Personal Training in Bahrain

Reaching your ideal body weight

This is it folks....... 11 weeks TODAY that I get married!! No panic! surely not! For those of you who are having a traditional wedding, spending a fortune and planning to invite more that 100 guests my thoughts are with you as it must be a very stressful time. I know that with our meager 60 day guests the pressure is on and we are not even having the ceremonial proceedings!

So what do you have in mind for your shape up?
Are you on track?
How long have you left it to get in shape for the big day? (hopefully not 4 weeks before the big day!)
How stressed are you?

I have 11 weeks to shape up and trim down and get to a point where I will feel amazing on my day. If you have been following my progress you will know that at times it has not been easy and what with just having the festive season was a real test to my will power. However, saying that, I made sure that I was never restricted to foods and NEVER restricted my calories as that is the biggest mistake dieters make. Reason being as when the body is restricted of calories it goes into a protection mode and 'holds onto the fat' as opposed to losing it.

Here are my guidelines to get serious about shaping up for your wedding or starting your health kick for the New year.

1. The secret is to reduce your portion sizes and increase your exercise! simple as that!!!
2. Remember that you want to increase the amount of weight training that you do, which is more important than cardio if you want to lose fat! (by having the extra muscle tone will allow you to burn more calories on a daily basis)
3. In order to tone your muscles most efficiently, you need to make sure that you have an adequate amount of protein in your diet on a daily basis.
4. I use the formula taken from Dr Schwartzbein's excellent book; The Schwarzbein Principle, The Program to find out the exact amount of protein I need to be consuming. Have a look at mine below;
5. First you need to find out your first goal weight.
6. Current weight(pounds) ________ + ideal body weight (the book nicely provides this for you)______= ____________ /2 = my first goal weight of__________.

So for me my current weight 75kg(165Ilbs) + ideal body weight (156Ilbs) = 321/2 = (160.5 Ilbs). Therefore, my first goal weight is to reach 160.5 Ilbs which is 4.5 Ilbs to lose. Once I reach this weight I do the formula again until I reach my ideal body weight of (156Ilbs).

The book conveniently lists that I need to eat 10-12.5 ounces (70-87.5 grams) of protein a day in order for me to reach my first goal weight. I recommend that you divide this amount into 5 small portions a day to keep your blood sugar levels stable.

If you would like to find out more about reaching your goal weight or protein requirements then feel free to contact me for more information. Or find out more about your individual programme choices

                                                       

Oh! I'm so Not looking forward to the Festive Season

You will only hear me say that on this particular POST; I am so not looking forward to the Festive Season!!

WHY?
Because I have a wedding in less than 4 months! AAARRRGGHHH! I don't know why I have suddenly thought this but last night, I had a really bad moment of panic!! I am getting so geared up to sing FA LA LA LA LA be merry,  enjoy all festivities, mulled wine night, nibbles and cocktails at the bosses house , take mum to Dubai for a Christmas weekend and then I think ......... god I am going to have to be SO careful not to let my recent hard work fall wayside.
At present I am SO on track, I have maintained a steady weight loss, increased muscle tone and feel in absolutely GREAT shape!!! (maybe I should just get married now!) But unless I remain focused and realistic I could feel miserable come January!

BUT wait!
Rule number one is not to have the ALL or Nothing mentality! This is why most health programmes fail and why mine has been a success over the last 12 weeks. I followed the 80/20% mentality and refused to put extra pressure on myself.
In addition, my goals were small, realistic, manageable, personal and followed a time line. I hear my close friends and family always tell me ........... 'Well when I lose 3 stone by the time I see you' or ' yes I'm going on a diet starting today' .
These goals don't mention how, what, why and what benefits you will gain to keep you motivated.They are unrealistic and are setting up for another failure.

So with my upcoming festive challenge I thought I would list some goals to keep me on track, focused, realistic and maintain my wedding day shape up but more importantly Have some fun!

SAMANTHA's MINI FESTIVE GOALs

• I will have one 'Day off' a week for the next two weeks so that I can feel the benefits of staying healthy for the remaining 12 days.
• I will exercise for a minimum of 20 minutes every other day after breakfast so that I can keep my fitness levels up in time for January.
• I will drink a glass of water for every alcoholic beverage I have at social functions so that I don't feel dehydrated and feel great the next day.
• I will get to bed before 12 on nights out so that I can get enough sleep to allow my body to heal and rejuvenate.
• I will allow myself one depleting food per day (these include chocolates, christmas nibbles, processed foods) Not that I want to or encourage that I do, I just don't want to feel bad if the opportunity arises.
• I will say one affirmation before bed to ensure that I remain positive, happy, loving and not feel overwhelmed by the festive stress.
• I will enjoy myself!
• I believe in my strength to achieve my goals and remain focused for my 3 month countdown come January.

I'll let you know how it goes!
BTW feel free to follow these guidelines too, it won't be so much like a slap in the face come January!!!;-)

Wedding Day Shape Up Half way through

Well, here it is, I have 8 weeks until I leave Saudi and then two weeks after it will be Christmas!!! Sorry for those of you who have been ignoring that fact. I do enjoy Christmas but don't allow myself or Rob to get stressed by last minute gift hunting or meal planning. Probably because we are going out this Christmas for lunch at somebody else's house and that last year we stayed at the Ritz Carlton Bahrain for a fabby weekend! Anyway, I digress!

