Thursday 26 June 2008

Article: How to get a Beach Body


It is that time of year again we are all thinking about our holidays, we all want to look good on the beach or next to the pool. So how do you actually go about getting the body that looks good in a bikini/trunks? The answer is simple really, a lot of hard work and keeping a close eye on your diet.This short article is going to look at some of the main points to consider, when looking to loose a few pounds and tone up ready to hit the beach looking great!

The key to all weight loss is in the nutrition, most importantly you want to avoid all the fad type diets that often appear at this time of year(such as the maple syrup diet, cabbage soup diet, etc…) in favour of healthy well balanced nutrition. Fad diets are on the whole are not realistic, and un-realistic diets can hardly ever be maintained.

Below I have listed what I consider to be the major factors that lead to having a well balanced diet:-

  • Spread your calorie intake over five smaller meals per day (always start the day with a breakfast).
  • Cut you fat intake as much as possible.
  • Browns over Whites – Brown rice, bread, etc…
  • Avoid sweets, sugar, chocolate and other empty calories.
  • Increase the amount of vegetables you are eating (minimum of 5 portions per day).
  • Increase the amount of fruit you are eating (minimum 2 – 3 portions per day)
  • Drink water (2.5 litres per day)

To go with all the great, well balanced meals that you are taking on you need to match this with an increase in physical activity levels. This does not mean that you have to become a sprinter overnight to see results, physical activity includes anything that gets your heart going faster than it would be pumping at rest. So everything including gardening, walking up stairs, running, vigorous cleaning, going to the gym, playing a sport, playing around with the kids, all count as activity.

As with nutrition you want to set yourself safe and realistic goals, so if you have not done any exercise for a while start off with some more gentle activities, where as if you are already a gym user/player of a sport you could maybe start with a more vigorous form of exercise.

The general rule with this is the harder you work the faster you will see results (within reason). So for example if you walk for half an hour everyday it will take you longer to see results than if you ran for half an hour each day. This is where the balancing act comes in you have to push yourself but remember that exercise should not be painful. If you have gone to the point of pain you have gone too far.

Remember there are no miracle cures when it comes to losing weight and toning up, so keep in mind the general rule that if it seems too good to be true it often is. If you implement the general rules above you should be able to make some good fat loss in time for those summer holidays.

There is a lot of help out there now for people who would like to control their weight and keep healthy, try talking to your doctor, nutritionist or personal trainer for further information.

There is also a vast quantity of on-line resources available for those who are looking to improve their wellbeing. For links see http://foresight-fitness.co.uk/main/links.html.

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Product Review: Soulmate Food

Recently I came across a product that I have been looking for the likes of for a while. A product that can wipe away all those problems with knowing what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat it.

In my view nutrition is one of the cornerstones of wellbeing (the others being Physical Activity, Lifestyle, and Mental Wellness), Soulmate Food aims to help you with this by providing nutritional sound meals, that help to complement your efforts in the remaining three areas to improve your overall levels of wellbeing.

In my ten years working in the wellbeing industry I have often been told by clients that they find nutritional control the hardest thing to deal with. As opposed to exercise which many people find it relatively easy (once they get in the right mind set) to slot into their diary time to exercise. There are so many distractions when it comes to nutrition that making headway to an improved diet can be hard. The common obstacles seem to be, I don’t know what I should eat, I don’t have time to shop for the right food, and I don’t have time to make the right food. Well Soulmate helps to remove all those barriers.

The product itself is a very simple and effective idea, initially you fill in a form on-line that identifies your goals, allowing the people at Soulmate to give you a nutritional program to match what you are looking to achieve. Common ones seem to be weight control, predominately loss but they can also provide weight gain diets, the company also works with a number of sporting teams, providing the diets that fit with the players individual needs.

The second section on the web site allows you to mark off foods that you do not like, this section is amazingly detailed. For example allowing you to cross off tomatoes but allow tomato paste. I was amazed at how even the most fussy eater could easily send in the information to ensure that the food that turns up at their door only contained what they liked.

The food is then delivered in three day blocks, it can be delivered wherever you like within the UK. It comes in a cold box ready to just pop in the fridge.

The food itself was high quality, all came individually rapped and labelled (detailing contents, how to cook, and when to eat), and most importantly tasted great. All meals can either be eaten how they arrive or require short pan or oven cooking, making dinner time extremely easy. There was also a great variety of meals over the days, which meant that the food never became boring.

At first glance the product does seem quiet expensive, at an average cost of £25 per day. But if you stop to consider that you are getting 5 meal a day, that have been specifically designed for your nutritional needs. You do not have to go shopping or on the whole cook and most importantly this product will help you to achieve your goals! The price does look alot more reasonable.

All in all I was very impressed by Soulmate product and the professionalism and knowledge of the staff. This product will have a great impact on helping individuals to achieve their wellbeing goals and especially weight control. So I give it a 10 out of 10, well done Soulmate!

For more information contact Soulmate

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk

Thursday 5 June 2008

Personal Challenges

I was talking to a friend of mine who recently set himself the challenge of running the Manchester 10k. This challenge he decided he would do in aid of charity, something that I have great respect for.

This started me thinking about the nature of how we all should challenge ourselves. You can not beat the feeling when you achieve a goal, and a lot of the time even though the journey can involve a lot of sweat and tears, it can also involve a lot of fun and excitement. I think in this modern world of instant gratification and quick fixes, we often forget this, achieving your goals quickly is great but so too is the often long and trying journey to achieving something worthwhile.

Personally it made me reflect on the challenges that I have set myself, both in terms of my wellbeing, business and also personally. I have reflected on what I have done and decided to push the limits and set myself even harder, new challenges for the coming twelve months (just not quiet decided what yet). I will keep you all updated as and when I get started.

Life is all about achieving new things, making the most of the sort time that we have on this earth. So why not look at doing something new and push your limits, today!

As usual if you have any comments or if you would like any advice feel free to contact me at trainer@foreight-fitness.co.uk

TOM


Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk