Exercise will increase your energy levels and reduce your stress levels, but at this very point in time, when you most need to reduce stress levels, the idea of taking on more tasks can seem daunting and likely only to increase stress levels further – it can become a catch 22, as you feel too stressed to fit everything in.

So how do you deal with this catch 22 situation? How do you make sure that adding an extra time commitment into your already busy life doesn’t increase your stress levels even further?

Firstly, you need to take some time out of your busy life, and assess where you are and where you are going. Goal setting and analysing what you want from life as a whole can often make us see life from a slightly different perspective. A lot of the things we are busy doing are not the ones that we really want to be focusing on, or the things that are most important to us. It is this that makes us stressed – that nagging feeling that we are really busy, but not managing to do the important things.

You need to make the commitment to becoming healthier and remind yourself what the results will be – it’s not purely about aesthetics and looking good, but it really is about being healthier and more energised. You need to prioritise your health in order to effectively deal with all that life throws at you and remind yourself that once you have made the time to fit in exercise, you will have more energy and be able to achieve more throughout the rest of the day.

Until your health and fitness is high enough on your priority list you will always find other things that get in the way.

When you have fully accepted its importance you can then set about making time – as this is the key, time is not something that is just found! Once you have acknowledged that you are going to make health and fitness a priority it is time to look into how you can create space in your life to fit it in.

Are there things cluttering up your life? Are they all really that important? Could you spend 30 minutes less time on the internet or watching TV in the evenings and use that time to squeeze in a training session? Can you delegate certain tasks?

We often feel that ‘to get a job done properly I might as well do it myself’ but sometimes we need to let it go, allow someone else to ‘learn’ to do it for us! It may not be perfect, but it will free you up some time!

Consciously looking at the way we respond to stressful situations can make a huge difference, too. Are you stressed because you are in a rush, or rushed because you are stressing? I practice a lot of yoga, and often have to remind myself when in traffic between clients that while a few good deep breaths won’t make the traffic move any faster, or get me there any quicker, it certainly will make me calmer and the journey more enjoyable – I can’t change the time I arrive by being stressed, but I can change the way I feel when I arrive!

Another important element is matching your exercise intensity to how you feel on a particular day. If you are truly frazzled, then a really intense session may just wear you out even further, so choose exercises that are more energising, or perform a strength training session with plenty of rest between sets, rather than an intense circuit style approach.

There are days when I know that I need yoga, rather than anything else, in which case that is what I will do. My body and mind thanks me for it and I ensure I am ready and raring to go for my next intense training session.

This is not an excuse to slack off just because you can’t be bothered, mind you, and you will often find that once you get started your energy levels increase!

Just get started with your warm up and have a plan, but be prepared to alter it slightly if need be.

On the subject of recovery, you must make sure you get enough. With the correct training plan, you do not need to exercise for hours every day to get results. You are far better off training intensely for 3 hour long sessions a week (or 4-6 shorter sessions) than training for hours on end at a mind-numbingly boring level.

This is perfect for the busy person in today’s hectic world as you can rest and recover, safe in the knowledge that you are actually increasing the efficacy of your programme by recovering properly.

Exercise is a vital tool for reducing stress and increasing energy, so it is worth making the time to fit it in. You will soon wonder how you coped without it!

We also need to take full responsibility for making these changes, and doing all we can to make them work for us.

Incremental changes to our diets and lifestyles mean that our new habits have a chance to become second nature. If you follow the newest ‘fad’ approach you will have some success while your willpower is involved, but these approaches do not stand the test of time as the minute you stop focusing on the diet you will slip up, going back to old habits.

This highlights another problem with relying on willpower, especially while following some faddy or extreme approach. By definition you are thinking about your diet a lot more than you would otherwise – so you are essentially tormenting yourself with your deprivation! Being aware of ‘being on a diet’ all the time, which is needed if you are going to succeed with willpower, means that your chances of success are immediately lowered – it is much easier if you are not constantly focussed on what you can and can’t eat, and if you can just get on with your life and keep yourself busy.

So, how can you avoid this all-too-common pitfall?

