I don’t have a 6 pack. Actually, it’s more like a 36 pack. I don’t quite have the body of Bradley Cooper and I’m never going to be as fast as Usain Bolt.

I may be 20 stone but I have a resting heart rate of around 52bpm which is equivalent to that of an Olympic athlete. I can dart around the badminton court as quick as anyone I know (and I know some good players.)

I accept any challenge from anyone for any sport as I’m quite versatile. I used to play Basketball and Table Tennis at college. I played Tennis while I was at school and I also used to play Squash.

People often come to me and suggest some really silly ways of losing weight. They suggest diets like protein only diets or diets where you have only cereal or even energy bars and no meals.

No matter how much I want to lose weight I will never ever use any extreme methods. Why? Because the people I’ve seen who’ve adopted those methods, will initially lose weight quickly but as soon as the diet is over, the weight will pile back on with a vengeance! The very notion of going on a ‘diet’ is self defeating because it’s adopting a temporary eating pattern.

I have some very simple rules when it comes to staying fit and healthy. These include adopting a diet that is sustainable for life and the same goes for exercise. Doing exercise that can be done anywhere at any time. Eating a diet that takes no major sacrifices so you can still enjoy the taste of food. etc.

Here they are in more detail, my 7 laws of diet, exercise and sport.

1. Diet for life

This one is a no-brainer for me. I could easily jump on a diet that involves me only having cereal bars or shakes and lose all the weight I want to in the space of a couple of months, I just choose not to. I spent many years abusing my body and subjecting it to food that was no good for it. I’m not going to go the opposite way and now deprive it of proper regular sustenance.

Last year I ended up stuck in India for month. What would’ve happened to me if I was following one of those silly diets? It would’ve completely gone awry and then I would’ve been miserable and had to start all over again. While I was there I just ate as sensibly as I could and I came back the same weight as when I left.

2. Enjoying exercise

The reason people don’t keep up with the exercise regimes they set themselves is for one simple reason; they push themselves too hard in the beginning and then anchor the feeling of burnout into their bodies. The next time they want to exercise they will recall the feeling of burnout and won’t want to feel like that again so, they’re less likely to exercise.

If you stop at the point of enjoyment, you’ll anchor that feeling into your body and the next time you train, you’ll feel excited about it, because the last time you stopped at enjoyment and will recall that feeling.

I don’t do gyms. I say to people, if you feel like joining, get into a habit of exercising for 3 – 6 months and then join the gym. It’s that simple.

3. Resting

Rest is essential. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or condition your body, you need rest. I’ve always found that I only drop weight if I rest my body properly. If I don’t factor in rest not only do I not drop weight, but over a lengthy period of time I become more susceptible to illnesses and injuries.

4. Fasting

Every once in a while, fast. You don’t have to go to major extremes like week long fasts or anything like that. Just a 24 hour fast once or twice a year to give your body a bit of respite from digesting constantly and to detox.

5. Guilty eating

I try to never allow myself to feel guilty over whatever I eat. There are two key reasons for this.

i) There are so many people without food, that to feel guilty about having plenty is like a slap in the face to them.

ii) The act of feeling guilty whilst eating, I can’t imagine it does me any good. If I fancy a treat I’ll eat it with gratitude and then move past it. I’ll just be thankful that I’ve been blessed with having options.

Don’t eat with a guilty attitude. If you want food, have it and be thankful for it.

6. Liquids

I decided from a very young age that I was going to remain tee-total.
I allow myself to occasionally have a soft drink if I’m out with friends. Most people that know me, know that I have a soft spot for a soya hot chocolate!

Regardless, I do make sure I drink plenty of water. A minimum of a litre a day on days when I’m not doing any physical activity and usually around 3 litres on days when I train.

I don’t care what the experts say, you need water! And no, beer does not count towards your daily water intake. Neither does coffee, tea, or anything else for that matter. H2O is the only thing that can count towards your water intake.

7. Sport

I’ve been blessed enough to find a sport that I never have to motivate myself to go and do. Badminton is something I never feel like I have to do. I’m always excited when it’s game night and if I ever miss a session I always feel like I’ve missed something really important.

There is an activity out there for you that will enjoy just as much as I enjoy badminton. If going to the gym is your thing. Great. If not try find a sport or activity you love and you’ll never have force yourself to go ever again. You’ll go because you just love it.

I also learned to skip so if I do go away I can just take my rope with me and carry on, or I just go running.

—

Your thoughts?

I’ve always said that you’ll have much more energy if you train your body to wake up naturally.

I’m not a fan of jarring your body out of sleep with a harsh, piercing, screeching sound. To snooze and do it repeatedly – I can’t imagine what that must do to your nervous system!

I’m also a believer that more sleep doesn’t necessarily equate to having more energy. The theory that you ‘need’ 8 hours sleep feels flawed to me.

I’ve been a regular sleeper, for about 34 years in fact, that makes me a kind of expert, and I can kind of say through my many years of research, that 8 hours is not an optimal amount of sleep.

As babies, obviously we require quite a bit of sleep but I think that the amount of sleep we require reduces from around the age of 25 onwards.

I rarely feel like I need 8 hours of sleep. My body usually tells me how much sleep I require. A quick example; last night I went to bed at around 2am. My body was ready to get up at around 8.10am. That was the time at which my body woke up naturally. That’s just around 6 hours after going to bed.

I could’ve woken up and been full of energy but I did that thing where I went back to sleep out of sheer laziness! (See we personal development guru’s don’t always awake get it right!) Then I had to rely on my alarm to wake me up at 9.30 (Which I do only to ensure I don’t wake up late for important engagements)

By that time I felt exhausted. I woke up groggy and feeling like I needed more sleep.

