Have you dreamt of ordering your wedding gown a size smaller, what about losing those “tuck shop” arms, how about a smaller bum or a flat tummy for your wedding? Or would you prefer to feel fantastic, fit and healthy? Hmmmm, I’m guessing most of you are nodding yes to the first sentence.

What if you could have the lot?

Whats in the show this week:

In this episode of the podcast, gym owner, fitness expert and personal trainer Alison Gibson of Phoenix Fitness reveals that it’s possible, definitely achievable but there has to be a balance. More on that in a minute.

Before and after photos of Tiana – achievable if you follow the directions Alison mentions in this episode of the podcast. I can’t wait to photograph Tiana and Ben’s wedding later this year!

Before my interview with Alison I cover a top tip from last episode with Ben Newnam, the Sydney wedding photographer loved by ALL his clients. That episode of the podcast was very photography heavy but the big take away from my perspective is not photography relate at all. I believe the biggest lesson is to make sure you book the service provider you want as soon as you know you want them to be a part of your wedding. Listen to the podcast to find out why.

Following the top tip, you get a little insight to a wedding and portrait photography workshop I held for up and coming Central Coast Photographers. I discuss the differences I see between the girl and the guy photographers and who you should be booking for your wedding photography if you are considering hiring a less experienced photographer.

There is no problem hiring a “beginner” if you are aware of the shortcomings – namely experience. The difference between the girls and guys though should give you a little food for thought when it comes to saving money by hiring a newbie. It all comes down to technically great photography OR capturing the look and feel of your wedding day. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Lastly, before the interview with Alison, a little more local news that involved a wedding booking for me that was made the day before the wedding!

Who’s fault was the late booking. Who do you think… the groom of course!

The day was a total success and a beautiful little wedding ceremony at Bells Kilcare, more of a dinner party/wedding reception for around twenty of the bride and grooms closest friends. Find out a little more in the podcast.

The main event

With the start of the New Year and so many resolutions of weight loss and fitness, I thought this would be perfect timing for an interview

Walking into Alison’s gym, it was clear that this was no ordinary gym full of machines and weights

with a health and fitness expert. That and the fact that SO MANY brides are constantly talking about losing weight, dropping a dress size, getting toned and fit for their wedding.

I managed to track down the perfect person for this interview as Alison not only owns a gym, she runs bootcamps on the beach, has been a bridesmaid six times in the past, has major fitness goals of her own (which may differ from yours), loves chocolate and has faced plenty of setbacks when it comes to weight loss herself. This girl knows what you’re going through!

During the interview we discuss:

• 
  
• Losing Weight for your wedding
  
• How long you need
  
• What to do after smashing a block of chocolate
  
• Foods to eat and what to avoid
  
• The best time to train
  
• What’s more important, diet or exercise?
  
• Should you train indoors or out?
  
• Meal replacement shakes
  
• Training in winter
  
• How to avoid looking muscly (if you want to)
  
• Why you should only weigh your self once a MONTH
  
• Which two weeks not to measure for results
  
• What you should be measuring for weight loss results
  
• Why you may not be able to lose weight even with a good diet and exercise
  

To finish off our chat, Alison tells me about a client of hers that lost 30kg and over one metre of fat. I was gob-smacked to learn that girl was Tiana – who is getting married later this year and I will be her wedding photographing. I met Tiana recently, with her fiancé Ben and she looks amazing! I could not believe she had lost so much weight. Hear all about  her success in this episode of the show.

Items mentioned in this episode: 

Phoenix Fitness Central Coast

Phoenix Fitness on Facebook

Bootcamps Australia - main website

Bootcamps Australia – Newcastle division

Calorie King – the online calorie counter for Australian foods

NOTE: During the interview with Alison, she makes a few references to her nutritionist. Although she didn’t mention him by name, Shannon Brenton is who she uses and recommends. Shannon is located on the Central Coast and you can find more about him through the links below:

Shannon Brenton – main website

www.askshannon.com.au - Ask Shannon a Question

Feedback

If you have any feedback, comments, suggestions for people to interview or you have a wedding related story to tell, you can email me, andrew@theweddingpodcast.com.au. Hope you enjoy the episode.

Speak soon!

Andrew

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Transcript:

[TWP 008 – Lose Weight, Get Toned, Fit and Healthy for Your Wedding]

 [length: 01:00:24]

Andrew: The Wedding Podcast session number eight.

[Intro music]

Andrew: Hi, it’s Andrew Hellmich here from The Wedding Podcast and Impact Images. I’m a wedding photographer on the Central Coast of Australia, and welcome to episode number eight of The Wedding Podcast. The Podcast is brought to you by Your Wedding Made Easy and The Wedding Discount Card. If you haven’t had the chance to check that out yet, make sure you do; it’s over at YourWeddingMadeEasy.com.au. Make sure you get hold of The Wedding Discount Card and you can save yourself well over a thousand dollars when you’re planning your wedding. And the beauty is, you get to have all the same services that you would have had anyway, if you use The Wedding Discount Card, but you get to save some money. So make sure you check that out when you get a chance.

And today’s episode – it’s a bit of a different one. I’m actually recording this well before it’s been released because it’s the Christmas/New Year break. By the time you’re listening to this, I’m actually going to be skiing in Japan with my older son, which I’m really looking forward to – that’s next week. So I’m putting this together before then. [unclear] know when my interview’s going to come from today. I’m planning to interview a fitness and health expert, which I think will tie in perfectly with the New Year and any New Year’s Resolution. And I want to base that around getting fit and healthy for your wedding.

