BodyFab Revamp Phase 1

So i have undergone a total revamp body wise/fitness wise as well as gearing up for the new year. I am a proud owner of a wellness company called BodyFab Lifestyle and have added tons of fitness disciplines, nutrition,supplement education to my bank of knowledge to always be able to keep my clients on the loop of recent trends fitness-wise as well as how to achieve optimum goals and keep at it.

I will be constantly posting different experiences that I go through on my fitness journey with clients as well as myself. I have also added to the fleet of discipline s BodyFab kids as the rate of obesity in our country has skyrocketed over the years.

There's also the supplement/skincare range that I am currently using which I can't wait to introduce to my readers. Every woman wants to look good naked (period,) but what if I tell you forget the scale and concentrate on how not to lose muscle mass as you train with your body fat and can introduce you to products that help you do that. Supplements that work from the inside out..rejuvenating your cells for a much firmer,younger look on the outside without chucking away your healthy eating regime. With this said I will see you next time. Meantime just remain Fab and stay fabulously 

SAY WHAAAAA,STARVING YOURSELF TO LOSE WEIGHT CAN MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT

Its January,the gyms are full and all the ads on TV about weight loss programmes are insaneeeeeeee,i.e what to do to look in shape for 2015, the worst is these fads diets that the so called professionals make you follow all in the favour of losing a kg or so. Reality check: Quick fixes are fads, in anything..pyramid schemes, lottery games, losing weight (topic at hand). There are wellness clinics that freeze people's fat.

All I need to know is when all of this unfreezes where does it go?..when you have taken pills all your life to look a certain way, chances of you looking 10 times worse than when you started are 9/10.

You have to use steroids all your life to look the way you used to look when you started using them. You have to keep that lifestyle for as long as you can. Who needs to be counting six meals a day when they are 60+? I know for sure I don't want to live such a life so this is the drift. You need to eat,eat healthy and as much as you can. You can have your breakfast,lunch and supper. People should stop complicating things and just get on with it. A balanced diet means your body consumes enough nutrients,enough carbohydrates,enough protein etc. Training and eating healthy requires you to change your mindset. Keeping this lifestyle has seemed hard for people to follow but on the real eating vegetables, meat, fruit and drinking water is easy peasy. 

Did you know that you can over-train and starve yourself but still gain weight. What happens here is if you skip your meals with hope to lose weight you are frustrating your body and not giving it enough food to burn into fat to give you energy. A workout session increases ghrelin, a hunger hormone that jacks up the appetite, slows the metabolism, and tells the brain the body is hungry. So when you don't eat, the minute you put anything in your body no matter how healthy that food is, your body will  turn it into fat to preserve energy until the next food intake. After our metabolism is starved, its number one priority is restoring all the body fat it lost and then protecting us from starving in the future. Guess how it does that? By storing additional body fat.
 

Eating less somehow slows the metabolism. Put the same quantity and quality of food and exercise into a slowed-down fat metabolism system, and out comes more body fat.Starvation does not make us thin. It makes us stocky, sick, and sad. It’s bad for health and it’s bad for fat loss. Your body just doesn’t work that way. Eating less does not cause fat loss.Lets not get things twisted, get in there grab your vegetables,fruit and everything you have been taught to eat as a child and balance your diet. Then put in that 3 times a week training sessions and you are good to go.

 

Cellulite where are thou? Why are you even here..

Everyone struggles with this one, actually everyone will probably get this sometime in their life. Can we get rid of it or can we lessen the visibility? I need to ask this important question..since technology is so easy to maneuver through these days have you actually went to google anything to do with CELLULITE.

If yes then it means you are hopelessly trying to get rid of it and using all the oils you can find to try make your skin look more youthful. A lot of people think they can decrease the visibility of this by liposuction,oils and all kinds of things. Remember when you were in grade 1 and your teachers encouraged you to eat fruit and vegetables and it used to bum you up,life skills books for primary schools is filled with pictures of 8 glasses of water a day, eating healthy,drinking milk for stronger this or that. Now as you grow older and life catches up with you, you forget all about that and obviously start doing your own things. Why has this changed because this is still the foundation to live longer,look youthful bla bla.

Cellulite is body fat, body fat that pushes through your skin and make dimple like looking fat deposits on the surface of your skin.Why do we get it? FACT..because we eat rubbish. Ever wondered why skinny girls also have cellulite. Some people have high metabolism and some people are just resistant, some people can eat healthy and still not lose weight because of thyroid problems or what not.

Fact of the matter is you can lessen the visibility of your cellulite or reverse it. But first educate yourself about why you get cellulite. Women's skin is naturally thin layered as compared to men. 

