If you pay peanuts you get monkeys

I am currently writing this email from the Virgin Clubhouse in New York at Newark Airport.

Its Thursday evening by the way but I had to write it tonight so you could receive it today as I'll be recovering from Jet lag.

Have you ever experienced it?

If not, I 100% suggest that you do.

It's just a different class

Service is impeccable

Personable but un-intrusive  

That goes for the service in flight also.

This is why I would always upgrade at every opportunity.

They say once you experience it you will never fly economy again.

And its true.

Our members say this about RWL as well.

At first they do query the price just like Vimal and Karen did.

"If I'm honest I was concerned about the price initially.""

 "I always thought it was too far to travel, that I didn't have enough time and that it was too expensive"

"It seemed a bit too exclusive / posh for someone like me!!"

Who wouldn't, its not like we're the cheapest.

If anything we are the most EXPENSIVE and I am proud of that

Because that means one of two things.

1-      We are the best - you can't be cheap and the best

2-      We get results faster and better than anywhere else

Similar to the experience here right.

OK, you can opt to buy cheaper but you'll be buying in to more hassle

Lesser service

No results

Just part of a commodity

Another number

Staff that care less about you and more about home time

You'll receive more headaches

More stressful events

You get what you pay for - and that is basic

Like, right now I've just this minute asked a member of the Virgin staff what time can I order food up until and their response

"The kitchen will close when you are ready to leave sir"

Reminds me a bit Like Joanna a member at RWL, sometimes she finishes her workout past our closing time but we have the same attitude - the gym closes when you are done.

Take a look at Vimal and Karen response now.

"however I then thought my goals and ambitions are more important."

 "I still believe that what you DO get is value for money - where else do you get coaches available all the time and not just training but everything around it, lifestyle coaching etc."

"I had no doubt whatsoever that taking out the full membership would be a sound and worthwhile investment."

 "I value the fact that you get what you see and if we havent turned up for a few days, we get and email or phone call to see how we are. you equally take full interest in your members and will do anything to help them achieve their goals. I definitely have experienced this."

 "I value your service immensely. It is the personal touch, the fact that you know and respect us as individuals. I have learnt a lot about myself through your coaching."

"By making it about me and my goals!"

So what are you waiting for....

Come and experience the same with our trial membership.

If you have any questions please do ask, I am only too happy to help.

Hit reply or call 0116 276 3411

Joe 'It's time to settle down for a few great films on route back to the UK' Hanney

Ps- I'm thinking of doing a seminar (I have never revealed this information before) on our famous Lifestyle M.E.N.U to health program... but to do this I would need to know how many of you would be interested in coming along to this. Hit reply and tell me your thoughts

Fitness habits you need...

Fit people look after themselves to support their busy schedule, whereas unfit people don’t bother because of their busy schedules

• Healthy people don't make the excuse of not having enough time to be healthy, rather they take responsibility and acknowledge that they need to make the time for themselves. This is because health is not an option, it is absolutely necessary.

Fit people treat their health as a top priority

• Those who achieve great things in fitness only do so because they value their health very highly. Fit people treat an appointment to the gym with the same level of importance as they would a business meeting. They don't cancel unless there is a full blown emergency. They understand that on the occasions where they don't feel like training or eating well, the only productive way to solve the conflict is to raise their mentality up to the level of the obstacle rather than looking for ways to reduce the size of the obstacle.

Fit people are not interested in making fitness any easier, they are interested in finding a way to endure more.

• They prioritise rest and recovery, they take supplements to reduce their post workout soreness. They take supplements to reduce the inflammation. They ensure that their food is appropriate by not eating junk after training. They know if they do that they will not be able to train as much. They eat food to recover and fuel them rather than for any other reason.

Fit people do not allow emotions to control their eating

• Fit people eat consciously and listen to the correct cues for eating. If they are particularly hungry on any given day then they will eat more. On other days they will eat less. However they will not ignore their body either way. They also do not allow things such as tiredness, stress and emotion influence their food choices.  They eat the foods they should be eating as a natural lifestyle and only deviate when they have planned it in.

