The bootcamp buzz

Bootcamps is something I do believe in, some coaches think of it as just a money making scheme where you lose quality of client care, a year ago I was probably one of them, however what I was finding out is that every person is different, and the customer wants variety.
A service that I did not offer was group exercise and after lots of enquiries and research I realised that some people prefer group exercise over being intimidated by one-to-one training and are prepared to pay a similar fee for the service if results were guaranteed!....I bring you Kesgrave bootcamps!
After a not so successful indoor bootcamp at MB Fitness, we decided that the people of Kesgrave were ready to get excellent results, and boy, did they! I won't harp on here about it, you can find out yourself from www.facebook.com/kesgravebootcamps
If there is a method and structure to the camps and a great nutritional plan then you can not fail to get results and I think the fact that we are now on our second camp and have had 24 sign-ups means bootcamps must be doing something right, especially as in Ipswich, there are a number of great camps already!

So, we had a taster morning on saturday and I was so pleased to see such a great turnout, I wasn't sure if one person was going to turn up or if I got lucky, maybe 15, but we had 25! A lot of now "experienced campers" were back and hungry for more, joined by friends, family and complete strangers who had heard about the noise coming out of Kesgrave bootcamps.

I now have over 25 new recruits ready to take action and make their lives better forever, this is why we do the job, to get results for the people depending on our knowledge and encouragement, and to see someone change their life in such a short period of time is incredible - and yes you probably will be better technically if you have a one-to-one but you can still improve technical skills during bootcamp sessions and homework with a good instructor.

I would like to mention a few great UK based bootcamp owners who have inspired me to keep on the path with boocamps:
Paul Mort - who runs too many bootcamps
Jon le tocq - Personal trainer of the year 2011
Mark Tipping - body fix
Marc Kent - commando fitness
Dan Thompson who again is growing his bootcamp franchise by the day
Mark Nicol - burybootcamps
Angela Ross - physique
And there are so many great Personal trainers and bootcamp owners I could mention but I wont!

If you want to know more about Kesgrave bootcamps which we currently run two camps, with a third next month, followed by 3 new locations in Suffolk all starting this summer go to:
www.grangefitness.co.uk
or
www.facebook.com/kesgravebootcamps

my meeting with Doug who admits he was obsessed with food

Whilst at the Radio Suffolk studio, I met another guest, Doug Segal. Doug has been described as "Deryn Brown but funny". We were both anticipating out live broadcast sitting in the guest room, and got into a conversation about weight loss.
Doug started telling me that his life was food, his day revolved around what he was eating and he was eating constantly!
So, What did Doug do, well he realised that his problem was that food was a pleasure to him and he needed to completely disengage from food being pleasurable. A key part in Dougs work is Psychology something he studied too, this became a big part in helping Doug look like how he does today.
Over the course of two years, Doug developed a diet for himself which is boring, but this was something that Doug had to do to help lose weight. Doug repeats his food plan everyday which consists of:
breakfast - slice of toast
Lunch - Chicken caesar salad
Dinner - Chicken caesar salad
In two years Doug has lost an incredible 8 stone, although he feels he has put a little on recently!
To lose this amount of weight is incredible, and takes a lot of guts to admit you are addicted and obsessed with food.
Doug and I only had a 5 minute chat, apart from thinking about Dougs journey, I was also thinking "is he reading my mind?" In that 5 minutes I Started to think about my clients, family and friends who have also have addictions and how beating an addiction it can be done, and there are many ways to do it!

What do I think about Doug's plan? Well, it got him results for weight loss which is a great start, but is there enough of the right nutrients to make your body function correctly? probably not.
I didnt get to ask Doug how his feels daily, but Im guessing energy levels are not great, especially when he is on the road and its harder to get a good Caesar salad.
I would never recommend toast to be part of any healthy eating plan, but some people don't eat anything for breakfast which is a far greater sin.
I Will be making contact with Doug to see if I can help with giving him a little more variety into his diet, along with exercise, and I will be certainly looking at purchasing tickets to go and see Doug's show after listening to the rest of his interview on the station, professionally and personally an incredible man!

You can see Doug's tour dates at: www.iknowwhatyouarethinking.co.uk

There is still time to look great for summer

Recently I was asked to go into Radio Suffolk for a chat about "Is there still time to look great for summer?"
I was asked to come up with 5 fitness tips, so ever the professional I sat down half hour before the show and scribbled down some pointers for this subject.
When I was in the studio, just before we went on air the presenter asked if it was ok to talk about my work at Ipswich town, this was a little bit of a surprise for me but was happy to answer any questions that were not too revealing!
Anyway, so the interview started, I was very nervous as I do have a history of fluffing my lines and making a 't**' of myself while broadcasting! But surely I would be ok, I had my notes!......
The interview turned into a discussion and it went surprisingly really well, the presenter had obviously done her research but I dint get to read out my notes on my top 5 tips, so here we go:

5 health tips so make sure you look and great this summer.

