Breaking the status quo so you can expand your boundaries…..
Yesterday I bagged a PB on a run – 15k. I was so knackered at the, but I did it.
I filmed this video straight after…..
Give it a watch…
IF you have any comments, please drop me a line….
Alternatively if this has made you feel that now is the time to push your boundaries then hit the button below.
The cook book is out, the online training programs are flying off the shelf and now C4 have had let the body coach on their channel….
I have looked around to see what all the fuss is about regarding the body coach, and attempted to cast a critical analysis on him.
As ever with success, and especially within the H&F industry, there are the fans and the haters – and they go to the extreme both ways.
Depending on how much weight you give to certain things outlined above, in my opinion the chances are that he will most likely do more good than harm. Getting people more aware/curious of eating better quality and variety of foods and getting them off their arses and moving can only be good. Then it allows in time the masses to become more/better educated, by seeking out H&F professionals like us (Team CF) to educate to a far better quality. He is not a guru, merely someone who found a unique way of present things mixed in with a bit of luck!
He’s not my cup of tea, and I will never sell out to the big corporation as it were…my principles are continually evolving and setting yourself to have ‘the system’ that works for everyone is a move that will ultimately fail…not necessarily in the next few years, but in the long long term it will. The next ‘fad’ will came out and all his cookbooks with be sat on the self gathering dust.
CF Coach Jo has started to put pen to paper to help with the flow of content and to present a different perspective to things on the CF blog…
Shit happens….but every cloud has a silver lining! Last week I was looking forward to meeting a couple of prospective new clients, both coming into the gym to talk about various barriers they face in relation to training.
Having already taken the time to discuss and carry out some research into some subjects that until now I hadn’t had experience of you can imagine how disappointed I was for neither to turn up. (this is the shit bit)
Both had valid reasons as to why they didn’t make it and apologised profusely, but this raised a couple of questions for me…..
You may have thought about starting to get fitter, lose weight or maybe you’re returning to the gym after taking a break from training or a busy period at work. You nearly came to class last month but then you finished work late, or you saw the advert but didn’t quite get round to making that call. The Silver lining bit is that I learnt more, I’ve up skilled myself and its also made me reflect on some stuff that is pretty dam important too!
You see even as coaches in the industry we miss some training, we get that ‘sometimes life gets in the way!’
It’s easy to keep putting it off as there is always something else needs attending to, but then you kick yourself for missing it, promise you will get on to it next week – what difference will one more week make?
As a coach I realise what’s important to my clients and prospective clients and at Custom Fitness UK we pride ourselves on a personal, individual approach and value each and every person that crosses our path.
This is mirrored in the work that is done behind the scenes not only day to day; planning classes and training sessions but also answering messages and emails from members and enquiries, reading and researching, or like this weekend-attending training seminars to ensure we do our job to the best of our ability.
So you see we think your important enough to take the time to get it right and provide a great environment to train do you think you’re important enough to start??
If you’re not sure where to start, need some guidance in the right direction or just need encouragement to get back to training contact us HERE or message us on our Facebook Page.
We’re into February and for many those New Years Resolutions to “get back on track”, “lose weight” and “get fit” are dim and distant memories already.
We’ve had Blue Monday and even “National Sickie Day”[1], washing away our good intentions as the dark mornings seem to persist, the credit card bills from Christmas extravagances require payment and “dry January” comes to an end.
Real life hits home and it gets harder to remain consistent with your plans.
Ironically though, this is one of the main ingredients you need to succeed at implementing any form of change.
Consistency.
This is why, when implementing changes, it’s important to ensure they are something you believe in enough to stick to them. Not just for a day, a week or even a month….but consistently for the long-term.
“We are what we repeatedly do” is part of a famous quote by Aristotle. This applies through all areas of life, including your health, fitness and wellbeing.
Change is a journey. It takes time. Making each change a success requires you to repeatedly implement that change, until it becomes a habit.
However, this is where consistency can literally bite you in the bum!
Say you’re on it. Your nutrition is “on point”, you’re “nailing the workouts”. You may even be making great improvements in your hydration, sleep quality and stress levels. Great! That’s fantastic.
Then you regularly binge drink on a weekend. Or frequently add in “cheat meals”. You might increasingly skip your activity sessions.
And surely that handful of nuts/Haribo/chocolates/sweets or biscuit with your brew won’t really make that much difference will they?
As a one-off, no they probably won’t. If however, you’re doing this every day….or even every time you make a brew – it does make a difference. Maybe you consistently nibble at the ingredients when making a meal without realising that you’re doing it.
