diet – Page 2 – Never Give Up PT

Eating Healthier On Workout Days

I’ve just trained at the gym and I’m waiting for my quinoa to cook. I’ll be adding a tin of mackerel and a dash of piri piri sauce to this when I plate it up. Nothing too extravagant, but it does pack a punch in the macro and vitamins department.

And yet, if I’m honest with myself, had I not trained today I would have opted for a couple of cheese bagels with mayo and mustard. Delicious yes, but it hasn’t got the same nutritional value.

I find myself doing this regularly. On training days I will always want the healthier option. And studies show that it isn’t just me. In a recent study at the University of Texas it assembled 2500 people who did not exercise regularly and ate less nutritional foods on a daily basis.

They were put on an exercise program and told to keep a journal including their eating habits. They were asked not to change their diet.

However, within a few weeks it was highlighted that over half of those who kept to their exercise program did change their eating habits. They would often choose fruit, veg, lean meats, fish, nuts to eat on training days.

But what these studies don’t identify is WHY their habits change. So, seeing as I do exactly the same as those in the study in Texas I might be able to shed some light on why.

First of all, I enjoy fried foods. I am currently loving the homemade ice cream that my wife keeps making. I prefer cheap white sliced bread. Cheese would make my top 5 of favourite foods and kebab meat would probably rank pretty high too. I drink beer and wine. I enjoy food. But there’s a physical and psychological process that happens once I train.

Physical

I work hard at the gym. During and after my workout my body feels it and it is my body that demands what fuel is put into it in order to recover. Although the want for fried, less healthy foods don’t go away, the craving for food that compliments my workout and the recovery is very high.

Psychological

I’ve just put an hour of my time into feeling fitter and better about myself. I feel a little lighter and I feel body positive. My need for less nutritional food is not so high that I am going to step out of the gym and go straight into Greggs for pasties and sausage rolls. Today is a good day. I feel good about myself. The endorphins that are released during my workout have triggered a happier, satisfied me. My cheese bagel sounds great, but it’ll be there for another day. For now, I don’t want to feel heavy through stodgy processed food. This food is comforting, but I already have those endorphins racing through my body to comfort me. In other words, I don’t want to feel like I’ve ruined a good workout by eating the wrong food.

When I keep goals very simple such as feeling better about myself, looking fit and healthy for my age and helping myself stay mobile for as long as possible throughout my life then the answer is easy. I can still eat all of the things that make my top 5 of favourite indulgence foods but I am also programmed to give my body what it needs.

Of course, if I were to develop more complex goals then my nutritional needs may become more acute, for example, training for a marathon or a sport at an elite level, a certain weight target or for medical conditions. But I’m not.

The Bottom Line

In an ideal world we would be eating the healthier ‘clean’ foods all of the time, but it isn’t an ideal world. Sometimes you need to grab and go as you work towards a deadline in your course or job. The kids swimming lessons are straight after school and you can only manage a packet of crisps as you scramble them into the car. Or you’ve been invited on a night out and you want a few gin and tonics.

But effort and preparation goes a long way if you keep goals simple. Being more active and giving your body some nutritious food can simply become something that you do. You become programmed to it because it makes you feel good after an activity.

An apple, beans or quinoa might never be in your top 5 of your favourite foods, but they don’t have to be. They just need to exist in your diet to begin with. There’s no such thing as bad food, just bad habits. And I think the key to creating better eating habits lies with us taking some time to exercise regularly.

A Cheesy Joke

A big motivation for me to write my blogs was always to dispel the myths surrounding our health and fitness so that we could safely enter a fitness program or nutritional journey without wading through the murky waters that are bogus articles, magic pill advertisements and other fitness professionals giving out misinformation.

A fitness goal should be fun to embark on without unnecessary jargon, untruths and charlatans making it stressful.

And so I feel it necessary to come to the defense of the humble cheese, grilled or not grilled, for my latest findings. As this week, a gym member approached me to ask if it was true that grilled cheese adds more calories to non grilled cheese.

