Liquidation in a business sense of course is defined as termination of a business operation by using its assets to discharge its liabilities.

But in a more general sense it also means settlement, extermination and elimination.

A pretty powerful word is that there liquidation!

Today’s post is one I have wanted to write about for a while on a subject that I am sure will have some opposition due to its widespread use and current popularity.

It is a subject however that I am noticing is beginning to affect people’s mentality, relationship with food and ultimately their results when it comes to changing their body composition.

This subject: Liquid diets.

The Problem

We have spoken a lot about mind set recently as well as a lot about hormonal influence on the body. We know these are both important. We also know about the importance that nutrition has upon us in every single way, from how we think, to how we look to how we ultimately perform. What we pop in our pie hole is important.

Over my time in the industry I have noticed the demand for faster and faster results. Most of the time we here at Xcelerate Fitness are able to meet these demands. Afterall I managed to lose 100lbs and get in the shape of my life in just over 6 months, so I would like to think I know a thing or two about body transformation.

Quick fixes aren’t always the solution you should be looking for

However such expectations are getting more difficult. People who have spent 10 years gaining weight now want a long lasting fix that will get them where they want to be in a matter of weeks.

This is normal. I was exactly the same when I first decided to lose weight. I remember standing in front of that mirror every day, week, and month pinching away at myself, saying ‘it’s just not going quick enough’, hell even if I am on a lean up mission now I still do it!

There is nothing wrong about wanting results. In fact your desire to make big changes should be commended.

What is wrong in my opinion however is turning to a solution that will ultimately set you up for failure in the long run, create an environment not conductive of results psychologically and dumb down your body composition results for the future.

It only took me a quick Google search to find this. It is the perfect example of the sort of questions I am receiving now on a very regular basis.

I did the ****** diet about 2 years ago – It wasn’t easy and I only managed 9 weeks, but lost 35 lbs in that time. It was great – at the time!! I’ve managed to keep about half of it off, but am still at 238 lbs, and it seems to have affected my metabolic rate.

I do loads of exercise – cardio and weights and am fairly fit (relatively speaking!). It worked fine at the time but I am now struggling BIG TIME!

Does this sound familiar?

Liquid or shake based diets have been around for years. In my day it was slim fast. Despite tempted by it’s promise of quick weight loss and result  I never actually tried it. Roll on 10 years or so and we are surrounded by a whole multitude of different brands that promise the world in just three simple shakes a day.

I am not here to criticise people’s decision to take the shake route at all and in some situations liquid nutrition can be a godsend (I use it with different cleanses).

The top reasons for committing shake-based strategies include:

• Takes the thought process out of food preparation
• Flavours resemble foods which we do not associate with dieting
• Quick results – I have known people to lose 14lbs in a week or two.

So all looks good! Hell I would buy into this based on the above!

It’s what happens further down the line though that I am worried about.

The Shortfall

If these liquid diets work so well, then why after a set period of time following such a plan am I getting more and more individuals coming to me who have:

• Huge plateaus – many haven’t seen progress in months!
• Lost a lot of weight but don’t look great – saggy skin, lack of definition, little shape
• Have regained everything they lost and more
• Are down in the dumps and struggle to see an ounce of positivity
• Struggle to lose weight on a plans based on different models of nutrition which work with everybody else.
• Wouldn’t know a solid stool if it popped out and slapped them in the face?

This is scary and I think something that people are simply not aware of when they are jumping in feet first.

At first I thought it may just be coincidence, but lately having seen more and more ‘Shakey Jakes’ I am beginning to put together a pattern in health symptoms, moods, and the results that we can ultimately get them.

People’s bodies because of liquid diets have gone into liquidation. They have exterminated their resources. Eliminated their ability to make progress but worse of all settled for the fact that they are a failure. These individuals have entered the realm of metabolic damage and as you will see below this isn’t a good place to be.

Main Reasons For The Slow

Honesty to the plan aside (yes many people often think they are eating less than they actually are) the main reasons for this hiccup:

• Insufficient Daily Calories
• Insufficient Nutrition – i.e. vitamins, minerals as well as real food content
• Digestive Stress/Poor Digestion
• Hormonal Disruption

Which will all lead to:

• Muscle Loss
• Repressed Metabolism

The Solution

So what is the best solution for individuals who find themselves in this situation? Well let me tell you now it isn’t pretty.

Firstly you NEED to get off your liquid based diet you are on. I can completely understand that many people who are in their early phases of loss will find this hard to accept especially if the scale weight is rocketing down, but please trust me when I say this.

Living on a diet that is providing inadequate calorific intake has no long term positive benefit (except I hear on the vine it can put the brakes on aging) and can have a huge impact on how you digest your food, how your hormones act in the body and how you store fat at the present and will go onto store fat in the future.

Most of the liquid based diets do have a ‘return to normal eating’ regime somewhere, but do you think these companies actually want you to revert to real food? Where is the profit for them in that! These ‘plans to normality’ are often not so well publicised. Some people are unaware they exist and some people just have had enough of such restriction by that stage that they just want to get back to eating what they used to.

MISTAKE!

This brings me onto my next point. When you are consistently on a low calorie diet your basal metabolic rate will drop. Your body is a clever machine and does not want you to starve; it therefore reduces your metabolic rate so that it can be more efficient with the nutrition you are providing it with. This often comes alongside feelings of tiredness, fatigue and sometimes even mild depression.

The problem being that when you are lowering and lowering your metabolic rate to be more and more efficient, your body is actually requiring less calories to run. In theory, to lose more weight using the calorie in/calorie out model you would need to further reduce your calories.

So when you hit a plateau at 500 calories a day….where on earth do you go? Add more cardio? Sure it will give you a little blip down the scale but not much. Reduce your calories? Where to? There is absolutely no route for progression from this stage.

To lose weight efficiently and to go the full slog you need to have the metabolic capacity to lose weight. If you are maintaining your current weight on a liquid based diet of 500 calories a day, I really hate to break it to you but you currently do not have the current metabolic capacity to lose weight.

The Only Way Is Up

The sad note of this story is that for most people who are at this stage of metabolic decline, continuing on such low calories or worse adding more activity will only lead to more frustration, more starvation and further damage. Also, looking to other diets that work for people not in your situation will not take you closer to your goal. It breaks my heart to say it but you are going to need to adjust your time scales to get the body of your dreams. I may be wrong but a quick fix out of this just may not be possible for you right now.