Fit people wipe the slate clean when they eat unhealthily. They appreciate that one bad meal will make just as much of a difference as one healthy meal.

• When fit people have a splurge meal they leave it at the table, and most importantly they don't feel guilty about it. They allow it to be a completely positive experience. They have included these kinds of events into their normal diet and so they feel good about it.

Fit people don’t get on the wagon so that they can’t fall off.  

• Fit people don't make huge lifestyle changes all at once. They appreciate that their lifestyle has taken a long time to develop and as such will most likely take a long time to change. By not participating in a short term diet they are infinitely more likely to succeed. They focus on the bigger picture and break what they have to do into simple and easy to achieve steps.

 
Fit people chunk down their dreams by assigning a date and working out the necessary steps to get there. Then all they have to do is do it. Unfit people think, ‘one day I’ll get there’ and wait for it to happen

• When considering what they would like to achieve fit people first start with their dream. They then assign a date and time when they think is realistic to have achieved it. This transforms what was a dream into a goal. Then they break the goal down into sub goals. The sub goals alone are far easier to manage mentally than the goal itself. Within those sub goals they write a plan on how they are going to achieve it. Now they have an action plan. Is the top of mind awareness to put those plans into action.

Fit people keep goals at the top of their mind.

• Anyone looking to change the habits of a lifetime needs to be constantly reminded of what they are working towards. If it is a life or death situation your brain will remind you often enough, but where the motivation is not intrinsically that strong fit people use tools to keep themselves focussed on their task.
• They use tools like diaries, files, motivational pictures, food journals and they track their training progress with a programme card.

Fit people train with intent. They track their progress accurately and begin each session with a set of goals to achieve. Unfit people turn up, work out and leave.

• Diet is a complicated issue, and as a result I think it is important to be a bit more understanding when things don't all go to plan. However there is one aspect of health and fitness with which there are very few valid excuses; training intensity.
• Fit people train with the intention of getting fitter, leaner and healthier every time they walk in the gym. What they don't do is think that turning up is enough. Yes it's better than nothing, but not by much. Fit people track their progress and test how far they have come.

Fit people constantly test their limits.

• Fit people compete with others to test themselves. If they are into weightlifting they do a meet, if they are a runner they do 10k and track the time. It is vital that your health and fitness has an outside pressure to force you to progress. If not then you are in danger of becoming too comfortable where you are.

Fit people understand that comfort is the enemy of change

• Fit people understand that if there is no strong reason to change then it isn't going to happen. Therefore they have to make themselves uncomfortable in order to keep the motivation going. They force the discomfort by having friends and coaches to hold them accountable.

Fit people don’t do it alone, they have friends and a coach

• People who are serious about getting in shape look for outside help to get them where they need to be. They are level headed enough to acknowledge that if they have failed alone before then they will most likely fail again if they do the same thing. Healthy people rely on friends and colleagues for support or seek professional help to design a programme which will work.

In short fit people do what unfit people won't

RWL GYM Group
99 Barkby Road, Thurmaston, Leicestershire, LE4 9LG

': 0116 276 3411
š: trainingdept@rwlgym.co.uk
ü:  www.rwlgym.co.uk

Follow RWL on Facebook , Twitter

Swingers Club Anyone?

Not that kind of swingers club so get your mind out of the gutter  J

Its was a place called Swing 46 which is a live swing, jazz and blues club

Great atmosphere and I would highly recommend that you go if you ever visit New York

What has this got to do with you

Well, perhaps you’ve found yourself having tried many diets and gyms but you are still at loose ends with it all

There are so many offers out there that try and persuade you in to thinking that their product is the last thing 

you will ever need because of the lasting effects it has… blah blah

You’ve heard it all before right

Well, every gym owner should take a leaf out of the Swing 46 clubs book

And provide an opportunity to you to try and earn your trust before you commit to anything long term like a 

12 month gym contract

This way it gives you an opportunity to experience it for yourself

To have questions answered

To see if what they say on the tin is true

And to avoid any old sales ploy just to get you in

You can actually call there bluff

“let me experience it before I commit; kinda thing

Now, in this case, the gym owner should be completely confident in what they’re offering to enable you to 

try it out

But you’re probably thinking I don’t know of any gym that does this

And you are right

We are as matter fact the only gym that does this

Its our 30 day trial membership with no obligation to join.