This is a very valid question, especially when you consider that it was a fitness professional who told her. After all, they’re the ones in the know right?!

But after thinking about how this could possibly be, the gym member looked for a second opinion. I must admit, the logic and the simplicity of the answer that I wanted to give (a resounding no it doesn’t!) Couldn’t leave my mouth. It could be that the fitness professional had done their research into this and knew more than me on the subject. So I said that I doubt it, but I’ll do some digging and find out for sure!

Rule number one for any budding Personal Trainers out there…don’t be afraid to say that you aren’t sure but you’ll get back to them with an answer. And even if you do know the answer, say that you don’t know but you’ll get back to them. You want their contact details remember! But it also stops you from being a bit of a know-it-all and, as this post suggests, one day you’ll give a wrong answer without doing your research.

Ok, back to cheese.

My findings were clear and just as I had thought. The calories do not get any higher from grilling it.

However, and this is perhaps where the confusion lies, it becomes easier for the body to digest cooked food therefore the body works less than when digesting raw food resulting in the body burning less calories. But the numbers are small. It’s like having 8p in your piggy bank when you need to save £20,000. It won’t make a huge dent.

Still, this doesn’t apply to grilled cheese. But could there be another reason to believe that grilled cheese is higher in calories than non grilled cheese?

Hmm. There is a theory that we tend to over indulge when we eat cheese on toast or toasties. We might add butter or use oil before applying the cheese perhaps, or maybe choose white bread instead of wholemeal. Yet it doesn’t change the caloric make up of cheese. The issue here is on a person’s food prep habits, not the cheese. It’s like feeling bloated after eating a full strawberry cheesecake and blaming the strawberries.

I love cheese. I’ll eat it in some form almost daily. Although I wouldn’t advise following my addiction to cheese and eating too much of it too often, I would recommend eating a cheese toasty or a cheese on toast occasionally.

It’s even better on cheap white bread, but don’t tell anyone I told you so.

Extreme Dieting

We get so wrapped up in extremes these days and, perhaps in the age of the internet, it is more apparent than ever for us humans.

Everything we do and say is often interpreted as a hyperbolic representation of us as individuals. Others do it to us, but we are likely to do this to ourselves too as some sort of self fulfilled prophecy.

If you publicly laugh at an Alf Garnet joke you are judged to be a right wing fascist and if you welcome black mermaids in a new kids Disney movie then you are labelled a woke looney lefty.

I do both. I confuse the extremists.

But something very dangerous is happening to our culture that I, as a personal trainer, feel should be addressed regarding what we eat. Diets are becoming more and more extreme by the week.

I decided fairly quickly in my life as a PT to avoid creating meal plans for my clients. Even if they specifically asked for them, if they were not an elite athlete that had to continuously hit certain weights (boxers, jockeys) and macros then it was not necessary. The average gym goer will not benefit from such an extreme method. And if a fitness professional demands that you follow a meal plan then I would suggest that they are trying to upsell their product.

Apps such as calorie and macro counters are usually a good place to begin a weight loss or muscle hypertrophy journey. Even then, they are only necessary for a few weeks until you can discover what each meal can provide in terms of nutrition.

But the problem with meal planners is that they are…

A. Designed by someone else.

B. Do not account for your different moods or hunger throughout the day and

C. Can cause you to feel demoralised when you cannot follow it.

My life, for example, is not so well structured that I am able to prep and eat a certain meal at a certain time of day every day. Will I always have those ingredients in the kitchen? Will an emergency at work or home derail my timing? With food costs going up, will I be able to afford these meals? Is my PT telling me to buy, prep and eat all of this while he plans my life in his bedroom and his mum makes him his tea?!

(The last one actually happens, trust me.)

And what if I miss a meal or find an alternative food? Does this waste all of my previous efforts? Should I just give it up as a bad job? Maybe I’m just not ready to lose weight/become healthier/ build muscle.

