What Products are best for Brides when it comes to getting in shape?

Hey Guys,

As we all know there are so many products out there in the fitness industry, it's tough to know where to start!

They all seem to promise the world but very few deliver! Where do you start? What products actually work and which ones are best for your goals?

Well over on our sister site we have a product review section that covers products impartially and gives you the truth of what works and what is a waste of money.

Simply CLICK HERE to have a look at the ones we have covered!

If you want to have a product reviewed or want me to review a product just CLICK HERE and tell me all about it.

Stay Healthy,

Mike

What it takes to suceed

Hey Guys,


I’ve often wrote many times in the past about what it really takes to accomplish a goal.

Any goal that is worth having (to YOU, not other people) will always be really hard work. It will require you to work hard, sacrifice thing and become uncomfortable. This is the law of the universe, not mine. Everything has its price and you can either pay it or you can’t. Can’t pay the price, can’t have it and no amount of excuses will change that.


I think that we can all be a bit guilty of forgetting that sometimes (me included). It’s to easy to become commutable and stop really working hard for what we want.


We go a little soft.


It’s easier to stay in bed rather than get up and put the work in. It’s easier to take sort cuts rather than giving your best. However it is only our very best efforts that provide us with the results we need.


In this article Matt Kroc talks about what it takes to excel in powerlifting, bodybuilding and just being successful.


Well worth a read, it reminded me of some of the things I have been neglecting in my own lift.


Stay healthy,


Mike

Is your diet missing these important details?

They say the devil is in the details.

When it comes to diet and nutrition plans this mostly isn’t the case. If you have the major parts sorted out (calories, marco nutrients) then you most certainly will lose weight for a good period of time.

The problem comes when you stop losing weight. What do you do then? What advice do you trust?

If you where to ask any form of diet question on your Facebook you would be overwhelmed by advice. Some would be sound advice (try tracking what you are actually eating, try dropping a few calories etc) and some would be silly and even dangerous (try this shake based diet, try the egg/cabbage/raw food diet).

Before you go running off to try the latest diet craze and possibly kill all your progress, make sure that you are doing the following things consistently.

1.     Make sure you are drinking enough water. While drinking 2 litres per day is recommended, the magic happens at about 3-4 litres per day. This will keep you hydrated, make you fuller for longer, improve your health and make your hair, skin and nails look much better.

2.     Are you exercising? While a lot of people focus on the latest fad diet, they often forget to make sure that they are exercising 3-4 times per week. This will burn calories, tone your muscles and give you that perfect body shape for the honeymoon.

3.     Make sure that if you are exercising, you are working hard enough. Simply sitting on a bike while reading a magazine or walking on a treadmill while watching TV simply isn’t going to get the job done. You should be sweating, breathing hard and feeling like you have actually accomplished something when you have finished.

4.     Are you focused on your health? Having a diet that is ridiculously low in calories, vitamins and nutrients will not only make you ill, but will make it ten times harder to lose weight. Make sure what you are doing is sensible and healthy!

5.     Are you undoing all your hard work at the weekends? Any diet plan, no matter how intelligent and well thought out can be undone with a weekend of binge eating and drinking. It’s fine to have a treat (all my clients do), just make sure that you go about it in a smart way. A nice meal and a few drinks is a lot different to a couple of bottles of wine and endless takeaways and chocolate!

The truth of the matter is that almost everyone can get in shape for their wedding and honey moon as long as they use a sensible plan and give themselves enough time to get the job done. To give you an idea of how long you will need, a healthy, smart weight loss rate is one pound per week. Use this to get an idea for how long you will need to get the look you want.

Remember, if anyone is trying to convince you to do a diet and it involves taking a large amount of a product (shakes, pill, potions etc) or focuses on one type of food or starves you, it is a bad idea! Good nutrition is healthy, filling and flexible!

Stay Healthy,

Mike.

Article for Brides staying on their diet!

Hey Guys,


Here is an article I wrote for Kiss the Bride Magazine for Brides starting to stay on your diet.

You can read the article HERE


Also if you are wanting to get in shape for your big day and have no idea where to start, take 5 mins to have a quick look over on the website!


Stay Healthy,


Mike

Quick Tips for Brides to be!

Hey Guys,


Today I want to share with you a quick little article I did for Kiss the Bride Magazine.

Here are some quick tips for Brides to help you get in shape for the big day!

Real World Diet Tips for looking great in your Wedding Dress and on your Honey Moon

Hi there,

We all know that ever bride wants to look great in their dress on the big day and look even better in the Honey Moon photos. Brides everywhere work so hard to get in shape for their weddings but seem to always stubble at getting the perfect body that they want.

But where do you start?

So what factors make some brides more successful than others?

Why can some people get in shape easier than others?

Well to be honest there are a lot of factors that can determine the out come of any diet and fitness plan, however the most common is how dedicated the person is and how consistent they are with implementing a smart, well thought out nutrition plan.

The key is knowing what a smart, well thought out nutrition plan is!

However even if you have a great plan and all the will in the world, there will always be a few stalls or hiccups along the way. What do you do when this happens? How do you deal with these tricky problems?

With that in mind here are some quick tips that can make a massive difference to your plan and how you look on the big day.

