Health, Fitness and Lifestyle with Debbie Jukes

It's been a while since I posted

2011-11-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-12T00:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-08T03:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-11-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-03T00:56:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-11-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-31T14:09:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-10-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-20T03:13:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-04-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-04-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-02-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

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

Free Workout and Four Winter Warming Soup Recipes

2010-12-01T05:54:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Its That time of year again when the snow falls out of the sky and everyone begins to hibernate! If you find yourself becoming surrounded by your four walls constantly and your exercise and diet have gone down hill, stop and turn it around! The average person puts on over 10lbs over the festive period, don't let that be you! Get out for some fantastic winter walks - especially around noon when you might get some sunshine too to help with Vitamin D Uptake.

Even if you are stuck indoors there's no excuse for not being able to do exercise, here is a workout that you can do in the comfort of your own home (be sure to warm up first):

And to keep you warm on the inside here are some fantastic warming winter soup recipes that take no time to make but taste great:

Carrot and Lentil Soup

Rinse 75g (1/2 cup) red lentils, and put in a large saucepan with 1 sliced onion, 450g sliced carrots, 1.2 litres (5 cups) vegetable stock and 5ml (1 tsp) ground coriander. Stir, season and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked. Add 3tbsp chopped parsley and cook for a little longer. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor, return to the pan to reheat, and thin with a little extra water if needed before serving.

Green Soup

This makes a beautiful velvety soup that's not too thick. If you prefer a soup with more substance, add a handful brown rice, but it needs to simmer for 10 minutes.
500g (10 cups) spinach,1 large onion, 2 medium potatoes, 750ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
Get the stock simmering nicely, wash and shred the spinach removing any tough stalks, peel and chop the onion and potatoes, and add all to the stock. Season lightly. Let it simmer for 15 minutes, until the veg are softened. Blend. Serve immediately, or chill.
Variations
• For a creamier, richer soup, cook the vegetables in 500ml (2 cups) stock. This will give you a thick puree, which you can thin down to taste with organic milk.
• You can add any vegetables you have to hand – chopped carrot, squash, sweet potato, leeks, broccoli. The result is always slightly different, and may not be as intensely green, but will still be delicious.
• Add depth and warmth. Peel a 1-inch piece of root ginger and grate it in while the soup is simmering.
• Grate in some fresh nutmeg. Particularly good with spinach.

The above recipes are thanks to http://www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com

Here’s a couple of soups I put together –

Cream of Tomato Soup

put 2 tins of plum tomatoes and about a cup of water in a pan and bring to the boil, then add 1 onion, 2 sweet potatoes and 3 cloves of garlic. Once it boils reduce the heat to a simmer for 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Place in a blender and add 1-2 handfuls of cashew nuts (soaked over night) blend and add sea salt as desired.

Butternut Squash and Green Lentil Soup

I made a chicken stock from the roast we had at the weekend so was about 1ltr

add some chopped butternut squash (I’d bought a packet already cut on Sat - used some for our roast and the rest for this) about 4 carrots peeled and chopped and half a can of green lentils (drained and rinsed)

In a frying pan sautée an onion and add to the mix
leave to simmer for about 20 minutes or so (until veg soft) then let cool before blending it all together, add some some sea salt and pepper (and also some other spices to make it a little bit hot but that’s optional) and that's about it, its VERY tasty

Remember though with root vegetables you want to limit to 2-3 x per week but in the winter it's a lovely treat ;o)

Enjoy!

PS I have a 21 day Online Xmas Booty Program just released with more fantastic workouts and nutritional program, if you want to drop a dress size in time for Xmas and feel fantastic while everyone else feels uncomfortable check it out here 21 day Xmas Booty Body Blast Online Program

Your body, Your responsibility

2010-11-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Excuses, excuses! I hear them every day:

‘But it was pouring down and freezing I wasn’t in the mood for training today’
‘My alarm didn’t go off’
‘My workmates bought in cream cakes and I’d be rude if I refused them’
‘I can’t give up bread, pasta and cereal what will I eat!’
‘I’m not fit enough exercise 3 times a week’
‘I was stressed at work, I needed junk food!’

Let’s get one things straight, your body is nobody else’s responsibility but your own – period.

If you’re out of shape because you enjoy a good drink with your mates every weekend and eating crappy food choices then that’s down to no one else but you!

If you’re feeling ill and tired all the time then you should be looking at what you’re fuelling your body with and whether you are getting enough exercise, this could be playing a major role in how you’re feeling.

If you’re feeling fat but can’t give up on your regular treats of alcohol, chocolate and other unhealthy food choices then that’s all down to you.

We all want to feel great about ourselves but it’s only the truly committed people that will actually do something about it. The overall outlook you have about your body is all down to you, you can either make excuses about your shape or you can do something about it.

If you’re unhealthy and out of shape then the only way to reverse that is to do something about it, make a start, that’s the main thing then you must be consistent with it, the more you do the more your body will adapt, so the more you can challenge it, you will see the changes happening and start to feel more body confident and in turn start to feel happier.

Change the way you see yourself, if you think of yourself as fat and unhappy then that is what you’re most likely to be-come, its law of attraction! If you look in the mirror and see a fit and healthy body and are prepared to carry out the work to get that way then you will get there.

Stop making excuses about why you are out of shape and unhappy and start to work on becoming healthy and happy, if a healthy and fit body is your goal then you will get to a healthy size and feel much more confident at what you see in the mirror.
Just because you’re family/friends/partner are eating or drinking crap and doing their own thing doesn’t mean that you have to, perhaps learning to tell the odd white lie might help, telling your friends and family you can’t really drink milk/eat wheat anymore because you’ve found out you’re intolerant might help. Enjoy a night out for sure, but how about not drinking and tell your friends you’re on medication so can’t drink at the minute.

The body you want is achievable with hard work and dedication, it just depends whether you’re prepared to take responsibility and start taking the necessary action to get there....

Are you ready to take responsibility? Here are a few tips how:
Make yourself accountable and set yourself a goal, whether it be to drop a dress size by 20th Dec so I feel fantastic this Christmas or to be able to run around with your kids without getting tired, whatever it may be, write it down and remind yourself daily of your goal. Why not send it to me at Debbie@fatblastbootcamp.co.uk and I will chase you up on it!

Plan your meals ahead, if you know what you’re going to have to eat for the week ahead you’re less likely to feel lost with your nutrition.
Carry snacks with you – take fruit and nuts with you to work, that way when the snack monster attacks you’re ready and prepared ;o)

Eat healthy and wholesome foods, lots of fruit and vegetable, be sure to eat your greens (broccoli, kale, sprouts etc) it’s not some old wives tail they are packed with vitamins and minerals to help you fight off infection and stay healthy.
Exercise regularly!

Eat to exercise not exercise to eat – so many people do it, have a few cream cakes then thrash themselves in the gym to work it off, that’s not the mindset you should have, you should eat a well balanced diet that will support your fitness program not the other way around.

There are many more I could add but perhaps you have your own, why not share below? How do you take responsibility for your health? What actions are you taking to get the best from your body?

Fitness for Busy Women

2010-11-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry its been a while since I have written a post on here but I've been developing my 4 week rapid results fitness for busy women program, this is a four week program that's aimed at busy women that want to get in shape in as little as time as possible!

I've put in a series of short but effective workouts that work the whole of your body,

here is an example of a rapid fat loss workout to do at home in your spare time

20 x squats
20 x press ups
20 x lunges
20 x high knee sprints
20 x Alternate squat thrusts (each leg)

repeat 3-5 times (dependent on fitness levels)

Some of the exercises can be found on this video

Just a quick post but I hope this helps you on your quest to a better body

Debbie x

Not all fitness Boot Camps are Army Style!

2010-09-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

After reading an article today I felt compelled to write about it. (ARTICLE can be viewed here)

The article has singled out a well known company called BMF (British Military Fitness) and made reference that there are more and more Army style fitness programmes popping up – i.e. Boot Camps, after reading the article it would be very easy to see why people would get confused and assume that all out door Boot Camp’s are the same as what is described in the article.

The article pointed out the negatives of Military style Fitness training and used British Military Fitness (BMF) as an example, it pointed out about injuries caused through lots of sit ups and running which is what members of the Army do, then made references to ex soldiers’ injuries rather than anyone that has attended the BMF sessions. These outdoor fitness classes may be run by Ex Forces members but why compare a military style fitness class to (ex) military personnel’s injuries.

In the military, on top of carrying out several Physical Training (PT) sessions in the form or circuit training, they also have Battle PT (using logs and carrying stretchers etc) and also CFT Training (combat fitness tests – weighted marches over distances of 8 miles in military uniform and boots),
and drill (for regimental parades) plus training exercises where carrying more than 35lbs is common, given all of these other stresses Forces Personnel have to endure on their body I think it was irrelevant to compare military personnel’s injuries to those that may occur on an outdoor Army style fitness class that may run 3-5 times per week for an hour max!

On a positive note however, the article did raise some valid points, not all Army style fitness workouts are carried out by fully qualified instructors nor is the clients safety taken into consideration, and the fact that the issue has been brought to the attention of the public might make people do their homework on certain fitness programmes.

All fitness should be progressive and In the Army it is, you are not expected to carry out an 8 mile march carrying 35lbs on your first day, nor are you expected to run 5 miles continuously, you are trained progressively to get to that level, yes the training is extremely hard but in the military the training objective is to get you fit for combat and have lots of strength and endurance for combat situations.

Personally I have no experience with BMF so I cannot comment, though I have spoken to a few of their instructors that are very quick to defend BMF and what they stand for. If people have had a poor experience and have gained injuries which have been ignored and made worse then all I can say is that perhaps – like a lot of companies, there is the odd bad apple that gives the company a poor name; maybe some valuable lessons to be learned from a very successful company such as BMF?

With regard to Army Style Fitness, providing that the instructors are aware of each member’s physical capabilities and injuries then a mild Army Style fitness class may be fun, the name British Military Fitness should give people a bit of a clue what type of training to expect so perhaps it’s not the best programme to start if you’re a complete novice to exercise or are severely overweight, BMF are serving a niche and those people that enjoy that type of training will no doubt continue to train with them.

Now to break the comparison of outdoor fitness and fat loss boot camps to those described in the article.

Perhaps years ago a boot camp would be classed as the military training where you as a person would be broken down through military style ‘beastings’, command tasks to improve team work and all of it would also help to banish poor behaviour, improve mental ability as well as physical fitness – all to make you a better person overall.

Today however the words boot camp is used freely, perhaps we have the X Factor to blame for that...? As a personal trainer I chose to use the word boot camp because that’s what a lot of people are searching for to help them get into shape. My camp is a Fat Blast Boot Camp so my aim is to educate people about the safest and most effective way to lose fat and get into great shape.

Being Ex-Army there is no doubt that a lot of the exercises I use on my camps are the same as what I did in my Army PT circuit sessions so I can see where the comparison to Army style fitness can come from. The difference with my boot camp is that our members have training before joining the camp sessions to teach them about the exercises we use, they will also start the boot camp at a level that suits them and build their progression, physical injuries are also taken into consideration, though members are advised that its best to be free of injury when joining the camps, the camps are also a four weekly block which progress each week. Yes, of course we will push members that bit to get more from them, that’s because people can achieve much more than they realise when exercising – it just takes someone to give them that little push, client safety is not compromised however. Our camps also have an extremely effective nutrition guide to follow to help them drop fat fast and achieve overall health and well being.

