FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Hey there,

Thank you for visiting my Facebook Page. Here is a FAQ post to help you learn more about what I do and what I offer.


What do you offer?

I offer Personal Training and Fitness classes to people from all walks of life and experience.

How much does it cost?

An hour PT currently stands at £30, and half hour is £17.50 although that is subject to change a little in December. I am also looking at just having a 45 minute option instead of 30 minutes and a 1 hour and half option and will update this when it is confirmed. Block bookings of 5 and 10 sessions will also be available at a discounted price.

Where do the sessions take place?

Sessions will be based at One Leisure Huntingdon gym on St Peter's Road, where I work full time as a Fitness Consultant, teacher and Personal Trainer.

What is your style of training, I don't like to be shouted at?

I like to think I'm lighthearted. I really enjoy teaching and building confidence in a client and I think the best way to do that is with compassion and empathy. I will push you all the way in a typical session but it will be done in a progressive, sustainable way that will build a foundation to work from. I am a natural joker at heart so you can expect quite a few laughs in between sets and reps :-)

What else do you offer in relation to PT?

If needed, a client will be given a program to work from according to their goals. Generally I want my clients to commit to doing their own sessions through the week, whether that's a gym session, fitness class or sport I don't mind. As long as it fits in with the overall goal then it doesn't matter. I will also provide nutritional help as and when required. Body stats and weigh ins will be performed when needed to monitor progression.

What are your rules regarding the actual PT session?

Ideally I like my clients to come in 10 minutes before the start of the session to warm up on a light piece of cardio kit, and to have a stretch. I like to get as much work in as possible during the hour so would prefer a client to warm up/cool down and stretch outside of that, however I am happy to do that during if the client requires it. 

What if I need to cancel a session last minute, will I be charged?

Sessions will be charged full amount if less than 24 hour notice is given. Block bookings are not refundable but in some cases can be transferred pending a consultation with the new client.

What's the first step to take If I want PT?

Contact me on my page or my personal Facebook page and a free consultation will be set up at One Leisure or somewhere convenient to talk about your goals and put together a plan of action.

What are the main benefits of Personal Training?

Personal Training can be a lot of things to people. It can be a social thing, an educational thing, an accountability thing. Some people like to do it to build self esteem and confidence, others use it as a tool to stay focused and commit ed to their own training. It is flexible, it can be anything to anyone as long as it works for you and your health.

What are the methods of payment?

Cash, card and bank transfer are all accepted. I will also accept magic beans in some cases.

Are there showering facilities available?

Absolutely, the leisure centre provides everything you need in terms of changing and showering.

Sunday League Football - A Magical Time

It's a real shame that most of us don't appreciate the good times we have when we are having them. It's one of life's tragedies that we are mostly unaware of how good they are until it's too late.  Personally, the days of playing Sunday League are amongst my favourite.



What could be better than going out the night before a game to Cromwell's bar (the pinnacle of Huntingdon nightlife) with your mates and getting off your nut. There was none of this, "better take it easy guys, big game in the morning" mentality that you mostly get with Saturday football, in fact it was the complete opposite. Who could get the most fucked up and still get to footy on time was the challenge.



When I first started playing Sunday's for the mighty Barley Mo pub me and the Tesco crew would finish work on a Saturday, shower, get changed into our boot cut jeans and baggy shirts and be propping up the bar by 8pm ordering our first round of shots. I know the kids like to venture out at midnight now but with us there was no time to waste.


Come Sunday morning the lads would slowly drip feed into the changing room (after waiting for Alban to get us.....he was and still is ALWAYS late) , have a quick look at the tactics board, (I'm being generous calling it that, it was a white board with the formation on) and then turn to spew into the nearest bin. Late night kebab rearing it's ugly head? There's nothing like a football changing room for banter and shenanigans. I miss that part the most.


