Since I did a blog post here, what can I say? I've been working hard in the off season to bring a better package to the British Grand Prix in July (19th) where I'll be facing off against 4 former British champions with the chance of a place at the Arnold Classic! Not to mention another fat trophy.

It's been a massive learning experience, trying different feeding methods including the feared night time carb-load. Playing with various training patterns and of course focusing on the weak points.

I'd love to see you join me at the IFBB British Grand prix in July!

So many of you have been asking me for more recipes, things have been very busy (oh never heard that before) but no excuses. Here you have an extremely simple, fast and versatile daytime meal that can be transported and eaten either hot or cold...




First of all let me tell anyone reading this that the best source of chicken for both convenience and nutrition is that from GoldStandard, the ready cooked, steamed chicken breasts they do are really the best option for healthy living (unless you happen to own a free range chicken farm, in which case lucky you!). Unlike supermarket chicken they contain zero preservatives and you can tell straight away that no extra water has been added, I don’t eat any other chicken myself and urge all my clients to do the same. You can buy them online directly for the GoldStandard website.


Secondly I’m all about convenience, although the title here makes it seem as if we’re creating a delicate, fine-dining experience – it literally takes 3 minutes to prepare (yes I am serious).


 Shopping list: Chicken breast (GoldStandard recommended), pesto sauce (no added sugar), Quinoa, Chickpeas, Bulgar Wheat & Rice Waitrose Love Life 250g (available from Waitrose, in pre-cooked packets). Note: If you can’t get this exact product you can of course use wholegrain rice or quinoa cooked yourself, even wholemeal pasta, I’m listing this option as it’s just so easy. 
 
Preparation:
Chop your desired amount of chicken breast (for me a portion is 150g), add two teaspoons of pesto sauce and your desired amount of quinoa/rice/bulgar wheat mix (for most of my meals I use 100g which give your roughly 30g of carbohydrates, follow your diet plan to get the right amount of protein and carbohydrates) and mix together.
 
Now for the best part… This meal can either be eaten cold or heated up (microwave for 2 mins). Delicious, healthy, versatile and guilt-free. This recipe is also available in downloadable PDF format in my DIET > RECIPES > DAYTIME section.

JB

While I am usually a sceptic when it comes to testosterone boosters and the like this product caught my eye while in conversation at Athlete King. The flashy packaging aside I picked it up and did what I always do; read the back, the small print. It contains a few interesting compounds, naturally the ZMA is there as you would expect (the body’;s micronutrient building blocks for testosterone)
but also fenugreek in the two forms of testofen® and trigotest™ and
a massive dose of tribulus to boot. 

It also contains saw palmetto and stinging nettle extract to control DHT conversion and something with a very long chemical name to stop estrogen conversion (2 ticks in two boxes). Stay with me now that the boring jargon is finished.


Now what I found interesting with this product is my own experience… I eat a very regulated diet and take a very regulated assortment of supplements, therefore I know if I’m getting sick or if I don’t get enough sleep etc. Because the smallest change is felt with significance; I notice every cheat meal or if I get woken up early. I took the recommended dosage prior to bed
and the next morning completely forgot that I had even bought it (that’s what fasted cardio at 5am can do to you!). It was only a few hours later when I started wondering why I was in such a good mood that I cracked  the code! I was sitting at work inundated with the usual annoyances of someone working in IT (usually down to user idiocy I must admit) and I wasn’t get wound up like I usually would, then I started thinking of all the jobs to do that day (a busy day by my standards) and instead of the feeling of dread at the sheer amount of tasks to be faced I found myself exited and relishing the challenge. I had that feeling I used to have as a child when you wake up and the birds are singing and the sun is out – like I can handle anything.

Keep in mind that I still had forgotten that I took this product the previous evening, therefore eliminating any conscious placebo effect. I thought to myself “what’s changed?” Then it came to me… Test Freak changed, me, for the better. 


Bear in mind that I am a sceptic as mentioned above; well this sceptic is
convinced now. Highly recommended people! Buzzing, joking, smiling and full
of energy and worth every penny in my 
opinion.



(No
I don’t have shares in pharmafreak!)

