GetFit Top Tip

Oh here we go, hang the current media storm over the global financial situtation on the reasons why we are getting fat… a tenuous link you may be thinking… however a little bit of science may prove this correct.

Over the last few weeks I have noted increased tension in pretty much everyone, all my clients, the trainers around me, my family and pretty much everyone I talk to. I am not going to dismiss that there are some fairly sizeable problems out there, but I am not going to succumb to the frenzy that we see on the tv every day.

The problem with increased stress levels for prolonged periods mean that our cortisol levels remain at a heightened state for longer period. Whilst some cortisol is good for us, the length of time is the bit which causes the problem.

The long periods of elevated cortisol leads significantly to muscle loss and fat gain, in part due to lowered testosterone levels(yes even in females). Symptoms of excess stress include, weight gain, fatigue, spikes in blood sugar levels as well as cravings for carbs and increased regualarity of illness … All pretty grim really… but what can we do about it.

Now I am not suggesting we all shut ourselves in a box for the next 3 years waiting for all this to blow over, but it may be a good idea to reduce the exposure we have to these stressful things we see on the tv and read about on the internet.

• Many of you do work in the financial sector, which is getting hammered as we speak, but certainly I would suggest only dealing with what you can deal with during the  time you are in the office.
• When you wake in the morning, DO NOT turn on the TV or read a newspaper, I actually stopped doing this months go and it is a real eye opener to see the changes in your mood at the start of the day.
• At lunch time, get away from your desk, don’t surf the internet, better still get down the gym for a quick and hard 30 minute workout, take you iPod and pump some uplifting tunes in to your head.
• On the commute on the way home, each night make a mental or physical list of the things that you are going to start the following day with. Once you are at your front door, no more thoughts about work, and switch off the blackberry.
• Have a healthy evening meal, sit down with the family and watch a good film, go and do some sport and generally chill out.
• Finally go to bed early to get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Theses changes are so minor, they don’t affect your normal routine, other than simply avoiding being sucked in to the media frenzy of the day. Give it a try for the next few weeks and you’ll find that your stress levels will change, and your ability to lose body fat will be increased.

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Ok, so the girls started talking and got the brilliant idea of doing the 2009 Echternach Triathlon. So they started discussing the different ways of how to best train for it and that’s when my competitive streak kicked in and  I started thinking: Hey, this could be fun, I am In!!!!

I like biking…The swimming isn’t to bad and the running…well, not great but I have two legs that can run if i make them, How hard can this be…:)

Then I realised that I have to swim 1.5Km which doesn’t sound that far but when you only know breast stroke…that could be a rather long distance…

Then I realised that to be able to do biking….40km, You will acctually need a bike!!!

Then I realised that I will acctually have to RUN 10km….Arrrgghhh:) I hate Running. Every time i run further than 2km, it feels like i am about to die….

That’s when the next thought crossed my mind: Let’s NOT do this, sorted, Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all. That’s when the girls decided to make me the One to push them and make them train hard and i started thinking i can’t give in already, these girls are counting on me and better yet, This is a challenge, and I love challenges and i have been looking for the next challenge in life! Here it is!

So guess what, I wrote down on my ever growing Goals list: 2009 Triathlon and now all I have to do is start planning the training for it.Lot’s of swimming, maybe even try to learn proper swimming…Lot’s of running, starting off with intervalls…

First things first though…Hubby, I want a bike for christmas!

Jess:)

IF anyone has any good ideas for training for a Triathlon please come forward and tell me your secrets:)

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So I think We have all been there…It’s that time of the Year when all your clothes are suddenly to Tight and You wonder how the heck that happened. And in true fashion the first thing You would do is cutting down on the food or start mad hard training or even worse both at the same time….If You have any of those thoughts in you head then STOP right there…Think about it for a second. When you go on a diet you are acctually breaking down body tissues. You want to loose bodyfat but what happens in a diet is your loosing water and even muscles. Yeah, you might loose a few kilos but is it the right kilos???? On a diet you won’t get a toned body and You won’t feel very well either and worse of all when you start eating normally again, you will put everyhting right back on and often alot more.

Second scenario is You are training very hard and then start cutting down on the food because You feel nothing is happening….Why oh Why..?

A very hard training-body doesn’t Want to loose any fat and will  do anything to keep it. So in order to loose BODYFAT you WANT to get the Metabolism-Fire burning to the Max. This is how to do that:

First of all, If you are trainig very hard and you  don’t loose any BODYFAT, it’s most likely that you acctually don’t eat enough or secondly you don’t train in the most Effective way.

