• Jibber Jabber

    August 8, 2013

    junk food for breakfast

    I’m just about to go and do my weekly food shop. I’ve had a couple of sessions this morning and had literally no food in my house to make brekkie. I’m really hungry. In the food court looking for a healthy option and HUNGRY is not a good combo. No wonder people make bad food choices. I was tempted too. This reminds me to be PREPARED with food. I’m always telling my clients this. When you have your food packed and ready for the day you are less likely to grab stuff that diverts you from your healthy intentions. 

Ended up buying a banana and a handful of nuts and a coffee. I decided to sit next to a Macca’s ‘restaurant’ as wanted to observe. A massive bunch of school kids are buying burgers, mcmuffins, cokes, mc this mc that. A big queue of them, all in their uniforms ready to go to school eating this c**p! What a way to start the day!!!

    August 8, 2013

    heathrow injection

    Hey guys, its interesting being back in the North East of England (where I was born and brought up). Get ready for one of my jibber jabber’s 🙂 

If you are a follower of this page you will know that I was overweight as a kid and teenager and in all honesty just didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere. Coming back always stirs up emotions and memories of what that time was like for me. 

I have to say that I think it would be really challenging for anyone living here to live a healthy lifestyle and eat good, healthy nutritious food and exercise regularly. I find it so much easier in Sydney to do this because of food options and of course the weather. 

It is so difficult to make healthy choices as all menus are full of the opposite. I scan the menus searching for something I can eat. Always asking if I can change the chips for salad (and receiving a surprised look and a ‘not sure, let me check’) and then getting a bit of lettuce on the side. Trying to grab a healthy snack from a service station or a corner shop is almost impossible. 

Please don’t think that I’m slagging the North East off (for my northern followers), that is not my intention. I just think that it is literally so much harder to achieve health and fitness goals here. 

People talk about the ‘Heathrow Injection’ (the idea that you put on lots of body fat when you arrive in the UK). I have had many enquiries because of this Heathrow injection from 
people returning to Oz from a prolonged period in the UK. I can totally understand why this happens. It’s something that I observe all over the UK. 

I guess my mantra of being organised is even more prevalent if you live in the UK. You have got to make sure you have your food packed and ready to go. A banana in your bag for a healthy snack etc etc this is the way to eat healthy. If you don’t do this, especially here, you are going to struggle to get to where you want to be and make bad junk food choices as that is the only option you have. 

This area is a place of two parts, on one side you have Redcar Beach (see pic) and on the other you have the most beautiful North Yorkshire moors. My dad and I are staying at the Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge tonight (my favourite place here) and I am going to do the 8 mile trail run this afternoon: check it out! How beautiful does it look?
 Anyway guys, I’m gonna rug up and make myself a healthy breakfast before heading up to the beautiful moors.

    JJ_heathrow_injection

    August 8, 2013

    stomach

    Sorta happy with how my stomach is starting to look. Took this selfie this morning. I don’t have genetically good abs like some girls. I’ve never had a six pack but I am pretty happy with this. It has taken me a very long time to be ok with my body. I spent many years disliking it v much. I like it now that I have the confidence to post pics like this of myself. Life is too short to spend disliking your body. I know as I speak from many years of experience. 

    abs

    August 8, 2013

    everything you do is based on the choices you make, its not your parents or your past relationships

    Mmm… Saw this quote and it struck a chord with me… Gotta be honest and say I have a habit of sometimes blaming my actions on my ‘stuff’ or ‘baggage’. 

At the end of the day we are all capable of pausing and thinking in order to make conscious decisions regardless of our socialisation or ‘stuff’.

 It is easier to walk a well trodden path as it is familiar. We can get stuck walking this same path even if we are fully aware it’s not going in the direction we want. 

It is definitely challenging to change direction and head into unknown territories. The world is full of amazing surprises if we just look in places we would not normally tread.

    August 8, 2013

    exercising while on holiday

    Ended up doing a 12 mile (19km) trail run yesterday. The trail is called the ‘Old Railway Path’ absolutely amazing run in the North Yorkshire Moors. Here is me after the run but before enjoying a pint of Yorkshire Lager! 

I love running when I am on holiday as I feel that you really get a different view of the place you are visiting. Exercise doesn’t need to stop when you are on vacation.

    JJ_exercise_on_hols

    August 8, 2013

    major jibber jabber about personal trainers and personal training

    You know guys, Personal Training is a funny old game to be in sometimes. When I first got into the industry I remember being judgemental (I was very professionally green then……. also if I am brutally honest I used to be particularly judgmental about a lot of things…….. I am embarrassed to say 🙁 … if you are a follower of this page or if you know me personally and have for a long time you will know I have made major life changes and losing the judegment [as much as is humanly possible] was one of the things I focused on changing).

    An example of this judgement in a professional sense: I remember looking over at a PT (who is actually one of the best in the business) and his extremely immobile, extremely obese client and I thought, ‘Far out! I cannot believe how unconditioned the client is. I wonder how long the PT has been working with him’. I later found out he had been working with him for years. In those days I assumed in my brain that I would NEVER have a client look and move that way if he was one of mine etc etc etc…….blah blah blah B####X, B####X, B####X!

