body confident – Page 10 – Never Give Up PT

Fasting, Cereals And Chip Butties

My car mechanic friend doesn’t come round to my house and start fiddling under my car bonnet.

I don’t meet up with my dentist friend for him to suddenly tell me to say ‘aargh’ while he pokes a mirror around my mouth.

My football coach pal doesn’t enlighten me on the advantages of the Christmas tree formation when he comes over for a BBQ.

And I don’t nip round to their house and demand that they give me ten Burpees whilst preparing them a protein shake.

It becomes a little bit awkward, though, when a friend tells me that they are ‘fasting’ and might manage a slice of toast later. I nodded along with their intentions as I ate my chip butty on Scarborough South Bay. The smells of the freshly made doughnuts and fish and chip shops means that I manage to fast by the seaside for about 15 minutes when I’m there.

Two things sprung to mind as I turned my attention to the kids leftovers from their trays. ‘Rather you than me’, I thought. But my biggest thought was ‘Why?’.

Fasting is actually a form of dieting that I have a little bit more time for. After all, it isn’t a ‘fad’ diet. This is a method that was invented by the ancient Greeks and was endorsed by Hippocrates to cure illness around 400BC. So it’s perhaps much more bona fide than the newest trend that your friend Chantelle read about on Facebook.

Also, if we were to sleep for 8 hours a day as it is recommended we do then we are fasting for 8 hours each day anyway. But what happens when we wake up? Personally, I will make a fruit and spinach smoothie which in the scrictest of terms is breaking my fast, but I rarely have a meal of such. But this is the key. If you are to fast for any length of time, the moment that you do eat it must be packed with vitamins and protein. In other words, not just a slice of toast, a bag of crisps, a chocolate bar or (in my opinion) even cereals.

Cereals are hardly balanced and are high in sugar, sweeteners and preservatives. After a break of a fast (breakfast), cereals can spike your insulin levels extremely high. And what goes up must come down, right? Usually with a bang and very often before you get to lunch time. Yes, mid morning snacks are often because you started with the wrong choice of breakfast in the first place.

We often call breakfast the most important meal of the day. It’s actually a clever marketing slogan. But who planted this idea into our heads? Well, it was Dr Kellogg’s himself wanting to sell his newly invented breakfast cereal in the 1800’s. We have been spiking our insulin with sugar ladened cereals ever since. And as they market their cereal with cute characters on the box, the kids think they’re grrrrrrrreat too!

And still we wonder why the UK is fast becoming the leading country in obesity and diabetes. I would start my case right there.

Fasting is a term used far too easily with dieters. In my experience, what they are describing is a form of punishment. Skipping meals and eventually succumbing to a poor nutritional snack or meal is just another missed opportunity. The calories that have been avoided from skipping meals will be reclaimed in the occasions when you binge or snack.

Six nutritional meals will be less calories than 3 poor meals a day. After all, each one of these poor meals will only spike your blood sugar levels. Spike up, spike down, crave food and repeat. That is the process that most of us who struggle with weight maintenance go through.

How 99.9% of us fast in the UK would have Hippocrates spinning in his grave.

So whilst I acknowledge that I have the occasional chip butty and, in fact, most of my friends will see me eating and drinking poor nutritional choices (I don’t socialize and eat salad and water) what they don’t see is that around 80% of my nutrition is of high value with a training programme to boot.

If anybody were to ask me what I thought of their diet or their exercise routine I would be as honest as possible and offer advice. But if they don’t ask me, I’m not going to start telling anyone how to live their lives. Even if their diet sucks.

The Piano Stairs

If the only piece of equipment available to me in the gym was a treadmill I probably wouldn’t go. I don’t particularly enjoy running on a tready. I like training, but I certainly don’t like absolutely everything it involves.

With the closure of gyms during the first lockdown I had to find alternative ways to exercise. But I found that I were skipping sessions and not fully focussing on my training. I simply didn’t have the equipment available to me that really makes me happy. Jogging became a regular activity and I went walking with the family daily of course, but it wasn’t fulfilling my hypertrophy goals and the more sedentary period of my life didn’t help my weight maintenance. I craved a bench press, weight plates to deadlift with and decent dumbbells. That is the sort of workout I enjoy. It makes me happy. I like the results and I keep going back. That is my Piano Stairs.