First up, I’ve also got some local news, and I’ve also got the top tip from last week’s episode with Ben Newnam from Ben Newnam Photography down on Sydney’s North Shore. When I was thinking about the top tip to give you from that episode – if you haven’t already heard it – it was a really though one; we’ve covered so much content in that almost one hour of chatting with Ben. And I think the biggest take away from me to pass on to you would be that if you’re looking for yourselves a provider – whoever it may be; doesn’t have to be just a photographer – once you’ve met a service provider that you click with that you think will do a great job for you, that you’re happy to book, go ahead and make the booking. There’s nothing worse than finding out that the person  you really want is booked because you let it too long. And that happens so often in weddings because most of the service providers you come across can only service one wedding per day. So if you click with someone, if you like what they do, if you’re happy with the pricing, if you think they’re going to do a great job, book them. Get it done. The earlier you do that, then you can secure them, you can move on to the next thing and make sure the wedding day runs the way that you want it to run.

I’ve got too bits of local news to bring to you this week. I had an interesting week last week leading up to Christmas. I ran a free photography workshop down the Central Coast. And that was for aspiring photographers – wedding and portrait photographers. And we had a model and some dresses or some gowns – actually we only used one gown from Kel-Leigh Couture; you might remember Kel-Leigh from an earlier episode in the podcast that we interviewed. We had a great session. I had about 14 other photographers down there. But it was really interesting because I had more women than guys. But there was definitely some sort of weird thing happening there where when we’re actually going through the workshop that afternoon, the guys seemed to be a lot more focused on gear. They wanted to know what lenses I was using, what lenses they should use, what shutter speed and apertures, and all the different numbers and the technical stuff. Whereas the girls, or the women at the course, they were more interested in posing and looking at the life and creating the right shot, looking at the framing – rather than getting too technical. They wanted to get the right feel for the shot, whereas the guys were all infatuated with the numbers and the technical details to get each shot. I find that interesting. And the more I thought about, I thought that really is the way it goes. I know that when I started, I was right into the numbers and wondering how different photographers got their certain shots. I think that the reason I’m bringing it up today is I think if you’re looking at booking a photographer with less experience – which there’s no problem in doing that because all of these photographers are great; they were all getting some good shots. Obviously they had some help at the workshop; that was the idea of it. If you had one of them for your wedding, you’re going to get a totally different result if you had a female from the group, or one of the guys from the group. The difference was, I think if you had one of them for your wedding, if you hired one of the girls to shoot your wedding – or any girl to shoot your wedding that was newer to photographer – and you’re booking them because they maybe had a cheaper price, or a friend, or a friend of a friend, I think that you’ll have a great day with someone like that because they will be more interested in making sure that they’re capturing the right emotion, getting the feel of the day, and trying to capture as much of that as they can in their photography. There might be some problems with exposure and little things like that; everything might not be spot on, they might resort more to automatic, rather than going to manual modes. Whereas I think the guys, if you hire a guy at that stage of their photography, they’re going to be more careful with their camera settings. So they’re going to be having great exposures, the right apertures, the right depths of field – all these technical things that we look at when we’re shooting – and I think it will be a little bit more [unclear] in their set ups, and it would not be as flowy as if you had a girl doing your photography. That was just a feel that I got. And I think what happens is, as the photographer is gaining experience, the girls tend to focus more then, or get a better hold of all the technical stuff. And the guys realize that it’s not so much about the technical stuff, and they tend to let the day flow a little bit better and capture more of the mood and the feel of the day. You’re going to get great photos either way, but you’re going to definitely have a different and a different look. I guess you have to decide when you chat to your photographer – say, an amateur photographer or someone who’s looking to get into it, or an early professional, a new professional – is have a chat to them, and get a feel for the way they’re going to shoot. I’m pretty sure you’re going to say the same thing when you interview or talk to these people. You have to work out, do you want to have a number of shots that are technically perfect, or you’re looking to capture more of the feel of the day and help you lose or sacrifice a few shots because of incorrect settings or settings not exactly the way that a true professional would use. That’s something that you have to work out for yourself. And what happens is, as these either sides of these amateurs develop, they both tend to cross over more and more. And then I think once you get to professional photographer that’s been shooting weddings for a number of years, it doesn’t matter whether it’s female or male. They’ll definitely have their own style, but they’ll have great technical ability, and great ability at letting the day flow and capturing those candid and spontaneous moments, which everyone loves. Just spare that in mind if you’re looking at booking someone that doesn’t have the same experience. And for that, you should be paying less. And I guess that’s one of the draw cards of having someone like that shoot your wedding. So definitely not something to turn your nose up at. There’s nothing wrong with having a photographer that’s new to the industry, particularly because there’s going to be some other benefits there, like I said. And the main thing is going to be that cost saving.

