dorling kindersley books

Do you think doing regular Pilates and yoga classes are enough to keep me fit?

Both yoga and Pilates classes are excellent forms of exercise. They encourage muscle flexibility and good posture and can have very positive mental benefits. However, you should never just run, just lift weights, or just cycle. True fitness is about challenging every part of your body in many ways and there is no single form of exercise that can do this on its own. To see real results, you need to raise your heart rate to an appropriate level three to four times a week and vary your exercise to work your heart, lungs, muscles and internal organs. Learn more in my 90 Day Fitness Plan.

What's the best way to maintain muscle once I've put it on?

Just keep on training. It's pretty tricky laying down hard and fast rules about this because everyone's different. But - in general terms - two sessions a week should keep your muscles stimulated. Remember, though, that if you train less often than this you'll be burning fewer calories: best to drop your food intake or you could easily start to gain fat and lose your definition. Learn more in my miniguide, Muscle Up

How do I reach my long term fitness goal?

If you already have a long term goal in mind, write it down. The goal is your destination point. If you don’t have a goal in mind, think of one, and make it specific. If you want to change clothes size, what will your new clothes size be? If you want to lose weight, how much will you lose? If you want to run a marathon, which one, where and when? Be specific, and more importantly, be realistic. If your goal is to look like a supermodel, you’ll probably be disappointed. You can set yourself a different goal, but choose it carefully and make sure it is an achievable goal, even if difficult. It is the key to your motivation and should be something that is important to you. Learn more in my 90 Day Fitness Plan.

I want to improve my body – but I’m unsure if I’m pear or hourglass shape.

Broadly speaking, you are hourglass shaped if your shoulders and hips are a similar width; pear shaped women have hips that are wider than their shoulders. You can use an interactive tool to help you discover what body shape you are, and learn more about matching your fitness routine to your body shape in my book Fit For Your Shape.

What is a healthy diet?

As soon as the word diet is mentioned, most people think of weight loss. Really, your diet is simply the food you choose to eat. Having said that, we do need to consider weight loss when we talk about diets. For a big part of the western world, the modern diets we eat, together with inactive lifestyles, are combining to produce people who are fatter than at any other time. How can this be the case when there are so many low fat products available and we are more aware than we have ever been? The answer does not lie in fat alone. Everyone needs a diet that provides the body with energy and nutrients in the form of healthy food to fuel itself and optimise its strength. You can learn more about healthy approaches to eating in my Fitness For Life Manual.

I’ve been using your Thin Thighs book, but I'm finding it really hard to keep my interest up in my exercise regime. I've worked really hard to get my thighs slim and really don't want to drift back to being the flabby old me. Do you have any suggestions?

You've done really well. Congratulations. And you're absolutely right to be aware of complacency and boredom. These are two of the most common pitfalls. Luckily, keeping your thighs thin is a whole lot easier than getting your thighs thin in the first place. So cut yourself some slack: you're not going to have to exercise quite so often or quite so hard from now on. Keep you motivation high by varying your routine - instead of running and walking, try warming up by cycling or going for a swim.