When there is too much body fat your body tends to try find space to store it so it pushes against your connective tissue onto the skin, when your fat tissue cells balloons up because of this there is less space under the skin which now presses against your connective tissue then it bulges up on the surface of your skin. Our fat cells are placed in large compartments side by side which forms columns so when a person gets fat these compartments gets filled with the fat which put pressure on the tissue then expands vertically onto the skin.

Men on the other hand have smaller compartments which are crisscrossed and when their body fat gets hectic it cant necessarily push through the skin so it pushes into one big blob hence the BOEP OR beer belly. So which one would you rather have? A blob or dimples? SERIOUSLY I WANT NONE OF THE ABOVE-MENTIONED. So a few tips for us ladies.
If you wear firm control body girdles or those big drawers/panties trying to put everything inside so that you look slimmer this might be a detriment to getting rid of your cellulite. This underwear limits the blood flow and speed up your cellulite to spread to more areas around your butt so you think you have compressed to look good but it causes more stress when it comes to your cellulite.

• Follow a healthy diet. Protein intake and healthy fat intake does the trick here. Limit your sugar intake too. opt for a healthier alternative.
• The next time you shop for lingerie make sure its your g-strings or loose not those big john tates that hold everything together and let all loose when you take them off
• Women that smoke tend to get more cellulite than women who don't. Your choice
• Girls are still scared to lift weights in the gym. Try pushing more weights while training instead of always doing cardio.That shift in your workout will do you wonders..

Intakes for winter, ready when you are..

So you are struggling a bit about knowing what you can have on that shopping list for winter. This has seemingly been the coldest week of this winter. 

Nonetheless I have to be up at 4 to be at the gym at 5 and its kinda been too hard to get used to this. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition..people cant seem to get this one right. I have been on a nutrition journey since I have been a fitness trainer and I must say the worst times of my career was when I did fitness competitions and I had to eat an egg white to control my body fat or whatever. Had no cooking clue what that was intended to do in my body but the fact was it was gross/still is.Very gross that I am grossed thinking about it right now as I write this post. 

There were all types of fitness fanatics around me vying to be the next miss Fitness, miss Bikini and miss Physique..I had no clue what I was doing but I had my cereal,bread and my well done eggs yolk and all. People were just looking at me funny. 

Not that I cared but I was a newbie and I was starting out so we learn from our mistakes right. Yeah right. But the thing is I have suffered the consequences of that era in my life until I started equipping myself with serious nutrition knowledge vis how much carbs, protein etc I can consume a day so its been a long time coming. Anyways I am not going to bore you with what to eat and what not to eat.

Yuuuuucccckkkkk 

Fact of the matter is, it is a conscious decision everyone has to take at some point in their life,either you will end up with the doctor telling you to change your diet because of cholesterol levels or sugar intake etc at some point in your life so why not now when no one has a gun to your head or better yet while your life is not cut short because of obesity and other ailments so read on..

Green tea is yucky and ewwwwww without sugar its the worst taste on my lips, but the one thing that green tea has that is good  for you is that is

maintains catechins which are antioxidants that help you prevent viruses and lessens the risk of getting sick in winter. I know we would rather have the milos and the hot chocolates and those skinny this and that so make sure that the next cup you reach for this week should be a nice cup of green tea..

Water -yeah right. I find myself drinking lesser water in winter than in summer because of reasons I would like to indicate as being obvious to you and me.Its colllllllllllllllllllllllddddddd why have water when I can have coffee..apparently cold weather stimulates urine production, and have you noticed that when you breathe there is a misty breath coming out of your mouth. You need your 8 glasses still a day in winter as you need it in summer to help optimize your bodily functions.

Protein- Still important??? When has it never been?Putting a bit or some protein in your daily intake of food is good to assist you with producing antibodies to help fight disease and infection in your body during winter.

Honey- Honey is kind of expensive. I am talking about the real honey where you are actually not paying the processor of the honey but the one sitting in his backyard being stung by bees trying to get

honeycombs to your watery mouth, yeahhhh look at your mouth watering..Wish those bees can come sting you..you are apt to get healthier results if you swap your sugar for honey when sweetening your food or drinks.

Honey has an anti-bacteria and healing contents that can fight any infection and soothe your sore throat..

Yoghurt- Yes good for you, super good for you in winter. Yoghurt is a good bacteria that helps decrease bad bacteria in your body that brings in sicknesses and indigestion. Get loads of that.

Just a weekly dose of what you can do to take care of yourself better this winter. In the end its choice, its a change of mind. Do the right thing, you only have one body unless you want to get cloned in the future or get BOTOX.. which is another topic for another day..

