Monday 16 December 2013

The Importance Of Food Diaries


I make no bones about it. I am a strength and movement coach. I will coach you to move better, as you were designed to, and to become the strongest version of yourself. I am not a weight-loss coach. The reason? Weight-loss is your responsibility. I can control what you do in the gym, but only you can control what you consume. I will give you all the help you need to succeed, but ultimately it boils down to what you are prepared to do. So if weight-loss (read: fat-loss) is your goal, here are the two best things you can do to achieve your goal.

1 - Start keeping a food diary.

Simply keep a complete and accurate record of everything you consume. Then work out the calorie value and the macro-nutrient breakdown and you will know exactly what you are taking in.

WHAT YOU CONSUME = THE BODY YOU HAVE

You can work it out manually by looking up the calorie & macro values of the foods you've consumed, or use a smart phone app like MY FITNESS PAL which does it all for you. The important thing is to record everything you consume – eat, drink, snack – EVERYTHING.

2 – take accurate body measurements

This includes, but is not limited to, bodyweight. Take circumference measurements of your arms, waist, hips and thighs. If you can get a PT to measure your body fat percentage that will be good too.

Now most people THINK they know what they are consuming. The reality is they don't. Can you honestly say you know exactly how many calories you consumed last week? How much came from protein and how much came from carbohydrate? Unless you know those numbers, you just aren't in a good position to make effective changes. Going to the gym and cutting out crisps are good, but they are just a drop in the ocean if you are not tracking everything else.

I had a client that went from 21.15 stone to 11.81 stone, JUST BY CHANGING WHAT SHE ATE. She started keeping an accurate food diary, was blown away by the reality of what she thought “wasn't a bad diet”. She made the changes and voilĂ , she lost half her bodyweight. Now this didn't happen overnight. She went for the longest time fooling herself that she was eating healthy foods, and that she had portion size under control. When she finally started accurately recording her intake, she realised how unhealthy her food choices were, and how excessive her consumption was. She was now in a good position to recognise WHY she was overweight, and also in a good position to make some effective changes. Which she did.

Here is a quote from what she sent me:
I don't really drink AT ALL now, I avoid grains, bread etc like the plague and try not to eat potatoes more than twice a week. Fresh fish and lots of veg is a big part of my 'new regime' now, the portion control was what I learned!!”

Do you want real results? You need to realise that YOU are in control of that. Only you can do it. Start keep a food diary. Yes it means a bit of effort, but that's what it takes to achieve what you want. Only once you know exactly what you're taking in can you make effective changes. If you need help making those changes, contact me to book a consultation and I will show you exactly what changes to make. So start the food diary, and be honest! Because you body keeps an accurate record of what you consume regardless of what you decide to write down.

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If you need help on how to make improvements in your diet, get in touch. Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY



Monday 9 December 2013

Understanding hormones

Growth hormone is extremely important because a lack of it will mean faster ageing. Your skin will sag faster, your joint health will deteriorate and your workout recovery will suck. Optimal levels of GH will mean you body will be primed to burn body fat, you will recover quickly, your joints won't ache and you'll sleep like a baby. Ways to ramp up your GH is to include high-intensity in your exercise, adequate levels of protein in your diet and at least 7 hours of regular, uninterrupted quality sleep every night.

Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain that you have eaten enough and are now full. If you eat too much junk, your body still produces leptin, but your brain becomes resistant to it and doesn't recognise it any-more, so you keep eating. Avoid junk food and typical problematic foods like dairy, wheat and soya, plus load up on greens like cucumber, celery and spinach for their alkalising effects.

Insulin goes up every time you eat (to lower blood sugar) and glucagon goes down (which counters insulin by raising blood sugar). Leaving longer periods between meals will help stabilise your blood sugar levels. If you're constantly producing too much insulin your body is primed to store body fat. The more often you eat the more reliant you become on those meals and skipping them means a drop in blood sugar, which means you get tired, lack concentration, blurred vision, etc. Unless you truly train like a beast, let genuine hunger dictate your meals and leave at least 4 hours between feeding.

Adrenaline receptors reside in our stubborn fat areas like the waist and hips. The more stress you place on your body, from poor diet and lack of quality sleep (which the body treats as 'famine' type stress), the more fat you will store in these areas, because it's easier for these receptors to pull energy from these areas. It is extremely important to eliminate or avoid stress in your lives, and if you cannot do that, find a way to counter the effects of stress – like meditation, going for massages, using a steam room, working with a foam roller, getting adequate sleep, etc. That way you keep your adrenaline sensitivity high so you're not overloaded with it and your stubborn areas won't be so fat.