No!

It means that I’m human. I’m not programmed to eat half a chicken breast, one handful of broccoli and one cup of rice at 12:30 just because it is written on a piece of paper on my fridge door.

Yesterday, I had the following breakfast…

Two white buns, buttered. Inside each of them I put one slice of bacon, one hash brown, one fried egg, mushrooms, one slice of black pudding and baked beans. Here’s the evidence…

I enjoyed every guilt free moment of it because I have no restrictions on my diet. But I can only have this ‘no food ban’ in place if I keep to some sensible rules…

* I make sure that I eat fruit and veg throughout the day.

* I don’t eat extra high calorie meals every day.

* I try to vary my meals regularly so that I do not fall into a rut resulting in boredom or habit forming.

* I acknowledge the calories and macros of each meal, but even more importantly, I recognise how each meal makes me feel. For example, do I feel sluggish? Am I drinking extra water due to excess salt consumption? Do I feel satisfied? Will this meal sustain me in whatever activity I have planned to do next?

My breakfast from yesterday isn’t a bad meal. It becomes a poor choice, however, if I were to have it today and tomorrow and the day after and so on. So I won’t.

Instead, my breakfast this morning looks like this…

This drink consists of one apple, a banana, a pear and plenty of spinach topped up with water. This is my usual start to the day, but yesterday I just fancied a change.

Both breakfasts made me happy.

Extreme dieting methods can be damaging to your relationship with food and ultimately your health. So let’s look at a few steps to a sensible approach…

* If you find yourself craving a certain food and have started to eat this for the past few days then this can create a habit that is unwelcome. Even a fruit and veg smoothie using the same ingredients every day can be detrimental. Try new and different fruit and veg for example. This will ensure that you remain interested in making a fruit smoothie each day if that is your goal. And as much as I loved my full English breakfast in a bun, the calories and trans fats are not something that I can put into my body each day. Keep it to the odd occasion.

* If you are going out for the evening and you know that there will be lovely food and drink on offer, then approach this occasion sensibly. You want to have a good time without calorie counting every single drop! For a day or two, cut back on calorie dense foods. For example, stay away from a full English in a bun or a takeaway in the lead up to a night out. Also, I find a good workout on the day of a big night out helps me stay focussed. It doesn’t ruin my enjoyment, but If I feel the effects of a workout it enables me to keep my goals in the back of my mind even if I’m ordering the gin and tonics.

* Appreciate ALL food types. And you can do this whilst acknowledging that high nutritious food is excellent fuel for your body and your mind. Don’t be down on yourself if you’ve been fuelling your body with great nutrition but suddenly find yourself chowing down on a full English breakfast butty. Eat it and move on.

* Stay away from extreme diet sites and companies that want your money while you question yourself and feel inadequate. And don’t take too much notice of Dave from admin who lost 2 stone by following the new fad Facebook diet. You will lose weight on any diet that puts you in a calorie deficit. But you’ll only keep it off if it doesn’t require extreme measures such as very low daily calories, counting your ‘syns’ or taking pills. Your approach right from the off has to be sustainable for your lifestyle.

* Buy high nutritional food and bring it into your home. Cupboards and fridges should be stocked with 80% of the high nutritious foods and 20% of the rest of your favourite foods. Once it is in your home, you can start making some of your favourite healthy dishes and freezing them. Sauces are easily made in large quantities and frozen in those tubs that you get from the takeaway!

So, before I get asked about this, I’ll comment on it now. Are syn’s from Slimming World really all that extreme?!

Well, this is a method which…

1. Calls higher calorie foods a syn. Ok, it means synergy to SW, but does the term syn trigger something to you which means it is bad for you? I’m afraid it’s poor taste in light of the mental health problems we have as a society regarding the way we look. And

2. Bananas are a ‘free’ food unless it is mashed. Then it becomes a syn. Three points on that…

a) A banana has never ever been a reason for a person’s weight gain. Mashed or unmashed.

b) If we demonize the poor mashed banana then what of the full English butty?! What chance do we have with our physical and mental health or weight control if we see mashed up banana as a reason why we are failing?

c) banana gets mashed when you put it in your mouth. Sooooo…..

