Sunday 29 July 2012

How to banish belly fat...

As you can imagine training with women day in, day out I need to keep my finger on the pulse about how to lose that stubborn belly fat.

In my latest B.L.A.S.T fat loss formula I've gone deeper into hormonal balancing, manipulization of insulin  levels and alkalising PH levels and the reason is to reduce belly fat (Greater Omentum)


Do a simple test for me right now..suck your belly button towards your spine, the flabby bit of stomach that left is your greater omentum. This is the fat you need to target to create the flat stomach you desire.

Having an enlarged greater omentum will slow down lipo-protein progress, lipo-protein transfers fat around the body to be use as energy. 

So how can you reduce your belly fat?

Take a look at your nutrition, 80% of fat loss is the food you eat - Up your intake of green vegetables, protein and replace white carbs to wholemeal, have one cheat meal a week to reset leptin levels and make sure your drinking the right amount of water for your body (1 litre per 50lbs of bodyweight)

Start training smart use interval training to raise fitness levels quickly and zap the fat! Don't concentrate on abdominal exercises, use as many muscles as possible in each exercises ie burpees, mountain climbers, tuck jumps, star jumps. After training go for a walk or do some yoga to burn off excess energy that's floating about after your intense workout.

Change your mindset from weight loss to inch loss. Keep a tab on your chest, waist, hips and thighs with 4 weekly measure in days to make sure your losing fat not muscle.

After a recent poll on facebook about which body parts you struggle with, I'm releasing my first Ebook about everything you need to know about losing belly fat. Click the subscribe to me link at the top right to make sure you get it for free!! 




 

Sunday 22 July 2012

What the f*ck has golf gotta do with your weight loss

Hey,

  Hope you've had an awesome weekend

  With the Golf open finishing today, I thought this blog would be very apt - You may have been bored to tears with it but for someone like me I loved it!

Before my first venture out onto a golf course a couple of years back, I had pigeon holed the type of people that play - retired with nothing else better to do than waste 3,4,5 hours walking around a bit of grass trying to get a little white ball into a hole using a stick of metal.

Well how wrong was I! I got the golf bug big time....




As I continue to play I'm finding strange parallels between golf & weight loss... hang on, bear with me.....

So you start at the beginning of the course and you have a target (or a 'par') to complete the round in, There's 18 holes to complete, each hole takes you a step further to the end, within each hole there is a mini target. So to compare this to weight loss you set yourself a target be it weight, fat %, dress size within a certain amount of time, break this overall target up into little goals over your set period, making the ultimate finishing post more acheivable and not as big as first thought.

Let's take that you want to drop 3 dress sizes in 3 months as your target, sounds a big ask right? break it down into 3 small goals - Your aim is to drop 1 dress size every 30 days!? not so big a target now. 

When I started playing I wanted to complete each individual hole as quickly as possible, this often led me to go all round the houses and end up taking more time to complete each hole. If I had concentrated on making the ball go straight and not looking at getting on the green in one shot I would have actually achieved my target a lot quicker and saved a lot of frustration. - Simply put don't rush to your target, plan it properly and make sure you use the right tools. Slimming clubs, fad & magazine diets are only gonna take you off track and mind fuck into improper eating habits. Eat clean, train intensely & metabolically and make sure your mind is prepared for the journey.





 I may have an awful round (9/10 this is the case), this doesn't get me down or make me feel like I don't want to play anymore, I want to go back and show that course who's boss ASAP! - Just because you may have a bad day or have ate shit all weekend, don't wait till monday. Remember your only one workout or one meal away from getting back on it

I have to make sure I have the right equipment, the proper techniques, the right mindset - If I turned up with a baseball bat thinking I'll hit & hope my way round where's that gonna get me!?? - Don't turn up to the gym/ bootcamp/ class expecting it to cancel out your takeaway at weekend or the alcohol your going to have tonight. This is pointless because it's not taking you closer to your goal it's keeping you stationary or even a step backwards.

