These are a few of my favourite things: the hydration edition

People will often ask me where I get my supplements, food, workout gear etc from. I have a few discount codes for some of my favourite companies, and am generously supported in one way or another by some others. Then there are the companies, brands and products which I just straight-up love, without discount codes or freebies! I thought I’d start a blog series telling you about these “favourite things” – and extending the discount code to you where one exists. All these “favourite things” posts are on one page.

We all know how important it is to drink enough water, whether we do endurance sport, strength sports or no sport at all (everyone needs to stay hydrated). It’s about more than just not getting thirsty. Proper hydration carries nutrients to cells, helps prevent muscle cramps, keeps you alert and focused, nourishes your skin, assists your body in digesting food, improves your sleep, helps your body recover after exercise (or injury/surgery) and even helps you maintain healthy hormone levels.

I admit I never used to pay a great deal of attention to whether or not the water I drank was actually doing its job. I was then recommended elete hydration drops (thanks Andy McKenzie) and haven’t gone a day without it since. It’s such a simple little product, but I honestly think it’s so important. Not just for people doing sport, for everyone of all ages (although certainly if you do train for sports then you should definitely be taking this product!)

elete is an electolyte product you add to water which contains all four of the key electrolytes (magnesium, potassium, chloride and sodium) along with 60 other naturally-occurring trace and ultra trace elements.

It’s 100% pure and natural and contains no sugar, sweeteners, additives, preservatives or calories (like most “sports drinks”). It doesn’t need to – you just add it to your water (or any other drink) and that’s it.

And it’s such good value for money (working out at less than 20p per litre of water). It comes in a concentrated form so you can carry it about with you if you need to, or just add it to your water at home.

elete has been scientifically developed and is backed by numerous bits of research and peer reviewed published studies. And it’s got the Informed Sport mark of approval.

I tend to add one serving to a litre of water in the morning, and then again to water which I make sure I drink straight after training. It doesn’t taste of anything at all (although you can get a citrus version, but I haven’t tried it). Full recommendations of exactly how to dose it are on the website.

Drink up!

You can find elete on Twitter and elete on Facebook as well as their own website (including research, testinonials and FAQs)

These are a few of my favourite things: the hydration edition is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

What I learned from the Phil Learney Fat Loss & Performance seminar

A few weeks ago, I went up to Stoke to attend a
seminar led by Phil Learney, PT/trainer/coach who currently works at UP Fitness. The topic of Phil’s two-day seminar was Fat Loss and Performance, and I went along in the interests of personal development and general interest (I think everyone else there was a coach or PT of some sort).

It was a fascinating weekend and I learned so much (and also had my thoughts and ideas on some things clarified or confirmed). I admit it was all quite full-on for my non-PT-brain but I think I more or less kept up Phil is a really great presenter/lecturer and made sure the content was tailored to the group and everyone’s questions were answered.

I thought I’d write a short round-up of the things which really stood out for me, or were new to me, or have particularly stayed with me now it’s been a few weeks since the seminar. It’s going to be a bit of a brain-dump, but I’m happy to try and answer questions in the comments, or you can find Phil on Facebook and Twitter, he’s very good at answering questions. (He also has a very good blog which covers a lot of the points below in greater detail).

The seminar covered body types and assessment (of clients), nutrition, specific protocols including carb cycling, carb backloading and fasting, optimal feeding patterns, hydration, health (from the inside out), training protocols, contest prep and tons more!

