Improving Race Pace with Interval Speed Work

Improving Race Pace with Interval Speed Work.

Here is a Conditioning Session idea for Distance Runners Specifically Targeting improving or maintaining 5k Race Pace.
The purpose of this Speed Work session is to Build Volume (Spend Time) at or above 5k Race Pace.

The session I did today was 6 x 1 Km Repeats @ 5k Race Pace with 3 min Recovery between each Interval.

The AIM of the Session is to try to improve current 5k Race Pace of 6:20 Minute Miles by running 6 x 1 km at or below 6:20 min mile pace with 3 minutes walk/jog recovery between each interval.
You can do the exact same session as me but just make sure you run at YOUR 5k pace, My Pace may be too hard or too easy for you.

Here is the Break down of how my Session Intervals Looked:

Interval	Distance	Time	Average Pace	Average  Heart Rate
1	1 Km	3:56	6:03 Min Miles	165 BPM  85% OF Max
2	1 Km	3:55	6:03 Min Miles	171 BPM  90% of Max
3	1 Km	3:57	6:05 Min Miles	173 BPM  91% of Max
4	1 Km	4:00	6:10 Min Miles	174 BPM  91% of Max
5	1 Km	4:01	6:11 Min Miles	175 BPM  92% of Max
6	1 Km	4:04	6:17 Min Miles	176 BPM  92% of Max

After Each interval I would have given myself 3 Minutes Recovery (Rest) by Walking until it was time to run again.

Speed work sessions like these are very important when trying to improve or Maintain Race Pace. Your 5k Race Pace is your quickest Pace (if you are a 5k to Marathon Runner) so you will be working close to your maximum. Heart Rate during the interval part of this session is likely to be above 90% of Maximum followed by a nice long recovery of a very light jog or Walk. I chose to walk my recoveries today.

Here is how my Heart Rate Looked During The Session:

From the Table above and this Graph you can see I am working at 90% of Max Heart Rate or over During my Kilometer Intervals (approx 4 minutes) and then my Heart Rate drops back down to 60-65% of Max Heart Rate during my 3 minutes recovery. Below is a breakdown of the time I spent in the different Heart Rate Training Zones. The objective of this session is to spend most of your time in Heart Rate Training Zone 5 – The High Intensity Training Zone – which I achieved.

Recommendation for these types of Sessions:

4 – 6 x 1 km Repeats with 2- 4 minutes Walk/Jog Recovery between each interval.

You should start at 4 Reps and gradually progress to 6 over a number of weeks. Recovery should be kept to what ever recovery you need to hit your intervals target pace for the session. Another way of progressing the intensity of the session would be to keep the Repetitions the same but to decrease the recovery Period so for example: 4 x 1km Repeats with 4 minutes Recovery could be progressed by doing 4 x 1km Repeats with 3 Minutes Recovery as opposed to increasing Repetitions to 5. You should note that you should never increase the Repetitions AND Decrease the Recovery together in the same session, do one or the other but not both!!. Also It should be mentioned that this style of training would not suit Beginner Runners and would only suit runners who are already comfortable at covering the 5k – 10k distance and are looking to improve their times.
The great benefit of these sessions is that it helps improve your Cadence (Leg Turnover Speed), It Improves the point at which the build up of Lactic Acid starts to decrease your performance (Improves Your Lactate Threshold) and it recruits your Type 2 Muscle Fibers which do not get trained during your long endurance runs or your comfortable, steady state style training runs.
Including Speed work once a week into your weekly training routine will help you to become a faster, stronger and more complete runner.

Always allow 6 – 8 weeks when you start training this way to when you expect to see major improvements.

 

Tempo Runs should also be included in your training sessions once per week see this link to some information I wrote on Tempo Running.

Improving Race Pace: The Tempo Run

Phil

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Improving Race Pace: The Tempo Run

Improving Race Pace with The Race Pace Tempo Run.

This is a Conditioning Session idea for Distance Runners looking to improve or maintain their Race Pace.

This style of training wouldn’t be recommended for new or beginner runners who should focus their attention on Aerobic Endurance (Something I will blog about at a later stage)

So what is a Tempo Run?

The Tempo run is designed to get you out of your “comfort zone” (The Comfortable Pace that you want to run at) and into the “Anaerobic Training Zone” (That Scary Place where you wonder why you took up running at all). A Tempo Run is basically done by mixing Harder Efforts of running with Easier Efforts, spending time at higher intensities and then returing to a lower intensity with an easier effort for recovery. During the Tempo Run you are looking to work at 80% – 92% of Max Heart Rate in intervals of 15 – 30 mins or even longer depending on the event you are training for. The Tempo Run plays an important part in improving Anaerobic Endurance and your Fatigue Resistance (How you cope with The Build up of Lactic Acid). There are many different versions of the Tempo Run. Here is the one I did during the week as part of my training for my next race (which is a 10 Mile Event).

