It's been a while since I posted

Hi,
It's been a while since I posted on here!

After my unhealthy weekend I fell ill, I was working to the bone promoting our new services at the JX FItness Studio, and last weekend and the beginning of last week I fell ill with exhaustion so had to take a rest, I recon my unhealthy weekend previously will have played a part in that too.

Since then am back on track and eating healthy again, though coffee has crept back into the diet, so this Sunday at the start of Advent I am giving up coffee again until Christmas Eve (I do enjoy a bailey's coffee with my family on Christmas Eve).

Last week by Wednesday I was feeling much more human so slowly started to add some training back in, so Wed I did a weight training session in the studio, I hadn't planned to do one as I wanted to make sure I was feeling 100% again but I trained much better after having a week off and afterwards felt much more energised, giving my body the rest it needed definitely helped improve my training. On Friday I did another weight training session, this time I did some overload training by adding extra weight and taking it until I could only perform one repetition of the exercise (did this with squats and dead lifts), we did a Saturday morning shred session (weights/intervals) with the Boot Camp ladies in the studio. After that we all went and enjoyed an omelette in a cafe in Bromtpon which was lovely. On top of my own training I have still been instructing my other classes

Saturday night (26th Nov) I went out with my sister and chose to drive rather than drink, we had a fantastic night but it was a very late finish (we got home about 4am!) and getting up at 8am with my little girl when she got home was pretty challenging, yesterday I felt very tired but still managed to eat well and today I'm feeling much better.

I'm going to head for a run soon to clear the head and then tomorrow I will do another weight training session.

The measurements haven't changed loads since losing the inch from stomach and waist but I'm feeling much better in my clothes and feeling much healthier.

Have a great week!

Tuesday and been feeling the effects of my weekend!

Hi,
Well I decided to have a night out with the girls after our success on Saturday's burpee challenge and all day Sunday I was in bits, pain from the challenge and ill from the alcohol, was unable to eat on Sunday either as I felt ill.

Monday was much better although I have a feeling it's almost that time of the month because I've been ravenous for two days and my stomach has been feeling it, I tend to get the bloat too (and the moods lol)

Back to it fully now though, done a training session today to loosen off but had a little bit too much stew at my mums tonight, it was just so lovely!

Probably haven't drunk as much fluids as I should have done today but I will be sure to sort that out tomorrow.

Night all :o)

Late post

Sorry not been on here for a while, this week's been a bit hit and miss, started off absolutely fantastic but on Thurs and Friday were quite bad days.

I did measure myself on Friday and I have lost an inch of my waist and around my belly button so I'm pleased so far.

I've done a few heavy weight training sessions, I ended up doing 3 training sessions on Wednesday and on Thursday I just felt so hungry all day, ate mostly healthy but then went to a Freddy Mercury tribute act on Thursday evening and had a glass of wine, It was a really good night though.

Today is our 10,000 burpee challenge and so far we've already raised about £200 for charity, (we're doing it for Help for Heroes and the Poppy Appeal) I can't wait - it's gonna hurt I recon!!

Anyway next week is going to be much better than this and let's see what results I can get, people are starting to comment on the results I'm getting now which is spurring me to carry on!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone x

Don’t end up fat this Christmas!

It’s nearly that time of year again, adverts on the television are of food, toys, anything that is to do with Christmas.

The shops are already playing Christmas tunes and the decorations were on the shelves before Halloween was even over.

So why does all this matter?

You see Christmas is a great time for spending time with the ones you love and most of us really enjoy that time, so when all the songs come on we start to get into the Christmas spirit. BUT IT’S THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER WE HAVE WEEKS YET! We start treating ourselves to mince pies and mulled wine – well it is Christmas after all…..IT’S THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER!

Remember you don’t have to start piling on the pounds before Christmas to get into the festive mood, by Christmas you’ll be sick of the site of mince pies and turkey dinners!