Back to the Wedding Day shape up journal.

Day 25 - not so good!

Wow where has all the time gone! I recently came over to Bahrain for 12 days and to be honest it has been hard keeping up with the WDSU focus. Being over here means I get to have some freedom from KSA and so I have hired a car and I drive and drive and drive!! Which is hilarious when you know that Bahrain is the size of the Isle of Wight and that there are so many road works going on that you end up sitting in traffic!! hahhahahha.
I've also (as part of my Masters) started cooking! For those of you that know me, you will know that I shy away from cooking and would rather go out for a nice meal. BUT! the whole part of learning about Holistic Nutrition is to submerge yourself in fresh organic produce using the finest ingredients to make scrumptious meals that contain all your necessary vitamins!
Great! the only trouble is that so far it all tastes so good, that Rob and I haven't been leaving much of the left overs. So I have not stuck to my 5 small meals per day and have been having 3 main meals a day.
Not too bad and I haven't gained any weight and I have also religiously done my Pilates video everyday but I have to be careful as last night wasn't so great!!

Here we are drawing a close to Ramadan and we went for an Iftar (breaking of the fast) meal at the Ritz Carlton, Bahrain. Needless to say being at such a posh place the buffet was magnificent and there were cuisines from all over the world. And along with some delicious dishes I made the mistake of walking past the sweet section right at the beginning! I was like a child in a candy shop! My mind was focused on the sweets even before I had started my meal!
You know I hate to say but you can see the reason why obesity rates and diabetes is growing in this part of the world. I wasn't the only one to be drooling over the desserts! Mostly women, we crowded round the chocolate mouse, mango flavoured mouse and sticky honey covered arabic sweets and waited patiently for our turn.

The trouble is when you know you are going to be spending BD25 (about 33GBP) for an early bird meal, it doesn't bode well for being conservative!
I do think though that if I had had my small regular meals of good quality protein (or even my protein shake) then I would have felt more satisfied and not have been so drawn to the sweets like a crazy woman. (Note to self, must buy some protein powder tomorrow)

Oh well, Rob and I came home pleasantly stuffed and were asleep by 10pm!

The saga continues!

Day 5........ feeling great!

OH wow! Doesn’t it feel great when you finally find that long lost motivation and commitment to a health programme!!
Just thought I would share with you that as a result, I have lost 1kg this week and had 5 small regular meals spaced out every three hours throughout the day.

It got me thinking of my previous attempts at getting and staying in shape. It also reminded me of my 8 week health blast last year in Los Angeles, when I hired a "reputable" personal trainer. Trouble was, as good as his programmes were and yes I did see short term results; his programmes were not suited for long term health maintenance as his diets were based upon consuming 'NO FAT'. Please understand that no one can survive their life without essential fats in their diet. Common signs of a person that hasn't had essential fats in their diet would be an almost dullish looking, grey, dry and wrinkly skin and depression.

Yes, his eating plan, recommended food quantities and exercise programmes were safe and suitable for my needs. But he overlooked the fact that once I stopped his very strict ‘no fat’ diet programme, my body would need to heal a damaged metabolism. And yes, it has taken a year to heal my metabolism.

So why am I on a 6 month Health plan when I have just spent a year healing my metabolism? 

NEW! Wedding Day Shape Up Programmes

Having started my own Wedding Day Health Plan, I've been able to put together a new programme specifically designed for other Brides to Be. There are two choices available; a more in depth 6 month health shape up or a 3 month intense structured programme for those with less time. Check out the right hand sidebar and see the links for two pages Welcome Page and Your Choices.

Wedding Day Shape Up Day 1 didn't turn out to be today!

So this is the day (actually yesterday) was the day that I started my 12 week Healthy programme! Wow, the anticipation of finally getting started was immense. Oh the planning, structuring the programme, all my wonderful knowledge put down on a format for me! Yes, this time I am the client. How exciting!
Let me go down my checklist in final preparation...

Starting Weight recorded - CHECK
Exercise classes per week - CHECK
Diet record sheet - CHECK
Meal plan - CHECK

Motivation - NO CHECK!!!!!!..........

12 week countdown starting tomorrow

Did you know that there are 14 weeks until Christmas Day! With this in mind my first task in my Wedding Day Shape Up plan is to break it down into sizeable and achievable chunks. So if I said 'I have 27 weeks until my Wedding Day" I could easily fall into the trap of saying, gosh I have 27 weeks, which is loads of time to lose a dress size. However, this is where most health plans fail. Instead I have broken down the health plan into 12 weeks before Christmas and again 12 weeks after Christmas. Read on to see what I will be doing first.........

Wedding Day Shape Up

I recently posted that my new upcoming Blog Theme will be a 'Wedding Day Shape Up"(WDSU) as my Wedding day is fast approaching and is in exactly 28 weeks and 4 days from today. So what will be involved for a Health professional looking to Shape up?