Whatever exercise programme you choose to follow, when exercising you should know your own capabilities and if there is any sign of injury when performing an exercise you should always stop and if in a group/personal training environment always inform your instructor, if they have invested a lot of time and money on their education they may be able to offer you advice on how to prevent further injury and refer you where needed, if they are a little less experienced they should refer you to a professional for further investigation.

When choosing a fitness programme, find the right one to suit you, if it gets you the results that you desire in a safe, effective way then stick with it, if not find another.

Train Smart, Stay Healthy, Get Results!

Debbie x

PS, if you would like to try an exercise programme with proven results then contact Debbie@fatblastbootcamp.co.uk and quote ‘boot camp taster week’ to be in with a chance to grab one of five taster weeks on our next boot camp http://fatblastbootcamp.co.uk

(image courtesy of http://www.army.mod.uk)

Out of shape? Do something about it!

2010-08-18T07:21:00.004-07:00

Overweight, miserable, no self esteem....

Does this remind you of yourself? Do you wake up on a daily basis, look in the mirror and wish you were slimmer?

If you answered yes to this question you wouldn’t be the only one!
If you’re feeling overweight, low and depressed then STOP complaining and DO something about it!

Harsh but true, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people getting upset about their body, I’d be lying if I didn’t have my share of ‘fat days’ but when I start to complain about it myself I always have that inner voice that just says ‘well do something about it then!’

It’s at times like this when its easy to blame others but at the end of the day, are they the ones shovelling the food or sugary drinks down our neck? No they are not it all boils down to us.

How many of you have uttered those words ‘oh my god I’ve put on so much weight, right that’s it diet starts Monday!’ So you over indulge on sweets, chocolate, fast food the lot; because we know that the diet is starting Monday! Then Monday comes and goes and though you may have started off with the best intentions, lived off salads and fruit because you aren’t totally sure how to go about getting into shape and by day 3 you just can’t take it anymore so over indulge on loads of sugary treats.... Sound familiar? The failure is probably down to your body craving the crap you’ve loaded it with just days before! Why wait until Monday to start, the minute you utter those words make a choice to start your quest there and then! You may need to do some planning but there really is no need to ‘overload’ on all the unhealthy food you can.

If you have decided that now is the time to do something about it then you have to be willing to pay the price and put in the work,

As a Personal Trainer and Boot Camp owner I receive several emails from happy clients who not only have lost weight but are now oozing with confidence, feeling ecstatic with the way they look and have loads of energy, each and everyone has worked hard and followed a plan to get there.
Would you rather feel tired and miserable with your body or ooze confidence and feel fantastic – I know which one I prefer.

Here are 10 of my tips to follow if you want to be successful in your quest to the perfect body:

1) Have a goal – Know exactly what you want to achieve, if you decide you want to get to a size 10 but a 12-14 would be more realistic then that not the goal. Why not set the 12-14 as one of your milestones but the size 10 as your overall goal? Just think how fantastic you will feel when you get there! Keep reminding yourself of your goal on a regular basis

2) Stop believing in Fad diets – they don’t work, they are there to make money from you and to ensure that you go back to them when you fail, because believe it or not they set you up for failure by allowing you to eat some of the food choices they do!

3) Have a fantastic support network – it’s hard to do these things alone so if you have someone else who is in the same boat as you then why not use one and other to push yourselves towards your goals, it helps to have someone else accountable to other than your health and fitness coach. If your friends and family are supportive of your quest they will do what they can to help you get there.

4) Get up an hour early to do some exercise – it has been proven that exercising increases energy, reduces stress, boosts metabolism and improved mood, so what better way to look good and feel great – oh yes and the sort under the covers with your partner is also great exercise and makes you feel great ;o)

5) Eat a healthy diet – it’s not rocket science but some people do believe that you can exercise and eat what you want and still get an amazing body. You cannot out train a poor diet (trust me I’ve tried in the past!) so you really need to be including healthy foods in your diet, green leafy vegetables, fresh fruit, lean protein, nuts and seeds should all be included in there

6) Hire a professional – if you wanted to learn to drive you would hire an instructor, if you wanted to learn to dance you would attend a course/hire an instructor.
There’s so much poor information out there to cause major confusion over health and nutrition so it’s essential that you hire a health and fitness professional to help you along the way.

7) Follow the advice given by your professional - if your coach has told you to cut out certain foods such as dairy, wheat, alcohol and sugar for 30 days then do it, if they have instructed you to follow a hard training plan then do it, they have put it together for a reason, because it is tried and tested and generally achieves great results.

8) Don’t always listen to your friends! – So your friends are telling you that ‘Mary followed the slim fast diet and dropped 10lbs in 1 week’ and asking why you’ve chosen to do things the way you have instead of the quick fix. Sometimes your friends might not understand fully what you’re doing so may not show the encouragement you desire, they might even get upset at the fact they haven’t got you to go out drinking and eating junk food with them anymore, but don’t despair, when they see how amazing your looking in a few weeks time of hard work they’ll want to follow the same advice as you!

9) Have belief in yourself – It’s too easy to take an I Can’t attitude, or ‘I’ve always been big I just can’t lose weight’ this kind of talk is defeatist talk, the minute you mutter those words you have set yourself up for failure – Have an ‘I Can’ attitude and anything is within your grasp when you set your mind to it.

10) Stop wishing, start doing – stop wishing you had a ‘booty like Beyonce’ and start to work with what you’ve got, don’t compare yourself to others, you are a unique individual with your own body so work with it, treat it with the respect it needs which means eating healthy and exercising regularly, get it into the best shape you can and reward yourself when you get there, trust me you WILL feel fantastic for it!

Next time you start to complain about the body you have, STOP and DO something about it!

Boot Camp Latest Results

2010-06-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to share with you our latest video and the results we've had on the Boot Camp!

If you live in the North Yorkshire area near Richmond and Catterick and want to achieve great fitness and fat loss results, why not come along and try for yourself www.fatblastbootcamp.co.uk

Its Friday - Time for a giggle

2010-06-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

So I've just shared this with my Boot Campers and Personal Training clients, because although I have them on a strict nutrition plan and exercise regime I just wanted to remind them that they must also be in the here and now.

Enjoy life, laugh as much as possible and spend time doing the things that you love, its amazing how much cleaning up your nutrition and exercise will do for your mood and well being but sometimes just watching something that makes you laugh is great too!!

ENJOY - I hope it makes you smile as much as it did me,

Have a great weekend x x

New On line programme - summer body in 28 days

2010-05-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

If you are a Boot camp or Personal Training client of mine you will already know that I pride myself on helping my clients to get their fat loss results really quickly and with the least amount of fuss and hassle.

Well, recently I've been working even harder at delivering results for my clients and have developed a brand new on line program called the '28 day body for summer' program that I'm using to get amazing fat loss results in record time.

The on line program incorporates a full nutritional, lifestyle and exercise plan that is combined in a unique way to make results a sure-thing for anyone who uses it.
In fact, I'm so keen for people to try it out and experience the results for themselves that I'm slashing the fees by 50% in the hope of enticing you to try it out for yourself.

For the next four days I'm taking on clients on a first-come, first served basis at just 50% of the normal rate as a kind of 'ethical bribe' to come and help me test out the on line program and earn myself a few amazing testimonials into the bargain: )

The program will start on Monday 31st May 2010 and the half price offer will end in a few days, so if you're interested in getting into great shape in time for the summer and drop at least a dress size in 28 days then email me right away at Debbie@dj-personaltraining.co.uk to get into the program as soon as possible.

Boot Camp Members and Personal Training Clients get to join the program for free as thanks for choosing my services.

So for just £47 you could see dramatic fat loss results, feel amazing and drop at LEAST a dress size in 4 weeks or less, what’s more you will have a community of people to help you reach your goals!
Email me now at Debbie@dj-personaltraining.co.uk if you would like to get in on the program before it goes up to £94!

Boot Camp Versus Gyms!

2010-05-13T04:14:00.000-07:00

One of my boot camp Clients asked me a question yesterday - why do we get results on the camp when I was going to the gym for hours on end and not seeing results?

Great question, there's a few answers to this - on the camp we aim to build lean muscle and when you have muscle you increase your resting metabolic rate (burn more calories during the day). That doesn't mean you can then eat what you like because you will just put on fat, you need to lose the fat from around the muscle to reveal the great muscle tone - and the NUMBER 1 way to do that is by cleaning up your nutrition. If you have started to lapse a bit on the diet - get right back to the healthy eating - live by the 90/10 rule - allow yourself the OCCASIONAL treat and eat clean the rest of the time.

Another reason we get results at the camp is because no two workouts are the same so your body never gets the chance to adapt to one workout, in the gym you generally get results for the first month then stop am i right? thats because your body has adapted - you need to change your programme (increase intensity/lift heavier) EVERY 3-4 weeks in order to keep getting results.

By doing resistance style training and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) (what we do at the camp) we create what is know as EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumtion) basically the harder our body and muscles have to work at regrowth and repair the higher the metabolism during that time. Usually on the gym programmes you are burning calories for the duration (assuming you follow the same routine most do - treadmil, bike, cross trainer - few light weights that haven't increased in months!) and for around 2 hours after, then it stops. When you create EPOC you may not burn as many calories whilst you do it but your metabolism stays ramped up for 24-48 hours depending on how hard you work your muscles!!

A lot of people will not notice their weight change very much on the scales on the boot camp (although when you follow the diet to the letter you will drop several pounds - this is through excess toxin build up and also expelling those foods that cause your intestines swell up because it can't digest it - MILK is a HUGE one!) anyway back to the point - theres a common saying we hear people say - 'muscle weighs more than fat' well no thats not entirely true because a pound of muscle is exactly the same weight as a pound of fat- the crucial difference is that muscle doesn't take up as much room in the body as its denser than fat. So if you had two people in front of you - one was well toned through weight training and HIIT so had more musle and the other never trained at all and had more fat they would have a completely different body shape yet the one with the most muscle might weigh more does that make sense?

Here is a picture of 5lbs of muscle and 5lbs of fat - as you can see fat takes up a larger surface area in the body:

so here's how two people may look where one carry's out weight training and the other doesn't do any exercise

Slim-fat (unhealthy) Slim - toned (healthy)

None exerciser 9stone Regular exerciser 9stone

The worst thing you could possibly do is rely on weight loss when you are trying to get in shape, sure if your overweight then you do need to lose weight but you need to do it through more than diet alone. Any exercise is great but if your not doing resistance work then some/a lot of your weight loss can actually come from the breaking down and loss of your muscle mass - which is devastating because muscle is VITAL for fat loss, if you rely on weight loss alone you could end up struggling with yo yo diets forever!

I hope this answers your questions? Please keep asking as it helps a lot of people, not just the boot camp members

Well done to Chritina for asking a fantastic question and for getting outstading results so far and we're not even at the end of week 3 - Keep Smashing it!! x x

My amazing weekend at Fitness Entrepreneur Bootcamp

2010-05-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

I'm just so excited about the weekend I've had - basically if you don't know I've been in Nottingham on a fitness business seminar and it has blown me away.

