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[rmkhealth]

5 Pillars of change

People are predictable, they don’t change, a leopard keeps its spots and we can all sigh inside as we smile and nod at the friend telling us they’re going to quit smoking this year knowing full well that they’ll probably last about a week, just like the last time, and the time before that.

Except when they do. The outliers among us, those rare individuals who turn things around and make progress that sticks. I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter many of these people and I’m always struck by their tenacity and grit in the ongoing challenge of not just making big changes, but making them last.

It would be foolish of me to even attempt to lay out in full detail what it has taken for these people to succeed, in many cases it’s a mixture of different things well timed with luck and effort. Instead though I have laid out five observations that I hope may provide a useful framework for those feeling seriously committed to seeing some big change in 2018. For the purposes of this article, I’ll keep all of this geared towards health, although the same points could be made towards other goals such as starting a business, learning a new language etc.

1. Preparation- As the adage goes, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.  You need to eat right whether it’s for weight loss or for improvements in health markers such as blood pressure. So what food do you have in the house? What food is most likely to tempt you? What are you going to eat tomorrow? How will you keep to your plan when you attend that party next weekend or the business conference the weekend after? This and a million other things all need consideration.

 If this goal is important enough to you then it’s surely worth ten minutes to sit down with a pen and paper and go through all the considerations you must make and counter actions, you could take to overcome the inevitable challenges?

2. Tenacity – at some point, the whole plan goes to shit. Stress piles up, you become overworked and unable to stick to the well meant plans you had and you’ve skipped a gym session, ate a little treat at your so-called friend’s encouragement and your motivation is spiraling out of control. Getting back on track is going to take some serious work.

It’s part of every long-term plan to consider the plateaus, the times where nothing is working, and all progress comes to a standstill. It takes psychological grit to keep going during this phase, most people give in, they panic thinking something is wrong with them, but those successful ones keep going, they take it in their strides knowing that “this too shall pass” and before they know it things can move forward again.

3.Renewal and monitoring- plans need to be checked upon regularly, if it’s a weight loss goal then step on the scales each week and write down the numbers without crying. If it’s a medical goal, then book in for a check in with the doc after six weeks or so.

You need to know your numbers in order to figure out how the plan is going. If a client comes to me wanting to lose weight, I want to know the numbers on the scales regularly, if they lose too much I need them to eat more, if they don’t lose enough we need to talk and figure out what’s going on, I take measurements and photos too, and in some cases I take skinfolds.

4.Set dates and timelines, do you have a holiday coming up in summer you want to get in shape for? Do you plan to go skiing again and want to make sure your knees are strong and ready for it? Perhaps there is a wedding at some point you want to look your best for? Timelines help to give us focus and set urgent priorities for now. Figure out how many weeks away your event is and make sure you don’t waste any time getting in shape.

A popular one to do here is a fitness event such as a ½ marathon or a tough mudder. Once you’ve entered your committed and you’ll have no time to waste in getting in shape for it.

5.Get Help. I’ve been into fitness my whole life, yet I never achieved anything like cover model shape until I hired a Personal Trainer. We only met once a month, then we chatted regularly on facebook to discuss how the plan was going, but that outside accountability made all the difference. It helped keep me focussed and reassured me when I began to panic that things weren’t going the way they should be.

If you really want to get in good shape then you need advice, who even knows what to eat these days? Are eggs healthy now? What about sugar? Should you count calories or not and if so what numbers should you start with? An expert can help you with all those things, and they can get you started on an appropriate exercise regime too that will gradually build you up sensibly without overdoing things or putting you at risk.

Of course, this is me touting for business, I can do all the above and if you’re interested you should get in touch, but if not then at least get in touch with someone. Go to a gym, speak to the trainers, ask around and do some research, be careful not to get involved with someone who’ll just take your money without giving any proper service or thought to your wellbeing, avoid anyone who tells you that you must follow a particular diet as if that diet is the holy grail (paleo/ keto/ Herbalife etc, you all know who you are)

Remember after all of this, that life is a journey, not a destination. Achieving your goal is just the start, but then you must keep up the work that got you there, the work is the reward, enjoy the process, drink in the aroma of health and wellbeing and savour it’s juices.

It’s an internal process more than an external one, change comes from within. If successful, you’ll be a better person for it, stronger in mind and spirit, confident in knowing that you can do things when you commit to them.

Good luck.

[rmkhealth]

Top ten Healthy Christmas tips

1.   Relax and enjoy yourself! Whilst it’s true that many people put weight on over Christmas, most people lose that weight quickly once they get back to their normal routine. The aim of these tips is just to help you limit weight gain to and ensure you get back on track quickly.

2.       Out of sight, out of mind! This time of year, people often have treats out for visiting guest such as a tin of celebrations, a tray of mince pies etc. Whilst all this hospitality is important for social cohesion (an important factor in healthy aging) it can add up on the waistline! So ideally have the scrumptious food tucked away in the back of the cupboard. This way you don’t have to walk past temptation several times a day! We can all say no the first few times, but eventually willpower breaks down, especially when we have the stress of a million Christmas Chores to get on with.

3.       Drink from a tall glass, the vertical vs horizontal optical illusion applies to our eating and drinking habits too, wide glasses have been shown to make people pour bigger portions, one study with experienced bar tenders trying to pour the same measure into a tall glass vs a small wide glass showed that the latter resulted in as much as 26% bigger servings. with a 100 ml serving of baileys this could result in an extra 90 calories per serving! (417 vs 327). Which of the lines below is bigger? Try measuring them for yourself to see.

4.       Use time off to walk more, it’s probably the most underrated exercise we can do, walking isn’t going to get anybody a six pack soon, but it will help lower stress, increase calorie burn and give us time to think more clearly. Plus we get the added benefit of enjoying nature.

5.       Fill up on lean protein, a chicken breast and a plain doughnut are both about 180 calories. You have 10 minutes to eat as many as you can, which one will you eat the most off? Personally, I could smash about five doughnuts at least! The protein in chicken breast is not only more filling, it also burns more calories when digested, and helps offset the natural muscle loss that occurs with aging from the age of 33 onwards, keeping this muscle helps our metabolisms burn more calories each day.

6.       Skip meals, if you’ve had a big night out, ate more than a fair portion, then it’s OK to skip breakfast the next day, or even lunch! This isn’t quite fasting, but it’s borrowing some if it’s principles, namely in reducing calorie content simply by lowering the frequency of feeding. This is a simple strategy to play around with, but it doesn’t give you license to gorge on junk non-stop and avoid healthy food!

7.       Alcohol management, personally I prefer beer and will mostly stick to that one drink, I like it because to me it taste nice, but also because it’s so gassy I tend to find a natural cut of point where I know I’ve had enough. Spirits on the other hand are not good for me, I’ll drink way more than I should, and things can get messy once the grenade pin is slowly pulled out with each shot.  From a calorie point of view, a pint of beer is 250 calories (ish) compared to about 80 (ish) calories from a vodka and diet coke.  

So, if that’s a tipple you can handle OK and your trying to watch the waistline then go right ahead, but looking at the bigger picture a few nights of drinking won’t do too much harm, however when it becomes too frequent you need to consider the affect on your health.

8.       Sprouts! Some people love them, some hate them, either way there is no denying that they are good for you! They’re packed with vitamins, fibre and anti oxidants, and eating them (along with all your other veg) will most likely help fill you up more so your less likely to eat pudding, or at least have a smaller portion. Other tactics including drinking a big glass of water, putting your knife and fork down between meals, and starting with a small green salad before your main.

aslo check out this sprout game, it’s so much fun.

https://www.gamesloon.com/free-holiday-29/christmas-games-98/christmas-with-the-sproutifarts-9401.html

9.       Sleep!- Use some time off to catch up on z’s if you can. Abnormal sleep patterns are a modern-day health crisis and not many people are aware of the impact sleep deprivation can cause. Psychologically people who don’t get enough kip will be less aware of their surrounds, more prone to depression and anxiety, and at greater risk of having an accident.

If that isn’t enough, then sleep deprivation can also be a big contributing factor for weight gain. Poor quality sleep will cause hunger hormones (specifically Ghrelin) to heighten whilst satiety hormones (Leptin) are lowered. So, your hungrier and it takes longer to get full, add in a decreased insulin resistance and you have the perfect storm for poorer health.

It’s tempting to stay up late and watch some of the great Christmas T.V, if you do that, then try to get a lie in the next day, or maybe even a nap in the afternoon, your body will thank you for it!

10.   Plan for next year! Use the time off now to plan what you want to achieve next year, maybe you could have a go at a ½ marathon? Or even a full one, you could try a tough mudder, or just simply aim to reduce your waist size, be able to do a set amount of press ups or lower your blood pressure.

Set some time aside to write down what might make a big difference to your life and then plan out how you might achieve it, think of the obstacles you’ll have to overcome, the actions you will need to consistently take and affirm your commitment to stick at it no matter what. If you need any help then get in touch, I have a special pre Christmas offer on at the moment, check out the details here http://richmckeating.com/costs.php

[rmkhealth]

5 ways to become better at running

Last Sunday my wife and I ran the Humber Half Marathon, not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I’ve personally built up a fair bit of experience with these things, I started running 20 years ago to get in shape for boxing, later on I upped my game to help me with joining the Marines, since then I’ve ran the New York Marathon, the Great North run and this was my 2nd time doing the Humber Half.

For my wife though this was a completely new experience, she’s always been active what with us having three kids and all but never has she done any structured exercise. Then just six weeks ago she decided she wanted to have a go at a fitness challenge and I suggested this, at first, she thought it would be way too difficult, and over the next few weeks there was going to be lots of doubts and worry about whether she would be able to do it, but I reminded her that the goal is just to complete the event, not win the thing! Lots of people of all shapes and experience take part and it’s fine to stop and walk and go at your own pace whenever you want to.

Running has plenty of benefits too, such as…

1.       Running is a cheap and easy form of exercise, no need to drive to a gym, you can do it anytime you like, no need even for a gym membership! Just get your trainers on and head out the door for as long or as little as you like.

2.       Running is great for weight loss, not only does it burn calories but it also increases your little battery cells known as mitochondria which are like little fat burning machines.

3.       Running gives you wings! Not just because of the increased mitochondria but also because of the weight loss, increased confidence and the mindfulness style of getting away from all your daily distractions for a short while to focus on an activity that benefits you.

4.       Running is good for your mind, exercise helps boost brain cells, it produces feel good endorphins and it gives you a mental escape from stress. I especially recommend running out doors in the countryside whenever you can.

5.       Running helps improve muscle tone, builds stronger joints and gives you more endurance for everyday life.

6.       Running is great for your heart, as blood is pumped faster through your body your heart gets more efficient and more capable of doing its job to a greater degree of function.

So, if the above has convinced you to take it up or push it to that next level then I hope you’ll find these five tips useful.

1.       If your New to this then expect the following – remember the feel-good endorphins I mentioned earlier? They don’t start to kick in for a while, the first few weeks you start running you might possibly hate it. You’ll often not feel like doing it, and even when you do manage to get going you’ll most likely hate how rubbishly unfit it makes you feel. You’ll want to stop and walk, a lot! That’s all just part and parcel of starting. It takes time, so just be patient and go with it and stick at it long enough to see improvements. Start by timing how long you can lightly jog for without stopping, every time you run try and go a little bit further.

2.       If you’re really good at running, then you won’t get much performance improvement from exercises like squats, lunges etc, for the beginner though, these exercises are great as they help to build leg strength and put your muscles through bigger ranges to help build all around stronger joints.

3.       Lots of people get injured when they run, you can reduce the chances of this happening to you by making sure you don’t overdo it, start with just a small distance and have a day or two’s rest between runs. If you feel sore and you know it’s more than just normal muscle soreness then see a physio before getting back to running. No point making an injury worse, it can be frustrating sometimes but it’s best to rest up rather than risk needing much longer out.

4.       Plenty of people take up running to lose weight and end up disappointed with the results, sure your still burning calories, but you still need to eat healthier and a little less. Also, be patient and give it time, as you get fitter and can run further and faster you’ll burn even more calories.

5.       Here are some simple tips once you’ve got a few weeks under your belt,

a.       try various hop exercises to perform better on one leg, hops help to develop better knee drive and foot landing and take-off to improve performance.

b.       When running, aim to have your foot on the ground for the minimal amount of time possible, try to be light on your feet, like an assassin creeping up on a target. You shouldn’t be able to hear a big slapping sound on the floor with each step.

c.       Push yourself for a short distance, find a soft surface such as a grass field and for just ten seconds or so go flat out as fast as you possible can. Do this a few times, the idea is to help you ascertain what your maximum effort is so that you can get a better perspective of your normal functioning run. If you think of the max effort as a ten out of ten, aim to do all your future runs as a seven or eight.

d.       Whilst running try various drills such as turning your feet out, in, driving your knees high, running sideways, backwards, bounding, leaning over to one side etc. All of these things get your body used to running in different ways which helps you find a better position when you go back to your natural running position. I’ve also used them to help get past little niggles in certain joints.

e.       Keep tall, especially when you get tired, there’s often a tendency to collapse slightly, which makes it harder to breath which in turn makes it harder to run!

f.        Aim to run with the minimum effort possible for the maximum speed. When you run for distance you need to conserve energy, so keep your arms and shoulders relaxed, think of driving the knee’s up slightly instead of pushing of the floor.

As well as the above, there are some great apps you can use to help with your progress such as mapmyrun, I’ve also known a lot of people have great success with couch to 5k. I would also recommend doing the parkrun which runs across the country in many locations every Saturday morning. It’s just a 5k (3 miles) run which has people from all walks of life taking part, I see old age pensioners, kids, mothers pushing prams and proper racking snakes going for it whenever I go, it’s a really friendly atmosphere where all are welcome. You can register on the site, get your barcode and just turn up when ever you like.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

Feel like you can take it to the next level?

