I am what I am...

The "genetic perfection" according to Michaelangelo

"I'm a 6'3 pale white, narrow shouldered Italian" and I have to accept that.

This is one of the hardest concepts that I have had to get my head around, but ultimately one which has made my training possible. I am limited genetically. As are you.

In my family I have some elite athletes on one side, and on the other side stocky muscular types. None have been over the 6ft mark before. In this, I am unique. I accept that. The elite athletes have competed at boxing, karate, netball and football at semi-professional and professional levels, some for their nations. The stocky types have never had any issue building muscle through manual labour mainly. Now genetics aren't just the generation before me, I am merely a vessel to pass my genetics through further generations etc. So maybe my children or children's children will be tall and athletically built, or short and stocky, or a mixture of the two - who knows.

The point is, because of my genetics I, like you, am limited to what I can achieve. I believe that diet, exercise, attitude will get you to where you want to be, but upto a point. You see, I will never be built like Stallone or Schwarzenegger. I will never have the arms of Casey Viator or the back of Franco Columbo. I won't be able to jump like Jordan or have the reflexes of Senna. No matter how hard I train, diet and believe in getting there, I will be limited to how much I can achieve - that wont stop me though.

I accept that this is my body type. This 20 week experience (which ends this weekend) has shown that you can still grow, increase strength, change your body and feel great all at the same time. (Well, when you are not throwing up after a few sessions) I accept that I won't, or have the ability of the people mentioned above because my genetics won't let me. But I also accept that I am tall, that I actually have a good propensity for physical activity, that I am stronger than I look and that whilst I may not by stacked like some bigger folk, I can lift just as much as them. I am Gino, and I am unique.

It's all about Attitude (well partly)

So I wanted to quickly discuss a further element to my pyramid - attitude.

Attitude encompases two things for me;
 - Belief (believe in the workout, routine, diet, YOURSELF)
 - Positivity (keep positive as much as you can to achieve your results)

There will be days when your diet may not be quite spot on, or days when you feel so lethargic you can’t be bothered to do anything (a bit like me today), but if your attitude is right and you can embody the elements of GOOD attitude then half of your battle is won.

Belief

If you can’t believe in the workout you doing, stop. If you can’t believe the diet you are on is going to help, stop. If you can’t believe in yourself then why bother all together? If however you CAN believe in all of the above, then you are on the right path, in my opinion.

Positivity
We all suffer from negativity (everyone who knows me will tell you I am the worst one) but I find positivity breeds positivity. In this “journey” I have found myself feeding off positivity from the results I have been achieving and that in turn makes me more positive to my approach of training and this in turn means you have a good attitude to the workout, diet etc.

Anyway that’s all I have to say about this subject, but I believe, get your attitude right and you are on the road to achieving your goals.

An italian who refuses pasta is like a monk who doesn't drink alcohol

A rare, rare find on this planet is an Italian who refuses pasta. It's like finding a monk who doesn't drink his own home brew.

I'll be clear on this, if I want to eat a plate of pasta I will. I won't starve myself of the pleasure, nor will I refuse it if someone has gone to the trouble of making it for me - a predicament I will come across, no doubt, when I go to Italy for my summer hols.

Tip 2 of training: Diet

The first was patience. I even touched upon Diet in this post. I mentioned how a bodybuilder will spend years of his/her life not indulging in certain foods because ultimately their end goal was to be the best physical specimen they could be.

I can't stress how important I have found diet to be in my recent experience. Whilst it's only been a change of the last 2 months, I have noticed benefits, both from an aesthetic focus and more so on my general well being.

I have suffered less illness (colds and such), I have more constant energy (whereas before I would peak and drop) and my general well being is overall improved.

I switched to a low carb diet, which meant that wherever I could, I would cut out bread, pasta, rice, noodles, potatoes etc. I also upped my salad intake - I absolutely love peppers now, whereas before I couldn't stand the stuff. I eat a lot more fish, meat and most importantly fruit. YOU NEED THE VITAMINS!

It comes at a cost eating this way, I think I even mentioned previously that the cost of my shop has increased by 3x. It's not easy. I am looking at growing some fruit and veg for next year and see what I can get growing for the rest of the year to help ease some bills.

What I think is important is looking at what you eat and ask am I getting any benefit from eating this? Sweets, biscuits (which I love!), cakes etc are effectively empty calories. They are, in general just pure sugar. They provide no benefit and increase fat stores - which, if you are training, you want to avoid as much as you can.

So there we have it, Patience and Diet are what I would class as the bottom of my pyramid to achieving your goals in exercise.

2 weddings, 3 countries, 10 days

Ok, so it's been a few days since my last post. As you can probably tell from my title I have been a little busy.

Rome - Cousins wedding.

Madrid - Work

Chester - Friends wedding

As you can imagine to keep up the routine has been a little difficult but I have managed to drag my arse to the gym in the transitional periods and do everything that I have been doing before. My only problem was the diet.

I think a cholesterol test may be required, genuinely, not kidding.

Rome I ate ok - if not Carb heavy - well you are in Italy and to avoid carbs is like avoiding the bubonic plague in the 16th Century, fun but very very hard! Pizza, pasta, risotto, bread etc. I avoided snacking which was fine, but water is sometimes the most insufficient way to re-coup. The wedding by the way was brilliant - congratulations Fabio and Marta!

The transition between Rome and Madrid gave me 13 hours in the UK. So I got one workout completed, and a game of footy in just to help with the weekend's excesses.

Madrid diet wasn't that carb rich, but there were occasions where the patatas bravas were just given to you as a snack! The food in general whilst nice, was greasy! Add to that beer which was strong enough to kill a flock of mosquitos in their tracks and wine suitable for dressing salads you could start to feel a little groggy after a few days.

Then there was my friends wedding (congrats Debbie and Lalou) well yes, I went to the gym before going to the wedding, which whilst refreshing after a heavy week of poor diet was catching up at the point of dancing to Mr Brightside! I do indeed have the knees of a 70 year old man!

So here's to my remaining two weeks of blogging on HIT and results to follow.

Peace
G