I like the Tempo Interval Style of Training, working with Ratios.

The Goal of The Session was to spend 4 Miles at 10 Mile Race Pace which for me is 7:15 – 7:20 minute miles.
I used a Work:Rest Ratio of 2:1
Rest was my Comfortable Pace (Steady State) which for me is 8:15 Minute Miles.

So that all sounds complicated but the session itself is easy to understand but it is hard to do. All you need to do is figure out the paces that suit you. It doesn’t matter what your pace is as long as you are working at above 80% of YOUR Max Heart Rate so figure out YOUR desired Race Pace and YOUR Comfortable Pace. I’m just including my times to illustrate how the session works, you don’t have to run at this pace as it will be too hard for some and too easy for others.

THE SESSION

Mile 1: Comfortable Pace @ 8:15 Min Miles
Mile 2 :Tempo Pace @ 7:15 Min Miles
Mile 3: Tempo Pace @ 7:15 Min Miles
Mile 4: RECOVERY PACE @ 8:15 Min Miles
Mile 5: Tempo Pace @ 7:15 Min Miles
Mile 6: Tempo Pace @7:15 Min Miles.

Total 6 Miles with 4 miles at Target Race Pace of 7:15 min miles.

I have included my time splits in this picture so you can see exactly what I did.

I’ve also included My Heart Rate Graph which shows how my Heart Rate increased as the session goes on and drops as I ran my recovery mile and then continues to climb as I complete the session.

My Heart Rate Average for this session was 84% of my Max Heart Rate which is right where I needed it to be. Above 80% of Max Heart Rate.

Of course this session will need to be progressed as I get closer to my Target Event because I am only spending 4 miles at race pace. I will gradually increase this to 6 miles and then 8 miles @ Race Pace by increasing the Work:Rest Ratios from 2:1 to 3:1 and finally to 4:1. So my final session in preparation for my 10 Mile Race would be:

1 Mile: Easy

4 Miles @ Race Pace x 2

The session will be a total of 10 miles with 8 miles spent at Race Pace. This type of session should be done ONCE 2 weeks before the Target Race to give yourself plenty of time to rest and recover for the big day.

A Tempo Run should be included in your training plan Once a week.

Hope this was interesting. As I said earlier there are any different forms of Tempo Runs, this Interval style Tempo Run is the style I’m experimenting with at the moment.
I will be sharing a lot more session ideas over the coming weeks. I would love any feedback from regular runners on what they think of my training ideas.

 

You Can Find me on lots of different social media sites by searching for Phil Ryan Fitness

Most Active on Facebook , Instagram & Snap Chat.

Phil.

 

My Alcohol 360!

If the Government came out tomorrow and said “Alcohol is now banned, no more will be produced and you can never drink again”…. I wouldn’t shed any tears. However if they came out and said the same thing 5/6 years ago I’d be up in arms outside Government Buildings protesting. What would we do without alcohol?.

I’m not a reformed alcoholic, I was never alcohol dependent but alcohol played a massive part in a lot of the decisions I made in my early twenties…. the majority of the poor decisions I made. I had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I loved it, it didn’t love me back!!

I can honestly say that I have chosen a night of drinking knowing that there would be a negative repercussion in my life the next day as a result. On more than one occasion. I made these decisions often BEFORE I even started drinking in the full knowledge that I was doing the wrong thing. That’s not good. People can say “oh I’m sorry I was pissed sure I didn’t have a clue what I was doing” but lets face it, we often make our decision before we start drinking and then when we are drunk it just makes it OK until we have to deal with the problem the next day.

I can’t speak for everyone, everyone’s relationship with alcohol will be different. I was a good drunk, majority of the time, outgoing, sociable, “Up for The Craic” the usual. I lived for my Friday and Saturday nights out. I had some great nights out and some nights that were shite but I still tried to convince myself they were great. Out every weekend, achieving nothing but a sore head and an empty wallet.

This morning I went for a 6 mile run on a wonderful Winters Sunday Morning. It was absolutely freezing at 9:30am but the Sun was shinning as if it was a summers morning. A fantastic morning for running. This is why I have decided to write this blog post, I thought about all the, not just Sunday Mornings but all the SUNDAYS I wasted lying around in bed feeling like absolute shite after a heavy weekend of drinking and I thought to myself “I’m so glad I didn’t waste this Sunday Morning”

I rarely drink now, I have very little interest in it. Around this time of the year I would often go 5 months without having a drink. I don’t miss it. It might sound like I’m full of regret about how I used to be but I don’t regret all the weekends out drinking at all, in a funny way comparing how I am now to how I was then has been a massive motivating factor helping me stick with this new healthier lifestyle.

Running has given me back what alcohol took away from me. 

