I get asked loads of questions regarding every aspect of health and fitness.
I don’t know everything but I do have a vast knowledge base to draw upon, I’ve a passion for learning new things and love to implement them to help others achieve their goals.

If you would like me to cover any topics of interest please feel free to leave a comment/question below, or alternatively if you would like to leave a comment regarding services I have provided, please go to the testimonial section

Changing eating habits takes time. Try to change individual meals as you go.
Start by having a good breakfast, this will help to make a massive difference to how you feel throughout the day.

	Breakfast	Snack 1	Lunch	Snack 2	Dinner
Mon	Porridge Oats (add from list below)	Natural/Bio Yoghurt with fruit.	Baked Potato. Chicken/Fish & Salad	Mixed Salad with Balsamic Dressing/lemon & Olive Oil (cold Pressed)	Steamed/Boiled veg. Cabbage, Carrots, Broccoli & Chicken or Fish
Tues	Scrambled Eggs on Wholemeal Toast, small amount of real butter.	Mixed Nut, Seeds & fruit	Brown Rice, Chicken/Fish & Salad	2-3 Pieces of Fruit. Apple, Pear & Banana	Chicken Salad
Wed	Porridge Oats (add from list below)	Natural/Bio Yoghurt with fruit.	Wholemeal Pasta/Chicken low fat dressing	Mixed Salad with Balsamic Dressing/lemon & Olive Oil (cold Pressed)	Steak, Mash potatoes & Veg
Thur	Scrambled Eggs on Wholemeal Toast, small amount of real butter.	Mixed Nut, Seeds & fruit	Baked Potato. Chicken/Fish & Salad	2-3 Pieces of Fruit. Apple, Pear & Banana	Chicken Salad
Fri	Porridge Oats (add from list below)	Natural/Bio Yoghurt with fruit.	Brown Rice, Chicken/Fish & Salad	Mixed Salad with Balsamic Dressing/lemon & Olive Oil (cold Pressed)	Steamed/Boiled veg. Cabbage, Carrots, Broccoli & Chicken or Fish
Sat	Scrambled Eggs on Wholemeal Toast, small amount of real butter.		Eat what you like but try to be sensible over the rest of day. Enjoy.		Eat what you like but try to be sensible. Enjoy.
Sun	Eat what you like but try to be sensible over the rest of day. Enjoy.		Eat what you like but try to be sensible over the rest of day. Enjoy.

Additions:

Breakfast Additions
Banana, Walnuts, Cinnamon & Raisins.

Natural Sweeteners
Agave Nectar, Raw Honey, Stevia.

Seasoning
Herbamare, Sea Salt.

Knowing where to get your nutrients from can make all the difference.

Proteins
Animal Sources
Eggs
Meat
Poultry
Dairy
Fish
Vegetarian Sources
Soy Foods (not good for men) (best Fermented)
Tofu
Soy Milk (not good for men) (best Fermented)
The following do have protein content but they’re not good sources of essential amino acids.
Cereals and grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice)
Cereal products (bread, pasta etc)
Pulses (beans, lentils, peas)

Carbohydrates
Quinoa
Yams
Sweet potatoes
Other root vegetables (parsnips, swede, etc)
Brown rice
Wholemeal pasta

Fats and Oils
Olives and olive oil (cold pressed)
Beef
Rapeseed oil
Avocado’s
Nuts
Seeds
Oily fish
Sunflower seeds (not roasted)
Pumpkin seeds (not roasted)
Sesame seeds (not roasted)

Vitamins and Minerals
Fruit and vegetables (roughly 80% of your diet should be made up of these, including the vegetables carbohydrate sources from above.

Notes
I personally would always choose organic food. Mainly because of the high/ higher levels of pesticides on fruits and vegetables, hormones and antibiotics in meat and poultry.

Why should I eat breakfast?

Most people spend the best part of 8 hours in bed so unless you are in the bad habit of eating just before bed time, your last meal was 10-12 hours ago.
Life I know is fast paced, we are always pushing for maximum productivity in the shortest possible time. Is life really to fast for a simple bowl of no added sugar whole grain muesli or porridge oats that would take you 15mins maximum to eat? This simple meal would set you up with the energy to function for 2-3hours or possibly longer.

Highlight of reason why!

Kick starts your metabolism, regulating body processes – including your appetite and body temperature.
Burn more calories throughout the day, helping the body to decrease fat stores.
Increase productivity and concentration.
Decrease the susceptibility to fatigue, headaches and mood swings.
Helps to space out daily calorie consumption and stop the likelihood of large meals close to bed to, increasing fat deposits.