Whether it is the PT writing out your next week’s meal plan, the media with their hyperbolic headlines or the big companies with very clever marketing campaigns, you can be sure that they are all capable of taking us to the extreme when it comes to the food that we eat.

I hope, with a little common sense and a step back from the nonsense, we can all start making some delicious choices from now on.

Three Square Meals

A question I get asked lots of times is whether we actually need three square meals or not. And then the convo often goes into what those meals should consist of for weight loss.

There is no one set answer to this question, of course. There never is! And that can be frustrating when you have goals set around your weight and your eating habits. You want answers. You need help.

Before writing, I researched a number of respectable websites that gave advice on meals and mealtimes and they all had different approaches based on some study or other. They all have good intentions and they’re all correct in their own ways, but they all admit the same things in their summary…it all depends on each individual.

Hire A Professional

So I would always advise you to talk to a professional about your goals as a first stop. A good nutritionist or personal trainer will want to know your lifestyle and habits. From there they can work with you in your weight goals. But beware of quacks. A charlatan will write you a meal plan without getting to know you. Basically, it’s a copy and paste job. They’ll do the same meal plan for every poor sod that comes to them for help. And the alarm bells should start ringing if their idea of a meal plan is written on a piece of A4. It’s not professional and it might as well be scribbled on the back of a fag packet. Same with a workout program.

Why Three Square Meals?

Now, I haven’t got the studies of the University of Ohio or Murcia, but I do have ten years of successfully guiding people to healthier eating habits behind me. And I have found that the three square meals a day tradition isn’t necessarily the best way. Indeed, the very term ‘square meal’ has had etymologists in a frenzy for years. Some argue that it derives from nautical origins of sailors using square plates, filling their plate with wholesome food to give them energy such as stews. But others would argue that it comes from American mining of the 18th century, which means something that was made with exact right angles was properly constructed. Fair and square. Proper, honest and straightforward. A square meal.

But I would argue that our eating habits have changed over the centuries. This term to describe our eating habits is from a time where food wasn’t as abundant. Communities were poor where food rationing would have been usual practice and limiting meal portions on sea voyages would have been sensible. We don’t have these same issues now. Food is cheap, accessible, flown from far and wide to our plate, farmed, tinned and packaged for longevity. Food is brought to our attention through advertising on screens and billboards, newspapers and the internet. So we don’t need to know when to eat our three square meals anymore. It’s a stress that we can take out of the emotions of our eating. If we miss a meal, food is never too far away before we get another opportunity.

Let’s take breakfast time, for example. This was promoted as the most important meal of the day. A promotion led by none other than Mr Kelloggs in the 19th century. He happened to have just invented a breakfast cereal. So, is breakfast the most important meal of the day? And if so, is cereal the best choice of meal?

In my opinion, the answer is no and no. If you are not hungry, then why would breakfast, or any meal, be of any benefit at that time? And Bananas, yoghurt, eggs, nuts, seeds, smoothies are all better breakfast choices than cereal anyway. Eating something high in protein will keep you fuller for longer instead of getting those elevenses hunger pangs. This is what you need to keep in mind in whatever meal you prepare at any time of day. Do you have sufficient protein on your plate to keep you full?

Take Back Control

Our lifestyle of today doesn’t reflect what was expected of us in a time gone by. Our shift patterns have changed, more of us work now rather than expecting mum to stay at home with the kids and we work for longer hours and for longer into our older age than before. We shouldn’t feel obliged to stick to an eating pattern that is outdated in modern day living. But because we do feel obliged to eat at certain times we become anxious around our eating habits. And this anxiety leads to poor choices.