In Stockholm, Sweden an experiment was conducted on how people’s behaviour can be changed for the better by making a boring everyday task more fun. Musical piano steps were installed in a subway instead of regular steps to see if more people would use the steps instead of the escalator. Results showed that 66% more people used the stairs than usual that day. If more proof was needed that people are more likely to engage in a fun activity than stuck to the mundane then that was it.

Yet when it comes to our health I don’t find it conclusive when I talk to the gym members. Walking on musical stairs for an amusing short period of time instead of standing still on an escalator makes sense, but put the same person in a gym and there’s a good chance that they will choose something safe and uninspiring. It’s important for me to point out that just because I don’t like the tready doesn’t mean that everyone else doesn’t either. If that is what excites a person and motivates them into going to the gym then that is what a large part of their training should involve.

Almost every day I will hear,”I get bored on the treadmill.” Or “I hate deadlifts.”

So why do they use a treadmill or perform deadlifts? There are literally thousands of exercises to do inside or outside of the gym. If there’s exercises that you don’t like, don’t do it!

There has to be a draw to keep going back to the gym. Yes, of course, you have your goals which might include feeling fitter and looking your best, but if you’re going to spend your time absolutely hating the process there’s a good chance that you won’t stick it out, whatever your goals.

I usually get a programme right when I send it to my trainees. However,during feedback if they tell me that there’s something that they do not enjoy I will change that particular exercise. There’s plenty more. We just need to find the right ones that make my trainee want to complete it and keep going back to it. That will give them a better chance of succeeding in reaching their goals.

So, I’ve found my Piano Stairs and I’m sure that my trainees have found theirs. What’s your favourite bits of equipment and exercises that keep you going back for more?

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The Dose Makes The Poison

You might have heard the term, “It is the dose that makes the poison” before. It is referencing the basic principles of toxicology and is credited to Swiss Physician, Paracelsus.

This is a term that springs to my mind when I am choosing my own meals, helping my children with their dietary needs and supporting my clients with their eating habits. I am thinking about the ingredients found in these foods that are known to have a detrimental effect on our health.

From just 5 minutes research, here are some of the ingredients that I found to be the leading protagonists in the ‘bad for you’ foods…

* Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

MSG is found in fast foods, takeaways, snacks, canned and processed foods. This additive is said to enhance and preserve the flavour of savoury food.

* High Fructose Corn Syrup

Found in sweets, breakfast cereals and juice, this is a sweetener made from corn and is used to replace sugar.

* Artificial Sweeteners

Another sugar replacement to heighten the sweetness of a food whilst keeping the calorie content low.

* Carrageenan

Derived from red seaweed, this is used in many vegan foods as a thickener and preservative. Along with dairy free products it is also found in cottege cheese, ice cream and coffee creamers.

* Trans Fats

A trans fat is an unsaturated fat that is hydrogenated to keep the shelf life of products such as biscuits, baked goods and margarine.

All of the above have very similar health risks associated with them according to research. Weight gain, headache, heart desease, cancer, inflammation of the cells and diabetes. So, does this mean that we avoid them at all costs? Do we start throwing out the ginger nuts and the box of frosties in a state of panic? No. Not if you enjoy them.

So here’s the thing. Unless you are on a totally ‘clean’ diet then I can guarantee that you have put at least one of these ingredients inside of your body today. And by clean I mean plucked that sucker out of the ground yourself or you’ve raised and slaughtered your own chicken. Other than that, when you enter the food industry for your meals, you will consume trans fats, preservatives, sugar or it’s alternatives in your food. The food industry is massive. The sugar industry alone is worth a 100 billion US dollars. This has been hit with the word getting out that sugar might actually be bad for us, so as to not lose out they develope alternative sweeteners as stated on the list above. Either way, the manufacturers will make sure that they don’t miss out.

