Finding motivation to train: My top tips to beat the post-holiday blues

In true British style, the summer has come and gone in a blink of an eye. To be fair, we have had some fantastic sunny weather and I’ve enjoyed some long hazy days, some alfresco dining courtesy of my new barrel barbeque and have even taken up running again as it was too nice to be stuck inside the gym all the time. However, as I write this I’m looking out through the window as the rain pours down and gives me a big reminder that autumn is well and truly on the horizon.

As a veteran trainer of many years I always witness a trend in September; that it takes a while for people to return to the gym after the summer holiday season and relocate the motivation to push on with their training. Why does this happen? My theory is that the majority of training leading up to summer – pretty much from January onwards – is geared towards aesthetics, so as soon as the fear of wearing clothes that reveal lots of flesh has dispersed, then so does the motivation to exercise frequently.

The problem with this is that it is very short term and just creates a cycle of repeated behaviour every year:

So here are my top tips to break this cycle, get back in the gym and start taking a more strategic approach to your health and fitness all year round.

1. Improve your foundations to keep injury free

One of the issues you have to contend with when going through a negative training cycle is that injuries will be common, as you are over-training in short bursts to make up for months of inactivity.

My advice is to approach this autumn as if you are starting from scratch and work harder at building the foundations. By this I mean look at your posture, your mobility, muscle imbalances (speak to your trainer about how to assess this) and take time to improve your technique of all the foundation movements – squats, deadlift, lunge, push, pull and twist. Not only will you see a ramp up of improvement in your performance, but the common aches and pains you suffer with every spring and summer will miraculously disappear.

2. Reset your nutrition and learn how food can make you feel better

Transforming the way you eat doesn’t have to be geared towards losing weight. The excesses of the summer holidays – too much alcohol, too many desserts, too many meals out… well, just generally TOO MUCH of everything – can leave you feeling bloated, lethargic and unmotivated, so physically you may not be performing at 100%.

Cleaning up your diet through my favourite reset method – elimination – can help you learn about how your body reacts to certain foods and forces you to plan meals, cook with wholesome ingredients, find the most nutrient dense foods and remove all those very addictive junk foods that are just not great for your long term health.

3. Set yourself some performance goals not aesthetic ones

Take a break from trying to lose weight, reducing your body-fat or increasing how big your muscles are so you look good in your swimwear and think about setting yourself some performance goals in the gym.

It doesn’t matter what level of fitness you are, you can always hit a new personal best. For some it may be being able to run 1 mile non-stop; for others it might be to squat their bodyweight or do unassisted pull-ups. Whatever your performance goal, I can tell you that if you set out a strategic plan to achieve your goal then you will get some aesthetic benefits at the same time and without the stress of focusing on them every day. The buzz you get from hitting your targets and seeing your fitness improve month to month will keep you motivated all year round.

4. Try creating some new healthy habits

Using this period of non-aesthetic focus on your health and fitness is the perfect time to start looking at other ways to improve your total wellbeing by creating some new and healthy habits.

I have written before about how it’s actually easier and more beneficial for your health to create new habits than it is to break old habits, so I was pleased to read an article by James Clear – an entrepreneur who uses an understanding of behavioural science to succeed in life and business – agreeing with that principle, but also giving some fantastic practical tips to put it into action.

He states that you should look at the 3 Rs of behavioural change when trying to install a new habit:

Reminder – the trigger that initiates behaviour

Routine – the behaviour itself

Reward – the benefit you get from the behaviour

How does that work in the real world?

Well first of all, it’s important not to try anything too radical; just small tweaks in your habits and behaviour will give you a greater chance of success. So, if your new behaviour is to drink herbal tea every morning, then look to tie that into an existing habit.

For example: if every morning you go into Costa Coffee (other coffee shop brands are available!) to get a cup of hot sugary milk with extra syrup then your ‘REMINDER’ is going into Costa Coffee, your ‘ROUTINE’ is now ordering a herbal tea instead, and your ‘REWARD’ is whatever you want it to be. I think a non-food reward works best, maybe putting the money you saved from buying a tea (even if it’s only £1 every time) into a pot that can build up over the next few months to then buy yourself something.

