2010 warm up

It was my privilege today.......

....to meet and interact with an impressive young man called Andre.

I was training at Brightwater Commons which is a self contained piece of real estate which houses a beautiful park like expanse which includes retail space, a beautiful Virgin Active gym, a flea market and an interesting Skate Park with lots of berms and bump and rails and jumps etc.

After training I happened to notice a powerful, tanned good looking young man with a pony tail, jeans and a T shirt aged about 20.

He was inside the skate park without a board, moving smoothly around on his feet and motioning with his hands and arms. I could see imediatly thse wern't random movements and I stopped to watch him.... he was almost gliding...it was hypnotic.

I suddenly realised what he was doing. VISUALISING. He was trying new maneuvers in his mind before he actually got his board out. He moved thouroughly all over the park and I was amazed at the detail and care he took to work everything out....jumps, rails, up and down berms, up walls...it was incredible to watch.

Eventually he sat on a railing at the side of the park and just watched the other kids.

I...of course...wanted to chat with him. I went over, introduced myself...to ANDRE.

I started by saying how impressed I was that at such a young age he knew about visualisation techniques and how he was planning everything before hand.

A smile creased his tanned face and he said to me..."Dude, if you ride in a place like this without knowing where you are going, you're gonna get hurt, ya dig" " Man, this is like going to war...I am a warrior and and I don't do this without a plan."

We talked for a long while about 'thoughts becoming things' and how nothing in life gets anywhere without a thought first and both of us did a lot of nodding in agreement with each other.

By now we were talking like old buddy's...generation gap the furthest thing from either of our minds.

After some time, I felt he wanted to skate so I gave him a high five and our hands touched for more than the normal brief second of a typical high five....it was electric, we smiled at each other...the knowing smile of two people who connected at a deep level..WE UNDERSTOOD EACH OTHER.

In saying goodbye he said to me "Dougal, thank you for talking to me, I learned a lot from you."

Wow....he got that the wrong way round....I learned so much from him.

A young man who will go a long way in life.

Today I was privileged to find a DIAMOND...because I dug for one.

Maybe you will too, you just need to dig...I hope you do.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2010 WARM UP

The GAME starts in earnest

Sports Fans, now we really know that we are in a contest...the see saw has tipped and we are on the downward side sliding down the other side FAST

How hard it has been for you up to now will give you some indication of how hard it will be next week and beyond.

Will you be able to have a free meal guilt free or are you dreading that Christmas lunch because you have already gone off track too many times.

Your whole future and indeed the future of the Universe does not depend on the coming week and weekend.

The heavens will NOT come crashing down and the stars will NOT fall from the sky, if you have a bad week and weekend.

Let's get real...Those of us that have just started coming to terms with our H & F issues may have a long way to go and others of us are close to being where we want to be.

Either way if you do slip....and temptation will be running high.... it is one day of your life.

I want to encourage you NOT to head for the ROOF of the nearest building, seek out the latest guru, or feel MASSIVE GUILT over eating foods you hadn't intended to eat...

Take action NOW, today....Affirm for the whole of this coming week..."I love to eat healthy nutritious foods all the time." Nothing lengthy, nothing complicated, just that...Morning when you wake up, at night before sleeping, and as many times during the day as you can.

This will help you to at the very least be aware of your food choices going forward and, if after all this things go wrong, guess what, you are human, but do not wait until after easter to get back on track.

You are one MEAL away from eating perfectly again.

As for me....my plan has always been 2 free meals for the 50 days of the contest....one was my staff lunch, and the other is Christmas lunch with my nephew' and his family....so since it's my PLAN, it allows me to have fun and eat the yummy Christmas fare, come dinner time, it'll be a protein shake.

That's my CHOICE and it is written...therefore, there is no decision to make.



Taken about 7 years ago at 53 with my son....I know about losing the plot... I have been there.

2010 warm up

I am SOOOO grateful........

....for an incredible experience I had today.

Swimming was "written in the book" for training today and so I found myself doing a version of my 20/40 interval training in the pool.

Fully focussed and swimming hard, I got to the (place to put your towel and stuff) end of the pool,at the start of one of my intervals and waited for the clock.

I noticed a girl around 20, walk out of the ladies changeroom and head towards where I was waiting in the pool.