I believe it’s way more important to listen to our bodies and understand them, rather than to think squarely that we are all the same, and 8 hours should be a blanket policy for everyone.

There is much research on sleep and many people have proved, by undertaking experiments and sleeping in a biphasic or polyphasic patterns, that our bodies are much more flexible than most people realise.

The key here, is training your body into a new paradigm.

Suggestions

If you have a fixed pattern of living, i.e. you work a 9-5 then this may be a bit of a stretch but I still believe it’s worth trying to allow your body to awake naturally.

1. At night, it’s worth telling your body at what time you wish to wake up. Try this as an experiment. Turn away all clocks and access to anything that tells you the time.

2. Then wake up when you feel like getting up, get past the initial drowsy stage, and when you know you won’t be able to sleep again, check out what time you’ve gotten up.

A lot of the time we’ll go back to sleep because we allow ourselves to be aware of the time. If you change that habit, you’ll get your body into a pattern whereby you’re taking control, rather than a clock having control over you.

Once you mastered this you’ll be able to wake up daily without an alarm. You can still have a buzzer there as a backup. Set it for the latest possible time that you can wake up. What you’ll find is you’ll start to wake up before your alarm is due to go off.

I’ve found by doing that I tend to wake up more refreshed and relaxed. I’m sleeping much less but as a general rule I’m feeling more energised and productive.

I’m not going to lie and say I feel like I have more energy all of the time. However, generally speaking, when I listen to my body, don’t use alarms, and I allow myself to wake naturally, I find that my energy levels are higher and I am also more productive.

If this is a new concept, try this for yourself and let me know what kind of results you get.

Do you already do this? How much do you sleep a night? Do you have lots of energy or are you always tired?

In 3 months and 7 days time I will lining up with 40,000 other individuals to run the Virgin London Marathon.

As I write this I’m already feeling that burning sensation in the pit of my stomach because, although that might seem a long time, it’s actually just a whisker away!

While I try my best to get my Buddha belly into shape I would love it if you could sponsor me and help raise loads of wonga for the Little Haven Hospice.

If you would like to donate – click here.

If you cannot afford to donate then do not worry, I’ve mentioned in the past there are many ways of be charitable that doesn’t include money.

You could retweet this post a few times, or like it on Facebook, or you could even send it to some very wealthy friends and then emotionally blackmail them! Okay, don’t do that, but perhaps you can even help keep me honest by making sure I don’t consume any more Egg McMuffins from Macdonalds!

Whatever you do, please do not donate out of obligation, only donate or promote this if you truly wish to.

If you don’t know my story then it’s safe to say that this has been quite a journey for me, from the first time I ran a 5.5km race back in 2006 to my second half marathon in 2009.

From the moment I began the journey of losing weight and getting fit it’s been full of challenges.

Ever since I first began losing weight I’d always said that I wanted to run the marathon before I was 35, and now that I finally have my ballot place, I’m going to do just that!

I’ve been keeping up the little things which I know will overall make the biggest difference but I still have so much work to do.

It’s going to be pretty intense over the next 3 months, so if you see any really rubbish articles here, or just really poor spelling and grammar, I’m just going to blame it on the training fatigue!

Whatever happens, I’m going to say thank you now for any past or future support, wish me luck!

As I mentioned in my previous article, just over two weeks ago I believe I suffered a double slipped disc.

I’m now almost able to move around again like I could before I got injured, but for some reason I’m feeling different.

It’s kind of funny because, the last time this happened, I worked a 9 – 5 and so I was in no rush to get better because the sooner I got well, the sooner I’d have to go back to work. Ironically, because of that, I healed pretty quickly.

This time around, because I was so eager to get back on track, healing seemed to take forever and it was really frustrating.

When you’re totally incapacitated for two weeks, you have a lot of time to think. It really gave me a new perspective on many aspects of my life. None more so than the gratitude I now feel for the mundane things I can do without thinking about it.

Simple things were near impossible. The old chestnut about how you don’t really miss something until it’s gone couldn’t have been more true!

Because of this experience, it’s really given me a new found appreciation for the way in which the body is able to function without a second thought being offered. Once those simple functions are taken away, you just can but feel like hugging the crap out of them once they return.

Here’s some of simple movements I really missed but until recently I never really appreciated until now:

1. Standing – I could sit down with plenty of support but every time I stood up I screamed in agony. I even felt the fear of the pain I was about to feel before standing.

2. Getting out of bed – It became exceptionally difficult to get out of bed so I devised of way of using my arm and elbow as a lever. After a while my arm started to really hurt but the alternative was much worse.

3. Going to the loo – Just in case you’re eating right now I won’t go into too much detail…but when I did finally manage to go, the relief was just phenomenal!

4. Walking – I couldn’t walk more than a few yards without nearly collapsing. A couple of days ago I had to walk a long way and my back was still not 100%. By the time I finished I was so exhausted because of the extra effort I need to carry myself. When I got home I just collapsed into my bed.

5. Breathing – Yep, I even had to be careful because breathing too deeply caused me a lot of pain.

6. Sneezing – Firstly, let me just say, OH MY GOD! Sneezing became the most painful thing ever! I dreaded every time I could feel a sneeze creeping up on me. Sneezing whilst having a slipped disc is by far and away the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. It was like a infinitesimal moment of years of torture.

