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Is it time to find your inner F*&k it?

self growth

The power of impulsivity on progression

So, we just got through Blue Monday, but January is a long month often sat waiting for the holy grail of payday.  How are you feeling? Are you down and depressed or happy to be through the expense and excess of Christmas?   I wonder if people fall into two camps.  People who love Christmas and get depressed in January, and those who hate the festive season and embrace the new beginnings and clean living of January? I know that I am the latter.  I hate Christmas. The added pressures, the waste, the pointless extravagance, the food, and the drink.  I wonder if because I am controlled, and Christmas is all about being fun, letting go and going crazy, that is why for me, January is up there with my favourite months!

January sings the blues

January means that everyone is skint.  No one is going out! There is no pressure to eat cake and stay out past 9pm. For a month or two I am in the majority as the masses descend back to the gym, for this to be the year they finally lose the weight and get happy. Yes, in January most people are living their lives the way I live mine most of the time and that means I am finally normal!

Is there an argument to say that many who look forward to Christmas enjoy the escapism that can be found in that write off month of the year?  It is funny and seems to have become more and more so over the years, that December has become the invisible month.  The month where you can eat as much, drink and even spend as much, and sleep as little as you want, and it really does not matter in the moment because it’s Christmas! Of course, the issue with this is if the same happens every year.  Each December if you get fatter, more ill, and poorer, then no wonder January continually sings the blues and some.

So, this January are you excited to be back to normal and gaining back the control of your health and finances or are you down and miserable because you have a huge credit card bill to pay and and an even bigger belly. Are you living in the only pair of jeans that still fit having just joined weight watchers or pure gym to “sort yourself out?

Reframe January

January though, in my mind, is not to be feared.  January can be a great time for measurement and seeing how far you have come. Each year it can be a positive exercise to look at what you have achieved in the last 12 months and quite often you will be astounded.  We can all be hard on ourselves and self-critical finding all the reasons why we are failures. However, by just having a quick glance back at where you were this time last year it can be quite powerful to see that you have progressed far more than you thought.

So, from the first part of this blog, I have probably come across as quite boring, and in the everyday I pretty much am. I eat the same food nearly every day.  I only drink the same drink when I go out….and if I do go out, I like to be home by 8pm.  Bedtime is a beyond boring 9pm and my boyfriend and I even sleep separately in the week to make sure our sleep quality is tip top.

F*&K it – Let’s do this

However, what I lack in everyday excitement, I make up for in abundance with my impulsivity over my biggest life decisions. I have left a marriage, had a third baby after a 10-year gap, and quit three jobs all with a determined “f*&k it, let’s do this,” mentality.  Certainly, when I have followed my sixth sense and trusted my gut life has not been dull. In fact, so far life has been a flaming blast.  Full of twists and turns and nothing, “so far so good” that I regret.

When I look back over where I have come in the last year and indeed the last 5 years since my 20-year marriage, ended there have been many highs and crashing lows, but wow I have grown is so many ways. Highs include visiting Thailand (a childfree holiday for the first time in 18 years), buying my first house and making it a home, and competing in a national sporting competition in London.  Lows are becoming less since I have a committed boyfriend, but certainly the loneliness and anxiety that comes from being single and over 40, have provided some difficult days and nights.

Out of the darkness comes self belief

Looking back though from where I was, I am so happy for the dark times because they challenged me, made me grow and have helped to build my self-esteem.  I am still a work in progress but reflecting like this each January really helps me to keep being brave, pushing and challenging myself to do things that scare me and that I don’t enjoy, because I know if I stay inside of my comfort zone that looking back next January will be boring and disappointing.

In life, business, relationships and especially weight loss, progress can often be a slog. When we have bad habits, self-limiting beliefs, or a critical parents voice firmly implanted in our brains, making long lasting changes can often be an uphill struggle with numerous peaks and troughs.  If long term life changes will involve breaking down all the negativity, sometimes self-loathing, and irrational voices planting hurdles in your mind, then it is important to allow yourself the time to make the full journey.

Leaving a relationship because you want more, leaving a job to start a business you are passionate about, tackling health issues when you know there is a huge struggle ahead, all take huge courage and can be life changing decisions that are easy to keep putting off year after year.

Create your own third force

In these instances, a f*&k it impulsiveness act now and worry about the consequences later can be a blessing.  It can add that third force that facilitates action.

Force number 1:  I want to leave my job, or I want to lose weight or I want to do the same thing as my friends.