You need to:

• Start adjusting back to real food and real calories that require proper digestion
• Ease real food back in gently perhaps starting at 1 meal per day and gradually tapering back to all solid meals.
• Consider some form of digestive support depending on the length of time you have been following a liquid based plan.
• Supplement with magnesium, zinc, fish oil and vitamin D
• Week on week you need to begin adding back small amounts food. Small, small amounts every 7 days which should not effect the number on the scale. I still like the 40/40/20 split of Carbs/Protein/Fats to begin people off with before individualising.
• Prepare yourself psychologically because it may take some time for your body to get used to eating back in this pattern, you may find you even gain back a little more fat.
• Start looking at nutritional solutions that will keep you in shape all year around for life whilst keeping you healthy rather than a quick fix.
• Look into your why’s and the things that make you happy. Is it just the weight that is bringing you down? There are often other things – you can conquer these while repairing your metabolism.
• Take the time to learn your behaviours associated with food and where they come from. If you don’t understand your behaviours how can you adjust them.

With a recovered metabolism, i.e. you should be able to maintain your current bodyweight at a sufficient level of calorific intake, then and only then should you begin pursuing a plan based around fat loss, and just as you will have learnt from the above, you will need to again take care of yourself by making small, deliberate and consistent adjustments based on your weekly progress.

Working with a coach who can monitor weekly progress accurately should be a definite consideration for these individuals.

This is just the start in terms of my own research and experience, I think there is going to be a lot more to uncover that will really help going forward.

To your success

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (http://www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2013 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

Instead many have grown to replace this powerful word simply with the words ‘like’ or even worse ‘do’

‘I like this’, ‘I do this’.

As our world becomes more dominated by technology many of us have lost our ability to truly connect with our environment, identifying what really makes us tick and what fills us with excitement. This lack of connection with our greater environment is what drives the vicious cycle of slogging through life unsatisfied. It doesn’t take much social media status browsing to realise that passion as a description for a topic or even for life is a word that many are unfamiliar with.

Sure many people can tell us what they like, but how many people can tell you what their life’s calling is and the legacy they wish to leave?

Passion is by no means something that you are born innate with nor can it be taught by another. It is something that has to be searched for and found. Passion is something that has to be developed over a significant period of time with an appropriate set of circumstances that touch an individual enough to create an emotional connection.

As a description we often pair the idea of being passionate about something with our goals, our vision and the legacy we as individuals are trying to create.

It seems no coincidence that the word ‘passion’ comes from the Greek verb ‘Paskho’ meaning ‘to suffer’. The most passionate people I know are the ones who have suffered in some capacity but have gone on to use this struggle positively to create a legacy that touches and inspire others.

We have to remember that suffering causes a very strong emotional connection, so if you are suffering right now, just think what powerful things you can do with it!

Passion comes from change, but it is also one of the most important catalysts for change. When you think about some of the fantastic things you have achieved in your life you can nearly always associate a feeling excitement or enthusiasm for that subject. It is human nature to associate good feelings with success.

You see, over a set period of time your consistent efforts even if forced in the beginning add up, building a structure, block by block. With each block laid down a nugget of knowledge, an interest,  a lesson learned, an experience, a struggle lies within it. This is passion in the making. This is you making that emotional connection with a topic that can create a legacy.

Whenever you have achieved something big think of all those passion filled blocks that you lay down one by one as the foundations to your eventual achievement. Much like a game of Tetris, at the time of play the blocks didn’t always fit neatly together and make a lot of sense, but the more experienced you got in your situation, in your game, the more you were able to organise them all one by one into place. You created meaning.

The sad thing in this day and age is that people no longer share their experiences or success, whether it is through fear of judgement or because they just feel nobody will be interested.

This is passion lost and passion wasted!

An important thing that I was once told was, ‘You don’t need to be an expert to educate and inspire others, you just need to be a few rungs above them on the ladder towards a certain goal.’

To find your passion, look at every success in your life you have had. Identify why you were successful and what got you your eventual outcome. Share it! This is where the magic lies, the passion grows and legacy develops. Don’t waste it.

To your success

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (http://www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2013 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

As we move closer to the end of January, the gyms are quietening, the streets have returned to their normal silence and those ‘healthy’ supermarket aisles are once again littered by only a select few.

‘Where did everybody go?‘

What Happened? Why did everyone fall off the wagon?

I ask myself this same thing every year. I see such good intentions demolished and shattered right before my eyes.

And do you know what I think it comes down to?

Self Esteem

It may seem a little strange to bring up self-esteem here, but our self-esteem levels can have a big impact on our success, whether it is in fat loss, muscle gain or just about any goal for that matter.

Self-esteem should be viewed as a bank account. You can be in credit and you can be in debt. When you are in credit it is a lot easier for things just to fall into place. When you are in debt however it can feel like the whole world is against you and that success will never come your way.

Our current self-esteem level is actually based on promises. For every promise we make to ourselves that we keep, that adds a credit to the bank account. For every promise we break that deducts a credit from the bank account.  Self-esteem is about trust. Trust in nobody else but yourself.

Now these promises don’t even need to be big! It could be ‘today I am going to get home from work at 8pm’. You roll in at 7:30pm, wahey that’s a whole lot of self-esteem credited to you Madam. However you roll in at 10:30pm, uh oh, that’s a whole lot of self-esteem debited to you Madam.

You see how it works?

The more promises you break, the lower your self-esteem. The more promises you keep, the higher your self-esteem.

When our self-esteem is high or in credit, when we get a little tap of failure on the nose, it knocks us in our stride certainly, but due us having a good level of esteem it is but a fly in the ointment. Those in this position are able to shrug it off, learn from the small failure they have experienced, change direction and continue their quest.

For those who are already in a negative balance, give them a failure, whether it is a missed weight target or a failed interview for a new job and their already sliding balance falls even further, again making it harder to get back up!

I see this in clients all the time and I in fact shared a great video by Dax Moy yesterday on how scale watching can rid you of your smiles. When a client is losing weight on a scale their self-esteem rises, every pound to them is another credit, as soon as they hit a plateau however, they give up, they give in, the world is over. Test my theory….where are they on the self esteem scale?

Your right, they are in negative balance, so each failure instead of being a lesson is the end of the world sliding them into further debt.

Often with those who are in a negative balance you find very negative self-talk also. When a failure comes about, the failure gets turned inward. ‘YOU ARE CRAP’, ‘YOU ARE USELESS’, ‘YOU ARE FAT’. It doesn’t matter that from an onlooker’s perspective you can see that a bad weekend of food was had which was the reason for the slip. To them a failure is a failure. Much like a self-fulfilling prophecy you tend to find that these people then begin living the lives of the title they give themselves.

Once in this game, the constant negative talk can only get worse and worse so that the negativity spreads across other areas too. For example, what started with not getting a job can now make you fail at fat loss.

Side Note: From a hormonal perspective when we are in this frame of mind telling yourself you are fat. There is actually more likelihood that you will begin gaining fat at the belly. This is a stress reaction. You are causing so much internal stress that you are releasing the hormone cortisol which saps your testosterone levels and leaves a nice ring around the middle even if you havn’t even touched your nutrition…. Bad news right?

