Nothing is achieved in your comfort zone!

If there is one thing I can guarantee, it is that as a coach or trainer nothing is achieved in your comfort zone. Let’s put your training to one side for now and look at some other things you may come across in life.

If you want to get promoted at work, you wouldn’t expect it to happen by sitting in the corner not getting noticed; you would go the extra mile, work harder and take on extra responsibility to show that you are capable of more. 

If you wanted to start a business, you wouldn’t wait around for it to happen; you’d take a risk by borrowing money or investing your savings into the project, knowing that you are going to have to be uncomfortable before you succeed.

The same is true of your training and nutrition goals – sometimes you need to suck it up and put yourself in a place that you know is going to take extra effort and preparation, is going to need sacrifices and at times is going to take some mental toughness to succeed. But if you have a goal that is intrinsically important to you, the overwhelming positive feelings that come with reaching that goal will far outweigh the temporary pain along the way.

I’ll give you an example. I am currently putting myself through a regime of training and nutrition with the goal of reducing body fat. Those who know me, or have read my articles before, will know that I am not usually bothered with aesthetic goals. However, recently I have slipped too far into my comfort zone and my training has been purely based around things that I enjoy – picking up heavy things for low reps. My nutrition has also slipped into comfort and I have allowed myself too much variety, which has ended up with me overeating for a number of months, resulting in 3kg in extra weight (not all muscle) and a general feeling of sluggishness.

To get myself back on track and firmly step out of my comfort zone, I have done the following:

• Written myself a fitness plan that includes higher volume and more conditioning work – or in lay terms: things I find difficult and don’t enjoy.
• Put myself on a regimented nutrition plan with restrictions and a process to follow. This curbs my natural enthusiasm for variety and will instil some discipline over a set time period (I am still allowing variety in what I eat, but am planning it in advance – even self-inflicted rules can provoke rebellion in me!).
• Set myself a body composition goal. This is totally different from my usual performance goals.

This of course is all personal to me and I would never suggest that my goals should be your goals, but here are a few things you could look at to help you break out of your comfort zone and revamp your training goals. 

Work harder. Are you coasting through your workouts without really breaking a sweat? If so then you need to ramp up the intensity of what you are doing and make sure you are coming out of the gym knowing that you pushed out every possible rep.

Change routine. If you have got used to doing exercises a certain way then change your routine. This doesn’t always mean completely new exercises, but could mean changing rep range, shortening rest periods or using different forms of the same move (front squats instead of back squats for example). If you like gentle cardio sessions, then try some high intensity work. If you like body building, try some calisthenics instead. The choice is yours.

Go public with your goals. Nothing makes people more uncomfortable than pressure from your peers. Tell people what you are going to achieve and put a time limit on it. Saving face is enough to make sure you achieve your goal.

Try an elimination diet. An elimination diet puts you more in touch with how you feel about food. Many people have forgotten what it’s actually like to function at 100% and do not even realise that common ailments such as fatigue, headaches, skin rashes, blocked nose, excess gas, feeling bloated – to name a few – are most likely caused by what you are eating. An elimination diet removes the most common contaminates from your diet (wheat, gluten, dairy, alcohol and processed food) over a period of 30 days and allows the body to reset and become energised naturally. It’s hard, but totally worth it!

Create some new habits. Breaking habits depletes will power and is an inefficient way of changing behaviour. Creating new habits on the other hand has been shown to be a really successful way of entering into a change cycle. Watching new TV shows; getting your news from a new media outlet; trying new foods; starting a new hobby – anything that makes you fire up some new brain activity is going to be mentally healthy for you and will enrich your life and have a positive effect on your overall motivation levels.

 I’m going to leave you with one of my favourite quotes that sums all of this up nicely:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein

Stay healthy!

5 power packed, highly nutritious breakfasts.

When it comes to changing the way we eat habits are tough to break. This is especially true of breakfast. We are told from an early age that it’s the most important meal of the day, and for many of us our staple diets were a bowl of breakfast cereal and milk. Or as I like to see it these days, a bowl of processed sugar and skimmed milk! Seriously, you will probably find more nutrition in the cardboard box they come in. The marketing job that the major cereal companies have done is outstanding. Just think if all that commercial acumen was dedicated to spreading the word of good health then I and thousands of other Fit Pro’s wouldn’t need a blog (although I’m sure we’d find something to write about!).