The Swing 46 club did something very similar

During the intervals, they had professional dancers get the audience involved and invited them up to the stage to have a ‘trial dance class’ very simple but highly effective

I mean flocks of people went up

I was actually amazed by it all

But it worked

People tried the class

People enjoyed it

The dancers gained trust of the audience

And the audience (well, majority) booked further individual classes

This is how you can gage whether you like, trust it and confidently make the right decision

Not the usual hard sales type that gyms and personal trainers do

Let us earn your trust by coming along to do our 30 day trial

Two things can happen

1-you enjoy what we do and we then sit to discuss further membership

2-or you don’t think it is right for you, we just say shake hands and thank you for the opportunity and you 

walk away with no hard feelings and information you’ve just learned that’s valued at minimum of £1000.

To try us out, hit reply to this email or call us on 0116 276 3411.

Joe ‘has two left feet’ Hanney

Ps- I’m off to see the thanksgiving parade today, this should be fun

Pps- I have a great story about my visit to a gym whilst i was here which I will share with you another time

Katie Baines' November Pregnancy Blog!!!

What can I say, time has flown by since my last blog! We are about to enter my last trimester of this amazing 9 month journey! Since writing my last blog at the beginning of the second trimester, a lot of changes have taken place - one of them being my body shape! Obviously I knew my body would change during pregnancy but despite this, it has still surprised me how much of an impact it has had on my body so far and my attitude and acceptance towards these changes. 

During the past few months, I have learnt that no matter how controlled I try and be with both food and exercise to ensure that I am at my optimum fitness during and after pregnancy, pregnancy at the best of times is unpredictable on so many levels! This is especially true when it comes to body shape! Despite going to RWL gym on a twice weekly basis to do my tailored pregnancy programme and continuing to follow a low carb nutrition plan, my bum and thighs have padded out!! No amount of agonising reverse lunges have stopped this! 

From the beginning of this journey, I have vowed not to put on any unnecessary weight other than what is naturally expected during pregnancy i.e. an increase in cup size (every cloud...) but surprisingly my midwife has assured me that the increase in the size of my bum and thighs is a natural change as it is to do with fat storage in preparation for breast feeding... I never knew that there was a link with boobs and bums!

 

I am constantly having people telling me that this is not the time to be concerned about my body shape or eating healthily or exercising as this is in fact the one time when I can eat for two and embrace these changes. I completely disagree, this is exactly the time when I should be even more conscious of what goes into my body as any rubbish that I eat, I am also feeding to my growing baby. I wouldn't feed a new born processed food so why should I eat processed food now when the baby needs the most natural and healthiest of food to aid its growth in these last few critical months? Furthermore, in terms of nutrition and exercise, I have worked too hard for the past two years to use pregnancy as an excuse to go back to square one and go back to the old size 16 me. With continued exercise and controlled nutrition throughout my pregnancy, I am proud to say that I am still a firm size 8 and feel more energised than ever! Yes, I admit there days when I am very tired after work and dream of flopping out in my pj's watching Paul Hollywood on TV baking cakes but being the stubborn and determined mama to be that I am, I push myself to go to the gym because the pride I feel after having completed a work out is worth every bead of sweat! If I cannot push myself now, how am I meant to get through labour?? Gym is the easy bit compared to what I face in February so what is wrong with trying to get as fit and healthy as possible and into the most positive of mind sets before D day??

I could easily have used this time to put my feet up and relax but having been with RWL for nearly two years has instilled me with such determination with their ethos that continuing to exercise during my pregnancy has not taken me any convincing as it is second nature to me now, I cannot sit down for two minutes now as I am too energised!

 

Believe me, it does take determination from within to continue to exercise during some tough changes but what has really helped is the outstanding commitment and encouragement from Joe, Sam and Jeff at the gym  - not only do I owe it to myself to look after my body and baby but I owe it to the guys at RWL to show just as much commitment as they have shown us! 