So how do I get it back?

There are lots of ways of doing this and I am actually going to begin rolling out a lot of techniques to my current clients over the next few weeks. (I am sure they are very excited…)

As we have detailed above, self-esteem is essentially about keeping your promises to yourself. So the best way to begin building your self-esteem credits is as simple as just beginning to keep promises to yourself.

Let’s go back to our person who is suffering from internal negativity though. Set them a target too large and the promise will not be kept and they will go further into decline.

Therefore if you are finding yourself in a similar situation you would be better served focussing on tiny small ‘easy wins’ to start. Such as, ‘today I will eat a protein based breakfast for 7 days in a row’. This is a much easier promise to make than ‘I will eat 100% healthy for 3 months to get to my goal’.

In the workplace for someone looking for more freedom in life you could perhaps use ‘I will not answer emails after 8pm for 5 days this week’.  Rather than ‘I will never work once I have left the office’

These are small starts to big results.

Remember the more you build your credits, the more in credit you will be and the better you will be able to succeed at your chosen goal.

The higher the esteem, the better the individual response to small losses. With a better response, lessons can be learned, courses adapted and success achieved.

Work on it :- )

To your success

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (http://www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2013 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

As we see every year, the hordes invade our pavements, our workout space, our parks and our gyms and just as quickly as they emerge they very quickly begin dying out again.

This always pains me to witness because most of the time well intentioned people end up in long term contracts for health clubs who frankly couldn’t give too flying hoots about whether their new member has changed shape or during the 12 month contract they hold with the vicinity.

January Gym Stampede

I am also not a big fan of bashing the new comers to the gym. I know many of us are capable gym users and dislike our ‘territory’ being invaded, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I don’t know about you, but I certainly remember how intimidating it was for me when I was overweight, weak and out of shape heading into the space of professionals! Be that guy or girl who lends them a hand…un-patronisingly.

Today I wanted to talk about an issue that Dax Moy brought up a week or two ago which can lead to ultimate failure when it comes to fat loss

Knowing the difference between these two phrases:

I am fat.

I hold fat.

I thought this was a really great way to look at an issue which can ultimately change the course of some ones success and some ones failure when it comes to pursuing a body transformation journey.

I am fat: Therefore I Am

Upon the night of January 1^st 2013 many of us looked down at our swollen bellies and exclaimed the same thing. ‘I am fat’. Perhaps you were one of those who joined in?

Perhaps even moderately worse you were the result of someone’s focussed attack: ‘ You Are Fat’

Now from this group of people I would hesistate a guess that 50% of those who said this to themselves, did absolutely nothing about it.

I say this because many people who claim ‘they are fat’ have given up all hope that they will ever change.

You see, being fat is a state of mind. We choose to vilify ourselves, beat ourselves up, blame others and our situation for the state we are in.

I like to think of this state or negativity as a slide. You know, one of those death slides, the vertical ones which always used to tear your skin if you never wore a regulatory long sleeve t shirt as the child soft play areas recommended.

Warning: Wear the T Shirt or Don’t Ride

Once you have committed to joining the slide it is very hard to get off it until you reach the bottom.

Once we start calling ourselves names with intended derogatory tones, it’s very hard to suddenly stop outright and exclaim how great you look or how much you love yourself.

Sure you may be that person who in the nick of time sprawls their legs to stop their motion, perhaps staggering their way back up to the top to reassess that situation, but this is rare.

Many of us continue on the slide to the bottom.

And do you know what is at the bottom? Much like a lagoon, a huge pool of negativity which you need to tread water just to stay above. All it takes is a pause or a distraction and your under!

The Slide Of Self Belief

This metaphorical slide I have built us is intended to represent our self-belief.

When you hold the  belief that ‘you are fat’ you are holding the belief that you are a different person doomed to certain circumstances.

Being fat does not make you a bad person. This is an important point to remember.

Being fat does not:

• Determine your beauty to others
• Does not rid you of confidence or self-belief
• Does not make the people around you stop loving you
• Does not dictate who you will be and what you can achieve
• Does not make you a bad mother/father

These are all things that YOU accumulate in your head because the way you are thinking. These are all the sorts of thoughts that are in the lagoon at the bottom of that slide.

So how do we get out of the lagoon.

Try: ‘I hold Fat’

We need to change our thought process if we are going to achieve success when it comes to body transformation, especially if we have been in the fat lagoon a while!

Much like a salmon swimming upstream, to get off this slippery slope it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

The easiest way to adjust your mind set is to LET GO and change your thoughts to your present situation.

Yes, you may be a little overweight and rocking a bit of a belly. But it doesn’t MAKE YOU, YOU.

Remember, the fat we describe is simply adipose tissue and water, it determines  nothing about YOU.

It is you that is letting it make changes to your life.

When we say to ourselves that we are holding fat it takes away the negative self talk we can build. ‘Holding fat’ implies that we have control over if we want to drop it.

I like to reframe this whole situation like holding a backpack.

The backpack is a useful device, it holds our things and in most cases saves our shoulders. Once it gets to heavy we simply slip it off our shoulders and rest removing any issues. Problem solved.

Holding fat is just the same. Holding essential bodily fat for warmth and internal protection is ofcourse important, but if it gets to heavy we break down, become subject to disease etc.

YOU NEED TO SLIP THIS WEIGHT OFF YOUR SHOULDERS.

And the best place to start is from within is not necessarily jumping into a diet or onto a treadmill. Today I want you to think about how you talk to yourself.

You see the sad thing is that I know a lot of people who have lost a lot of weight thinking it would be the be all, end all to all their problems and it hasn’t been.

It hasn’t been because they haven’t changed their views that fat never caused their problems in the first place. They did.

Empower yourself and take control.

Give yourself a hug this January :- )

To Your Success

Scott Marsh
Personal Trainer Marlow

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

In no particular order I thought I would sign off the year with my top ten things I have learnt throughout the year:

1. It’s Been A While But I LOVE Carbs…Again

First it was FAT.

PUT THE BUTTER DOWN.

Then it was CALORIES.

PUT EVERYTHING DOWN.

Then it was CARBS.

PUT THAT BAGEL DOWN.

It took someone else to coach me earlier in the year to make me realise this. When I lost 100lbs I did it with carbs in my diet. When I shed down to my lowest body fat percentages in the summer months I also have carbs in my diet. Success leaves clues.

What’s more, when you haven’t got carbs in the diet it begins restricting your avenue for progressive changes. I feel better with carbs. My clients feel better with carbs and it allows me to get better results.

