Never go out drinking with a mad Irishman and a crazy northern lass!

On Thursday night, I was invited to celebrate the Business Design Centre being open as a business centre for 25 years. Over the 6 years that Revolution has been open, I’ve built up great relationships with the Morris brothers who own the BDC, and Dominic Jones who is the CEO, and thought it would be great fun to join them for their celebrations.

With this in mind, I ate perfectly all day and had a plan to say ‘no’ to all the lovely food on offer, but to say yes to 2 glasses of red wine. I was joined by my good friend and senior Revolution trainer Neil McGuigan. For those of you who don’t know Neil, he is someone who works hard but likes to play even harder.

The party was fantastic, and as a business owner I found it really inspirational. Stories were told of how the family business started and how - against all odds - it succeeded to become a huge success and also one of London’s iconic buildings.

I was on track to stick to my 2 glasses of wine, but then Neil hit me with the old classic “one for the road mate”. Well, it was never going to be just one more, especially when you’re out with Neil. After several glasses of pink champagne (I was including that under the ‘red wine’ banner) and more wine, we headed out of the party and down to the gym to grab our bags and head on home. Not sober by any means, but certainly not sozzled.

That’s when we bumped into Bex Maslin, London's top female trainer, locking up the gym after a late finish. We all looked at each other and said “one drink in the nags head?”. Well, the rest is a blur but I’m going to call it power drinking. Within no time at all, there were 3 empty bottles of red wine on the table, more drinking followed but I can’t honestly remember what it was.

I was in no fit state to get a tube home, and thought sleeping in the gym was a good idea. I sneaked past the BDC security and went to sleep on the physio’s couch. A terrible night’s sleep was followed by a horrific hangover. How Bex was back in the gym for her 5.30am session, I’ll never know.

Yesterday was damage limitation, and considering my hangover I ate well yesterday, and to coin a phrase from ex football manager and TV pundit Ian Dowie, I’m going to show my ‘bouncebackability’. This is exactly what I’m going to eat today.:

7.30am – black coffee, no sugar
8am – porridge made with water and squeeze of Manuka honey
12 noon – 1 organic chicken breast, sweet potato, carrots and broccoli
3pm – 2 Brazil nuts, 4 almonds and a black coffee
6pm – baked fillet of cod with stir fried green vegetables
9pm – green tea

What lessons have I learnt?

1. There’s no one so easy to fool as yourself. I was never going to have just 2 drinks. Once you’ve fallen off, don’t worry about it, just get back on track as quickly as possible.

2. Never go out for a drink with an Irishman and northern lass on a school night.




Cheers,
Rob G

Week 11, Day 3 of my 12 Week Transformation

Nutrition
6.30am - 2 Brazil nuts, 4 almonds and a 35ml Yakult yogurt drink

7.15am - white Americano, no sugar

10am - 4 poached eggs, a large handful of spinach and half a tin of kidney beans in chilli sauce



12 noon - 10 almonds and a spoon of organic coconut

2.15pm - Mexican black beans, peppers, onions, chicken breast, steak, sour cream, cheese and avocado

4pm - white coffee

6.30pm - large fillet of salmon with a Greek salad and avocado

9.30pm - mug of green tea

Training (legs and shoulders)
Deadlift - 6 sets of 10 reps at 80kg
Arnie press - 4 x 12 at 17.5kg

Shoulder blast, called 'around the world':
- Lat raise, hands start at hips, 3 x 7 at 4kg (super set with below)
- Lat raise, hands start at lower back, 3 x 7 at 4kg (super set with below)
- Db reverse fly, 3 x 7 at 4kg

Cheers,

Rob G

Week 11, Day 2 of my 12 Week Transformation

Long day and late finish, so I'm just going to write down what I ate today:

8am - 2 Brazil nuts, 4 almonds and a Yakult yogurt drink

8.30am - porridge made with water, and squeeze of manuka honey

9am - white americano coffee with no sugar

12.15pm - micro whey protein shake after training

2pm - chicken breast with salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, sprinkling of feta cheese and three quarters of a tin of kidney beans in chilli sauce.

4.45pm - black coffee with no sugar

5.30pm - a mouthful of chicken breast with a very small bit of salad left over from lunch

8.30pm - 4 egg omlette with side salad and a cup of green tea


Training
6 x 2 minute boxing rounds on the pads with my brother John
4 x 600m runs at 18km an hour (with 1 minute recovery in between) on the treadmill


Cheers,

Rob G

Week 11, Day 2 of my 12 week Transformation

The Final Push!