    The reality of the situation was that the client had an extreme form of arthritis and a hell of a lot of other hormonal, health issues going on. The trainer spent 15 to 25 minutes stretching and mobilizing the client so that he could actually function. Without this trainers expertise and coaching this guy would hardly be able to move at all. At that time I was way under educated to be able to work with this type of client let alone make ridiculous assumptions on something I knew nothing about!

    OK, so to get to my point (it is my jibber jabber after all……. don’t expect a quick lil post:) sometimes the stuff we do as PT’s is not so easy to quantify. Don’t get me wrong it is great when clients lose lots of KG’s with us, it is amazing when we increase their strength and one rep max, it is fantastic when we see people drop 3 dress sizes etc. We LOVE this and it is totally rewarding and fulfilling.

    There is however, another side of PT that does not get as much attention. I guess because it is harder to show, take pictures of or write about and in all honesty, is not literally in our job description.

    Generally, people will call me to ask about our services because they have had, what I term, ‘an uninvited guest’. It could come in the form of: not being able to do their jeans up, a heart attack, a cheating partner, constant, debilitating pain, a break up or divorce, being depressed, low and not feeling that they can attract a partner etc etc etc the list goes on and on.

    Sometimes a client’s journey with a PT might be simply to listen to their problems, be a sympathetic and empathetic ear. This will obviously be wrapped up with some physical prescription too. The trainer might offer nutritional and supplementation advice, may prescribe workouts to do independently of the PT sessions. But, if the client is not in the right head space to receive and implement this advice all the PT can do is be a constant in that client’s life until the time they are ready (or not).

    I know of many clients that have trained with us and have made major life changes by simply having the accountability of showing up at a PT session which in turn drags them out of a depression or dark space if only for 45 minutes x 2 a week. These clients may not have dropped massive amounts of KG’s or lost 5 dress sizes in these sessions but have been helped out of dark spaces by our trainers so that they can move on with their lives, find what they are looking for and feel better about themselves.

    It is great to help clients create curves and toned muscles but it is also amazing to help them get their head in the right space to be able to create effective change in all other areas of their lives including the physical side. So the next time you are watching a PT session, don’t judge based on pure physicality as there may be a hell of a lot of other type of amazing coaching going on ‘behind the scenes’ to help that client get into a much better space in their life.

    August 8, 2013

    admission: i was a corner cutter!

    So if you are a follower of my Facebook page you will remember my post last week about ‘cutting the corners’. My best mate in the UK made a comment under my lil rant which reminded me that I was actually a ‘corner cutter’ when I was a kid at school! We had a PE teacher called Miss Guest, she would make us run around the school field for Cross Country lessons. This was in the middle of a North English Winter wearing only acrylic burgundy hot pant type shorts and a sky blue aertex polo short (yum….. gotta love the early 80’s). The school field had an extension and we were told, in no uncertain terms, to make sure we did not cut the corner. Most of us always tried and I have to admit, I hated Cross Country (NB I was overweight and hated running of any type) and I cut the corner, whenever I could!!!!! I do remember though that Jan Oven’s was always first and she never cut the corner. So, my original point still stands: don’t cut corners, hard consistent effort will always get you there… but if you are a ‘corner cutter’ now, know there is hope, you can change. I speak from experience 🙂 Check out this vid from Temper Trap which always reminds me of those Cross Country lessons in the North East of England… brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Click here for video

    August 8, 2013

    how to achieve the best results????? don’t cut corners

    I train my client Tom on Monday’s and Thursday’s at Enmore Park. There is a boot camp type outdoor group type session that goes on at the same time that we are training. The trainer sends the group running around the pathway in the park directly opposite where we work. Tom and I are always so interested to watch and observe which boot campers ‘cut the corner’ of the path in order to make the route shorter and easier. FYI IT IS NEVER THE PERSON IN THE LEAD! There are other boot campers that do not cut the corner either but I have to say a large majority does. It is human nature to want to make things easier and quicker for ourselves. However, the best results generally come from consistent hard work. You are only cheating yourself by consciously cutting corners. TURN UP BE PRESENT AND GIVE IT YOUR ALL………If it was my boot camp anyone cutting the corner would do 10 burpees….. in fact the whole group would……just sayin!

    August 8, 2013

    smoking

    What makes you think it is ok to sit next to me (so close that are arms are touching) on the bench and spark up a filthy, stinking, cancerous cigarette? Grrrrrrrr. The Lisa Brown pre daily meditation would have kicked right off. The Lisa Brown post daily meditation got up quickly and moved away so she could rant on FB instead.

    August 8, 2013

    treat yourself

    It’s a cold, wet, stormy night here in Sydney. Felt like indulging in a couple of glasses of my favorite Cab Sav wine and my favourite chocolate, a Boost bar. I loved, loved, loved every sip and yummy chocolate taste bite. It’s important to give yourself treats guys. I believe otherwise, life would be very stagnant and boring.