Author: Katra Bryson

Usually my afternoons are spent working at home

I am either writing – which I love
Or doing admin – which I do not love

Whatever task it is I’m doing, around 4pm something happens to me

I get up and wander to the kitchen put on the kettle and open the kitchen cupboard

I look for some kind of snack

Why I’m doing this I do not know as I am not hungry. In fact I’m barely aware I am doing it at all – it’s like I am out of my mind and someone else took control of my body

And this is kinda what happened

I am literally out of my mind

My brain is running a programme

Since I’ve been studying all this cool brain science stuff I now know what’s going

I’ve just spent hours at my computer in my Pre Frontal Cortex (my human brain) The human brain requires a lot of energy to run

So when I become a bit bored and get up for my afternoon break – my brain thinks great I can switch off for a bit. It hands the control over to the Basal Ganglia – which is the home of habit, the brains autopilot.

The Basal Ganglia requires virtually no energy to run. It just runs whatever pattern is stored in there. Right now for me it’s the get up and walk to kitchen, have coffee and rice cakes and peanut butter pattern

So what’s my point here?

This habit is not serving me. Eating rice cakes and peanut butter extensively is not helping with my weight loss goals and drinking coffee does not make me feel good and interferes with my sleep

So I need to programme a new habit

To create a new a new habit I need to do the following 3 things

1. Give it attention – Continually remind myself that this is something I want to do
2. Make it important – link to emotion. Remind myself WHY – I will feel happier when I lose those extra few pounds
3. Repetition

It needs A LOT of repetitions. Especially if I’m trying to replace an existing pattern in the brain. The longer the original pattern has been running the more repetitions it takes to replace it

Now here’s the bit that a lot of us get wrong

YOU WILL only repeat actions that you enjoy

Let me say that again

YOU WILL ONLY REPEAT ACTIONS THAT YOU ENJOY

Now if I were to replace my 4pm snack with say a run in the park or even meditation (which I have not yet mastered and find incredibly difficult) – it’s prob not going to last very long – as I currently do not enjoy these things

So I have to find something to replace it with that is enjoyable FOR ME

At the moment my replacement still involves food but I’m going for green tea and berries – which I love AND make me feel good

Now here’s my point – I know, I know, it takes me a while to get there.  Thanks for baring with me this long!

This is the whole reason that diets don’t work and forcing yourself to go to the gym or do exercise you hate doesn’t work either-THE ACTIONS REQUIRED ARE NOT ENJOYABLE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO REPEAT THEM ENOUGH TIMES TO BECOME A HABIT

And that’s why ALL our programmes at 12 Rounds are FUN

Yep even my EAT CLEAN GET LEAN programme is a fun way to learn about healthy eating and involves small changes on a gradual basis

because that’s the recipe for real transformation

Small changes that are fun to do  :)

Last weekend I ran a nutrition talk for a group of my clients

Nutrition is something I’m pretty passionate about.  1. because it something I’ve personally spent a long time struggling with and 2. Because it drives me crazy how many myths and false information there is out there and how confusing it can be.  Generally most of this is from the food companies who of course want us to buy their products! One rule I tell my clients is basically if it’s marketed to you as a ‘health’ food, low fat or low calorie, be very suspicious!

I believe the best diet of the one that works for you AND the one that you follow consistently. There are a few general rules I follow like including all 3 food groups in your meals and avoiding processed food.

So as I was talking food on Sat it occurred to me that many of us are surviving on the diet of beige

You’ve heard of the table of beige party food right? You know the pastries, the crispy canapés, the crisps and dips?

Many of us are eating a diet of beige that goes like this

Breakfast: Coffee and toast
Mid morning snack: muffin
Lunch: sandwich
Afternoon snack: biscuits and more coffee
Dinner: pasta (maybe with some prawns or chicken)
Supper: more biscuits or chocolate bar

So what’s wrong with the diet of beige?

It contains predominately one food group – carbohydrate

Now before you think I’m one of these health freaks that believe carbs are the enemy (far from it by the way)
All carbs are not created equal

The type of carbohydrates in the beige diet are typically high GI carbs that contain very few nutrients
(Fruit and vegetables are also carbohydrate but very nutrient dense)

So what does this mean for you in plain English?

Carbohydrates are a form of sugar.  They are broken down into glucose.  High GI carbs like the ones above, cause a surge of glucose into your bloodstream.  Your body responds to this by releasing insulin. Insulin is a storage hormone that takes the glucose out of your bloodstream and stores it IN YOUR FAT cells.

