These classes are taught in Wirral on Monday and Wednesday nights, so anyone can take part.
Check out the video and if you like what you see and want to shake off some pounds, tone up or just get out there and have fun send me a message and I'll supply a list of times and classes.
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1) Eat a moderate amount of only fresh meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and water.
2) Exercise at least three times a week with a mix of cardio, weight resistance and stretching.
3) Drink no alcohol, add no sauces or sugar
4) Have one treat a week
That's how you'll lose weight - finding the time and motivating yourself to do it is the final ingredient..........good luck.
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2 Train with someone. If you work out with a girlfriend or someone you can have a good time with, time will fly and it won't seem like so much hard work.
3 If you look good you will feel confident, so make sure you have some nice workout gear to wear to the gym.
4 Keep active. Even if you can't make it to the gym, you can go for a run or a walk outside, or invest in a hula-hoop that you can use at home. At least then you're still burning calories.
5 Most importantly, have fun!
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However due to finding time and having the money (they cost around £30 for an hour) I usually only have about four a year.
My brother Joe, who does mixed martial arts four times a week, had lots of pain in his muscles and so he decided to have his first sports massage.
He said: "It really hurt at the time but then my body felt amazing. I'm going to try and have one every other month because it made me feel so much better, more supple and fitter."
Benefits of a sports massage if you exercise regularly:
Maintain the body generally in better condition.
Prevent injuries and loss of mobility.
Cure and restore mobility to injured muscle tissue.
Release any tension or pressure build up
Break down scar tissue
Release the bodies endorphins
Promote relaxation
Sports massage increases tissue permeability which causes the pores in tissue membranes to open, enabling fluids and nutrients to pass through.
This helps remove waste products such as lactic acid and encourage the muscles to take up oxygen and nutrients which help them recover quicker.
I would recommend my sports massage therapist. She is called Sarah and can be contacted on 07830094180.
If you have any other sports massage therapists you can recommend, let me know below.
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I'm not sure whether I enjoy working out with someone else as much as I do alone though and whenever I've lost weight it's been through sheer self-control and personal dedication.
I also enjoy working out alone after a hard day, because it helps me clear my head.
But on the other hand if I have plans to workout with someone else, I'll be less likely to pull out if I was feeling lazy than if I only had plans with myself.
Here are what some of my colleagues and friends think.
Lorna Hughes said: "I think its very good to have a gym buddy because it motivates you to go."
Richard Down said: "It can be very motivating but it can be a pain if someone tails you round the gym putting you off your routine."
Matt Hurst said: " I can see the appeal of partnering someone during exercise but personally I enjoy the opportunity to think and exercise at a pace that suits me."
Jonathan Evans said: "I think going to the gym with a friend gives you a lot more motivation to get fit. Especially with the cold winter nights setting in, it really helps if you've got someone else to spur you on and inspire you to get out there."
What do you think ?
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2. Starving yourself - makes you more likely to binge and so store fat
3. Not knowing what's in your food - check the labels
4. Eating sugar, white flour, caffeine and simple carbohydrates - slows down metabolic rate by raising insulin levels
5. Skipping breakfast - this is starving yourself for hours which will make you more likely to snack on bad things
6. Lack of exercise - don't think about it, just put your trainers on and get going
7. Lack of water - for your body to burn fat, it needs at least eight glasses of pure water daily
I'm guilty of having white sugar, caffeine and not drinking enough water.
What are you guilty of ?
The Sun Salutation routine is really a warm up for yoga which consists of a sequence of classic yoga postures. It warms the muscles and joints and is often repeated several times.
It includes the classic yoga postures such as mountain pose, plank, cobra, downward dog and forward bends.
Madonna, who is well known for her love of yoga, does the Sun Salutation every day as part of her Ashtanga Yoga workout.
She says "Yoga is a metaphor for life. You have to take it really slowly. You can't rush. You can't skip to the next position. You find yourself in very humiliating situations, but you can't judge yourself. You just have to breathe, and let go. It is a workout for your mind, your body and your soul."
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If you're working out in the gym: Either do your normal programme and add some of these ab workouts in at the end of your session. Alternatively do 10 minutes on the bike to warm-up, 10-20 minutes on the cross trainer, 10-20 minutes on the treadmill and then do some of these ab workouts at the end. Do this three to four times a week.
If you want to keep your normal fitness programme going but feel you need to work your abs more, then continue with your routine but do one of these workouts each morning or evening.
Once you've done the ab workout a few times you should know it in your mind and won't need to look at the video anymore. A useful tip is to write the workouts on sheets of paper and alternate them daily.
Here is a combination of tummy exercises in a two-minute workout - repeat the exercises if you want a longer workout.
Leg lowers - really good for the lower abs.
Britney Spears' ab programme - very good programme for an all round ab workout.
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We worked hard on my abdominal region for an hour. For the next five days I was in agony and couldn't tense my stomach without feeling excruciating pain. It's fair to say I was unable to exercise for the rest of the week.
