I’m writing this blog not as a Fitness or Health Professional but as a parent. Angie got in touch with me last week asking about her child. What should they eat during the day and around GAA. She tells me they have football coaches telling the kids this and that when they’re not qualified to but let’s not stop there. My children go to a national school and it's just garbage that’s being fed in by the government so it's bad information been given by teachers. So here is an insight into my children’s food and activity diary for the week. My two are Rod (9) and Todd (5) years old.

Last week I talked about the supplements that I believe should be taken by everyone from the sedentary to the athlete. If you missed it have a read HERE.

This week it’s the nice to have and I’m going to keep it brief and only going to talk about supplementing around your workouts.

Time and time again I see so many people throwing money away on supplements that I can clearly see will not benefit them or are not required.

You know the lads that are lashing in the Mass Gainers, BCAA's and buckets of whey and then head off and do there 4 Sets, 10 Reps followed by a chipper and a few beers.

Or you have the ladies who beasts the life out of themselves in the gym, live off broccoli and Chicken and wonder why they’re weak, have crap sleeps and constantly crave chocolate.

Do you think that maybe you didn't do the paleo diet right or maybe you didn't eat the right vegetables being a vegetarian. Here's one, maybe it just wasn't for you???

If you told me you couldn’t swim then I wouldn’t tell you to jump in the pool. The same applies to running, yet an endless amount of you think you can just throw on you New Year resolution Nike’s and out the door you go wearing down your knees step after step.

How many of you eat white bread knowing that in a couple of hours you’re going to have an uncomfortable distended belly. You know you’re going to struggle to poo or else have the runs? How many of you know that you only get 2pm slumps after eating bread or pasta the day before?

So why do you continue to do it? If you put your hand in the fire and burnt yourself you wouldn’t put it in the fire a second time.

Yes, I’m talking about your New Year’s resolutions. You know the ones, “I’m going to give up the smokes, takeout’s, chocolate, I’ll train three times a week, in bed by 9pm and think only happy thoughts all day long”. Ye and three weeks later you’re sitting down in the pub laughing about them and talking about how 2016 will be the year

So with the New Year just around the corner I want to inform you what exactly it is we do and our Ethos at Access Fitness Dublin and who knows we may find you joining us in the New Year.

I always get asked ‘What would your top recommendations for better health be?’

Luckily I’ve already wrote about them individually, so here’s my top suggestions for better health.

I don’t know what it is. Do people think that because information is free is it not as good as what you’d pay for? I guarantee you that the information I give in my blogs is no different to what I give paying clients. So am I saying that if you were to implement the info from the blogs you’d get the same fantastic results as my paying clients? I’m saying exactly that.

Here are some of the benefits to reducing the stress on the body with a high alkaline diet.

• Skin more elastic, youthful

• Deeper and more restful sleep

• Abundant physical energy

• Suffer from fewer colds and headaches

• Better digestion

• Decreased risk of arthritis

• Reduction of yeast overgrowth

• Won’t support Osteoporosis

• Increased mental acuity, mental alertness

• Legal natural high

I'm a 31 year old Red blooded male. It's late at night, the wife and kids are in bed. I open up my laptop and what's the first thing that springs to mind? That's right........Sugar!

"Fluoride dumbs people down and makes them more compliant, sure just look at the Irish"

If someone come to me and says 'I want to do 20 chin ups'. 

The first thing I'd ask is 'Can you do 1?'

No? Well then we'll call 20 your Z goal.

You see more often than not the lot of you set unrealistic goals in an unrealistic amount of time.

This post is for those of you that go to the gym just to be fit and healthy and may not have a complete understanding of what your doing or why your doing it. 

It's a simple one on why if you do 4 sets of 10 on every exercise you probably stopped 'feeling the burn' after about 2-4 weeks which for some, may have been a few years ago.

If a Vegetarian goes into a restaurant these days, they would generally be given a good choice to choose from. Someone on a gluten free diet goes into the same restaurant and again will have plenty of options.

I've been a gluten free vegetarian for the last 8 weeks and my only options have been steamed veg, roasted veg and Stir fried veg.

I love this line. I generally ask everyone I consult what it means and generally after a minute of fumbling around trying to string the right words together they give up. A balanced diet or everything in moderation, nobody has a clue what this is.

It turned out that gluten was one of the primary reasons why in the health and fitness industry I've pursued health over fitness. 

Not the obvious choice since I competed in sport at high levels since a child and competed internationally at amateur and semi professional from my teens to mid twenties.