That’s right these type of carbohydrates make you fat NOT fat.
You need fat in your diet for a variety of functions – hormones, nerves and brain cells are made of fat. Adding fat to the above diet of beige will also actually slow down the glucose surge meaning less insulin and less fat storage. The low fat diet it a complete myth and I believe very harmful to your health. If you want to lose weight there are far healthier ways to do it than counting calories and cutting out vital food groups

Now if this nutrition stuff is all new to you I don’t expect you to start replacing your pasta with cauliflower rice and eating eggs and kale for breakfast (meals that me and some of my clients regularly enjoy!)
So where do you start? With a few simple changes. The following tips are a good starting point to not only getting healthier but may even leave you several pounds lighter

• Make small changes you can stick to. Introduce new habits get and consistent with them first. Trying to put in place too much too soon is often setting yourself up to fail. Get the basics right first then you can fine tune it

• If you find yourself living on the beige diet, add some colour to your plate particularly green veg which is nutrient dense.

• Try to get a balance of Protein, Fat and Carbohydrate in every meal

• Get support, whether it’s from friends or by getting involved in a group or programme. Having people with similar goals on your side is a great way to keep motivated

• Have a way of measuring your progress but throw away your scales! Measuring your weight on the scales is extremely demotivating for many of us. When we don’t see that number change the way we want it, we associate this with failure. It makes us feels miserable and most of us generally respond to this feeling by comfort eating which then results in guilt and further comfort eating. Instead think about how you feel. Do you feel better, healthier, fitter? Do your clothes feel looser? Support groups are a great way of keeping check on your progression. If all of these things are improving, does it really matter what that number says on the scale?

• Choose the simplest option. Try not to over-complicate things by choosing recipes that require a million ingredients or take hours to prepare. I always recommend Fitter Food recipe book by Keris Marsden and Matt Whitmore for yummy grain free recipes. Their website also has some great recipe ideas www.fitterlondon.co.uk

Look out for my meals in minutes guide coming soon!

If you are stuck in the beige diet here’s a few examples below of simple changes to start with

Breakfast: porridge, add blueberries and full fat milk to increase your nutrients and fat content
Or I’d you feel you’re not ready to give up the toast. Choose a good quality wholemeal bread and add some peanut butter or organic butter to your toast – remember adding fat will slow down the glucose spike
Mid morning snack: Greek yogurt and mixed berries (go with natural full fat yogurt rather than flavoured ones that are generally full of sugar)
Lunch: choose a wrap or sushi instead of a sandwich. Or many food takeouts like Pret and Eat also offer strews, quinoa or rice based dishes. Choose something with some form of protein (meat, fish or cheese or beans)

Afternoon snack: apple slice and peanut butter – yummy. small bag of mixed nuts

Dinner: grilled chicken or steak, broccoli and sweet potato – very easy to make and sweet potatoes have a slower glucose release which means reduced insulin and fat storage.  If you really want to have pasta, increase the protein content, so add meat, fish, beans or cheese

Evening sweet treat: if you struggle with sweet craving in the evenings don’t beat yourself up about it. Instead of having a sugary chocolate bar though swap for either a small bar of green and blacks dark chocolate or a coconut yogurt with some berries. It will still give you the sweet fix but without the added sugar

Aim for better rather than perfect :)

What steps do you feel you could put in place right now to take you closer towards your goals?

So its New Years resolution time again.

I don’t know why but we all seem to think at this time of year we need to go cold turkey on all the things we love in January

Chocolate, booze, coffee……

Then we need to punish ourselves with an intense training regime

So let me ask you this

Has that ever actually worked for you?

Yes, initially you might lose some weight, but what’s the point if you just put it back on again?

Most New Year’s resolutions don’t even make it to Feb

Why?

Because the process we choose to reach our goal makes us miserable.  Who’s going to stick to that?

A better way is to find happiness IN the process

An exercise regime and nutrition plan you can actually enjoy

Yes, it is possible

Let me tell you a little story about a different way

On the 12 weeks leading up to Christmas 2 of my clients, Daniel and Laura embarked on a 12 week transformation programme

To be honest with you, I didn’t know if it was going to work.  This programme is different to anything I’ve ever done before.  Daniel and Laura were my guinea pigs

The week before Christmas we did our final measurements

Daniel lost 2 st 7 and 12.6 inches

Laura lost 1 st 2 and 11 inches

(Check out their before and after pictures below)

They could have lost more

But they haven’t finished yet

Both of them can’t wait to get started on the next 12 weeks in the New Year.

