*all measurement are obviously subject to different clothes designers discretion and therefore may not be entirely accurate, but at least it gives us an idea.

Remember to checkout upcoming events for the next scheduled weigh in

Did you know that regularly missing meals can scupper your weight loss results?

Most people think and the press would have you believe that weight loss is a simple process of calories in and calories out but this is simply not true. If it were half of my client base would never have called or emailed me or even looked for my services.

I know lots of people who miss meals to lose weight and others who miss meals due to busy schedules or bad planning. I know all of these people because they are trying to lose weight, but most are struggling and many are moving in the wrong direction.

But why?

Why are they putting on weight or at best staying stable?

This is a question that I’m asked by these people all the time?

I want to share with you the reasons why, why people starve themselves and missing meal only to find that the scales are not showing them what they want to see.

To explore why calorie restriction does not work we have to look at our position on the planet and our evolutionary path to it.

We are the most dominant species on the planet, we are number 1 the top of the food chain. To get to this point we have under gone millions of years of evolution. During this time our ancestors have been through some real hard times such as ice ages, droughts and famines. To allow us to survive the trials and tribulations that nature throws at us we have evolved mechanisms to help us to cope.

When it comes to a lack of food the body has the ability to reduce its metabolic rate which means it can reduce the amount of calories that it uses for the various functions that are required for you to survive.

Your body also looks to store food so that you have reserves in case the famine is going to be prolonged due to seasonal conditions or natural disasters.

Missing meals and or dramatically reducing your calorie consumption leads to your body thinking that food is scarce and that you are in a period of famine.

So it slows down your metabolism and stores the food that you eat for later.

The next problem that you are going to face on low calorie diets or he regular missing of meals is the resumption of your normal eating pattern.

It will take a couple of days for your body to realise that you are no longer in a state of famine and food is now readily available again. During this time your body is going to store everything that you consume, especially as your metabolism is slow and you do not need the extra calories that you are now consuming. You therefore pile the pounds back on often becoming heavier then you were to start with!

It’s important for you to eat 3 meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner to make sure that your metabolism is running well and you are supplying it with all the nutrients that it needs.

Over the next couple of posts I’m going to talk more about the problems of low calorie diets or missing meal and I’m going to give you strategies to overcome your problems with meals.

The regular problems that clients bring to me are;

• I don’t feel like breakfast in the morning / it makes me feel sick / I’m not hungry
• I don’t have time for meal X because Y

So, eat 3 meal a day!

And I’ll be back with some more pitfalls and solutions for you.

Committed to your success

Keith

Many of you have been in even though you were sore. Well done and kudos to you!!!

Many wondered if you were doing the right thing and I’m sure that many more of you avoided coming training. Although it’s a little counter intuitive research has show that it is fine to train on stiff and sore muscles if they are suffering from D.O.M.S.

D.O.M.S stands for delayed onset muscle soreness and can last from 3 to 5 days. Many of you know this already!

The studies have shown 2 things;

1. Full metabolic recovery occurs within 48 hours even if still sore

2. Training on muscles suffering from DOMS does not affect their recovery time

As far as weight loss in concerned you want to be back in training the very next day so that you keep stoking up your metabolism and burn twice as much fat. If you do a training session and then take the next 5 day off you are never going to get the metabolism of its ass and doing its job. FAT BURNING!

The painful truth is the more you train the less you’re going to suffer in the long run as your body adjust and therefore gets used to it.

For myself I rate the quality of the training session on how stiff and sore I am. If I’m not it was not a good session and not as productive as it could have been.

What can you do to relieve the pain?

Many people have asked me what they can do to relieve the symptoms. The honest answer is that your body has to do it in its own time but you can help it to do its best job by doing the following;

1. Eat good quality foods

2. Make sure that your meals are based around good quality protein

3. Drink plenty of fresh clean water

4. Plenty or rest and good quality sleep

5. Have a hot/warm bath

6. Light massage of the area

These will either bring you light short term relief (bath or massage) or will help the repair process, therefore shortening it slightly.

See you at the next boot camp session

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the team

As the days get shorter and it gets colder, I don’t know about you but I find it harder to get up. The snooze button comes out of retirement to help me stay in bed for just a bit longer.

For many people including myself at times it often seems like a good plan to have more time in bed and either miss breakfast or have something quick on the run.

Honestly, a good quality breakfast is worth far more than that extra 5/10 minutes between the sheets.

It has been shown in studies time and time again that people who miss breakfast make up the missed calories later on in the day or they get through the day by taking stimulants.

Neither of these approaches are good when it come to either losing weight or improving health.

Most people who miss breakfast end up feeling nibbly throughout the rest of the day, which is made worse by the high sugar snacks which is often the first thing that they have to eat.