Well, firstly, a long term approach is vital. You can force foods you dislike down you in the short-term in order to achieve a short-term goal, but where does this leave you in the long run? Still reaching for the old favourites, that’s where.

Instead, think about finding foods you actually do like and incorporating these into your life – this takes a bit of trial and error to get right, but means that the healthy foods you are eating are ones you really enjoy.

Then, who needs willpower? Over time you will proabably also find your tastes change and eventually the foods you used to eat or even crave no longer have the same appeal. Once you realise how good you feel when you eat healthier foods, junk really does lose its appeal.

We need to enjoy the changes we make to our lifestyle, although I would also add that change can be hard and uncomfortable. We need to persevere with certain things even if we aren’t that excited about them immediately, adapting our approach to find ways to make the changes as enjoyable as possible.

For example, we all need to up our vegetable and fruit intake to 5 – 10 portions a day, but for many this is extremely hard. At first you may resist, insisting that this nutritional programme cannot work as you absolutely hate vegetables. But there are universal laws of good nutrition, of which vegetables are one! The solution is, again, in the long term approach. So try out several different methods to find something that works for you. When it comes to eating your veggies you may realise that while you hate boiled broccoli you love it when it’s added to a stir-fry with herbs, spices and garlic, for example. If you struggle with this side of things, you will need to begin experimenting with new foods and methods of preparation: you can try stir-fries, mashes or purees (mashed cauliflower and / or butternut squash is a fab alternative to regular white potato mash for example!), roast veggies (roasting sweet potato or celeriac ‘chips’ instead of regular chips!), various salads, exotic foods, new combinations, spices and herbs.

You can always find healthier alternatives to your favourites and all these small replacements can add up to big improvements to your diet as a whole – which will be evident in both your energy levels and your waistline!

For any plan to succeed for you in the long term you need to have the freedom to make choices. It is freedom to choose that empowers you, and as you learn which choices are going to support your goals and which are going to take you further away from achieving them. Rather than focusing on deprivation and willpower, focus instead on how you can make yourself feel great, while eating foods you enjoy and that take you a step closer to your achieving goals.

If you can take this a step further and imagine how it will actually feel to achieve your goal you are even closer to achieving your dreams.

Be as detailed as possible, get truly involved in your visualisation of the experience you will have when your goals and dreams have become reality. The aim is to take a few minutes each day to think about what life will be like when your goals are realised.

So, if you plan to embark on a 12 week fat loss programme, make sure you spend a bit of time each day visualising how fantastic you will look and feel in that new dress you’re going to buy, when you go out for dinner with your partner to celebrate your new body.

Or, if you have a holiday planned in a few months time, imagine how you will feel when you step onto the beach, feeling confident in that bikini you bought last year but couldn’t quite pluck up the courage to wear.

If you struggle with visualising unaided you should consider creating a ‘vision board’. You simply create a collage of images that you associate with success in your goals, and place it somewhere that you can refer to it regularly. Include a picture of a person who has the figure you aspire to sculpt, or it a photo of you when you were at your ideal weight. You can even add visuals of the deadline you have set – if your goal is to be super-fit for a trip to the slopes then an image of someone skiing, or if you want to look great in your bikini on the beach, get a picture of the resort you are actually going to and use that on your vision board.

You can take it a step further still and create a ‘mind movie’. It’s basically a movie version of a vision board where images that you relate to how you want your life to be are interspersed with positive mantras and statements. Watching this daily, especially before going to bed, can be extremely motivating as it resonates on an emotional and subconscious level. You wake up feeling inspired and empowered.

Visualisation works so effectively as we need to be emotional about our goals in order to truly make long term changes. The power of our subconscious mind is such that it can help us achieve our goals when we aren’t really thinking about them – meaning we rely less on willpower so challenges become far easier to overcome.

Where are you going?

Do you feel overwhelmed by information on what to eat and how to exercise to lose weight and get the body you have always wished for?
Well, you’re not alone!

The media throws out information and, more frequently, misinformation on a regular basis – as it is what sells papers, magazines and diet books!  You need to be a little more discerning to be able to filter the bad advice from the good, and that is where I am here to help!

Biggest Fat Loss Mistakes:  Number 1 – Believing Everything YouRead!

