Admittedly for many bootcampers Heartbreak Hill is not a particularly happy place, a brutally steep and getting steeper all the way section of hill we use for early morning interval training.  However, it has introduced many people to the huge benefits of intervals and few can deny the satisfaction of completing more reps and feeling the benefit as the week goes on and their perceptions of what they can achieve are altered.

Bootcampers 'enjoying' Heartbreak Hill                                                  But unfortunately not any more

Unfortunately Moneyscalp wood, in which Heartbreak Hill is located has been closed indefinitely due to a serious tree disease which has resulted in the clear felling of huge swathes of the forest.  This is a huge blow to the local ecosystem and is causing serious concern over the health of nearby Tollymore Forest.  It is also a big blow to us and all the other users, most notably the mountain bikers who have lost a great venue and a national standard downhill track.  We can only ask you to respect the wishes of Forestry NI and not attempt to gain access to the woods for any extra interval sessions! 

As for Heartbreak Hill, it will be back in a new venue in time for the March bootcamp, those early morning interval sessions are far too good to be scrapped!!

Our head instructor Ian had an eventful weekend in the Scottish Highlands successfully passing the final stage of his MBLA tutorship assessment.  This makes him the only person in the country qualified to deliver the MBLA Mountain Bike leadership courses, the qualifications essential for any aspiring bike group leaders.

It wasn't all plain sailing, scoping out the route the day before Ian encountered blizzards, high winds and temperatures way below freezing in a tortuous few hours which served as a timely reminder of how harsh conditions can be in the mountains, even when you're low down with some shelter.

He thawed out in time to run the course the next day under the close observation of the assessors and was delighted to pass and also manage to make it back for the final ferry of the night with five minutes to spare.

Big congrats to Ian, give him a shout if you want to do anything biking related, you can contact him through our info@nibootcamp.co.uk address.

Read in the paper yesterday that scientists have 'discovered' that cancer cells feed off glucose in other cells so therefore high sugar diets rapidly increase the spreading and growth of cancerous tumours.  This knowledge isn't new or particularly shocking, just another reason to avoid refined white sugars (as if diabetes, heart disease etc etc aren't reason enough).  The shocking thing is that the instant response from the scientists (drug industry led) is to try to develop a drug to block the glucose to stop the cancerous cells from gaining access to the fuel source rather than spending the cash on prescribing a low sugar diet and better lifestyle for sufferers.

It's been brilliant seeing the success of The Food Hospital on channel 4 challenging conventional wisdom and proving that diet can be infinitely MORE effective than drugs in the treatment of a hugely diverse range of ailments, illnesses and diseases.  People on that show are simply being given solid nutritional advice and are being astounded by the results which years of visiting the doctor and being reliant upon drugs have failed to produce.

I'm a realistic person, if I get diagnosed with a serious disease then I'm going to try anything available to attempt to get better, however, if doctors aren't even advising people that diseases are often lifestyle created and can be treated by lifestyle change then what hope have people got?  It seems that on many occasions the drugs really don't work and even if they do they have a high price to pay in terms of side effects and addictions.  I really hope that ground breaking programmes like the Food Hospital open the eyes of more people to the obvious benefits of eating well, not just for weight control, not just to have better skin, look younger, have more energy and sleep better, but also to prevent and treat the man made diseases which are becoming the main killers in modern Western society.

Stay healthy folks...

I got quite angry yesterday listening to RTE 2fm and people ringing in shouting the virtues of an all protein diet (it was sounding like a very watered down Atkins).  They were saying how the diet had helped them lose weight and keep it off etc etc, all very familiar.  The basics of it were, week one, only eat proteins, week two half proteins and half veg, then from then on one day per week of all protein in an otherwise balanced diet.

It wasn't these people who angered me, and I've no doubt that they were genuine and they have successfully lost weight.  The thing that got me down was the fact that yet again a national radio station was happy to perpetuate diet ignorance without bringing in nutrition experts to counter any arguments.