Healthy habits to try could be:

• Stop eating bread
• Flossing daily
• Drink herbal tea everyday
• Watch less TV
• Cut down your use of social media
• Call your friends and family more often
• Take a daily walk

5. Book yourself into an event for charity

If none of these suggestions takes your fancy, then put those narcissistic tendencies about how you look to one side, and do something for charity.

There are countless physical challenges that are available for people to sign up to in the name of charity; running a 5km park run, wading through muddy obstacle course races, climbing the peaks of our national parks or even attempting an amateur triathlon. All of them will require months of dedication to training and an improvement in your physical fitness and nutrition before you could complete them, so can help towards setting some long term targets to keep you motivated through the autumn and winter months.

Stay healthy!

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!

Are you a secret eater but don't even know it?

Eating healthily in the modern era is not easy; it’s not hard either, but it does take planning, commitment and sometimes an iron will.

I have encountered many individuals who are trying to change their diets, eat healthier and lose body-fat over my many years as a fitness professional (many of these finding it a struggle) and I have absolutely no doubt that people do not think they are lying to me about what they eat.  However, I do believe that for many they do not realise what passes their lips each day and do not realise how many extra calories of sugar in particular they are consuming.

Those who know me, or who have read my blogs before will know that I am anti calorie counting, but I do think that it’s important to understand the macro-nutrient breakdown of your diet if you are trying to lose body fat or gain muscle mass.  The macro-nutrients are protein, carbohydrate and fat.  A healthy balanced diet will contain all macro-nutrients, the exact quantities of each will depend on your individual situation. The macro nutrients are;

Protein: Only consume clean protein sources. Grass fed, organic or free range meat and poultry where possible and fresh water, wild fish.  Good vegetable sources can include nuts, seeds, pulses (careful of carb content) and vegan protein powders such as Sun Warrior.

Aim for 0.6g per lb/body weight per day (more if you are training hard or recovering from illness).

Carbohydrate (CHO): Coming from mainly low glycaemic vegetable sources.  Avoid grains, especially anything containing wheat. 

As a guide, if you want to lose body fat, consume no more than 100g of CHO per day.  If you want to maintain bodyweight, 100-150g of CHO is adequate (see my "How much CHO should I be eating" blog for full details).

Fat: A good balance of saturated sources (animal fats & coconut oil), mono-unsaturated fats (nuts, olive oil, avocados) and polyunsaturated fats (seeds, oily fish) will give the body a great source of energy and help keep your blood sugar balanced and your insulin levels under control.  A daily Omega 3 fatty acid supplement is recommended too.

Note: AVOID ALL TRANS-FAT SOURCES (highly processed man made fats found in cakes, pies and pastries).

Ok, this is all very well, but what do I mean when I say, “Are you a secret eater, but don’t even know it?”  I am referring to the fact that despite many of us getting the basics right in terms of eating 3 meals a day that are home cooked, full of vegetables, drinking lots of water etc. We are not making any progress in our body fat and body weight goals.

Why?

I am sure this is down to not realising how much extra food and drink passes our lips that we don’t count as eaten, or in some cases even realise we’ve consumed.

The culprits:

Alcohol:  Ok, we all know when we’ve had a drink, but if you have a heavy night (and we all do), do you really know how much you’ve had to drink?  Let’s do some conservative maths.  If you consumed 1 bottle of red wine (approximately 400kcal), 2 G&T’s (approx 240kcal) & a couple of shots of zambuca (approx 200kcal) on a night out, you have added over 800kcal of (mainly) sugar to your diet.  This doesn’t even count the kebab on the way home and the way you crave junk food the next day and you can see that someone with a particularly social job or a lifestyle that revolves around weekend drinking will have problems controlling their weight, or losing body fat even if they are exercising a lot.  The way round this is simple; moderation!  I know that’s not always possible, but if you want results then knock the binge drinking on the head.

Petrol station queues:  We’ve all been there, standing waiting to be served, your tummy is rumbling and all around you are special offers for chocolate bars, crisps and cakes.  It’s so easy to just throw a little treat onto the counter, eat it in the car and throw away the wrapper before anyone sees, it’s like it never happened.  Again, let’s do the maths.  If you fill up twice a week at the petrol station and each time buy yourself a chocolate bar and a bag of crisps (approx 400Kcal X 2 = 800 Kcal), again it’s easy to see how the calories in sugar and bad fats can rack up without noticing.  I have found the way to get around this is to pay in cash and make sure you fill your tank up completely so you don’t need to go as often.

