Bin The Junk

This evening I spent time emptying the less than great food leftover from Christmas from my cupboards. Whilst I hate wasting food, if it's in the house it will get eaten, maybe not by me, but someone I love.

It was good to throw caution to the wind for a couple of days and eat food I normally wouldn't touch, but after eating way too much food containing wheat, I'd had enough of the stomach bloating, lethargy, bad skin and just generally feeling rubbish!

So my tip today is get rid of the junk from your house, with the best will in the world it will get eaten ruining your fat loss efforts.

If it happens to a well intentioned Fitness Professionals, it will happen to the average person!

Fad Diets

It's not even New Year yet and Kelloggs are already promoting there ridiculous eat 2 bowls of Special K per day for 2 weeks and screw your blood sugar levels up..erm I mean drop a dress size.

I have a particular issue with these sorts of diets because all they provide is a quick fix, it's not based on health, it's based on selling more sugar laden, poor excuse for food. There's probably more nutrition in the box it comes in!

If you go on their website you'll see they have 'expert' advice?
Do you really need an 'expert' to teach you how to eat 2 bowls of Special K per day for 2 weeks?

There's absolutely nothing special about the diet, calorie reduction works for weight loss.
However you don't need such a severe reduction in calories to lose weight and you would get the same results if you substituted the Special K for real food like fruit.

Because it's such a quick fix, it doesn't allow time to develop new, healthy eating habits.

The Special K adverts also have Sarah Cox doing the voice over. It really annoys me when celebrities advertise any old junk for a quick buck. I don't think they realise the influence they have, they do such a disservice to the general public promoting this crap.

I just wish these celebrities were just a bit more responsible with respect to what they endorse.

Rant over.

Prevent Flu This winter?

For the last two weeks it seems as though every man and his dog has been ill with this cold and flu virus going around.

Not me though, whilst my wife was laid up in bed with flu, my son had a cold and conjunctivitis, my mother in-law had a week off work with flu and every friend on Facebook seemed to be suffering, I was thriving.

At the end of November I started Dax Moy's Elimination Diet. Now I can't prove it, but I think it's no co-incidence that I started a diet that called for LOTS of clean filtered water, plenty of fruit, veg, raw nuts and organic meats and I didn't fall ill.

So my tips for avoiding the flu this winter;

1. Plenty of clean filtered water-I'm drinking 1 litre per 50lbs of bodyweight.
2. Several servings a day of fruit and veg-preferably organic, plenty of vitamins, minerals and immune boosting anti-oxidants.
   
3. Raw unsalted nuts-plenty of essential fats.
4. Organic meat-none of the poor quality meat fed on corn and pumped full of steroids, growth hormones and antibiotics.
5. Get some exercise-not too much, you don't want over train and suppress your immune system.
   

Simple, but oh so effective.

Free Diet Resource

If your the sort of person that likes counting calories as part of their fat loss efforts, then a great free resorce is Fitday.com

It's an easy way to track your calories. I don't use it every day, but if I'm dieting to lose bodyfat, I'll use it for a week to get a real good idea of how many calories i'm consuming.

My diet is largely based on whole natural foods such as fruits, veg, nuts, meat and fish, so one week using Fitday and I'm good at estimating my calories based on servings size.

Check it out here

Free Fitness Gifts

Tis the season to be jolly!

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People say the strangest things

Recently I was in the cafe below the gym where I work. I was talking to the owner and got talking about breakfasts. So proudly I said I'd had a banana, blueberries, almonds and a live natural yogurt. The owners sister in law was there and piped up "why don't you eat something healthy like Special K instead".

I was stunned to say the least. My breakfast consisted of healthy fats, protein, healthy carbs fibre and antioxidants. I'm still gob smacked that somebody would say such a thing.

How on Gods Earth could Special K, the refined, sugar laden, excuse for food be healthier than fruit?

But I suppose it shows the power of advertising. The general public have been conned into believing a breakfast cereal, with a glycaemic index way higher than table sugar is healthier than fruit.

