GI, which stands for ‘glycemic index,’ is an area that creates a quite a lot of confusion. Should you eat low GI all the time? If you do so will it make you thin? Does it actually make any difference? All will be revealed…

The glycemic index basically categorizes foods by the amount that they increase your blood sugar level.  The more the food increases your blood sugar levels the higher the GI value will be.

The general idea is that you want you blood sugar levels to stay as constant as possible as, amongst other reasons, it will stop you getting cravings and hungry when your blood sugar levels drop back down.

Examples of high GI Foods include; white bread, white pasta, most cereals, ice cream.

Examples of low GI foods include;  most vegetables, most fruits, beans, unrefined grains.

So from this you would assume that Low GI = Good and High GI = Bad. Well if in doubt, that’s not a bad rule to follow. The majority of fatty refined foods are high GI, and the majority of unrefined, healthy foods are low GI.

However the problems are (a) high GI is not bad in itself, and (b) there are many exceptions to this rule.

Two foods that are undoubtedly ‘healthy’ but have a high GI are cooked carrots and bananas. Eating these 2 foods will not make you fat, so please don’t stop eating them.

Cooked carrots and bananas provide many vital nutrients to the body, and would never be consumed in a great enough quantity to drastically affect you blood sugar levels.

You… Read more->

The vast majority of people that do cardio have no idea what they are doing. Sad, but true. I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad about themselves, but very rarely do I come across someone doing what I consider to be ‘smart cardio.’ Find out what that is below…

Firstly let’s just clairfy what ‘bad cardio’ is. This is when you go jogging, swimming, cycling or whatever else, and plod along at a comfortable pace for 20/30/60 minutes.

But i’m still burning fat by doing that right? Well, barely. Doing this ‘bad cardio’ is a monumental waste of your time and the sooner you get out of the habit of it, the better.

Tweaking your ‘bad cardio’ into ‘smart cardio’ can generate some amazing fat loss results. I am going to give some examples of what you should be doing;

1/ Jogging. This can be done whatever you fitness level. Jog slowly/power walk for 2 minutes followed by a 30 seconds jog/quick run.

2/ Swimming. Do 8 lengths breaststroke followed by 2 lengths fast front crawl. Don’t worry if your front crawl isn’t very good, it doesn’t matter. I splash around all over the place doing front crawl but I get the desired result – i.e. being out of breath at the end of it.

3/ Cycling – Put bike on a comfortable level for 2 minutes, then put the resistance right up for 30 seconds and try to maintain the same speed you were doing before.

I’m sure you begin to get the idea. The key, whatever you are doing work as hard as you can during the interval periods. It is here where you are generating the fantastic fat loss results.

Today’s Takeaway – Bin the bad cardio and take up ‘smart cardio.’ The results will speak for themselves.

Flat abs, toned stomach, fat-free belly, whatever you want to call it, is the most sought after ‘desire’ in health and fitness. Unfortunately 99% of people totally misunderstand what is required to get flat abs. So is it any wonder they don’t achieve their goal? Find out what is standing in your way -TODAY!

There are 3 stages in learning what it takes to get flat abs. Well 3 exercise stages anyway, the nutritional stages are for another time.

1/ Accepting that sit-ups/crunches are not the answer. Unfortunately so many people still fall at this hurdle. Seriously, if you can show me someone who has succeeded with fat loss by doing cunches and not a lot else then I will eat my hat! Otherwise please don’t go down that road it just won’t work!

2/ Accepting that sit-ups and deep core work alone are not the answer. Okay so this is better than stage 1. At least in this stage you are working and strengthening those deep core muscles which is essential if you want flat abs. But this is still not enough!

3/ Accepting that total body, metabolism boosting exercises are the answer for the flat abs you desire. I know it’s hard for most people to accept, but it’s true, doing stomach exercises is actually the least important part of your routine. As long as you do sufficient ab work, say 10 minutes 3 times a week, your core/abs will be plenty strong enough. You must do total body exercises such as squats, deadlifts, clean and press, 1 arm swings, etc to reduce your body fat to the necessary level.

Today’s Takeaway – You must focus more on total body exercises for a flat stomach and less on ab specific exercises.

In a lot of cases people who want to lose weight fail. That’s just a fact. The number one reason why they fail is their inability to stick to their nutritional and/or exercise regime.

So essentially they put their desire to not exercise/eat healthily ahead of their desire to lose weight/achieve their fitness goals - they simply can’t make the ‘sacrifice’ needed.

Here’s why this really makes no sense.

For the majority of people who I have met and worked with who want to lose weight; doing so is really important to them. In fact in a lot of cases ‘trying’ to do it takes up a considerable amount of their time and thoughts.

So much so that they are often depressed and unhappy about themselves and their failure to lose weight. And yet they still can’t seem to make the ‘sacrifice.’

I believe if people truly thought about what ‘sacrifices’ were most important to them, drastically more people would succeed in their weight loss attempts.

Here’s what you do. Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side is ‘sacrifices for being healthy’ and on the other side is ‘sacrifices for NOT being healthy.’

So on one side you may have; Reduce my chocolate intake, no biscuits, have to exercise 4 times a week, etc.

On the other side you may have; look better, feel better, more confidence, more energy, fit into old clothes, feel comfortable in swimwear, etc.

Do you own list and them study them both. I bet you anything you will conclude that not only are there far more things on the second list, but they are of much greater importance to you.

How can you compare giving up biscuits to feeling more confident?

So what I am trying to say is that by not sticking… Read more->