Perhaps you consistently underestimate the amount you are eating and/or drinking at meals, or in between meals. Another latte to go?
You become consistent at deviating from implementing your chosen change(s).
“But I was good all week!”
That’s as may be. However, if, through “being good” you accumulate a 1,000kcal deficit during the working week but then have a 1,500kcal blow out every Friday night…you’ve blown your positive consistency out of the water.
Einstein hit the nail on the head when he said “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”.
The answer to your weightloss and health issues is not to keep hopping onto another diet, buying another detox product or choosing a meal replacement approach.
The answer does include being honest with yourself about where you are now and how you got there. Being realistic about one change you can implement right now….you don’t have to wait til Monday!
Then implement it consistently.
Consistency is better than rare moments of greatness. What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while.
All clichés that come with pretty pictures on the internet….but they’re true.
Just as I talked about looking at your overall week above, it’s important to give yourself room to enjoy life.
Consistency is important but you don’t have to be perfect. Health is about an overall direction – Kriss Carr
Choosing the approach that will support you in the long-term and implementing it can be harder than it sounds. For coaching that focuses on You and the life you lead, contact Lisa at Custom Fitness or via our FaceBook Page.
[1] According to the Stress Management Society
New Year, New You!!!
How many times have you seen or heard that in the last couple of weeks?
All the new diets are out, gym deals and detox products promising the answer to your needs. Everything rebranded, looking glossy with something to suit everyone…..or at least everyone’s wallet.
The question I have is – what’s wrong with the old you???
At this point, people will reel off a list of reasons they need to lose weight and get fit. How often though do you think through the reasons you’ve got that list of reasons?
Here’s the crux of the issue for me.
People pop themselves on a diet and/or start hitting the gym. They might even hire a trainer to push them a bit harder. They work hard and stick rigidly to their regime for a number of weeks, maybe even months.
Results start to happen so you ease back a little. Maybe add in a “cheat day” on the eating…maybe more than a day.
The little things start to creep back in. Biscuits, beer or whatever else your Achilles heel is.
So gradually your “gains” are eaten into and the habits you fought to establish start to wane a little. You started January determined and focussed, but end March with your resolutions being a fading memory.
Life returns to the way it was. Your schedule is hectic. Your “free time” is busy. You naturally default to the way you lived before your resolutions.
Then summer’s on the horizon and you think about your holiday, summer clothes and outings. That aesthetic appearance becomes more important again. The obvious thing to do is to hop back on the diet bus and hit the gym a bit harder again.
Autumn arrives bringing with it darker nights. The wetter, colder weather chills your enthusiasm somewhat. As this morphs into winter and the pre-Christmas parties start, your social calendar and the lure of a warm, comfy sofa dim any intentions to ‘stick to it’.
Then it’s Christmas and the real indulgences start. “It’s only for Christmas and then I’ll get back on it” – right? You then end up in the next January right where you were in the previous one – although you may even weigh that little bit more….
When people use the phrase “New Year, New You”, they’re typically referring to just the way you look. But does this actually change the lifestyle approach behind the diet?
Following a diet plan only ever teaches you to follow a diet plan.
How many years do you plan to allow this yo-yo approach to continue? If you look back over the last 10 years, how many times have you done this?
Is it time to put aside those ideals of losing a miraculous amount of weight in an unrealistic timeframe? Are you ready to start to question the reasons why you fall off that diet bus.
Could you start to look at your whole lifestyle, including your relationship with food, and consider making gradual, progressive changes to those things over time? Would this possibly allow you to ingrain new approaches into your everyday life in a sustainable way, to last for the longer term?
What about changing your focus? Instead of concentrating on the number on the scales, you could:
We’d all love a quick fix, or miracle approach to achieve that “New You”. In reality though, the way to find the “New You” lies very much in the “Old You”.
Lisa is a Personal Trainer & Pilates coach, specialising in female health at Custom Fitness. Lisa believes in sustainable life changes to help you increase vitality, improve strength, health and wellbeing. You can contact Lisa HERE
Why not LIKE us on Facebook to see our daily tips to help you keep motivated!
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could click our fingers, take a pill or spray ourselves with something and suddenly look, feel, be the size or weight, level of fitness we aspire to?
The reality is of course very different: we all see it more and more in magazines and newspapers, on TV and in social media.
The next big detox, exercise craze, super food or body wrap that will help you drop a dress size, be your best/fittest yet or change the way you think about food be it low carb or no carb, high protein, juice or shake or 30 day body blitz.
