Food Shopping

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

If you don’t buy healthy foods you can’t eat healthy foods! People on diets and people who want to eat healthier tend to make the wrong choices when shopping. Their limited knowledge leads them to eating the same kinds of foods over and over again resulting in little or no change to how they look and feel.

On today’s post I’m going to focus on food shopping for breakfast and lunchtimes. Regardless of whether you buy in advance or if you are out and about. You will quickly see there are healthy options available if you know what to look for.

Some protein foods for breakfast & lunch
Natural yoghurt
Cottage cheese
Nuts & seeds
Almond nut butter
Cold cuts of meat or leftovers
Gluten free pate
Ready to eat fish e.g. smoked mackerel
Tinned wild fish
Boiled eggs (can eat cold)
Whey protein powder

Being organised and making sure you have these foods in stock is the key. It makes life much more easier and gives you control over what you eat. It may look basic but it is very effective at giving you healthier alternatives for breakfast and lunchtimes. As you can see these foods are convenient to take to work and eat anywhere.

Some carbohydrate foods to go with the above
Fruit & berries
Rice cakes
Bag of washed spinach
Jacket potato
Cooked rice
Salad bowl
Sugar snap peas
Asparagus
Any other vegetable you like eating raw or cold after cooking

And finally some healthy fats
Flax seed powder / oil

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Chop Crunch On Swiss Ball

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

1. Lying over a Swiss ball with your tailbone and head touching the ball. Arms extended overhead holding a dumbbell or a medicine ball. Your tongue needs to stay on the roof of your mouth.

2. Drawing your belly button inwards, crunch up, rotating your trunk and chopping with the dumbbell or medicine ball to your side as you rise up. Imagine rolling from your head to your spine like rolling up carpet.

3. Reverse the movement unwinding from the low back to your head and repeat.

4. Perform on the opposite side.

5. Exhale on the way up and inhale on the way down.

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Reverse Crunch On Floor

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

1. Lying on your back with your arms on the floor and feet off the floor, thighs vertical and knees bent.

2. Drawing your belly button inwards, lift your pelvis off the floor and curl your spine peeling off the floor joint by joint. Use as little movement at your hips as possible.

3. Lower under control and repeat.

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Advice About Getting Weighed

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

Avoid the mental torture of routinely getting weighed because it won’t tell you everything. Chasing numbers isn’t the way to get slim. Numbers on the scale won’t tell you that your diet stinks and your exercise routine isn’t good enough. Body weight can fluctuate from morning to evening and diets that encourage regular weighing will probably never help you lose the fat from the areas you want.

To get lean and toned a natural diet needs to be your priority together with regular functional exercise. If you follow this advice you will never need to get weighed ever again.

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How To Get Motivated

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

Are you lacking inspiration to get in shape? Or are you struggling to stay motivated so you can keep going to the gym and eat healthily?

Find your ammunition and use it when the going gets tough. Use timescales and upcoming events to help keep enthusiasm high. Stimulate your drive for change by using visual and mental pictures of the body shape you would like. You could listen to uplifting music or do anything else unrelated to health and fitness that gets your fire burning.

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Get A Head Start

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

“Todays preparation determines tomorrow’s achievement.”

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Try A Sugar Free Diet For One Week

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

See the difference a sugar-free diet can make to your weight and waistline in only one week. You can expect to feel the benefit instantly with higher energy levels.

Read food labels and avoid all types of sugar. Beware of sugar disguised under different names. Look out for words on food labels ending in “ose” this means it is sugar. Examples are sucrose, maltose, dextrose, fructose, glucose and so on.

To prevent sugar cravings make sure you get adequate amounts of protein in your diet and plenty of healthy fats.

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If You Want To Get Lean Change Your Mindset

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with exercise routines that don’t produce results. If you aren’t willing to try different approaches you are most likely to stay out of shape.

When progress is nonexistent it is common to increase exercise volume. This is the worst thing to do. Reaching a high level of intensity every time you train is more important than duration.

You can either train long or hard, you can’t do both!

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Twitter

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

Follow Barnsley Personal Trainer on Twitter to get the latest exercise, healthy eating and motivation news from me. This week I’ve been uploading pictures of some of my meals to help clients with meal ideas and portion sizes. I’ll be doing this more often in the future so please keep checking my tweets.

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The Missing Link

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

People who struggle to lose weight are often missing at least one vital missing link that could make the difference between quick fat loss and none at all.

Below are some signs to look out for and solutions.

Is your diet made up of mainly processed foods?
Aim to eat at least 80% natural food (no additives, no preservatives, no artificial colourings and no artificial sweeteners).

Do you eat wheat?
Find out why wheat may be keeping your gut big. Read How To Start A Gluten Free Diet

Do you follow any consistent guidelines for portion sizes?
Read There’s No Need To Weigh Food & Count Calories

Do you feel hungry between meals and lack energy?
Check out Balancing Hormones – The Secret To Fat Loss to learn which simple step can help prevent fat storage.

Do you wake tired?
Listen to Lights Out! Is Lack of Sleep Making You Fat? & find out how a lack of sleep could be making you fat.

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