Biggest Loser Trophy still up for grabs!

Now there is only one more weigh in before the final results are determined.  This terms Biggest Loser will win the coveted Body-Shrink 'oscarette' to display on their mantle until the next Body-Shrink biggest loser is crowned.  You have all done incredibly well and I am proud to have helped you along this challenging journey. 

Now once it's over, take a big sigh of relief and pat yourselves on your back.   But beware not to return to old bad habits, you have now been armed with the knowledge on how to maintain your svelte new body.  During the next 8 weeks I would like to see some of you take charge and continue a steady weight loss, the rest should focus on maintaining you current weight and fitness levels, giving your body a chance to reset you 'fat clock' as it were, allowing a fluctuation of no more than a kilo up or down. 

It has been a pleasure to see you grow in confidence and shrink in waist band.........

It's such a weighty issue.....

You've paid your money, so you take your choice................to say i am disappointed with this weeks result is a minor understatement.  The core of you are doing incredibly well and you should be very proud of your hard work and achievements.  Now i always knew the ones who would struggle, but in amongst the "need to work harder" group were some unusual suspects.  You know who you are.  Stop messing around and wasting my time and yours, you're either in or your out.  Its not too late to 'pull your finger out' and get back in the zone.  Inablility to make training is one excuse, but non weigh in is NOT and never will be excused, so face up to the results.  Every action has a reaction, so just a slither of Pizza or "just a little bit" of chocolate cake won't massively affect your weight loss but impacts your will power and attitude enormously.  Don't kid yourself or me that it doesn't matter, because we both know it does!!  Two more weighs in's to go.  It's time to pull out all the stops, because procrastination is the mother of 'lazy arses'!

Week 5 Results are in!

I know your liking what you see, but that doesn't mean you take your eye of the goal! Don't start patting yourself on the back just yet, if you have attained your goals then set another goal today to exceed it.  Complacency leads to lethargy and lethargy to disappointment and failure.  Stay focused and keep your eye on the end goal: your transformed fitter healthier body.  That should be enough incentive and motivation to take you through the next two weeks!  

Remember to drink at least 2 litres of water every day.

To rid your body of fat your must rid it of the toxins that are stored in the fat, drinking lost of water helps the body flush the toxins away

Unhappiness....def:week 4 results

Oh dear oh dear, week 4 results were a disappointment.  That said well done Mr Black and Miss Yellow, terrific results.  Well done you deserve it.   I suggest you revisit your goals and decide whether you want the donut more than the skinny jeans.  Nothing tastes better than being trim and healthy.  The donut will reward you with 3 minutes of pleasure, the skinny jeans will last for months! Its a no brainer.    Lets hope week 5 results are better, I am sure they will be, especially as the 4 of you who got 'P' beads this week, feel remorse and regret and re-motivated. 

Raw food....healthy or a just a wind generator!

I just read an article about eating raw foods and a restaurant in Canada that served all its food raw! This restaurant serves a raw lasagna that was made completely with vegetables instead of wheat pasta, and used some sort of brazil nut protein as the meat substitute.  Is this just another food hype like the babyfood diet?

First, I've noticed that there seems to be a group of people out there that tend to be a little overly "extreme" raw foodists, where they preach that we shouldn't eat any cooked foods at all.
Whilst I think there are HUGE benefits to trying to make a large portion of your diet raw food,  we have to acknowledge that eating cooked foods as a portion of your food intake can still be healthy, and even beneficial.

For example, certain nutrients in certain vegetables are actually more easily assimilated when those vegetables are cooked. 

While some vitamins may be diminished or destroyed while cooking, some vitamins are actually made more available to the body. One example is the antioxidant lycopene, which is made much more highly available to the body in cooked tomatoes vs raw tomatoes.

That's why eating a portion of your vegetables raw has benefits, but also eating a portion of your vegetables cooked can also have benefits.

Plus, we also have to realize that the human digestive system has evolved over tens of thousands of years eating a portion of food as cooked...let's face it, our ancestors DID cook a portion of their food using fire or hot water.  This not only made food more palatable but also provides an internal warming sensation that relaxes and gives comfort. 

So my big picture take on this subject is that while there are definitely great benefits to raw food and should be included as a good portion of a healthy diet, I think they can be balanced with also eating cooked foods too.

I don't see any reason to be an "extremist" in terms of only eating raw foods and never even touching cooked foods.

Another aspect we haven't covered in the raw food topic is that in some cases, there can also be certain benefits to raw animal products, such as raw milk.  I know that's controversial and we are a long way from serving raw milk (i.e. not pasteurised or homogenised), but much of the health benefits of milk are destroyed during these processes.  One good example is the Samburu tribe in Africa that subsist almost solely on raw cows blood and raw milk and yogurt, while eating very little plant matter...yet they display extreme health, strength, and lack of disease.