This is not to say that low carb diets do not have their place. For sedentary or metabolically deranged clientele who suffer from insulin issues or women hitting the menopause I couldn’t think of any better solution.

As a starting ground though for most people, it is my recommendation that SOME carbs are left in.

2. I Think Now That Fat Is Healthy We Are Going Too Far

We live in a world of extremes. It doesn’t take much to realise that.

Fat was removed from existence 10 or so years ago. It was the bane of man. Then came research suggesting that fat wasn’t so much the issue for things such as heart disease but inflammation was. Some fats were then found to help with inflammation levels and fat like a long lost friend began to crop up in the diets of many once more.

Well I have seen a lot of experts begin going OTT, making diets up of purely fat and protein. I have seen diets made up of foods made of almond flour to help displace their carb cravings or people drinking coconut milk just to get their ‘essential healthy fats’. We must remember in the calorie model that fat still contains 9 calories per gram. Just because fat is now our friend doesn’t mean you need to make almond flour bread with 100g of fat in it and indulge on a daily basis as if it were normal bread. Normal bread contains about 30 calories per slice; a slice of almond bread can contain as much as 200 calories.

A world of extremes….

The human body requires fat to function, but it doesn’t require THAT much fat.

3. Training For Hypertrophy is Harder Than Training For Fat Loss

Having begun training a lot more clients for hypertrophy as of late I have quickly began to realise that coaching nutrition for this goal as opposed to a fat loss goal is ten times harder.

I have found that nutritional plans must be adapted a lot more frequently and most of all must be adapted slowly to ensure lean muscle gain with limited fat gain.

I have also realised how much patience needs to be placed on such a goal. Maybe some expert trainers are doing magical things with magical potions getting 6 stone of muscle on people in 3 weeks, but for most hypertrophy is a slow process requiring dedication and patience especially if trying to stay lean.

4. The Bulking Mentality Is Not Essential For Mass Gains

Ever heard the term, ‘It’s ok I am bulking’ as someone begins devouring a giant feast of pizza, garlic bread and ice cream. I have even used that term myself!

Well it doesn’t work. This sort of behaviour leaves you fat.

The more I personally train for hypertrophy and the more I train my clients for similar goals, the more I realise that there is little point overfeeding the body further than is required for this goal. Yes of course calories must be increased and training adapted, but over feeding the body more than it needs for growth is very much like urinating into a very strong wind and ultimately leads to more fat gain than is required.

More fat gain = more dieting at the end…

5. I Don’t Like Fasting

Perhaps it’s the former fat boy in me but I’m sorry I just don’t.

Personally I feel lousy, crappy and low on energy. The biggest issue I find though is….I just kind of like eating – is that a crime?

I have no doubt that it works and for some people it can be great.

Although much to my concern I see more and more posts these days on who can fast for the longest. It still seems a little bit strange to me that people compete against one another on how much they can effectively starve themselves? #thirdworldproblems

6. You can’t help EVERYONE

I beat myself up about this a lot, I live in a world where everyone wants to get results and achieve magnificent things. Unfortunately this world seems to very much be a Scott-built fantasy.

As personal trainers we are taught that we are there to help everyone and anyone. We strive to give the gift of health and vitality to all who we work with. I do indeed think this is true. If you are a good coach you do have the potential to help everyone and anyone.

Notice I said ‘potential’ to help everyone and anyone though. What we must remember as trainers we can do all we can to motivate and inspire our clients, we can hold their hands as much as we can within the realm of our job title, but at the end of the day  the people we work with are their own beings, with their own thoughts and own decision making skills.

A client is not a pet, you cannot spray them with water when they do things wrong or shut them outside to punish them for their behaviour. They are in control of their decisions at the end of the day.

This is why I feel it so important to begin each client’s journey with the question of WHY. Let’s face it will Billy Bob drop the cream cake because personal trainer Scott will tell him off or will Billy Bob drop the cream cake because he knows what he wants and when he wants it and he knows it will not support his goal?

7. Resistance & Interval Training Is ONLY Good For Fat loss If It Is Applied Appropriately

The difference between those who get results and those who don’t besides the mind-set has got to be intensity. If you want to get results you need to apply intensity to your sessions!

Weight training and interval training is fantastic. We know scientifically that it is proven to be most effective for fat loss as opposed to other forms of exercise.

However I have seen people who work at a slow plod reading a magazine on a treadmill try to apply similar effort to weight training having been advised its better for them. Long rest periods, iPhone based breaks, a casual chat whilst leaning on a post I have seen it all.

Individuals who suffer this lack of intensity should certainly look into group based training. It is perfect for ramping up the sort of intensity needed to get the sort of results you are after. There is also no hiding!

8. Some Supplements Are Great

I don’t like pushing supplements too much. I am still of the belief that most of us have such a tough time getting rid of things out the body that it seems kind of silly to keep pumping our body with more stuff we need to get rid of. I also think that diet alone with dedicated lifestyle changes can bring about a lot more change than people realise.

However there are a few supplements I see work time and time again. Here goes:

• Zinc
• Magnesium
• DIM & Calcium D-Glucarate

9. People Underestimate How Much Work They Need To Do

As a general population, I feel many of us misunderstand quite how much work is needed to create the change we so desire.

It is true that many of us can get into good shape perhaps on 3 targetted one hour sessions a week. But to go that step further, into the realm where most of us actually want to be it is going to require a lot more work.

Ask any bodybuilder, cover model or figure athlete how many hours a week they put in to their training pre-contest. Sure some will put in more than others but you should certainly be looking at 5 hours plus per week!

10. Basic Strength May Actually Be The Best Corrective Exercise

I do say this point carefully as it is based on myself and I am yet to experiment properly.

I was a back pain sufferer for many years. It was so bad infact that even bench pressing aggravated my back. Any lower body training was strictly off the map. I infact got it correctly diagnosed earlier this year after years of being informed my core stability was at fault. I infact had a bilateral labral tear in each hip….way to go physios!

Now for all those pain filled years I had began each of my workouts with 20-30 minutes of ‘corrective work’ – I did various core stability work, various bridges, bird dogs all sorts. I also spent a good 10-20 minutes foam rolling. Now all these things are great, and I was pretty darn flexible! But I still had back pain and couldn’t train.

Last year I began working with my own coach who could watch my form and coach me appropriately and do you know what, 6 months down the line I am front squatting, lunging, benching, deadlifting all more than I have ever done so before. Building hip stability, glute strength and t spine mobility wasn’t achieved through endless bridges and floor based correctives, it was built by just getting strong at the big movements and working hard on proper technique.

I have begun implementing such changes in my programming with clients and am already seeing better results.

