A Fishy Post Today

I was always slightly bemused by people taking supplements –what can these little tablets do to help you? If you eat well surely you shouldn’t need anything extra?

This may be the case but in the last few years I have started taking, and been converted to the value of two supplements – and ant to focus on one of those in particular.

Let me just start by clarifying – this is not a sales pitch! I don’t work for Herbalife, Forever Living, Juice Plus or any other company. I don’t believe that taking a tablet every day can get the nutrients of 30 different fruits into your body. You need to eat proper food, a variety of foods and actual foods with lots of colour in them in order to look and feel good. This being said taken in conjunction with a good diet some supplements can add benefit. A multi vitamin is a no brainer just to ensure you get anything you might have missed from your diet that day (like having a protein shake to increase your protein intake). The other supplement with huge benefits in fish oil.

I started taking fish oil a few years ago whilst I was suffering badly with depression. I was on anti-depressants and had tried several types without finding one that suited me. I had never been one to try alternative therapies but I was at a point where I didn’t feel I had anything to lose so I bought a self-help book and tried the things it suggested- including taking a high dose of fish oil.

Obviously it took time and a lot more than just some fish oil to get better but I think it made a difference and I have continued to take the supplement ever since and I notice the drop in my mood if I forget to take it for a few days.

Apart from being proven to a help alleviate depression and anxiety it has shown to potentially have numerous other benefits including: reducing the risk of diabetes / cancer / cardiovascular diseases, improving brain function, increasing your sex drive, improving fertility, improving the condition of skin and hair, helping the immune system and even helping manage your weight.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money- the pots of vitamins which some companies charge £10 plus for will provide nothing that you can’t get from a supermarket own brand. The one thing I would mention about fish oil is it comes in different doses and you need to establish how much you want to take and then work out how many tablets you need to take from there (ideally you want to take as few tablets as possible to hit your daily dose). You can buy fish oil in a bottle (in case you don’t like taking tablets) however be warned fish oil in this form TASTES LIKE FISH OIL.

If you are considering taking any supplements I’d recommend this be something you look at.

Starting Successfully

For me exercise is a part of life, even a part of my job, so fitting in workouts every day is something I find myself doing almost naturally. This wasn’t always the case and we all have to start somewhere. How you approach an exercise regime however will be the making or breaking of how successful and long lasting it is, so here’s my (not very scientific) take on how to become a fitness loving convert:

Start with something you think you will enjoy – I started with one Zumba class a week because I thought it looked like fun – it could be any type of class or getting a gym programme drawn up for you by a fitness instructor at your local gym or joining a sports team or running club.
Aim to attend once a week to start- do this for 2-3 weeks. You may have aims of becoming a dedicated gym bunny but too much too soon will almost guarantee this won’t happen.
After a few weeks, when that one session is cemented into you routine look to add another – by this time you will have seen what else is available in your gym (if that’s where you’ve picked to train) and will have some idea on what else you’d like to try. Keep this up for another 2-3 weeks.
Add a third session, as above, and keep this up for another few weeks until those 3 sessions are a habit, an appointment you don’t even think about. You know you are at this stage when somebody mentions going for dinner on Wednesday after work and you say you can’t because Wednesday is Body Combat!
Once you reach this stage your body will be used to working out, you will have noticed your fitness increase, you will feel more comfortable in the gym environment and trying new things. If you want to add more sessions you will probably find you can with ease. Now you can start playing with when, where and how you exercise.

Tips:

Try different types of exercise and different classes. I never thought Body Combat or HIIT would be for me when I first tried them and now I teach both. Give everything you try 2 or 3 chances before you decide it’s not for you – the first time doing anything is normally a bit rubbish!
Try and do a variety of training – some cardio, some resistance (weights, body weight), something for flexibility. This will keep things fresh and be more effective.
If you need to miss a planned session because life gets in the way do not stress about it. You will rarely have the perfectly planned week of training EVER so loose the all or nothing mind-set and do what you can when you can.
Smile and say hi to people whilst you are at the gym and especially in Group Exercise classes. If you make friends you will find motivating yourself to go and exercise will be easier. I frequently spend longer in the café having a coffee and a natter than I do actually working out and have made some great friends. It also makes new things less scary when there are a few friendly faces.
Buy some nice gym kit. It doesn’t need to be expensive – Primark, Sports Direct and even Asda all normally stock good kit which doesn’t require selling a kidney to afford. When you feel good you tend to feel better about working out.