Fizzy drinks:  This one, especially “sports drinks” really grinds my gears! They just are not necessary.  I actually chuckle to myself when I see someone guzzling a Lucozade whilst having a gentle cycle on a recumbent bike.  I mean they are actually producing a net calorie gain whilst at the gym, shocking!!  So, first of all, unless you are participating in the sporting arena, or taking part in an endurance event of over 90 minutes you have no need for an isotonic sports drink at the gym.  Non sports fizzy drinks are also full of excess sugar calories.  

If you have 1 can of cola per day (140 kcal) it will add an extra 980Kcal per week.  Not only that, each can contains around 40g CHO, which is almost half your daily allowance if you’re trying to burn body-fat.

My advice is to stay away from fizzy drinks, including “diet” versions (for other reasons) and just drink plain water & herbal teas the majority of the time for good health.  This misunderstanding of the sugars in drinks also applies to fruit juices, fruit smoothies, fancy pants coffees like lattes and such like.  Fruit juices and smoothies (if homemade) can be a fantastic source of vitamins and minerals, but be careful not to overload them with high glycaemic fruits. It’s all about the combinations!

Other notable culprits include; 

Grazers – Eating a few chips from your children’s plates or finishing their leftovers everyday does count!

70:30 – Eating well Mon-Fri but blowing out at weekends isn’t going to get you results.

Office cakes – it’s not necessary to have to take a slice of cake just because it’s Jenny’s cat’s birthday.  

Remember, those people who pressure you into eating are just doing it because it makes them question their own life choices.  

You eat too much! – You can eat too much good food.  Focus on portion sizes and food ratios on your plate.  A good fist size piece of protein, a load of leafy vegetables and some healthy fats in the form of some avocado, seeds or some olive oil to dress is how a plate should look. Try using smaller plates too.

I’m not going to pretend I am perfect, but I am fully aware of what I’m eating and what my health goals are and adjust my diet accordingly.  I hope this article has shown you that without even realising it you can add almost 2000kcal or 500g of CHO per week in mainly sugar to your diet.  I’m afraid to say, you can hit the gym 4-5 times per week, but it’s going to make no difference if you are stocking up on that amount of sugar.  

My advice is to really take the time to plan your meals, keep an accurate food diary and most importantly understand what is passing your lips!

Stay healthy!

Weight Loss - it's all in the mind!

To get a body like a film star all you have to do is cut out wheat, dairy, sugar and carbohydrates; only eat for five days out of seven; never eat after 7pm; and on top of that make sure you are eating enough protein to create a new species on the endangered list and guzzle so many supplements it will keep Holland & Barrett in business for decades. 

Yes, according to the glossy magazines this is what it takes to lose weight and get the body you dream of. Sounds easy, right?!

Sarcasm aside, my many years of experience in the field tell me that people who exercise consistently and effectively and have a diet full of unprocessed highly nutritious food will make significant changes in their physical appearance and maintain a healthy weight.  However, many people constantly fall at the first hurdle and find it almost impossible to stick to a healthy living regime. 

Why? I believe it is due to lack of understanding of the many psychological factors that are associated with dieting behaviour.

Habits

Human beings are habitual by nature and from the moment we are born food becomes an essential part of our lives. It’s no surprise to find out that over the years we develop habits and create associations with food that are in some cases controlled by our environment and are not under our conscious control.  So what can be done about this?  Research has shown that breaking habits can be achieved by making small changes in our daily routine and getting out of our comfort zones.  

Completing simple tasks such as watching different television programmes, eating new foods, taking up new hobbies and making new friends can not only enrich your life but help you lose up to 2lb a week before you even start dieting.  

My advice is to begin making small positive changes to your life before starting a diet and fitness regime, as this will not only open your mind to change but give a whole new perspective to life itself.

Behaviour Change

Timing when to start a weight management programme is essential for success.  By this I don’t mean that you should only start when you have no parties to go to; but knowing when you are ready and capable of change before making adjustments to your lifestyle is important.

I believe there are 5 stages to consider. Which one are you at?

1)  Pre-contemplation.  At this stage people are in denial over their need for change.  They embark on diet plans under duress from others and will rarely achieve success.