JB

 
 
 
 

Save yourself time and money with GoldStandard
steam cooked chicken
 
When I design diet plans for clients I usually point them in the direction of Iceland or one of the supermarket chains to get ready-cooked chicken. Most people don’t have the time and energy to cook up kilos of chicken multiple times a week (if you do, great – you have more time than most people, enjoy it!). They want something ready-to-go and in this age of instant gratification and limited time, it’s a no-brainer.


I recently tried the new product from GoldStandard nutrition, steam cooked chicken. The chicken comes in individually steamed breasts, skin removed and no E-numbers, preservatives or water
injections. It comes in a 2.5kg pack of frozen, pre-cooked breasts and wait for it, the price…£19.00 for a pack (this drops down to £17.00 if you purchase 4).


I found it difficult to find uncooked chicken for this price, let alone cooked. Simply pop out a few breasts the night before, leave in the fridge and in the morning they are ready to rock. As if this wasn’t enough I can tell you from my own experience (eating a very measured diet, every meal weighed and calculated) that 140g of this stuff will leave you as full as 180g of the supermarket options, which, let’s be honest, are pumped full of water. It’s worth adding this into the equation when calculating the value of this product.


I for one will never go back to Iceland for my chicken and I encourage any of my clients and members of this site to give GoldStandard a try. You will thank me.

Use this link to try them for yourself

This past Saturday was a great day for me, attending the Fitness Authority Team Extreme seminar at Panther's Gym. The athletes comprise some of the best bodybuilders on the planet with British and world champions not to mention IFBB Pro and rank #2 212 division Sami Al Hadad. 

The day kicked off with each athlete giving a brief description of their achievements and championships, then a Q&A session which was a real eye-opener. The atmosphere was just great, lots of jokes and laughter but also some great advice, tips and stories. After a free lunch (courtesy of Panthers) we went to business, to the gym itself to train :D 

It was a real inspiration to be training alongside the top athletes in bodybuilding, although it reinforced my own goals and put things in perspective for me. We all need a reality check sometimes. Lots of work to do, re-fuelled my motivation tanks.

Thanks to the guys at FA and the athletes for putting on this event for free, also thanks to my good friends at Panthers for providing the venue and food!

I heard about this a while ago, essentially is increases the amount of oxygen in your blood - obviously increasing athletic performance. I have personally been experimenting with it during the run up to the British finals and can honeslty say that I notice when I don't take it. It also turns out that it's an effective cancer treatment http://www.naturalnews.com/028409_cordyceps_cancer.html 

So it's the last week before the British championships, I've had a great deal to overcome,  a chest infection and the ensuing antibiotics while keeping the cardio levels up to 4 hours a day and consistently bringing my carbohydrates down each day. It's been hard but I think I am on track now. Just a few more days of overtraining and hard core diet and I will be eating my porridge watching films in the hotel :)

Thanks to all my supporters, freidns, family and fans for the encouragement along the way, without your motivation this journey would have been impossible. Special thanks to Sean and Helen from Panthers gym who are very patient with me, increasingly so the closer to show time. To my partner Natasha who has been very tolerant of my moods! To all my friends and family to whom I owe some real time once this season is out of the way.


Now on to the big stage on the 20th, an exiting time, I never imagined i'd make it this far... Let's see what's next...

Nicole contacted me 2 weeks out from her first ever show asking for some guidance with the last minute touches to really make an impact. A very dedicated individual that I was happy to help, her commitment shone through when she placed 2nd (only missing out on first to last years national champion). She had this to say...



"I decided to compete in a local amateur BodyBuilding event only 2 weeks out from the actual show after being approached and encouraged by the organiser as I was quietly training one day in my local gym. Panic set in as 2 weeks did not give me time to really work on my weaker body parts and prepare myself mentally and physically. So I needed expert advice and fast. I contacted James and explained that I needed guidence on diet/nutrition only 2 weeks out from an event. James was fabulous, he advised on carb cycling, salt and water loading and depletion, what to eat the night before and on the day. I can not thank him enough and even though I knew no one could prepare for a show with 2 weeks notice, he helped me to get the best out of what I had to offer on the day. Next Year I will be more prepared with the knowledge I have now aquired through James's expert advice.