The big picture is that the human body can adapt and thrive to almost any type of diet as long as the diet is made up of natural unprocessed foods... processed foods are the one type of food that we cannot thrive on.   Scotch finger biscuits excluded of course!

Its a weighty issue.......

Week 3 results are in! Big congratulation to Miss Turquoise as this weeks biggest loser! A well deserved win. Now its time to shake it up a bit, your bodies are starting to get used to your new eating plan and exercise regime, so your not seeing the same large results that you did in the early days and boy oh boy those big numbers are motivating. Don't lose heart, add another kick start into your routine. 

• Can you train an extra day
• Can you up the intensity and effort of your training (you know if you've been slacking)
• Are you drinking enough water
• How big are your portions - a little big perhaps
• Add some benefibre to your diet
• can you miss one of the snacks?
• Are you really hungry? - bored? thirsty? instead
• Are you getting enough variety and flavour in your diet
• Are you sleeping enough...go to bed early, staying up will only tempt you to eat.

Challenge yourself this week to beat your weekly weight loss goal, go on I dare you!

Week 4.....nearly halfway!

Nearly 4 weeks done, only 4 weeks to go. You almost halfway to a new you. Can you see it; feel it: taste it? The answer should be a resounding yes to all of the above. Any muscle soreness should be dissipating and being replaced with a new found self confidence and energy that should be making you really feel like this journey and weight loss goal is achievable! Despite this program being short on time it is long on expectation, demands and commitment. What I am asking you to do is not difficult in physical execution, but often torturous in mentally. You are constantly asking yourself to withhold from comfort eating, resist temptation, restrain from excess and change your long established eating habits. Don't give in now, keep your eye on the ball and a clear focus as to why your doing this.

Getting older? Is it time to switch to bowls?..........Absolutely No!

When the world thinks your too old! Should we listen to society which tells us were too old for this and too old for that. Many people will often suggest toning down your exercise intensity to protect your joints, hips and back. Our bodies are naturally slowing us down by eroding our lovely muscle mass and depleting our "fast twitch" muscle fibres. It is these fibres that get us up the stairs and out of our chairs, and all the things that our grannies struggle to do. We can't stop the aging process BUT we can maintain and improve what we've got. So we MUST do resistance training i.e lift weights, run up hills and stairs. Don't be afraid of exercise feeling hard, it's meant to: enjoy it, relish in the fact that your hard efforts will and are being rewarded.

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!

Reasons to Exercise

There are lots of good reasons to exercise.  The main benefits are:

• In support of weight loss
• Improving your mood
• Combating heart disease by improving blood circulation
• Strengthening you heart and lungs
• Improving your self image and confidence
• Helping you get a better nights sleep
• Putting the spark back into your sex life
• Just for fun...yes really!
• The endorphin rush
• Gives you 'head space' - while you exercise your mind can wander & help relieve stress
• Its crucial for overall health

Cheer up sleepy Jean!

Isn't it great that the mornings are light and sunny again! Holiday training has gone well so far this week, with so many of you turning up. The autumn weather is lovely and running so much more fun with the morning sun on your face, making you feel so alive! 9.15am training is a circus with all our children running around, it's amazing to see that we seem to be single-handedly keeping the human population growing. The next SHRINK program starts on the 26th April and will be the last until the October program. Maintainance training will continue all year round and I will be stepping it up a gear. Look out on the blog for upcoming interviews and photos of some of our biggest losers & poster girls that remind us that the body you want and the good health you deserve is achievable. If you haven't finished your easter eggs by now it's time to give them away. I made sure I ate mine....yum yum!

Miss Red - Biggest Loser!

Congratulations to Miss Red, this terms' BodyShrink biggest loser. Whilst this is not an image of Miss Red, (photograph still to come)the likeness is uncanny, in both before/after body shapes and husbands. Miss Red is not married to Pierce like Keely- Shay - do-da, but is married to a similar secret agent. Mr Red aka 003.555 who is said to have a similar hand placement to Pierce in many of their holiday snaps! Congratulations Miss Red you deserve every bit of the flattery and compliments that are coming your way. You have trained hard, been committed, diet disciplined and talked more that any other client I have ever had. The only time your quiet is running up the S's. Ever wondered why we did them so much??

The end is never the end!

Check out the final results, Wow wee!
I am so proud of all of you and you should be proud of yourselves, You have all shown incredible mental strength and toughness throughout the program. The difference between good results and great results is down to your dedication to making the changes that not only improve your health but have a direct impact on your self esteem.