• Alcohol caused me to drop out of college, Running has brought me back to college, working full time and studying at weekends working towards my degree.
• Alcohol helped me put on 3 Stone, Running has helped me lose 3 Stone.
• Alcohol stole my Sundays from me, Running has given my Sundays back to me.
• Alcohol made me unambitious and lazy, Running has made me ambitious and has given me energy. I want more, To learn more, to be more active.
• Alcohol effected my Mental Health, Running Improved my Mental Health!

When you are involved with exercise or sport you see food differently than you did before. Food has a function, its fuel. Chicken is no longer Chicken, its Protein, so the day I read this line is the day I stopped giving any importance in my life to alcohol. That line was

“Alcohol has ZERO Nutritional Benefits to the body” 

Zero Lads!! That means none. We can drink 6/7 pints of Beer, not a bother, does us no good, in fact it causes us a lot of harm. The Irish Cancer Society will tell you it is known to cause 7 different types of cancer. Wouldn’t it be great if we could consume such large quantities of something that actually does us some good. You wouldn’t drink 7 pints of water.

People might not like this Article, Alcohol is so ingrained in Irish culture that its actually extremely difficult to be in any social situation where people are drinking and to chose not to drink. There HAS to be a reason as to why you are not drinking, some people can’t let it go until they find out what the reason is. they can’t except “I actually just don’t want to drink at this particular moment in time” you have to be driving or on Antibiotics or something. I used to be one of these people, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why someone wasn’t drinking, I thought there was something wrong with them.

There are times I will have a drink and times I won’t. The times I like to have a drink are very few, I find 3 bottles of beer when I do have a drink is enough for me, I just don’t enjoy anything after that.

I’ve written this in the hope that maybe someone else might read it and think about how often they drink and think that maybe they should drink less or give it less importance. In my opinion Alcohol has no place in a healthy diet or lifestyle and no one will be able to change that opinion.

So Please 

Kind Regards,

Phil

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You can’t out-train a bad diet!! How I wasted 12 months trying to…

You can’t out-train a bad diet!

January 1st 2011 was the day I decided that once and for all I would lose weight. I had tried and failed on a number of occasions before this to get fit but this time I thought it was going to be different. On the first of January that year I weighted 14 st 13 lbs. I took up running and decided I would run in The Great Limerick Run 10k. I signed up for the event, I downloaded a 10 week training plan, I trained, I took part in my first 10k, I completed my first 10k, I hit my target of getting across the line in under the hour (59:29 mins), I really enjoyed it, I got the running bug, I was now a regular runner but on the 31st of December 2011 I weight 14 st 10 lbs. All that running for a full year and in the end I only lost 3 lbs. I was gutted. Luckily for me I enjoyed the running and I didn’t give it up. On January 1st 2012 I decided to really focus on my diet and Nutrition and this helped me to achieve the weight loss I wanted.

So today I want to share some of the mistakes I made in that first year in the hope that you wont make the same mistakes I did.

The biggest thing I did wrong.

All I did was take up running, I didn’t make any effort to eat well, I carried on the same as always, Nights out, Alcohol, Take Aways, Frozen Food, Chicken Rolls. If anything I was eating more food, I could justify it because I was exercising now. I would say its ok to have this take away because I went for a 2 mile run earlier.I thought since I never did any exercise before and now I was exercising regularly that the weight would just fall off. This really isn’t the case. Exercise and Nutrition really go hand in hand, you shouldn’t have one without the other. People say its 80% Diet and 20% exercise. I say its 100% Diet and 100% exercise. I believe you have to put your full effort into both if you want to see results.

There are so many changes I’ve made to my diet since 2011 but Here are a list of 5 things I really credit as being some of the biggest stumbling blocks to my weight loss that year.

1) SPORTS DRINKS

I couldn’t go for a run without drinking a sports drink. It was like I needed the sports drink to get me through the run. It became a crutch. I had to have it. It was part of the exercise gear: Shorts, T-Shirt, Running Shoes, Watch and Sports drink. A lot of my training runs back then would have been 2 mile runs, they may have lasted 20 minutes or so, I know now there was no reason for me to have a sports drink to get me through that run. I was more than likely drinking more calories than I was burning. Sports drinks a very high in sugar and to be honest are unnecessary really for most people. I have a rule now that I only drink sports drinks if I’m going for a run that will be an hour or more in duration or when I’m taking part in a race where I know I’ll be pushing myself harder than usual. I only drink the LITE Sports drinks, they are about 50 calories. Regular sports drinks are roughly 250 calories. Water is all you will need to get you through most of your runs so try not to use a sports drinks.

2) Cereal Bars

I was eating these like they were going out of fashion. They are marketed as healthy, I assumed they were healthy. I didn’t realise then that these are full of sugar too. I was having 1 or 2 or these a days. These bars are not the healthy breakfast option they are marketed as. You are better off having a handful of nuts or some fruit. Try to stay away from these if you can. See them as a treat, treat them the same way you would a chocolate bar.

