Accountability Counts

Making excuses to tell yourself and making them to tell someone else is a different story altogether. No matter how much self-discipline we have, it’s much easier to stick to achieving our goals if we have someone to report to. Being accountable to someone isn’t about having a strict teacher or boss shouting at you when you haven’t done something you said you’d do. It’s about having someone to check in with who can encourage you and share your successes with you. Accountability is a huge part of what we do at Transform Personal Training and this is why:

Keeping You on the Straight and Narrow

It’s raining. It’s cold. The kids are being a pain. The dog looks a bit peaky. The house needs cleaning. I’ve got too much work on. These are all things we tell ourselves when we know we should be exercising but are trying to justify not bothering. It’s much harder to make these excuses to a personal trainer even if you know they are going to be perfectly nice about it. Good personal trainers don’t shame people for not sticking to their exercise plan. They are just there to report to so you are less tempted to make excuses. Similarly, we ask our clients to send us pictures of everything they eat so they feel more inclined to make healthy choices.

Keeping Track and Making Changes

Having a personal trainer to hold you accountable for your health and fitness goals is also helpful because they can monitor the progress you are making and nothing is more motivating than seeing you’re making progress. They can also use this monitoring process to make changes to your exercise programme or diet if it isn’t working the way you would like it to or just doesn’t suit you. When you send us pictures of what you’re eating, we can suggest small changes and adjustments to help you achieve your goals without you having to take on a whole new diet so it’s actually practically easier to eat healthily as well as easier to stay motivated to do it.

Sharing Success

When you do keep track of your progress and see that you’re doing really well, there’s nothing like having someone to share your success with especially when they know exactly what you would like to achieve, why you want to achieve it and what you have done to get there. Even if you have just made a particularly healthy meal or had a really good week of exercise, it’s nice to show someone what you have done so they can join you in feeling good about it and encourage you to do more of it.

Accountability is such an important part of what we do to help our clients achieve their goals and we are never judgemental or overly strict. We simply help you to make the changes you need to make with plenty of encouragement and helpful suggestions. Call Rob on 01273 610609 or email contact@transformpthove.co.uk to talk about what you would like to achieve and how we can help you do it.

Missing a workout? Is it a big deal?

You just started your new fitness routine, you feel pumped and super motivated. Then you get tangled up in the daily busyness and you skip a workout, and two, three, or even more! Before you know it, you missed a whole week and you are slowly getting out of shape.

Now what?

Missing a workout once in a while is nothing to worry about. It's actually good for your body to take rests and have the time to recover. So how fast will you actually get out of shape? Read on to find out...

I've sipped a week of training, now what?

First, let me tell you - missing a workout isn't all that bad. A lot depends on what kind of a fitness programme/ plan you are following. If you are on a pretty intense fitness routine, a week off might provide you and your body with a nice recovery benefits. You might even see improvement when you return back to your routine, not only physically but also mentally (a little boost of motivation).

However, once your time off gets closer or past a one-week margin, you may start noticing some decrease in your strength and fitness.

I've Missed a Workout for Almost a Month!

First of all, no need to panic! But, you might want to get back to your routine soon. Again, a lot depends on what type of fitness programme you're following and what results you are expecting.

If you’re following an aerobic training program (swimming, running, or cycling), you may experience decline in your endurance in just about two weeks or so after stopping your routine. Such declines may not be obvious at first, but the longer your break, the more noticeable the changes may be (obviously).

What if Your Goal is Fat Loss?

When you stop exercising for whatever reason while trying to lose fat, a lot depends on your diet too. Exercise is what creates a caloric deficit, therefore it's important you chose the foods you eat accordingly. If you keep eating the same amount of calories as you were while following a fitness routine, you will likely gain some weight.

So to avoid weight regain, make sure to adjust your caloric intake to balance out for the calories you’re not burning through exercise.

Consistency IS the Key

If you’re consistent with your training, taking a day or two off here and there isn’t such a big deal.

Be smart - if you're skipping your routine, always try to walk to places instead of driving, take stairs instead of the elevator and so on.

How fast you lose progress also depends on your training 'history'. If you’re new to exercising and you take a few weeks off, you will most likely lose more progress than a person who’s been training continuously for a couple of years.

There are a million reasons why you might have to skip a workout. Whatever your reasons may be, the key to not losing progress is to get back into your routine as soon as you can. Avoid postponing your workout for another day, what is stopping you today from hopping back on?