For example one of my clients used to miss breakfast, waiting until she got to work at 9 where she would have a croissant or toast with jam and a coffee. By the time an hour had passed she was feeling nibbly again so had a high sugar snack and a coffee at 10 / 10.30ish. By lunch 1.00pm time she would be hungry again and would have a sandwich, fruit and a drink. This would satisfy her more, but by 3 pm she was ready to nibble again so she would only have 1 biscuit and a tea. She would manage to get through until dinner at 7 which would be a stir fry on a bed of white rice, but then throughout the evening she would have a glass of wine…. or 2 and some chocolate/biscuits/crisps and then to bed for 10.30/11pm.

The calories that she missed at breafast were made up plus extra throughout the day. Over a 3 year period she put on 3 stone!

The changes we made to her diet were simple but effective. If you’re not doing these, make a list and start.

1. Plan your food knowing what will happen throughout the week
2. Start your day with a protein based breakfast such as an omelette with meat or vegetables in or cold meats with some cheese and fruit
3. Take a snack with you such as goat’s cheese and grapes, olives, small meat chunks left over from Sundays roast or mixed nuts.
4. Cut the coffee and drink water
5. Take a lunch with you so that you do not buy sandwiches. Prepare it the night before possibly by cooking more dinner. Place it in a container in the fridge and take it with you for lunch. See how much money you will save over buying lunch everyday
6. Only have 2 or 3 spoonfuls of rice with your dinner. To make up the amount on your plate increase the amount of meat and vegetables

On these guidelines most people nibble less throughout the day and the evening, their health improves and they lose weight. If you don’t then you need to take things a little more seriously, come along to the boot camp or book a consultation to find out whats best for you.

Committed to your success

Keith

It’s the sprinter, did you get it right?

On average a sprinter is between 5 and 6% body fat and the marathon runner is about 14%.

Now this gives you some clues as to the best way to train to reduce your body fat %, decreasing your weight and giving you a toned, strong body.

Knowing this also means that you don’t need to run/walk for mega long periods of time each day to get your desired body shape. Short sharp explosive work is far more effective as stripping the fat off you then long slow (boring) endurance based exercise. You could be in and out in 40 minutes having had the most effective work out of your life.

But how do you do this?

Well one way is to use a professional fitness team such as us the Absolute Training team and train one on one doing short 30/40 minutes cost effective workouts, saving you time and money but getting you the results that you want.

If one on one is too daunting or you have budgetary concerns, than your best bet is the Fit Body Bootcamp. You will still be working with qualified personal trainers and they will guide you through the exercises that are required to get you the figure that you need.

If you can’t get to either of these you need to ask you gym team about the correct exercises - exercises such as mat flipping/ running, single leg press, dead lift, clean and press etc. If this is not an option you could try the killer workout that we have videoed for you, which you can find featured just on the right hand side of this page.

Committed to your success

Keith

P.S well done to Bruce for doing the Killer work out the other evening! Awesome!

What is The Fit Body boot camp?

The fit body boot camp is a group exercise class with a difference.

It is group exercise that is based around your results not around the instructor’s ego or around the latest faddy piece of fitness equipment.

At the fit body boot camp you will be responsible for getting results as you will be weighed, measured and fitness tested to make sure that you are moving in the right directions. Subsequent test will occur every 6 weeks.

The fit body session happen 6 times per week, 6.30am and 10.00am and 7.00pm Monday to Friday and then Sunday at 9. You are required to attend the boot camp sessions 3 times a week, although we understand that life sometimes gets in the way and occasionally you will not be able to attend, if you want though you can attend a session everyday meaning that you could do 6 six sessions in a week.

The more sessions that you attend, the quicker and better your results will be!

How do we get the results?

By doing full body exercises that engage all the muscle of the body making you fit and strong, increasing your metabolism and burn massive amounts of calories.

Fit body boot camp training is also based around interval training taking the heart rate up and down, making the heart stronger and increasing the metabolism for prolonged periods after the workout. This type of training will also raise the metabolism for long periods of time, enabling you to burn massive amounts of extra calories even when you are sitting, sleeping or at work.

The fit body boot camp has other components that will help you to achieve your goals. These are critical to your success!

The Jump start nutrition programme!

This nutrition programme is designed to supercharge your results helping your weight loss and toning by provide your body with the correct nutrients which will help your body detoxify and lose weight.

The programme has been designed with your lifestyle in mind. You will NOT need to count calories or points or limit you self to just cabbage or something silly like that. It is a programme built on good wholesome foods with options for you to do more to improve your health.

The Coach Approach

We all have barriers that get in our way or sabotage our results. By identifying behaviours or beliefs within yourself that are stopping you from gaining the results that you want. Our coach approach will help you to identify these problems and find way to overcome them.