Why not do things differently to everyone else, remain strong and disciplined and continue with your training sessions, eating healthily, sure Enjoy the Christmas Parties at the weekends (I know they happen almost every weekend on the run up in December!) but take things sensibly, drink water between alcoholic drinks, eat a healthy meal before you go out so that you don’t pig out on the party food and the day after make sure that you go straight back to eating clean again. When Christmas actually arrives you’re going to be the one who feels fantastic rather than the one who feels fat and miserable and just wants Christmas over and done with.

You’ll enjoy the party season because you’ll know that come January it will be easy to shift any damage done from just a few days over the festive period rather than the six week lead up to Christmas!

So what would you rather be this Christmas? Feeling Fat or Feeling Fab? You decide!

If you're on FACEBOOK why not join my free group, the little black dress club and receive free online help to make sure that you look fab and not fat this Christmas

Day eight

Hi Everyone,
well so far I've done pretty well, got a nice surprise when i stepped on my mums scales on Saturday and I'd lost 5lbs over the last week, I can definitely feel the difference in my clothes!

I went to a fantastic fireworks display in Bedale on Saturday night and had a glass of bubbly with my mum when I got home which was nice. I ate really clean yesterday but didn't drink enough water.

Not going to be on this too long tonight because my eyes are almost closing as i write this!

Today started off great had kale, asparagus and scrambled egg for breakfast, then ruined lunch as I ended up having to rush out so had some puffed rice and coconut milk, not an ideal lunch, by 2pm I was really hungry again! I had a banana and then weakened and had a little bit of chocolate! This evening Joss wanted sausages for tea so when I popped into the coop on the way home to get her some I didn't expect to pick up the packet and they'd be wheat free, granted they are still processed and have potato starch in them which isn't great when you're on a quest for fast fat loss but I had a couple with some green beans, broad beans and some brocolli with sweet potato, kept me full all night not even felt hungry.

Again I'm not sure I've drunk enough fluids today as I also did a training session at the studio, was good playing with the new toys for the first time!

I did a mixture of squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, lunges with shoulder press, reverse wood chop, press ups and roll ups. I then finished the session off by doing 200 burpees in preparation for a ten thousand burpee challenge me and several of my class attendees and campers are taking part in this weekend, it's gonna hurt ha ha!

Anyway i'm going to close as I am shattered and need sleep.

Will try to write more tomorrow

Good night

Day six, the journey so far

Hi everyone,
Sorry I didn't post yesterday, this week finally got the better of me, I slept in for boot camp for the first time EVER, luckily I have a fantastic bunch of campers who all understood and actually started the workout without me, luckily it wasn't too long and I was there to see the workout through, I couldn't sleep thursday night and with eating too late, anyway lesson learnt, be sure to take more rest - I am NOT a machine ha ha.

Anyway after that my Friday was jam packed I got a delivery at 8.30 at the studio so had to rush and get Joss ready for school then dash to get the delivery and then get her to school, I'm sure it's something with delivery companies, deliver at the most inconvenient time possible :0), then it was on to do the finishing touches to the studio, which ended up continuing until about 5.30 then on to a class at 6 then straight to Darlington to get a few supplies for today's Studio open day.

My nutrition was much better yesterday and I really cut down on the fruit, I had loads of greens in a stir fry for breakfast (green beans, broccoli, broad beans, spinach and kale) and then added an egg in it then while cooking i added a little apple cider vinegar, it added a lovely flavour and then I added some himalayan crystal salt, it was lovely. Ate out for lunch with my mum in between grabbing some shopping I had homemade tomato soup and my mum had the sandwich that came with it, then before my class I had a medjool date and after I grabbed a salad from Morrisons, I added loads of green leaves (dark).

Today didn't get off to the best start, I had gluten free muesli that I'd soaked over night, I added a little coconut milk for flavour then the rest of the day wasn't too great, we had healthy nibbles for the open day but we also had cakes and bubbly - well it was a special occasion. Today is a little bit of a relaxed day because I've eaten 100% clean this week, bot did I swell a couple of hours after the cake I had!!! (note to self - dont have wheat, even on a cheat day if I can help it!)

The studio open day was a massive success and I'm still buzzing, thanks to everyone who came along x

I'm off to watch some fireworks with my family now and tomorrow get some much needed rest and spend some time with my beautiful little girl.