So to sum it up- start small and build up your exercise sessions slowly. Nobody becomes an athlete overnight and going from 0- 7 sessions a week is the most sure fire way to ensure you end up giving up around about day 3! If you are smart with your approach there is no reason why you can’t learn to love exercise as much as I do.

The Scales: My Arch Nemesis

Up until recently I have weighed myself weekly, every week, without fail, for about 19 years.

When you embark on a new regime and the scales show a downward trend consistently this is all fine. There comes a point when this stops however. Recently I have gained muscle – I know I have because I can see it. My body has got smaller / leaner/ however you want to articulate it- it has changed shape. My weight has gone up. This upset me. I complained. Quite a lot if I’m honest.

So I was advised to throw my scales in the bin. Weight is just your mass, it doesn’t take into account what amount of that mass is fat, muscle, water. It doesn’t reflect the hormonal changes of our body – women in particular are affected by our cycles and other things beyond our control (like werewolves only more vicious). It doesn’t affect how we look naked or in clothes or how strong / fit we are. I weigh 80kg now days – I am the same dress size as I was two years ago when I weighed 70kg.

I didn’t throw the scales away. Logic may be logical but 19 years of habit is hard to break. But I did hide them and commit to not weighing myself every week. That was about 3 weeks ago.

Mentally this is tough. What if I’m putting on weight? What if I have that illness where I look in the mirror and see someone thinner than I really am and so end up obese before I realise I’m doing something wrong? I know this isn’t logical but our relationship with our bodies is very often quite illogical.

Being successful with your fitness goals is as much about mentality as it is actually doing things. Right now i know I’m not ready to completely give up my scales – I’ve said I’ll maybe weight myself once a month or maybe every 6 weeks and look to cut down from there.

Do Less – Achieve More

The other day I wrote about one way you can reduce stress.

Here’s another.

I’m stealing this one from someone who knows a lot more about health and fitness than me. You can follow him too, in fact I’d recommend it.

https://rickylong42.wordpress.com

Do less.

Easy.

Everyone is so busy now. We all have multiple commitments and responsibilities and it can often feel like there are not enough hours in the day.

When you have a lot of things to do and feel stressed, assess your to do list. Do you actually need to do it? If you don’t then don’t. Simple as that. Get what has to be done done, let all the ideals go and feel your stress levels lower. Just the idea of this stressed me out at first but it works.

It works with training too.

First – “Will your workout compliment or complicate your day” – this is an actual quote.

If it will compliment it do it. If it will make life harder let it go that day – as long as you don’t let it go every day missing a session won’t hurt. Trying to squeeze one in when you really have more pressing things to do could cause stress though. Do less but make it count.

Second- Training doesn’t have to take hours (if you make it count)

I used to think it did.

Now I can train hard in 20-30 minutes. My lunch break. I can break a sweat, get out of breath and fatigue my muscles. I’m doing fewer hours in the gym and getting bigger results. I believe the saying is ‘more bang for your buck’. There’s a good reason why HIIT training has become so popular.

This one was short- a long post on doing less would be hypocritical!

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day.

I have mixed feelings.

On the plus side it’s a day to celebrate the women who have campaigned and fought for women like me to have opportunities and rights my mother and grandmother didn’t. This is great.

On the other hand- the fact that a group of people that make up around 50% of the population still need a ‘day’ to recognise and promote them is, in my view, a little sad. If we have International Women’s Day does that mean the other 364 days are Men’s days?

But I digress, this blog isn’t about politics or social awareness, it’s about fitness. So today in the spirit of International Women’s Day I want to write about women in the gym. Or more specifically my experience in the gym.