I got to learn from some of the world’s top trainers including Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove - Alwyn Cosgrove is Scottish but moved to America where him and his wife have set up the leading fitness facility, I didn't know Alwyns background fully but when I learnt he's beaten cancer twice and still runs his fitness facility (which ran itself while he was ill!) I was in awe - They were just a lovely couple too that made me realise my own core values and self worth!

What does this mean business wise - well I've invested around six grand this last year on training courses, fat loss/fitness/kinetic chain courses, books, online courses, seminars, coaching programmes so now’s the time for that value to be reflected in my business, there's going to be some changes made to the way I run my boot camps and the membership options, and also my personal training structure.

What else I learned is some very in depth nutrition information from Phil Richards who is the leading strength and conditioning coach in the UK, he's very much the alkaline diet endorser and after listening to him there was some really valuable points he made, one of which that stuck with me is that if you are exercising yet all the other aspects in your life are a mess - like nutrition, stress levels, sleep patterns etc then if your exercising on top of that you could end up shutting your body down and causing yourself to become a ground for illness, disease and injury! Phil had some interesting info like dairy and meats being a cause of cancer (though I had read about milk) although he does recommend eating a little meat now and then. His five top tips to help people get back into health which are:

Number one is clean water - now he did talk about machines that specially sort out the water as both tap and bottled have lots of chemicals in but those things are expensice so If i can recommend anything it would be to see if you can get glass bottled mineral water - if not normal mineral water (though if you carry weight around your hips don't drink out of plastic bottles as there’s lots of estrogens in there from the plastic which is a HUGE cause of carrying excess weight around those hips!

Number two - eat only organic food (well I’ve been telling you that haven't I!) because it doesn't have the pesticides and fertilisers etc, and with the meat there are no injections etc.

Number three - get into alkalising - the basics, did you know that there’s a doctor in the states (Dr. Mark Sircus) that actually uses sodium bicarb to heal some of his cancer patients - how awesome is that! I hear it helps to restore the white blood cells to fight cancer - so every morning have a pint of water with a spoon full of bicarb of soda / baking soda (about 70p from your local supermarket!) and every night do the same, this is what I was doing the last time i went fully boot camp diet and i felt amazing on day 3 so i have started doing it again, before i wasn't sure why to do it necessarily but it makes perfect sense mow - and if I can give my body a chance to fight cancer forming cells I'm gonna bloody do it - you should too - try it for a week see how you feel, if you have a difference keep doing it! we take in too many chemicals from food, washing powders, pollution, cleaning fluids - the list goes on!! we gotta start fighting against them! If you are severely stressed then I recommend doing extra spoon full’s and even have another glass or two during the day. What have you got to lose if you give it a go - you could just feel like a different person!

Number four, Grasses - grasses such as wheat grass and barley grass to help with your bloods alkalisation and get you back to a healthy state, think these are about £10-15 from the health food shop in Richmond but there may be cheaper options

Number five Magnesium spray - we are all deficient in magnesium and rather than taking a supplement orally we can rub it on our skin and it is absorbed much better (30% absorbed orally compared to 80% on the skin or there abouts!)

Now phil has studied and trained for over 25 years in this field so he knows his stuff, a lot of the other stuff he told us was mind blowing but so much to take in!!

The most memorable presentation with stuff I can pass onto you was without a doubt Michael Heppell, this man had us literally crying with laughter but some really powerful messages were passed on, he talks about making positive sentences to use instead of negatives, for instance instead of saying 'I'm tired' - say 'I could do with more energy', 'I have no time to exercise' to 'I need to find some time to exercise' Michael is from the North East himself and the stuff I learned from him was outstanding.

The stuff here is not necessarily ground breaking, I’ve been passing a lot of the info off to you in bits and bobs (maybe not everything but a fair bit!)

Let’s all try the above regards nutrition and positive thinking for 2 weeks minimum and just see how we feel after that week - who's in with me?

So there you have it I just had to share with you the amazing weekend that has changed my life and the changes in my fitness business will be such a positive change and I hope that it will show in the service I give to you - stay BRILLIANT! x

Boot Camp 1st birthday - fat loss lessons learnt along the way

2010-04-25T17:57:00.001-07:00

It’s coming up to the one year anniversary of the Fat Blast Boot Camp and it’s made me reflect on a few things, while some people will love the boot camp and get a lot from it – others just don’t seem to get the results they desire.

On the boot camp we’ve had people like Yvonne Bell who had a total inch loss of 10.5 and lost 6lbs in 4 weeks and Helen Allan also had a total inch loss of 10.5 and lost 6lbs in 4 weeks, or Phil Benaiges who lost an amazing 18lbs in 2 boot camps and got into his 34" waist trousers for the first time in over 6 years. Then there’s Alyson Down who didn’t change much on the scales yet lost 4” off her waist 1.5" from her hips 0.5" off her upper thighs, upper arms and bust in just 4 weeks. Nikki Scarr who went from a size 16 to 12 in just a few months – plus she passed her military entrance test with flying colours! More recently Becky Shuttleworth who lost 4” from her thighs, 7” from her stomach, an inch off each arm and went from a size 16 to a 12 and lost about 2 and a half stone in just a few months! Jackie box who lost a stone on her first boot camp following the nutritional advice as well as her boot camp sessions, Jackie is currently a shrinking lady and her fitness is coming on in leaps and bounds – and all the rest of the members who have also seen great results.

While there are people who are thrilled with their results from the boot camp there is always the odd one who may not get the results they desire. This led me to research further, why is it that some people are getting these results yet others aren’t. On deeper inspection I noticed a pattern forming with those that weren’t getting results.

The camp members that were following erratic eating patterns such as skipping breakfast, having a poor choice of lunch such as fruit alone or a small bowl of soup followed by a large evening meal including complex carbohydrates, generally followed by snacking seemed to not change or worse yet put on slightly. The same also happened with the campers that were following calorie restricted diets, the more severe the calorie restriction the worse their results would become. Whilst I can offer people advice, some do not change their eating habits and choose to put their health at risk rather than follow professional advice.

This led me to investigate further as to why these people are not getting the results they want – or even worse getting completely the opposite! So over this last six months I have been studying hormonal patterns, and what happens to our body when we put it under stress such as poor diet, excessive exercise (Aerobic style exercise for longer than 45 minutes to an hour at any one given time), poor sleeping patterns and lifestyle stress such as heavy or binge drinking, what I have learnt has been an eye opener!

Cortisol, known as the stress hormone because it’s released when our body becomes stressed may be a huge contributor. Back in the caveman days we needed cortisol for the ‘fight or flight’ phase for hunting, when faced with the stressor such as a lion, your cortisol would increase to prepare you to either fight it or run away from it, either way your body would use that cortisol efficiently . Fast forward several thousand years and although our lifestyle has somewhat changed our body’s have not yet evolved to differentiate stress for ‘fight or flight’ and every day stresses such children, relationship, diet and exercise.

Cortisol encourages fat storage all over our body but more noticeably around the stomach. Whether you yo-yo diet, have suffered with an eating disorder, don’t follow a healthy eating regime, have lifestyle stresses or have poor sleeping patterns then you are among those that will suffer from increased cortisol production and fat storage.

Here are some shocking findings for the excessive dieters:

Researchers from the Birmingham University were studying metabolic effects a very low calorie diet (eight hundred calories per day) for 10 weeks and what they found is that the stress of the diet significantly increased cortisol levels throughout the body, this also increased HSD (11 bet/a-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD) - a fat storing enzyme within the fat cells) activity within the fat cells by 3.4 times. Which goes to show that not only are these diets stressful but they make your fat cells work against you! As you struggle to lose weight, your fat cells actually INCREASE their HSD activity, leading to more cortisol, a stronger signal to store fat, bringing you back to your pre diet weight, or in many cases even heavier!

Each book that I have read on the subject of hormonal patterns have all had something in common – to follow a healthy diet, very similar to the one I advocate on the boot camp.

Other things that can help people is taking time out for relaxation, meditation, yoga and pilates can be great to help with the overall fat loss for those who embrace it properly and get the true advantages that they offer you.

Treat your body holistically; don’t expect to get fantastic results from exercise alone if everything else in your life is unbalanced. If you concentrate on being happy with you and the body you have at present, respect that amazing body you have by following a healthy diet and cutting down on foods that have been altered from their natural state and gone through heavy processes making them more stressful for the body to digest. Take time out to do the things that YOU love (that doesn't involve abusing your body with drugs or alcohol), get some exercise – challenge your body. Spend time for relaxation which doesn’t include sleep because our minds still work overtime when we sleep.

Just be happy and at ease with the amazing person that you are and realise that some journeys may take time, but learn to love the path that your following to get you there, there may be set backs along the way but the minute you let that upset you and discourage you your on the slippery slope to failure. Remain positive at all times and accept that there are consequences when you choose to follow an unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

During this last year I have not only worked with some amazing people on the boot camp, but also my ongoing personal training and fitness class clients, I am truly thankful that you have been a part of my path to become a more knowledgeable trainer, better instructor and make my job so worthwhile - from the bottom of my heart, thank you, you’re my life and I love you all lots

Stay happy and strong and keep rocking it! x

References and further reading –

The Cortisol Connection - Shawn Talbott
Adrenal Fatigue – James Wilson

The Top 5 obstacles to overcome in your quest for the perfect body!

2010-04-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so you’ve just started to follow a specific healthy eating regime and exercise programme and things are getting hard, when we set ourselves goals in life we will always come to an obstacle – here are my top 5 when it comes to weight/fat loss.

Number 5 – The media

We see things on the TV every day, adverts claiming their ‘foods’ will help you lose weight, articles/adverts in the newspapers or magazines about the latest diet craze or magic pill!

The media has a HUGE influence over how we view what’s healthy and what’s not, don’t let it suck you in – we’ve all got it in us to realise what really is healthy and what’s not, a lot of it is common sense – think about how our great grandparents ate, no packets or heavily processed crap then!

On top of the media and advertising campaigns we have the skinny models and celebrities to compete with, including those flawless figures in the magazines that have been airbrushed to get them that way!

Who cares whether you have the perfect body – the key is learning to love yourself and your body (whatever your shape) and when you love your body you will respect it – by respect I mean you will eat the healthy foods it requires to function to the best of its ability and challenge it with exercise – get the best from the body you have.

When you learn to love body you will find it much harder to fill it with crap!

If you’re unsure of what’s healthy and what’s not – find a health and nutritional professional who might be able to help you if you’re confused.

Number 4 – your work colleagues

So you might have just started a boot camp or exercise class that your buzzing about and you tell your colleagues, and you get that blank stare – then the ‘are you mad’ look – they might even say that, while their tucking into their digestive and cup of tea, then in the next breath complain of being fat! Some of them might even make fun of you, and make jokes about you being a ‘health/fitness freak’ they are only directing the jibes towards you to take the attention away from the fact that they are doing nothing about their health!

Then you’ve got the other colleague, when you tell them you’ve given up wheat, dairy and alcohol – ‘what are you supposed to eat!’ as they tuck into their lunchtime sandwich and fifth cup of tea of the day, then come out with the comment – ‘I don’t know how you do it mate – I couldn’t!’ This is already defeatist talk – people like this will never get results if they continue with that attitude – they have no will power.

