I heard some sad news yesterday that really got me thinking about life, the universe and everything else in between. A lot of it comes down to our purpose, what we are on this Earth for, and how we treat life and the opportunities that it brings us.

The news I am speaking of is the passing away of a popular 16 year old boy, who died from cancer. I never met or knew of this young man until I heard of his passing from a friend who was greatly affected by his loss, but hearing about him and his passing brought a few realisations that I think we all could benefit from.

My friend told me that he was a great kid, who would never hurt a fly and had nothing bad to say about anyone. He was loved by many and was brave in facing his own mortality. My friend said to me “it’s always the good people who die, while the scum are left with the living.”

I believe it’s no coincidence that the day before I was reading the more high profile tragic story about the death of another 16 year old Ben Kinsella, who was brutally stabbed to death over a confrontation that he had no involvement with. Ben was also a popular and talented young man who had so much to offer the world.

The sad truth is that the death of these boys isn’t even the tip of the ice burg when it comes to the passing of people who are taken from us early. I think we all have an opportunity and an obligation to learn from such tragedy.

Life is a fragile gift that can be taken from us at any time without any warning. It’s our obligation to honour the memory of those who had so much to offer but didn’t have the opportunity and follow the example that they left us.

Far too many of us squander away our lives in pointless squabbles and feuds, spend too much time chasing material wealth, concern ourselves with worry and stress or simply just accept everything as the norm.

There is a lot of suffering in this world, from war, pestilence, famine. For the majority of us in the western world, even those who think they have nothing, we actually have a lot to be grateful for, and the opportunity to get up each and every day to make a difference, not just in our own lives but to the lives of others.

I think too many of us, myself included, get too caught up in the hum-drum and stresses of life and forget that life is about living.

Life is a gift and an opportunity. Let’s honour those who have lost their lives by doing the one thing that if they had survived that they no doubt would have done- and that’s live!

Start today. Start living the life you were meant to live. Pursue your dreams, experience new things. Let go of grudges or attachments and live for the moment.

I’ve started today by re-igniting my dreams and passions and pursuing the life of freedom and contribution that I want to live.

What will you do?

Kyle

If Today Was Your Last Day lyrics
Songwriters: Kroeger, Chad;

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day’s a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less travelled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?
What if, what if, if today was your last day?

Against the grain should be a way of life
What’s worth the price is always worth the fight
Every second counts ’cause there’s no second try
So live like you’re never living twice
Don’t take the free ride in your own life

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?

And would you call those friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you’re dreaming of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you’d finally fall in love if today was your last day?

If today was your last day
Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart?
You know it’s never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are

So do whatever it takes
‘Cause you can’t rewind a moment in this life
Let nothing stand in your way
‘Cause the hands of time are never on your side

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?

And would you call those friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you’re dreaming of
Swear up and down to God above
That you’d finally fall in love if today was your last day?

billericay personal trainer home

Hey guys,

I was reading some essays and letters written by the late, great Bruce Lee where I stumbled across a little poem that he included in a letter to a friend.

I don’t know if he wrote it originally or not, but it’s such a fantastic little piece of work that really inspired me, so I figured it’s only fair to share!

IT’S ALL IN THE STATE OF MIND

If you think that you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go to
The stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later the man
Who wins is the man
WHO THINKS HE CAN!

I’m getting this framed and put on my wall as a constant reminder that it’s all in the state of mind!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Kyle

Billericay Personal Trainer

What does it mean to be successful? Is there some kind of measure where once you have reached a certain goal, or made a certain amount of money you are defined as a success?

It seems that in our civilization the common marker for success is how much money you have and what ‘things’ you have. We often compare ourselves to wealthy entrepreneurs, celebrities, sports stars. The people that we see in the media on a day to day basis and think “They’ve made it”, and we often aspire to be like these people.