2)  Contemplation. This is the stage when a person acknowledges that they have a problem and like to talk about it, read about it and think about it.  In fact, they like to do anything except act on it. 

3)  Preparation.  Preparing for action!  This can involve seeking out a personal trainer or gym membership, deciding what foods you are going to cut out of your life and planning your meals.  A key part of this stage is to go public with your intentions to help push you into action.

4)  Action.  This stage is busy and time consuming.  A routine of new foods and exercise dominate your thoughts whilst trying to combat cravings and negative influences.  This is why preparation is vital!

5)  Maintenance. Once you begin to make changes and gain results, your support from peers dwindles.  This makes it essential that you understand that CHANGE NEVER ENDS WITH ACTION. An extensive period of maintenance is needed to engrain the new regime into your life whilst it becomes a new habit, this can last anything from 6 months to a lifetime!

TOP TIP:  Make a list of all the positives and negatives involved in going on a diet.  If the positives outweigh the negatives you are ready for change!

True motivation must come from within!

I am always shocked by the amount of people who try to lose weight due to the pressure of others.  I cannot be any clearer with this statement; “If you attempt to diet to make someone else happy, you will fail!!”

So, in danger of sounding a bit like a bad actor, what is my motivation?  Well I have found success with clients when I ask them to take part in a simple writing task;

Take the time to write down and explain in detail why you believe that losing weight will improve your life. It is important not to focus on why it will make others happy, but to focus on the emotions involved personally to you and why your life will change for the better. This gives you a chance to express the stress, anger and frustration you may be feeling in a way that is very personal to yourself without having to talk it through with anyone else.  The cathartic nature of this task provides a much needed stress relief, but it also gives fresh perspective on a journey that for some has always been just a dream that lip service is constantly paid to.

In summary, losing weight is not as simple as being told by a young, in shape fitness trainer who has no kids, to eat less chocolate.  If you take note of these important psychological factors and begin to plan your regime properly and make sure you are not only ready for change but doing it for the right reasons, you will succeed.

Do yourself a favour and do something different!

One of the most frustrating aspects of being a Fitness professional is seeing such inconsistency in peoples training regimes and diet.  I am forever hearing next week is the week I’m going to sort my food out; on Monday I am going to stop drinking so much; after my holiday I am going to take my training more seriously etc.  

This table from Stanford University’s psychology research department makes interesting reading and can shed some light on why people seemingly find it so difficult to add an exercise or healthy diet regime to their life,  give up a bad habit or break away from self destructive behaviours that affect their overall health. The table highlights the fact that not enough focus is on recognising or understanding how much our behaviours, therefore our lives are controlled by habits.

	Stanford University’s Top 10 mistakes in behaviour change
1	Relying on will power for long term change
2	Attempting big leaps instead of baby steps
3	Ignoring how environment shapes behaviour
4	Trying to stop old behaviours rather than create new ones
5	Blaming failure on lack of motivation
6	Underestimating the power of triggers
7	Believing that information leads to action
8	Focusing on abstract goals more than concentrating on concrete behaviours
9	Seeking at the outset to change the behaviour forever
10	Believing that behaviour change is always difficult

It is human nature to think that we are all in control of our lives and all of decisions and behaviours are completely rational and all of the choices we make are conscious.  The truth is that they are not; our brains may only make up 2% of our body-weight but they consume 20% of our energy resources.  It has also been shown that willpower behaves like a muscle in the sense that it burns more energy and can get tired when overused, which suggests that it is natural for the brain to want to conserve energy.  A way this can happen is to run on auto-pilot and just do what is comfortable and requires less thought.  

Our lives are run by habits, so when it comes to changing your diet, or committing to an exercise regime or giving up drinking or smoking it is no wonder so many fail at the first hurdle as they are battling against environmental triggers that they don’t know exist.  The good news is there is something you can do to help.  It is quite simply learn new behaviours and create new brain connections by doing something completely different.

Professor Ben Fletcher, Head of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire has spent his career researching this field and has overwhelming evidence that shows that when people commit to trying new things it opens their mind to change, which has a positive effect on breaking habits, losing weight and making sustainable long term changes.  It can even improve your creativity, work productivity and overall enrich your life.  

