DAY ONE V DAY FIFTY

DAY 50, already, is that possible.

If it were possible to bottle the feeling now at day 50 at how quickly the time has gone I’m sure we would have people queuing to join the Sphere.

When you realise how much you can achieve in what sound like a long time at day one, by day 50 it makes you want to be even more focussed since there is now much less time in front of us than there is behind us.

Don’t let time drift away like the sand in an hour glass…Make the most of every day and cherish the time we have right now.

I know that the next time I look it’s going to be 84 days and the inaugural Muscle Challenge will be done, and I along with all of you can be proud of the fact that we entered the first one ever and …….

……WE COMPLETED THE JOB WE SET OUT TO DO.

My self image is stronger for that…and I know yours is too.

Early SUNDAY morning silence is awesome

What shall I do today…Whatever I want it’s sunday. No plans, no training, no deadlines, no pressure, no anything.

I lie in bed, it’s early, and I muse over the past year.

My personal Growth has been exponential…hospital and my injuries are a thing of the past, my physiology has changed completely, my immune system is fully charged, I am strong, fit, and healthy…but more importantly, I am HAPPY.

And, I think this is a key issue. Since leaving hospital FOR THE LAST TIME, in February last year, I have focussed my mind fully on a HAPPY recovery.

Since we can control what we put into our heads and being fully AWARE of that, I have focussed on only putting in the good stuff and trashing the bad.

The more I do this the easier it becomes and these days my life is only filled with good, and I believe that because of this continual daily mental exercise I have attracted the things I want, into my life.

Since I believe in God I also believe that FAITH plays a big part in this and if that be true then it follows that I believe that God would want me to have a full, happy, enriched, fullfilling life, whilst serving others……

Honestly with God on my side and my beliefs firmly in place HOW CAN I MISS.

Each morning, early, I walk into a bright, shiny new day thinking, “what can I do for someone else today, how can I enrich someone else’s life.”

And each day that I accomplish that my own life is enriched beyond measure.

I don’t think life was ever MEANT to be tough…WE have made it so….

LET’S ALL HOLD HANDS AND COLLECTIVELY ‘UNMAKE’ IT SO.

Vow today…to always be aware of what you put into your mind, and your life will change instantly.

It won’t be easy, but then, what value is there in EASY.

I hope you have a WONDERFUL day, you can if you want to.

My life is an 84 day jigsaw puzzle.

Day 1 to 7…. I put a 7 pieces, the modules on the board. Reading the program  didn’t make a whole lot of sense at the time.

Day 8 added an 8th piece…started training..The modules had made sense now and the training I can do.

Day 9 added a piece to the puzzle…having already started the eating program…made sure I had it down.

So far I’ve 9 pieces of the puzzle put together on the board…I’m into the program in a big way but the puzzle doesn’t look like a whole heck of a lot at the moment.

Fast forward to day 20….Aha, starting to look like something now. I can see little bits of the puzzle that make sense to me…+ there are only 64 pieces left.

Fast forward again to day 63….WOW OK now I can really see what’s going on….I can see the shape of my body and how it’s changing and more than that I can see that the balance of pieces left as opposed to pieces on the board has REALLY shifted, now I’ getting excited.

Each day now is a day closer to the end of the mission and each day there is more to see on the puzzle and less on left on the table.

And aso it goes until all 84 days form a complete jigsaw puzzle of an amazing transformation. We all have this puzzle in our heads, and if we are diligent, we all, will have an amazing transformation. How can you not.

Patience is something we can all do more of and unless you hang in… the puzzle is going to make no sense.

For some of us, 84 days is not quite enough…but then this is a lifestyle so it matters not, but in the beginning, we have to KNOW that the program WE have CHOSEN to take us sprinting into the beautiful fields of green like Saraaah, with arms outstretched, embracing whatever is thrown at us, is going to take us valiantly past the finish line day by day like the puzzle.

Hang in, run the race until, you get to that certain point, where you know for sure you are winning, when that balance shifts, in your favour, but until that happens, REMEMBER…..THE PUZZLE.

I have like a lot of people on the ’sphere’ had the slightest hint of a cold these last couple of days…not enough to stop me training but this morning doing cardio I noticed that my heart rate was higher than it normally is and at the time I wasn’t working that hard.

What does this mean?

Well for those of you who may be new to the world of heart rates etc you should at least know what your resting heart rate is. That is your fitness barometer. You should then check it every morning on waking before you even think about training.

Here comes the important part.
If you resting heart rate is 10 beats or more above your resting rate…do not train.

Especially not cardio….Resistance work is ok as long as you are not elevating your heart rate.

I have seen too often where people train with flu through not wanting to miss a day’s training and end up spending a two weeks in bed.

I even know of a young cross country runner who, whilst racing for his province dropped dead of a heart attack because he had tried to race through flu. He was 21 years old…The tragedy could have so easily been avoided had he believed that you can serious damage your heart muscles by exercising with flu.

Rather miss a day of cardio than three weeks off or a lifetime in a wooden box I’d say…wouldn’t you?

Dax Moy, probably the best known fitness professional in the UK threw out a challenge on his blog a while back. To write about who we really are and not just the persona that we present here….sometimes, to garner sympathy, sometimes to make ourselves look good, sometimes, because we have nothing much to say.

I have taken up the challenge because:

I believe that if I am not representing myself truthfully in this forum, where in some way I have an opportunity to influence people then I am being dishonest and I do not believe that I am that.

I believe that my life revolves around my core values….those of  truth, love, sincerity, generosity, gratitude, service and a correct attitude.

I believe that what you put into this life is not proportionate to what you get out. Good or bad. I think you get much more.

