People often ask what is the best exercise is for fat loss or what exercise burns the most calories. Whilst we all know there's so much more to health and fat loss, your gym sessions can still have a huge impact on your body composition if approached effectively.
Over the next few weeks I'm doing some expert interviews with some folks who have appeared on our Fitter Food Radio podcast and speak at Fitter Food events as they follow similar principles to Matt and I. We love collaborating with them as they have a similar passion for health and wellbeing that's infectious!
As you may or may not know, we've recently been in Dubai spreading the Fitter Food message with the help of Talise Fitness. Alongside some training sessions we've been coaching the folks over there about gut health, sleep, stress and hormone optimisation. A truly amazing bunch of people showed up and we had an awesome time chatting with them all about their health journeys. When I travel and have new experiences I am often reminded about some key factors that support optimal health, nothing revolutionary necessarily but rather gentle reminders of things that make me smile and enhance my health. I thought I'd share them with you all in this weeks blog.
See what I did there? This post is all about the power of the mind in achieving your goals? Sometimes you can really surprise yourself, which is exactly what happened to me in the gym the other day and it’s had a hugely positive impact on my training and my self belief, so I thought I'd share with you guys and hope it inspires you to harness the power of mindset across your goals.
So we’ve noticed a trend with our blogs, when we put “fat loss,”“hormones” or “10 minutes” in the title we get lots of hits, however, when we write about body acceptance and confidence this advice gets the most shares. It made me feel a little sad as it suggests a lot of people are unhappy with their body and searching for ways to lose weight but ultimately just want to like themselves a little more. They also have ten minutes max to do this it seems! I’ve been through a similar journey and thought I would share some tips and advice that have helped me along the way.
"What’s the best exercise for fat loss?". This is probably the most frequently asked question coaches receive from folks on a quest to burn fat. The truth is, there is no single exercise that is the best for fat loss. And besides, you'd be a fool not to factor diet and lifestyle choices like sleep and stress into your fat loss mission. However, lets assume you eat Fitter Food, your sleep is in check and you're relatively chilled, we can then get talking about optimal training and body composition.
So, with this title you might be thinking that I'm going to suggest green tea (ramps up metabolism), celery (more calories to digest than it contains), coconut oil (it's fat burning y'know) and as much as I'd like to believe dipping celery into a bulletproof green tea might help your waistline, I'm yet to find anyone to do this on a daily basis, but feel free to give it a go. In actual fact, the foods I'm about to recommend have a more indirect effect on your body composition, mood, energy and vitality by feeding your gut flora.
I have to say, I feel a bit weird writing this, as I'm dedicating a whole blog to just talking about myself and food. Okay, who am I kidding, I love talking about myself and food! A few people have been in contact after Keris wrote a similar blog and asked me to divulge what a typical day of eating and training looks like, so I figured it was about time I shared the love. I'll also explain why I make these choices, many of which are based on information I have gathered over a number of years. I hope you can gain some value from it and use it to reflect upon your own nutrition.
Hormone health is frequently talked about across the health and fitness industry. It's certainly significant and we do a lot to educate people about how hormones work and how they may impact upon your health goals. However, I frequently see people fly off immediately to get tests done, buy expensive supplements and start posting in Facebook groups for help as a first point of call.
If you follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter you may have noticed we've been posting lots of 10 minute workout ideas. Some use only bodyweight exercises, some use kettlebells and others dumbbells or barbells, however they all have one thing in common. They last no more than 10 minutes and for good reason!
Whenever I ask clients or Fitter Foodies about their top goals, you can guarantee fat loss figures somewhere in the list. For many people it's their No.1 goal, whilst others might speak of health priorities like "fix my bloating" or "improve energy levels" but there is always an added "oh and lose a few pounds" somewhere in the conversation too. The problem with these fat loss goals is you're almost doomed to fail from the start! Here's why!
In the final blog of our baking series I’m covering how to 'pimp your baking' and some add extra nutrients. This could be anything from vegetables in your cookies or cakes, antioxidants in your puddings and pies or adapting recipes to help them fit your macronutrient needs. Once you have experimented with alternative flours and different healthy sweeteners, the icing on your bake is to add some nutrient dense foods like spices, cocoa and coffee to make your recipe comply with your own personal nutrition needs. Here are three simple steps to pimping your bake: