Things I've learned... So far....

So lately I've been helping more and more people out with their nutrition, and giving out solid training advice to people who want to make improvements and gains in the gym.

And I have to say that I love it.

It's something I'll hopefully be doing a lot more of in the near future, but I'm keeping the finer details of that under wraps for now! 

I take great pride in being able to help close friends and family improve their diets and lifestyles, and I'm immensely grateful that they trust me enough to listen and take on board my advice.

I feel an enormous amount of pride when I receive a text saying something I suggested is having a positive effect on someone. Or a picture of a meal someone has prepared using my advice.

It really is a satisfying yet humbling experience but most of all it feels good to know that I'm on the right path to where I want to be in my life.

Helping others to join me on a path to total human optimization!

With that in mind I thought I'd write down a few pointers for people, highlighting some of the main things that I've learned, that work, on my journey in health, fitness, and nutrition so far.

Tips that have helped me lose fat, gain lean muscle, become stronger and faster in the gym. Not only that though, but tips that have lead me to become a more positive, more energetic, more happy person.

Things that have without a shadow of a doubt helped completely change and improve both myself and my families lives for the better.

To steal a phrase from a guy whose work I follow and respect immensely, Mr Ben Coomber, here are some of my 'Knowledge Bombs'!

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'Find your why'. What is the underlying personal reason you want to make a change to your body, your health, your life, or whatever else it is you want to change. Not why someone else wants you to change. Not what you think you should be changing something for. I'm talking about the 'why' that is lurking deep inside of you. The true reason that you want to change something. Until you 'find your why' you will never truly commit to making a long term change.

The number one way to achieving improvements in health, body composition, performance, and life in general, is hands down, Consistency. 

With nutrition live by the 90/10 rule. You can't be a saint all the time. But do the 90% good side 100% of the time!

And don't let the 10% be an excuse to binge and ruin your progress. A good week can easily be ruined by a weekend of over indulging.

The odd treat or extravagance can be a good thing if done sensibly. But earn it, don't expect it!

Be consistent, be accountable, be disciplined, but most of all, be patient.

Progress WILL come if you stick with the process. Your body has no choice but to reward hard work and commitment.

Find an eating system you can stick to. The best diet is the one you can consistently follow. And that's for the rest of your life, not just a couple of months. As I always say 'it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle'.

Build habits. Make a small change every couple of weeks, and make every effort to concentrate only on this change until it becomes just a normal every day habit. Then make another.

Look after your body and it will look after you. Sounds cliche? Yeah well it is, but it's also 100% true!

Learn to give up the innate human demand for instant gratification and immediate satisfaction.

Delayed gratification is an awesome mindset to have. The reward when small improvements become apparent is life changing. 

In this sense there is great truth in the phrase 'good things come to those who wait'.

But there is equal truth in the phrase 'good things come to those who work their arse off!'

'Consistency, Accountability, Patients'.... In that order!

Instead of focussing too much on what you WANT to achieve. Look at what you have ALREADY achieved.

Progress is progress. Weight loss, no matter how little. Strength increases, no matter how small. Feeling more energetic. Better sleep. Clearer skin.

Think about progress 'outside the box'. It's not always about the end goal. Concentrate on the present, and success so far on your journey.

Surround yourself with positivity. With people who inspire you, make you feel good, make you want to be better. And this doesn't have to always be people in the flesh so to speak. Follow people you admire on twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram. Connect with these people, even if you know you may never meet them.

On the flip side, avoid negative people at all costs. They are the greatest destroyers of self confidence and self-esteem.

Immerse yourself in the culture you want to be part of. Read some self improvement books. Listen to some inspirational podcasts. Do whatever it takes to focus your mind on the task in hand. Always seek ways to help yourself improve on every level. 

Never be closed off to learning new things. Have an open mind. Don't believe everything you read or hear but always be willing to accept changes in your opinions on things.

Accept that things will need to change in your life. You can't expect things to change doing the things you've always done. Some people fear change. Don't. Change is necessary and change is good. Trust me on this one.

In the gym choose a goal and work towards it. Fat loss, muscle gain, getting stronger, getting faster, improving flexibility, improving cardio. Choose a specific goal and find a program that is geared towards reaching that goal. 

Don't go onto the gym floor without a plan. You will just end up pissing about and getting no where fast. If you don't know how to work towards or how to achieve a certain goal, ask someone who does know how to get there. Or research it first. Then when you do have a plan and a program, the most important part is to stick to it. Give it time. Trust the process. Don't jump from training plan to training plan without finishing what you've started.

Most of all enjoy the process of changing your life for the better. No it's not easy, no it's not going to happen over night. But things WILL change. Stick to your plan. Remember your why. Acknowledge your successes so far. Surround yourself with like minded people. Think positive!