And WHAT we eat is far more important than when we eat it.

Choosing snacks or meals when you are anxious rarely turns out well. We look for comfort. Food anxieties are one of the biggest problems when it comes to weight management. We rarely feel in control of our mealtimes or our meal choices.

For example, our employer will set our break and lunch times. We are often restricted in time and where we eat. Many work based cafeterias will have vending machines with poor nutritional value options and if we work on an industrial site a burger van will park outside and waft it’s greasy burgers right into your work place vents. Even the gym where I train has a vending machine offering chocolate and crisps on the way out. If you pop to the supermarket for your lunch you are met with meal deals that are, quite frankly, pitiful.

To help yourself in taking control of your situation you need to plan and prepare. Plan your meals in advance. Batch cook soups, sauces, chilli, lasagne, stews and cottage pie. Request a microwave in your staff room if you haven’t currently got one. If you prefer sandwiches then prepare them the night before and buy items like yoghurt and fruit to accompany a packed lunch. Make a fruit and veg smoothie and decant it into a large sports bottle to keep drinking throughout the day.

There are ways in which you can take back control and cut out the anxiety of what your next meal will be. To succeed, knowing what your next meal will be through planning will create a positive mindset.

And the great thing about planning is that you no longer need to worry about three square meals. In fact you could eat five nutritious smaller meals that fit with your calorie goals and find that you are on the right track both physically and emotionally.

Society shouldn’t tell you how to eat. You should. Take back control and own it.

I Became The Lion

Something changed when I stopped listening to the generic body building and weight loss sites and I reassessed my own fitness goals. I took charge of what I had to do. This led me to becoming a PT and helping others. I became in control. I became the lion. And I teach others to be the lion too.

It is said that “until the lion learns how to write, every story will praise the hunter.”

I used to follow a narrative led by muscle magazines, gym bro websites, diet books and all of the other mediums that generate billions of dollars from selling their latest trend.

For most of my adult life going to the gym was about ‘lift big or go home’. That’s what I was told. I had to eat chicken and broccoli every day. It’s what the experts told me. I got it so wrong.

I beat myself up daily just to try and lift heavier than some guy who I didn’t even know.

But then I discovered a better way. I could still get results and train without causing injury and anxiety. I realised my ‘why’. And I didn’t find it on YouTube.

Sure, I wanted to be happy and confident with my body but I needed to know how to love myself in the present moment and not just focus on loving what I wanted to be. I began to imagine the future me. What would the future me thank the present me for? I started to do my homework. To save my physical and mental health it became so important to me that I acquired so much knowledge on the matter that I qualified as a PT and successfully made a business out of helping others pretty quickly.

I became the lion. And this lion learnt how to write his own narrative.

I now recognise that training is how I have energy for my kids. It is what keeps me focussed in my marriage and in my work commitments. It is giving me a chance to have a better quality of life. I like myself at last.

I don’t punish myself for not making it to the gym every day. If I can’t get there then a walk with my family is a great way to exercise and surround myself in nature with the people I love.

I don’t regret eating something that is ‘bad for me’ because I enjoyed it at the time and I can have an occasional snack. I enjoy life without living in fear of ‘losing muscle’ or gaining weight. I am free of fads and confusing information.

I am free.

Dig The Well

Just a short message for you today for us to have a little think about our health and wellbeing.

First of all it is important to note that beginning a fitness journey is never too late. Also, finding happiness and peace in your life can be discovered at any age. But searching for it is important and necessary. Very rarely will something fall at your feet.

I’ll use my profession as an example. Just in the space of a few weeks of attending a wedding, a few BBQ’s and kids events with my two boys, as soon as somebody knows that I’m a Personal Trainer I often get comments such as ‘I could do with losing a few pounds’ as they tap on their belly. Or on a couple of occasions I’ve had people say ‘I need to start going to the gym again’.