In the UK, the found and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector contributing £30 billion to the economy annually and rising year upon year. Despite the nation’s health problems relating to our diets it will not stop them from creating this kind of economical growth. If it sells, they will make it.

But let’s take this discussion back to real life. Life in our daily lives and our homes. You are not overweight because you eat crisps. You will not get diabetes from the can of coke. You will not die of heart desease or get cancer from eating a takeaway.

What will cause ill health is the amount of crisps, cans of coke and takeaways that you have. The dose, as Paracelsus stated, makes the poison.

The reason that we keep going back to these foods is because it triggers something in our brain that makes us feel better while we eat it. Perhaps sometimes we feel guilty for over eating these foods afterwards but that instant hit whilst we are eating it overides any negative outcomes. Depression, low self esteem and failure kicks in as you feel the disappointment that, in some way, you’ve let yourself down.

But you don’t have to. You don’t have to stop eating what you enjoy and you don’t have to go through the pain of feeling anxious about food or the guilt that comes with eating it. Not if you begin each day with the mantra ‘The dose makes the poison.’ No food or drink is bad for you. The amount of it that you eat and drink can be.

I am currently helping many people become confident about their eating habits on my fitness platform. Please get in touch for any enquiries and remember…

It is the dose that makes the poison. You are in total control of that dose.

Food Glorious Food

Nope. The above isn’t me having a cold beer at the end of a working day. It is me (although I’m sure I have more hair in real life) but the drink is banana, cherries, spinach and water.

I’d rather it was a beer. Or wine. G&T even.

I’m half joking. The smoothie drink tastes much better than it looks and I know my habits. I don’t particularly like eating a banana. I don’t like getting a bowl of cherries to snack on. I don’t always drink the recommended daily water requirements and my mealtimes are sometimes rushed as my wife and I finish work at different times, pick the kids up from school, make their dinner and forget about ourselves until much later.

Nutrition isn’t always at the forefront of my mind. I have a very happy relationship with food. There is love, laughter, satisfaction and comfort. Everything that a healthy relationship should have. But I need to understand that this relationship is a two way thing. I can’t keep taking. I need to give too.

I enjoy pizza, kebab and Chinese takeaway. And I always look when Greggs shows a bit of leg in the high street. These days though I try to just look and not touch.

So I need to compromise. If I am not willing to eat ‘clean’, which I aren’t, then I need to meet half way. Occasionally, I will still have the foods that are considered low nutrition but in return I will eat the nutritionally dense foods. Now, don’t get me wrong, eating vegetables isn’t a difficult task for me to do. I can’t think of a vegetable that I don’t like. But fitting this in to a busy life along with all the other criteria’s we are supposed to meet within a waking day is bloody difficult.

My main goal when I set up The Balanced Plate Challenge was for my clients to feel comfortable with their eating habits. Nothing is banned and I don’t expect anybody to eat clean. But over time, they would be able to be in more control of their diet. They knew the nutritional value of each meal, high or low, and make informed choices about snacks, drinks and special occasions. Their relationship with food grows healthier and because of this it doesn’t feel like the hard work that they do in the gym is wasted.

My smoothie is just me balancing my nutrition. It is me acknowledging that to achieve what I want to both physically and mentally I need to put the good stuff in there.

I love food. All of it. I just need to keep it balanced for it to love me back.

shay.pt@hotmail.com

A Habit Loop

Although you can take a Habit Loop situation into any aspect of your life, seeing as I am a fitness coach I will apply this to your fitness journey for the sake of this article. A Habit Loop consists of a Cue, Routine and Reward.

But before we get to your fitness journey, I will initially point out an of example of a habit loop in my recent experience.

My 8 year old son is learning a set of 10 words each week at school for a spelling test. Studies show that he will have to read out these words around 30 times before each word will stay with him.

Cue… We encourage that he reads and writes these words for just a short time each day, usually after dinner.

Routine… He acknowledges that this will happen every day and he is prepared for this task.