I had another interesting thing happen on the lead up to Christmas. I actually had a booking the day before the wedding. That’s never happened to me before. What happened was, I got a call from Trevor. I got a voicemail message from a guy called Trevor. And he says, “Andrew, my wedding is tomorrow and I haven’t heard from you yet. What’s going on?†And I thought, “Wow, that’s interesting.†I’ve got no wedding booked. I don’t know who Trevor is. I frantically searched on my paperwork and went through my diary. And I’ve never interviewed or spoken to a Trevor. I have no record of his wedding whatsoever. So I called Trevor back and said, “Look, Trevor. I don’t have any record of your wedding day at all. I don’t think we’ve ever actually spoken.†And then he was a bit flabbergasted, and so was I. It turns out that he thought that he’d actually booked me for his wedding, but had never actually done so. This wedding was locally on the Central Coast here, at a beautiful place. And they’d actually given him my name. So he just assumed that it was all done and some [unclear] through. Luckily, I had the day free. I actually had two big jobs cancelled – a big commercial shoot and another big portrait shoot both cancelled – this is two days before Christmas. And I was able to do it. So I didn’t meet Trevor until the day of the wedding. I couldn’t actually contact him to work out the time and the timing of the day of the wedding because his mobile phone went totally offline. So I was freaking out. Then I couldn’t get in touch and I couldn’t finalize all the details. I contacted their reception venue where the ceremony was going to be as well. They only had one number for him. So coming out to the morning of the wedding, he didn’t know if I was going to be there. I knew that I was going to be there but I didn’t know what time. It was a [unclear] turned up to the venue and gave me a call and we finalized all the times and details. It was a really cool wedding. It was a very small, intimate wedding. There was only 20 guests. It was more of a dinner party, almost. A dinner party style. But it still had the DJ and musician there. A beautiful outdoor ceremony. It was just perfect weather; it wasn’t too hot. It was a really, really nice way to finish off the year as far as weddings go. And really nice to be a part of it. Don’t leave it to the day before to book your wedding, or any part of your wedding. Because there’s definitely going to be stress involved if you do that.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Andrew: Okay. Let’s get stuck into this interview with Alison Gibson from Phoenix Fitness. Like I said at the beginning, I wasn’t sure if this was going to happen today. But I’ve got to say real, big, special thanks to Alison for fitting me in. It’s only a couple of days before I hit off skiing in Japan. I’m super excited about that. Can’t wait to go. And I thought there was going to be no chance of getting this interview done. But she really went out of her way and came to the party and helped me out by meeting me on a Sunday afternoon down at her gym to answer a bunch of questions. It was a great interview; I really enjoyed it. There’s some really good information there on how to look your best on your wedding day – the things that you can do to lose weight. And I think it’s a little bit different to some of the other information that I’ve heard when I’ve looked at doing the same for myself. It was in real life, and it was great to speak to her. Make sure you listen to the end when she talks about Tiana. I’m actually photographing Tiana’s wedding next year and towards the end of the interview, or just after the interview stop recording, Alison showed me some photos of Tiana and they just blew me away. I could not believe how much weight she’s lost since those photos are taken. So I’m going to do my best; I’m going to try and get a photo or two of Tiana to show you guys. I’ll put them up on the website. So if you just go to the show notes for today’s episode you’ll see those if I can get those from Tiana. Tiana is one example of what Alison can do with her training and her advice as far as nutrition goes. Then she’s one lady worth listening to. Let’s get stuck into that now.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Andrew: Hi Alison! Thanks for joining us today on the podcast.

Alison: Pleasure. My pleasure.

Andrew: We’re at Alison’s gym today recording this interview, and I walked in to the gym; I’ve never been here before – Phoenix gym down at Erina – and it looks totally different to a normal gym. Why is it? There’s no machines.

Alison: No machines. The only pieces of machinery we have here are a couple of rowers,  some cardio equipment, and we generally use that for our clients more so to warm up only, because we believe that your body is supposed to move in the correct way so we have a style training called functional training, which means that instead of sitting on a bunch of machines, we get your body to do the same movements, just in the correct form in which it was meant to do. So here we’re more technique-based to insure that your body never gets injured. Often, when you use a lot of machinery, the people who don’t do it correctly, there’s much more incidence of them hurting themselves. So for us here, it’s about correct technique, building the muscles the way they’re supposed to, and helping our clients reach their goals in a way that offers a lot more variety and a lot more fun than a regular gym where you stick your iPod in and go and train by yourself. Here, you’re part of a community.

Andrew: Okay. And you guys also are part of the Boot camps Australia?

Alison: Correct, yes. So we do our indoor training here at the functional gym at Phoenix, and we’ve got a location down at Avoca Beach, where we also do outdoor training that’s a little bit tougher. Being at the standoff is a little bit more variety as well because it’s such a challenge to run and walk on, in general, doing things like burpees and [unclear] pulling tires and logs and ropes – it’s a lot more challenging on the body but it gets excellent results.

Andrew: Cool. And I guess the idea of today’s show is to give girls, and the guys too, that are planning their wedding, say, in the future. I know the girls want to look and feel their best on their wedding day, and a lot of girls get caught up getting fit and healthy or losing weight particularly for that day. If, say, someone is planning their wedding and it’s 12 months out, when’s a good time to start getting in shape? When should they start looking at looking at their best for their wedding?

Alison: I believe that the more time that you have to get fit and healthy before your wedding, the better. The moment you are engaged and have set your wedding date, I believe you should begin getting fit and healthy then. A lot of people try to force their bodies into doing things before a wedding because they’re stressed and what have you. However, if you give yourself a length of time, you’ve got much less increments that you have to lose along the way. So healthy weight loss, in my opinion, is a maximum of one kilo per week. So, say, if you’ve got ten kilos to lose, and you’ve got 12 months to lose that weight, it’s a lot healthier and safer for your body. And if you do happen to fall off the wagon, then you got a little bit more time to get back on track with your body and with your health and nutrition to get to that point.

Andrew: Alright. So one kilo a week, or a month?

Alison: ..is allot. That’s absolute maximum. All brides are different; some brides just want to get toned up, some brides want to look the absolute best and they want to lose 30 kilos. So that’s really important that they maximum weight loss. People think that they can smash up a couple of kilos by jumping in the sauna – and that’s really unhealthy for your body. So if you can increment to lose weight along the way in much more amount, such as between 200g to 500g, is much safer and a lot more maintainable post your wedding to keep nice and trim, and to maintain during that 12-month period. The smaller amounts that you lose, the much easier it is for your body down the track.

Andrew: So if you had 12 months, you could even lose, say, a couple hundred gram a week, rather than a kilo a week. And do it slowly.

Alison: Absolutely, yes.

Andrew: That’s going to be easier for you.