As a result we often want what they have, and 99.9% of the time we don’t get that millionaire lifestyle and we consider ourselves a failure…

And that’s half the problem. We fail because we measure our success based on someone else’s, or we fail to realise what successes we have been because it may not measure up to what someone else has.

I think that success is a very personal thing because each and every one of us. Think back to when you were a kid. What did you dream about being when you grew up? An astronaut maybe; or a pop star?

As we get older our dreams become more and more ‘tame’ and we often settle for what we have, never getting what we really wanted.

The problem is, did you ever really know what it was you wanted in the first place? And is it too late to get that life you’ve dreamed of.

The short answer… No to both!

In many cases we aren’t truly clear about what it is we actually want, so how can we ever go about getting it?

Most people have this belief that it is too late or out of their hands. They are tied down and have too much responsibility. The problem is they look for reasons to fail because change is daunting. But change is absolutely necessary if you are going to achieve any desired result.

Happiness and success pretty much rely on two very simple (almost painfully simple) principles, and they are a) knowing what you want and b) choosing to make it happen. So here is a strategy for you to change your life and really pursue the life of your dreams.

1. The ‘What’

Without knowing exactly what it is you want then you’re never going to have a hope in hell of getting it. Forget for a moment what everyone else wants, or what society tells you what you should want and start thinking about exactly what it is YOU want from life.

What kind of career do you want? Do you want a family? If you have a family what kind of life do you want for them? What type of house do you want to live in? What area do you want to live in? How much money do you want to earn? What activities do you want to do…

Be as detailed as possible and don’t be afraid to think big. Think about the things in life that EXCITE you. Don’t limit yourself at this point or think that your goals or desires are unrealistic, because it’s that kind of thinking that has stopped you from having it in the first place!

2. The ‘Why’

Once you know what it is you want, you have to ask yourself why you want it. The why is the most important part because if you are clear on this, you will draw most of your motivation from it. It’s not the actual ‘thing’ itself that motivates you, it’s the feelings that the thing will bring you.

Focus on how that lifestyle will make you feel. Focus on those feelings of accomplishment and joy that you would get from your achievements. Think about all of the freedom to do the things you enjoy you would have from having that little extra cash.

Think about the confidence and self esteem you would develop through seeing yourself positively change your life. The principle works for any goal, whether it’s about your physical health and fitness, your financial wealth, having a satisfying career it doesn’t matter. The principle is sound across the board.

This principle is really powerful because it’s about how you feel and how you want to feel. As my mentor Dax Moy puts it, it makes you “own the goal”.

It’s your goal for your reasons. The result is what you want, not a result based on someone else’s ideas.

“If you have a strong enough WHY, you will overcome any HOW!”

3. The ‘How’

Ok so here’s the slightly trickier bit. How do you make it happen? Well first of all you need a game plan, but more importantly you need to take action on that plan. It’s the taking action that is the difficult part because it is going to require a lot of effort on your part and that will ultimately mean there will be changes. Although the long term plan is that these changes will be positive and the result you want, you may have to accept that there could be some short term disadvantages.

Obviously it will depend on what your goals are and what you are trying to achieve at the end of it. It may mean you have to take on a course to learn the skills to change your career. It could mean a pay cut in the short term and giving up a few of the luxuries that make life seem more tolerable.

It all comes back to your why and how much is your goal worth to you.

Are you prepared to suffer some short term pain to get the long term gain?

“The insane thing is doing the same thing you’ve always done and expect different results” – roger milliken

4. Reasons or results?

A hard concept for many people to grasp is the idea of taking responsibility. We are often content with the belief that “it wasn’t meant to be”, “or I wasn’t good enough” or one of millions of other reasons we hear day in day out.

But what is it that you want? Do you want a result, or a reason why you don’t have that result?

Our lives are a direct result of the choices that we have made in the past. That also means that our future will be a direct result of the choices we make now. If we choose to make the change and face the challenges it will bring, our life will become very different to how it will be if we decide to stay the same.

