Pay Attention To Your Mental Health Too!

I've just read an interesting article on suicide prevention in NI over on the BBC NI News website. You have to look after your mind as well as your body. As the folks at MyMy, a local suicide prevention organisation, like to say, "Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

Talk to somebody.

Feed Those Muscles

I plan to take part in a new weights and calisthenics programme being offered by my gym in September. My cardio ability is still pretty high, but that aul fat is creeping back on again with the sins of the summer mounting up. While the kids are off school we're heading out and about more often to keep them amused and that means missed gym sessions and a lot of diet no-nos. I don't mind too much (honest) because I know I'll snap back into shape when I get back onto a steady clean eating diet and workout regime again.

Except I want to stop calling my eating habits a diet. I'm talking about a nutrition plan, really. I'll not be starving myself or depriving my body of nutrients come September. Nor does my interest in health and fitness extend to waxing and false tanning. Nothing wrong with embracing all that jazz if that's your thing (and if you're competing in a body building thingy waxing, tanning and more are expected), but I'm trying to improve my quality of life and am concentrating on becoming the most efficient version of myself as I can be, which needs to take into account being a husband, dad, writer and student as well as the other aspects of my personality.

Here's a clip from a movie I watched on Netflix with my wife last night:

It's one of those food documentaries that really goes after processed food and shows us how so many Americans are overfed but undernourished. It applies to the UK and Ireland as well in my experience. The documentary helped put things in perspective. Processed food may seem cheaper and more convenient than the clean eating  alternatives (or raw vegetable juicing as Hungry for Change emphasized throughout). But if you think about it -- and I have to give credit to my wife, Michelle, for putting it in this perspective -- you can't consider processed food any sort of bargain if it doesn't provide enough nutrition. If anything, you're getting conned out of your hard-earned cash and your health. Fuck that.

We still have a way to go in our household to become a perfect example of clean eating, but every week or so we learn something new that sets us a little further along in the right direction. It may get to a point where we don't actually enjoy cheat days! Some day.

My main tip for changing your nutrition plan: if your food comes in a cardboard box, it's probably not worth the money no matter how cheap it seems.

The Sunshine Vitamin!

My friend and soon to be HSNI contributor found this one over at Found My Fitness:

Click the image for a closer look.

Great find, Gareth Watson. And if you read the info, you'll see how relevant it is to us Norn Irelanders. Yesterday it was sunny, today, it's pishing down.

I take vitamin D3, myself. Some people may say that all vitamins do is make your pee more expensive. I'm inclined to disagree. It hardly needs to be stated that I am not a scientist. I don't have the right letters after my name. But as far as vitamins go, I get along just fine with the the letters D and B (mostly B12), as and when I need them. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but it's feckin' powerful if it is.

For those of you interested, I also take cod liver oil, zinc and magnesium. Those are my supplements. Everything else (such as protein), I try to get from my diet.

How Bad Do You Want It?

In case you're in need of more motivation:



Kill that workout.

TNT!

Since it's Sunday night, here's another example (again from Elite Fitness) of what can be done in a relatively short time. It's not easy, it's not a quick-fix solution, as it requires a lifestyle change on both sides of the six weeks, but check out this great progress pic along with a few words from Stephen Cleland on a programme he completed back in July 2013.

"Just completed a 6 week programme at Elite Fitness.

I've always trained at gyms of some sort over the years with basic results, but since joining Elite, I cant express enough the difference its made. Not just in my body shape, but in my athletic ability, ie strength, speed and endurance!

MASSIVE IMPROVEMENTS!!

The motivation, direction and professionalism at Elite is fantastic, with no egos and a friendly environment. Just book, turn up, train hard, bitta craic, go home!

I'd like to thank David Rice for pushing me on to get me to this stage and looking forward to moving towards the next stage, I cannot recommend this guy/gym enough!

#realresultsforrealpeople"

It was seeing Stephen's picture in July 2013 that first put Elite Fitness on my radar. You could tell this wasn't a fake photo because of the fading sunburn! It took me until October 2013 to actually join, and I didn't start my own 10-week programme until the Monday following Mother's Day 2014 (31/3/14), but I got there, and I'm still there. And so is Stephen, one of the 5PM class faithfuls.