One of the funniest occasions I ever remember was our goalie, Matt Ingram, staggering into the Mo changing room, looking at the starting line up and then going absolutely mad at the gaffer for benching him. Graeme had looked out the window when he was preparing the kit and seen Matt drinking in the car park on his way in. I don't think it twigged straight away but Matt was STILL swigging from the can of Stella as he condemned the apparent "injustice" to anyone who would listen. Makes me chuckle to this day at how angry he was.




Drunk but still had enough pace to round the rotund goalie..

Yes, imagine that, it's half hour before kick off and the 'keeper is still necking Stella and hadn't been to bed in 24 hours.  The manager would be crucified for giving him the nod! It's one thing to be hanging a little after 4 hours sleep, but no sleep at all? Even on a Sunday a certain degree of professionalism is required. I think Matt carried on drinking on the subs bench. I recall him getting a fifteen minute run out at left back at the end of the game.


Matt was also part of another stand out moment. A few years later he was the opposing goalie and a few minutes before kick off they realised that he hadn't turned up and they had no substitutes. . Instead of putting someone else in goal they ridiculously elected to start with no 'keeper as they had received a tip off that he was on his way. Just as the ref was about to blow the whistle to start I looked in the distance and saw Matt absolutely legging it towards us. "I'm here guys, wait a sec!!" he shouted, struggling  to put his gloves on. Unfortunately he was so puffed out from that run that I think we were two or three nil up after about ten minutes. At the end I asked him why he was late and he said, "I got pissed and fell asleep down the river." Classic.




clearly we won that one...

As for the game itself, I almost always played better if I was hanging. A good night out, a bit of a dance and a snog with some local munter (ahem...) and a laugh with the boys and I was playing with a smile on my face even if the legs were heavy. Any time I tried to prepare for any game by staying in and being bored and miserable usually resulted in a poor performance. The same can't be said for others and that was why we were known as being very erratic, one week beating the best and the next losing to the worst. The most important thing in those days was just having fun and playing a game we all loved.




You see, Sunday football had so much charm. On a warm, summer's morning there could be quite a decent crowd in attendance. On a Cold December morning there would be nobody but subs. Point is, you didn't care.  


You'd look at the characters lining the pitch and see a mixture of people. Dads with their young sons innocently teaching them about the game, the overbearing yob dads screaming at their grown ass son for hoofing the ball when he could have "squared" it, the group of girls who just came to perve on the better looking ones of us (it wasn't me), half time orange givers, first aiders (I laughed at that, it was some muppet with a bucket and magic sponge), and then the best one, the odd man standing on his own making notes who you convinced yourself was from a premier league club on a scouting mission!  One time I played a great game, scored two goals and had seen this man making notes for about 20 minutes. At full time I went over to him and jokingly asked if he was from Arsenal. Turns out he was from Huntingdonshire Council and he was counting how many pieces of dog turd hadn't been picked up by their owners. SEEEE, the charm of it. You can't recreate these moments. Never got a call from Arsenal.


Saturday football is more serious and involves quite a bit of travel. I used to love being home by midday on a Sunday but Saturday away games you wouldn't get in until 5pm. You really have to love it to do it. I only stopped playing last year and funnily enough have had one offer to play Sunday's again!! But I think it's about the people you play with over the years and it's just not the same joining a new side. I loved that about football, playing with the same lads you knew when you were 10 years old until you're in your 30's....that's pretty special.


With the passing of time the memories will become less vivid but I'm really glad they happened. At the end of the a long work shift now sometimes I think about these days and they make me smile. What more could you want?

Football Manager - 20 years of ignoring girlfriends

Who remembers playing their first Championship Manager? I do. It was 97/98 on PC. Back in the day we only had one computer in the house which my dad used for his business dealings so getting him to agree to let me play champ on it was bloody difficult.

Every Sunday I'd ask for a few hours on it to which he'd usually reply, "If you wash my car AND CUT THE GRASS".....so there I was outside in the freezing cold cleaning his car inside and out and trying desperately not to run over the lawn mower cable. It was worth it when I sat down in that leather chair.

97/98 was great. All you really had to do was start a new game, pick a team, select the players and boom! Off you went on an emotional journey and hours of fun.