Have a brilliant bonfire night everyone xx

Day four and feeling fab!

Yay I wish I could bottle this feeling and remind myself how good it feels not to be fuzzy headed and lethargic!

After my post this morning I went and had a banana omelette (with half the banana Joss left last night), lunch was more of a grab and go lunch because i've not stopped today, it's all good as it's in preparation for Saturday's open day but I was still busy when I went to collect Joss from school so had to work while she had to watch cartoons, god am I feeling like a guilty mummy to her because I've hardly had any time to spend with her properly this week because it's been so busy, I've not had much time for a decent training session either and I'm really feeling unfit so I really can't wait to get fully back into it. After Saturday these things are getting scheduled in regularly again!

My dog managed to get into the cupboards and ate all my quinoa and a load of raw rice on Monday night so as you can imagine I have had a sick dog for a few days so this has added to the jobs this week, cleaning up after her, she's much better now though thankfully but seeing her reaction to grains (fair enough they were raw!) and some reading I've been doing just lately has made me wonder what they may do to the body, I'm reading good and bad so for now I might just cut them out and see how I feel.

Dinner was walnuts, celery, cucumber followed by an apple. Later in the afternoon I had a medjool date and a spoon full of natural yogurt because I had a sweet tooth and then tonight I had planned to have a chicken dinner but forgot to put the vegetables in the steamer because I was busy working so ended up just having chicken with green salad for my tea, this ended up being a pretty late tea as I was out networking at a ladies night at wakaday's in Bromton on Swale near where the new JX Fitness Studio is going to be.

I don't think I've said much about the JX Fitness Studio or why I've changed the business name to JX from DJ personal training! Well DJ are my maiden name initials and it's taken me a while to move over to Debbie Wilson (which I now am, I got married in Feb 2010!) much to my husbands annoyance! My hubby also wanted to be a part in the business and help with a rebrand and so JX Fitness was born. The story behind the name is that I still wanted some of what brought me to where I am today but also where we are going with the business. At first I said Jux (a take on my maiden name) then we said let's just knock the 'U' out and be JX, we have a daughter together called Joss so with her initial, my maiden name and the fact that Ian wanted it to be more or a joint effort (although he's managed to get out of a lot of work being over seas at the minute ha ha) so the J represents the past, the present and the future, the X represents our love for the business, of our family and of the clients we have and continue to attract to the business. So there you have it - I know I've gone off on a tangent there but as I've been speaking about the studio opening but hadn't really said much more.

Anyway I really shouldn't be on here much longer as it's after 10 and I'm still looking at a computer, this is not good for my cortisol levels which I'm trying to avoid making worse at this present time, cortisol tends to make you put on fat around your stomach and as that's my worst place to lose it from (because I can be a stress head at times, it's the ginger in me!) so I'm going to shut off, go make a Tulsi tea and go to bed!

Good night all

Day three and starting to feel much better

Hi,
Sorry i didn't post last night it was almost 10pm by the time i got home and I needed an early night so that i could be more productive today.

Yesterday went pretty well but I think I ate a little bit too much fruit, that must be the sugar i'm missing, didn't realise just how often i was having just a little bit of chocolate!

For breakfast I had natural yoghurt and blueberries followed by 10ml of fish oils, I just had an apple and some seeds mid morning then I sat down to have some dinner at 2.20pm which was steak and green salad, I really enjoyed it because I haven't had steak for a while. I had some desert at about 4pm which was banana, avocado and raspberries and coconut oil whizzed together. then before I went out to work I grabbed some celery and hummus. When I got home I had a banana, went for a bath then straight to bed.

I ate too many banana's yesterday but other than that I didn't do too bad, didn't feel massively hungry, since cutting out the wheat,, caffeine and sugar again i'm feeling much more satisfied.