Here’s what I took away from it…

- “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing”
- “Only a fool never changes his mind”
- Body type assessment using somatotypes and phenotypes (I think this was kind of “client assessment 101″ for most of the people in the room but it was a fascinating start for me!) (I am totes a mesomorph… of course.. what’s that? You too? )
- “We aren’t what we eat; we’re what we digest” – the importance of food quality, gut health, digestion
- The importance of protein turnover (the balance between protein synthesis and protein breakdown) – the more we break down during training, the more we have to synthesize to maintain an anabolic environment
- Leucine! We should look to take in 3.2g leucine (minimum) per protein serving. Phil then showed a fascinating table, demonstrating how much we’d have to take in of a few different protein sources, in order to get 3.2g leucine. 230g chicken (237 kcals/53g protein), 190g steak (375 kcals/54g pro)… 1070g (yes, more than a kilo!) pork (1223 kcals/224g protein). There’s a reason why bodybuilders eat chicken and steak! And I’m glad I’ve never liked pork…
- The importance of kidney health, what poor kidney health means for the rest of the body/its functions, and how we can boost renal function
- The massive importance of fluids and electrolytes (something I know I’m guilty of ignoring – but not any more – a review of elete electrolyte drops to come on the blog!)
- Endocrine (hormone) manipulation and macronutrient (protein, carbohydrate, fat) intake and why this is so important/beneficial (hugely interesting to me as a natural bodybuilder)
- In fact everything Phil said about the endocrine system, the “master hormone” (insulin), leptin, ghrelin, the thyroid hormones and how they all relate to creating/maintaining anabolic growth was great.
- “We build, or we break” - referring to everything we do in training/nutrition for physique/strength/performance sports being either anabolic (regenerative) or catabolic (degenerative).
- A lightbulb moment was when Phil said something which most attendees probably thought very simple and basic: he pointed out that achieving a lean and muscular physique, particularly for natural females, is more about retaining (and fiercely guarding!) the muscle we have got (especially as we diet down) rather than constantly thinking about building more. He likened it to finances: you could say you want to earn £10K more next year. Why not spend £10K less? Same outcome, different outlook.
- It’s about preservation – decreasing catabolism – as well as growth/anabolism…
- “Why diets can’t work”… a look at why the “calories in vs calories out” model really misses the point, and discussing what happens to key hormones when we restrict calories. “A report in the April 2007 issue of the American Psychologist showed up to 66% of individuals following the caloric model of weight loss end up fatter two years later than they were when they started the diet. Any other model, in any other discipline, with a failure rate this high would have been discarded long ago and labelled as useless.”
- An in-depth look at various nutritional protocols with a view to stabilising insuling for optimal hormone management (and the male and female responses to each)
- A look at advanced nutritional strategies including carb cycling, food rotation, refeeds/”cheat meals” and when/how/why you might employ these
- On training, the discussion about absolute strength and the force equation was really interesting to me (and reinforced what I already know about my woeful lack of power and acceleration!)
- The practical work we did – on glute activation, hip/glute mobility, squat and bench technique and force/acceleration were an eye-opener and have really added a great deal to my own sessions.

If you’d like to hear more about the seminar, why not listen to performance nutritionist Ben Coomber’s podcast (you need episode 19), where he and Ru Anderson (a PT – and fellow competitive natural bodybuilder – who was at Phil’s seminar) talk about the content and what they took away from it. And Ru’s own blog round-up- of the seminar is here on Ru Anderson’s blog.

What I learned from the Phil Learney Fat Loss & Performance seminar is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Updated for 2013: my favourite fitness and nutrition podcasts

It’s been a while (… years!) since I blogged about the podcasts I listen to, and it’s definitely time for an update. Not only because I listen to a lot more of them now, but because my list of favourites has changed. Some fantastic new podcasts have come on the scene, I’ve discovered others, and some on my original list are no more.

Podcasts are a great way to “get your learn on” and are a brilliant way of turning long car drives, commutes or dog walks into productive time. Of course, sometimes it’s nice to head out for a walk without earphones on at all, to really be in the moment, but if you walk a hell of a lot (as I do), you’ll often want to listen to something. So why not make that something informative, inspirational or a little bit challenging?

Here’s my current list of go-to podcasts (I download them all via iTunes – you’ll be able to find them by searching). If you give them a try, come back and tell me what you thought.

Access Bodybuilding
Access Bodybuilding is a behind the scenes look at the bodybuilding industry, covering events, news, competitors, gossip, industry developments and all sorts. It’s American, and doesn’t only look at the natural side of the industry (in fact I’d say mostly not – but only because that reflects the size and balance of the industry as a whole). It’s funny, interesting, irreverant and a good “magazine” style show to listen to.