Of course, you might think that is my cue to sell them PT sessions or a fitness program. And I have often replied ‘well, you know where I am!’ But a social event is not the appropriate place to sell my services. A PT can clear a room when they start handing out business cards.

We often complain about our physique or our mindset without doing anything about it. I meet some acquaintances who I see very irregularly who complain every time about their weight or their injuries every time i see them. And, yes, there have been times where I have offered to help. I’m still waiting for their reply.

And yet with each day, week and year we age. With age comes more challenges in regards to our health. If we don’t feel ready for the battle today, how will we cope with tomorrow?

My clients understand that I’m not going to get them a quick fix. They will progress with me on the journey that it should be. This will help them in later life. I don’t promise a longer life, but I can give a pretty confident argument for living a better quality of life by making simple adjustments to their lifestyle.

Two reasons right here on why I need to keep working for a healthy future.

As the Chinese proverb goes…

Dig the well before you are thirsty.

Be prepared for the future by putting in the work today. Happiness, peace, health and wellbeing can all be discovered with the right course of action.

And that action, however small or subtle, should begin today.

Dirty Fries

Scarborough is a small town. It’s the sort of place that if you go into the town centre you will probably know somebody to say hello to. Train in a gym with almost 3,000 members and the chances are that I will definitely see somebody I know.

Had they seen me in a bar this lunch time they would have found me with a large gin and tonic and some ‘dirty fries’. When I ordered them I imagined some chips with a sprinkling of grated cheese. What I actually got was a bag of potatoes, a pack of bacon and a block of cheese squeezed into a good sized pasta bowl. This wasn’t the amuse bouche that I had visioned in my mind, but it was one my belly was happy to try.

I wished a client of mine would’ve walked in as I slurped the stringy melted cheese into my mouth. If only to keep proving my point. I keep reiterating my point regarding food and weight management…eat it. All of it. If it fits your daily calories, eat it and enjoy it. But there’s a slight caveat. Just one little rule.

If you aren’t going to cut out the low nutrition foods, then you must keep the nutritionally dense foods high. Whether you are very active with fitness goals or more sedentary, keep the nutritionally dense foods high.

You see, I don’t believe in banning food types. If you want to stop off at a bar and order a truck full of McCain’s Chips then do it, as long as your weekly macros are met. Yes, weekly. Some days your carbs might be up, but if you keep the nutritionally dense and high protein foods a priority over the course of the week then your calories and macros will average out. Judging your Journey on just one day will serve you no purpose.

I knew that I could eat some greasy cheesy chips today. I count my calories.

Now, if you read the newspapers you might gasp in horror at the knowledge that I count calories and I also endorse it for others. The one exception being anybody suffering from an eating disorder. In which case they don’t need me, they need professional medical support.

But the media seem to be very negative towards counting calories. Which is interested, because they print lots of other methods such as 5:2, Intermittent fasting and promote large dieting companies who count ‘syns’.

My conclusion is that counting calories isn’t sexy. It isn’t a buzz word or trending on Twitter. And if it isn’t a large company paying a newspaper to advertise their diet or a book publisher paying them to flog Michael Mosley’s new fad diet, then it gets demonized as wrong.

If I go into a shop and see something that I want to buy I will check my bank balance before I purchase it. That’s just simple accounting.

If I go to the carpet fitters I will take the measurements of the room that I wish to have carpeted with me. That is just common sense.

If I take my son to buy a pair of shoes I will ask the assistant to measure his feet first. Efficient.

And if I want some dirty fries washed down with a gin and tonic I will make sure that my meals around this tasty treat are low in calories and high in nutrition. No anxiety or concerns.

I get what I want now and again and I also get to keep my body on track with my fitness goals. And a part of my fitness goals is my mental health, therefore stressing at banning all of the foods that I enjoy is not something that I consider healthy. I have a good relationship with food. I don’t want to feel anxious about being in a social environment and seeing half of the food on the menu to be cancelled for me.

