Busy? You need some EPA in your life

Placing extra and inflexible fitness regimes on already busy people is setting everyone concerned up for failure. In my experience you need to resist a one size fits all approach and try the individualised approach. The only way to do this is empower the busy and often out of balanced individual to look for a way that he can employ into his routine and then offer professional fitness advice from there. It flips the thinking but has massive results in terms of you the busy person’s conformance. Use EPA to get you to this point.

1. Get Emotional. Empower yourself to see why it is you need or want to fit in or keep a fitness regime into your already busy lifestyle. What is most important to you, health, six pack abs, performance in your career, family (if you don’t keep fit and overwork, sickness and disease may take you away from your family). Also find out what it is you enjoy in an activity sense. Again what are your values; do you like adventure, weights, running etc

2. Prioritise fitness. If you are already busy you will perceive there is no time for exercise or activity. Once you feel you want to do it for the right reasons (Point 1) then you would be well advised to book it into your weekly schedule or make a date with yourself. Just like a meeting, book in another meeting only this time it is to invest in yourself. Put it in a diary; tell your Personal assistant that you will be busy for these times in the week.

3. Be Accountable. Now you are emotionally charged and want to keep fit and healthy for all the right reasons and you have booked it in your diary. All that is missing is accountability. It is too easy to say when the time comes I am too busy. So getting accountable means getting a personal trainer, a fellow worker or a mate to meet you and even do the run or the training session with you. You will feel less inclined to let someone else down than yourself. And don’t think paying for a gym membership will solve the problem – you only have to look at the drop out rates for gyms.

We are all time poor which make us all time poor so the last thing we need to do is force ourselves to do something that is going to make us busier. But if you associate the benefits of an activity to your deep inner core values then you may stand half a chance of making it a priority and factoring it into your weekly routine.

Discover how to stop alcohol wrecking your fat loss efforts - Craig McDonald

A common question we get asked in the fitness industry is do I need to stop or reduce drinking alcohol to assist with weight loss? Well the short answer, in an ideal world, would be yes however not many of us live in an ideal world do we?

The answer I believe lies in balance. We all have social commitments, business commitments and family gatherings that usually involve alcohol. For those of us who already enjoy a drink, it would be a pretty boring world if we stopped drinking altogether. So here are some tips I can recommend, if you’re not prepared to stop drinking alcohol, in your bid to lose weight and improve your health.

1. Alcohol provides the body with ‘empty calories’ in fact Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, compared to 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates and proteins and 9 calories per gram for fats. So on days or nights when you are planning a few drinks, make sure your meals are based around protein and vegetables. Avoid ‘loading up’ on carbohydrates because alcohol and carbohydrates combine as a perfect recipe for belly fat!


2. If you enjoy drinking beer, and let’s face it most of us do, try drinking 1 or 2 dark coloured beers instead of 5 or 6 light coloured beers. Dark coloured beers DO have more calories than light coloured beers, but they also have more antioxidants and more B vitamins and therefore you do actually obtain more nutritional value from a dark coloured beer.


3. Avoid syrupy, fruity drinks that are overloaded with sugar as these provide a ‘double whammy’ with empty alcohol calories plus loads of empty sugar calories. Drinks with clear alcohol mixed with soda water and lime or lemon should be your drink of choice. A word of warning though regarding tonic water as opposed to soda water, tonic water is loaded with calories whereas soda water has no calories at all so make sure you mix with soda water where possible.


4. Wine is also one of the healthier choices when it comes to alcohol as it contains a good dose of antioxidants (red wine in particular).


5. Make it only 1 or 2 drinks per night, if you drink during the week, or only a few more drinks on the weekend but alcohol free days during the week are going to serve you best if fat loss is a goal.


6. Avoid the late night ‘munchies’ after a few drinks. Pizza, Kebabs, Chips and Ice Cream are just loading your body with more and more calories on top of the empty alcohol calories. Something to note that not much happens digestion wise until all the poison (alcohol) has left the building (your system).


7. Try to schedule a full body workout prior to having a drink or two as this will help speed up your metabolism and burn those empty calories faster.

So I hope some of these tips will help you in your day to day health and weight loss challenges without hampering your lifestyle too much and remember to always drink responsibly and of course NEVER drink and drive.

Cheers Craig Mac

Helping to inspire a nation

The creator of Lifestyle Improvers - David Virgo has been included in the newly released ‘Switched On Health Professionals’ book Volume 2 by Andrew May.

The book interviews 14 of the countries most inspirational Fitness Professionals in which David has the honour of being included. The interview touches on his business Lifestyle Improvers plus his own master message of Lifesperity.

It also reveals some interesting pointers on what David calls emotional unintelligence. You can find the book at a reduced price here . Or if you would like to read more about the whole book and the other contributors you can visit the Switched on website.

Meet your restriction removalists - the trainers

Craig has lived in Perth, Western Australia for all of his life. His passions include Sport, Travel, Music, and helping others to meet their goals by improving their lifestyle.

Craig’s love of Sport began around the age of 8 when he started playing cricket and football.Cricket turned out to be his sport of choice and he went on to play 13 years of 1st Grade cricket for Mt Lawley District Cricket Club and represented WA at Under 23 level and was also a member of the Western Warriors squad for 4 years. It was through Sport that he developed a passion for exercise and he has now decided to pursue this passion with a career in the fitness industry.

He loves travel with his favourite destination being Phi Phi Island in Thailand where he spent his honeymoon in 2006 and his dreams include Snow Boarding the slopes of Whistler in Canada. His interests are also in local music and his favourite band is local Perth band, Eskimo Joe and he loves seeing good Australian Bands make it on the international stage.