Although I am about to embark on the last trimester before I meet my little man, the journey is far from over as I am very much looking forward to the new challenge of regaining my pre-pregnancy figure! Watch this space!

 

Katie x

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

This is my 3^rd day in New York and ive gotta say, what an amazing place it is.

I’ve been here before, but it was over 10 years ago remember that time I told you about

When I was at loose ends with my life and I didn’t know what to do

But for some reason or other I just decided to get a flight to New York

Well, being back here just for this very short time has excited me and affected me emotionally.

You see, it brought back many memories from the last time I was here.

And I thought it would

I even purposely visited a few places to see what kinda feeling I would get.

Now, when I was last here I was in place were I felt stuck, kinda lost, didn’t know where I was going in life

You see, I had just turned down a football contract

Got called a failure by my parents

And didn’t know what else to do

You’ve probably felt like this right?

Perhaps you’ve been stuck with your weight?

Maybe, you’re stressed up to your eye balls?

Maybe you just don’t have the courage to leave a job?

Whatever it maybe

I am sure you’ve experienced something like this or other

Well, I am here to tell you one thing that I think can help

It certainly helped me

And it was just being around like minded individuals

Now, going on that course 10 years ago which happened to be in New York helped me realise this

If you were with me in the morning of the first day I had all sort of feelings going on

I was apprehensive and nervous at the same time

Wasn’t quite familiar with the surroundings

Didn’t know what the other attendees would be like

If I’d be judged

If they’d ask me questions that id feel uncomfortable answering

Very similar to when you first go to a gym right

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong if I tried

Everyone was friendly (Americans do seem to be overly friendly anyway don’t you think)

I came to find that I was surrounded by people just like me

Similar mindset

Similar shift in values and beliefs

They actually made me feel better about myself than I ever have

Have you ever had a person come in to your life and do this?

At RWL we do this to people

Since New York all those many years ago I have only ever catapulted myself to be round likeminded individuals

Just like this weekend

It was tough, every night I felt like I’d been beaten up but all I was doing was re training myself

Challenging myself to be better

Challenging myself to not be normal

You see, I’ll leave you with this great quote by Dr Seuss

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

Joe ‘going ice skating today’ Hanney

Ps when are you going to step up and join our members? if its today then call us on 0116 276 3411 and one of my team will be happy to help you get you started

How to get leaner for NYE without missing Xmas lunch!!!

Many of you reading this post will thinking about Christmas already, some with excitement and some with anticipation.
 
It's the time when everything is most likely to go awry.
 
In order to enjoy Christmas it is expected that you gorge yourself with so much food that you can barely stand, and then keep going.
 
It is expected that you will put on weight, and that you will need to hit the gym in January to make up for it in time for summer.
 
It is also expected that you continue this practice for the best part of a month


 
But it doesn't have to be that way!!!! You can have your cake and eat it too. It is a cold hard fact that you can gorge yourself silly on Christmas day and actually turn up to the NYE party leaner than you were on Christmas eve.
 
How is this possible?

Re-feeds: and here's how it works:
 
First you cut carbs. When you go from a high carb diet to a low carb diet, your body continues to produce the insulin that it is used to producing. But on the new programme your body does not need this insulin and so is keeping it in reserve. To put it very simply your body is storing the insulin because it doesn't need to use it on your new diet.

The low carb diet is a simple concept. As you reduce carb intake you increase the utilisation of fat as a fuel source in your body (assuming protein stays the same). At the same time your performance will decrease, you will feel tired (as your serotonin levels will drop) and generally the black clouds will come rolling in.

Then comes Christmas day, and you can go nuts. On this day all that insulin that you saved up will be used to turbocharge your metabolism. All the carbs in your system, accompanied by the increased insulin sensitivity and insulin load will mean that your metabolism will speed up massively.