You HAVE to EAT to be able to BURN!!!!!  Eat EVERY 2-3 hours to keep that fire burning inside you.It goes without saying that obviously it has to be the right things you eat: Keep it Clean and Natural and don’t make it hard on yourself. Stay away from alcohole and Refined Sugars, They will SLOW DOWN the metabolism!

Training Wise…for Fatburning, STOP those hour long cardio w/o and stay away from the aerobics classes. Start building MUSCLES! Without Muscle mass You will NOT BURN! You don’t have to go mad now and start building like Arnold Scwarzenegger…Bodyweight Resistance training is enough but don’t be afriad to use DumbBells.For a woman to get Huge with Muscles,  it is near enough Impossible. That will take hours in the Gym with HardCore Wieght training for a very long period of time, so don’t be afraid to Push Yourself out of Your Comfort Zone, because that’s when things starts to heat up in your body.

Add on some SHORT but SHARP Intervalls into the schedule and Your Metabolism will really Kick Off .

Seems like alot of work??? Acctually, All You need is 3/Week Resistance Training a 45min and 2-3/Weeks Intervalls a 20-25min and together with EATING regulary the BodyFat will start to Melt off in the Fire of a Great Metabolism!

JESS:)

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With many of you taking up the opportunity to get Dax’s Magic Hundred program this last week, for the remaining 100 days of 2008, I thought I’d let you know about some of the things that I am intending on doing, starting this Monday.

I am going to start this Monday with the Elimination Diet, also a Dax creation, but a nutritional program that is NOT a fat loss diet (although it does commonly give this result). The intention is to get cleansed of all the lovely toxins that I have consumed, especially over this last week being stuck in the US. Dax also has an Cookbook which helps you get more from the Elimination Diet, which I’ll be reviewing in a few weeks time.

I also have a number of business goals that I have on my goal cards in my wallet that need an injection of pace, so these are being added to the list of 100 goals for the next 100 days including bring on my team of new coaches which are ready for new clients this autumn. If now is your time to start learning about the GetFit Fundamentals and how it can make changes to your body for the rest of your life then get across to www.getfit.lu/consultation.html to arrange a FREE consultation with us.

Finally one of the other things I really want to achieve is getting all my current clients to have achieved their own health and fitness goals in time for Christmas, ie, BEFORE the January mayhem in the gym! Hey guys watch out I’m gonna put a rocket under you the next few weeks.

Tell me what things you are doing by adding a comment to this post, the most inspirational from Luxembourg will get a free place on one of our ForestFit groups.

If you’ve not got the Magic Hundred program go get it right away from Dax’s Magic Hundred Site

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I am officially the biggest Kid out there, so I went and got Myself, Sorry I mean My Kids of course, a Trampoline! And Man is it good Fun. I just love it. So there I am bouncing away in rain and sunshine whilst the kids are getting impatient waiting for their turn- Mum, is it 5 min yet….. - Nearly, just 1 more minute…..Oh, sorry just 1 more, I promise….

Anyway,as Fun as it is..it actually have some other great Benefits. I found this article about this wonderful thing and it made me Love it even more.

Apparently, there are a few Superstars, like Heidi Klum who does this for exercise…Just bouncing the pounds away. So I kept reading. Not only is it a great way to burn fat and calories ( 5 min bouncing is apparently equal to 20 min on the treadmill…how cool is that:)) It can also help improve your over all health.

1 It’s a low impact workout so its nice to your joints and according to this article it can even prevent the onset of osteoarthritis by strengthening your bones and muscles.

2 According to the article NASA has found that G-force jumping creates help to stimulate the fluid transportation, (the lymphatic system), giving you the same benefits as a detoxing massage.

3 The jumping also stimulates the internal organs which can help digestion and help to ease bloating and trapped wind (maybe only jump on your on if you have a dodgy tummy then:))

4 According to research from University of Konstanze in Germany, you learn new motor skills when you are on the trampoline, which tires your brain out, which gives you a better nights sleep, which means you’ll wake up full of Energy the next day ready for more bouncing!

Now if this is not enough Positives to go and get a Trampoline I don’t know what is. But while you are at it, You should probably get a separate one for the kids…Cause otherwise they might never get the chance to have some Fun:)

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I seem to get asked at least once a week which books I would recommend for training, fat loss, nutrition, goal setting etc etc…

I do read lots of this stuff, in fact I tend to be reading non stop… strange I never used to be like that…

Anyway, I have created a page on the GetFit.lu website with all my recommended books and where you can get them from. I have added Amazon links or retailer links so you can get all these products shipped to your door in double quick time.

Summer holidays are a great time to catch up with some interesting reading, pick one or two that you can pack in your suitcase…

http://www.getfit.lu/book-recommendations.html

Tim

PS. You’ll see some other links to the left hand side of this page, which will take you to some of our most trusted resources and partners, make sure you try these too!