There are challenges though, Joss (my daughter) has lots of goodies in the house from halloween that she's allowed a treat each day, seeing the chocolate in there is definitely a test of will powers!

training yesterday was pretty light, i carried out several burpees in preparation of a burpee challenge I'm taking part in on Sat 12th November to raise money for Help for Heroes and the Poppy Appeal (Royal British Legion) the reason we're doing this is to show our support to our troops, ex serving, serving, injured and fallen. We have a facebook event you can read about it here ten thousand burpee

I dont want to overdo things as I need to be on top form for the studio open day this Saturday, after that I can't wait to use all the new toys I will have in there :o)

Going to make some eggs for breakfast now, have a great day everyone!

Day two down...

SO day two down, this is going to be a quick post because my head is really sore, i've been working on the computer for a lot this afternoon so that on top of the detox headaches it doesn't feel great.

My eatings been clean but not much, i'm not worried though because i feel satisfied - I had banana, blueberry and avocado mousse for breakfast with a spoonful of fish oils afterwards, lunch i was quite boring and had my hummus and vegetable crudites and then I haven't really eaten much else today as I wasn't that hungry, I had an apple on my way out to teach Zumba then tonight when I got in i had a medjool date and some natural yoghurt.

Training session was just a short one this morning as I had to get to Richmond to collect a few things for the studio.

Going to sign off now, my stomach is already feeling much less bloated already!

Time to relax and shut off good night everyone, will try to post a more detailed post soon.

Day one and the headache has arrived!

Ok so I'm at the end of day one of my get my body back (and make it better) challenge and oh yes the detox headaches have started!!

This morning when I returned home from the boot camp my sister (who looks after my little girl on a Monday morning while i do boot camp as my hubby is working overseas) had made me a cup of coffee which for a second i forgot about things and took a swig only to remember and pour the rest down the sink, not a great start but things definitely got much better.

For breakfast I enjoyed a banana omelette with mixed spices followed by a mint tea
i went shopping for the rest my healthy supplies today and was a bit hungry at 11 so i ate a raw food bar (cashew nuts and dried fruit) and continued with my day, after that I had phone calls and appointments so it was a quick lunch of 3 thin rice cakes, hummus, cucumber, and celery. That kept me going until about 5 when I had a stir fry of green beans, brocoli, broad beans, kale and asparagus.

Just back in from my evening sessions and have had a banana

I haven't managed to get a decent training session in today but to be fair tomorrow morning is my planned training day.

Over the course of today i must have drunk about 4litres of water and still feel pretty thirsty, just goes to show how drinking caffeine and eating toxic foods masks your bodies natural needs.

Feeling very tired and was a bit moody earlier, going to call it a night now and get an early night after a nice soak in the bath to relax because today has had some stressful moments, I will be training in the morning, sorting my little girl out for school then a full day of work on the new FItness Studio in Brompton on Swale, North Yorkshire.

I will post my measurements tomorrow before I get too much into this challenge.

Doing it for me!

Ok so I haven't posted on here for ages, i didn't manage to get all of the posts on when I carried out a six week challenge because honestly I was absolutely snowed under with work, i did manage to drop about 10cm which was ok. Yep it is an excuse and you know what i have to banish them now because challenges that I have took part in before I just haven't been ready to do them for me so the passion wasn't quite there I was happy with my shape once i lost the excess weight, this time however after a tough couple of months where I have been setting up my new fitness studio, going on holidays and attending several parties has seen my waistline increase somewhat!

So from tomorrow I'm getting back on it and am going to get my body back!!

This time i'm going to be brutally honest, tell you how i'm feeling, challenges i'm facing the food i'm eating and training i'm doing, i will aim to post each evening before I go to bed.

I am still busy setting up the new fitness studio (JX Fitness) but the main bulk of it is complete.

The challenge is on and this time its for me and i WILL succeed!

Summer time BBQ drinks

As you know summer is almost here and it's rumoured that there's going to be a heatwave in the next week or so so what does that mean, the BBQ's will be out, a few burnt bodies and maybe some food poisoning from poorly cooked BBQ food (but hopefully not!), this is where a massive risk to fall off the wagon happens DON"T DO IT, will it take you one step further towards your goal or away from your goal?

