Tag Archives: weightloss

Sweet potato the ” super carb”

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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Sweet potato is by far my favourite carb to eat. It has so many great nutritional values and gives your body tons of slow release energy. I tend to eat sweet potato along with a high protein source such as lean steak/chicken breast or fish. Getting in your sweet potato fix before you workout is key! They are also super easy to prepare and cook. I tend to boil them for around 25 minutes then mash them with some milk. Or If mash potato isn’t your thing you can always cut them up into strips and eat them as fries. Whatever you do with them just make sure they are in your diet plan.

Nutrient Profile (rough)
Serving size 3 1/2 oz raw (1 1/2 cups shredded)
Amounts Per Serving % Daily Value
Calories 140
Calories from Fat 0 0
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 24mg 1%
Potassium 195mg 5%
Total Carbohydrate 6g 2%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Sugars 3g
Protein 1g
Vitamin A 15%
Vitamin C 47%
Calcium 4%
Iron 2%

Fat burning circuit

14 Saturday Mar 2015

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This circuit should be done FOR TIME. Please try and have little no rest between exercises to keep the intensity up. Make sure prior to this circuit and stretch off all major muscle groups.

X1

  1. 2k treadmill run
  2. 20 pull ups
  3. 20 burpees
  4. 20 push up
  5. 20 Jump squats
  6. 20 shoulder press with bar
  7. 20 jumping lunge
  8. 20 Dips
  9. 20 Mountain climber
  10. 20 hanging leg raise

HIT Full body circuit #intense

13 Friday Feb 2015

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Here is a super intense full body circuit that has 10 different stations. You are going to be on each station for 45 seconds with 15 second break in-between each station.Once you have completed all 10 stations, rest for 2 minutes then repeat 2x. Be sure to warm up before giving this ago and make sure you’ve stretched off all of your major muscle groups. This workout is great for anyone who is trying to lose fat and really shred up.

* the weights you will be needing are going to have to be light enough that you can go 60 seconds without stopping.

1. Barbell squat – 45 seconds

2. Push ups – 45 seconds

3. Pull ups  – 45 seconds

4. Bent over dumbbell row – 45 seconds

5. Mountain climbers – 45 seconds

6. Bench step ups – 45 seconds

7. Dumbbell shoulder press – 45  seconds

8. Burpees – 45  seconds

9. Jumping lunge  – 45 seconds

10. Plank – 45 seconds

Ab blast circuit

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in 6pack, Abworkout

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This circuit based workout will engage your entire core and really fatigue your abs and obliques. Spend no longer than 30 seconds on each exercise and then change. Once the circuit has been completed once, take 30 seconds rest and then repeat 4 more times (5 sets).

Hanging leg raises – 30 seconds

Cable pull down crunch – 30 seconds

Sit ups – 30 seconds

Double crunch – 30 seconds

Oblique teapots – 30 seconds

 

Low carb not no carb

18 Sunday Jan 2015

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Since the new year has come around and everyone is jumping on their health kick, I’m hearing a lot of people are going on a no carb diet in a desperate attempt to lose weight and get in shape.

The above picture is a recent editorial i shot for Rollacoaster magazine. Notice that my body fat is fairly low at about 8%. Many people assume that i eat 0 carbs to get my body fat this low, so everyones pretty surprised when i tell them i eat a high amount every day. 0 carb diets are not healthy, you can achieve great results whilst eating carbs, just make sure they are the right kind of carbs.

What carbs should i eat?

You don’t need to cut out carbs all together, all you need to do is swap the bad carbs for the good. An example of this would be swapping white rice for brown rice, or swapping white bread for wholemeal bread. The Hovis wholemeal bread i eat contains roughly 14g of carbs per slice whilst the white bread contains around 25g of carbs per slice. Little changes to your diet like this will massively help you achieve your weight loss goals. Another carb that i consider to be a “super carb” is SWEET POTATO. Sweet potato does not only taste great but its full of nutrition and gives me a great energy boost if i include them into a pre workout meal.

Energy

If your getting serious about training your going to need plenty of energy to get in a good workout and eating 0 carbs will result in tiredness/half hearted efforts in the gym. A well balanced diet mixed in with some high intensity cardio and resistance training will be much more effective than just starving yourself of carbohydrates altogether.

 

 

 

My top 5 abdominal exercises

09 Friday Jan 2015

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Hanging leg raise – This is in my opinion the most effective exercise for the lower abdominals and really helps get that classic v line that everyone wants. I usually do 3-5 sets of around 15-20 repetitions on this exercise.

Abdominal pull down – The reason this is such an effective exercise is because unlike a lot of bodyweight ab exercises, with this you can actually up the weight on the cable machine to lower the rep range. Unlike crunches where you end up doing 30-40 before you even feel the burn.

Woodchopper – Although this targets mainly your obliques, it still hits your abs nicely. Remember your abdominals and obliques link on together so to get a great torso you will need to train both.

Double crunch –  The double crunch will target both your upper and lower area of your abdominals and also help increase your around core strength.

The plank – The exercise that everyone neglects, the plank is classic exercise which engages not just your abs but your entire core.