NOTE: If you’re sick or injured, take your time and get back into your exercise routine. Work with a medical and/or fitness professional such as Rob, if needed.

Book your FREE consultation with Rob today!

5 Questions You Definitely Want to Ask Your Personal Trainer

To have a professional personal trainer on hand is the perfect source of motivation and accountability.

There is no surprise, that the questions our clients have asked us, are very repetitive. Trainers get asked the same questions over and over again, and we bet that you, yourself thought of asking us these same exact questions.

Here are the 5. most common things out lead personal trainer Rob gets asked often:

1. Can I just do cardio and lose fat?

Yes, little cardio is good, not only physically but also mentally. Cardio is great for your heart, may help in lowering your blood pressure and is beneficial for your overall well being.

The problem is that too much cardio can literally eat away your muscles! While muscle tissue is what you want to maximise to burn more calories, because muscles help burn body fat.

So when it comes to cardio, the good old - everything in moderation definitely applies here, because you lose weight by burning more calories than you eat. And strength training is actually a better way of doing that than steady cardio.

Take resistance training for example, a form of exercise that we also include in our TRANSFORM programmes, will help you build more muscle, which will spike your metabolism and eventually help you burn more calories

The more calories is your body able to burn on its own, the easier it will be for you to lose weight. So if your goal is to lose weight, building some muscle through weight or resistance training is a good idea.

2. Will I get bulky like Schwarzenegger?!

Often asked and often feared mostly by female clients, and the answer is no. Following our previous Q&A we now know that having some muscle tissue is good and will actually help with weight loss.

Women are naturally less able to gain muscles and get as big unless they do something out of the ordinary, it is not natural. Generally speaking, women can get defined and toned, but not really bulky.

While adding little muscle to burn fat, you'll do yourself a favour. Doing cardio, your body loses both - fat and muscle. By lifting weights, on the other hand, your body actively adds on muscle while loses fat.

We'll give you one more good reason to start using weights: resistance training reduces oxidative stress in older women. Oxidative stress is basically what causes us to age.

And that's not all! Have you heard about the "after-burn" effect? When ding cardio you're only burning calories while you're at it. While with resistance training, you continue burning calories for the rest of the day.

3. After I eat fruit I get hungry again soon, why is that?

This goes down to how fast your body digests food, carbohydrates for instance take about an hour to leave your stomach, leaving you hungry again in an hour. This is why we always recommended to eat a complex - balanced meal consisted of protein and little fat with carbohydrates. This will keep your blood sugar levels steady, keeping you fuller for longer (2/3 hours) and avoid sugar crash.

If you only eat a piece of fruit, the macronutrient content isn't sufficient to satisfy your hunger. Also, have you ever noticed that you might feel bloated if you only eat sugary foods on empty stomach? Sugar is sugar and fruit is full of it, even worse if you reach out for fruit juices. Not only you are getting all the sugar and only sugar, you are also lacking the beneficial fibre fruit has to offer.

Ingestion of fructose (fruit sugar) or glucose (a simple sugar) - [you can read more about sugars HERE] - results in activation of certain brain regions that are connected to your reward system and may promote over eating or binge eating.

For our TRANSFORM PT clients we prepare nutritionally balanced meals, as well as snack according to their preference. These snacks always have a little carbohydrate along with fruit or non-starchy vegetables, to keep the blood sugars at check while providing sufficient nutrition.

Find out more > BOOK a free consult!

4. When will I see results?

This does depend on each individual, the type of a fitness programme you're following and your diet. You may be able to see results within the first 4-8 weeks. You can work out hard, but if you do not eat right, you will not get very far too soon.

One important rule here is patience, changes don't happen over night and slow changes might be harder to notice. That's why most people need those moments, when they meet a friend after a few month of following a weight loss, and the friend says 'Oh my, you lost so much weight!' this is when the hard work pays off and the sense of achievement and increased motivation kicks in!

5. Do I really have to workout every day?

You can, but we don't recommend it - your body needs rest too. Your muscles actually grow and recover when you are at rest. If you are new to exercise try to start off with working out twice a week for about 30 minutes at a time. Gradually, as you progress, you can increase the time to 3 times a week for the duration of 45 to 60 minutes. Generally, 4 times a week is sufficient to gain muscle strength and achieve weight loss.

Let us guide through this fitness world filled with unanswered questions > BOOK a free consult!