All of the above will help many people see some results initially unfortunately those results don’t tend to be long lived or healthy and you either burn out trying to function on very little sustenance or find that once you reintroduce “normal” foods or miss a couple of your Cardio-Hiit-Tone-it sessions those results you were so happy with don’t appear to have stuck around when you visit the scales.
Another grey area that is particularly pertinent in our local area is the sheer number of gyms, trainers and health clubs to choose from, something I think has both pro’s and con’s when finding what works for you. It’s important to find what’s right for you but once you make your choice stick with it long enough to see it through.
You see there is no quick-fix and there is something that is missing from what many of the options available promise…..
CONSISTENCY
Realistic achievable and long term results come from being consistent both with diet and activity.
Choosing a fitness regime that you enjoy that fits with your lifestyle, schedule and budget is half the battle.
When it comes to fuelling your body both for everyday function as well as training in the gym or classes yes you can cut carbs and lose a few numbers on the scale or drink shakes and tighten your belt a couple of notches but is it realistic that you keep it up long term and if you do will those results keep coming?
Do you want to be the one drinking their shake whilst everyone else orders from the menu maybe you might even turn down that social event, sounds extreme but it’s not unheard of we all need to live life and enjoy it surely life’s too short?
So back to Consistency, we all need rest days and to enjoy a treat but most of the time eat well from all the food groups, keep it fresh and experiment with flavours and new foods.
When it comes to exercise do what you enjoy be it 1 class a week or 3, circuits or lifting find something you like and keep at it.
Put the work in and see how long those results keep on coming ;0)
If you need some help with where to start or are stuck in a rut be it training or food related contact Jo HERE to see how she can help you get the best results possible
You have decided it’s time to do something for you, that little “me” time we talked about on Friday (you can read that here).
You want to get fit, lose weight, tone up, or overhaul your diet but you’re not quite sure where to start?
You’re not alone there are so many products available to us no-one could blame you for your confusion.
Join the gym, Boot camp, Kettlercise, Insanity, Clean eating, “fat” club, Atkins….
The options are endless all professing to be the best, quickest, and most affordable.
Will you fit in, are you fit enough? You have tried before it didn’t work,” I haven’t the time”
We all have our worries and doubts when embarking on something new and the endless barrage of special offers and promises of a quick fix make your decision even harder.
Exhausted by information overload your still “thinking about it”
That class you haven’t got to yet because you might not be fit enough, or your mate let you down last minute and the baby threw up on your gym clothes just before you left…..
Book that class and book it now!
Put it on the calendar tell the other half you have plans and that they will be in charge of the kids that night.
Go to the class and give it your best. It won’t be easy but you will get better at it as you get fitter and stronger.
So here’s the thing there is no quick fix or miracle diet.
Eat well, move more and the rest will follow.
Come and give our classes a go, lose that feeling of overwhelm and remember why you hit that search engine in the first place.
Hope to see you soon 🙂
“I haven’t got TIME” is a really commonplace refrain these days. Time is blamed for our inability to do all sorts of things, including focussing on our nutrition, fitness and health.
It’s not altogether surprising then, that in a survey I recently carried out with female clients, TIME was the underlying issue in ALL of the concerns about their own health and fitness.
The way in which time impacted their lives was quite diverse:
So although the issues vary in themselves, TIME is the key that joins all these issues together.
If you think back to when you were in your late teen years – think of what you ate, the clothes you wore, how you socialised. Now, fast forward to now and consider those same things….are they the same? Do you think they’ll be the same in another 10 years?
So why approach your own health and fitness in the same way you did several years ago? You’ve changed, and so has your body.
How time passes is not something we can change.
However, how we use that time is within our control. Understanding how our body changes over time can also give us the power to manage how time affects us, allowing us to make the most of whatever time of life we are in.
From my perspective, coaching for a pregnant lady differs to someone in the post-natal period, which differs again from a woman entering peri-menopause or menopause. The time each individual has available within their schedule is also a factor in what would best suit them.
It’s not a matter of ‘not having time’ though….it’s a matter of choosing how you spend your time. Some things can’t be altered in our lives, others can – and taking an objective look at our schedules can often yield some interesting feedback on how you actually use your time.
Sometimes, shoehorning your fitness into an already tight schedule can do You more harm than good. There will always be a way to approach fitness that means You can fit it into your current schedule in a way that will serve You best.
Add on the power of adapting this to make the most of your own body and the changes it’s subject to as a female and suddenly, TIME is on your side.
