The 7 barriers that are stopping you from losing weight!

Are you one of the frustrated millions that are doing everything right according to the books your read, magazines and health gurus but still the fat won’t leave you alone?

So you live a healthy lifestyle, you exercise 3 times or more a week either at the gym or an exercise class such as a Bootcamp. You eat healthily, eating protein and vegetables and small amounts of low G.I carbohydrates you let yourself go a little at the weekend with some processed foods and alcohol, BUT still the fat stays!

There does not seem to be any reason for it. FAT should be melting off you. Below I have 7 reasons that it may not be shifting. It’s important to get the lifestyle basics right as getting these wrong can ruin your weight loss efforts, leaving you de-motivated and depressed.

So here we go, the 7 basics that you need to get right on top of your exercise and diet.

STRESS No. 1

Stress can be a massive barrier when it comes to weight loss. I do know people who lose weight when they are stressed. These people usually lose their appetite. This often leads then to putting more eight on than before the stress started due to the shutting down of their metabolism.

Other people use food to comfort them in their stressful situation. People tend to comfort themselves with high calorie foods often high in sugar foods that turn quickly to FAT. This type of food increase the stress on your system and in the long term leaves you more tired and even less motivated!

On a deeper level continued stress plays havoc with you hormones. This in turn plays havoc with your blood sugar making it harder to lose weight and increasing your risk of getting ill.

Lack of sleep

How much sleep do you get? Are you getting 8 hours or are you getting more like 5 or 6?

Ask yourself why you are getting so few hours of sleep. Is it because your life is so full of things that you work right up to the moment you go to bed or are you watching TV when you should have switch the box off and gone to bed. ‘Just until the next adverts, just till the end of this one, I’ll be ok tomorrow I’m used to it’….. What do you say to yourself?

Whether you’re busy or watching TV sleep is a very important to your health. It ties back in with stress and hormone disruption and therefore blood sugar level and your immune system.

Sleep is also important for other reasons as both physical and metal repair happens at this time. Between 10pm and 2am is when your body concentrates on physical repair of the body. After 2am the body focuses on mental repair. A lack of sleep means that you are missing out on parts of the repair system of your body.

Whether you’re watching TV or busy working, not getting enough sleep places STRESS on your body, which disrupts hormone balance, blood sugar levels and immune function. The impact of this will have to wait for another newsletter or blog as you can write whole books on the subject.

Just remember, when you’re tired you are more likely to reach for sugary snack as a pick you up!

Emotions

Do you comfort eat?

Emotions have a big part to play in weight loss and weight gain! Arguing with a loved one, bad day at work, your friend have lost weight again while you struggle or are you pissed off with yourself for failing at your diet again and pigging out!

When you’re depressed, run down or unmotivated do you comfort eat?

Comfort eating does makes you feel better but for how long, 5 mins? Not only do you have the bad day going around in your head you now have the added extra of the guilt of having the comfort food and failing on your diet again! You are also likely to suffer sugar blues on top of feeling bad as 20 to 60 minutes later your blood sugar level drops leaving you with feelings of hunger, irritability and depression. It must be time for another sugary treat!

Low Self Esteem

The way you feel about yourself has a massive impact on the way you act and what you say to yourself. Do you have more respect for others then you do for yourself, care more about other people’s health than your own?

You would never say the things you say to yourself to other people. So why do you think it is ok for you to speak to yourself in that way?

The more you say these things to yourself the more they become true as you will find ways to prove it to yourself! This will lead you to making the wrong choices regarding your food, exercise and lifestyle.

Boredom

I bet you have noticed that when you are busy and focused on the job in hand, you never think about or feel the need to eat! BUT, when you are lazing around and bored you feel hungry and the need to pick, the chocolate or biscuit tin calling your name!

Just like with emotional eating your boredom only subsides for the amount of time it takes to eat the treat, as soon as you have finished your back to thinking about the nibbles again. Often when you start this type of nibbling you don’t stop until there is nothing left, when the whole packet has been consumed!

Social events

Social engagements are one of my client’s favourite excuses for not sticking to a diet plan. Many see it as the ultimate get out!