Reward… He is encouraged by his spelling test results at the end of each week. By Monday, with a new set of words, he will be happy to begin the loop again.

But it is important to note. He might not get 10/10 in his test. He sometimes gets 8 or 9. It is his job and that of his parents and teachers to focus on the 8 new words he has learnt rather than the two he got wrong. He needs to praise and reward himself for his achievements, as does his guardians. This will connect the loop much easier.

We have to be able to accept that we will not always be perfect in what we set out to achieve. 10/10 will happen often, but it is the 8’s and 9’s that can make us stronger if we channel it into our loop correctly.

A Habit Loop must be formed when you are committing to a fitness goal. Ask yourself, ‘what is my cue?’

Your cue needs to be that first step. Joining a gym, buying the trainers and joggers, finding nutritious recipes to try, dusting off the kettlebells if your cue is to exercise at home, employing a coach or asking a friend to join you. These are all really good starting points.

Once you have taken that first step you need to develope your routine and plan when and where you will carry this out. Meeting a friend for a jog every Tuesday and Friday, booking gym sessions in advance or setting aside 30 minutes each evening to cook a nutritious meal are examples of your routine beginning to take shape.

Then you need to reflect on your work. You can do this daily or at the end of each week. How has your cue and your new routine made you feel? You might feel a little lighter and fitter, more energised, confident and pleased with yourself. Focus on your wins. Any failures don’t matter. Once you start the loop again you have many opportunities to put them right.

Forming new habits is difficult. In doing so, you are trying break old habits that aren’t working for you. And these old habits might have been festering for years. I ask my clients to reward themselves after a workout or at the end of each week. This doesn’t have to be anything materialistic or indulgent. It could be just reflecting on their performance and being proud of themselves.

Think about how to start your loop today. What will your cue be?

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About My Online PT Challenges

Kudos to the Personal Trainers out there that had to change their entire business plans and jump on the Online PT idea when the first lockdown hit in 2020.

I’m late to the party and, as always, I’m going to be totally honest as to why I was late…and explain why I have no regrets.

When the gyms closed due to the first lockdown, PT’s had to make a decision if they wanted to remain in the profession. They could continue via zoom video calls, use a fitness platform or freeze their clients payments until they could see see their clients in person again.

I didn’t want to do zoom and here is my brutal honesty. I saw lots of videos online of PT’s doing exercise routines and the links weren’t great, the sound was unclear and they looked uncomfortable, which was understandable, they wanted to keep earning money and had to leave their comfort zone. I didn’t do it because my house is where I was home schooling and entertaining the kids and there was somebody doing it better than anybody for free on YouTube. Joe Wicks smashed it during the first lockdown.

I had a fitness app long before the first lockdown, but I was never happy or confident with it. I’m not great with technology, but it felt clunky and bland to me. It would’ve been a poor replacement for my 1-1 clients had I put them on the app.

So I decided to freeze their payments and wait until we were able to meet in a park or on the beach. I stayed in touch through regular messages and phone calls if necessary, but I took no payments until I could meet them in person again. There were times where my wife and I worried as our savings dwindled down, but we didn’t really care about that. Our children needed us to guide them through the craziest of times and we needed to keep our heads in the game too if we were to succeed in giving them a positive experience. So I have no regrets about my decision.

Rather than rushing into becoming an online coach I dipped my toe into the world of technology and try out a few different fitness platforms on trial periods over the course of a few months. I knew that, to develop my business and be able to reach out to more people I had to go online. My previous gym that I trained at, based in the centre of Leeds, had 6,000 members. But when we moved to Scarborough the biggest gym had 2,500 members which is where I began training. It has been clear for some time that my reach had to be much greater and I love training people! I want a hundred happy people training with me at affordable prices rather than just a few who can afford it. I needed to give the masses a challenge!

I have currently got a number of challenges set on my fitness app that are being enjoyed by my clients. My newest one, which I have developed this month, is one that I know all about from my own experience. I’ve called it the 60 Day Dad Challenge.