Thank you James :-)"

This is so rewarding to me, to offer knowledge and advice to those who really put in the work and listen. Then to see them achieve their goals. Hopefully we will see Nicole on the big stage of the UKBFF soon. Watch this space. And once more, congratulations to Nicole :)

When fat loss is your goal the idea is simple: eat less than you use each
day. As a techie this can be easily expressed is an "IF" statement:


IF: ENERGY IN  <  ENERGY OUT, THEN: FAT LOSS


It’s staggeringly simple to follow, if you burn more energy that you get from
the food you eat then you will have to use fat stores to make up the difference.
Now there are a couple of subtleties to this that will help.




1. Don’t go overboard: It’s too easy to get yourself caught in a mind-set
that the more you restrict your calories the faster you will lose fat. It’s not
really that simple, you don’t just burn fat you burn fat and muscle
tissue. It goes without saying that it’s preferable to burn less muscle and more
fat, well if you jump in the deep end and starve yourself you will burn far more
muscle. The rule-of-thumb is to have a calorie deficit of 500 Kcals/Day, but
essentially the smaller your calorie deficit the more proportion of fat in
relation to muscle will be burned. So go slow, don’t starve – it’s a marathon,
not a sprint.


2. Once a week "carb up". This means increasing your intake of carbs so that
you are eating more than you need – just for one day in the week. The logic here
is that by eating a constant calorie deficit you will be causing your body to go
into "starvation mode" meaning elevated levels of cortisol (bad) and a higher
propensity to store fat from food, potential insulin sensitivity and more muscle
loss. By re-feeding once per week you will avoid this scenario. This doesn’t
mean a day filled with ice-cream and alcohol, try and get your extra calories
from clean food!

So where can I start?
 
It’s all very good for athletes and trainers to harp on about “advanced training technique X” or “the secret training system for extreme fat loss” but really what most people (and by this I mean people who may not be gym goers, overweight, self-conscious etc.) want is an idea of where to start without killing themselves!

I had the pleasure of competing at the Muscletalk show this last Sunday in Bedford. It was an excellent event and professionally organised. The big buzz of the day was about Jodie Marsh competing for the first time in a real federation (UKBFF). I’m sure most of you have followed her story to some extend and seen the madness first hand, her malnutrition and poor advice
she was given throughout has, I fear, painted this sport in a bad light. There
are a million trainers around and even more diet and training plans. What is
clear to me is that there is no “one-fits-all” approach, despite what the big
businesses would have you believe. You need to have real advice from someone you can trust and more importantly to put your faith in that person to deliver you the results you want without straying from their plan, the worst thing you can do is to seek professional advice from multiple places or overthink the
 advice given to you. I can’t tell you how many opposing views have been
presented to me during my pre-contest prep – but I stuck with the advice from my coach and achieved success.


Don’t stray from the advice  given!


Now with that being said there 10 basic rules  that apply to everyone:



1.      
Clean up your diet:  remove: sugar, crisps, sweets, fizzy drinks, cakes, chocolate, pizza, chips,  burgers etc.(you know -the bad
things!).


2.      
Do at least 30 minutes  of something each day, running, swimming, football – anything that makes you sweat! (yes including bedroom cardio, 30 minutes might be pushing it though)


3.      
Get a good night’s sleep; don’t fall into the trap of sleep debt. Sleep is when your body heals itself, it’s so important!


4.      
Don’t skip breakfast; by doing so you mess up your metabolism and cause your body to be more likely to store fat. This one is so important and every person I speak to who says they “just can’t eat breakfast” soon sees the benefits once they start.


5.      
Don’t overeat, binge eating is a great way to get fat - you should never feel bloated after a  meal.


6.      
Alcohol and recreational drugs; fun? Yes –helpful for healthy living and a good body composition? No.   (Moderation)


7.      
Green veg; so important to leading a healthy life I can’t begin to tell you how much my health improved after upping my green veg intake (see my kale shake recipe). Goodbye constipation.


8.      
Low fat arrgh!?!?! Generally speaking “low fat”products are worse than the regular versions, instead of having fat they are usually full of sugar instead (which in my opinion is much worse). I'll have a full-fat yoghurt over the low-fat version any day. 


9.      
Processed food; avoid at all costs – everything should be from a natural source if possible.


10.  
Vitamin pills: Forget apples, one of these a day will help to keep the doctor away!