Quick and healthy snack ideas

One of the biggest downfalls I see in my client’s that want to lose body fat, is what they eat between meals.

Sure, it’s easy and delicious to have porridge in the morning, a salad or soup for lunch and everyone’s always telling me they eat veges at night. So why are people still struggling to drop body fat? I believe a huge reason is what goes in, between meals.

Snacks can really make or break your dieting efforts. You’re standing in the line at your favourite coffee shop, and those muffins look soooo good right? And they may even say ‘Skinny’ – less than 5% fat and you’re starving?

Have you ever thought about why they taste so good? They are FULL OF SUGAR!! And what does sugar turn to if you’re not training intensely? That’s right, FAT!

Think about the little things that sneak into your mouth without you even noticing throughout the day. A handful of crisps, a biscuit, some sweets here and there… How much better to have food with you that you can eat instead, and know that you are getting in good nutrition and less calories.

Most people I speak to find it hardest when they are out and stuck for choices. I suggest you make it a rule not to leave the house without some food in your handbag. Sure, people laugh at me when I pull out a homemade muffin, or some grilled chicken wrapped in foil (which I take everywhere I go!). But if you don’t provide yourself… ok next thing you’ll be on a train, plane or stuck somewhere with very limited options. Or you’ll be staring at the sweets in the cinema or supermarket.

Whatever it takes, try and always take your own food when you go out. You can’t rely on the places out there to have good options.

To help you remember to take food with you, you could put your housekeys with your prepared food in a plastic bag in your fridge! Or do what I did and have a note on the back of your door ‘Have you got your food?’

Failing this, here are some ideas for you:

Snacks you can eat when on the run -

These beat most the fat and sugar laden snacks you see when out and about…

- Starbucks – Carrot/celery and hummus, fruit salad, or a tuna bean salad. They even have seasonal fruit

- Supermarket – A bag of raw veges e.g. radishes or sugarsnaps, a pack of pre-cooked prawns and a low fat hummus – yum!

- Most stores – Beef jerky / Biltong – low in fat, high in protein. Very portable protein, great for holidays

- Supermarket – A tub of cottage cheese with berries mixed in. For a treat you could add a sachet of lite hot chocolate

- Health food store – Protein bar, but read the labels and avoid the ones high in sugar and fat

- Most stores – Vegetable juice – Carrot, celery, tomato etc. (good for hangovers!)

- Sashimi and a miso soup

- Sushi – 3-4 pieces – with large pieces protein e.g chicken / prawn (ideally brown rice)

 

Healthy snacks to make at home (most 200-300 calories) -

Most of these you can pack in containers or wrap and take with you. They are generally very quick to prepare. Although some of them require a bit more prep and organisation, I promise it’s worth the effort for your health, fat loss and wellbeing.

A piece of fruit and a low fat yoghurt

Baby carrots with a cottage cheese and salmon dip

Berry smoothie made with low fat yoghurt or protein powder

Carrot / cucumber / celery sticks with low fat hummus & cottage cheese

Cherry tomatoes or a carrot and some low fat deli chicken breast

Coleslaw – Buy the bags without dressing and add your own vinegar + cherry tomatoes and tuna/chicken/salmon

Egg – Hard boiled and a piece of fruit (you can boil half a dozen to keep in the fridge for a quick snack through the week)

Fruit salad and a protein shake or low fat yoghurt

Fruit – 1 large piece e.g. an apple or 2 small – e.g. mandarin / kiwifruit + a protein shake

Muffin – homemade healthy, sweet – with oats/fruit/yoghurt (ask me for the recipe!)

Muffin – homemade healthy, savoury – with brown rice, tuna, egg, cottage cheese, herbs

Omlette – You can whip a 1 yolk omlette quite quickly. Add spinach, tomato and mushrooms

Porridge or muesli – with low fat yoghurt or protein powder

Prawns – Pre-cooked. Dip in hummus or a natural yoghurt dip made with lemon and herbs

Quark – whip stevia and berries through

Raw beans – A big packet has less than 50 calories and a balance of protein/carbs

Raw nuts (watch porton size), a protein shake and a small piece of fruit

Raw veges – e.g baby radishes, sugarsnap peas or brocolli dipped in cottage cheese

Rice – brown rice with tuna, lemon juice, soy sauce and herbs

Ryvita crackers – with salmon or tuna and sliced tomato or hummus and cottage cheese, or chopped boiled egg and avocado

Rye crackers – with nut butter

Sweet potato – cook in microwave or boil for 5-7 minutes, add cottage cheese / tuna / salmon

Vege soup – homemade with chicken breast or lean meat

Yoghurt – low fat / low sugar. Add your own fresh or frozen berries and raw seeds
The reason these snacks are much better choices than ‘junk-food’ is that they provide:

*Less calories

*Better nutrition (e.g more quality fuel for your body)

*More protein so they will fill you up and sustain you for longer

*Less sugar and fat = less fat on your body!

