Preparation

It’s all in the preparation! Start preparing for all your Christmas indulgences now. Eat clean and train hard for the last few remaining weeks leading up to Christmas. Counter balance those units of alcohol and block of chocolate now so you can enjoy them guilt free over Christmas. By preparing now, you’re also saving some of the hard work you need to put in over January to get back to your best.

You only need 15 minutes to stay healthy in winter. Please read these fantastic tips from Alex Harris, commissioning editor of Men’s Health magazine. Survive winter and emerge healthier than ever!

Don’t shop on an empty stomach

It’s a well known saying and it’s true. We can’t avoid and nor should we, the Christmas parties and drinks. It’s a time to let your hair down and enjoy yourself and we can help ourselves at home by not shopping on an empty stomach. If it’s not in your cupboard, then it’s not going in your mouth! You’ll get plenty of people buying you boxes of chocolates and bottles of wine anyway so save your cash and your waistline by only buying the essentials.

Do plenty of walking

Sunlight is good for fighting off winter fatigue. We all feel it – all you want to do is curl up on the sofa and watch Miracle on 34th Street! Before you do, open those blinds and maybe have a brisk walk around the block to shake off those cobwebs. Also make your home environment as light and airy as possible so turn on those Christmas tree lights.

Get plenty of Vitamin D in your body

Vitamin D gives us healthy bones and teeth. Vitamin D also helps us fight off winter fatigue (see tip above). The sun is a good form of Vitamin D but it’s limited over the Christmas period and in the UK in general! Foods like fish, eggs and cereal are all great sources of Vitamin D so stock up now.

Please follow these four simple tips and enjoy your festive break. Merry Christmas!

And let’s face it, going to the gym or going for a run is not only hard work, it is also flippin’ boring. So what if there was a way for you to get fit, lose weight, AND enjoy yourself? Wouldn’t that be great? Well there is. In fact there are a whole host of different ways that you can get exercising whilst having fun, and personal trainer course provider Body Aidhave put together five of their favourites below.

Attend a Boot Camp

When you hear the phrase ‘Boot Camp’ it may be the thought of military drill sergeants yelling “Go faster you maggot” that spring to mind rather than having any kind of fun.

However, although unquestionably physically demanding, boot camps can be incredibly enjoyable to take part in. You’ll get to meet new people, work with motivated trainers who will encourage you all the way and you will definitely shed some serious pounds.

The Wolf Run

Remember when you were a kid and you’d play in mud and lakes for hours on end, just running around like a lunatic? Well the Wolf Run, lets you relive those crazy childhood days.

Based in Warwickshire and comprising of approximately 10km of natural and man-made obstacles, the Wolf Run puts the fun back into running, presenting its participants with an event that is as challenging as it is enjoyable.

Like with a fun run, it is all about the taking part, and it is also a great activity for a work bonding day.

Join a Dance Class/Sports Club

If you’re looking for something you can do on a weekly basis then signing up for a dance class or sports team is a great way of getting some exercise that doesn’t necessarily feel like exercise.

You’ll meet new people, perhaps even learn a new skill, but best of all you’ll be improving your fitness and losing weight at the same time! Depending on where you live, there will be all kinds of dance lessons available, be it Zumba, Salsa or Street dance, while most UK towns will also have some sort of amateur sports league at a local leisure centre or sports facility.

Pole Dancing Classes

One for the ladies perhaps, but it is a hobby that is becoming increasingly popular with people looking to find a new and fun way to exercise. They are designed for women of all shapes and sizes, and because ‘looking sexy’ has absolutely nothing to do with it, you only have to worry about having fun.

A fantastic all-body as well as cardio workout, pole dancing lessons will leave you fitter and more toned. 

Parkour/Free Running

Parkour (or Free Running as it is also known) turns urban environments into sprawling obstacle courses and playgrounds. Although it takes years of training and dedication to master the art, beginners’ classes are available all over the country, teaching the basics of Parkour while also helping to improve fitness and range of movement.

It represents a unique and fun take on more traditional keep-fit methods.

This means that receiving advice and guidance from professionals and experts can be of benefit. However, it also means getting help and assistance with what you want to put into your body. The old sayings of “you are what you eat” or “rubbish in, rubbish out” are all very true with respect to building muscles. The right diet can help you to feel great but there is also a lot to be said for taking supplements to provide you with further benefits in your muscle growth goals.

While protein supplements are very popular, you may receive more effective results by adding glutamine supplements to your regular routine. This is an amino acid and it has become a popular supplement amongst many within the body building and weight lifting community.