I realise this list is pretty exhaustive, and believe me I could go on, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record I'll leave it here for now.

Not everything here will apply to you. These are things that I've learned and taken from my own personal journey so far. And I'm far from done on that journey. 

I do hope though, that some of these things might be able to help you out, wherever you are on your own quest for a better life.

Please check out my other blog posts where I've gone a bit more in depth on some of these individual points.

And if I can help out in any way at all then please just ask.....

Have a great weekend people!

Peace out......

Life lessons from Mario....

Met an old Italian guy today. Mario. Bit of a crazy old fucker but he gave me some of the best advice I've ever had.

I'm starting to write this blog post on my anniversary. I'll probably not end up finishing it for a few days as I always write stuff, come back to it, write some more, edit it a little, then post it when I'm happy with it. 

Anyway. 3 years ago today I got married. I'm a lucky guy. I have a great wife who has given me a beautiful daughter, and I have a great life. But that's not what this post is about.

For our anniversary we decided to go for a family day out in town, me, my wife, and my daughter, to do some shopping and get some nice food.

As we walked into the restaurant I clocked this old guy sitting in a booth on his own eating his lunch. He stood out a mile, dressed in a sharp tailored suit, snazzy tie, tanned, and drinking some red wine. As nailed on an old Italian mafia man as you can imagine. He was a cross between the godfather and a gentle old grandad.

After my meal I bumped into him in the toilets and we exchanged a few social words, not that I really understood much of what he was saying. He had about as broad an Italian accent as mine is Geordie so I kind of smiled and made off before I ended up offending him. And the last thing you want to do is offend 'the godfather'!.

Back at the table I was just telling my wife about him when he came waddling over to our booth.

Now imagine this being said in a broad Italian godfather type accent. "Can I give you some advice".... Well yeah go on but even if I say no I'm pretty sure your gonna give me it anyway so carry on!

"You are a good boy and you have a beautiful family. Limit, limit, limit. You need to limit everything. Money, food, drink, everything. You must limit these things if you want to be happy and live to be an old man like me. Not too much of everything, you must limit. I am 81 years old and I have lived in this city since 1956. I have 4 children, 8 grandchildren and I am very lucky. I worked hard everyday in my life. Hard work is very important, it is good for you. I see people now who don't know how to work hard. They have no idea. If you work hard you will be happy and your family will be happy because you will look after them"

He went on. Some things were lost in translation but I kind of got what he was saying.

"Treat everyone nice. Treat your family well. You need them". He said pointing at my 8 month old daughter.

"You must treat them well and take care of them well now because someday you will need them to take care of you well also".

"Save some money. Work hard and save a little bit because someday you will need it. Work hard and enjoy yourself and enjoy your family and your life".

With that he told us to have a lovely afternoon and he was gone, waving at the waitress, the chef, and the barman as he left. 

Now It would be easy to just laugh at Mario and call him a crazy old man. Which I did of course. Then forget about him straight away afterwards. 

But I took notice of what he said. He spoke some wise old shit to me there and I would be a fool to ignore him.

In fact once he left I kind of wished he'd stayed a bit longer and gave me some more old Italian mafia wisdom.

I imagined him to have tales of dealing with people who "disrespected the family" and having to get rid of one or two old rival "wise guys"

Or maybe my imagination was just running away with itself!

Anyway. As I get older and hopefully wiser I'd like to think I can take some of Mario's advice and use it well.

And hopefully I can pass advice on to others about things I've seen and learned as I go through my life. I'm only 35 mind you, just a boy, as Mario said. And I basically know sod all about a lot of things in life. 

But I'm learning all the time and these days I'm constantly on a personal quest for self improvement.

That's the main reason I started this blog. To get better at something i quite like doing. Writing. And of course to help others with their health, fitness, and nutrition. Something I do know a bit about. I'll help anyone if they just ask.

You can always learn something from someone. It doesn't matter how small it is. That's what I reckon anyway.

These days I walk around with my eyes and ears open constantly. I try and take as much from every situation and encounter as I can. I'm always looking to learn and get better. I guess I just appreciate life more these days and recognise we are only here for a limited time so we need to make the most of it.

I don't want to live my life to just simply exist. I want my life to have purpose and to have meaning. 

I don't want to be average. Fuck average!

I want to feel alive every day. I want to live my life with passion and to inspire others to find their passion.

I want to inspire my kids to live their lives with a desire and a purpose. To not simply live life for the sake of living.

So today I thank Mario for this wisdom.

Love your family, treat them well. Work hard, be happy. Enjoy yourself, but limit the excess. Treat people nice, and they will be nice back.

From me I share this wisdom.

