Weakest Link

Our bodies are very sophisticated, complex things.  So complex that usually, many different things have to happen for an end result to be produced.

I have talked before about walking (click here).  It is an everyday task, but in spite of this it needs:

• Balance
• Strength
• Timing
• Body awareness
• Coordination of loads of different muscles and joints.

Similarly, our body composition (how fat/lean we are) and competition/training performance is the result of many different factors coming together.

eg – bodyweight is the interaction of our food/drink, activity levels, personality, genetics, geographical location, training etc.

Change one factor, and the end result will also change.  But sometimes a single factor can act as a bottleneck, limiting factor, or brake, preventing any improvement regardless of the other factors. These are your Limiting Factors, or weakest links. 

A very effective way of quickly improving either your training or diet, is to identify these limiting factors and put effort into improving them.

Example #1 – the diet that does not work.

A man I was talking to wanted to reduce his bodyfat and asked if he should switch from full fat to semi-skimmed milk.  But unfortunately he was not planning on changing his habit of having a bar of chocolate and 2 packs of crisps every day.  In this situation he can stress over “tweaking” his diet all he likes to get minimal results, or he can make 1 simple adjustment to his limiting factor (cut out the chocolates and crisps) and things will start moving.

Example #2 – the “bad back”.

Bad back

I know a bloke who is clinically obese (BMI >30) and has a “bad back”.  So he approached me to ask for some “simple exercises I can do a couple of times a week to strengthen” his back.  Here, his limiting factor is not his “weak back”.  He can strengthen it all he likes and it won’t do any good.  Instead, his limiting factor is 1 of 2 possibilities:

1. His obesity is throwing his body out of shape, causing too much stress on all his joints (including his back).  So if he lost the weight, things would start improving.
2. His psychology/attitude/work ethic is such that he chooses to ignore the real problem (his weight) in favour of a “quick fix” (5 minutes of exercise a couple of times a week).  In this case, he needs to change his attitude first.  Not much else will work, because he will subconsciously sabotage his efforts by simply not being arsed to put the effort in.

Example #3 – “which exercise is best for…”

Over the years, a few people (almost exclusively young lads) have asked me what bicep curl is best to emphasise the “peak” of their muscle.  I am not into bodybuilding and have never been interested enough to bother looking into it…but I do know that the limiting factor preventing these scrawny lads getting big biceps is not the type of curl they are doing.  Instead, it is the lack of a solid foundation of muscle and strength.  They can chop and change their curling workout all they like, but until they have some actual muscle to bunch into a “peak”, they are wasting their time.

So in everything we do, we all have limiting factors or weakest links.  And one of the most important jobs I have as a coach is to try to identify peoples limiting factors (myself included), how they are holding us back and how to improve them.  Try it out on yourself.  See how you do.  But if you need help, contact me today (click here)!

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My Plate from the USDA

The USDA revamped its guide on what to eat the other day. It used to be a funny pyramid with lots of stripes on. I was never very keen on it, because it wasn’t very clear to me.

But I think I like this new one. It is clear and simple. And importantly, it is very clear that half of what you eat should be made up of fruit and veggies.

I think I might use this to help absolute beginners with their diets. But as soon as I can, I think I will still try to get people to use the Harvard School of Public Healths Healthy Eating Pyramid.

While not as blindingly simple as the “My Plate”, it is still easy to understand, and has a great deal more info on it. Information such as:

• the difference between whole grains and reined grains.

• the difference between plant and animal based fats/oils.

• restricting sugary sweets/drinks treats etc.

• getting some exercise every day.

I am a firm believer in the principle of Keep It Simple.  And when I have a problem that is not getting fixed, I try to simplify it, get the basics sorted, then gradually add more detail and complexity as and when appropriate.

And I know a lot of people out there (myself included) can be overwhelmed by all the millions of facts, figures and stories about weight control (you should/shouldn’t eat carbohydrates, you should/shouldn’t eat after 6pm, dietary fat is good/bad for us).  So I like anything that starts at square one but lets me move onwards from there.

This is square one.  If in doubt, make sure your dinner plate looks something like the above.  When this has become a second nature habit to you, move on to something like the Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid or my 10 simple rules for healthy eating.

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Abdominal fat

Click here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13222192) for the news story.

