Do You Really Look Great?

This morning as I awoke a recollection of someone's post on my Facebook wall sprang at me like an angry leopard. I managed to get so wound up about it that I had to sit down and blog it all out. 




Lets start with this one.  How many of you out there have an illness that can be traced back to bad diet and lack of exercise (these are more numerous than you can possibly imagine)?  You have piled on weight, maybe even having trouble walking far as you get out of breath, and, when you state that you think a chocolate bar would make you feel better especially with some ice cream, the 'loved ones' and 'friends are there cooing at you, saying "yeah, it will cheer you up" or even going so far as to give you some ideas of how to stuff more crap into your body the way they do it? 

If you are a drinker, just a normal person who maybe goes out once a week for a few drinks; how many of you out there have gone through a really rough patch and your alcohol consumption has managed to up its game considerably? Even to the point where you are drinking a bottle of wine or more a night. Now, how many people in your life, that claim to love you, have told you its OK, heck it's not that much in the scheme of things, or even better, they do just the same so nothing to worry about. 

Maybe your joints are aching a bit, and, you have faced the fact that your life has never been a particularly active or healthy one. Someone may suggest that you start learning a few simple easy bodyweight exercises . . . then the same 'caring people' who are telling you your alcohol intake is fine, your high fat diet is a great way to cheer yourself up will also turn round and tell you the person who said do exercise is a fucking idiot, you just take it easy, eat cake with a glass of wine and put your feet up. 

BEWARE THE SYCOPHANT!  They are a very dangerous breed

Now you have to ask yourself, those nights when you were going out and you looked in the mirror and didn't think you looked too good in that outfit so you asked one of these 'friends' what they thought and they said "You look great" . . . did you really? These 'friends' who are telling you to ignore your problems, eat crap, destroy your body and keep well away from change. You are seriously putting trust in these folk? 

Let me be honest with you here . . . 


I have been that drinker, I have been the person with depression eating crap, I have been the one sifting through people to find the right ones that will tell me the good things about my bad habits . . . and do you know what happened? I asked myself one simple question which was:

ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID? 

The answer was a resounding YES. With this very useful piece of information in hand I set out to change my health and happiness and reap the rather fabulous rewards as I journey, as for me, this journey only stops when I run out of the ability to draw breath.

Now ask yourself are you surrounded by friends and loved ones or sycophants who are creeping round you telling you what you want to hear rather than what you NEED to hear? 

Here's the truth for you, here is what, maybe,  you don't want to hear but seriously need to. 

NO, drinking too much is not good for you, in fact its ridiculously harmful and can lead to a myriad of health and mental health problems.

NO, eating crap will not make you feel better.  The truth is it will make any illness worse, depression deeper and joint ache more severe. 

NO, healthy food is not tasteless crap, all green leaves and no joy.  It is an abundance of flavours in a glorious myriad of taste, texture and delight. 

YES, the only way to address your problems are by eliminating the crap from your life and I'm not just talking about the food, booze, drugs and laziness, but all the sorry arse lame excuses and all the sycophants.  You have to look for the cause, which is more likely to be some deep seated issue, be it lack of self worth, a bad experience in the past, relationship problems . . what ever, you need to start looking and dealing.

YES, you can really do this and you can do it, for the most part, on your own . . . in fact I would urge you NOT to find a gym/training/diet etc partner as they invariably let you down at some point. To be a success you have to stand on your own without the fake support of others. However, if you are drowning and not waving, go to the professionals for help be it a psychiatrist, trainer or one hell of a lot of research in the library.

YES, it does take time.  It's glorious self realising, revitalising, educational, time and it is something you should see as a pleasure not a chore. You can't do a little happy celebration dance at each goal you achieve if you are perfect! This is the wonderful part about being superbly imperfect, we get to celebrate all through our journey!

YES, you will reap the benefits of changing your life around 

YES, people will drop out of your life, the ones that hold you back, drag you down, do not want to see you succeed, but the ones that pick you up, love you unconditionally and motivate you along will appear in it. 

Most importantly 

YES IT IS WORTH IT 

Next time you look in a mirror and ask "do I look great" remember the only person who can answer that one is you.

Now go forth and become even MORE fabulous.