I don’t develope programmes or challenges for my clients if I wouldn’t do it myself. So occasionally doing my own Balanced Plate Challenge works for me. My clients succeed, why shouldn’t I enjoy my own methods too?!

And so it’s time to make my smoothie. With plenty of spinach and fruit in there my body will still know that I love it. And it might even get another bowl of dirty fries again next week!

Smoothie Does It!

Like with most kids (and many adults) they can be fussy around certain foods. Textures, tastes and smells can put a kid right off. If only a banana looked like a chicken dipper!

My youngest has started to check his food to the extend of him looking at a slice of melon like Gil Grissom analysing a crime scene.

Finlay examines the black bits on the watermelon

And I must admit, there are foods that I wouldn’t be too fond of eating if they were put on a plate for me. Medjool dates are a prime example. But if I prepare them with lots of other fruit and vegetables into a smoothie then I can enjoy them.

I have found this with my kids, especially if they prepare their own smoothies and experiment with different ingredients then there is a much greater chance of them getting the nutrients and vitamins that they need without the fuss.

This morning they prepared a banana, strawberry, orange juice and spinach smoothie. They hate bananas and spinach and my youngest doesn’t like strawberries, but they enjoyed the process of creating their own smoothie and were pleased with what they had come up with. They felt empowered.

I have a smoothie at least once a day. A zesty citrus ensemble on a morning and usually a banana, milk and protein powder later in the afternoon. I find that smoothies can…

* Stops the hunger pangs and feeling snacky.

*Wake me up on a morning.

* Fit into my calorie and macro goals and I am getting the fibre into my body that I wouldn’t get if I were eating a meal.

Although I would never consider them a meal replacement, I do put ingredients into a smoothie that I would not make into a meal. I know that I wouldn’t eat the recommended daily fruit and veg that I need if I had to prepare it as part of a meal. I enjoy cooking, but sometimes life doesn’t allow us the time to spend on making the perfect balanced meal. This is why the convenience of a smoothie maker works for me and my family.

One of my biggest concerns is for my kids to be getting good nutritious food into them each day. It’s a constant battle. And when I know what they have as school dinners the need to feed them proper food at home is even more important. I’m not looking for clean eating and banning foods for me or my kids, but a balanced approach is a sensible one. And so far it’s working!

Gym Fitness Classes

Gym Classes are an excellent way to introduce yourself to formal exercises, meet new people with similar goals and to plan your fitness routine for consistency. From Stretch classes, Zumba, Spin and Boxercise the mainstream gym have covered it all. And being a Fitness Instructor myself I can see the fantastic benefits of booking onto a regular gym class….but it should come with a warning.

Here are my gripes on classes…

* Gyms that I am aware of are regularly putting on virtual classes. This seems to limit the cost of paying for a live instructor and can run throughout the day. I find this counterproductive from a gym going by the feedback that I receive as many gym members want live instructors and some have moved to other gyms to find them. A trained fitness instructor can manage the pace and intensity of the class and adapt workouts each week to fit the needs of their participants.

* I see more injuries occur in fitness classes than I do in the gym. An instructor cannot check the form of 30 class members. The classic exercises for poor form are deadlifts, bent over rows and kettlebell swings. In fact kettlebell classes are an injury waiting to happen. When you need to teach hip hinges, breathing and core control to a room full of people who see their half hour class as a way to ‘blast their abs’ or ‘fat burn’ it becomes an impossible task.

* When you think about the titles that they are given, such as those above (abs blast and fat burn are real life class titles) it is very misleading. An abs class once a week won’t get anybody a six pack. An abs class won’t do a great deal for stabilising core muscles. A fat burn class usually consists of fast paced reps that use exercises that require slow, controlled movement to focus on target muscles and avoid injury. Getting these movements right and incorporating them in a fitness programme is essential for all types of fitness goals, but repping out as many deadlifts as you can in 60 seconds won’t. Yes it burns calories, but put your back out and you won’t be burning those calories again until you’ve recovered from your injury.