Five years ago, when I first started going to the gym, it was to attend Group Exercise classes. These felt ‘safe’ in comparison to the main gym space. There was someone there to tell me what to do, the moves were modified, everyone does the same thing and the space felt like a cocoon. I went into the gym areas too of course – PT sessions, occasionally training alone but always felt like a bit of a fraud. This is stupid really- my technique is OK but I lacked the confidence that I was doing the ‘right’ things.

In the last year I’ve started taking my own training, away from classes and teaching, more seriously. I’m focused. I have a plan of action. I know what I want to do and the reasons I am doing it. I’ve learnt new things. This change in training has meant getting comfortable in the gym itself and the area I struggled to enter the most was the weights room.

I always felt like the weights room was a male domain – the feeling as you appraoch a squat rack that you are encroaching on a space which is not for you. I really only felt comfortable if I was with someone else (and by that I really mean a male). From talking to other females I suspect many others have these thoughts. Some of the men who use these spaces do appear to actively discourage newcomers (it’s like the opposite of the group ex studio). However, I wanted to lift weights and so needed to get over this feeling.

Several months in and I now feel confident in the weights area of any gyms. Now I see that whilst I may be lifting less than (some of) the men in there my technique is ok – perhaps better than some and I have have just as much right to use a squat rack (even when the room is busy) as anyone else. Sometimes people will even smile at you, the other day someone asked me to spot them.

What changed to allow this to happen? Essentially nothing except my mindset. My confidence increased. Now when women ask me about training as we chat after classes, I encourage them not to be intimidated by the weights in the gym and to get in there and just have a go. Classes are a great tool for training and conditioning (and a brilliant starting point- Body Pump for instance will give you a grounding in various moves you can replicate in the gym) but I strongly believe that lifting heavy things should be an important part of all training programmes too.

How does this link to International Women’s Day? Well I guess it shows that for many women there are still barriers in all sorts of aspects of life. We don’t have equality. It’s a sad fact. BUT… It also shows that SOME of those barriers can sometimes be self imposed – my fear of the weights area was mainly in my head – so as much as there are still lots of inequalities that we need to fight against, we also need to realise that we hold the power to move forward and grow.

That applies to men as much as women to be honest. So I’ll finish as I started.

International Women’s Day.

I have mixed feelings.

Climbing Over That Wall

This time last week I wrote about how I’d hit a wall. When that happens you have two choices: wallow or get over it. I chose to try and climb over it and decided to keep a diary of the ups and downs of how I went on.

Monday

My alarm went off at 5am and I immediatey started to calculate how soon I could get back into bed this evening- 8 classes over the weekend (and 18 across the week) had definitely taken it’s toll on my body. But I dragged myself into the kitchen and had a pint of ice cold water (Tip- put a glass of tap water in the fridge before you go to bed each night – it will wake you up!) and took my supplements (Omega 3- when I don’t take this I really feel a difference in my mood and a multi vitamin). Having woken up I quickly got ready and headed for the gym. The great thing about morning classes is whatever mood I’m in when I arrive I leave feeling great. My classes are filled with hard working regulars and everyone always pushes so hard it makes the early morning start worth it so I got to work determined to have a better week. I had breakfast at 10 am (pancakes, bacon and banana) and treated myself to a slice of my favourite Cosco Carrot cake mid morning (one plus of working in a big office is there is always free cake!). My plan for the week is eat well 80% of the time but not to be too hard on myself, allow treats and above all eat with purpose. The cake made my busy Monday brighter so the value it bought me outweighs any negatives (and it fit my macros anyway so win win!). My day didn’t go to plan and 3 unplanned meetings meant I didn’t get to train at lunch time, so I made sure I fitted in an intense 20 minute workout (courtesy of online coach Biceps and Burrittos – you need to follow their Instagram page: biceps_and_burritos) before my Body Combat class. Result – I finished the day feeling like I was starting to get back on track!

Monday Training:

21 Kettlebell swings (16kg)

15 Push ups

9 Burpee tuck jumps

3 Rounds for time

5×5 Kettlebell Squats (64kg)

Tuesday

Snow day! Despite the snow my morning spin class was full and this made up for the fact I managed to leave my food for the day on the train AND loose my favourite gloves on the way to the office (cue red raw hands!). Got my new training plan through so made sure I got down to the gym at lunch time to ty a session out. For the first time in a few weeks it has started to feel good to train. Happy Heather and an evening off because planned rest is also important!

