Quote of the day 29/4

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Week 14 Progress Update

Here are pictures for week 14

Weight is 66.7kg's




Food is currently 250 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbohydrate and 40 grams of fat per day. I will possibly making some adjustments next week to my diet to shock the body into stripping off the last bit of fat.

Training Tip: Exercise Order

Performing your weight training before cardiovascular training has been shown to burn more fat compared to doing cardiovascular training first.

Quote of the day 26/4

“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the 'someday I'll' philosophy.”

-Denis Waitley

Quote of the day 25/4

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”

- Wayne Dyer

Food Tip: Marinade your meat

Many people have the impression that food when dieting has to be bland and tasteless. This could not be further from the truth. The key to a successful diet is taking in the correct nutrients for your body and using a few low calorie condiments are not going to spoil your diet.

One way to improve the flavour of your food is to marinade the meat or fish. Leaving the marinade to soak in for a few hours will make the meat very soft and tender.

Acidic condiments such as lemon or lime juice and vinegar will help tenderise the meat, breaking down the fibres and improving the texture. You can also manually tenderise the meat by using meat hammer. This works especially well if you are preparing pork or beef.

With this you can use mustard, horse radish, tomato puree, soy cause, oyster sauce or many types of herbs and spices to add flavour. These will only add a negligible number of calories and make the food you are eating so much more flavoursome.

Spending 5 minutes marinating the meat in the morning and then refrigerating it will mean you have quick and very tasty meat to cook in the evening after work

Here are some marinade combinations-

Chinese style

Lemon Juice
Small amount of oyster sauce
Soy sauce

Indian Style

Lemon Juice
Cumin
Coriander
Turmeric

French Style

Balsamic Vinegar
Mustard
Salt + Black Pepper

Italian Style

Lemon Juice
Basil
Tomato Puree
Salt + Black Pepper

Keep your reps constant

I see a lot of guys when training pausing between almost every repetition of a set. When you are performing a repetition the blood flow is restricted to the muscle, if you pause between every rep you are allowing the muscle a brief rest allowing it to clear away lactic acid.

Now although the rest pause technique can be used for increased strength and size, allowing you to squeeze out a few extra repetitions at the end of the set the whole set should not comprise of this technique.

Try something different

Reduce the weight you would normally use try to keep the bar or dumbbells moving without pause throughout the whole set. Aim for 8-10 repetitions using a tempo of 2 seconds on the lifting phase and 3 seconds to lower the weight. Use full range of motion but don’t lock out your joints (knees, triceps, biceps) as this take the tension off the muscle, giving it a brief rest.

This will feel surprisingly difficult and possibly quite uncomfortable at first. This burning feeling or ‘pump’ you experience has been shown to aid in muscle growth by stimulating many growth factors and hormones to be released. This over time leads to better muscle stimulation and growth.

Try this technique for 6 weeks on a body part that you feel is lagging behind others and see what improvements you make. The muscle doesn’t care how much weight you are lifting, it responds more to how much tension you place on it. If muscle size is you goal then this is what you should be aiming for.

Week 13 Progress Update

Here are pictures for week 13

Weight is 67.1kg's




Food has not changed this week but the bodyweight is still dropping at a steady pace. Training is going good although I am naturally getting a bit more tired as the diet continues. I will persevere!

Why you should be taking Omega 3 Fish Oil

When embarking on a diet, most people make the decision to cut out many foods that are considered unhealthy, such as refined carbohydrates, high calorie foods and fats. However, in order to eliminate excess body fat, you need to make sure you're eating enough of the right fats. While it's true that some fats are not good for you, others are absolutely essential for losing weight and maintaining a healthy diet. While the body can transform carbohydrates and proteins into saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, it cannot produce certain polyunsaturated fats. These fats that the body cannot produce are called essential fatty acids (EFAs), and they must be obtained from the food that we eat

Essential Fatty Acids, otherwise known as Omega 3 and Omega 6 Fatty Acids, are polyunsaturated fatty acids found in the oil from oily fish and vegetable sources such as flax seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, olive oil and canola oil.

Both types of EFAs are required for the production of the eicosanoids - hormones that are responsible for regulating the major body functions, including digestion, insulin production and the storage of fat.

How Omega-3 fish oil aids Weight Loss

It has now been proven scientifically that Omega-3 fish oil helps you lose weight. Studies at the University of South Australia have found that taking omega-3 fish oil combined with moderate aerobic exercise boosts weight loss.

Over a period of 12 weeks, researchers gave a group of obese adult’s daily doses of omega-3 fish oil and supervised moderate aerobic exercise three times a week. The researches compared the results of this group with other groups that were not given omega-3 fish oil and exercise three times a week.