They’ve even been in the gym over the holidays because they LOVE how it makes them FEEL

And that’s how you get sustainable long term results

Instead of prescribing them a diet that told them what they couldn’t have.  I gave them information and recipe ideas and let them work out how strict they wanted to be

Instead of killing them with intense training sessions, we trained 3 x a week with a mixture of weight training and boxing which they loved

Check out Laura’s smile below as she gets a personal best of 80kg

Most diets and training plans fail because they make us unhappy

Sure anyone can stick it out for a few weeks but if all your thinking about is getting to the end so you can eat normally again  then it’s not really sustainable right?

On this programme we work at being happy first

We identify the things that are keeping you stuck and unhappy and we start from there

By stopping doing the things that cause you pain

And starting doing the things that bring you more joy and fun

If you don’t believe me check out Daniels blog where he talks about going out for meals, going to gigs, weekends away……. and STILL losing weight in the process.  It’s a great read and also some very amusing pics of cats :)

If you really want to lose weight and are fed up starting a new diet, a new exercise plan every year

If you want to change you’re waistline and make real lasting changes to your lifestyle

Then APPLY HERE for my next programme

ps. Check out Daniel and Laura’s before and after pics below

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Can you really get through Christmas without piling on the pounds? Actually you can. It’s all about moderation and balance. Silly season seems to put all kinds of stress on us that it can be easy to become overwhelmed, give up and tell ourselves we’ll start again in January. My advice is why make it hard on yourself? With a bit of planning and staying consistent you can make it through Christmas without piling on the pounds

Here are my tips below for damage limitation

1. Short high intensity sessions

If you’ve got a busy social calendar and can’t get to your usual training sessions
that doesn’t mean you have to completely stop training. Keep some consistency to your training even if it’s just once or twice a week, do something and keep you body moving.
A 30 min HIT workout will do just as much to burn off those extra calories and maintain some of your fitness
Keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram where we’ll be posting a series of workouts you can do at home or jump in on one of our morning HIT classes

2. Drink more water

If you are drinking alcohol more frequently increase your water intake. Drink a glass of water in between drinks
Dehydration not only affects your skin it also suppresses the immune system making you more susceptible to illness
Drink plenty water before going to bed to keep you hydrated. All the chemical reactions in your body require water so keep everything functioning as it should

3. Eat more Protein

If you know you are going to be drinking in the evening eat a protein rich meal beforehand. Your body will burn alcohol as it’s primary source of fuel adding carbs to the mix creates an increased glucose spike which results in insulin and more fat storage. If you eat only protein and fat beforehand it will counter this effect

4. Avoid the table of beige

A lot of party food comes in beige, processed carbohydrate form. However even if you are out socialising you can still make better choices
With canapés choices more protein based ones. Eg mini burgers – eat without the bun, skewers, salad, olives…the more colour the better as the beige food is usually processed! Avoid the sausage rolls and bread!

5. Make better choices at meals

Even though you have a lot of meals out you can still make better choices. Again keep the carb content low and go for colour!
Choose a salad or soup as a starter and load up on protein and veg with your main meal
With deserts go for something more creamy and heavier in fat than sugar. We want to minimise fat storage so the best way to do this is avoiding high sugar foods which will spike your insulin levels. Fat has no hormonal response and will keep you feeling fuller. A small portion of heavier creamier deserts are a better option to cakes and pastries which are loaded with sugar. Fruit salad with cream or full fat yogurt is an even better alternative

6. Portion Control
Easiest option here, take a smaller plate! If you are eating from buffet style and serving yourself, be careful about how many times you fill up your plate. It can be easy to lie to yourself about how much you’ve eaten in these scenarios. Eat till you are full not stuffed. If you feel like having second helpings, wait 20 mins. It can take up to 20 mins for the brain to get feedback from the stomach that it is full

7. Avoid Negative Self Talk

If you do have a big night and break all the rules – don’t beat yourself up! Just accept in and move on. Negative self talks and emotions only leads to further stress – stress is often the biggest cause of weight gain

8. Hit the dance floor.

Get some extra exercise in and have fun too! Think about it, the more you dance, the more you’ll stay away from the bar. Not only will you get some exercise in but you’ll remember the night too!