 

Choose a few and give them a go. Or be creative and come up with some of your own.

It’s your body, it’s precious and deserves the best you can give it. Please don’t let the shops suck you in with their greatly presented sugary and fat-laden foods. They may look nice, but they don’t provide you with the life-giving fuel and energy you need. They will only take you away from your goals.

In my next article, I’ll include lots more snack ideas for eating on the run.

Be strong and choose the best option as often as you can and you’ll be well on your way to achieving a better looking and feeling body!

For more tips or help in achieving the body you want email Kat

 

Want better results?

How do I get better results?

Here’s your Action plan!….

*DEMAND MORE from your body. When you’re grinding that bike or gunning up that hill – If your lungs scream at you, tell them to shut up!
Can you go higher?
Deeper? …  Harder? … Longer?
What limits are you placing on yourself? Are they genuine or are they just excuses?

Do you want to walk out of each session feeling like you’ve done your very best?
Only you know when that is…

*Remember – Pain is temporary – Quitting is forever. You don’t want any regrets.
Think back to what your goals were when you started your particular program. Are you on track? EVERY WORKOUT COUNTS! Each time you stop yourself short – whether it’s 1 bad attitude day, 1 workout, 1 rep, 1 min – you’re 1 step behind in your goal. Make every moment an opportunity to use wisely and not waste it!

Calculate what % of your time you’re devoting to your health and fitness.
We all have 168 hours in our week to ‘spend’. How are you spending your 168? Is there any way you can sneak an extra hour or 2 in of activity somewhere?
Your mind will straight away come up with excuses why not to do things. Otherwise, you’d be doing them now. Get creative. Turn off the voice of doubt and starting thinking WHAT IF. Why not see how far you can go? Is it really that impossible?

Consider - Adding a 30 min brisk walk 3 mornings a week would rev your metabolism up for the day, give you some additional and probably well needed ‘you time’ and add up to an additional 6 hours of cardio in a month, just by making a simple and ‘do-able’ change in your lifestyle. Can you just for a minute take some time to really be honest with yourself. Adopt some WHY NOT thinking!

What have you been putting off?
When are you going to do it?
If not now, when?
Why not see what you can become or how much you can grow?

*Find at least 3 pictures from a magazine or the Internet that you will look at daily to help reinforce your goals.

Print out and put in at least 2 places – e.g. fridge, wallet, bedroom wall.

PICTURES ARE POWERFUL! This one task can literally change your thinking when you’re deciding what actions to take.
Focus on physiques that you would like to look like, or people that are doing things you’d like to do.

Every morning when I wake up, I look at a page of pictures I have stuck on the wall by my bed – they are of fantastic women sweating, boxing, running up hills and pumping weights – and they all look strong and toned. It makes me hurry to strap my Ipod on and head out for my run.

Enjoying your life through having the best health you can is a great reward for disciplined and consistent effort.

It pays off in numerous ways!

You feel energised, strong, alive and ready to take on the challenges of life!

Goals!

Big Goals, Little Goals!

You may have big goals you are working towards (If not, I hope you will start thinking of some!)

Big picture goals of how we want to be, keep our lives interesting, satisfying, focused and fun!

But how about the small day to day goals?
We don’t only need big picture goals of where we want to get to, but habits or ‘mini goals’ that we are working on daily.
You’ll often hear me call them ‘tasks’. Although they are still goals, weekly mini-goals should be small – and for good reason.

Small works. Small can be rescheduled, reorganised and easily resumed. Small builds early success and lots of momentum.

Something as small as substituting food choices or an extra cardio session a week can make a huge positive impact.

Your daily and weekly tasks should work within the lifestyle you’re dealing with.
Yes, your lifestyle is going to have to change as you move towards your goals. But healthy change starts in bits and pieces.