Then there’s the colleague that will bring in the biscuits or go to the shop and bring loads of crap for everyone to eat, they want to eat s**t but to make themselves feel better they encourage everyone else around them to eat s**t too! ‘But one won’t hurt’ they’ll be heard saying! They have no self discipline and want to bring everyone around them down to their level

If you know any of these people in your work place just be strong, politely thank that person for the offer of food and decline, it’s usually best not to tell anyone in the work place too much about what you’re doing because you can set yourself up for failure. After a few days or weeks they will start to notice the changes in you – that’s when you tell them about it – not before, because unfortunately a lot of people like to see others fail, perhaps it makes them feel better in themselves I’m not sure, but if they don’t know they can’t direct their views towards you or try to make you fail before you’ve even started. If you do tell them just be prepared for some of these reactions and be determined not to let it affect you.

Number 3 – your family

For some of you, you may tell your family what you’re doing and they’ll tell you that you look great and don’t need to diet, they love you so much they might not notice if you’ve got out of shape – even if they have its probably not an issue to them.

Of course then there’s that member of family that just loves to feed you up – you know the one when you do start to lose weight, handing you a fattening treat saying ‘get some of that into you love – get some meat back on your bones’ remind you of someone in your family maybe?

Then unfortunately you may have that member of family that just doesn’t believe in you, they might have seen you fail once or twice so will tell you you’re going to fail before you even give it a go, I’d be lying if I said I’d never done this myself because I have a member of my family told me they were going to give up smoking......after they had finished the last of their holiday duty frees – I told them that they were setting themselves up for failure before they’d even started because they clearly weren’t ready yet as they felt they needed to finish all their cigarettes off. The best way is to set a date and stick with that date – no matter what! When this does happen to you and someone doubts you or puts you down don’t let their comment affect your decision – make a point of proving them wrong or again just don’t tell them right away.

If you do tell your family give them lists of what you can’t eat and I’m sure they will try to help out, ask them to get herbal tea bags in for when you visit so you can still catch up over a brew!

Number 2 – your friends

This is one of the worst ones your ‘mates’ can sometimes be the ones who bring you down, whether it’s the one who sits in their house all day moaning about their life and how they wish they were thin – yet won’t do anything about it, except moan at you when you won’t go around to sit with them anymore, these types of friends I like to call the ‘un-loaders!’. They like to unload all of their problems onto you, their own unhappiness and complain about anyone else who is happy. They’ll be known to slag people off constantly and always see the bad in other people, if you know someone like this have a break from them for a while and hope that they find happiness soon – unfortunately if you continue to let them unload on you, you could then begin to suffer.

Next we have the friends that bitch at you for not going out and getting wrecked with them anymore, they might come out with comments like ‘you’ve changed’ or ‘you can’t miss this it’s been arranged for ages (like last Saturday night!) or it’s a friend’s birthday, there will always be an occasion that you should go and get wrecked with them. If you have these friends around you just have a think, are they drinking to excess and just need someone to drink with them? Have you been that person in the past (I know I have) but now you want to make a positive change for yourself they can’t handle it?

A real friend will support you no matter what you’re doing and accept it if you choose not to drink with them, if you enjoy their company you should have a great night with them even if you’re not drinking, if not then perhaps your not as close as you thought you were.

Surround yourself with positive, likeminded people you will succeed much quicker.

Number 1 - you

Let’s face it we’re all partly aware the obstacles we’re going to face when we prepare ourselves for a new challenge but the fact is, that work colleague isn’t shoving the crap food down your throat, your mates aren’t forcing you to drink and poring the alcohol down your neck, the only person who has control over anything is YOU!

If you haven’t got the strength to see things through then you will never succeed on your goals, no one wants to hear about the excuses about why you failed it’s all excuses. If you set yourself a goal then be aware of the price you have to pay to reach that goal, it might be not going out on the weekends for a while, not seeing your friends for a while, not sharing your life story in work for a while but so what – the difference in how you will feel in yourself once you get to that goal is worth much more than that moment of weakness!

So there you have it – my thoughts on the 5 biggest obstacles to overcome on your quest for getting your perfect body, the number one is YOU, if you haven’t got the will power to do what it takes to get to your goal then you will never have the results you want.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford

Could you be eating too much?

2010-04-09T00:38:00.000-07:00

Here’s a quick blog post based on a few questions I have received lately.
Ok so you’ve been following a healthy diet for a few weeks now and you’re still not seeing any results? You’re eating the right foods but that waist line still isn’t dropping?

Well there is a chance you could still be eating too much! So I said in a recent post that when you are eating the right foods its hard to put on weight because you will be more satisfied with the foods that you are eating. What I forgot to mention is that although you can be eating all these great healthy foods you still have the ability to overeat on these healthy wholesome foods.

A lot of people just enjoy eating/snacking (me included) and may not realise that that extra handful of nuts they’ve snuck into their daily intake might be what’s stopping them from losing weight. Be honest with yourself when you reach for that snack, are you bored or are you starting to get a little peckish and need to curb your hunger until your next meal? This is where listening to your body comes in, if you’re eating foods for the sake of it then you need to be prepared to pay the price and suffer the consequences of overeating.

I’m not particularly a fan of calorie counting but it can work for some people, just by cutting your calorie intake by about 500 per day (through both exercise and diet) you will start to lose weight at a steady level. But if you’re eating a poor diet and are just reducing your calories on that poor diet you might get results short term but you will still be holding on to the fat stores and your weight loss could be coming from muscle rather than from fat.

The best way to keep on track with your weight loss is by using a diet planner to plan your meals ahead and a diet diary to keep log of everything you have eaten (yes that means everything – even that tiny bit of chocolate you pinched from your children!).

Start making your portions that little smaller, if you’re having porridge on a morning it can be easy to overdo it, just make your porridge using a small cup ¾ full or for larger males a full cup. Watch your snacks in the day and be careful of overeating at your meals. You should never feel totally bloated after a meal – if you do its counterproductive.

If you have been exercising and you have stopped getting results you need to increase your intensity of the exercise, increase the amount of exercise your doing in the week so that your body has a challenge again and also be sure that you are progressing with your exercises on your training sessions too – if you have been doing press ups from your knees for 6 weeks in a row – guess what your not progressing, by now you should be doing a few full press ups!

If you’re not seeing results then you may need to reduce your daily food intake and/or increase your energy output (exercise more): eat less – move more!!

How much food can I eat?

2010-04-08T01:47:00.000-07:00

I get asked questions on this subject so often, especially from clients who have stopped getting results or who aren't following a healthy diet, there have even been occasions when I have thought I've been eating healthily but when I've really looked into it I know I haven't!!

Recently (before Easter came along!!) I was following a really clean diet which involved no sugar, caffeine, wheat, dairy, alcohol or processed foods and after the initial period where I had headaches I felt absolutely amazing, hardly needed my alarm clock to get up at 5.30 in the morning as I was bounding out of bed. When I had a drink of alcohol and went out for a few meals over Easter I just felt a lack of energy and my concentration levels had just plummeted, I’m so pleased to be getting back to the healthy eating again!!

So the question - how much food should I eat? I believe should be re-phrased to: am I eating the right foods? When you are eating a diet that is rich in vitamins and minerals, and a mixture of proteins, carbohydrates and fats your body can absorb all the nutrients it needs and you won't have to worry about how much you’re eating as you will feel much more satisfied when you eat.

Its generally foods that have been tampered with and processed that makes us want to eat and eat, ever noticed if you have a sandwich your starving within a few hours and nothing seems to fill you - that’s because (this is my theory based on my research) your body isn't getting the right nutrients it needs so its sending signals to your brain to get you to eat more. Then rather than eating healthy foods you eat more rubbish because you’re now craving refined carbohydrates and the vicious circle of eating crap starts again! Sometimes when we make poor food choices and try to make ourselves feel better by eating healthy foods our attempts may be wasted because our body can no longer absorb the vitamins and minerals from the healthy foods as effectively.

I urge you to just give it a go – try cutting out wheat, dairy (eggs, natural yoghurt and butter are all ok in moderation), sugar, processed foods and alcohol for a minimum of two weeks and see how much more energy you have in the day! Here’s an example of what you could try eating in the day:

Breakfast: banana and almond smoothy:

Banana, small cup rice/almond milk, small handful of almonds, sprinkle of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, handful of spinach and tea spoon of olive oil) the ingredients might sound funny but you can’t taste the spinach- trust me!

Snack – small handful of mixed (unsalted) nuts and an apple

Lunch – avocado salad:

salad made with spinach, rocket and watercress, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, cooked beetroot (not pickled) avocado, onion, olive oil and a lemon squeezed over for flavour – you can also add a few toasted nuts and seeds/ cooked quinoa)

Snack – small handful of mixed (unsalted) seeds and a handful of blueberries

Dinner – chicken dinner with vegetables:
Free range chicken with steamed cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, green beans and sweet potato

Desert – citrus fruit salad – made with apples, oranges, mandarins and pink grapefruit – sprinkle over nutmeg for flavour

Here’s just an example of how great and flavoursome your meals can be, there’s much more you can do with this healthy eating but I’ll leave that up to you to be creative!

Drink at least 2 litres of clean mineral water throughout the day (drink a large glass of water an hour before eating and leave for at least half an hour after eating to drink so not to dilute your foods and stop absorption), remember to stop eating once you are satisfied, there’s no need to ‘fill up’ on food and become uncomfortable.

Now I'm not saying that there's no room for the odd treat, after all we all need to let loose once in a while, thats where a 'cheat meal' can come in, once a week you enjoy your favourite meal with a glass of wine. If your planning a big night out (and have chosen not to be the driver) why not prepare yourself before hand and get lots of fruit and vegetables in for the following day so that you can go straight into healthy eating and try to reduce the effects of the alcohol as much as possible.

If after the initial 2 weeks you follow this healthy eating plan for at least 80% of the time you will feel much healthier and energised.

Enjoy!

Look amazing without having to diet!

2010-03-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

‘But I just want to lose some weight I don’t care about my health!’ oh the times I’ve heard that saying.

Take the t of diet and what do you have! do you really want to die just to look slim?

Ok so this blog post was going to be another rant about the Cambridge Diet and Lighter life, but after some serious consideration I have changed my mind and now want to try understand why people opt for these extreme ways to lose weight, these type of diets take some major discipline to follow and to maintain afterwards. Almost every person I have known try these diets have put it all straight back on, even weight watchers and slimming world followers have the same problems.

What exactly is it about these diets that people are prepared to go out and spend their hard earned cash on an expensive eating plan? Is it because we as a nation are not educated enough on what really is healthy and what’s not anymore? Gosh there are even things I thought were healthy last year whereas this year i've found that they aren’t all that great!

Confusion is a key element here, we are all confused over our diet, as a health and fitness professional I have to keep on top of reading up on health and nutrition but what about everyone else who just wants to lose a bit of weight but isn’t sure how to do it, there’s so much confusion out there and with TV and so called ‘healthy’ diets I’m not surprised we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

Everyone’s looking for the magic diet to help them shift the weight fast, but what people tend not to be aware of is that weight loss and fat loss are two very different things. When you have been overweight and lost it you will know it’s really hard to maintain. That’s because our body has had fat stores, and when we put on weight we increase our fat storing cells, when we diet we will remove the fat from the cells that is holding on to it but we will never lose the fat stores, this means that when you go back to ‘normal’ eating your fat stores will then fill up super quick and if you’re not careful you will lay down even more fat stores. This is when we get into the pattern of yoyo dieting which adds even more strain to the body.