Despite all of this I did invent some strange ways of doing simple tasks like using a hanger to pick up a sock or the ol’ faithful – just getting my brother to do everything for me!

Now, every time I sneeze, or stand up without being in pain I feel like shouting a huge thank you to the universe! It will serve as an eternal reminder no to take this simple actions for granted. I hope I can impart some of this new found gratitude over to you.

This weekend is the Virgin London Marathon and sadly, I won’t be running it. I have entered the marathon ballot for four years on the trot and have still not got a place. Those who do not get a place after the fourth attempt will, on the fifth attempt, get a guaranteed place; so, I was expecting a place for 2011. Then I get an email yesterday from Virgin saying that the 5th time rule will be phased out over the next few years…excuse me while I shout some expletives…@#CK!

Anyway, the good news is that I managed to submit my early entry yesterday to increase my chances of getting a place. So, as of now, I will be training as if I am going to be running the marathon in 2011. I will be running when I’m 34 and I’d almost totally forgot that I’d made a goal to run it by the time I was 35.

I could have gone for a reserved charity place like Arvind but I decided a while back that I didn’t want to do it that way.

Run Fatboy Run

So far I’ve run the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 4 times. It’s a 5.6Km race and I’ve run it in 50, 45, 42 and 39 minutes respectively with my ultimate goal being to run it in under 35 minutes. I’ve run the Silverstone Half Marathon twice and ran it in around 2h:40 both times. I ran it while I was 19stone and I have since gained a bit of weight. If I’m going to run the marathon, and I want to be able to still walk for the rest of my life, I’ll need to drop about 4stone or get down to 16 stone to be able to do it properly and run it in under 5 hours.

As far as fitness and overall health are concerned, I’d say I’m probably one of the fittest, 20 stone fat blokes, that I know. (I’ve laid down the gauntlet!) There are people out there, even slim people, who are not capable of doing what I do. However, I want to do the marathon properly and I know it’s not exactly as stroll in the park. I’m kicking off my game plan now to be in the right condition physically, mentally and spiritually to be able to run it. I also want to be publicly accountable to you all for my fitness and preparation for the race next year.

Before I reveal my game plan, if you’re over weight and unfit, ahh heck even if you’re under weight and unfit, you have to begin somewhere so I suggest starting here. People still continue to make silly mistakes like joining overpriced gyms and buying expensive equipment way before they’ve even got into the habit of exercise and end up wasting tons of money.

My Tools

There is always some level of investment needed. For badminton, there is the cost of being a member of a club, (3 actually for me), racquets, regular restringing and since it’s such a high impact sport, I buy new trainers every 3 months. Each pair only costs £27 each so for those of you not so good at math, that’s £108 each year.

Any activity will require some form of investment. The one key thing I will always invest in is, a decent pair of running shoes. I get my running shoes from Runners Need. They film you while you run and then based on your running style and shape of your foot they will recommend the ideal running shoe.

Here are the existing tools I’m going to use:

1. I have a Wiseman Klein wrist heart rate monitor which monitors from the wrist and doesn’t need the chest strap. It’s great because it has a calorie counter too. With this watch I discovered that my resting heart rate is 46 (excuse me while I just show off for a little while) and that during a 3 hour session of badminton I’m burning, in the region of, 1500 calories.

2. I have this cool pedometer application on my iPhone which monitors how many paces I do per day. I don’t use it every day but I used it a few times to average out what I do so that I have an idea of how much I do. From it I’ve discovered that I burn about 100 calories for every 1000 steps based on my height and weight. I generally do a minimum of 5000 steps a day. 10,000 steps is recommended but I think a minimum of 5000 is fine if you exercise regularly too.

3. I keep a skipping rope in my badminton bag and I skip regularly. It’s a great, cheap form of exercise that is great for footwork and fantastic for building endurance.

My Game Plan

1. Continue playing badminton – Although badminton doesn’t burn fat, it is a great fitness exercise and also builds flexibility and stamina.

2. Use the stairs – I’m going to continue to use the stairs as much as possible. It’s great for strengthening the leg muscles, especially around the knee, and the gluteus maximus aka the butt-tocks. Ladies – it’s fab for minimizing cellulite!

3. Weights – I already have a gym membership and I am going to take up weight training again for fat burning. Most people don’t realise that cardio alone is not enough to burn fat; you need to add a weight training program in to do that. I’m going to create my own program but if it doesn’t work I’ll hire a personal trainer to devise a good program for me.

4. Cut down on fat intake – My biggest weakness has always been food. However, I’m not going to deny myself anything, that hasn’t worked for me in the past and I don’t see it working in the future. I will however cut down and monitor my fat intake closely. My diet isn’t terrible. It just needs tweaking.

5. Water – Probably the best drink in the world! – I drink plenty of water, usually at least 2 litres a day if not more. However I’m a bit erratic sometimes. Drinking water first thing in the morning is a great tip for keeping your body healthy.

6. Run – Because I already exercise so much, I won’t be doing much running in the beginning. I will drop some weight first and then kick of running by doing the JPMorgan run again in July. Over the year I’ll slowly build that up to 10 miles. Before the big event next year I will want to run 20 miles at least once.

Procrastination

I just wanted to finish talking to you a bit about procrastination. If you intend on doing something like this then most people let little things get in the way. That always happens. In fact things will inevitably come along to test your resolve; they always do! Here are a couple of quick final tips:

1. Find a exercise or activity that you enjoy doing. Nothing trumps enjoyment. If you enjoy something, you don’t need to motivate yourself to do it.

