1. Eat Up
"Skinny people really tick me off; especially when they say things like: "You know sometimes I forget to eat." Now, I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name and my car keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat." Love that quote for a couple of reasons: 1. It makes me laugh and 2. It makes sense; trying to lose weight by denying yourself food just isn't that smart. When you miss a meal - particularly breakfast - all you are doing is storing up trouble for later on in the day and making yourself deeply unhappy into the bargain. My advice: have a good breakfast with plenty of protein and carbs and then eat little and often throughout the day. If you're going to cut down (not cut out) a meal, make it dinner and avoid eating late at night. If you would like some help with your diet talk to our coaches.
2. Visualisation
There's a study from the 60s in which young basketball players are separated into three groups and asked to shoot free throws. One group practiced every day, another group didn't practice at all and a third group imagined making the free shots. When the time came to be tested, the group that had practiced every day showed the greatest improvement and the group that did nothing made no improvement at all. But what surprised everyone was the fact the group that imagined making their shots improved almost as much as the group which had practiced. There's loads of research since that time that confirms these findings. My tip: Visualising your fitness goals is a powerful complement to your exercise programme. See yourself where you want to be, then go for it.
3. Change
"No problem is too big or complicated that it can't be run away from." Charlie Brown is such a wise soul, don't you think. The thing with challenge and change is that we often set out with the best of intentions and then, somewhere along the line, life kicks in and they disappear out the window. Here are a couple of ideas that you might help you get to where you want to go: Think about a couple of things you'd like to create a new habit around. Make the new behaviour achievable - taking up base jumping might have to wait for phase two - and go for easy changes to start off with. Figure out what the benefits of the new behaviour are and write them down. Then commit to implementing the new behaviour in your life for thirty days - no more, no less. If you share your plan with our coaches, they will support you too.
4. Running
Who knows what the weather's going to do in March but the nights are lighter, Spring is in the air and that's good enough for me to think about going for a run. Here's a bit of advice from for those of you who are considering doing a bit of social running this year: Enter for a fun run around the end of April-beginning of May (goals are always good). Start slowly and build up - walking, to run-walk, to jogging is good. Keep your posture upright; relax your hands (which will relax your body) and look ahead, not down. If the going gets tough remember the words of the legendary Walt Stack who ran well over 60,000 miles in his life: "Start slow, then taper off." Talk to the LA coaches for more advice on a fun running programme.
5. Massage
"They say that the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started. So I looked around to see all the things I started and hadn't finished. Today I have finished one small bottle of Grand Marnier, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of scotch, my Prozac, a small box of chocolates and a half-gallon of rocky road ice cream. You have no idea how good I feel." Not sure who owns this lovely piece of wisdom - if it's you let me know. Another way of dealing with stress that may be lightly less damaging is massage. A good massage will help to flush out toxins, keep your muscles supple and relax you physically and mentally. My advice: upgrade massage from a luxury to a necessity and reap the benefits. Our coaches will give you more information.
6. Muscle Loss
The bad news is that between the ages of 20 and 40 the average female loses 3.6kgs or muscle and gains 10kgs of fat. And between the ages of 20 and 80 the average male loses a quarter of his muscle mass. Researchers at McMaster University in the US compared a ten week programme of aerobic exercise with a similar programme combining weight training and aerobic exercise. When aerobic and strength training were combined there was a massive 109% increase in endurance and a 43% gain in arm strength and a 22% gain in leg strength (source Australian Fitness Network). Given that 78% of all statistics are made up, the bottom line is this: If you want to stay in great shape as you get older mix strength and aerobic training. Our coaches will help you with that.
7. Plateau
Ever had that feeling that you are just going through the motions in the gym? Thought so, most of us stall every now and again. The smart thing to do when you hit a road block is back up and figure out a different route and that's exactly what you should do in the gym. My advice would be to talk to one of our coaches and get a programme change. The four elements that they will look at are how often you work out (frequency), how hard you exercise (intensity), how long you exercise for (time) and what kind of exercise you are doing (type). This is called the FITT principle and by manipulating these factors our coaches will get you back on track in double quick time.
8. Cholesterol
If I told you that your LDL cholesterol was too high but your total HDL and total cholesterol levels are okay would you a. Put your affairs in order and prepare for the worst, b. ignore it - two out of three ain't bad, right? or c. take a look at your diet. I'd go for c. if I was you. An above average LDL cholesterol level (that's the bad stuff) needn't be the end of the world if your HDL cholesterol (that's the good stuff) is also above average - thus bringing down the total cholesterol score. But loads of the waxy white stuff floating round isn't that desirable anyway, so what should you do? Reducing the fat in your diet will help to decrease LDL levels and regular cardio exercise will increase HDL levels. Do both and you can probably carry on buying green bananas for a while yet.