Let’s get one thing straight there is no quick fix when it comes to getting in shape – if it has taken you 10 to 20 years to become the size you are today you’re not going to drop 6 dress sizes in a few months with a magic diet and keep it off long term.

The fact is you need to strive for health – if a healthy body is your goal then the weight and inches will drop off – here’s a great saying I read in a book a few years ago ‘strive for health and thin will follow’. People who care about what they eat will very rarely be overweight.

‘But what I’m eating is healthy right?’ Well that’s where a lot of the confusion comes in – cereal, bread, pasta, milk are all considered by most people to be healthy foods when actually they are not that great.

Cereal is generally processed to the point that there’s little nutritional value to it so the manufacturers have gotten around this by fortification, they convert to sugar very quickly which will then trigger your insulin response very quickly, then after a few hours your blood sugars will drop very quickly making you crave sugary foods throughout the day – leading you to that lunchtime sandwich or pasta dish.

Bread usually contains wheat and gluten which the body finds extremely hard to digest, wheat is also very closely linked with celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome and much more, just by cutting out wheat alone people see great health benefits.

Pasta – again pasta contains wheat which can be indigestible for a lot of people.

Milk – gone are the days you have to shake the bottle to get the cream to mix in with the milk (sorry if your too young to remember this!), we have Homogenization to thank for not having to shake the bottle anymore, since homogenization and pasteurisation were introduced milk has become very hard to digest, making a lot of people lactose intolerant.

‘So what can I eat’ I hear you shout?
Good wholesome foods such as fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts (in moderation), pulses and beans, grains such as brown rice and quinoa, lean organic free range meats.

‘Ok so now I’ve got the nutrition sorted how do I get my body looking great?’
We often hear the saying ‘muscle weighs more than fat’ well this is not entirely true, muscle is denser than fat and takes up less space in the body, here is a picture 5lbs of fat and muscle:

Therefore you might have two girls that are both a size 10, one of them may be very toned (1), eat healthily and exercise regularly and weighs 9 stone 6lbs, the other may not do any exercise and will weigh 9 stone (2), whilst this person may weigh less they have more body fat giving them a different shape:

It just goes to show that weight loss isn’t necessarily everything.

I don’t know any woman that doesn’t want to be toned? ‘I just want to lose weight and tone up’ is one I hear all the time, well guess what toning up is ladies – building muscle.

‘but I’m scared I’ll bulk up’ don’t worry it’s very hard for a woman to bulk up, you see its testosterone that helps promote muscle growth, ever wondered why your man could eat like a horse and not put on an ounce – they build muscle easier than girls.

Building muscle means carrying out resistance based exercises such as squats, lunges, press ups, rows and much more. By following a good Resistance and Cardiovascular programme as well as eating healthy nutritious foods you will achieve the healthy body you desire, be warned however the body does adapt very quickly so you will need to set new challenges for it every few weeks so that you don’t plateau, this is where a personal trainer can help you to get the body you desire or if that’s too expensive choose a boot camp that’s run by a personal trainer, boot camps can fantastic because every workout is different and will challenge your body each and every time, plus you have that support network from a group environment.

If you enjoyed reading this check out this post FAD DIETS

10 Super Foods to get Healthy and into Great Shape

2010-02-23T14:20:00.000-08:00

If you want to look good and feel good, you need to be sure that you are eating a healthy diet full of vitamins and minerals. Whatever eating plan you follow here are 10 foods that should be included in your diet on a regular basis:

Nuts - these include Almonds, Brazil, walnuts, pistachio, pine, Hazelnut are very high in vitamins and minerals which can help prevent against cancers and cardiovascular disease and helps to keep skin healthy. Nuts are a great way to keep hunger at bay so are a fantastic mid morning/afternoon snack, due to their high ‘good’ fat content it takes longer to digest them leaving you feeling fuller for longer, therefore must be eaten in moderation. Almonds are high in calcium and almond milk is a great alternative to those who don’t eat dairy products.

Beans (pulses) – includes Haricot, Kidney, Broad, garbanzo (chick pea), black beans, lentils – beans are a great source of vitamins and minerals and can help prevent diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular. They can also be a great source of protein for vegetarians.

Berries – these include strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, cranberries and blueberries. Berries are a rich source of vitamin C, which helps to fight infection and boost the immune system. Cranberries and Blueberries are great for fighting infection in the kidneys, bladder and urinary tract.

Asparagus – Asparagus is a great source of vitamin C, folic acid, magnesium, potassium and Iron which helps promote energy, healing and fights infection. It is also a great source of vitamins and minerals including vitamin E which is great for fighting disease.

Broccoli – Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable along with cauliflower, kale, spring greens, turnips, Brussels sprouts and is rich in nutrients that help to fight against types of cancer such as breast and colon. Broccoli acts as a detoxifier, helping lower ‘bad’ cholesterol and helps to protect against heart disease. Broccoli provides Iron and is a fantastic source of folate, vitamin C and potassium.

Beetroot (beet) – Beetroot is rich in potassium and provides plenty of folate and Iron, essential for the formation of red blood cells and helping to prevent anemia. Beetroot should be eaten raw or cooked, avoid the type packed in vinegar as this not only makes it acidic which can affect the gu, pickling reduces the level of nutrients. The leaves on Beetroot are also very nutritious and can be eaten in the same way as spinach.

Fennel – Fennel is a great source of fibre, folate and potassium and contains a range of other nutrients including vitamin C, selenium, vitamin B3 (niacin) and Iron. Fennel is a very low in calories so great for people watching their weight, it’s also a great digestive aid and antiflatulent. It is rich in antioxidants which help fight against disease.

Carrots - Carrots are high in Beta Carotene which helps to fight diseases such as heart disease and certain cancers. Not only are they great for the immune system but the skin and eyesight also. The Carotenes are better absorbed when the carrot is cooked rather than raw, choose steaming or stir frying as the cooking method.

Brown Rice – whilst white rice has very little vitamin and mineral content, brown rice is very different, brown rice and other whole grains have been shown to help prevent heart diseases, diabetes and some cancers due to its high selenium content. Brown rice is low glycaemic index which can help to control blood sugar levels and the B vitamin content helps converts the food to energy and keep the nervous system healthy.

Garlic - Garlic has been highly valued for years for its health benefits. It is rich in sulphur compounds which gives it its strong odor but are the main source of its health benefits, benefits include keeping the blood healthy which helps prevent diseases such as heart disease and certain cancers. It is a natural antibiotic, antifungal and anti viral and can also help prevent stomach ulcers.

It is worth noting that you can’t have a balanced nutritious diet by eating these foods alone, you need to keep the diet as varied as possible, a balanced diet should consist of fresh fruit, seasonal vegetables, whole grains such as brown rice and oats and lean protein such as organic free range chicken and lean meat (organic, grass fed only). You should also include in your diet regular amounts of oily fish, seeds, cold pressed oils, herbs and spices. Exercise regularly, stick to a healthy diet and cut out poor food options such as alcohol, processed foods, take away foods and wheat flour products.

Fat Burning - whats it all about?!!!

2010-01-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

Recently one of my clients asked me what was the best way to burn fat, she had been listening to the radio and the debate had been mentioned on there, one trainer argued that long cardio sessions with high repetitions of weight training was best and the other argued that short fast bursts were the best.

My client isn't the first to be confused over which is the best way to burn fat, in fact its one of the most common questions people ask! I have to say I agree with the second trainer and here I'll tell you why.

Well lets look at the 'fat burning' slow cardio - high repetition weight training, sure theres a need to include a few higher repetitions into your training programme to build muscular endurance but when it comes to the statement - you have to jog at a slow pace to stay in your fat burning zone - I have some shocking truth, I was shocked when I first learned this because up until several years ago I occasionally added this type of training into my routine.

Well lets say you want to stay working in this fat burning zone which you'd assume is great yeah? Well here's where you might decide that its not so great! If you're working regularly in this 'fat burning zone' what your essentially doing is teaching your body to use fat as its primary energy source - what does that mean, well your teaching your body to efficiently store fat for energy!! If you have taught your body to store fat then in time you would have to work for twice as long in your fat burning zone to remove that fat. Lets use a well known celebrity who spends much of her time in the gym, her trainer has advised her to perform high repetitions of low weight, her marriage split because of her dedication to spending all of her time in the gym so would you really want to follow this kind of advice! Who has several hours to spend in a gym training anyway - not me that's for sure, and no doubt most of the population!

Lets cut to the chase, if you seriously want to shift the fat from your body you want to be doing some fast burst resistance training and intervals. Exercises that use the whole of the body such as squats, press ups, lunges, plank, jumping jacks, burpees (these are great because you don't need any equipment!). Short fast bursts of sprinting can be extremely beneficial too - this can be done in an interval format, here's an example of an interval session using running:

The intensity is based on rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale of 1 to 10 (1 being easy 10 being extremely hard)

Up to five minutes (warm up) (RPE 4)
30 seconds (RPE 8)
1 minute (RPE 4-5)
30 seconds (RPE 8)
1 minute (RPE 4-5)
30 seconds (RPE 8)
1 minute (RPE 4-5)
30 seconds (RPE 8)
1 minute (RPE 4-5)
30 seconds (RPE 8)
1 minute (RPE 4-5)
30 seconds (RPE 8)
Up to 5 minutes (cool down) (RPE 3-4)
Total Time Approx 18 minutes

This kind of interval training can also be done on a bike or a rower.

By doing the resistance training you will build muscle, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn at rest. The short intervals mean you get your heart rate raised very quickly so after you're workout has ended your heart rate will still be raised and you body has to work really hard to repair and replenish the muscles - burning even more calories sometimes for up to 48 hours - wow you're teaching your body to become a fat blasting machine!!!

So every time you train - put in 100% and reap the rewards!!

Just how willing are you to work towards your goals?

2010-01-27T16:20:00.000-08:00

Lose weight, get fitter, tone up – these are goals written so often, you may have been someone who has also written goals like this or told yourself this on numerous occasions, but just how much weight exactly are we talking here or how much fitter?
Get the message? These goals are a bit too vague so you won’t put your heart and passion into achieving them.

If your 4 stone over weight and want to lose it and get a six pack or get into those size 8-10 jeans but decide that it’s easier to set yourself a 1-2 stone goal or drop to a size 12 because its more realistic, then where’s the drive, passion and motivation going to be? What’s going to make you get up on a morning and eat the healthy food or follow through on your training programme?

A lot of people, myself included are sometimes scared to set themselves a big challenge because of the hard work it will involve. If you’ve hired a Personal Trainer or signed up for a boot camp but aren’t completely sure of your goals you’re not going to have the motivation to follow through on your programme. You’ll probably start to resent the programme because you’ve been advised to follow because you’ve lost sight of that end goal.