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I love reading some of the so called health pages on various news websites, and it becomes clear what propagates ineffective methods of fat loss and weight control.  This article at the BBC health webpage gets my juices flowing because as with many articles/studies/papers/reviews etc etc in relation to fat loss, they bear little resemblance to the real world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7530345.stm - Hour’s exercise to lose weight.

The article states that women should be exercising 5 times a week for at least an hour to lose weight and keep it off.

Sounds like a hell of a lot of training!

Obviously these guys have never heard of interval training where 25 minutes of total workout time can produce a much greater fat burning effect.

They have probably never heard of doing resistance based routines as well, not lasting more than 40 minutes, to boost your metabolism creating a much more sustainable body shape and better structural health too.

Combine the 2 together 3 times a week and you’ll be still out the gym before these guys!

In the real world getting the most out of training is not about time spent in the gym, but more the effectiveness of the routines you perform.

In the real world myself and other top quality fitness professionals from around the globe get amazing results from short intensive routines.

In the real world we don’t have time to waste hour upon hour doing “moderate” exercise

In the real world we are never going to maintain that level of training for the rest of our lives.

Get Real BBC, University of Pittsburg, Professor Paul Gately! Start studying how real results are obtained!

Tim climbs gently off soapbox :o)

If you are interested in the kind of training that works, check out Craig Ballantynes fantastic digital book Turbulence Training or join us for the 45 minute ForestFit workouts

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In between watching the Weston-Super-Mare pier catching fire and the first lady to take control(temporarily) of Great Britain since Margaret Thatcher, I saw a brief report about the latest studies identifying a fat gene.

FTO is apparently the gene in the body that given a certain make up makes you more likely to be over weight. The thought being that your appetite is satisfied less easily so you’ll likely eat more than your body needs.

Hailed as a break through in the fight against obesity, no doubt with pharmaceutical companies falling over themselves to produce the “necessary” drugs to counter this genetic flaw, I can’t help wonder if we are still missing the point here…

Surely if we eat the right things in the first place our diets will be suppressed naturally. If we are feeding our kids junk food it is really clear that within 20 minutes they are going to want more anyway. Such is our modern diet that we are eating more energy dense foods with little or no nutritional value, this is probably more likely the cause of our growing(sic) obesity problems, and not a genetic flaw.

For the next few weeks, if you focus on eating clean and fresh produce and avoiding ALL processed foods and drinks then I am sure that extra few kilos will disappear substantially quicker than waiting for the latest miracle cure.

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I posted this question on the ForestFit community site the other day for the participants of ForestFit and it has provoked quite a discussion on there. So I thought I would have a go at placing the same on here.

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After a few discussions at this mornings forestfit I have been wondering what women REALLY want?

Being a guy, I am obviously dumb to these things… kind of… I am a sensitive trainer after all!

So the question I want everyone to answer is this:

Who’s body would you have and why? I really want to understand what it is about that person you really like!

There is method in my questions, I’ll ask more later in the week.

Tim

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What I want you to do is post a comment in response to this on this BLOG, click the “Read Users’ Comments” link below

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This might seem really obvious to you, but to me this is such an important aspect of weight management.

I was chatting to my wife this afternoon and we were discussing the meal we had last night. We try to make an effort to have at least one night during the week where we go and treat ourselves to a meal for two at a nice restaurant. We don’t necessarily worry about the type of food we eat, or that we might have a glass of wine or beer with the meal and we will have a dessert too.

The meal we had was a Chateau Briand shared between the two of us, a fine piece of meat, vegetables and all the trimmings. It tasted fantastic, was loaded with calories and we probably ate too much of it. However I think the most important part of it was we “Planned to fail”!

My wife then told me about something that happened this morning in the office, someone came round with cream cakes, with chocolate and all sorts of stuff like that, without hesitation she ate the cake without any conscious thought of what it would do to her. The cake probably didn’t have as many calories as the nice dinner last night but was more likely to be many times more damaging. Why? This time she just “failed” it was not planned.

How many times today have you just eaten something just because it was there, you ate it with no regard for the consequences, it was a completely subconscious action?

The secret to succeeding with nutritional habits to support your fat loss goals is in the planning! Knowing exactly when you will fail, plan to fail then make sure every other feeding opportunity is thoroughly planned.

Not to say I am perfect, I do still have situations were I fall victim to eating completely unconsciously but so long as the majority of my meals are planned I stay on track with eating better.

Obvious maybe? Try a little planning yourself this week!

Tim
GetFit.lu  Fitness Professionals

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