Hi and welcome to another week,

Cheers to everyone who got along to train with us last week – I really enjoyed the classes (though that 4x bike, 2-minute rounds session last Monday was possibly ‘excessive’!) and really feel like I am starting to ‘get somewhere’ after what feels like a couple of months of stagnation…I am hoping each of you feels the same.

Before I go any further into the blog I just wanted to say I am trialling out a bit of a change with the structure of it during Feb (starting today!) – Sunday will be the ‘BLOG’ and each Thursday will be a ‘newsletter’.  The blog will contain all the stuff you read ‘at the start’ of the old blog whereas the new ‘newsletter’ will be all of the goings-on at the gym…updates, new stuff, changes, etc.  Not sure how it is going to go but I am going to trial it over the next 4x weeks and we will see how it goes.

Now that I have said that, I did want to make a quick mention of the new bike seats that have FINALLY been installed (cheers to Kirei for the assist!)…this has seriously been a 3-4 month process of failed orders, non-deliveries, refunds and re-orders…it is so good to have finally gotten to this point!  I know I appreciated not sitting on a ripped, torn, stuck together seat late in the week and I hope each of you did as well!

Onto the blog.  This week it is (funnily enough) all about the 28-days Later challenge – and specifically, why I think EVERYONE should do it.  I know it costs $70 to sign-up – but to me that is the absolute bargain of the century.  Have a quick search around the web and you will find that is around 25% of the prices being charged elsewhere (yes, meaning other offerings are in excess of $250!) without having the same proven record of success that our challenge has…anyway, go to this link to get signed up then come back and read the reasons why you will be thankful you did:

Register for the 28-days-later Challenge

Alright.  Hard sell over.  I have said this before but the idea for the 28-days-Later Challenge came from the 28-Days-Later MOVIE….basically, the idea of the movie was how much the world could change in 28-days which flowed on to me thinking how much change we could achieve at the gym if everyone did just a bit more exercise and really ‘dialled in’ their food for one month.  My initial little ‘how much’ target was 500kg of weight loss (as a gym) – obviously weight loss isn’t everyone’s goal hence this years challenge now has a PRO option to provide more of a muscle gain focussed approach – and we have been averaging around 4kg weight loss per person over the 4-weeks of the challenge.  We are going to hit that target again this year…but the benefits of the challenge are so much more than losing a couple of kegs!  Here are the 10-reasons I think everyone should do it.

You SLEEP better.

It is amazing – I am still amazed after all these run throughs – but when you REALLY, TRULY, 100% cut sugar and sweeteners completely out of your diet, you just sleep better.  You aren’t as restless at night and wake up actually feeling like you have SLEPT.

You have ALL-DAY energy.

OK.  To be fair, it takes a couple of weeks of the challenge to get to this point, but when you are eating ‘properly’ you will find that you don’t need to be drinking coffee at 2pm to get you through the afternoon…you will be FINE.  (If you like coffee, you might still like to drink one but you wont NEED one to get to the end of the day).

You wont have a ‘fuzzy’ brain.

This will also take a few days, but you wont find your mind shifting gears from left to right to back to forth – your will be able to CONCENTRATE.  You just feel better and think more clearly when you eat properly.  You will be eating consistently well and exercising hard – you will be feeling GOOD.

Your vegetable intake will be way, way, way UP!

More veggies will = a happier gut and contribute to all of the points already listed above.  The ‘2 fruit and 5 (cups of) veggies’ ads that we have been seeing all our lives – you will find hitting those targets NO PROBLEM when you are on the challenge and all those veggies will just be making you feel good.  (Be sure to eat a wide variety of stuff though).

You will rediscover the kitchen and rediscover food.