What I believe

Todays blog is a little different I'm going to share my beliefs with regards to life, health and fitness.

So here goes;

Personal Trainers should be regarded as equal to medical Drs. We promote health, rather than treat disease, we're proactive not reactive.
People will pay almost anything to get their health back once it's gone. So paying a Personal Trainer 2-3 times a week to promote health represents great value for money.

Fitness and nutrition has been made far too complex, most people just need to eat less and move around a lot more.
I just asked my 3 year old son "what happens if you eat too much food?" "You get fat " he replied, it really is that simple, he didn't talk about fats, carbs, glycaemic index etc, to him it self evident that eating too much makes you fat. So why have we over-complicated it?

Failure is a good thing as long as you fail forward. From a young age we're taught that failure is bad, but as long as you learn from it it's a good thing. Look at any successful person, be it a sports person or entrepreneur, the most successful ones fail often, but they realise with each failure they are one step closer to success.

There's a fitness industry and then there's Fitness Professionals.
Fitness Professionals deliver exceptional service to their clients, commit to self improvement, and are successful.
People who merely work in the fitness industry are happy to clock in, do a mediocre job, clock out and go home. These are the ones who will bitch and moan about the poor pay in the industry, but don't even realise that they are a huge part of that reason.

It's up to the Fitness Professionals to grab the industry by the scruff of the neck, raise the standards so that they get the respect they derserve. It wont happen from the top down.

Somewhere along the line we forgot how to use our bodies properly to the point where people can't even do a bodyweight lunge, squat, press-up, dip or chin. Unless somebody is obese, these things should be easy to do.

Somewhere in our not too distant past we forgot what real food was. Instead of focusing on whole natural foods we all got a bit crazy and started talking about food in terms of its isolated nutrients-big mistake the general public are more confused than ever as what constitutes a healthy diet. No wonder ther's an obesity epidemic!

You will never be truly happy with 'things', people think that material objects will bring them happiness, cars, clothes, shoes etc, but true happiness can only come from within.

Money is a good thing, certainly not the root of all evil.People believe that in order to have money you need to be greedy, evil, manipulate people.
Being paid very well for an exceptional job is a great thing. It's not just about the money though, it's the journey and type of person you become in order to earn that money.

Fit Pro's should practice what they preach, you can't teach your clients about adequate hydration, sleep, nutrition correct exercise if you skip workouts, only sleep5-6 hours per night and get through the day on gallons of coffee and sugary snacks.

Treat others how you wish to be treated. This maxim is thousands of years old, you'd think people would get it by now!

Meditate daily, it has an amazing impact on your health and well being, you need no equipment, can do it anywhere and it's free!

As a Fitness Professional it's my job to be the absolutely best I can be, I need to constantly keep learning, improving and raising my standards.

I believe it's wrong to promote any nutritional product, exercise programme or anything else on this blog that I don't truly believe in 100%.

Best diet for fat loss?

I get asked about diet advice at least..ooh say, 10 times a day.

The one question I get asked most is "what's the best diet for fat loss?"

A decade ago I thought it was high carb, low fat, moderate protein.

Then I thought it was high protein, high fat, low carb.

Now I know it doesn't matter.

Unless someone is trying to get body builder lean i.e. 3 % body fat, simply reducing calories works.

The single biggest factor in whether a fat loss diet works or not, is not so much the type of diet, but compliance. You need to stick to the diet 90% of the time and the easier the diet is the more you will stick to it.

So my advice is choose a diet that is based on fruit, veg and whole natural, organic foods. Find the best way to reduce calories whilst still enjoying your favourite foods.

Buy organic when possible

Whenever possible try to buy organic whole natural food. If not at least buy free range.

It always makes me laugh when my dad, who is almost 70, says "we didn't have organic food in my day, and we did all right".

Well the truth is he did eat organic food, it just wasn't marketed as organic, it didn't need to be. This was before pesticides and too many to mention other chemicals were allowed to enter our food supply.