OK so assuming you're using some nice chicken drumsticks, some lean steaks, some great kebab sticks, some home made burgers (recipe coming soon) and lots of salad (no bread!!) some lovely home made coleslaw (this like will take you to coleslaw recipe) and some home made tomato relish (take you to the recipe)

Here are some drink ideas for you so that you feel as though you are enjoying a glass of bubbly with everyone else but you know that you won't get the awful hangover the next day (thanks to Caroline Radway at Fit Body Fix for sharing her idea's):

1) sparking mineral water with a squeeze of lime (great for detoxing the body and also a great way to alkalise the body and bring it to a more neutral state)

2) sparkling mineral water with frozen raspberries (lemon/lime optional), this adds a subtle flavour to the water and a little bit of colour

3) Iced herbal tea, choose your favourite herbal tea, make a big jug of it and put it in the fridge then add a load of ice to it and enjoy with your food.

4) sparkling mineral water with a shot of apple juice (preferably freshly juiced), this will add a slight apple flavour and make you feel like you're drinking apple cider, fair enough not quite the same but a great alternative.

What about your ideas, what summery cocktails have you made?

Please share your idea's below

Guilt Free Tomato Relish

In a food processor add:

a few handfulls of cherry tomatoes,
add 3 x sun dried tomatoes (that have been soaked in olive oil for an hour or so),
1 red pepper (de seeded)
add half an onion,
one clove of garlic
Squeeze of lemon
sprig of basil

whizz together until it makes a tomato relish, this is great for adding to home made burgers, chicken and all other foods for the BBQ!!

Home Made Coleslaw and Mayonnaise

OK so here's how Gordon Ramsay has done his mayonnaise



I used the same recipe but used olive oil which added a slight flavour, any good quality cold pressed oil (ground nut/olive) should be fine, I also used mustard powder instead of paste but either is fine just check the label,

if you haven't got a food processor they are a MUST - they are fantastic for making anything from hummus, salad, coleslaw etc

For the coleslaw
Finely chop (I use the grater piece on the food processor), 3 carrots, 1/2 an onion and half a green cabbage.

In a bowl mix all the ingredients then spoon in the mayonnaise and keep mixing, keep spooning in until you find the desired consistency!

So there you have it - much better than the shop bought crap and only takes a little bit of time :o)

Yes I do get Fat Days!!

Just wanted to share with you a common thing about us fitness professionals that not many will tell you - We Have Our Share Of Fat Days Too!!

Well I know me and several of my other fitness professional friends do anyway! What do we do about it - the same as everyone else, tell ourself we need to do something about it and then carry out the work that is required.

This last week I was away in Newquay and enjoyed one or two of the local delicacies as you do and this week found an extra layer around my middle oops! I'm not worried though, I know what I have to do to get back to what I was before the extra tyre arrived lol. Which is get back to training sessions and eating clean nutritious foods, it's no secret to getting these results I teach to my boot camp and Personal Training clients in more depth too.

Our next boot camp is to start on Monday 2nd of May and as an extra incentive we're going to have a competition to see who can get the best results on the camp in time for the next Bank Holiday weekend, there will be a great prize for the best transformation. Want to be accountable and train with some fantastic people as well as meet some new friends then grab a spot on the next camp by clicking here

I'm ready to get back into my skinny clothes and feel fantastic for summer maybe you would like to join me in getting fantastic results too?

Have a fantastic week, here's to getting outstanding results :o)

Is Weight Loss Surgery the best Option to Stop Diabetes?

In todays news we are being informed about ‘type two diabetes ‘cut’ after weight loss surgery’
(you can read about it here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13052309)

After reading about this I felt a mixture of emotions, frustration, sadness and excitement.... why all these different emotions I hear you cry!

You see first of all was the immediate response of frustration, I felt angry that the medical profession seemed to be promoting a drastic surgical procedure to help people lose weight and to reduce the diabetes epidemic that has swept our nation over this last couple of decades when there are much healthier and safer options.