Your life is what it is. Ideal or not, that’s your starting point and what you have to deal with.
You’ll be a lot happier – and a lot saner – if you work with your existing lifestyle instead of against it.
Ignoring realities of your daily life just invites failure and frustration.

Small changes are barely noticed.

Every day, whether you think so or not, you’re faced with small opportunities to make healthy choices and build healthy habits, to make changes that you may not even notice. You have the chance now to get good at recognising those small windows of opportunity.

Millions of people hope to change their body. Only a few actually prepare for it. They treat it like a game, setting out and hoping it’ll all work out. No wonder the dieting failure rate hovers near 95%.

Any time you’ve reached a meaningful goal, it was because you were ready for it. It didn’t just happen or fall in your lap. If it did, that’s more good fortune than goal achievement.

The difference between hoping something will happen and making it happen is preparation. Not too many people gain a great body through luck or good fortune, so you’ll probably have to rely on preparation.

Here are some strategies you can start right now to be more prepared:

* Think 10-15 Minutes. We’re all faced with little blocks of time throughout the day that could be put to better use. See how many you can fill up with short bursts of physical activity. For example, if you’re early for an appointment, go for a walk instead of reading a magazine.

* Take healthy snacks to work. When the munchies come calling, you won’t need to run to the snack box or nearest cafe.

* Pack a gym bag and keep it in your car, at the office, or by your front door – for use on a moments notice.

* Smart Substitutions. Don’t be afraid to ask cafes or restaurants to make things exactly how you want them. It’s your body and your choice! Rather than removing something from your life, think about the best thing you can have instead.

Here are some of the substitutions I’ve made part of my life over the years -
- From Flat white/latte to long black (it took time to get used to but eventually you do!)
- Sandwiches to salads
- Lollies to protein bars
- Beer to Vodka, soda and fresh limes (still not ideal, but less bloating and your body will process it easier)
- Bread to sweet potato (you can fill it with almost anything!)
- Pasta to brown rice
- Snacking on crackers to snacking on raw veges

I don’t even fathom eating pasta or drinking beer or a host of other things any more that I used to do and not even think about. These things are just no longer part of my life. It’s not hard – because I’ve found suitable substitutions.

Some more ideas -

* Leave healthy snacks throughout your house, your office and even your car. You don’t want to be caught out being forced to make a choice between bad and worse.

* When you cook, make a big batch and save some for later. Freeze in bulk when you have time such as on the weekend.

* Combine Goals. Works especially well with social or family goals. See if there’s someone who can join you for a walk, make a healthy dinner together, or meet you at the gym for a class to make sure you turn up.

* Plan Ahead. Every program could benefit from a little forethought…

A few of these substitutions every day and you’ve got a great head start!

Something as important as your health deserves some concentration…

Yours in health and fitness,

Kat

Friend or Enemy?

This week I want to talk about a subject that has been going around in my head a lot lately…

Why do we do things that take us away from our goals?

Why do we sabotage our efforts?

I believe the answer lies in the 2 driving forces of all human behaviour –

The need to avoid pain, and the desire to achieve pleasure.

I believe that the reason we make every decision is based on these 2 forces, often operating on a subconscious level. I think we often times forget about the ‘long term pain’ associated with choices that take us away from our goals and the ‘long term pleasure’ of achieving what we really want when presented with ‘short term pleasure’.

How can we love something that much that in the long-term is taking us away from what we truly want in life?
Why do we look at things and go ‘Mmmm I want you, you’re so delicious’ when the price we have to pay to have – for example, that taste in our mouth for 5 minutes can be so long-suffering? I’m not talking about the one-offs, but the continuous patterns or habits that add up over time. We must get a shift in mindset that some of the things we call our friend, actually aren’t. They are an enemy – because they sabotage us.

I know there are people thinking ‘Well that’s a bit over the top, I still want to enjoy my life’ Of course! Precisely why we need to make our choices based on what is actually going to allow us to enjoy our life long-term. WE decide what we want for our lives. If it’s worth it, by all means go ahead. But I think we all have times where we do things that are certainly NOT worth it. We make choices to eat things that just give us –

- A 5 minute sugar rush
- A temporary high, followed by a feeling of either guilt or a haughty justification for why you ‘deserve’ to have that
- A sugar or fat ‘hangover’ while our poor body is trying to process the garbage.

At the end of the day, our bodies aren’t designed to eat highly processed refined foods and foods laden with sugar and fat. We function better and feel a lot lighter, cleaner and more energetic with whole, natural unprocessed foods.

