Tip # 4: Take your Nuts with you, wherever you go!
Total estimated time taken out of your day = approx. 10 minutes (as detailed in my previous blogs) –
Represented by:
Time to perform Tip # 1= 5 min
Time to perform Tip # 2 = 3 min
Time to perform Tip # 3 = 2 min
So, hopefully you are trying to incorporate the first 3 tips I have shared with you in my previous blogs. Also, hopefully, you are slowly being convinced about my subject heading.
With this tip (#4), adding nuts to your day is a fantastic ‘snack’ option. Like I have mentioned in a previous blog, ‘snack’ does not need to be a euphemism for junk food. Snacking can be healthy too and should be encouraged for many good reasons.
What do you need to do?
Eat nuts but don’t go nuts on it!
All you need is a handful. Actually, we all have different size hands so I will be more specific – eat less than or equal to 30g of nuts. Some good nuts to choose from include: walnuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts and macadamias.
Quick snacks on the run should still ideally provide high-quality protein with a controlled amount of carbohydrate. This handful roughly provides between 4g and 7g of Protein and Carbohydrates and vary from nut to nut.
Time taken to perform this Tip # 4 in the mornings is approximately 1 minute. Yep, only 60 seconds. So, the running total for the 4 tips so far is approximately equal to 11 minutes. Eleven minutes out of your busy day!
Just to eat right.
A good snack. Berries are a wonderfully tasteful treat.
Good Fats.
My aim is to show you how my Top Ten Tips to eating right should take you less than 30 minutes of your day. Why is this eating tip worth your time and of great value to your body, you may ask?
Well, it provides ‘good fats’ to your body. Yep, not all fats are ‘bad’, but you know that. Your body needs fats to survive and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There are some vital minerals and vitamins that are fat soluble only.
For example, vitamins A, D, E and K are some such vitamins. So, these essential vitamins are only assimilated in to your body as nutrients in the presence of fat.
Even for those of you reading this blog that have started or are planning to commence your ‘get fit for summer’ training program, understand that losing fat is assisted when you provide the body with fat. Good fats, that is.
That’s correct – you need fat to burn fat!
Good fats provide many benefits such as omega – 3 fatty acids that elevates good cholesterol or High Density lipo-proteins (HDL). Why is this important? Well, this lowers your risk of heart disease as blood is more malleable, that is, blood is made thinner, hence flows better to keep you alive.
Good fats from nuts also provide joint protection. This is vital for those of you who work out in the gym with weights – like me. Having nuts in your diet allows better recuperation for inflamed joints, stiffness and swelling. You’ve got to be nuts not to include them in your diet after reading this.
It should also be noted that these good fats are found in cold water fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel and plant-based foods such as flaxseeds and soyabeans. Reach out and grab them and add these sources to your diet.
To dig deep, you have to dig deep.
Nuts come in many sizes.
The average person does not eat adequate daily amounts of these good fats, probably less than 1g per day. Carrying around two or three servings of nuts with you in your busy day does not take much time to consider and provides great value to your body, mind and vitality.
Nuts come in many sizes but are essentially small and convenient enough to eat ‘on the run’. Here’s an old Uni riddle: What do you call nuts on a wall? Yep, walnuts. So go for walnuts. There’s no excuse!
We’re on track to prove that Eating right actually takes less time than you think. So far, a grand total of 11 minutes out of your day to apply my Top Four of my Top Ten Tips to get you in Tip-Top Shape this summer.
You’re now Aware. Apply Action. Adapt accordingly.
My Triple A philosophy to self-development.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time,
Do you strive to better yourself in every way? Are you a Leader?
And what class of foods would fall in this group – yep, you’re not wrong: vegetables.
This includes all the green vegetables, all shades of green. Some good examples include – broccoli, spinach, asparagus, cabbage, long beans.
Obviously, the darker green it is, generally, the better for you. I should also include fruits that are in the shades of yellow to orange in this tip also.
Total estimated time so far (previous top 2 tips) = approx. 8 minutes.
Add: green vegetables (this tip) = approx. 2 minutes.
Estimated time taken out of your day = approx. 10 minutes!
Why is eating greens (or yellow or orange fruits) important to your life? What value could it possibly pass on to you?
Well, besides being natural sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrients, they tend to keep you fuller – for longer. This helps you curb your appetite throughout the day and from snacking on ‘junk food’. Yellow, orange and green fruit and vegetables offers your body and mind multiple nutritional benefits.
Educating a top national sprinter of the importance of proper nutrition for recovery & optimal performance
Lets have a look at a few of these fruits – bananas and oranges for example. Their yellowish-orange pigmentation have been shown to slow down the ageing process and also reduce risks of some types of cancers. Bananas are loaded with potassium and magnesium which reduce the risk of muscle cramping.
This is especially important for anyone who trains with weights in the gym. Potassium and magnesium assist in the muscles extending and contracting properly and are essential for maximising muscle performance.
Obviously, not all yellow-orange fruits and vegetables have the same sugar content and don’t all have the same impact on your insulin levels. Lets keep it simple, if your body transformation goal is to lose unwanted fataround the butt and belly then:
** stay away from high – sugar or High Glycemic Index (GI) fruits and vegetables.
Some examples include: pineapples, yams, corn and carrots.
Instead choose options which include low to moderate GI, that is foods that have more complex carbohydrates and does not ‘spike’ your sugar levels and keeps your insulin steady. Some examples include: grapefruits, mangoes, oranges, paw-paws, peaches, pumpkin, capsicum and tomatoes.
