Prepare now for Christmas!!

Christmas is now just 8 weeks away – can you believe it?!!

With the average person gaining between 5-8lbs over the xmas period, now is the time, to start tightening the calories and getting the hard work in.

Not only to get yourself in good shape before the Christmas “overload” but chances are you have a Christmas party coming up and the chance to show yourself off!

Therefore, commit the next 6-8 weeks to hard work, (aim for 4-5 workouts a week, and not just cardio workouts!) minimise alcohol, certainly during the week remove it, and cut back on processed foods like takeaways and packaged food. Look after your body and the results will be visible to both yourself and others – surely everyone want to look good and get great comments?!

Keep your eyes on my youtube account, by clicking here, for some great workout ideas that will keep the calories burning all day long, and sculpting a great body! Feel free to click the subscribe button to my YouTube account, as I’ll be adding more workouts/videos over the next few weeks!

ACT NOW – Christmas will come fast!

And you can’t reach your goals?

Looking through last Sunday’s newspaper and came across a real heart wrenching article. Next time you fail to meet a goal or target you set through weakness or lack of commitment, bear this in mind;

An article entitled “Mummy Manual” and was about a mum of 33 who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, leaving a husband and 2 young children. The husband, said “Lisa was a wonder woman when it came to bringing up our daughters”. When she was told she had months to live, she set her “own 12 page goals manual” for her husband to follow and achieve, on how she would like her children cared for, and brought up.

She gave her husband every tiny detail of how she wanted their daughters to be brought up, from making sure their homework and reading was done, to a list of new clothes they would need each year. She explained to the children that “Mummy had poorly blood and that she was going to die. Amelia(3) was too young to understand, but Ella (5) did.

Some of these further notes/goals included;
My thoughts on Christmas – “Stockings til the age of 18!”
….Food – “Vegetables and fruits, not too much pie”
….Family and traditions – “try to eat Sunday lunch together – the family that eats together stays together! Good chance to talk and catch up. Talk about mummy – things that I liked and didn’t, things that made me laugh”
….Birthday’s – “Don’t make parties too big/extravagant – don’t be a competitive Dad!”
….Clothes – “Please don’t let them look too old too early. No tarty slogans or tshirts!”
….School – “Make sure you’re on time and clean and tidy (Ella and Amelia that is!!)

My thoughts on bedtime – “Should be calm, lot’s of cuddles – and always, “I love you”.

I don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t/isn’t moved after reading the above.

If a mum can spend her last few months of life putting together such a manual, which outlines her wishes for the future, her goals on how her children should be looked after and brought up, once she has gone, I’m pretty damn sure we can all put out efforts into one month of no alcohol, takeaways, or packaged food, and ensure we eat sensibly and exercise hard, to ensure our goals are met.

Start planning and action those goals TODAY!

Intensity – Do you have it?!

INTENSITY – a key word in getting results, and something many people never achieve.

I was at the gym today, and while sitting on the bike to;

a) “Cool down”

b) more realistically pause, and ensure I wasn’t sick, when

a girl came up that I used to work at the gym with many years ago. She was a Duty manager then as opposed to gym staff, so I’ll let her off, but she said she was just about to try a new workout to help her get lean, that was written by the Gym Manager/PT. I couldn’t help but say I wanted to look at it.

Now, when getting lean, your diet will be 70-80% of the success, but as we’re talking intensity, I’ll get onto this workout! This was the order;

1) X-Trainer – 15 mins @ some level – “It really doesn’t matter what level as this machine sucks – you’re not supporting your bodyweight, it moves in a fixed, weird, range, and next time you’re in the gym, look at the people using it…… it’s an easy persons exercise machine” I told her to remove it.

2) Treadmill – 15mins intervals – run hard at 8mph for 60secs, walk for 30secs. – “Now not too, bad but I said for it to be intense, those intervals suck. You cant run at max intensity for 60secs, and expect to go again at the same high level after just 30secs rest?! I got her to reverse those times, and even drop the hard resistance section to maybe 20secs, and up the incline!”

3) “Resistance Training” – There was sumo squats with weights, ball squats with OH Press, Seated Row, and DB Chest Press, all finished off with some crunches and plank. I changed all of those exercises, substituting most for bodyweight exercises such as pressups over the ball to lunge with OH press, to X-Body Climbers, putting some as tabata’s. Suffice to say I removed the crunches, got her putting some rotational work in to hit the whole “core” area, and moved all the reps and sets from the prescribed 3 x 15. Oh, and I also got her doing the resistance work first, and Intervals last.

The original programme above lacked any INTENSITY. Working without intensity is like those occasional grannies you see (no offence Granny) driving on the inside, or sometimes middle lane of a motorway doing 40mph – you’re going to get there eventually, but it’s going to take a bloody long time!! Put your foot down (whilst obviously sticking to the speed limit, stopping for rest breaks, and paying attention to other drivers!! ) and get where you need to be quicker! By working out with Intensity you will place more demand on your muscles and your metabolism, and your body will transform in a much quicker timescale.