At the end of the day it’s your choice. Yes there will be barriers and yes at times it may be hard, but what is more important to you? The Reason, or the Result?

5. Dare to be different!

One of our biggest ‘fears’ in life is being judged by everyone else for being different. Being socially accepted has become a huge part of our society and we seem to have developed some bizarre beliefs that we have to behave in particular ways in order to gain acceptance.

Sometimes it’s good to be different, to separate yourself from the ‘flock’. Sometimes we have to put our ideas out there knowing that there are people willing to shoot them down because the ideal conflicts with theirs.

So what?

So what if someone doesn’t agree with you? What does it matter? Does that person’s opinion directly affect your result? Chances are they won’t.

And what you will find is that for every one person who challenges your beliefs, there will be another who loves your ideas. It’s these like minded people who share your beliefs that you want to be surrounded by, but if you never put your views out there you will never find them!

Don’t let your fear of other’s ideas stop you from pursuing your own, because you will never become successful if you don’t.

There’s a great old saying which I love…

“Only dead fish go with the flow!”

6. Forget the balancing act

If you ever want to get anywhere in life you have to knock the idea of balancing your work and home life on the head, because there is no such thing. If you try too hard to balance everything you’ll often get nothing done and get nowhere.

Think about a See-Saw that has a person on either end of equal weight and size… it won’t move!

It’ll be the same for you, you’ll remain static and never push forward.

You have to learn to prioritise. Work out what your priorities are on any given day or week (whether it is work, personal or family) and commit to making sure it gets done.

Obviously your priorities will change all the time, but if you can prioritise and learn to manage your time, you will become much more productive and push forward. Sometimes something will have to give. If you have a deadline for a project that is important to achieving your goals, then you have to accept the fact you may need to sacrifice some personal time to get it finished.

If your kid has a football match you promised to go to, then maybe work has to take the back seat.

Only you can decide what your priorities are, but once you make that decision each day get it done!

7. Make some ‘me’ time…

Finding time for yourself to do things that you want to enjoy or to develop your ability and education is essential. If you are constantly working your back-side off you will become tired and run down. You’ll lose motivation and give up, meaning all that work you put in was for nothing.

We all have needs and hobbies, so don’t neglect them. You only live once!

8. Live the dream!

Stop thinking about how great the dream ‘could’ be and start to live it. Even if it’s only in small things like changing your routine, doing some volunteer work, starting a new hobby, changing the way you look etc. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it fits in with your goal.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, you can’t always have everything in an instant, but if you start making those conscious changes to your life, you will be that one step closer to your goal and that lifestyle of your dreams.

The only way it is ever going to happen is if you start taking action and living it!

You only get to live once!
Let me know what your thoughts are and how you can apply these principles to your own success, I’d love to hear about it!

Laters!

Kyle

Billericay personal trainer

Well the new year is now in full swing and the fitness industry is hitting one of it’s busiest times of the year. People are signing up to gyms left right and center to get there new year ‘fix’ of fat loss. People do it every year, they decide they want to become lean and trim so take out a gym membership, stick at it for a few weeks and then quit… but why?

It’s simple really:

1. They aren’t seeing results.
2. They get bored of trying.

When we try and fail, we get sick of trying and give up, so most of those keen newbies to the gym will give up in the first 6 weeks or so. The big question is why are they failing?

If you’ve ever been to a gym you will see that there are often tonnes of people spending their whole sessions on the bikes or treadmills, occaisionally venturing over to the resistance machines for a few exercises, each person averaging about 90 minutes or so on the gym floor. They try do do this same routine at least three times a week and people wonder why gyms can be boring! Just to make things worse, the workouts they are doing aren’t doing anything (at least nothing positive…).