The bottom line is simply doing a combination of the right things. Avoid eating and drinking junk, eat a nutritionally dense diet, avoid stress, get good quality sleep, exercise frequently with a good level of intensity. The combination is important! Do not think you can just exercise harder and it will make up for your short-comings elsewhere. If you are not eating right and not sleeping well, trust me, what you perceive to be intensity in your exercise is nowhere near intense. You will fatigue way before you get anywhere close to real intensity.

So do yourself a favour – eating a diet rich in good quality nutrients, decent levels of quality protein and plenty of greens, drink plenty of water, avoid the junk food and junk drinks (especially alcohol), go to bed at a decent hour, get rid of as much stress as you can and find ways to effectively deal with what remains. If you are doing those things, you are now in a good position to exercise and discover what your body is truly capable of!

If you have questions on how to make adjustments to your diet, creating an optimal sleep environment, counteracting stress on the body, and corrective exercise, contact me to arrange a consultation to get you back on track!

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If you need help on how to make improvements in your diet, get in touch. Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY



Thursday 21 November 2013

Monday 18 November 2013

Cashew and Coconut protein balls

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
  • 1 bag of cashew nuts
  • 3 scoops of protein powder
  • 6-10 dates
  • 1-2 tablespoons of honey
  • 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
  • Desiccated coconut

Blend the cashew nuts until they form a paste, then add the other ingredients. If it is too dry just add more oil. Roll them up into balls, and then roll them in the desiccated coconut to coat them. Place them in the fridge for 10-15 minutes and voilĂ ! Enjoy your healthy snack :)


If you need help on how to make improvements in your diet, get in touch. Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY

Monday 11 November 2013

Congratulations! You're one of the few that actually follow the links! Quote this poster to get your kettlebell class for only £5 - valid up to and including the 18th of November 2013.


Tuesday 5 November 2013

Home exercise equipment and workout routine

This is a question that I get asked time and time again. “What can I do at home?” So I have come up with a short list of home exercise equipment, plus a home workout routine that you can follow. When looking at home exercise equipment, there are a few priorities to consider. Firstly is always going to be Bang For Your Buck. Basically, you don't want to spend too much, and for what you do spend, you want to get the biggest return. Now you could get away with less equipment, just as you could always add more, but I have capped the budget at £100. This is a reasonably small amount of money to invest into your own health & well-being without stretching the budget too far. Face it, a gym membership will likely have a joining fee of around £30-£50, plus the same again per month. So for the cost of 2 or 3 months gym membership, you get yourself into the game.

Ab wheel
Chin up bar
Skipping rope
Foam roller
Kettlebell
(Rings & Straps – suspension trainer)
(resistance bands)

All of the above can be purchased for under £100. If you need help finding them for the right price, ask me and I will point you in the right direction.

If you are looking to just get fit, maybe use exercise to burn fat, the skipping rope alone will be a great investment. Start off small, but 10 minutes of skipping every day will dramatically increase your ability to uptake oxygen (fitness) and will do wonders for shifting those unwanted pounds.
Forget sit-ups or crunches. Those two mindless exercises will only make you better at doing sit-ups and crunches. Nothing more. Invest about £7 in an AB Wheel and get rolling! Make sure you do it safely and do not arch your back during the roll out. Think of it as a moving (and therefore more beneficial) plank.
A kettlebell is a wonderful piece of home exercise equipment; extremely versatile and it doesn't take up much space. Everything from swings to squats to get ups. There's a reason it's often referred to as “the gym in the palm of your hand”.

(Optional additional extras can be resistance bands and a suspension trainer)
Resistance bands are again wonderfully versatile, from shoulder pressing to glute activation to assisting with stretching, you just can't go wrong.
If you have somewhere to throw straps over, rings & straps will replace a TRX at less than a fifth of the cost. Now think rows, presses, curls, extensions, flies, and that's just the basic stuff - Getting on the leg scissoring for extreme Ab workouts!
Finally a foam roller. Recovery is as important as exercise. You don't get stronger from lifting weights, you get stronger by recovering from lifting weights. If you are not taking recovery seriously you are in for a world of problems later on.

Now for the workouts...

The reality is we are all different. Different bodies with different strengths and weaknesses, old or new injuries, vastly different goals... etc... but I will attempt to give you all a very generic workout that should cover all bases.