Now when I finally get round a golf course within the target shots that sense of achievement will be well deserved, knowing I've put my all into reaching that milestone I set back when I started my journey. - Always have your final target in mind, feel the feeling you'll have when you can fit into that dress/target pants you've have worked your ass off to get into and say 'I did this'


   

Sunday 8 July 2012

Forgot To Feed A Baby!!? Whoops!

Hey there Ian here, Hope you've all had a fab weekend with friends & family...I'm gonna refer back to a post Lianne did back in August 2011. I've spoke to a lot of people recently about lack of planning so I thought this would be very apt.....

Okay this week we have super awesome guest blog from the women who puts the 'fit' into TLF Fitness' - Co-Owner Miss Lianne Pattison!!.....

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 So there I was handing our GORGEOUS  6 week old niece back to her mum after looking after her for the afternoon when I came across this whole point of this blog.... obviously she asked the usual questions; " Was she ok? Did she have a sleep? Did she take her bottle ok? "  The reaction to what I said next floored her, I ACTUALLY thought she was gonna kill me!! eeeekkkk.....

So I said, " Sorry.... I didn't feed her - I didn't have time!! "

Shocked? Disgusted? Feeling like YOU wanna kill me? Phone Social Services?..... I know, I know but tell me this if I said " I didn't have breakfast today, I didn't have time " would you really bat an eyelid????  Or "God I'm starving I didn't get chance for lunch today"

Soooooo many times throughout the day I hear sayings like the above.  Tell me this, why is it ok to mis-treat ourselves but yet a child we wouldn't dream of doing such things?  Do you not respect your body?  Do you not think you deserve to be treated well?  At what age is it that we change from being a child who you wouldn't ever let harm come to, into this thing that it doesn't matter if we fuel it or not?

How many of you remember being told by your folks:

You're not leaving this table until you eat your dinner....
You can have something after you have eaten your food....
Well if you don't eat it now it will be back there in the morning for breakfast....
No, you can't have that..... because your tea is nearly ready..... because its tea time......

and you pass this on to your kids right?..... So when are they allowed to stop!?..... You did!!

Make time, allow yourself to eat, get up 10 mins earlier for some brekkie and every time you start to think 'but I don't have time.... I can't....'  Just think would you let a child do that?  Or ok for those of you without children, a pet - you wouldn't let an animal starve would you, you'd be reported to the RSPCA in no time....or no pets just think would your parents have let this happen to you as a child.

I know what you busy women are thinking, especially hairdressers, you are the worse for this!  " I'm too busy at work to eat, I have to grab something quick"  Well get onto your employers because let me tell you this you are entitled for a break for lunch and if you can't sit for 10 mins to eat you are overworked and probably under paid!!  Again think of a child - imagine them coming home from school, "Mum/Dad I couldn't have lunch today the teacher said we were too busy practising for the school play" IMAGINE!!  You would be at that office before I could say dinner (and I have seen some of you lioness's with your cubs - SCARY!!)



Or here is my favourite; I have been guilty in the past myself of this.... office workers.... you cant eat a balanced diet as you don't want to offend others you work with... eg/ my mum asked for some food advice, when egg or fish was suggested well god no that's a crime in office world!!  The smell would offend others!  True its not the best smell in the world but you know what your health is more important than someones nose, I am here to say to you SCREW THEM!! Open a friggin' window for gods sake, spray a bit of freshener it will go!  I'm gonna put it to you like this, would you prefer to add an extra couple of years on your life to spend with your children by eating a balanced diet and shedding those pounds OR spend a few years trying to please the office moaner for a smell that will last all of 1 hour??

So treat yourself with that little bit of extra care, food is important to your body, its what makes it work - put it in your routine like you would brushing your teeth - you wouldn't go out of the house without brushing your teeth (or I hope not!!) so don't go without your brekkie..... A friend of mine had a statement which I thought was brilliant; the perfect end to my blog - I'm sure she wont mind me sharing:

"Food is not your friend or enemy, it's simply fuel for your body - nothing more nothing less"

p.s - Of course I did feed the baby!!! It was just to see her mum's reaction!?! ;o)
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 So there you go people - always remember the 7 P's
Proper Planning & Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Sunday 1 July 2012

What to eat on a night out with Mr Christian Grey...