1. Drink plenty of water, Ideally on a day you dont exercise you should have 1 litre per 50lbs you weigh and more when you exercise. If you drink less and are de-hydrated, your body will not function properly and you will not lose weight. - Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat.

2. Sleep - If you are going to bed too later or are not getting enough sleep, your body again will not lose weight.
Two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is the hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin, Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin. More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain. You are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived.
Our bodies are all different but ideally you need around 7 hours of 'good' sleep per night, you also need to get your body clocks levelled off too, If you are going to bed too late and getting up late, your body again will produce less leptin, the same if you are working night shift work, however, with shift work, you can 'bank' hours when you are off shift, so make the most of this time. A suggested time for a good nights sleep is 11pm.

3. Stress - If you are stressed a hormone called cortosol is realsed, too much cortosol Cortosol leaves us craving sugary foods and therefor will seriously slow down your weight loss.

4. Exercise effectively - just weight training alone or just cardio is a not the best way to lose weight, to make it more effective, you need to do metabolic resistance training, which is body weight exercises/functional equipment whilst raising your heart rate to a really high level.

5. The most important in all this is Eating correctly. Try to eat as raw and natural as possible - raw veg and salad has the right nutrients to give you so much more energy for the day ahead, it also helps massively in the digestive system.

You will need a lot more detail for the exercise and nutrition points but If you follow the principles and combination of the above you will look and feel great this summer!

Grange Fitness Personal training and bootcamps, both offer drop a dress / Jean size in a month or your money back!
For more info: www.grangefitness.co.uk
Follow on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/grangefitness

Do you live to far away? Grange Fitness is about to launch a new product which means you can still get the same results anywhere!! to register your interest email: gym@grangefitness.co.uk

Will I lose weight if I have tea and coffee in my diet?

I have a lot of clients who drink massive amounts of Tea and Coffee, so I decided to do some research into how large amounts of caffeine can affect weight loss.

Studies have shown that caffeine (Coffee, Fizzy drinks, Tea) contributes to insulin resistance (thus making it harder to lose weight), increases appetite (again making it harder to lose weight) and contributes to food cravings (making it difficult to adhere to a weight loss diet). Studies also show that even decaffeinated coffee is shown to be detrimental to weight loss. 

Caffeine also interferes with GABA and prevents it from performing its calming duties in the human body. This then increases physiological and psychological stress (often associated with both overeating and difficulty adhering to a weight loss diet). 

Many overweight people, particularly those who have frequently 'dieted' and lost weight only to regain it later, are insulin resistant. Unfortunately, many people who are insulin resistant are unaware of it. If you have insulin resistance, using caffeine will further affect your metabolism. 

It will have the opposite outcome of what you want. In the long term, avoiding caffeine will help to boost your metabolism. Naturally increasing your metabolism by combining correct eating (replacing or strictly limiting refined/processed carbohydrates, wheat, dairy and alcohol with natural whole foods) and (unless unable to exercise) a mixture of different types of exercise including weight training, will lead to fat loss and increased lean muscle. Lean muscle is your metabolic furnace that will burn extra calories/energy 24 hours daily and not just when you are exercising. 

Even if you are unable to exercise, increasing metabolism and maintaining it long term will enable you to avoid future weight gain.

Green or White Tea have mixed studies, some show that they can aid weight loss, however, other studies show that Green tea in particular has Caffeine within its substance thus giving you similar problems to regular Tea.

So how much Caffeine is in your average cup of Tea and Coffee?

Drink Caffeine content (mg)

 Per mug/can

Brewed tea  55-140

Brewed coffee  140-210

Instant coffee  85-110

Decaffeinated coffee  5

Cocoa  7

Coca Cola  36

Pepsi Cola  22

Generally: 200-500mg/day is regarded as moderate use - 600-750mg/day is regarded as high use - Over 1,000mg/day is regarded as a toxic amount.

I leave you with that TOXIC thought!!

The diary of a choc-o-holic

Loves exercise - check!

Loves food - check!

Loves chocolate - check, check!

Main meals, relatively healthy - check!

Works 14 hour day daily, so when I get home - shattered = No time to prep food -  check!