A good teacher is hard to find but finding a good student is even harder. Plan the work – to work the plan. Photo: discussing fine points of one of my programs with retired legend of rugby – Phil Waugh.
Eating in a way that does not encourage fluctuations in sugar and insulin levels is critical to body transformation and weight management. Like I have mentioned before, the key to body transformation is hormonal management – specifically, insulin management.
Make time to eat properly
When insulin is under control, your body’s drive to store fat is minimized and under control too.
So, there you have it! Tip # 3 of my series of Top Ten Tips to being in Tip-Top Shape come summer. The awareness of these top 3 tips is one thing.
Application is the other pillar. Adaptationis yet another. The philosophy of my blog.
So, as you can see, to implement these top 3 tips, it should not take you any more than 10 minutes out of your day. Now, of course you can spare 10 minutes.
My goal is to not only inform you but also to show you how Eating Right actually takes less time than you think. Matter of fact, one of my goals is to show you how the application of my Top Ten Tips should not take more than 30 minutes or 1800 seconds out of your busy day.
Make the time to eat properly.
It might not only add years to your life, but along with consistent weight training and regular cardiovascular training, may just add more life and zest in to your years.
Its your choice. Your life, after all.
Good luck in your decision.
Until next time,
Cheers & ahoy!
The old Cap’n Viking Pirate Muscled Prophet … & eating well and time
Planning my meals and cooking meals in advance (in bulk( allowed me to build a Physique worthy of standing against the best in the world. Efficiency in the preparation and timely consumption of meals is critical to achieving the physique your aim to create.
World Natural Bodybuilding Championships. Side Chest pose. Managing your meals allows you to build the best physique you can. Attention to detail and time, matters. Placing: 4th.
Life is also complex. One of the skills is to make this complexity a little less complex. Simplify the complex. De-clutter. Simplify life. Most of us would agree on this too.
Life is also an exercise in Risk Management. Anyone that thinks otherwise needs to put their thinking hat on for a few minutes. Look back at your life. Look at your life so far to this point. Look at all the decisions you have made either consciously or subconsciously to minimise your life risks. How many?
Many.
I believe one category with high risk to a growing number of human beings today, partly because of the increasing levels of obesity is cardiovascular disease and other stress-related disorders.
As I see it, it is not enough to just eat the right foods and keep cholesterol levels low. It is also not enough to exercise regularly, not enough still, to take regular holidays to ‘get away from it all’.
Nope, not enough.
How can we lower that moderate to high risk of cardiovascular and stress-related diseases? As I see it, to protect ourselves and lower these real Life Risks, we must learn to ‘switch-off’. Like I tell most of my apprentices in the gym and in life, we need to learn to “quiet the mind”.
Easier said than done.
We need to learn how to ‘turn off our engines’ in order to lengthen the effective useful life of our time on this planet. What I mean by this is that we need to switch off our production of the “Fire within”. What Fire Within, you may be asking?
You see, we are many things. One thing I know is that we are not in control of ourselves as much as we think we are. We are hormonal creatures. Because of this, the Fire Within is a term I use for the production of the hormone – “adrenaline”. I also refer to this as the “Energy Hormone”. The hormone that gives you that sense of Vitality. The hormone that is triggered whenever we a faced with a ‘flight or fight’ response to a threat. That fire within needs to be turned off, when no longer needed.
This hormone, this Fire Within needs to be tamed. To be controlled. Better. Many people need to learn to become less dependent on this energy hormone for their everyday living. As a keen observer of human behaviour, I believe that like many other things people struggle with managing, in life – their diets, their money, their insatiable desire for ‘newness’, their constant dis-satisfaction with the old etc, many people do not know how to ‘switch off’ this vital hormone – the giver of vitality or life and also – THE TAKER!
Not turning the Fire Within OFF, allows emotions such as anger, frustration, irritation, challenge and excitement trigger this energy hormone: adrenaline. I see many people incapable of managing these psychological triggers of this deadly hormone. Incapable of bringing this hormone under control. They let these emotions get the better of them.
Effective stress management is what is needed. Some rules of the brain to consider –
Step 1: Quiet the Mind.
Step 2: Repeat to Remember.
Step 3: Remember to Repeat.
Effective stress management requires that we be healthy in mind and spirit, not just in our physical bodies. What I am talking about here when I refer to effective stress management, it is to “quiet the mind …. And spirit”. This is what will truly allow you to manage one of your life’s greatest risks: adrenalin mis-management.
Eating well and exercising is not enough.
Many individuals seek adrenalin ‘highs’ and seek increasing levels of excitement and joy to enjoy the thrill of challenge. They never seem to get enough. Constantly seeking more and more different ways to experience the adrenalin rush. I believe these people may find it much more difficult to manage adrenalin which could likely increase their life risks.
Ask yourself: are you one of these types of people?
Like any surfer would know, you cannot keep riding the peak of the wave forever as there will always be a trough. A low point. Adrenaline “junkies” need to train and re-train themselves to experience life without the constant novel stimulation. They need to come down from the “mountain-tops” and enjoy the peace and calmness of the valley. This is where true rest and recuperation/re-charging and healing can occur.
Please do.
Your life depends on it more than you think. Turn off the Fire Within.
The hustle and bustle and frantic pace of modern living does not allow us the luxury of natural recovery. We are robbed of it. This comes at a cost: an ever-increasing state of mental diseases or stress-related diseases. A costly price to pay for not managing the energy hormone, better.
Because of this theft brought on us by modern-day living, we find ourselves planning these ‘vacations or holidays’ in to our lives, through deliberate design. But, you cannot escape YOU – you cannot run away from your mind.