3) Alcohol

If you want to lose weight, dramatically reduce your intake of alcohol. Alcohol offers no nutritional benefits to the body, it’s all just empty calories. In 2011 I gave up alcohol for lent. I was under 14 stone when I ran in The Great Limerick Run. That night after the run I went back to drinking alcohol and in just over a month I had put all the weight back on again. Here are the photos from May 2011 and June 2011..

May 2011 vs June 2011

Besides the fact alcohol is just calories, it also encourages you to make poor decisions. After your feed of drink you are likely to go to the chipper before you go home and then the next day when you are hung over all you want is comfort food. All of this is adding a high amount of calories, saturated fat and salt into your diet along with having the negative effect that you don’t feel like exercising. Enjoy a drink every now and again by all means but If you want to lose weight, it’s the first thing that you should think about cutting from your diet.

4) “Diet/Healthy Cereals”

I wont write too much here as it is very similar to Cereal Bars. I used to eat Special K thinking it was the healthiest breakfast option around because that’s exactly what it is marketed to you as. It isn’t, its full of sugar, a lot of breakfast cereals are full of sugar. I switched to porridge and I’ve never gone back. I like to add fruit and nuts to my porridge and change these up every now and again so that I don’t get bored with eating the same thing every morning.

5) Added Sugar

I would add sugar to everything. My Tea and my Cereal in particular. I would add 3 tea spoons of sugar to my Tea and my Cereal would be covered in a thick layer of sugar. This was the case when I first switched to porridge too. Now I don’t ADD sugar to anything. I still eat sugar but try my best to stay away from added sugar. So I don’t add sugar to my tea or cereal or porridge.I don’t add sugar to anything, the only time I touch the sugar bowl is when I’m making my wife her cup of tea (she takes 1 spoon now down from 2). I haven’t cut sugar out of my diet. Sugar is in nearly everything. There is sugar in fruit sure, so my rule regarding sugar is…. if it’s naturally occurring sugar in the products it doesn’t bother me but if its full of added sugar (Such as Fizzy drinks or Biscuits) I stay away from it best I can. No man is an island and life is hard so I do let myself indulge from time to time but its ok to do that now that I am a regular exerciser and that I have more good eating habits than bad ones.

I can still remember the night before my first 10k eating Southern Fried Chicken and Chips absolutely smothered in Salt!!! I’m not surprised looking back knowing what I known now that I didn’t lose weight that year.

You will find more of the changes I made in these blogs I have posted over the last few weeks.

24 FOODS YOU SHOULD TRY TO REDUCE/REMOVE FROM YOUR DIET TO HELP IMPROVE WEIGHT LOSS AND GOOD HEALTH!

24 FOODS YOU SHOULD TRY TO ADD TO YOUR DIET TO HELP IMPROVE WEIGHT LOSS AND GOOD HEALTH!

A GO TO TEMPLATE FOR A HEALTHY DINNER PLAN!!

Thanks for reading my blog

Regards,

Phil.

Phil Ryan Fitness

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A Go To Template for a Healthy Dinner Plan!!

When I first started studying Nutrition I have to say that I found it the most frustrating subject to try to get my head around, the reason it is so frustrating is that there is no ONE answer to What is a Healthy Balanced Diet?

There must be 1,000 different ways to eat well and to eat healthily so you really have to figure out whats good you for, what works for you and you need to separate the good advice from the bad advice. When I went on my Nutrition course I expected to be handed a template or at least the basis of a template that I could use when designing my meal plans, it became very obvious to me on the first night that this was not going to be the case. What I found about Nutrition was the answer to a lot of my questions was .. “Well yes technically but you can also………..” Basically I got very few definitive answers to my questions.

So this led me to work things out for myself. I took what I learned, applied it to the types of foods I liked to eat and created a Default Template that I could use so that I could always have a go to guide for a healthy diet. Today I’m going to share with you my Go To Template for a healthy Dinner Plan.

(Dinner)

As you can see from the Image above (Beautifully illustrated by my wife because she wouldn’t let my attempt at drawing this up on the internet) The Black Circle is your Dinner Plate and It is divided into 3 sections. The small circle outside the dinner plate is your Glass. The idea is to divide your dinner into Protein, Carbohydrates, Vitamins & Minerals and Calcium. This is the basis of the template, you can then interchange the types of foods that fit into these categories and you can have a different dinner every night if you want to… very simple and easy to follow.

Protein: In this section you will ideally choose lean meats such as Chicken breasts, Turkey breasts, Steak or Fish (Salmon etc.) Just cover these meats in seasoning you like using herbs and spices to jazz them up so that they are not too plain (Stay away from Salt). As a treat then every now and again you can choose some of the other types of meats like pork, bacon or southern fired chicken.