Alison: Yes, absolutely easier and a lot less stressful for you. And stress as well is something that, as brides, a lot of them suffer from. Planning a wedding is a lot to do so having stress in your life whilst planning your wedding also promotes the cortisol hormone to be produced in your body. And cortisol is a hormone that if you are very stressed, your body goes into a flat and flat mode where your body then wants to retain weight. So it tends to put protective fat around your body so therefore you are less likely to lose weight. So if you set yourself along a goal for your weight loss, and you do happen to have stressful times throughout the planning of your wedding, you’re more likely to hit your target weight at the end because if you have had a couple ups and downs, you’ve given yourself enough time to be at a reach with your goal.

Andrew: So if you’re stressed, it’s harder to lose weight.

Alison: Yes it is.

Andrew: Really? Even if eating less and doing the same exercise?

Alison: You can eat well. And nutrition is 80%, so you can eat really well, exercise every day, and you still may not get the results you’re absolutely looking for because of the fact that stress can help you retain weight. We don’t like stress.

Andrew: It’s just a natural reaction of the body.

Alison: Yes. Females, especially. It’s a natural reaction that your body does to try and help you get through the stressful times. It makes you retain weight.

Andrew: Okay. As you were just telling me that, you slipped in a quick little fact that you said nutrition is 80%.

Alison: Nutrition is 80%.

Andrew: So if girls want to look their best or lose some weight for their wedding, it’s 80% nutrition.

Alison: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Andrew: That’s bad news for [unclear].

Alison: I’m working conjunction with a nutritionist here at Phoenix. So we have a nutritionist here at the gym, and we also work with another nutritionist locally in Erina. So for us, we are personal trainers. Our expertise is exercising. And we let other professionals have their expertise as well, which is nutrition. We can give people the goals and plans for eating and nutrition, but we much prefer to have someone look at each of them as individuals because often, nutrition is not just what’s going on with them. They may have certain imbalances they need to rectify before their food is processed and digested correctly. But really, at the end of the day, you need to make sure you eat perfectly or really well. Most of the time, maybe having one cheat day a week. And in doing so, you’ll get better results because exercising is exercising – we can all do that. But at the end of the day, nutrition is 80% of your results; exercise is 20%.

Andrew: Okay. If a bride wants to look her best, is there a difference between losing weight and toning up?

Alison: There’s definitely a difference. Often, people will have a certain percentage of body fat. Females have  a higher percent of body fat than males, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. When people come to us and say, “I want to lose X amount of weight,†we also say to them, “Okay, maybe could you give us an idea of the kind of body type you’d like? Because what happens is while people start to lose weight an exercise, they also build muscle mass.†So, say, for instance, if a female is maybe 70 kilos and they start to lose their body fat, they’ll also gain muscle mass. So their weight might not change so much. So when they come to us and say, “I want to lose 6 kilos,†their body will lose maybe 6 kilos of body fat but gain 3 kilos of muscle mass. So in essence, only losing 3 kilos on the scale. But I look much better. So what we do to show them the evidence of that is we measure them. We measure their waist, their thighs, chest, arms, and then we add up that total and say, “Look, you’ve actually lost 20cm of body fat and you can see your tummy is much more defined, and your legs is much more defined. But don’t worry about the scales so much.†So it’s really important that people’s mindset with weight loss isn’t all about the scales; it’s about how they look and feel in their clothes, how they look and feel in their wedding dress. It’s really important that their body shape is changing so much than the scales.

Andrew: Okay. I learned like a thousand things today. With my wife, Linda, she knows she’s meant to check her weight once a week. That’s what her gym instructor says. But she checks every day.

Alison: Most girls do.

Andrew: And the scary thing with her is that her mood changes [unclear] scale readings is, every day, which is a shocker. So really, the girls that are looking at losing weight or toning up should not worry so much about scale.

Alison: Not so much.

Andrew: You know they’re still going to.

Alison: They’re going to. I do it myself. I’m a shocker. But the thing is, for girls, there’s two  weeks within their cycle that they shouldn’t really weigh themselves at all. Because females can fluctuate up to two kilos due to their period so you want to make sure that if they’re weighing themselves every day, it could change every day. So we aim for people, we do their weigh and measure once a month. And pick the same time every month so that way, their body is being tested at that same time every month. When you test it every day, females retain so much fluids so it’s really important to not get obsessive about the scales, which is why we don’t encourage the daily weigh-ins. We may do it once a week with some of our clients, but we also make sure they’re aware of that two-week period where there’s incidence of them gaining that weight, which is actually not physical fat. It’s just fluid.

Andrew: So during the cycle, they lose weight or put on weight?

Alison: They can gain two kilos.

Andrew: Of fluid?

Alison: Of fluid.

Andrew: Right, okay. So you should measure or weigh yourself a week after your cycle?

Alison: A week after your cycle, yes.

Andrew: Right, okay. Say, a midweek morning. Get up, go to the toilet, before breakfast, and weigh yourself.

Alison: Yes.

Andrew: Right, okay. So can we just focus a little bit on diet first and then go to the exercise?

Alison: Sure.

Andrew: I know that all girls love chocolate.

Alison: Yes.

Andrew: There’s so many diets that they know that I hear about – like a low-carb diet or don’t’ have carbs after 5, there’s the Paleo diet, [unclear] and I see all these different shakes that people are having meal replacement diets. What’s the best one?

Alison: The thing with nutrition, there’s a lot of factors about it and there’s a lot of opinion about it. My personal opinion and what has worked best for me is eating regular meals throughout the day. So I eat a minimum of five meals a day. They’re small portions. I believe that carbohydrates shouldn’t be cut out of your diet because it’s the one fuel that your brain actually uses to function. So people often find around 2 o’clock they get quite sluggish because they haven’t had enough carbs throughout the day, if they’re cutting out their carbs, because they get tired. And they’re tired generally from their brain function. So you want to make sure that you’re having small amount of carbs throughout the morning. I do think that carbs before bed can sometimes retain us stored fats so I think making sure, say, at dinner you’re having your protein, which is your fish, chicken, meat products, and about the size of your palm. And then around two cups of green vegetables. And we say green vegetables because they’re porous so a lot of the colored vegetables like carrots and stuff have a higher sugar content in them. So we just encourage people who’re trying to lose weight to steer clear of those vegetables. So I just want to say green veggies, whether it’s salad or strained veggies, with your protein.