A simpler time.....

During a match all you had was a commentary bar letting you know what was happening, The gameplay was fast and uncomplicated, and whilst time consuming it didn't really matter as a youngster. I had all the time in the world. The developers of the game must have known what it was destined to become because when you went to save your game after an 8-hour binge it used to politely remind you to change your pants! A very welcome prompt indeed.

Myself and a few school mates used to print out our results and show each other in class.  The dedication was immense.

The "problems" only started when you were no longer a teenager and had evolved into a fully fledged adult. Make no mistake about it, this "game" is addictive. I remember once during a PD class in secondary school our teacher had his laptop on the desk. Once he'd assigned us a project he played champ for the rest of the lesson! What a fucking hero. Who needs Personal Development anyway? Maybe this was actually the start of people ignoring each other to stare at a screen?

As I got older and my responsibilities grew larger I would find myself dismissing the idea of adulthood and instead bury myself in a champ session. Of course any game is a form of escapism from the tribulations of life, that's why we like them. This was my go-to. Break up with a girl, champ sesh. Get in trouble at school, champ sesh. Argument with my mum about the state of my bedroom.....you guessed it, 12 hours of Championship Manager.

Before the 3d Match Engine...

Fast forward to 2010 (ish). At the age of 26 I'd come home from a job I hated, load the laptop up and watch these addictive tiny dots (3d match engine) roam around my screen all evening providing pleasure and pain in equal measures. Meanwhile any girlfriend would be completely ignored, and if she dared ask me to do the washing up after an away loss against Northampton she'd better get ready for an answer she isn't going to like. I didn't care, I was invincible.  It's a real surprise then that eventually me and my mate (who I can't name for legal reasons) ended up single twenty-something's with not much going for us. At least we had each other and our trusty FM.

Whilst we can't blame Football Manager for all our failings, we can certainly point the index finger at it and wag it a little. In a way it's like a drug, the highs and lows, the sheer elation, turmoil, mood swings. The only difference is you can't be arrested for buying FM and there's no rehab facility available that I know of.  (By the way, how epic would it be to have a rehab facility for Footie Manager? It would be the first rehab Lindsay Lohan hasn't been to, unless she too suffered from FM addiction). You never know what someone is hiding.

These modern FM's are crazy. The amount of detail they put into the game is staggering. It's not just  click and play anymore. You can't jump on for 10 minutes and play a couple of matches before dinner.

A picture of my best friends....FM17

Now you have to be a tactical genius, you have to talk to and compromise with your players if they're unhappy, you have to be able to handle the press when they talk shit about you. You have to win constantly otherwise you get threats from the board and the fans turn against you. It's ridiculous. It's basically become a 24/7 job. The "dots" have morphed into "real" people who you have to forge a working relationship with in order to be successful. Somehow many of us are willing to place virtual relationships above the importance of our real life ones? How insane is that?

For me, the addiction stage has passed. I'm grateful for that but I still think about the glory days of binning off sixth form to try and win the Champions League with Peterborough. Nowadays I only play on a Wednesday evening and yes, a network game with that mate of mine. We've definitely reigned it in a bit though. I no longer care that much about a hard loss or injustice but every so often it retains the ability to get you in a mood to where you have to sometimes take a break before smashing up your computer . Fair do's for that, it makes you buy the next one.

Age has made me diplomatic in defeat. Instead of, "Don't fucking talk to me" it's now, "I'm just off out for a walk, do you need anything from Sainsbury's?" I'll go and sulk for a bit and then it's over. Generally it's easier to remind yourself what a dick you are if you're getting angry about a fictional game. Luckily, our girlfriends are actually happy to let us play once a week but I found out they secretly text each other taking the piss out of us. We can handle that. It still means something if you win a trophy or rebuild a squad from the ground up.

I'd like to thank Champ/FM for being such a part of my growing years. For good and for bad it's been a constant present during the tumultuous years.

