Interval training is great way to get fit and lose weight.
Check out this short film to find out more about this type of training.
Jason Anderson is a Personal Trainer and Movement Therapist and in the podcast below he talks about the best type of exercise for weigh loss
Jason has dedicated his life to the Health and Fitness industry and has over 25 years of UK and International experience working alongside some of the most renowned therapists and conditioning specialists in the world.
Jason is now the Director of Movement3 where he specialises in movement dysfunction, joint and back pain, injury rehabilitation, performance conditioning and nutrition.
Please make any comments you have and I will pass them onto Jason.
To find out more about Jason visit his website. CLICK HERE
Hi everyone, here's a great little piece from a friend of mine. Her name is Susan Cass, she's a Personal Fitness Trainer and she really knows what she's talking about... Enjoy :)
I can't have that, I really can't have that - I want it, I want it - oh okay I'll just do an extra hour in the gym tomorrow, donuts aren't that bad after all anyway are they? Especially if I scrape a bit of the sugar off and it after all it has a hole in the middle.....
So tell me, Dust? high in fat, low in fat? Well probably both depending on your mind set that day. Had a great day? - yes? so its okay to reward yourself with "CAKE". Had a bad day? Yes? so it's okay to cheer yourself up with "CAKE"
Do you remember being at school and doing exceptionally well in your spelling test? Well it was more than likely your folks were waiting at the school gates with a huge smile and armed with that finger of fudge for being great. Didn't make the soccer team first squad? Your greeting at the school gates is now open arms, a sympathetic expression and that finger of fudge. So you can see a distinct pattern emerging. From a young age food was generally interpreted as both reward and condolence.
As we have gotten older we've understood that more calories we consume than we actually need leads to carrying additional body weight - so we start trying to balance out our calorie intake/expenditure formula by overtraining or going on bouts of sudden and severe training regimes which overtime can damage our internal body systems. For example in order to have that Krispy Kreme, you HAVE to do an extra hour on the stepper or run an extra 6 miles, or you'll feel guilty for the rest of the day.
So food can quite often resemble an emotional crutch to get us through any situation and battling your conscience on a daily basis could feel like the energy equivalent of fighting 10 rounds head to head with Mohamed Ali (if only the calorie burn were the same!)
The question is, Do I REALLY want to eat that, do I REALLY need it? If the answer is yes - then you will have it. If the answer is no, think about doing something that makes you feel good? Perhaps a long walk in the countryside alongside a babbling brook breathing in the fresh air? A competitive game of 10 pin bowling with friends at the local alley? a game of five aside with your friends after work? shopping with girlfriends and the purchase of those killer Jimmy Choo's, going to see the newest film release at the cinema? - just reading that probably made you smile.
Somewhere deep within us, we have some unique behaviour triggers, the things in life that truly inspire us and make us feel great and want to push on. Write down those thoughts, aspirations and goals that inspire you as well as your measurable goals and how you are going to achieve them. Refer back to them as often as you can as a reminder that will keep you on course. It will act as a motivational tool to make sure you stay focused and on track. Over time your goals and dreams may change, so you may need to try a variety of approaches and change your diet to find that winning formula for you. There is no right or wrong - if it works for you, it works!
If you always do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got - so chuck away those emotional food crutches, think about the consequences of your actions everyday and take a positive stance to change by taking responsibility to break the bad habits. Its truly liberating and you'll step out of bed every morning healthier, happier and more in control of you. No more food rewards and no more Majorie Dawes!
Article by
Susan Cass
Personal Fitness Trainer
When I was at school, our biology teacher told us a story of what happens when you put a frog in boiling water. I have no idea why he did, but it’s interesting from a behavioural perspective. In the same way as if you or I were put in a bath of boiling water, the frog will jump straight out. He will then be petrified of going anywhere near the water because he knows how hot and uncomfortable it is, which is understandable. So how do you get a frog to stay in boiling water, assuming you have a good reason for doing that? Well, you put the frog in water of a comfortable temperature and then gradually heat up the water: the frog gets used to the rise in temperature so stays there even when the water is at boiling point. Unfortunately the frog is unlikely to be able to survive and will die but doesn’t jump out because he doesn’t realise how much danger he’s in because he’s got so used to it.
With the hundreds of people with whom I’ve worked, I see a similar pattern in how people look after their health: people collect unhealthy habits, none of which seem that bad in isolation but over time they add up to be really painful. Just as the frog doesn’t realise how the temperature of the water is getting dangerous, many people don’t realise how their gradual decline in health is dangerous. For example, someone may start by putting on a bit of weight; then their excess weight makes it harder for them to breathe; this is followed by high blood pressure; and they then end up with Type 2 diabetes. At each stage, it’s ‘one more thing to cope with’, ‘a bit of bad news’, or, simply, ‘bad luck’: but, rather like heating up the water one degree at a time, this person eventually finds themselves in boiling water but doesn’t realise how serious it is. If they had suddenly gone from fine to poor health overnight, they would have noticed the significant change in how they felt: but because their health problems have been gradually building up, they don’t realise how far removed they are from perfect health. The good news, however, is that, even when you’re sitting in boiling water, many health problems can be reversed simply by changing your behaviour
What part of your body sends messages at 240 mph?
What part of your body generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all the world’s telephones put together?
Which part of your body has over 1,000,000,000,000,000 connections – more than the number of stars in the universe?
Which part of your body is made up of 15 billion cells?
The answer to all of these questions is your brain.
Many people believe in the power of computers but the brain is more complicated than any computer we can imagine:
The world’s most sophisticated computer is currently only as complicated as a rat’s brain.
The brain controls everything in the body: it processes a vast quantity of information about what is happening around us and inside us.
It’s the decision-maker that issues instructions to the rest of the body.
Crucial messages pass in and out of the brain through a network of millions of nerve cells that pass on information to other nerve cells, rather like a very complex electrical circuit.
The brain is responsible for regulating our emotions and our bodily sensations such as pain, thirst and hunger. And as if it didn’t have enough to do, it also takes care of memory and learning.
Scientists believed until recently that, unlike the other organs in the body, the brain was not capable of renewal or growth once we had attained adulthood. Evidence to suggest that new brain cells can be produced throughout the whole of our lives.
In 1998, researchers working under the direction of Professor Fred H. Gage at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in California and at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden, discovered that large numbers of new brain cells develop in an area of the brain involved with leaning and memory.
This reinforces the ‘use it or lose it’ theory of brain ageing.
It suggests that we do not have to remain victims of the way we are made and we can develop new positive ways of thinking and acting.
What do you think? Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
If social pressures to eat have brought you down in the past and you find it hard to say “NO” it doesn’t matter. You’re free to make up a whole new set of rules for dealing with situations in the future. Your circumstances might not change, the people around you might not change. But you can change!
So why do we find it so hard to say NO when we are offered tempting food? There are few reason for this, one being that we don’t want to hurt other peoples feelings when they offer us something. Another reason is the simple fact that these foods taste great and give us a high. In the western world most people eat, not because they are hungry, but because food stimulates their senses and makes them feel good.
We're biologically driven to feel good and our brain seeks out pleasure. Food fits the bill for a lot of people a lot of the time and this is why so many waistlines are expanding. To help you, the next time someone offers you something and you are not hungry, stop for a moment and ask yourself the question “Do I like this food enough that I want to wear it?” Then picture this food on your thighs or on your backside. I am sure this will make you think twice and make it easier for you to say the magical word “NO”
