A great deal of my female clients now travel with work and ask me to provide them with a training program they can follow whilst away from home on business. If your a fitness enthusiast it can often be disheartening when you walk into a hotel gym, with a fraction of the equipment you are use to seeing. In reality though hotel gyms always have a great range of dumbbells and cardio equipment and if your imaginative you can create a really challenging circuit based workout. For those who travel often there is equipment you that takes up very little space in your case or handbag such as a TRX or the resistance band loop (which I am going to talk about today), so they ar not only great for people who travel but also for those who want to work out at home. I LOVE the resistance band loop, I think its a fantastic piece of equipment for people of all levels of fitness. You can purchase a pack of 4 bands from Amazon for less than five pounds. Resistance bands allow a free range of motion and provide variable resistance, on certain exercises you can also add dumbbells or kettle bells into the range of movement as and when your strength and fitness level improves. They give you a full body workout which helps to tone and sculpt your body - it is also gentle on your joints. Not only are they great for strengthening and toning your body but they also help improve your endurance, especially when you train in a circuit method and they can also improve your flexibility. If your interested in trying out the resistance band loop, we have created a FREE 6 Week lower body circuit training program for you to try. We recommend you perform each workout once per week. The exercises are all linked to a tutorial video showing you how to execute the movement. Remember its consistency that gets results!
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Independent café’s and restaurants have been popping up all over Aberdeen in the past couple of years thanks to the rise of the coffee culture. I try to eat and drink “local” as much as I can and often use local café’s and bistros for client consultations. However, one thing I feel that Aberdeen cafe's can’t get right is breakfast! When I first met my fiancée who returned to Aberdeen after staying in Australia for four years, he use to tell me how disappointing eating out for breakfast was in Aberdeen compared to Australia. It wasn’t until we went travelling around Australia over the past 2 few years that I realised exactly what he meant. The Aussies have certainly perfected the first meal of the day, the beautiful dishes are something of an art form – hands down the Aussies have got my vote! The dishes are lovingly prepared; they are simple, artistic, colourful and brimming with fresh seasonal fruits. Food in my opinion is far more enjoyable when it is beautiful to look at. It encourages us to eat the meal slowly and savour the taste and flavour. So what makes Aussie café’s better than those in Aberdeen? (Oh and the weather doesn't even come into it!) - Simple, great waiting staff, the neighbourhood vibe, quirky décor and fantastic healthy prepared food and drink. I can honestly say that we never had any bad breakfasts in Australia. For me customer service dictates if I am going to return to that café again. There is nothing worse than understaffed coffee shops, where the waiting staff takes your order and forgets about you - or worse still a coffee shop where there is no dedicated barista. The first thing that happens in an Aussie café is they let you pick your table, the waiter doesn't just hand you your menu and leave you hanging, he is already placing a quirky water bottle filled with fresh water and lemon on the table with some glasses. In one café it was empty grey goose vodka bottles and another Jack Daniels bottles. In the UK we don't get FREE water whilst we read the menu, its likely that cafe owners think by giving free water we won't purchase any drinks which can affect their takings. Another thing with Aussie waiters is whilst they fill your glass they are already asking for your hot drinks order straight away, so that by the time they are arriving back at your table with your hot drinks you have made your food order selection. I also like the fact that the café’s have a young entrepreneurial feel to them, with an energy and buzz about those who work there - they actually want to be there, they have something called a smile on their face. I love Aussie café and bar décor, each establishment is modern and unique with a homely feel about it. I always felt that each café design made you feel like you were right at home and could happily stay there all day. One café in Wellington, New Zealand called “The Hanger” had flooring like that of an airplane hanger with an amazing attention to detail to make you feel like you were dining in an airport hanger. One of my favourite café’s in Perth Australia was Sayers Sisters which had exposed brick work, old doors nailed to the wall, and an open plan kitchen feel with central island covered in Sunday Newspapers and the smell of warm baked muffins the entire time we were there. It felt like you were dining in someone’s home (see below pictures). In Aberdeen, it doesn’t matter which café you go to, the breakfast and brunch menu’s are limited, boring, un inspiring and when the dish arrives it lacks any artistic flair and has just been thrown together on the plate. Is there anything appetising about a plate of bacon, sausage and egg that has all been fried in the same pan – the same pan or hot plate that has been cooking other peoples breakfasts for the past 4 hours draining any taste or flavour the food previously had? Lets take eggs, bacon and toast in Aberdeen, if you ordered this the likelihood is that you will receive a dish that looks similar to the one above (if your lucky it may have some poor attempt at garnish). The plate would be full of grease and water residue and have no real taste whatsoever.
