What a crazy depressing year it has been for the majority!

Looking forward and pre planning my short and long term goals, I’m going to break down a few ways to show how I can make sure I keep myself motivated and progressing. I haven’t focused on just one goal, I’ve set up several. These will ultimately come together and make it feel more rewarding as I go along. I think it’s important to see progress and that’s why I plan on making small steps through several different ways.

Heres some of my goals;

1/ Beat my previous best of 11 days alcohol free. (Due to lockdown. Currently on 9 days. 11 will be easy now the gyms are open. Once I hit 11, everyday I can then count an extra day and use this as positive progress. I drank through boredom in the evening, nothing excessive)

2/ Clean my diet up. (This has been easy as I’ve simply prepped my meals. No alcohol means I don’t feel rough the next day and I can eat what I need to eat)

3/ Get my strength back. (Starting off with lower weights will allow me to progress. This will help my mental approach to monitoring my progression)

4/ Build my cardio up. (This will come with being more active and cycling to and from the gym)

5/ Drop my body fat. (This will happen as a by product of the above being on track)

6/ Improve my body composition. Take pictures and measurements every 2 weeks (this will go with the above)

7/ Spend more time on my social media or blog. (Surrounding myself with what I love doing)

Those are a few key things I think about and are consciously aware of. I use many other methods to make sure I can progress in at least 1 way. I don’t want to fail and I don’t want to feel disheartened. I’ve spent many years figuring out ways to keep focused and these are some of them. I will compose a more indepth post when I get the time, but for now, this is a start.

Keep motivated and keep pushing forward. Health, fitness and wellbeing is essential and after this intense lockdown, we can get back on track and look after the most important thing we own, ourselves.

Keep pushing…!

Right where are we… SEPTEMBER! This year has gone fast despite all the unfortunate circumstances the world has been up against. It’s certainly been challenging for everyone in many different forms. I personally haven’t known anyone that has had the virus and for that I am thankful.

After a few months of not knowing what was going to happen and being locked down with the kids in the house, I naturally stopped being quite so active and fell in a bit of a slump. I still trained the best I could and religiously woke up and done a half hour walk on the treadmill. After a month or so I managed to pull my back whilst out on my bike and that set me back with weight training. Then I sprained my wrist and then my back again! I put this down to not using my body enough and so it started to get little niggles from sitting around too much. We are still in uncertain times, although we have to try and push forward where it is safe to do so.

I’m fortunate enough to have some good people around me and we have a tidy little gym we can use. I’ve been back training in the gym for around 2 weeks. I’m taking it nice and steady to ensure all my smaller muscles are ready for some heavier weights. I’ll give it another 2 weeks to allow my body to naturally get some strength back and then it’s on to what I enjoy doing, HIT!

I feel that the biggest area I need to work on are my legs. I don’t think physically I have lost too much strength, although mentally I feel I have been set back quite a bit. Again, given the circumstances and being fortunate enough to have pulled though it without falling into a depressive slump, is something I am again grateful for.

I hope to be working along side some great passionate people in the near future and from there I can continue to share my passion by helping others progress mentally and physically.

My personal goals at the moment are to lose around 7lb of fat and get my fitness/strength levels back up. From there I will continue to steadily lower my body fat and feel much more happy within myself. During lock down my diet has been good enough. My huge downfall was the sun, boredom and beer. Alcohol is the devil at times like this as it’s a short term fix. but long term it destroys you from inside out. I do enjoy a drink, I am just very aware of what it does to my body, it’s poison. I would say the vast majority of my weight gain is from beer alone. Although that wouldn’t be fair to assume this, as exercise has taken a back step too.

Ask yourself what your 4 week goal is. Write it down in stages. As an example for a 4lb weight drop over 4 weeks, break it down into smaller, achievable goals. If you were climbing a mountain and you look at the top, you would have to find a way off getting there and that will be in small stages and even little set backs. Ultimately you will reach the top and that’s where you aim to be. 