Professor Fletcher advocates “Do Something Different” interventions that require people to come out of their comfort zone and take part in seemingly innocuous tasks such as eating different food, reading a different paper, watching new television shows, walking a different route to work or striking up conversations with new people. The result of these interventions is a mind that is open to change, as he puts it, you learn how to use the other 9/10ths of your personality.

Remember, Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

So, if you have been struggling in 2013 to keep to your health goals, my advice is to mix it up and do something completely different and help improve your chances of success!

For more information and guidance on how to change your health behaviour and build a successful exercise regime contact James directly on james@hutchisonpt.co.uk or enquiries@aayou.co.uk.

Why failure is what most dieters experience

The obesity epidemic is fast becoming a crisis in the United Kingdom.  The term clinically obese is defined as, "a body mass index of 30kg/m squared or greater,".  In fact the NHS released statistics in 2009 that claimed 24% of adults in England were clinically obese, an increase of 15% since 1993.  The same report shows there is a 14% increase in raised waist circumference in adults across the same time scale.

More alarming figures were released in 2010 by top market researchers Mintel, showing that almost a quarter of women in the UK are wearing size 18 clothes or over, that equates to approximately 6.2 million people.

So with obesity problems like this it is no surprise that the diet industry is big business.  There are no official statistics for the amount of money spent on the UK diet industry, but estimates in the US quote figures of between $40-$100 billion.  So for the industry to be making this kind of revenue they expect one thing, your failure.  If every person who put themselves on the (place generic diet brand here) diet actually kept the weight off, there would be no need to sell the memberships, promote the books or champion the potions and powders that bring this miraculous weight loss.

Speaking as someone who has worked in the fitness industry for over ten years I can honestly say the clients of mine who have successfully lost weight and kept it off do two things; first they work hard in raising their exercise levels, not only in the gym or in personal training sessions, but overall in their lifestyle.  This could be exercising outside of the gym by taking up a sport, or just walking more often or cycling with the kids.

Secondly, and most importantly they adopt a sensible balanced diet, which provides adequate nutrition and calorie intake to sustain their daily activities, but a regime they can stick to without falling off the wagon due to treat deprived binges.  So, if the solution is so simple, why do most dieters fail?  I am going to answer this question from a psychological perspective rather than in the more traditional (regulate your blood sugar) sense.

It would be common sense to assume that if a persons attitude towards a behaviour, lets say their attitude towards eating healthier, was positive, then they are likely to participate in that behaviour.  However, it was shown many years ago that the correlation between attitude and behaviour was as low as 0.30 (1 being a perfect correlation).  Over the years there have been many academic studies into attitude and behaviour change, one of the most significant was proposed by Ajzen & Fishbein; The theory of planned behaviour.  This model has shown empirically that a persons actions can be predicted accurately using knowledge of their attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms about the behaviour and perceived behavioural control.  What this means when related to a person wishing to diet, is their behaviour can be predicted more accurately by knowing their attitude towards dieting in general, what they believe other people will think of them if they do or do not diet, do they believe they can succeed if they diet and most importantly do they show real intention to change.

Another theory has grown out of this model, mainly focusing on peoples intention to change.  Gollwitzer has proposed the idea of implementation intentions, and has good empirical support to back it up.  The concept can be summed up as planning how to participate in a behaviour that will result in a achieving a desired goal.  The implementation intention requires the person to specify when, where and how the behaviours will be achieved, this will not just provide the person time to evaluate their goals and think practically how to achieve them but also provides an emotional and psychological contract that they have signed.

So, my advice to those who are thinking of dieting, is to look at the situation from a psychological prospective.  Make sure before you go ahead with the latest fad diet in a glossy magazine that you choose an eating regime you believe you can stick to.  Then take time to write down when you are going to start, where it is going to happen (such as eating at home rather than restaurants and spending more time in the gym) and most importantly, how are you going to achieve this.  It is important to prepare meal plans and give yourself three or four small goals each week, such as drink more water, cut out chocolate, reduce salt intake etc.

It is also important to have this implementation intention on paper, if it is sitting as a document on your PC or lap top you are not going to see it.  Print it out, put it up on the fridge or somewhat where you and those around you will see it regularly, and make sure you add your signature to it.  If you do these small but significant tasks, it will greatly increase your chances of achieving your goals and avoiding the gut wrenching guilt of previous failures.

For more information about the psychological perspective of weight loss and exercise goals, contact me on james.hutchison4@btinternet.com.