Force number 2:  I can’t leave my job because I must pay bills, or I can’t lose weight because hate exercise because I am so unfit. I can’t join in with my friends because they are all so much better than me.

The Third Impulsive Force:

I handed my notice in now I must raise my game and figure something out.

I paid upfront for a long-term gym membership – I have attended now, or I will be annoyed I wasted my money.

I entered an indoor rowing competition with my really fit friends – I have to flaming do this now!

Committing to something on an impulse can really force you to get out of your comfort zone and rise to the challenge.  When there is only force 1 and force 2 involved, it is easy to stay in limbo year after year knowing you want to make changes but talking yourself out of them because you are scared.

F*&K It and allow yourself to grow

If you look back this January and think life has not changed since last winter. If you look back this January and think that you are as miserable this year as you were 5 years ago, then it’s time to do the uncomfortable work and make some radical changes and find your inner “f*&k it.”

The journey that might mean you getting exactly where you want to may be a long one, but there will be aspects of that journey that you will enjoy when you take the pressure off and commit to the challenge in the long term.

Don’t fear the pain of change.  Make an impulsive gut driven decision to do something that is important to you, and you will make it work.  The sooner you start that journey, the sooner you’ll get the successes that you long for. You have no idea how high you are going to soar once you start putting yourself in new uncomfortable places with challenges to terrify and excite you.

Your potential is infinite if you just have the confidence to say, “f*&k it” and let yourself grow.

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Simple Tips to Change your Lifestyle in 2022

easy ways to live well

If this January, like last January you are feeling rubbish, then surely there is nothing simple or easy about living a healthy life?

Certainly January 2021 was the month we emerged from a difficult first year of Covid, many of us, with an extra stone or two we needed to lose. If you have spent the last couple of years praying for vaccinations and boosters thinking that it is the only way to keep yourself safe, then do also have a good long think about your exercise and overall health. Yes, this option may take some work and new lifestyle habits, but we have got some really great suggestions in this article of easy ways to live well and simple changes that you can make, that might just get you heading in the right direction before the spring.

Working Out

  • Find Something to do that you enjoy. You don’t have to go to the gym and wander round machines in order to look good and feel fit. In fact quite often if you take that approach in January it’s likely to make you more miserable as the place will be very busy and you might not get to use what you want to. Lots of other options are available like taking up a sport, Zwift bike riding/racing, home workouts with a kettlebell or get rucking in the countryside with a weighted backpack at the weekends.
  • Get the Most Bang for your Buck: Far too many gym based fitness programmes focus on working individual body parts. This is fine if you’re a full time bodybuilder or figure competitor that has 8 hours to train every day but the real world doesn’t allow for that. To build muscle mass quickly and burn more calories, try to choose exercises that involve multiple muscle groups such as deadlifts, squats, cleans and snatches. A question we often ask in our group sessions is to count the number of joints you are using; the more joints used, the bigger the exercise and more muscles are used. 
  • SPRINT! Jogging/Running is a very popular choice for New Year fitness campaigns but it all too often ends in tears with abandoned campaigns. If you’ve failed to keep up a running programme then you don’t need me to tell you this. If you are determined to run then try sprinting once per week as part of your routine. A session such as warming up first then running 10 sets of 3 lamp posts as fast as you can with walk back to the start for recovery can leave you feeling strong, powerful and with a high revving calorie burning body for several hours after.

Motivation

  • Join an Exercise Group. This is a really good way to keep motivated and become accountable for your workouts. Every evening we send a group message to the people in our Team Training group to ask who is attending the next day. Once you commit then there’s no going back! What’s more, the encouragement you give and receive can be enough to cement meaningful friendships with people on the same mission as you. This change can be a really easy way to live well for the long term. As the friendships grow, the gym becomes your social and not your chore.
  • Buy Yourself Some New Fitness Kit. Anything goes here from a £5 skipping rope to a £10,000 bike. Buy it with the money you’ve committed to save from the nights off the booze and food and make sure you’re up to use it in the morning. Get so much use from it that you can look back in years to come and remember this “thing” was the turning point. 
  • Workout 1st Thing of the Day! There’s literally no time to find excuses. Life is constantly changing and where we think we might have more time because of labour saving devices such as smartphones and delivered shopping, research shows we have less and less because we are taking on more tasks. So many times we have known people to abandon an exercise session because something “more important” has cropped up but that won’t happen if you put your trainers on 1st thing. The best bit about working out the moment you get up though is that you will feel amazing and be far less likely to make poor choices with food and drink for the entire day. 