YES you deserve to enjoy your life and have some treats – which is precisely why I’m saying this.
Is ‘enjoying your life’ really eating a ‘treat’ that strips away from you and leaves you (over time) with the long-term pain of being over-weight?

What about these ‘treats’
-    A walk in the sunshine
-    Enjoying a gorgeous array of brightly coloured vege sticks and hummus, on the couch with a DVD
-    Drinking a warming mug of herbal tea in the sun with your favourite magazine
-    An indulging foot massage – even if it’s for 20 mins at the mall – or rope in a family member!
-    A healthy dessert (I’ve got loads of ideas if your stuck) eaten in bed – with a loved one
-    Driving to a nearby beach and watching the sun set
-    A fresh seafood lunch followed by an afternoon of shopping
-    A beautiful tropical fruit platter while a friend paints your toe nails

These indulgences (I think of some of them as necessities – not luxuries!) actually GIVE back to you and your body – NOT take away – like the things we tend to view as treats. I’m sure you have plenty of ideas of your own that you can think of that DON’T involve junk food.

THESE types of treats are your friend.
The salty chips or the cake or whatever it is we’re tempted by are NOT.

They make us bloated. The chocolate staring at us when we pay for our petrol will take far too much of our precious time to work off. It’s not to say we can’t ever eat it, but we need to make an informed decision and not just rush in and decide based on our emotions – or because we failed to plan or put the right stuff into our body. We deserve to spend our time doing other things, rather than spending an hour on top of our normal workout just to try and get rid of some calorific ‘treat’ that took 5 minutes to shove in our mouth. Eating that kind of stuff lands in a massive calorie surplus. Saying ‘no’ gives us a tremendous feeling of pride and confidence. Knowing you have the strength to ‘ward off’ the temptations builds your mental strength and toughness.

Mental strength – like physical strength – is like a muscle.
It gets stronger the more you use it.

Every time there’s a morning tea shout and you take your own food, your ‘mental muscle’ gets stronger.

Every time you are tempted to drive right on by the gym because you’re tired, but you drag your heavy body up to the cardio room, your ‘mental muscle’ gets stronger. Keep ‘flexing your toughness’ because just like working your muscles, over time your strength grows and before you know it, you will have some fabulous new habits – and there will be negative things that are totally eliminated from your life!

For example, a long time ago I said to myself that if my goal is to maintain a healthy weight for life, feel good about myself and feel light and energetic, eating crappy foods such as white carbs, fatty meats etc. totally contradicts my ‘bigger picture’ goals – so why would I want to ruin that? It doesn’t make sense – I know how bad it feels to eat it. Bloated is not fun. It’s not to say that I never eat bad stuff by all means, but I’m getting better at seeing it for what it really is. And I’m finding that the more I say no, the easier it is next time. To this day, most foods with saturated fats are completely eliminated from my diet. I just don’t like them. When I go out to a restaurant – which is one of my most favourite things to do – I don’t like to leave feeling crappy about myself. I do sometimes slip, but the majority of the time, my goal is to live out the philosophy that my body is the vehicle that drives me round – and I want it filled with quality fuel.

The stronger our goal focus is, the less appealing our ‘temptations’ are.
We are intelligent human beings, but sometimes we act like spoiled children, screaming in a supermarket trolley “I want it I want it I want it” and fail to exercise logic with our decisions. We fall ‘prey’ to supermarket’s ‘super marketing’. 2 for 1 deals make us buy ‘less than quality’ choices – shiny, coloured packaging helps us to throw a few extra bags of things in our trolley that instinctively we know is not going to help us towards our goals – but slowly lead us on a path away from them.

Let’s get wise to some of the companies out there that are simply trying to push their products on us.
They want get our money by ‘preying’ on our emotions – and they do a good job of it. Ads come across our path, saying things likes ‘Hungry?’ or ‘Feel like something sweet?’ and subconsciously we answer ‘Actually yes!’ when in fact, we weren’t thinking about food before that. However, we can actually exercise our conscious mind by providing the correct answer back to our subconscious and making a choice that will make us feel damn good about ourselves, rather than falling victim to another marketing ploy.

