Using your emotions as FUEL

No matter how hard I try to lead a positive life and not let the little things get me down I am no stranger to a bad day here and there. Yes I know, i am in fact human! Lol.

 We have all been in the situation where certain things are not going right for us at work or home and no matter how hard we try and we let our emotions get the better of us. This can result in emotional eating (for some gorging) or skipping gym sessions in order to curl up on the lounge and feel sorry for ourselves instead. We start to lose any mental strength built in the gym and start making excuses for our poor habits e.g. “Its’ been a bad day I think I will skip the gym tonight and go home and open up that tub of ice-cream”. “Ok so you may feel better for all of about 5-10 mins (or however long it takes to hoe into the tub) but then comes the aftermath and this is where a fine line is drawn.

People either feel guilty about ruining all their hard work and dieting over one bad day and vow tomorrow they will get right back where they left off. This is fine-a minor slip up (again we are all only human). HOWEVER there is the other side of the line that can lead to disaster. This is where people justify their actions, have another bad day, skip the gym again and find themselves back on the lounge with that same tub of ice-cream. Eventually they start continually justifying their behaviour by saying well I’ve ruined all my hard work now so might as well give up. WRONG WRONG WRONG!!

I’m going to tell you a little secret that I have learned along the way in my “relationship” with the gym. The gym doesn’t care for your excuses and it doesn’t care if you have had a bad day, the weights don’t care and the treadmill doesn’t care and guess what? Emotion can be just as great a fuel in the gym as any pre-workout meal/supplement.

Take your anger, take your stress, take your sadness and let it FUEL you instead of defeating you. Emotions are the biggest drivers because while we can’t choose how we feel we CAN choose how we re-act and the actions we take after feeling those feelings.

Some of my best workouts have come after the days where I have had absolutely nothing go right and would much rather stay tucked up in bed at 5am then get up and hit the gym. But instead of giving up and letting my emotions take hold and defeat me, I get up anyway. I always say to myself “Just go and if you don’t feel better then you can come home and curl up back in bed later.” Guess how many times I have ended up back in bed? NONE- Why? Because once I get to the gym (who as I mentioned doesn’t care about my problems) I have two options and that is either use those feelings as FUEL, train hard and feel better or let the feelings defeat me and FAIL, and as we know FAILURE is just not an option for me and nor should it be for you.

So next time you are having a bad day or bad week or even what may seem sometimes like a bad life STOP and give yourself the option of controlling your reaction to your feelings or letting your feelings control you and leading you straight to that tub of ice-cream.

As always I can guarantee if you choose not to let your feelings defeat you and hit the gym anyway then you WON’T regret that workout. In fact I can guarantee you will not only feel better but you will have just increased your mental strength by taking control of your actions J

So TAKE CONTROL, think POSITIVE and as always eat CLEAN, train MEAN and live LEAN!

 

 

Fit FREAK of the week

Have you ever heard the phrase “washboard abs” and wondered what these looked like? Well a picture of this week’s Fit FREAK Lazar Angelov pretty much sums it up..

 

This 27 year old Bulgarian fitness model/ bodybuilder who is also a personal trainer started training at a young age, first picking up a set of dumbbells at home at the age of 10. He then went on to play basketball competitively and when he wasn’t playing or training for that he was lifting weights. Once he finished with his basketball career he joined the army and with further experience with weights he went on to become a personal trainer and in turn entered the world of bodybuilding.

 As many of us can admit when starting out with weight training, Lazar lacked the knowledge of nutrition to assist his training which he claims was his biggest mistake and believes he wasted a lot of his time training without proper nutrition. His own website that he now has www.lazarangelov.comoffers training and nutrition programs to help other people meet their own goals.

Lazar describes his training routine as being consistent and heavy claiming that this helps him to maintain decent size as a natural athlete. As with most bodybuilders he works on a 5 day split program focusing on 1-2 body parts per session. He rarely does cardio as he claims it causes him to lose a lot of muscle mass but if he does include it in his program he switches between HIIT (high intensity interval training) and steady state cardio.

His diet consists of a lot of protein including egg whites,chicken, fish, whey powder as well as wholegrain carbohydrates in oats and brown rice.

Lazar is a big believer in creating an aesthetic physique and therefore he likes to stay cut majority of the year and as you can see with many of his photos he achieves this without question. 

His advice to anyone looking to get in the best shape of their life is to keep consistent with both training and diet and to only take advice from people who have achieved more than you and know what they are talking about.

See more photos and a few training vids of this amazing aesthetic physique below!