Andrew: So that’s lettuce, cabbage..

Alison: Celery, cucumber, zucchini.

Andrew: Stay away from corn, potato..

Alison: Corn, potato, carrots. Those main vibrant-colored vegetables. And same with fruit. [unclear] also with your fruit as well. And I generally have fruit as snacks and I only have to pick one piece of fruit a day. I generally go with an apple or a pear, because they’re obviously, again, more porous fruits than your juicy watermelon that has oozing of hot sweet sugar.

Andrew: So with your five meals a day, are they all the same size? Or do you have a definite breakfast-lunch-dinner and then two small snacks?

Alison: Yes. Very much. Breakfast-lunch-dinner. And I totally have most of my carbs in the morning when I have oats. And most of people will often say, “ What else can I have besides oats?†and I believe that oats are the best fuel. And even when you’re picking any of your food through your breakfast-lunch-dinner meals, it’s always best to look at foods that are whole foods, as opposed to anything out of a packet – crackers and things like that. My lunch is again protein with vegetables. Or protein with salad.

Andrew: So crackers because they’re..

Alison: Processed.

Andrew: So you want to stay away from all of them.

Alison: All processed foods. Anything processed. And even if you’re picking foods out of a packet, say, brown rice, probably the food I’d go for as opposed to white rice or pasta. Anything whole grain, non-processed, whole foods. That’s what we want to look at with [unclear] things. And there’s a lot on the market, like you said, with shakes and replacement things. I think food is fuel. So we need to eat food. And the biggest mistake females make is they don’t eat enough food. So girls will be saying, “I only have a small amount for breakfast. I only have lunch and dinner†but in essence, your body has a certain basal amount of food that they need to eat everyday for your body to actually function. So between 1100 and 1400 calories is where we direct our clients to see when they’re deciding what to eat. There’s an excellent program on the computer called Calorie King and that could help you track those calories. Because often, people have no idea about calorie content. And that’s a great program. You can just enter your food into it and it tells you every day exactly what you need to have.

Andrew: What’s it called? Calorie King.

Alison: Calorie King, yes.

Andrew: It just have a com.au if you Google it?

Alison: Yes. It’s excellent. Basically, it has all the foods in there. Like this guy, his job is to sit there and research every kind of food that’s on the market, every protein shake, everything. And he enters all the data in so you just use the select box, enter in what food you’ve eaten. It tallies it and it tells you what kind of calorie intake you’re having per day.

Andrew: Okay. And what are girls aiming for?

Alison: 1100 to 1400 calories a day.

Andrew: And that will help them lose weight?

Alison: Lose weight. That’s for weight loss only.

Andrew: That’s for weight loss. Okay. Alright. And there’s just something with rolled oats. Is that muesli or is that porridge?

Alison: No, it’s porridge. Porridge and oats are the same thing. And quick oats is something that people tend to grab as well because they’re quick and easy. You check them in the microwave. I always buy whole rolled oats and I often buy organic just because I think sometimes they taste nicer. But they’re just as easy to prepare as quick oats. And again, just do them in the microwave. It’s not challenging but it’s really important not to have again quick oats or processed oats. So you want to make sure you’re having the whole food product as opposed to something that’s been processed.

Andrew: Is quick oats same as the minute oats?

Alison: Yes. Same thing.

Andrew: So you don’t go for those.

Alison: No, but I buy the Uncle Toby’s as well and I just buy it by the traditional rolled oats.

Andrew: Okay. And tell me. You have sugar in that surely.

Alison: No.

Andrew: Really?

Alison: No, no, no. Any sugar I can out of my diet, I do. So to sweeten my oats, I have strawberries. I have half a cup of oats – cooked oats – and I have a quarter cup of strawberries. And then I have a protein shake. So again, with your food, you want to represent protein in every meal because that helps build lean muscle mass.

Andrew: Are you having milk in your porridge?

Alison: I make it on water.

Andrew: Just water? So could you have milk instead of water, and have your protein that way?

Alison: Again, if you’re aiming for weight loss, I probably wouldn’t do that because milk, what it really does is add extra calories. So if you’re trying to stick to that minimum requirement of calorie intake to try and lose weight, you want to eliminate anything that you possibly can that’s going to hinder that.

Andrew: Okay. I’ve got to say – I do a little bit of research on this stuff and I’m pretty having [unclear] and the stuff I’ve read about weight loss is they say to have a high protein breakfast and stay away from carbs. So yours, that’s not the best thing.

Alison: I personally don’t agree with it. What I eat is from a nutritionist so I myself see a nutritionist every six weeks as do all of our trainers here at the gym. Because we believe that if you’re going to encourage people to eat a certain way, we also do it. So I weigh and measure all my food every single day. So I’m pretty strict with it, and unfortunately for me, stress is a really  big thing in my life, owning a business. So that’s my biggest thing for weight loss. I don’t drink much or don’t really eat chocolate, and if I do it, in moderation, so I’m not a big binge eater of any sort.

Andrew: You know girls are listening to this will be, “You bitch.â€

Alison: If they see me, you can tell them I’m a normal [unclear] I’m not skinny. I’m more of an athletic build and I still have weight to lose myself. So It’s about being real to me. What I’m saying is exactly what I live and do. And I don’t expect anything from any of our members that I wouldn’t do myself. So it’s really important to make sure people understand that being skinny is not being strong. So as a female, my perception of myself is that I want to be able to do 50 pushups on my toes. That makes me feel good about myself, as opposed to being in a size 8 dress. I don’t think that’s what’s important to me. And it is important to other people. So that doesn’t make it good or bad.

