Sleeping Right: The Road to Recovery

You may have noticed my last few posts haven't been strictly on
"HOW TO GET PERFECT ABS FROM JUST 2 MINUTES PER DAY FOR A WEEK"

All of that is for good reason. In short- that simply is impossible.
Quality transformations of your body that you can maintain take time, and although it is possible to speed up this transformations (and trust me these secrets will be included in future posts) it is vital you get the basics right.

Today I am going to be covering SLEEPING.
Sure- sounds easy. Everyone can sleep. However take an elite swimmer for example- everyone can breath. But how many know how to breath correctly while swimming all out in an Olympic 100m freestyle final, the answer is: not many. In this post I hope to show you how to get a good nights sleep in order to maximize your gains from training and increase your potential training times per week. This is a must-read for all athletes.


Here are some tips on how to make the most of your shut-eye:

Have you ever gone to bed early, woken up late and STILL and feel tired? It's highly likely you are suffereing from low blood sugar. Have a pre-bed meal/snack that fits your nutritional program. It's been proven that two tablespoons of flaxseed oil can be eaten with the celery-and-almond-butter which increases muscular cell repair during sleep and thus decrease fatigue. Flaxseed oil tastes terrible however so I suggest holding your nose while you down it.

Take a cold bath just before you jump into your bed. This is an old Japanese trick that has recently been explained by modern science- one explanation researchers have proposed is that the

usual hot bath at bedtime, increases melatonin release and is related to mechanisms

for life extension. However on the other hand, according to a Stanford University: Researchers in Sleep Biology: cold is a more effective signaler “time giver”) for sleep onset.

Perhaps the hot-bath effect was related to the subsequent rapid cooling

I tested the effect of shorter-than-usual 10-minute ice baths. An ice bath is simple to create: put two to three bags of ice from your local store ($3–6) into a half-full bathtub until the ice is about 70% melted. People new to this should start by immersing the lower body only and progress to spending the latter five minutes with the upper torso submerged as well, making sure to keep their hands out of the water at all times. I found this was like getting shot with elephant tranquilizer and couldn't fall asleep quicker so I highly recommend it, although different methods work for different people.

Of course we all know eating a large, fatty protein meal just before bedtime will also do the trick- however while the protein won't harm you, it's not the greatest way to keep off weight as the meal will go straight into fat reserves (unless you literally run marathons in your sleep) so try keep this to a once a week/not at all thing.

Finally, if you REALLY can't nod off resort to the military crawl postion;

This is a last resort that works for the fact that: you can’t move.

It’s like a self-imposed sleep prison, which the Mayans and other cultures have use to calm infants by immobilizing them. To toss and turn from the half military crawl position, you have to first lift your entire body off the bed-which is no easy task.

And of course: less fidgeting means faster sleep.

That's it for sleep-tips today, another blog on basic rituals to get into if you want a healthy lifestyle you can maintain. I will be covering some more tips on sleep including how to Sleep Diet.

However, that will be in a later post.

As always- Stay Tuned

The Slow Carb Diet

Behind every success is a foundation.

Today I want to introduce to you the foundation that is going to drive your success into shaping your body how YOU want it.


''The Slow-Carb Diet''

I know what your thinking. Oh no a diet.
But really, it's not THAT bad. Sure the first few days and even week may be hard to get through, but I can GUARANTEE you that after that it's smooth sailing.

This diet is REALLY simple & highly effective and that's what I love about it.
It's the only diet I have done that has visibly reduced pesky abdominal fat (often the last fat to be removed) and doesn't compromise your daily life, leaving you full and never hungry.
Now, what do you have to do to get started?