Program one:

Skipping – 2min

Turkish Get Ups – 1 each side
Goblet squats – 8-10reps
(superset the TGU and the squats for 5 sets)

Ab wheel roll outs – 5 sets of 5-8reps

Program two:

Skipping – 2min

Swings – 10reps
Pull ups – Your max but only up to 10reps
Push ups – Your max but only up to 10reps
(Triset the swings, pull-ups & push-ups, and do 5-8 sets)

Ab wheel roll outs – 5 sets of 5-8 reps

Do each program at least twice each every week. It shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes.

If you would like a specific home workout routine based on your body and your needs, contact me for a consultation and I would be happy to help you.


If you need help on how to do this, get in touch. Personal training can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing &; progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY

Tuesday 8 October 2013



Let me start off by saying I really don't care about weight-loss. I am not a weight-loss coach. I am a strength & movement coach. If weight-loss is your goal; cut off a leg or two. Hell, maybe even an arm for good measure. Presto. Instant weight-loss. What's that you say? That isn't what you wanted? Now we are getting somewhere. Let's get more specific. If weight-loss isn't really your goal, then what is? Could it be that you just want to look better? Then why are you using the scales to measure that? Could it be you want less bodyfat? Again, why use the scales – they don't tell you bodyfat do they? Could it be you want trimmer waistline with more defined legs and arms? WHY ARE YOU USING THE SCALES?! Here's your first task. Throw your scales away. I mean it. Now get yourself a full length mirror and a measuring tape. Maybe some callipers (optional).

I myself am performance orientated. You might not be; that's okay. There is nothing wrong with having aesthetic goals. If you do, you have two main training options open to you.
One, train like a bodybuilder. They train specifically for aesthetics. This doesn't mean you are going to be entering bodybuilding shows, it just means you follow their protocols for training, using aesthetics as a goal. Please do not utter the words “I don't want to get too big...”. I eat as much food as I can possibly handle, sometimes over 5,000 calories a day. I train like a beast possessed and I lift as much weight as I can handle safely. Sometimes more. I have not gotten “too big”. I have not even gotten “big”. If somehow you find the holy grail of getting too big please come and tell me as I really want to know.
Your second option is to train with performance as a goal. This is what I do. I value being able to lift more weight over gaining bigger biceps, but I enjoy the fact that my biceps look better as a result of my training. Aesthetics is not my goal, but it HAPPENS ANYWAY as an enjoyable side effect of my improved performance.

This brings me to food. I view food as FUEL. It is what my body needs in order to perform better. I need high quality fuel (naturally nutritionally-dense food sources), and LOTS OF IT. I am not scared to eat more in case I get fat; I am scared to eat less in case I cannot perform as well. A small salad is just water. My body needs rocket fuel. When you view food as fuel, you start to realise that you need the best quality, and you start to realise that you probably need quite a lot of it – even if your goal is to be physically smaller. Starving yourself just doesn't work. Your body will then crave something calorie-dense – ANYTHING calorie-dense – and you will likely give in and eat a pile of junk.

LIFT WEIGHTS plus...

PLENTY OF NATURAL NUTRITIONALLY-DENSE FOOD plus...

AS LITTLE CARDIO AS YOU CAN POSSIBLY GET AWAY WITH plus...

(active) RECOVERY will equal...

A HEALTHY BODY THAT LOOKS GOOD & PERFORMS WELL.

Isn't that really what you wanted?

If you need help on how to do this, get in touch. Personal training can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing &; progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY



Monday 19 August 2013

Do you really want to lose weight?

 Recently I had a conversation with someone that struck a cord with me. It's not a new topic. It has been done to death. However; it still seems to be unresolved - weight loss.

It seems there are still people whose main focus is to LOSE WEIGHT. Their goal, and happiness, is forever tied to the number on the scale.

 When I have questioned people about their weight loss goal, the real reason always boils down to the same thing. They are seeking to become more attractive; which is fine to have as a goal. We all want to look better. However the problem is people are confusing attractiveness with with their relationship to gravity. By merely losing weight, you become lighter, the numbers on the scale go down, but do you really look any better for it? Probably not - because you are using the wrong tool to measure progress towards your goal. You become a slightly smaller version of yourself, but look no better for it.

If your goal is to LOOK more attractive towards others, use the same means of gauging attractiveness as they do - HOW YOU LOOK. They don't stand you on a scale to determine how attractive you are, so why are you doing it? Throw out the scale and get a full length mirror instead.

Want just to weigh less? Eat less.

Want to look better? Train better & eat better.


If you need help on how to do this, get in touch. Personal training can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing & progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY