What are you thinking ... ?

Probably one of the most intimate questions you can ask another person...

Was sitting on the tube on my way home yesterday sipping on a lovely latte (yes I was drinking coffee! - my first one in a week though, not number 5 in a day, will explain why later) people watching as usual and thinking to myself ... 'what are they all thinking?'

I generally tend to people watch quite a lot and think quite a lot at the same time too. As if you didn't know that yet ;) Any time I get a chance to do it whether on the tube, doing my shopping, walking down the street or even training you. It's absolutely unbelievable how many out there look deep in misery ... Why don't you just go and jump off the bridge if life really is so unbearable? Ok, ok I know it's a bit harsh but really ... be honest with yourselves! Are all the problems and worries bothering us real issues that have the right to affect our lives and way of thinking that much?

I overheard Jos talking to one of you yesterday about far East cultures and people generally being happy with what they have. Have you noticed that the more we have the more we want and the more we worry about everything and nothing ... the vicious circle starts here...

So, going back to my lovely coffee yesterday. I walked out of the studio heading home and popped into pret for a little snack to stop me from chewing off my arm before getting a chance to cook my dinner. Smiley as usual started chatting to the guy there who at the end offered me a coffee, and all that just for being that tiny bit more positive than the usual pret customer. From then on even though the weather was unbearable, people on the tube started smiling back at me (well those that I managed to get to look into my eyes ... another well forgotten thing in this world) and my mood, even though I was absolutely shattered after another busy day just sky rocketed. Had a wicked evening and now I feel even better as it's FRIDAAAAAY :)!

Now ask yourself 3 questions:

Till next time.

Marta :)

Joslyn's Blog Spot - Barefoot running video

Hi all, I hope you are well. Here's a little video clip for you about barefoot running and how natural it is. With the marathon just 9 weeks away, I'm not about to toss my Nike Air Pegasus aside, but the following video is interesting food for thought...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2010/jan/27/running-barefoot-injuries-trainers

First Blog

My First Blog

Hello to all... My name's Scott Boxer I'm the new trainer here at One Personal Training. I moved across from Victoria at the start of the week and am very much looking forward to working with many of you.

A little about myself:

I qualified in Personal Training, Circuits, Sports Massage & Rehabilitation and Nutrition with Premier Training when I was 18 and haven't looked back since! I live outside of London in Essex so I (like many of you) commute in each day. I play cricket for a small village in Essex during the season (10 weeks and counting) but until then I can only watch England beat Bangladesh (fingers crossed) and hopefully hold onto the Ashes later this year (fingers and toes crossed)!

Since an early age I suffered from injuries and set back in my training but rehabilitated and pushed forward, set backs will come and go but its how you respond to these set backs? Let them push you back or push forward and fight towards your goals?!

As many of the trainers will tell you there is an endless amount to learn when it comes to the Human body, Nutrition and Training which is why I still thrive on what I learn every day.

Anyway, that's enough about me. I'll be looking forward to meeting more of you in the very near future and finding out more about yourselves.

Until next time... Have a great relaxing weekend!

Scott

Exciting times!

Excitement, excitement!

What am I so excited about you may want to ask ... well February is nearly gone, can you believe this? That means that we are all nearly two months into our New Years resolutions and training goals. I must say the last two weeks have been extremely rewarding. Being a personal trainer there really isn't much more you can ask for than a happy, results achieving clients :)! Another great thing is that the spectrum of your achievements is so vast ... absolutely amazing feeling.

So what has been happening over the last few weeks? Here is how well some of you have done so far ...

... starting from our monthly measurements and weekly weigh ins the most amazing so far was 17.5cm lost (on the usual 8 measurements - neck, left and right arm, chest, waist, hips and left and right thigh) together with nearly half a stone (3kg) less on the scales an 8.8mm dropped in the skin fold measurements (4 sites - triceps, biceps, sub scap and supra iliac) - and all that in only 4 weeks!

Moving on to new programme routines and structuring training, loads of beaten PBs (personal bests) on all the big lifts like squats, deadlifts and bench presses.

Some of you have got some serious wind under their wings and booked in for their very first charity race ... bring on the just giving link so we can sponsor!

A couple of you have massively improved their flexibility and proprioception, smashing through toe taps, scorpions and all those little annoying things that you could not get just right for a while.