Love & Hugs

How To Get Fit Doing Only 15 Minutes Exercise A Day

I will, in the next minute of reading help you to get motivated and get fit. How?  By writing this . . 

• You don't need equipment.  
• It only takes 15 minutes a day.
• You don't need to go out and buy any special clothing.  
• No app is required to do this training.  
• You do not need to be on a special diet*.  
• You do not need hours of spare time.  
• You can do this workout any time of the day.  
• There is no fitness level requirements for this exercise. 
• You can do this exercise in your home, in your garden, in your friends garage, in the greenhouse, on the street, in the middle of a field . . there really is no need to have a special place either. You can do this naked if you wanted! 

* Obviously I am going to assume that you are taking stock of what you eat and have cleaned your diet up too!

All you need is a 15 minute count down, so use your watch, count in your head or just click  >>> HERE for a free online timer that looks like this 

You will need enough space, roughly about the size of a yoga mat (yoga mat is optional!)  

And a pencil and paper/ sticks/ your head or I use one of these tally clickers to keep track of my sets, which I find really useful (cheap as chips to buy too!).  The reason you use one, is to keep track of how many sets you perform and try to improve on that number each subsequent time.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

This workout is for everyone. From the person who gets out of breath climbing their stairs to the super buff wanting to up their endurance or if you just want to tone up.  More effort you put in, the better the results you come away with.

THE WORKOUT 

In your 15 minute workout you will be doing 2 exercises which is 1 set.  Each exercise will be done 5 times in a row (reps/repetitions).  To get the maximum benefit use as much intensity as you can muster.  

First Exercise

The Press Up/Push Up

If you have never done a press up in your life do not fear here is how you can learn. 

WITH BOTH EXERCISES REMEMBER AT ALL TIMES : 

The more explosively you push up, the more energy you use, the quicker you will start to become fitter.

Here are the progressive variations of push up for you.  When the variation you start with becomes easy (it takes only a couple of weeks) move on to the harder version, until you at the full form pushup:

Start by leaning against a wall leaning in (keeping legs straight) and pushing off as powerfully as you can:

#1 Wall Push Ups

Next progress to the flat legged pushup.  Lay on the floor, backs of feet facing the floor and push yourself up (similar to the cobra pose in yoga).  Allow yourself do drop then push up with force.

Flat Legged Push up

Then when this style becomes easy, you progress to push ups from the knee:

Push up from the knee

Finally,  you will be ready to do full form pushups, or if you are fit enough, just start with this.  Ensure to keep elbows close to side, hands by the side of your shoulders.  

Full Form Pushup

T so if you want to test your endurance and strength try doing dive bombers, hindu pushups, diamond pushups, inverted push ups . . there are many, many variations of pushup to be found  click this link >> HERE << for some more ideas!

SECOND EXERCISE

THE SQUAT

As with most things when it comes to bodyweight exercises there are varying difficulty levels, so it is with the squat.

If you have NEVER done a bodyweight squat before I advise you to start with the simple straight forward squat:

When performing the squat always remember to push through your heels NOT the balls of your feet.  A good way to test if you have the right position is to squat down and see if you can lift your toes up.  If not you are leaning too far forward.  Do not allow your knees to go further forward than your toes.

Lower yourself down, power up

If you find these easy try Hindu Squats

How to Do Hindu Squats 

If these are easy, try Pistol squats (this is a brilliant video by Al Kavadlo showing the progression, just click on his name and it will take you to his page where he explains in full how to do pistol squats)

Now you have your repertoire, 5 reps of pushup of choice, 5 reps of squat of choice repeat this (set) for 15 minutes. 

Always keep going for the whole time, it does not matter how slow it ends up being as long as you keep going.  Even if you only manage one set that will be one set more than you have done before. 1 squat and 1 press up . . . doesn't matter as long as you keep trying. It is a no fail workout.

If you are getting to around 40 sets, up the number of reps from 5 to 10 of each, then 10 to 20.  

If you want to ramp it up and use even LESS time try doing this tabata style, see my blog fat burning muscle building workout this will seriously test your metal.  For a bit of an eye opener here is a calculation we worked out of how effective each exercise is.

Good luck and may you find your fitness and endurance increasing at a rate of squats . . . (see what I did there).

Wishing you nothing but complete success.

With thanks and appreciation 

Cathi 

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