It says how where you carry your bodyfat can have a big impact on your health and risks of disease.  It talks about the waist/hip ratio.  Or how much fat you are carrying around your belly.  This is a very easy measurement to take.  In fact, you can do it right now!  All you need is a tape measure.

I have written about the hip/waist ratio back in 2009.  So click here (http://cerin.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/assessments-body-composition-part-1-body-weight/) to find out all about it!

One of my favorite websites I keep going back to for reliable information, is a section on the NHS site they call “Behind the Headlines” (click here).  Here they take a look at some of the major health stories in the papers, and give you the facts.

Take a look at just a few of the ways the papers blow a health story out of all proportion, and you will understand why one of my favorite saying at the moment is:

Never believe the headlines!

Superfoods?

So I want to direct you to a document you can download for free.  It is called “Miracle foods:  Myths and the media”.  It is only 11 pages long and a very easy, but eye-opening read.

Click here to download it from the NHS website.

Click here to download it from me.

The bits I liked best were:

• The list of 14 foods that the newspapers had said were both healthy and dangerous.
• The explanations of why we should not worry about most of these news stories.

But by far my favorites were the very simple conclusions they round up with.  And here are some of those conclusions (with my comments in brackets):

• Drinking alcohol increases cancer risk (so stop kidding yourself that the bottle of wine you just downed is “medicinal”).
• Eating your greens reduces your cancer risk (probably the single, simplest thing all of us can do to improve our health/weight, is to at least double the amount of veggies we are currently eating).
• A Mediterranean diet increases your chances of living to a healthy old age (this diet consists of relatively high proportions of fish, olive oil, fruit and veg, while relatively low proportions of meat and processed food).

And the final paragraph sums it all up:

“When it comes to keeping healthy, it’s best not to concentrate on any one food in the hope it will work miracles. Current advice is to eat a balanced diet with a range of foods, to ensure you get enough of the nutrients your body needs. Limiting your intake of alcohol and high fat, high sugar, salty and processed foods, keeping to a healthy weight and regular physical activity are also important.”

Or put another way, follow the 10 simple rules of healthy eating (click here).

So I guess my take-home message is quite simple:

Relax, stop worrying that your food is about to kill you and your whole family, and just eat a damn carrot/mushroom/melon/cabbage/leak/turnip/pepper!

Killer food will kill you!!!!!

(I know I have already posted this video…but I have a very simple sense of humour and it still makes me giggle!)

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Thanks!

I read this story in the Daily Mail (click here for story).  It suggests that the reason 2 thirds of the UK population is overweight or obese, is because of central heating.

The thinking goes, if we are in a warm cosy environment (like a centrally heated room) our bodies don’t have to burn so many calories to keep us warm.

Now that is a very good theory, and it sounds totally plausible to me.  It is true, the colder your body, the more calories it burns to maintain your body temperature…BUT GET REAL!

The reason more than half of us are overweight has nothing to do with the temperature, it is to do with eating too many pies!

Masai tribesmen – These guys are so fat because they live in a warm climate(!)

I dare you to go to Kenya and tell the Masai tribesmen (pictured on the right), that the reason you are fat is because you spend most of your time in a temperature of 20 -25 degrees!  The climate there is a hell of a lot hotter, but you don’t see too many obese Masai.

I’m sorry.  I just got a bit pissed off when I read that story.  It just struck me as another thing that can prevent people from improving their health by losing some excess weight.  Please don’t over-complicate things any more than they already seem to be.

The reason so many of us are over weight has nothing to do with:

• Central heating
• Big bones
• Glands
• Fruit(?)
• Genetics
• “Muscle weighing more than fat”
• Water retention
• Alien abduction
• Pixies/fairies/goblins

It is because

we consume more calories than we burn.

And the sooner we accept that and stop trying to find scape-goats, the sooner we can all help each other deal with it.

For basic info on weight control, follow the links below:

An absolute beginners guide to losing weight

10 simple rules to healthy eating

The healthy eating pyramid

Influence on weight

www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

Food, a fact of life – www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

I can’t remember how I stumbled on this webpage, but it is aimed at school teachers/parents trying to teach healthy nutrition to kids.