Have a go at the Great North Run with this 9 week bootcamp aimed specifically at the beginner runner.

http://rmkhealth.tumblr.com/post/162435028323/you-could-complete-the-great-north-run

[rmkhealth]

You could complete the Great North Run!

Have you ever wanted to take on the challenge of a half marathon? Did you think it would be too much for you?

I’ve put together a nine-week running club aimed at complete beginners to help them not only achieve this goal, but to do so with a great time!

Running is a fantastic activity to take up, it helps people to…

Burn lots of calories and Lose weight

Have more energy, feel good!

Learn a new inexpensive hobby that will give your life lasting health benefits

Build stronger joints, lean muscles and a better functioning heart, as well as reducing aches and pains

This 9 Week package consist of a gradual build up in fitness for people of all levels to learn proper running technique, how to pace themselves, how to reduce injury risk, using the correct nutrition for weight loss and running performance and every day access to online group coaching.

Details

Location: Hallmark Hotel, North Ferriby

Starts Monday 10th July (Evening group) – Every Monday and Wednesday evening at 7:30pm

Starts Tuesday 11th July (Early birds) - Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 6:00 am

Cost is just £5.55 per session, paid in a 9-week block consisting of 18 sessions (total £100 payable at start)

Special offer- Persuade a friend to do this with you and you’ll both get £10 (pa £90 each)

Bonus – This package includes two months free gym membership at Hallmark hotel (normally £20 per month) which you can use anytime, the gym has some excellent modern equipment and a fine view of the Humber.

Interested?

I only have a limited number of places available, and due to the short time frame of getting people ready I need to start this soon so please get in touch with me as soon as possible to confirm you wish to attend.

To book yourself in please send an email to the following account and I will be in touch.

richard@mckeating.org

Additional information- This package does not include a space on the Great North run, I have managed to secure some spaces which I’ll give to the first few people who apply but everyone else will have to get in touch with the Great North run to secure their place. We can arrange transport and accommodation as a group once everyone has a place.

Also- the cost is for the whole 9-week block and includes two sessions a week, unfortunately I am unable to offer a reduced-price package for anybody who will miss any of those sessions due to holidays, however I will be running catch up sessions throughout to help ensure everyone is up to speed and ready. My job is to make sure that everyone can get through this together and complete this and get their medal!

[rmkhealth]

The Calorie burn delusion

Quick question, Who is most likely to be overweight? A person whose job is very active such as a builder or someone who’s occupational requirements demand that they sit on their backside sixty hours a week?

You might think the active person is far more likely to be healthy, and you’d be right, but only just, and not every time.

A study from Washington D.C looked at BMI rates of 88,121 workers across various occupations over four years and considered fruit consumption, financial status, age, race and education and discovered a wide-ranging variance in levels of obesity.

Whilst some jobs undoubtedly showed higher levels of being overweight (truck drivers, mechanics and surprisingly cleaners) there wasn’t a significantly huge difference in the average of BMI’s across all the occupations with some quite sedentary jobs scoring lower on the obesity scale (management and administrative jobs)

Generally, it was acknowledged that occupation wasn’t as big an indicator of health as other significant factors like income, Education or whether someone smokes or the amount of fruit and veg they take on board.

It’s probably not a massive surprise to most of us, we have probably all met an overweight builder who takes five sugars in his tea and has a bacon buttie from the van most mornings, and likewise seen other builders who keep in amazing shape.

Personally I’ve known many overweight nurses and doctors who not only have an occupation that keeps them on their feet a lot of the time, but also educates them on good health practices.

Over the years I’ve worked as a PT I have worked with people who sit at a desk all day who are in great shape, and people who seem so lazy and laid back they appear practically asleep most of the time and yet have barely an ounce of fat on them.

So far, I probably haven’t given a very convincing backdrop to the title of this article on calorie expenditure, but hold onto your seats because things are about to get very interesting!

The Hadza tribe in Tanzania are a small group of hunter gatherers who are forced to survive without Netflix and so must spend most of their time foraging for various berries, roots and vegetation or hunting animals with bows and axes. If anybody is truly living the Paleo lifestyle its these guys.

As you can imagine they are very active, British government recommendations for activity are to aim for 150 minutes of exercise every week. This can include walking, cycling, running or strength exercises.

The Hadza tribe would do this much in just two days.

So here is the big shocker moment, when considering size and weight, a guy working at his desk all day would burn slightly more calories than a Hadza Tribesman. I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

It’s a study which forced some researchers to state that people are not overweight because of inactivity, but simply because they eat too much.

 Now you might be wandering why a desk jockey is burning more calories (just a few more) than a person who spends all day on their feet hunting deer?

Enter Adaptive thermogenesis

I recently got back into running after a long layoff over Christmas.

Here is my Fitibt data from a 6 miler a couple of weeks ago where I really pushed it.

 According to this, I burned 734 calories, a figure which is estimated on my weight and height and a unit called MET’s (metabolic equivalent task) which is taken using a complied list of data to measure how hard someone is working compared to when they are resting.

The only big flaw here is how things work in a lab and how they work in the real world.

I’m about to explain to you a very important reason why so many people struggle to keep weight off.

When I speak to a female runner who regularly competes in Marathons and averages 20 miles a week and yet still can’t seem to work of her belly, this is the reason, it’s why some people going to an exercise class at the gym week in and week out don’t look all that different after a year.

You see, the crucial bit of info my Fitbit can’t accurately record, at least without an oxygen chamber and a team of researchers, is my adaption to exercise.

Simply put if I had never run before, then that six-miler run may well have burned 734 calories. But the more often I run it, the more experienced I get, the more efficient I get at burning calories, the less calories I burn for the same activity, to the extent where my actual calorie burn for that run could be 300 calories or less. At this stage, I might find that what used to help me lose weight, isn’t working any more, and the only way I can get it to shift more tummy is to run for longer or faster or to change things up completely.

The Hadza tribe are adapted to their lifestyle, they are efficient at burning calories which means that their activity level is less significant to overall calorie expenditure than it would be for us soft city folk.

Therefore, I don’t get overly worried about how many calories a client burns during a weight loss session, for marketing purposes it might be cool to discuss the super calorie burn of a spinning session or other activities, or even the afterburn (post exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC). But these things aren’t as relevant as we’re led to believe, in the real world they don’t make all that much of a difference long term to a person.

As I believe Einsten said, “Insanity is a pointless home workout DVD that gets people doing overhyped plyometrics in their living room at great risk to their joints whilst not taking into account the effect of adaptive thermogenesis on their long term weight management “I’ve paraphrased slightly on that statement.

I dismay at these programs because at some point they will burn less and less, and because of the Halo effect of exercise whereby people are likely to be less active for the rest of the day after intense exercise, even if they do it subconsciously.

And most of all, because I know the single biggest predictor of resting metabolic rate is muscle mass, which doesn’t require getting stupidly out of breath, it just mean pushing some weights and making sure you have sufficient calories and protein.

The great thing about resistance exercise as my clients will testify is that we can change things up often, just as they are starting to get used to a routine and smashing a workout it’s time to change the program and take on a new challenge which means a different set of exercises to adapt to.

More than the hour or two hours a person spends with me each week, I try as much as possible to encourage activity, because it does matter, because it does make a difference.  Every little bit counts, and we all need to do a little each day, so count the steps, do some gardening, clean up, walk more and play.

The key is variety, mix it up, we need to take every possible opportunity we can to be active and remain committed to good health for life, there is no point where we can stop and say that’s it now, I’m healthy enough, time to go sit down all day and stop enjoying all this good health and energy.

I have made light fun of certain activities in this article, to which I do apologise, in truth I honestly believe any activity is good, honestly I do, I strongly suggest people mix things up for variety for reasons I have alluded to, and anything which gets you moving is positive.

Everyone responds differently to diets and exercise and there is no one size fits all. What might work great for a person may very well be a disaster for their best mate doing the same thing. We need to experiment a little and the most valuable longevity factor is consistency.

Keep exercising in any way you can every day.

The benefits of exercise and activity are of enormous importance to our long-term health and wellbeing, the principles I have alluded to in this article should make it more effective.

 Links to the studies I mentioned here

https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0219.htm#table1_down

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0040503#pone.0040503-Dugas1

If you liked this article please share it, or at least click on the link below to the coolest personal trainer in Hull

http://richmckeating.com/

The inspiration for this article came from an excellent article I read by Matt Woodard.

[rmkhealth]

Is it just your age?

Age is the destroyer of youth, eerily creeping up on us and stealing our joyous life energies, age makes our joints ache, our minds slower, age piles on the lbs around our waist and leaves us feeling more and more knackered until eventually it takes us to a cold dark and damp grave.

Or are we wine? Could we get better with age? More knowledgeable and experienced of the World and how it works and appreciative of what we have? Could age be the substance that makes people have a better time?

If age is to be accused of such treacherous crimes against our bodies, let’s us consider the evidence.

Does ageing make you fat and weak?

As I sat on my in laws couch and tried my best to pretend I was watching T.V rather than engage in conversation with my brother in law my view was obstructed by a large gut followed by his apple like soon to be diagnosed with diabetes shape.

He patted his belly and told me that I too, could expect to be fat in ten years’ time, it’s just age he told me, it’s what happens.

That was 10 years ago, I’m still waiting for age to add on the lbs as I sit here wearing the same size trousers I could fit into then.

Of course, there is still time, I’m only thirty-five, other people tell me it’s all downhill from here. Perhaps I am not even the right person to write this article? It’s easy for me to generalize on something I haven’t yet experienced, but then as a Personal Trainer I must have worked with hundreds of people older than me over the last 12 years, including clients in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s.

What follows is a mixture of what I believe to be solid facts, my own personal opinions and general advice based on my own experience. I wrote this article for myself, because I’m curious about the future, I hope that in reading this people might gain a better understanding of aging and how to manage this process like a boss. Let’s start with some of the processes that occur as we age that may affect our weight, muscle and fat.

Sarcopenia affects all adults from about the age of 30 onwards. Up until that point, our muscles are still growing and getting stronger. From then on, we can expect to lose around 3 to 5 % of muscle mass per decade, which means at some point you’ll struggle opening jam jar lids.

From about 75 onwards it really speeds up, leading to the fragility and weakness often associated with the elderly and dramatically increasing the risk of falls and fractures with much more devastating effects than when this happens in younger people. Autopsy results from eighty year olds have shown a 25% reduction in Type II (strong type you would use for sprinting) muscle fibres in the quadriceps compared to sedentary younger people.  

In case you’re wondering, this also affects active people, most athletes are in their prime in their twenties and retire around their thirties.

So, what impact does this have on weight gain?

Lean body mass (muscle) burns calories without you having to do anything.  Muscles need to be fed, which means more muscle, more calories you can consume without getting fat (to a point)

Here is an example of how this works,

Sarah and John are twenties somethings who don’t work out, they enjoy the weekends as they are blissfully free of children and whilst they eat mostly healthy, they have a fair bit of junk from time to time.

Sarah can pull of skinny jeans and John likes to put on tight T-shirts (even though he has puny arms)

Sarah consumes about 2500 calories a day, John about 3000, neither of them know this as they don’t track their intake (which is fine btw)

The fact that neither of them are overweight, and their weight is stable, suggest that they are burning roughly the same number of calories each day as they consume.

Fast forward a lazy inactive decade and they have now lost 5% of their lean mass, which means instead of burning 2500 and 3000 respectively their bodies are now burning up about 2375 and 2850.  It’s only a marginal decrease, but it’s enough that in a month they are consuming an extra 3500 to 4500 calories above their needs.

Add that up over a year and factor in a further reduction in lean mass and subsequently lower level of metabolism and it’s easy to see how the weight begins to pile on year after year.

Even if a person’s weight doesn’t go up, most likely their body fat will. So instead of being 10 stone and 12% body fat John might be that same weight and start to develop flab around his waist as his body fat increases to 18%

In addition to this your hormone system begins to shake, shudder and splutter like an aged car that just wants to rest up its final years in the scrap yard with all its friends.

In men, we see a decrease in testosterone production, think lower sex drive and less able to gain muscle.

In women, we see a much more complex change that brings with it potentially higher risk of osteoporosis, disrupted thyroid and mood swings that would be enough to scare Putin into handing back Ukraine so long as you agree to stop throwing plates at him.

In both sexes, there is a decrease in growth hormone, which plays a significant role in metabolism, brain function, energy levels and muscle growth.

Depressed yet? There’s more!

Does age cause increased joint pain?

Arthritis affects people of all ages, but is by far more common the older you get, meaning more swollen, stiff and painful joints.

Flexibility is reduced year on year, especially in the hips, spine and shoulders, one study on loss of range observed around 8 to 10cm of reduced hip flexibility in the sit and reach test in 50 to 60 year olds.

Also, there’s stenosis, the age-related narrowing of the holes in the spine where the nerves pass through causing increased pain sensitivity, in other words, everything hurts from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed.

The body is breaking down year on year, disc in the back dry up, they become thinner, bones become more brittle, ligaments and tendons suffer with long periods of strain and muscles get tighter, alongside this people get more grumpy and intolerant. It’s hard to be happy when you hurt most of the time.

We’ve already mentioned the loss of muscle, naturally this is accompanied by more unstable joints leading to higher risk of injury and lower ability to balance.

That lack of balance means more likelihood of falls, and the decreased muscle means less ability to handle that fall and impaired recovery.

Here’s a cute Labrador slowly falling asleep, thanks for reading this section, watch this before the next section, things only get worse.

  Does age make you more tired?

Ever noticed that childlike energy that… well children have.  My kids have so much energy they insist they must literally jump up and down constantly whilst shouting for three straight hours whilst their Mum and I smash our heads hard against a wall.

There are plenty of good reasons for this, for one thing my kids don’t have the energy draining life issues we have such as paying bills on time, cooking meals, keeping the house clean, earning a living, raising kids, pretending to friendly to people etc etc.

