To make this easy I want to make this as simple as possible.

Here is a list of what I believe to be the best steps you can take this year to improve your health and fitness levels.

Take one action item from this list. Do it. Do it hard for a week or however long it takes you embed.

So without further a due.

Write down your goal. You are far more likely to achieve it.

Match your behaviours to your goals. If your goal is to run a marathon this year then you need to get running. Likewise the same goal wont be met if you are constantly in the behaviour pattern of sitting on your arse every day. Equally if you want to lose weight then pick five behaviours that you know will help you lose weight and do them every day.

Find your ‘why’. Why are you doing this? This has to be strong.

Focus on improving your health rather than shrinking your waistline. With health comes fat loss. With health comes abundant energy and balanced moods. With health comes performance in life, sport and work. Living should be fun and easy not a chore.

Keep a grateful journal. Each day spend 2-3 minutes and wrote down what you are grateful for. Turn off the news and do this. You will sleep better and wake up looking forward to the day rather than thinking about the next ‘drama’ that you have to tackle.

Improve your sleep by investing in blackout blinds. Your hormones and immune system will thank you for giving them a good night’s sleep. If you struggle to nod off hop into an Epsom Salts bath. They work brilliantly.

Eat raw foods with every meal. Stick a salad or lightly cooked vegetable soup next to your meal and eat it first.

Drink more good FILTERED water. The best thing you can do for you and your family’s health is to use reverse osmosis or water ionisers. 3-4 litres every day.

Replace your paraben-laden cosmetics with organic versions. Likewise stop spraying aluminium next to your armpits. These are carcinogenic and the health shop have excellent replacements that are in most cases cheaper. No brainer.

Get your mercury fillings removed and then follow up with a good nutritional chelation protocol (like the one we can offer). This is another no brainer. Mercury is poisoning you 24-7. If your dentist says that this is not worth doing then thank him for his/ her opinion and find another one. He/she does not have your health at heart.

Stick to exercise at first (if you are new to this) that you will enjoy and keep at. Sweating and using oxygen is at the heart of most beginners to exercise Nutritional and lifestyle changes will make the biggest difference so just get sweating and moving!

Use an Infra red sauna. These are great for your health. Sweat removes toxins and again makes strides to build your health.

Want power is more powerful than will power.

Learn how to weight train.

Eat les animal and diary protein. It is making you sick and tired.

Eat more fruits and vegetables. Simple. Effective. Cheap.

Buy a vegetarian cookbook and learn how to ‘dress up’ these once boring and tasteless items.

Start supplementing your diet with Sodium Bicarbonate, Lugol’s Iodine, Magnesium and Vitamin D. These are power houses and will not fail to improve everyone’s health. A year’s supply of all of these items will set you back about 100 quid. What a bargain. In fact – let’s start an experiment. Use them and see how many visits to the Doctor you need this year. Let me know in December.

I hate ‘detox’. It is far more complicated than that. Our bodies are well adjusted to deal with it. However, it needs help. Especially in this day and age. We have not quire evolved to deal with the environment that burdens us day in day out.

Do you think our caveman ancestors worried about what skin care product to use?

There is plenty here to get you going. Health comes from in to out. Stress, poor nutrition, toxic overload and lack of exercise will all be reflected on the outside. You are your own canvas.

- The difference between in-season and off-season – get this wrong and you are in trouble

- What to eat for young and old rugby players – how to coach this to your team

- The best exercises for strength – this may surprise you…

- How to plan your training sessions effectively – plan it wrong and you will learn the art of losing

Listen or download to your mp3 player by right clicking and ‘Save As’ to your hardrive

Porridge or Quinoa Oats – Organic

Goat’s Milk

Coconut Oil

Raisons

Cinnamon

Heat the porridge on the stove and add the coconut oil as it is cooking. Wait to cool and then add the raisons. My young fella loves this.

if you want to add an even bigger health kick try adding a split capsule of a really good probiotic formula.

The best can be found here – Click here

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Recent research revealed that Dublin women suffer more from cellulite than the rest of the country with nearly one in three complaining it causes them problems. This compares to 19pc of women in other parts of the country who admit they have the orange peel on their thighs.

Cellulite is fat. But surprisingly it is often not related to how fat you are overall.

One plausible explanation – which also explains why very few men suffer from cellulite – is based on the composition and behavior of women’s fat cells and the connective tissue that holds them in place.

Very simply, a woman’s connective tissue is very inflexible, so as females gain weight their fat cells expand, and tend to bulge upwards towards the surface of the skin, giving the classic orange-peel appearance of cellulite.

In men, not only is there generally less fat on the thighs, but also the outer skin is thicker and thus obscures what is happening to any surplus fat below.

There is a way of attacking it though. It means approaching from a different route. Cellulite is often a symptom of a deeper underlying cause.

When we look at body composition and review where you store your body fat we can determine very quickly why you are holding it there.

Think that fat accumulates around your mid-rift to ‘spite’ you? Think again. This is reflected of your ability to handle sugar and how well you keep in check a hormone called insulin.

Cellulite’s partner in crime points largely to an imbalance in the hormones estrogen and insulin. High circulating levels of one or both together in women (and men) will be reflected in fat on the back of your arm, thighs and chest.

Why would you have this imbalance?

There are many reasons. We all produce the hormone, estrogen. What really matters is what happens to it once you make it as well as how much your cells and organs are exposed to.

It is like sunlight – get the right amount and good things happen (elevated mood, more vitamins produced) but get too much or spend too long over-exposed then you will more than likely get burnt.

In estrogen’s case we need it. But too much of it and a chronic over-exposure will lead to trouble.

In estrogen’s case, this is paralleled with some nasty diseases like endometriosis, PMS, uterine fibroids and benign breast tumors. Men – take note – as breast cancer in males is on the increase.

What’s more in the last 30 years man-made sources of estrogen called xeno estrogens are adding to the problem.

These are man-made sources that mimic estrogen. Sources include (in short)  Plastic bottles, Carpet fibers, Teflon coating, Pesticides and herbicide, Commercial meats grown with hormones, Birth control pills andHormone replacement therapy drugs.

Estrogen is toxic. The liver treats it as toxic. In the process of detoxifying it, the liver will convert it into some nasty metabolites.

What’s more there is an enzyme in the body called aromatase that converts testosterone into estrogen. We need to inhibit this.

So why the orange peel?

Cellulite is an estrogen-type of fat. Think of your fat as your estrogen out of control and as a result body fat will accumulate in particular areas such (thighs, back of the arm and the chest)

This is easily managed. But several things have to be addressed.

Your nutrition has to lend itself to get rid of these cheeky critters. Start to ‘love your greens’. Watercress is the gold standard and stay hydrated.

Of course any toxic habits such as smoking and drinking will cause the liver to be distracted in trying to sort out the rubbish that you may be ingesting. Some hope of it trying to shift your estrogen if this is going on!

Your training has to lend itself to this as well in your bid to shift the peel. Extra spinning classes are a disaster! All they do is encourage the body to shift fat to the areas that are being worked (bums and thighs) for use as a more readily available source of fuel.

Unfortunately whilst a nice stroll with pals is good for the head. It does little to burn the fat or shift the peel.
Start lifting weights. Your backside will thank you for it.

John Lark is a personal trainer in dublin.

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Make sure that you pace yourself. This can be tough!

If you are more comfortable with pushing the boat out then perform at a fast pace.

Excuse the lighting but Spielburg I am not.