Even Jesus Christ, the greatest psychologist that ever lived, thought it was very important, too. Rest, that is. There is a passage in the bible where he did request of his disciples to follow him to a quiet place and get some rest (somewhere in Mark gospel, I think).
Think about it: Jesus Christ thought it was necessary all those years ago.
Now, from a Christian – religious point-of-view, if Jesus Christ thought it was necessary for him and his disciples to periodically get some rest, then, who are we to think we can exist without it?
Practice switching off the Fire Within before the flames burn out your life before your time.
Pour some water to put out those flames. From time to time.
Don’t just treat the symptom (vacations/holidays). Focus on treating the cause: Quietening your mind. And spirit.
The title does not refer to what some of us did in our youth with beer and the various other types of alcohol. No, I am talking about: water, and consuming more of it.
When you wake up, go to the toilet and relieve yourself first thing, drag yourself from the bathroom to the kitchen sink and pour 12 glasses of water (approximately 250ml per glass) in to a larger flask or water bottle. The water bottle should be able to hold 3.0L of liquid, in this case – water or H2O (for the chemistry inclined).
Approximate time needed to do this:3 minutes or 180 seconds.
Can you take 180 seconds out of your ‘busy’ day to do this very important task? You bet you can! This is the 2nd Tip to “Tip-Top” shape and all it takes is 3 minutes.
So, back to my previous blog, when we add the 3 minutes to the time it took to do the first habitual tip (which was less than five minutes), you have an accumulated total of 8 minutes. Yep, eight minutes to invest to a more healthier – YOU.
What to do after you’ve filled the water bottle? Put it in the fridge to cool. Why? Because, you are going to take it with you to work and be ready to drink from it throughout the day until you finish it.
Why is this tip valuable to your body and worth your time investment?
Water makes up more than sixty percent of your body’s mass. It is vital to your health and vitality and without sufficient water intake, you could put your life at risk. If you didn’t know this, sometimes when your body tells you that it is hungry, a lot of times, it is actually asking you for more water. It is telling you, you are thirsty.
Why? Well, if you are not aware of this, the body does draw a lot of its water from the food you eat.
So, when you constantly sip water throughout your work day, in addition to its health benefits, you will feel fuller. And when you drink before, during and after every meal, it reduces your appetite, especially during the rest of your day.
There are many studies done on what the recommended daily amount of water an average person requires and generally, there is a consensus that a person should drink anywhere between 8 and 10 glasses (250ml) per day. Great!
The question I would like you to ask yourself is this: are you currently drinking that many? Be honest. I am certain that many (maybe you included) are not drinking anywhere near the recommended daily allowance.
If you’re staying physically active (and I am presuming most of you reading this are active), having a little bit more (12 glasses) is wiser, giving you a little buffer for the additional energy output you expand during exercising.
Most of you know that the moment you realize that you’re thirsty, it’s a little too late. The body, by that stage has already lost approximately 4-5% of its total water. Now, you should note that your energy output is heavily dictated by the amount of water or hydration level you have at any point in time. Losing just 1 percent of your body weight in water (approximately 1kg to 2kg) can decrease your overall energy output by as much as 20 to 30 percent.
Now, that is a significant reduction in potential energy output. It will affect your vitality. You will notice this lack of energy in your training sessions. You can see that dehydration puts unnecessary stress on your body, on your organs. Your body goes hunting for water in other places – within the body itself. Where do you think it will find water? Yep, you guessed it – your kidneys, your stomach, colon and also, where you least want to lose it – your hard earned muscles.
All that muscle you have been working hard in the gym for months. Years, perhaps. Being catabolised. Not good. Not what you desire. You want to work hard to build muscle and then hang on to whatever muscle you have. Muscle is precious. Preserve it as best you can from it been cannibalized by its own body.
From a health point-of-view, your organs are put under unnecessary stress than it already has and does not work at its most effective and efficient selves. Your brain requires adequate water to allow you to focus and think at its optimum. A lack of water can also relate to recurring headaches and migraines. I have seen a reduction in these ailments over the years with my clients, the frequency and intensity of such drops.
From a muscle point-of-view, muscles that don’t have sufficient water will mean that your lifts in the gym due to a reduction in your strength levels. This would mean a less than your best effort which would translate in to less potential for muscle growth. No growth means no progress. No progress ultimately leads to an empty, unhappy feeling in your gut. This remains true not only for muscle but for almost all areas in our lives – not experiencing a step-by-step progression towards whatever goal you are working towards.
No progress – you get de-motivated. Progress – you feel motivated. The latter feeling is preferable, I believe.
We are all ‘goal-seeking’ animals, so make this 2nd Tip of my Top Ten Tips to a healthier you a part of your daily life. Take action and start making this habit a part of your life. Today. In a week, see how you feel.
It takes approximately 8 minutes of your day to carry out these two habits. Give your body, your life what it needs. Simply, because you’re worth it. The compound effect of making these two tips habit is contribution to a better quality of life in your future.
You’re now Aware. Apply Action. Adapt accordingly.
In my experience, eating right can actually save you time. Save you, life.
It is winter in this part of the world (I’m live in the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia). Stop, project less than 12 weeks from now, when the next season arrives – ahhh, Spring. Picture this: people are getting out their spring/summer clothes from the cupboards and are feeling a little down because they can’t squeeze in to them like they remembered they did last year. It can be quite de-motivating for some.
Maybe , you’re in that spot of bother right now?
In this first blog of an 8.5 Reasons why Eating RIGHT should not take too much of your time.