It is no wonder so many people leave gyms dis-heartened after spending months following a programme (and by yourself, which is often the problem – how many people will push themselves week in, week out?) which lacks any proper structure or intensity.

Another great saying is, “You can workout hard, or you can workout long – Who wants to workout long?!”

Get in, challenge yourself and get out, eat clean, eat sensibly and you’re results can’t fail to happen, in a much shorter time than most gym-goers!

Fat Loss Tip #6 – Accountability

Accountability

One of the main reasons people “fall off the wagon” during a fat loss phase, or a when working towards a goal, is that they don’t set levels of accountability at the beginning and during the task.

What do I mean by this?

1) At the beginning, work out what you are doing and why.

This shouldn’t just be I want to lose weight, or be a bit slimmer. How much slimmer? How much weight do you want to lose, and when by?

You have to be specific. Something like I want to lose 6lbs by 20th October is a specific goal. I want to be able to do the button up on this pair of jeans or skirt, by 15th October is a specific goal. If you don’t set a specific aim, and an end date, you’re leaving yourself open to days of “Oh it doesn’t matter if I have this chocolate bar” or “Oh, I’ll start properly next week”. You must have heard those phrases before?!!!

By choosing a specific goal and a completion date you have your reason and you have your focus. This should then be your motivation during this period, and should stop you from straying. Each time you hit an “obstacle”, ask yourself “Will this help me to get nearer or push me further from my goal?”

2) Record your progress

Again, if you don’t record you’re progress you won’t really know what worked and what didn’t.

This means; keep a daily food diary of everything you eat and drink – this not only keeps you focussed on your eating habits but you can see trends, and where you may not have eaten enough, or too much, It also stops many people from eating that biscuit or cake, because it has to be logged – be truthful to yourself and this will be a powerful tool!

Record your workouts, and daily activities. This will allow you to see what you lifted, or how many repetitions you completed last time, so you can ensure that you beat, or do a bit more than the last workout. This progression will ensure your body is “overloaded”, and the stimulus needed to change is applied. If you lift the same weights for the same number of repetitions each workout, you are not progressing, and therefore you give your body no reason to change. The same applies if you’re performing intervals – look to “up” the resistance, speed, time or incline each time, so that your continually trick/overload the body to work a bit more than last time.

Recording your goals and your progress will be key to ensuring that you set manageable and achievable aims, and that you are continually moving on the right path to success, both physically and mentally.

Fat Loss Tip #5 – Healthy Snacks

A lot of people go wrong here, by making the wrong choices, either through a lack of planning or self-control.

How many times have you been hungry mid-morning or afternoon, are in a rush and reach for the nearest item, often something pre-packaged like a bag of crisps, chocolate bar or biscuit, or the vending machine?

The snacks are often high calorie, contain high levels of sugar (tip#1) and contain minimal beneficial calories. Chances are you’ll soon be hungry again in a few minutes and will reach for the next fix/stimulant.

Aim for snacks which are likely to keep you feeling full til the next meal, but also something that will be of benefit to the body, both in nutritional content and balanced for your insulin levels.

Great choices would be;

- chopped raw vegetables

- A protein bar or protein ball (see this post on my blog http://markpt.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/your-own-protein-bounce-ball/)

- a piece of fruit or some berries, along with a few nuts or a piece of goats cheese(this ‘good’ fat will slow the release of the fruit sugars into the body, minimising insulin release)

- Celery with peanut butter

- Oatcake or Ryvita with cottage cheese

- Small pot of greek yoghurt with berries and seeds

- Parma ham with melon

- Crudite with hummous

All it takes is some preparation the night before, and you will have no excuses for going “off-track” and you’re energy levels will thankyou for that extra prep!

Fat Loss Tip #4 – Exercise

Exercise

The best combination of exercise is resistance training (be it bodyweight or with weights) and interval cardio training.

Resistance training will give shape to your body, by shaping your muscles and helping with fat loss. The more lean muscle tissue you have, the more calories you will burn at rest, due to muscle tissue being a living tissue which requires calories to function and exist.

By resistance training I’m not talking about 2kg weights that you lift for 15 repetitions and put down, under no more stress or strain than when you started! You should select a weight that fatigues the muscle (becomes hard to continue, with good form and posture) around 10-15 reps for women and 8-12 reps for men.

Also aim to perform full body exercises like pullups, dips, pressups, deadlifts, squats and shoulder pressing as opposed to using machines at the gym which fix you into a locked plane of movement and don’t give you functional movements, like daily life.

Also, stay away from bodybuilding routines whereby you work chest one day, legs the next etc. You will just be wasting your time and effort. Pick exercises that work the full body and aim for 3 times per week.