* Classes can be demoralising for lots of people. They feel inferior compared to those around them. Yet many class goers have been going to the same class for years and might know what to do. If they know the instructor then they will probably know what equipment is used and what exercise is next. They probably even know that the class starts with Rock DJ and finishes on a club version of Castle On The Hill. But new people might feel out of their depth. Which leads me onto my recommendation…

Oh do tell Shay!!

Well, for anyone going to a new gym and are a little apprehensive or have never been to one before I would suggest hiring a good PT (a good one! Not a Poundland special) and learning how to move correctly. Of course I would say that, I’m a PT right?! Yeah but Brian who is reading this at his home in Penikuik won’t be hiring me 1-1 so it’s of no great advantage to me. It is, however, sound advice.

5 sets of ten deadlifts will be far more important to a gym goers goals than a class when they first start out on their journey. When to breath, how to engage the core, foot placement, hip hinge, strength and stamina building, morale boosting and goal setting are all of things that will be learnt fairly early on in regular PT sessions. None of which are taught with any great depth (if at all) by Mr Motivator at the front of the class whooping and jumping like a Duracell Bunny on speed.

The Journey should begin on the gym floor, not collapsing on a class floor.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my blogs then check out some of the other stuff too. See you soon!

The Streisand Effect

In 2003 the California Coastal Records Project wanted to take pictures in the Malibu area to record the cause of coastal erosion. But in doing so, they inadvertently took photographs of Barbera Streisand’s home.

As you can imagine, in the affluent area of Malibu, her house was one of many big houses with acres of land and nobody knew that it was Streisand’s home. In fact, nobody really cared.

It was only when her lawyers brought attention to this picture and accused the photographer of breaking privacy rights did the whole world suddenly care about where Streisand lived. Her house was now being shared on the newest sharing networks at the time and every newspaper in the world had published the picture of Streisand’s home.

The acts of Streisand and her lawyers not only created the opposite effect of what they wanted, but it escalated into what we now know as The Streisand Effect. Attempting to prohibit something which leads to increased attention.

Have you ever had an experience where you have tried to prohibit something which leads you to want this forbidden fruit even more?

As a coach specialising in weight control I have come across people trying to ban chocolate, crisps, takeaways, carbs, fats, eating before a certain time, eating after a certain time. They’ve tried to cancel alcohol, bread, cheese, coca cola and even some types of fruit and veg because they have been told that it will contribute to their weight gain.

9 times out of 10, when they banned a type of food, this tactic exploded in their face and led to a situation that became out of control. Suddenly, this food type is wanted even more because of the restrictions put upon it.

It’s like when I tell my kids that I have just painted the door frame you can bet that they touch it. And it’s not just my kids. If my wife tells me that the bath water is too hot I will get in anyway and have two red arse cheeks while I try to place my feet on each side of the tub to hover above the lava like, hotter than hell, water below.

Like the media frenzy at Streisand’s lawyers calling for privacy rights, we begin to obsess at what we are told we shouldn’t see, do and eat.

In the month before the lawsuit, the picture had been downloaded 6 times. The month following the lawsuit the picture had been downloaded 420,000 times.

In my personal experience if I agree to a takeaway every 4 weeks then I give myself a happy compromise. If I tell myself that takeaways are banned then I would want one this coming weekend. I also like cheese. I know that I go through periods of eating too much of it. Yet if I can develope a habit where I have one evening a week where I eat cheese and biscuits rather than cut cheese out of my diet altogether then I won’t feel resentment or frustration towards my health and fitness goals. In fact I have found that I go without cheese and biscuits for weeks and weeks now because it just isn’t a part of my thoughts. I created a positive habit that became so constructive that my obsession for cheese wasn’t even a thing anymore.

And if you’re wondering what happened to the lawsuit, it was dropped later that year. The paradoxical effect had already done the damage.

If you have any questions regarding weight control then please get in touch. Thanks for reading. See you soon!