My Tip # 1: Never Skip Breakfast!
In one of my earlier blogs, I state that imagination is key to the achievement of any worthwhile goal or goal you place value on . So, if achieving a more sculptured (tonned body) is what you desire you need to learn to use your imagination.
Yes, use your imagination to visualize (now) how you would like to look by summer. This is a very important step – ‘seeing’ yourself as you imagine yourself to be. Having a clear understanding of your destination (refer to earlier blog: “Don’t be a rudderless ship”).
The more vivid the picture of your destination is in your mind and the more it connects with your heart, the more drive and focus you will muster.
Champions practise a lot of visualisation and simulation. To create magic, you need to fuse the worlds of sanity (where you are) with insanity (where you dream/imagine you are, before you are). That is difficult. That is one of the key keys. Don’t stop. Trying. Believing. Keep on … keeping on. You’ll get there. Everyone always does. Especially, if you do it with your heart. and …. with LOVE.
And, with the help of “Coach Mo” (incidentally, that little voice on your shoulder, we can call Coach “Mo”) to start your steam train again …. Hoot … hoot … slowly towards your goal). Just like a steam-train, getting started in your body transformation goals, getting those wheels cranking at the beginning of the journey is the difficult part.
But when you pick up [Mo]mentum (Coach Mo), you, just like that steam train can smash through whatever obstacles that lay in your path. To smithereens! Because you have Big Mo (momentum) on your side.
Here we go again.
Its easy to put off things, to procrastinate. Don’t. Don’t leave it for September, it will be too late. That’s when the majority of people start panicking and joining gyms. Start now. Find your plan (or get help from the relevant professional) and work your plan. You don’t want Spring and then Summer time and Christmas to roll around and you not feel happy about the way you look in you clothes, now, do you? Or you can just buy bigger clothes to hide it all.
Up to you.
You’re the Captain of your ship through the seas of Life. Set you goal towards being your BEST and put a quality plan in place (includes your health & overall well-being) and set sail … Towards your destination.
Making better use of the 86,400 seconds given to us every day
I have said this before: no matter what your exercise goals are, eating healthy (well-compositioned meals), can help you achieve them faster.
And right now, time is ticking and time is your friend as we have just started Winter and have a little under 10 weeks to Spring. But, the question you’re probably thinking is how are you supposed to spend time preparing healthier meals. You barely have enough time to hit the weights, how are you realistically supposed to find time to watch what hits your plate? Right, I hear you …. that is why I wrote this blog to convince you to help you, help yourself more effectively.
Eating right is actually easier than you think.
How so?
Well, in my more than two decades in the health and fitness industry and helping hundreds of people around the world. It is one truth I have discovered. They have learned that, too. You can save more of your life. Here’s how …
I believe that spending a few minutes a day making the right decisions about your nutrition could save you from spending twice the time in the gym or four times as much time on the treadmill or aerobics. How so, Paul, you may be asking? I don’t have the time, you may say!
I argue that it typically takes less time to prepare a healthier meal than it does to work off the extra calories you would eat if you didn’t spend time watching your diet.Makes sense? Yes, it does!
Think about it.
You have 86,400 seconds of your life everyday to live, the way you choose to. But, my question is why would you spend more of those seconds sweating and exercising (and for many enthusiasts doing group classes – smelling intense body odour in small bacteria-infested rooms).
I pity these folks and their poor, poor nostrils. If you do like it, God bless you. Applying my tips could mean you spend less time doing those classes. Smelling those arm-pits. That would be good for you and your nostrils, wouldn’t it? Also, I see so many people lining up outside cafes and stressing about what they are going to have for lunch. How about I say, we take that wastage of time and thought pattern with my tip here?
Achieving a well-balanced physique should be understood for what it is: a masterful fusion of art and science. One should improve once’s “BODY Smart”knowledge. this takes time and deliberate practise.
Your daily eating habits
Ok, it isn’t always easy predicting how much time you’re going to have each day to pay attention to your nutritional habits. It isn’t easy. I realise that. Still, there is a smarter way you can make sure you’re getting the most from what ever number of seconds you can use each day.
What if I told you that there are ways to change your daily eating habits without making major sacrifices in your diet. What are you thinking now? For many people, they have tried everything, and ‘nothing works’ is a common frustration. What if I told you that these changes are very real and can be implemented in to your “all-day” eating routine. And the great thing is that you could implement these changes anytime you wanted to?
In the next series of blogs, I will be sharing with you my top 8.5 tips to successfully making changes to your daily eating habits with sustainability in mind. Changes that you can sustain forever. These Valentine Top 8.5 Tipsonly takes a few hundred seconds (a few minutes) to master, but I believe, when implemented, they can take months of unnecessary hard work off your schedule, provided you follow them each day.
This is the real challenge for you:Unlearning old habits that are not aligned with your new, ‘imagined self’ and learning these new habits, my Top 10 tips. Successful change is and can only be brought about through improvement in your self-regulatory behaviour . This is heavily dependent on the power of your imagination.
Changing habits – releasing bad eating habits and adopting some good ones is like facing an internal Predator. You need to ‘face the Lion’ within you. Having a conversation with a lion.
Spring/Summer/Christmas?New Year, here you come – You, only better!
How much time do you have a day to apply these tips?
How much time can you spare? Can you spare 30 minutes in your day or 1800 seconds of your 86,400 seconds? We will do a little maths exercise and count the amount of time each of these tips will take out of your day, starting with Tip # 1 in this blog. Doing all 8.5 of my tips would take less than 30 minutes tops each day. Yet they can give you everything you need to maintain a balanced diet. That’s not much time, is it?
