10 ways to keep your fitness goals on track this Christmas

It is December! The joy of buying presents, watching Elf on television, sharing a nice dinner with your loved ones, drinking mulled wine and over-indulging in food is real, but maybe not in that particular order. It is also the time most of us completely lose track of our fitness goals. 

Despite the shenanigans at Christmas, it is still possible to hang on to your sexy body and your six-pack. 

I came up with 10 ways you can have an absolute cracker this Christmas and still stay on track when Santa Claus is gone. 

1 Be flexible with your diet

Let us be honest, you are not going to eat broccoli and fish on the 25th. With so many Christmas dinner parties, you probably aren’t going to be the only one obnoxious enough to avoid the stuffed turkey and the minced pies when everyone is going at it. 

Best thing is to power up your workouts in the gym with HIIT training and burn the excess of calories consumed this Christmas by sweating them all out during your training sessions. Compound exercises such as power cleans and deadlifts combined with explosive movements such as box jumps or plyometric push-ups will keep your heart rate high and the fat off your abs. 

2 Hydrate before and after the boozy nights, and when you wake up the next day.

If your Christmas party involves washing your meals down with red wine then drinking beer and shots of tequila with your pals at the bar then be sure your body is hydrated to decrease the powerful effect of a hangover. 

Drinking a good amount of water before the party is a good idea. Also when you get home, depending on the amount of alcohol you have consumed, you will need a few pints of water to diminish that head spinning effect in bed. 

Another great thing to do in the aftermath is to drink at least a litre of water upon waking then a warm tea of squeezed lemon with a pinch of pink salt to get the minerals from Himalayan salt to fight off the toxins within the body. 

3 No matter how bad the night was, still go to the gym! 

Sweating all the toxins from alcohol out its the key. I'm a firm believer that poor diet is not the only cause of what makes most people overweight, poor liver function plays a big role too. If your body is constantly battling to flush away toxins, chances are that fat accumulation will eventually increase in your body fat cells. Sweating, even in a workout when hungover, will help massively in the long run. 

Even in worse cases, you should still be able to train 3-4 times per week. 

The neurological state you enter into after releasing endorphins will make you feel less miserable from a hangover. 

Another great useful tool is to go for a sauna. That is perfect to open the pores and aid the exit of toxins from the skin. 

4 Pay your personal trainer before you spend all your money on Christmas shopping

I'm bias to say that, but think for a moment. January is the time most people are hyper about fitness and training but it is also the time most people and inundated with bills to pay. If you're serious about your training and want to get back on track, it is only fair that you secure your first sessions with your trainer. 

The best thing is to have an open discussion about payment but the sooner you're back on your fitness routine, the less damaging the debauchery will be from the end of year celebrations. 

5 Take time off the usual routine and do something new

I mean, when was the last time you tried something different?! Yoga? A martial art or even go for a run? Take the time off work at Christmas to do something different. 

Yoga class with your girlfriend? I'm sure she will love it. Going for a workout with your boyfriend? Couples who train together stay together. Fact.

6 You can still workout when traveling

You're away on holidays. Excellent !! You're on a beach somewhere; sure you want your tight ass and your six-pack in the best shape by the pool or the beach. Wake up before your breakfast at the hotel and go for a quick workout circuit in the gym if your hotel has a gym. If it doesn't, even a run by the beach will do. It's super hot to be the only hot person in a hotel who actually makes an effort to go train when everyone is pigging out at the breakfast restaurant. Imagine the feeling right after your workout, the feeling of looking great and feeling great? 

Most people would like to do that but they're too lazy and you are not like most people. 

7 If you have achieved all your fitness goals this year, relax! Take a deserved break

You worked hard all year. A whole year of clean eating and no cakes.  Why wouldn't you have a well deserved break with family and friends and enjoy the gluttony of Christmas? There isn't a better time of the year for that and, no need to panic! If you know what you're doing, you know that an awesome physique is not going to disappear in just a few days. 

8 Don't start your resolutions in January, start ahead of everyone else, start now. 

In other words, stay on track by creating flexible goals this December and rev it up in January. People make the mistake of starting a fitness routine when they feel lazy for over indulging in December. If you enjoy the festive season, but still exercise regularly three to four times a week, when January arrives you will be a lot more focused and rapidly get your game on top again. 

See the gyms getting crowded in January and empty again in February? That's because 90% of these people started the year with the wrong strategy. Start now and don't get overwhelmed in the New Year. 

9 Enjoy it! Free your mind from a guilty conscience. 

Ate a cake? Brownie? Ice cream? Mince pies? Feeling guilty? Stop right there! Enjoy the moment. Christmas is the time where you are reunited with your family, with your weird cousins, that uncle who loves to booze, have fun with them. You might not be all together again for a whole year. Make the most of the moment. 

10 Be grateful for the gift of being with your beloved friends and family

Needless to say, Christmas is a time of joy. Time to be with your loved ones, time to reflect on your choices for the next year, it's a time to enjoy being human. Merry Christmas!

Wake Your Body With Warm Water, Lemon And A Pinch Of Pink Salt

When I start to coach a new client for a transformation, the number one strategy I like to implement in their lives is to introduce the habit of drinking water as they wake up.