Not so my friends!

Treating yourself at every opportunity is never going to be conducive to your health and weight loss. I’m not saying that you should never treat yourself but if you a regular social eater then be selective.

• Is it your birthday?
• Is it Christmas?
• A special calibration to mark a promotion or an achievement?

If the answer is no then why are you acting like a glutton? Everybody should have a cheat day but I know people who go out to dinner 3 – 4 times a week and go out for lunch 3 – 4 times a week.

Again I’m not saying don’t go, I’m saying pick your meals more carefully with an eye on your waist and your health. I normally ask restaurants to change things on my plate and very rarely have any problem; I find that 9 times out of 10 they are very accommodating.

The 7^th Barrier

There is only one barrier left to cover today and it’s the hardest one so I hope that you are sitting comfortably. It’s the hardest thing to admit as we tend to hide behind other barriers as excuses but really they all come down to one thing……… YOU!

All the barriers above lead to one thing, the wrong food choices. You are the one making the choices, so the only barrier is YOU!

You can lose weight, improve your health get fit have boundless energy as you have the choice of what to eat and whether to exercise.

Sometimes there are underlying health problems that can get in the way of weight loss. problems that do not allow easy weight loss, but these are for another day!

Committed to your success,

Don’t let YOU get in YOUR way

Keith and Amy

Achieving your goals, health, fitness, financial and weight loss

Have you noticed how some people have all the luck? They seem to effortlessly get everything they want!

I know it seem like they are just lucky but usually this is just not the case, they not lucky.

I can guarantee they have a different mindset to you. It’s all about what you tell yourself. Whatever your inner monologue is saying is what will happen. There is plenty of science and physiology that back this up.

There is an area of the brain called the central reticular activating system that stops you being overwhelmed by information. It helps you to focus on what’s important at any one time. If you keep negative thoughts/words in your mind body and soul you will get negative results as this system will help you to focus on the negative.

It’s a fact in life, bad things happen but it’s how you cope with it. You have a choice whenever something happens. You can either get stressed which will cause more worries and everything to seem worse or you can take it on the chin and think how you can overcome this and put a positive twist on it.

I have a question for you, what is your main goal for health and fitness?

The answer you have given to this question could tell me a lot about your mentality and your long term success rate.

If your answer was “I don’t want to be fat anymore and I am fed up of being tired”

This type of answer will not help you achieve your goal as you are keeping “being fat and tired” very much alive and in the front of your mind. Without you even realising it you are focusing on being fat and tired. We want you guys to move towards your goals not to move away from your current state.

So let ask the question again and reframe the answer, ‘What is your main goal for health and fitness?’

“I would like to have more energy and to feel sexy and comfortable in myself”

With this answer you are moving towards your goal and this is now what you are focusing on.

You now will have the start of a very powerful tool that will help you achieve your goals in life and to keep long term success.

I’m not saying that changing your whole mind set is easy, it is something that could be very emotional but with our 100% support and your awareness of it you can achieve it.

You need to really focus and concentrate on what YOU want, what will make you happy. Remember the unconscious mind needs to know what you are aiming for and you get what you concentrate on.

This is similar to a person walking through a field and always taking a particular route. After a number of times through the field, a path will begin to form. As the path forms, the person’s pace will become faster since he knows where to go and consequently the grass is worn down under one’s steps, eventually becoming a well trodden track. In the same manner, by having clients focus on what they want, a neuron path for the desired state and its associated behaviour will begin to form.

Each step is a step closer, so today I want you to focus on what you want and if a negative thought or feeling may cross your mind I want you to consciously reframe it into a positive though or sentence. Doing this consciously will then help the unconscious mind to build that pathway.

Each morning think of three positive things you would like to achieve today for example:

I would like to attend Bootcamp/personal training session today

I would like to go the whole day eating the best possible foods

I would like to spend quality time with my family

There are three positive actions that will improve my day.

Each night before you go to sleep I would like you to think about the day and only focus on the positive things that happened in your day.

Remember there is ALWAYS a positive!

Amy

When 10 more minutes in bed is more important than a proper breakfast

Is that extra 10 minutes in bed worth missing breakfast for?