Carbohydrates: This is your Spuds (Potatoes), Sweet Potatoes or Grains like Brown Rice, Brown Pasta or Quinoa. These are great for energy and are vital if you are training regularly. I like to cut the Sweet Potatoes up into Chips and bake them in the oven with Cajun seasoning, tastes great. Again with this section just choose the Carbohydrate you want to go with today to change up your dinner from the night before.

Vitamins & Minerals: This is the biggest section and it is the biggest section for a reason. This is your Vegetables. Again here just choose what ever Vegetables you like to eat, I usually go for Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots and Peas but just pick the ones you like and fill up the plate with them. Try different types of Veg out, its all good you cant go wrong. Everyone knows Vegetables are good for you so use these to fill yourself up so that you don’t over eat other types of food.

Calcium: The Glass outside the plate is then used for your calcium… basically a Glass of Milk.  (0% Fat Milk has the same Calcium and Protein content as full fat Milk and it has fewer calories). You can then change this up every now and again if you like and have a glass of juice. Try to stay away from the Fizzy Drinks as often as possible…. If they are not in the house you cant drink them so remember that when doing the shopping.

The idea is simple, its simple to follow, it doesn’t have to always be what you eat for dinner but it can be used as a fall back plan for when you are running out of ideas or if you are like I was and just don’t have a clue what they mean when they say “A Healthy Balanced Meal”.

More information about a Healthy Balanced Diet can be found on these sites

Irish Food Pyramid (Safe Food)

My Plate (USA)  The Eat Well Plate (UK)

My dinner template is based on the advice given by these organisations.

Kind Regards,

Phil

Phil Ryan Fitness

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Don’t Diet if you want to lose weight and keep it off!!

The research into this is clear. If you want to lose weight and you want to maintain that weight loss then you will not achieve this by dieting. The research I have seen clearly states dieting has the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve. It shows that while a person will lose weight initially, they will more often than not end up gaining more weight in the long run. If you think about it logically you can easily see why this is true. The word DIET must have the most negative connotations associated to it. When you think of the word DIET you cant help but associate it with hunger, plain food, boring food, Dry crackers, deprivation, dullness, the phrase “Oh no I shouldn’t I’m on a Diet”, guilt and eventually remorse. Being on a Diet sucks, this is why I don’t think anyone should diet.

I believe that nobody needs to diet, ever. I believe that you simply have to change your diet. When I think of the word Diet, I do not in any way associate it with any of the negative connotations I just spoke about, I see Diet as the food I eat everyday and that is all. The food I eat is my Diet. I try to have a Healthy Diet and any other form of Diet is unhealthy in my opinion. Unhealthy both for your head and for your health.

The reason diets don’t work is because they are designed to not work. Diets are designed to end. Diets have to have an end date. You cannot live the rest of your life on a Diet so do not start one if you have a long-term weight loss goal. You Deprive yourself of the things you like the most to eat food you find boring just so you can lose a few lbs. This is why they cannot work. They have no long-term solution to your problem. When they end you return to eating all the food you really want to eat, the stuff that’s bad for you but because you have been without it for so long and you missed it so much, now you are eating even more of it. This is why the cycle continues and how Yo-Yo dieting starts. Before you know it you are even heavier than when you started. This now plays havoc with your feelings. You are now less motivated to start a new diet as you feel the last one was a waste of time.

Here is the trick to avoiding diets for good and achieving long-term weight loss success.

Analyse your current diet, identify the types of foods in your diet that are unhealthy and that you are eating too much of. Then Cut down on these foods or choose the healthier alternatives. (See my other blog posts for examples. links are below)

24 FOODS YOU SHOULD TRY TO ADD TO YOUR DIET TO HELP IMPROVE WEIGHT LOSS AND GOOD HEALTH

24 FOODS YOU SHOULD TRY TO REDUCE/REMOVE FROM YOUR DIET TO HELP IMPROVE WEIGHT LOSS AND GOOD HEALTH

The important thing is to try to cut down on the High Sugar, High Fat and High Salt foods in your diet. Once you have decided on the types of food that are unhealthy in your diet and have found alternatives, make sure you try to test out these alternatives. You should only eat food that you like to eat. You shouldn’t eat food you don’t like just because you think it is good for you. The only way you will keep to the changes you are making is if you are enjoying the changes. When you are enjoying the changes you made you are more likely to succeed in the long term.  

Eating healthily doesn’t have to be boring, there is plenty of delicious healthy food out there. You need to educate yourself on the types of foods that are good for you, find the ones you like and simply eat more of these. Eating a healthy diet doesn’t have to mean eating less food, it simply means eating more of the right kinds of food and less of the wrong kinds of food. What ever you do.

Regards,

Phil.

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24 Foods you should try to ADD to your diet to help improve Weight loss and Good Health!