Tuesday’s Training

Bent over Rows 10×10 (30kg)

Chest Press 10×10 (25 kg)

50 Squats 40 Push ups, 30 Lunges, 20 tricep press, 10 burpees – For Time

Wednesday

Morning Spin done and a day off my own training because I teach Body Combat in the evening so find adding training to a Wednesday a bit draining. Feeling like I’m eating well- staying within an 8 hour feeding window and sticking to a 5-15% calorie deficit with lots of protien. Today was World Scouse Day, and as I work with a Scousser he made us all Scouse with Tiger Breadfor lunch- very welcome given the snow! Severe train delays meant 2 hours waiting at the station for a train before giving up and getting a taxi – really wanted to eat rubbish when I got in to warm up but resisted, had a hot shower and lots of water instead- felt angelic!

Thursday

England cannot deal with weather!!! The journey from hell to get to work (I had to get my morning classes covered) and an ice cold office (to the person who decided it was a good idea to remove the windows in the middle of the coldest spell in the UK for years – well done!) meant my motivation was severely lacking. But I got a lunchtime workout in and made it to the gym to teach Zumba to the 2 brave souls who made it to the gym! Then on the way home I fell over on the ice (doh!) Despite a challenging day (and a sore bum) I ate pretty well but realised my stretching and water consumption has been poor over the last two days.

Thursday’s Training

Sumo Deadlifts 10×10 50kg

Alternate clean front lunge 5×10 20kg

3 Front Squats, 3 Push Press, 3 Front squat, 3 Push Press x 7 30kg

Friday

I am over the weather now – the snow needs to leave!. Every journey has taken longer than normal and is mentally and physically draining and training and meal prepping time has been limited because of it so I have struggled to eat as planned. I have tried to make reasonable choices however and have definitely managed to eat better than last week and have got in plenty of good quality training sessions, including a lunch time session today and teaching a one hour class this evening. This perhaps made up for the pic n mix i scoffed at my desk this afternoon and the Krispy Kreme donught someone ave me! I was supposed to be heading to Glasgow this weekend for a Les Mills event but the weather has put a stop to that so I will spend my unexpected weekend off training, meal prepping and setting myself up for an even better week next week.

Friday’s Training

Bulgarian Split Squat 10×10 Body weight

Upright Row superset with tricep press 10×10 30kg

15 min AMRAP: 20 thruster, 20 burpee, 20 sit ups

After a rotten week last week where my mindset was all wrong I’m proud at how I’ve turned it around this week. Training has been strong, diet has been better (not perfect but that’s OK). I still have things I know I’ve neglected (water, stretching) but this week is proof that with a slight change in attitude you can feel so much better about everything.

Have a great weekend!

Reduce Stress: Rise Early

I am a stress head. I’m honest enough to admit I get stressed about silly things. But I also have a busy life. I have two jobs and work an average of around 55 hours a week, I’m normally away from my flat for about 16 hours a day during the week and I don’t get much down time at the weekend either. Looking at it this way it’s not surprising I can sometimes feel highly strung. So when I see a simple idea or suggestion of how I could reduce stress I’m open to give it a go.

The idea of rising early to reduce stress sounded a bit bonkers to me on face value. Getting less sleep – how can that help? But the theory goes that it both gives you more time to get the things that are important to you done (exercise, all those little admin tasks, whatever is important to you) and means you are more likely to get into a fixed routine. So I considered it.

I start work at 7 am Monday to Thursday so I already get up at around 5.30 am – and when I thought about it by I realised that by the time I get to the office at 9 am I normally feel pretty good because I’ve been up a few hours, I’ve worked out and I feel awake. In contrast a lot of my colleagues who have just woken up and rushed in feel more (not less) frazzled than me. The theory could be right.

So I’ve started trying to get up at 5 am some days. That extra half an hour means I rush less, sometimes have time to do some housework, and leave for work calmer than when I grab that extra half an hour in bed. Of course some days I need that extra bit of sleep and don’t feel guilty about taking it, but it’s a simple habit to get into that can help make your day feel less rushed, make you feel more accomplished early on (which in turn sets you up for a good day) and can help you be more productive – all of which does help reduce that feeling of stress.