I felt sad because for a lot of people they may feel that surgery is their ONLY option because they feel that they have tried every diet going, these generally being the well known diets in our industry today, unfortunately a lot of these low fat/low calorie diets on the market don’t provide our bodies with the vital nutrients needed to function properly and end up doing more harm than good. Sadly when we look into these issues the foods we eat are generally dismissed as having a link with the diseases that have spread across western civilization.

I believe that our food has a MASSIVE impact on how we feel and our over all health and vitality, the body as a whole is a massive jigsaw puzzle and whilst the foods that we eat may make up a huge part of that jigsaw there are several other factors to take into consideration, stress (family and work for example), exercise choices or lack of them, sleep patterns, external pollution, pollutants used in the household – cleaning equipment, air fresheners etc. You see in today’s modern world EVERYTHING has an impact on our body and our health.

I felt excited because as a health and fitness professional I could see the bigger picture of the article and hope that myself as well as hundreds of other health and fitness professionals can help to spread the word about a safer and healthier way to combat the problems we are facing with obesity and the increase of type 2 diabetes (and a lot of other health related issues too). I love my job and I love educating everyone about the wonders of healthy eating, regular exercise and much more.

You see the point that was raised in the article that diabetes is linked to our size and weight so to combat it we want to be losing weight and getting into shape, this is great, now we know that we can combat diabetes by losing weight and regaining our health, but to resort to surgery to achieve this – really?

The article is written from a medical approach yet I feel that medical professionals do not get educated fully where nutrition is concerned and feel that there should be a LOT more emphasis put onto this subject. I remember as part of my nurse training (yup I was training to be a nurse before I changed paths into the Personal Training field) I only received a few days of nutrition training, this is nowhere near enough.

When faced with a health issue the medical profession seem to treat the problem without actually finding what the cause is, treat obesity with surgery or pills to lose the weight rather than finding out the reason this person has become obese these people may need counselling and health education rather than the 'quick fix', when someone’s in pain they’ll give pain killers and a name for the problem rather than finding the root cause of the pain and treating that instead.

I hear about so many people who do resort to surgery and claim that they have ‘tried everything’ but I can bet that they haven’t. You see the diets that really make a MASSIVE difference to our body and HEALTH are the ones that take discipline to follow which may include several lifestyle changes.

Lots of people think you need to exercise to lose the weight when actually it’s NOT the most important factor, what you put into your mouth is NUMBER ONE when it comes to getting into shape but there are several other factors to consider.

Our body is just a part of what makes us, you could have the most beautiful body in the world but if you have lots of stress at home or are unhappy what good is having a great body going to do for you? Sure you might look good but you’re still not likely to be completely healthy because of the other factors in your life. Sadly a lot of people believe that their problems will disappear once they are slim which isn't always the way, if it has taken several years for you to get out of shape it's going to take some time to reverse that effect.

On another note however, as a health and fitness professional who has spent the last few years studying a LOT on these subjects it would be silly of me to expect you to understand everything immediately (unless you study the subject yourself). You see sometimes we can take our knowledge for granted and forget that we have trained for years to bring us to where we are today. This is why I have written this, I hope to be able to point you in the right direction and hopefully ignite something within you to want to learn more about your own health.

Rather than searching for the quick fix and wanting slim straight away why not look at the bigger picture and see what you can do to improve these areas:

What does your current daily dietary intake look like?
How much exercise do you get?
How is your life at the minute?
What work stress do you have? Can this be improved?
Are you happy within yourself?
Are you happy with your partner/family life etc?
Are you getting enough sleep?
Have you been through a traumatic experience yet not dealt with it yet?
What other external stressors might you have? How can you make it easier to deal with these?
Will being slim solve all of your problems?

When we start to take everything into consideration we can start to understand ourselves and our body much better and start to improve each and every factor of our life and achieve overall health and wellbeing, getting slim will be a byproduct of this. Sometimes just writing it all down or talking about it to someone can be a massive help.