Carrying goggles and fins she staggered towards me in very uncoordinated fashion. She sat down at the end of the pool...well, fell down was more like it, and I thought, hmmm, little early to be hitting the sauce, this girl is going to drown.

Didn't pay much attention and three intervals later she is still there struggling to get her fins and goggles on.

I better keep an eye on her, I thought and carried on. Another two intervals and she was ready to fall into the pool.

It was my rest period and I quietly watched her from behind my tinted goggles.

I am so glad she couldn't see me turn red with embarrassment when it suddenly dawned on me that this girl had cerebal palsy.

Quiet sceptisicm gave way to absolute admiration and I realised that all the lanes were full and no one was about to let an uncordinated girl into the lane with them.

"Come" I said..."come swim in my lane with me". With a beautiful, if somewhat, lopsided smile she struggled to get out a "Thank you".

We discussed the swimming order...her up one side and me up the other and off she went happy as larry thrashing her way up the lane doing backstroke and back again doing freestyle.

Wow....this was absolutely incredible. The girl did not have a minder so can you imagine the amazing mind and self image it would have taken for her to be out there on her own, never mind with confidence in a public swimming pool.

We swam like that for a while and I stopped having completed my training. I waited for her so that I could tell her the lane was hers and doing backstroke she arrived at the end and instead of the elegant tumble turns I was employing she 'back stroked' right into the wall with her head. Ouch. She laughed as she saw me and I told her that I was done.

She stood up put out her hand and said My name is Sarah, what is yours. I told her and she asked me what I was doing for christmas..I told her and a bright smile lit up her face and her eyes sparkled as she gleefully told me she was going to Scotland for the christmas holidays.

We chatted for a while and I got out of the pool thinking...there are some very lucky people on that flight tonight who are going to have their lives enriched by young Sarah. We wished each other Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year with two high fives...her first one missed and I went on my way.

What an incredible young woman, and the next time one of us feels like the world owes us something let us remember young Sarah, who with all that she has, realises that SHE is the one in control of HER life.

Today my life was made richer by two Sarah's actually, the one I met today and the Saraaaaaaah, for whom I have the greatest respect in England, who undoubtedly will have some enlightening things to say in her post today.

Another example of getting my clients into strange positions

2010 Warm Up

I woke up this morning......

.....with a tremendous sense of anticipation. I lay in bed wondering what it could be. It was still dark, before 4am...most sane people are still fast asleep and probably for another 3 hours or so.

I love the dark, and the darker the better, I don't know what it is, perhaps a refuge, a place where I can be alone in my mind where nobody can see what I'm thinking...but I digress, so, lying peacefully in bed emulating a lithe cat and stretching out, feeling my body move rythmically jerky if that makes sense...one side then the other....hmmm I was almost purring....Then it hit me....BANG

It's UPPER BODY MONDAY but more than that, I have two training partners today, both stronger than I am, unless I'm feeling super competitive and today I am.

I clumsily put the ipod headphones on in the dark and listened to daily affirmations.

"I am lean, muscular and very powerful, I have 7% body fat at 87kgs, I feel fantastic and I'm in the best shape of my life and today is going to be an amazing day."

I saw myself striding out powerfully as I am in my visualisation, big, broad smile in place, on purpose, with a place to go....

That done, chugged down my wake up protein shake, got dressed, and headed into the murky black grey sky that signifies dawn in summer in the Southern tip of Africa.

I couldn't wait to get to the gym.

Got there early....unlocked the doors, unset the alarm, opened the windows, switched on the lights...flicked a switch and heard the familiar whirring sounds of all the gym's electronic equipment coming to life...switched on the CD player and stuck ZZ Top into the deck.

All of a sudden from being a sleepy building the place had come alive....The familiar raw screeching sounds from Billy Gibbons' guitar at full blast raced out of the gym and into the surrounding neighbourhood at 100 miles an hour, dogs started howling and whatever traffic there was came to a grinding halt...

I....took a deep breath, sucked in the unique aroma of a 'working' gym in summer and smiled...I was home.

A short while later the boys arrived and withing minutes there was enough testosterone floating around that gym to
to power up a large still deeply hidden in the back waters of Tennessee.