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”

I wanted to renew my review on the Shadow Boxer VRT.
I think it’s the Nuts, nothing else like it. For general workouts its brilliant but it really does excel when it comes to boxing training, punching speed and power.
I smile every time I put it on, with just twice a week for 45-60mins… you will see a big difference.

There’s a tendency for the shoulders to rise up due to them fatiguing, but if you are finding this, try to keep them down otherwise you are going to be using the wrong muscles, creating bad habits and technique, not to mention massive over powering Trapezius muscles.

I seriously recommend the Shadow Boxer VTR;
Don’t take my word for it, book a session with me, feeling is believing.

Do your best to stay away from colours, preservatives, antioxidants, sweeteners emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners and gelling agents.
I believe many of these unexplained undesirable health related problems are hindered and probably caused by these substances.

The food industry makes money by just about any way it can. Making the excuses that these substances are used to preserve, make the food look better etc… How much of it is down to making money? Many of these additives have caused controversial conflicting studies, most of them passed as unsubstantiated… by who I ask? Those that have a hunch to ask or food giants? Who’s profit margins would be hampered by the withdrawal of there products?

A few you really should make a effort to avoid now:

E173 Aluminium
E951 Aspartame
E621 Monosodium Glutamate

For a full list see the UK Food Guide

Now I think we all believe diet means to restrict, so there’s the start of the problem!

Good nutrition in regards to your progress in the gym is very important, without it you will become over trained and most probably ill.
I wont set you a unrealistic diet to follow because you will never be able to keep it consistent. Small changes along the way are much easier to become accustom to. For help check out my nutrition section.

According to the meaning of diet on Dictionary.com Diet means:

1.	food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health.

2.	a particular selection of food, esp. as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.

3.	such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight.

4.	the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.

5.	food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.

6.	anything that is habitually provided or partaken of.

8-60 Marchmont Street
Bloomsbury
London, WC1N 1AB
Nearest Transport: Russell Square

Alara is a great store with a vast array of products and fresh goods.
The staffs there are really knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful.

I send my clients here to pick up the items for there nutritional plans.
Best place to go for freshly cooked wholesome foods and juices.

I’m asked all the time if bread is good. Yes wholemeal, brown breads are better than white in regards that the carbohydrates are released slower.
I’m no bread expert!
Bread has been a staple food in past times because it was cheap, readily available, easy to make and probably most important gave some sustenance and kept away hunger. In recent times we just love the feeling of instant hunger gratification, it’s a comfort food.
Baking at high temperatures destroys most of the nutrients especially the fats in the seeds and nuts.
White bread is the worst culprit; you may as well stick sugar and glue  together and get that down you, its utter crap.
Check out the glycemic index and you will see it’s basically like eating table sugar. Your just loading the body with useless stuff to get ride of.

I know…
Its great toasted and loaded with Sunpat peanut butter and our pizzas wouldn’t be the same with out it, its also brilliant at putting on body fat.
Enjoy bread as a treat now and again, but try selecting unrefined complex carbohydrates if you want to lose body fat and maintain you energy levels.
They are also many low temperature baked breads and raw sprouted breads that will actually feed your body.

Underestimate the importance of stretching to your peril!

We have all tightened a bottle or jar top too hard then realised the thread on the top just gives up, rendering it useless.

Muscles are no different, tight muscles most often lead to pain, bad posture, tears and strains as well as permanent postural defects with age.

I trained for years without stretching thinking it was for those who were looking for an excuse to get out of training or for dancers and keep fit fanatics. I didn’t realising the muscle knots and tightness caused other problems like sciatica, strains and injuries that on some occasions put me out for months.
Injuring my shoulders (rotator cuff) were the more common problems I had, which affected me training on and off for years.

Stretching after a workout is a good time, while you’re still warm.
Before is just important, providing you do the correct type.

Here are three common techniques to use:
(I will discuss and illustrate these soon)

Static Stretch
Dynamic Stretch
Developmental Stretch

So don’t be so eager to rush off after a workout.
Stretching really will improve posture, reduce injuries, joint wear and help to keep you relaxed..

Stop Slouching, pull yr shoulders back!..

Rounded shoulders affects alot of us, its bad posture basically, it can create back pain, neck pain and headaches not to mention how it interferes with your energy.
A combination of tight pecs, lats, weakness in the upper, mid back and core muscles. Most often brought on by something as simple as sitting in your office chair with the wrong seated position for extended periods of time.

Below are examples of exercises you can perform to build the strength of the upper back muscles, that are responsible for good upper body posture and muscle balance.