I advise them to drink from 700ml to up to 1L of water as soon as they wake up with lemon and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt.

Long ago, my grandpa used to wake up every morning and drink water as he got out of bed. He used to tell me this was one of the best things he could do to help his “wellbeing”. I never really bothered to understand why when I was kid but as I became a health coach and the more I read about it, It became clear that there are many benefits from drinking water as you wake up, most importantly, it will help you on your weight loss journey.

Imagine that you have a busy, time restricted lifestyle which doesn’t allow you to eat your breakfast at home and leave in time for work.
You might need to commute and sometimes there are many interruptions to your journey such as delays on trains, traffic jams, road closures etc. In many ways your trip to work can become a stressful event.
By the time you arrive at work you’re so hungry and prepared to devour pretty much anything in front of you, like cereals, sugary breads, and the list goes on. The last thing on your mind will be following your diet plan and eating the foods you need to keep you lean and healthy.

Now imagine a scenario where you are ready and prepared to take on the world. You’re still unable to eat at home, however, you have your breakfast meal packed and ready to go, cooked the night before. You drink your morning 700ml of mineral water with lemon, which contains the appetite retardant pectin, and a pinch of pink salt full of minerals, you are set for work and you will be able to deal with adversity with a totally different mindset.

I will highlight, in my opinion, the 5 best benefits of drinking water in the morning and why it is so good for your health.

1- Lemons are high in potassium and vitamin C

This alone will help boost your immune system, assist nerve function and control blood pressure. If you don’t like drinking water – loads of people don’t! Adding natural flavour such as lemon, mint or cucumber will definitely do the trick for you.

2- Lemons have a natural occurring thickening, gel-like polysaccharide called pectin
 

Pectin has has many beneficial functions and helps to retard your appetite.

3- Lemon is a diuretic
 

In other words, it will help flush toxins out of your body and and help to keep your urinary tract healthy. You could call it an alkalizing drink, by combining all three ingredients (mineral water, lemon and salt) it will help balance your natural pH and therefore give you more energy throughout the day.

4- Electrolyses the body
 

Ionised salts will help you stay hydrated for longer. If you exercise and sweat often, drinking lemon and salted water is a great source of electrolytes. Often times we think we’re hungry when in reality we are thirsty. Always keep a bottle of water near you and make sure you drink 3-4L a day.

5- Refresh your skin.

Because of the many health benefits, including acid detoxification of the liver, it is very likely that lemon water and salt will make your skin look better. Himalayan salt is packed with as much as 84 trace minerals. Combine this with the highly potent vitamin C from the lemon and you’re in for the most natural anti-aging treatment ever !

I’d like you to try this for at least 3 weeks and get back to me. Let me know how you’re feeling, if you follow these small steps combined with a clean diet, I guarantee you will feel more energized and focused than you ever have before.

The Big Detox Diet Myth

Did you know if you live in a big city you are bombarded with more than 2million different types of toxins every day? 

 From polluted air to the water in our taps, we are in constant contact with toxins that attack our body on a regular basis. 

Many of the toxins build up in your body and wreak havoc until they are removed. A large amount of energy is required to rid yourself of these toxins and therefore your body is constantly pulling resources from elsewhere to combat them. 

Negative emotions can also cause the body to over-produce stress hormones & other compounds to fight these conditions. This is dangerous because the body can damage itself in the process. 

However, our body is designed to detox naturally.

In fact, the human body defends itself very well against most pollutants and occasional overindulgences. This means most of us don’t need to go on crazy tonics, flushes, or extreme “lemonade only” diets certain skinny models like to rave about on their Instagram accounts. 

Unfortunately, there are countless detox diets being marketed even though studies have shown that fasting and extremely low calorie intake — common elements of detox diets — cause a slowdown of metabolism and an increase in weight gain after the dieter returns to normal eating. 

Of course we do have a massive amount of toxins in our world today that previous generations never had to deal with. So while I don’t support most extreme detox practices, the truth is that sometimes our body could use a little help.

Now that you understand what happens to your body every day, what can you do to help your body naturally detox?

Healthy living is a matter of eating a green, organic diet and having a toxin free environment. When you consider how long you could live, don't you want to be at your healthiest? 

The first step to detox your body is to ensure that you are not overburdening your body with toxins. 

Removing processed foods, GMOs, pesticide-laden foods and toxic products from your home is the best way to ensure your body stays healthy and can do its job. 

Thousands of 'diets' claim they can pave the way to a miraculous detoxification, but truthfully there is only really one successful way to detox your body naturally:

Add naturally detoxing foods to your (real foods) eating habits

You will never see me promoting crazy fasts or fad-diets to detox your body, it's not the way! 

Adding foods however, that naturally detox can be extremely beneficial. Here are just a few of the best detoxing foods in my opinion:

Citric fruits 

In particular, things like oranges, lemons, and limes aid the body in flushing out toxins and jump starting the digestive tract with enzymatic processes. Lemon juice aids the liver in its cleansing processes. 