Do you have any simple habits which can reduce stress? Does rising early work for you or do you need as much sleep as possible?

Coffee: My Drug of Choice

I love coffee.

I mean like more than I love most people.

Maybe more than I love cake.

It’s probably fair to say it’s a bit of an addiction.

Last May when I first started to work with my online coch I did a food diary and his first reaction was along the lines of – “Wow how muh coffee – how are you still alive?” To be fair, whilst I thought my coffee intake was average I was actually drinking around 11 cups a day (and most people’s reaction to that number tells me it probably actually wasn’t very average- if you think it is perhaps you too have a coffe addiction!).

The words adrenal fatigue were mentioned. I had to look it up.

To fix this I started by halving my coffee intake to around 6 cups a day then a week later dropping to just 3.

At first this was hell. I craved it. I am not a nice person without coffee.

For me- Decaf does not provide an adequate substitute. Trying to appease myself with decaf made me sad.

But I perstisted, adapted, and for some time I established a comfortable routine of 3 cups max.

Then I spent 3 weeks on a strict Paleo eating plan and to survive my black coffee intake went up. This was in January and although I am now back to eating everything again my coffee consumption has not gone back down.

So I am making a consious effort now to stick to 3 coffees a day. No easing myself in – just jumping straight back in at 3 a day. My sleep and hormones should thank me for it.

Do you have a coffee habit you need to get in check? How have you approached it? I was thinking green tea / herbal teas might act as a nice substitute, maybe having a mug of hot water instead. I’m not sure they will satisfy the craving for caffine but it’s a thought.

Perhaps you don’t drink much tea or coffee but always overload them with sugar and want to cut that out. I did this years ago by just going cold turkey (3 sugars to none in tea – it tasted really bad for about 2 weeks, now I can’t stand even a hint of sugar in my hot drinks – your taste buds can quikly adapt).

We all have our little bad habits and when they involve caffine / sugar I don’t think it’s an exageration to say they are actually addictions. Getting an addiction in check is a little victory you can be proud off – so if you see me this week and I’m snappy through lack of coffee maybe remind me of this please!

Hitting a Wall

This week I hit a wall!

After 9 months of focused training and good results I suddenly and inexplicably ground to a halt. The idea of training or eating a vegetable seemed impossible. My diet became 99% McDonalds with the occasional glass of water. Teaching my classes (I have 16 this week) has been mentally and physically challenging.

Perhaps this is a sign of over training? Or maybe it’s a Platau…

So I took the week off from any exercise I wasn’t being paid to do. I took the week off from meal prep and ate what I fancied. The exercise thing made me nervous. The food thing excited me.

The results? Well I do feel more rested five days in, I’ve slept better and had a bit more downtime which has no doubt helped my CNS. But … I also feel bloated and rubbish from the excessive amount of junk I’ve consumed and I can almost feel my body crying out for water! Despite this I didn’t seem to be able to stop myself buying more and more fatty, greasy, sugary food.

I feel like I’ve lost my mojo and confidence a bit. Like I’m back where I started 9 months ago. I just spoke to my coach about it. As soon as I said it I felt stupid. It doesn’t make any sense when you think about it logically, which goes to show how much your nutrition and physical activity can affect your mindset and mood. Sometimes you need to say the crazy things in your head outloud to realise the ridiculous things that are holding you back.

So tonight, I’m going to try and get my diet back on track. I’m still not going to train again until Monday but some proper meals feel like a necessity now. So on my way home I’m going to buy some nice (and microwavable because it will be 10 pm by the time I get home) meat and veg. Tomorrow I will shop, Sunday I will meal prep and I will try not to overload on chocolate or cake.

Next week I need to put my big girl pants on and get back into the gym, eat well 80% of the time and not dwell on a bad few days. I was going to weigh myself to see where I am currently at (that’s a whole other topic for a future post) but instead I’m just going to see how I feel this time next week in comparison to now.

This week I hit a wall. Now it’s time to climb over it.