It's unfortunately that time of the year where you start to stop going to the gym, you get tired, you haven't seen the results, you realise it's harder than it is, you realise that it rains a lot and takes up more of your time but those unfortunately aren't good enough excuses. 

Any way regardless of the excuses, we're here to talk about what you do to get back into the gym! 

The first step is to plan your time, plan your weeks, make a schedule plan to go to the gym 3-4 times a week, spend an hour, plan your travel time. This will give a structure, it will help you to not have to rely on will power to go to the gym, your know you have to go at a certain time so just you go, it's like shopping, it's not fun, you know you have to do it and it takes little will power, make the gym the same sort of thing.

​The second step is to think about the exercise you like to do and plan your sessions to do them, get back to just enjoying training, turning up and working hard, yeah it shouldn't just be all fun and games, of course you have to work hard too. This will again build a habit of turning up and doing the work, getting used to training again, enjoying your workouts on the whole. 

It's a similar sort of principle with your diet, stop looking for a magical fix and cutting loads of things out your diet, just get your diet back to being consistent, add your favourite foods back in just make sure you limit them. Keep your calories consistent, keep your protein high and just do the basics right and consistently, this in itself might actually lead to some weight loss, But it's about principles and getting them consistent.

None of this takes that much effort but once you get the principles and basics right and CONSISTENT you can achieve any goal your put your mind too! You have to just not give up or give in to temptations, remind yourself of WHY you are doing this, WHAT it means to you and maybe your family, HOW it will affect you if you don't get to your goal. 

This is why I'm a huge advocate of writing things down on white boards or your home screen somewhere you can see your goals and somewhere you can't escape.

Don't be one of those people who get to 40-50 years old and regret not looking after your body when you were younger, take action now!

Get back to it - you got this!! 

Dan

What to do in the gym when it’s mega busy!

Firstly, I want to start by saying - I hope you had a great Christmas! Ate good food, came off your phones and enjoyed your families company or just enjoyed the time alone.

Now that’s over everyone will be rushing to sign up for a gym membership, highly motivated by the weight you put on during Christmas and before.

The common belief is cardio = weight loss so when you join and go to the gym expect the cardio area to be full, every machine in use and maybe even a queue, it has been know to happen.

The best thing to do if you haven’t been to the gym in a long time is to go and find a space you can stretch, do mobility and basic movement work every machine will be taken with everyone going a 1000 miles per hour to smash their resolution of weight loss and unfortunately almost all of them will fail, it sucks but it’s true!

So why do the same as everyone?!

Find a spot in the gym when you can practise movement, learn to body weight squat, pain free and perfectly, learn to do press ups, lunges, planks etc, just work on the basics, get used to coming to the gym, at the moment making it a habit is the most important thing, it’s going to be boring and frustrating, but if you can preserve through this month the gym gets quieter around mid Feb, and then you get a proper plan together you can understand the trends in your gym, for example, Monday in my gym everyone is on everything, then Tuesday it’s mostly upper body equipment.
Find your gym trends, stick to the basics at first, body weight movements and mobility, then attack the gym and get your results from mid Feb onwards, if you genuinely don’t know what to do,

Make sure you invest in a good PT, I promise you it pays off, a good PT will make sure you get your results and will make sure they stay!
Speaking of which if you want to start in the best way and get ahead of the pack, let me coach you, book your consultation today!

​This guide is written for winter but in truth it’s how to stay motivated all the time, the principles in this are principles, they aren’t quick tips that give you instant relief. These are like healing the illness rather than just keep taking paracetamol.
 
I know exactly how you feel at this time of the year, you feel tired, you feel burnt out, you feel like your stalling in the gym, you just want to go home be in the warm and unwind from another long week at work.
 
The truth is although these might be all true, you feel like this year-round, however you used to have something to look forward to, you had a holiday, you had events, weddings, nights out! All these things keep you motivated and excited and at the risk of sounding sad, you now have nothing.
 
GOOD NEWS THOUGH! Too fix this one little issue all you have to is find something to aim for, as it’s so cold and the cold wind is hard on your skin, why don’t you book yourself in for a spa day, get a facial, massage, get a new bikini, they will be in a clearance section so get a good one in the sale!
 
Another problem with motivation is people want to focus on the biggest wins, because of female magazines and internet wonder transformation, the expectation is losing 10kg in 4 weeks, which for most women, just won’t happen, so instead of waiting for the biggest wins focus on the small wins, you lost 0.5kg this week? Well done, you’re losing! You did more weight on squats this week? Well done! You stuck to your diet and was consistent last week? Well done!
Focus on the small wins, anything you can do to progress and any level of progression is progression so be happy!
 
The last one to keep you motivated is to do 2 things! Either just accept that at this time you aren’t motivated but it’s something you have to do so keep going, keep turning up and wait for the motivation to come back or take a week off, a week off your diet and week off training, this one is tricky as you need to make sure you come back, so you need to know yourself when picking this last one, if you do take a week off and after the week the motivation might not be come back in that week, if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t matter get back to it and carry on, DO NOT take a 2nd week off otherwise you just won’t come back, take 1 week and then that’s it back to it, if you do take the week off and you feel motivated to go back then quality! Use that to get a bigger win when you go back to make sure that motivation doesn’t go again.
 
I really hope this helps, like always if you need me to help you find a way to apply this then get in touch, email me and I’ll help!
 
Healthy and Happy regards!
Dan

PANIC!!! QUICK CUT OUT ALL THE FOOD AN GO ON A 'JUICE DETOX'!!!

No don't be an idiot!

The scale reflect your relationship to gravity at that second in time, they will fluctuate and the more you stress about it the slower they will be lower. 