Glutamine is a very versatile supplement

There are many different benefits provided by glutamine and for this reason, it is considered to be one of the most versatile supplements. The human body has a number of amino acids in it but glutamine is the one that is most commonly found. As well as being found in the muscles, glutamine can be found in the brain, in your liver, in your lungs and even in your blood.

Help your muscle tissue to stay healthy

Scientific research has uncovered that exercise impacts on the muscle tissue, causing it to release sizeable doses of glutamine. If you work out regularly or in an intense manner, you may find that your glutamine levels will drop. In some cases, glutamine has been found to drop by around 50%. People working out intensely or regularly will find that their body uses up and gives out more glutamine than is found in a regular diet and what can be produced by the body.

One of the biggest reasons to add glutamine to your routine is the fact that it is an anti-catabolic agent. This means it can play a crucial role in preventing muscles tissues which are set to metabolised from breaking down. When the level of glutamine in the body falls, particularly after workouts, muscle tissue can be damaged and the body may enter a catabolic state. Therefore, adding glutamine to your body can prevent this from happening.

Take glutamine and stay healthy

A drop in glutamine can also impact on your immune system. This means if you are looking to stay as healthy as possible, topping up your glutamine levels makes a lot of sense. It is important to ensure that your immune system is properly fuelled when you are working hard. This can help to minimise the risk of overtraining and the negative side effects that come with this situation.

Another strong reason why many athletes look to boost their glutamine levels comes with the fact that it provides an anti-inflammatory benefit. This can help to reduce the level of inflammation that some athletes and body builders experience after a workout. For this reason, glutamine is also a supplement that is recommended for patients who are recovering from surgery or for people who have suffered burns, trauma and other ailments.

I’ve been fortunate enough to never feel the need to diet. I don’t even like the word to be honest. I think that being on a diet suggests it’s something that people do sometimes and not all the time. How many times do you hear people say “I’ve booked my holiday, I’m now going on a diet.” I believe in eating sensibly and use common sense every day.

To me, if you are educated in a way so you understand the food you consume and you know their nutritional value. You should never need to go on a diet. You will know that if you have a bad day, you can make it up the next and so on.

I also believe that people should always exercise, even if it’s just a little. If you can’t run or lift weights like me, just walking to the shops will help. Exercise combined with healthy eating, will help with your weight loss and increase toning.

Stacey wrote a great article a few months ago called ‘The Best Diet Ever.’ The title was just an attention grabber. Of course there’s no one diet that’s the best, it’s a combination of them all. We’ve all heard of people deciding to go on various diets, but are these realistic and sustainable? I don’t think so. I think whatever you decide to do needs to fit in with your lifestyle too. I have 2 young kids so having meals together is very important. How would it work if I was to say try Intermittent Fasting? I strongly believe in setting an example to my kids so is the right example to fast for numerous hours in front of them? If it’s good for me it should be good for them but it somehow seems crazy to ask them to do this. Whether these reports say it’s healthy or not, I’ll stick to giving my kids what I know works and that’s a balanced diet containing all the vitamins and minerals they need at regular intervals throughout the day.

There is one programme that I would recommend to you and it’s something my Wife used on the run up to our Wedding. It’s called ‘Weight Watchers’ and to me this is not a diet, it’s an education. The programme simply gives food a points system and you have so many points allocated in one day. As long as you stick to the points system, you’ll lose weight. You also get bonus points if you exercise, these points should still be used up in my opinion so you are correctly refuelling your body. Weight Watchers is also a realistic and sustainable programme. It’s something that fits in with your lifestyle too. You can sit around with the family and all eat together. On Weight Watchers you can eat food normally and count out the points before or after your meal but for convenience they also offer their own ready packaged products. The variety is huge and ranges from low fat breads and spreads to cakes, frozen desserts and fresh ready meals, all of which can be found in most major supermarkets.

I recently introduced a great website to my Wife to compare prices, it’s called mySupermarket. Here you can compare the prices of thousands of products. So for any Weight Watchers products, it’ll show you the best prices and deals in all the major supermarkets so you know which store is selling at the best price that day. They also have a special dietary food shelf which shows tons of diet, low fat and low sugar products. You can use the brand filter option on the left side of the screen to show only Weight Watchers items but it’s worth having a look at everything else for inspiration as well, you might get some meal ideas out of it. People think that it costs a lot of money to follow a diet like Weight watchers but with all the special offers out there it doesn’t need to be. On the mySupermarket dietary shelf there’s also an ‘on offer’ filter which you can use to see all the special offers available. As of today there are 71 Weight Watchers offers in Asda, 14 in Tesco and 30 in Sainsbury’s.