Andrew: So you’ll help them get that if that’s what they want.

Alison: People’s goals are people’s goals. If people come to me and go, “I want to lose 15 kilos,†I’ll say, “Okay.†And then I’ll process the best way in which I can help them get there and help them understand along the way 15 kilos in body fat or on the scales sometimes isn’t representative of what they want to look like.†So it’s about us helping people understand what their bodies can and can’t do. And also try and help them get to their goals. Because everyone’s goals are individual. My 50 pushup goal isn’t going to be a bride’s 50 pushup goal. It’s really important that we help them reach their own goals. So everything’s individual.

Andrew: Cool. You mentioned basal weight back there?

Alison: Yes.

Andrew: What’s that?

Alison: Everyone’s bodies are completely different, which is why we get people see a nutritionist. I don’t like to blanket everyone saying, “Everyone is to do this.†When I say 1100 to 1400 calories, it is a blanketed statement. Everyone’s bodies is very different. So someone who has a higher body fat mass needs to eat more calories to try and lose weight. Because their basal energy that they need to basically get up, function throughout the day – this is without including exercise; it’s just their bodies sleeping, eating, going to the loo, working, driving a car – the base amounts of energy that your body needs. So the base amount of calories that your food fuel to your body needs is your basal rate.

Andrew: Suggested base rate.

Alison: For your body to operate, it’s your base rate.

Andrew: So you can’t go below that.

Alison: If you go below that, your body tends to have stored fat. So if you go below your basal rate, your body thinks it’s starving so you don’t want to starve your body, which is what a lot of females do, especially preparing for a wedding. They tend to starve themselves and they’ll tend to not get very good results because your body goes into protective mode again and wants to just store the fat.

Andrew: That’s when that stress thing happens.

Alison: Absolutely.

Andrew: Okay. It’s really interesting. One of the funniest things I’ve heard from Kel-Leigh – she’s a dress designer – from Kel-Leigh Couture,  and I asked her about girls who lose weight and they’re ordering their dress. A lot of girls, she said, come to her and they might be a size 10. Or a 12. And they say, “Look, I want to order a size 8 because I’m going to be size 8 on my wedding.†She said it never happens. It’s so rare that the girls actually lose the weight that they want to lose. So do you think that’s because of their eating?

Alison: I think it’s because of a lot of things. I think you tend to get busy before your wedding so people’s perception of what they want to achieve by the time they get married – I haven’t planned a wedding myself but I’ve been a bridesmaid six times so I’m really good knowing about weddings. Females get so busy before a wedding and they get so preoccupied with the things they need to achieve by their wedding date that a lot of females leave themselves loss. That’s what I was saying. If they’ve got 12 months to achieve the weight loss goal, it’s much better that they can fit in their day-to-day schedule. So it’s like planning anything. If you can plan ahead, same with their weddings, they will get more done and be less-stressed about it, as opposed to leaving everything to last minute. And things are bound to go wrong when you’re planning your wedding. But if you can have a control over something – having control over what you ate and how you exercise – is something that you can keep and really maintain.

Andrew: Sure. Okay. Let’s talk about the exercise part of the equation. You said it makes up 20% of the losing weight part. But that’s probably 80-90% of the feel good part, isn’t it?

Alison: Absolutely. That’s absolutely right. So if you’re looking at straight goals, that’s where the 80-20 role comes in.

Andrew: So they’d just want to lose weight.

Alison: Just yet. But when you’re losing weight, the 20% of exercise you need to work at a 100% of that of your energy each time. So in doing so, you get the best results. Like I said, with your body, the body will mostly change, then you’ll get a lot of weight loss. Because when we exercise – and the way we exercise here at Phoenix is that we encourage people to use a lot of resistance training, whether it’s your own body weight as resistance, or whether it’s weights as resistance. In doing so, it builds lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle mass your body has, the higher rate that your body burns calories. So it’s been of a Catch-22. You need to eat right, but you also need to exercise. And the more you exercise, the more muscle mass you have, the better you burn calories, the more food you need. So it’s like a bit of a circle. We want to make sure that everything’s working in balance with each other. Exercise is really important to build that lean muscle mass, and it also helps change and define your body, and gives you nice lean arms, nice lean legs, and a flat tummy.

Andrew: Okay. You can’t target specific parts of your body, can’t you?

Alison: You can’t. A lot of people come and ask me how to get a nice, tight bottom.

Andrew: Tight bottom and a flat tummy.

Alison: “Just leave my arms alone. Don’t touch my arms; I’m not doing pushups.†Look, it’s really important that you get a balance with your body and I’m a big believer that your body needs overall strength, overall health and fitness of your muscles. And even that, we encourage people to go and get massages so that way, you’re looking after every aspect of your body. It’s pretty important. Your body’s going to last you a long time and every ten years your body decreases muscle mass. So as a female, it’s really important that we maintain our muscle mass throughout our lifespan so by the time we’re 80, a hunched-over old lady – so we really believe that exercise and having that nice strong muscles gives you an overall healthy life for the rest of your life, let alone just for your wedding.

Andrew: Okay. If my bride is exercising, can she eat more?

Alison: Most people need to eat more anyway.

Andrew: Can she eat more chocolate?

Alison: She can eat chocolates on the weekends. My nutritionist says to me, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.†So if you tend to starve yourself or tend to avoid having the foods you love all the way through ‘til your wedding day, you can be pretty cranky by that point. So I think it’s really important to maintain your mental health as well. Especially around the time when you have your periods as well. People do need those kinds of foods. Your body craves those foods because it tends to need. So I think restraining yourself too much can make you be crazy. I’ve got a packet of Bounty’s in my cupboard at home, and I generally don’t touch them unless I feel [unclear]. If I do it all, I’ll have just one little fun-size.