Start each morning with a warm glass of lemon water and a pinch of salt. Some of my best body transformations occurred when clients adapted this simple habit first thing in the morning

Vegetables

Green plants will help give a chlorophyll boost to your digestive tract and are very cleansing to your system. Other foods like: Onions, carrots, artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, beetroots, turmeric, and oregano are great to help cleanse the body. These are high in naturally occurring sulphur and glutathione. Sulphur helps the liver detox harmful chemicals. It’s important to add raw veggies to your diet, as the digestive enzymes are very beneficial to the natural detox process.

Garlic 

This little food is one of the best detoxing foods there is. It helps stimulate the liver into producing detoxification enzymes that help filter toxic residues from the digestive system.

Fruits 

High in liquid-content, fruits help the body wash out toxins. They are also very easy to digest and full of nutrients, an added bonus in the detox process.

Meditation

Meditation is connecting to the wisdom within. When you meditate, you cultivate the ability to be tuned-in all day long to your body’s messages, helping you make healthy choices moment-to-moment. 

The choices you make about what to think, what to eat, when to take breaks, and whom to spend time with, all affect your physical and mental health immediately and significantly.

While in meditation, you receive direct feedback about how you are feeling and what you need. To achieve the best practice when meditating try:

·         focusing on a physical action (usually your breathing)

·         observing thoughts and the sensations of the body, without getting caught up in resistance to the experience or misinterpreting emotions; engaging compassionate awareness

·         gently returning your awareness to the focal point (usually the breath) anytime the mind wanders

·         incorporating restorative, relaxation techniques, mantras, and visualizations to spur on the natural processes of deep healing, at the cellular level

Over time, you create new neural pathways in the brain, making it easier to access healing states of rest, restoration, and bliss.

Breathe

Oxygen is pivotal to the body’s process of absorbing vitamins and nutrients. Deep breathing allows you to absorb these good things more efficiently. Deep breathing also super-charges your lymphatic system by increasing oxygen levels, and this naturally leads to detoxification of the body.

Even though breathing is an automatic process, most of us are under-utilizing this amazing built-in “detox your body naturally” system. Taking a few minutes throughout the day to focus on deep breathing is essential to good health.

Exercise

No brainer! Not only does exercise make you feel better, but it’s an easy way to help your body in its natural detoxification process.

Exercise promotes the detoxification process giving all systems of the body a boost. As you exercise, the blood circulates throughout the body, bringing nutrients to all the organs and muscles. As you do aerobic exercise you build up a sweat and toxins are released through the pores of the skin. It’s important to rinse off after heavy sweating to help rid the body of those toxins.

Part of living a healthy life is about finding joy in living. Going to extremes in diet, fitness, or detox practices strip us of the healthy life we are aiming for. So if you want to detox your body, first start by giving it what it needs to do the job it was designed to do. Balance is key for a healthy living life. 

Drink Water

Water is one of the most underrated nutrients by most people. Our body is mostly comprised of water and is needed for a number of physiological processes and biochemical reactions, including body temperature and transportation of nutrients for example. 

There are many benefits to keeping our body hydrated, from having a better skin, flushing toxins to aid your weight management or fat loss goals. The lack of drinking water causes us to be dehydrated with symptoms such as a simple headache or in extreme cases muscle cramps, dizziness and even fainting. 
 

A hydrated body will function at its best, not only to most of our cognitive functions but in training and fitness. Studies have shown that hydrated athletes perform better at sports than dehydrated ones. 
 

It is important to highlight that the quality of the water you drink is just as important as being hydrated. 
Drinking tap water, in my opinion is a crime against your immune system. It slowly poisons your body with hidden toxins that cannot be filtered, no matter how many times you try.

Bottled water unfortunately also carries the risk of passing petrochemicals, known as BPAs, into the water from the plastic.

Consider that nowadays even walking on the streets breathing polluted air possess risks to our health, the best we can do is choose to reduce the risks from our environment we can control. Training daily, performing sports and a eating healthy diet will greatly help your health. 
Photo credit @anadiasphotography http://anadiasphotography.com

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Meal Prep

Prepare your meals for the week ahead in advance. Bodybuilders and Fitness models call this routine as "meal prep". Most of the athletes in the fitness world prepare their meals religiously as a way of keep their nutrition up to their goals.

In my old fitness modelling days, I used to cook a huge batch of different vegetables, rice and quinoa and I would store them in the fridge for the next few days ahead. After a while, the time and effort put into it rewarded me with learning how to cook, I gained more confidence in trying different dishes and I was able to then pass this knowledge to my clients.

In the process of body transformation, cooking is key for the whole process. I think most people start training which is great, but they overlook the fact that nutrition is just as important as it is exercise to body composition. 

Once you have experience in the kitchen, you can try to master your cooking skills by creating healthy dishes from different cuisines from around the world using herbs and spices to make tasty healthy meals. 

Invite friends over for a good dinner and let them be the judge. Girls usually find really attractive guys who can cook really and guys absolutely love girls who can feed them well.

Sunday is a perfect day for that. Cook your meals in bulk and store them in the fridge. Not only saves you time but makes you accountable towards your goals!