Among the pile of obscure articles, an abdominal exercise machine caught my attention, standing alone, glistening in the sunlight.

‘Instant Abs’ was its name, and it made me smile.

Why?

Because yet another person had obviously come to the realisation that ab machines just DON’T work!

Bored, disillusioned and fed up of trying, someone else had turfed their ‘misguided hope of ab glory’ out onto the street.

Just because these cleverly marketed machines are advertised in the hands of tanned, toned and lean men and women, doesn’t mean they are the solution to fat loss.

Want to know the answer?

Low carb eating – more vegetables, some fruit, lean meat and fish, nuts, seeds, and less grains from cereals, pasta, bread or baked foods… THAT’S it!

No ‘ab-ercisers’, no ‘ab rollers’, no ‘instant abs’!

Stomach exercises may strengthen the muscle underneath, but they don’t burn the covering fat. They may make you more efficient at curling up off the floor, but they have no beneficial crossover into real life, except helping you sit up in bed!

If you want a flat stomach this year, the ONLY way to do so is as follows:

Cut out sugar from your diet – the BIGGEST cause of excess fat

Drink more water

Focus on squats, lunges, push ups, pull ups and total body movements that force you to use your ‘core’ muscles as they were designed – integrated into movement, not isolated.

Within weeks someone else will be getting rid of another ab machine…

Don’t let it be YOU!

Where you store fat on your body will allow you to determine what causes it…

The surprising truth is that not all body fat is caused by a poor diet, but you still need to adhere to sensible eating none-the-less.

Excess carbohydrates will end up stored around your love handle area and your upper back…

Excess estrogen, the female hormone, will give you chunky, flabby arms…

You see, many factors affect the fat you gain and just how much of it you keep.

Stress can be caused by late nights – anything beyond 11pm is considered ‘late’ to your body.

Excess carbs will cause you to gain faster than an F1 car coming up alongside!

To rid yourself of love handles and upper back fat you need to be strict on the carbs.

Stick predominantly to vegetables and fruit as much as possible, and heavily reduce bread, pasta, rice and baked foods.

Excess estrogen, a hormonal imbalance, can be helped with a daily intake of fish oil and quality fats, as well as an increase in zinc – lentils, chickpeas, nuts, seeds, tofu and figs.

When you realise that many factors can affect where you store body fat, you start to understand why fat loss is about more than just exercising more and eating ‘more sensibly’.

It’s a lifestyle choice, and without a healthy lifestyle to support your efforts, you’ll find the going slower and harder.

Last week, with Biscuit the dog in tow, I decided to walk along the Brooklands Racing track near me in Weybridge.

For those of you who don’t know, Brooklands Race Track was the world’s first purpose-built motorsport venue, built in the early part of the 20th Century and the place to be seen if you had any interest in cars and sport.

In its heyday this track would regularly attract some quarter of a million spectators at its Grand Prix events!

Nowadays, it sits as a shrine to those heydays of motoring greatness…

Today I was alone with my thoughts as I surveyed what’s left of Brooklands;

The track is worn, cracked and in need of repair…
Only a few bits of banking are still standing…
Grass grows through the cracks and moss has taken over the track itself…

Brooklands is very much a shadow of its former self.

As I walked along the steep banking enjoying the sunshine, I imagined the race cars roaring past me, the sound of the engines spitting, the crowds cheering, the drivers cocooned in the cockpit, steering wheel rattling, engine vibrating the chassis… the deafening sound of motoring glory!

It doesn’t take much to imagine greatness.

Even if, like me, you had never been there during the events, you have enough pictures, film footage and imagination to set the scene in your mind and put yourself there among the crowds as the cars hurtled round the track.

The same goes for your own physical greatness.

You may not be there yet, you may never have been there, but you have all the power to imagine that time in your mind where things come easy, when you can tackle physical tasks with ease and you can move without discomfort, aches or pain.

We all have the power to forsee what we want in life.

The thing that keeps me focused with my health and fitness is an end result – pictured clearly in my mind.

It’s not cosmetic, like a six-pack, big arms or a thick chest… It’s a feeling of achievement, of being better than those around me, of winning against myself and not taking the easy way out.

I should think those were some of the thoughts that kept those drivers on the track in their heyday – winning, being better and achieving…

If they spent too long thinking about the ‘what ifs’ they may never have turned the key to their engines – spinning off, failing, losing, crashing, losing concentration…

YOU can ALL achieve physical greatness.

If you’re in no hurry, stick to the slow lane. If you want to get ahead, switch things up a gear or two…

Whatever you do, head in the direction you want to be and keep steering.

Then, once you’re there, you can look back at what you have achieved and how far you have come.

Your keys are in the ignition… Have you turned them yet???

Over the weekend, trying to burn some of my dog Biscuit’s excess energy, I took a walk down by the river.

As I walked along in my trainers, I could feel the sand from the path kicking up behind my heels, and tickling my ankles.
It felt strangely comforting, but at the same time I could also feel it sprinkle down into the back of my socks.

By the time we got home, and Biscuit was about 50% exhausted, I took my shoes off and emptied half of the riverpath out onto my carpet!

All that sand for what seemed like such a short walk.

Now, while I wouldn’t expect you to eat sand, I thought about how much things can add up when we have a few sneaky treats here and there; a couple of biscuits with a hot drink, a mouthful of someone’s dessert, a sweet or two, a muffin at the local coffee shop, chips with the evening dinner…

At the time, these little ‘sprnklings’ of ‘eating heaven’ don’t seem to do much harm, but added up over the course of a week and they can soon set you teetering on the edge of ‘losing’ or ‘gaining’ excess pounds.