I understand that having residence in a gym might give me an advantage in enabling me to work out and ‘keep fit’. After all, I’m not booked solid with back to back appointments. I have gaps in which to train myself. Most people don’t have that luxury. This is why I can develop any type of workout for any particular goals. This can be done at home, in an office or at the park and time needn’t be an issue. A workout can last just 20 minutes a day if it is designed and executed correctly.

Our lives don’t suddenly get any easier or slow down and when we become parents our one year old learning to walk is suddenly scoring top bins in his under 8’s football team. Where did that time go? It’s easy to forget that you have your own life too. I became daddy. I wasn’t a PT at the time and my own fitness was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted a decent nights sleep and, to make our lives easier, a takeaway for tea. I had always been active. From being a teenager I would regularly go to the gym. My physique and mental health massively improved because of it. But becoming a dad at 34 made me forget about myself and my own needs. It was fine for the most part. Hearing their first laugh and just cherishing their every move makes up for any sacrifices we make as parents.

But, for me, there was a moment of panic. My jeans started to not fit so well. I hated passing a mirror and if I did I’d breathe in. Getting up and down the stairs seemed a little tougher. My worry was that, if this is me now when my kids are toddlers, what will my fitness be like when they start school, become teenagers or become adults? It started to get me down.

I guess it scared me so much that it prompted me to not only get to the gym but become a Personal Trainer too! Obviously not all dads will take my path, but I designed a 60 day challenge so they don’t have to. He can work hard, give his love and support to his partner and children and feel great about himself without it having to take over his life. Dads can have support too. Dads can look good. Dads don’t have to worry about playing football in the park with their kids. Dads can be fitter and stronger than they were before they were dads, not just from when they were knackered being up half the night with baby.

I enjoy meeting my clients face to face, but I have come to love my online work equally. I still see their results. We can celebrate the wins and tweak the bits that need to change just the same as working with them 1-1.

Let the new challenge commence!

60 Day Dad Challenge!

MacGuffin Reps

It’s a long standing joke between me and my trainees that I’m a rubbish counter. I’ll often say 6 and, whilst under stress, the trainee will shout ‘That was seven!’

The truth is I don’t particularly care what number rep it is.

When asked about how many sit ups he did each day, Muhammad Ali said,”I don’t know because I don’t count until it starts hurting.”

My job is to give my client a target, for example a 12 rep set, with a weight that they will begin to ‘struggle’ at about rep 8/9. If they start to struggle from rep one, we’ve gone too heavy or not allowed enough rest period from the previous set. Having a number in mind what you would like to achieve is good as far as having a target, but it isn’t essential to your overall goals.

In my own training I call my reps a MacGuffin. Within the film industry this term is used to describe a character or an object that keeps a plot in motion without having any significance in the outcome of the movie. Think about the briefcase in Pulp Fiction and, even the much loved character in Star Wars, R2D2 was called a MacGuffin by George Lucas. Neither had a bearing on the outcome of the movies that they were in, yet were present throughout their films that they appeared in.

To follow the plot, the viewer thinks that they must pay attention to the object or the character. Indeed, as I train, I recognize that my MacGuffinesque reps won’t define the outcome of my workout, rather the weight and quality of those reps will. Yet I understand the need to to have them there. And if I do as an experienced trainer, most of my clients will need their MacGuffin too.

The important thing to remember is that the weight and the quality of your reps is what will get the best results. During your programming you should go through a variety of reps, sets, weights and rest periods anyway. This can help in avoiding a plateau. But one rep is going to better than 10 rushed reps with poor technique. The reason for poor technique is that you have not perfected your first rep at the correct weight. Get that wrong and the rest of your set is not going to get you the results that you want and in some circumstances will cause injury.

I have mentioned in a previous post about an older gent gym goer that generally trains at the same time as me. I’ve called him Hannibal because he is strapped up like Dr Lecter as they wheel him out of his prison cell. The only thing that is missing is the muzzle. The strappings, I’m concluding from experience, is because of his previous injuries. He will pick up the heaviest weights and quarter rep twenty times. Had he performed at a sensible weight and completed 8 perfect reps then I would imagine that he would have swerved many of his injuries.