My kids also get plenty of sleep, the youngest goes to bed about 7pm and gets up about 6am.

That’s 11 straight hours of sleep compared to my usual 7 hours! I think if I got that much sleep I too would be buzzing with energy!

But adults don’t just get less sleep because night time is the only chance they can catch up on the Walking dead, as we age we experience a decline in sleep inducing melatonin levels which corresponds with a disruption in our circadian rhythms, meaning we have less quality deep sleep, the kind of sleep which completely revitalizes you. My son can literally fall out of bed and carry on sleeping whilst I wake up when I hear a mouse quietly turning the page of its Library book in the next room.

There’s more too, remember that loss of muscle mass I mentioned earlier?  That makes everything more fatiguing. Suddenly going up the stairs becomes an effort, as does everything else that isn’t sitting down watching television. That muscle you lost contained Mitochondria, a little energy factory that gives you a big dose of fuel when you want to move more.  The loss of mitochondria is also a factor in decreased energy.

Now factor in any of the issues that people older than me must face, most of my friends and family are still alive, whilst I have had a few occasional tough times, I haven’t had more than a few decades of them, and then there is the respect that diminishes with age. Some see old people as a burden, many fear them, they don’t want to even look at the wrinkled skin or hair loss because it reminds them what is coming.

Many old people when interviewed say they feel invisible, they get ignored at the makeup counters, advertisers have stopped trying to sell them sexy clothes and now bombard them with funeral financing plans and home mobility help.

If you’re ready to start googling Euthanasia clinics in Switzerland rather than face all this peril then read on, because there is hope, so much hope!

The good News!

The truth is far from the bleak picture I have thus painted so far. Although to some people getting older it might feel that way, because perception is crucial in how we perceive life.  

As a Personal Trainer, I may hear “it’s my age” from clients aged 30, 50 or even 80, and conversely, I have worked with clients in their 70s who are strong and go through workouts that put many younger people to shame.

It’s easy to see age as the terrible stealer of youth if we are not actively engaging with life as we age.

Whilst there is no escaping sarcopenia, it seems likely that active people are less affected by it and those who train later in life can still regain muscle or even experience gains they have never known.

I wrote earlier that most athletes retire in their thirties, but that isn’t always the case

“The Iron Nun” sister Madona Buda is a 86 year old Nun who has completed 360 Triathlons and 45 Ironmans (an event which consist of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride finished by a full Marathon)

She says

“The only failure is not to try, because your effort in itself is a success.”

You might have seen her in the Nike advert, if not check it out below.

Aerobic training such as running, walking, Zumba or just anything that gets a person out of breath, is important for the heart. This means less risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis and certain kinds of cancers. It’s also going to improve sleep, which in turn means more energy.

Aerobic exercise can even make dramatic changes to your brain, in this study fifty-nine sedentary people aged 60 to 79 took part in a randomized 6 month trial, they found that the group who did cardiovascular work showed significant improvements in their brain volume with increases in both white and grey matter.

It’s never too late to start either, just this year Fauja Singh ran the Mumbai Marathon aged 104. He ran his first one in 2000 aged eighty-seven.

These are cardio examples, but there are plenty of strength examples too, another British athlete Dr Charles Eugster looks pretty good as a ninety five year old bodybuilder, but then I suppose he should be, he’s being doing it for 8 years since he took up the sport up at age 87!.

If elderly people start lifting weights, they have the potential to gain more muscle than that of a twenty something who just sits on their arse all day. Lifting weights also lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, and has a greater impact on strengthening bones than cardio.  When people build muscle, they need more calories, which means they burn more calories too, on top of this a total body resistance program will produce muscles with higher insulin sensitivity which will massively help reduce risk of diabetes or help those with diabetes control it better.

Another elder athlete who’s holding his own is British Competitor Mark Felix who’s been a regular in Worlds Strongest man for the last decade, he competed this year aged 50.  He set a deadlift record that wasn’t beaten in for seven years, here he is setting another record.

What about flexibility?

Do joints get tighter? Perhaps age does have some impact for sure, but there isn’t really such a thing as a tight muscle.  The range that any person has in any given movement is determined by the comfort that persons brain has in allowing them that movement.

The brain is naturally cautious, it wants to protect you, it won’t allow you to squat deep if it doesn’t think your strong enough to stay stable when you get there or to get yourself back up again.  If squatting deep isn’t something you often do (why would you?) then over time the brain will feel less and less confident about allowing you to go to such depths.

This is kind of a use it or lose it phenomenon. Most kids can do cartwheels, but few adults can even attempt them, and it isn’t because of age, it’s because they haven’t even tried to do one of those things for years.

In 2015 ninety-six year old Tao Porchon-Lynch appeared on Americas got talent with this amazing dance routine. (which starts around 3:30 into the vid)

 What about injuries?

The longer we are around on this earth, the higher the probability that we will experience pain.

If you exercise you’ll most likely experience an injury at some point, and if you don’t exercise then it’s also likely. At least with exercise you stand a better chance of a quicker recovery, stronger muscles and tendons with a good cardiovascular system means less time to heal.

Exercise reduces injury risk by several mechanisms such as enabling better balance, therefore less risk of falls. Also, when you put your body through rep after rep of tough exercises, you get better at being able to handle pain, which means you’ll have an increased pain threshold.  

Research has shown that even when people have painful conditions such as chronic arthritis, exercise helps to manage that pain much better, even though the exercise itself is painful.

Let’s also consider the affect that a phrase such as “arthritis” or a “slipped disc “might have on a person’s psyche. Not to diminish the very significant impact that medical conditions do have on a person’s life, but note that where there is a lack of understanding between what a phrase means between the patient and the doctor there is an increased likelihood of fear and subsequent movement avoidance and physical degradation.

I have arthritis, most of us do, every day thousands of people walk around with slipped disc (which isn’t a disc poking out the back in case you’re wondering) without even knowing it. They have no discomfort, they feel fine, many of them are athletes.

Any injury should always be assessed by a qualified physio therapist, they can advise on the best treatment and help get you back to climbing trees and swimming in lakes in the quickest time possible.

Health, Nutrition, Exercise and aging

Here are just a few thoughts on how we should approach exercise as we age.

First point of consideration is activity, a gym session may just be an hour or two a week but activity is something that can be done every day.

Everything from taking the dogs for a walk to cleaning the house plays an important role in maintaining or even improving the function of our bodies.

When it does come to exercise, simple principles apply, seek a professional, make sure you find someone who can help you exercise safely and in a well-structured progressive manner.

If your keen to just get started then a simple gym program is a machine based leg press, chest press and lat pull down. Do 10 to 15 reps of each, 2 to 3 sets. Do that 2 or 3 times a week and in a month you’ll begin to see a difference. Add in some cardio in the form of walking or swimming or playing knock door run and you’ll be getting both strong and aerobically fitter.

I believe the following are of primary importance to be addressed in a program to help keep us living well into old age.

Good movement through whatever the body will allow and progressively and sensibly trying to achieve more movement and range.  Exercises such as squats, lunges, lifts, presses and pulls in various forms.

Balance movements such as 1 leg work or even practising falls.

Power movements such as jumps, hops, throws. It’s amazing how many people are scared to jump onto a low height step having never had to do such a thing for a long time. It’s always a case of building confidence using a safe environment to practice and progress.

When I was a Teenager and throughout my mid-twenties I trained like a mad man. I would push myself hard, past pain barriers and then some. Plenty of people couldn’t keep up with me.  As I get older I’ve began to realize I get more out of taking a step back, leaving one or two reps in the tank instead of pushing to failure. Starting with just a few sets and adding more in over a few weeks.  It’s a long term sensible and sustainable approach to exercise.

Because inflammation becomes an issue as we age, we should try to lower inflammation through diet by reducing the amount of processed foods we eat (although not necessarily eliminating the tasty stuff!), eating plenty of vegetables, and consuming foods naturally higher in omega three such as oily fish, nuts, seeds etc. It’s also worth adding in natural anti-inflammatory foods such as ginger, turmeric and blueberries where you can.

In addition to anti-inflammatory foods, it becomes even more important as we age to ensure we have enough protein, since muscle loss is of primary concern, any net deficiency in protein will result in wasting away.

So regular consumption of meat, fish, dairy, eggs, tofu, soy, quinoa etc is paramount.

Studies have also shown that elderly people lose muscle much quicker than younger people, so there is a need to ensure training frequency, getting at least 2 to 3 sessions a week may be necessary to not just gain but keep muscle mass.

An important way to look after yourself as you age is to regularly check in with the doc, if you have a pain, it could be nothing, but get it checked out, because if you leave it too long and it is something, you may have lost crucial weeks to treat it.

It’s also super important to have a social group, join a gym, go on group walks, make sure there are people who regularly ask how you’re getting on and help you out when you need it. Isolation can sneak up on people and lots of elderly folk get forgotten about.

 In Summary

I believe that age is a feeling, people feel old, they think they are weaker, they put themselves down in the mind and the body follows suit.

Along with the elderly athletes you’ve seen in this article, there are other examples of achievement at an older age. For example, philosopher Emmanual Kant did most of his best work between 60 and 80, Kernal Sanders didn’t start his KFC chain till he was 65.

Other research has shown that people get much happier with age, the New York times ran a great piece on this. Other research has shown the elder people have better sex lives, happier marriages, more job satisfaction and sharper minds!

From the moment, we are born we are dying, every day on the march towards death our bodies will go through changes, we never wake up two days running in the exact same body!

Age might well be tough, no doubt there are many challenges ahead for us all to contend with in our lives and in our bodies.

But it my opinion, age is a blessing, we all know people who never get to receive the chance to grow old and there are too many daily tragedies involving the loss of life to speak off. whilst I may only be thirty-five I have already seen the passing of many people I knew who were either my age or much younger than me.

[rmkhealth]

10 Ways to get over the January Blues

January sucks, I get that. Chances are that like me, you’ve spent what seems like a blurry super enjoyable couple of weeks over Christmas partaking in the fine alcoholic refreshments whilst discussing the merits of Wordsworth’s greatest literature. You may even have nibbled on a little chocolate coated treat or two.

Now your broke, the overhang on your trouser waist looks like an oversized baggy flesh coloured jumper, and as you head back to what seems like the drudge of work each day the sobering reality of your life begins to hit you hard as all your relationships being to take a strain.

These factors are possibly why there are more recorded divorces in January than at any other time of year.

So luckily, I’ve come to the rescue, January hardship no more! Here are 10 things you can do to salvage this month.

Focus on your goals

The self-improvement movement has run out of smug induced steam lately, and it’s a good job too, because those money robbing charlatans peddling their fictitious alternative facts often did more harm than good, making people cynical and bitter in the long term when the short-term disillusionment of their fantastical myths inevitably lifted like a sobering truth filled helium balloon.

There is something in goal setting though, not the SMART acronym or the supposed “secret” fallacy of asking the universe for what you want in exchange for some matching of mystical energy. No, no, no! not at all. Goal setting is just a template for getting you focused on what you want to achieve and most importantly, what actions you should take.

I suggest trying to tap into the knowledge of the Romans. January is commonly thought of as being named after the Roman God Janus, the God of Gateways, who had two heads, one for looking back, and one for looking forward.

Try using the following chart to do this with each aspect of your life and see what you need to focus on this year.

Get some vitamin D

Have you seen the forecast lately? Along with the usual predictions of worst snowstorm since records began (they’ll get it right one day) the general outlook is gloomy. It’s kind of hard to have a sunny disposition in a grey wet climate. One thing your body will certainly be running low on within these short daytime hours is the vitamin D your body naturally produces in response to sunlight.

This vitamin is important for your wellbeing, as its responsible for stronger bones, better control of insulin and plays an important role in your immune system and brain.

Foods naturally high in vitamin D include oily fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel, it’s also in milk, cheese and fortified cereals.

 You can make some great dishes to improve your intake such as Mackeral with soy, ginger and lime with a side portion of vegetable rice, or you could have grilled salmon with avocado and sweet potato wedges. Or how about pan fried halloumi with mushrooms and steamed greens?

Plan your holiday! 

Look ahead to some sun, you don’t have to book anything yet, you can just get some ideas and a few quotes and figure out your budget (how much you might need to put aside each month). This helps to give some literal light at the end of the tunnel as you look past the gloomy weather outside, plus it gives you something nice to look forward to. 

Move!!!  

Ever noticed how energetic kids are? It’s like they can’t stop wriggling about! The more you stay still the more stagnant you become. Get some blood flowing around your body and sure enough you’ll start to feel re-energized as your pulse raises a little and your brain begins to produce wake up feel good neurotransmitters. Do this often enough and you’ll have more energy more often!

 Big bonus, you’ll also have better movement into later life, one of the reasons most adults can’t do cartwheels is because they stopped practising years ago. If you don’t use it, you lose it!

One thing I know for sure is that if I sit down too long, I don’t want to get back up again! Just a bit of concerted movement such as tidying for five or ten minutes is often enough to get me re-energized. Plus it helps to improve my environment, which in turn energizes me further. It’s hard to relax when your house is a complete mess! 

Don’t move!!! 

Sometimes you really do need a rest! A little break from the pressures of life. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant weekend away at a health spa, try sitting down for a nice cup of tea whilst looking out the window with no other distractions for a while. Or lie in the bath with a glass of wine, some scented candles and some soothing music whilst you relax in the bubbles. It can work wonders to give your brain a break from the constant distractions of modern day life.

Eat healthy treats

It’s only fair that we try to clean up our act in January, Christmas really is a great time to indulge and enjoy yourself. But if food is to be enjoyable from time to time without damaging our good intentions then we need to make some concessions.

The following treats (I hasten to call them that but you get the idea) are healthy and taste great 

Mashed avocado with cocao and two teaspoons of honey makes a great chocolate mousse type dessert.

Frozen banana, rolled in melted dark chocolate, then add a topping such as granola or crushed nuts. Return to the freezer for twenty minutes and enjoy.