Rather than worry about dieting, you should go on a media diet instead!  That will stop the incessant noise that is telling you to ‘eat this’ and ‘do that’ which really means ‘buy these useless products’!

Although in reality, that is easier said than done, as the misinformation is shouting at you from supposedly healthy food packaging (a contradiction in terms!) and from supermarkets insisting that you must buy more of their healthy products to lose weight (another contradiction in terms – since when did eating more of anything encourage weight loss?!)

When it comes to articles in the press, don’t forget, that the journo is simply a journo – they are not an expert!  Even if they are referencing some out of context study, any link to ‘science’ is usually distant and used to give their statements more credibiliity.  Their agenda – to write something exciting enough to be read but mainstream enough to be accepted.

So, become the cynic.  Ask what is in it for the person giving you the information.  Of course, I want people to attend my bootcamps, but the advice I give my clients is only to get results – I have no other agenda, no ‘product’ other than results.  The same cannot be said for food products and diet books – they just want to be bought, and controversy or something ‘flashy’ is what sells more products.  The truth is not so sellable as everyone is after the ‘miracle cure’.

Biggest Fat Loss Mistakes: Number 2 – Searching for a Miracle Cure or Magic Pill!

The internet has a lot to answer for here – as it is all to easy to start googling ‘fat loss’ and ending up in that crazy, mesmirised state of ‘browsing’ where you end up believing claims that some incredible Amazonian berry is the previously unknown answer to all you needs.

Of course, in the cold light of day we must know this is simply never going to end in that miracle result, but somehow, it’s just so, well, compelling….

No matter what you take away from this article, please take away the simple fact that in fat loss, as in life, you get back what you put in.

You put the effort in with sound and regular training (quality is important here – more on that later) and also put in the work with cleaning up your diet, and results will ‘miraculously’ appear!

You take the easy route and don’t put in the work required, and suddenly it all seems so very hard.

You take responsibility and consistent action and things fall into place – you can get incredible results,  speedier and more exciting that I expect you believe right now, but the ‘Miracle Cure’ you are searching for is all within you.  You are the key, you have to do what needs to be done, and keep doing it!

Biggest Fat Loss Mistakes: Number 3 – You Think Aerobics is for Fat Loss

This is a common misconception, and links back to number 1.  The media are obsessed with spouting the same, tired and out-dated concepts, leaving you to

Cardio for fat loss?

suffer the consequences of not getting the results you deserve!

Take advice, instead, from people who get results day after day with clients – and whose livelihoods depend on it.

Full body exercises allow your body to move all of its 600 muscles in a workout.  You can generate resistance through your own bodyweight or by adding dumbbells or kettlebells to the mix.

Performing these kinds of exercises in a superset or circuit format, with minimal rest, can get your heart rate up as much, if not more, than plodding away on the cross trainer for another soul destroying hour.

But there is more to it than that.

Full body movements are the movements we use in real, day to day life.  And also in sports and other activities we may engage in from time to time.  If you give your body the opportunity to perform these movements regularly, you will be fit enough for anything that comes your way!  You also address and rebalance any imbalances and protect yourself from injury.

Steady, long duration cardio is repetitive and can cause imbalances as well as make any underlying imbalance or injury worse.

Also, if you perform full body resistance style workouts, you become stronger and leaner, and also keep your body guessing.

Steady state cardio or aerobics is very easy to adapt to, so yes, you get fitter to start with, but then your body gets used to what you are doing.  This is the reason most people start on a programme then stop getting results and start going backwards and finally give up altogether.

This goes for many popular gym classes – they simply do not have the ability to progress you as you get fitter.  You just need to wait outside a studio in your local gym on a regular basis to see that despite almost religious attendance, very few people actually get results.

I can eat this so long as I workout, right?

Biggest Fat Loss Mistakes: Number 4 – You Think You Can Out-train a Bad Diet

This is the biggest myth out there!

As a personal trainer, I get clients coming to me all the time who think they are just coming to me for some exercise – ‘my diet’s fine, I just need some exercise and the weight will just drop off’ is a typical comment.