Can you allocate that time to YOU? Simply because your life is important and you would like to do everything you can to not only add years to your life but more importantly, add Life in to your years.
It’s going to save you spending your valuable life, your valuable seconds, thinking and exercising unnecessarily to undo what you unknowingly – did in the first place!
How good is that?!
These tips are not meant to create more stress in your life, it is meant to help make your life a bit more manageable, a little less stressful, when it comes to eating a balanced diet with sustainability in mind. It is about making the best of whatever time you have. Allow me to show you how.
My Top 8.5 Tips will cover all main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks in-between. We will begin with the first meal of the day – breakfast. So, I will go through your day, from sunrise to sun-set and piece together a sustainable, efficient and effective schedule for melting off fat, building muscle and having increased daily energy towards reshaping your body, not tomorrow or next week.
Right now.
Spring/Summer/Christmas/New Year’s here you come. You – only better!
Sunrise – you rise.
Education through a perception of the truth. Increasing your awareness, taking sufficient and appropriate actions and adapting accordingly is key towards self-improvement. Funny thing is that the process also applies to relationships and response. In the photo, Former Australian Wallaby Captain listening intently to learn key principles of my philosophy in to being your BEST, ALL the time, not some of the time. Great student. Great Champion. Great friend. Vv
Tip #1: DO NOT Skip Breakfast.
It should consist of a mix of the 3 basic macro-nutrients: carbohydrates (oats), protein (eggs – 3 eggs/1 yolk) and a little fat (avocado, peanut butter, almonds).
Estimated time spent: < 5 minutes.
Why not skip Breakfast, you may be thinking?
It is one of the best advice our parents and grandparents have given us when we were children. Missing this very important meal creates more hunger later on and increases your risk of ‘bingeing’ and taking in more calories than you truly need in later meals. With no food in your stomach, your body’s response is to take in whatever calories you ate the night before – and whatever you eat later on and … bingeing at lunch and like many reading this – at dinner. Just before bed.
Result? Guess what? All these ‘extras’ TURNS INTO UNWANTED BODY FAT!
Yes, around the gut ( as some call a ‘spare tyre’) for most men out there after they turn 30 and deposits around the butt and legs for the ladies. Very de-motivating indeed. Not exactly what you want, is it?
So, I insist, make this first tip if you’re skipping breakfast a part of you life. Make it your first habit to master: take 4 minutes when you wake up and eat a meal for breakfast but make sure that it combines all macro-nutrients. You will get sustainable energy all day long and lower your desire for extra calories from other food to provide energy later.
This is a very good rule of thumb you should apply for every meal during your day. Ask yourself – do I have a good mix of carbs, protein and a little fat.
Use what I’ve told all my past customers – my “eyeball method” or ‘I see with my two eyes’ method. Look at your plate, ensure the macro-nutrients take up space on the plate in this ratio:
P:C:F = 0.4:0.5: 0.10. ( where P = Protein; C = Carbohydrates; F = Fats)
Steve Reeves was a Master Poser. He imagined and built the Best Built & Aesthetically beautiful body in the world through synergistic awareness. He understood that optimum health of body & mind required the fusion of art and science. Become a scientific artist of YOU … of your life.
Homework: Lets keep adding the time needed to apply each tip I share in successive blogs and see if it requires you to spend less than half an hour of your day.
Let me prove to you using numbers (minutes spent) that Eating right actually takes less time than you think over the next month or so. Let you in on a secret: I love Physics and Mathematics. They were my first majors in my first University Degree almost 30 years ago now.
Let me show you how these little but significant 8.5 Tips can and will encourage an optimum environment that is a fusion of art and science, allowing for Synergy. This synergism is KEY: it is in the combining of the elements that creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Repeat. Make it habit. Make this one change. Repeatedly, with enhanced self-regulatory behavioural change. Repeat.
Believe.
My triple A approach to the development of Self.
Ahoy & all the very BEST… allow me to guide you through my Top 8.5 Tips over the next few weeks.
Cheers & ahoy!
The old Captain Viking Pirate …. & Life Tips
SYNERGISM: The Critical Mind-set to success. Understanding that it is in the combination of key elements to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Create the BEST you firstly, through 1) Education and then 2) motivation.
When my children were born, I was fascinated with their eating behaviour. They ate every 2 to 3 hours without fail, around the clock. As most of you would know (especially parents), the first few years of a child’s life can cause huge sleep deprivation on parents (especially mums).
I asked the question why society teaches us that the main times for food intake should be breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why don’t we just follow what we have all gone through in our first years. It seemed like we were biologically born to consume food every 2 to 3 hours. It seems that society’s expectation is forcefully applied to us as ‘normal’ eating behaviour because that’s just how it has been for centuries. Probably helps us all become better employees when we are older – less time eating, or for breaks and more time devoted to working.
Apparently, great for productivity and the “bottom-line”.
The thing is that the body works more efficiently and effectively with energy pumped in to it regularly and this is where snacks come in.
If you’re like most people and being ‘busy’ and busier than everyone you know, then you would probably only make time to eat three meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whether your goal is fat loss, muscle gain or a combination of the two, the smarter way to get your daily energy intake is to spread them throughout the whole day. It’s the way our bodies are made to work.
We need to work with our body, not against it.
I’ve always told people that body re-engineering or transformation is mainly about hormonal management, through management of raw materials going in ( your body and your mind). Frequency of meals is a key factor to success in your body transformation.