Advice for the next generation of gamers? Enjoy it but don't ever let it become too important otherwise you'll be single at 29, eating chips right off the bathroom floor.

Fitness - Finding Motivation

It's 187 calories I wouldn't have burnt by watching Made in Chelsea...

I hate cardio in the gym, it's true. Over the years and still to this day I've rarely done cardio sessions in a gym-based environment. Luckily for me, a mixture of playing lots of sports and having a very fast metabolism meant that I didn't really need to come face to face with the DREADMILL very often at all.

Well, in a way that's changed now. Now I'm at the grand old age of 33 and have started to notice that my shit is slowing down and it's much easier for me to store fat than when I was 21, despite the fact that I still do weights sessions, play tennis, dodgeball and football most weeks.

I've had to seriously consider everything I've been doing and what needs to be done so I can maintain a good, strong and mobile physique for as long as possible. I haven't really changed but my body has. Do I accept this and say, "Oh well, I had a good run and now I'm just going to accept that I'm getting older and give up?" or do I say, "I need to find a way that works for my body now and forget about what I used to do." Of course it's the latter.

Which is why this morning before work I got my arse up and dragged it 14 blocks (not really, it just sounded cool) to the gym to do the one thing I really dislike, run on a treadmill. I only did 20 minutes of interval training but I burnt 200-odd calories before my work day began.

This was a big step for me.  Don't get me wrong, I do train hard most days but that's usually doing something I enjoy (weights). The big step was doing something I don't really like but needing to do it for my goals. My motivation for results was stronger than my dislike for the exercise. Keep that balance and you're going to make progress, surely? Same with diet, my motivation for results is greater than my love of Pringles and dip. Say it to yourself, "my motivation for results is greater than.......".........make it an affirmation. Things begin to change when that happens according to the great Muhammad Ali. Who would doubt him?

Recently I've been feeling really grateful for how my body has served me. I look around at people in my year at school or those I've played football with and the amount of injuries, operations and wear and tear some have suffered is terrible.

And then there are those who have just generally let themselves hurtle towards middle-age, abusing their bodies and their overall health with alcohol, lack of exercise and bad diets. When I was sitting down the other day I realised that I've never suffered any injuries, never broken any bones, never had any health issues. God damn, I've played football for 25 years and don't recall ever pulling a hamstring! Which leads me to my next point:

"So, really, if you're like me who is able- bodied with access to exercise, what is your excuse? What/where is your motivation?"

The most common complaints I hear as a PT and instructor are: "I'm too tired", "Work have made me stay late"..."The dog needs to be walked"...."I don't feel like it"...."I've just been busy"..

Yeah, you're tired because you have a very poor diet full of processed food, you don't sleep enough and you don't challenge your body at all....ah hem.

Generally those are excuses, not reasons. Life is busy and we all get tired and stressed out but the first step to any progress is to STOP MAKING EXCUSES. I say that with me knowing I have made the same excuses before. Easiest thing in the world, to justify to yourself that you won't go to the gym because you're tired but deep down you know that it's you holding yourself back. It's nobody else's fault or responsibility that you CHOSE to get a pizza and watch Love Island instead of doing 20 minutes of exercise after work.

You don't have to spend two hours in a gym every night to see results. There are 24 hours in a day and you can't spare 20, 30 or 45 minutes to do something positive for yourself? I just don't believe it. With the information available these days on YouTube and Pin interest you can do a 20 minute workout in your living room that can have massive results. You just have to make your health a priority.

Diet? You don't have to starve yourself, you don't have to eat shitty, boring foods that make you quit.  You don't have to feel bad that you have some junk food. You can factor all of these things in to a plan that's achievable and good for the long run. I guess what I'm saying is, it doesn't have to be a miserable experience. All you have to do is take accountability. That's it.

If you're reading this and thinking, "hmmm this is me" then get your trainers on and go for a 20 minute walk. "I've really wanted to do this but....." drop the "but". DO IT. Send me a picture on my Facebook page of you doing it. When you have a community of people who are in the same boat as you it can help to keep you motivated and dedicated. I'll happily support anyone who gets off their backside and starts changing their lifestyle.