2. Prepare for setbacks now. They will come; in what guise, I cannot tell you but it’s up to you how you respond to them and you choose whether or not they will get in the way.

Apparently countries like the USA and the UK people are getting fatter and more obese. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t make exercise a chore. Make it fun!

I’m only gutted that after this I won’t be able to use my fat jokes in my comedy set any more!

I had my first alcoholic beverage when I was about 12 years old. We owned a shop that sold alcohol so getting my hands on some was pretty easy! (Sorry mum and dad!) Anyone who’s ever tried alcohol will always say the first taste was disgusting but then they got used to it. I tried a non-alcoholic beer recently and it wasn’t disgusting, but I really couldn’t see the appeal. At the age of 15 I made a concious choice that alcohol wasn’t for me.

Do you drink alcohol? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you drink? Does it allow you to relax more and have bit more ‘fun’? Do you need the alcohol in order to be yourself? Do you feel lost when you don’t have a drink in your hand? Have you made any good decisions whilst drunk?

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they’ve made any wise decisions whilst they’ve been inebriated. However, if anyone finds any blog posts on that, let me know as I’m sure they would be hilarious! I’m not judging anyone that drinks, I just know that you can be drunk on life without having to order a Singapore Sling!

My Experiment

About four and a half years ago I went on a stag weekend with some friends. I’d decided that I was going to drink booze. Not because I wanted to start a new habit. I did it because I was intensely curious as what it felt like to be drunk. It was a personal experiment and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

On the trip I had plenty to drink. Unlike the experience for some people, the effect was not a jolly one for me. I ended up feeling grumpy, I didn’t feel intoxicated, and it made me feel miserable. My experiment was a failure because I wanted to experience what it felt like to be drunk.

Even though I didn’t achieve my intended purpose, I learned something important about myself. I learned that, when I’m out and about, I tend to act ‘drunk’ anyway. Anyone who’s seen my comedy will know that I can shake my ass with the best of them, and for me, being in that state doesn’t require any alcohol whatsoever! (Make mine a virgin!)

The Reason For Drinking

It’s not something I do often but I enjoy going out to clubs, having a boogie, and enjoy listening to music. A good portion of my friends don’t drink but the rest do. Out of those, some of them just have one or two drinks for the whole night to loosen up to feel more comfortable and the rest will drink heavily as their intention was to go out and get drunk. Here’s the list of most common reasons I hear why people drink:

1. To have that feeling of intoxication
2. To feel loose and more comfortable
3. To give their hands something to do
4. To express honesty (yes I’ve really heard this one!)
5. To feel more jolly and happy
6. To feel more confident
7. To gain some Dutch courage

What do all of the above points have in common? It’s simple, they’re all possible without alcohol! Alcohol isn’t needed for any of those things. In fact you can reach all of those states and still have your wits about you. The amount of times I’ve heard of people losing phones, wallets, ending up falling asleep on the street etc. What if you could be drunk and not end up wearing your underpants on the outside? (Hallelujah!)

How To Get Drunk; The Cool Way

When I go out I tend to just drink water or, if I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I’ll order a Virgin Colada (with a pink brolly), or a Virgin Mojito. I find that drinking lots of water gives me a natural high. Something which you can’t get from soft drinks or virgin cocktails.

The other thing is being in the right frame of mind. You can convince yourself of anything and if you believe it with your whole being, that you are going to have a great time and don’t need the alcohol to do it, you will! There are no complex mechanics to it. You just think it and do it!

I’ve noticed a pattern that young people, whey they first start, they start drinking heavily. As the years progress, they continue the heavy drinking, but it slowly decreases. Then somewhere in their mid 20′s to early 30′s the consumption goes right down and in some cases, they give up altogether. Then there are also those who become mildly addicted and those who end up needing to go to the AA.

Imagine if you could develop the mindset, from the beginning, that you don’t need an external form of intoxication to feel good; that you could feel intoxicated just by changing the way you think; that all it took was a small shift in beliefs, to know that at any time you choose, you could feel great and loose, and your wallet would still have some notes left in it at the end of the day!

All it takes is making a decision. All it takes is deciding that you want to learn to have fun without at any time, and in any place, without the the need for any external intervention. You just decide to have a great time, laugh out loud, be yourself in the moment, be authentic, not worry about what people think about you, and dance like nobody’s watching!

A Side Note

I wasn’t actually going to bring health into this article but I happened to come across this article today on the BBC website. After I’d manage to pick myself up off the floor after rolling around on the floor laughing so hard that my sides nearly split, I managed to compose myself enough to finish this post.

Every week the mass media write contradictory articles on various aspects of health and the ones that entertain me the most are the ones on alcohol. One week they’ll say it’s good for something, the next week they’ll say it’s bad for something else. They never seem to be able to get it right.

Don’t pay attention to the mass media when it comes to issues of health. Decide for yourself. Do your own research and experiment on yourself. If you’re happy having a bit of alcohol now and again! Go for it! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that excessive consumption, of even good foods is, overall, bad!

I saw this great article today on the Metro newspaper website about hypnosis and how powerful it can be and I thought I would share it here!

As a bonus I also found this great article on the Huffington Post website about the 33 most powerful foods on earth.

Enjoy!

On Sunday I ran the Silverstone half marathon for the second year in a row and this year I completed it in 2h46m. Last year I completed it in 2h40m. I was a little gutted that I didn’t do it faster than last year. I really believed that despite not having trained that much that I was in better shape than last year and would be able to do it faster.

About 6 weeks ago I smashed my PB at 5k by over 4mins; I did it in 35m which is the quickest I’d ever done it and was also my personal target from when I started this whole process of getting fitter and healthier 4 years ago.

