Secret recipe for Abs...

If you take one thing from this post, let it be that Abs are made in the kitchen... Going to the gym is just not enough.

There's a common misconception that if you go to the gym, you can eat whatever you like... WRONG! If you don't make good choices in the kitchen, all the squat sessions and playing with ab roller will not get you the results you're chasing. 

Think about this...if you do 3/4 really hardcore sessions a week, is that really enough to counteract the other 165-ish hours that you spend sitting on your ass at a desk/in front of the tv/in the pub eating and drinking crap? Absolutely not! 

If you want to drop body fat, then your first concern should be every last thing that passes your lips. Did you steal a chip from your friend's plate over lunch? Did you pick at more cheese than you should have when you prepared your salad? Did you take a sneaky piece of cake that was offered as a sample in the supermarket? IT ALL COUNTS!!!! You can absolutely destroy your progress with little 'treats' or slips like this... I don't mean to sound like an army commander here, but you need to be vigilant!!!! You need to keep track of what you're eating...every bite... be honest about it, weigh your food, use online calorie calculators or apps like My Fitness Pal to track your daily food intake. 

For me, I have to weigh food to keep a check on portion sizes... do you know what 30g of almonds looks like? Chances are you seriously underestimate it and end up overeating. After a while, you'll get good at eyeballing how much you should be eating of certain foods... but until then, and until you're sure you're not going to sneak an extra few here and there, then you need to weigh everything! It's a brilliant way to change your mindset about portion control. 

Another thing I do that I find really useful, is planning my meals for the week and writing a shopping list based on that menu. I don't deviate from that list when I shop, which stops impulse buying of foods I shouldn't eat, keeps costs down and stops food waste as a result of buying too much. It really is worth taking 5 minutes before you go shopping to write that list. Having a set menu might seem boring, but it's not like I eat the same dinner all week, I make a conscious effort to vary meats/fish and veg so I'm always eating food I enjoy.... this prevents the appearance of cravings or the dessert stomach... 

If you really want to reach your goals, you need to be determined. If you eat crap because you think you don't have the time to cook real food, then I'll make a couple of suggestions.... Firstly, if you have time to watch an hour of tv a night, then you absolutely have time to cook. If you really find you're time restricted in the evenings, then maybe cut training from 4 sessions to 3 and spend that extra hour cooking meat and fish and preparing salads.... pop them into containers in the fridge, and you're good to go with healthy meals. It's only an hour, and it would be far better spent getting your nutrition in order, than training that's going to be undone with a takeaway.

The arguments I hear all the time when it comes to eating real food are;

1. It's too expensive to buy lots of meat & vegetables
2. I don't have many kitchen utensils/enough fridge space
3. I'm not sure what to cook

I'm going to deal with these arguments in my next post. I'll explain why eating real food is affordable, give you plenty of reasons why processed food is damaging your health, and tell you how you can make the best of the equipment/space you do have and create a varied weekly menu that fits in with your lifestyle and your goals. 

Set goals and see results!

In a former life, I worked as a Business Analyst in the area of Change Management... sounds like a made up job, in a made up department right?! It was actually one of my favourite jobs. I learned that resistance to change was a huge factor in the failure of a project....if you haven't got the buy-in of everyone involved, then how can you expect to reach milestones and then your ultimate goal?

The same applies when you're trying to help someone change their lifestyle, or change your own. I guess what I'm really talking about here is motivation, your passion and desire to achieve your goals. You'll never succeed until you're really motivated, and I'm not talking about a vague notion in your head that you'd like to drop body fat/gain muscle or whatever it may be, but it's that moment where you think 'F*ck this... I really badly want to change... let's do it!' Once you make a decision to change something, commit to it, own it and get off your ass and work for it! 

Setting goals is important....not vague goals like 'I want to be thin'...you need to put a number on it, a dress size, a waist measurement... it doesn't really matter. Your goals need to be quantifiable... you need a real measurement so you can actually track your progress. Otherwise, you're really just aimlessly working towards an unspecified goal... and you know what, that's a recipe for failure. 

You need to set short, medium and long term goals.... and yes, I'm aware this sounds like a horrible college assignment that we all had to suffer through! Set your long term goal first.. then break it up into short term goals (things you can change/put into practice immediately to get you to your medium goals). Next think about your medium term goal... this is important.. it's this medium term goal/milestone that will firstly keep you focussed, giving you an achievable target to work towards, and secondly help you track your progress. Assessing our goals regularly is really important... it helps us to celebrate little successes, and also helps to reflect on areas that we need to improve upon in order to stay on track to meet our long term goals. 

So... for example... You want to shed 2 stone... 

That's great... we've now got a really specific goal to work towards which can easily be measured. You've got to be realistic... this is probably why lots of people fail to stick to new healthy lifestyles, they want unrealistic results overnight...(I want to drop 2 stone in a month for my holiday... not going to happen!) So make your goals achievable, otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure, and that's just going to destroy any motivation you have. Whilst it's really important not to set yourself crazy targets like shedding 2 stone in a month, it is crucial that you put a time frame on your goals... otherwise you're just aimlessly fumbling towards your target, and roll on 3 years time, you still haven't achieved your goal and you now want to lose 3 stone! 

This is going to sound nerdy as hell..... but I'm deadly serious, get a piece of paper and write down the following: 

1. What you want to achieve
2. Why you want it
3. How you will get there
4. When will you succeed

You don't need to show it to anyone... but documenting your goals and motivations will make it so much easier to maintain your focus. It's also important to constantly review your goals, and make note of the things you've done well and those things that haven't gone so well and are hindering your progress. Be 100% honest.. after all, it's only for your eyes. If you had a Mars bar, write it down! This will make an excellent learning tool to look back on.. it will show you your strengths and weaknesses, and will help you constantly improve. 

Even though I've specifically referred to weight loss goals here, the same principles apply whether your goals are training related, work related or whatever... To reach our goals, we need a plan... If you don't know where you're going, how are you going to get there???

Be clear about what you want to achieve and give it everything! There's nothing quite like the feeling you get when you reach your goals...