The other marketing that I hate is when companies say things like ‘It’s good to be bad’ advertising cola. What’s so good about not being able to fit your jeans because all that sugar has made you fat? Not sexy

Another thing that people view as an ‘enemy’ that is actually your friend, is exercise. So many of my clients view lunges as ‘pure evil’ – but the pain of these exercises is over in no time – and you’re left with benefits that last and last! Strong, toned legs is very much a long-term pleasure! Painful exercises are your friend! In fact the more pain (good muscle pain) the more pleasure in the long run. You can hate them and do them anyway, or see them in a new light – the ticket to the body that you want. Missing a workout rarely feels good afterwards.

Remember, we all have enemies that are lurking around waiting to grab us, but they are in different forms for all of us. For me, it’s wine. I love it. But in excess, it takes me away from my goals. So I must therefore view it as an enemy if I drink more than I’ve decided to. It doesn’t feel good to overdo what I’ve set as a good amount for me that I can enjoy myself without sabotaging my efforts.

So, have you worked out your game plan, your ‘plan of attack’?

Here’s my strategies –
-    During the week, I walk straight past the wine shop. Don’t even give it a glance. I just look straight ahead and stride on by, head higher, shoulders back. I know that if I have wine in my house, it’s harder to stick to the limit I’ve set myself.
-    The ‘limit’ that I have set myself is not to restrict me; it’s to help me achieve bigger things. It’s a boundary that serves me – not a boundary that makes me want to rebel against it. I’ve set that limit because my goals are more important to me than feeling weak and crumbling.
-    Watch my words. The things I say to myself around this are important. If I start going down the track of ‘You’ve had a hard week, you deserve it’ I make it my aim to instantly fight back with better language, such as ‘Yes you deserve to feel good – you deserve to achieve your goals. You deserve the feeling of triumph of being able to say no. You deserve long-term pleasure, not just a short-term fix’. Then I try to distract myself with other ‘unwinding’ pleasures that aren’t fattening. It’s about distraction and creativity!
-    Constantly reminding myself of my goals. I love my runs. They are not fun with a groggy head.
-    I’m a strong capable human being and I CAN say no. That makes me feel good and proud of myself.
-    When I do have a glass or 2 on a Saturday night, I’ve decided that I will. It’s not an ‘Oops, I accidentally drank too much…’ No, enjoy it without feeling guilty. I know I will have already worked it off during the week. I like to buy a quality glass when out for dinner, and sit on it for a while and enjoy it (rather than buying a few cheap wines and downing them as fast as possible – like I used to do!)

So, how do we make our ‘enemies’ less tempting?
By having a game plan, and by taking the time to focus on our goals! The STRONGER your goal focus is, the WEAKER the temptation is and the less appeal that missed workout or junk food is. And most of it IS junk – the nutrition is almost completely wiped out and you’re left with nothing but stripped away food that takes from you, NOT gives you life and vibrance and energy!

Rather than feeling that we’re ‘deprived’ because everyone around us is eating a 1000 calorie dessert for example, quietly in the back of your head remind yourself that YOU are the one in control, that you feel good about your decision and THEY are the one being deprived. That type of thinking makes certain foods lose their appeal.

What are they being deprived of, you ask?
- Health, energy, vibrance and life
- The light energetic feeling of knowing you ate just what your body needed and you didn’t stuff it over-full!
- The feeling of confidence and pride you feel, once the spoon has scraped the last bit of chocolate off the plate and the person is complaining of how full they feel, or blowing it off saying ‘Oh well, my diet starts tomorrow’
- A sense of self-control and power that you can make great decisions

All for 5 minutes of pleasure? It hardly seems worth it does it! I enjoy dessert, but I hate the feeling of being stuffed, more than I hate the slight pain of saying ‘no’. If I do choose to eat it, I prefer a dessert that not only tastes good, but makes me feel good afterwards too – such as a fresh fruit salad with light sorbet or some quality dark chocolate and dried fruit.

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever enjoy ‘treats’ and I’m certainly not advocating beating yourself up or feeling guilty if you do eat them. I just want you to see that you can enjoy social occasions without ruining your goal attainment! You are NOT missing out – aren’t social events more about spending time with friends or family? The sense of achievement and fulfillment you are going to get from reaching your goals is going to feel better than anything you can put in your mouth. Ever. No matter how amazing the food is.

Lastly, remember that food is simply the fuel to drive our life. It keep us energised for the things we love doing.

Yes it’s pleasurable, but it’s not the be all and end all.

In my opinion, we give it much more attention than it deserves.