Take care of your health. Take care of your nutrition. What you put in your gob is the single most important thing that affects your well being. 

Trust me. 

It affects everything. 

Your mood, your attitude, your outlook on life. Your state of mind, your energy, your fucking sanity!

And If you don't believe me ask Mario. And you don't want to disrespect him!

You might just wake up with a horses head in your bed or something!......

Have a great weekend people....

Peace, out.

The Diet Miracle Myth....

The human psyche never ceases to amaze me.

How peoples minds work when it comes to dieting and weight loss is just plain crazy at times.

I totally get that people are constantly on the look out for new ways or methods to help them lose a few pounds. The hope of finally finding that elusive miracle diet that works for them. 

At times though it just borders on stupidity the things that people get suckered into.

All that ends up happening is people lose a few pounds from their bank account and not their waistline!

Actually that's not quite true. People do normally lose a bit of weight at first whilst starving themselves, but the weight quickly returns when they finish their 'diet'. Unfortunately their money never returns!

I can't help but wonder why these people can't just get their heads around the idea that these fad 'diets' don't work!

That's right, DIETS DON'T FUCKING WORK!!!

People have been dieting for decades. And it's a known fact that 95% of people who do lose some weight on a 'diet' quickly put it back on when their 'diet' comes to an end. 95%!! And that's not me making some number up, it's a fact.

And that's where the problem lies in my opinion. The 'coming to an end' part.  Any diet that has an expiry date is a failure waiting to happen.

You see people follow these diet plans religiously but don't really understand what they are doing to their bodies. All they care about is the number on the scales going in the direction they want. 

So when the 'diet' is over and/or they reach their target weight (if they ever get that far). What happens next?

Well sooner or later they go back to eating how they used to pre-diet.

And sooner or later that number on the scales starts moving back in the wrong direction.

Most of the time though people don't even complete their 'diets'. They get bored of following the ridiculous restrictions their new plan puts on them. Or they get sick of the cravings or the hunger pains.

And bang goes the 'diet'. Back to their old eating habits that got them into the mess in the first place.

The sooner people accept the simple fact that diets don't work then the quicker they can learn what actually will work for long term sustainable fat loss.

And as disappointing as it may sound, the only way of achieving this goal, is through the gradual process of learning and introducing new lifestyle and eating habits.

Nothing fancy, nothing sexy, nothing low carb, low fat, low calorie days, high calorie days, 2 shakes a day plus 1 'proper' meal, plus only juice for a week, plus starving yourself silly before doing a 24hr fast, then taking this miracle supplement before standing on your head to eat which may in turn regulate your blood sugar so you only burn fat instead of muscle.

None of that bullshit!

Just plain old learning to eat healthy, nutritious, whole ingredient foods again. In the right quantities, at the right times, without all the added crap.

I realise it's hard to fancy that up and sell it as a miracle 'diet' plan, I mean it's not exactly exciting is it.

But it's the truth. It works. End of.

Stop eating shit that you know is no good for you. Stop starving yourself on these fad diets. Ridiculous restricted calorie plans that drain your body of your last drops of energy.

Start eating stuff that nourishes your body, makes you feel good, gives you energy, regulates your appetite, and your metabolism, and most of all tastes delicious.

Fall in love with cooking again. Or just learn to cook full stop. It's such a great skill to have. And that's what it is in my opinion, a skill, something that has to be practiced in order to get better at. But the learning process is the fun part! 

Learn some new recipes. Buy some cook books. Actually chop some fresh ingredients up, put them in a pan, add some herbs and spices, and enjoy what you've created!

Stop ordering off a takeaway menu, pressing the start button on a microwave, boiling something in a bag. 

I'm sorry but it's just plain laziness to do this. And it's not that you don't have time to cook a proper meal, I'm not buying into that crap. It's about prioritising your time a bit better. It doesn't take a long time to prepare and cook a decent meal for your family once you know how. It's just putting the effort in to learn.

Prepare ingredients in advance, when you do have 5 spare minutes. Cook meals in bulk, refrigerate or freeze the leftovers which can be used the next day or week for lunch at work.

To put it simply. COOK REAL FOOD!

I'm sorry to burst their bubble but the people waiting for the miracle fat loss solution to come along are going to be waiting forever. That miracle diet plan is never going appear. 

But be in no doubt. The fat cat corporate companies will still try (and succeed) to trick millions of people into thinking that they have the answers to their diet problems.

Don't be one of the millions to fall for it!

Don't line their pockets with your hard earned money!

Use that money to buy some of those cook books and some fresh ingredients instead.

Personally I think it would be great to see the end of these fad diets once and for all.

Now that would be a miracle!...... 

Have an awesome weekend people....