Training

Apart from the 5K I ran the only other major training I did, aside from the exercise I do day to day, was to go hill running which I did a week before the half marathon. I also incorporated skipping and did that between badminton games. I’ve gotten pretty good at it now!

I’d also been playing more badminton singles and that was helping with my fitness. My diet hadn’t been great on the build up to the event and I sort of felt like I’d put on a bit of weight even though everyone around me told me they thought I’d lost weight.

The Race

I started off in the same way that I would normally do, slower than most other people and I paced myself according to how I was feeling. After about 2 miles I gradually increased my pace. I felt pretty comfortable I got into a good rhythm.

After about 5 miles I began to feel tired. I thought I was experiencing the end of my first wind and then I waited for my second wind which came but didn’t last long.

By mile 9 I was thoroughly exhausted and ready to give up. I started to get a pain in my left knee and I faced a tough decision. Do I continue and fight through the pain or do I give up and save my knee for another day. I decided to continue and it was only sheer will-power that got me to the end of the race. I had absolutely no physical energy left and it was only the determination to complete that enabled me to continue.

5 days later and my knees are still in pain but I’ve been told by a reliable source that the pain is only temporary and that I luckily didn’t do any long term damage.

Learnings

When I got to end I thought “I’m never doing that again” but a few days later I was still determined to do the marathon. Next time I do it though I will make sure I am in full physical fitness. Because of my car accident I knew I still had a few remaining issues and I realise now that I should have waited longer before getting into the running again.

Another important thing I realised is that even though I’m in good state of health and physically fit it’s not a good idea me running a marathon while I’m still 19stone. I realise now that I would need to lose at least another 3 stone and increase my physical stamina dramatically for a continuous 26mile run. I always thought that I could run 26 miles at my current physical level but I realised clearly that I was kidding myself.

I don’t by into any of the notions that as you get older, the less you should do, or the weaker your joints get, or that running is bad for your knees. Despite all that I do and my size I generally have less knee and back problems than a lot of people I know of who are roundabout my age. I believe that if you do it well with the conscious intention of getting stronger and pay attention to what you’re doing you will be able to get stronger and fitter and even strengthen your joints.

Since my I don’t get my guaranteed place in the marathon until 2011 next year I’m planning to go on one of those charity treks and climb Mt Kilimanjaro. I love running up hills and climbing so it’s a different kind of challenge I’m really excited about!

That’s twice today on two separate radio stations now where an advertisement has been played about the fact that obesity in young people is on the rise and could lead to future health problems.

Weight And Health Issues For Teens

Over the past 5 – 10 years you will have noticed that this has been a pretty strong theme especially with the US and the UK. There were all sorts of chefs and celebrities getting in on the act and trying to do simple things like make school dinners better. Other celebrities were trying to encourage involvement in fitness and exercise.

From what I heard on the radio adverts the trend is on the rise for obesity amongst youngsters and is seeing no signs of slowing down. It seems like no matter what people do the problem is still on the rise.

Focus And The Law Of Attraction

According to the Law of Attraction what you focus on you get and so it seems that we are focussing on the wrong thing and getting back exactly that.

The prime focus seems to be on obesity rather giving options to young people that are more fun than sitting at home watching t.v., playing video games and eating junk food. The answer to me seems very simple in that we have to make the alternatives more fun and more appealing than the sitting at home option.

It’s clear to me that an inactive body and mind naturally turns towards lazy activities like t.v. and quick food consumption. Boredom is also a strong key. Haven’t you noticed that when you’re bored at home the first thing you do is reach for the remote and some nibbles? Do this on a regular basis and it all catches up with you in the mid section and then some!

A Paradigm Shift

Even though I don’t own one I’m a fan of the Nintendo Wii as its quite an active games console and you move around. You can even work up a sweat playing on one of those! Where I think we’re going wrong is that young people often associate bad things to phyical activities often because of the things that they have to do in P.E. at school. Very often they have to do activities which they don’t enjoy and it’s often taught in a way which is enforced rather than something a given choice!

With the London Olympics fast approaching it’s time we changed this mentality. It’s time we gave our youngsters better options with a more appealing stance that would make then naturally want to participate in more sports! As much as schools is a big part of this there are other ways we can get youngsters exercising too. I remember back in the day my friends and I would meet in the park and organise a game of footy! Then, random strangers would come and join in and before we knew, it we had big teams of people playing and everyone just had a grea time!

Simple things like organising a game of footy at the park can make leaps and bounds towards making a difference to the health and well being of our children. Our focus needs to change though! We don’t need to be focussing on possible outcomes of no exercise! We need to focus on a shift in our paradigm and get youngsters out of the house away of lazy temptations! Don’t put t.v.’s in your kids bedrooms. Ditch the games consoles and get out there in nature and have some fun! Even the adults with kids can save money on the gym just by taking your kids to the park and taking a frisbee and just having some fun! That way you all get some exercise and you all get closer too!

Some Suggestions

1) Don’t focus on the obesity and heart disease. Focus on the most fun you can have whilst being outside and things you can do that don’t involve huge amounts of money!

2) Go old school and organise a fun sporting group activity in the park! It doesn’t even have to be outdoors. Even something like bowling can be fun, make you work up a bit of a sweat and a cheap way of doing it too!

3) Make sport in schools more fun and inclusive for everyone! Gymnastics may not be everyone’s cup of tea so offer the youngsters options!