Following on from Yesterdays Post:

24 FOODS YOU SHOULD TRY TO REDUCE/REMOVE FROM YOUR DIET TO HELP IMPROVE WEIGHT LOSS AND GOOD HEALTH!

Today I want to write a list of foods that I Added to my own diet that helped me to lose the weight I wanted to lose but also helped me to maintain that weight loss for three years now. As I said yesterday

I believe that little changes consistently practiced over time is the key to weight loss success.

The idea of today’s post is to give a list of foods to steer towards when you are trying to lose weight. These are the foods that should to be in your shopping trolley every week.

1) Water: Try to drink 2 Litres of Water everyday. It’s essential for a healthy body.

2) Almond Milk: Use as an alternative to milk. It gives a great taste to Porridge and its good for you.

3) Porridge: One of the best breakfasts you can have for slow releasing energy throughout the morning. Making you Less likely to over eat at lunch.

4) Chicken: A great lean meat packed full of Protein. Essential for Training.

5) Nuts: A handful of nuts per day. Almonds and Hazelnuts are my favorite but they are all good as long as they don’t have salt or chocolate on them.

6) Fruit: Get it in to ya! Find your favorite fruits and eat them everyday at breakfast and lunch or as a snack throughout the day. My favorites are Blueberries, Bananas, Apples and Grapes.

7) Vegetables: Again find your favorites and eat plenty of them at dinner time. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Potato, Sweet Potato, Green Beans and Carrots are always on my shopping list.

8) Sweet Potato: Lovely when done in the oven as “Chips” with seasoning on them. Full of good carbohydrates and protein.

9) Quinoa: Use as an alternative to Rice or Pasta. A Super food packed with Protein.

10) Green Tea: Try instead of your morning coffee or tea. Lots of health benefits to Green Tea. It’s a great antioxidant.

11) Passata: Use instead of jar bought pasta sauces. It will reduce the amount of sugar and salt you are getting in your diet. It’s basically finely chopped up tomatoes.

12) Brown Bread IN (Fibre) White Bread OUT

13) Brown Pasta IN (Fibre) White Pasta OUT

14) Brown Rice IN (Fibre) White Rice OUT

15) Nakd Bars: Use as an alternative to snaking on a chocolate bar or sweets.

16) Dark Chocolate: The darker the better but only in small amounts and as an alternative to Milk Chocolate. (A Treat)

17) Eggs: Packed with protein. Two eggs are considered one of your servings of protein for the day.

18) Chocolate Milk: Use instead of Sports Supplements after a workout. Much cheaper. It’s got Protein, Calcium and Carbohydrate for recovery.

19) 0% Fat Milk: Has the same Protein and Calcium content but with less Fat and Calories than Full Fat Milk.

20) Almond Butter: Use for snacking or an alternative to Peanut butter. Very high in Protein. Great post workout snack.

21) Steak: Lean meat, eat instead of Pork or Bacon or other fatty red meats.

22) Salmon: Rich in Omega 3 Fish Oils, Good for Heart Health. Also low in fat as it is a lean meat, leaner than steak or chicken.

23) Reduced Fat Cheese. use small amounts. Some cheese is already sliced into the ideal portion size. Good source of calcium.

24) Yogurt: A good source of Calcium, Try to avoid 0% Fat Free yogurts that are very high in sugar. Be careful as most will be very high in sugar look for Yogurt that has 5g or less Sugar per every 100g.

As I said Yesterday:

All the information I give on this blog is tried and tested by me so you can be assured it will be good solid advice. While I am not a nutritionist, I do have a minor qualification in Nutrition as well as having done this for myself . While I can promise I wont be giving any unproven or bogus advice on this blog it is my advise that you always consult a qualified Nutritionist/Dietitian for any new meal plans you wish to start.

Call over to my Facebook page for more Articles about Running, Exercise, Fitness and Weight Loss.

Regards,

Phil

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24 Foods you should try to Reduce/Remove from your diet to help improve Weight loss and Good Health!

Today I want to write a list of foods that I reduced/removed from my own diet that helped me to lose the weight I wanted to lose but also helped me to maintain that weight loss for three years now. These changes have helped me feel much healthier and generally better in myself. I have more energy and find it easier to balance work/life/exercise. I believe that little changes consistently practiced over time is the key to weight loss success.

The idea of this post is to give a list of foods to stay away from when you are trying to lose weight. These are the foods that don’t need to be in your shopping trolley every week.

1) Sugar: Cut the calories. Try to not add Sugar to Tea/Coffee or Breakfast Cereals.

2) Salt: Bad for the heart. Take Salt shaker off the dinner table, its unnecessary as you should like the taste of the food you are eating. Use herbs and spices when cooking instead. 

3) Alcohol: Offers no nutritional benefits to the body just empty calories. Big stumbling block on the road to weight loss.