After a great trip to see the sights of New York, I return with just 2 weeks left of my 12 week transformation. In my last blog post I spoke about how I was finding the training and nutrition easy, but I’m challenging myself to eat super clean for the remainder of my 12 week transformation and I’m going to blog exactly what I eat and what I do for training every day for these last 14 days to keep myself honest.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

5.30am – Yalkult yogurt + 2 Brazil nuts and 4 almonds

6.30am – black coffee with no sugar

8.30am – porridge made with water and small squeeze of honey

10.00am –Micro whey protein shake straight after training

12.30pm – organic chicken breast with sweet potato, broccoli and carrots and half an avocado

3pm – black coffee with no sugar

4pm – 8 almonds and a cup of green tea

7.30pm – Fillet of baked cod with stir fried vegetables cooked in organic butter (broccoli, red pepper, asparagus, courgette)

8.30pm – green tea and slice of lemon

Training
As you may remember, the last 4 weeks of the Revolution 12 week transformation is where we enter the circuit phase of training. I’ve tailored my programme so I do 3 weight training days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and two days of very high intensity cardio training (Tuesday and Thursday) of either 6 x 600m sprints or boxing.

Today was chest and back, and even though that is classically used for hypertrophy I created the circuit-style feel by increasing my rep range to 15 or over, and by super-setting every exercise.

Bench Press (4 x 20/15/15/15), superset with chin ups (4 x 15/12/10/8)

Incline bench press (4 x 20/15/15/15) superset with seated close row (4 x 20/15/15/15)

Db chest flys (4 x 20/15/15/15), superset with wide bent over row (4 x 20/15/15/15)

Dips (3 x 15), superset with close grip chin ups (3 x 15)

I was taken through my workout today by my business partner Giuseppe, and when I was unable to get to my 15 rep goal he made sure I did. Believe me, Giuseppe is not a man to be messed with!

Cheers,

Rob G

Week 9, Day 3 of my 12 Week Transformation

Routine
I’ve been trying to work out why I haven’t blogged more over the last few weeks. Is it my inherent laziness? Or is it some other reason that is perhaps entirely reasonable?

And then I realised - and I want to say this in a way that doesn’t sound too arrogant - that the truth is, I’m finding the training and eating plans all very easy. I must clarify this by saying that it’s not that I’m not pushing myself every time I train, as I can honestly say that I’m training harder and harder. It’s just that I know exactly what is required in order to get results.

I have found that seeing my progress through my measurements is highly motivating, and once you have built a platform of success to build from it is really encouraging, which makes continuing to make the right nutritional choices and getting out of bed to train seem routine.

And routine is indeed the right word. Here is the routine I have at the moment in relation to food, and I hope you might find it of some use yourself. Obviously adapt it to suit you and your life. You can also read more about the Revolution 12 week transformation diet, in the words of my brother and business partner John, in our latest newsletter.

• On Sunday, I go shopping and buy the following: 7 Yakult yogurts, Brazil nuts and almonds, 2 chicken breasts, white fish, eggs, porridge, salad and plenty of vegetables.

• On Sunday night I cook a chicken breast, sweet potato and broccoli for the next day’s lunch.

• On Monday morning, when I wake up I have a Yakult yogurt, 2 Brazil nuts and 4 almonds (I start every day like this), and 2 hours later eat porridge with water and a squeeze of honey. 4 hours after that I have the chicken breast etc that I made the night before. For my evening meal, I will have oven baked white fish with green veg and try to avoid carbohydrate. If you do feel like you need some carbohydrate, have a small portion of brown rice.

• On Monday night, I will also prepare my lunch for Tuesday - cook one chicken breast, one portion of brown rice (75 grams approx) and put together a salad.

• On Tuesday, I have the Yakult etc then porridge etc (you see why I’m finding it so easy), then 4 hours after I’ve eaten the porridge I will have the chicken breast etc which I cooked the night before. And for my evening meal, I’ll have a 3 egg omelette with a side salad.

• On Wednesday, I buy my food out as I’m growing tired of making my food in the evening by now. So I’ll have the Yakult etc as usual first thing. Then later I treat myself to one slice of granary toast with 2 poached eggs and 2 rashers of well done bacon. At lunch, I go to my local cafe (the same one I had breakfast in) and have grilled chicken with a Greek salad and half a jacket potato. In the evening I get back to cooking again, and have a chicken stir fry with vegetables (you’ll need to go shopping on Wednesday to buy Thursday and Friday’s food).

• For Thursday, Friday and Saturday, just repeat Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I personally will have salmon on Thursday night instead cod, and feel free to mix up the vegetables as you see fit.

In reality, I’m a fairly boring person. I like my routine and I just find this so easy to stick to, and my results are quite honestly excellent. And my point is this. If you want to have loads of fun, then don’t read my blog and don’t follow the Revolution eating plans. If, however, you do want to transform your body and you do want to feel healthier than you have in years, then follow our advice because it works.

Don’t forget that Sunday is the day you can eat whatever you want, and I like to eat so much rubbish that come Monday morning I don’t want to see another piece of chocolate for at least.......... well at least another 6 days.

I was going to talk about my training now, but I fear I’ve lost people already so I’ll save that ‘til next time, which is just after I get back from New York. “New York?” I hear you say. Maybe I’m not as boring as I thought I was!

Cheers,

Rob G