My Thoughts on the Fitness Industry & Our New Work Life Balance Personally I’ve struggled a lot this lockdown. Closing the gym, Josh was sick with reflux for 12 weeks (he’s great now), my income dropped substantially, I had to move everything online, we got no help from family or friends with a sick baby due to lockdown, worrying as family members caught Covid and I felt awful as I wasn’t bonding with Josh originally.  It was horrendous but we’ve come through with a beautiful little man, who I’ve bonded with and online training is going well. Like many businesses mine has suffered tre ..read more

Intermittent fasting is a way of eating that cycles between eating and fasting.  It’s not a diet as such, more a pattern of eating.  It essentially restricts calories while in the fasting phase, then boosts metabolism (potentially) when you resume eating.  Can then make it difficult to over consume calories in the eating window – for people who eat healthily.  The easiest way to intermittent fast, is to finish your evening meal at 8pm, then not eat again for 16 hours – so 12pm the next day.  I’ve had mixed results with clients following IF, however it is worth trying i ..read more

Would it surprise you to know Coors light and Heineken have exactly the same calories and carbs?  Shown here is the sugar and calorie content in popular beers, stout and ciders. If like me, you like to drink alcohol you’ll be interested to see the results I found. There are unfortunately, tons of calories in beer.  Some are also high in carbs.  A pint of beer has between 210 & 240 kcals, similar to a mars bar which is 244 kcals. I’m not here to talk about the rights and wrongs or damage alcohol causes, you’re an adult and that’s for you to decide. I’m just hoping to help p ..read more

I’ve been trying to think about how this lockdown is going to be lifted and how it will affect gyms, when they are able to reopen?   I think it’s fair to say it’ll be a long time before we get back to “normal”.  However people are great at adapting, coping and overcoming things.  After everyone’s hard work to obey the lockdown rules, it looks like the government will be able to start reducing the restrictions even slightly on the 5th of May.  Even a small lift to the restrictions will feel like such a relief.  Eventually I would assume certain businesses will reopen an ..read more

Comfort eating is when we eat not to satisfy hunger but to deal with stress or use food as a reward. I think it’s fair to say that everyone comfort eats to some degree, it’s human nature.  There are rare occasional times when comfort eating is helpful and necessary.  For example, try telling someone who’s just been dumped not to eat that ice cream as its bad for them and they’re just comfort eating!  However it’s when it becomes a consistent daily habit or routine and starts to affect your health, happiness or interferes with your daily life, that it should become a concern.&nbs ..read more

Has the introduction of this sugar tax, made any effect on people’s habits?  I’m not so sure, miniscule at best in my opinion?  It has raised €32 million for the government in the first year, however none of it has been spent on tackling obesity, see Irish Times article here.  So, while it’s a great revenue spinner for the government, it’s unlikely to have any significant effect on reducing obesity.  With 3 in every 5 Irish adults overweight, personally, I would prefer to see an approach similar to cigarettes and alcohol.  Maybe a law removing high sugar treats from th ..read more

ARE YOU STUCK IN YOUR COMFORT ZONE? CAN YOU GET OUT AND FACE YOUR FEARS? It’s so easy to wish for things to happen and to get caught up in the fear of the “what if’s?”  “What if I look silly”, “what if I fail”, “what if I’m not good enough”, “what if I’m not able to do it”. Weeks turn into months and months turn into years, as we get accustomed to not liking our appearance, we get used to feeling tired all the time, it becomes normal to get ill regularly, have a dead-end job or be perennially single etc. Our health, body shape, finances, relationships & body image etc, rarely imp ..read more

Here’s everything I’ve learned about how to reduce emotional eating.  An emotional eater generally loves food and can feel full, unlike over eaters who may never feel full.   If an emotional eater is overweight, portion size isn’t usually the reason they’re overweight. They use food as their reward, punishment and stress coping mechanism in their lives and as we’re either happy, sad, energised, tired or stressed all day every day. It’s the regularity of emotional eating time after time, that can cause weight gain.  However, an emotional eater may not be overweight, but ..read more

Intermittent fasting is a way of eating that cycles between eating and fasting.  It’s not a diet as such, more a pattern of eating.  It essentially restricts calories while in the fasting phase, then boosts metabolism (potentially) when you resume eating.  Can then make it difficult to over consume calories in the eating window – for people who eat healthily.  The easiest way to intermittent fast, is to finish your evening meal at 8pm, then not eat again for 16 hours – so 12pm the next day.  I’ve had mixed results with clients following IF, however it is worth trying i ..read more

By Mark Kiernan What is protein? Protein is a nutrient found in food which is made up of numerous amino acids that are joined together. Read on to learn more about the benefits of protein.  What does it do? Protein builds, maintains, and replaces the tissues in your body It’s easy to understand the excitement. Protein is an important component of every cell in the body. Hair and nails are mostly made of protein. Your body uses protein to build and repair tissues. You also use protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Protein is an important building block of bones, musc ..read more