Interval cardio training, is so much more effective than steady state cardio where you spend 30+mins jogging, x-training or cycling. You will burn minimal calories because the Intensity is not there. Aim to work hard (effort level 8/9 out of 10) for 30-60secs, and then recover at an easy pace for 60-90 seconds. Repeat this for 6-8 times and you’ll know the word intensity.

Look to increase this period, and the intensity you work at over time. Aim for 2 interval sessions a week, and on top of the resistance training you will be building a training routine that will get results!

Check my You Tube account at www.youtube.com/MarkRaynsfordPT for some example workouts.

Fat Loss Tip #3 – Caffeine

Everyone loves a cup of coffee as a pickup. Be it in the morning, pre workout, or mid-late afternoon for that final ‘work burst’.

The problem here, is that caffeine is a stimulant. It stimulates the adrenal glands, which in turn produce adrenalin, which gives you this buzz.

It can have a time and a place, but if you’re drinking more than 2 cups of coffee a day, regularly, you could well be on the way to adrenal fatigue. This is where you adrenal glands, cannot produce any more andrenalin, and your body starts to break down, often resulting in illness due to a damaged immune system, and more. Not only this, but caffeine can stay in your system for 6 hours, so if you’re drinking coffee after 4pm in the afternoon, chances are it will affect your sleep pattern, in turn upsetting your hormonal balance, and your bodies wellbeing. Count fizzy drinks, and alcohol in the list of stimulants, sugar as well, and that’s a lot of stress being placed on your adrenals. Burnout will be inevitable.

Drink water and green tea which contains a lower caffeine content, and more antioxidants, and give your body a rest. Most people live on stimulants and resort to these any time the feel sluggish, whereas chances are, you’re whole diet is causing you to feel sluggish, and if you don’t adjust the root cause, you’ll continue to be reaching for the stimulants and in turn, breaking your body down.

Fat Loss Tip #2 – Alcohol

The quickest way to consume a large number of useless calories, and to spike you’re insulin levels is through drink.

There is around 180kcals in a glass of wine or a pint of beer. All of these calories are useless to the body, and provide no nutritional value at all. Take 3 of these (a small night out for most!) and you get 540kcals. Seeing as though most people only need to cut back around 400kcals a day to lose weight, you can see where a couple of glasses of wine a night can affect your weight. Alcohol also sends to cause bloating in most people, raising cortisol levels, and in turn, through long-term drinking you will store excess fat on your stomach and face.

Fizzy drinks are another artificial form of drink– a can of coke is around 120kcals, but contains around 7 heaped teaspoons of sugar – a lot of damage to your teeth and a massive insulin spike, ready to store excess carbohydrates as fat!! Remember these are just drinks, not the extra food and drink you consume during the day! I wouldn’t like to think what some of you consume on a weekend………

I’m not saying remove alcohol from your diet completely, but just be aware that each drink you have contains empty calories, and will add onto your daily consumption. If you‘re looking to cutback calories, then these should be the first to remove, if you’re consuming them regularly.

Stick to water(2+litres per day) and green tea(2+cups per day), not only will the body function better, but your skin will look clearer, energy levels will be higher, and you’re body will work more efficiently as it transports nutrients around the body, and removes toxins.

Fat Loss Tip #1

OK, first day’s tip……

Cut back on sugary and packaged foods

Sugar is one of the worst “foods” you can consume if you’re trying to lose fat. Every time you eat sugar, you get a massive sugar rush into the bloodstream (the energy high), this releases insulin, a hormone from your pancreas which regulates blood sugar levels, and pulls this sugar from your blood stream, for your own protection.

If you’re carbohydrate stores are full (in your muscles and you liver, as carbohydrates are used for energy) they will store this sugar as fat. If you don’t have an active job, you are unlikely to be burning many calories, therefore everytime you eat something sugary, you are increasing your fat stores….simple as that. This includes, cakes, biscuits, sweets, fizzy drinks, ice cream and packaged foods as below.

Check the ingredients of a product – where it says carbohydrates, below it will say, “Of Which Sugars” pay attention to this figure……5g is about 1 level teaspoon…..you will be surprised!!

Packaged foods often fall into the sugary department, as they often contain high levels. The other thing they contain are non-natural foods. Checkout how often wheat is included in something packaged, words you struggle to pronounce. Basically it is man-made, and something the body cannot process into nutrients, and therefore will turn into fat or a toxin in the body.

Eat foods that are natural, and minimise sugar and processed foods – you’ll be surprised at your elevated energy levels alongside a flatter stomach, better skin, and a healthier digestive system.

Top Fat Loss Tips!

Starting tomorrow I will be running a Top fat loss tip everyday this week,  to help you achieve your results.

If you want extra help click here to join my forum where there is lots of chat, extra help and articles and workouts all for free!

See you back here tomorrow! )