Baked apple with cinnamon, honey and walnuts

Frozen grapes with a dessert spoon of natural yoghurt

Get help

For many people the January blues are not the only time they get the blues. Feeling a bit down is a common occurrence in many people’s lives, and in lots of people, it can tip into feelings of isolation, hopelessness and despair. If you feel anything like that, then consider getting a bit of help. An outside perspective can really work wonders.

 The usual way forward is to go down the medical route, you see your GP, you get a referral, and you take things from there. This step takes a lot of courage and understandable many people just aren’t ready to take that step yet.

Other options are to go private, speak to a councillor or do what I did recently and sign up to these guys.

https://www.talkspace.com/

The format works great for me, it’s flexible and for a low-cost I get to speak regularly to a qualified therapist. I’m not on the verge of a breakdown, I just find myself in need of a bit of clarity sometimes.  I usually write each day to my therapist, and they give me a response later.  This encourages me to look at things retrospectively and to dig deep into my own thoughts and motivations.

Breath 

What happens when you get angry? Or scared? Or anxious? Among many other things, your heart rate will go up, and your breathing will become short and rapid. It’s incredible what a few minutes of deliberate long deep breaths can do for your wellbeing. 

There are plenty of breathing exercise you can do, but it doesn’t have to be complex.

A simple one is just to breath in through your nose for two seconds, then purse your lips and gently breath out for 6 seconds. Repeat for at least three minutes, if you can commit to 5 or even 10 then all the better.

It’s a simple non-hype activity which can help if done regularly. It won’t solve all your problems, but it will help you to look at them with a calmer mind.

Set a fitness challenge

Ever wanted to run a half marathon? Or do a chin up? Or is there a hill nearby which you can’t imagine walking because the stairs alone get you out of breath? What physical feat could you do if you worked hard for it this year?

Here are a few things you could try

 If your local to Hull then take on the Hull half Marathon

http://www.humber-half.org.uk/

 Find one of these regular weekly 5k events near you, my 11 year old son did his first one this year.

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/

Or try any of these

 Take on a beginners Triathlon

 Give a toughmudder a go

 check out these challenges across the country

 See if your hard enough to do take on what our countries elite do.

Take up a new hobby

Ever wanted to strum out Slash’s solo on Guitar? Or to converse fluently with locals on your next trip abroad? Or maybe you just really want to learn how to bake and make some super tasty treats?

Maybe this year could be the year you do that? Providing you follow these crucial steps.

You must make sure you have enough time to commit to what ever you decide, it will clash with other stuff you want to do, it may mean missing T.V programmes or important family time.

You must be willing to see it through even when motivation has gone and you have to persist with the frustration of knowing you’re not really getting it yet.

Pay this goal the respect it deserves and commit to it with enthusiasm, patience and most of all be consistent.

Here are some useful links

Learn how to juggle with these videos

 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=learn+how+to+juggle

Learn how to play guitar with these apps

https://appadvice.com/appguides/show/learning-guitar

learn a new language with Babbel

https://uk.babbel.com/

Going forward, I wish you all the very best of luck this year, I am sure you’ll not be at your best for all of it, neither will I be, however the intention to try our best is what counts, and the actions we take mixed in with what fortunes may or may not come our way will result in where you are this time next year.

If you want any help along the way, then get in touch with me :)

[rmkhealth]

9 things you don’t get to..

The world is full of self-help guru’s attempting to spoon feed you positive vomit inducing word trash.

They say you can have your cake and eat it, be anything you want, you can you can you can!!! Just believe, yes! Just believe and make it happen! The Universe will materialize your desires if you match it with your energy and make out like it’s already here!

But you can’t, you really can’t.  

Or maybe the world isn’t full of such positive tripe nonsense merchants, anyhow, I just had to write this article because it resonated a note within me.

Here are 9 things you just don’t get to do.

You don’t get to live forever.

Big shock, I’m going to spoil the ending here so look away now if you don’t want to know the truth.

WE ALL DIE.

Sorry for the spoiler, but I think you probably knew this already. It’s an uncomfortable truth we have to live with. The reason I even mention it is because sometimes it seems like we’re in denial, living like tomorrow will just happen, like it’s a given, a certainty.

Well nothing is certain, apart from death and taxes. You, me and everybody we know, the people we love (our children, parents, grandparents, wives, husbands etc. etc.) all of them, yes all of them, will die. And you too. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.

The parent who argues with their child before they leave the house and then never sees them again knows this only too well. Accidents happen, illness happens, if we’re lucky then old age happens. Things just happen.

So knowing this, why do so many of us live a life devoid of meaning? Why wouldn’t we take more risk, live a little, make the most of things, forgive those who hurt us (for our own sakes not theirs) so we can make the most of this relatively short time on earth. Why do we hold grudges, why bother with jealously? Why hate? Why waste time worrying about things we have no control over? Why not…. Just get along?

Perhaps there are reasons for our misery sometimes, we’re capable of fear, sadness, and a whole all you can eat buffet of emotions to gorge on.  So, go ahead and experience them, and if you can’t because you’re so bottled up then get help experiencing them fully with a qualified therapist or perhaps just a good talk with a friend.

Why hold onto things and dwell too long in the worst possible parts of the human experience?

Once you have crawled through that tunnel of shit you can come out the other side smelling fresh and ready to embrace life.

You don’t get to live forever, Fame couldn’t do it, and Freddie Mercury knew that in reality, you wouldn’t want to. If you had all the time in the world, you would probably just delay things more! Acknowledge that time is short and do something about making the most of now!  Don’t live like this is your last day on Earth, live like it’s your FIRST day on Earth.

You don’t get to go through live without feeling like a failure.

I hope I’m not the only person who feels like this sometimes, I know I’ve achieved a lot of things, not like I’m deserving of a nobel prize or anything, but seriously, I’ve not done too bad at all. And yet some days I just feel like a complete fake, a big loser who’s failed at life. Its crushingly depressing, and on more than a few occasions it’s led to some dark periods in my life.

But I always get through them, and no doubt there will be more to come. The worst part of this is how I have to smile and work through it pretending everything is fine, the last thing a person wants to hear when they ask you how you are is the truth, because that’s going to be a long conversation they’ll wish they hadn’t started.

It’s quite natural to feel like this sometimes. Some of the most successful people in the World often feel like complete failures. Kate Winslet, Emma Watson, Chris Martin and Denzel Washington have all revealed how they have at times felt like impostors.

There could be many good reasons to feel this way, nobody talks about their embarrassing failures. Instead we are tuned into people who are earning more money than us, having a better relationship, losing weight easier, having more fun and a deeper meaningful life than us. It seems that by comparison everyone is doing than us, and so it’s easy to feel like a failure.

But that isn’t the case, nobody talks about the depressingly shitty things openly. The couples on Facebook talking about how sickeningly in love they are with each other are the same ones who split up just a few months later. The guy who just bought a shiny new car still has problems that bother him just like you and me. I know because I train that guy and each week when he drives up in a new flash whip I and I get to hear about all the troubles he’s facing.

You might think I should hire a small violin player to coincide with this heart-breaking tragedy, but people’s problems are worthy of recognition even when it’s hard to emphasis from a distance. We can’t feel sorry for millionaire celebrities when they complain about how empty their lives feel because we’re struggling to pay the mortgage each month and deciding which finger the debt collectors can amputate as next week’s payment.  But those guys heart ache is just as genuine as your own, and you’ll probably never even know about it.

I have successful clients who’ve worked several days and nights to try and save a part of their business to preserve the livelihoods of dozens of staff who depend on them, the drain on their face as they see it all slipping away from them and their powerless to do anything. I’ve seen successful athlete’s breakdown in tears and retreat into weeks of depression when they come up against failure. It gets to everyone at some point.

Sometimes the feeling of being a failure can last for years, divorces, bereavements, suddenly becoming unemployed and even seemingly benign life experiences can take a heavy toll on our wellbeing and leave us vulnerable and questioning our self-worth.

Sometimes it’s just the same monotonous existence of month in and month out suffering the same exact problems again and again that starts to get to us. It’s the rut we can never seem to get out of and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Or in another twist, it can be a cyclic pattern of big failures that knock you on your back, you get up and face the world again, have some success only for another of Gods cruel dice rolls to land badly for you.

Again, and again you get up to continue the game of life but each time you have a little less energy for the next play.

So it happens, your gonna feel like this now and then, but you’ll get through it, my advice if you’re willing to take it is to stop comparing, know that everyone has rough patches and trust my motto “It’ll be allright”.

You don’t get to be healthy without sacrifice.

Of course I had to put something in relating to health otherwise I would drift too far of my remit as a PT. Already in this article I have discussed matters I can only amateurishly ponder at without any solid intellectual or philosophical muscle for the job.

But health is my domain! Wellness is my kingdom, so sit back and take note of this point!  For it comes from an impassioned heart covered in scars hard won by over a decade of experience in this industry.

Fitness takes work, that’s obvious, people on the front cover of Men’s Health didn’t get muscular from a little extra gardening and dropping from two sugars to one in their cup of tea. They had to spend hours in the gym, not just exercising, but pushing themselves past pain, to the point where they turned a little physcho, when pain became their welcome friend, they gave up the things they love for a long time and everyone they know had to suffer with them whilst they went through planned starvation and dehydration just for a one day photoshoot.

But of course, I didn’t write you don’t become a cover model without sacrifice, my point was that you don’t become healthy without it. There’s a stark difference, health involves fitness of course, but that could just mean a little extra gardening. It could just mean dropping from two sugars to one sugar in a cup of tea.

Health is much more than fitness, health is about having good relationships, even if you’re a little introverted and value time alone. We all need others to get by in life and a good amount of research is showing that those with good social connections live more meaningful and happier lives.  But of course, forging good relationships take sacrifice, for married couples that means a little give and take, an acceptance of difference, in communities it means putting up with the annoying neighbour who has a heart of gold but literally will not fucking shut up when you bump into them in the street.  

A good relationship with your kids means turning off your mind from the impending doom of your job for a few hours each night so you can spend time WITH them and be there to listen to them and love them and encourage them enough that they don’t turn into a problem that the rest of society has to pick up the tab for one day.

All of the above takes sacrifice, and that’s not even the start! Good health means quitting smoking, moderating how much alcohol you have, it means wearing a seatbelt and NOT using your phone whilst driving.

It means showing a little discipline with money and avoiding impulse buying.  It means having the courage to stand up when you see injustice and it means living by a code that you deem to make you a good person.

And it takes sacrifice! So much sacrifice!

But good things cost a lot, no doubt about it, and the cost of these sacrifices is a happier more fulfilled and ultimately a healthier life.

You don’t get to do the job you love.

Do a job you love and you’ll never have to work again!  Or so the saying goes. But that’s complete bullshit. Here is why.

Let’s say you love biscuits, of course we all like a good biscuit (my favourite is the HobNob, essentially the Royal Marine of the biscuit world) but you don’t just like biscuits, you LOVE them. You regularly make biscuits for everyone in your office, you try all the different recipes, you experiment a little, add your own unique twist and one day your friends say “ hey Trevor, why are you working this loser job when you could be making digestives for a living?”. They’re right you think, and imagine yourself spending all your hours doing the job you love and making a living doing it. You can be flexible with your time (because it’s your business) and work when you want to and if you succeed then chances are you could make a mint!

So you go ahead and do it, and then reality kicks in. You’ve never had to do accounts before, but no drama, a few hours on a spread sheet and you get the hang of it, and if you’re stuck you can go to the inland revenue to work out what you can legally take as expenses and what you should pay in tax etc. Then you have to buy your ingredients, get a health and safety certificate and a safe workplace environment, various insurance certificates and then try to figure out how to factor all these costings into your end product.

And the end product? Now you have an issue, where do you sell it? You ping emails to various distributors and makers and only a few even bother to get back to you to politely say they aren’t interested.

A few months go by, you somehow manage to scrape a living working long days and finally start to get somewhere, if you’re lucky, you aren’t one of the 8 out of 10 business which fail in the first year. Maybe you even hire staff, you feel like you’ve made it, you’re living the dream of your biscuit empire!

But then you have to deal with staff not bothering to turn up, others steal from you, then customers try to squeeze your margins, then an upturn in the market means people are buying less biscuits all of a sudden, the £ goes down in value and some of your ingredients start costing more. You have no idea how to market your product so you hire an expert only to be ripped off.

Every new challenge brings new headaches and you forget about the thing you once loved.

But sure, having a job you love can be nice sometimes.  I love fitness and feel very lucky to have made a living doing this, but I would be the first to admit that it sucks sometimes, I have long days, I have stresses and I have issues with certain companies or people to deal with sometimes.

It’s the same in every profession, and to me it all seems like a big lie. To try and insist that everybody should have a job they love is to demean the value of people who put in a 9 to 5 in a job they don’t particularly enjoy but helps them pay the bills and allows them to fund their lifestyle. What’s so bad about living for the weekend?

Surely any job at all is worthy if it helps you get by?

In fact, I am in absolute awe of people who are amazing at mundane jobs because they put some passion into it and decide that they are going to do it as best as they can.  It’s a jaw dropping physical live art work to eye drink an ice cream server who has unbelievable skill at his job, or a waitress who can take everyone’s order at a table without a notepad and get it exactly right. Look at this video of people who do everyday jobs, but put a bit of their hearts into it.

I’m by no means saying that people should not pursue jobs that they have an interest in, chances are that is exactly the best strategy for them, I’ll be recommending my kids do that’s for sure, but I also want them to know that it won’t be all sunshine and rainbows.

For those who are lucky enough to earn a living doing something they enjoy, will have many a moment where that job is nothing but a grudgingly boring laborious long work day where they wish they could be doing something else. I know because I’ve trained people who love their jobs, and like me they have more than enough gripes to complain about.

You don’t get to have no regrets.

So I was drunk, and at that point I thought I was being funny and intelligent with my witty comments. But they fell flat, missed the mark, and when I think back on that family gathering and all the faces looking blankly at me trying to muster a polite but insincere smile I cringe and feel regret.

