Time To Detox?

We are all exposed to thousands of toxins and chemicals on a daily basis at work, in the home, through the air we breathe, our food and water supply, and through the use of pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, we are eating more sugar and processed foods than ever before in human history and regularly abuse our bodies with various stimulants and sedatives.

For decades, scientists have been studying the pollutants in our air, water, food, and soil. U.S. industries manufacture over 6 trillion pounds of 9,000 different chemicals a year. They dump billions of pounds of industrial chemicals into our air and water year after year. So now scientists have started to examine pollution levels in humans and their findings are deeply disturbing.

The foods and drinks we like the best, unfortunately happen to be the ones that are the worst for us.


The Truth

The more of these you consume the more acidic your body will become.

Our bodies are extremely clever at surviving, and set up defense mechanisms against substances that could harm our vital organs. In this case it is FAT. Our bodies use Fat to defend its self against an acidic system. This can also explain one reason why exercise is sometimes quite ineffective.

The organ most under threat is the Liver. Research clearly proves that our bodies are not capable of eliminating all the different toxins and chemicals we inhale and ingest every day. They simply accumulate in our cells (especially fat cells), tissues, blood, organs (such as the colon, liver and brain) and remain stored for an indefinite length of time causing all kinds of health problems. (Here are pictures of what pollution build-up looks like in the liver, versus a healthily functioning liver).

However the production of acid is also a natural function within the body. All of the cells (billions of them) that make up the human body are slightly alkaline, and must maintain alkaline in order to function and remain healthy and alive. However when we move, their cellular activity creates acid and this acid is what gives the cell energy and function. As each alkaline cell performs its task of respiration, it secretes metabolic wastes, and these end products of cellular metabolism are acid in nature.



Other than the liver one of the main areas that is subject to serious health issues is the Intestines and the Colon.Look at this picture on the right, would you feel constipated, bloated and lethargic? Would your bowels be irritated by this build-up day in and day out causing what we today call IBS? Just think about what other problems toxic build-up like this can cause? Stomach pain and constipation? Fatigue, gas and bloating? Overgrowth of Candida? Headaches and indigestion? Weight gain and a large protruding belly?

It has been stated that over 90% of disease in America could be traced to unhealthy conditions in the bowel. “The poisons thus generated (in the bowel) pollute the bloodstream, causing every tissue, gland, and organ of the body to gradually deteriorate and be destroyed.

When do you need to Detox?

If this is the first time you've been exposed to this life-changing information, you've probably never considered this simple question: Are you clean inside? Of course you take care of the outside: You shower, brush your teeth and wash your hair on a regular basis, but do you clean yourself inside? In this modern, toxic world it's becoming a simple fact of life that our colon & Lymphatic System (the ‘sewer system' of the body), liver and other organs also require cleansing. Just like a car requires an oil change periodically.

‘You service and tune your car up every 6-12 months or every 5000 miles. Why? To ensure that you get the most from it and that it lasts longer…When was the last time you did this for yourself? And what is more important – you or your car?’
If you experience one or more of the following, then it's time to detoxify:

Frequent fatigue and low energy
Flatulence, gas & bloating
Excess weight
Impaired digestion
Irritability, mood swings
Bad breath & foul-smelling stools

Recurring headaches
Constipation
Protruding belly ("pooch")
Powerful food cravings
Skin problems
Metallic taste in mouth

For more information on The All About You Detox programme contact us at the studio.

Learning lessons from a 6 year old

So it’s the end of 2011! I hope it’s been a good year for you?...

I enjoy this time of year as I use it as an opportunity to reflect on the past years successes and failures and plan out how I’m going to make the next 12 months even more productive and successful.


On Christmas day my sister came round with her partner and little Henry who’s six and just a bundle of energy! After shooting at each other with guns, teaching him tricks from his magic set and playing for hours with game after game, it’s amazing to see how much he hated losing at anything!

It got me thinking that maybe we should try to be more like kids in this respect! Why do so many people lose the desire to succeed so easily?!



Kids have very little fear, they say what they think, they just want to have fun and they want to win!

Now that’s a pretty good outlook for anyone’s life in my eyes!

What happens to us as adults though?

When do we stop wanting to win?

Why do we accept we don’t want to get the best from our relationships, from our jobs and from our health?