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 for £1 or book a free consultation to find out whats best for you.

Committed to your success

Keith

Renter Friend Vs Personal Training

Do you want to rent a friend or have a Personal Trainer?

For my first post I thought that I would tell you a little about myself and the differences between Personal Trainers.

The Fitness Industry is a fantastic industry so many different approaches and so many avenues to go down. In this article I (Amy Black), am going to be talking about my journey to Absolute Training and the difference between Personal Trainers and Renter Friends. These are two completely different things as i will explain, as well as give you a little backround knowledge on myself.

As some of you may know i have just started working with Absolute Training, very different to what I was used to. Do I like it or prefer it? Well you’ll just have to wait and see……!!

I left school at 16 which did get frowned upon slightly by friends but of course I just wanted to earn money so I got a job as a leisure assistant at the Oxford Belfry hotel cleaning the gym and working on reception. I had a lot of fun to and also got qualified as an NVQ level 2 fitness instructor and that’s where the journey begins.

I left to work in Cannons now Nuffield Health. It was like a dream a massive gym and a 20 metre pool, classes, inductions, health assessments loads to do.

Well for the first few months.

Then it was standing on the gym floor for about seven hours a day cleaning. Have you ever walked into a gym and seen fitness instructers look like anywhere else would be better than where they are now?

Well that’s how i felt. I went on to my level 3 in advanced training to allow me to do Personal Training. I had been there a year and started to build a client base but things weren’t making any sense to me. On my course we got told machines are rubbish leisure centres aren’t doing the right job, trainers don’t train people properly. My head was just in a whirl wind I’m being told so many different things. I was looking around and was seeing clients achieve nothing although they had been with there trainer for two or three years.

Is that possible?

Trainers were taking their clients from machine to machine each week counting to 15. In my head I was thinking ‘surely this cant be my future job’ ‘Do I want to do this’. The answer was NO!!

Yet another Health assessment to do ‘GREAT’ but little did I know this was the health assessment that would change my future. I had the Clare that we all no and love.

 As two normal girls we got chatting about the industry and hormonal issues, from that health assessment I met Keith. I got to know him more when I attended the Personal Nutrition Course where I learnt heaps and felt so positive about life in general.

WOW food has a massive impact on our lives, something I’m sure I’ll be writing about in the future.

We got chatting and then the next thing i know I’m looking after his clients for a week while he is in America.

I have to admit there were times when I freaked and didn’t want to do it or felt I couldn’t but I just took a deep breath and got on with it this then led me to working with Keith and Clare, becoming part of the Absolute Training Team.

‘I’ll be ok I’ve done Personal Training before,’ or so i thought.

But in actual fact i had been a renter friend not really taking an interest in there posture or lifestyle I was there to talk to them have a laugh and watch them exercise.

Now I have people with injuries, stress issues, poor posture and muscle imbalances. Gone are the days where I ignored that, it has to be dealt with to get any results. AHHHHHHHHH it can be a complicated nightmare!

More days come where I thought I can’t do this im out of my depth. But by watching Keith listening and learning and discussion I have built on the solid foundation of my qualifications, so much information so fast!  

The early mornings are hard although I am getting there. We are working with real people not lycra gym bunnies, people with real worries and injuries. I have learnt that you need to start with the inside before the outside gets focused on.

Building real relationships with the clients working together to help build a better quality of life. That is why I can get quite tiered because you build a relationship with that person and you can go away still thinking of ways to help them. No client is ever forgotten about.

So The Differences between a Personal Trainer and a Renter Friend:

# Renter friends think its all about the exercise.

# Personal trainers build a relationship and coach’s people with all aspects that affect health.

# Your health and your results is the most important thing for a Personal Trainer

# Renter friends have lots of machines

# Personal Training is not ‘JUST A JOB’ we have a passion to making you feel fantastic inside and out.

The answer to which one do I prefer…..

Well a renter friend is a whole lot easier but who wants easy, so of course there is no doubt it is working with Absolute training being a Personal Trainer!!!

Hope to see you soon

Amy