Mental Health

Often the New Year can leave us feeling low. The high of Christmas is over, we’ve spent too much money, we’re stuck in the same job and relationship and it’s still dark and cold. 

  • Sleep: sleep is the foundation for everything that is good in life and when anyone joins the Team Training group the first book we advise them to read is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. Get yourself 8-9 hours every night (how you do it may be a challenge but if you achieve it you will not regret this) and try to get to bed and wake up at the same time every day including weekends.
  • Get Outside and Walk Every Day: January is the thick of winter and we will rightly spend most of our time indoors because it is dark and cold. Make it a priority to leave the house or office in daylight hours for at least 15 minutes a day to go for a walk. Just the fact of exposing our skin and eyes to daylight and feeling whatever the weather of the day is releases chemicals in the brain that will make us feel happy. Happiness is something unobtainable from food, drink, smart phones or tv and the happier we are, the less we will crave the others. 
  • Be with Positive Upbeat People: Positive upbeat people are usually found exercising first thing in the morning so once again this is advice to get up, get your PE kit on and get physically active with other people. More and more of us are working from home these days and if we go through an entire day without leaving the house or seeing anyone it only has dire consequences for our mental health. We always tell our home based workers to get in the gym for the early sessions as it’s often enough to make them feel a lot happier for the rest of the day once they’ve had a laugh with others. 

Building Fitness Resolutions 

  • Set Realistic Targets: Yes you’ve heard that a million times but it’s true. If you’ve tried big resolutions and failed then you know aiming big immediately doesn’t work. Examples of realistic targets could be:
  • If you know you need to reduce your alcohol intake then reduce it – don’t ban it! If you currently get drunk out of your mind 3 times a week, try getting drunk out of your mind twice per week. Once you’ve adapted to that, try for once! You must see it through though.
  • Forget trying to lose 3 stones in weight, go for half a stone. If you get there, aim for another half stone and so on. You will see so many positives and successes rather than a huge misery if you fail to reach the big number. 
  • If you are new to or resuming exercise then hitting hard ferocious workouts every day will not end with the body of your dreams, it will likely end with injury. Try for a day on day off approach until you feel strong enough to add consecutive days. 

Gym Myths

  • Men – Stop Bench Pressing for a Big Chest: If we had a pound for how many times we have seen men make a beeline for the barbell and bench in a quest to obtain dinner plate pecs… An impressive torso and chest requires so much more than that exercise alone. It requires a distribution of effort all over the body and very importantly it needs exercises like deadlifts and squats in the programme to create a bigger anabolic response. Deadlifts and squats though? Yes because they require hard work and people that work hard are more likely to have impressive pecs!
  • The Treadmill Won’t Make You Lean: Ever since the marathon boom in the early 80’s we have believed that jogging slowly for long periods of time will make us thin because that’s what marathon runners do and they are skinny. Running long distances won’t make you skinny – skinny people like running long distances! Being in a calorie deficit will make you lose fat and although the treadmill can help, basing your entire hopes of a stunning body on persistently running a long way is not where the answer lies. Vary your workouts but spend most of your time in the weights room creating lean defined muscles which will look fantastic if given the right nutrients to grow. 

Nutrition

  • Don’t be too restrictive. If you have spent the last 4 or 5 weeks eating whatever you like and want, changing to eating just salad is too much too soon. In January it is really difficult to not have any comfort foods or take aways. So be kind and allow yourself some foods that you love, just eat less of them. If you increase your exercise then you are still progressing. You are just making changes that are more sustainable.
  • Try to focus on making all of your meals full of nutrients. So if cutting out all sugar, carbohydrates, fat and basically everything that you have ever read in a food article is bad for you, is too extreme, then don’t do it! It might be that if you are completing more regular exercise, then swapping out some of your favourites treats for healthy options might be a gentler way to start your health journey. Think about swapping your Saturday night takeaway for a nicer nutritious homemade meal.

    Swap your fish and chips or curry for home made burger and chips. A high meat content burger is full of filling protein. Make your chips from sweet potatoes and olive oil which are full of healthy fats and vitamins. A good portion of peas will once again provide vitamins and protein as well as carbohydrates to get you to the gym the next morning or out on a nice Sunday morning hike. You can even go crazy and still have a wholemeal bun. Think about making an enjoyable meal that gives you nutrients, but will be ten times better than a take away. It is changes like these that are more likely to become good habits because they are not too extreme.
  • If you are determined to lose fat then it really is a matter of calories in versus calories out. Move more, burn more calories and eat less. Please though, do not reduce your calories too quickly. If you cut down to 1200 calories per day, you will lose weight quickly for sure, but it will be really hard to keep eating so little. Once your body gets used to surviving on so few calories, you will need to eat even less to continue the weight loss. Start off with a health 1600 – 2000 calories per day. See how you feel after a week or two. If you are not losing around 1 pound per week, then reduce or increase your calories by 100 per day.