• Week 1 – drop 1lb
• Week 2 – drop 1lb
• Week 3 – drop 1lb
• Week 4 – drop 1lb

I hope to update my blog more over the coming weeks as I’ve been neglecting it and I shouldn’t as it’s my diary and a way of self reflecting.

Keep thriving, follow your desire and seemingly impossible things can be achieved!

Focused on my future, career and goals which will benefit my clients and myself. Everything I learn will be passed onto others.

Diet – 95%

Sleep – 95%

Strength – 90%

Focus – 95%

Cardio – 95%

Mental drive – 100%

Goals and aims on target.

Very basic measurements.

Body fat around 12%. Ignore bodystat machine.

It’s been a good week diet, training, exercise and body fat wise. My fitness is good, I haven’t used the car this week and used my bike for longer travel and walking for shorter travel, thanks to the warmer weather.

Weight – 12.1stone (same as last week)

Body fat – 11.9% (1.2% down)

How I feel – Strong, fit and healthy. Cardio and fitness is good. Weight training I’m focused and pushing harder. It’s been a good week!

What can I improve on? Cut out the big bag of crisps at night and my diet will be as good as it will get. Everything else I feel I have done well with.

That’s all for now… Next week I’m away so lets see how it goes in 2 weeks time.

Before I start typing my thoughts on this, I just want to state that each individual is different and may have different struggles. I am not trying to put anyone down and I’m fully aware that some peoples comforts are food and some people struggle with motivation for different reasons. I would still like these people to think now before it’s too late and the old problem is healed by time and the new problem becomes depression from your physical self. – Reaching Goals Together

The most common and obvious question people ask me is, ‘can you help me lose weight’? There are many meanings to this so to start, lets break it down.

Weight is a measurement of the overall mass of your body. Adding or removing clothing, hydration, exercise, muscle mass, body fat etc can all determine and alter your weight daily and so we need to figure out what you are suggesting by the word weight. Almost all the time people are referring to body fat, but this is a whole different thing.

A boxer may dehydrate themselves to reach a target weight before a fight, this is losing weight, but not fat.

Body fat is the amount of fat you have on your body. That’s simple enough to point out right? So if someone wants to drop body fat, then sacrifices will have to be made somewhere along the line. In very simple terms your body requires energy, which is food and your body will expend food as a form of energy, i.e moving, breathing, eating, toilet, bodily functions and so on. If you expel more energy than you consume, you will lose weight. Although it’s not that simple.

If you have a consistent diet and you are maintaining your weight with little to no exercise, then by reducing your calories and/or adding exercise to your daily routine this will help you lose body fat. If you do start training with weights and even increasing your calories slightly, then you may maintain the same ‘weight’ but your body composition can change. How will you determine the difference between the two?

Rather than just using weighing scales, add another form of measurement on top. For instance, photos, mirror, skin fold callipers, fitness notes, tape measure, body stat machine and so on. This will give you a better overall and easy idea of where your heading.

Let’s talk about sacrifices and what is important. In my opinion, there is nothing more important than your own body and mind. Your body is your vehicle and without it, life can be challenging. Just like your means of transport, car, bike, horse and so on. If they are not working, then it massively sets you back. If you don’t maintain your materialistic vehicle then things will break down. Age will factor in with this, but maintenance and looking after your vehicle will certainly benefit you in the long run, just like your body.

So what are you willing to sacrifice? You may have to remove the foods you enjoy, recreational drugs, the people you hang around with, the daily routines you follow and all sorts of things that you have been doing for years without realising. The sacrifices will be tough, but once you get into routine, your thought process will change and you will understand that the sacrifices are worth it.

