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Is it possible to reach your fitness goals AND have a social life? The short answer is YES! Aiming for better health and fitness is always a great idea, but it can come with some common challenges. One of those common challenges is striking a balance between reaching your goals and still being able to enjoy a fulfilling social life. It can sometimes feel overwhelming to choose between staying committed to your fitness routine or enjoying social occasions and events with your

Does nutrient timing have any benefit, let's discuss... Nutrient timing refers to consuming nutrients at particular times for maximising performance, recovery and overall health. This particularly concerns macronutrients which include protein, carbohydrates and dietary fats. It is a strategic approach that is more important for those who train at a high level and are looking to maximise their results. By carefully planning when to consume these nutrients, you can maximize the

Understanding the nutrition panel on packaged food can be a little confusing, let's break it down together... Understanding food labels can be an extremely helpful tool on your fitness journey, but also in regards to your overall health. By understanding how to read nutrition labels, we can ensure we are making informed choices when it comes to the food we eat. If you are currently flexible-dieting, reading nutrition labels will help you determine the caloric and macronutrien

Drinking enough water is vital, let's talk about why... Hydration is essential for so many aspects of our health, as our bodies require adequate hydration to perform daily essential functions and perform optimally. Hydration is required for many of our body's systems such as: Maintaining bodily functions - water is responsible for several cellular processes such as waste removal and nutrient transport. Without adequate hydration, we risk suffering from constipation as digesti

So you want to lose weight and are in a calorie deficit. Here’s what you can expect… I’m just going to get straight to the point with this one… If you are truly in a deficit, you are going to be hungry at some point in time. This is something you need to accept if you want to lose weight. If you are hungry, chances are your deficit is working. Being hungry is a part of the process. Your body is using more energy than it is taking, therefore, you are in a successful deficit. T

We can make our long-term goals seem more achievable by breaking the ultimate goal down into smaller goals throughout the journey. This becomes our short, medium and long-term goals. Previously, we have discussed SMART goals in relation to our fitness aspirations. You may refer to the blog “How to Determine Your Fitness Goals: A Strategic Guide”. This blog will give you a more in-depth run-down of creating goals using the SMART method. To briefly recap, SMART is an acronym wh

Can alcohol lead to weight gain? If so, why is that? Let’s discuss… Alcohol is sometimes referred to as the fourth macronutrient. Our main macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates and fat. So why is alcohol considered the fourth? Alcohol contains calories and this is why it is considered a macronutrient, however, unlike the other macros - Alcohol does not contain any other nutritional value, e.g. vitamins, minerals, or fibre. Let’s compare the four macronutrients and their c

One day you are ready to go, excited to train and make progress. Fast forward a few days, weeks or months and this motivation is gone. So what happened?! Motivation is great for kickstarting our health and fitness goals, but it tends to come and go throughout our journey. As nice as it would be to always be 100% motivated to train hard every session, this isn’t always the case. So why is that? Motivation is a temporary state. External circumstances can heavily influence a per

Between weight lifting, cardio, pilates, CrossFit, yoga and all the other endless forms of exercise, it can be challenging to navigate which is best for you and your goals. I totally understand the confusion many face when they join a gym or consider starting up an exercise routine, many ask “What type of exercise should I be doing?” or “What type of exercise is right for me?”. When there are so many different styles of exercise out there, it can be hard to know what is the b

What is the 80/20 approach and can it help you achieve your health and fitness goals in a balanced way? The 80/20 approach (aka. 80/20 Rule) is an everyday nutritional approach where you aim to eat 80% whole foods and 20% “soul foods”. Now when I say “soul foods” I’m not referring to dishes from the Southern United States, I am talking about foods that make you happy and warm your soul. These types of foods may be less nutrient-dense, e.g. your favourite treats or snacks. Whe

You are getting more consistent with working out, but now you want to get more specific with your fitness goals, so let’s deep dive into some considerations… Having fitness goals helps to keep you motivated and gives you a reason to want to hit the gym. Goals don’t have to be complicated, they can be simple! You want to always ensure your goals are suited and relevant to you. There is no point in adopting someone else’s fitness goals just to have a goal yourself. The first co

Have You Ever Wondered What to Bring to the Gym? Let’s talk about some essentials to take to the gym for each workout, and some other handy items to consider keeping in your gym bag… For some this may seem like a pretty obvious question. However, if you are new to the gym, it is nice to feel prepared on your first visit and I hope to give you some guidance in regards to that. Before signing up for a new gym, you want to try and check it out beforehand. It is always a smart id

What is gym etiquette and why is it important? We should all be striving to be the best version of ourselves, both physically and mentally. People go to the gym for a variety of reasons and we all deserve the opportunity to enjoy our workout. When we first join a gym, we sign a contract, this contract will likely state in some way that we need to be respectful and considerate of those around us when working out. This includes when we enter the gym and also when we leave the g

Have you ever seen people in the gym wearing lifting straps or a weightlifting belt and wondered if they make a big difference to their training? Let’s talk about some different accessory options and what they are designed for…. If you are interested in powerlifting and have been exposed to that style of training, you would have likely seen people using accessory equipment when lifting. If you are just beginning your gym journey, you may not have encountered these pieces of e

Mind-muscle connection has seen a bit of hype recently and rightly so! Let’s talk about what it is, how you can apply it to your training, and the benefits! Your mind-muscle connection relates to your ability to focus on actually feeling each rep of an exercise in the correct target muscles. It is a psychological aspect of training that can help ensure you are recruiting the correct muscles when you train. They say to make every rep count! And this is true! We should be aimin

Have you ever wondered how fast or slow you should be completing each rep of an exercise? This is where we can manipulate our training tempo and Time Under Tension… Tempo training/training tempo in relation to resistance training is the speed at which you complete a single repetition of an exercise. We can modify our training tempo for different exercises to manipulate the amount of stress our muscles are under during a specific exercise. When we are strength training, we use

You may have seen an increase in awareness around our daily steps and general movement, but let’s increase our knowledge around the benefits… Getting your body moving in some way, shape or form daily is so important! We see so many health benefits from just ensuring we are active on a daily basis. So many people these days work office jobs - This means the majority of people in these jobs are sedentary, and do not do much movement outside of work. So what exactly is the defin

You may have heard that you need to be progressively overloading in order to make progress in the gym, but what exactly does that mean? Progressive overload put simply, means to gradually increase the intensity or difficulty of your strength training over time. This promotes the development of muscle mass. This is due to the fact that our body needs to adapt and get stronger in order to keep up with the increased load and demand. The progressive overload method helps to ensur

Are you getting enough sleep at night? Do you actually know the side effects of little sleep and how this can affect your training performance? We all know that we need sleep each night in order to function properly. But how much sleep should we actually be getting per night? And why is sleep really that important? How much sleep do we need? Sleep is one of the most vital factors in our recovery from training. It is recommended that adults sleep between 7-9 hours each night,

Which order is more optimal for your goals? Let's discuss... A common question I get from clients is “Should I do cardio before or after weights?” Now there is no simple answer to this question. The more optimal combination is very dependent on your current goals . So let’s dive into this a little deeper… If your current goals are strength-focused then ideally you want to do cardio after your weights session, or alternatively split your cardio into a completely different sess