There are certain times during the year when it feels like it’s physically impossible to stay healthy, fit and motivated. Christmas immediately springs to mind.

Luckily there are also times when it’s a little easier to focus on getting in shape and right now we’re coming up to one of them: Lent. From a purely weight-loss point of view it’s an ideal opportunity to get your health and nutrition in order as it has been a tradition in Ireland for many years to “give up” something for Lent. The usual suspects are alcohol, cigarettes, sweets and chocolate.

Although the original purpose is spiritual and is based on self-sacrifice and repentance, there’s nobody saying that you can’t lose body fat while you’re saving your soul. So that’s why we can use a season like Lent to either start a new health campaign or resurrect the one that died somewhere around the middle of January. [Read more...]

It’s the end of January and that means that the New Year’s Fitness Plan is well and truly dead for most people, or at best, it’s hanging on for dear life. Hopefully this does not apply to you and you’re starting to feel the benefits of a well-structured nutrition and exercise regime.

But don’t despair if you’re one of those people who’ve fallen off the fitness wagon – or didn’t manage to get on it in the first place. Today we’ll look at some of the reasons why New Year’s Resolutions don’t make it into February and what you can do to ensure that a healthy lifestyle becomes a natural way of life for you. [Read more...]

At the moment, TV schedules seem to consist entirely of programmes relating to weight loss. Operation Transformation, The Biggest Loser and many other variations on the theme aim to inspire, educate and entertain us as they follow the health and fitness journeys of the contestants.

Although there is a positive side to these types of programme, I feel that there is one major drawback.

The above mentioned TV shows tend to create unrealistic expectations of what constitutes “normal” weekly weight loss and, by extension, create an unhelpful reliance on the weighing scales as the main indicator of body composition.

Without a doubt, I find that one of the biggest problems for clients starting a new training regime is unrealistic expectations. Some people seem to think that the very act of signing up to a gym or hiring a Personal Trainer automatically entitles them to the body of their dreams. [Read more...]

The first week in January can be a time of mixed feelings: There’s the understandable sense of anti-climax following Christmas and the party season, coupled with the optimism of making a fresh start for the New Year.

That fresh start is often motivated by the battle scars of the party season: a few extra pounds on the weighing scales and clothes that suddenly seem to have shrunk. The usual response is either mild panic or a ridiculous sense of confidence that you can fix your entire life – waistline included – in the first couple of weeks in January.

This approach results in gyms packed with motivated, teetotal, non-smoking, diet-conscious, fitness freaks. And it usually lasts for about 3 weeks.

If this scenario sounds depressingly familiar to you, let’s look at why it’s not a great strategy for success and how you can improve on it. [Read more...]

When working with Bootcamp Participants and Personal Training Clients, I always encourage them to have a Goal or Target that they want to achieve by the end of the course or block of sessions. On their Lifestyle/Nutrition Diary there’s a blank space to put that goal in writing. For too many clients, that space stays blank.

This is the equivalent of setting off on a journey in a foreign country without a map or Sat Nav: you MIGHT get to your destination eventually, but the chances are that it will take longer and will be a very frustrating journey. Likewise without a goal to act as your Fitness Sat Nav, you will not reach your potential as quickly as possible. [Read more...]