Here's a little help along the way: We spend so many hours, days, weeks and years of our lives working for others, meeting deadlines, getting stressed out and worrying just to go home after a long shift to eat rubbish food, go to bed late and repeat. Sure, it may give us a roof over our heads and allow us to pay bills but material things aside, what did you REALLY do for you, for your inner spirit?

It's important to remember that every day we wake up it is OUR day and OUR life. Do at least one thing a day FOR YOU. If that's going for a run, fantastic. Find something that motivates you and you feel passionate about. Make sure it's sustainable. Training hard because you've got a holiday to come is fine, but what are the chances that when it's been and gone that you go back to doing nothing? I'd say probably quite high. Try and think of the longer term future as well.

My motivation is currently so high that I look forward to every session but I had to work very hard in my head to get there. Small things matter.  My friend Phil said to me the other day, "Carl, you're so hard to hit in Dodgeball, you're so agile." I had a smile on my face for ages from that. I'm never going to be the biggest guy in the gym so my training has been focusing on barbell strength training, HIIT intervals and agility work. To have someone compliment you not knowing what you've been doing is a great feeling. Little positives like that can snowball into a complete lifestyle change because we all like to feel good about ourselves. (BTW I love agility training, nothing better than getting older but still being able to move like a cat).

Overall, I want to be able to play sports with my kids when the day comes without getting tired or out of breath. The thought of my son asking me to play football with him and not being able to stand up is scary. I want to be that dad that everyone respects because he's still in shape and looks a lot younger than his years. But it's going to take hard work and commitment. That's fine with me.

That's my motivation, Now what is yours?

The Resurrection of Felipe Massa

In what was the shortest retirement possibly in the history of the world, affable Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa found himself reporting for duty once again at the William's HQ in Oxford at the start of February.

When he trundled off on foot down the Interlagos pit lane, leaving his stricken William's lying in pieces in the middle of the pit entrance, nobody expected to ever see him as an active F1 driver again. It was a sad end to an emotional and successful career.

Then a few days later Nico retired. All of a sudden Valteri Bottas was the name highest on Toto's employable list and Claire Williams started panicking that she would have to rely on a fresh-faced 18 year old in the shape of Lance Stroll for glory. A quick look at the driver market showed that getting Massa back in case of Bottas leaving was the best choice in the circumstances.

Which really begs the question: Did Massa actually WANT to retire in the first place?

When a driver makes the decision to leave the F1 paddock for good it's usually because they've lost.....something. The hunger, the passion, their ability? Or it's because they want to gain something, maybe in the form of a settled family life, a new challenge or simply because they want to experience winning again, something that very few get to do in a car dominant sport.

In his "farewell" speech he made no mention of losing the love of driving, he simply said:

"I'm relieved and happy. You need to be strong enough to make decisions that are quite difficult." 

Massa said he had decided "some months ago" to bring his career to an end, adding he was "very proud" to have achieved so much in his career - "more than I ever expected".

Looking at the scenario when Massa first decided to call it quits, it wouldn't be out of the question to suggest he had no choice. William's were going to keep Bottas as their number one and with Stroll's dad knocking on the door offering a wedge of much needed cash to the moderately funded Williams team it really would have left Massa nowhere to go.

 It was a case of, "retire with dignity, or leave it to the team to announce their new line up and effectively cut him loose." He chose the first option and that was that, or so it seemed.

If Claire Williams really believed he had lost his passion or his driving mojo she surely wouldn't have considered him so she clearly knew the real reasons why he was unhappy and didn't hesitate to offer him the vacated seat.

For Felipe, It can't be easy to drive for so many years in the best cars winning races and almost the title (2008) to languishing around in the midfield hoping to pick up points, especially when you're no longer at least considered the number one driver in your team.