Cobra – Rhomboids
Stand up straight with arms straight by your sides.
Twist the hands so palms face forward, bring the shoulders back and at the same time feel the pinch between the shoulder blades (Keeping the shoulders down)
Move the arms as far back as possible without shoulders rising, squeeze for about 10 seconds then slowly back to starting position ready to repeat.

Rear Fly – Rear Delts for shoulder balance
Bend forward keeping your back straight with slightly bent legs.
With arms straight, shoulders back fly the arms out to the sides, hold and slowly down and repeat.

Bent over Row – Lats
The same standing position as the Rear Fly is needed, only difference is the arms now bend as the hands come into the arm pits.

These exercises are very straight forward, just remember to keep your shoulders down and the back position as if you standing tall and proud.
Keep the movements slow so you’re able to feel what’s going on and keep the maximum control over the muscles working.

Strength Training with the TRX cable.

The TRX cable is by far the best piece of resistance kit I’ve used.

Great for building functional strength, its portable so take it with you to the park, attached it to a branch or any other suitable anchor point and off you go.

Builds core strength and muscle whilst improving posture.
It can be a bit strange at first to use; trusting your life in these straps, but believe me, you won’t break it.

It’s been a very valuable asset in my own session and clients love it.
I will defiantly include the TRX in my holiday workouts.

My story, extreme to some.

I started training with weights when I was about 15. At the age of 20 I started to get really serious about body building, but I wanted to do it the natural way. I was around a lot of guys who took drugs. At that time I trained with a friend who was getting ready for the Mr. Britain, he had spent £20,000 in one year on drugs for his off season and pre competition preparations; he’s past away now, due to a heart attack.
He trained hard, respect to ya John.W.

I used to jab a few guys up (inject) them with all sorts of nasty oily liquids( dangerous without expert medical supervision, but common in most gyms ).
I did well not getting pulled into that side of things, considering how hard I worked, and seeing guys around me develop with much less effort, time and dedication.

Its not easy being FAT, I tell ya…
Bulking Up as the term was used. I got impatient over the years and went onto power lifting, lifting as much weight as I could. I got to the point where I wasn’t interested in whether I looked good or not anymore, I just wanted to get big and as strong as possible. I acquired quite a few injuries during this time, including a broken collar bone from 1000LBS+ calf raises,  sciatica from partial squats with up to 10 45LBS plates aside(funny seeing the bar bend) and numerous rotor cuff injuries, from heavy dumbbell and barbell pressing

Uncomfortable

I wanted to add as much muscle as the steroid users were. As you can see, it kind of went a slightly wrong! A little extreme you could say! It was a barrier, protection, an F-U to the rest of the world… emotional….. loneliness, as is most often the case with these things.Let’s be honest, our bodies often reflect how we feel inside.

I was over 100k at the time which is pretty big for my 5’5 frame. Eating between 5000-6000 kals a day, which takes some doing! Easily done when your downing a few mouthfuls of a thick shake each hour.

My thoughts at the time were: I had to down as many muscle building calories as I could, particularly hard if its solid food as you practically have to be eating constantly. So I started slowly at first on a drink the was later named “Gunk” as a close friend named it.
This was the ingredients to my final shake:
(By all means try it for a laugh if you like)
2-3 pints full fat milk
20 eggs
6-7 bananas
1 whole pot of Quick Save milk powder (think it was 200g)
2-3 table spoons of peanut butter.
As an additional extra, to boost the calories a bit, I used to add 200grams – 560Kcals of Halva.
This would fully fill a 6pint milk bottle. (the thought of this makes my stomach churn now)

I also managed to fit a whole heap of other food into my day as well, always feeling safe in the knowledge that this was extra, like a bonus. I didn’t really need to stress about getting more calories in because I was always filled to the brim with the Gunk.

Fatso as my brother used to call me.

On a day to day basis friends and people I bumped into said I was growing, getting bigger. Some didn’t even recognise me, from week to week, I just thought it was funny and steamed ahead.

I carried on going until I got to the point where family and friends started making comments about how fat I had gotten and the size of my stomach. My waist got to about 43 inches.
I found it hard to put my shoes on, I would have to breath out when bending forward, even then I used to retch and feel sick. I was out of breath when walking up just one flight of stairs! In the hot weather the insides of my thighs rubbed and chafed, that was until I discover cycling shorts what a relief!

Our physical self can really give clues to how we are feeling on the inside; most often reflecting our emotional state.
For some individuals it’s a case of they don’t know how they got there, and don’t know how to move on.

A passing comment, “don’t run anyone over with that belly will ya” made me really think, gave me the hump too. Said for my own good though!

We are all the same..