1.     Give yourself enough time. Everyone seems to start a crash diet 4 weeks before the wedding. This is a bad idea! You want to give your self a couple of months so that you can do it nice and slow. This way you can still have treats all the way through the diet (CHOCOLATE!) and still get in great shape

2.     Have a plan. There is so much information on the Internet these days its scary. Everything seems to contradict everything else and it all sounds either to good to be true or torturous. The truth is that a sound plan is somewhere in the middle. It allows you to do things at a good pace, is balanced, and doesn’t deprive you of anything

3.     Know what to do when you get stuck. There comes a point in any diet where fat loss stalls, the key is knowing what to do when this happens. Normally it is just a little change or tweak that gets things moving again, but it is important to have a plan of what to do (see point 2).

4.     Have someone to lean on when times get hard and kick your butt when you’re being lazy. Things happen in real life that can hamper any fat loss plan like work, family, personal commitment, kids etc. During times like this it is important to have someone that will help you get through it. On the flip side there are going to be times when you just want to sit on the couch and eat cookies instead of training hard. It’s at times like this you need someone to kick your butt and remind you about that dress and those photos!

5.     Figure out how to stay motivated. For some people it is a photo of their honey moon on the fridge, writing down a list of goals or regular progress photos. It is important to have a way to motivate yourself to keep you on track for that big day. Find out what works best for you and keep it in a place where you will see it regularly (the fridge, mirror of phone back grounds are popular).

Getting in shape for your wedding is just another thing that requires you to plan and organise. However just like your wedding, as long as you have a smart plan and stick to it, you will have the day of your dreams!

If you have any questions or you would like a little extra help with your plan, please give me a shout on Twitter (@weddingdietplan) or if you want something a little more private and confidential, please send me a message on the website!

Stay healthy,

Mike

Chasing dreams or chasing goals?

Do you know the difference between a goal and a dream?


A goal is something that you are actively working HARD for while a dream is just something you wish would happen to you.

I bet that many of you reading this are sat there thinking “I’m working hard for my dreams”. I bet many of you post how dedicated you are on Facebook and Twitter and love the odd motivational picture on Instagram (don’t we all).


I love that, I really do. I’m all about people working hard towards a specific goal that will help them live the life they want.


However there seems to be a growing number of people out there who have forgot what HARD WORK actually is.


There seems to be a large number of people who have an entitled out look on their goals. People who seem to think that just because they are good at something, that people should support them and financially fund them towards their goal. Or even worse, that success will magically happen if they just keep doing what they love.


This is not the case.


I don’t care how good you are, how many medals or shows that you have won or what kind of champion you are.


YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO ANYTHING.


It is your responsibility to finance, fuel and provide the hard work necessary to achieve YOUR goals.


They are no one else’s.


Let me give you a hypothetical example of what I am talking about.


Say we have an athlete that is very good at their sport. They live at home with their Mother and Father and have no job except becoming better at their sport.


They practice every day, working on the sport that they love. They don’t consider it ‘work’ as it is an activity that they love with all their heart. Now say that this individual has had some success on the competitive circuit. They have won a few local torments and placed well at a few international ones as well.


They then decide that either a trip to a well established training centre, a trip abroad to compete or some other kind of trip that costs a large amount of money will benefit them and their goal. The individual does not work but decides to set up a Just Giving page or something similar to gain the funds necessary to make the trip. They then ask all their friends, family, training partners etc to give them money so that they can continue to chase their dream.


They are basically begging for free money to take a trip.


I’m sorry but this just isn’t right! Where is all the ‘hard work’ you said you were putting in? Where is the ‘Grind’ you talked about on Facebook? Why should anyone help you when you won’t even help yourself?


People like this are just plain lazy. If you are not willing to put in hard work to support yourself then any should anyone else?


Here is a list of things that an athlete I know did every week so that they could save up to travel to New Zealand to train. The individual is a full time student living in privately rented accommodation.

Train 11 sessions a week.

Study full time (second year University student studying Biochemistry)

Work 2 jobs. 1 weekend job, 1 night time job.

Cleans the training facility 3 times a week (to train for free)

Cares for his two dogs.

He also asked for zero money to take take the trip. Not a penny. Not from parents, friends, training partners or sponsors. He did it all on his own.

Now I’m not saying that dreams shouldn’t be chased. I’m a firm believer in chasing the life that you want. I tell all the kids in schools when I give talks that they CAN have the life that they want but they have to work for it, that their goal can be their reality.

Most of the time it won’t come through traditional channels, or even come at once. But the deciding factor in realising any goal is that you must work hard (harder than you think). There is always struggle, there is real sacrifice. There is always a huge amount of failures before success.

There is always HARD WORK!

We seem to have forgotten that to achieve any dream you must WORK HARD. This involves doing things you don’t want to do. This is early mornings and late nights, finding a way to support yourself and not ask for handouts, finding a way to turn DREAMS into GOALS and into reality.

If you can’t put the work in then you can’t have it. Everything has a price whether you like it or not. Not willing to pay the price? Can’t have it. That’s the universes law not mine.

No one should be supporting your dreams more than you.

Work hard.

Mike

Great workout for women looking to get in shape for their wedding!

Hey Guys,


Today I wanted to share with you a great workout routine designed specifically for women.

When you look around the web and do your research it';s often hard to find a good quality weights based workout that is designed to help women get the look at they want (lean and toned).


Here is an article by Christian Thibaudeau that really high lights the subtle differences between men and women and how to programme for this.


Give it a read and let me know what you think!


Stay healthy,


Mike