When we find ourselves feeling like this we should take a deep think about our goals, don’t just set one or two stone because it’s realistic. If you’re a size 14 and used to be a size 8 and would love to get back into those clothes but have decided that a size 10-12 is much more realistic you’re not actually going to have the same drive. Think about how you felt at a smaller size, how much confidence you had, how well your clothes fitted, if you were happier. Then set that big goal, set yourself a timeframe of how soon you would like to reach that goal then pay the price that is expected to get you there. Every time you are working out and its tough remind yourself of why you’re doing it – that passionate goal and you will push yourself much more.

Did you know that the mind has a very strong influence over our motivation to do things, how many times have you woken up after a poor night’s sleep and told yourself all day how tired you are, or started to get a sniffle and you tell yourself you must be coming down with something then low and behold you suddenly feel at deaths door!

Next time you go to tell yourself you’re too tired or too ill - STOP, by doing this you will cure a lot of your tiredness and illness. When we exercise how easy is it to say it’s too hard or I can’t then not even try, even when we do try, how many of us tell ourselves it’s too hard then fail anyway.

Try being positive with yourself, we have more strength than we realise it’s just some people lose sight of what they really, truly want. If you want to stay happy and healthy in life don’t just go for the quick fix, set yourself that massive goal, work towards it, pat yourself on the back when you get to it then set your next goal – this time you might want to go for sports or improve your running time – whatever it is that will help you maintain that massive goal DO IT.

Think about it as a building being constructed – the plans are made, the end is in sight but it may take several months of hard work to finally get there, then lots of work to maintain it once it’s built - inside and out!

Don’t settle for what you’ve been told is more realistic, other people would rather pull you down to their standards because they’d rather eat crap then complain about being fat when they aren’t prepared to put in the hard work themselves!

Here’s something to make you think!

Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp." And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb.

Just think where we’d be if Thomas Edison gave up his light bulb invention after the first few attempts?

You are more powerful than you realise so go! Set that big goal that makes you passionate and begin to love the steps you are taking towards achieving that goal rather than dreading it! Remember there may be hurdles or setbacks along the way but you’ve just got to get back to it again and get to that end goal in sight.

To your Health and Fitness Success

Why fad diets are bad for your health and you should NEVER follow them!

2010-01-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

The truth some food manufacturers don't want you to know!

Ok so you’ve heard of them - try this diet and you’ll shift the weight faster than you know!! The Cambridge Diet, Kellogg’s drop a dress size, lighter life and dare I say it – weight watchers?!!

Don’t get me wrong the weightwatchers plan is probably the best one there if followed healthily and with exercise too then people might get lasting results but if you eat their crappy foods and choose the unhealthy processed foods they allow you to have in your ‘points’ system then you’re not going to lose body fat.

Ok so here’s the truth with these diets, they are calorie restricted diets, (Cambridge and lighter life the most EXTREME) and although calorie restriction is needed when you are trying to lose weight you do not need to go as severe as some of these diets make you do!

I remember on one of my first boot camps one of the ladies who was going to a well known slimming club and hadn’t lost any weight, when she stated that she had been training and building muscle, (you could clearly see she had lost inches and toned up), the so called ‘health’ professional leader of the slimming club said she’d need to have been training for several months for that to make a difference on the scales and she HAD to lose weight to get results, BULL this person didn’t have a clue! Even after one session of weight training your muscles are starting to build and form, not a huge difference but after a few weeks there is a difference!

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but weight loss is not the be all and end all, some people can lose weight yet put on inches around their stomach!

Anyway back to the point, the reason why severely low calorie restrictive diets are bad for you is because whilst you may lose weight on them a lot of that weight loss will come from muscle. Muscle is VITAL for fat loss, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn at rest (yes that means the faster metabolism you will have). When you do these low calorie diets and lose the valuable fat burning muscle guess what happens when you go back to eating normally again, you pile the pounds on – and even more this time, and worse to come this time it’s even HARDER to shift so you get into a pattern of yo yo dieting and teaching your body to be the most efficient fat store there is!!

On a scarier note advertising companies will have you believe that their processed product is healthy or their breakfast cereal is the healthiest. Ever wondered why these cereals are ‘fortified with vitamins and iron’? The process that these grains go through to bring you the perfectly shaped breakfast cereal actually leaves them pretty nutritionless, so to counteract that they stick a load of manmade vitamins in there – pointless! Furthermore what kind of process must those perfectly shaped ‘potato’ crisps that fit into a tube, oh and that saying ‘once you pop you can’t stop!’ there is actually an ingredient called monosodium glutamate which can have addictive properties in this product, so when they made their advert they weren’t lying!

The best way to lose weight (body fat) is to eat nutritious foods such as lean protein, green leafy vegetables, dark fruits such as berries and cutting out high sugar snacks, processed foods and reducing ALCOHOL intake to a minimum, stick to the 90/10 rule and you can’t fail (90% of the time eating clean nutritious food allowing for 10% treat – i.e. the occasional cheat meal). Exercise regularly and include weight bearing exercises / lifting weight and make the exercise vigorous.

Don’t get sucked in by the advertising companies selling you their ‘healthy’ product, they’re not bothered about your health – they just want to make money off you!

Todays Workout!

2010-01-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to let you know what I did in the gym today

super sets

Assisted pull ups x 10
Front squats x 10 (12.5kg DB's)

rest repeat x 3

Press ups x 10
Front lunges x 8 (10 kg DB)

dead lift (15kg DB's)
Reverse Wood Chop 10 each side

finished with 20/10 (20 seconds on 10 off) x 8 rowing as fast as I could!

If your a woman looking for workout ideas and tips check out http://debbiejukes.blogspot.com/2009/12/fat-loss-tips-for-busy-women.html

New Year - New Goals!

2010-01-03T03:17:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everybody I hope you've all had a great start.

I always like to think about my goals around new year, I have a list of business goals, health goals, family goals and personal goals and I set out in as much detail what my goal is, ways in which I can achieve the goals and work hard towards them.

Fair enough there are times when I let things lapse a bit (especially this Xmas when illness struck) but the main thing is picking yourself back up and getting back on track.

If you've put on a few pounds over Xmas and the New year, no worries, s**t happens you'll shift it again at least you enjoyed yourself right? (and weren't too unhealthy ha ha), Xmas is about taking time out for yourself and having a break from all of your hard work over the year. If you followed some of the advice given on staying as healthy as possible during the festivities and continued with some exercise then you shouldn't have put on too much?! Maybe you even lost some which is a bonus and well done if you did, great stuff.

As a nation we are being conditioned to believe its fine to be unhealthy and pile on the pounds over Xmas and the New year and that you must diet come the beginning of January. Ever noticed how many food adverts are on before and during Xmas and the increase in cooking shows, then the new year hits and you have weight watchers, slimming world and the biggest waste of money- the Special K 2 bowls 2 weeks challenge (all this is going to do is mess up your insides and the way you process your foods causing you to retain fat even more efficiently!). Some people rave about the weight watchers diet, it works as a calorie restricted diet that is all, I can guarantee that a lot of the people following the diet will not be in a state of true health. The points system and the weight watchers ready meals will make sure of that, a choice of a piece of fruit or a small packet of crisps and I know what most people with a weight problem would rather choose! They might end up slimmer but they'll still have a high body fat ratio which is not healthy.

What my aim as a Personal Trainer is to help people get a healthy body (strive for health and thin will follow), basically by giving up any pre packaged foods (if its in a packet - sack it, in a tin - bin!!) in favour of wholesome nutritious foods and best of all choosing organic, local produce will ensure that your food will be as fresh as possible. Buying from farmers markets will help you achieve this, also making sure that the meat that you eat is grass fed and has had the freedom to roam, much of the meats we eat are injected with antibiotics and growth hormones, ever wondered how MRSA came about (I believe eating meats full of antibiotics must play a huge part in making your body resistant to them), also what about what happens to your body when the foods we eat are injected with growth hormones to help fatten them up? Will that have the same effect on us when we eat them?

I know I've put on weight this Xmas what with the mulled wine (red wine has its health benefits you know : ) and flu just before Xmas putting me out of action but I'm not going to stress about it, I know I've made a few unhealthy choices and fallen off my 'health wagon' and I've got to admit at times I've suffered! No chance I could eat a diet like I have on a daily basis as I'd get nothing done and sit on my bum all day doing nothing feeling low and lethargic! Unfortunately this is what much of the nation have become, without education on food people don't know what’s healthy and what isn't anymore, kids choose sitting in watching telly or playing on their computers eating crap in favour of getting outside and playing with their friends. No wonder there's so many fat kids these days!

Well with the festivities over I've got some preparations to do today to clean up the food in the kitchen and get ready to do an elimination diet (my Personal Training and Boot Camp clients use this) to remove the toxins built up over Xmas and the New Year!! I know one of my goals is to shift at least 2 inches off my waist by the end of Jan (and I haven't even measured yet!), to do this I am going to have to eat healthy, cut out the crap and step up my exercise regime.

I also have a personal goal - not to take myself so seriously!! When in times of stress I must remind myself of this to remain happy and positive, after all life is about being happy isn't it - who needs stress!!

So come on what are your goals? What does January and 2010 have in store for you?

I for one can't wait to get back to normality after a well deserved break!

Happy New Year - to your success : )

Fat Loss tips for busy women

2009-12-16T00:57:00.000-08:00

I don't have time to exercise!

I run a business, where am I going to find the time to keep fit?

By the time I've got through the day and got the kids to bed I'm too exhausted to exercise!

I don't have time to cook a healthy meal, this food is convenient.

Do any of these phrases mean anything to you?

These phrases are very common so I'm guessing you won't be the only one who answered yes, due to our busy lifestyles we are finding it much harder to spend time looking after our health and stay in shape and with the current recession time is becoming even more precious.

Being a business woman and a mother of a two year old girl I too know just how hard it is to find time to work out. Some people think that they need to spend hours in the gym on the cardio machines, but that is not the case. Whilst studies show that long cardiovascular exercise might be best for fat burning it's not necessarily the most effective for fat loss. To achieve great fat loss results you should be exercising at a high intensity, you'll be amazed at the results you can get in a spare 15 minutes of you day!

To lose body fat and reveal great muscle tone the smartest way to go about achieving the best results is to do resistance based exercise along with high intensity interval training. This type of training increases your resting metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories at rest, even when you're sleeping you'll be burning more calories and best yet you don't need to spend hours in the gym.

So what is resistance based exercise and interval training?

Resistance based training is where we perform exercises that use the whole of the body, to make the fat burning more effective we perform this resistance training in short bursts.

Interval training is where we train at a high intensity for a period of time followed by an active rest period, this process is repeated for a number of repetitions and these types of sessions will usually last no more than 15-20 minutes in total.

Diet swaps.

By making just a few small changes to your diet you can achieve great fat loss results. Examples can include replacing tea and coffee with green and peppermint tea, replacing processed foods with wholesome natural foods, swap biscuits to fruit berries are a great example, ditch the crisps and enjoy vegetable crudités. Swap fried/battered foods for grilled/steamed.

Example of a fast fat loss workout

Work through the following as fast as you can:
20 Jump squats
20 Press Ups
20 Burpees
20 Jumping Jacks
20 Mountain Climbers
Rest 1-2 minutes (repeat 3-5 times!!)

CLICK HERE for a 4 week rapid results fitness for busy women programme, there are workouts for beginners and intermediates to exercise.