So, what is the fit body boot camp?

The fit body boot camp is a 4 pronged approach to your health and weight loss results;

1.       Cutting edge exercises to increase your metabolism and burn fat

2.       Top nutritional information to melt fat from your frame

3.       A coach approach to break self sabotaging behaviours and beliefs

4.       Motivation and support

I look forward to see you at the camp

Keith

Yesterday I was working with a personal training client one on one. He has a multitude of problems, some are structural, some are internal lifestyle related diseases, and then he has the weight that he needs to lose. All of these problems make it seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, it has been turned off and you can’t seem to be able to see the way ahead.

This client turns to me and says… ‘I feel like giving it all up’

I asked him what he meant and he told me. There are too many problems too much to do and I don’t know where to start with it all. Plus the usual problems in life when you have a family to support, a job and a girlfriend. It all seems too much.

You see,  if your body does not work well as its painful, but you need to lose weight, but your metabolism is messed up making it difficult to and then you have medication that also stops you from losing weight it’s almost a catch 22 situation.

Can’t exercise to lose weight as your body hurts, can’t lose weight because your metabolism has been knocked out of balance, need to exercise to get metabolism and blood sugar levels right, but can’t as it hurts!

You see how difficult this problem could get in someone’s head.

So what do you do?

In this case we are starting with the structural problems, with massage and some specific strengthening exercises; he can now walk round the field without his back seizing up.

This means that we can exercise and slowly as he gets stronger and more stable we can increase the intensity and therefore his metabolism.

At the same time we are starting to talk about diet and nutrition, so that we can get the internal environment right to increase metabolism and control blood sugar levels.

Once these two things are in place we can start to lose weight, as we’ll have a body that works inside and out.

But what has this got to do with your boot camp session?

Sometimes your weight loss or toning goal will seem like you have bitten off more that you can chew, it’s too much and it will take too long. Don’t let yourself succumb to these negative thoughts. Make sure that you know what you have to do every day, each week to get yourself the result that you want.

Make sure that you are doing all the small things every day and getting the basic right all the time.

What are the basics I hear you ask?

Step 1, get enough sleep
Step 2, only eat whole foods, nothing processed
Step 3, water water water
Step 4, have some you time! Relax, unwind and de-stress

If you are struggling then make yourself a flow diagram of what you need to do step by step. For instance if you want to lose weight, but have painfull areas box one in your flow diagram would be to address your painful areas, get them working, stable and strong. A brilliant way to start the process is to get a full body diagnositc done; http://absolute-training.org/body-diagnostic/

Your next box could be to address your lifestyle and diet. The personal nutrition course will address nutrition and lifestyle, helping you to build healthy habits. To focus on your lifestyle and food go here www.absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/

Your next phase could be the introduction of……. da da daaaaar, exercise! There are two ways to go about this but both start the same way. Book yourself in for a free consultation and then you and I can work out whether you’ll get more out of a boot camp or more from personal / small group training. 

To find out more about the fit body boot camp go to www.fitbodybootcamp.co.uk

To find out more about Personal training go here http://absolute-training.org/personal-training/

Committed to your success

Keith

Guaranteeing your results

One of the best things about the fit body boot camp is the way the instructors guarantee your results…. Yep that’s right they say results or your money back!

But how can they do this?

Consistency and regularity are the keys to success here. Firstly you have to train a minimum of 3 time per week…. Yep that’s a minimum!

But you could train more get incredible value for you money and supercharge your Boot Camp results! 

You need to follow the diet plan and then there is the goal setting and coaching that you will also need to do to make sure that you get your mind into the right place and ready for results.

If you put all of these things together to have a very… no an incredibly powerful training system and strategies. Many companies or individual trainers focus on the exercise, producing really good workouts, but this leaves out some of the most important factors.

I know that you have heard the saying, ‘you are what you eat’, well, there is no truer statement. Your body literally builds itself from the foods that you put into it. So to improve your health it’s important to place the right nutrients in to the body to be assimilated.

The other important factor is mind set. The difference between first and second place in the Olympics or World Championships is often down to mind set, the total and utter belief that you will win.

Did you see Usain Bolt the other evening break the world record again the other evening? He had won before the start gun, you should have seen how relaxed he was before the race, he was always going to run a great one as he was not tense. If you compare him to Tyson Gay, his closest rival, you’ll see that Tyson was wound so tight it’s surprising he was able to run at all, but a great testament to his mental toughness that he still managed to run a national best. Awesome! 

 Many people that I work with have failed before they have even begun as they don’t believe that they can get the results that they are looking for.

Belief is key to success!

I’m going to talk a lot more on all of these subjects over the next couple of weeks, so tune in and get some results straight off the page!