So assuming you have done your maths right, and you eat 8000kcals in one day, your resting metabolism will be able to match that; and the best part is in the calorie hangover. When you go back to the low carb diet on Boxing day you will still be operating at that level. So your metabolism will be through the roof and it will have to grab calories out of your stores.

Glucose metabolism also significantly increases your struggling leptin levels which govern the utilisation of fat as a fuel source. So all the extra energy burned will be used to shift fat out of your system.

The result is that over the next 4 or 5 days you quickly lean out, ready to begin again.

Conditions for entry:

• You must already be on a high carb diet. If your body is already used to dealing with lots of carbs from all angles then it will be shocked when they are taken away. If you are on the Atkins diet all that will happen is you will get a bit fatter every few weeks, which leads me onto my next point
• You have to earn your cheat day. By the time your cheat day rolls around you need to have suffered a lot. If you have any doubt that you deserve a cheat meal then you should put it off and continue. Things to look out for are needing lots of sleep/naps, a significant reduction in performance in the gym and low mood (not so appealing now right?)
• You must be quite lean already. High levels of body fat (>20% women/ >15% men) will mean that you have too much insulin resistance/ leptin resistance for it to be really effective. You would be better off just following a normal diet for a few months and seeing results that way.
• You need to be training hard. It will not work on diet alone.
• Your re-feed should not contain food toxins. Consuming 3 litres of coke may feel good but the truth is that fructose will not have the desired effect. Only glucose will. Eat dark chocolate (Terry's dark chocolate orange), low fructose dried fruit (dates), starchy vegetables (roast potatoes), rice (rice pudding), oats (porridge).
• Don't consider it if you don't take basic supplements.
• Give the alcohol a miss. Consuming all this food with a bottle of port will render it pointless.

Enjoy!!!

“Slap me in the face when you see me” - Joe

I must be honest with you I've done it again

I've fell off my eating plan but this time I can really notice it

Yes me Joe Hanney the most diligent of people ever when it comes to eating clean and being COMPLIANT

In your eyes anyway

You see we've all struggled to keep to some kind of diet in the past, hey you may of even heard that our eating plan was overwhelming to begin with

Who wouldn't? it completely challenges the conventional norm -

eat more fat

eat more food

reduce starch carbs

when EVERYBODY else is saying the opposite

eat less fat

fast for 2 days

eat more carbs (heck the government's health department even says this stuff even today),

drink this diet shake,

count these points...

Then there's sticking to it

How when you have kids, work, deadlines, other stressors, attend the gym and everything else...

Well, I resonate with you I went right off track for a few days the other weekend and what a slap in the face it has been...

Its not to say I have never gone off track

Its life right, we always do, I'd be lying if I said I never have a chocolate brownie now and then or a glass of wine at the 

weekend

Why was it a slap in the face then Joe?

Well, back since when I can remember I have always had an underlying issue about my appearance

In this instance, not many of you will know this but I suffer from really BAD dry skin, dry scalp as a matter of fact, kinda like dermatitis (but the doctors have never been able to diagnose it) they seem to think it is and to be fair after reading countless articles about it you can see why and it effects mainly my scalp and stomach area but mainly my scalp

You see, some days I don't make an effort with my hair - what I mean by this is I don't put hair products in it to style it and on other days I do

The days I don't is when I am suffering most

Suffering most from the dry skin on my scalp

You see I feel the hair product cannot be doing it any good

I need it to get better

My scalp needs healing, so I leave it out

Now why am I telling you this?

And how does this relate to my food compliance?

And why do I deserve a slap (whenever we meet don't let me let you forget about this right this may be your only opportunity to :))

If you know me, you will know that I hate going to the doctors with a passion, some of the stuff they say and do is useful 

BUT most of the time it isn't

So just like anyone else would I had to go to the doctors and basically sit there crying for help

"What is the cause of this and why cant I get rid of it"

You should know my thought process around all of this is - it must have everything to do with my current health - it must be me and what I am putting into my body

Medication cant help me it masks the problem

Well, could I be wrong on this one instance

Up to this point I had tried to eliminate everything from my diet

I researched to see if it was the food or something that I was eating that could've been the root of the problem

All the doctors, dermatologist, skin clinics I visited all wanted to deal with the symptoms by using a form of medication

Because I had no success with eliminated everything (food) from my diet

The dry skin was still there

I had no option but to be an HYPOCRITE and go to the doctors...