Fitness Workouts..To do or not to Do..

Ever wondered why everyone is trying to come up with a new type of workout all the time. Ever wonder if these ever work or not. Workoutholics google workouts all the time and its crazy how they try go from workout to workout trying to find the newest thing to do. And the other crazy thing is that the people that design workouts will always tell you this is the new thing and it does this and that..

I have been on a mission to find out about recent workouts that hit our market recently although some of them are maybe old and this is what I found out...Read on..

SWEAT 1000-

S.W.E.A.T. stands for “Specialised Weight Endurance Aerobic Training”, with 1000 representing calories burned in a one-hour workout.  

SWEAT 1000

The workouts were developed by Uria, who spent 22 years in the US and has trained movie stars locally and abroad for physically challenging roles. They are a combination of interval-style training incorporating specialised treadmills which incline to 30 degrees – as exercise at inclines of 18 degrees or more is said to burn three times more calories from fat – with floor work using resistance bands and other high-intensity exercises.

 

“It is taking the highest level of physical training and putting it into a one-hour dynamic, action-packed class that is different every time. Still, the impression watching a class in action is that it’s high energy throughout, spurred on by a great music selection played loud. At some point, a colourful pinpoint laser lights dance around in the dark, an inspired night-clubby touch. 



CROSSFIT



CROSSFIT:

 

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program with the aim of improving, among other things, cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. It advocates a perpetually varied mix of aerobic exercise, gymnastics (body weight exercises), and Olympic weight lifting.

CrossFit Inc. describes its strength and conditioning program as “constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity across broad modal and time domains," with the stated goal of improving fitness, which it defines as "work capacity across broad time and modal domains." Hour-long classes at affiliated gyms, or "boxes", typically include a warm-up, a skill development segment, the high-intensity "workout of the day" (or WOD), and a period of individual or group stretching. Some boxes also often have a strength focused movement prior to the WOD. Performance on each WOD is often scored and/or ranked to encourage competition and to track individual progress. Some affiliates offer additional classes, such as Olympic weightlifting, which are not centred around a WOD.

 

INSANITY-

 

When I created the INSANITY workout, I knew it would produce insane results in 60 days, but I wasn't sure if anyone was brave enough to try it(Shaun That guy from HIP HOP abs) Turns out...there are a lot of crazy people out there.

Crazy enough to actually enjoy doing the world's most insanely tough workout. To like the feeling of being drenched in sweat...of going balls-to-the-wall for a full 45 minutes of muscle-searing exercise. Is INSANITY hard?

 

Oh, yeah. It really IS the hardest workout ever put on DVD. It's totally crazy...but it's going to get you crazy-good results. If you've ever been to a Spin class, you know how that works. You motor along at a moderate pace for awhile – then all at once, you kick up your speed and heart rate – just for a minute or so. After that, it's back to a lower gear, giving you
plenty of time to catch your breath.

But with INSANITY, you do exactly the opposite. You work flat out in 3 to 5-minute blocks, and take breaks only long enough to gulp some air and get right back to work. It's called Max Interval Training, because it keeps your body working at maximum capacity through your entire workout.
You keep pushing your limits – so your body has to adapt. That's how you get in such insane shape in just 60 days.

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise, naturally, has been shown to raise a person’s metabolism.  High volume training adds muscle, and increasing muscle is highly correlated to increased metabolism. Yes, these programs will help a sedentary person speed up their metabolism..

 

Insanity and Cross-fit workouts run at a much higher intensity, near that of the anaerobic threshold, and thus anaerobic for most people.  As such, the preferred energy source is carbohydrates.  Sure, all workouts are catabolic , but strength training is the most catabolic activity.  Rest between sets facilitates energy utilization through an aerobic pathway. When muscle recovery is delayed—as is what happens in the P90X/Insanity/Cross-fit models—the muscle operates in an anaerobic state. In this state, as much as 15% of the energy used comes from protein.

Additionally, the lack of rest results in rapid fatigue and may increase the risk of injury, at a cellular and whole muscle level. With fewer amino acids available (because they got turned into ATP) the muscle cells are less able to repair local damage and build bigger (stronger) muscle cells. Lack of amino acids is also a strong trigger for hunger, resulting in an increased drive to eat in the post-recovery phase.

So although these high volume weight-training workouts will create a situation where a person can add lean mass, the intensity of the workout will lead to more muscle loss and decreased muscle repair when anaerobic. The stage is then set for high risk for overtraining and injury and in a nitrogen-negative (protein poor) environment will eventually lead to a loss of metabolism.