If you feel the need to diet and you are jumping between different methods, why not try Weight Watchers and see if they can transform your life? It may just work for you and don’t forget to shop online and use mySupermarket to get the best deals too.

Thanks as always,

Just a quick one today, why do I train? The answer is a simple one, I want to stay fit and healthy. For anyone reading this who does train, you’ll know one of the other positive things about exercising is that you’ll end up looking as well as feeling great but I didn’t start training to get ripped abs. Ask yourself this, why do you train?

For those of you who are thinking about starting to train, remember that I was in your position a few years ago. I’ve always been an active person so I didn’t have loads of weight to lose but I needed to change my mindset. I was getting myself into a bad routine and I felt if I didn’t change it soon, I could end up putting on weight without even knowing it. I needed a training and nutritional programme in place that would help and maintain my health and fitness levels.

When I started to train, I wasn’t just doing this for a few months leading up to my holidays and then forgetting about it. It was for life. As well as changing my routine and my lifestyle, I needed a realistic training programme in place. I don’t have the time to train everyday and this is something I don’t agree with anyway. I believe your body benefits just as much from your days off as it does on the days you train. I’ll leave this opinion to another article so watch this space. I currently exercise 4-5 times a week. This is perfect for me and more importantly, it doesn’t interfere with my family time. I train during the week once my kids are in bed and parkrunis early on a Saturday morning. When I completed my Pier to Pier run back in May, my family was with me so it was great!

I’ve never and never will be on a diet. I believe in using common sense and eating anything in moderation will lead to a balanced diet. I don’t calorie count and I don’t use supplements.

Having said all of that, what works for one won’t necessarily work for another. Everyone is different, so you must find what works for you. This article is about why I train so you need to ask yourself the same question or hopefully, why should you train? Deano, I and the rest of our writers are here to help you so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like any advice.

Stay fit and healthy folks,

What is the best diet ever?  Is it “Eat Right for your Blood Type” or Atkins?  Is it Dukkan, Paleo, Raw, Vegetarian or Vegan?  Or is it the diet that hasn’t yet been invented?  Maybe it’s the Food Pyramid after all?!

The best diet is none of these.  But it is all of these.

We have some basic food groups, they are: Animal (meat, fish, eggs), Dairy, Grains, Legumes/Beans, Nuts/Seeds, Fruit, Vegetables.  We are taught, that so long as we are eating these and minimising processed foods high in sugars and transfats then we will be more likely to maintain a healthy body weight and optimal health.

But then Mr Blood type comes along and tells us that if you are an A type, that grains are your friend and meat, not so much.  Mr Dukkan and fellow Paleo writers tells us that it’s meat all the way.  Raw Foodists tell us that nothing should be cooked and Vegetarians tell us that meat rots in our intestine.

So what these diets are telling us is that not all healthy food is healthy.  Wait, what?

They are half right.  Not all healthy food is healthy – but the only person who can determine that is you.  Not some diet writer and not someone who has only found data to support their particular diet regime.

Let me explain with some easy examples.  Grains are supposed to be good for us, but in someone with Colitis, grains can cause inflammation and gut issues which fires up the immune system leading to all sorts of other health conditions.

Dairy is supposed to be good for us.  But for those without the enzyme DPP-IV the metabolised casein molecule can swim around the brain as Casomorphine and cause psychological disturbance.

Onions are good for us, but if you bloat and fart, then just maybe your stomach isn’t happy with it.

The best diet ever is the one that keeps your body in balance.  The one that provides the foods for optimal function from head to toe.  Such things to consider are:

• Energy levels
• Sleep patterns
• Brain fog
• Weight maintenance
• Bloating and other digestive issues
• Elimination function
• Migranes and headaches
• Absence of food cravings
• Healthy functioning immune response
• Good hair, skin & nails
• Good cognition and lowered anxiety, depression or stress response

Food provides the building blocks to our entire body.  We all know this, but we struggle to listen to our body when finding out what it really needs, instead we listen to our brains or egos and diet writers.

It takes time to work out what the best diet is for you, and it will also change as the years pass.

There is a best diet, and it is the one that brings your body into balance.  A great place to start is to see what foods you’re intolerant to and to take time out and listen to your body.

The best diet for me is Paleo (meat, nuts, seeds, fruit, veges).  Eat right for my blood type tells me to eat lots of grains, but guess what – I don’t digest them well, so who is right?  Some book…or my body?

Start playing around with your food groups and write your own perfect and best diet while the diet writers and scientists battle it out amongst themselves.