Stress of running two businesses - check again!

Salad dodger - yes, yes, yes!

I have many motivations at this point, some selfish (holiday, new baby, craving energy) but my main focus was business, Nutrition advice is something that was a weakness to me and my business, so I started to do some research into the dietary needs of the body, with the guidance of Ben Gray, I decided to take the plunge and cut out all the rubbish in my life and start supplying my body with what it really needs with the view to developing a plan for my clients to reach their goals!

I think we all think we know what we should cut-out to lose weight, but do we know the right foods to give us more energy, feel better and make our bodies healthier?

Normally, I exercise 3 times per week,  this is enough for me to maintain my fitness but it doesn't really shed much weight  - or is the reason for no weight loss because I am feeding my body with too much of the naughty stuff??

Day one I went out and done my weeks shopping at tesco's, surprisingly I spend half an hour in the whole food and veg section! Once I was back I took my measurements, so I had starting point.

When I first prepped my breakfast and lunch, it took forever!

 It was 5.50am, and the thought of shovelling all that raw veg down my throat was not good, after 15mins it was time to eat - again it took a very long time, something my body was not used too -  my breakfast of Fresh greens, lettuce, spinach, red peppers, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, Hemp oil, avocado, Strawberry, walnuts and cashew nuts took me 20minutes too eat!! How was I going to keep this up??? In time both prep and eating the food shortened.

By the time the evening came I was already thinking about chocolate, my normal routine was - 8pm home, 8.15 dinner, 8.45 finish paperwork etc, 9.15 sit down in front of the tv and eat chocolate  - how was I going to break this cycle? little did I know, psychologically I already had! By getting the right nutrients into my body at an early stage in the day this cut down my cravings, and the "feel good energy factor" I was already feeling, gave me the will power to say "I dont need it"

This continued every evening, although the first 4 nights, I did have Chocolate withdrawals, infact, one night I had the shakes!!

Day 5 was so much easier, I had beaten the cravings, my body already felt cleansed, and I had found my mojo!

The weekend came, some Saturday nights included a DVD, takeaway and, yes you guessed it a chocolate treat! This was going to be tough, we still had our DVD, and I treated myself too Brazil nuts.... Without chocolate!

A week in I decided to jump on the scales, I felt confident as my clothes already fitted better, but I was very surprised to see I was 4lbs lighter!!

The following week was much the same, although I had two functions to attend. Firstly, a close friends tea and cake party - this was easy, I ate before I went out, and stuck to the water for the evening.

The next day, I had a school pal's wedding, it was a grand event, the wine was flowing on my table, minus me but I felt fine...until the cheesecake and truffle tower came out, I sat there for 5 mins - then It had to be done! did I feel guilty? yes! did I let it go me down? not at all! I knew the next day I would be working out - which I did. What I wasn't aware of was the free bar! Im not much of a drinker, however if there is a special occasion - Im on it! This night was different, I wasn't just doing it for me, it was also for my family and clients, I didnt want to let anyone (including myself down) so once again, I stuck to water.

At this stage you are probably thinking why? and how can I keep it up? well firstly , this is a long term health plan, but initially I need to see results and there's only one way of getting this,...by being as close to 100% immaculate as I can! If this wedding was two months down the line, I wouldn't worry about the dessert or the free bar, we can all have cheat nights, as long as the rest of the time we are being healthy!

Week two's weigh in = total weight loss 7.5lbs!

Week three went very quickly, it was my birthday, a very quiet affair, once you pass 30, I believe that is what happens!! The wife and I were planned a night out so, 19 days in, I took my measurements again - the results were fantastic, so I rewarded myself with whatever I fancied that night - but once again, I was in the gym the next morning!

It is now 23 days into the new plan - I feel fantastic, energy levels are so high, as you can see from my results, they are pretty impressive too.

And what about the future? well, Im off on holiday tomorrow, I will continue to eat healthy, but If I want something naughty, I will have it, I just won't over indulge! My plan once Im back, is to detoxify again for a week or so, then maybe just 3-4 mornings a week of salad.

Looking back at my check list at the top of the page I say to you

"If I can do it, anybody can do it - no excuses!!

23 days of eating healthy:

Weight  -10lbs

Body fat -3.2%

Jean size - down one size

Waist -5cm

Chest -2cm

Visceral fat -2

Muscle mass +2.5%

Weight training 20% increase

Energy levels + 100%

Do you want to find out more and drop a dress/jean size?

Next bootcamp starts tuesday 26th April

www.grangefitness.co.uk