But, without looking at the nutrition side of things, you will not get results, or you will get slow and uninspiring progress at best!  Some people even go backwards, as they subconsciously think they need more calories to make up for all their hard work in the gym!  Or they increase the frequency of ‘treats’ as their regular training habit makes them feel so virtuous.  Make sure you are making changes to your nutrition and build up over time if a big overhaul seems to much to take on.  Why waste all your effort training hard only to put the wrong fuel in the tank?!

People comment to me all the time ‘I bet you can eat what you like, doing all that exercise’.  Well, er, no.  Us trainers have to be super careful – being busy and active all day and needing to be on form and energetic all day long means it can be even harder to get the calorie balance right.  But we also know that we need to eat great quality foods, to keep us feeling and performing on top form.  As much as we are human and certain things tempt us as much as they tempt you, we know how bad the wrong choices make us feel, so choose better choices more often because we want to!
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It is about QUALITY and QUANTITY.  Simply reducing calories and paying no attention to where they are coming from wreaks havioc with your blood sugar, creates cravings and increases the likelihood of binges, and messes up the vital hormones that regulate fat burning and fat storage, as well as energy and mood.

But you can also eat too much of the right stuff – so you do need to get the balance right.  If you are gorging on nuts, drowning salads in olive oil or whatever, you may feel great, get fitter and look better, but the fat won’t be burned unless you need to burn it for fuel!

Work on the quality first, and remember that veggies are the cornerstone.  If I was only allowed 3 words of advice on nutrition, it would be ‘eat more veg’!  Well, maybe, ‘quit processed food’.  Hmmmm…. 3 words just isn’t quite enough.

Anyway, make sure you take nutrition into account alongside your training – they are partners that will, when combined, skyrocket your results.  Any programme that promises results without taking both elements into account will not get the best results possible, but even more importantly, will not get results that you can maintain for life.

And surely that is what you want, right?

Biggest Fat Loss Mistakes: Number 5 – You Forget that the End Goal is Maintenance

When we set goals we focus on achieving a number on a scale (usually arbitrary and meaningless) or achieving a certain size (a better goal!) and think that when we get there, we can finally stop our quest and relax, satisfied with a job well done.

Unfortunately, the way we maintain the results is by continuing to practice the new habits and behaviours that we learned along the way!  Which is why overly restrictive or unrealistic temporary methods will never work for the end result – maintaining what you have achieved.

When you reach your goal, you no longer need to be in a calorie deficit, but it is so easy to slip into the old bad habits – and it is these habits that led to the weight gain in the first place.

Training, good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is what gives you the results – you are a product of your habits.  So make sure that when you are embarking on your fat loss and health journey you are thinking about how these new habits will fit into your life – for good!

There may be some measures that are temporary, for when you are looking for speedy results (ditching the alcohol completely, sticking to healthy desserts for a while) and when you get to your goal you can ease off a bit and indulge a little more often, but the general, day to day habits really need to stay the same.

Act ‘as if’ you are at your goal from the start – imagine a role model who has the body that you aspire to and imagine what they have to do to stay in shape.  From the start, these are the habits you want to adopt, and you want to make them part of your life.

If you take all these factors into account, your success in your fat loss journey is guaranteed!

Fee & Sarah have been taking the AWESOME step of taking pics of some of their delicious, healthy creations!

This is such a great idea – you can even start a free blog where you post your food journal, include a few pics and even add all the rest of it – noting how you are feeling / measurements etc.  This is a really good way to keep accountable to each other – you can do this instead of the regular food journal and email me the link instead.

I did one a while back where I had to post ‘progress’ pics etc every day for a month – that was scary but kept me focussed!  You can check it out if you like, and see all the other guys who linked to it: Muscle in a Month…

This girl, Skwigg, is so funny and has a huge following of her crazy antics:  http://skwigg.tripod.com/blog/ and makes a fortune on the back of it, as she recommends products, authentically and honestly, to her loyal readers!  Well worth a read and an awesome pic of her green smoothie that is just like my daily breakfast!