When he was younger food was just food, not covered in poisonous chemicals, a lot of it was grown in his family's garden or allotment. So he definitely did eat organic.

I'm still gobsmacked when people think there's no difference in food that's grown covered in poisonous, carcinogenic chemicals to food grown how nature intended.

As soon as I switched to organic, free range food, I saw massive improvements in the quality of my skin, energy and digestion. For years I thought red meat and eggs caused problems with my digestion, turns out it was the quality of the food.

Don't think for a minute it will cost more to eat organic. When I made an effort to look, there was numerous local farmers markets, butchers, farm shops all selling better quality food than any local super market and more often than not at about half the price!

You'll also end up needing to eat less as the food will be full of the nutrients your body needs, great for the waist line and your bank balance.

Energy in a pill- a scam

On Sunday I was in my local health food store, whilst looking around the shop a supplement caught my eye. It was in a bright yellow bottle claiming to boost energy.

Intrigued, I picked it up, we all want more energy to make us more productive at work and especially during our workouts to make them more effective at burning belly fat.

I read the ingredients figuring there would be some exotic herb blend to boost mind and body.

No such joy, the main ingredient.....drum roll please..............fructose!

Worst still was the price, this supplement cost £5.99 for 100 fructose tablets!!!

Now if I want to get some energy, call me crazy for this revolutionary idea, but I'll eat some real food and if I want it to contain fructose I'll eat some fruit, it will be a fraction of the cost of the supplement and at least it will contain some fibre, water, vitamins and phytonutrients and a whole host of yet to be discovered nutrients.

You don't need energy from a pill, adequate hydration, correct nutrition, time efficient workouts and the right amount of sleep will trump any 'energy' pill hands down.

Organic crap is still crap!

Recently I was round my mother-in-laws house. In her kitchen she had some Organic Sunflower cooking oil. I was dumbfounded, just because a product is organic, it doesn't mean its healthy.

Oils need to be cold pressed and stored dark cool places away from light heat and oxygen.

Commercial oils are pressed from seeds or nuts under high temperatures and exposed to oxygen rendering them completely useless, to further screw these oils up they are acid treated and bleached to make them look clean and pure to put on supermarket shelves.

These oils contain dangerous trans fatty acids which have been shown in numerous studies to be; carcinogenic, pro-inflammatory, raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol, increase ones risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, you name it just about any inflammatory/ degenerative condition.

These fats rarely occur in nature so the human body is not used to dealing with them. Stay away from thes fats, they play no part in a healthy diet. In fact the US Food and Drug Administration recommends the safe level of trans fats to be ZERO!

Organic crap is till crap!

Whole Body Ab Exercises

Yesterday I promised some whole body exercises that also work the abs.

Bodyweight
Press ups
Inverted rows
chin/pull ups
Prisoner or Y squats
Prisoner lunges
Dips

Barbell
Squats
Deadlifts
Lunges
Push press

Dumbbell
Suit case deadlift
Squat and press
Alternate or single arm dumbbell bench press
Standing single arm shoulder press
Turkish get-up
Dumbbell row

Focusing on multi joint, whole body exercises that engage the abs will always work better than endless amounts of sit ups.

The Correct Way to Train Abs

In yesterdays post I said that situps were a waste of time for losing bellyfat and not only that they're not great for spine health.

So here's the correct way to train the abdominals.

Beginners
Beginners need to focus on stability and then build endurance.
so that means;
Glute bridges-build up to holding for 2 minutes
Front Planks-build up to holding for 2 minutes
Side Planks-build up to holding for 1.5 minutes
Birddogs 2 x12 each side. I personally prefer to hold each position for 1 minute.

Intermediate
Once you've mastered the above you can move it up a gear.
Front plank on stability ball.
Stability ball roll outs.
Stability ball jackknives.
Mountain climbers.

Advanced
Barbell rollouts.
Cross-body mountain climbers.
Cross-body stability ball jackknives.
Cable wood choppers.
Spider man press ups.

This list is by no means exhaustive. There's many exercises not included,but try these and you'll get great results.

