Dinner Party Dilemma!

So your off to a dinner party with your friends, where you know there will be many things offered that you should not eat and you do not want to offend the host (assuming you don't know them well enough to explain your diet goals)

Don't just 'wing' it and hope that your willpower stands up to the challenge....after a couple of drinks it won't.  So go to the party with tactics and a plan, for example: 

Achey Brakey.......legs?

After the initial excruciating soreness upon waking on the morning following training this week and despite having difficulty in getting up from the sofa or lifting your arms above your shoulders, remember this: This process is a journey of self discovery, not the namby pampy hippy type, but one that tests your will power, determination and whether your able to over come the cravings of long-term in-grained habits.  

It's so easy to justify why you need the things you crave and tell yourself your happy with your body and health just the way you are..........come on, you know you can't lie to yourself...those aren't the real reasons......your just finding it hard.  Well guess what! it is hard! Now stop and ask yourself: 

• Is it hard to stop eating the foods that you know are counterproductive to your weightloss, 
• how will you feel next time you go shopping for clothes.... your thoughts will start with "if only or I wish
• how will you feel when you next put on your swimmers
• why did you decide to 'shrink' - what was your goal
• remember how you felt before babies and weight gain

Make sure you do your training sessions, even when you don't feel like it, you are trying to embed a new habit and remember you always feel better after exercise...ALWAYS!  


Successful completion of this program will not only reward you with a firmer bottom and toned limbs, but empower you in a long lasting and meaningful way with the ultimate reward of knowing that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. 

Diet Compliance vs Cheating - How Strict Should You Be?

Body SHRINK demands 90-95% compliance.  Remember this is only 8 weeks and if you really want to get results then you must watch your diet and exercise for 45 mins six days a week.
It's not productive in the long term to totally deprive yourself of foods you enjoy. What you have to do is find a sensible way to work even your most "unhealthy favorite foods into your diet, but do it in an amount and frequency that doesn't set you back or sabotage your progress.

One really good way to look at this concept is in terms of "compliance," which means, what percentage of your meals are following the guidelines of the program and what percentage are off the program.

Too many meals or days off the program and your results are compromised.

How much you need to comply your program varies from person to person. It depends a lot on how ambitious your goals are and on how responsive your body is to nutrition and exercise.

When making your decision, keep in mind we all have different genetics and body types.

Are you a carb-tolerant mesomorph who gains muscle easily and loses fat easily or are you a carb-sensitive endomorph who gains fat easily? Depending on the answer, your diet program may need to be more or less strict than others.

Don't compare yourself to others - you have to get to know your own body type. Some people can "Get away with" less compliance and still make progress.

Whether you adjust your level of compliance above 90% (get more "strict") or below 90% (get more lenient), depends how far away or close you are from achieving your goals, and most importantly, on what kind of results you're getting each week.

If you're complying 90% of the time, and you are getting awesome results, you don't have to change a thing, and you may be able to loosen up your diet a little. I know some people who are definitely only "on the program" 80% or 85% of the time and they look great.

90% compliance means you are following healthy nutritious, fat burning eating guidelines 9 meals out of 10. If you're eating small frequent meals like the burn the fat program suggests, that's 5 small meals a day X 7 days a week = 35 meals. 90% compliance means about 31-32 of those meals are spot-on! The other 3 or 4 are for you to enjoy special occasions, reward yourself, and live a little.

Keep in mind also, that this is a competitive situation and every time you "cheat" and your competitors don't cheat, you decrease your probability of placing high in the contest.

Unless you have a competitive physique goal like this, however, then total deprivation of pleasure foods or cheat meals (100% compliance), is not necessary because you always tend to crave what you cannot have. That's a binge waiting to happen.

I prefer this 90 or 95% compliance approach over the entire day.a I have seen people use the term "cheat day" pretty loosely (basically making it the equivalent of BINGE DAY), and they do a lot of damage in terms of setting their progress back.

They end up frantically playing "catch up" for the better half of the following week with punishing extra exercise and dietary deprivation. Slow and steady is better than binge and punish don't you agree?

Allow yourself some leeway. Enjoy food. Enjoy life. Just be sure to be mindful of your calorie limits, and when you say you are going to comply 90% of the time, then keep your promise to yourself and comply!

BodySHRINK - New term starts today

As with many things in our lives, starting something new is the hardest thing to do.  I hope that Today you got up and decided "this is the start of the new me, I can and will make the most of this opportunity to make the changes I want" The only thing stopping you from achieving your goal is YOU.  You have all weighed in and you now know your weekly weight loss targets.  I strongly advise you to focus on the weekly target only.  
This program not only challenges you physically, but predominately mentally.  Write down your potential pitfalls,  keep a close watch and determine how you will approach them.  If you like me have little willpower over certain foods, then don't buy them or put yourself in a position of temptation.  Once you've been on this program for a couple of weeks and seen your results you will start to feel stronger and more determined.  Habits take two weeks to form and four weeks to break!