4) Gyms aren’t the only way to get exercise! Explore what you have in your local area in the way of nature or parks. You may be surprised at what you find! You may even find a bike trail that you and your whole family can enjoy together!

5) Look for social sports clubs that you enjoy where you will naturally feel compelled to return to. The people there will keep you motivated and the very act of making new friends and networking will make you want to go back. If the option is there take your kids along or offer to take your friends kids or neices and nephews!

It’s all about the fun!

Are you the kind of person that dreads getting out of bed?

Do you find that, no matter how much sleep you’ve had, you’re always tired? Are you constantly hitting the snooze button? Have you ever woken up totally refreshed and wondered how you did it?

Giving Up Coffee

Just over two years ago I decided that I wanted to know what life would be like without coffee. Coffee is something which is easy to reach for when you need a pick-me-up during those drowsy points throughout the day. Tiredness is your body’s natural way of telling you when you need some sort of energy input or revitalisation. All too often we reach for the most unhealthy and convenient of fixes.

Before I managed to fully give up coffee I made one previous attempt and like most people I suffered from the usual headaches, withdrawal symptoms, and mood swings, and as a result, I went back to the coffee fix.

The second time I had a bit more of a game plan. Any point where I would normally have coffee, I would instead have a 100% natural fruit smoothie drink, to replace any cravings that I had. It worked like a charm! I didn’t get any headaches or any of the usual symptoms of caffeine withdrawal.

After I gave up coffee I found that I started to sleep like a baby! I very rarely wake up during the night and I tend to wake up more refreshed. The amount of sleep I needed dropped considerably too.

Waking Up Before The Buzz

A few years ago I noticed that I started waking up just before my alarm was set to go off. I mentioned this to a few people and they also said how they had also had similar experiences. This got me thinking about whether I needed an alarm clock at all. Would I be able to program my body to get up at the times I needed? Have you ever woken up just before the alarm went off?

The trouble is I’d be stubborn and not wake up until the alarm went off! I’d snooze over and over again and not get up until the last possible moment I had to. The other problem with snoozing is that I’d end accidentally switching off the alarm by mistake and then wake up two hours later whilst screaming “oh crap!” Then I’d end up rushing to get ready and arriving at work unwashed, with fuzzy hair and not smelling to great.

Experimenting

Just before the end of last year I decided that I wanted to do some experiments around this. Firstly; I hid any clocks so I couldn’t see the time. Secondly; I didn’t set any alarms. The plan was that before I fell asleep I would repeat in my head, with clarity and power, the time I wished to arise.

There were several reasons for this method and why specifically I hid any visible clocks. My theory is that my body knows when to get up. It’s inbuilt into my genes. Using this method I allow myself to wake up naturally. Upon waking, because I wouldn’t be aware of the time, I would let myself stir out of sleep naturally. When I got to the point that I felt like I didn’t need to go back to sleep again, only at that point would I check the time.

Doing all of this would mean that I was waking when my body was ready to arise and would do so in accordance with its natural internal clock. You know the theories that we sleep in 90 – 120 minute cycles and we have very specific phases of sleep e.g. REM. So the natural rising method would mean that I was waking up exactly as my body dictated rather than an external jolt disrupting my natural patterns.

The Results

I found that 9/10 I would wake up at the time I had programmed into my mind give or take about 15 minutes. Also, because I wasn’t snoozing the clocks, I was much more focused throughout the day and I didn’t feel the afternoon drowsiness as much. I also noticed that I was yawning less and that my concentration span grew.

The Challenges.

The problem I face is that currently I have to be up at 4.30 on the weekends to do my early morning radio show whereas during the week I can be more flexible about the time I wake up. So, for now, I’m going to continue to use the alarm clock when I need to but where possible, if I can avoid using it, I will.

You may find that you don’t have any flexibility so this may not work for you. I do recommend that you do try it when you do have some flexibility such as the weekends.

Snoozing

I can’t say with any degree of certainty about whether snoozing is good for you or not. Common sense would suggest that it would be a good idea but my gut tells me otherwise; as does my experience. I can’t help but feel that ‘alarming’ yourself unnaturally out of sleep is detrimental to your health and contributes to all sorts of stress issues. Doing it repeatedly is even worse!

Being Realistic

If you think you’d benefit from doing this you firstly have to get real! You cannot expect to go to bed at 3am, wake up naturally at 6am, and feel zesty! That isn’t going to happen. I found out through the experimenting phase that I would wake up naturally after 6 – 7 hours of sleep. I also know that it takes me, at most, about 15 minutes to get to sleep.

With that information I know that if I have to be up at 8am then the latest I should get into bed is 12.45am. I’m not a believer that you have to have 8 hours sleep a night. I do believe that in this case quality is way more important than quantity. If you’re sleeping poorly and find you have very broken sleep then you may want to look into sorting that out first before embarking on this road.

Natural Alarm Clocks

There are many natural alarm clocks on the market and I have one such device which is one of those sunrise lamp varieties. I find it especially good during the winter when the mornings are dark. Regardless, I still find it an unnatural method to use. I would definitely recommend them over conventional alarm clocks any day but I feel like this method is the best way to go if you need to be alerted awake.

The Process

So start by testing how long you sleep naturally and using that as your guide. Before you go to bed say with clarity and power what time you would like to arise. Remember to hide your clock and don’t set any alarms.

You may wake up in the middle of the night. I did a few times and I just went back to sleep. I could tell from the ambient light through the curtains what time it was. If it was still dark I didn’t worry and I went back to sleep. If it was light then that was a good indicator that I was awake at the right time. That part doesn’t matter though. I promise you, you’ll know when you’ve woken up at the right time. I know deep down that we do have an inbuilt mechanism in our bodies that knows exactly what time it is. (While writing this it got me thinking about whether people kept in isolation are able to tell the time?)