There are many, many different diets out there which could lose you weight, some may work in the short term, if you're extremely disciplined with the right mindset some may even work long term.  However, none will make you healthy like a proper balanced diet, no tricks, no point counting, no 'protein days', 'carbs days' etc.  They were even saying that the diet allows you to have fizzy 'diet' drinks!  Give me strength.

Lets be clear here and re-iterate the advice given by NI Bootcamp, all other good bootcamps and any Nutritionist in the world worth listening to.  This isn't ground breaking news, it's just fact...

1) Weight loss and reaching your natural weight is merely one facet of a healthy lifestyle and should never be an end result in itself.  Your body dictates what your target weight is, not the scales, not clothes retailers and not the press.

2) Eat fresh and make food from scratch.  Processed foods are your enemy.  Look at nutrition info on even the foods that are claiming to be 'low fat' (normally means high in sugar), 'low sugar/diet' (normally means low compared to competitors/full sugar options but still very excessive or full of sweeteners which have numerous serious health detriments), 'low salt' (when it should be no salt) etc etc and you'll quickly realise how much crap is in virtually all processed foods.  Fresh fruit, vegetables and raw ingredients allow you total control and knowledge over what you eat.

3) Refined white sugar is killing the world.  It has no nutritional value whatsoever.  There is no place in your diet for fizzy drinks of any kind.  Fight the addiction, it's actually easy.  The less sugar you eat, the more sensitive your taste buds will become and you'll notice that a lot of things you eat now for the sugar rush are actually disgustingly over sweet.  Fruit can give you all the sugar fix you need and sensitive taste buds will help you find the joys of subtle flavours in foods you currently find far too bland.  There is nothing positive about diabetes and heart disease.

4) You don't have to deny yourself anything.  There are no foods you 'can't have'.  The fact is, a small change in mindset (which isn't hard to do) will leave you not wanting most of the foods which are killing you.  The thought of having to eat most fast foods really turns me cold these days because I realise that, a) they are extremely detrimental to my health, b) they make me feel immediately rotten, c) they are dead calories with no nutritional value and therefore I'll be hungry again very soon after.

5) Junk food is an addiction, junk food companies are very astute marketers, the government is very slow to regulate the junk food industry, YOU are the one who suffers.  Many many diseases and mental illnesses didn't exist two generations ago.  Our modern diet has created them.  You can take control, you can feel better all the time, you can sleep better, be less stressed and less anxious, you can live longer and happier, you can lose weight naturally without the pain and false hope of dieting.  You just have to want to change, not want to talk about changing or think you want to change.

So there it is, rant over.  I'm passionate in my hatred of a diet industry which wants to sell you false solutions which will damage your health long term.  I'm really passionate in my hatred of junk food companies who now claim to have 'healthy' alternatives because there is money in selling them.  Eat fresh and find a love in exercise and your body and brain will thank you for the rest of your life.  NI Bootcamp can show you how you can make this change, all you need is to love yourself enough to want to stop poisoning your body and the rest will happen. 

So I'd be the first to complain about the clocks changing.  I love being outdoors and love getting in some daylight but losing an hour at the end of the day does still mean gaining one at the start.  Inspired by a good weather forecast I got up at 6:30 and headed out for an amazing 3 hour bike ride before breakfast getting to see a spectacular sunrise over the Mournes and the coast.

I spent the rest of the day delighted in the knowledge that I'd not only got my exercise fix for the day but I'd also seen plenty of sunlight and some beautiful sights before most people had even got out of bed on a Sunday morning.

You don't have to head out for three hours to feel the benefits.  Just twenty minutes of brisk walking, running or intervals in the morning is enough to wake your body up and get you burning energy before you even eat breakfast.  It will have a huge impact on your weight and fitness levels and leave you feeling energised and alert for the whole day.  It really doesn't take much effort at all to get up half an hour earlier every day so buy yourself a head torch and get going, you'll be delighted you did!