You see, anytime you eat, blood is rushed in to your stomach for digestive aid. If you eat huge meals (as most people do three times per day), your energy and vitality levels get affected and fluctuate. Many people feel intense sleepiness in the office after a big lunch. The more food your body has to process, the more blood it steals from other areas of your body to aid in stomach digestion. The same can be said for digestive enzymes.
Losing blood from other areas of your body could affect your metabolic state and so slow down the distribution of energy within your system (hence the sleepiness feeling after a hearty lunch). This leaves you feeling less sharp and tired you struggle to focus.
Having large meals also triggers a higher insulin response which inhibits fat burning as it alerts the body to desperately store unwanted body fat. So, an answer to reducing your meal sizes is to go back to eating with more frequency just like you did when you were a baby, being luckily breastfed or bottle-fed every 2 hours. You need to eat more often and so increase your meals from 3 to 6.
How do you do this? Simple: eat more smaller, well-compositioned meals.
Try preparing or having at least three snacks ready to eat between your three main meals, spreading your calories throughout the day. On the face of it, it may sound like you will be eating more but spreading out what you eat can actually cause you to eat less. This is what I tell most if not all my clients – “I’ll show you how to eat more to change your body shape … and lose weight”. They then say, “but shouldn’t I be eating less?”
Another mis-perception propagated by the weight-loss industry.
You see eating six to eight smaller, well-compositioned meals instead of three large meals, keeps you blood sugar levels in a good range and does not encourage sudden fluctuations. For your body, this equates to a constant flow of readily available energy which reduces your tendency to eat more.
Eating smaller meals more frequently also allows you to feel fuller, longer and does not encourage you to over-eat in your main meals. More importantly, keeping your blood sugar levels in a good range, does not trigger the hormone – insulin, which when triggered forces your body in to ‘starvation’ mode that encourage fat retention and storage.
The key to body re-engineering and transformation is fundamentally hormonal management.
So, snacks are necessary but when people talk about snacks they think of ‘junk food’. It does not have to be. When possible choose snacks that are a combination of the three macro-nutrient groups: protein, carbohydrates and fats.
Some good examples of:
Protein sources: lean meats including chicken, beef/kangaroo, ham and fish, tofu.
Fat sources: most nuts like almonds, cashews, peanuts and avocado, ricotta cheese
Each snack can combine all three, for example, two pieces of chicken breast (120g) + avocado (30g) + long beans (120g). Keep nuts to 30g or less per snack intake.
So pack your snacks in lunch boxes just as you or your parents did when you were a kid and have it ready to eat at work. It will save you time (waiting in line to get a sandwich) and will help improve your overall sense of vitality throughout the day.
Adding snacks to your life should help you take one step closer to the body you want. Little habits like this, when practised deliberately – daily, over time is where the real miracle is.
A little change within has a greater change – without.
Try this one change in your day. See how you look in two months.
We have all heard the saying “you are what you eat”, haven’t we? Well, there is an element of truth there.
You cannot transform your physique from where you are to where you would like to be without getting handle over your nutrition and what you’re actually letting in your mouth. A very important aspect in the success of over 80% of my client’s have had of the years – is managing your diet better.
As we are essentially all creatures of habit, I have found when I look at client’s diets that most people spend their weeks eating the same meals over and over again. That can be good. Let me explain.
Good because if 70 percent of the meals (solids and liquids) you eat is bad or unhealthy for you then it is highly likely that your next meal would be unhealthy, too. Now what is the best way to find out your weekly bad meals ratio? Well, simply keeping a diary of all meals you consume every day. Do this for 7 days and identify all the ‘bad and unhealthy’ meals that you consume. Mark it off on paper. Assess your good/bad meals percentage. What is your daily bad meal percentage and what is your weekly percentage or ratio?
What do you do next? Well, lets keep it simple and take things one step at a time. Try getting rid of just one ‘bad’ meal per day and replacing it with a ‘new’ healthy meal to your weekly repertoire. Stick to this one change. Try sticking to it for a few weeks and aim for a month or two and observe how this little healthy change can and will have a positive impact on your body, possibly encouraging you to boosting your ratio and percentage of healthy meals even further. One meal at a time.
This positive little step-by-little step approach, gradually becomes a part of your daily life without making you completely conscious of it. This, I think is better than spending more and more time examining food labels for nutritional information for everything that you eat that you see a lot of people doing these days. It isn’t always the easiest thing to do and maintain. Besides, food labels can be quite confusing, even for the best of us.
Try this method if you’ve been wanting to help yourself but didn’t know where to start as it may just be as effective in keeping your eating habits under control and helping you lose fat and stay healthy, one good meal at a time. It won’t happen overnight but it will happen if you will it to.
There is no standard definition of physical fitness.
It means different things to different people. Decide on your own definition but be mindful of your activity. Fitness is relative to the activity performed and not all activities require similar fitness.
For example, someone who is playing as a goalkeeper in soccer may not necessarily be fit for hockey and the fitness for running a marathon may not translate to the fitness for playing rugby.
I believe it is more appropriate to promote a broader definition of total fitness that should comprise of the following 5 elements:
Strength and the development of lean body mass (muscle).
Flexibility
Cardiovascular conditioning
Ease of general daily activities
Exercise-FREE factors
Elements 1 to 3 is quite self-explanatory but lets talk about 4 and 5.
With element 4, if you go about your daily activities without an ache or pain in the world, then, you must be doing something right with your life. Stop and spare a thought for the millions of people in the world that are not as lucky as you to just jump out of bed bursting with the vitality of a hundred people.