For me, I did believe that his performances last year certainly suggested that his skills had diminished behind the wheel. It's not always the case with older drivers who continue operating at a high level in the car but other factors determine their decision making. Look at Jenson Button, he walked away because he knew he couldn't win with the car he had, not because he thought his driving had peaked.

Now the 35 year old finds himself back in a strong position where he will undoubtedly be the team's main man going into a season full of unknowns, one in which Williams may be able to deliver a more competitive car than they've managed to produce in the last few. It's an exciting prospect.

He also has nothing to lose. If he comes back and doesn't perform they will still thank him for helping them and wish him all the best for his future (again). If he comes back and performs like the Massa of old then they will be justified in their re-hiring of him and the Brazilian will carry on being the most lovable and friendly driver in the paddock.

It was a no-brainer, only made possible by Massa feeling in his stomach that he still had the pure love for the sport. Once you've lost the love of what it is you've been doing all your life it's very difficult to re-motivate yourself, which is why I don't think he wanted to retire at all. It was announced that he was about to sign a deal to drive in Formula E before the comeback call was made - not the act of a driver feeling tired of being in the public eye.

When Stroll crashed the new William's multiple times over the winter test days in Barcelona it was left to Felipe to do the donkey work and use his experience to help the team understand the new package. He did the equivalent of three race distances in one day which is absolutely vital at this stage and as Rob Smedley put it, "he didn't put a wheel out of place the whole test." What's more, Williams look extremely impressive so far with pace and reliability.

Personally I still think we have seen the best of Massa but I would like nothing more than to witness his resurrection.

Imagine Filipino's face if he saw his dad on the top step of the podium once again,

Only time will tell.

Carl Ackerley

Why We Are The Way We Are - Perceptions

Sometimes I get frustrated talking to the younger generation. Generally, I get on well with people younger than myself because I'm a youthful, spirited person, always have been. Getting old before my time has always scared the shit out of me.

I was speaking to a chap I work with the other day about why some people are "the way they are".

The woman we were talking about can be perceived as being fucking miserable by all accounts. Whether it's an age or a maturity thing I'm not sure but his response to this person's apparent bad behaviour was, "I can't stand her, why can't she just be happy!"

I could see his point. Some humans just drain the energy out of you and the thought of spending any time with them makes you want to beat your head against a curb. And to be frank some people are just arseholes for what appears to be for no reason. In my ever advancing years on this earth I feel I'm becoming much more tolerant and understanding of those I don't click with. Ten years ago I would have shared his view, "Why can't she just be happy?"

It got me thinking about what shapes us and makes us the way we are. We don't come out of the womb miserable or angry, rather we start off naïve and immature and that can last well into our 20's (or longer), we get battered from pillar to post and end up the way we are, for good and bad. Life is like a pinball machine.

I've been guilty of perceiving certain traits about people to be true when they weren't and on the flip side I've been on the receiving end of other's incorrect perceptions about me. That will always happen, It's standard human behaviour. When I go to quickly judge someone now I try to stop myself and say, "You've been really fucking wrong about this stuff before so make more of an effort and don't judge people until you know more about them." Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but at least the intent is there.

Unfortunately one of my favourite pastimes is sitting in Starbucks with a vanilla latte and human- watching from the window, making quick assumptions about poor old souls I don't know! However, that's for fun in the moment, nothing too serious. "Seriously, that hat makes you look like a twat." See, nothing serious.

But when it comes to people and their true characters and identities, mostly we are the way we are because of what's happened to us. Bad relationships, good relationships, shit jobs, good jobs, messed up families, illness.....whatever. There's always a "why" but most of the time we don't dig deep enough below the top layer to find it. I guess we are all just too busy, too busy to care enough.

It reminds me of music. You may say a certain artist is rubbish or you hate a specific song but there might come a time in your life where that song becomes one of your favourites. Sure, Adele wailing on and on about broken love may not be your cup of tea when you've just got married, won the lottery or welcomed a child into your family but when you've just fucked up the best relationship you've ever had and you're downing Stella by the pint load alone in your local boozer, that girl's words may start resonating a bit more with you.