Just How Committed are you?

2009-12-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

Having just finished this morning’s boot camp where it was wet, cold and windy I sat down to my morning porridge with blueberries and seeds, my cup of green tea in hand I started to think, why is it that these people get up, whatever the weather to come along to boot camp?

At this time of year, with Christmas and new year just around the corner where many would just stay in bed with the mindset of ‘I’ll wait until the new year, doesn’t everyone put on weight over Christmas?’ and give up being kind to their bodies! My campers are getting up to come and push their bodies to the max, not only the boot campers but my Personal Training clients are also continuing with the programmes I have set for them and getting great results.

Why is this? What is it that makes these people stick to a healthy diet and push themselves through their training sessions? COMMITTMENT that’s what, these people have an end goal in site and they are working hard to get there, they’d rather feel fantastic this Christmas and New Year having worked their A**es off to get there. I guarantee they have their friends, family or co-workers asking why the hell they are doing it, trying to tempt them to have ‘just one chocolate, one won’t hurt, its Christmas!’ (of course this kind of thing happens all year round for some of them!). By breaking away from the norm of what is ‘shut down’ until the New Year these guys are seeing consistent results with their fitness and while others are gaining these people are dropping pounds and inches.

Ask yourself, are you one of the groups of people who give up healthy eating and exercise at Christmas all to start again in the New Year? Or are you one of the few people that are dedicated to their health and well being, instead of feeling low and lacking in energy over these cold winter months you’re beaming with energy, feeling fantastic and seeing great changes to your body as a result of your hard work? My boot campers and PT clients are!

Why put off until the New Year what you can do now? When you put things off you set yourself up for disappointment, you start in January with a well meaning ‘I’m gonna do this’ come the end of January most of you have given up because you’re not seeing fantastic results. Don’t waste your money on Gym memberships that can’t guarantee results, get a training partner or a Personal Trainer that your accountable to, set yourself goals and work hard to achieve them goals or why not join a group fitness programme that can guarantee you fat loss results, whatever it is, do it NOW!

As Thomas Jefferson says “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and New year, stay fit and healthy!

The benefits of doing fitness outdoors

2009-12-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

The benefits of doing fitness outdoors

Your exercise time each day might be an ideal time for you to get out in the sunshine, get some vitamin D and reconnect with the natural world. Here are five reasons to make you think about taking your exercise outdoors.

Fresh air is extremely invigorating. Nowadays, most of us get to choose to stay inside. We don't have to work in the hot sun or walk through snowy, windy storms to get to town. And that means we can go an awfully long time without ever going outdoors. While it's always the same temperature in the gym, there's just something about breathing in deep breaths of fresh air that invigorates the mind, body and soul.

Stay connected with nature. So many of us are in contact with concrete and other unnatural surfaces all day long. Use your daily workout time as a great excuse to venture out onto a dirt trail, road or path. You never know what you're going to discover in the natural world.

It's good for you. Outdoor time has been linked to a wide variety of health benefits. Studies suggest that it increases your energy levels and helps you to stay more alert. We are learning more and more about the importance of a daily bit of natural sunlight, too, which can help fight depression. Vitamin D, which is created naturally when sunlight acts on the skin, is important for a whole host of bodily functions. It helps to regulate calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood and is vital to the immune system.

Outdoor workouts might help you stick with it. Exercise outdoors tends to be more exciting and adventurous than the treadmill, so these kinds of workouts may help you stay engaged in your exercise routine. If your daily exercise time is also your time to escape the four walls of your home or office, for example, you might be more likely to see it as a treat that you give yourself. And when you can see your daily exercise in such a positive way, you'll be far more likely to make sure you do your workout each day.

And that's one of the best things you can do for your overall health. Exercise itself helps increase mental focus, tones muscles, helps improve your metabolism, and helps increase your lung capacity, and no doubt your lifespan.

Exercising outside gives your body fresh new challenges. When you exercise outside, you will be asking your body and your brain to complete more complex motions than those that are performed on exercise equipment. You are also dealing with various terrain surfaces, which can provide a further mental and physical challenge and help to improve your reflexes. The most important thing is that you truly love the exercise you choose so that you will stick with it. Always pace yourself, it won't take long before you'll be feeling the all of the mental and physical benefits.

Theres five great reasons to exercise outside, now add the benefit of group exercise to that with a qualified personal trainer who guarantees results to the equation and you’ve got a winning formula!

Spicy Thai Soup

2009-11-23T05:16:00.000-08:00

Ok so I love cooking, mine tends to be more of a throw everything in and hope for the best style of cooking! Recently though one of my Boot Camp members passed me this recipe and I gave it a go, its (as the boot camper put if) blinking gorgeous!!

Why not give it a try and let me know what you think! Guaranteed to warm youup on these chilly winter days - especially if you have a cold!

In a saucepan, put raw thinly sliced chicken, about 4 coriander stalks, 3 thick slices of ginger, 1 squashed green chilli, 1/2 chopped red chilli (without seeds if you don't like it too hot) and 2 stalks of squashed lemongrass.

Cover with cold chicken stock or water and boil until the chicken is cooked.

Take off the heat and add 3 tbsp fish sauce, juice of 1 lime and some chopped coriander and basil leaves.

Thats it, simple but easy to make.

Do you hate your big thighs?

2009-11-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Do you hate your big thighs?

I have a lot of people ask me how to lose the weight around their thighs and bum, most of the time these people are advised by the ‘fitness know it all’ to do lots of walking/slow jogging as its the best for fat burning.

Whilst studies do show that long cardio sessions are the best for fat burning its not necessarily the best for fat loss.

Carrying weight around the hips is over production of Estrogen, if you suffer from this then you want to avoid long cardio sessions, these will also increase your Cortisol levels making you put weight on around your belly too. Instead you must to be doing vigorous exercise (sprints) and weight training (resistance).

Choose organic produce where you can and be sure to wash all fruit and vegetables to stop any pesticide/toxin intake. Decrease alcohol, yes this is a must – everyone who is trying to lose weight wants to be cutting the alcohol out! For occasions red wine may be drunk but no more than two units per day.

Increase intake of cruciferous vegetables such as watercress, sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, kale – if digested properly they will help rectify the imbalance, plus the fibre, vitamins and minerals are great for your overall health and well being.

There are supplements that may also help – remember supplements should only be used to supplement what is already a good diet, these include:

A good quality fish oil – these have a multitude of benefits and should be included in everyone’s diet
A good quality multivitamin – everyone should be taking a good multivitamin
A diindolylmethane (DIM) supplement may be beneficial
Organic flax seed hulls may also help

An example of a daily diet for people with excess estrogen may include:

Breakfast: omelette made with spinach and mushrooms (garlic Snack: ½ an avocado with a handful of nuts
Lunch:chicken salad made with a chicken breast, watercress, cherry tomatoes, spinach leaves, radishes and flax seed hulls sprinkled over.
Snack: ½ an avocado with a handful of nuts
Dinner: roast turkey with sprouts, broccoli, parsnips, carrots

Its best to steam vegetables and be sure to chew your food thoroughly.
Switch over to green tea and water

If your reading this and you know a man that suffers from moobs (man boobs) then the info contained here may also be of benefit to them!

Remember, If you do suffer from big thighs, do yourself a favour and ditch the cross trainers and long slow jogs!

Tips To Stay In Shape for the Party Season!

2009-11-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

We all know the party season is coming up and we all want to look and feel great don't we.... here's a few tips to help you keep in shape

* When you have a party to go to make sure that you eat a good healthy meal beforehand – that way you’ll be less tempted to eat the fattening party foods.

* If you’ve Christmas meals to go to, drink a pint of water half an hour before your meal to fill you up a bit, then eat a little of everything on your plate so that you don’t feel like your depriving yourself of the foods you love, take time over your meal (it takes 20 minutes for our brain to register when we’re full), enjoy every mouth full then when you are satisfied stop eating, don’t eat it all ‘because its too good to leave’ you’ll only kick yourself when your having to work twice as hard to work it off.

* Eat, drink and be merry can sometimes be taken too literally! If you are going to drink do it in moderation, you can still have fun without getting so drunk you can’t remember anything! Remember alcohol is a toxin and should be avoided by people who are trying to lose weight, especially around your stomach, how many teenage girls do we see now with the overhang? Oh and for the gents – be careful alcohol messes with your hormones and can give you man boobs (moobs!), why not give up alcohol for a few weeks, after all the party season is coming up - its not here yet!

* Enjoy the wonderful crisp winter weather and get out walking, go holly picking in the fields, walking the dogs, whatever it is get out and keep active, getting some sunlight everyday can improve our mood and overall well being.

* Don't try and start a new diet during the holidays: That just screams binge! You will only be setting yourself up for disappointment, resentment, and depression, stay healthy, but don't be too restrictive, if you live by the 80/20 rule then you can’t go wrong, 80% of your week if you eat clean healthy nutritious foods you can allow for 20% of the time a ‘treat’ (clean foods mean its preferably not packaged, its organic, fresh and has no more than 8 ingredients – green leafy vegetables, lean organic animal protein and fruits that are dark in colour such as berries)

* If you go shopping, leave a good distance from the shops and walk home with the bags, this is great for improving your core muscles, though be careful not to have your bags too heavy, balance them out and look after your posture.

* Why not set a goal to reach for Christmas, whether its to drop a dress size for the 24th December or fit into that special outfit, set it, write it down and work hard to achieve that goal.

* Don’t get caught up with the majority of people who ‘wait until the new year’ to start an exercise routine (who usually drop off by the middle of January!!), start now, get some support – join a fitness group, get a training partner, personal trainer or join a boot camp.

which one would you rather be -
the one in the baggy clothes bitching about the 'skinny cow' looking fantastic in their outfit
or
the woman/man everyones jealous of because you've worked hard to get into shape and look great for the parties???

hhmmmmm I know which one I'd rather be!!

If you have some tips for staying in shape for the party season please add them below (healthy tips only please!!!)

want to lose your belly?

2009-10-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the saying “how can I lose my belly?” “what exercises are the best to help me lose my belly?” “can you give us more stomach work?”

If your goal is to lose weight from around your stomach, your not going to do it with lots of stomach crunches! Carrying weight around the abdomen area is linked to nutrition and hormones, namely your carbohydrate intake and your cortisol levels (fat production around the stomach is a sign of over production of cortisol), the stress hormone. Stress levels need to remain as low as possible, depending on what type of stress you may have.

The best way to combat this is to reduce your carbohydrate intake, follow a good diet high in lean protein, green leafy vegetables and dark fruits (berries for example) - best time to eat your fruit is during the 2 hours post training.

Have a good wind down procedure before going to sleep, lower the lights, read, stop watching TV, if you have any electrical items plugged in where you sleep remove them - this will make a difference to your sleep and weight loss believe it or not! Leave the mobile phone out of the room where possible - don't sleep with it at the bed side as the electro magnetic forces can disturb our sleep. You should to be getting to sleep at around 10pm and waking at 6.30am in a completely dark room.

Drink plenty of water and reduce your caffeine as this will stimulate the already overworked adrenal glands, Choose peppermint, ginger and green tea instead.
If you are suffering from any work/relationship/parental stress then gentle breathing exercises or meditation may help.

