot more variety and interest in your workouts, and you ought not to waste one more day!!!

Not having a plan and not having any standards in your workouts is a sure fire path to failure, and at best mediocre results so its time for you to pick up the pace!!!!!

Try moving away from doing the treadmill and bike for example, these two things can be excellent parts of your workouts, but there’s more, much more in fact!!!

Please make sure you do an all over strength/resistance workout twice a week with a 2-3 day gap on between, gap in between each set needs to be eventually 45 seconds.

Don’t spend more than 45 minutes in the gym, one hour very maximum. You can have some great workouts in 20-30 minutes if you hit it hard and have a good plan!!!

Always use proper form, no cheating, no swinging and no bad form on any exercise!

Don’t train to impress others, try and impress yourself by constantly improving each week on one exercise. Little improvements over a few weeks can lead to one massive improvement, you know you have it in you!!!

We are going to concentrate on really shaking up your programme this december, no “settling” for mediocrity, get into the crowd who are interested in their strongest december yet!!! You will enjoy christmas far more when it comes and you will be glad you have put the big effort in!!!

Monday, 20th February

Losing can often teach you more than winning, or so the saying goes in sports.

The same goes for your health and fitness programme.

How many diets have you crashed and burned on?

How many times have you tried to exercise and thrown the towel in?

How many times have you said “this time i’m going to do it no matter what” and still failed?

If you have been through all of these, and most of us have if we are honest, then they can become very valuable experiences believe it or not!!!

As long as we remember where we went wrong, then perhaps next time we will learn and not do it again?

If someone suggest we join them in a weight loss class, that we know that didnt work last time, and probably never well, isn’t it madness to go through the same useless process again?

The programme we did in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s may not have worked out too well, because some of us didnt train too smart, and got obsessed with doing cardio all the time maybe for example. We know that doesn’t really work and we need to mix it up with weights/resistance work.

So we have all the knowledge now on how to train effectively, so you would think that most of us would do it right, having failed so many times before? It is madness to go through the same process time and time again and expect a different result!!! But still some peope do it believe it or not.

Would you attempt an exam in school or college and say you only had 40%, then the next time you had 41%, the time after 35%, wouldn’t it be time to change your approach and work in a far more effective manner? Unfortunately a lot of people don’t get this and never get the very most out of their training, when sometimes all the solutions thhat they need to achieve their goals are right in front of them!!!

Learn from your past mistakes, and as long as you do, you will find the right approach and achieve great results faster than you ever thought possible!!!

Monday, 21st November

Under five weeks to go now and i find there is huge momentum with everyone i train now coming up to the festive period.

Most people i know want to be in their best shape for the end of the year.

There has been a cultural shift the last few years too. Years ago, christmas used to be all about the parties begining at the start of december. Now because of the changing culture of people not going out so much, and there not being so many parties for whatever reason, people’s health has become much more important again, which is great news!!

People are also becoming much more aware of the health in general too, more check ups and more preventative measures are being taken. People are also more aware of the need to be in shape in december to avoid the folly of going on some kind of faddy drastic diet in januuary.

Most people realise now that if you’re in shape during december, then theres no need to diet in january, maybe lose a few pounds but no monumental effort needed!!

Once you manage to get over the “let’s get in shape for this or that season/holiday”, you will really understand that its the best overall strategy to be in shape ALL YEAR LONG!!!

Your body will thank you too!!! One of the most destructive things you can do to your body is diet hard and lose lots of weights, then don’t care for a while and pile lots of weight on. Then the more times you repeat this process, the more resistant your body becomes to losing weight in the future, which is a very negative situation!!

So under five weeks left, you don’t need major efforts, all you need to do is use common sense, eat sensible portion sizes and try to keep your food as natural and as fresh as possible. No salt, very little refined sugars and little saturated fat.

Start your week off well, stay positive and you’re off to a flyer!!!