At 12 Rounds we are always looking for ways to keep you exercising and feeling good. To help you get some consistent training in over the Christmas period we’ve got a special offer on personal training. Buy block of 5 sessions for £250

See link below to book

https://goteamup.com/p/68830-12-rounds-boxing/memberships/34164/

Why wait till January, get a head start on your fitness journey straight away!

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Most people think that being on a weight loss programme is hard and boring and they have to miserable.

This is my 12 week transformation programme above, 4 weeks in we decided to go out for dinner together – just because its nice to go out to dinner on a Friday evening :)

Over the last few weeks I’ve been teaching them that eating healthy doesn’t have to mean chicken and broccoli every night

It doesn’t mean training to excess and having no life – (on this programme we train 3 x a week)

And it definitely doesn’t have to mean being miserable and doing stuff you don’t like

These guys have put together their own food plan of foods they enjoy, they support each other daily through our Facebook group and it seems like their having a lot of fun being on this so called ‘diet’

Here’s a quote from Daniel below, who by the way has lost over a stone in the last 4 weeks

“we had a meal out together at the end of last week. We’re all chatting and sharing meals on our facebook group but was good to be able to met up outside the gym environment to talk about how we’re all getting on. The fact that we’re all doing this along with other people I think is a big help. If you’re reading this and thinking you should make more of an effort I’d really recommend trying to get someone on board with you to share the experience, it’s supportive and also gives you something to be accountable to”

And that’s the key to my weight loss programme, make it fun and supportive – it really is that simple :)

ps Daniel is keeping a very entertaining weekly blog on his progress which includes pics of his delicious meals, sarky comments about me (previously referring to me as a tiny, driven, slightly scary scientologist) I’m a bit gutted to say his blog is funnier than mine and also includes pictures of cute cats :)

If you want to read more about his progress just click on the link below

Daniel’s Blog

And if you want to lose weight but don’t want to miserable in the process you can apply for my January programme here

Make The Weight

Last weekend I ran a stress workshop for some of my clients and shared a bit of a new approach I’ve been learning recently
Not that long ago I spoke to my clients in typical trainer speak – it was all about training more, lifting heavier, doing MORE to get results. If you want it badly enough, you’ll suck it up and do what it takes……

But for many of us that approach doesn’t always work. We might want something really badly, we KNOW what we need to do to get it but for some reason we just can’t seem to get ourself to do it. We feel like a failure and ask ourselves what wrong with us?

If you can relate to this, whats wrong’ with you is called threat and it starts with your brain
Let me explain. Earlier this year I learned something pretty special called mindmap from my own coach and mentor Dax Moy. Mindmap coaches speak a different language, the language of the brain
See most coaching approaches start with your MIND set, but you can’t change your mind set if your in the wrong part of your BRAIN

You may have heard before about the triune brain. To put it very briefly as we developed into humans we developed different layers to our brain
Our oldest brain – the reptile brain (what I also like to call the chimp – see the chimp paradox) is the original brain. It’s ONLY concern is survival therefore it reacts with fight, flight or freeze whenever it feels you are in danger
The next layer is the mammalian brain – it’s linked to emotion and concerned with social hierarchy, belonging etc
The final layer is our human brain which is where logical thought, creativity and planning takes place
Now as we developed into humans we didn’t just get rid of the other brains. They are still there and can be VERY active (So much so some of us have never met our humans….)

Anytime our brain perceives a threat whether it be physical, mental or emotional – the reptile takes over and reacts with fight, flight or freeze. There is nothing wrong with this it’s a survival mechanism to keep you safe.

Most coaching approaches work on the assumption that you are in your human brain and capable of making logical choices and responses
Yet most if us are walking around as reptiles constantly under threat (another word for threat could just be stress)

How to know if your in threat? You see the following reactions showing up

Fight
If you hear yourself being defensive –
I can’t, won’t do that, you can’t make me……

Freeze
You’re feeling stuck and not moving forward in any area of your life

Flight
You are completely avoiding something

Mindmap works on helping you MOVE out of threat by helping you find what YOUR brain needs to feel safe
The reptile brain doesn’t care what we want to achieve, how we want to feel or what we feel we need to get done. It cares about one thing and thing only – keeping you safe. Until it feels you are safe it simply won’t allow you to move forward

So if you want things to change in your life, start by getting to know your brain

And if you need some help – I can speak it’s language :)

Kat