I have much bigger regrets too, I matured too late in life, spent far too much time messing around, I wish I hadn’t been so mean to people when I was younger. The issues I had aside, I need to take responsibility for my own actions.

I could go on and on, I’ve made business mistakes, upset customers, been arrogant far too often and said things I didn’t mean.

So regret is something I live with on a regular basis, but would I change who I am today? No way, I love the person I’ve become, I worked hard to be here, I’m not perfect, but I’m accepting of that, and it took me a while to get here. I still try hard to be the best person I can be, I think I’ve learned from a lot of those past mistakes, maybe regret is a mechanism we need in order to create change.

If you’re lucky enough to grow old, and you don’t have a single regret, then chances are you played it too safe, tried to please too many people and didn’t take enough risk.  Either that or I’m just a dick.

You don’t get to fulfil all your dreams

From my days of self-help I still have my dream sheet, the places I want to go, the things I want to do and achieve. Sadly I have only achieved a few of these life goals.

Chances are I may never get to see whales swimming in Norway or go on a safari and see elephants and lions. I may never live in a massive house or drive an amazing car and I may never get that invite   Wars themed orgy. Which is a shame because I have the perfect outfit.

But it’s OK, I can live with all of this, because if I should pass away today, I think I’ve already done OK, anything else from this point on is just a bonus.

Whilst I wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to check out of this mortal hotel early, I’ve known others who had to leave much earlier than me, and I know some who’ve been staying here longer than I have but haven’t been on so many of the day trips and experiences I got to enjoy.

Even if I did set out to achieve everything on that stupid bit of paper, I would be missing the point. External things can be pleasing for sure, I still enjoy the sunrise in my garden with a cup of coffee from time to time, or a nice hot bath in silence (it’s amazing how much you appreciate silence when you have three kids), but I enjoy these things because I sorted out (near enough) my internal wellbeing some time ago. I forged my inner world through contemplation, reflection, study and an eagerness to improve.

I’m still working on it, but I’m happy enough as it is, and as such I get to enjoy some of the simple things in life as much as I enjoy the big things, and for these things, I don’t need to travel far or spend much.

You don’t get to have everyone like you.

I was very proud to get my first troll a few weeks ago, I’ve been in various media for years so having a media profile isn’t new to me, but a little article in the local paper had some low life creep out from under his rock and question my credentials and say some unpleasant things about me. It was a bit of a shock, but I didn’t let it bother me.

Other people have said unpleasant things about me to others that ended up getting back to me, they still smile and act all polite when I see them, but I know the truth about those snakey two faced so called friends.

If you spend your whole life trying to please others, you’ll never really be happy. This doesn’t mean you have to take the Piers Morgan approach and deliberately set out to anger people, it just means that from time to time there isn’t anything wrong with stating what your opinion is and disagreeing with others.

We are all entitled to opinions, it would be a boring world if we all had the same taste. Imagine how unrebellious teenage metal fans would feel if everyone loved their music?  Alternative comedy would be mainstream and there would only be one political party because we could all agree on the same thing.

It’s a diverse world, and usually people feel pretty strongly about their opinions and are not willing to change them no matter how many times you share post from the people who support your world view.

Remember that maybe you could be wrong, yes you, even you might have the wrong end of the stick, perhaps the nutters aren’t so nutty after all, maybe if you could see the world through their eyes you might understand why they have such strong emotions about things.  Perhaps you would understand why racist people feel so threatened, or why misogynist don’t have any value for women.  

You would never have to agree with these people, but you might gain something from realizing that they have some reason for seeing the world the way they see it, and it’s unlikely they will change that view anytime soon.

I have very different views now from a few years ago, I even argued with others at the time who held the same opinion I have now!

There are a few popular saying around this subject, my favourite is the classic, “ better to have people dislike you for who you are than to have people love you for who you are not”

You don’t get the ability to control others.

I so wish I could control others, I would get my clients to follow my programs and eat what I tell them to eat, I would get my kids to do their homework on time, I would get people ringing me up to ask about the accident I never had to quit their jobs and go make an honest living.

But where would I stop? Could anybody be trusted with that much power? Would human nature not ultimately lead to us using the ability to control others to turn them into our slaves and make them bring us food, money and …. Yeh, how far could people go in abusing that kind of power.

It hurts when people you love do stuff you wish they wouldn’t. I get phone calls from wives who want me to train their husbands because they won’t do anything about their diets even when the doctor has insisted they do something or they’ll likely have a heart attack soon.

I know people who’ve had heart attacks who still continue to lead an unhealthy lifestyle.

I wish I could get them to change their ways, I wish I could get them to just eat a frickin vegetable once in a while and go for a walk.

But nobody gets that kind of power, and nagging won’t help either.

You don’t get to control…ANTYHING!

Not happy about certain political decisions? Tough! Concerned about the election of Trump? Well boohoo to you! Upset that Honey G lasted so long or that yet another wallet bursting over commercialized festive season is on its way?

For so many things in our life there is nothing we can do, never mind power to the people, we can barely just about control ourselves.  In fact, it seems to me, there are just two things we can control, and the realization of this has helped me enormously ( before going any further I should point out that Darren Browns latest book Happy was very insightful on this matter)

We can control our thoughts

We can control our actions

That’s about it. We can’t control when we die, what our body looks like, what job we do or how long we’ll have it for. The only thing we can do anything about is the way we perceive things, and then what we do about it.

For example maybe your not happy with your weight? But you can’t control what the scales say right now, and in reality it’s not the number that bothers you, it’s what comes with it. It’s the lack of self confidence, the self loathing. The joint pain, the being knackered all the time. It’s about how you think others perceive you. And if you can’t control your weight then you can’t control those things.

But you can control how you think about your weight, you could for example reframe your weight as something you are working on and consider the positive consequences that will come if you work every day towards changing your weight. From those thoughts you could take some action, say no to the biscuits at work, have a smaller potion at tea time, cut out take aways for a while. You might go for a walk in the evening, join a gym, go to an awesome Personal Trainer in North Ferriby or just take the stairs instead of the lift every chance you get.

Given time, those actions, stemmed from the thoughts you had would result in a difference in weight. It would of course entail sacrifice, sometimes it would mean doing things against what you wanted to do, exercising even when you’ve had a long day, not resorting to your usual sweet treats to relieve stress.  

Here’s another one. Your struggling to pay your bills, you have several reminders and they all keep piling up. You are stressed to the max constantly because you feel powerless and unable to do anything. You avoid it and avoid it and it keeps getting worse.

You realize that you could lose your house and if you carry on ignoring everything this will happen soon. So you decide you need to try and at least do something to help your situation. You speak to citizens advice bureau, they help you manage your finances, speak to the people you own money to and work out an arrangement and give you regular coaching on how to get through this tough situation. Your stress is gone and for the first time in months you sleep well with a smile on your face. Because you did something.

The above are over simplified examples of this process, but you get the point, there are plenty of things we can’t change, we just don’t have that power.

I’ve learned through hard experience that sometimes the best way to move forward is to accept what we have no control over and do something about the possible action we could take, even if it’s a very daunting action.

I’m was going to write 10 things you just don’t get to do, but I feel I’ve wrote enough on this for now, I hope you’ve found this article helpful or at least enjoyable. This is the most negative article I have ever written! And I feel great for writing it!!!

[rmkhealth]

You even supplement Bro?

Most guys I know take some sort of supplement, and when I ask them why they’ve usually only a vague idea of why they take it. 

There is an expectation that they’ll get “henched” or “jacked” or “ripped” in response to the powders and pills they spent their hard earned on.  To hell with diet and exercise! 

I have a vast experience with supplements, I’ve tried and tested, researched and often been scammed by the supplement industry.

I’ve spent hundred’s per month on various herbs, vitamins and powders all in the name of boosting performance or enhancing health.

Every year I am invited to guest speak at Hull University where I give a lecture on Ergonomic aids and performance for the Sports Science students.

My conclusion is this, and I’m very sorry to say it, but I hope it helps save you some time and money.

Supplements are mostly snake oil.

I no longer recommend supplements to most of my clients as I think they can get by perfectly well without them, and in most cases, I think they wouldn’t offer any additional benefit to a healthy lifestyle and exercise.

But….

In many an instance, I do recommend them to people, and I do still take them myself.

Here is what I recommend and most importantly why…

Protein powder

I recommend this for convenience more than anything else. No matter what your goal is, be it losing weight or gaining weight, ultimately it comes down to getting the right food on board in the right quantities and matching that goal with the right exercise program.

Protein powder fits in nicely here, if your exercising then you need a little more than most people to enable good recovery. If you’re looking to gain some muscle then a shake after your workout will go a long way, if you’re looking to lose weight then the oldest trick in the book is to just replace one meal with a protein shake. That isn’t a long-term solution of course, but short term it really works and helps people to kick start the fat loss process.

I can’t 100% say which is the best brand as there are so many out there, I like to avoid brands that are too cheap as it’s usually mixed with too much low quality filler. But then there’s also no point spending more money than you need to.

Two brands I like are Optimum Nutrition who make some good tasting high quality whey such as this delicious caramel Frappe.

The “Oak” AKA Arnold Schwarzenegger has also has some pretty nice tasting good value products within his range, such as this tasty vanilla whey. 

Plenty of guys will struggle to gain weight without extra calories, for those guys a good gainer protein powder can make all the difference.

USN make a good quality one which isn’t too overstocked with junk to make up calories ( this one)

Creatine

In addition to protein I occasionally take Creatine, for those worried about health issues note that this is one of the most studied supplements on the market, and to date there have never been any proven health issues. There is however plenty of evidence to suggest that creatine can help people to improve strength performance.

If your struggling to lift anything heavy, then it’s worth a go. Most loading doses are 5g five times a day for five days. After that you just need to take a maintenance dose of 5g each day, regardless of whether or not you work out.

People who benefit most from this would be vegetarians, those who don’t eat too much meat, especially red meat, and people who do a lot of heavy lifting work.

The only proven type of creatine is monohydrate, so don’t waste money on products with other long sciency sounding names with big claims. There is no evidence to support them.

This product is good enough for most people, and it won’t break the bank.

Other products worth a try

If you really dislike fish, have issues with joint pain, heart disease or brain fog then by all means try fish oil. Most brands I have used are a little “fishy” which I’m told is down to a badly made product which has been allowed to go rancid. Aliment make a very good refined fish oil which comes at a great price.

I also regularly use a probiotic, especially if in cases where a course of anti biotics have been used, to help prevent any nasty regrowth. I find that probiotics help keep people more regular, experience less bloating, and possibly may help with fat loss by improving absorption through the gut. If people are trying to gain weight then probiotics can help prevent them feeling too stuffed and full of bloat.

Again, aliment make a very good product

Many people have sworn to me that Vitamin D has helped them improve their health, claims range from alleviation from depression to better mood, joint health, sleep etc.

I’m not 100% convinced, but it does make sense that in winter months especially people may be lacking in Vitamin D and that supplementation might offer some benefit for certain people.

It’s a cheap supplement and you only need one a day so it’s worth a go for some people.

Once again Aliment to the rescue! try these.

The recent Titan Force Project I put together aimed to help provide some clarity on supplements. We wanted to show that people could get in great shape without spending tons of cash on stuff they don’t need.

We think we did a pretty good job, see what you think :)

https://www.joe.co.uk/fitness-health/hull-footballer/97045

https://www.joe.co.uk/fitness-health/jeremy/98553

We’re looking for people for the next challenge starting in January, so sign up if your interested.

http://titanforce.co.uk/

One last side note, I happened to get myself in great shape without using hardly any supplements other than those mentioned above.

I didn’t waste money on Glutamine, pre workout buzz sups, nitric oxide enhancers, metabolism boosters, test boosters or any of the other stuff that doesn’t do anything special compared to just eating well and working hard in the gym.

[rmkhealth]

Losing Weight is The Easy Part . .

Note: Claire got in touch with me in January this year, when we met and had a chat I felt inspired by her story. 11 Months later on she’s made some remarkable progress and lost inches and gained fitness and a bunch of other stuff, but that isn’t the real story here, I never asked Claire for this testimonial, but I’m so glad she sent it to me, please read on, there is something in here for us all to take on board. 

Ask most people why they decided to lose over 40% of their total body weight and most will come up with some inspiring story, usually involving a life-changing event, that prompted them to take stock of their lives and change it completely.

Me? I’m afraid I’m not that exciting. No major tragedies that caused me to over-eat in the first place, and no major or shameful experiences that prompted me to get up off my lazy, overweight ar$e and lose 99lbs –7st 1lb in old money. For me, it was simply one holiday photo:

It was April 2011 and I, like many other patriotic Brits that week, decided to take advantage of the extra bank holiday granted that Easter because a certain Kate Middleton and William of Wales had decided to tie the knot, and pack my 29 years old self off to sunnier climes for the week. I even did the obligatory pre-holiday diet and was thrilled with myself for losing around 7lbs, taking my weight down to 228lbs. Fab! I told myself I didn’t feel fat, I mean the average UK size was now a 16 – at a size 18 (the size I quoted when asked) okay, size 22 I was simply curvy. And I certainly wasn’t miserable about it.

Until I got home and saw this picture. It took me a good few minutes to recognise the bloated, sun-burnt girl with a false smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes, as me. Who was I kidding? I was miserable. But still, I didn’t really bother doing anything about it. After all, I couldn’t lose weight even if I wanted to: it was glandular. I’d ‘tried’ every diet going and none of them worked for me. And there was no way I could exercise. I’d had arthritis since I was 19. Exercising was dangerous – it would only make things worse!

Nope, better to sit on the sofa, watching TV and eating.

