Family crowded round the oil based table cloth, devouring lashings of thickly buttered toast and rashers and hot tea. It looked like a scene out of an Avoca catalogue.

Fast-forward 50 years.

Most people are on their way to work before the sun rises. Kids are hurried off one arm in jumper with the other grabbing a bit of toast. Mum in the meantime is grabbing a bit of lippy and providing a gentle but firm kick up the backside to get out of the door.
Yet we all know and rightly so – breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Skipping it altogether will tee you up nicely for fat gain. Particularly around the mid-rift.

Sumo wrestlers cottoned onto this years ago. They deliberately skip breakfast and have the largest meal of the day just before they head to bed.

Through years of looking at eating habits and body fat distribution patterns I can firmly say that whose who skip breakfast consistently end up looking like a pear.

In same light using a cereal box as your method of starting the day has also had a large part to play in keeping people erring towards the muffin top shape.

If you find that you are slim and follow this pattern then unfortunately you are not free from this label either.

As Dr Barry Sears writes in his book, Toxic Fat, this method of eating causes ‘slient inflammation’. A lot of the nutrients you may eat are rather than stored as fat are converted into destructive ‘free radicals’ wreaking havoc elsewhere.

Most of us are familiar with the food pyramid?

Well try the reverse food pyramid in the sense that make your breakfast the largest meal of the day and taper off your calorific intake as the day progresses.

IN fact your dinner should be about half the size of your breakfast and lunch. If you find your self eating too much at night it is because of choices made throughout the day.

Better blood sugar management, leaner physique, no hunger, better moods, more food to eat (!!) and so on. What is there not to like about this?

You see instead of perpetuating a cycle of sugar cravings by leaving gaps between meals (longer than 3-4 hours) we are actually feeding our bodies regularly.

So what’s the big deal with breakfast?

What you eat first in the day will determine your hormonal and energy levels. Try this practical experiment. Drop some fish and a little salad into your breakfast. Over this drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil, hemp or avocado oil.

See how your energy levels are for the rest of day. Then go back to your cereal based breakfast and compare.

I will guarantee more energy and certainly less sugar cravings. It is unsurprising that your dopamine levels will increase providing you with extra ‘get-up-and-go’ to face the day.

Some other options for breakfast can be leftover dinner, homemade patties with a side salad or chicken breast with salsa or home-made guacamole.

Typical comments I have received in the past are ‘I felt like gagging’ and ‘where am I going to find the time?’
All I can say to this is – ‘try it, you won’t be disappointed’
So what then do you have for dinner? Try something light like a salad with cold meats or a Vegetable Omelette.

In fact Eggs are quick and easy to knock up alongside the fact that they are rich in choline, a nutrient geared towards optimal brain health. Not a bad food to have on your side if you are in the middle of a feeding frenzy at the zoo.

Most of my female clients have settled into the swing of cooking up their breakfast whilst knocking up dinners.

For the males this is a bit tougher. For most of them, reading the instructions on a Pot Noodle is as far as it goes.

Although one athlete I used to room with at college was caught emptying the contents of one a pot noodle into a saucepan before transferring it back into the pot to eat.

This is the same guy who assembled a flat pack bed downstairs.

So can you see how important your nutrition is to your brain health?

Start your day with a power breakfast, not some dehydrated excuses of fruit with an empty cereal. Prepare your food the night before whilst you cook your dinner. At worst have left-overs. Your brain, waist line and energy levels will thank you with open arms.
John Lark is a Health and Performance consultant combining nutrition, training and supplementation for tailored results. John works with Olympic Level athletes to cancer patients to Global Multi-National Companies across Europe consulting on health and nutrition for performance. Download his free report at www.spherecorporatefitness.com or call 00 353 1 5052131 for more information

John Lark is a personal trainer and bootcamp owner in maynooth

Shame to say it – any monkey can take you through a workout providing you with entertaining variations on simple exercises, leaning on your ‘empathy’ buttons between sets and whilst draining your back pocket with very little in terms of hard and fast results to show for it.

The spectrum is getting wider and here is how to spot the right personal trainer.

1. They can deliver results

More often than not you will hear about a good personal trainer through a friend’s positive experience. This is a good start. It reveals a trust and standards that your friend is willing enough to share with you.

However, it can’t stop there. Your personal trainer or Dublin Personal Training company must be able to prove that they can match your needs and deliver the results you are after.

Where are the testimonials?

2. To this end they put their money where their mouth it

In this climate, offering a guarantee for personal training services reveals true professionalism. It reveals a company or an indivudual geared towards results rather than figures. They can back this up by guaranteeing their services 100%.

3. They truly walk the walk

Your trainer will be your coach. How can you respect him or her if they are a walking sign of ill-health or stink of coffee the minute you meet them? Personal training is not a hobby. It is a lifestyle. You will not meet a more passionate and determined group of practioners who can help you with your fitness goals.