 

 

 

 

 

Failing to plan is planning to FAIL

Well as another week draws to an end here I am sitting back at my computer and thinking about what to share with you all this week about eating CLEAN, training MEAN and living LEAN. It didn’t take me too long to find my inspiration as I thought back to a conversation I had earlier in the week about not getting results. I feel that this conversation is one of those“dejavu” type conversations because I feel like I have had it several times and sometimes frustratingly with the same people!

People often come to me with questions about what they should be eating to help them reach their goals and I am more than happy to provide them with information based upon my own knowledge with nutrition as well as my own experiences. From my experience with people it seems that committing to a clean diet is one of the parts most people struggle with and they trick themselves into thinking “oh well my diet hasn’t been great but I still went to the gym 4 times this week.” Unfortunately diet and exercise go hand in hand and one without the other is never going to get people the serious results they are so often looking for.

One thing I always say to my clients when they say they“didn’t have time” to eat before a session or to have lunch or breakfast that day is that failing to plan is most definitely planning to FAIL. If you do not prepare or plan what you are going to eat then most likely you will either not eat or fall into the easy and often unhealthy option- they are not called convenience foods for nothing you know!

Some days if I am going to be in training clients all afternoon it takes me anywhere from half an hour to 45 mins to get all of my food ready for the rest of the day but when it rolls around to being time for me to eat I don’t have to give it a second thought. The clean food I have prepared and planned to eat is there waiting for me and therefore I have the fuel I need to continue on with my day. It’s not hard to take 45 mins max out of a day to prepare even if it is at night time preparing for the next day.Just like planning a gym session you will not regret spending that time doing so as it will all count in the long run in the journey towards your goal.

Another big excuse I find people have is “oh I didn’t have any(insert healthy item) I have to do the groceries”. Again these people have failed to plan ahead when doing their previous grocery shop and therefore they have planned to fail. Before going to do my groceries I first have to think about what I will be eating for that week ahead and then I make sure that I have enough cover each meal. Sometimes I will shop for fresh fruit and veg more than once a week because this isn’t something you can always buy for a whole fortnight if that is how you shop. I don’t think I have ever reached a point where I have gone to get a piece of fruit and there is none there or gone to cook dinner and found no vegetables. Why? Because I PLAN, PLAN, PLAN.

Some people will read this and go “but that sounds like so much work” or “I don’t have time to plan and prepare” and my question would then be “Well how badly do you really want to reach your goals?”

Sure it takes a bit of extra time and work but to be completely committed to your goals means consistency with both exercise AND diet not just one or the other. It all fails back to one of my favourite quotes“If you really want something then you will find a way and if not you will find an excuse.”

So STOP makingexcuses and start PLANNING so you can succeed rather than FAIL. Eating clean doesn’t have to be hard or boring either. I have included below the recipe to one of my favourite clean recipes that I often have on the weekends for breakfast Vanilla Protein Pancakes, better than regular pancakes and better for you not to mention they take no time at all to make. Give them a try :)

Fit FREAK is on its way in the next hour or so, have a great weekend and as always eat CLEAN, train MEAN and live LEAN :)

VANILLA PROTEIN PANCAKES (makes anywhere up to 10 small pancakes)

·        Half cup of oats

·        1 scoop of whey protein (I use vanilla flavoured obviously)

·        2 egg whites

·        1 whole egg

·        1 tbsp of low fat cottage cheese

·        Half a banana

Mix all ingredients in a blender or food processor until they are blended together in a smooth batter like consistency. Heat a non-stick frying pan on low heat and pour in batter. When bubbles start to rise on one side of the pancake flip and cook the other side. I often serve with the other half of the banana cut up on top as well as strawberries and some low fat, low sugar vanilla yoghurt :)

 

 

 

Kettlebells- The all-in-one fitness tool

A year or maybe more ago I read an interesting article in Oxygen magazine (if you are interested in fitness and have not seen this I highly recommend you check it out) about Kettlebells.

It had me intrigued as I read how with this one funny looking piece of equipment you could burn up to 1200 calories per hour and that it was more effective than running, cycling or rowing for fat loss.

For those of you who are sitting there wondering, this is what a kettlebell looks like

You are intrigued now too huh?

After doing some more research I learnt that Kettlebells are an ancient Russian training tool which were originally used as counterweights for weighing grain. Peasants soon discovered they could be used as a hand weight and this lead to the Russian military picking up on the benefits and using the kettlebell as a training tool for their soldiers. Kettlebells have the following benefits:

-         Kettlebells enable you train cardiovascular fitness as well as strength, power, endurance, flexibility, mobility and speed all with this one single tool!