As you wake up you’ll reach a point where you won’t want to go back to sleep again. You’ll hit a point where you’re just enough awake to be fully aware and won’t be able to put your head down again. Get out of bed, do a few stretches and then check the time.

It really is that simple to do. It is worth doing if you want to feel more alert during the day and you’re a bit fed up with being groggy and disorientated all day long.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and what the results are if you do adopt this method. Feel free to share them in the comments.

Update: If you have an iPhone try Sleep Cycle as it’s a fantastic app and really helps to get you up at the right time i.e. when you body is in the right phase.

That’s four, no, make that five compliments I’ve had now over the last two weeks from people saying that I’ve lost a huge amount of weight. I haven’t changed my diet significantly, I haven’t exercised more, the only real change has been that I’ve added in the breathing exercises. I’m fairly sure that my weight hasn’t acutally gone down either but maybe my body shape has changed or even gained muscle mass and burned fat. I’m quite intrigued now to see what the end result will be at the end of the 30 days!

I’m really enjoying doing the breathing exercises while driving and there’s something else I’ve not noticed while doing them. I’ve noticed that doing them while driving, I naturally feel much calmer and I drive a lot slower; not quite to the point where you can call me miss daisy just yet! I’m finding a great way of just being more at peace and I tend to drive more consciously rather than just being on auto pilot. If driving stresses you out then it’s definitely something to try out!

Over the last few days I had an incredibly busy schedule. On Saturday and Sunday I was covering the breakfast show on the radio. I was also doing voluntary work on Saturday afternoon and then in the evening I was performing stand-up comedy for Humili-Asian.

Sunday was pretty much the same and I also had very little sleep on both nights, approximately 3 hours each. On Sunday, while I had a couple of hours free, I decided to have a nap in the afternoon. If I nap I will generally do so for about 2 hours or so but this time I noticed that I only needed 45 minutes after that I was fresh and raring to go. In the evening I played badminton as usual after doing the backchat radio show and by the late evening I still had plenty of energy.

I also noticed that over the last few days I’ve felt like I’ve also been radiating more postive energy and I’ve also felt much more emotionally stable to. Maybe there is more to this breathing malarky then meets the eye!

I decided to try something new too. As I’m in the car and on the road a lot I thought I’d try out doing the breathing exercises in the car and I’m finding it much easier and less boring. I’m not sure why! I’m doing exactly the same thing and yet the process seems to zip by as if nothing. It’s a good way to make constructive use of driving time. Rather than just listening to music and coupled with the fact that I miss being able to read like I used to do when commuting, it seems like a sensible way of utilising that time to do something invigorating.

The last thing I’ve noticed is that I’m no longer yawning anywhere near as much as I used to! I haven’t noticed any difference in my fitness of physique as yet.

I’ve decided to take a leaf out of Steve Pavlina’s book and begin my own 30 day trial. This also ties in with my weekly focus point which I posted up today.

My first trial is going to be all about breathing and seeing what effect using regular breathing techniques have on me in all areas including energy levels, frame of mind, weight, physical fitness, emotional state etc.

I’ve read about and been shown various breathing techniques from a variety of people. I remember a couple of years ago a Hindu priest telling me that even though I exercise a lot the reason I wasn’t losing weight was because I wasn’t breathing correctly. That was the first moment that the power of deep breathing sparked my interest.

I’ve read about a few techniques but I’ve opted to test out the one that Tony Robbins often talks about which includes deep diaphragmatic breathing and using the system of 1-4-2. In for a ratio of 1, hold for 4 and out for 2. E.g. Inhale for 5 seconds, hold it for 20 and then release for 10 seconds. You can choose any amount of time you like so long as you stick to the 1-4-2 ratio. So you could inhale for 8 seconds, hold for 32 and breath out for 16 seconds.

Many people breath from chest and therefore only utilise the upper portion of the lungs when they have a much greater capacity. The way to use the entire capacity of the lungs and fully oxygenate the body is to make sure your stomach is coming out as you breath. Your organs are literally being pushed out to make way for the diaphragm to fully expand and then fill the entire lungs with air.

The theory behind this is that physically we have 3 core needs and I’ve put them in order of importance based on how long we could survive without each one.

1) Breathing – We can only survive at most a few minutes without oxygen and so breathing correctly is vital to life.
2) Drinking Water – We can only survive a maximum of 24 – 48hours without waters and so water is essential for us as the body is also 65% made up of water
3) Eating – We can survive a few months without eating so eating well is also essential.

My plan is to incorporate the 1-4-2 rule into my daily routine for a repetition of 10, 3 times a day. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and finally once in the evening or just before bed. I will also be carefully monitoring myself throughout the day to make sure that I am breathing correctly as even while writing this I just noticed that I was breathing through my chest.

Here comes the science bit…

The theory is that we of course have a special mechanism that pumps blood around the body called the heart however the lymph system has no such pump. The way to activate the lymph system is through deep breathing and movement. I do plenty of exercise anyway so I thought the next step would be to incorporate the regular deep breathing as part of my routine.

I’ll be posting up my results over the coming month and will be keeping you all abreast of my results!

Do you want to make changes to the way you look? Are you fed up with being overweight and deep down inside worried about people might be thinking about you? (Even though they may not be thinking anything at all but, in your mind, they are.) Are you fed up with getting to the top of the stairs and being exhausted? Are you tired of not feeling attractive to the opposite sex?

