It's been a good week this week at the Gym. I had my fourth PT on Tuesday evening, and have also been to the gym on Thursday and Sunday. As I can feel my inititial goals being reached (my fitness improving, and body noticeably slimming down), my thoughts are now turning to my next goal - a FLAT Stomach

It's great to feel less flabby now, and to be able to fit better into my clothes, but it would be even better to have a really toned and sculpted tum. I never have before. Even when I was a skinny size 8 (UK size) my tum was slim, but not properly flat or sculpted. So here is my 5 step plan for achieving my flat stomach goal.

1. Continue with cardio and weight training to burn the fat
2. Intensify core activity and sit ups by introducing more of these exersises into my own gym routines outside of PT
3. Work harder on the stomach with medicine balls and swiss ball
4. Increase 3 x a week excerise to 4 (every other day) with the introduction of a purely cardio routine, like a run, swim, or a bike ride
5. Be patient :)

I will let you know how I get on!

Here are some other articles on achieving a flat stomach:

http://zenhabits.net/2006/11/recipe-for-flat-stomach/
http://www.traineo.com/article-achieving-a-flat-stomach
http://www.traineo.com/article-quick-ab-routine
http://menshealth.about.com/cs/fitness/a/flat_stomach.htm

Good evening

This lunchtime I had my 4th PT session, which means I have now been doing this for 1 month! I can already feel a big difference in myself. I have more energy and feel more alert, plus my clothes are feeling less tight, which is great! My trainer said that I should start really seeing a difference after week 6, so that is really encouraging too

Anyway - today, like the last 3 sessions, was totally different! I started with my 10min rowing machine warm up (that is certainly feeling easier now!) and then it seemed like a blur of bench rows, medicine ball squats, jump squats, star jumps, press ups, more star jumps, more pressups, more bench rows, skipping, sit ups, core.... you get the idea!

This week I plan to be much better on the alcohol side too, it seems a waste to drink after all the hard work I have put in

Check out Mark's You Tube links this week - the before and after shots are really inspiring.

TTFN

So having decided to wage my war on the flab, I decided to sign up with a Personal Trainer

I went to my very first session with a mixture of excitement, anticipation, and dread! Sara (my trainer) asked me to select which machine I would like to warm up on. I chose the Cross Trainer, but she shook her head explaining she wasn't a fan of that machine due to the un natural movement.... Oh dear. That was my perferred cardio machine! So I chose the rowing machine thinking that I could probably cope with 5 mins of that....

10 minutes later, I heaved myself off the rower!!! If I thought the session was going to be tough... I was right. I had NEVER done more than 5 mins on a rower before in my life... and I still had 40 minutes to go!

I was then thrown into a series of squats, lunges, bench rows, squats with medicine balls, sit ups, press ups, core stuff... I can't list them all, but they were all VERY HARD!!!!

By the time the cool down came, I was ready to collapse. I think Sara could see that, so kindly let me cool down on the bike machine that let's you sit back and relax a bit. She then proceeded to tell me that on a scale of 1 to 10, (with 1 being easy, and 10 being so hard you could throw up) that we had just worked out at about a 3. Great! So it was only going to get harder from here.....!!!

 

Good evening

4 weeks ago I decided I was getting distinctly flabby and out of shape so i decided to sign up with a personal trainer (PT) to kick me into shape. Well, 3 weeks into my new regime I have to say it is the best thing I could have done

These were my stats on induction:

• 33% body fat
• 22 BMI

Now, I do know that a BMI of 22 is hardly an issue, in fact it is within the healthy range. 33% body fat should be 30% and probably about 25% to be aesthetically pleasing - so that is my issue, not the weight.

These are my goals:

• Slim down
• Tone up
• Get fit

Simple really

In order to acheive those goals, i am doing the following:

• drink lots of water (every time you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated when you are dehydrated the body slows down and can't operate properly)
  
• eat smaller portions. Meat portions no bigger than my fist, portion to be like 2 cupped hands
  
• eat more at breakfast - porridge, yogurt, (smoothie ok, but with nuts)
• eat more snacks - fruit, nuts, seeds
• drink less alcohol - alternate nights rather than every night. Alcohol STOPS the body burning fat while it burns the alcohol
• all meals should have an element of protein, fat and carbohydrate
  
• Initially 1 x hour PT session per week - but can be reviewed and reduced over time :)
  
• Additionally 2 x gym sessions or run/cycle

So that's it. That is my new regime, my war on fat!