Andrew: Get out. You don’t smash the whole packet.

Alison: I don’t smash packets. Often, if you can train yourselves to go right – I feel I like chocolate so I’ll have it without going and buying yourself a king-size Mars bar. It’s better for you. And having those cheat days on the weekend also helps your body re-metabolize. So if  we tend to eat the same thing day in and day out – constantly, for months on end – your body can get too used to it so you want to shock it a bit sometimes by having a couple of pieces of pizza and a beer and a bit of chocolate, and get straight back on track the next day.

Andrew: So do that one day a week.

Alison: One day a week.

Andrew: Okay. And with their exercise, is there a better time of the day – is morning, first thing, the best time to exercise?  Or is it just when you got time to do it.

Alison: Statistics show that you burn more calories early in the morning. I don’t train early in the morning because it doesn’t suit my day. My clients come first as far as exercise goes so I’ve got to schedule my day around my clients and what we do here in our classes. The most convenient time for me to train is about 11 o’clock every day. And that’s when I train. The most important thing is to be active every day. And to fit into your schedule. And everyone’s schedule is different.

Andrew: When you’re saying, “Be active,†is that just walking, being up?

Alison: I think walking is really important but I also think resistance training is really important because again, that lean muscle mass, you really want to build that as well.

Andrew: You keep saying lean muscle mass. I know that the girls listening to this are scared about looking muscle-y. Are they going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Alison: No. Unless females go on growth hormone or steroids or things like that, that’s how the girls get big and muscle-y and do those bodybuilding competitions or body sculpting. Again, you don’t really need to have those supplements to do bodybuilding, but for females to have buoyance, it’s pretty rare. You’ve got to work extremely hard and have an extremely lean diet, do it for quite a while to get that ridiculously-defined body. Most females just want to have nice, toned arms and in doing so, pushups are the perfect thing for it.

Andrew: So how many pushups can you do?

Alison: I don’t know. I can probably do about 50 on my toes.

Andrew: 50 on your toes? I’m sitting right across Alison right now and she does not have Arnold Schwarzenegger arms.

Alison: I do not.

Andrew: This is a fit, healthy, great-looking woman.

Alison: It’s really important to be fit and healthy. I think females do not build giant, big muscles. It’s not in our genetics to do so. When we do resistance training, it is to build lean muscle. Lean muscle is nice, long, healthy muscles that are really strong, as opposed to big, bulging muscles that the boys have. Unless a female wants to achieve that, we’ll help them get there; but really, that’s  not what we do in our classes or in any of our training sessions.

Andrew: So they could be doing all sorts of weights with heavy gear and pushups and chin-ups and they’re not going to get that definition like they say on some of those bodybuilding magazines.

Alison: Not unless that’s what they’re aiming for.

Andrew: Yes, sure. So we may have a bride listening to this, say, in Perth, or in Adelaide, and she can’t come to see you for your instruction, and she goes into her gym and they say, “We want you to do pushups, sit-ups, leg presses†– I know you don’t do all that sort of stuff and still agree with that – but if they do there, then after you’re scared of getting big muscles.

Alison: No way. Our bodies don’t work that way. Unless you are specifically aiming for a bodybuilding-style body, you need to do bodybuilding-style training, bodybuilding-style nutrition. They’re very, very different to what the general population does. It’s not a normal way to do things. A bodybuilding diet is ridiculously strict and lean and they never sway from it. It’s a very, very specific kind of training. It’s like sprinters training to be sprinters. If people want to train to get lean, healthy-looking muscles with a nice, toned tummy and toned legs and abs and what have you, we train for that. We train for overall health and fitness and weight loss, as opposed to for bodybuilding. So it’s a very defined style of training and nutrition. Most brides won’t generally be able to do that before their wedding. I think they have too much to do.

Andrew: Sure. Okay. I reckon that most girls, before their wedding, they go to their fitness expert or their gym. Or even to the girl friend they’ll say, “I want to lose five kilos. I want to have tops hop arms, I want to have a flat tummy.†So to do that – that’s what you said – just eat healthy.

Alison: Eat healthy..

Andrew: And do exercise.

Alison: Absolutely. So with your healthy eating, you just want to make sure you represent protein in every meal, have nice, green veggies and salad throughout your day. And again, at morning until afternoon have a protein-style snack. I know I have for morning tea, I’ll have a boiled egg and some pumpkin seeds. Afternoon tea, I’d have an apple and a shake. And when I say shake, I mean protein shake. And protein shake ladies do not give you giant muscles. They just help you build lean muscle mass and repair your muscle that you’ve worked throughout the day.

Andrew: You’re huge in saying protein. Is that one way protein is so important?

Alison: It helps build lean muscle. So that’s the one thing that you really want to have.

Andrew: Again, lean muscles aren’t bulky muscles. It’s lean, healthy, good muscle.

Alison: Absolutely. And that helps you burn calories. It also helps repair your muscles. So you want to have those things happening. And protein is your last burning fuel so you tend to burn all the other fuels first before your proteins so that’s a really good thing to consistently in your body. And when I say shakes as well, in a negative fashion, I really don’t believe in the meal replacement shakes. If you’re going to somewhere where they encourage you to have meal replacement shakes, you need to remember it’s not food. And they are really good for weight loss but I don’t think they are healthy for your body. I think for your body’s health, you need food.

Andrew: Right. Okay. Real food.

Alison: Yes.

Andrew: Do you have protein shakes?

Alison: It’s the only supplement food that I would have throughout my day. And that’s mostly because I represent protein in my meals with food. In the protein shakes, we tend to use here organic. And picking a protein powder is something as well that can be really tricky because there’s so many on the market. I just think that you need to look at something that has low carbohydrates, low in sugar, and low in preservatives. There’s lots available. I don’t recommend any. Go and see your local health food shop and they’ll [unclear] something that’s really healthy and good for your body.