Body Shrink only works if you follow the program that I have designed. It's not rocket science, just common sense - eat healthily and exercise. What you put in your mouth accounts for 70% of weight loss, exercise improves your muscle tone and "heart and lung fitness" which makes your body more efficient at using up that unwanted fat and building lean muscle that improves the rate at which you burn calories.

The greatest result is seeing the massive improvement in fitness and how much we learn to love that post exercise feeling, together with how the physical changes mirror changes in self esteem and body image. You are learning to love how your body looks but more importantly loving it for what it can do. 10 times up Neilson Park steps - no problem!

For some of you, it's goodbye, for the rest, see you next term for Maintenance or BodyShrink! Remember just because the program is over, don't let the fat lady sing!! Nothing tastes better than wearing skinny jeans and F**k off heels!

The results are in! So far so good.

Overall steady results this week, the majority of you lost, so well done.

Only two weeks to go, so stay focused and if you feel like breaking your diet, stop and remind yourself how far you've come and how close you are to your goal!!

Come on Miss Violet, stop being a bunter!!!

Only Two weeks of training to go.

Week 6 -Monday's weigh in is important, we'll discover how much work you have to do in the next two weeks to achieve your target. Everyone is doing so well and getting notably fitter each week, which makes me so proud.

I hope that you feel motivated as I do to give it your best and still push yourself hard in these last two weeks, the crown of BodyShrink biggest loser is still an open competition. You have already transformed yourselves, taken control, taken action and demonstrated amazing strength of character and determination. You've made new friends; sweated together, laughed together, craved together, cried together and shared an incredible journey so far.

Bring it on!

To fart or not to Fart....that tis the question of the week!

During training this week, Miss Indigo decided to 'let rip' during the Abs section of training. Fortunately the offending 'guff' was one of noise, strength, vibration but non scented.....thank goodness thought Miss Yellow as her head was uncomfortably close to the rapidly exiting wind! Despite the distruption to the last set of Abs, our abs ached from laughing so hard, so job done really. So to fart or not to fart.......if your running ahead of someone then be mindful that they will be breathing heavily to catch you and a lung full of 'flatulance' might not be appreciated, so a 'heads up' before you evacuate is the polite thing to do. Holding your gas in will give you tummy ache and prevent you from giving your all, so let it out, as my old Mum used to say " better to hear that than be deaf"

"The whiter the bread, the quicker you’re dead!" – old saying.

The topic of conversation during this mornings boxing class, was as usual the food you are all missing during 'Shrink'. White bread with peanut butter, white bread and butter, BBQ shapes and shortbread biscuits all made the list this morning. Here's the low down on white bread.

The difference in taste between white and brown bread is significant, as is the texture and obviously the way it looks. When you are brought up on white bread, it can be really difficult to make the change.

There's some other things you might like to point out about white vs. brown as sometimes the words "because it's better for you" just don't cut it with a white bread addict:

White bread is made is from wheat flour from which the bran and germ have been removed. This is where much of the nutritional bread value is. White bread is lower in zinc, fiber, thiamin, niacin, trace elements and "good" fats and oils. White bread in many countries has to be fortified with vitamins and minerals *by law* during the bread making process. These are usually sprayed into the mix. It's somewhat ironic that the nutrients that are removed from wheat are re-added by this means. Nature provides, we destroy, then add it back in via a man made form.

Once the bran and germ is removed, the flour is bleached using potassium bromate, benzoyl peroxide or chlorine dioxide gas. Potassium bromate is also known as Bromic Acid or Potassium Salt. It's an oxidizing agent, can be fatal if swallowed, is harmful if inhaled or absorbed through the skin and may also cause kidney damage. Benzoyl peroxide is another irritant that can kill animals, birds, or fish, and cause death or low growth rate in plants. Chlorine Dioxide is also a pesticide and even though it breaks down very quickly, it is ranked in the USA as one of the compounds most hazardous to the environment.

So even before the baker adds his chemical magic, there's some pretty solid cons relating to white bread. Another point to note is that anything that needs "refining" requires more energy resources to do so.

By the way, just because bread is brown in color doesn't necessarily mean it's brown bread in the traditional sense of the term, i.e. meaning whole wheat or wholemeal. Check out the ingredients on the bread that you buy and ensure that the first ingredient is whole wheat or wholemeal flour rather than enriched wheat flour or just wheat flour. Enriched/wheat flour is the same type of flour used in white bread. The presence of caramel also is an indicator that it's not true brown/wholemeal bread as caramel is used as a coloring agent. A couple of other ingredients to avoid if possible are fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil/fats; aka trans fats.

The general rule of thumb is the less ingredients in the bread and the presence of wholemeal flour as the major ingredient, the better it is for you - and the planet