The group that had the omega-3 fish oil lost significantly more weight, particularly around the abdominal region, than the people who had not been given the omega-3 fish oil and exercise.
They concluded that Omega-3 fatty acids in the fish oil activates the enzymes responsible for burning fat, and combined with exercise and increased oxygen intake, they increase the metabolic rate, which has an effect of burning more fat and losing weight.

Omega 3 fish oil and weight loss

Another recent study that was published in the international journal of obesity, researchers want to find out if by supplementing the diet with omega 3 fish oil (good fat) would increase the number of fat calories burned in a single day.

The two groups were fed exactly the same diet apart from one group were fed 6 grams of fat in the form of butter, olive oil, sunflower oil and peanut oil, the other group were given 6 grams of omega 3 fish oil.
The fish oil group were given 8 capsules per day, 2 in the morning, 3 at lunch and 3 in the evening.

The Total daily intake of omega 3 long chain fatty acids was 1.8 grams.
The out come of the test results were fairly conclusive.

The table below shows you the changes in fat oxidation, body fat, and metabolic rate after three weeks for the groups with or without fish oil

	without fish oil	with fish oil
Measurement of body fat lost	0.7pounds	-2 pounds
Daily metabolic rate	1710 calories	1775 calories

These results show that the group who were supplementing with fish oil burned about 1.1 milligram of fat per kilo per minute. This is roughly 26% higher than the other group who weren’t supplementing with the fish oil.

One of the key reasons as to why omega 3 fish oil has such a powerful effect on fat metabolism is that the insulin levels were 50% lower when subjects used the fish oil. Insulin is a hormone that reduces the use of fat for fuel, while also promoting fat storage in the presence of excess calories.

Insulin increases the activity of an enzyme known to promote the storage of fat.

Insulin inhibits the action of hormone sensitive lipase, which is responsible for breaking down stored fat and preparing it for use as energy.

Insulin also activates an enzyme, which, along with fatty acid synthesis, is responsible for converting carbohydrate into fat.

Simply put, high levels of insulin make it less likely that your body will use stored fat as a fuel source. The drop in insulin levels when subjects used the fish oil would have allowed more fat to be used for energy.

Week 12 Progress Update

Here are pictures for week 12

Weight is 68.1kg's


Food is currently 250 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbohydrate and 40 grams of fat per day.

Here are the week 1 pictures again for comparison-

Weight was 75.5kg's

Contest details and tickets

Here are the details for the first show on Saturday 29th- Sunday 30th May 2010

Venue

Excel Centre London
One Western Gateway
Royal Victoria Dock
London, E16 1XL

Spectator tickets

-Special reduced price (ends 14th May) - £10 per day or £15 both days (29th & 30th) - price on the day at the door - £15 per day (no weekend offer)
*tickets bought on the day must be bought from a FAME representative at the entrance of the SENI show. FAME representatives will be wearing FAME t-shirts*

Advance tickets will be sent out by recorded post or can be picked up in person at:

Miami Pro Fitness Clothing

Catford Mews,
Unit 18
32 Winsladeway
Catford, SE6 4JU

ask for Angie Weston - Angiewest2@hotmail.com

*Tickets to see the FAME UK show will also give access to the SENI show*

http://www.lamuscle.com/magazine/article/FAME_2010


The second show will be held on Sunday 20th June 2010

Venue

Alexandra Theatre
Belmont Street
Bognor Regis
Po21
http://www.alexandratheatre.co.uk/

Spectator Tickets

BNBF Telephone Number for enquiries- 01738 446 006

I am currently finding out how is best to buy specator tickets for the Bognor event and how much they will cost. I will post them as soon as I Know

Week 11 Progress Update

Here are pictures for week 11

Weight is 68.9kg's



I have to reduced my food this week, im now eating 250 grams of Protein, 175 grams of Carbohydrate and 55 grams of fat per day.

Energy levels are getting a bit lower although training is still going well and my strength levels are still high

Some Training videos

Here are videos I shot before I started dieting that demonstrate a few exercises that I include in my workouts-

How to view older posts

I've had some feedback that some people are only viewing the current months posts. If you need to find the previous months post please click on the month on the right hand side and the blog will display all of the posts from that month, enjoy!

Nutrition Update 3

There have been some changes to my diet since I last posted a nutrition update. The nutrient totals i am now aiming for per day are 250 grams of Protein, 175 grams of Carbohydrate and 50 grams of fat per day.

I have reduced my overall carbohydrate intake by 25 grams and replaced some of the rice in my diet with green beans and broccoli to get more fibrous sources of carbohydrates as the number is reduced.

I use a green tea extract supplement three times per day along with drinking 2-4 cups of green tea daily. I do not drink any coffee or take any other stimulants containing caffeine as I find this helps keep my energy levels more level.