Top 5 reasons you should stop counting calories
 
A lot of people are using my fitness pal and other tracking apps to make sure they aren’t eating too much to make sure they hit a certain macro target or targets, which is incredible as people can see just how much they eat, what foods contain a lot more calories than they thought.
 
I can be a great way to teach you about balance and it’s how I start almost all my clients off on their nutrition journeys, however, the goal is to get them off from using it as soon as possible, here are the reasons why!
 

1. It takes some of the pleasure and fun from eating - when you go out for a meal the last thing you want to do try and work out how much food your eating, every meal you have to scan and portion, everything you want must be tracked, someone birthday in the office and get a muffin? Tracked! Someone buys you a latte? Tracked!
2. It can develop some disturbing behaviours of people where if they can track the food they won’t eat it, there is even a new eating disorder because of these apps where people become so obsessed with tracking it becomes unhealthy.
3. The act of tracking itself doesn’t actually teach you anything, you need someone to help guide and teach you how to then get away from tracking and weighing everything
4. You don’t have to only track and log everything you need to weigh all your food, you need match the labels to the app, you need to double and triple check otherwise you might then log it wrong and either massively under or over eat – which then reinforces the obsessiveness of the app.
5. The last thing about them is just the act of tracking itself, being really hungry or thirsty and having to then wait while you log it in to your phone and if the food itself isn’t in the app having to then wait even longer before you can eat it to make sure you get all the ingredients in the right quantities, a lot of people track at the end of the day and can miscalculate by up to 500 calories per day, so you have to track as you go to get the best results.

 
So there you have it, the pain of tracking is hard, Personal trainer will make it sound easy, we have time to do it, we eat similar things every day, we tend to have good habit building abilities, to get a Mum to track would be pointless, kids running around and fighting and slamming doors and all sorts a mum isn’t going to get her kids to sit down while she tracks, young kids don’t work like that unfortunately.
 
The apps can be incredible for some people but definitely shouldn’t be long term use, they are a great starting tool to be weaned off, so you know roughly how much you eat, roughly how much protein, carb and fat there is in foods, how many calories are in foods etc and used as a tool for learning.
 
Hope this helps! Make sure you check out the 3 ways I can help you get in shape and feel sexy and confident again!

A religious post followed by a vegan post? The 2 most sacred and forceful belief types ever!

Most vegans become idiots, sorry become vegan because of animal rights concerns which is great! We should be doing so much more to allow cows to be completely grass fed, free roaming, to allow pigs and chicken to be the free roaming and healthy.

The better the animals are treated the better their meat quality, the better they taste and the healthy they are.

The problem with is is people are popping people out left right and centre and people are wasting soooo much food!

It’s estimated up to 1/3 of all food produced is wasted. 1/3!! That means out of your monthly food shop you will bin over a weeks worth of food. That’s an insane amount of food!
This has to be controlled if we can control this then we look at improving the quality of the less food we need to produce at such a rapid pace.

The other thing I love about veganism is the amount of fruit and veg (although you can’t actually eat some fruit and veg because it’s lined with bees wax to make it look shiny) irony 101 right there!

Everyone should have a plant based diet - EVERYONE! Plant based doesn’t mean plant only it means the base of your diet is plants(fruit and veg) and you build up from there, you add nuts, meat, dairy etc.
Buy frozen as it might actually be better quality than fresh, it’s cheaper it’s easier, it’s less wasteful. You have no excuse!

Even when I go to a steak house I’ll get a side of mixed veg, if it’s a buffet I’ll get the first plate loaded with veg and then go back for my meat and extras.

And now regarding the health aspect of veganism, I don’t agree with it at all, why most people feel so much more healthier being vegan is because they have gone from eating 1 small portion of veg a week to eating 40-50,

It’s the same feeling as when you have a blocked nose and can’t breathe, you have a sore throat so every breathe you do take hurts, it’s going from that level of extreme discomfort breathing to then clearing it all in a day or 2 and how much more alive and alert do you feel? It’s the same principle, restrict something and you feel terrible.
From my point of view a diet were you HAVE to supplement something is a less or even unhealthy diet (vitamin D is excluded from this as that more where you live, in England it’s essential!)

Vegans have to supplement B vitamins, iron maybe even more depending on your variety of food and amount of it you eat.

Why go to the extreme when you can have a mixture of everything and be happy and healthy and not miss out on restaurant trips with friends, trust me you’ll lose friends being vegan!

Okay, this going to be a difficult one to write, I'm not the most eloquent with words so I'm sorry if things here get misread or misunderstood. My intentions are pure and all I want to do is help.

I recently put out a facebook Ad for personal training, I got a lot of interest which is great. 

I normally get a lot of interest and sign ups, so when I ran it this time, I received a lot of interest but haven't had any sign ups for a reason which I just don't understand.

For me to hear women tell me how ugly they feel, how fat they feel, how unconfident, they dont feel sexy, they aren't happy, they're in a dark place with their health and mental health, they need help! 

It annoys me that I can't help them and maybe you reading this.

When I have had 14 different women tell me they can't train with me because I'm a man and their religion doesn't allow that them to be in my presence irritates the hell out of me, I have had women say they can't even train in a mixed gender gym.

I don't understand a rule that doesn't allow someone to be in the presence of someone else. you NEED my help but because of an ancient, vastly outdated rule, I'm powerless in my ability to help you? so you're left feeling unhappy, unconfident and unempowered. 

There has to be a time when you think about putting yourself, your happiness and your mental and physical health before everything else, a time when you say I need my religion to stop controlling my every move and for me to take my health as a priority. 

It's a hard thing to do but I'm pretty sure you're religion doesn't want you to be unhappy everyday. 

Please if you're truly unhappy and unhealthy and really do need help please don't let anything or anyone stop you achieving happiness and health. both of these things are very simple and basic right of living on this planet for animals for us. 

This months client is another one based off of not only great results but a great mentality! 

This client is one that you will see a lot on my instagram, She has scoliosis which makes some exercises excruciating, so we have had to play around with different angles for exercises, different types, different movement patterns and through all the experimenting and she still turned up on time and worked hard, listened to what I have said, taken action, done things outside of the sessions, kept pushing and just keeps trying with a smile of her face and dig at my counting ability!

There was a day I remember in particular where her back hurt, every exercise we did was hurting, every movement hurt, walking hurt, we found exercises some exercises that didn't hurt and she kept going.
In terms of work rate the session was terrible(she won't mind me saying that... I hope) BUT in terms of pushing through your own mental barriers, pushing through your own self doubt, pushing through the discomfort to better yourself, pushing through the pain and the struggles to make sure you get results and be the best you can be, that session was the one I knew she could achieve anything she wanted!

That session was by far the hardest session but the session that had the biggest impact on her achieving her goals! 

She has lost a lot of weight 4.3kg, She's gotten stronger, can now do full press ups, lightly resisted pull ups and much more!

With all that said I think it's time to announce who 'she' is......................................................................TIFFANY GALER!!

Well done Tiff - it's great training you and I look forward to seeing what other goals we can break through!!



If you want to be part of this and want to feel supported and part of a quality group of women all trying to achieve amazing things in the gym then get in contact and I'll see if I can help!
This isn't just any old personal training this is 'Applied Fitness Personal Training'
we're based in Birmingham city centre!