So if you compare these workouts what is really the point of having these many workouts bombarding us and having to pay all of that money for DVDs while you are already giving your local gym money? CrossFit is functional training with a twist. It has been proven that there are too many injuries in this workout.. Push your body then compete..Insanity-loads of cardio where you don't take breaks in between their 3-5 minutes blocks, most workouts I saw here are random workouts that you get in body-conditioning, yoga and Pilates also with a twist.

Sweat 1000- truthfully speaking what do I do there that I don't get in the gym or aerobics class except a tale twist in style and workout choreo..and maybe a plus the fact that celebrities do it..marketing strategy. People need to decide for themselves.. 

So its your take, every type of workout has a way of fading away as years go by with newer fads coming in, its a fact. Workouts remain the same though, you warm up, stretch, do the workout whether you want to lose weight or tone then you strengthen and stretch. What types of workouts how and what not remains yours to choose. I personally am not big on these, train smart bla bla..get thin in these many seconds, minutes, months or a year. The fact is know yourself, your body, your blood type, eat healthy, train 3 times a week and you off to a good start..

GO OUT THERE AND GO FOR GREEN...

 

 

Whats in your Refrigerator?- A Bulls Babe Version

Who doesn’t love camo? And who doesn’t like the way it looks on our Vodacom Bulls Babes. Military/Camouflage or whatever you call it is timeless and funky and our girls have managed to make it look sassy and classy and so cool that every girl wants camo for winter. But before you go and buy anything military I get to tell you what you need to eat to look hot in that military ensemble



Soti aka fierce

 So besides the fact that our girls have to hit the gym all the time to keep fit, they also have to eat healthy.As with all athletes, the fitness world is such a challenging world as it requires discipline. And most athletes  have things they do that they  don’t necessarily want you to know about and in this post we will be tackling exactly that. (INDULGENCE) yes this is a nightmare for everyone who wants to look hot.Indulging is not necessarily bad but making indulgence a habit is.

Meet Sotira.  She is busy with her B.Com Marketing Honours final year at the University of Pretoria and you have to give kudos to  this girl. Sotira is one person that will show up for dance practice while she is writing the next day. Call her smart, but I call her well-organised, focussed and a hard worker. Soti plans to consume healthy food the whole of winter, though she has a sweet tooth she is currently on Operation Resistance for chocolate as she knows what the effects are, that can make this hotness look like a hot mess. She also plans to stay away from saturated fats and will fall in love with vegetable soup all over again this winter. Soti's winter diet tip: Make as much vegetable soup as you can and freeze it so that you can  eat it at a later stage, you can never go wrong with that. I am trying this for winter as well. Thanks Sots.

    



Sots's healthy habits



Experts have always indicated that a healthy fit body requires healthy eating and training. To get the body that you have always wanted remember its what you put in that reflects how you want to look. So it is  a fact that 80 percent what you eat, 20 percent training. Eating however one likes and spending hours in the gym is exhausting. If one puts the wrong food into their system, one becomes mentally and physically depleted as compared to a person who eats healthy. It is never too late to start the routine. Your body will get used to it in no time. Should you not afford to go to the gym, a 20 minute run around the block is sufficient on a daily basis. I will be posting a lot of at home workouts in my future posts thus there will be no excuse especially for my readers.

Tarryn, ohhhhh Tarryn miss T, the hot flawless Tarryn. The camera loves this girl, not because of her petite body but simply because she is flawless.                                           

She is obviously super photogenic and hot. I got a shock of my life when we did a charity event and Tarryn pushed 210 burpees straight from that petite body. I was taken aback by the self-motivation, the drive and the urge that oozes on  this girl. She did 210 big ones and if we have had more time she would gone for more.  Tarryn keeps fit by training all the time and she loves eating wraps and salad. She likes eating healthy hence the hot body and she does also cheat once in a while and indulges in sweets and chocolates.

 

She has promised me that she will also run a mile from chocolates this winter and will  drink lots of soup and water. She is challenging herself this winter to drop pecs so watch this space, that camo is not going to be camo anymore as Seargent Tarryn will make it look out of this world. Her refrigerator looks good to feed from too..Tarryn likes challenge and by the look of things before the end of Super Rugby she will have achieved her fitness and health goal. Go Tarryn..we await pictures

  

    

Kirst and her food

 

Kirsten-Fabulousity defined



This is Kirsten’s fridge and ever since I have known Kirst she always has the same body. TRICK -Stay away from junk food. REPEAT : Stay away. She says she chooses to eat according to what her body needs. My body

is always asking for speckled eggs, Oreo Mcflurry and tennis biscuits. Kirst needs to help me because once I eat these; they go straight to my twin towers(backside). Kirsten confesses her love for biltong. I personally dont think there is anything wrong with biltong except for the spices but experts say if you eat it RAW then its good. This is just a pun and should be taken in light of what it was intended to. I think Kirst is keeping more hotness secrets from us and I will try squeeze more out of her the next time. And since she tries to remain healthy and eat healthy throughout the year she doesn’t do special diets for winter. Thanks Kirsten..



