Thursday 24 April 2008

Well done Jos

A big well done to Jos from the Walking Lunch (Mondays at noon and Thursdays at 1pm. £3 per person including a bottle of water). A combination of controlled eating and regular lunchtime exercise through the winter and Spring has seen Jos lose 8lbs since February. Jos has trimmed down her figure, has stronger and more toned muscles, and handles her lunchtime workouts easily where once she found it tough. Good luck and future success for the summer ahead, Jos.
A big well done to Gary too. Having joined the same Walking Lunch group in the Autumn of 07, Gary has seen his strength improve. One illustration is his push up count. In 60 seconds, Gary started by barely managing 30 push ups in 60 seconds. Last week he managed to complete 71 push ups within 60 seconds. An awesome achievement.

Keep up the good work.

Paul Richardson
PWR Personal Training
TEl: 07855 121232
paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk
www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

Wednesday 23 April 2008

shopping list

A HEALTHY AND LOW GI SHOPPING LIST

For the Fridge

Apples, pears, oranges, raspberries, (fresh or frozen) gooseberries or
cooking apples, rhubarb, blackcurrants.

Mushrooms, celery, spring onions, avocado, parsley, carrots, beansprouts,
peppers, courgettes,aubergine, cucumber, lettuce, frozen peas.

Cabbage, Beetroot, Fresh root ginger, Flat leaf parlsey and basil plants

Skimmed milk, very low fat live natural yoghurt (no additives), Cottage cheese, low fat fromage frais, half fat cheese, very low fat mayonnaise, free range eggs

Tofu, plain, smoked and marinated pieces

Cod, haddock, mackerel, herring, salmon (wild if possible)

Tahini (spread from sesame seeds)

For the store cupboard

Bananas, lemons, potatoes and sweet potatoes, onions and garlic

Rolled Oats and oat flakes, Wheat germ, 100% rye bread, or pumpernickel bread, Oatcakes, Brown Rice, Soba noodles, Bulgar cracked wheat, Couscous, Millet

Wholemeal spaghetti or other wholemeal spaghetti

Wholemeal flour, Chickpeas, various dried beans, lentils, Cooked chestnuts

Raw mixed nuts, cashews, almonds walnuts, Sunflower-, sesame-, pumpkin- and flax seeds

Raisins, dried apricots, Tinned Pineapple chunks (unsweetened, in juice)

Tinned tomatoes, tomato puree

Tuna fish in brine, Anchovies in olive oil (drain on kitchen towel),
Sardines in Tomato sauce

Olive oil (cold pressed extra virgin), Cider vinegar, Balsamic vinegar

Dried herbs (turmeric, cumin paprika, cayenne pepper, coriander)

Honey, Vanilla Essence, Herbal teas, Aqau libra, Ame

From the health food shop

Alfalfa seeds or sprouts

seed oil blends such as Uda's choice

Store cupboard staples

Vecon, Hugli, Morga, Marigold (instant vegetable stock)

Tamari (alternative to Soy Sauce)

Yeast Extract - low salt

Wholemeal lasagne and macaroni and spaghetti.

Millet, Quinoa (similar to couscous or rice)

Pear and apple spread (sugar free alternative to jam),whole earth sugar free jam

Higher natures' Get Up and Go, Dandelion Coffee, Barleycup, Caro or Teecino

Paul Richardson
PWR Personal Training
TEl: 07855 121232
paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk
www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Walking Lunch

Well done to Mel, Rozi, Shameem, and Lynn, from Accrington Neighbourhood Management, for completing this lunchtime's Walking Lunch Workout. They each join as official members of this summer's Look Great Naked Campaign, with PWR Personal Training.

Keep it up, ladies, and don't forget to hand in your diet diaries at the weekend!

from PAUL

Boot Camps in May 08

Boot Camps new to May 2008 - Outdoor Workout Classes for MEN & WOMEN

MEN - SUPER 6 PACK ABS

8 sessions throughout May on Mondays and Wednesdays - Vernons, factory lane, penwortham

Burn the fat away, trim the waist, and build rock hard abdominals.

Dietary advice given: bodyfat measurements taken: Workouts get progressively tougher.
£5 per head, or £30 for the full month of 8: Limited places available.