Some time before that I went on the adductor machine (the weight machine that works your inner thigh) I did about 100 repetitions, thinking I'd really tone my inner thigh flab away.
I woke up in severe pain the next day and the following day I was in even more pain and I had to give the gym a rest for the rest of the week.
Another time I went to running club and tried to keep up with the fastest of them all. When I finished I was shaking excessively and when I got home I was sick.
This kind of extreme exercise is not healthy for you and it also hinders other workouts you would have done later in the week.
In my opinion, it's better to push yourself consistently three to four times a week than do a killer workout that kills off any other workout you had planned.
Always push yourself but don't go to the extreme.
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The main ones I attend annually are Fitcamp, held in November, and The Internation Fitness Showcase, held in Winter Gardens in March.
These conventions host a number of fitness presenters from around the world who teach hundreds of classes for an entire weekend.
Fitcamp, at Ribby Hall, Blackpool, runs from November 20 - 22.
The weekend will include classes from step, street dance, spin, Bollywood, extreme conditioning, belly dancing, the Hollywood bootcamp, hip hop, Latin, kickboxing ......the list goes on and on.
There are other fitness conventions all over the Uk and the world, but these two are my regular favourites.
I always go with a group of friends and stay in a cabin for the weekend.
We work out until we drop and then party on Saturday night with all the fitness instructors and everyone else who attends the event.
It's a great way to inspire your fitness routine and costs around £150 for everything.
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It seems there is a market for people who refuse to believe exercise and eating healthily keeps you fit.
Burner Balm, a lip balm that is supposed to help you lose weight, hit the shops in the US six months.
And it can be bought in the UK on the net for around £5.
The balm is a blend of green tea, caffeine, the mineral Chromium Piclinate - which, it's claimed, helps the body burn fat, and the herb Hoodia, which apparently suppresses the appetite.
So is this a gimmick or do we really believe an easy option lip balm will shift extra pounds?
I believe, like many experts who have commented on Burner Balm, that it's a gimmick.
There's only one way to lose weight and that's to burn more calories than you consume.
It takes self control and it's hard when you're stressed, as I know, but it's the only thing that's ever worked for me.
What next ?
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Maybe you'd like to try a new form of exercise that you haven't done before or for a while, such as swimming or Bollywood dancing.
Organise your workout times at the beginning of the week so you don't make other plans and keep you trainers and clothes at the door so you don't have time to change your mind when that workout time arrives.
Also remember to snack moderately, fill up on winter vegetables and soups and keep drinking lots of water even though the sun isn't shining.
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However if you're treating yourself a bit too much and you're determined your scales are wrong and the shop dress sizes are getting smaller, then testing your BMI is a great reality check.
And the best thing about the BMI chart, is it's not about being stupidly thin, it's simply about being healthy.
But the problem comes when you get two men of the same height weighing the same, with one man carrying a lot of fat and one man being extremely fit and toned carrying more muscle - this is not reflected in the BMI. So a fit rugby player could be classed as obese when he's carrying hardly any fat because his muscle weighs more than fat.
It's also not accurate for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or people who are frail.
For all pretty normal people if your BMI is less than 18.5, you're underweight. The ideal BMI is 18.5-25. You're overweight if your BMI is 25-30 and obese if your BMI is 30-40. If your BMI is greater than 40, you're very obese.
To find out your BMI just click here.
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Even the treadmill and cross trainer screen asks you to chose a level and if you pick the 'fat burning zone' you have to put your hands on the sensors and if your pulse goes above a certain rate you're told to slow down.
I remember working out at this level once and I felt like I was wasting my time. I thought how can working out mildly burn more fat than if I have a really good workout where I push myself? Well I believe the answer is it doesn't.
The body does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat in the 'fat burning zone' or at lower intensities.
But, at higher intensities, you burn a greater number of overall calories which is what you should be concerned about when trying to lose weight.
I found this example on From The 24/5 Complete Personal Training Manual, 24 Hour Fitness, 2000, which details the fat calories expended by a 130-pound woman during cardio exercise:
So in this example the woman burns more total calories and more fat calories at a higher intensity.
So my advice, as a fitness instructor and as someone who works out to lose weight, is just do your workouts to the best of your ability and listen to your body instead of counting how many times your heart beats.
According to Fit & Toned magazine it's supposed to be "a safe and effective herbal formula, including a combination of ingredients proven to burn fat".
The combination of green tea, guarana and unique B-vitamin blend is supposed to suppress your appetite and speed up your metabolism.
You must to take three capsules a day in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise programme in order to reach your ideal weight faster.
BUT even if it does help you reach your ideal weight, what happens I wonder when you stop taking it?
Personally I'm not really sure whether I feel comfortable putting a fat-burning supplement into my body.
I read some reviews online about it and apparently it can cause you to have the shakes, suffer from insomnia and hot and cold flushes.
It would also set you back £35.22 for 90 caps - a month's supply.
Yep I still think plenty of water, fresh food and regular exercise is the key - what do you think?
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