4) Sugary Cereal. Breakfast cereals are often very high in sugar, try porridge or eggs in the morning or chose a healthier cereal option and add fruit/Nuts not sugar.

5) Fast Food/Take Away Food: Very high in Saturated Fat and Salt. Need to stay away from these if weight loss is your goal. You can always add them back in, in moderation once you have achieved your goals.

6) Fizzy Drinks: Too much Sugar, Very high in calories. One of the leading causes of Childhood obesity.

7) Sports Drinks: Again too much Sugar/Calories (approx 250), don’t undo the calories you burned during your training session by drinking these. Water will get you through your workout. Choose the LITE versions if you feel you need the sports drink. Some only have 50 Calories

8) Cereal Bars: Sugar, Sugar and More Sugar. Not the healthy breakfast alternative they are marketed as.

9) Vegetable Oil: Throw it out. Choose Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead

10) Frozen Pizza: Make your own, Buy bases and add your own toppings. No nutrition value to frozen pizza. Pumped full of salt too.

11) Frozen Meals/Ready Meals. Frozen pre-prepared Food such as Wedges, Southern Fired Chicken, Chips or Burgers.

Same story as Frozen Pizza. Get the fresh (non frozen) alternatives and cook yourself at home.

12) White Bread OUT Brown Bread IN (Fibre)

13) White Pasta OUT Brown Pasta IN (Fibre)

14) White Rice OUT Brown Rice IN (Fibre)

15) Crisps: High Salt, High Fat content.

16) Chocolate: Try Dark Chocolate instead the darker the better but only in small amounts

17) Sweets/Confectionery: Too much Sugar.

18) Packet Soups: Too much Salt. Make your own soup using fresh vegetables.

19) Full Fat Milk: 0% Fat milk has the same Protein and Calcium content but with less Fat and Calories.

20) Processed Ham: Less processed meats more lean meats like Chicken.

21) Ice Cream: High in Sugar and Fat.

22) Biscuits:  High in Sugar and Fat.

23) Cheese: Good source of calcium but too high in fat. Try the Reduced Fat Cheese and use smaller amounts. Some cheese is already sliced into the ideal portion size.

24) Sports Supplements: Unless you are training very hard every week or training in a specific way that requires you to consume a lot of calories chances are you don’t need sports supplements such as protein shakes. These are designed for the needs of Elite Athletes. Just use food instead to refuel after your workout. Save a fortune too.

All the information I give on this blog is tried and tested by me so you can be assured it will be good solid advice. While I am not a nutritionist, I do have a minor qualification in Nutrition as well as having done this for myself . While I can promise I wont be giving any unproven or bogus advice on this blog it is my advise that you always consult a qualified Nutritionist/Dietitian for any new meal plans you wish to start.

Tomorrow I will be posting about the Foods to ADD to your diet to help with Weight loss and Good Health. 

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Call over to my Facebook page for more Articles about Running, Exercise and Weight Loss.

Regards,

Phil

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So you got DOMS…….. Whats DOMS?

Monday was Day 1/Week 1 of my new 8 Week Training program. I am getting into weight training for the first time in months. I have never really been a consistent trainer when it comes to weights, problem is I love to Run and usually end up choosing running instead of training with weights. This is going to change, from now on I will be making sure to add Resistance Training into the training plans I design for myself. Obviously as a result of this I am not used to Resistance Training so for the last two days my poor legs have been sore and stiff which gave me the idea for this post.

When I started out running and trying to get fit a couple of years ago I knew ZERO about fitness or exercise or running. Now that I’m a qualified Fitness Instructor (Pending my exam Results next month of course!!!I) I plan to write some blog posts about things that if I heard back then I would have had no clue about. Hopefully someone will read them and learn something new.

Seeing as I have DOMS as I write this, tonight I want to explain what DOMS is (for anyone who was like me and doesn’t know) and how its different to Lactic Acid. DOMS stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and it is basically the pain and stiffness you feel in your muscles the day after a tough workout, Run or exercise session. Or if you’re like me, two days. The soreness is a result of microscopic tears in the muscle fibres caused by the intense exercise that your muscles are not used to. How sore you are and how long your DOMS lasts for will depend on how intense your exercise session was. As you become more accustomed to the exercise or the new level of intensity you will no longer get DOMS until you increase the intensity of the exercise session again.

I always thought Lactic Acid was the reason you got sore muscles the day after exercise and the reason you stretched after a workout was to remove Lactic Acid from the muscles, this isn’t the case. LACTIC ACID causes the burning feeling you feel DURING your exercise session and you stretch after an exercise session to return your now contracted muscle back to its pre exercise length.