To your success

Have you checked out the NEW Xcelerate Fitness cookbook? 30 Breakfasts, 30 Lunches and 30 Dinners all based around the nutritional principles we use here at Xcelerate Fitness, all proven to deliver exactly what you want…results. Click to take a look: Rapid Result Recipes

Scott Marsh
Personal Trainer Marlow

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

One problem!

Your motivation is at an all-time low, your belly is already expanding and all those great results you were achieving just a month or two a go are already beginning to seem like a distant memory.

STOP RIGHT THERE CHUM! IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

Motivation to most people comes in spots and spurts and is often very seasonal. ‘I will wait till January and then I will be super motivated’. This motivation lasts approximately 28 days if that before it is quickly flushed down the loo with the result of your January 1^st hangover.

December especially is notoriously not a month when motivation is particularly high. If you are like most people I have heard from over the past few weeks the following things are sapping your ‘chi’:

• The light scattering of snow
• Scraping your windscreens
• The cold
• The dark nights
• Christmas shopping
• The kids
• The approaching school holidays
• My partner returning all his/her gifts as they didn’t like them.
• Buying presents for men!
• Entertaining the inlaws
• ‘Shitty Christmas Food At My Other Halves’ – I loved that one
• Navigating Xmas Parties without being boring

We all know that despite how trivial they may sound, all these things build up.

From previous posts we know that there is only so much mental currency which is in credit to give to other things. Although many might disagree, There is no way you can increase motivation without first increasing your capacity for more mental currency. You cannot walk into Tesco’s, do your Christmas shopping and then walk out of the store without paying. You need your bank account in credit to pay for your purchases.

Chanting positive mantra’s semi clad around a campfire, and writing ‘I CAN’ on your forehead with permanent marker (which just incase you wanted to know, spells NACI as you have probably written it backwards) will do nothing for you unless your mental currency is there to be used.

The solution: To increase your motivation through December, rid yourself of all the things that sap your energy…your energy vampires, before you get semi clad and excited with the marker pens.

This is a key part of stress management which is incredibly important. I always like to think of everybody having a bucket which is filled with their life stressors. Much like water in a bucket, fill it too much and it overflows often causing havoc.

We can only fill our stress bucket so much before it overflows and we break down or burn out. With a full stress bucket it is extremely difficult to get motivated and give all your energy to other things in your life.

The easiest way to gradually empty your bucket is to try and remove the worry associated with the things you are not in control of.

How many of you think like this, I know I do.

‘Oh no, there is a large scattering of snow, my car will get stuck and I will have to sleep in it for the night, I will miss work, I will get behind on my deadlines, everyone will talk about how useless and undedicated I am at the water cooler, the boss will hear I will get fired, I will lose the house, my husband/wife will leave me for Action Man/Barbie and my kids will grow up as slumdog millionaires living in a Tesco’s bread crate at the side of the A404.’

A bit exaggerated, but many of us think like that. It is no wonder the UK is such a stressed nation!

Try This:

‘The snow is falling, I have no control over it, neither does anyone else, I will do the best that I can today’

Pretty easy huh? I like to call this technique reframing or ‘flipping it’

Empty that stress bucket and you will free up more space for motivation for other things including reducing that waistline!

Once you have emptied your stress bucket as much as you can, then you can begin layering in traditional motivational boosters. With a full stress bucket, much like water cupped in your palms, it will stay for a little bit, but will never provide you with a full and satisfying drink to cure dehydration.

I am very proud of the Xcelerate clients, just a small proportion together have lost over 37% bodyfat in total this week with more calippering to come! Who said you couldn’t get results in December right?

Here are some of the top ways my clients are boosting motivation through December. What’s more they are fully clothed and don’t have ‘NACI’ written on their foreheads!

• Hanging out with like-minded people who are pursuing similar goals
• At Xmas parties reminding themselves what they really want more – the result they have been working at for the past few weeks/months/years or bad food and a drink.
• Remembering that they do not NEED alcohol to have a good time – Do you have good times when you are sobre ever? – I do hope so.
• Putting together ‘motivation books’ and filling them with pictures and quotes
• Post it’s on the computer screen reminding you of your goal
• Sharing their goal and progress on facebook
• Celebrating success
• Training at big gyms – Let’s face it they are so quiet at the moment that you have full reign for a fantastic workout!
• Creating an Advent routine – 25 short workouts for the 25 days – No chocolates required

Come on team, let’s smash December.

Empty that stress bucket THEN apply motivational strategies

To your success

Have you checked out the NEW Xcelerate Fitness cookbook? 30 Breakfasts, 30 Lunches and 30 Dinners all based around the nutritional principles we use here at Xcelerate Fitness, all proven to deliver exactly what you want…results. Click to take a look: Rapid Result Recipes

Scott Marsh
Personal Trainer Marlow

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

Well just to put this straight first of all, I am not Grinch, and I love Christmas. I love spending time with loved ones, I love giving and receiving gifts and I love my ‘create a gingerbread house’ challenge that rarely ever gets pulled off correctly (ginger cake anyone?)

I also open up my non drinking policy and take a bit of time off my nearly 100% compliant eating. Now when I say this having a ‘bit of time off’ this is completely different to switching on the mouth hoover and sucking up everything in sight as I see many do around this time of year. There is a difference. You also must remember that I am compliant pretty much another 51 weeks of the year. I earn my treats.

I get a lot of enquiries this time of year from two different kinds of people. Those who are desperate for change and want to begin seeing results just before they have to sit in front of their often very honest family with multiple photos sealing their unhappiness with their figures thanks to new digital technology.  I also get those looking for quick results to fit into that little black dress.

I even ran a competition for one lucky dedicated person to transform themselves in 19 days. And guess what…I struggled to find a contestant!

Now this is the interesting thing. I actually find that I turn more people away this time of year than any other time, simply because many people’s minds just aren’t in the right place for them to succeed. I like to bring people success. It is why I got into coaching in the first place. Selling disappointment is not in my nature nor business model.

Taking a look at my many success stories on my site you will see a whole gallery of action takers, people who have sucked it up and just got on with it. The food has been bland and the exercise has been regular and tough, but they were in a mind-set whereby nothing else mattered and nothing would certainly dare get in their way. These people are rare, but anybody with the right coach and attitude can achieve such a brilliant transformation.

So why have I been turning people away I hear you ask? Well my friends, when in conversation they have used one or all of what I call the ‘Festive Fouls’.

Festive fouls are worse than any lump of coal in your stocking. Festive fouls are excuses which could be overcome relatively easily. Unfortunately most people who use them are so blinded by the excuses that they have led themselves to believe that their chances of success are very limited.

Have a read through my top three, smile as you remember using them either this year or in previous years, read my advice and then take action.

December and the Xmas period is not an excuse not to achieve your body composition desires. I know many people that have and I have many new clients who have just joined me who WILL.