There is a definite ‘mind-muscle’ connection. Train your muscles to train & exercise your brain and help it release all those necessary life-affirming hormones to flood your body … needed nutrition for the cells and soul. Try it.
Consider starting a Fitness Program tailored to you
Many humans struggle just to get through their daily activities, like getting out of bed, doing their shopping etc without some form of pain or discomfort. Some could not get through their day without resorting to more than a handful of drugs.
Not nice. Not the way they had envisioned of living, I suppose.
With element five, this includes variables that make up your lifestyle such as healthy nutrition (for the body and mind), no drug abuse, adequate rest and recuperation (sleep), adequate exposure to sunshine (but don’t get sun-burned), good posture, healthy and fulfilling relationships and an enjoyable and satisfying employment.
Now, for people who make their living being a sportsperson, being talented is not enough. They each need to ensure they hone their skills specific to their sport to be the best they can be to be totally fit for that activity.
However, if you’re thinking of starting a fitness program. Great for you! Consider the elements I have listed when you think about getting ‘fit’. All these elements should be factored in to your program for self improvement before, I believe, anyone can really be said to be healthy and fit.
I have seen them, so perhaps have you, people that are strong and well-built but physically unfit and cannot even run up a small flight of stairs without difficulty. Just all show and some suffer from a world-wide epidemic, very evident on beaches – mostly men who suffer from what I have termed “ILS” or “imaginary lats – syndrome”.
Yep, you’ve seen them! Then you have people who are extremely fit physically and yet not be healthy (very long-distance runners could arguably fall in this boat).
What is your definition of health, strength and fitness? Does it include your TOTAL self – physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, socially?
What is “Fit” to you?
What is ‘Fit” to you?
There is a prevailing mis-perception about what people consider to be ‘fit’ in society as it most probably does not include the 5 elements I have highlighted above. Although it is highly desirable to be physically fit, please bear in mind that there is so much more to total fitness (and health) than just that.
Now, if you’re brave enough to ‘get off the fence’ and help yourself with your physical goals in life and if you’re lucky enough to seek and get help, just do it! (I just love this NIKE slogan). If you feel you want to go about it on your own then consider mapping out a time-frame for your body transformation journey, say a 16-week (4 month) goal with realistic but specific goals.
Obviously, don’t be too ambitious in the early days. Don’t be disappointed if you can’t achieve instantaneous results. Like I have said before, learn patience and persistence.
Take stock of your physical health so far and remember you have had your body since you were born. You have possibly misused it for many, many years.
You have a lot of mending to do, so getting fit won’t happen overnight, but it WILL happen if you TRY.
Be the most UN-Common Man/Woman you can be. Find the Real YOU and … be YOU
Health, good health is the sum of many parts
Health, good health is the sum of many parts, including how you think, what you eat, read and drink, how you see your body, how you plan your daily activities and how you perform them and how you get on with your internal and external environment.
Like I have said in an earlier blog, you are like a juggler with many balls in the air. If you drop one, that’s fine. Keep going, the others will take up the slack. And then tomorrow, start again with all the balls.
Take a day off occasionally. On those days, sit down for a few minutes and think how you could make your routine more enjoyable.
Notice, I said more enjoyable – NOT EASIER..
Stay focused!
Until next time,
Cheers & Ahoy!
The old Cap’n Viking Pirate Evangelist Muscled Monk … & How fit and healthy are you
Side triceps pose. Contest: Australian Natural Bodybuilding Titles. Placing: 2nd.
Always maintain discipline in all areas of life, at all times, under all conditions … like a great Viking or Pirate of the Seas do. Become the best Captain of the Seas of Life you can be. … Cheers & Ahoy! The old Cap’n Viking Pirate Evangelist Muscled Monk
The old Captain Viking Pirate 🏴☠️ ⚔️Enjoying a beer 🍺 in a hot 🥵 spring day here in Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
I’m talking about growth and producing more muscle for you, here.
There is no room for compromise on the components of recuperation and getting adequate rest to building more muscle towards a more healthier, stronger, fitter you. More muscle is hopefully a more satisfied you too with regards to your body transformation goals.
Here are 14.5 tips (the list is not exhaustive) for getting adequate recuperation and rest with the goal of more muscle and to take better care of you:
Building the best physique you hope to does not rely on chance. It comes down to many variables summed up here – Imagination + Visualisation + Effort (hard deliberate practice) + Feel (Heart) + Talent (genetics) + Focus (never-say-die Mind-set) … To create Balance & Symmetry in design. It does not matter which art medium is used – building architecture, watches, cars etc .. Beauty = Balance & Symmetry The only difference between sculpturing your physique and the other types mentioned above is – the human body is alive and has a mind. Continue to work on yours.
Once you’re training hard (referring to your skeletal muscle here), consume 1g of protein per pound of body-weight.
Don’t waste your time with ‘light weights’ Use a weight (depending on the muscle group) that will get you to 10 reps. But you struggle to get to 8 reps with good form. Everyone’s limit is different.
4. Stay away from low-fat diets. I can show you how fat can be used to burn fat.
Matter of fact, fat in your diet is essential to stripping unwanted fat off you – especially the stubborn fat a lot of people carry around their waists. Fat is vital for your overall health – mind and body. It helps maintain an anabolic metabolism.
However steer clear from unhealthy fats as best you can.
6. Don’t get too caught up on sources of protein, carbohydrates and fats.
Why?
Because what you actually digest and allow your body to assimilate is more important than what you eat and drink.
Meals need to suit you and your physical goals. Understand YOU. Find the most appropriate solution. If you can’t do it yourself, find someone who can help. It may just reduce the risk of disappointment.