If you haven’t let yourself go over Christmas then make sure you do in the future! It is a time for consuming more and sharing good times with friends and family. Enjoy yourself, it’s not a crime. Come the New Year though, it is time to do the work.

If you are struggling with your fitness and health and don’t know where to start then get in touch. We have the support network and expertise to help you make the changes this year, that will see you feeling far better next January than you do now. A warm private gym awaits so what are you waiting for?

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Lose a Stone in a Week – January Weight Loss

lose a stone in a week

Be afraid – be very afraid – if you read this title and thought “lose a stone in a week – brilliant – I’m going to try whatever they say!”  Please have a serious word with your logic brain, and really think about the consequences or the sense of anything that gives you even the slightest chance to lose a stone in a week.  The scary thing is though that 3600 people searched for that phrase on Google last week.

Every January we tend to write a similar article.  One that champions the slow, achievable, and sustainable lifestyle change, rather than an all or nothing starve yourself, beast yourself, look good for 4 weeks, then get fatter than you were before approach. 

Funnily enough every year it is the same.  The body transformation coaches suck in the most January clients for that golden 6 or 12 weeks of restriction.  However, we tend to get clients all year round at the same rate, and when they come, they tend to stick around for the long term because what we do is fun, enjoyable and becomes part of their life.  Friendships are made and lifestyle changes stick.

Lose a stone in a week – January Weight Loss top tips – what’s new?



This January, as usual magazines are churning out the same old articles rewritten for 2022.  The supplement companies are in full force with detox plans, and the fitness industry is coming up with new post Covid offers for you to join their shiny gyms packed with socially distanced and disinfected facilities and lots of classes to attend. It’s the same every year, with a twist on the latest angle or fad. This year we sense the trend is for a big dry January possibly after the nation drank its way through Covid for the last 2 years.

When we searched for detox and weight loss tips and found hundreds, nothing we read is anything you don’t already know. Here are a few examples…

  • Drink more water
  • Eat more vegetables
  • Cut back on sugar
  • Cut back on carbs
  • Exercise more
  • Walk 10,000 steps every day

We could go on and on but there won’t be one thing we list that you don’t already know, and it is lists like these that make health establishments like us (if we choose to promote their worth) look like idiots. What do you want to pay a personal trainer or lifestyle coach for help for? It’s all common-sense stuff and all you need to do is have the willpower to stick to it right?

So why do you always fail?

Or why do you never ‘maintain’ the initial weight loss you initially achieve?

When someone books to see us at the Northwich gym, there is nothing that makes us happier than when we sit with a potential new client, and they tell us that they are thinking about their long-term health; that they are willing to invest time and effort to achieve a life that is full of energy, confidence, strength, fitness, and happiness. A life that is pain free without medication and an expectancy to reach a minimum age of 100 years old! That’s when we know we are sat with someone who’s got a chance, someone who might achieve a six-pack without even chasing one! Our heart does genuinely sink when we get ladies wanting to get back to 8 1/2 stone, hoping that happiness will finally be theirs at this magic number. Come and train and compete in a competition with our ladies – and we guarantee not only will you look amazing in your dress, but along the way you will change your attitude, outlook and mindset.

Over recent years we have come to despise the current approach to weight loss & fitness. It is a shambles and a con and it largely delivers no return for the little work you are expected to put in. We see many phrases designed to entice us like…

  • Drop a Dress Size in 4 weeks
  • 6 Week Body Transformation
  • Rock Hard Abs Whilst Still Enjoying Takeaways
  • A Six Pack for just 20 Minutes per Day
  • Big Biceps in a Month
  • Lose a stone in a week (There are 260 people searching for this term in the UK right now!)

Yes, you may achieve some of the above if you stick rigidly to the instructions set out in the detailed plans, but we can tell you now 100% that the day the programme finishes you will be sliding back to your old self faster than you can order a Pizza Hut delivery lying on your settee watching reality tv. Unless you are a movie star or athlete needing to make weight for a film or competition those plans are of no use to you.

Why? Because you want LONG TERM results. Movie stars and athletes look 100% great for a short period of time, but you want to look 70-80% great ALL of the time, yes?

All these plans are a farce that are focused on short term misery and deprivation which asks nothing of you to challenge your inner self or purpose in this world.