The Top Three Festive Fouls

‘I can be totally compliant except for this date, this date, this date, this date, this date, this date and this date because I have X on…’

This one is so common through the festive period. I hear it every year. Xmas parties, family gatherings, business lunches etc.

Let’s be honest with ourselves shall we? These events happen 365 days of the year and if we are being truly honest with ourselves you will probably even find when looking at your diary that up until the 24^th December your month doesn’t actually look that much different to any other month.

Busyness and events is no excuse for not sticking to your nutritional plan or exercise regime. One thing I help my clients with around this time of year is how to navigate Xmas Menu’s. I teach them how to make the best choices and how to adapt dishes (simply by asking – yes you can do that) to suit their goal.

You are in control of your mouth and you are in control of your mind. Your decisions are up to you, but please remember that you can navigate menus and make better choices when you are out and about. Just because Shiela orders chips, doesn’t make her a bad person, but you don’t have to follow suit. Everyone is taught to be their own person and make their own choices.

As for exercise, bodyweight metabolic workouts can be performed anywhere…hotel room, gardens, parks, so no excuses for you there either!

‘I am going on holiday, so what would be my nutrition plan for then?’

An abundance on alcohol, 2 truckloads of chocolate, 4 bales of carbohydrate and please stay away from the protein.

COME ON! What did you think I was going to say?

Vacations and holidays come around every year. You have made the choice that you want to change, so what is just one holiday of sacrifice?  (Is it even sacrifice if it delivers the goods?)

The scenario that really upsets me is when a client or anybody for that matter is getting consistent results, goes on holiday and completely blows it. This is bad for a number of reasons.

Firstly because trying to get your mind set and eating habits back on track once you have filled your body with all the things that got you where you were in the first place is tough a second time around. Just think how much effort  and will it took the first time!

But also the after effects. All clients who work with me follow a program of detoxification for between 14 and 28 days. This is usually the first time that many clients have experienced what it feels like to be healthy and have MEGA energy. A hefty slice of gluten, wheat and dairy exposure on your nice clean body always leads to the same result:

‘OH MY GOD, I LOOK AS IF I’M PREGNANT, ALL MY HARD WORK HAS BEEN RUINED’

It hasn’t…it normally is just water retention BUT again, this was your decision. What is better, an awesome body, super high energy levels and a feeling of wellbeing, or 7 stuffed crust pizzas and fried bread every morning.

All holiday destinations have salad and meat. Trust me, I have been to some pretty remote places and many populations in the world do get away without living on fake food. Just because you can’t find a McDonalds doesn’t mean you have to starve for the night. Try a supermarket…like you would at home.

‘I am going to be good with the food (mostly) but I am going out on this night, this night and this night so I am going to have a drink, and by that I mean that I am going to end up in a gutter, with ‘sticky’ hair and kebab meat all down my dress’

So maybe a little extreme of a description, but no joke I have heard it before.

Alcohol is an interesting one, and actually this festive foul is probably strangely one of the better ones, at least the nutrition and exercise appear to be fairly strict.

Whether it is 100% true or not I always stick by the rule that 1 good booze up prevents you from burning fat for up to 3 days afterwards. (Not a great fact right?)

But what alcohol also does is lower your testosterone levels, rob you of growth hormone release and raise your cortisol levels (even if it is just from lack of sleep). All these hormones are essential for fat loss so your binge will make an impact if you are on a deadline.

The other issue with alcohol is that it of course does lead to gluten and wheat exposure and dairy depending on the drink or cocktail. Of course we are not forgetting the huge sugar hit and insulin spikes you will experience. All of which can lead to abdominal bloating and fat gain.

And then there is the Post Party….Meal. Our nutritional choices are always nearly affected after a night on the town. Pizzas, kebabs and other takeaway treats will never be on a healthy nutritional plan and they will make an impact on your goal.

Toxin exposure, fast food treats and hormonal menacing aside I learnt this lesson in my first few weeks of University….

There is having a drink….and then there is HAVING A DRINK. A nice bit of alcohol every now and then is fine, enjoy yourself, but there are limits. Don’t be that guy or girl at the party, who no longer remembers their own name and is currently wearing the stack of coats on the bed with cocktail umbrellas in your hair. Where is the fun in that?

If you need to drink this much to have ‘a good time’, honestly you need to find a new set of friends, who can have fun and appreciate you for you even without a drink.

Although I don’t like to make recommendations on alcohol, white spirits such as vodka mixed with soda water as well as some red wines would be better choices for your festive nights out.

Prove me wrong lovely people, and conquer all these festive fouls!

You will thank me :- )

To your success!

Sadly many of us are often seeking such things without truly putting much thought about the amount of work and effort it takes to achieve the body we want.

One of the most common questions I get asked by people when they first start out on their training journey is ‘what supplements can I take to speed up the rate of fat loss’, ‘do fat burners work’ or ‘tell me more about Biosignature’.

Being one of the only Bisignature Modulation experts in South Bucks, it often does get a lot of interest. After all the claims that you can speed up and spot reduce fat at a rapid rate would get the interest of most people.

I have always liked the theory behind Biosignature Modulation but I must admit I use it sparsely.

I too loved the claims of a belly shrinking in under a month and legs leaning up in a matter of weeks, but I often found that when it came to the cost of supplements vs the body composition benefits received by the client I was often left disappointed.

Having attended a seminar on the weekend titled ‘Health, Happiness and Hormones’ held by leading London Personal Trainer Dax Moy a few things began falling into place on why I have been disappointed in the past.

I was missing (and you probably are too) some key lifestyle supplements.

The big lesson for me was that:

There are far more important supplements to our lifestyle that need addressing before we even begin heading towards the ones you can buy from specialist supplement vendors.

My Top 3 Supplements

Today it is my plan that I will ‘sell you’ my top three supplements FOR FREE – you heard it right, not a single charge for priceless advice that will cure you of feeling sick and tired, lean up those legs and reduce that belly fat in one fine swoop – I must be mad.

Why am I distributing this for free I hear you say?

Well these three supplements are not glamorous nor really that interesting. They are going to take hard work, sacrifice and dedication if you want the true benefits to ensue.

The other reason is that the majority of people won’t listen anyway as they will be far more engrossed and interested in supplements that can be picked up from the shelf, ‘those quick fixes’, that nearly always end in disappointment.

For those that listen and start utilising these ‘supplements’ in combination with a nutritious diet designed for your body I would love to hear from you 28 days from now. You WILL be a completely different person – GUARANTEED.

So without further ado, my top three supplements for mind, body and energy change:

1. Sleep

As a nation we are sleeping less and less. In a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in 2002 15% of adults recorded they were getting less than 6 hours sleep per night. A 2% rise on the same data collected 4 years prior. 40% of adults recorded getting less than 7 hours per night.

