This week marks my 500th newsletter 🙂 . The first one I sent out was way back in October 2006. I have been sending them every week for ten years now. My goal was always to bring some information on food, exercise and the mind or motivation in a way to help you towards your fitness goals. I feel I have achieved that. Ten years on I have learnt a lot, here are some of my current thoughts on the area of health and fitness –
I have been personal training here in Battersea and the whole time as well as living in Brazil. Ten years on I have learnt a lot, here are some of my current thoughts on the area of health and fitness –
Belief –
We have got to the stage in terms of weight loss that people have failed so many times that they feel it is impossible to ever get results. For the few that do their weight loss has almost become some mystical event where the planets need to be aligned with your star sign for it to happen. Yet when you analyse what people really do o the basics still apply.
While most people have almost given up I can guarantee you that there is no physical reason you cannot lose weight. The block comes in behaviour change and mind set. It is not a physically related problems. While people look to hide behind their hormones and thyroid, the truth is that if a famine comes you will either lose weight or die. They are the only two choices. This should be encouraging as it means the only thinking in between you and success is time to get there.
Trends & Acceptance Levels –
The population is getting bigger, this means our acceptance levels of what is normal is being expanded too. When someone who was of normal weight in the 80’s and before has that same body now they are often called too thin. Even over the last 10 years I have seen these levels rise and it is set to continue.
In terms of movement it has dramatically declined over the years and we are now the least active society in history. Since using a Fit Bit I have been able to investigate movement patterns of all sorts of my clients. The results show that a normal person barely moves at all within a 24 hour period. We celebrate 10 000 steps yet if your goal is to lose fat then even this number is simply the bare standard requirement. However, modern life has almost knocked this movement capacity out of us so now the normal or basic requirement seems like a great achievement. The future is only going to continue these patterns.
Numbers Don’t Lie For Body Composition –
Back in the day I was all about quality of food and quality of exercise movement. Then when I started running experiments to prove this I got a slap in the face with the truth :). This being, that fat loss and even muscle gain comes back to a very basic equation, there are some nuances to it such as day to day energy balance vs fat loss but over longer time periods (1 week+) fat loss is directly related to an energy based equation. If you measure movement (steps) and food intake in some way you can see guaranteed and predictable results. Sticking to these numbers over time is a much harder issue and comes back to the problem of results being psychological.
Mind & Body –
While I normally focus on issues of physical change I always base these conversations under the assumption we are talking about a whole change in mind-body. Looking better is great of course but who would want to do that if it meant your health got worse, you had no energy, you felt less confident about yourself or your life got worse? The answer is no one as most people’s fitness goals are wrapped up into another bigger more important goal.
While the number’ don’t lie for body composition changes, they can lie in health and well being terms. My focus with clients is I will take a minor trade off in health behaviours if it means body fat progress (which ultimately boost the health benefits past any of the bad health behaviours to get there). However, once at your goal you don’t put your feet up and start the victory celebrations, instead, you turn your focus to optimising health and developing fitness.
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Battersea – For Personal Training Battersea please contact me. I am available for sessions in homes, private gyms or Personal Training Battersea Park
Battersea park was created in 1858. Battersea Park is considered one of London’s most interesting Parks housing Battersea Zoo, Battersea Evolution Exhibition Centre and of course Battersea Park Dogs & Cats Home.