But perfect reps aren’t sexy or cool. R2R2 isn’t sexy, it is just a character that provides a platform for the heroes. Harrison Ford was the eye candy. The briefcase in Pulp Fiction wasn’t cool but it was written into the plot for very little purpose. Samuel L Jackson was cool.

Not sexy (but my Henry hoover has a thing for R2D2)

The weight that I choose and the time I have my muscle under tension with that weight is my leading actor. My leading actor will play a significant part in the climax of the movie. Without the leading actor the movie could not have a satisfactory ending. The reps count just happens to be a part of the script and, if you’ve got the star cast in place, won’t have any bearing to the final scene.

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Meditation And Me

Sat alone or in good company in a safe space can be a perfect time to think, contemplate, dream, breath…

(sigh) I need to breath. When the weight becomes too unbearable to carry, my breathing makes it lighter. Every single breath. Inhale deeply my hope . Exhale sharply my worries.

I meditate to let it all go and bring in new challenges and restored belief to my life. To keep me grounded. To allow a vision into my future with past thoughts disabled and to think of my mortality.

My wife has just come back from a weekend retreat to the Madhyamaka Meditation Center near York which was, by all accounts, a great way to reset the mind. I’m hoping to go soon so I will tell you of my experiences when I return. Although this is Buddhist practices I am happy to engage with this type of meditation. I’m not religious. I’m very much an atheist and a weekend retreat to any religious facility won’t change that. However, there are many rules, practices and beliefs that an atheist humanist will live by that run parallel to many religions. Being kind to one another, being charitable, treating everyone equally, not focussing on materialistic things should all be stuff that we live by, religious or not. And meditating, perhaps something similar to prayer, is another that I choose to do.

Yet, my meditation is not asking anyone else or anything for help or advice. I’m asking myself for strength, clarity, a direction and sometimes closure.

When we lived in Leeds most of our friends where we lived were Christians. I guess as we became friends with one couple with a child of the same age it opened it up to begin friendships with their circle of friends too. I was often left a little jealous at what a great community they had formed with family gatherings, fêtes and trips. We were often invited and we attended some events so my envy didn’t stem from exclusion. It was simply that they had a bond and a belief together that was mightier than what we had with them. In my mind we would always be the outsiders.

As a kid I would pray for my family to live forever, or to do well in an exam, or for Charlotte who sat at the front of my class in Maths to at least look at me. I remember praying for Liverpool to win the Premier League too. Perhaps if God does exist he thinks that I did wrong so he put Pep Guardiola in the Premier League to punish me.

But that was my only experience of praying to a God and, just like with the bond that our friends had, there were slight envy towards those who prayed and felt reassured by it.

But I can’t pretend to believe in a God and my ‘spirituality’ only extends as far as science can offer an explanation. Whilst many religions believe in some sort of afterlife or reincarnation, my intrigue lies with the physicists who claim that our ‘energy’ continues after death. And if we are to believe the first law of thermodynamics then energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Energy can be transformed from one form to another or from one place to another but the total energy will remain unchanged. Therefore, every bit of heat, vibration and every wave of particle belonging to each and every one of us will be a part of the universe forever.

My method of meditation calls upon this energy. Sometimes I need to ask myself to find this energy to find the strength at certain times in my life. Perhaps this is how people feel in prayer? As a theist believes that there is a God out there to give them strength, I believe that there is energy and my moments of meditation is a chance for me to find it.

Traditionally, mine and many others methods to meditate will be to find a quiet place and focus on breathing. This is how I was first taught to meditate. Yet over the years I have found that the gym is also a perfect place. This might seem absurd to people. After all, we think of peaceful environments, not listening to grunting men and Dua Lipa blasting out of the speakers. But there are similarities to meditation and training. And the term ‘training’ is important here, as when we workout we are training our body to breathe correctly as well as the mechanical movements that we ask of it. We repeat the process over and over. The same motions, time under tension and our breathing techniques are practiced to give you change, strength and confidence in ourselves. To master it you need to practice for years. Training the body works alongside training the mind. Therefore I often train in a half meditative state. That is my focus. Oh, and in no way do I think I’m superior when I say ‘to master it you need to practice for years’. I’m not a master despite my experience. I’m a student and probably always will be.