Where do you sit?

The cycles of light and dark that result from the movements of the sun and planets affect nearly all living creatures.

Whenever light stimulates your skin or eyes regardless of the source your brain and hormonal system naturally think it is morning which releases the stress hormone cortisol (also responsible for abdominal fat storage).

Managing cortisol is an essential skill for your health happiness and body composition. Adequate sleep is just one way to keep it under wraps.

Between 10pm and 2pm are the key time zones for physical repair. Between the hours of 2am and 6am are the key time zones for physiological repair. By not sleeping between these essential times you are cutting into your body’s valuable repair time opening the door not only to belly fat but headaches, nagging musculoskeletal injuries, a sagging personality, adrenal fatigue as well as many other neurological disorders.

Try the below three strategies to boost your body composition with my number one supplement:

• Make it your priority to be in bed ready to sleep by 10pm.
• Try reading fiction 30 minutes – 60 minutes before bed with use of just a lamp. It will calm your mind and help you drop off to sleep.
• Create the bat cave – your bedroom should have no light sources whatsoever. Not even the red spot indicating standby on your television. These all affect sleep quality.

2. Hydration

All of our cells soak in water. Water makes up nearly 60% of total bodyweight. The amount of water we ‘carry’ as humans is largely based on how much body fat and muscle mass we have as well as our transient hydration status.

Water in the body acts as a:

• Solvent
• Transporter
• Catalyst
• Lubricant
• Temperature Regulator
• Mineral Source.

It is important.

I loved the quote from my weekend seminar that ‘The solution to pollution is dilution’. The more toxic our bodies, the more backlogged our liver is. In this scenario water will be retained to protect the bodily tissues from inflammation. This is often felt as bloating. Toxins come from our food, our water source as well as our general environment.

Along with working on supplement 3 of this article, consuming water can literally halve a person in size in a matter of days simply by giving the body enough of what it needs whilst improving liver function and reducing general toxicity levels.

For the average male or female you should be consuming AT LEAST 2-3 litres of bottled water per day.

3. Digestion

A great point that I picked up from the weekend which resonated with me was that it is possible to have a weight issue even if you aren’t actually eating that much. The average food diary I see when I first meet with many clients is of course far from what I would consider ideal in terms of food choices, but analysing it calorie by calorie you tend to find they aren’t actually eating that much when it comes to volume. (Of course cases vary)

This is why many new clients report that they just can’t fit all this ‘new food’ into their days once they start on a healthy nutritional plan! Their stomachs are simply not used to dealing with nutrition! Many people hold more fat as crazy as it sounds because they are under nourished.

Just because you take in food doesn’t mean that it is necessarily used. Sweetcorn is a great example!

Due to the pitiful state of our modern society’s general digestion, a lot of what we intake often is just the same on the ‘outtake’. We are becoming worse and worse at absorbing our food.

We are poor absorbers for a variety of reasons, but one of the major reasons is due to high levels of inflammation from eating foods and drinking beverages that don’t agree with us. Poor food choices inflame and affect the delicate villi on our gut lining which prevents us absorbing nutrients effectively.

Poor nutrient absorption leads to malnutrition.

Gut health is a key factor in my business and should be a key factor in yours. The truth of the matter is that you can take in all the nutritious organic produce you like as well as all the off the shelf supplements, if you aren’t absorbing them, this new great diet you are on could be deemed useless unnecessarily.

• Follow a dietary program that avoids environmental toxins and utilises foods that agree with your body.
• Monitor your digestion and bloating to eliminate foods which give adverse effects
• Don’t forget protein
• In more extreme cases consider a full gut health protocol

Consider tackling my top three lifestyle supplements before spending any money on shelf brought supplements which may just be creating expensive urine!

To Your Success

Scott Marsh
Personal Trainer Marlow

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

From little Miss Muffett who sat on her tuffet, to old mother Hubarb who got stuck in a cupboard I think they may just have a point.

However I think that one nursery rhyme character in particular has a lot of relevance to life and in particular to fat loss. In fact I think that dear Old Macdonald himself may have been a very early guru in the subject of how to train appropriately for fat loss.

Without further ado I introduce the E-I-O Principle.

E-I-O Principle

The other day I was thinking about the key parts essential to any fat loss plan. By all means we can argue over whether strength training is important, the relevance of interval training as well as how appropriate aerobic conditioning may be for such a goal, but I am thinking a little broader than this…A little simpler.

I pose you this question:

Why do some people lose masses of weight where others lose less even though they are seemingly following the same type of exercise protocol?

You’ve seen this before, right?

Let’s take jogging for example, I know many people who have used jogging as a fat loss tool, myself included. I ran and I ran and I ran. It was tough at first but it was a great motivator to see the pounds just falling off. I also know a lot of runners who are carrying a lot of fat. I have seen this in my own clients.

Same activity. Very different results.

The same can be said for those that involve themselves in training for size. You might be finding that you are doing the same exercises and the same routine as your favourite actor or maybe just another fellow in the gym whose physique you respect, but still you are not getting the same results.

Well a program is just a program at the end of the day. Just a list of words carefully prescribed on a page, but no program is magical.

It is my theory that when you are not getting the results you desire it may not be the program, the trainer or the nutrition plan it may just be that one of the things you are missing out on is included in the E-I-O Principle.

I won’t lay claim to knowing what Old McDonald meant with his many  E-I-O’s but for the purpose of today’s article it shall stand for: Effort, Intensity and Obedience.

These three things may be the key missing ingredients in your current plan that is holding you back from ultimate results.

Effort

We all like to think that we are ‘putting in effort’. Personally I think that in general our own perception of effort is often a lot lower when assessed from the perspective of an onlooker.

Effort is a funny principle because it can be based on many things: quality of sleep, stress, the weather (no joke) etc.  In the past I have described the issue of emotional currency (another factor that would influence effort) whereby you only have so much ‘give up and go’ you can dispense before it’s ‘got up and gone’. This is largely a lifestyle factor that needs to be addressed, but again stresses the importance of where you need to be mentally to carry out a session and plan that will get you results in the fat loss department.

However you must understand that for the majority of us we are training for a reason not just for fun, so you need to find ways of improving your ability of how to apply effort.

For some it will require more concentration. For others it will require a bit of ‘tough love’ to establish the fact that to get where you want to be you have to just put in the work. I don’t care what the adverts say; nobody got super lean using 4 minutes of exercise a week.

I hate to use the typical example of the commercial gym setting where you have a number of clientele sat upon a piece of equipment iPad, iPhone or Magazine (is that a bit too old school now?) in hand. But it is true and it happens a lot. There is no effort here and I will downright guarantee that when you return in one years’ time, although the content on their entertainment device may have changed, there will be no similar change to their figure.