Ben Coomber Radio
Ben’s a mate of mine but that’s not why I listen to Ben Coomber Radio. Well, it is why I started listening, to be fair. But it’s not why I’m still an avid fan. I love this show because it’s funny, in-depth, very interesting, well-researched and extremely informative (and English! Most S&C/nutrition/fitness podcasts are American which is fine but means a lot of the references, resources and recommendations are lost on me). I always learn at least one new thing and am inspired to try something new with my own nutrition, or go away and research something in greater depth. Presented by Ben, who is a very well-respected performance nutritionist, and sometimes co-hosted by Anna of Proteinpow.com, the show usually has a guest: in the past he’s had Phil Learney, Joseph Lightfoot and James Monk. Ben usually breaks this short-ish (30-45 minutes) show into news and views, then an interview or listener Q&A.

Heavy Muscle Radio
Heavy Muscle Radio is another podcast from RX Muscle. It’s funny. I know that the presenter, Dave Palumbo, isn’t to everyone’s taste but personally I find him and his commentary hilarious. It’s another magazine type show, looking at news and events from the world of bodybuilding (but mostly the USA), it has interviews and show reports and all sorts of chit chat. The shows can get pretty long but you can pick and choose the bits you want to listen to.

Muscle Girls Inc
I love MGI! Presented by two bikini Pro competitors, it’s like getting your FBB mates together for a god old gossip and giggle. The first half of the show is usually a bit silly and often has me in fits of laughter (it’s meant to be about bodybuilding but often goes off-piste to discuss food and boys and stuff) and the second half is always an interview with a female competitor. I love the interviews; it’s so interesting to hear from competitors across bikini, figure, fitness, physique and bodybuilding classes and there’s often some meaty stuff discussed, like metabolic damage, disordered eating, relationships, etc, as well as all the stuff about prep and competing as you’d expect. I really look forward to MGI every week.

Natty Talk Radio
Natty Talk Radio is one of very few podcasts I’ve found which talk only about the natural/tested side of the sport and that in itself is enough reason for me to listen. This show interviews natural bodybuilders, has Q&A discussions about hot topics and draws on plenty of scientific research to back up the anecdotal evidence and chat, which makes for good listening.

Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution
I’m not Paleo but find the research and ideas behind the Paleo way of life very interesting. Robb Wolf is one of the leading names in the Paleo game and he’s a great presenter. His radio show The Paleo Solution is packed full of information and a great listen for anyone interested in the natural, healing aspects of nutrition, or in eating for performance and strength and physique sports. It’s been going for years and I’m currently working my way backwards through the early years.

Your Physique Radio
Your Physique Radio is great because it’s presented by two Irish guys (although one lives in the States now) so it feels a little closer to home. They discuss bodybuilding shows, competitors, news and industry developments, review products and gyms, and have some great guests. My only bugbear is that it’s not updated more regularly – in fact I think it might have ground to a halt? Still, there’s a good back catalogue of shows so, if you’ve not come across it already, you can spend a few hours working your way through the shows they’ve already done!

I also still listen to The Fit Cast podcast, The Strength Coach podcast and TED talks as mentioned in my previous blog post about podcasts

Which podcasts do you recommend? Have you ever been on a podcast – or do you have your own?

Updated for 2013: my favourite fitness and nutrition podcasts is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Introducing the Women’s Sport Trust

Thanks to my friends at Promote PR for bring to my attention the imminent launch of the Women’s Sport Trust: a movement enabling ordinary sports-lovers like you and me to support women in sport.

Did you know:

- 43% of teenage girls do not think they have enough role models? Female athletes are positive role models.
- Women and girls involved in athletics feel better about themselves, both physically and socially. Playing sport builds women’s self-confidence.
- 61% of sports fans want to see more high quality women’s sport on television. Yet women in sport get only 0.5% of the sponsorship funds.
- Research shows that female athletes are more likely to be academically successful, and miss fewer days of work. Sport helps women excel.

From the Women’s Sport Trust‘s homepage:

We are a grass-roots movement of ordinary people supporting women in sport.

We provide scholarships/grants to aspiring sportswomen, fund research and public awareness campaigns, and support anything else that will enable the progression of women’s sport in the UK.