I believe that ” As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. “

I believe that there is good in everybody and everyone deserves an opportunity.

I believe that everybody can be successful and happy.

And most importantly I BELIEVE in GOD who is my spiritual father and who has given me a complete set of tools with which to make my life a complete success.

And…if I believe that, which I do fervently then how can I fail at anything I set my hand to within my core belief’s and values.

Why don’t you write your own I believe, it is highly likely to help you better understand yourself

These things go hand in hand in South Africa.

What a waste of time. In South Africa we do not have enough band width. Throughout business hours and into the evening it is seriously difficult to access and browse, never mind, make contributions to various forum, blogs etc.

So what can I learn from this since I’ve been sitting waiting for 15 minutes for everything to get into place so I can start writing. Well apart from the networks being seriously overloaded, I can learn one of the most important lessons of our time…Yup, you guessed it, PATIENCE.

Everything today is about immediate gratification…if I can’t have it now, then stick it.

Well unfortunately that concept doesn’t work with certain things…things like, fat loss and muscle building and…well that’s plenty for now.

I mean, there is no way that you can force fat loss or build the muscle you are looking for. Your body will do it in it’s own time and that, friends, is that.

Frustrating as it may be, learn the lesson quick or prepare to be continually freaked out.

Anyway slow fat loss is more permanent that fast fat loss.

Anything more than around 1kg per week of weight loss is likely to be muscle and we guys do not want to lose muscle, it’s hard enough to build in the first place.

So learn to be patient and it will always serve you well.

Peace and Love

It’s 3.45am…..everything is still, not a breath of wind and the only thing penetrating the extreme blackness of pre dawn is the constant ringing in my ears (like Christmas Beetles) a never ending reminder of the pitfalls of diving head first into a sandbank.

At this time of the day I own the world, well I have to, there is no else around to challenge me for it.

I’ve had my first meal already, 45grams of Protein powder mixed into 40gms of raw oats, a banana, some powdered Creatine Ethyl Esther and 500mltrs of water.

When I’m finished here I’ll jump into my car and head for the gym. Switch on the lights, fire up some thumping Stevie Ray Vaughn, Fill up my water bottle before hearing the familiar buzzer from the gate screeching to be opened.

My training partners have arrived… 5 minutes later, the usual banter…“So Angus, what do you reckon for the first Super 14 rugby games of the season this weekend” “Devlin, looking a bit knackered there Bro, you up for this.”
(Devlin is Kyle’s (sarah’s pic yesterday) brother)
And so it goes until we look at each other and we know…we ARE ready….Let the battle commence.

Between 45 minutes and and hour later the battle is done….Chest are heaving, T shirts are sodden, the water cooler is nearly empty and the volume is turned down echoing the final strains of ‘Voodoo Chile’.

We look at each other….high fives all round with a smile, and a quick comment “GOOD JOB BOYS” AND it’s as if it never happened.

The boys go on their way, change of shirt, new clients walk in and my day really starts.

Adrian, How you feeling today Brother, you ready to come to life… Let’s go….10 reps, perfect form, c’mon, show me what you can do. Check your breathing, get that arm a little higher, focus on your form, GOOD MAN.

I LOVE IT…..What a great way to start the day….totally immersed in Health and Fitness, my own, my friends AND my clients.

Isn’t it wonderful that we have this thing called choice. We can choose what car to drive, where to live, what to wear, what kind of mood we are in, where to spend our holidays.

Why then do we sometimes make bad choices? Why do we not listen to our intuition (or our wives or girlfriends who have infallible intuition) Why do we start a business that fails, why do we buy that vehicle that we know we shouldn’t why do we spend money on something we know is not right and why do we make bad choices with food and health and fitness.

I DON’T KNOW….what I do know however is that we CAN re focus and correct those poor choices immediately.

Make a better choice today…don’t wait till monday to get your poor lifestyle choices back on track. Choose where you are going with your fitness program and eating plan…set some goals and get going.

TODAY

I don’t want to be all muscular

I know that there are a lot of girls doing the group shred so clearly they understand what they can expect from this program, but more often than anything else…apart from “what other exercises can I do to get abs” the exclamation I hear most often is ” I don’t want to get all muscular like him or her.”

Well lets clear up a few misconceptions. MUSCLE in MAN OR WOMAN is SERIOUSLY HARD EARNED.

One doesn’t just do a Bodybuilding Routine and all of a sudden look like Ronnie Coleman. (anybody never heard of him, ask your friend Google)

In order to build your own muscle as opposed to those which are lent to you via the contents of a needle in the butt, you need to produce reasonable quantities of the BIG T. Testosterone.  Then there is the question of adaption, which is why young male beginners make such rapid gains.

Then we need to realise that muscle is much smaller ‘mass’ wise than fat so if you build 2kgs of muscle in 12 weeks and you lose 3 kgs of fat your scale has only moved south 1kgs but you would look smaller. HUH. Think about it, if 1kg of muscle is stick like and 1kg of fat is a big ball of blubber…what is the outcome?

You would look much better, tighter firmer, but SMALLER wouldn’t you.

Saraaaaaaaaah is a great example of this. From the beginning of her journey from Black bikini and sad dark eyes to pretty bikini shining eyes and broad smille she has lost a fortune of fat and built a heck of a lot of muscle but I don’t hear to many people saying she looks all big and muscular. Actually she is MUCH smaller than she was. Even to the point where her beloved Nike pants are too big for her.

So unless you have your own Doctor who has coincidentally been struck off the roll for dodgy practices don’t worry about getting ‘all muscley’,
move as much iron around as you can and you will be very happy with the results.

Oh and by the way….there need be NO difference to the way woman train as opposed to men.

So go move some IRON