Blogging about your personal fitness / fat loss / nutrition journey is really popular, especially in the US, and people end up getting even more social support out of it.  You can go to wordpress.com or blogger.com and set up a free blog super easily!  It is a really great way to chart progress – you don’t have to do the before and after pics, but adding those each month is good, too!

Anyway, just an idea – whether it’s all your healthy meals, or your results, or whatever, just an alternative to writing it all on paper.  I am actually logging all my food on a forum to get a bit of accountability for myself as this week is the start of my 16 week mission to drop 10lb before my wedding!   Which for me means tightening up on the ‘little things’, only have one night of wine a week (in fact I have totally given up wine, having 1/2 bottle champagne instead, to stop me feeling too deprived at lack of wine, saves calories too!) and not having ANY low grade foods, even in that Sat night meal – the champagne is my one ‘cheat’!  Luckily Karen’s raw choc is in group C, but got to limit that too, sadly….

Check out the omelette, complete with recipe below!  There’s also a link to a ‘sweet treat’ recipe if you want to give it a go:  http://toneitup.com/blog/raw-coconut-carob-snack-recipe-healthy/ (I would replace carob chips for raw cacao nibs)

Omelette ‘Fee’n'Sarah’ (well, if you can have an Omelette Arnold Bennett…)

4 eggs &  splash of water & coconut oil, ghee or pump action olive oil sprat to cook.  Use greaseproof paper to spread oil so you are just lightly lubricating the pan…
veg that roasts well & spray olive oil

Roast the veg (eg:  peppers, carrots, courgettes, red onion etc) in oven the night before, spray a little olive oil and shake around, and oven for 45 mins ish, or BBQ – ideally you would cook loads for dinner and then use the leftovers in this…
Heat oil in pan and add whisked mix of water and eggs. Cook 4 /5 mins before throwing in veg then put under grill, to cook top.
Fold over, divide in 2, grate Parmesan on top (optional) and serve with some lovely, juicy tomatoes and crisp salad….

Perfect as a breakfast, lunch or evening meal!!

“it was lush!”

I spent a recent camping trip being pretty healthy – sticking to my usual healthy eating with a few little extras sprinkled in here and there, along with plenty of activity windsurfing and surfing – but I still came back a couple of kilos heavier than when I left!

Some of this is fluid retention that usually goes in a couple of days (which is why I know it’s fluid as fat won’t shift that quickly!) but I think a kilo I can attribute to fat weight – and this was by no-means an indulgent trip!

Most of us experience this with every major holiday or even long weekend.

Despite being ‘good’ most of the time, the cumulative effect of these indulgent periods will really make a huge impact on the waistline if some action is not taken to immediately get back on track. This is one of the big reasons why people gain weight each year – without getting back to where you were previously you can easily keep gaining and gaining weight without even realising it.

It’s a good idea to develop healthier holiday habits: a holiday is a treat in itself but all too often we think we need to eat loads of the wrong things in order to enjoy ourselves! But if you can make the healthier choices while on holiday you can actually enjoy the treats all the more.

How many times have you looked through your holiday snaps to see photographic evidence of the weight gain?

Some tips:

- Drink plenty of water: You will dehydrate much quicker in the heat and we often mistake thirst for hunger.

- Avoid liquid calories: That ‘virgin’ cocktail is still choc-full of sugar! Juices may seem tempting but you are better off having a glass of water and a piece of fruit.

- Set yourself a ‘beer o’clock’ time: Alcohol does massively impact weight loss and will cause weight gain very quickly. If you skip lunchtime drinking you can save a load of calories, plus you will feel much better for it. Keep the alcohol to a pre-dinner drink and then while you are eating.

- Alternate water with alcoholic drinks: You will thank me for it when you wake up feeling fresh and able to enjoy your precious vacation! Plus you will halve the calories you take in.

And we haven’t even got to the food!

- Choose lean protein and fruit and veg first: If you have access to a buffet breakfast you are onto a winner: fill up on the good stuff first then if you must add the starchy carbs keep them to a small treat afterwards. You will still enjoy the taste but won’t need as much. If you don’t have time to make omelette and veggies at home you can ‘treat’ yourself to this when someone else is cooking!

- Enjoy new foods: Try a new fruit and vegetable each day!