Old suits that have been sitting in a wardrobe being too tight are fitting back on again.

New eating habits and even more important thinking - it's all about attitude!!!

The list could go on ...

What about me then? Well my first big 2010 goal is getting closer and closer. 100kg deadlift by the end of March. I am already on 90kg and going strong! Also did the liquid diet which you all know enough about already. Put my training back on track and of course run up the mighty Gherkin in 8.03min - way below what I was aiming for (10min).

Really and truly fantastic job everyone! Keep it going and we will go far together, but remember it's all up to you in the first place!

Happy Friday and have a wicked weekend.

Marta :)

40 Days of Lent: Don't Give Anything Up!

It may just be my Roman Catholic upbringing but every Lent, just like Roman Catholics all over the world I give something up for 40 Days in memory of the time Jesus fasted in the desert before he returned to Jerusalem, was arrested and later sentenced to death then crucified. The idea is that you give something up, make a commitment an act of discipline in memory and tribute to Jesus' time in the desert.

Normally I'll give up alcohol, caffeine or sugar. Last year I gave up all three. However this year I'm deciding to to commit to something instead. Rather than give something up I'm going to take something on. Something that I feel will be good for me, something I've been meaning to do for a while. Something that will require a certain amount of discipline and commitment- otherwise I'd already be doing it!

So for everyday for 40 Days this Lent I'm going to do a a Sun Salutation (Yoga sequence). 40Days is just under 6weeks, and that's the amount of time that it generally takes to form a habit. So who knows hopefully it may be something that will continue long after Lent has finished.

So that is the challenge from now until to Easter why don't you commit to something everyday. Find something that you know will be good for you in the end, something that you've been putting off starting for a long time, something that won't be easy, that will require discipline.

Use this time to improve yourself!!

Let me know how you get on.

BJ

Thoughtful Tuesday - 25

Okay so I've decided to get back to my training at the moment. Yesterday was a bit of a "not exactly sure what I'm going to do" kind of day. It was legs day so squatting was a definite. Basically my brother and I walked in to the gym which was refreshingly quiet for once. and there was 100kg on the squat rack with no one squatting. We both looked at eachother and almost simultaneously said "GVT?"

Now I'm sure most of you don't know what GVT is so I shall explain. GVT stands for German Volume Training. It is a training system of a standard 10 sets of 10 reps on a weight which should be around 50-60% 1RM and the rest should be between 60-90s. (they're lifting a little more than me!)

So we had a quick warm up and then went for it on the back squat, we were keeping our rests to around 60s, sometimes a little over especially towards the end when our sets were naturally getting longer. I think the whole workout took us 17mins. That's 100reps on 100kg in 17mins. This is by no means easy and it's very demanding on a lot more than your muscles. It is, however, extremely good at getting a large amount of work done in a very short period of time. Lets just say that today I'm walking at a slight slant!

On another note I made some almond bread the other day (although I think I got the mix slightly wrong and it came out more like cake) I'm still perfecting the recipe so I shall report back when I get it right. It will be a great substitute for our poor excuse of "normal" bread. It's a fantastic low carb alternative, plus it's stacked full of fibre and good fats. Win win in my book!

Speedy yummy food for all :)

Here she is again, another Thursday another food orientated blog :)

As promised last week, today I am going to share some ideas on how to quickly get some decent food in you and seriously there's no excuses ... I have been practicing for a while and know from my very own experience that it is really and truly not that difficult.

So what do I usually have for breakfast? Well ... as most of you know I need to be up at around 5am most mornings, and yes I do have time to have scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, sometimes even mushroom and tomatoes with a bit of rye bread toast. It takes me no more than 15 minutes to cook and eat it and I am in no rush. To be honest it should take me at least 15 minutes to just consume it, however talking about getting up at 5 or 4:45 makes a difference ... Having same thing (or an omelette) over the weekend is a completely different story when some times I just let myself enjoy my brekkie for much longer. Remember it's all about tasting, chewing and actually experiencing your food that makes it worthwhile and allows your body to absorb and digest all the goodness.



If you're running around like mad or eating on the go it really does not matter how god your food is as you will simply not absorb the nutrients properly as being under stress the energy that should be spent on digesting is being used on keeping your body going.