Life doesn’t have to be this way. We CAN win at everything! We can have great relationships, a great career, great health and fantastic fitness levels. We just need to decide to do it and then make a plan to get there.

2012 is going to a very good year, I’ve decided this already! ;-) We’ll see the country come further out of recession and more opportunities for growth will be available for us.

As for our health and fitness, The Olympics is coming to town and we’ll be inspired by the performances of Mo Farah, Dai Greene, Ben Ainslee and Jessica Ennis to get out there and move a bit more!

If you want to win in 2012 then forget what you may have been told by others, lose the fear and the inhibitions, and decide that you want more…

Write down your top health, relationship, business and personal goals for next year, get out and make it happen and don’t give up until you win!

Contact us at the studio to find out how we can help you with your health and fitness goals.

http://aayou.co.uk/contact/

Stressed? What a joke!

Its Christmas time and no one really wants to read about what exercise they should be doing when all they want to do is crash out on the sofa and watch Deal or No Deal Christmas special! Or, what organic, locally farmed, grass fed produce they should be consuming on Christmas day – it’s that time of year when everything goes out of the window!


We WILL all over eat, we WILL have a few too many Bailey’s and we WILL do very little in the way of movement and it’s OK to do this, you need to listen to your body, give in and let it rest up from time to time.

PLUS – guilt is a wonderful thing for getting the studio’s busy in January!!

We all get caught up in the busy-ness of life, our work schedules become almost unmanageable, the stress of family and home life can get a bit too much, we realise how expensive this time of year can easily become and we forget about actually having some fun.

I was talking to one of my client’s this week about his work Christmas party and he told me he is hosting a laughter workshop!

Now, I’m open to a lot of weird and wonderful ideas, but this sounded a bit “out there” to me! Then the more I thought about it, the more I realised what an amazing idea it was. Laughter really is the best medicine...

GOOD FOR HEALTH
Laughter has been proven to relieve pain and enhance the immune system.
It reduces stress hormones like cortisol and dopamine and increase endorphins, the feel good chemicals.

GOOD FOR THE MIND
Laughter brings focus away from negative emotions like anger, guilt and stress and brings a positive outlook on things.

GOOD FOR A SIX PACK?!
A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, it contracts the abdominals and even provides a good cardio workout!

Simply put it provides a fantastic stress management tool, I’m sure we all enjoy sitting down to watch Only Fools and Horses on Christmas day to relieve the stress of the inevitable Christmas day family arguments?!!


It allows you to be in the moment, feel good, give you a different perspective on life and create a positive re-framing of your current situation.

The simple fact is that this year has been a tough time for a lot of us. However, with a New Year approaching I think we need to re-assess our priorities and make a conscious effort to laugh more and have fun in every aspect of our lives. This should be a priority of anyone who wants to live a more healthier life. So cheer up! It’s Christmas!!

Back To School

My lovely girlfriend was telling me about this lunatic she works with; he’s like the forrest gump of the I.T world, one day he just started running and he just hasn’t stopped! He’s found another slightly de-ranged fella to be his running buddy and the two “marathon men” are embarking on the slightly ridiculous challenge of completing 12 marathons in 12 months!


So I decided I would help out and make sure they were in a fit state to head off on their little adventure...

A little bleep test to determine their current fitness level and give me a bit more information to put a specific training programme together, and obviously a nice way to see them suffer and find out if they’ve got the staying power!...

Here’s Jamie’s take on the afternoon...

Sunday afternoon began with the feeling of returning to school as we prepared ourselves for the physical challenge that is the 20 metre bleep test.

Set in one of the gymnasiums at the old College for Education, now Northumbria Police HQ I really expected Mr Sugden, the PE teacher from Kes, to march in armed with whistle in hand and barking orders!

Fortunately we were joined by David Osgathorp, a high profile personal trainer from London, who was on hand to give us some much needed advice and feedback from the results from the test.

Langley and Jamie were joined by Judy and Zach for the opening stages of the test, but Zach soon found other interests (mostly climbing on police mannequins and peddling like the dickens on one of the many exercise bikes dotted around the room) and Judy later dropped out leaving the two marathon men to push themselves as far as their legs would take them.



