The 5 people who you spend most of your time with are commonly referred to as your “Circle of Influence”. It is often said that our beliefs, actions and results are greatly influenced by these people. As previously outlined, clients only spend approximately 1-2% of their week with a trainer; hence the people who spend more time with them are going to have an influence on their habits. We find that those clients, who have the support of their “circle”, have a much better chance of leading long-term healthy lifestyles. Put simply, if you hang around great people with high standards, you too will develop high standards.

Included in many people’s “Circle of Influence” is their children. In fact, a child’s greatest influence generally is their parents. Over the years, many people have asked me whether or not we would consider helping children. As I am sure you are aware, childhood obesity is a major problem in our society. My simple answer to that is, “We already do help children – indirectly”. I believe the best way to combat childhood obesity is by helping their parents to lead healthy lifestyles. No matter how much time we spend exercising a child, our influence is negligible compared to the influence of their parents. Our efforts would be useless without the support, encouragement and role modeling of their parents serving them the correct foods at home. On countless occasions, clients have told me stories of how their children have also lost weight and are more active as a result of ‘getting their own act together’.

As outlined below, those who lay blame or make excuses or live in denial about their current state we say play below the line. Living in denial or lying to yourself actually kills your hunger or drive to change. Hence there is no wonder why those people generally do not achieve any great success in their lives and play the role of victim. On the other hand, those who take ownership, accountability and responsibility for everything that happens in their lives play above the line and generally find success and claim victory.

How many times have you heard statements such as “I would eat well but my kids don’t like healthy food” or “I would eat healthy foods for lunch if there was a good café near work” or “If it wasn’t raining this morning I would have exercised for sure” or “It’s not my fault for being overweight” or “I don’t have good genes, I can’t do that”. These types of “below the line” comments destroy people’s ability to gain fulfillment, feel pride and build self esteem. Well known motivation speaker Anthony Robbins summed it up perfectly when he said “To suggest to yourself that you are no good or incapable of achieving greatness is an insult to our creator”. Discomfort should be seen as your friend; as something that may move you towards the life that you want.

I cannot believe how many times I hear people use age as their excuse for not maintaining their health. In my opinion, this excuse is a major contributing factor to ill health, chronic injury and premature death. Comments such as “My metabolism has slowed down now that I am in my 40’s or 50’s so maintaining my body shape is beyond my control”, “weight training is for young people”, When I was young I used to be fit. I deserve to kick my feet up”.

Whilst science has proven that our metabolism does slow down as we get older, it doesn’t mean that we should then give ourselves the license to drink and eat too much, sleep in and not exercise.

Many people unfortunately overlook the effects that drinking alcohol has on fat loss. So we thought the following information may be useful to know.

Alcohol is taken directly to the liver to be processed as soon as possible. At such time, any stored carbohydrates are no longer required as a fuel source so they are readily stored in the muscle cells and the liver. Alcohol yields 29kJ of energy per gram, which is almost two times higher than the energy value of one gram of carbohydrate (16kJ). Therefore, it may take the body almost twice as long to burn up the alcohol, which further delays the body’s ability to utilise its carbohydrate and fat stores.

Binge drinking may cause an oversupply of carbohydrates to be stored as fat, as carbohydrates often form the mixes in many alcoholic drinks. Bourbon and coke, Breezers, Stoli’s and beer are just a few of a number of well-known examples. One nip of a standard spirit contains approximately 10 grams of alcohol which equals almost 20 grams of carbohydrate, which is the same as the carbohydrate content in one potato, one apple and almost two slices of bread. If a can of coke is added to the nip (40 grams of carbohydrate), the entire drink would equal the carbohydrate contained in approximately 3 potatoes, 3 apples and almost 6 slices of bread. It is quite ironic that many people would not consider eating the quantities of these foods due to their energy composition but would easily consume these drinks.

Whilst we do not suggest that people consume alcohol, we suggest that people use water or diet soft drinks as the mixer when drinking spirits and choose low-alcohol varieties when drinking beer.

We also suggest that people be aware of the foods consumed in the hours prior to and while drinking to ensure that their carbohydrate and fat contents are not too high. Further, people should be aware of the foods eaten on the days following a drinking session, as higher than normal carbohydrate consumption may easily lead to fat gain. A low to moderate exercise session may be useful on the day after consuming alcohol to utilise the oversupply of energy. However, exercising, when dehydrated, is not recommended.