- Have healthy snacks to hand: Buy fruit and unsalted, unroasted nuts to have as snacks throughout the day. If you are unprepared you will be more tempted to eat the treats that are everywhere.

- Enjoy the treats: Savour every last mouthful of the things you wouldn’t normally have: there’s no need to eat ice cream all day but make sure you fully appreciate it when you do!

- Think of it as ‘damage limitation’ so you can enjoy yourself without feeling deprived whilst also coming back from your holiday looking even better than when you left.

- Make sure you get straight back on track as soon as you get home, too. Consider a few weeks of extra-focussed nutrition and training to reverse any weight gain, or even to boost your results even further.

You often find that after a week off, or a period of ‘maintenance’ (holidays are usually a little over maintenance) you actually lose at a faster rate, so make the most of this turbo-charged window of opportunity!

By learning to breath more effectively and fully we can increase our energy levels and general sense of wellbeing considerably.

But learning to breathe effectively is harder than it sounds – we are so used to breathing incorrectly and we don’t even think about it. We have to first become aware of our breathing patterns and then re-learn new patterns.

Much like fat loss already! We have to re-learn patterns and new habits in order to reap the rewards, such as increased energy and wellbeing.

If you try to focus too hard on your breathing, you can easily get light-headed and even feel like you are hyperventilating. This is because you are forcing a process that is designed to occur naturally. You end up over-doing it a bit and lose all the benefits.

Rather than focussing on both the inhale and exhale, it helps to simply focus on channelling the exhale, lengthening the breath out until your lungs are completely empty. You don’t have to force the inhale or even control it – the body’s reflex response is to initiate the inhale part of the process at this point. So you can exhale fully, relaxed in the knowledge that the inhale will take care of itself.

OK, I see you may be a little bit confused about where I am going with this one, so let me explain.

When we start on a fitness and diet programme, with the intention of shedding that extra weight, we often focus on the wrong part of the process. We are so fixated on the results that we get frustrated and may even forget to focus on the steps we need to take to get there.

It’s a far better approach, especially at the beginning, to almost forget about the results altogether!

The results, like the inhale, will happen naturally, so long as the rest of the process is happening. If you are effectively making changes to your diet and lifestyle and are exercising regularly and consistently, then you will lose body fat. If you are following a programme correctly, then you don’t need to worry about the outcome. You energies are far better directed at making sure you follow the programme as best you can.

When we overly fixate on the results we can easily become frustrated or despondent, feeling as though all our efforts are being wasted. You might not see a great difference straight away, and the difference you see each day will be negligible as the process of fat loss is a gradual one, so to follow it every step of the way is counter-productive. By keeping this side of the equation uppermost in your mind, you set yourself up for self-defeating and self-sabotaging thoughts, such as ‘it’s pointless, I’ve not lost any weight today after all my hard work yesterday, I might as well not bother’.

Even if you manage to avoid that kind of thinking, you will be making the whole process much more stressful than it needs to be.

However, if you direct your energy into doing all you can to enjoy your healthy eating plan, and giving all you’ve got to your training programme, you can relax and let the results come to you. You are putting in the work, consistently, and there is only one way you can go. This way you avoid the emotional rollercoaster that occurs when you live by the morning’s scale reading.

Not to say you shouldn’t monitor or track your results, however. I weigh myself every morning, and log it. But I keep my distance from the numbers on a daily basis, and use it to track the overall picture. The weight may go up one day for hormonal reasons, or after a carb overload, but so long as the trend is going the way I want it to then I know things are on track. If the weight is going up over a period of time, I know I need to adjust my approach. But the approach is the important thing to focus on! The scales just provide some feedback, which should also be combined with other feedback, such as the fit of your clothes and the tape measure.

Keep your vision in mind, remind yourself of your goals, but direct that towards the part you can change – the behaviours. The outcome is actually out of your hands – we can’t accurately predict how we will respond to a weight loss programme. We may not achieve our goal weight on the scales, but get to our perfect dress size instead.

By thinking about the results every second of the day you set yourself up for a lot of pointless stress and worrying! Focus your energy instead on exercising and eating right – and let the fat loss come to you, naturally.