Survival tips for Friday Night!

That means it's Friday, because my mouth only stretches that far when I know the weekend is coming up!

I'm sure a lot of you may not be feeling quite so cheery come Saturday morning however, so I thought I would share a few tips on how to combat that Saturday morning, and perhaps even Sunday morning feeling.

What to do when the headache/hangover/nausea strikes......

• Eat before you go out on Friday! This is important as it will give you the energy to remain lively and sociable, and perhaps you won't need to drink so much as you are already the life and soul. I recommend a fully balanced nutritious meal - sweet potato, chicken breast/tuna/boiled eggs, stir fried veggies (broccoli, asparagus, peppers, chili, bok choi) and plenty of water.

This would be ideal!

This would be pizza. Not ideal.

 

• Try to remain hydrated throughout the night. A commonly given tip is to drink half a pint of water between each alcoholic drink.
• Avoid salty snacks! These will bloat you, dehydrate you and make you want to drink even more. I have been known to carry an apple/banana/bag of carrots out on a Friday night in order not to eat general rubbish.
• Whatever time you get home, do not eat everything in site. Leave a few chopped carrots/celery sticks/cucumber and humus and cottage cheese ready in the fridge and perhaps have a cup of Rooibos tea as it is palatable even if you feel a little nauseous. 

Rooibos tea. In a bowl. Pebbles optional.

• When you wake up.... it is tempting to lounge around in bed all day. And you can. But, instead of lying in purgatory all day at least get up and drink 1-2 pints of water and eat some eggs and fruit. The protein will keep you satiated and the fruit will pep you up.
• Try and do some cardiovascular exercise during the day. Once you feel hydrated enough (perhaps after 2-3 pints of water over 2-3 hours) try and make it to the gym or out on to the pavement. This will not only stimulate your metabolism but perhaps more importantly start to mitigate the calorific intake of the night before. If you feel fragile, it would be a good idea to mix walking, gentle jogging and more intense running in intervals over 60-90 minutes in order to burn up to 1200 calories!! I tend to walk downhill, jog on the flat and sprint up the hills. This may seem a little illogical, but it means you really enjoy the downs, don't dread the long flats and really challenge yourself on the short hills!

So, here's to a good Friday evening wherever you are!


I'd also like to say hi to any ex-Haberdasher boys who are reading this - why don't you all leave some comments, tell me if you go to the gym, want any tips etc...

Good luck tomorrow morning

Big Bro's Breakfast

So breakfast is a hard one for all of us. We all go to sleep with good intentions - wake at 6, you say, slither off the bed and blindly mope to the bathroom. That bit is just about doable. It's the temptation to blindly mope back to the bed for another snooze or 2 that generally ruins well considered plans.

This little one mistook its breakfast for its bed, I think we can forgive

And what is the key to beginning your health journey, well breakfast, of course. We hear it all the time - "need to start your metabolism", "you don't want to start eating up our muscles", "it'll help you concentrate". I couldn't dismiss any of these, they are all true. But there is something more important here.

Attaining what we want from our bodies - whether that be a six pack, just not to be fat or to be a bodybuilder - starts in the mind. It sounds a little Dickensian to say, but discipline is the rather unfashionable method of achieving what we want. It is so simple, it puts all those fitness gimmicks and infomercials to shame. All you need is the ability to see what you want and grab it. And you get there through discipline. There is no magic involved, no cheap trick, no shortcut or easy way. There is one way, which is to work as hard as you can in the time you have and let 95% of things that pass through your lips come to be there through a considered choice.

So, if you can wake up and eat a healthy, considered breakfast before running out of the door then I applaud you, because that is the first step of many... and possibly the hardest!

And, as a reward for reading this far I will give you a little breakfast recipe:

Tell me that doesn't look yummy!

1/2 cup raw rolled oats (Quaker's will do)
1 1/2 cup pro-biotic yoghurt - 2% fat
1 cup blueberries/apple/raisins/prunes/grapes
Small handful almonds
Swirl of honey
Tsp of ground flax seed
Optional - 1 scoop of protein powder




Mix together, preferably the night before, and leave in the fridge until breakfast. Nutritious, delicious and easy to do day after day after day after day... you get the point.

Good eating...

Brother Gym Beats

So another day, another piece of music to keep you going just a little longer...

This is a great one to get you in the 'zone'... mesmerising I would say.




Good day, and enjoy your workouts!!

Back to Basics, Brother...

When was the last time, dear reader, that you spit-roast a freshly hunted saber-toothed tiger on an open fire using logs chopped with your own hand-fashioned stone axe?

I’m going to bet it’s been a while… at least 10,000 years I’d guess. In fact, I may even be bold enough to suggest that you have never hunted or foraged for your own food…. And we needn’t include foraging for the last decent onion left in the Tesco’s vegetable section – although it does sometimes seem that you may as well be wondering around in the wilderness!

'You slowly die of obesity, we win'

So, what exactly is my point?

Well, it may seem tenuous, but this is a giant hurdle in your search for the perfect body and optimum health. This IS a free lunch!

Her paleolithic diet had done wonders!

But it isn’t our fault… I mean, fire and the stone tool are the logical ancestor to the computer chip, the iphone, the car, the airplane and all the other wonderful modern technologies you can think of… We are, it seems, hard-wired to forever reduce the burden on the opposable thumb that enabled all of this in the first place. There is but one casualty – let’s simplify it down to this…you.  

Left to Right: manual labour, manual labour, manual labour, manual labour, manual labour, iPhone

This is the paradox, people. That hunted cat roasting on the fire was the logical first step in our technological revolution, and we have not stopped since.

So do I suggest you instantly drop all the apparel of your modern lifestyle and don a leopard skin toga? Yes, of course! But, should that prove less than convenient, I can perhaps offer you some tips to help simulate your 10,000 year old self:

·       Take your time and eat slowly – imagine eating around that fire. Relax and enjoy your food as much as possible. Slower eating will cause you to feel full after an appropriate amount of food rather than stuffing it all in and then feeling like a stuffed balloon.

·       Forage – believe it or not, it is possible to forage around the streets of our modern cities! Little and often is a mantra that should become your own… by finding little treats of nuts, seeds, fruits for snacks and eating smaller meals more often you will have to work harder for your food and in doing so keep your metabolism high all day!

·       Single product shopping! I doubt that caveman found conveniently parceled portions of ready-made food in environment-busting plastic outside his front-boulder everyday. So, neither should you. Keep it fresh, buy single ingredients and know exactly what you are eating! Plus, you have to work harder to cook it.

Someone else to pick your rice: check; someone else to grow, harvest, clean, chop and cook your veggies: check.

So, there you have it, 3 simple but useful tips to kick start you on the way to finding your inner hunter-gatherer. 

Brother Gym's top tips for music to get in the zone with....

So I thought I might post the odd song choice. These are songs that get your heart pumping and your muscles dancing (figuratively, I hope - the gym is no silent disco) and more importantly keep you going when you may be waning!!

Song for this week...

Black Betty by Spierbait - check the link out.... Black Betty - woohoo!!

This is a rip roaring, heart pumping extravaganza!! See if it doesn't keep you going on the road/treadmill/bench press for a little longer...