Here are five simple solutions for all of you who are struggling with your new gym memberships and routines:

Solution number one: Shorter workouts:
It really isn’t necassary or beneficial for you to be spending hour after hour in the gym- in fact anything over an hour will have a negative affect, releasing higher levels of stress hormone and causing muscles wastage. Make your workouts shorter but up the anti so that you are working harder. Human beings are designed for short bursts of activity, not endurance sports. Try and limit your workout to around 45 minutes but work hard in that time.

Solution number two: Vareity:
Not only is doing the same routine over and over tedious to your mind, but also to your body. Your body learns to adapt and will get used to doing the same thing which will mean your results will drop sharply. Challenge your body by mixing up your routines, trying different exercises, reps and sets. Throw in some interval training, pyramid sets, tabata workouts, body weight circuits etc. Your body will respond much more to varitey- and it’s fun mixing things up!

Solution number three: Work your whole body:I
If you are trying to reduce your body fat then exercises that isolate small groups of muscles aren’t the way forward unless you are specifically rehabing or strengthening them. If you want to burn fat you want to be using as many muscles as possible to burn up more ‘energy’. Think of the 500 rule- try to exercise as many of your 500+ muscles in your body as you can on each workout.

Solution number four: Forget what everyone else is doing:
People are very much prone to do what everyone else is doing when it comes to the gym, especially if they are inexperienced gym users. People will tell you what they do for a workout and more often than not you will try to do what they do. This isn’t generally a good thing because unless they actually know anything about training, their workouts are about as useful as the ones you were doing before. Just because other people think they know what they are doing doesn’t actually mean that they do. If you’re really stuck ask one of the professionals to help you because they are trained to deal with individual needs.

Solution number five: Knowing when to rest:
Training hard every single day is not good for you. You need to know when to take a day off for your body to recover. If you are working out hard daily, all you are going to do is stress out your system and eventually end up with an injury. Most of the positive effects of training actually kick in when you are in recovery, not while you are working out. Training puts your body under stress and breaks down muscle fibres. Rest allows them to heal and strengthen. If you don’t rest, your body can’t recover and you’ll end up being worse of than when you started. Try and take two days off from intense training per week.

The funniest thing occurred to me today (sadly I don’t mean in the “ha-ha” way) whilst texting a friend that I thought I’d share with you as it seems relevant to this whole time of year.

It’s New Year’s Eve once again and no doubt the majority of people are going to make those good old New Year’s resolutions; you know the ones we make and stick to for about a week then sack off when it takes too much effort…

Anyway, getting back to the text, I was asked my friend “how’s life treating you?” a question I’m sure most of us have asked someone at some point or another. As I was typing the message I started thinking…

“How’s life treating you?” it’s not very empowering is it? You’re probably wondering what I am rambling about at this point, but think about it, what does the question imply?

It seems to reflect this mindset that people have that we are controlled by life and slaves to fate, that we have no power to change anything and should just accept what happens to us. If we are being honest how many of you feel in total control of your life? How many people struggle with financial worries, or poor health, stress, are unhappy with their jobs, are insecure with their weight or appearance etc… How many of us are unhappy with our lives and what we have, blaming everyone and everything else accept ourselves for the things we don’t have?

Our current society is driven by greed and materialism- the ‘need’ to have more. We are bombarded from a young age that we should look a certain way, that it’s important to have lots of money and be successful and that we should strive to live in luxury. So when most people don’t have all of these things they become resentful of the people that do and they forget about what is important in life… being grateful for what we do have.

People are too focused on what they don’t have and a lot of the time that makes them unhappy. When New Years comes around they decide to make a resolution that they are going to do something about it, whether it’s to start going to the gym so they look and feel better, or it’s to start looking for a better job or working towards a new qualification, whatever. But as soon as the first hurdle pop’s up the majority give up and then give some sort of poor excuse as to why, usually blaming lack of time or money for instance- or my personal favourite “I don’t have the will power” (which is about as honest as they get). It’s usually some sort of outside force that’s to blame, never the real reason which is “I chose to give up” or in other words “I chose for things to stay the same”.