Tarryn and what she likes eating and drinking



FITNESS CHALLENGE FOR 4 WEEKS (AT HOME WORKOUT 1)

This is a 5 minute workout every girl should do every day

200 glutes execises every morning

(Lie down on your back, lift your knees off the floor into a V,raise your toes and stay on your heels and put your arms on the sides, raise your butt off the floor and hold for 5 seconds and back on the floor. Repeat this 200 times every morning and you will have a perfectly shaped butt in no time


200 ab execise 

50 crunches(Lie on back and put your arms behind your head, careful to not pull your neck, propel your upper body forward by raising it off the floor and moving your chin towards your knees)

50 scissors with your hands under your back (Put arms under your back with back lying on the floor, raise head a centimeter or 2 over the floor, raise your legs up and down from the floor in scissor movements)

50 leg raised touching your toes abb execise

50 plank execises(turn onto your stomach and raise your whole body into a staight plank with elbows touching the floor and head raised not hanging)

Next blog 3 more Bulls B



 

What the gym doesn't tell you...GOOGLE IT..

It's amazing how people that go to the gym depend on fitness trainers/personal trainers/aerobics instructors to tell them what to do. Just like any other structure, gyms are built for profit making.Everyone wants something out of you, so you end up paying for a gym membership that you hardly use or do 2 sessions a week..Is it really worth it to pay that much money and you hardly use the services?




At some point in your life you will

need to gym for one reason or the other: either the doctor's orders;the need to  get fit and healthy,or just to look good. With the internet at your disposal you can get any information you need on how to be healthy, what to eat, how to train e.t.c. You will need to use your own discretion as to what information to process as there are many fads out there..

How funny is it when I see people advertising on Facebook or some social media :How Beyonce lost 100 pounds after her baby?? 
The only way or the only time I will look at such ads will be NEVER,.First question I ask would be is this person Beyonce's publicist or trainer?? If yes why is she/he  targeting this kind of readership? Shouldn't Beyonce be writing a book about how she lost weight after her baby and get royalties for that? Seriously who would fall for such advertising. People open your eyes, no one will help you lose weight unless you get to it and get serious about finding proper information on how to.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/lose-12kg-in-two-weeks-why-facebook-must-get-rid-of-these-dangerous-and-extreme-weight-loss-ads-8529192.html

PSST: Now this is what the gym doesn't tell you. You do not need to spend hours huffing and puffing in the gym. You need to train smart and eat healthy. Have you ever heard about interval training? If no, do yourself a favour and Google it. All you need is 20 mins in the gym. You can do this type of training on the treadmill, on the bike, on the stepper or in the aerobics studio. This kind of training needs focus and timing. On this post I will mainly focus on doing this workout at home or using an aerobic studio. The only gym apparatus you will need here is a step. If you do not have one use any type of elevation in your house, i.e a staircase or something like that. 

You will need to warm up for three minutes. Running /jumping jacks/punches/straddling or whatever you want. Just make sure you do a full 3 minute warm-up.Then at your top speed run up and down the step/one step on the staircase..this will be 30 seconds. After that to keep your heart racing do scissors jacks on the step for 30 seconds. Jumping jacks for 30 seconds. The next one will be a jump squat where you jump on the step onto a squat and do 2 squats then jump back down onto the floor with 2 more squats,this is done with legs wide apart, then to cool off march for 30 seconds. This is called a set. You will need to do 10 sets with 30 seconds for each exercise to get optimum results. (FULL WORKOUT)

NB: Remember its called interval training for you to take intervals at a given point. This workout works with your heart rate so a need to concentrate on that is imperative. You need to push your heart rate for the first 2 exercises which will be 30 seconds each and then as you do the last 2 exercises which are a bit slower,this will drop your heart rate. Also remember to rest if this gets too much for you.  I am so amped up to read about what the results are as you guys embark on this  fitness journey, remember what you don't know you can always GOOGLE it...

I will post a conditioning INTERVAL WORK OUT soon. Happy working out and please go rant and rave about your newly found way to cheat the gym with optimum results.