1. Eat right

2. Believe in yourself

3. Consistency in exercise and number 1 and 2

Committed to your results

Keith

I have exciting news for you today….

The Fit Body Boot Camp is now offically on it’s way.

The launch has started…. The fit body boot camp is going to give you 2 weeks at boot camp for £1 as well as £249.95′s worth of goodies. To find out more about this awesome promotion and great opportunity for all, you need to get yourselves to www.fitbodybootcamp.co.uk.

I’ll talk more about what is happening over there with the absolute training teams boot camp ovet the next couple of posts.

Untill then get yourself over to www.fitbodybootcamp.co.uk to get some info before the promotion takes off and gain momentum. There are a limited number of places avaliable so, as they say don’t delay sign up today.

Untill next time

Committed to your success

Keith

Some of you will be training early morning, others mid morning, lunch time or evening. Whenever your bootcamp session is be sure to get as many of these things right and you’ll see the weight loss, body shaping and tone and health results that you desire and deserve.

1.Nutrition

Make sure that you eat 2 hours or more before your bootcamp session. If you eat too close to the training session, you may find that your food gives you a stitch, makes you feel sick or you may even be sick if you’re not careful.

Spare some though to what you are eating! Burger and chips with a beer at lunchtime is not going to give you a great  boot camp session! (I have watched more than one person being sick form a burger, chips and beer lunch! Not pretty!), sandwich, crisps and a coke also is not the way forwards.

A better meal would be cold meat with salad sticks and 2 or 3 spoonfuls of cuscus or cold meat, salad with a banana or other fruit to finish.
I understand that you may not feel like eating early in the morning before a 6 or 7 am bootcamp, but you must promise me that you will have a good meal before bed the night before and take fruit with you or make a protein shake to have straight after your boot camp session. Do I sound like your mother????!!!

I’ll have to give you some recipes for protein shake or 2 in a blog post soon.

Nutrition is of critical importance to your results, if you are looking to get the best from your diet then you need to go here down load the course information and then book yourself a place; http://absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/. Many people tell me that they know what they should be eating, but are often SO wrong when pressed on the subject. Lean the real power of food here! http://absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/

2. Hydration

Make sure that you are well hydrated, sip water throughout the day, but stop sipping about an hour before your boot camp session. This is to stop it from sloshing around in your stomach or giving you a stitch.

If you are attending an early morning bootcamp have some water before you go to bed and sip some when you get up before the bootcamp session.

Drink water during the bootcamp session, but make sure that it’s room temperature and not too cold. Cold water can cause you problems with absorbtion, it can bring digestion to a halt and cause your gut to shiver sending it into spasm.
3. Get yourself a Heart Rate monitor!

Go to your local Sports shop or to Argos and pick yourself up a heart rate monitor so that you can see how hard you and your heart are working. Most watches also let you see how many calories you have burned up. In a  bootcamp session you are looking to get you heart rate as close to your maximum as possible and burn as many calories as you can. In the 45ish mins that you’ll be working out you want to try and do at least 300 calories, push hard and see if you can increase it to 500!

The higher the heart rate the more total calories will be burnt, both in the session and after. High intensity workouts are far better for fat burning then long slow ones. I’ll give you the where’s and whys about this really soon.

4. What’s on your feet

You don’t need to spend a fortune, but make sure that you are not wearing months or years old trainers. If you use your trainer nearly every day and do some high intensity work in them, they will be good for about 3 months. After this they may cause you problems, such as ankle, knee and back pain.

If you use your trainers rarely they could last you up to a year. Check your trainers if they are worn and scruffy then it definitely time to get some new ones. If you intend to do bootcamp and work hard then I’d spend a little money on them and make sure that you get the best ones that your budget allows. It also important to get the best ones for your feet and walking/running style. To find out which trainers would be the best for you, I suggest that you go to a shop called the Sweat shop. There staff and trained to look at the way you walk or run and then suggest trainers for you depending on this information. To find your nearest 2 stores are Milton Keynes and Hatfield. Although you’ll pay more for the trainers you’ll get some great advice about which trainers to buy and why.

Ok, so let’s have those key points;

1. Good quality, well timed food, not beer and burger! (If you wish to know more about the right diet go here http://absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/

2. Hydration! Water, water everywhere so make sure that you have a drink!
3. Heart rate monitor. Know how hard you are working and what your calorie consumption is.
4. The right foot wear. Important for reducing injury risk, comfort and keep away the blisters! www.thesweatshop.co.uk/storefinder.cfm

Other areas that I need I’ll give you information on for getting the best out of your bootcamp are; sleep, goals setting, measuring and accountability but I think that we can cover these another day.

Committed to your success

Keith Tucker