"It's all about a moment in time and WHO you are in that moment in time."

Personally I also get annoyed when people criticise "depressing" music. Depressing music DOESN'T exist, it's your perception of it. Maybe you haven't experienced real low points in your life where you would find comfort in that kind of musical landscape but millions of others have. Not everyone can be the same. Me? I find more happiness in "depressing" music than I do in "happy" music because of what I've experienced in my life. It does not make me depressed, quite the opposite.

So my point? Is this person just an arsehole and likes to be an arsehole? Or is she the way she is for reasons beyond our knowledge and we should just accept her, misery and all?

Contrary to my friend's naivety, we can't all, "just be happy!" as beautiful as that sounds, but our perceptions can be very dangerous in many cases.

I look forward to speaking to him in 20 years to see if he still feels the same. My bet is he won't but he still won't want to work with her.

Poor Preparation = Poor Results

As I type this I'm sat at work munching on a Lion bar for my dinner. A lion bar! I'm not a big fan of sweet stuff generally, I'm eating this as a desperation measure because of my shitty preparation.

I hated every bite but the most annoying thing about it is I busted my ass in the gym yesterday and I feel like it's now a waste. OK, in reality it probably won't have much physical affect but psychologically it does. My brain is apologising to my body right now.

Poor Preparation. I worked all morning at my second job and then had an hour to go home and get some food ready to bring to the gym. I knew I had to work until 10pm so I downed a protein shake at 2pm and then came to work. Yeah, that'll be enough, I said. 4pm - starving, no food and full of frustration.

Many fitness people will only post healthy recipes, pictures of themselves training and living the perfect life. To be honest when I see that stuff on my Instagram or Facebook it slightly irks me. The person obviously means well and follows the traditional path of promoting health and fitness. Nothing wrong with that, that's our job, but our job is also to be as real as possible too.

To me that means being honest and open about the struggles of goal achieving and getting to where we want to be in life. Of course, we want to set an example for our clients and show that with dedication and planning real results can be found, but it's easier to connect with someone who has the same temptations and distractions as you. It's a journey that's best taken together.

The easiest part of getting the body you want is the endless, lonely and tiring hours spent in the gym or pounding the tarmac every night. The hardest part will always be what you do OUT of the gym. It doesn't matter how much you sweat or how hard you push yourself, If your diet isn't planned properly around it you may as well just give up. I'm talking about specific fitness goals here, I'm very aware that some just like to go to the gym for social aspects and general physical activity without any eyes on real results and that's absolutely fine. But most of us want something to show for our hard work and nutrition is the main thing that will hold us back from reaching the top of the mountain.

It's actually fairly simple to work out what you're body needs from food to adapt to the changes you want. For example, If you're a male looking to add a bit of muscle to your frame you will need a calorie surplus of 200-500 per day to promote growth. This means that you will be taking in more calories than your body burns during normal every day functions, thus supporting any intended size gains. But they have to be the right amounts of carbs, proteins and fats, the right choices of food.

Working out your daily macros is also worthwhile doing as it will give you a much clearer picture of what you need to focus on. The same logic can be applied to someone looking to lose weight, where they would need a calorie deficit (where the body burns more than it's taking in from food). Macros can be worked out to support this also.

Back to the lion bar, It's a good example of a very bad choice that serves me no benefit at all. (Actually, it's kept me alive on this shift, props where it's due)..

Food Prep.

If you haven't done this before please be aware that preparing food for the week ahead is literally one of the dullest, mind numbing and time consuming acts you can do as a human being. We can only try to find ways to make it more exciting. Personally having my IPad in the kitchen tuned into Sky Sports helps a lot but it still sucks. My advice, try and do the majority of it in one 2-3 hour period, otherwise you will panic and hate the thought of doing it even more.

Here's a link to a decent article about how to prepare food if you're struggling to find the time or can't make it a habit that sticks. http://dailyburn.com/life/health/meal-prep-ideas-healthy-eating 

Good Luck!

Carl Ackerley