A while back I mentioned that I wanted to start posting a series based on weight loss, fitness training, and exercise for overweight people. People who weren’t sure how to begin the process of changing their physical state and for anyone else who wanted to begin a new chapter with their health.

My Journey So Far

When I began my journey just over three years ago I was in terrible shape, which is putting it mildly, and yet I know that there are people in much worse shape than I was. Starting a new regime is easy. Sticking to it is the real challenge! Initially the weight loss will be fast and easy but then that will start to slow and eventually plateau. Then there will be motivation issues and other temptations to contend with.

Those Good Intentions And Other Challenges

Everyone, once in a while, feels the surge of energy to act and make changes. That doesn’t last long if preparations aren’t made to maintain the enthusiasm for undertaking a new personal project. There are ways to combat this and I’ll share more of those a little later on. Then there things that pop up out of the blue that may hinder your progress. You might get injured which can, at times be, soul destroying if up to that point you’ve made some amazing progress. In fact, it is often at those times that injuries occur; almost as a test to your resolve.

There are many methods of weight loss. I have friends who’ve tried varied weight loss systems including the kind that involve eating bars and shakes for breakfast lunch and dinner. Some have had great success. Some have had temporary success and some have had no success with them at all. That’s because those programs require enormous amounts of will power and resistance.

I’m offering you my suggestions and principles in an attempt to make slimming down fun, easy, and gradual. If you expect massive losses consistently; you’re kidding yourself! This process can take months and sometimes even years. However, time will become irrelevant because you’ll be enjoying what you’re doing! It won’t just be an arduous task that you have to do! It will become part of your overall longterm lifestyle rather than just something you do for a few months and then eventually give up.

The Keys

The keys here are variety, enjoyment, sustainability and pleasure. If you incorporate these four keys then slimming down becomes a breeze! It’ll become something that you don’t have to even think about and something that doesn’t make you feel guilty just because you happen to miss a day!

To begin with:

1. Most people would say start by creating a goal. I say forget that for now and just make a start! The more specific goal setting can come later but for now just make your goal to start exercising whilst having some fun.

2. Find something energetic that you ENJOY doing! It can be a sport, going to the gym, walking, swimming, running etc., or pretty much anything you like that you like. Start doing it on a regular basis. Finding a club or group of some kind is also a good way to go. You’ll meet new people and create new social circles through which you’ll keep each other going.

3. Here is something that is extremely important and it’s a mistake most people make when undertaking a new program like this. Many people exercise until they get tired and end up having that achy feeling for the next few days. When that happens they feel reluctant to continue exercising because they’ve anchored that feeling into their body. It doesn’t last but if that happens for the first few sessions it’s what beginners remember the most and it’s that feeling which then puts them off maintaining that program.

Anchoring Enjoyment

Here’s the key: Exercise to the point where you are enjoying the exercise and stop well before the point of feeling tired! Do this for the first few months! Yes, you heard me right, the first few months especially if right now you’re classed as being ‘overweight’. This has a few objectives: i) It anchors the feeling of enjoying exercise. ii) It gives your body the time to get used to the exercise; especially for your joints. iii) You won’t be put off the exercise because you won’t have the exhausted feeling that can come from vigorous exercise.

I can’t stress enough, how important it is, for you to find something you enjoy doing! Enjoyment is the best motivation tool there is. It doesn’t matter what else you try and use as leverage on yourself. Whether that be money, becoming more desirable to the opposite sex, or just to look good. Nothing will beat sheer enjoyment!

Let me explain what I’m talking about. When it comes to sports; badminton is my passion! If my body could allow me to play more then I would probably play 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If I had the choice between a hot date and badminton, badminton would win hands down every time!

Why It’s Not Good To Join A Gym Straight Away

That brings me onto my final point. Plenty of people come up to me and tell me: “Amit, I need to lose weight for the summer so I’m going to join the gym!” At this point, I debate about whether to roll around on the floor laughing for the next 15 minutes or whether to explain to them direct. The former never goes down that well so let me go ahead and explain the latter.

As I mentioned earlier the greatest motivational force is pure enjoyment. When you enjoy something you never have to even think about getting up to do it. You just do it! With a gym it’s likely that you’ll be paying some sort of monthly subscription. I’ve heard people say that they think this will motivate them into the gym! If so you’re completely deluding yourself! Here’s the rub: Get into the habit of exercising now without a gym. If you can do that for 3 months, then fine, go ahead and join the gym! Go use the variety of equipment and join in with some classes. Until you’ve firmly established your good habits first don’t decide on longer term commitments until much later. If you absolutely feel the need to join the gym; ask them if they do a trial membership for a month or so. At least you can see how it goes before they tie you into long contracts leaving you out of pocket and an increased mid section!

JUST START!

These are the first few steps to take. Make a start now and do what I said. You’ll find that you enjoy the process of exercising and losing weight rather than feeling like it is a chore of necessity.

On Friday I had the great privilege of meeting and playing a game with Rajiv Ouseph who is the number 1 badminton player in England.

He came along to meet some of the kids at our club which put a huge smile on their faces as they had their pictures taken with them and he even gave them his autograph….it put a huge smile on my face too!

This week he’s off to Malaysia for the Thomas Cup (Badminton’s equivalent to the Tennis Davis Cup) so join me in wishing him and the rest of the team all the best in the tournament.

Update: On the 14th of October 2010 Rajiv won the Silver in the Commonwealth Games – Congratulations!