Women’s Sport Trust aims to encourage greater engagement with women’s sport through participation, spectatorship and media coverage whilst creating a platform for a diverse range of role models to emerge in women’s sport in the UK.

All grants are dependent upon the generous support of individuals – ordinary people joining together to make a difference to women’s lives.

Supported by athletes including runner Liz Yelling, rugby player Catherine Spencer and rower Anna Watkins MBE, and a range of industry and sport leaders, sponsors and partners, the Trust has an annual grants scheme as well as a small Quick Reaction Fund. These are available to support anything to do with women’s sport, from kit for a club, to childcare provision, venue hire, coaching, travel expenses to get to training or competition or court resurfacing. You can apply here.

One of the most compelling movements the Trust is championing is “Show Up”. If we want to see more women’s sport on TV, in the newspapers and online, then we need to make it clear that we want to see it. So, support it! The Trust’s “Show Up” page will, as time goes on, list a series of events that we can show up at in order to demonstrate our appetite for women’s sport.

The Women’s Sport Trust is on Twitter – @womensporttrust – why not follow them?

The Women’s Sport Trust is launching in May. Keep an eye on the news page and give the Trust your support!

Introducing the Women’s Sport Trust is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

The Wellbeing Guide to London

A little book arrived on my desk today: The Wellbeing Guide to London.

How I wish this book had existed when I lived in London! It’s a wonderful resources for Londoners (or tourists) interested in finding the very best the capital has to offer in the way of health, wellbeing and detox hotspots.

The author, fellow freelance writer Sally Lovett, is a Londoner. As well as a writer, she’s a yoga teacher and founded yoga company “Stretching the City”. She wanted to share her favourite healthy hangouts… and so this book came to be (I bet she had a ball researching it!)

“You don’t need to escape to a spa in Thailand to unwind, nourish and revive,” Sally told me. “In fact, the sheer abundance and variety of brilliant places featured in the guide is testament to the growing prevalence of wellbeing on Londoner’s priorities and pockets.”

If you think London is noisy, chaotic and stressful, this book might just change your mind. The Wellbeing Guide to London encourages us to slow down and savour the city, as it takes us on a rather different tour to the typical mix of landmarks.

It’s divided into sections: central, west, east, north and south (<—- reprazent! I used to live in Herne Hill ) Within those sections, you’ll find eateries serving organic, vegetarian, vegan and raw food, yoga and meditation centres, studios, gyms, pools and health clubs.

It’s beautifully illustrated with photography by Olivia Payne and large print, clear maps. There’s a listings section at the end of each “area”. Alongside the reviews and tips are articles from some of London’s leading wellbeing practitioners.

This handy little book is only £10 and you can get it from publishers Vespertine Press. Now most of us have ditched the traditional A-Z for google maps, perhaps it leaves just enough room in our bags for this guide!

The Wellbeing Guide to London is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

An exciting weekend ahead (Phil Learney Fat Loss & Performance seminar)

Right, that’s me done for the week. I’ve got a lot to do this evening and an early start tomorrow as I’m off up to Stoke (from Kent) for a weekend seminar led by Phil Learney.

Phil’s a PT, trainer and prep coach who currently works out of UP Fitness in London. I’ve been reading his blogs for ages and love what he has to say and the way he presents it. When I heard about this workshop (via Ben Coomber’s podcast) I decided to book on.

Here’s what Phil recently wrote on Facebook about some of what we can expect from the weekend (please note there are no longer five places remaining!)

(Bit small – sorry – you can click to enlarge if you like)

Right up my street!

I’ll be meeting up with a few friends in the industry, training at the Cave (where the seminar’s being held) and generally absorbing ideas and knowledge all weekend long. I can’t wait – I think my head might explode from all the learning, but I can’t wait!

Right, I’m off to prep two days worth of food and pack it all up ready for the weekend.

An exciting weekend ahead (Phil Learney Fat Loss & Performance seminar) is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

New music for the gym – free playlist

I don’t know about you but I need music when I’m lifting: preferably transported directly into my earholes from a good pair of very large noise-cancelling earphones.

I feel better when I train to a soundtrack: stronger, more focused, more ready to attack the lift.