Fast forward to December 2012 and the unthinkable happened. It was Christmas Eve and the guy I’d fancied at work for the last couple of months told me he liked me too. And not as a colleague, or a friend. After 10 years of flying the flag for singletons everywhere, a guy actually fancied me! Like, properly fancied me! We spent a blissful few months together – we took things slowly, spent time together at each other’s homes, went to the cinema and I felt great. Here was this awesome, gorgeous guy who liked me for who I was. He thought I was funny, he told me I was pretty, he liked to grab handfuls of my curves. And all of this was fine – as long as we stayed indoors, dated in dark cinemas and, well, you-know-whatted with all of the lights off.

And then he decided he wanted me to meet his friends at a barbecue. And that was the moment the panic hit. I couldn’t go to a barbecue and have strangers see me stuffing my face. They’d be talking about me, whispering behind my back. The token fat girl who’s bound to eat everything in sight. Look at her, she doesn’t eat food, she inhales it! But the main reason I couldn’t go, was because I couldn’t embarrass him. Poor guy – he’d told all of his friends about this great girl he’d met and fallen in love with. How disappointed and shocked they’d be when it was ME that he turned up with instead. I couldn’t do that to him.

THAT was my turning point.

To really hammer it home, I took another look at those awful pictures from last year’s holiday, sat down and decided it was time to be honest. I was miserable. I hated myself. I was embarrassed for my boyfriend whenever we were in public. And it wasn’t glandular, exercise wouldn’t hurt me and dieting for 3 days isn’t really trying. I’d managed to quit smoking in January 2011 and had stuck to it too. I’d not fallen off the wagon with it once, so I knew I had will-power in me somewhere – I just had to dig deep and use it.

I decided to do it all on my own. I didn’t want to be fat-shamed by some middle-aged woman, dressed like an old school teacher, in some freezing cold church hall at a local slimming club. I know this method works well for a lot of people, but I knew that counting my points and saving my sins until the weekend would just encourage me to starve all week and binge at the weekend. I knew that if I took that approach, I’d lose about half a stone before cracking 2 weeks later and piling it all back on – and them some!

So I started by being honest about what I ate. I started to keep a food diary and tried to restrict myself to around 1,200 calories a day and I joined a popular exercise class based on Latin dance – you all know the one! It was really hard work at first, but I started to see results within a few months. 6 Months later and I had lost around 28lbs and was down to a size 16. Great!

I carried on and, after reaching around 180lbs and being roughly a size 14, I hit the dreaded plateau. Try as I might, the weight was being as stubborn as a mule and refusing to budge. I knew then that I had to up my game in the exercise stakes so I joined a gym. I took it gently at first, I went twice a week for around 30 minutes and did about 10 minutes on each of the cardio machines. But, the more I went, the more I pushed myself and eventually I was able to run on the treadmill for a whole 10 minutes without stopping – a feat I’d never achieved in my entire life. It may seem like such a small thing but to me, a girl who’d never been athletic, never done any sports in school and got out of breath simply by watching the Olympic Games, this was a huge deal to me. For the first time in my life, I’d actually proven to myself that, with enough determination, I could do anything I set my mind to.

So, finally, Christmas 2014. A whole 2 years later. My fabulous boyfriend and I are still together and this time, when we are invited to a party by his friends, I don’t mind going so much. I’m now tipping the scales at 129lbs and the dress I’ve bought especially for the occasion, aside from being a tad on the expensive side, was a size 8. That night was even more special because it was the night we decided to take the plunge and finally move in together.

Great! Job done. Time to celebrate, right?

Well, it turns out that the last 2 years had been the easy part. And the part about it being happily ever after . . . ?

Okay, so the bit that I left out above was that although I started my diet by cutting down my daily calorie intake to 1,200, I soon became obsessed with playing the numbers game. I knew that to lose weight it was a simple matter of maths: I had to burn off more calories then I’d eaten that day to lose weight.

I started to weigh myself every day, in the morning, before I did anything else. I made sure I’d visited the loo, then strip down to my birthday suit before hopping on the scales. As soon as I had a couple of days were I hadn’t lost a gram, I’d panic. What had I eaten the day before? How many minutes had I exercised? Most of the time I’d stuck religiously to the eating and exercise plan I’d made for myself so I knew that I had to change it somehow. So I cut the calories down even further and increased the exercise even more. By the time I reached that mythical size 8, I was eating no more than 500 calories a day, running an hour a night 3 times a week and doing two hour-long exercise classes at the gym.

I felt guilt about every single piece of food that passed my lips. I’m not a vain person, but I would spend hours standing in front of the mirror looking at myself from every single angle, seeing which bits of my body I thought were still too fat. My tummy was still too round, my bum was too big, my hips were too wide. I’d compare myself to all the magazine pictures and imaging my boyfriend was doing exactly the same. I also imagined that he thought I was fat and ugly in comparison to the gorgeous, slim, toned women in the photos and on TV. I hated eating in public. I imagined people saw me and thought I was being greedy.

By the end of 2014, at a time when I should have been enjoying myself, living my life and making the most of the new found fitness I had, I’d got myself into a situation where I was even more miserable then I had been when I was fat. I felt more insecure about myself then I ever had before in my life. So many people – friends, family, colleagues – were congratulating me for losing all the weight and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to maintain it.

I’d also started the inevitable starve-binge cycle I’d tried so hard to avoid. I was eating so little food during the week that I was literally sitting at work, fantasising about all the lovely foods I was denying myself – chocolate, crisps, pizza, fish & chips – you name it, I dreamt about it! So I started making deals with myself – just run an extra 10 minutes tonight and you can have that bag of crisps on Saturday – until I was secretly bingeing on food at the weekend. And I never felt any better after I’d given in and had that one chocolate bar. Instead, I was awash with shame and guilt. I’d be straight upstairs, standing on the scales and examining myself in the mirror to see where the damage had been done.

Inevitably, the scales started to creep up again. Not a lot at first, but by the time of my birthday in December I’d gained around 14lbs back. Most people would have told you that I was starting to look healthy again. I’d taken the weight loss so far that I’d started to look gaunt, but I never saw that in myself. My boyfriend took me to Tenerife for my birthday and it was by far the worst holiday I’d ever been on. It was nothing to do with the hotel being awful, or the area, it was all because of me. I’d become so trapped in my own mind that I was back to refusing to undress, wear swimwear or anything even slightly summery. I spent 5 days in a hot country wearing the baggiest clothing I could find. It was ridiculous. We would go out for an evening meal, and I would just pick at the food and eat nothing. So scared of gaining 1 more pound. The sad thing was that I ruined the holiday for the both of us, not just for me.

That Christmas was the first time my boyfriend sat me down and told me he was actually really worried about me. I thought I’d been hiding things really well, but it turned out it wasn’t just my appearance that I was delusional about. He’d seen and noticed everything. I broke down on Christmas day and together, we decided it was time I got help.

And that’s how I found Rich.

I had a good look at his website, read his personal description and I thought he sounded like a really nice, down to earth guy. I saw the teams he’d worked with and his Men’s Health award and I knew that he was the guy who could help me. I knew that I could pay for a personal trainer at the gym and they would probably be a bit cheaper, but they would only help me train my body – Rich would do this but would also help me train my mind. Training the body is easy but the mind is the hardest and most powerful muscle to work out of them all.

It started with an informal chat in his studio on a cold, rainy January night. He sat and listened to me for nearly an hour without interruption. I told him the whole story as you’ve heard above and waited for the judgement. I waited for him to tell me where I’d gone wrong. I waited for him to tell me I’d been too greedy or not worked out hard enough. But what I heard was:

“Well done! You’ve done an amazing job, but I will tell you this: 12 weeks with me and I will have you eating double the amount you are now and exercising as half as much and I guarantee you’ll lose inches, be more toned and feel 100% better.”

I left his studio that evening and I’ll be honest. I was more than a little sceptical about the whole thing. I mean, eating more and exercising less? How could that possibly mean losing weight? Surely I’d be gaining loads! I told my boyfriend what Rich had said and waited for him to be as cynical about it as I was, but all he said was “Well, he must know what he’s doing so you might as well try.”

So I did.

My first session was a revelation. Like most women, I was petrified of lifting any type of weight. No way did I want to look like an Eastern European shot-putter! I’d watched all of those reality TV weight loss programs, I knew what personal trainers were like. And especially an ex-marine: he would be shouting and screaming in my face, making me do exercises and get into positions that no normal human being can manage. And if I said I was tired, or I couldn’t do it, he would probably make me do 20 more of whatever torturous thing he’d come up with. But to my surprise – and extreme relief! – it was nothing like that! Rich explained to me the difference between weight training for muscle gain and a combination of weight and resistance training for toning. Instead of weighing myself, we would take measurements instead. I’d keep a food diary but with no calorie counting. Instead, Rich gave me a list of foods that I should introduce into my diet: fruits, vegetables, nuts, nut butters. He even said I could – and should – have the occasional treat. We decide that if I ate healthily for 90% of the time, I could afford to treat myself for the remaining 10%. Exercise-wise, my first session was all about assessing my fitness level and seeing just what my body was capable of doing. We would then devise a program together. Yes, Rich was my trainer, but it was me who would be in control. I would decide what areas I wanted to focus on.

Rich only insisted on me following 1 simple rule: I had to trust him.

So, I made a promise to myself and to Rich. Whatever he asked me to do, I would do it. No questions, no thinking I knew best. And I would throw myself into it 100%. So, at my first session, we took some all-over body measurements and a few starting photos and then Rich asked me what it was I wanted to get out of our sessions. I’d lost all of the weight I needed to. What I really needed now, was help to achieve the shape I wanted and, more importantly, to keep the weight off. Rich listened to everything I said, came up with both an exercise and a nutritional plan, and so the fun began . . .

That was 10 months ago. So where am I now? Did it work?

All I can tell you is this: I haven’t counted a single calorie since that first training session. Not one. I haven’t weighed myself either. I exercise once or twice a week with Rich in his studio and visit the gym twice a week where I will spend no more than 1 hour, either in a spin class or running and walking on the treadmill. Sometimes, if I feel like it, I will join the local running club for a 5k on a Saturday. So you tell me, did it work?

This is me on the day of my second 5k race event. Something I would never even have dreamed of taking part in way back in 2011 and, if I’m being completely honest, something I still would never have contemplated entering myself for before I began training with Rich.

But why? Yes, when I first walked into Rich’s studio I was at a healthy weight and my fitness level was pretty good too – certainly enough to run a 5k. But whilst I was physically healthy, mentally I was far from it.

The hardest part of the first few sessions with Rich had nothing to do with the exercise plan he had devised for me. They were challenging and I certainly worked up a sweat, but I wasn’t massively out of breath in the same way I would have been if I’d spent the same amount of time doing cardio. What I found difficult was believing that I was exercising enough. And even worse, believing that I wasn’t eating way too much at the same time.

I followed his exercise plan to the letter. I never questioned anything he asked me to do. And I also ate the things he told me to eat and forced myself not to weigh myself anymore. In fact, I put my scales in the loft after our first session - and I haven’t brought them down since!

For the first few weeks I never noticed any difference. About a month after my first session, we took another set of measurements and some photos to compare with the first set. I was fully expecting there to be either no difference whatsoever, or to have got bigger. After all, I had been lifting all kinds of weights – and not just the little ones! And everybody knows that lifting weights = gaining lots of muscle, right?

So imagine how surprised I was to find that, after cutting my cardio time in half and eating double the amount of food, I’d actually shrunk. And not by a small amount either. I’m talking actual inches here! And when I looked at the ‘now’ photos, in comparison to the ‘start’ photos, for the first time I saw actual muscle definition. Alright, I didn’t exactly have a six-pack (and nor would I want to!), but my tummy was starting to look toned. And so were my legs and my arms. Imagine, finally being able to wave at someone without my bingo wings causing a Tsunami on a bunch of small islands on the other side of the world! And I’m pretty sure my bum wasn’t as wobbly too . . .

I’m not going to lie and be all dramatic, claiming this was some kind epiphany for me. It wasn’t. Nothing suddenly clicked. However, as this progress continued and I got more and more into my training, I found myself relaxing more. I found myself feeling better.

I don’t actually know what my body weight is now and I can honestly say I don’t care! As long as my clothes feel comfortable, then so do I.

I can’t remember the last time I felt guilty or ashamed for eating something that was over 100 calories and wasn’t labelled as ‘fat-free’ or ‘sugar-free’ or any of the other nonsense labels, designed to lull us all into a false idea of what healthy eating is.

I still hate shopping for clothes but that’s more to do with my bank balance never being enough to cover everything I covet. I still examine myself in the mirror at least ten times before I leave the house for a night out but instead of looking for lumps and bumps, I’m making sure my mascara isn’t smudged, or my skirt tucked into my underwear (or I haven’t got the label hanging out of a dress I’m only wearing once before returning – we’ve all done it ladies!). Now, I don’t actually mind the girl who looks back at me in the mirror. Admittedly, it has taken a long time for me to recognise her as me. She looks happy, relaxed and comfortable. Dare I say it – I finally look in the mirror and I see normal!

And as I have changed, so has my lifestyle. I now know the truth: it was never my weight holding me back from anything. It was all me. My insecurities, my despondency, my excuses.

This year I’ve completed two different 5k events. I’m incredibly lucky that I have a job which involves travel to Prague and in September 2016, myself and 16 other colleagues decided to enter a 5k race held in the stunning city centre. I was still nervous, right up until the start whistle was blown but I knew that it was all in my head and I pushed myself not to give up, and I didn’t. I completed the race and got my medal to prove it!

But for me, the best thing about that race was that I got to do it with my friends and I enjoyed it. At no point was I worrying what they thought of me. I wasn’t worried about looking all red and sweaty and horrible, or my bits and pieces jiggling as I was running. It was all part of the fun and we embraced it together. And I didn’t feel at all guilty about the 17 of us piling into a burger bar to treat ourselves afterwards – we’d earned it! In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I signed up for my second event in October as soon as I came home.