We can’t change time but we can change how we use it. We can control how we plan for it and we can make the most of the present time.
Lisa Gimenez-Codd is a female-health coach and trainer at Custom Fitness UK, supporting women at every stage of their lives, to move more and feel amazing.
If this article resounds with you, why not check out our Girls’ Night In event on Saturday 7th November at Custom Fitness. For information and to book your place, click HERE and keep an eye on our Facebook page.
Following on form Shane’s first blog post on perceptions of personal training (read it here) and also linking in with an older post of working out what you want, todays blog post looks at Goal Setting.
GOAL SETTING
Goal setting is an often misused at best principle that can be extremely powerful in achieving optimal health and performance. Without clear goals, it is hard to set specific nutritional strategies, training plans and lifestyle modifications. This will ultimately lead to lack of focus, drive, and purpose in what you do. The key it to make the goal unique to YOU and specifically for YOU, not anyone else. If it isn’t for you, then there will come a point where you will stop.
Below are some key points to consider when planning goals.
Whose goal is it?
The important thing is that the goals you set are your goals. Take time to work out what you want to achieve and not be influenced by someone else.
What is the reason behind the goal?
Once you have the goal in mind you need to understand the benefits you will experience when it is achieved. Linking the goal to a feeling you will have when the goal is achieved will give you something to call upon when not feeling as motivated.
Is the goal energising?
The goal needs to be obtainable. When you visualise yourself achieving your goals you should feel some energy and possibly excitement. Easy goals are as difficult to achieve as hard goals!
Can you see yourself there?
It will be easy to visualize your goal if set by you for you, has positive feelings and is challenging. If this does not happen review your goal perhaps by using an interim goal as a stepping-stone to the final achievement.
The G.R.O.W.L. principle
Use the GROWL principle to help you set up your goals.
Goal – set them (using the template to make them SMART)
Realistic – to you/for you
Options- road map/options to achieve it
Will – your will power/motivation to see it through
Learning – trail and error, reflecting
WITHIN GOAL SETTING THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF GOALS:
• OUTCOME GOAL
An outcome goal is the main outcome or objective that you hope to achieve/accomplish. This can be past the 8-week BT course. Often these are related to how you look, size, performance.
• BEHAVIOUR GOAL
Behaviour goals are the steps/processes you have to take/implement to achieve the outcome goal. These can include:
• I will train appropriately 4 sessions a week
• I will prepare all my food the night before
• I will aim to get 7/8 hours of sleep per night
By applying these principles you will be able to set goals that are for You and are achievable as oppose to unrealistic.
If you would like to find out more or book in for a Goal Setting session then drop us a line HERE.
If you aren’t already subscribed to our blog posts then fillout the form below so you don’t miss any content.
I have been trying to find the time to sit and ‘put pen to paper’ -sound familiar?
All too often we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life: work, family, school, housework, the shopping…. the list is endless.
Somewhere at the bottom of the ironing pile is you.
When did you last have some ‘me’ time?
Ever catch yourself reminiscing about the days when finishing work at 5.30pm meant dropping in for a class at the gym before dinner with friends?
Fast forward ten years or so. Here you are dashing from work to the school run, and back through the traffic for swimming, before heading home again to feed hungry tummies.
It doesn’t end there either. There’s still homework and bedtime stories to get through.
9pm and you finally land on the sofa, ready meal on your lap and maybe a cheeky glass of red. As the TV washes over you, and you wonder where today went and what challenges tomorrow will bring.
‘So exercise is good for me?’ We all know that eating well and some form of physical exercise is good for our bodies, but do we realize the benefit of exercise on the mind?
During exercise the brain releases feel good hormones (endorphins). Not only is your workout helping keep your body healthy but helping keep your mind happy and less stressed too.
Leave the TV behind join us in class and take ownership of a different type of kettle.
Get a healthy glow from that endorphin fuelled high that will have you coming back for more not the contents of a long stemmed glass.
Maybe you won’t feel the need for that glass of wine and with a clearer mind tomorrow will be a breeze.
So book that class now or even better to maximise you ‘me’ time and get a PT.
Put aside an hour or two a week to do something for you and leave everything else at the door for a while to remember who ‘me’ is.
Once those feel good hormones are flowing all the other stuff won’t seem like a mountain to climb more like a mole hill to skip right over.
This is all well and good, I hear you say, but when do I have the time???…
The real question is, can you afford not to make the time?
If any of this sounds familiar then why not drop Jo a line HERE and see how she can help you with your ‘me’ time.