So it was interesting to read a well-timed press release today: rara.com, the music streaming site, has teamed up with neuroscientist Dr. Jack Lewis Ph.D. to look at how music affects the brain and plays a valuable part in helping us stick to fitness plans.

Dr. Lewis has put together an ergogenic playlist which is exclusive to rara.com, and it’s available for free download (until January 31st) as part of a 7-day trial. It’s been designed to help fire you up and keep you focused.

I’m forever putting together new playlists for the gym, so I asked Dr. Lewis for his top five tips:

1) If you’re looking for both motivation and relaxation, try classical music
“Energetic but not overly fast classical music can be ideal in the gym. Not only does upbeat music increase speed, strength and endurance, but the relaxing qualities of classical appears to reduce heart rate, blood pressure and lower perceived exertion. In addition, relaxing music has been shown to lower levels of cortisol in the body, the hormone associated with stress.”

2) Listen to music before exercise to get ‘in the zone’ like an Olympic athlete
“Listening to upbeat music (around 120-130 bpm) gets your brain into a highly aroused state. Music at this tempo or above stimulates the Reticular Activating System, the part of the brain that increases alertness and prepares the body and mind for action. Technologic by Daft Punk (128 bpm) would be a good choice here”

3) Choose songs that are ‘beautiful to your ear’
“Try to choose songs that mean something special to you personally – ones that remind you of something motivational or inspiring. This could perhaps be a song from a favourite movie or a track that reminds you of a great holiday with friends. Research shows that the premotor cortex, an area of the brain involved in planning sequences of movement, is stimulated when subjects have been played music that is beautiful to their ear.”

4) Match playlist tracks to desired heart rate for optimum results
“It is important to match your tunes to your desired heart rate. Musical beats robustly stimulate an area of the brain called the basal ganglia which initiates movements and also has recently been found to increases crosstalk between areas responsible for generating hearing and movement. This may be why we have a natural tendency to match the energy of our movements to the beat.”

5) Bear in mind that motivational music is especially important for women
“In tests, women were able to perform more repetitions in a medley of different exercises relative to men when motivational music was playing. We’re not certain why this is as yet, but it may help explain why exercise classes often have a female majority.”

His point no 2 is my excuse for the fact that I can often be seen bellowing tunefully in my car on the M20.

I just downloaded the free playlist and will try it out… It’s got 11 tracks, and has been structured to build in bpm throughout your training session. Looks like it’s got a bit of MJ, some Swedish House Mafia, good old Baby D, Tinie Tempah, Rizzle Kicks and even some Johnny Cash! If you give it a go, let me know what you think!

Just go to rara.com, download the (free) app (apple, windows 8 devices or android), and use the code HOLIDAY2012 to get seven days of free access to 18 million tracks. It ends January 31st 2013.

After the seven day free trial rara.com is just 99p per month for the first three months, then £4.99 per month after that.

Right, I’m off to go clubbing with Dr. Lewis. Boom shake the room!

New music for the gym – free playlist is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

A bit of food prep

Evening!

Sunday afternoons are all about food prep for me. I tend to batch cook lots of my food, two or three times a week. It makes life a lot easier and saves on firing up the oven just for one tiddly meal all the time. I know a lot of my bodybuilding friends prep food ahead of time, too, and it’s always interesting to see how differently everyone does it.

Here are a few of my tips and “recipes” (such as they are). I hope they help, or give you some ideas.

Tray-bake
This is a really lazy option but very easy and I’ve yet to find one single thing which doesn’t taste good cooked this way. It’s simple: just get whatever it is you’re wanting to eat (one or more veggie choices, and your protein choice – fish, chicken, turkey work well), chop it into roughly the same sized bits, put in a baking tray (try to keep it to one layer so nothing goes mushy) and bake. Spray a bit of oil over the top if you want/if it needs it, or add any marinades or sauces you might like. I’m a fan of adding thick slices of lemon, garlic (have I mentioned I’m single), a chili (flakes or fresh).