LADIES - Outdoor Workout Classes - THIGHS, BUMS & TUMS

Prepare that beach body
Reduce fat around hips and bum
Tone up the muscles
Look Great Naked

8 sessions throughout May on Mondays and Wednesdays - Vernons, factory lane, penwortham

Dietary advice given: bodyfat measurements taken: Workouts get progressively tougher.
£5 per head, or £30 for the full month of 8: Limited places available

Contact Paul Rico for details

Paul Richardson
PWR Personal Training
TEl: 07855 121232
paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk
www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

5 Fat Loss Myths

Article by Tim Goodwin: cited

http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=25667


5 fat loss myths that you must not ignore!


I recently gave a presentation to about 70 females on the subject of fat
loss and the common methods we use to attempt to rid ourselves of excess
body fat. During my research for the talk, I unearthed a large amount of
material that supports my belief that most of the world's population are
being misled in their quest for a slim, but healthy body, that so many of us
crave!

Does it feel like the whole idea of fat loss is only possible for the
genetically gifted...

Are you searching for the quick fix that will trim away body fat overnight?

Or are you still waiting for our "trusted" pharmaceutical companies to
produce the ultimate weight loss pill that will solve worldwide obesity
problems...

Sharing some of the following facts and myths with you is not going to be
easy for you to stomach, I suspect that you'll be shocked, dismayed or maybe
you'll feel that none of what I tell you is true.

In fact I am fairly sure you'll dispute much of what I report, so I ask you
to check my sources, read for yourself the studies that I cite. You'll be as
shocked as my audience when you really do discover the truth about fat loss!


Myth 1 - Skipping meals and snacks is OK if I want to lose fat! Do you skip
breakfast, the odd lunch, or maybe you don't eat at all for a whole day,
because you "don't feel hungry"?


PLEASE DON'T!!


There is nothing worse for your metabolism than irregular feedings.


Eating 6 meals a day compared to just 2 meals a day of the SAME caloric
value total for the day, will result in more fat loss!


Check out study no.1 to discover why eating every few hours is ESSENTIAL for
fat loss!


Myth 2 - A calorie is a calorie


Unfortunately NOT.

Eating a diet of refined carbs and low fat will actually make you fatter,
than a diet of low carb, high fat of the same caloric value!

If you think about it we have been told by the FDA in the US to reduce the
amount of Fat in our diet and replace it with carbs like bread and pasta.
The food pyramid clearly showed this!

Sadly it is all those refined carbs that have been adding to our waist line
and not the fats.

Study no.2, proves that a diet high in fat actually resulted in MORE fat
loss!


Myth 3 - You must only train in the "fat burning zone" to lose fat!


Probably the biggest myth in the world of health and fitness today, and one
that drew the most gasps and head shaking in my audience!

The fat burning zone DOES exist BUT, it is NOT an effective workout strategy
for overall fat loss.

How can that be?

To be honest you don't need to read the studies to prove this, you can see
for yourself in the gym. How many people do you see going to the gym week
after week for months on end, doing their fat-burning zone workouts, BUT
never actually changing shape?

The nail in the coffin of your fat burning zone workouts is crystal clear
study no.3 comparing a 'diet only' group to a 'diet and exercise' group. The
exercise consisting of a 45 minute "fat burning zone" routine, 5 days a week
for 12 weeks.

The abstract from this study states: Results indicate that moderate aerobic
exercise training during a 12-week period has no discernible effects on body
composition.

i.e. fat burning zone workouts do nothing for losing body fat!! WOW!


Myth 4 - Calorie counters on machines are useful for fat loss...


We've all done it, waiting for the calorie counter on the treadmill or cross
trainer to tick by 400 or 500 calories burnt during your workout. We can
then feel all virtuous as we tuck into our post workout coffee and chocolate
muffin, safe in the knowledge we have "earned" it.

Unfortunately, calories burned during your workouts are not significant when
you want to lose fat!

Study no.4 compared endurance style workouts to higher intensity interval
training where the number of total calories burned during the workout, was
over twice as much for the endurance group than the intervals group.

You would think that the endurance group would logically lose more fat given
that they have burned more calories in total? However the intervals group
lost NINE times more fat than the endurance group!

Those calorie counters on your exercise bike are really worthless, my
advice, cover them up!


Myth 5 - Crunches will get rid of your belly fat!


How many crunches do you do each day? 10, 20... maybe 50, 100... or maybe
more?

Any self respecting fitness professional will tell you that "spot reduction"
doesn't work! If it did, all the people doing 100 crunches a day would be
walking around with a perfect SIX PACK, but flabby butt and thighs! It just
doesn't work like that!