So why do I still train with Rich? Because of everything he has given me and everything he still gives me. Because of him I’ve finally learned to like and accept myself. His support started on day one and hasn’t wavered. Ever. He has given me far more practical advice then any website, health care professional or slimming club could ever offer me in maintaining not just my weight, but my lifestyle. With Rich’s help and support I’ve finally learnt the most important lesson of all: to let go!

But the most important reason for me to turn up at his studio twice a week is because he is no longer just my personal trainer. Rich McKeating is my friend.

So, ladies and gents, if you want to lose weight, feel more confident, gain inner and outer strength and open yourself up to a whole new world of possibilities, then I urge you to contact Rich now. Don’t do what I did – don’t sit and wait for tomorrow or Monday. Those days will never come. Make today your tomorrow! You have nothing to lose by sending an email or making a quick call, you only have everything to gain.

I promise you now, you won’t regret it!

Anyway, enough of me rabbiting on – there’s pizza in the kitchen with my name written all over it . . .

[rmkhealth]

10 Ways your tomorrow could be healthier than today

Tomorrow is always a good day for improving your health! There are just so many convenient excuses not to start today!

Here are 10 ways you could genuinely make tomorrow healthier, and maybe even the next day too?

1. Be honest, brutally honest. Blood tremoring, heart squeezing, brain smashing, violently honest. Look at the reasons why you didn’t do something today, why have you put something off for so long? Whatever answer you come up with, ask yourself if that’s really the case? The truth is a great place to start, you can’t move on whilst in denial.  

Another person can’t do this for you, if I said you didn’t exercise because you where lazy or that you ate more than you should because you where greedy you’d probably (quite rightly) slap me.

So it needs to start with you being true to yourself, why you are where you are, and what you would actually be willing to do to move on from there. This isn’t the same thing as being hard on yourself or judgmental, this is just an acknowledgement of the facts, nothing more.

2. Pay close attention to your food. Try writing down what you eat, also how much and when. Take a look at the end of the day and ask yourself if you made good choices, what could you do to improve them? What challenges did you face? I often get clients to do this, not just writing down what they eat but examining it and questioning it. This can be very revealing.

3. Walk more. Just a few more steps where you can, a little walk on your lunchbreak, or a few extra steps after dinner. Parking further away, taking the stairs, all those steps add up and it only takes a little effort. I like the Fitbit surge for this feedback, it’s not super accurate but it gives me a rough picture of daily steps.

4. Use a different sized bowl or plate, take a look at the recommended 40g serving of shreddies below. In one bowl it looks full, in the other it looks like a small serving. This alters your perception of how much you’ve eaten. The same amount of food can leave you hungry or satisfied depending on how you see it. Small plates and bowls are simple things which can really help make lasting change for many people.

 5.  Have a meaningful conversation. The things which bother us can lead to stress eating, inactivity and life draining exhaustion as your energy dissipates.  A simple conversation with someone who you’re having an issue with could lift a big weight of your shoulders. Make sure it’s not about blaming, try starting with “ for me this feels like….”. The conversation could also be about something you really, really need to discuss but for some reason have been avoiding.

6.  Swap, instead of a biscuit have an apple, instead of a large bag of crisp have a small bag of crisp or even a handful? Try making a few small changes and look at the long term game.

7. Get more sleep, as a parent I see first-hand how being tired can affect people’s behavior and ability to cope, when my kids are sulking and crying over small things I know it’s nearly time for them to go to bed! I think adults aren’t too different, the occasions in my life where I’ve not slept well have usually resulted in me being less alert the next day, as well as overeating food and craving sweet stuff.

A lack of sleep once in a while or for just a short phase is probably no big deal, but long term it can have some serious health repercussions. Just setting a little bedtime routine can really help improve sleep, such as bath/ brush teeth/ read book for 10 mins/ note in diary any pressing concerns for tomorrow.

Little habits like cutting caffeine out from afternoon onwards or just recording programs to watch at a later date instead of staying up could really help.

8. Get some silence! We spend too much time immersed in noise, if not the noise of our families, friends, colleagues then the noise of traffic, radio, television, or worse yet the constant repetitive chatter of our mind set on hyper drive!

Just 10 minutes in complete silence doing nothing at all can be like a kind of reset button which leaves you feeling refreshed and energized to crack on with more gusto.

Most of us are super busy, but just a few minutes’ time out could help us get more stuff done.

9. Accept hardship, resisting the urge to eat all the things you would enjoy eating is hard. Doing any other physical activity than sitting on your arse is hard. Of course it is. So accept that. To not do so is either arrogant or foolish.

Embrace the hardship, use that knowledge of what lies ahead to go about it with a serious attitude and devotion. Like all good principles this applies not just to health but to many other parts of life.

BTW- there are a few starving million out there who would get so angry at your “hardship” of missing out on the cakes everyone else is having at work that they would reach out and hit you if only their arms had the strength. When your puffing and panting after a few minutes on a walk they would snigger at you as they return from the five-mile journey from the only well in the village. My point in this is to just get on with it and stop feeling sorry for yourself. ( bitter pill!)

10.   Consider how to make tomorrow healthier, make each day better than the next, strive for your best effort (not the same thing as perfection) out of all the billions of possible options that could have ended up being your life you got this one. Make the most of it and honour that gift.

Hope you liked the above, if even just one of those things resonated with you then take action and give it a go, don’t leave it at just a good idea. 

If you liked this article please spread it.

Thanks

Rich

[rmkhealth]

5 Things People Should Know about Pain

About 8 years ago I decided to specialize in fat loss, it wasn’t just because it was a bigger market (sorry for that terrible pun) when I helped a few people get into great shape, lose a few lbs and realized the profound difference it can make to a person I genuinely found it rewarding and decided that was how I was going to pay my bills.

But prior to that in my career I had worked hard to discover the best way of helping people with injuries and trying to be the local expert in fitness rehabilitation.

I was obsessed, I stayed up late night after night reading different anatomy books and for a short while worked as a sports massage therapist in a few different locations.

I was fascinated by industry gurus who lured me in with information about how I can help solve people’s injuries by recognizing which muscles where tight, which were weak and where the imbalances where. I learned test I could use to help diagnose an injury and things I could try to help people recover faster and prevent them from happening.

I foam rolled, manipulated, stretched, activated and all sorts of things which sometimes seemed to work, and sometimes didn’t.

And now I know it was all bullshit.

It was hard to admit at first, I had spent so much time and investment in my education that to look back and see it was for nothing left me not knowing what to do.

Despite deliberately choosing not to set myself up as an injury rehab type trainer, most of my clients still had injuries either when they came to me or picked up at some point later on, and I felt powerless to help having disregarded my past education.

Pain is debilitating. It puts people in a bad mood, they’re snappy, bleak, more prone to depression and everything becomes harder. So I had to learn to do something.

Time moved on, I learned more, people helped me learn how to read papers from credible sources and so my learning developed, and now I have a much clearer idea of what to do when people come to me with pain. This isn’t a one-sided process though; I’ve put together five things that people should know which can help empower them towards better pain management.

Take a look at the following and see if it might help you.

1.       Pain doesn’t always mean something is wrong

If you have pain it could be because of something very serious, you could have broken a bone, strained a ligament, or you could have a stomach ulcer or a cancerous tumour. Or you could have those things and not have any pain, or you could have nothing wrong at all and still have pain. That’s because pain is an output. Your brain interprets pain in its own unique way.

There is an astounding amount of research supporting this now, a study done as recently as 2014 showed spinal x rays which had significant degeneration, according to the experts these people should have been reaching for the ibuprofen on a regular basis, but guess what, these where healthy people who experienced no pain at all.  

What this means is that people with pain should go to a qualified professional for a diagnoses, not a massage therapist, not a personal trainer, either a doctor or a physiotherapist.  In many cases the pain is not a problem, but you need to be sure, get a professional opinion even if you think it’s nothing.

If you go see a professional and your still not happy, by all means get a second opinion, it’s your body, it’s your pain, you need to take ownership in managing it and working towards either a solution or a better form of management.

2.       There aren’t any proven biomechanical links

So I spent years studying and learning that tight hip flexors cause weak glutes which cause lower back pain. Or that standing with a bit of a slouch can cause tight chest muscles and long weak upper back muscles.

Other causes of injuries or pain included having weak core muscles, or even tight jaw muscles being blamed for tight hamstrings.

But none of these really followed a consistent pattern.  My clients who sat at a desk most of the time and didn’t exercise where sometimes very flexible and some of my more active clients where rigid and stiff when the moved. Sometimes I saw that people had tight muscles but they could move them fine with no problems through big ranges.

According to some therapist having a shorter leg should cause the hip to drop which leads to biomechanical causes of back pain. But plenty of people have a leg height discrepancy and don’t have any issues. Some people even have really significant differences, like a few inches! And still no pain.

So having perfect alignment and great posture is NOT the cure for pain, in fact this ideal can even cause more pain. Because when people think that something is wrong with them, it causes fear, and fear causes unnecessary caution, and all that does is heighten the pain output (see point one)

If you’ve been told that your pain is caused by tight or weak muscles, or that your out of alignment and need “fixing” then you’ve been misled. These kind of faux diagnoses often do nothing to help with pain management and in many cases can exacerbate them long term.

3.       Saying something works doesn’t mean it works

It’s 800 BC, you have a headache, luckily your pre Christ physician has a cure, he’s going to tap a hole in your head with a hammer and chisel. Your cured! It’s a miracle. Twenty four hundred years later around 1600 AD Trepanning as it became known, was very popular throughout Europe as a treatment for headaches.

From that century to as little as a hundred years ago Mercury was the cure all from a graze to constipation. People swore by its healing properties and mostly just ignored the hallucinations, muscle spasms, lung problems and other issues that came up as they used more and more Mercury medicine to heal the side effects of the Mercury medicine.

My point is that you can’t really trust testimonials. For a short while at least people swear by extreme diets, motivational guru’s and when it comes to pain, people have found great relief at the hands of Chiropractors, Osteopaths, or even massage therapist, reiki therapist, yoga, Pilates, homeopaths and about a thousand other professions.

I should probably apologize for grouping all those people together, I don’t have any particular issues with most of them and have seen how they really can help in some cases, and on the flip side I’ve known others who just keep taking money as clients keep coming back to them regularly to get “fixed”.

People might wonder what’s the harm in a placebo type treatment if it helps people? And it’s hard to argue with that logic.  But one day it won’t work, and people will be left looking for the next cure.

A far better and more honest ways to help people is to empower them so that they develop a sense of control rather than giving over the responsibility of their pain relief to a supposed professional who might not always be there when they need them.

4.       Pain is individual

Pretend you play football for a living (unless you actually do), you’re carrying a big heavy bag of money and Rolex watches to your front door when you happen to lose your grip and drop them all on your foot. It hurts, is something broken? Will you be able to play this weekend?

The pain for a guy who is so dependent on his feet for a living is felt much more intensely than the exact same thing happening to a rich and successful hand model.

Pain is hugely influenced by experience, you walk barefoot into a river having a fun time one day and you step on a broken shard of glass. You don’t even notice, you carry on having fun but when you get to the car to go home you see the footprints of blood and then suffer weeks of pain as you get infected and become ill having to take strong antibiotics.

The following year you’re in that same lake, barefoot, and you stand on a small pebble which causes excruciating pain putting you on your back in extreme agony. You don’t even have a mark to show for it. Experience of past pain can exacerbate current pain.

I know a guy with a hugely successful business he built himself, he never misses a day’s work, despite having chronic back pain which has gotten worse over the years. I’ve seen his X ray, and his spine looks like a huge crippled S shape. 

Meanwhile he has guys taking months of sick pay for a back pain which he would welcome in comparison to his.

Pain can be like a faulty fire alarm which keeps going off when you sneeze. Your pain sensitivity causes you to feel an over exaggerated response which feels much worse than it is.

If you think I’m suggesting that pain is all in your head then your right, but I don’t mean that in a disparaging way. Your pain is very real, your brain makes it so and its genuinely agony for many. But the fact that all pain is in our heads gives us as an insight which can help us to manage it better. See my next point.

5.       There are plenty of things you can do.

So providing you’ve seen either a physio or a doc, and it’s quite likely that the cause isn’t anything serious, then there are plenty of things you can do 

For starters you can educate yourself, this is a really good little short course which gives some useful information on how to manage your pain, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Exercise can really help, this has been shown to help people manage pain better by decreasing their pain sensitivity (so when people exercise they are in a way creating pain by their own actions, they are in control and through experience they can learn to push themselves more and lessen the pain that they feel)

Exercise also helps people with chronic serious pain conditions, this is a lot harder to deal with though, as it means working through what can be a kind of agony from the very outset. It does get better after a while though, and becoming strong will help because less activity will mean muscles waste away, and then the danger is that a person may need help getting out of a bath, and is more prone to falls or slips.

Simple things like a good night’s sleep and lowering you’re stress levels can also help reduce pain.

On another note with exercise, I like to try and find ways people can move without pain or at least without too much of it. I often find that simple movements with a few tweaks such as a wider stance, a different foot position or a twist somewhere during the movement can be enough to help people get past the pain that was limiting them from performing a task that causes them trouble most days.

I know some great Personal Trainers who do specialize more in helping people with pain and they get great results with fun distraction exercises like bouncing and catching a ball or exercising whilst counting the how many vowels are in the word “onomatopoeia��

Unusually swearing has been shown to help lessen pain! But only in people who don’t swear too often, which kind of rules me out!

Fun things can help too, anything which takes your mind of pain is a welcome distraction. Especially laughter, which releases endorphins which are a natural pain killer.

If you can spare just a few minutes this video is also worth a watch, it explains things in a much better way than my article and comes from a guy who is much better placed to give this kind of information.

If you do suffer with chronic pain then this video is worth watching, it’s a little long but gives some really good information on pain and how best to manage it. 

I hope you found this article useful, I’ve been meaning to write it for a while but wanted to make sure I fact checked everything and be certain that I was giving out accurate information.