One hour later....T shirts sodden, hearts beating somewhat faster than normal, three grown men, looked each other and grunted...GOOD JOB BOYS....WE KICKED ASS.


Whoooooo Hooooooooooo, I live for this

Have a blindingly fantastic day

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2010 warm up

Shhhhhhhhhhh.....

It's 5am ish, sunday morning....wouldn't want to wake the neighbours.

Feels like a quiet dreamy day here where I live...A dense suburban area chock a block full of town house complexes.

There are no cars around to pierce the silence and pollute the air and if I had to venture outside, the only sound I would hear, would probably be the slap slap slap of Nike's on the pavement and the familiar raspy breathing of someone out for a run with his Silver Wiemaraner.

My patio door is open and a fresh cool breeze drifts into my living room....The sky is clear and blue and it's going to be a beautiful day.

It's going to be shorts and a T shirt as I impatiently wait for 7am when the gyms will be open and I can head off to swim.

It's a rest day for me today but I am SO FIRED UP that the concept of not exercising is unthinkable, well today anyway.

After I swim, I'll sit in the Gym's lounge and sip an espresso to get my metabolism firing and people watch for a while.

I love watching people of all shapes and sizes hit the gym in a sincere effort to regain their health and self image along with it.

I quietly shake my head at those people who will circle the gym 10 times to find a parking outside the front door and then run on the treadmill for half an hour.

I cast an amused glance at the " DISABLED TOILET" and wonder why they would put a toilet in a gym that doesn't work...silly I know, but hey it's my sunday.

Life is just so wonderful if you allow it to be...and small pleasures like being able to exercise...and the coffee... and thinking fondly about close friends in far away places make it all worthwhile.

Find what whatever it is that makes life work for you and do some of it every day.

Happy Sunday

2010 WARM UP

Does visualisation work?

You bet...Every major sporting team on the planet, every serious athlete, every business man worth his salt, every bodybuilder, every INVENTOR....visualises every day.

Do you think Henry Ford would have embarked on the journey towards building the Model T Ford if he hadn't first seen it in his mind.

How do you you think Walt Disney created 'The Happiest Place on earth' and in the process made millions of children happy....He saw his movies in his mind.

Everything starts with a thought and if you are stuck right now...not making the progress you would want to make maybe it's because you can't see yourself any differently from the way you are now.

If you want to be different in every way one year from now you HAVE to see yourself in a different light. You HAVE to that's all there is to it.

As my team mates Saraaaaah and Eric have shown very effectively, visualisation pictures are one part of attaining the body that you desire...They have both posted pictures of the way they want to look and I believe that ultimately they will both get there.

Hank Johnson, a winner in the body for life competition in the early 90's posted a picture of Frank Zanes's body, with Hanks head on it on his bathroom mirror and his subconscious so effectively accepted that image that Hank ended up looking 'better' than Frank Zane's picture, I think anyway.

I have done the same and my visualisation pic is so effective that whenever I look at it I can actually believe that it is me... Not will be, or could be, it is me.

Here is mine

2010 WARM UP

What is motivation?

.....I mean what does it mean, and how does one find it...or even determine what it is.

I mean what makes an Olympic athlete train for 4 years for an event that is done in less than 10 seconds.

What drives people to be their best, especially in Health and Fitness.

Well winning for one thing. We all like winning and we all want to be winners.

But more important I believe it is focus. It is what you put emphasis on in your life.

If you are having problems with the way you look and have been for some time and you are on and off and on and off, then maybe you are not paying it enough attention. Other things are taking priority in your life.

Maybe work, maybe the kids, maybe it's more important to have a packet (large) of nachos crisps in front of the TV....only you know what it is but I do know this...Until it becomes a priority in your life....

.....Ain't nuttin gonna change.

Make health and fitness the MOST important thing in your life for 30 DAYS....and your life will change FOREVER.

TRUST ME...

2010....warm up

K . A . S . H

When I was a young man starting out in business I learned a very important Mnemonic. It was the one you see above.

Now mnemonics are timeless and so I still see the old chestnuts around all the time KISS....Keep it simple stupid, but KASH was the one that has had the most influence on my life.

I hope there are no kids reading this but....I am extremely fortunate to have zero education...I wouldn't want them to misunderstand. For me personally it has been the best thing I could NOT have.