Is Naked juice even healthy?

02 Friday Jan 2015

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Since being healthy and going to the gym is considered “cool” it seems that everyone is looking for the next craze to jump on, lately I’ve noticed that Naked fruit juice drink is that next craze. I personally love the taste of these drinks and the of marketing of the product. Using words like ” Natural”, “Fresh” and even ” healthy”. All of this lead people to pay as much £4 in some shops for this drink. But is it really healthy? Some of the flavours contain as much as 35g of sugar which is the equivalent or if not more than a lot of the obvious unhealthy fizzy drinks such as coca cola and fanta.

Here are some the popular flavours with their sugar contents.

Naked™ Orange Juice: 27 grams
Naked™ Berry Blast: 32 grams
Naked™ Green Machine: 35 grams
Naked™ Mighty Mango: 35 grams

Not even just Naked products are guilty for this. Although the majority of fruit juices are considered healthy, they all have large amounts of compressed fruits into one drink which leads to high sugar contents. If your looking for a healthy fruit juice with less sugar you would be better of buying a basic orange juice or something that only contains a single fruit and of course is fresh.

However, my advice when it comes to what to drink would be WATER. Drinking lots of water a day will lead to a stronger immune system, better skin and also contributes massively to weight loss.

My top tips for girls on how to get in shape

18 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by in 6pack, Fashion, Fitness, girls workouts, Muscle, squatting

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Since the Victorias secret fashion show was aired over here in the UK last week, Girls have been flooding in to the gym asking the same question, ” how can i look like a Victorias secret model?”. Its great to see girls want to get in shape and look fit but for the vast majority of you, the answer is… you won’t ever look like one. Not because you don’t have what it takes to train intensely for months on end and follow a strict diet but because your GENETICS will not allow you to. The girls that walk the runways are models for a reason. All of them are naturally thin and can maintain a low body fat with little effort. Yes alot of them do train like crazy also, but i think you will find that if you looked at some of their first shoots as models, they all still had good figures. With that being said, you can still get in GREAT shape no matter what kind of genetics you have. It doesn’t matter if your 5,10″ with long legs and a naturally thin stomach or your shorter and carry excess fat.

So how do i actually tone up and lose weight?

If you follow these 5 key steps i can guarantee you will see great progress and start to achieve your fitness goals in no time.

1.) Train often and stay consistent – To make progress you need to be staying consistent with your exercise and diet.

2.) Eat clean – I always say its 70% diet and 30% exercise. Cut out all junk food and bad carbs and start eating healthy and more nutritious meals.

3.) Do cardio – The easiest way to lose weight is to get on some sort of cardio based regime. High intensity cardio mixed with body weight exercises are perfect.

4.) Body weight exercises – Resistance training for girls is hugely effective, it doesn’t only aid weight loss but doing a mixture of body weight exercises and actually lifting light weights for high repetitions will tone and shape your muscles and give you that look you’ve always wanted.

5.) Don’t be fooled – There is so many diet plans and weight loss courses that promise girls certain results. The majority of them are useless. A mixture of regular exercise and maintaing a healthy diet will work just fine.

 

Legs and abs workout

14 Sunday Dec 2014

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Here is a intense high repetition based leg workout, followed up with some core burning abs. The reason i chose to put the two together is because when training legs and performing exercises like squats, alot of natural testosterone is being released which helps with all round fat loss. So adding an ab workout at the end will help you burn of that extra fat around your stomach area you’ve been trying to lose.

 

Barbell squats:

4 sets of 12 – 15 reps

Hack squat:

4 sets of 12-15 reps

Single leg dumbbell lunge:

4 sets of 12-15 reps per leg

Quad extensions:

4 sets of 15 reps

Hamstring curls:

4 sets of 12

 

Hanging leg raise:

3 sets of 10-15 reps

Weighted sit ups:

3 sets of 15-20 reps

Exercise ball crunches:

3 sets of 15-20 reps

Double crunch

3 sets of 20-40 reps

How to lose weight fast with HIT CARDIO

07 Sunday Dec 2014

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High intensity cardio (hit cardio) is a great way to maximise the intensity of your workouts and really help you burn the most calories as possible. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, its basically any kind of cardiovascular exercise/workout that gets your heart rate up and really pushes you to your max. I notice that alot of people approach cardio the wrong way, they tend to spend the duration of the gym session on a cardio machine going at a steady pace, hoping they will lose weight and burn calories. HIT cardio is a much better way to burn calories and you can do it in half the time. The best way to burn calories and get in better shape is to get your heart rate up as high as possible and get your entire body working at a pace that will really push you and force your body to adapt. I guarantee that if you scrap the normal cardio routine for a few hit cardio sessions a week, you will see a huge difference in your fitness in no time.

Here is my HIT cardio workout that i did this morning.

warm up:

2k run

Interval sprints on treadmill:

run at a moderate pace for 30 seconds then sprint for 40 seconds. x 15

Rowing machine:

Row 3000 for time

Box jumps

3 sets of 20 reps

Burpees

3 sets of 30 reps

punch bag 

5 x 3 minute rounds with speed punching for 1 minute every other minute.