[rmkhealth]

Taking another look at Body Image Disorder

Fiji 1994

Fiji is relatively free of eating disorders commonly seen in the west, Fijian Men have an appreciated for the larger lady, culture is heavily centered around food and eating and life revolves around the fortunes and misfortunes of farming and the success or lack of success of crops and fishing.

Fiji 1998 (three years after watching television became popular, just over a decade after electricity became more available)

10% increase in eating disorders, mental health issues, poor body image associations with more survey respondents claiming they feel fat.

 Over the years I’ve seen this problem over and over again, most Personal Trainers have.

Body Image Disorder (BID) or Body Dysmorphia (BDD) has been with us for a while, it has many different levels of severity and often has a root cause in events that happened during formative child years or the sensitive teen years and in no small part society at large and a media which reinforces unrealistic body images and lifestyle attainments beyond the reach of most of us.

The following is based on my own personal observations and I believe it to be mostly true, however I’m not going to state myself as an expert here, this is just a problem I’ve seen so often I wanted to write something about it.

BID usually affects women more than men (although I’ve met many guys who suffer with it)

BID usually has a background that triggered it. A comment made by somebody that still sticks with them today. Either a malicious or perhaps even seemingly innocent comment. But it sticks, and it stays with them.

I see it with people who hate looking in the mirror when they exercise or who never look at photos of themselves. It’s also common for people with body image issues to regularly repeat very negative words about themselves (fat cow, lard arse) or to have serious jealousy of other people’s bodies.

BID isn’t the same thing as being a little self-conscious of your body. If you notice you have a few rolls of fat around your waist when you sit down and don’t feel good about it that then that’s quite normal. You don’t have BID, you just realized you probably need to stop having that cake on your break time.

BID is when you cover up your body to hide it because your ashamed, it’s when you won’t take your clothes of in front of your partner with the light on, it’s when your constant brain rhetoric is focused around the disgust you have of your own body. If your nodding your head reading this, because you recognize these qualities in yourself or somebody you know then that’s because…

BID IS VERY VERY COMMON TODAY.

There are many different levels from mild to extreme and for the most part people who have a distorted image of themselves won’t feel like they have an issue, they just get on with their life as normal and they probably know a few people who feel exactly the same way.

Having a distorted image of your own body has been known about for a long time, in extreme cases it has links to anorexia, bulimia or even various fitness competitor sports judged on aesthetics (dancing, bodybuilding, figure modelling etc, competing in these sports can be a very healthy pursuit for some, and in other cases, can further entrench negative self-views).

Progress is being made, the more people talk about it, the more we might start to realize as a society that this is an issue. There have been various attempts through social media, radio and T.V shows to highlight this issue, but those same sources have also exacerbated this condition, and instead of people with this problem getting help, they often end up together fueling each other’s mindset and reinforcing it within various social media groups (often in many, many different types of fitness groups)

One of the reasons Fiji saw so many problems just three years after T.V was introduced is because a generation of young people began to see an ideal on screen in the soap operas they watched, and the T.V adverts in-between. These things invited comparison, young Fijian women said “ I want to be skinny like her”, they wanted to become Airline pilots, they lost a cultural identity in pursuit of a perceived ideal that didn’t exist.

Too many thin and supposedly attractive ideal celeb figures who seemingly have everything are treated for drug problems, they admit to having depression, they themselves can’t cope with the pressure, and they have a team around them helping them exercise, cooking food for them to eat and controlling their schedules. What chance does anybody else have?

We don’t compare ourselves with like for like, we look towards the highest aspiration of figures and wish we looked like that. Not realizing that even they don’t look like that! Not with all the photoshop and work done to help them look good for that one photo.

Even fitness competitors train to get in shape for just one day, then let themselves go for a while before preparing for the next shoot. They might have abs just a few days a year. But their Instagram account won’t tell you that.

You don’t have to go far to see evidence of this, take a look at Woman Magazines online review of the best weight loss diets. All of these examples give very different approaches

What’s missed is how absurd it is to have all these different diets, many of the readers of the article will notice how many they have tried, had some success with, failed, tried again, tried another diet.

The fact that none of these give a solution to their weight loss long term is lost on them.

http://www.womanmagazine.co.uk/diet-food/best-weight-loss-diets-19028

Just for fun today, I went to the shops and bought a couple of magazines to prove my point. Alongside the usual Men’s magazines rhetoric of “big biceps with 5 killer exercises” or “washboard abs girls will drool over” are the female magazines with the usual drivel of bad unproven diet advice and fat shaming celebs.

Not to mention the usual Photoshop glossy models on the magazines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17j5QzF3kqE

All these things do drop self esteem lower and lower and keep people swimming in a pit of self depreciating despair.

Its hard to even attempt to eat healthier when this mindset is constantly at play, the thoughts themselves are so draining that little energy is left to exercise or be more active.

So no wonder poor self image is also closely related to obesity.

Why I think this might be getting better.

So magazines aren’t as bad as they used to be, they still have a long way to go, and there are many websites now who shoot women without any Photoshop at all, such as American Apparel.

There’s also the famous Dove “real women” campaign.

There’s no doubt to me that this isn’t just being done for ethical reasons, the fact is that there is a growing dissatisfaction with the old ways of distorting images and promoting unrealistic attainment so consumers have voted with their money and started to respond positively to the more realistic lines.

But we still have some way to go, so much of our modern life is emphasis judgement of physical characteristics that are beyond most of our control. In all of our fast paced hectic online communication we’ve still not found the perfect diet (probably because it doesn’t exist) and it’s rare to see anything which encourages people to accept themselves as they are, flaws and all.

If you think you or somebody you know has an issue with their own appearance?

Please consider seeking help, even if you think this is only a mild thing, and even if that help might just be two or three sessions with a trained Councillor who can help you work past this issue.

The following number may be helpful, its  a support line and gives confidential advice and also gives information on Councillors across the country.

01708 765200

This is probably the best way to tackle the issue, know that it won’t go away by itself. This article alone can’t be the cure, it’s only intended to draw light on this issue, to help people become more self-aware.

Awareness if the first step, drawing light onto your own thinking and questioning the entrenched thoughts which take us further and further away from feeling happy and contempt.

This isn’t about some learning to love yourself and be at peace type of movement, although that would be great.

Realistically for most people this is just about managing a complex issue and getting support to be able to deal with it better and allow you to lead a more fulfilling life free of the stress that occurs with a negative self image.

[rmkhealth]

Five reasons you can’t lose weight

Weight loss is surely not that complex. Calories in need to be less than calories out, so simply eating less and moving more will cut it, right? Clearly not, otherwise everybody would find it easy to lose weight and I would have to go back to my old job as a shrimp farmer. There’s nothing wrong with the calories in/out equation, it’s just that it needs unpacking a little into the more complex and subtle parts of the issue.

The following is not an exhaustive list, but it should go some way to helping.

1.       Your diet is just that, a diet - Diets are mostly short-term plans. There’s nothing wrong with that, they work for a lot of people, but if there is no long term strategy and adjustment to behaviour then any weight lost is quickly regained and in many cases where excess hypo calorific diets are pursued, the weight is often gained much more afterwards because of metabolic adaptation (increased hunger response, lower insulin sensitivity, anticipation of food during severe restriction leading to gorging on foods when they return).

If you are going to diet, just make sure you use a plan that’s healthy for you and that you can actually stick to. Some prefer low carb plans, others low fat and some people like variations such as paleo or points plans etc. It doesn’t matter because the short-term goal is only a small part of the equation. What’s most important is how you do this long-term. Are you willing to always eat more veg and less of the higher calorific foods? Are you willing to only have a few indulgences a week? These and other questions are important to determining how you’ll fare with this. In my experience, it’s best to have a set of rules that you stick to that allow you to eat well within a set structure that you can keep up.

For one very successful client I know, this means being able to enjoy at least one small unhealthy treat a day if she wants to, for others it can be more of a Sunday to Friday, controlled, disciplined eating thing with a big Saturday feast day. The actual nitty gritty of the plan will depend on your personality and what suits you.

2.       Your environment is just not supportive enough. Do you have a healthy partner who enjoys eating good food with you? Or do you feel judged and criticized by your loved ones? Do you have people who will hold you accountable and not let you come up with excuses whilst genuinely supporting you in a non-critical way? Your day-to-day life will impact on your weight, including where you live (for example, statistically, lower-income families will be more likely to be overweight than higher-income families) and what your day-to-day activities involve (Are you active? Do you have to sit for long periods of time? Are you incredibly busy and unable to find time for yourself and your wellbeing?).

These kinds of thing all need taking into consideration. They go well beyond what you eat and will most likely have a bigger impact if the odds are weighed against you.

3.       You exercise wrong (for weight loss). Let me state first of all that any activity is good, regardless. So when I say that people don’t exercise correctly for weight loss, I’m referring to a lack of balance in a programme (for example nothing but cardio exercises, which work well for a while but then neglect the important role lean tissue can play in weight loss and lead to stagnation).

Other issues I see are people either just not working hard enough (slow steady sessions on a bike in the “fat loss zone” whilst reading magazines) or sometimes working too hard (not allowing enough recovery, wearing yourself out early on in a session so your total output is lower than a better-paced workout).

4.       You’re not being completely honest with yourself (and others). So you fill out a food diary to keep track of what you’re eating and give yourself some accountability, great idea, but you're forgetting the snack you had in the kitchen when you went in for something else, it was just a biscuit left on the side, no big deal, nor was the biscuit you ate with the coffee in the café earlier. Then, of course, we have the issue of portions. Your tuna pasta salad is indeed a healthier choice compared to, say, a sausage roll, but now you’ve had a bigger helping you end up consuming more calories than that pastry-laden roll of delight.

5.       You give in before the magic happens. So your weight has started to creep back on. Or worse yet, you're stalling, it’s been weeks now and the scales are constant. The temptation is to either just go crazy and eat nothing for a day or go completely of the rails and find the nearest bag of cookies. Weight loss is rarely linear: some weeks people lose 2lbs, the next week they lose nothing, others are consistently losing x amount each month, but not everybody is like that. To see a good result, you have to stay the course. Most people want weight loss for life, which means just that: lifelong dedication to your wellbeing.

If you’re eating well and exercising and the scales aren’t moving, that’s not a bad thing. There are plenty of good points going on inside you which you can’t see: your body is increasing the energy batteries of mitochondria in each cell, it’s lowering your blood lipids, improving your insulin sensitivity, improving brain cells and a million other things which, beyond blood work, you have no hope of being able to track and monitor.  When things aren’t going as well as you would like, take stock, analyse things and review your next step. Failing all of the above, you could just have a genuine hormonal issue that you need to speak to your doctor about. That’s pretty rare, however, it does happen.

I hope the above helps. Regardless of the reasons I have listed above, consider this: you're dropped off on a desert island. When the rescue crew arrives six months later, would you have lost weight?

[rmkhealth]

Five reasons your shake sucks

Shakes have become a pretty big deal in the last year or so, and why not? They’re convenient and they can allow you to eat healthier foods than you would otherwise. I even have a client who puts most of his weight loss success down to the fact he bought a Nutribullet and started using it to kick off each day.

But the problem is that for most people, these are far from the perfect solution, especially when …

1.       The calories are way too low - This might seem like a good thing, particularly since most people use shakes for weight loss purposes and not just health reasons. But if you start your day with a popular smoothie such as the 113 calorie watermelon detox cleanser (sigh) I found on a popular diet website, then the chances are your tummy will be growling by mid-morning.

When you eat too few calories, your body will eventually rebel and it won’t be pretty. The savage instinct to eat whatever is convenient and tasty right now takes over and you lose self-discipline. Let the guilt cycle begin.

 2.       You’re having too many a day - So you eat more veg than ever, your calories are lower, sounds great, so why not have a few of these bad boys a day? I’ve seen some diets which even consist of nothing but smoothies for weeks at a time, which is surely against the Geneva Convention? Digestion is a pretty important part of our health and when we don’t need to do it anymore because all of our food has been liquidized our stomachs adapt and we become poor at this important function when normal eating is returned.

250 calories from solid foods gives your body more feedback on when to feel full than a shake does. If you eat too many of these things, you can also expect bowel issues, as most recipes for smoothies are really lacking fibre from the starchier carbs like potatoes and rice.

3.       They lack protein - Getting more veg is good, we should all do that, but if you're active and you want to make sure you have enough lean tissue, then protein is important too. Protein helps you feel fuller for longer, it takes more calories to digest (the thermic effect) than either fat or carbohydrates and it helps you preserve muscle or even build some, which means your body can get busy breaking down fat.

4.       You're just not adventurous enough - What’s healthier for you, a tomato or spinach? Well, it depends. If you’re after cutting your risk of bowel cancer then the lycopene in tomatoes is nice to have, but if you want to get more calcium on board then spinach is your go-to veg. Both of these things are important, so include them as part of a varied diet.

The variety of foods has an important part to play in digestion, too. Different foods mean different friendly bacteria which makes for a healthier gut and helps your body become a powerhouse for utilising the food you give it and making sure none goes to waste. Most smoothie recipes I see look like an unadventurous combination of many of the foods that people eat all the time anyway, such as banana, strawberry and milk.

5.       They’re way too high in sugar - How would you like a kale and ginger smoothie with lashings of flax seeds? If you’re like most people, your first thought would be to throat punch the person offering that to you. Those foods are more bitter than Hull Derby match.  To really make that stuff taste nice you need something sweet like fruit, with most books recommending a 50/50 split between fruit and veg, although many of the recipes I’ve seen are completely fruit-based, which is often just a massive hit of sugar. It doesn’t even take a lot. A simple smoothie with one banana, a handful of strawberries and an apple contains 50g of sugar, which is more than a can of coke (30g).

In Summary

I like smoothies. I use them all the time and my kids love them, too. I just think there are a few points people need to be aware of when deciding what to make. In my next article I’ll highlight five of my favorite smoothies and how to make them.