The most important thing to do when you want to lose body fat is to stop eating the junk you keep ramming into your mouth. You can’t have your cake and eat it, unless you are happy with how you are. Obviously obesity brings all sorts of medical issues along with it such as diabetes, painful joints, cancer, stroke, depression, lack of motivation etc. I’m not trying to upset anyone, these are facts and sooner or later, you may have to face them. People ask me daily, how can I lose weight and I answer them by replying, ‘ what are you willing to sacrifice and how badly do you want it’? The majority of the time they are enthusiastic during the conversation and then go back to the same old ways, which leads to the same old body. It isn’t easy, I know this. I had to change my life around completely and gave up everything I enjoyed for around 3 years. No alcohol, cleaner diet, weight training, walking and so on. The sacrifices are real and you better be prepared to face them if you want to make positive changes.

When people ask me how often I train I will say 3 x 45 minutes per week. Although this is true when it comes to weight training, I also add in some other activities where possible. If I can walk somewhere then I will, If I can bike it, I will. I class these more of ways to commute rather than training. I do not count my general walks or bike rides commuting as a workout, they are just a means of transport. It certainly burns more calories and helps my internal organs function better with the fitness, but it’s not what I class as working out.

I weight train 3 days a week for approximately 45 minutes per session. Monday, wednesday, Friday.

Day 1 – Back, Biceps Abs

Day 2 – Chest, Delts, Triceps

Day 3- Quads, Hamstrings, Calves

I also do 30 minutes casual walk on the treadmill every morning, fasted.

I bike as much as I can or walk where possible rather than using the car.

I keep my diet clean, although I have been drinking more alcohol over the holidays, yet I still stick to my diet. (Alcohol has set me back a lot this last couple of months, it is poison after all)

And that’s sort of it. 3 x 45 minute weight sessions and the rest are activities I do. I try to do this religiously and anything else on top is classed as exercise. These are just standard things I like to do to keep my body functioning the best I can at this point in time.

I’ve gone well of topic so lets bring it back. What will you sacrifice?

This all comes down to you and what you are prepared to change in order to become the better you. Changes will not happen unless you want them to happen. No Personal Trainer can help you if you don’t have the desire to positively change yourself. I can write you a diet plan, draw up a training program to suit your goals, drop you a few messages to keep you on track, but at the end of it all, it’s down to YOU! I totally understand you don’t know where to start and that’s ok. How’s about turn the TV off, get off the sofa and go for a walk around the block. Does that sound like too much hard work? If so then you don’t want to change and you will make up all the excuses possible until the day comes when your health is so poor that you have to do it or face the consequences. It’s harsh, yet true. If a PT has several clients to look after, then they simply cant keep ringing you, going over the same things constantly if you cant reach within yourself to make the change.

I feel that I’m having a bit of a rant there and I’m not. All I’m trying to do is plant a seed in your head and give you something to think about. If you do want to make changes then your thought process right now should be to get up and go for a walk. If that’s not possible due to limitations then stand up and sit down on the sofa or a chair 20 times. There’s your starting point. The next step will be alcohol and nutrition. Alcohol is poison and not only does it grab you and consume your desire, it is also killing you slowly from within. Yes, I do like a drink and as my diet is clean, I really feel the negative effects it has on me. Nutrition, remove as much sugar from your diet as possible and cut your portion size down. Eat more fibrous carbohydrates (google fibrous food and educate yourself at your own leisure) less saturated fats and trans fats (google) consume healthy fats such as polyunsaturated, monounsaturated (google). Consume more lean protein, chicken, white fish, eggs etc. If you are looking for plant based alternatives like me then search my blog for plant based diet and I have pages based on that.

There’s some things for you to do, if you can’t exercise then change your diet. If you cant do that then educate yourself with the internet. There are things you can do right now unless you have excuses. The question I keep asking is, what will you sacrifice? Yet the real question should be, how much control do you have over yourself?

That’s enough for now. I’ll update this in a couple of weeks and if you are still reading this thinking you need to make a positive change to your life and you still haven’t then you need to question who’s in control of you. Don’t let the excuses control you and do something about it. You have one body and when it’s gone, it’s gone. At least try to maintain it the best you can.

Do it for you!

If you need any help, e-mail me HealthandHIT@gmail.com If you need group support, we can do that too. #ReachingGoalsTogether