This is the happiest by-product of all.  Because some of the ‘usual’ stuff you cook at home will be ‘OFF’ the list (no bread, no pasta, no sweeteners of any kind all covers a LOT of stuff – particularly when you consider pretty much every food that comes in a can or a jar has some sort of sweetener!) you will find new recipes (and the challenge booklet includes 30x new ones!!!).  You will cook new things, experiment with your cooking, try and taste new things and you will love some and others, well, maybe not so much.  The whole process is an awesome one though and you come out of it with a better appreciation of food AND as a more skilled and innovative ‘chef’.

You recognise the difference between eating for hunger and eating out of boredom (or emotion!).

We all do it – swing on the door of the fridge ‘looking for something’ for no reason what so ever.  You know what?  No-one ever layed in bed / sat a their desk dreaming of BROCOLI!  Because the challenge cuts out so many of those emotional/boredom based eating staples, you wont be consuming all of those extra, un-needed calories just ‘cos.  You will recognise TRUE hunger signals and will eat good food in response to them!

You WILL become much more organised.

It is only going to take one Saturday afternoon shopping expedition when you find yourself stuck in a sea of food – none of which complies to the “rules” of the challenge – for you to get your act together in terms of cooking, preparing and making available healthy foods, meals and snacks.  Before you go out you might grab one of your breakfast muffins or maybe eat a couple of those lettuce wraps you had set aside for lunch…healthy food in the fridge, ready to go = AWESOME food decisions.

You will have a strong and positive influence on people around you.

To me this is HUGE.  Once you start following ‘The Rules’, you will very quickly become aware of the everyday things you have been eating that contains stuff that is less than good for you…and you will feel better for it.  When you make consistently good food decisions, it will influence those around you (family and friends) to do the same – and they will get ALL of these benefits you are getting!

Your training will IMPROVE…first a bit, then a LOT.

Because you are fuelling yourself “RIGHT”, you will be able to train better and for LONGER.  Guess what – this has a flow on effect.  Train with more intensity and energy means that you will be getting more out of each workout…AND because you are training harder, you will become fitter and stronger, enabling your NEXT workout to become better again…it really is the positive cycle that training hard creates.

You will just feel better and more positive about YOU.

The challenge is hard.  And the longer you are able to stick to the rules, the better you will feel about yourself for making that commitment.  Further, as already mentioned all the good food will have a positive effect on your mindset – and all the tough training will make you feel good about your improvements in the gym.  Doing all this and being successful will make you just a little prouder of that person you see in the mirror – which will lead to confidence and even more positive action.

You will stop thinking about dieting and understand ‘FOOD’.

You wont be worrying about cleanses, about how much, about when, about how, about ‘superfood’ x or y or z…you will just be regularly eating balanced, healthy, fresh food with a ‘treat’ thrown in every now and then.  And because you will have broken the back of those sugar cravings, those urges for chocolates and sweet things just seem to fade into the back-ground.

You might lose weight.  You might gain muscle. You might do both!  But regardless, if you stay the course you WILL start to ‘LOOK’ like someone who ‘TRAINS’.

This is the great body composition one – when you eat ‘RIGHT’ and train both consistently and with great effort, you might not end up looking like that ‘ideal you’ that you had always imagined based on a picture from a magazine, but you will develop that unmistakeable lean physique of someone who spends time in the gym.  And I don’t know about you guys, but that is ultimately what I want – nothing more than for someone who first meets me not be surprised when they find out I am in the gym a few times each week – rather they know without asking that I am putting in a few hours each week!

Anyway – that’s it.  I am sure there are 1 million more reasons (at least!) to have a go.  I know I am biased because my time has been almost completely consumed by this for the last 3 weeks but this years challenge is 100% going to be the best ever – it offers the most to the most number of people due to the split between the ‘FITNESS’ options for 1^st timers and the ‘PRO’ options for experienced hands…it now includes a pretty cool little goal-setting worksheet to really help you hit your targets, there is a meal prep guide that you can use if you want to really ‘Live the Life’…it is just awesome!

One last time, you can sign up for the challenge here:

Register for the 28-days-later Challenge

Let me know if any of this sounds good (or not) with an email to Michael@round1fitness.com.au

See you in the gym,

Michael.