In a way it’s that simple. You either choose to make a change, or you choose for things to stay exactly the same. Many people chose for thing to stay the same, because they are actually ‘addicted’ to the pain and negativity. That’s right, they are addicted and they chose to continue to suffer!

That sounds absurd doesn’t it? But it’s true. A lot of it is down to our ‘egoic’ mind, the part of us that clings on to being self conscious, wanting things and being unhappy because it actually gives our ego a purpose. Most people are switched off to the real world around them and are so involved in their own pain which grows the ego- it’s all about me. Our ego is kind of like our ‘conscious’ self, our thoughts but not our feelings (though they are linked) and we have a sub-conscious fear that without the ego we wouldn’t exist so we feed it as much as we can. Anyway this is all very metaphysical and explaining this stuff isn’t my strong point, so I shall move on (though I highly recommend that you read ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle).

So anyway getting back to the point a bit, in light of New Year I want you to try and shift your mindset slightly. Instead of asking you “how is life treating you?” I am going to ask you this…

“How are YOU treating LIFE?”

What are you doing every day to make the most of your ability to create the life that will make you happy, instead of looking for ways to fail and laying the blame with some lame excuse?

Start being grateful for the things that you do have in life like family, friends, shelter, food, clean water… all of those little things we take for granted that millions of people go without. Then start to be grateful for all of the things that are going to come in advance. By being grateful in advance, you shift your mindset from wanting something to having it, which will make it much more likely to come your way because you will do what you need to do to get it.

Most of all don’t hold yourself back. Forget barriers and limitations, choose to live the life you want and choose to do what will make you happy.

Every day is chance to experience something that makes us happy and we have the choice to surround ourselves with the good things we have, or to stress about the nice things that we don’t.

We all have the power to create whatever life we want, fate has nothing to do with it, it’s about choice.

So how will you treat your life in 2010?

Billericay Personal Trainer, Billericay’s leading fat loss expert

Billericay Bootcamp, the fastest group fat loss solution in Essex

So what does it cost then? Is there a ball park figure as to how much our fitness costs? Is it money well spent?

Well let’s look at the obvious first- my favourite, the gym membership…

Health clubs, gyms and leisure centres take millions upon millions of pounds from the public in gym memberships every year, yet probably less than a quarter of the people who pay the forty-odd quid a month actually use it regularly… Gyms have hundreds, even thousands of members paying them, that they can’t really cater for because they do actually have a limit on the number of people allowed in at any one time and are constantly seeking new members to set up an nice 12 month direct debit to not actually use the facility- it’s how they make their money. It’s naughty, but it’s true. Most people drop out within the first 12 weeks through boredom and lack of results or support, but they are tied in to a 12 month contract which, on average, is going to cost them in excess of £500 by the time you add on joining fees etc…

That’s a lot of money to throw down the swanny, and people say Personal Trainers are expensive…

Here’s the thing, Gym memberships are good value for money- IF YOU USE IT REGULARLY! If you don’t then you are just throwing your money away.

Next up, home fitness equipment. You could walk in to a lot of homes and somewhere you will find buried away some kind of home fitness equipment, or dvd that never gets used. Now to be truthful, home fitness equipment is generally a waste of money, unless you are trained to use it properly. not only that, but it’s expensive! You can have a fantastic fat burning workout with just yourself, a chair and odd bits and bobs around the house. There is very little need for you to spend your hard earned cash on equipment you don’t need or are never going to use. If you are going to but anything, then dumbells, kettlebells and resistance bands are the way forward, but you will need to be shown how to use them to get the most from them.

Ok, now that stuff’s out of the way, let’s look at the real issues here…

Your lifestyle.

The truth is, you don’t need fancy gyms and equipment- they help if used properly, but the real cost of your health and fitness is your time, effort and your choices.