Most runners or cyclists will know that feeling of burning Quadriceps (Thighs) as you try to get up a steep hill. As the muscle contracts it forces the build up of Lactic Acid out of the muscle but as the intensity increases the muscle must now work harder and faster to clear the Lactic Acid. When the intensity becomes too much the muscle struggles to stop this build up of lactic acid, this is when you feel that burning sensation. It is possible to train yourself so that you improve your Lactic Threshold (The Point at which this burning starts) letting you train harder and for longer. To train the Lactate System you have to work Anaerobically which is High Intensity, Explosive, Maximal Exercise.

So In Summary

DOMS muscle soreness AFTER Exercise

Lactic Acid causes muscle fatigue DURING exercise.

It’s important to note that you should not do any flexibility training on the same day as an intense workout because of these microscopic tears, you wouldn’t pull apart an open wound so don’t over stretch the tears on your muscles. Just short stretches (Held for 15 Seconds) to get the muscle back to their pre exercise length.

I hope this blog post was of some use. If you would like to follow my training or for more information about running I am also active on social media, the links are below.

Kind Regards,

Phil

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BMI: Useful or Completely Useless? A Rational Debate and Definitive Guide!

I often come across heated discussions online regarding the use of BMI measurements, the aggression is usually coming from the people who say it is completely useless and an irrelevant measurement of whether you are a healthy weight or not. So I’ve decided to give a definitive guide to BMI and a rational view as to how useful or useless it might be.

First things first:

What is BMI?

BMI is the Body Mass Index.

What is it Used for?

BMI records an individual’s height and weight to give an indication of whether they are a healthy weight or not.

How do you get a Persons BMI?

You need to measure a persons Body Weight in KG and Their Height in meters. The BMI formula is:

Weight in KG divided by the Persons Height in Meters Squared!! (So if they are 1.75 meters you need to Multiply this by itself to get it as Meters Squared). The number you get can then be looked up on the BMI scale.

What Does the Number Mean?

If the number is between 18.5 – 24.9 you are a Healthy Weight. Below 18.5 = Underweight, 25 and above = Overweight while 30 and above = Obese. 

Is BMI an Accurate Indicator as to whether a person is overweight or not?

NO it is not! It does not differentiate between Fat Weight and Muscle Weight so it is not accurate with muscular individuals. BMI only takes into consideration a person’s Height and their Weight. It doesn’t take into consideration their body composition. Therefore a well-trained, well built, fit, healthy rugby player can have a BMI that would tell us he is Obese but when looking at him this is clearly not the case. This is because the majority of his weight is made up of lean muscle and not body fat. This person doesn’t need to lose weight to get down to a healthy BMI of 18.5 – 24.9 to be considered a Healthy weight.

So BMI is completely useless so? 

NO!! This is where The Rational Debate starts. BMI is an irrelevant form of measurement for athletes, sports people, body builders, rugby players or basically anyone who is physically active and as a result will have a high level of muscle mass and low-level of body fat. So when dealing with these people you can pretty much throw BMI out the window as a tool for assessing a persons healthy weight. You really need to measure these people using Skin-fold measurements or ideally specialist equipment to get their Body Fat Percentage.

This doesn’t mean BMI measurements do not have their place in the fitness world or that they are a useless tool for helping people get to a healthy weight.

When I first started trying to lose weight in Jan 2012 I was 3 stone overweight. I downloaded an app and when I keyed in my details I was shocked to realise I fell into the Obese bracket on the BMI scale as my BMI was over 30 (30.09). I hadn’t exercised in years, my weight gain was down to a very poor diet consisting of fried foods, too much alcohol, junk food and a complete lack of exercise. Was this BMI reading an accurate recording that I needed to lose weight? it certainly was. Unlike the Rugby player I spoke of earlier my weight was mostly down to Body Fat Weight and not Muscle Weight. I was basically too heavy for my height. Getting down to a Healthy BMI was an important motivating factor for me and to see this number reducing was a massive boost to me when I found training hard. BMI had a very important role in helping me lose weight and to get more involved with exercise and fitness.

So In Summary

No BMI is not an accurate measurement of a person’s health but it is for people who are inactive or sedentary like I was. It is very simple to understand and to calculate so this is an advantage of using the BMI scale. As a rule of thumb, if you are an active person who likes to exercise and tries to eat well, then don’t beat yourself up if your BMI number is too high chances are this is down to the muscle you have gained through exercise. On the other hand, if you have been out of the exercise game for a while and you think you may need to lose some weight and your BMI is telling you that you are overweight, chances are you need to lose some weight.

Sometimes people can be very quick to ram their knowledge of something down your neck and tell you what you think is wrong. Sometimes they can be blinded by this. I believe in fully understanding a topic and being able to view it from both sides. Exercise and Health Fitness is an area I really enjoy studying and I know that there is no one way to be fit or healthy so there is always a rational way to look at any aspect of fitness and figure out for yourself if this fits into what YOU believe in.

Kind Regards.

Phil

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