Take a good quality omega 3 supplement with every meal
Other supplements that might help:
Licorice Root - this can help regulate the production of cortisol.
A good quality multivitamin
Betain hydrochloride taken with 1 or 2 meals could aid with nutrient absorption because for some people it also causes a digestion issue.

Carrying weight in your lower stomach might also be a slight postural problem too, your pelvis might be tilted forward slightly (anterior pelvic tilt), exercises that activate and work the core, stretch the hip flexors and work the glutes to bring your pelvis back might also help.
Exercise examples:

Forward Lunges/split squats x 15 each leg
Plank x 30 seconds to 1 minute
Side Plank x 30-45 seconds each side
Supine bridges x 15 (on one leg when more advanced)

repeat 3-5 times per week

So answer to the question – clean up your nutrition, look after those hormones and concentrate on postural correction through the correct exercise choice.

Is Low Fat Food Stopping You From Losing Fat?

2009-10-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Could your low fat diet be doing you more harm than good? You have two options when buying food - normal or low fat, if you struggle with your weight I'm guessing you'll go for the low fat option every time?

Contrary to what we've been conditioned to believe these last few decades, low fat is not necessarily the best option. When a product is advertised as low fat it generally means that it will have gone through a lot of process to remove the fat, by doing these food manufacturers generally strip the fat and replace it with sugar or sweeteners which when processed will be stored as fat anyway!

We all tend to put too much trust into the foods that we eat without really checking the labels, if you do check the labels on everything you eat you can't go wrong. If your on a quest for fat loss then you want to be cutting out processed foods, foods containing wheat flour, alcohol (this is a big one alcohol is LOADED with empty calories!), and sugar.

It's best to go back to basics, with meat and fish if its free to run around, fly, swim in the open water then it can be eaten.

Fruit and vegetables: as long as its been farmed without the use of pesticides and other chemicals, is as fresh and in season as possible it can be eaten!!

Nuts are great but only in moderation because they are high in fat and calories, one or two small handfuls is great but no more because you will get fat!!

Fluids: water and herbal teas are the best, two or three cups of tea/coffee is ok too.

The next time you reach for that low fat bag of crisps, your 'healthy' breakfast cereal or the diet coke, just have a good look at the label; it could be doing you more harm than good!! If you can't pronounce the ingredient it's probably best not to put it into your body!!

Personal Trainer North Yorkshire, Fat Loss North Yorkshire

Corrie Star Michelle Keegan is a boot camp fan!

2009-09-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

Hey just a very quick post,

Celebs are loving bootcamp (read more) Michelle Keegan enjoying Boot Camp

although I dont think this goes on at my boot camp (the hand prints!!)

Is there any wonder that celebs like Michelle are choosing Boot Camps over the Gym - They're more Fun (where else would you get that messy!!), you achieve better results in faster time.

Boot Camps aren't just for Celebs its for people wanting to achieve fantastic results for their body and overall well being! Why not sign up for a Boot Camp near you!

I CAN and I WILL

2009-09-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

As a Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Coach I hear the words “I CAN’T” so many times I’ve lost count, in fact if I had a pound for every time one of my clients uttered those words I wouldn’t have to work anymore!; ) Before anyone thinks I might be preaching here – I want you to know I too mutter those words far too much for my liking!!

It’s left me to wonder why we use the words “I can’t” so quickly, is it because we believe we truly can’t do it? Maybe it’s because believe it’s too hard and we’re scared of the challenge! Maybe it’s that we just don’t want to give it a go, or don’t feel like it!! Maybe it’s because we’re afraid of failure....

Whatever the reason may be by muttering (or thinking) the words I can’t we have already talked ourselves out of even giving something a go, we are already defeated.

Just imagine what would happen if every time you thought or said the words I can’t they were replaced with the words I can! Just think of the power those words have:

I can run that extra mile! I can do that extra press up! I can get up for Boot Camp!

Even when we get to the challenging stuff like Body weight pull ups, I remember when I first gave them a go I couldn’t even lift myself past the bar!! But with practice and determination I finally managed to do 5! If I’d have had the attitude “I CAN’T” I still wouldn’t have been able to do one today, but because I told myself “I WILL be able to do....” I had set myself that challenge! I couldn’t not see through on that challenge because I’d be a failure to myself!

Fair enough sometimes we might not be able to do something straightaway, it might take days, weeks or even months to achieve but imagine the feeling you’ll have once you get there. Each time it doesn’t happen, don’t see it as a failure, just look at it as a minor setback in your path to achieving your goal

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Next time you feel the words ‘I Can’t’ coming to your mind or the tip of your tongue, replace them with ‘I CAN’, even if you don’t manage to do it at that time by saying ‘I WILL’ you have set yourself the challenge – how can you fail!! If you set yourself daily challenges and follow through until you achieve it you can be nothing but an absolute success.
To your health and fitness success!!

Tell yourself you are going to achieve great things!

2009-08-22T03:19:00.000-07:00

Tell yourself your going to achieve great things!

I've been reading several great books lately (on goal setting and achieving success) and sharing thoughts with a client of mine who has attended a lot of training seminars very much alike what I have been reading.

We had some really interesting conversations and came to the conclusion that these books and training sessions really do have a point. Have you every noticed that when you really want to do something - you'll put your mind to it and achieve it.

I'll give you an example from me and you might be able to relate - When me and my partner bought our house 18 months or so ago it was in terrible state! No carpets, No Bannister on the staircase, ceilings were damaged, damp in several rooms and much more!! My other half was in Iraq so it was left to me (and my fantastic supportive family) to get the work done! The mortgage completed finally after 6 long months on the 27th Dec 07 and I made it very clear that I wanted to be in the house by the 6th Jan 08 (before I went back to work on the 7th Jan ). Do you know what - I made that deadline because I pushed out all the stops, worked until 2am most nights painting and stripping wall paper etc, because I was so set on being in there on that date, I felt so passionate about it. I had also set another goal to lose 6lbs before he returned but I managed that during these few weeks!! Whilst the excitement and hardwork did play a big part, I maintained the weight loss with healthy eating and exercise!

I still make these goals with my weight, at home, on my business etc and am contantly working to achieve them, fair enough not every time i'll get there in the timeframe I had set myself but I'll have had a good go at it!!

To cut a long story short, if you decide that you want something badly and tell yourself that you will achieve it - guess what - YOU WILL, providing you are willing to put in the work that is required. If you have joined a Boot Camp or taken up Personal Training Sessions or even just decided you want to lose weight. If you set your mind to it, have an image of what you want to achieve and (here’s the most important part) have a passion for getting what you want then you can't go wrong!!! Set yourself a clear goal and work towards that goal, for example: to lose weight is a bit vague, change it to – to lose ...lbs by ....., monitor your progress in achieving that goal!

This mindset can also be applied to your career, relationships and much more - if you want something, tell yourself YOU CAN do it and go get it!!!Set those health and lifestyle goals, I have faith in each and every one of you and I know you can achieve great things!!

GOAL SETTING VIDEO - watch the video and make that connection!!!

To your success in a healthy and happy life!!

Debbie

Never Give up on your goals!

2009-08-22T03:03:00.000-07:00

Never give up on your goals!

Sometimes in your quest for weight loss things get hard and you might feel like giving up but remember, the only person being cheated by doing this is you! Sure its easy to just stop your training sessions (then wonder why you haven't achieved results!!) but it takes real strength and determination to see things through to the end, knowing that you put 100% into it every step of the way.

If you have started a health and fitness regime and haven't achieved great results then have a think - do you have excuses? Did you follow a healthy eating plan? Did you put your all in on every session? Have you done at least 3 sessions per week?

Next time you feel things get hard and don't want to turn up for a session or worse yet feel like giving up altogether I want you to watch this video and find the strength from within:

Video - NEVER GIVE UP You are powerfull beyond measure and don't talk yourself out of achieving your goals.

To your success

Jessie Wallace - Weight Loss

2009-08-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

I came across this article recently and i thought i'd share it with you - My Personal Training and Boot Camp clients will recognise this!

The best trainers are using this diet plan - why? ITS THE BEST FOR ACHIEVING FANTASTIC RESTULTS!!I just wanted to share that with you, i use it with my personal training and Boot Camp clients.

Even if your not following a diet plan - I bet you'll think twice after reading the article!!
Jessie Wallace Sheds two stone in 6 weeks

Here's some tips from one of the U.S. top trainers!

2009-08-22T02:41:00.000-07:00

Jessica Biel 10 Tips with trainer Jason Walsh

I came across this article recently. My Clients recognise a lot of these tips as they have heard most of them from me! Great tips to ensure fitness and fat loss success!

Usmagazine.com asked the hottest celebrity trainers how they get their clients into shape.

1. Change is good!Jessica Biel’s trainer, Jason Walsh, likes to keep his client mentally stimulated. “I’m a big advocate of recreational sports and stuff. If someone can get out there, even if it’s a hike or something like that, just to break up the monotony of going to the gym…I really like that.”

2. Hard work is even better.According to Walsh, Biel’s workouts are intense. “We do full body movements. You are pretty much using as many muscles at once, which in turn will jack that heart rate up.”

3. Food is not the enemy.If you’re out and about as Walsh recommends, you need snacks and drinks to give you sustained energy. He suggests “really organic and clean foods, all natural, like nuts.” Also, “an amino acid drink, so that you’re not burning up a lot of your muscle, or protein.”

4. Everything old is new again.Walsh loves to use medicine balls with his intermediate to advanced level clients. “Get a medicine ball and do a lunge with a twist while you are holding the ball. Those are great. You are activating so many muscles at once, and you are using those muscles over so many different plains.”

5. Healthy meals can be tasty.Harley Pasternak, who works with Eva Mendes and Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl, taught both of the actresses how to cook meals with some easy, healthy substitutions. “Breakfast would be whole grain bread French toast with egg whites and cinnamon. For a mid-morning snack, they’d do a mixed-berry protein shake. Lunch might be sweet potato tuna melt. An afternoon snack might be hummus with celery sticks. Dinner would be spaghetti and meatballs with spaghetti squash and meatballs made of turkey or chicken breast.”

6. Just because it’s trendy doesn’t mean it works.Pasternak doesn’t do yoga or pilates with his clients. “Those are great forms of exercise for stability and balance, but neither one of those is going to change your body dramatically like training with weights does.”

7. The “F” word is not all bad.Rachel McAdams‘ trainer, Jerry Owen, says, “The biggest problem is that people are fat phobic. It¹s clinically proven that we need healthy fat in our diets. You need to eat a balanced diet but not be afraid of fat, like Omega 3 fatty acids like walnuts, olive oil and even coconut oil.”

8. Focus on your whole body – not just problem areas.Owens tells Us the best way to lose weight and tone up is “to blend nutrition, exercise, and physical therapy. The body responds better. People get too wrapped up in doing isolated movement, like being very body part specific.”

9. All cardio and no lifting makes for bad workouts.“People get too cardio-crazy and need to do more weight lifting,” says Owens. He explains that for many people on elliptical machines, “their heart Rate is about the same as if they were shopping around a mall.”

10. Everybody needs a break.Owens delivers the best news possible: working out for more than an hour is a “waste of time.” He suggests gym-goers “take one to two days off a week: have a massage, make sure you get plenty of rest. The muscles actually change when they’re recovering.”