I tried EVERYTHING, EVERY medication, scalp treatment there is  and PAID a fortune doing so

It either made everything worse or

Cleared it up for a few days then to only come back with vengeance

Which

Made me more un happier

Made me more conscious

Dandruff got even worse (the moment we changed our uniform from black tops to blue was the best day of my life )

I got even more p***ed and annoyed - you see I don't fail, I don't compute with failing

There must be a way

I'm missing something

Its my food

Got to be

You are what you eat right?

So I decided to research everything in to nutrition

Day and night

Eliminated further things from my diet

I wouldn't drink wine

I wouldn't eat rice

I had to drink 4 litres of water a day

The list goes on...

Still I was not getting anywhere

Some days where good some were bad

Then it struck me...

I need to get this stuff tested... I came across a food intolerance test

(doctors or dermatologist's don't do this kind of test/assessment by the way and never mentioned it)

Jeff wrote a fantastic post about this the other week

Again anyone that knows me knows that I love assessing and testing

"if your not assessing your guessing"

I took the simple test

I waited for the results

And waited, 7 days past by now

They finally came

I opened them to find the most outrageous thing ever but was the biggest wake up call

I had intolerance to wheat, gluten, and... wait for it ... eggs

EGGS!!!!

I was ripping my hair out...

You see I'd cut EVERTHING out

Well I thought I did

But not eggs I chose not too

My ego re appeared here... "I cant be intolerant to eggs , I eat them every day!!!!"

What can I have for breakfast now?

Wheat and gluten are very common amongst intolerances and so are eggs

But I only chose to avoid wheat and gluten products

So I started to avoid eggs along with wheat and gluten

I have been doing it for a few months now

And guess what... my scalp as never been better

I finally found the cause!!!

As far back as I can remember it has never felt so good

I have done my hair every day for the last 2 months or so (this might sound stupid to you but to me this means a lot, 

especially as I am quite vain...)

I have even gone to the hairdressers more regularly because I am more confident that I wont snow flake the whole place

BUT the slap in the face came when I reintroduced the food again (kinda going off plan) 

Last week for those few days where I went of the wagon and been a little more relaxed with what I had eaten

I reintroduced eggs, gluten and wheat in the form of pastries and biscuits

And guess what

My dry scalp re appeared

My scalp felt tighter than it had ever done before

What did this tell me... that I can never eat these ingredients again?

No it doesn't it just means that I have found my TRIGGERS

Finally I have the answers

I have my solution

It is now my choice

Before it was out of my control

I am in control

So what is my plan?

To reintroduce the ingredients over time

I fell short of this and introduced them all at once

But that doesn't bother me

Because I didn't fail there

I actually won because I found my trigger and I now know what to do

What was also a side effect and something I wasn't looking for?

Was that I decreased my body fat around my stomach in doing so as well

I had a ton more energy

I was far more relaxed in challenging situations

I didn't expect this but if you read Jeff's blog post dry skin isn't the only symptom of having intolerance to a specific food

It could be bloatiness

Much slower than usual results

Tiredness

IBS

The list is endless

If you are like me whom I think you are

You want everything you do to help you gain that little advantage

In your case your own results

What if that was food intolerance?

These can go un noticed

Just as I found out

Why don't you put that doubt to bed by having a food intolerance test?

You can do by having myself or one of my coaches, actual qualified practitioners to do the test for you

We then send the results off to the lab

And the results will then come back and you'll get to work with a coach that will support you through the process

We will explain everything in person

But for now get your test booked by clicking here

And then we'll do it when your available (we have the test kits ready)

Cant wait to see your test results

Cant wait to release the underlying 'BRAKES'

Joe (cant follow his own rules, so definitely deserves a slap) Hanney

ps-But im over the moon that I can run my fingers through my hair

pps book your place for a Food Intolerance Test by clicking here