It's also important to include whole body abdominal exercises; exercises which are not ab specific , but will still involve using the abs to a great degree, I'll discuss these tomorrow.

Situps- a waste of time

It seems as though a day doesn't go past when somebody at my gym ask me what exercise is best for losing their belly. The conversation usually goes something like this.

Member: What's the best exercise for getting rid of this (as they grab their belly fat)?

Me: (my less than diplomatic answer) Table push away's.

Member: Huh?

Me: Every time your at the table and there's too much food in front of you-push yourself away
from the table.

Member: Yeah, but what exercise should I do for this area (again grabbing their belly fat)?

Me: Ok, first you need to eat less, base your diet on fruits, vegetables and whole natural foods,
you can't out train a poor diet. Second no amount of sit-ups are going to make the belly fat
magically disappear. Third you need whole body resistance training, this could be a body
weight circuit, dumb bell or kettle bell circuit-this will really crank up your metabolism.
And finally- stop doing endless cardio, do interval training instead, you'll burn more calories
per minute of exercise, increase metabolic rate which will allow you to burn calories at an
increased rate once you've finished.

The member then looks disappointed that I didn't give them 10 different sit-up variations to really melt the belly fat away.

I find it hard to believe that even now in the 21st century people still believe that sit-ups are the answer to their fatloss goals. It wasn't as though a lack of sit-ups caused their belly fat gain!

Tomorrow I'll post on the correct way to train the abdominals and it doesn't involve endless amounts of back damaging sit ups.

Been busy, busy, busy!

I haven't blogged for over a fortnight. Have been busy at the gym recruiting new members. A local gym closed down and we have had a lot of new members come from there. This time of year we would usually be pretty quiet, so it's good to be busy although it is rather hectic.

Last week a had 'man flu' so I didn't work out for 9 days! Did my first workout in 9 days on Monday evening with one of my personal training clients-barbell squats, push press, alternate lunges, press ups, Romanian deadlifts, bent over rows and mountain climbers-one continous set 10 reps on each x 3 sets. My glutes and hamstrings feel like they have been pulverised.
Will do an upper body workout later today 6x4 weighted chins, 6x4 DB bench press and 6x4 DB rows.

Twelve Years to Realise What I Already Knew

Just over a decade ago I was more than 20lbs overweight, I was 19 years old and the fattest I'd been in my life. I weighed 183lbs at 6 feet tall. Doesn't seem heavy at 6 feet, but I only had eleventeen inch arms and had skinny legs. I was skinny-fat;big ass, big gut and skinny limbs-Oh yeah I looked good!

What caused this weight gain? Simple, I ate and drank far too much!

So how did I rectify this? I ate less and moved around a whole lot more.

Several months later I went back to college full time to study Sports Science. During the nutrition module I learned that fat made you fat.

A few years later I became 'more educated' and realised it was those evil carbs that made people fat.

Now nearly 12 years later I realise eating too much makes you fat.

Why did it take me 12 years to know what I already knew?

Why I'm Now (Kind of) a Fan of Weightwatchers

If somebody had told me few years back I would be praising Weightwatchers, I'd have said they were mad. But now, since my wife has lost 18lbs of body fat in 8 weeks with them, I've changed my opinion.

Why?

• The diets are easy to follow - no obsessing over food choices.
  
• They make it easy to reduce calories while still enjoying your favourite foods.
• Encourage eating more fruit and vegetables
  
• They make you accountable - each week you are weighed.
  
• Social support - weekly group meetings.

So my wife, without counting calories, obsessing over food choices or starving herself managed to lose 18lbs of bodyfat in 8 short weeks.

In fact I'm a fan of any diet that makes reducing calories easier.

So choose a diet based on fruit and veg that allows you to reduce calories whilst still enjoying your favourite foods.

An Introduction

Hi my name's Austin Lawrence I'm a Personal Trainer and fat loss specialist.

I manage a Health Club in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England and run my own Personal Training Company

I'll be posting daily tips regarding exercise, nutrition and fatloss.