So quit wasting your time and effort on this ineffective exercise and have a
go at doing some of the more effective methods instead.


THREE truly effective ways of getting rid of body fat


1.. Drop the refined carbs from your diet. Eat more high quality proteins
and unrefined carbs in the form of fresh fruit and vegetables.

2.. Do some short, sharp and very effective interval workouts.

3.. Get your trainer to show you some intensive ALL BODY resistance
workouts, utilising large muscle groups as much as possible

Each of these methods will achieve the necessary result of boosting your
"basal metabolic rate", this is your 24/7 fat burning system in your body.

Utilise all 3 methods and fat will literally melt away!

12 weeks is a relatively short time period in your lifetime, and this is all
it took for Claire to drop over 5% in body fat, and drop 2 dress sizes
utilising the same three methods of fat loss. With renewed confidence in her
body and her structural health too, she is now embarking on a new sporting
passion of rock climbing....


So what would you do with your new body?


Whilst you may not want to believe that these 5 myths really ARE myths, I
urge you to follow up on the studies I cite and see for yourself!

Better still, would be to get down to your gym, adjust your nutritional
habits, and try out the EFFECTIVE methods for yourself.

Paul Richardson
PWR Personal Training
TEl: 07855 121232
paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk
www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

Monday 21 April 2008

Look Great Naked - motivation

That's what its all about, isn't it? Looking great naked. Forget the machines and forget the dumbells. Forget the scales, the bodyfat percentage, and forget the BMI (you know, the one that tells you that you're morbidly obese!). Forget my stamina, my strength and my stretchability. Its about looking at my body in the mirror........ and my reaction to it! Let's get to the point. Tell me how I make myself look great naked?

Whatever approach you take, you want to look great naked. With the right guidance, you can. Bridge the gap between imagining it and actually being it. Take some action that doesn't involve covering up your body for the rest of your life.

If you have a strong desire to look great naked then you are already highly motivated. That's more or less everyone with a pulse, isn't it? So why are you doing nothing about it? What's stopping you? Its a free country isn't it? Nobody forces you to drink and eat what you eat, or to live how you live? If you really want to look great naked there's absolutely nobody, or nothing stopping you!

All you have to do is make and take informed lifestyle choices, including food, drink and exercise. Is it really that difficult? Its obvious and simple, and I wonder how someone of your intellect can ignore such simple knowledge.

The target is clear and in your sights every single day. Stay focused on your target. Use it! Tattoo it to your forehead. Look great naked. Give yourself enough time, and stick to it. Keep going, and don't stop doing things right until you look great naked. It will happen, and its completely in your hands. Noone is forcing you to eat or drink anything, yet we seem to be compelled to stuff and pour the worst substances into our bodies. Why, when you know what will happen, do you do eat fat?

Its always Hasta MaƱana! But tomorrow never comes.

Paul Richardson
PWR Personal Training
TEl: 07855 121232
paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk
www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

Look Good Naked Campaign - Values

Our values govern how we choose to spend our 168 hours each week. Sometimes our activities differ from day to day and week to week, but generally patterns develop. Choices are restricted to a large extent by the logistics of our jobs, our families, and health. And often, our preferred choice of
what we do and who we do it with are supressed by such influences, and the amount of time and energy they consume.

Personal wellness is not a priority for the majority of people. This does not mean it is not important to most, only the perception is that fitness is a full time pursuit, and ineffective unless given dedication. Just when one person tells you that fitness can be acheived alongside a busy family, work and social life, the next person demands 110% commitment or you may aswell pack it in.

I believe that most people are very conscious of their fitness and health, but other priorities make it an easy decision to disregard one's own health, fitness and wellness. Nevertheless, low down as fitness may be down the average person's pecking order, important it nevertheless remains.
Cricketers - to a certain extent, believe that by participating in cricket, can offset the negative impact of a less-than-optimal diet. However, on many weekends, cricket is not tough enough work for most adult men, and not enough to offset regular drinking and poor foods the rest of the time. In
general terms, cricket is not tough enough to create a balance between the two.

BALANCE is probably the best way to describe a sustainable, effective, healthy and active lifestyle. Appreciating that your bones and muscles, heart and lungs are designed to do physical work, and capable of massive feats of endurance and stamina, strength and agiility, is the foundation of the urge to be active. The appreciation of your own life and activities, friends and hobbies, and you own health, is the basis for choosing to do regular activity to retain and continue the enjoyment of such things.