The scale can go either way, and too many bad calories can tip the scale in the wrong direction…

By all means enjoy the odd treat, but just be conscious that too much of a ‘good’ thing can ruin your chances of fat-loss happiness…

Too much sand, on the other hand, can simply be hoovered up…

To pass the time, while waiting for an appointment the other day, I picked up a newspaper and had a quick flick through.

From the very front page, it was filled with doom and gloom;

House prices falling…
Recession hitting jobs…
Banks failing…
Murder…
Assault…
Robbery…

As I sat there thumbing my way through the pages I thought to myself; why do people buy newspapers and why do they read them on the way to work?

What sort of way is that to start your day, filling your head with negative thoughts and misery?

The last thing people need as they start their day’s work is to be downhearted and depressed!

What is it with our fascination with bad news?

As a race we seem to be so obsessed with knowing about what’s going wrong in our world, that we rarely take the time to appreciate the good.

I made a decision, there and then.

I put the paper down, took a deep breath, and decided that for the rest of the day I would focus only on the positive things in life:

The warm weather
The fresh air and the birds singing again
Helpful, happy people
A good training session

When I got home later I switched on my laptop and bypassed the bad news in search of the good;

The child stars of Slumdog Millionaire being given a fresh start in life…
The Hindhead road project which has rehomed badgers and dormice that would otherwise have perished…
The funny story about ‘Bisto’ gravy changing its name to ‘aaah… Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday’ etc!

For your health and sanity it’s important to focus on positivity. They say you become a mix of the 5 people you engage with most. If those around you are depressed, moaning and pessimistic, how long do you think it will be before you follow suit?

While we all enjoy a good gossip and a moan occasionally, I honestly believe that the media revels in bad news and misery, due to our obsession with misfortune. Bad news sells papers.

Try my ‘Happiness’ experiment…

Pick a day – any day in the coming week…

As much as you can control, avoid all bad news that day.

Don’t buy a paper, don’t listen to the news, walk away from depressive conversations and switch channels if faced with economic downturn, evil or less than positive news.

Listen to music radio instead of talk channels.

Watch a comedy on TV -something lighthearted and entertaining.

Wean yourself off the negative and focus instead on more positive things.

Without the ‘doom and gloom’ reaching your earholes you’ll be surprised how much better you feel.

Your conversations will steer towards happier topics, your mood will lift and then you’ll actually be looking for the good instead of adding more woe and sorrow to your daily thoughts.

Surround yourself with positivity and you’ll end up less stressed, less tired and more capable of spreading a positive frame of mind to others in your life.

Believe me, it’s a chain reaction.

As the musician Sting once wrote;

“Even when the darkest clouds are in the sky, You mustn’t sigh and you mustn’t cry, Spread a little happiness as you go by… Keep out the gloom, Let in the sun, That’s my advice for everyone”

Cases of Diabetes have risen by 60% in the last decade…
The UK has now overtaken the US, for new cases of Diabetes…
10% of NHS spending goes on treating the condition…
That works out to £1 million an hour…
Diabetes is estimated to take up to 7 years off your life…

Here’s a Press Release I have just written, voicing my concerns at the rise in Diabetes. I thought I’d share it with you all:

Wednesday, 25 February 2009, Guildford: Leading Fitness Coach and Fat Loss Expert Simon Dainton has reacted strongly to news that the UK is now overtaking the US in the number of new cases of Type 2 Diabetes, in both the adult and the child population.

At a time when the NHS are spending £1 million an hour on treating the disease, Dainton has stated that people need to be far more aware of their risks of developing the condition.

“With cases of Type 2 Diabetes rising by 60% in the last decade, people have got to start realising that they are putting themselves at a far greater risk if they don’t address their eating habits.” Dainton says. “Just because we have a far greater food choice these days doesn’t mean that people can simply eat what they like, when they like. There are always repercussions to doing this”.

Dainton goes on to state: “While excess sugar in the diet is the prime cause of Type 2, most people still don’t realise just how much sugar they are ingesting. Sugar is not solely confined to sweets, biscuits and cakes. It is a prime ingredient in most processed and convenience foods, even foods that many would consider savoury, like white bread and microwave meals.”

Drawing comparision to the current ‘credit crunch’, Dainton says; “Too many people have been sticking their heads in the sand and overspending, and now we are paying the price with recession. The same can be said for the nation’s eating too much sugar, which will come back to bite them in future years as they pay the price with diabetes.”

“Unless the government addresses the condition, making more people aware of the dangers, and labeling prime foods with proper health warnings, people will continue to keep their heads in the sand and carry on regardless. Type 2 Diabetes is completely avoidable with sensible eating, and right now food companies are being allowed free-rein to produce whatever products they like under the guise of freedom of choice.”

While Simon believes that regular exercise will help the battle against obesity, he states that it needs to be effective; “Most people head for the cardio machines in the gym – the bikes, treadmills and Cross Trainers. While they will help burn calories and strengthen your heart, they are not the best solution for fat loss. Most people need more resistance training, to raise their metabolisms and keep them burning fat 24 hours a day – even women.”

Dainton concludes; “Combining a reduced sugar diet with effective exercise will help people lose weight, control their food cravings and greatly reduce the chances of developing Diabetes. Avoiding the condition involves a lifestyle change, not a quick fix – one that we need to pass down to our children”.

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