The test had certainly picked up its pace by level 9 (or were we just slowing?) and the pair sprinted from point to point to hit the beats. Looking good at level 11 quickly turned to lagging behind as level 12 closed in. Langley reached shuttle 10 in level 11 before dropping and Jamie fell a shuttle later - showing how equal our relative fitness levels are as a pair.

We await the results with trepidation and David will be setting us a series of personal goals to help us in our build up to Anglesey.

If this wasn't enough we then set off on a 16 mile riverside run from Newburn back to Hexham. A tough run, but very rewarding on completion.
The training programme is on it’s way fella’s...
If you want to find out more about Langley and Jamie’s challenge head over to www.marathonmen.co.uk and help them in their goal to raise money for www.tinylives.org.uk

I’ve been inspired by their goal and if these dodgy old knees can take it then I may even join them for one of their marathons (let me know the flattest course fella’s ;-))

I’ll keep you all updated on their progress.

What's The Dukan Diet All About?

The Dukan diet has been getting a lot of press lately with A-list stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Giselle Bundchen and most recently Victoria Beckham reportedly following it to lose their post pregnancy pounds. But what is it? How does it work and is it safe?

French doctor Pierre Dukan is responsible for creating the diet over 10 years ago as a treatment protocol for his obese patients.



It is essentially a four-phase, high protein, high fibre, low calorie diet and has certain similarities to the Atkins diet in its extreme nature and in the results patients expect to see. Apparently dieters can lose as much as 1-2 pounds per day during the initial “Attack” phase.

How does it work?
Phase 1, the "Attack" phase, is quite simple: Eat all you want of lean protein, along with 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran and 1.5 litres of water daily. That’s it. Dieters can choose from 72 lean or low-fat meats (excluding pork and lamb), fish, poultry, eggs, soya and non-fat dairy.

This is followed by the "Cruise" phase, which allows unlimited amounts of 28 non-starchy vegetables every other day along with a core diet of unlimited lean/low-fat protein and two tablespoons of oat bran.

Carrots, peas, sweetcorn and potatoes are not on this list of vegetables but appear in the next phase.

Phase 3, "Consolidation," allows unlimited protein (including pork and lamb) and vegetables every day, along with one piece of low-sugar fruit, two slices of granary bread, and one portion of hard cheese. Dieters can also have 1-2 servings of starchy foods and 1-2 "celebration" meals

Phase 4, "Stabilisation," is the maintenance portion of the plan. Which includes rules such as one day a week, follow an all-protein diet as in Phase 1, eat three tablespoons of oat bran a day and walk for 20 minutes daily and never take elevators or escalators.

So is this the answer and should we all just follow this to achieve great results?

Well, in short, NO!

Any diet that encourages the body to deplete its glycogen stores will have a negative affect on the body; the book warns dieters they may suffer from bad breath, constipation, dry mouth and fatigue, all indications of ketosis which is a dangerous and potentially life-threatening state that stresses the liver.

As a health and fitness professional I feel it is my responsibility to bring about lasting change, to look at creating optimal health through safe and effective exercise and nutrition.

All the evidence out there points to the fact that diets simply don’t work. Anything that is so restrictive in its nature to cause such drastic weight loss can not be good for your body.


My first issue is the difference between weight loss and fat loss. You can head to the toilet and lose a few pounds of “weight”; you can reduce your water intake for a day or two and have the same effect. The truth is you need a long term healthy approach to diet and an effective exercise programme to bring about lasting change to your body composition and fat levels.

Burning 3,500 calories will result in a 1 pound of fat weight loss. Now that is going to be a seriously tough training session for a pretty small amount of progression. That’s why any fat loss based exercise programme MUST contain a supervised nutritional element.

You can’t out-train a bad diet!

Unfortunately for us Health and Fitness Professional the glossy magazines out there absolutely love to report on the eating and exercise habits of “celebrities”. If Posh Spice is doing it then it must be amazing!



Why are women so obsessed with what she does?!

The simple fact is that she has been in good shape her whole life. It’s up for debate as to whether she has been healthy for that time!

All of the women you see in magazines have never been seriously out of shape. 90% of the photo’s you see of them have been air brushed and most of them have probably had an eating disorder or two over the years and yet we still aspire to be like them?!!

The simple truth is the quick fix approach will produce quick fix results that produce rapid “weight” loss but rarely result in long-term success as the restrictive nature is extremely difficult for dieters to adhere to.