We haven’t just been conditioned to expect a certain type of food in the morning, but we’ve also got used to the low preparation time of just mindlessly pouring cereal into a bowl and pouring on milk.  Then there are the people who stopped eating breakfast in their late teens/early twenties. This is either due to being obsessed with weight loss and calorie restriction, or due to working patterns that mean they eat too late, drink too much and have no time or appetite to think about breakfast as they’re rushing out the door to start their commute to work. Either way, these people will end up stuffing their faces mid-morning with high sugar foods from vending machines, coffee shops or the staff cafeteria once the hunger pangs kick in.

Below I have listed 5 power packed breakfasts that I often eat myself and use at different times and for different circumstances. Some of these breakfasts are low carbohydrate and some are high, but all of them contain a good protein portion and are packed full of healthy fats, so will give you lots of energy to start your day. Not only that, all of them are nutrient dense, they are made from scratch, are not complicated to make and can be adapted to suit your own particular macro-nutrient protocol.

If you are worried that they are going to take too long to prepare in the mornings, then GO TO BED EARLIER so you don’t need to snooze your alarm.

Banana and nut Loaf	Method
Ingredients for 1 loaf (10 slices) 100g raw pecans 100g raw almonds 2 large bananas  4 medium eggs  2 tsp coconut oil  1 tsp honey 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg ½ tsp baking soda  ½ tsp cream of tartar	Ground nuts in a food processor until they are a fine powder. Add to a mixing bowl, then stir in nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and cream of tartar.  Add eggs, bananas, honey and coconut oil into a blender and process until smooth.  Pour mixture into dry ingredients and stir in until.  Line a loaf tin and pour in mixture.  Bake in oven at 180⁰C for approximately 40 minutes until golden brown.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out.
2 slices with spread with almond butter: 386Kcal, 18g carbs, 17g protein, 40g fat
Good for people who struggle to get their heads round a meat or a fish breakfast.

Bacon & Spinach Omelette	Method
2 free range eggs              2 slices organic bacon 75 g raw baby spinach 15g organic butter ½ small onion Seasoning	Slice up the bacon into small cubes. Finely chop the onion.  Whisk up the eggs. Add the butter, onion, bacon, spinach and seasoning to the pan until bacon is browned.  Add the eggs and cook until the bottom is formed into an omelette. Finish off the top under a hot grill. Serve with salad.
414 Kcal, 9g carbohydrates, 26g protein, 29g fat
Perfect for those who are on low carb diets or on a fat loss programme.

Avocado, smoked salmon and poached egg on rye toast.	Method
1 slice of toasted rye bread   ½ large avocado 50g smoked salmon 1 large poached egg	Crack a large egg into a poaching pod and boil until egg is poached to your liking. Spread the avocado onto the toasted rye bread. Add the smoked salmon, then the egg on top. Season to taste.
368 Kcal, 23g carbs, 23g protein, 19g fat
Great for a weekend to impress your partner with a healthy cooked breakfast.

Protein porridge	Method
50g gluten free oats   1 scoop of Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder 1tbsp ground flaxseed  Drizzle of honey 80g frozen berries Water	Mix the oats, protein powder and flaxseed powder into a saucepan. Pour in enough water to just about cover.  Stir under heat until simmering.  Add the berries and continue stirring until a thick paste. Add the drizzle of honey and serve.
419 Kcal, 50g carbs, 11g fat, 29g protein
Really quick to make, perfect for high carb days and as a pre-workout meal.

Avocado, banana and berry smoothie	Method
400 ml coconut milk 1 medium banana   ½ large avocado  1 scoop of Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder  1tbsp ground flaxseed 100g mixed berries	Add all ingredients to a blender and process until smooth.
1 large glass: 521 Kcal, 51g carbs, 22g protein, 23 fat
Simple to prepare, great as a pre-workout meal and for those with low appetites in the morning

Stay healthy!!