Let’s start with your diet. People always moan at me that healthy food is expensive. Well, that is true, it can be, but, if you eat better quality food, the more your body will get from it and the less likely you are to need to stuff your face. Then there are cigarettes and alcohol. I was talking to someone recently who said that on an average weekend out (on the drink) they can spend anywhere between £100-£200… That’s a few weeks decent shopping being replaced with alcohol…

Seriously guys, forget the financial cost, because if we are being brutally honest, for most of us to actually make a concious effort to make changes to our lifestyle, become more active and spend less money on crap that will harm us, we won’t be any worse off financially.

If you are a smoker, then chances are you are one of the average who smokes between 2-4 packs per week… at £5+ a pack, there’s your gym membership… catch my drift?

What it really comes down to is what you are prepared to do to see a difference, the real cost is what you have to sacrifice to succeed.

The moral of this rant?

STOP USING MONEY AS AN EXCUSE!

Because that’s all it is, an excuse to not do it…. Rant over : )

Kyle

http://www.billericaypersonaltrainer.com

Many people use Soy products as an alternative source of protein and dairy. Most of us are lead to believe that it is a health food and a benificial food source. However, this isn’t strictly true.

There is a strong argument that Soy is a food that we should avoid.

Find out why by watching the video below, where Dr.Mecola explains just why we should avoid it.

Happy training!

Kyle

billericaypersonaltrainer.com

Have you ever had one of those workouts where you just can’t seem to perform at your best? We’ve all had sessions where we just feel sluggish and fatigued, but aren’t entirely sure as to why. It was just this morning I was training myself and I knew my performance was below my best, and there’s a simple reason for it.

I was dehydrated.

We are all told from an early age just how important it is to stay hydrated during exercise, or otherwise it will affect our performance and even potentially our health, but why does it have such a negative effect on our training?

Approximately 60% of the human body is water (this figure will vary from person to person and can be affected by age and gender etc) and it only takes 2% dehydration to affect your training. When we exercise, our bodies produce heat and sweat as bi-products of producing energy. Sweat is one of the bodies built in ‘temperature control mechanisms’. The evaporation of sweat on our skin creates a cooling affect and helps us to keep our body temperature down, particularly when we exercise.

Not only do we lose fluids through sweat, but also through exhaled air, we literally breathe it out. We experience the greatest amount of fluid loss when we perform the most intensive workout routines, but we can lose just as much over prolonged events or training sessions.

When our bodies start losing fluids, the blood starts to thicken which puts excess stress on the cardiovascular system, which means that your poor heart has to work even harder in order to keep an adequate supply of blood flow to those hard working muscles and vital organs. As the volume of blood decreases, the supply of blood to the skin is also reduced which results in less sweat being produced and heat dissipation becomes impaired. This leads to an increase in core temperature which can lead to all kinds of problems.

The stress on your body is greatly increased and your performance decreases, so all in all, dehydration is a bad idea.

So, how can you stay hydrated?

Well, the obvious answer is to drink plenty of water; however that’s not the only solution. When we sweat, we also lose small amounts of salts from our blood supply, which can be dangerous in itself. However, this is a far greater problem for athletes. A simple solution to this is to look for specifically designed sports drinks or supplements that are known for aiding hydration (though be careful with some of the obvious ones as they are full of caffiene and sugar, and caffiene is diuretic which means it makes you need to pee).

Just drinking large volumes of water can cause bloating and makes you need to visit the loo quite a lot, so you need to make sure that you drink smaller amounts throughout the day, as opposed to drinking a 2 liter bottle in one go after your workout. Try drinking a glass of water every 15 minutes or so during your workout.

Don’t wait until you are thirsty. If you feel thirsty, then chances are you are already slightly dehydrated. Keep the fluids coming throughout the day.

Don’t wear heavy or dark clothing during your workouts, as they can often retain heat and will only make the problem worse, especially in an already hot environment. Aim to wear light and comfortable clothing so that your body can expel excess heat.