When I left to go to Africa I weighed 69kg and a healthy 20% body fat. On my return from Africa I was 63kg. My diet was extremely good in Africa, I climbed Kilimanjaro and was very active throughout the entire trip. Every hotel had a gym, and each morning we would get up and do HIIT training for 30 minutes. The second part of my trip was also very active, we went running most mornings or evenings, we hiked, we scuba dived and went swimming, but the nutrition wasn’t the best. One thing about Australia and New Zealand is they are amazing at healthy breakfasts, but when your daily diet also involves afternoon tea and cake every day and back packer evening meals (pub food), the good choices made at breakfast time are soon out weighed by the bad foods consumed later on in the day. I always tell clients that its consistency that gets results, and this was proven throughout my entire trip. When we were in towns and cities for several days, and we had routine we did fantastic, great meal choices and lots of training. The best routine we had was on the Cruise ship! Many of my clients contact me before going on holiday to an all-inclusive resort worrying they are going to gain weight and spiral out of control. For me all-inclusive makes going on holiday and eating well extremely easy! When it comes to all-inclusive you are presented with lots of healthy and bad food options it all comes down to YOU to decide how the quantity and the type of food you put on a plate – unlike going to a restaurant with a menu where someone dictates the quantity of the food on your plate for you, and your made to choose a meal from a restricted menu. On the cruise ship we ate around 5 meals a day, breakfast was yoghurts, fruit and oats, lunches consisted of vegetables, salad and meat, our pre workout meal was usually salad and potato’s from the buffet and our evening meal was healthy with something naughty. The balance was perfect lots of whole foods and sensible portion controls and exercise. On my return last week from my 6-month trip, I came in at 63.8 kilo’s! but without a doubt my physique has changed. It’s very difficult for me to embrace a softer physique after spending the past 5 years looking the way I did, but its even more difficult coping with the changes when people out there think its acceptable to comment on your changing physique. In the past 6 months I have had people say that the reason I don’t post gym selfies now is because I am fat! What people fail to forget is that like everything in life we get bored. I got bored of going through the competing cycle, bored of having no social life, bored of weighing every item of food to the gram, bored of eating chicken and rice 3 times a day every day of the week and that it is extremely difficult to maintain the physique I had 7-days a week, 365 days a year. I also met someone who I love to bits and it’s unfair for that person to see their partner half naked on instagram flexing in front of a mirror several times a day to satisfy other people. Since stepping off stage I set myself new goals, travelling, scuba diving, hiking and getting into the best shape of my life with a healthy and flexible approach to nutrition all of which has improved my mental health too. I have decided to share some of my pictures post comp to present day. As I said before its still tough to accept the changes in my body, but I certainly don’t think I am fat. I have lost muscle definition but this is because my body fat has increased hiding my lean muscle mass. In May, I plan to go back on plan (non competition diet) to decrease my frame. As some of you may know I get married next year and my goal is to have a nice lean female physique that suits a wedding dress – I don’t want the size of my guns or shoulders in a white dress to be the talking point of the day! The first picture is me at the British Finals in December 2015, stepping off stage at 64 kilos and 10.1% Bodyfat.
The second picture is after 3 weeks travelling round Africa, by the end of week 6 (October 2017) I had went from 69 kilos to 63 kilos from training consistently throughout the entire trip and eating lots of whole foods. The third picture is after 6 months of travelling (March 2018) weighing in at 63.8 kilos. I do look "fluffier" mid section but overall not too much difference to my physique. |
AuthorsSharon & Lainey are Online PT & Nutrition Advisors with a combined 18 years experience in the Health & Fitness Industry. Archives
August 2018
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