The only times I truly appreciate my breathing is during training and meditation. Which is crazy when you think that this important function keeps me alive!

Whatever your beliefs, I think that we can all agree that finding your space and your time away from the daily grind is important. It might be in a church during prayer, in the gym or a quiet room at home. Moments of calm can give us a little bit of energy to find our strength to carry on. It becomes YOUR time. And if your life seems out of control sometimes, I’d schedule it in to your diary as a very important appointment. An appointment that you cannot afford to miss.

Are Meal Plans Any Good?

I don’t know anybody who doesn’t have moments of sadness, anxiety, general pissed offness or, in many cases, depression. At some level, we all suffer from these emotions.

Out of all of the people that I have ever known to be in either a low mood or in the full depths of depression around 99% of these people will, to some extent, lose control of their eating habits. A busy lifestyle, work, family stuff, bills, illness, body image and the curve ball that everyday life throws at us can all contribute to that.

And this is the one reason why I don’t understand prescribed meal plans created by Personal Trainers to their clients. These meal plans can range from £50 to thousands of pounds in my experience. I’m open to hear from anybody who has had a positive experience with a meal plan that somebody else has created for you. I don’t want to dismiss it completely. I just don’t get it. How can anybody fully comply with a meal plan?! Unless you’re an elite athlete and it is your job, I don’t see how you can.

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Here are my top concerns with meal plans and non compliance…

1. Your friends decide to go out for a meal and invite you. Will the restaurant’s menu include the delightful Baked chicken tenders with five cherry tomatoes, a quarter cup of diced cucumber and one teaspoon of light French dressing which is what your PT has told you to eat tonight? You think not, so you decline their offer.

2. You’ve been to the gym early this morning and worked hard in your job up to lunch time. You’re hungry as you have used up a lot of energy. Yet the one large pear followed by the one large boiled egg worth 210 calories in your lunch box doesn’t really appeal to you. You eat it but your belly is left rumbling for the rest of your shift.

3. You take your fourth Jacket potato of the week out of the oven and think, ‘I just can’t face another one!’ And the tuna with light mayonnaise is becoming a chore too.

Each scenario adds to a little bit more resentment and, ultimately, lack of compliance. You keep crashing. You feel demoralised. You begin to wonder what the point of the whole process is. You’re unhappier than before.

I have found that to reach weight loss goals we have to identify why it is that we think a meal plan needs to be put in place. I haven’t met anybody who is overweight not know that an apple is better for them than a bag of crisps. Or a spinach salad with light dressing is better than a pizza. I believe that we over eat or choose less nutritionally dense foods due to our emotions. The strongest food cravings often hit at our weakest point emotionally. We can find comfort in food several times a day, consciously or sub consciously.

And without doubt the fast food chains and endless promotions on low nutritional food are always on hand to give us a little ‘pick me up’. The temptations are everywhere, but will they go away just because Zoe from TeknoGym wrote you a meal plan? If I’m entirely honest I’d be more inclined to get a pizza slice from Greggs than face another open face waffle sandwich, just to piss Zoe off.

You need to stop labelling foods good, bad, treat or syn. Your relationship with food will only end up being a negative one. And rather than having a fixed meal plan written by someone else, you can start developing a plan that works for you. Batch cook some of your favourite sauces, make a list of the nutritious foods that you should be enjoying often but make sure that you are still allowing yourself the foods that you can enjoy less often. Identify your triggers. If you know that a stressful incident at work or at home is followed by eating a family sized bar of chocolate then replace it from your cupboards or desk drawer with either something sweet but smaller or, if you’re feeling ready, replace it with carrot sticks, fruit, nuts or seeds.

Little changes make a big difference. These little changes are far more effective that one massive overhaul of your diet. You don’t need the perfect diet. You want the one that works for you in the long term.