That’s just chicken. I don’t have any photos of a chicken/veg mix but I’m sure you can imagine it! At any one time I’ll have one or two different variations on veg/meat or fish tray bake going on. I portion it out once it’s cooked – it makes for very quick and easy meals during the week.

Baked veggies
Kind of the same thing, only for your veg. Again, I’ve yet to meet a vegetable which doesn’t respond well to being baked in the oven. Use fresh or frozen, it doesn’t seem to matter. Just make sure everything’s roughly the same size/shape (so it cooks evenly) and laid out in one layer. For even easier clean-up, line your baking tray with foil. Veggies I’ve done this way:

- brussels sprouts (!) (fresh are great, although you may need to halve the gigano-brussels. Frozen are really good for this, particularly the frozen baby brussels)

- fine beans/green beans. They go a bit crunchy and crispy. Maybe I’m deluded but it’s a bit like having a green chip/french fry. OK, so it’s been a while since I had an actual chip… Again, fresh or frozen work well
- broccoli. Yes really. Roasted/baked broccoli is lovely! Just watch that the end bits of the florets (I’m sure there’s a technical word for it) doesn’t burn. You do not want your home to smell of burning broccoli, just trust me on this.
- combos: try sweet potato or new potatoes, swede or squash, onions or shallots, brussels (!), cherry tomatoes. Anything you like. Most things sweeten up when baked like this
- sweet potatoes. Easy as you like – just cut them into the size/weight you need, stab a few times and put in a baking tray. Add a bit of water (seems to stop them burning and sticking).

From a food prep bodybuilder-y point of view, it’s very easy to keep track of your macros if you prep food like this. Just weigh out how much of each you put in the tray, then weigh it all once it’s cooked (when you transfer it to whatever you’re storing it in), then divide that all as required. Keep a pen and paper in the kitchen for scribbling or, like me, use a chalkboard (not a hope in hell of remembering what I’ve cooked let alone how much of it all is in the pan!)

Slow cooker
I still praise the happy day my Mum bought me a slow cooker. I use it all the time. Just bung everything in! Mince and veg. Entire chicken breasts (cook them slowly then shred them with two forks). I even did a whole chicken in there the other day (which was amazing – I then made a stock with the bones which the dog then enjoyed for a few days). Trust me, I have no culinary expertise. A slow cooker just makes it so easy. And you can put stuff in last thing at night then wake up to a house which smells like roast dinner.

Stuffed peppers

Bit more prep but, really, doesn’t take long! Make some kind of mince filling (in the slow cooker?) – turkey mince, beef mince, whatever you like. Obviously add in whatever veg, spices etc you’d normally add to your mince dishes.
Cut bell peppers in half, trim or remove the stalks (they smell nasty if they burn!) and remove all the seeds.
Stuff with your mince, and bake.


Cauliflower mash
This is one of those easy things I just assumed everyone (or every bodybuilder anyway) made but recent Facebook chats made me realise that’s not so. Here, then, is my “.recipe”. I’m pretty sure I can’t take the credit for this; I think it was Kat Millar who first taught me this trick when I prepped with her in 2011.

Steam some cauliflower (I use the 1kg bags of frozen – much easier than chopping a whole cauliflower in my kitchen which is the size of a gerbil cage)
Drain it well. Then drain it again, cos cauliflowers really do get soggy.
Blend it up (I use a handheld blender)
Mix in protein powder (I like unflavoured pea protein or goat whey. Please don’t use your pina colada choco nutso fudge flavoured whey for this) I’d add about 60g for a 1kg bag of cauli.
Mix in anything else you like – pepper, chili, herbs, spices. I quite like curry spices for this.
Stir it all up, allow to cool, portion out and store.
This is great as a snack by itself, as a side dish to anything for which you’d usually use mashed potato, or with eggs (poached, on the top, is my favourite). I guess you could also use it for topping shepherds pie or something?

Hard boiled eggs
No brainer. Healthy fats, complete protein, all in its own packaging. Nature knows what’s up! I always have some in my fridge.

Do you prep your food ahead of time? What are your top tips, and favourite recipes?

A bit of food prep is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

New moon, new beginnings

Lovely little new moon out there tonight; have you seen it? (This intro does not apply to anyone reading this from the Southern hemisphere).