When I was 15 I was a stevedore on the docks in Durban loading cargo's on and off ships. I mixed with gangsters, prostitutes, smugglers and all sorts of dead beats. This was another advantage for me because I learned how real life worked.

From the docks in Durban to a war in the then Rhodesia for some more major life lessons... but that is for another post...the point is that we and only we are responsible for the knowledge we carry around and I for one am madly, crazy, permanently in love......with BOOKS.

How does your spirit grow and soar if you have no point of reference. How on earth can you fly like an eagle and appreciate the metaphor if you have never read about or listened to someone you respect talk about it intelligently. And I am talking about spirituality as well.

What makes leaders? What makes a Mother Theresa, or a Ghandi, or a Winston Churchill, or any other great leader.

I believe it is an innate knowledge and a desire to listen to that little voice that says..." Go and Do." and that voice is put there by our Creator.

I read voraciously....all kinds of books...I write too, I love to write...I have even written a book about overcoming adversity, a subject about which I consider myself somewhat of an authority....but that's also for another post but.....

.....the point I'm trying to make is, if we, by whatever means become an authority on a subject...and in this case let's talk about Health and Fitness and the emotional side of motivation as it releates to H&F are we honour bound to share our knowledge and experience, if there is even a remote possibility that it will bring hope to even one person, crying out in the wilderness...

....well I believe that we are, since I believe that, that gift has been given to us by an infinately Higher Power.

I also believe that we all have 'the gift' to a greater or lessor extent but we just don't recognise it.

So....if you believe in any way that you can help by GIVING of your knowledge and your spirit...you will find that your life will be so enriched as to wonder why, for all this time, you have been hiding your light under a bushel.

To illustrate more clearly and in real terms what I'm talking about let's look at a real time, real life example.

Sarah from the UK....or Saraaaah as I like to call her....It sounds more posh doesn't it, is a great example.

Here is a bright, vibrant, "full of life" young woman who is charismatic to the extent that wherever she goes she, quickly attracts a veritable army of followers. Now this is not by design on her part it is just that this is who she is...

She writes beautifully and weaves great pictures into her stories so as to make them so much more real but more than that she is inspirational and has great courage. If you know where she has come from to where she is now, you'll know that what she has achieved is no mean feat.

If you want to see the epitome of an incredible transformation then just grab some coffee, pop along to her blog, sit back and enjoy.

No effort on her part, she is just a leader who following her spirit.

I am certainly a big fan.

We all have a responsibility to help our fellow man and I think that if we don't we are ignoring the gifts we have been given.

Oh and By the way....the mnemonic I mentioned above...K.A.S.H ...means...Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits.

Memorise it, ingrain the words into your sub-conscious, understand the meaning...and you will have a new lease on life which will have YOU looking down on the Eagles.

G O F L Y

We are all SUPERHEROES....IF WE WANT TO BE!

2010 warm up

2010 warm up

The thing about planning

I loved what Eric..my 'STOMPER' team mate said the other day.

"My plan for today is written down, that's what it says" to paraphrase.

There is NO negotiation dude....the plan is written, who am I talking to in my head. There is NO discussion here...if it has been planned then it gets done. THAT'S IT.

The fact that the plan has been written negates any discussion whatsoever.

This is SO powerful that I plan to steal it from Eric...I know he won't mind coz we are team mates...and if I use it to STOMP all over the Inner Circle then it's 'all smiles' right.

Most of us negotiate everything we do...'I'll go to the shops on the way home'. On the way we say " Ahh I don't feel like stopping now, I'll do it later'...or 'I'll do my tax return next week.' Next week creeps up with speed that would do an F1 justice and its, 'Oh well, there is always the day after tomorrow' and so we go, bashing our self image to pieces because we can never keep committments we make, to ourselves.

Once you start doing that internally it's one short step away from doing it to others, and worse, family.

Eventually 'I'll see', is met with raised eybrows and the unspoken comment....yeah, we know what that means OK see ya.

That's why a written plan is so powerful...There is NO negotiation. Think about plans carefully before you commit to them, then when it comes time to DO....JUST G E T I T D O N E

Upper body tomorrow....can I wait .....HARDLY...ROLL ON 5AM
wHOOOOOOOOOO hOOOOOOOOOOOO