Our advice is to work with a professional who can not only provide exact exercise and nutritional advice tailored to your individual needs but also provide the accountability to enable you to stick to this programme.

For information on our training and nutritional programmes contact us at the studio: david@aayou.co.uk

Personal Boot-camp training with All About You Performance and Wellbeing

Do you need to get in shape for a holiday, a wedding, a sports event or just want RESULTS FAST? Are you willing to work hard for them? Then a personal boot-camp with All About You Performance and Wellbeing could be for you.

Our personal boot-camps are an intense, bespoke series of workouts designed with one goal in mind; RESULTS! At All About You Performance and Wellbeing we understand that sometimes people just do not have the time to dedicate months to an exercise or fitness goal, therefore we are now offering this personal boot-camp service.

The boot-camp consists of a short term commitment of either 4, 5 or 6 weeks. Each week there will be four workouts, each offering a different way pushing you to the limits. The exercise sessions may include; resistance training, outdoor cardio workouts, boxing, circuits, body weight training, flexibility and much more. A diet plan will also be provided to compliment the exercise programme.

The boot-camps are hard work, be prepared to sweat, but they offer a safe and fun way of getting you GUARANTEED RESULTS!




You can use the boot-camp for whatever fitness goal is necessary. It could be getting beach fit for holiday, ski fit for the winter, running a 5km or 10km race. Farah aged 30, used her 6 week programme as a Bridal Boot-camp so she could drop a dress size for her big day. Check out her results; she lost 7lbs, including 2inches of her tummy and over an inch off her waist and hips.

“…the boot-camp was hard work, but worth it. I feel thinner, more toned and have bags of energy….”

The cost of the boot-camp depends on the option you choose, there are 4, 5 or 6 week programmes available. So if you are interested in finding out more about this exciting new guaranteed results service, please contact James Hutchison at the studio.

Studio number: 0208 348 9706
Mobile: 07979 022120
Email: james.hutchison4@btinternet.com

Does Weight Training Make Women Bulky?

There are numerous myths and scare stories around the issue of female resistance training that cause most women to stay well away from the weights room in the gym through the fear of growing bulky muscles.

This simply won’t happen!



The truth is that women don’t have enough of the hormones in their body that allow for increased muscle mass. In fact they actually have 10 to 30 times less amounts of testosterone and human growth hormone than males.

In fact most male weight trainers will tell you that simply lifting weights isn’t going to guarantee instant muscle gain. It takes serious dedication, a precise and appropriate weight training programme, a strict and scientifically engineered diet complete with dietary supplementation and for a number of guys, chemical enhancement to see these results!

Muscle mass just won’t suddenly appear because you dare to lift weights. Unfortunately many women believe this myth and therefore miss out on all of the benefits that strength training offers.

Weight training is incredibly beneficial to women and my team of trainers and I incorporate some form of strength training element into all of our female client’s programmes. The down side is that YES, it may mean that your overall weight may go up but as I always say to my clients “is the number on those scales really important if you look and feel so much better?”

The bottom line is that muscle tissue weights more than fat. Therefore, as you increase your muscle tissue, your "weight" will increase.



However, here’s the good bit, Muscle is thermogenic which means that by having more of it this will increase your resting metabolism. The denser your muscle tissue, the more calories you will burn even at a complete rest. Those with dense muscles burn more calories by just engaging in their regular daily activities. In fact, research shows that for each pound of muscle earned, you will expend 35 to 50 more calories per day. So, if you gain three pounds of muscle, you will burn 40 more calories per pound, which equates to 120 additional calories per day, which translates into 3,600 additional calories per month and ultimately results in a weight loss of 10 to 12 pounds in a single year.

Weight training is also an incredibly powerful weapon against osteoporosis, a disease characterised by low bone mass, leading to an increased susceptibility to fractures of the wrists, hips, and spine. About 3 million people in the UK have osteoporosis and every year more than 230,000 fractures occur because of it. In fact, statistics show that one in two women over the age of 50 will suffer from an osteoporosis-related fracture during their lifetime.

So maybe the question should be can we really live healthily without weight training?

For more information contact David and his team – HYPERLINK "http://www.aayoutraining.com" www.aayoutraining.com