It prompted me to tell you about the new start I made this week: with a new coach!

I’m very happy to have been taken under the lean and muscular wing of Vicky Bradley, a Personal Trainer and prep coach based not too far from me here in Kent.

I’ve know of Vicky for ages (she’s a BNBF Figure competitor, and actually won her Pro Card with them in 2010) and is very active on Twitter and Facebook. We started chatting a few months ago and then, when I realised that I was in the right place to start working with someone again, I approached her and asked her if she’d take me on.

A long phone call later, and I felt sure Vicky was the right coach for me at this time. She’s been there, done that, and gone through most if not all of the issues! She knows what it’s like to diet, prep, train and navigate off-season as a natural female competitor. And she came very highly recommended (not just for training and diet, but for “getting it”.)

So I went to see her last week, we had a nice long consult, she took my stats (and photos… in a competition bikini… !) and we chatted about everything I wanted to achieve.

So, I’m now working with Vicky in the long-term. We’ve got two distinct goals: firstly, to get me into a good, healthy, sustainable diet/nutrition routine which gives my body everything it needs to build and retain muscle whilst slowly dropping fat. Perhaps as importantly, Vicky’s diet plan challenges me to eat in a more structured way. Previously, I’d eat very well for a few days, then end up undereating either because I was busy, or preoccupied, or thinking I was eating enough (when I wasn’t) and then inevitably a few days later I’d find myself overeating. It was all very unstructured – which is fine, if you’re in tune with your hunger cues. And I’m not at the moment, and we need to train my body back into being in tune with itself.

And secondly, to prep me for stage later in the year! (More on that later but let’s just say – you ain’t seen nothing yet!)

So my diet for the next few weeks is small, regular meals, not leaving me long enough between meals to feel like I’m missing out, and reintroducing stuff I’ve previously been avoiding (“I can’t have peanut butter in the house!”) because I assume I’ll just eat it all in one go. I get to eat it every day now (just not very much of it), so I can chill out!

Vicky’s also doing my training, and she’s challenged me there, too (<— sign of a good coach if you ask me). No cardio. Less volume. Lower reps. One less day in the weights room (to be replaced by postural work, which is badly needed). Vicky agrees wholeheartedly with my physique goals and thinks that what I want to achieve is perfectly doable, but she’s also identified key areas in which I’m weak, lacking or am just simply not connected.

We're approaching this year in three stages. First of all, a "lifestyle" diet, getting me into good habits and dropping some fat, and a consistent approach to training, using lots of compound lifts and lower rep ranges. After that will come prep, bringing me down from what will (hopefully by then) be not a million miles from stage weight and condition anyway. And after that? Yes, Vicky is already thinking about how she can help me with my next off-season.

Ah… it all feels very positive, calm and exciting!

Here’s to 2013. What plans have you got for fitness, training or competing?

New moon, new beginnings is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Dynamix Sports Nutrition ambassador

Look, it’s me!

Back in this post I told you about my sponsorship from Dynamix Sports Nutrition and Dynamix Gym in Folkestone. I’m now up on the Dynamix Sports Nutrition website as one of their ambassadors – the link is here:

Nicola Joyce Dynamix Sports Nutrition ambassador.

Kia and the team at Dynamix have kindly given me a discount code to pass on to you all: it’s over there —> in the side bar – just shop at the Dynamix Sports Nutrition website and then put TGGYTL in at the checkout for 5% off (there are also a number of special offers at the moment so it’s definitely a good time to take a look!)

There’s loads in the range from whey to pre-workouts to multivitamins, ZMA, CLA and more but, if you’re interested, this is what I’m using at the moment:

- Fruit Blast whey isolate (great fruit flavour)
- CLA 1000 (I’m going to take this through my prep this year)
- Nox Xplosion pre-workout tablets (love this product)
- Creatine monohydrate
I’ve also tried the Muscle Impact pre-workout drink and can recommend it!

Take a look, and give the sports nutrition range and gym a follow on Facebook.
Dynamix Gym on Facebook
Dynamix Sports Nutrition on Facebook

Dynamix Sports Nutrition ambassador is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.