All there is to this diet is a few basic rules which I will outline below:

1. Avoid any carbohydrate that is, or can be, white. The following foods should never be consumed while following the slow carb diet;allbread, rice (including brown), cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food. Avoid eating all of these foods and anything else white, this is the golden rule of this diet and is a vital key to it's success. Do not allow yourself to 'just have one slice of toast for breakfast' keep it to zero- it's the only way to succeed. Don't eat white stuff unless you want to get fatter.
2. Eat as much as you want of the following foods: proteins (lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and cottage cheese), vegetables (except white potatoes), legumes (peas, lentils, pinto beans, and nuts), and healthy fats (fish oil, saturated fat, olive oil and flax seed). Try spreading out your meals, and eating 4-5 smaller meals a day.
3. They key here is have a few simple meals that you can make quickly and that you will learn to love. It sounds simple but the people who get the most out of this diet are those who eat the same good meals time and time again. Great meals using these ingredients include: Eggs (or egg whites) with black beans, beef with black beans and mixed veggies, tuna salad with olive oil & nuts, turkey burgers, steak with peas, or grilled chicken and white beans mixed in a green salad. Stock up on canned black beans, white beans and frozen vegetables, so you'll always have something healthy to munch on when your hungry.
4. Don't drink calories!! Drink a lot of water and if you can't live without your daily fix of tea or coffee try unsweetened tea or coffee with a pinch of cinnamon to taste. Refrain from milk (including soy milk), soft drinks, and fruit juice.
5.  Do not eat fruit. This may seem crazy as the media these days drills into us that to lose weight one must have a balanced diet. This is simply not true, think about it this way: Hundreds of years ago in medieval times-there was simply not the amount of fruit-especially for the poorer people that there is these days. Fruit is NOT needed to function successfully and is not needed to help you loose weight (in fact it does the opposite- fruit being extremely high in sugars.) The only exceptions to the anti-fruit rule are tomatoes and avocadoes, and the latter should be eaten in moderation (no more than one cup or one meal per day).
6.  My personal favorite (and I'm sure it will soon be yours after a hard week of eating right!) is taking one day off per week from your diet and just going crazy. Saturday is my day for this and on this I am allow myself to eat whatever I want, I go out of my way to eat pastries, Snickers, FRUIT, and all of my other vices in excess. I intentionally make myself a little sick each Saturday in the effort to stop myself craving these blacklist foods the rest of the week. Another benefit to par-taking in the once a week gorging is that research has shown dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat-loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate doesn't downshift from extended caloric restriction. Eating pure crap can help you lose fat. There are no limits or boundaries during this day-eat a horse! I recommend you start the diet at least five days before your cheat day as it's not exactly 'helpful' to start it on your cheat day- is it. If like me, you choose Saturday I would propose starting your diet on a Monday

That's all for now, if you have any questions, leave them in the comment box below
For more weight loss tips-Stay Tuned

Introduction to BodyTuner

As this is my first blog, I believe it is appropriate to cover a few key things about it- in my first post.



Well, what is this blog about?

Put simply this blog is about tuning your body to perform at it's maximum potential

My blog is about teaching, and hopefully allowing you to understand how different parts of your body function, and how you can shed that excess fat which is currently forcing your 6 pack into hibernation or be able to increase your muscular endurance by up to 500%

This blog will range from beginners, to hopefully experts, and I really do hope that every visitor can go away with a valuable piece of information that may revolutionize their life.
I also hope to include as many pictures and videos as possible to help me, help you.

What experience do I have?
I have competed at elite levels of sport, representing my country at international level in 2 different sports.
I know how to motivate and inform, two charaterisitcs that I think are very important in someone who is advising you on your body. Your body should be the most important thing you own. It is worth no amount of money. Respect your body, respect what you do with it and what you put into it, and it shall return the favor.


Why read my blog, why get fit?
There are literally a million reasons why you should look after your body; here a few of my favourite examples of positives of being healthy & fit:

-Feel better and have more energy
-Require less sleep!
-Friends, relatives and co-workers will comment on how good you look- not to mention being much more attractive to the opposite sex
-You'll be healthier and live longer!
-Exercise will be easier, more enjoyable, and less embarrassing!
-Younger looking
-MASSIVE confidence boost
-Improve your sex life
-Extend your lifespan

What I personally should like to achieve by posting this blog

What do I want to gain from this?
I want to be able to help as many people as possible help themselves to a better lifestyle- and then maintain it.
My reason for this?
I want to really give back, and aid people reach their goals simply because people in the past, through various means of media have helped me through multiple sporting goals.

Bottom Line: I want people to be able to feel confident in the body they have been given.



Hopefully this has provided you some insight into what I am going to be posting here over the coming days & months.

 Stay Tuned.