Ok, breakfast out of the way. Lunch and dinner ladies and gentlemen. And here we go again, no time no time no time ....
Eeeerm ... is 20 minutes really that much? The longest it takes to make a decent dinner is an hour and as I said last week that's when the meat sits in the oven which does the job for you, while you are free to do whatever you fancy.



So ... get some ogranic chicken breast/legs or thighs (DO NOT REMOVE THE SKIN!!!), season with salt and pepper and some other spices of your liking, put it in a ceramic or other heat resistant dish, drizzle with olive oil and some honey and off we go in the oven. Steam/ boil or fry some veggies and dinner is ready. Make some more and take to work with you. Remember to put some (real) butter on your veggies as it will help to absorb all the fat soluble vitamins. And if you want to go even further why not sprinkle some parmesan on top to make it even tastier ... mmmmmm lush!!

Other options are steaks (a beautiful picture of which you have already seen) or maybe some burgers (organic mince with chopped onions and an egg all mixed together with salt and pepper, I like to add some parsley to it too or marjoram to get even better flavour) and a big salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Again really quick, nice and easy and yummy as hell. How do I cook it? Either roast in the oven, grill or fry. And remember if you fry your meat, do it in real butter or coconut oil as these fats are being used in your body straight away as energy (short fatty acid chains that is).

Fish would be even easier as you just throw it under the grill or steam it and boom done in 10-15minutes.



So believe me or not, there is really no excuse now not to cook your own food or tell me there is not enough time in the day to do it. And also treat yourself to some me time. Lock the kitchen door, put on some music and enjoy while you can we might not be here tomorrow after all ;)

Happy weekend (not long to go now, wooo hooo!)

Marta

PS All the pictures are of my food. Beef mince burgers with salad, late breakfast at work - eggs with mushroom and courgettes, with some smoked salmon of course and grilled salmon fillet with veggies.

January Review

Wow February already, how are all your plans for 2010 coming along? How are all of my plans for 2010 coming along? Well

I have made some inroads towards achieving some of the weightlifting, kettlebell sport and strength training goals.

In Weightlifting I have been to a Weightlifting Club on three consecutive Mondays and just by having people watch me and make corrections to my technique I have already improved my Snatch. As a result I will be doing this every Monday.

With my Kettlebelll Sport lifting I have been putting in the volume with the 32kg bells. I have been reasonably happy with the progressions but have not really gone all out yet. I will be testing myself at the end of this month and will be competing a month after that on the 21st March. I still have a lot to do before the comp, so I had best not be idle.

To make sure I am on track I have also decided that I will make a weekly and monthly review just to check in on my progress.

In the meantime check on your goals for the year, take stock and see where you are at.

Thoughtful Tuesday - 24

Following on from Jos's blog yesterday I figured I would outline my day of terror running up that ridiculous building! (I can't moan too much as it was my idea!!)

Okay so this is pretty much how it went

Woke up at 9.00 and was already feeling a bit nervous. Had a shower to waken and liven myself up.
Got a message from Marta saying how she was excited at 9.40. I replied not so in kind!
Had my first number 2 at about 10.00
Breakfast was just after, an old Italian breakfast of egg yolks with sugar, sounds nasty but damn it's tasty! With a protein shake
Had my second number 2 at about 10.20
I was now running late so drove to the studio
Met the guys at 10.55, had third and final number 2 (I was now as light as I was gonna get!)
Jogged over to the Gherkin and thought that this was a really stupid idea!
Checked in and started to calm down a little bit, we went through a little warm up
About 5 mins before the go we had another little warm up with everyone else and then started to get in line to start the torture.
Mike and I were ready to get going, nerves had completely gone now and we set off to the cheers of the girls.
Started passing people by the 4th or 5th floor (they were girls)
By the 10th floor I was thinking that this was A LOT harder than I had thought
By the 11th floor I realised the steps are higher than what we were practicing on, oh crap
Had to slow down, the pace was too much for these steps, probably by the 19th floor we were going half of what we had started at
30 something floor, slowed right down. "not far to go now" was shouted out by a marshal, I wanted to show them how I was feeling! Not far to go yeah if you haven't climbed 30 odd floors!
36th floor, Mike shouted "lets get a jog on"
36.5th floor jogging stopped
37th floor, jog back on for the photo finish
Death was about to ensue, St. Johns Ambulance man asked me if I was okay and apart from the lungs being on fire, my legs about to collapse and me wanting to vomitt everywhere I replied very politely "yes I'm fine"
Crawled in to the lift to get my rewards at the top of the Gherkin
Mission accomplished!!