Latest training plan

Kat’s Chats

What’s going on in the world of Kat? Well, things are very busy – probably the busiest I’ve ever been – but I’m loving it!
Really enjoying seeing so many people improving on their journeys

Tonight was the wrap up of my Look Better Naked group – everyone did fantastically! Most impressive was the increase in muscular strength and endurance with the push ups and sit ups – awesome!

Yesterday I attended ‘Look Even Better Naked 2′ workshop at Les Mills in the city – it was fab! Great to meet up with other Personal Trainers and get put through our paces and learn some new tips and tricks.

Training –
I am starting to build my strength up a bit in my legs. Tonight I did 4-5 sets of each of my favourite leg exercises and squatted 65kg for 12 reps and 180kg Leg Press for 15 reps (goal is to get back up to pushing 240kg, slowly getting there).

Had to see physio today cos my hamstring has been giving me a bit of grief. I really don’t want to cut down my daily run, so will be working on hamstring strength daily on the leg curl machine.

I have some new goals to keep me motivated each week…
12 workouts (I sometimes do 11, sometimes 13)
1000 crunches – last week did 4 lots of 250 but this week I’m gonna try 3x 333 ish over 3 days
10,000m on the rower – will aim to do 4 days of 2,500 which takes me about 13-14 mins
25+km run – 6 days of 4km and 1 day of 5km. Hoping to do a 10km fun run in a few weeks.
1000 walking lunges or step ups – having been doing step ups at home onto a chair with music cranked and supersetting with the crunches which is a good workout in the morning or before bed
Plus 5 weights sessions and 1 group fitness class

I was looking through my training calendar over the weekend and realised I’ve only had 1 rest day this year. Oops! Didn’t even realise (or chose not to think about it?!) so I should probably have one some time. I’m just putting off the evil day cos it sends me insane! lol… I hate missing training! I love it so much.. But I need to practice what I preach and make sure I am recovering enough. Although I don’t feel under-recovered cos I have definitely been adjusting the intensity. It’s not always full on. In my morning runs if my legs are killing from my leg workout I’ll walk some/jog some – just listen to my body. Other days I’ll just do arms, or abs and calves and a light Xtrainer workout – going more for time than intensity.

Still working on cleaning up my diet and trying to keep out the processed food. It’s hard when work is so busy, but no excuses. I’ve cut way back on the protein powder cos I want to go for as much real food as possible, and I’ve really got to cook a lot more than I am. I’ve been having too much porridge and fruit lately and not enough veges! I cooked and froze a whole lot of stir fries tonight though so that’ll hopefully keep me going for a while.

Anyhoo, better get some shut eye to let my legs repair themselves!

I hope you’re all enjoying the last days of summer! Spending time with loved ones, doing some nice things for yourself, showing who you are and proving what you’re capable of every day.

‘The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves’

How’s your winter motivation?

Cold is an even better time…

As the weather gets colder, you may find yourself being tempted to want to get home from work and curl up on the couch. Or if you’re a morning exerciser, snooze that alarm few more times and not get out of bed because it’s too cold…

Winter is no excuse for missing your training. In fact, we should be going just as hard to achieve our health and fitness goals. Our bodies still need to move no matter what time of year! I am amazed at some of the excuses I hear as to why people haven’t been exercising. The worst one is that it’s cold – this is especially hard for me to fathom when the person has a gym membership and only has to get a few metres from the car into the gym before they will be warm again!

Exercising is the best, most natural way of warming the body. After a good hard workout, your body stays a lot warmer than if you were just sitting around. And you get the benefit of that endorphin ‘feel good’ hit to help cure any winter blues!

Even if you don’t go to a gym, most fine days are wonderful for wrapping up and getting out in the crisp air. If it’s raining, why not power walk around your local mall? (Just don’t take your credit card if you think you’ll be tempted to spend unnecessarily!)

Because it’s cooler we don’t have the heat as an excuse. I love winter training because I work extra hard to heat up my body and I really feel I can push myself more than when it’s hot. The extra bonus is that when summer rolls round again, you won’t have to ‘get all the winter flab off! You’ll be maintaining and enjoying the benefits of looking and feeling great!

If you’re feeling a bit stale in your exercise, plan to do something new – get a new program, take up a new class, try something different. Every magazine seems to suggest it, but we often forget to actually do this! If you’re bored with your workouts you’re more likely to miss more exercise sessions.

Enjoy your exercise! If you don’t, it’s only you who can change that. This winter, choose to take control of your lifestyle and don’t let the cold weather stop you looking and feeling your best!