Speaking of which, stress is a factor that can help get the scales moving and slow them down, if you have a crap day at work, or something is happening that is stressing you out in life you retain more water which means the scales wont move as quick, it also means that you could pick poor food choices to make yourself feel better, called comfort eating, this could actually cause you to gain weight/fat rather than lose weight, so if the scale doesn't move don't worry just, be consistent and you will help to get it going again.

Another thing that affects the scales are carbs/salt both of these cause water retention in the muscles so if you have a very high meal the day or 2 days before the weigh in you might notice your weight actually go up, thats because of the high salt/carb meal.

So those are the things that can affect the scales now to get them moving again, ask yourself 4 questions -
How was my sleep this week? 
Was I consistent with my diet?
Was I as active this week?
Have I had a high salt/carb meal recently? 

if you have been consistent with your diet and exercise, you haven't had a high carb/salt meal, your sleep has been good, then wait a week or 2.

if it still doesn't move then reassess your diet if you aren't sure how to that, send me an email an I'll be happy to help.

The fixes to your diet may come from cutting your calorie to create that calorie deficit,or changing your macro amount to make it easier to stick to the calories in the deficit, more or add an extra session. 

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. 

​Winning personal trainer of the year in Birmingham 2019!
 
I was found by a company called Origym, they are a personal training qualification company.
 
They found my website, read my testimonials and got in touch with me to tell me I was being shortlisted and I would need to answer some questions, when I got the email I was thinking what the hell is this? Is this some scam where I have to pay to be forward or where it would have some hidden fee where they demand I now pay £1000000, I was sitting with my friend and fellow trainer Lewis Gaffney.
 
I showed him and he had coincidently done his course with them, said they were a really good company and it was legit.
 
So, I emailed back the answers to my questions which are below;
 
What inspired you to become a personal trainer? 
“The reason I became a PT is because of my friend, he was a PT and made me see in myself what I could achieve with training and hard work.
I wanted to help as many people as I could achieve that same feeling of self-confidence, accomplishment and mental resilience to keep pushing to become better, stronger and healthier. “

What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring personal trainer? 
“Piece of advice would be: if you only want to get into this industry to take topless selfies and make a 6-figure salary just don’t do it.
If you want to become a good and successful PT you have to genuinely care for your clients and their results, listen to them, even if their wrong you have to try and understand, remove judgement and strive to change that person’s life.
It doesn’t matter what they’re like when they walk in for the first session, it’s how they walk out on your last session with them that counts.”
 
I was told that I would be considered for the final they wanted to take a look at my social media accounts and would email me to tell me whether I had won or not, it took about a week and then I got the email
 
“CONGRATULATIONS” the blog would be out in a few days and they’ll send me the link. I was sooo happy to win!
I don’t win much, I feel my work doesn’t get recognised a lot, and as a recent study of personal trainers showed a tall personal trainer was deemed to be ‘less competent’ as every other type of trainer and also ‘has less knowledge’ than any other trainer! Yay for me right!
So I’m credibly happy and grateful to all my clients who have put In the work and tried there hardest to get results because it’s because of them that I have been awarded this!
To give back to the people I have opened up my website, the ‘Suite AF’ is open, all the resources, the recipe books, EVERYTHING!
Go mad, use all the resources you need too, but please let me know what resources you use and how you find them!
 
Thank you again to all my clients! <3
Enjoy all the resources!
Dan

Do you want the results enough?

As part of the job I get to speak to a lot of people who all want the same goal – weight loss, however everyone is in a different place mentally, some just after a breakup, some are dangerously obese and are at risk from heart failure and other serious health issues, some in a new relationship and want to look good for their partner, holiday coming up etc, whatever the reason the desperation and desire to change are all at different levels.

One thing I want to make extremely clear is this; YOU ARE WORTH IT, you aren’t too ugly, you aren’t too horrible, too fat,, you are good enough to change, to become better no matter who says you can’t, won’t, aren’t good enough, You are! If they’re telling you you aren’t, get them out your life.

Some people will let themselves get to the point where they have gone way too far mentally, so much so they are depressed with how they look, they have no confidence but desperate to change, I could tell them anything, like for example, they have to become a ‘breatharian’ for 4 weeks and they would think it’s a good idea, for context a ‘breatharian’ is someone that doesn’t eat or drink for days even weeks, they claim they get all their nutrients from the air they breathe, it’s absolute insane, the most ridiculous diet ever, some just say they want to lose weight but mentally they just don’t care if they do or not, you need to find out if you do actually care or not.

If you are happy with the way you look, then that’s fantastic! Don’t ever lose that self confidence.

The thing with this is why let yourself get to the point where becoming a Breatharian seems like a good idea, why get to the point where you’re so desperate and depressed about the way you look and feel you’ll do anything to change?

Before you start your journey you need to consider where you’re at now? Where you want to be? Is it realistic? And is it realistic in the time you want?
Need to find your why, your reason to change and push yourself, the reason why sacrificing a tub of ice cream on a Sunday doesn’t affect you, mental well-being.

What are you willing to sacrifice to reach your goals, yeah you don’t have to cut out all chocolate, wine, ice cream, cheese and your other favourites but you have to sacrifice some of it, to reach any goal there HAS to be sacrifice, so be realistic with yourself, how much are you willing to give up to reach your goals?

In the last stages of your diet where the weight just doesn’t seem to come off what are you to do to get your results? You might have to rip up your old method and try a new method to keep you in a deficit.

If you want a bigger bum or quicker weight loss are you willing to do the extra session on the gym? Or extra walking etc.

There will be times where motivation drops and it’s important you keep your goals in mind, keep your reason why, pick something to aim towards like a photo shoot with your family, a holiday.

So if you want to make sure you reach your goals, get a coach and make sure they keep you accountable.