Take a leaf out of Liu Xiang’s book…

Liu was determined to make his victory a joint effort!

‘Who?!’ you might ask.

Liu Xiang is China’s Olympics golden boy, a 110 metre hurdler whose presence at the Beijing Olympics fueled national pride.

Last week, at the start of his qualifying heat in round one of the hurdles, he slipped off the starting blocks and had to withdraw from the event entirely, after months, even years of intense training and preparation. The slip aggravated an ongoing Achilles tendon injury he had.

No doubt Liu will go away licking his wounds, but he’ll be back to compete soon, stronger than ever and determined to win again.

YOU too can do the same.

Just because you mess up with a week of not making it to the gym or eating badly doesn’t mean you have to sit and wallow in self-pity, or shrug your shoulders and give up the good work you’ve done so far.

Simply, get back on track as soon as you can.

Don’t make it a week, a month or even 6 months down the line. Make it tomorrow or even later today.

If you’ve had an over-indulgent weekend do something to rectify that today.
If you go out for dinner tonight, make sure you make up for it tomorrow.
If you forget to drink any water this morning, start drinking when you remember.

Liu Xiang may be down at the moment but he’ll be back.

Your journey back onto the right path is a lot simpler, trust me…

The Michael Phelps Olympic Diet

Michael’s joy at managing to finish his breakfast was too much to contain!

If you thought you ate a lot, you have NOTHING on Michael Phelps, the 14 time Olympic gold medalist swimmer.

Some of you may have read reports circling the media this week about his 12,000 calorie a day diet. Despite his athletic prowess and lean physique, his diet is not as healthy or restrictive as you might have thought.

Breakfast for Phelps consists of…

3 fried egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions and mayonnaise
1 five egg omelette
1 bowl of cereal
3 slices of french toast with powdered sugar
3 chocolate chip pancakes
2 cups of coffee

For Lunch, Michael prefers a ‘lighter’ option of…

1 POUND of pasta with tomato sauce
2 large ham, cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches on white bread
1,000 calories of energy drinks

Then when dinner comes round, he tucks into…

6-8 slices of pizza
1 POUND of pasta with tomato sauce
1,000 calories of energy drinks

BUT, before you get excited and think that diet obviously doesn’t matter in the pursuit of a lean and fat-free body, remember that Phelps is a competing athlete. His body is literally tearing through calories at the rate of knots, trying to keep up with the demand of the grueling training regime he puts himself through.

As your average sedentary office worker, Phelps’ body fat percentage would rise faster than the price of fuel on the forecourts!

From his physique, Phelps is obviously giving his body just enough calories to get through training and maintain his size and speed. As an athlete he is unlikely to be taking in any more calories than he actually needs.

So, before you head for that fried egg sandwich or that pizza, just remember that this diet is extremely unique, which is why it is getting so much media attention. Despite being an athlete, Michael obviously can eat what he likes without too much concern.

The rest of us, on the other hand, need to be far more controlled with our diets, due to our extremely low levels of physical activity in comparison to the Olympic gold medalists out there.

If you want to eat what you like and drink more you need to be prepared to work far HARDER to allow for your sins. Otherwise don’t be surprised to gain weight and lose your body shape…