In essence your personal trainer is not your ‘friend’, more your coach there to inspire and take you to levels you never thought were possible.

4. Their Application of Knowledge stretches beyond ‘counting reps’ and ‘barking orders’

There are plenty of opportunites for personal trainers to upskill and develop their knowledge base. A good personal training compnoay will be constantly doing this within the realms of functional medicine (therefore knowing the red flags to look for in what may be preventing cloients from losing body fat and achieving optimal health), functional anatomy, psychology, nutrition and lifestyle management.

This is then imparted directly to the client.

At Sphere our trainers intern and surround themselves with some of the sharpest minds in the health, well-being, nutrition and medical field. We learn of the best so that the best is delivered to the client.

There may even be the case where we need to call upon these experts to help you reach your goals quicker.

5. Your personal trainer can deliver a tried and tested system of delivering results

It takes years of hands on experience to truly understand the profession – not a weekend of training leaving with a certificate.
Personal training is our business. We have developed a system here at Sphere that delivers a tailored health and fitness experience.

From initial assessment stages and ascertaining your needs and goals, to a tailored nutrition and health programme and finally to the implementation of methods, including training, that we feel will yield the greatest results for you. This isn’t our hobby or part-time cash add on.

You will have a programme geared to you – not the remnants of a health and fitness magazine or ‘whatever your trainer feels like doing on the day’.

John Lark is a personal trainer in kildare, Ireland.

Visit his website – Sphere Fitness and downoad your free fat loss report

John Lark, a personal trainer in Celbridge, Co.Kildare outlines how we can take lessons from the Obamas when it comes to health and fitness. You don’t have time….reallly? Read on…

When Michele Obama emerged from the aftermath of her Husband’s inauguration the world was heard muttering words of encouragement about the first lady’s physique.

In particular her toned arms were marvelled at and suddenly a wave of Internet and media followers c. 40-year-old age bracket were taking encouragement from her looks.

Reportedly she arises at 5.30am to train with her husband and a personal trainer three times a week. She trains and consumes a ‘clean diet’.

This is only matched by her husband who on his campaign trail awoke at 5.30 in the AM to workout at gyms that had been closed off to accommodate the Premier.

So what is ‘her secret’? What is separates her from the masses of women who struggle with ‘the bingo wings’ or ‘dinner lady arms?’

Of course the perks of the job come with all the trimmings of an in-house chef and personal trainer. However, do you think that her physique is the result of a magic bullet?

There are much deeper issues and lessons at play here and ones that can help you strive for greater achievements.
Take for instance the issue of consistency. No matter what, Obama trains three times a week. They make time. They find time.

For them 5.30 in the morning is the only time they can make. So be it. If the most powerful couple can find time to do this, do you think you can too?

Then there is the issue of public accountability. Do you think that the pressure of millions watching your every move is enough motivation to get you hit the gym rather than pulling your duvet over your eyes? Or what about the tin of biscuits that is regularly visited by your hands? A global audience would certainly scupper that visit.

Accountability is a hugely successful tool in fat loss. It makes celebrities work their backsides off to drop baby weight, help extras from Eastenders make fitness DVDs.

Making this work for you however is simple enough. Tell people about your plans. Tell your friends, family and co-workers. Tell them specifically about your plans.

I had an assessment this week with a female client and she rightly pointed out that the Irish are ‘negative’ in their comments.

She was dead right. I stated that the best way to respond to this would be to feed off this. Let it drive you to greater achievements (as a side note – she did awesome with a 10lb loss achieved with a steely determination to prove her group wrong).

When making yourself accountable step out of your comfort zone. Stick your neck out. Why not set up a weight loss blog on the Internet? It has driven some individuals to amazing losses in weight. Why? Because suddenly you are making yourself accountable to a global community.

Take home point –find your social support group / individual and check in with them frequently.

Then there is the issue of the nature of her training. Michele Obama did not get arms like that lifting the pink dumbbells for 2 sets of 30 repetitions or poodle on the cross trainer for 60 minutes counting the calorie dial.

To create a toned physique you need to step up to the heav(ier) forms of weight training. Swap the plastic dumbbells for chin ups, press ups, squats and Deadlifts and be prepared to lift heavy!

If you couple this with a clean diet rich in vegetables, fish, water and good fats you will literally watch your fat disappear to reveal toned slender muscles.

I was in the gym the other morning watching as some poor trainer was lambasted with comments such as“If walk at this speed then how many calories have I burned off” and “If I put this incline up, will I burn more calories”

In other words ‘have I worked off last night’s dessert yet?’

Stop concerning about the petty details. Get in the gym, remain consistent with your behaviours and your results will follow.

John Lark is a personal trainer in celbridge, co .kildare. His personal training company, Sphere Fitness can be found in Maynooth, Kildare