Andrew: Okay. Awesome. So what about if a girl can’t come to Erina. She doesn’t want to go and train on the beach and she’s going to go through the gym. Can she do and implement all these stuff in the gym without doing heavy weights? Or can she just get on the treadmill?

Alison: Absolutely. I think that there’s lots of ways conventional gyms – and when I said that, I mean the rows of treadmills, the weights rooms, those kinds of things.

Andrew: I guess that’s what most people think of a gym.

Alison: Absolutely. Like Fitness First, Oxygen, Genesis, those kinds of gyms. They’re excellent places. So in doing so, I recommend that you speak to someone who knows what they’re talking about. When you’re going to a gym, it can be quite daunting especially in the weights rooms, where there’s lots of guys looking at themselves in the mirror.

Andrew: I go to the gym [unclear] times in a year, and I avoid the afternoons. I go to Monaco gym, you feel intimidated just walking in there. It is.

Alison: It is pretty intimidating. And I think [unclear] there’s lots of excellent little boutique gyms which is kind of where we’re at, that I think people really want to help you. These big, conventional gyms, make sure you find someone that you can speak to, that you can get a rapport with. You can say to them, “Look, I’m looking to achieve this. Can you just show me what to do?†And the best thing to do is invest a little bit in personal training before your wedding. Not necessarily the whole time. But if you can get an idea of what you need to be doing by a professional, then you can keep going with that plan. And then if you find you get down the track in three months and you feel like you plateau-ed and you want to have a bit of a change in your body again, have another couple of sessions. So just speaking with someone who knows what they’re talking about often can be the difference between going in and running on a treadmill for an hour. I think if you run on a treadmill for half an hour and then do half an hour of resistance training, you’ll get better results. So making sure you know how to use the correct equipment in the gym, working all the parts of your body and not just focusing on certain areas is really important. Make sure you are utilizing  the professionals in the industry that can help you get those results.

Andrew: Okay. And if you don’t even want to go to a gym, [unclear] look at one, you can go and do a boot camp thing on the beach or a park?

Alison: Boot camps are fabulous. Again, we’re affiliated with Boot Camps Australia and so two of my colleagues down here at Gosford waterfront and up in Newcastle. There’s lots of other boot camps around as well, but it’s really important that it’s fun, it’s outside, it’s really hard work, you get amazing results from Boot Camps. They go for an hour and the trainers are excellent. They really care.

Andrew: When I think of boot camps, I think of some dude in a black tights, a singlet top, commando pants and army boots. And [unclear]. Is it like that?

Alison: I think the worst part of the boot camps is its name. I think having something called a boot camp can be differently perceived as the dude of The Biggest Loser screaming at you to do pushups. We definitely don’t do that kind of training. And most outdoor group fitness businesses don’t do that at all. Boot camps is functional training, so it’s working the body the way it’s supposed to, just only outdoors. Having these trainers, they’ll basically praise and encourage you and help you work as a team. Often, the people who go to these camps are pretty powerful people. They just love to be there and it’s really fun and enjoyable. So you feel part of something as well, but you don’t get screamed at. It’s very much encouraged to make sure your body’s moving correctly and push yourself beyond what you’d normally push yourself by walking up a big hill. It’s really to push you beyond your capacity.

Andrew: And you said you get awesome results at boot camps. Is that because it’s intense and it’s short. What makes it so good?

Alison: I think what makes it so good is it’s functional training. I think you’d get great results here too. But it’s more so that  you’re part of something so you tend to challenge yourself against the person next to you. You will often push yourself that little bit higher knowing that someone beside you is pushing themselves as well. So everyone tends to be pushing themselves to the point of their limit and therefore you tend to do the same thing. So therefore, you get really good results because you’re just pushing yourself so hard.

Andrew: Right. And you find a bit of [unclear] classes because it’s part of a group?

Alison: Yes, definitely. When people expect you to turn up, you turn to turn up. And often if you can get a training partner with any kind of fitness, you get excellent results because you have an expectation to meet somebody and you often won’t want to let them down.

Andrew: Cool. Okay. Can I just bring this back to the wedding. I just got a few of the things written down I wanted to just clarify before we finish up. Is getting up in winter – training in winter – that’s the worst. I  hate doing it. Any tips or advice on how to get around that?

Alison: The best way to get around that, as far as I’m concerned, is just rug up. There’s lots of products in the market – skins, and different kinds of products you can wear.

Andrew: So just dress warm.

Alison: Yes. Dress warm. Get yourself some long tights, skins you can wear with thermals that you can wear underneath the training outfit. You don’t have to look hot; it’s just training. If you look good at the end of it, there’s something wrong. So I just want to get nice and warm. And if you can be involved in a gym, then get involved in a gym. Otherwise, care for a walk and just really rug up. And keep in mind, when you do exercise, you do start to raise your body temperature anyway. So you will warm up no matter what.

Andrew: I know for me, if I leave my clothes out next to my bed, when I get up, I get changing. And then once I’m dressed, I’m going.

Alison: And again, if you have training partners for winter, you have to meet them.

Andrew: Get a training partner.

Alison: So get up.

Andrew: Do it with your fiancée!

Alison: Yes, excellent!

Andrew: What about for girls – the wedding’s getting closer, it’s three months out, they’re going pretty good, and they smashed that block of chocolate, and they want to give up. “This sucks, it’s too hard! I’m having stress.â€

Alison: It’s really hard to stay motivated at the best of times. And when you’ve got a wedding to plan, or wedding that’s coming up and you want to look your best on your day, I think you couldn’t have something that’s more motivating. So what you‘ve got to remember is your end goal. What I do is I have a wardrobe do