Don’t think that I am getting all hateful on the cardio crew however because the same applies with the sort of training that I preach too. Strength training can be just as poorer metabolic adaptor if performed without effort. Unsolicited rest periods, snail like tempo, answering phone calls mid-session and other general faffing are all ways of sapping effort from your workout.

Want a great way of increasing effort?

Train as a group of with a partner. Increasing your competitive edge won’t let you slack off. This is a major benefit of the semi-private training model I use at Xcelerate Fitness.

Intensity

Intensity of a workout is often described in most strength circles as the percentage of 1RM that a person is lifting for a given exercise. 90% 1RM being very intense and 55% being less. The weights or resistance that people use are of course relevant to their success but this is not the only way to adjust intensity.

Shorter rest periods, slower cadences of lifting, tri-sets, quad sets, density training and other advanced protocols such as drop sets are all ways of increasing the intensity of the activity and should be used progressively.

I have had many clients in the past report that they have trained with weights before they have come to see me (which is great), however once we get through a couple of sessions, and the dumbbells begin growing they quickly realise that they had a lot more strength ‘in the tank’ than they originally thought.  It is often the case that they have either been using the same weight for the past year (no form of progression and thus additional effort) or especially with females that they just thought girls shouldn’t lift big weights (they lacked intensity in their training)

Strength training is great for fat loss. It is a key ingredient, but if you are an experienced gym member and are still performing lunges with 2kg pink dumbbells you need to rethink the effort you are putting in and the intensity at which you are performing your workouts.

Some of the best body composition programs I know of involve a bit of a ‘burn’ (without causing an injury) and should leave you being breathless. Many people are often surprised that when conducted properly there should be little need for cardio in a training program. Correctly prescribed strength training at the correct intensity is all you need to develop all aspects of your fitness.

Want to boost the intensity of your workout?

Get a decent personal trainer to write your workouts for you and check your progression week on week.

Obedience

BIG FACTOR RIGHT HERE!

There is no way around this.

If you want big results you need to give big levels of obedience to your program, both in and out the gym. There is no doubt about it that those who obey word for word the programs and the dietary principles I set get the best results.

I often hear in the press and from friends that those who watch their nutrition closely are ‘health freaks’ or just abnormal. The press love the term Orthorexic Nervosa (An obsessive disorder regarding healthy eating). Oh Please! It doesn’t take a genius to work out the importance that good nutrition can have on your life, your health status and your fitness.

Take a look at the facebook statuses on a Monday morning.

‘So Tired’, ‘Holding my eyes open with cocktail sticks’, ‘afternoon slump here we come…)

•  Just think about who posts these things.
• Now think about what they eat.
• Case closed.

What we seem to fail to understand as a society is how much obedience is actually required to get the results of our dreams. Sure there are a few outliers and genetic freaks that can look at a treadmill and ditch fat at double time, but most of us can’t. Great results require obedience. The quicker people begin looking at ways to improve their obedience to simple plans the better their results will be.

Here at Xcelerate Fitness we only work with our members on monthly contracts. A large reason for this is that it promotes obedience to the plan. If you know that you have to be in a set place at a set time for a period of time there is a far greater chance you will be there. This is a major flaw of pay as you go training – by giving the client the ‘choice’ of turning up will never develop the level of obedience that is required to make major life changes.

One way of developing obedience is by setting yourself your reason. Every major success story I have ever had including myself has always had a good reason behind what they are doing. Find your reason and obedience will flow naturally.

If you don’t have a reason….set yourself a time scale…with a forfeit if you don’t make it. Naked burpees in Wycombe Town Centre anyone?

Read through the above points and honestly consider your E-I-O’s in relation to your current training plan.

Address these and your results will be guaranteed.

To your success

Scott Marsh
Personal Trainer Marlow

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.

Did you know?

• Despite the size of ears the elephant’s hearing is poor
• African elephants have bigger ears than Indian elephants
• African elephants ears are used to aid ventilation

There you have it! 3 Magnificent facts about elephants to share with the world this weekend!

Well unfortunately that is about as fun as this article today will get. I was inspired to write about this after one of my clients who recently returned from Thailand was telling me about the behaviour of the elephants out there.

I know, I know, what could this possibly have to do with health, fitness and fat loss, well just wait and see!

Your Inner Elephant

I have heard it from a variety of people who have visited South East Asia where elephants are still used as a mode of transportation. Many are amazed at the fact that despite their ginormous size, the elephants are able to be kept in place using small ropes tied to the ground using only a small stick as a stake in the ground.

Strange but true, one of the strongest animals in the world constrained by something that the smallest child could break free of!

Having researched this, the reason this works is because the handlers tie the elephants to huge trunks with large ropes when they are young. The young elephants pull and tug and fight untile they tire out. They quickly learn that when tied up resistance is futile.

As the elephants grow the handlers use increasingly smaller ropes and sticks but due to the learned behaviour the elephants never tug at them. They have learned that they simply cannot move when tied up.

Of course to you and I we can clearly see that if the elephant just decided to test it out they would break free and make off to the jungle with a mighty toot through their trunk (which I have heard is a way of an elephant saying ‘Sod you!’ – I may have made that up).

Well here’s the link!

When I first meet people I have begun seeing an increasing number of the same type of people come to my door. People at their wits end, no matter what they try, no matter what they do they just can’t lose weight and get the figure that they dream of.

These people are elephants (I am not being rude!) – Not physically, but mentally.

You see, these same people over the years have learned based on experience or comments that whatever they try and however hard they muster they will never be freed of this overbearing force that will not let them succeed. They are tied to failure with a small rope and a little tiny twig.

Let Me Be Your Elephant Handler!

(Sorry the subtitle made me laugh….)

The nice thing is much like how tourists of South East Asia are amazed of the elephants behaviour, I am amazed at just how easy it is for these people to create change and get the results they long for. But many people who come to see me just can’t see it!  Most people in this situation have questioned every part of their issue except for the limitations they have created themselves! The great news – YOU CAN change this.

Unlike Elephants we have the POWER to change our thoughts, patterns and behaviours, all we need is to first identify our limitations. Once we have identified our small ropes and little twigs, we can create change, ripping them from the ground with gusto and go onto succeed. It just takes a little inner reflection and courage. Let’s face it is always easier to just blame someone else or your circumstances.

My job as a coach is to help people WIN and one of the first areas we will always look at is lifestyle, just to identify all the little self-imposed limitations that have been created over time. It is the job of a good coach to remove these limitations and allow that client to succeed.

What are your limitations and how can you break free of your self-imposed shackles today? I would love to know!

“God gave us two ends. One to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use; head you win, tail, you lose.” – Anon

To your success!

Scott Marsh
Personal Trainer Marlow

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.