Starting a diet, healthy eating plan or new fitness regime at the beginning of the New Year is arguably one of the most cliché notions ever.

Can it really be sustainable long-term or is it just another fad, among your gazillion other New Year resolutions?

Every January my gym is utterly packed with Duracell bunny-like people on their fitness-kicks but low and behold, by mid February they've given up and I've got my space back. My selfish streak says hurray, they're finally gone! That's a bit evil, though. I can't help wondering if they are just going about things in the wrong way...

It's perfectly possible to stick to a new health and fitness regime. In my opinion that purely depends on your frame of mind and attitude. Now, let's focus on healthy-eating.

By adopting the following mantra (in addition to normal regular exercise routine), I have managed to cut 3.5kg in just 2 weeks and I feel great!  This is only the beginning.

A couple of "pearls of wisdom" for you guys:

1. It doesn't have to be that hard. Do not starve yourself or ban yourself from eating any single thing, especially the things you enjoy. If you do, you'll manage for a while, but you will eventually cave in and ruin the whole thing by binging.

2. Be mindful of portion sizes, don't be greedy and eat slower.

3. Enjoy the feeling of being a little bit hungry at some points during the day. Your plan is working!

4. Start steaming vegetables. Trust me, you'll never look back. Flavour!

5. Always eat breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day.

6. Completely cut out the heavy carbs in the evenings. Have a light evening meal such as grilled or oven-baked fish or lean meat with some steamed vegetables. Your body will thank you for the protein, especially if you workout regularly. If you crave dessert, try low-fat cottage cheese mixed with frozen berries: delicious!

7. Educate yourself on what's good for you nutrition-wise by reading blogs, watching documentaries etc, but don't become obsessive! Aim only at subtle, sustainable changes in your attitude towards food.

8. ENJOY!

I need to credit someone I follow on Instagram, Louise C , as she's been an inspiration to me by posting photos of all her protein-filled meals which are a part of an eating plan designed for her by her Personal Trainer and aimed a cutting body fat. Everything looks delicious, clean and super healthy. Go Girl!

I workout on a regular basis but find it irrationally difficult to do a decent, if not minimally acceptable, amount of stretching. Why is it so hard  to muster up the self-discipline to do it on your own?

My conscience screams at me in the evenings, post-workout, to get off the sofa and spend even just 20 minutes stretching all those muscles I've just used. In reality I rarely do it. What are my excuses, you might ask? Mostly, I feel too tired and lazy and would rather just flop into bed than get my yoga mat out!


However, without going into a lot of scientific detail, the benefits I personally get from stretching are crystal clear:

- stretching before bed induces a relaxed state for the body and mind
- quality of sleep improves
- muscles recover faster and actually get stronger
- increased suppleness in general and better performance in my next workout

From experience, I've noticed that in almost every single gym I've ever been inside, the stretching area is so tiny and more often than not just shoved in some skanky corner of the gym!. It's a complete joke. If you want to go there to do some dynamic warm-up stretching before a fitness class or a workout it's usually jam-packed and you'll struggle to squeeze yourself in there. The same applies after the session.

I just don't get it, because I think the general understanding among all people who keep fit is that stretching is a crucial part of your routine, yet the gyms don't offer regular stretching classes, very few instructors advocate stretching. You'd think it'd be in their interest to do so, as it would minimise the number of people getting injured as a result of pulling muscles etc.

I know that I would benefit from a stretching class environment and I bet I'm not the only one!

Can you be bothered stretching?
Is there a good-sized space where you can stretch in your gym?
Do you go to stretching classes? If so, how often?
Why do you think we neglect this crucial part of our routines?

Let me know what you think guys :)

Seriously. Back in the days when I was training in Muay Thai, I would often observe the gym and fitness class-goers finishing their Les Mills classes like BodyPump and BodyCombat and a couple of my fellow Thai Boxers and I would say to each other...

We were literally laughing at them. We thought it was so cheesy.

These days I can absolutely, 100%, entirely willingly, EAT MY OWN WORDS. This is my heart rate graph from today's BodyCombat class:

It speaks for itself. Now, you could quite reasonably draw a number of conclusions about this: 

1. We were extremely narrow-minded Thai Boxing snobs...and you'd be quite correct. 
2. This graph indicates that I'm actually quite unfit and the minimal effort required for BodyCombat is way above me...and you'd be wrong! 

In actual fact, I'm in pretty good shape (even if I do say so myself) and am doing a variety of different types of exercises in my routine. I typically head to the gym 5 times a week. So, in my humble opinion, the most reasonable conclusion to draw from this is that group fitness classes can be very intense and extremely physically demanding. BodyCombat is a cardio class, based on various martial arts' influences. Although I don't actually hit anyone or anything any more, I would argue that the cardio effect and fitness training here is definitely not lame. 

It's a fantastic way to release some aggression and just have fun! 

Welcome to my brand spanking new blog!

I've always had a niggle in the back of my mind, a subtle desire to write but never have I been inspired enough or courageous enough to give it a go...until now.  

I will be writing about what energises me, and how I work on honing my mind, body and soul. While this will mainly be a Health & Fitness blog, from time to time I'm sure I'll be inclined to write about nutritional habits, music, food & drink, photography, film, languages, travel experiences + more! 

I hope I will inspire you in some way, shape or form :)