Putting it into perspective. Choices. Choice for a fat person is hugely limited. Choice of activities, choice of clothes, choice of friends, and even getting a job. Good or bad, that's the way it is. As we age and our fitness declines, we non-fat, non-restricted people need to retain as many choices as we can or face the plight to which our chubby friends have becomed accustomed. For many the reaction comes too late, with a heart attack, or worse, which prompts wholesale changes, usually too late.

It is your standards and your values that you must uphold. While you are in control of many of your lifestyle choices, your body needs a little help from your mind to keep the body to the progressing alongside your life.
Exercise to keep you feeling strong, energetic, and alert.
Exercise to prevent weight gain.
Exercise to protect the back and joints from stress.
Exercise for fun.
Exercise to promote a strong immune system and a strong heart.
Exercise to use up adrenalin and promote good sleep.
Exercise to boost your love life.

How many other reasons are there? Plenty.

Look Good Naked Campaign - Diet

Searching for the most comprehensive diet for myself and to pass onto my clients has proven to be a tough project, and one that has taken several years of trial and error to get right. The tricky bit comes from the rather extreme nature of all fashionable diets. In their title these fads claim to do something extraordinary, and always carry some obscure concept therein. Cabbage soup, detox, blood type, food combining, South Beach diet are all somewhat far fetched considering most people know exactly what is good and bad for them. The essence of diets is the capturing of the imagination, and inspiring people to follow something disciplined. Once you become disciplined, any diet will work, because they all prioritise water, low sugars and increased vegetables, of one type or another. Who knows, some people may even start exercising alongside their new regime, which is all good. The best diet model has to be sustainable, and few of the fad diets are that. In summary, footballers eat shed loads of carbs and protein, plus fruits and veg. Most of them eat whatever they like without gaining an ounce of weight. The bottom line is that the body can and will only optimise itself if its potential for exercise is realised, and you ask your body to perform the tasks it was designed for. In the absence of exercise, the human body will NEVER match the image we want for ourselves. Instead of using all our brain cells to engage ourselves in an active lifestyle, we use our brain cells to rationalise our appearance with excuses and blame. The line of least resistance is the line preferred, but ultimately, the line goes to a place we don't really like.
The most honest, open and real diet I stick to is the GI Diet. How quickly food turns to sugar in the blood has a drastic effect on our pancreas - through insulin release, fat storage, sugar cravings, mood swings, fatigue, and energy levels. That's the crux of it all. Its a vicious circle we get into with the first bowl of special K in the morning. Eat Sugary food: Sudden burst of energy: 20 minutes later: hungry, thirsty, mild headache, tired. Eat sweets, toffees, tea, coffee, anything to get me going. Its only 945am. What's going on? The cycle continues. Meanwhile, the body is shovelling excess sugar molecules out of the blood and into muscles, liver and fat cells, and then asking for more, urgently!
The GI diet is brutally honest in its analysis of the utter rubbish we eat, and offers a reasonable choice of what we can and can't eat. It is interesting to go food shopping for taste, and then to go food shopping once you've studied the GI Diet. The contents of your shopping basket will look completely different.
I enclose a link to a good GI guide. The page links off to other passages of information, but the page in question gives you a traffic light graphic containing the Green for Go Good foods, Yellow, medium foods, and Red NO GO foods. When you read it, apart from the odd surprise, it tells you exacty what your intuition thought. Sorry to bring packaging into the equation, but the more packaging wrapped around a product, the less nutrients, generally, the food contains. Forgetting your product lines for a moment, and concentrating on your own body, processed food cannot be processed by our bodies without repurcussions.

Thursday 10 April 2008

Preston Docklands WALKING LUNCH

pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk presents

Walking Lunch
featured in the Lancashire Evening Post - Ask the Expert
Preston Docklands
throughout Summer 2008

Content
Professional personal trainer Paul Richardson leads a supervised group outdoor workout that burns fat and boosts energy levels. Burn an average of 250 calories per workout, the workout halts weight gain, and lifts your metabolism. The workout lasts 30 minutes, and involves strength elements built around a brisk walk, burning off as many calories as possible in the time available. Its great fun, and that's your daily exercise done.

Details and Current Schedule
Start point: Preston Marina, Boatyard Cafe
Mondays @ 12 noon

Thursdays @ 1pm
£3 per person: Drinks provided
Advice on diet and lifestyle included

Arrange a session for your office? Call Paul on 07855 121232 to talk about it

Look Great Naked Campaign