Hey, 

Tomorrow I am taking part in Nisha Obaidullah 6 week ab challenge, something she runs annually for fitpros but this year she's opened it up for everyone so it should be fun.


Before the hard work starts I decided to take my Lianne (my better half) & Tiana (my 6 going on 16 year old daughter) out for a meal (a little reward for my daughter receiving an amazing school report) and what started out as a celebratory meal ended up in realising that women analyse everything; and I mean EVERYTHING!!

 Now I have heard Lianne on her 'girlie nights' (code name for a sinking a bottle of wine, painting nails & bitch about boys night ha) discussing matters that I like to call 'dribble' and usually I take no notice but for once a group of women actually made some sense!?

So I'm at the meal.... we're sat at the table next to a group of women and there was like 10 conversations going on at once mainly about 50 shades of grey, how you girls can keep up is beyond me!? 


Usually I wouldn't take any notice but there conversations always fell back to 'What they can't eat'.... We had points, free foods(c'mon seriously WTF) 'I've earn't myself 'X' amount of extra points', co-ordination of foods together, Fad diets, latest magazine before and after diet  - the list goes on! The most shocking sentence I heard was 'Being on a diet ruins your social life!' sound familiar to anyone??



So it got me thinking, how many of you avoid being social-able whilst on a 'diet'? - (I'm sure you are all aware I hate that word with a passion!)

I'm not joking you; we'd ordered our meals, Tiana had checked out the toilets and we'd received our drinks with starters well on the way before the group of women had decided what they can and cant have! 


I could see the frustration in the waiter just wanting to take an order and I can imagine most people have chosen thier 3 course meal before you've picked apart the menu too so with this in mind and JUST in case your on a date with your Mr Grey here's my gift to you.


 Ian's 5 Top 'going out with no worries to points,days or calories' tips. 


I'm going to list you 5 points, in order, to make this simpler for you and of course more enjoyable so that you can just order your food and go back to talking your 'dribble' ...


1) Drinks!

Get a glass/jug of water, spice up your life with a lemon or orange in it, not only is it good for you it will
diminish that 'fake hunger' and will put you in the mood for ordering the correct food. 


2) Starters!

Check out the soup of the day, if its water based then get it, its gonna fill you up just right and
is light and not fried, or go for the prawn cocktail.
Remember this is a STARTER, its not suppose to fill you up to the point you don't want your
main meal.

3) Main Course


Meat & fish over pasta & pizza dishes:
Meat & fish are packed with protein which as we know is the biggest fat burner in the body, pasta/pizza are full of fast releasing carbs which will cling on to your fat storage area.


'Is that Chips, Salad or Jacket' 


Go for the greens every time, salad or vegetables gets my vote. Greens help fight fat by reducing insulin levels.

4) Actual Eating!


Ok so as you are all on these crazed 'diets' and probably only had a Ryvita in the space of 2
days, you're gonna be starving and mauling this meal like a caveman... well don't!
Eat slowly!! Chew your food properly, have a little drink inbetween and come up for air!! Talk
some 'dribble' inbetween - enjoy being out!


5) Dessert!


Yes that's right - dessert!


 Now if you have followed all the steps above you should be feeling pretty satisfied with your meal and full so that you can pass on dessert without any regrets! However, I know everyone has a sweet tooth or a 'separate part of the stomach', 


Hey I have one myself... so instead of ordering a full on sweet fest for yourself just order 1 to share... that way you're going to satisfy your sweet tooth and not over-indulge on 'calories' or you could just order a coffee to finish off your meal. Be different.

So there you have it - my 5 top tips to enjoying and yet controlling a meal out, it doesn't matter what diet your following or how many points are in the food, you're out for a meal for a reason so enjoy it!