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported us and who are still donating, thank you very very much. It was emotional!

Joslyn's Blog Spot - Ouch!!!

First of all, a huge thank you to all of you for sponsoring us in the crazy task of hauling ass up the gherkin!!! We've been in training for four weeks for it and yesterday we did it!! We were all feeling pretty good beforehand but remained slightly dubious about just how long it was going to take!! Some people were making wild claims about four minutes to the top, whilst others who train regularly seemed to have completed it in fifteen minutes!! We just didn't know! Anyway, I'm sure all of the guys will give you their individual accounts of it...here's mine.

*First thoughts on Sunday morning - 'this was a crap idea!!!!!'
*2 hours before the climb - fuelled with carbs and hoping to digest them properly with the nerves
*45 minutes before the climb - feeling emotional with the team, just feeling really proud!!
*30 minutes before the climb jogging to the gherkin - that building looks (bleep) massive...back to 'this was a crap idea' thoughts!
*20 minutes before the climb - speaking to NSPCC about nearly reaching our fundraising target...positive thoughts of 'this is bloody worth it'
*10 minutes before climb - final nervous wee!
*30 seconds before the climb - cheering Jamie and Mike as they go off first
*GO!! - first few flights feeling good
*Flight 5 - why are my legs already tired?...crap!!...these stairs are taller than the ones we've been training on!!
*Flight 6 - oh pants...am I gonna walk this??
*Flights 7-20 passing people, trying to be supportive with you can do it remarks etc...
*Flights 20-28 Combo of two-steps walk and pull body up by bannisters, and single step jogging...more of the former...
*Flight 29...10 more to go...legs burning...heart racing...pass more people...
*Flights 30-37 nearly there, God this hurts, nearly there...
*Flight 38...thank (beep) for that!!!!!
*Two minutes post-climb...get papped...not really feeling in the photographic mood, breathing is a challenge!!!



*Five minutes post-climb...can string small sentences together
*Thirty minutes post-climb...realisation that we haven't had our complimentary glass of champagne
*Thirty minutes and one second post-climb...sprint up to top floor for glass of bubbly
*Thirty five minutes post-climb...happily nibbling on free mars bar from goodie bag
*Forty minutes post-climb...blaming mars bar for the fuzzy feeling in my head and not...erm champagne!!

It was an awesome day, and weirdly...I'd do it again!!

Good bye cyber food!

Well oh well, after 3 weeks of torture I entered the transition period. Not quite like Jamie as I am not fully back to normal food. I am now having two meals a day instead of one. How I missed having breakfast is simply unbelievable ... It's been purely blissful experience over the last few days having been able to finally taste and chew a solid meal every morning. Eggs, smoked salmon and a small piece of rye bread, some veggies (tomatoes and mushrooms) in addition ... mmmmmmmm!



So how did I find it you may ask... Well as I have been talking to some of you, my body got much leaner! I think I can say that I have not been that lean before. However I would never ever recommend it to any of you (I've said it before and will if I am ever asked again). Purely because it has not been designed for ordinary training people wanting to lose body fat. Simple! It's being used by body builders to strip off that fat before competitions. And if they want to go through it, fair play to them but the side effects are nasty and you need to be VERY strict and stick to it (including diet plan, workouts and transition period). Hormones are all over the place as even though there are fats included in the plan (fish oils and, flax seed and peanut butter) there is no cholesterol which is a very important building block for hormones, including testosterone and serotonin (feel good hormone) to name but a few. My body just not felt right. Terrible mood swings, elevated stress levels and I have not been sleeping very well either. Even though training has been going strong I could not continue for much longer. And to be honest there is no need to. Don't get me wrong, I am happy I did it. As I said it's been a great experience in getting to know my body even more so I can share my experiences with you wanting to get rid of some lipids happily living around your hips and waist.