Try to avoid getting hungry (believe me, you probably will like me less if you’re around me when I am hungry. You definitely don’t want to be around me when I am both angry … and hungry … ‘Hangry’
Preparation is key – try setting aside some time in the evening for preparing your sandwiches, blender drinks etc for the next day. A little time in the kitchen the night before or on the weekend, will save you tonnes of time during the week, thinking about what you would like to eat for various meals.
Educating a top national sprinter of the importance of proper nutrition for recovery & growth for optimal performance
8. Don’t waste your “window of opportunity”
Within a half hour of finishing your workout, have a liquid easily digested meal (high in protein) and then have a balanced solid-food meal in the next couple of hours.
I call this the ‘window of opportunity’ to infuse your muscle cells with the necessary nutrients to maximise growth and retention.
Now sit, back, rest and say … “Grow baby, grow!”
And it will.
9. Don’t skip breakfast!
10. Supplements are just that – ‘supplements’.
It is meant to supplement a nutritionally sound diet from real food.
That took me to multiple NSW Titles and 2 x World Championships, simply eating good ‘balanced meals’ of REAL FOOD. You can’t beat it. Keep it simple.
Do try to spend more of your precious time with people and doing activities that give you energy – real energy and do your best to limit your time doing activities or being with people who drain you of energy.
Recuperation and rest for example is an activity that enhances your energies. Love yourself more. Give yourself more of it. Don’t feel guilty.
Appreciate that uniqueness and ask yourself what your idea of ‘healthy’ is and how would you define it, with respect to every area in life – meal composition; amount of rest/sleep; play time; activities that you do; books that you read; visual programs that you watch etc.
Continue to ask yourself ‘what is healthy to you’ and promptly eliminate habits and behaviour that steal away from a more healthy you. Respect and love YOU first to truly respect and love all around you.
Take your health seriously if you want to optimise your ability to recuperate….
And live better …
… now and in to your future.
While you’re still breathing and can do something about it.
Just DO IT! ( I love this NIKE slogan …. my favourite of all time)
All the best!
Until next time,
The Old Cap’n Viking Pirate …. & essential workout Hacks/Lessons … for willing participants
Explaining the fine points of re-engineering the physique and increased self-awareness through enhanced ‘mind-muscle’ connection..
Belief in God has helped me represent Australia at two consecutive World Natural Bodybuilding Championships and achieve those dreams. Never stop believin’. Vv.
The title of this blog could be applied to many areas of life but in this case, it relates to working out in the gym.
A very important principle of muscle building and I have followed it since I learned of it in my late teens, slowly accumulated my hours in the gym.
There are many variables to building muscles and many principles to training. Leaving your ego at the door would have to be one of the most important philosophies because aside from allowing me to get the most out of each workout and get maximum gains in muscle building, it would also be a significant reason why I have stayed injury-free for over two decades of training with weights in the gym.
Well, I tell all the youth that I see training with less than ideal technique in the gym, “to get muscle gains you need to leave your ego at the door”.
Drop the weight down and use something you can handle safely. What I mean by this is that if its muscle-maximization you’re after, then, lose the thought that if you lift very heavy weights, you will automatically get bigger muscles. True but not true. Firstly, accept that you’re not a weight-lifter or power-lifter. How strong you are does not build the biggest muscles.
Maintain control & feel when you’re containing the Lion within you. Leave the ego at the door.
Control and feel
Strength does correlate to muscle-size but only to a point. So, to build muscles one must try to focus on control and feel for any exercise one is doing. You need to keep it simple and have continuous tension on the muscle group throughout the range of motion with good form.
If you load up the weight and sacrifice good form, you’re unlikely to build muscle but instead increase your risk of injury. This could then keep you from the gym which then may get you down and de-motivated. You take one step forward, four steps back in your quest to build muscle and transform your physique.
End result: mediocre muscle development. Not what you desired.
Its not how much you lift that matters but how you lift. Ask yourself the question “how well am I doing this exercise?” each time you perform it. Keep it simple. Focus on the feel of the exercise and maintain control throughout the execution of the exercise. It is highly likely that you are using a weight that is too heavy for you if you lose control and feel while performing a ‘set’ of your exercise and not completing the required number of repetitions at a specific tempo. Instead of building muscle, you’re only working your ego.
Find the courage to keep going. Right. The courage rests in you. Take Lead, be the Leader that YOU are.
Say No to “No Pain, No Gain “ Maxim
Now if that is your intention then fine but if you’re serious about getting good results, stay away from the old, hard-core maxim: No pain, no gain!Seems to only apply when you’re using excessive weights. Instead keep my maxim below in mind: “Work the muscle, not the joint!”
Working out in the gym is a great way to transform your physique from the person you see in the mirror now to the person you imagine yourself to be. To do so, keep your ego in check, leave your ego at the door and instead be patient and make incremental steps towards your ultimate strength and body re-engineering goals.
Learn proper technique. Practise it religiously. Be patient with your progress. Become a better master of your instrument ‘your body’, just like a musician would with practise.
Eat nutritionally-balanced meals aligned with your goals and give your body adequate rest and recovery time to adapt and develop.
It is a great feeling to do this … but make sure it isn’t your ego that is leading. I made 2 World Championships partly because others said I couldn’t. A great feeling to prove people wrong. If it is Stubbornness & not ego leading … well that’s ok.
Me & Mr Fuzzy/Fussy cuddles at my favourite beach 🏖 here in beautiful Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺
Changing lives. Empowering people. One life at a time. 
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