After your first workout, you might find yourself facing a familiar but often unwelcome sensation – muscle soreness. This discomfort is commonly known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). While it might leave you reaching for the ibuprofen, understanding the science behind DOMS can help you navigate through the discomfort and optimise your recovery.
As we age, it becomes increasingly important to pay attention to our diet and ensure that we're getting the nutrients we need. Protein, in particular, is a crucial component of a healthy diet, especially for women aged 40 and above. Here are some of the key benefits of protein for women in this age group:
This is me: I’m a long-standing Boost Your Body client, with a hiatus or two under my belt! Along the way, I’ve had some great success, reached some ambitious goals, and had a fall or two off the wagon. I’ve learnt a bit about exercise and nutrition and even actually put some of it into practice!
Today, I’m back with Boost Your Body, and I’m here to share my journey with you, warts and all, no holds barred, hoping that it helps us all to keep going.
In this monthly blog, you will be able to see my progress, my slip-ups, my falls off the wagon and my climbs back on, my nutritious food inspiration and my cake-cidents! I’ll share what happens when I’m tired and fed up or full of motivation and drive, what I do to overcome the slumps, where things don’t go according to plan and how, with a bit of luck, I will keep going anyway.
This blog won’t absolutely reflect everyone’s experience - we all have different goals and challenges - but I’m fairly sure it will ring some pretty loud bells for some of you. Even if it doesn’t fully resonate, I hope you’ll still find some common ground whether your focus is wellness, mental health, fitness, strength, fat loss, or a combination.
I promise I will tell you the truth all the time - no fake positivity, but hopefully a general sense of optimism and the right overall trajectory! As you can see, I’m sharing everything including current photos and measurements. Don’t think for a minute I am feeling chirpy about this - I do not love this part - I have had to put some effort into resisting a self-deprecating running commentary (dressed up as humour!) alongside the measurements, but body shame is unhelpful and misplaced, so let’s get it all out there!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
So they say anyway…
If you’re trying to be ‘on it’ with your health and fitness it also happens to be the most challenging time of year.
With work socials, chocolates literally everywhere you look and it being a natural time of year to catch up with friends over a drink or three it’s no wonder most people end up gaining a few lbs over the festive period.
So how do you make it less stressful?
For me the answer comes down to clarity of intent.
Jonny Bowden, who authored the Poliquin Manual for Nutrition, explained this really well. I won’t reinvent the wheel so here is what he said:
“Eat a bar that’s 100 calories of sugar. Your blood sugar jumps up. The pancreas responds with a big shot of insulin, whose job it is to bring blood sugar down. In some people it doesn’t do such a great job, leaving them with high blood sugar and high insulin, both risk
factors for heart disease. In others it does the job OK, but the sugar winds up in the fat cells. Either way, you lose. And we’re not talking about losing fat!
We often see people jump into a new fitness regime and get dispirited if they don't immediately start dropping lbs hand over fist.
The reality is, the scales are one of many ways to measure your progress and initially they probably aren't a good choice. You will lose weight sooner or later but it's so important you don't get a week (or even a month) in and then get dispirited.
When you first start training you'll be so far from your genetic potential for muscle growth (nope you won't look like a man!) that you'll be adding muscle and losing fat all at the same time which results in big differences to your appearance and how you feel but no real change on the scales.
We've even had Clients gain weight but drop dress sizes. Just take a moment to let that sink in.
They have got heavier on the scales but are buying dresses 2 sizes smaller than previously...
Here are 5 better signs that you're on the right track.
Whilst I love the fact that most of the people we work with get results I'm also fascinated by those who don't.
Those who start and get good results but then quit before they get to their end goal.
Or those who jump through the hoops to start working with us but don't show up for their first session.
Whilst we have systems in place to prevent too much of that happening (there is a reason you have to go through a couple of stages to work with us, it's not just for a laugh) some invariably slip through the net.
It would be easy to trot out the standard industry guff about them "not wanting it enough" or "not having enough skin in the game" or any of the other phrases thrown around when someone quits.
But as a serial quitter myself that doesn't satisfy me.
It wasn't until I found out about the 5 Phases of Success that things really clicked.
Lifting weights to lose body fat is fast gaining acceptance in mainstream media and fitness publications, which is great.
Coaches have known this for a long time but, with the mainstream publications finally catching up, that message will be broadcast to a wider audience which is only going to be a good thing for our health and wellbeing.
Here are 4 reasons why you should lift weights to lose body fat and achieve optimal health.
By the time you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated and even a tiny degree of dehydration has noteworthy consequences.
Studies have found that people who lose as little as two percent of their body weight through sweating have a drop in blood volume which causes the heart to work harder to circulate blood.
It’s the most wonderful time of year, or so the song would have us believe.
However, if you’re trying to stay in shape and keep making progress it can be a minefield.
Endless temptations abound from Christmas parties, more office treats (who doesn’t like Roses at this time of year?!) and a general feeling of sod it, I’ll start again in January.
The truth, though, is going bonkers over the next 6 weeks can set you back months on the other side of New Year, whilst a little self-control and some sensible choices can mean you either continue to make progress up to Christmas and the New Year or worst case go into January no worse off than now and in a great position to really get stuck in from January onwards.
Let me caveat: no one is saying live like a hermit for the next 6 weeks, far from it. Life is too short for that and the social interactions at this time of year can do wonders for mental health and strengthening connections with friends and family.