Gavin Morey, muscle therapist and celebrity fitness consultant, together with his wife, Alison, undertook a real-life challenge to get fit and achieve their dream shape in just 12 weeks. Here, Gavin explains how they achieved their goals.
As a personal trainer, my clients often say how easy it is for me to look the way I do and not have to worry about what I eat. It’s hard to explain that it isn’t easy, so I decided I would show them exactly how I do it. But I decided to take it one step further and put some weight on first, to then show how to lose it sensibly and maintain a good physique. I talked Alison into doing it for the ladies book, too!
After more than five months of not exercising, and fattening up by following an unhealthy diet, I gained over two stone! Alison on the other hand, had a desk job, was already overweight and as an unfit gym novice was perfect for taking part.
Food basics
Leave bread and pasta off your shopping list. You would have heard this before but bread and pasta are not that good for you and make your body retain water have which will, in turn, make you feel and look bloated. Try leaving these out of your diet for one week and see how much weight/centimetres you lose and how great you feel.
Base your weekly dinners on three fish meals, two white meat meals, one red meat meal and one of your choice eg vegetarian. Start by going through recipes you would like to try, and plan them into your weekly shopping list. Avoid shopping when you’re hungry or you’ll put more in your trolleys, especially naughty foods and sugary foods. Better to shop after a meal. This works to your advantage as you pick up slightly less and will keep to your plan.
Enjoy the odd meal out as it can help with weight loss. Rewarding yourself for reaching a goal will reduce the feeling of deprivation. Trusting yourself to choose the right meal and turning down the breadbasket reinforces your sense of self control.
Try to have a snack between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner. Remember snacks are only supposed to be a light snack for when you feel hungry between meals (drink a glass of water first as this may be an indicator of dehydration).
Good snacks – fruit, nuts, seeds, soya nuts, total yoghurt, vegetable sticks
Bad snacks – cereal bars, large amounts of dried fruit, chocolate bars.
Water makes up two thirds of the weight of a human body and water is an important nutrient, but how much is enough? Usual recommendation is between 1.5 to 3 litres a day depending on your size, shape and the amount of exercise you do. When it comes to drinking alcohol, the best advice is to drink ones that are most natural with low sugar and no artificial ingredients. Choose spirits over beer, red wine over white or rose wine, ale over beer.
Fitness basics
Don’t over-commit. Start slowly and your body will naturally get used to the stresses you are placing upon it and adapt to allow you to train for more days in a week and train even harder.
An activity log is the best way to focus on your goals. It will help you track your progress, increase your workload and progress quicker. By using an activity log you can see what is working for you and what you enjoy the most.
Challenge yourself. Many hopeful exercisers set goals far beyond their physical and emotional capabilities and fail to achieve them. New Year’s resolutions are better achieved if you break them up into bite size goals. Set yourself shorter target dates to break up the year and allow you to visualise your next step.
Aim for a four-week training cycle to help your body continually progress and develop. Week one should be moderate, week two harder than week one, week three is to be the hardest and then week four gets easier to the same level as week two.
Sometimes the day doesn’t work out the way you planned and going to the gym just isn’t going to happen. Instead of feeling bad or training too long another day, find more ways to integrate exercise into your day. Take the stairs and shun lifts and escalators, cycle to work on certain days, walk to discuss matters face-to-face with your work colleagues. Don’t e-mail!
Base your workouts around two weight training sessions, one circuit session and two cardiovascular sessions a week. The average workout length is one hour and 20 minutes with the sessions ranging from five hours of walking to 20-minute circuit training. You can train at any time, so find the point in the day that suits you best. Getting into a routine will help you stay focused
The general rule is, the larger the muscle groups (thighs, back, chest) the more the sets. Aim for around 12 sets per large muscle group (bodybuilder 20 sets or more if required). For smaller muscle groups (bicep, tricep, calves) you need to do fewer, usually around 9-12 sets.
One of the greatest tips, is to understand your anatomy and the exercises you are performing. When you’re able to perform an exercise and know the action, the purpose and the muscle you’re training you will be able to train more effectively and efficiently.
Stretching is just as important as exercise as it will lengthen your muscle, reduce muscle soreness, promote circulation, increase performance and strength and aid in body awareness.
On training days, aim to eat at least one hour and 30 minutes before exercise and within 30–60 minutes after exercise. If you don’t consume food before you exercise you are more likely to overeat after you have exercised eg. You have over-compensated and more than likely put on those calories you have just burnt off. Your body is at its most efficient when consuming and converting food nutrients after you have exercised. I suggest you consume some amounts of protein to repair your muscles and also some carbohydrates and fats to fill your energy tank back up.
Bad day, bad week? Don’t panic!
If you are having a bad day or even an entire week, DON’T GIVE UP! If you can turn it around to eating the right foods, you can actually lose more weight than you put on in the first place. Are you eating for the sake of eating? Are you eating because you are hungry? Have your treat foods got out of hand? Are you eating and drinking more sugary foods than normal? Are you having emotional problems? Many people have a problem differentiating thirst from hunger. Try drinking a glass of water before usual meal times and see what the effect is. You may well delay your meal or eat less as a result.
The reason for a 12-week programme is that within that time frame, your mind and body should be able to understand that the new exercise regime and diet is now your new habit and routine, so once you have achieved the full twelve weeks transformation, maintenance is second nature.
By the end of the 12 weeks:
Alison lost: 4.5kg, 4 inches around the waist, 5 inches from her hips and her fat percentage fell by 10.8%.
Gavin lost: 9.5 kg, arms increased by 1.5 inches, chest increased by 3 inches, waist decreased by 3¾ inches, and fat percentage fell by 9%. 1 rep max – bench press – increased by 30kg, deadlifts – 20kg.
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