Have you got what is needed to make a permanent change and step away from the fad diet or plan?

None of these plans ask you to question the life that got you to the state you are in before you started. None of them are interested in where you see yourself in ten years’ time and none of them educate you about your physical and mental health. And if that sounds a bit spiritual then you’d better get used to it because we will tell you now, you won’t achieve anything from your effort unless you are prepared to work on self-development too!

We tell you something else about these quick fix “lose a stone in a week” style fitness and diet programmes; they’re easy! Yes, easy! Getting up at 6am to go for a run or hit the gym followed by a scam powder juice that tastes like garbage, a salad for lunch, followed by a low fat, low carb, low whatever ‘sensible’ meal in the evening and finally another scam powder juice that tastes like garbage before bed six days a week for six weeks is easy! EASY!

Anyone can muster up the willpower to stick to this scheme for 1-3 months because there is an end date, and it is on that end date you are set free! Free to do all the things you used to do and because you know you have achieved it once; well, you can achieve it again. Tell me something though – just how easy is it to achieve again? If you don’t know yourself then it’s not difficult to find somebody who has lost a ton of weight but regained it all and more within five years.

Personal trainers who showcase their success stories are ten a penny but the job they have often done, any old monkey could do. Instructions to jump up ‘n’ down followed by burpees, press ups and God knows what else followed by instructions to have a dry January is the easy stuff. Get any of those trainers (if they have even been in the industry long enough) to show you their success stories after five years and it is likely to be a worse picture than the one that initially came to visit them. We are very confident in saying that.

You know what’s not easy? What is difficult? Facing up to the fact you need to make some wholescale changes to your life that are permanent.

Why to lose a stone quickly can’t be continued indefinitely – the willpower conundrum

Facing up to the realisation that you need to look at the bigger picture and your lifestyle. We all know those standard fat loss tips and every one of them is correct, but we have to study WHY we don’t stick to them. It is not a case of willpower. Willpower is a very interesting topic if you study it and the most significant point, we will make about willpower is that it is not an infinite resource. For example, if it’s taken you all your willpower to get to the gym four days this week, you probably will run out of willpower to stop drinking wine every night or whatever else it is that is your weakness.

Just like strength in the gym which doesn’t last all day – neither does willpower!

What is challenging is facing up to the real issues centred around why you are failing to adhere to the real weight loss tips which might be…

  • Exercise 3-5 per week, EVERY week for the next 50 years.
  • Start walking locally or hiking or even better get rucking!
  • Vastly reduce alcohol consumption for the rest of your life.
  • Vastly reduce sugar consumption for the rest of your life.
  • Stop watching so much television and scrolling social media.
  • Get to bed by 10pm every night.
  • Read books that will help you develop all areas of your life.
  • Visit a local counsellor to work on those issues you know are unresolved.
  • Get rid of your loser friends.
  • Meet new people to expand your circle socially and professionally.
  • Quit your job that you hate.
  • Start the business you’ve always wanted to.
  • End the toxic relationship you are in.
  • Forgive those you still carry hatred for.

That’s the challenging stuff! Facing up to that lot is what will give you a fighting chance of achieving a six pack that’s here to stay. That’s the stuff ‘they’ don’t tell you about because that’s uncomfortable to hear. Best to do the things that let you pretend you are making a difference like going to Weight Watchers or joining a soulless corporate gym for £15.99 a month, then when you fail you can lay the blame on their advice or your lack of willpower. But we are afraid that ultimately………

IT’S ALL DOWN TO YOU! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU…

and if deep down you know that you are only going to achieve long term success by addressing those issues, then addressing those issues you must! 

If you can keep it up for a year then it would be the best money you ever spent

So will you leave this article and continue to search for that rapid 1 week weight loss? One of the main reasons that we set up Team Training was not to help someone lose a stone in a week of course!  It was to help our clients with their willpower and changing their lifestyles in the long term. Once you establish new healthier friendships, regular exercise habits:  lifestyle changes start to become incrementally easier. We want people in the team forever – not just for 3 months before they go on holiday and eat and drink themselves bigger than they were before they came to see us.  

Imagine this January finding that support network and healthy group of friends and still hanging out with them and doing this next January.  Imagine completing a whole year of regular exercise and healthy eating.  Imagine next January, feeling fit and full of energy. With the support of one of our amazing personal trainers in the private gym, or with the fun and welcoming Northwich team training group, you will have the best chance of achieving the goals that you have set yourself this year be they mental or physical.

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