Having said that, I know for a fact that most adults (myself included) can learn a lot from it.  Just some of the things on the webpage include:

• Videos showing the basics of how to cook in general, and how to cook some nice actual recipes.
• Dozens of simple recipes to knock up yourself in your kitchen.  If you can’t find a few you like the look of, you are odd in the head!
• Cooking lessons aimed at 3-16 year olds (I learned things from the ones aimed at the 3 year olds!).
• Posters you can download and print out helping explain all about food/nutrition etc.
• eSeminars – these are video presentations given by experts to a “live” audience on the web.  This audience can participate, ask questions of these experts etc.  And best of all, they have recordings of previous eSeminars that you can watch and learn from (but obviously not participate in, duh!)

So please go take a look at this webpage and spend a couple of days browsing through it.  If you are struggling to control your bodyweight, it can help you loads.

Alternatively, you can hire me and I can do it for you

5 simple things anyone can do to help them manage their weight.  Click below to see the video clip explaining them:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12068595

And if you are interested, number 3 in the clip is talking about “Background Activity”.  Click here, here, here and here to see what I have written about it in the past.

And number 5 in the clip is talking about food diaries.  Click here to download a free food diary for yourself and find out a bit more about them.

If you like this, or know someone who might like/benefit from it, please share it using the buttons below.  I’m bloody useless when it comes to publicising things, so I’m hoping you can help me.  Thanks!

One of my trainees asked me yesterday for some healthy recipes to help them lose some weight.  Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a very good cook (enthusiastic, yes…good, no!).  I am very much a “cook by the seat of my pants” type of person in the kitchen. My idea of cooking is to lob it all in the wok, turn it up to 11, and see what happens.

Turn it up to 11, just like Spinal Tap.

Which suits me and my attitude down to the ground.  But I know most people don’t have that same attitude…so I had a quick search on the interweb and found the World Cancer Research Fund (click here for their website).

And on their website, I found 10 recipe/cookbooks that anyone can download for free (click here for the cookbooks).  There are loads of simple, but healthy meals for anyone to try.

So go on.  Don’t be a wuss.  Just take a look.  They are free!  What else would you be doing right now?  Checking your Facebook for the millionth time?

I dare you!  I double dare you!

I was shown this internet blog (click here) by a nutritionist friend of mine.  It shows a few ways to “trick” yourself into eating better.

I especially like it because it uses actual, real world marketing tricks that supermarkets use to make us buy the things they want us to buy.  And I am a firm believer in shamelessly stealing good ideas from people!

Marketing magic for a healthier diet: Do try this at home!: SELF.com.

If you are a marketing guru, or if you just work in retail, think how you con convince your punters into choosing your products, and leave a comment below.

I have mentioned periodisation before (click here).  It is the “big picture” view of training.  It is about managing your training in such a way as to maximise your results.

I talked before about doing things in a certain order, but it also means managing when you can work hard and when you need to ease off to recover.  In this way, periodisation works on different time scales, such as:

Calendar

• Short term – time measured in hours or days.
• Medium term – time measured in weeks or months.
• Long term – time measured over a year or longer.

So one essential bit of kit is a calendar.  And looking at your calendar, you can’t help but notice that Christmas is coming up quickly.  And I guarantee that virtually everyone will end up eating/drinking too much and training too little/not at all.

But that’s ok.  Because if we are clever, we just incorporate this into our periodised training plan.  The most basic plan is to gradually ramp up our training and diets to “peak” just before December 25th.  This will leave our bodies in the peak of health, fitness and strength, and the “easy” period of recovery coincides with our week of eating, drinking and watching The Great Escape on tv.

Then, at the end of this week, fully recovered, we are ready to get back into training in the best condition we have ever been at the start of January!

Compare this to what most people will do.  They will think:

“Buggerit!  Christmas is just round the corner.  There is no point exercising/dieting now.  I’ll wait until the new year…”

This means you will head into Christmas bloated, unfit and weak/feeble.  And in this terrible condition, you then start to eat/drink too much, making things even worse.

It is little wonder that come January, so many people struggle to get going again.

Don’t let this be you.  Contact me now (click here) and I can help you get through Christmas better than ever before.

PS  – it has always been a tradition since I was a kid training with Roger back in Aberystwyth, that we have a Boxing Day training session.  It was never a nasty, hard one.  It was geared around getting together with friends and keeping the training “ticking over”.  It was basically “fun and games”.  This is a tradition I aim to continue this year.  How about you?