The thing you need to remember is that dehydration is bad! If you are starting to feel the affects then you need to take some fluids on board. Apart from your performance, another way to spot dehydration is the colour of your urine. It may be a bit gross, but the way to remember is if your urine is clear then you are hydrated. The more yellow it is, the more dehydrated you are.

Happy training!

Kyle

billericaypersonaltrainer.com
KaiZen Personal Training free community

Let’s face it, whenever we think of fat loss, the first thing that comes to mind is cutting down on your calorie intake. It’s believed to be effective by most of the population and the government have even issued guidelines as to how many calories people should consume each day.

I was chatting to someone earlier about setting nutrition plans in order to lose weight and they were asking me how many calories they should eat and what’s the ‘best’ diet to follow. In fact I get asked it a lot.

Well here’s the thing, counting calories will not get you serious fat loss results.

Point systems and calorie counting may appear to get results in the short term, I know enough people who have done it, however they don’t necessarily promote healthy eating and long term strategies. Have you ever looked at the contents of a weight watcher’s meal? How can something that allows you to eat a chocolate cake (as long as it’s all you eat all day because you’ve used up all of your points on it) really be a healthy solution?

How many of you have followed the weight watcher’s diet, or some other gimmick and saw initial results, but the second you got bored or hungry, you put it all back on? I think you’re starting to see where my position on it is; complete nonsense!

Here is my list of reasons why calorie counting will fail you in the long run:

- Calorie counting doesn’t promote supportive foods: It’s like I said earlier. Most systems let you eat what you want as long as you don’t exceed a certain amount of points. The problem with this is that long term you will end up consuming substances your body cannot use and cause all kinds of chemical imbalances that send you into storage mode. Your levels of body fat can actually increase and your body will end up finding energy from other sources (like muscle). This can also leave you feeling tired, hungry and leave you prone to illness.
- Calorie counting is boring: Most people fail because they get bored of feeling hungry. They max out their points too early on in the day because they end up treating themselves so then they can’t eat again all day…
- Calorie counting is too complicated and stressful: You have to work out exactly how many points each type of food has and then weigh exact amounts to make sure you don’t have too much. It’s all a bit of a pain in the backside if we are being completely honest here. There are far simpler solutions out there that are way more effective!
- Calorie counting doesn’t promote long term strategies for maintaining weight: Do you really want to spend the rest of your life counting calories and feeling guilty every time you eat a breadcrumb over your limit? Of course not, people get fed up and stop. When that happens and they start eating again, reversibility kicks in and back comes the weight.
- Calorie counting is too general and not specific enough for individual needs: everyone is genetically and chemically unique. Just because you are a woman of 25 years of age doesn’t mean you need exactly 2000 calories per day to stay healthy… what if you’re only 4ft 5”? Will you need the same as a woman who is 6ft? It’s all based on averages and there is no such thing as an average person.
- Calorie counting doesn’t take into account your metabolic type: For those of you who don’t know what metabolic typing is, in a nutshell it’s about getting the right ratio of macro nutrients for your type. For example, if you are carb type person, then you will need a higher ratio of carbs to sustain a healthy system, stay slim and be able to perform and function. Like I mentioned earlier, everyone has a unique chemical make up and calorie counting doesn’t allow for that.

- Calorie couting gives you the belief that if you eat then you will get fat! Far too many people who follow these plans develop psychological issues which can cause them to stop eating and encourages bulemia and anorexia etc. Ok, that’s a little extreme and only a small percentage develop these conditions, but people still believe that their weight has a direct correlation to how much they eat, instead of what they eat.

I could go on and on about this because I really do believe that this is a serious problem and people aren’t being educated properly. I think that as far as the government and the health authorities are concerned it’s the easy option as it is generalized and it doesn’t upset all of those food production companies that bring in billions each year (perhaps that’s a rant for another day…)

So there you go, that’s just some of the reasons as to why I don’t like calorie counting and never use it either myself or with my clients. There are many far better solutions out there which give you more freedom to eat and get much better results, not just in fat loss but in health as well.