Saying that there is no need to carry on I mean it!! You need to understand that in order to lose body fat, appropriate nutrition is key. Exercise will keep your metabolism going, start the process, make you feel better and make your body more capable, but if you train hard for an hour and then go and have a nasty take away for lunch what is the point in the first place? I am ranting on again, I know but food is responsible for 60-80% of what you are going to achieve trying to change your body. And as I said last week it is entirely up to you what you are going to do with it. And really there is no need to go and buy your lunch in a local caff or have cereal for breakfast to save time. Making decent brekkie in the morning will not take more than 10 minutes and healthy lunch and dinner could be anything between 20min up to an hour (and that is when the chicken sits in the oven and you can do whatever you want while it roasts). Enough for today. And I know what I am going to do next week ... look out for some simple, natural and really yummy ideas for breakfasts, lunches and dinners ... next Thursday ... watch this space :)

Have a wicked weekend and think about us on Sunday as we climb up 1037 steps of the mighty Gherkin ...


Marta :)

Thoughtful Tuesday - 23

So this weekend I stopped my semi-liquid diet and reverted back to normal eating. I'm still going to have a shake in the morning and probably one more during the day. A couple of reasons for this is that I want to ease myself back in to things and also well it's just nice and easy to have a shake! I have really enjoyed not spending money on going to places like Eat, I end up spending a small fortune each day which is silly. So I've decided to bring some things in. So seeing as I love my eggs I thought I'd find a way of having them. What I've got is very simple and straight forward. All you need is one of those cup cake baking trays, you know the ones with about 12 scoops in them. Then you need to lightly fry up some spinach, add some garlic, onions, whatever you want really. Once they are done you need to pile them up in to the baking tray scoops. Then whisk up some eggs and pour the eggs over each of your vegtable mixtures. Place the tray in a pre-heated oven and leave them till cooked. How long I'm not sure as I'm going to try it out tonight so will let you know, but it won't take long! Then you'll have lots of nice little frittatas to take to work to snack on during the day!

On another note, as I'm sure you know we are running up the Gherkin for the NSPCC this Sunday and would be very greatful if you could sponsor us if you haven't already.

Thanks!

Joslyn's Blog Spot - Would you do it for your kids?

Happy February everyone! I trust you all got the year off to a good start and for those of you that train with us to lose weight, I hope you are riding on the coat tails of losing a pound or two in January!

I came across an interesting article in a January issue of Time magazine about how human evolutionary changes can can be passed from one generation to the next and not over many generations, taking millions of years. This means that we need to be a lot more conscientious about how we treat our own bodies as it may be passed directly onto our children.

So how come all of a sudden we can appear to be able to change genes overnight? Well the genes themselves don't change, however genomes can. A genome is all the genetic material contained in an organism, including its chromosomes, genes and DNA. Are you still with me? Just a bit more science. Attached on top of genomes are epigenomes, and these have the ability to tell your genes to switch on or off. It is through these epigenomes that environmental factors such as stress and poor diet can be passed from one generation to the next.

Let's have a look at what can happen. A paper publised in 2006 in the European Journal of Human Genetics noted that of 14,024 fathers in a longitudinal study tracking parents and their children, 166 of them started smoking before the age of 11. In turn, their sons had higher body mass indexes than other boys by the age of 9. In the Dutch journal Acta Biothoretica Dr. Lars Olov Bygren writes of the Swedish town of Overkalix during the 19th and 20th century. Boys who enjoyed the fruits of overabundant winters, going from near starvation to gluttony, produced grandsons who died on average 6 years before those that endured poor harvests. When socioeconomic variations were taken into account, the difference in lifespan jumped a whopping 32 years!

Both of these epigenetic changes resulted from extreme environmental stressors: boys smoking before the age of 11; and excessive food supply in the case of Overkalix. Once again, it's important to note that these changes don't change genes, but merely send a message that switches them off. If the environmental stressor is removed, the DNA will revert back to its original code. Lasting change, it is believed for now, takes place slowly over many, many generations via natural selection. And so the epigenetic change is a temporary one, albeit long enough to affect the life of your child and your grandchildren.

For us, this means that our current health isn't just about us risking our own lives. Our poor health habits can be passed directly onto our children, and their children. I can't think if a better excuse to ensure that you keep yourself in good health, as we have more than just ourselves to answer to.