I could go on forever about this subject but I feel I have now gone on for long enough other than to try to explain the best way to combat obesity, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and live a healthy and happy life but remember nothing ever comes easy and a bit of hard work and discipline is needed:

Number one – sort out what you’re fueling your body with

Foods that could be causing you to be miserable and gain weight these include:

Cut out these:
Sugar (including sweeteners), Wheat (bread’s out of the window!), dairy (with the exception of a small amount of butter, natural yoghurt and eggs), Alcohol (yup it’s a depressant and like drinking a glass of sugar), caffeine (ditch those cups of tea and coffee you need to function on a morning!)

Severely restrict the following:
Processed foods – Ideally cut them out completely but if you have to then always check the label, if you cannot pronounce the ingredients or don’t know what an ingredient is then its best to leave it.

What you should be eating (and drinking):
At LEAST 2 litres of filtered water per day, herbal teas,

Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables (berries and green leafy veg especially), nuts and seeds, lean cuts of poultry and meat, good fats such as olive oil and coconut oil aim to choose organic where possible.

Try to keep the fruit and vegetables to as natural state as possible which means assessing cooking methods – stir fry and steam veg rather than boiling them.

Add a good quality multivitamin because it’s hard to get all of the nutrients from our foods due to poor quality soil and air travel to get it to the supermarket shelves (this is where farmers markets can be fantastic).

Number two – Get moving:

Start to do a little bit of exercise each day, whether you have a bad back or not you can still walk right? (if not then please feel free to email me at Debbie@dj-personaltraining.co.uk and I’ll see if I can help you with a solution) Walking is a fantastic form of exercise and the most natural for our body. Once the weight starts to fall off you might find that aches and pains start to disappear so you can do more. Your body quickly adapts so after about 6 weeks you will need to either increase the intensity or make changes to your exercise program (or both). This is where a health and fitness professional might be able to help you.

Number three – Chillax!

Focus on relaxation – especially if you suffer with stress, relaxation is a HUGE part that is completely overlooked by a lot of people yet can have a MASSIVE impact on your health and wellbeing. Start with just 5 minutes a day of gentle breathing exercises, find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for five minutes, close your eyes (if you wish) and concentrate on rhythmic- diaphragm breathing, try to focus on your breathing and switch off your thoughts, by just doing this exercise each day you could see massive improvements as it helps to re-oxygenate the blood and get the nutrients from our foods passed around our body.

Number four – Sleep:

Getting a good nights sleep – our sleep patterns have a massive impact on our health and our body so you want to be getting as good a nights sleep as you can. Start by limiting computer usage and reduce how much TV you watch after 9pm at night, ideally you want to be in bed by 10pm as that is when the body starts the process of repair and re-growth. Get rid of the TV in the bedroom! Your bedroom is where you sleep so get rid of that TV, in fact cut down on all of the electrical equipment in the bedroom, Electro Magnetic Forces (EMF) have a significant impact on the quality of sleep that we get so before you go to bed make sure that you have no electrical items on and if possible place your mobile phone as far away from you as possible (if you use it for an alarm clock make sure it’s within hearing distance – don’t want you to get the sack now)

A Long post I know but the world of health is absolutely MASSIVE and we have only touched the tip of the iceberg here. Please give some of the above a try and let me know how you get on, if you’d like a more detailed nutritional plan please send me an email to Debbie@dj-personaltraining.co.uk and I will send you a copy.

Chase health and Thin Will Follow.

Have a great day and stay healthy,

Debbie

Can this one thing help you drop a shed load of body fat – really?

So today I’m going to reveal the one thing that can help you shift a shed load of body fat, but first of all I’m going to go into a few other things that will lead me to this.

In today’s current lifestyles we are becoming more and more stressed what with work, home, family and now more so with the credit crunch and prices rising could be a huge contributor to the stress.

Stress plays a major factor in weight gain, in fact not only weight gain but it has been proven that up to 90% of illnesses are stress related – not good huh!

We could be eating all of the right foods, getting plenty of exercise but if we are stressed then the chances of feeling great and achieving overall health could be minimal.

When we are stressed we release the hormones cortisone (cortisol) and Epinephrine (adrenalin), this is the bodies natural response. It is known as the ‘fight or flight’ response, basically you are either going to fight the stressor or run from the stressor, which back in the caveman day you could. In today’s busy lifestyles stress is happening several times a day, and although our bodies haven’t evolved much from the caveman days it’s unlikely we are going to be able to do the natural response of fight or flight.