-         Kettlebell training uses the body as a single functioning unit rather than isolating muscle groups therefore has the potential to use more energy than other training methods.

After all this research I was hooked! I learnt that you could get trained in Kettlebell instruction and at the start of this year I went off and did a full day of training in Sydney with a woman from Ironedge who are the home of Australian Kettlebells. Apart from the instructor, I was the only female in a group full of big muscled up men (not that I complained lol) but by the end of the day everyone was equally stuffed. The guys who started at 16kg or more were then trying to steal my lighter weights!

Just recently we got some kettlebells into work so I can finally start instructing and sharing the benefits of this marvellous little tool with others. Practising with them the other day reminded me not only how intensely they can work you but how fun they can be! I can’t wait to incorporate them regularly into my weekly training.

I highly recommend this method of training to everyone no matter what your goals because as you can see it provides pretty much everything you could look for in training whether it be strength, cardio,power, speed or flexibility.

You can buy kettlebells in most sporting stores these days or if you are interested in training, instruction or qualifications I would recommend looking into courses through either www.ironedge.com.au or www.dragondooraustralia.com.

Any questions regarding further info please feel free to comment below :)
Below are some pics of me training with the kettlebells this week

 

Fit FREAK of the week!

They say age is just a number and it is no barrier nor doesit define you. Well this weeks’ fit FREAK is certainly proof of that.

Meet Lesley Maxwell, 56 years young, ageless and rocking abody better than most people half her age.

Lesley is a mother of 3, a personal trainer, has over 20body sculpting titles, is a regular columnist for one of my favourite fitnessmagazines Oxygen and has just released her own book “Get the body you want”.WOW talk about a mouthful of achievements!

Lesley believes the key to looking good and feeling amazingis regular exercise, good nutrition and a positive attitude and she certainlyreflects all three. She believes the most effective way to change your bodyshape is strength training and that consistency is the key (so true!). Shetrains 6 days a week with 4 days of weight training and follows a clean dietconsisting of 6 meals a day including organic produce, veggies, salad, eggs,chicken and fish.  Lesley also believes(as do i) that when it comes to getting the body you want, 70-80% of yourresults come down to what you put in your mouth.

This woman puts a lot of the younger generation to shame.She inspires me to look half as good at my age now let alone at hers! You canread many of her articles at www.oxygenmag.com.auor check out her book at her own website www.ouifitness.com.au.

Another year older, a little bit wiser and definitely stronger ;)

Hi Everyone :)

Sorry about the neglect on here in the past few weeks everything has been very busy- plenty of training just not enough time to write about the training!

Turning another year older this week caused to me to reflect on the past year in my life (where the bloody hell did it go?!), the things I have achieved and the things I want for the next year ahead. One thing I love about the gym is it has become my “place of sanctuary” especially in this past year when I have had a lot to deal with.

 No matter what is happening in the outside world, when I get inside the gym the headphones are in, the music is full ball, the mind is switched off and for the time I am there nothing else matters. I have discovered that what I have gained through the gym is mirrored in my life. The gym has helped me build not only physical strength but in turn mental strength as well. It has helped me to be more confident, determined and have a positive frame of mind (mostly). It has taught me to have faith in myself and what I can do through achieving things I may have once thought I couldn’t. It has also taught me to have faith in other people through my job in terms of helping others achieve their goals and overcome the barriers that once restricted them.

It has taught me that sometimes in life we can’t control what happens and have to accept what we cannot change but sometimes we are in control, and for me the gym has helped me by always being that one place that I CAN control the outcome of what happens. I can CHOOSE to either succeed or fail when I enter a session and as I now always say “Failure is not an option”.  

The strength I have gained both mentally and physically over the past year alone has changed me and I definitely believe it is only for the better and I can only move forward from here.

 Some people don't understand and will never understand what I am talking about until they have entered this “realm” themselves and have seen or experienced the changes the gym can bring about in a persons’ life. People will always judge and criticize the unknown or things they don’t understand.  Don’t let the people who criticise you or try to bring you down get in your way because at the end of the day it is your life, your goal and nobody else is going to do it for you. Work hard, commit to what you want and above all believe in yourself.

 It’s not a diet and it's not a phase it’s a permanent lifestyle change and one I can guarantee you will never look back upon or regret.

So as always Eat CLEAN, Train MEAN and you will live LEAN… and HAPPY :)

Stay tuned as Fit FREAK of the week will be posted throughout the day