Happy training!

Kyle

billericaypersonaltrainer.com

I was having a debate with a friend a while ago with somebody studying nutrition and diatetics, training to become a dietition. We where discussing the elimination diet and she panicked when I told her that we cut all forms of wheat for 30 days… In fact she looked at me in horror!

The government advise that a large portion of our daily intake of foods come from complex carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta and rice and so on. It’s recommended in the ‘food pyramid’ that I was shown when I originally took my nutrition courses that they should provide the bulk of our intake, with 6-10 servings per day.

The commonly used but not particularly brilliant food pyramid

 Now anyone that read my little rant on calorie counting will know that I think it’s all complete nonsense and is on of the least effective methods of losing weight and staying healthy. I think pretty much the same with this.

 Here’s the deal, wheat itself is full of fibre, vitamins and minerals, so theoretically it’s a healthy part of a balanced diet and good for you… Then they process it and it’s a whole new story. During the processing… er… process, the first thing that’s done is they remove the bran layer of the wheat, which is full of fibre. Then they remove the germ which contains vitamin B which is essential for energy, also the oils which contain vitamin E and even the essential fats. So what we are left with is this really fine powdery stuff which we like to call ‘flour’, which is in almost everything.

 So, where there were once nutrients, there are now none (in some cases they attempt to put vitamins and minerals back in to the flour, this is called enrichment, but most of them get destroyed when you bake it, so it’s pretty pointless). This leaves us with a nutritionless and pointless foodstuff. As far as our bodies are now concerned, the stuff is barely indistinguishable from simple sugar. So here’s where the problems start to arise.

 Once it reaches your intestines and gets absorbed into the bloodstream, your body thinks that you’ve just taken in a load of sugar and responds by secreting insulin from your pancreas to counter the high levels of ‘sugar’ in the blood. What the insulin does is it attaches itself to the receptor of a cell, causing the cell to open up and suck up the sugar. When the blood sugar level is high, the cell will suck in too much and your blood sugar will drop dramatically.

Have you ever had that feeling where you eat something and initially feel good, but not long after you crash and get lethargic? This is the affect of your body countering high blood sugar (hyperglaecemia), you go from one extreme to the other and end up with low blood sugar (hypoglaecmia). Then you start to crave sugary foods, so you eat again and you get into this cycle of your blood sugar yo-yoing up and down… like a yo-yo.

So, you’re blood sugar rockets again and you have to release more insulin to counter it, meaning you have higher levels of insulin in your bloodstream. When insulin levels are high, you store fat. Insulin does more than just fight off sugar, it also causes you to absorb fatty acids and amino acids and stops your body from breaking them down. During this process, your fat cells will turn fatty acids into fat molecules and they will be stored as fat droplets.

 This is where the danger of type 2 diabetes, CHD and other diseases related to poor diet can develop, so it’s really important that you learn how to keep your blood sugar at a normal level, from getting a good mix of protein and carbohydrates from good sources, such as vegetables, potatoes, fruit, whole grain rice and so on.

The problem is that most wheat containing foods are made from wheat flour, because it is powdered down and palpable, you can make almost anything from wheat. Theoretically wheat is a complex carbohydrate, but with our modern processing methods and reliance on convenience foods, it’s nothing more to our bodies than simple sugar.

So what about ‘whole grain’?

It’s simple, a good way of looking at it that was explained to me is the water test. If you were to put water on it and it would eventually sprout, it’s a whole grain and is good for you. If you put water on it and it eventually it doesn’t sprout, it’s not a whole grain, so all this whole grain bread and pasta is technically misleading. The message here then? Be careful of your carbs, it’s not always how much that’s the problem, it’s where they come from!

 Kyle

Billericay Personal Trainer’s website