When we are stressed it is very hard for our body to function at its best, it makes it hard for foods to be processed within the gut because it makes it hard for the body to utilize fats and without the fats our bodies cannot absorb nutrients needed for healthy function.

It’s very common for people who do suffer with stress to carry excess fat around their abdomen.

So here is the number one way to deal with stress in today’s hectic lifestyle:

Breathing!

Yup something as simple as controlled breathing can help you to relieve stress! You see while we are stressed our heart rate becomes very erratic as does our breathing which means that the heart may not be able to pump blood around the body effectively, because of this it may also mean that the blood our body is producing then becomes less efficient. This could lead to several other health issues such as circulation problems and pain in joints and muscles to name a few.

So how can this help me drop the fat?

Well you see when our body is able to function better by not having to cope with health issues and stress it can then do it’s job properly, it’s able to metabolize the foods that we eat correctly, it’s able to recover better after exercise, it will help you to deal with each stressor more effectively plus you will feel better in yourself and that excess fat that you’ve been trying to shift for years will start to melt away.

So how do I do controlled breathing?

The best way to do the controlled breathing is to sit comfortably and take a long breath in through the nose counting for about five seconds and then exhale through the mouth, again counting for five seconds. You should be breathing into your abdomen rather than chest breathing, if you find this a bit hard at first try lying on your back and pressing down on your stomach whilst trying to push your tummy our against your hand. After completing the previous exercise remain lying down keep your hands on your stomach and concentrate on your stomach rising and falling with every breath to make sure you are breathing into your abdomen.

You should do this around four to five times per day for 3-5 minutes and repeat EVERY time you experience stress. You know the saying ‘and deep breath’ when you get stressed – there’s something behind that ;o)

Another factor to help this is to add some positive thoughts as you are doing the breathing, for some it helps to close their eyes and focus on something that makes them happy. The more happy feelings being passed around the body the better it will function.

So there you have it, one simple thing such as breathing correctly can help you function correctly meaning it could help with digestion problems, aches and pains, circulation problems and shed a load of body fat!

Practice the breathing in your car, when going for a walk, cooking your dinner – whatever you are doing spend a bit of time being conscious of your breathing and slowing it down – especially during times of stress.

The Importance of soaking your oats/grains/pulses

Just a quick post today, up until recently I never soaked my nuts/seeds or porridge oats (well I did used to soak porridge oats overnight but stopped for some reason), I have now changed over to eating oat groats which I soak over night in water then rinse a few times before adding coconut milk to it - tastes lovely!

Anyway the reason why we must soak our grains/nuts/seeds over night is because they contain phytic acid which can actually stop you from absorbing essential minerals in your diet. Here is a passage i recently found when researching it.

taken from http://www.choosehealth.net/PracticalLiving/Cookingwithgrains.html
'Untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron especially zinc in the intestinal track and block their absorption. This is why a diet high in unfermented whole grains may led to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. The modern misguided practice of consuming large amounts of unprocessed bran often improves colon transit time at first but may lead to irritable bowel syndrome and, in the long term, many other adverse effects. Soaking allows enzyme, lactobacilli and other helpful organisms to break down and neutralize phytic acid. As little as seven hours of soaking in warm acidulated water will neutralize a large portion of phytic acid in grains. The simple practice of soaking cracked or rolled cereal grains overnight will vastly improve their nutritional benefits'

The reason why I say it's also important to soak nuts and seeds before eating them is because Pre-soaking nuts breaks down their natural preservative making them easier to digest, this means your body can absorb the nutrients better and there's less work for your liver, kidneys and colon.

So if you like your porridge on a morning still go for it but soak it over night, you might find there's no need to heat it up because the grains are already nice and soft to eat.

Same with the nuts and seeds, it gives them a better taste and it makes it easier for them to be broken down into smoothies and sprinkled onto breakfasts.

So go on get those nuts (seeds and oats) soaked ;O)

Have a great day x x