Alex MacDonald: Health & Lifestyle

05/01/2025

If you’re dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or think you might be, starting a fat-loss program or jumping into an intense exercise routine might not be the best first step.

Here’s why, from a place of understanding:

🪫 Low energy and fatigue: SAD can leave you feeling more drained than usual. Intense exercise might feel like too much to handle when you’re already struggling with low energy.

🪫Mood shifts: The darker months can bring feelings of sadness or irritability. Trying to push yourself through a tough workout or strict diet plan might add unnecessary stress, making it harder to cope with these emotions.

🪫Disrupted body rhythms: With SAD, your body’s natural rhythms—like sleep and energy levels—can be out of sync. Intense exercise can throw these further off balance and leave you feeling more exhausted.

🪫Risk of burnout: When you’re already feeling down or unmotivated, adding the pressure of a rigorous fat-loss program or high-intensity workouts could lead to burnout, making it harder to stay consistent and care for yourself.

It’s completely okay to take things at your own pace. Try starting with gentle activities like walking, stretching, or yoga to help ease your body and mind, while focusing on nourishing yourself with balanced meals, good sleep, and some natural light.

When you feel ready, you can gradually build up to more challenging workouts. Remember, it’s all about being kind to yourself and honoring what your body truly needs right now.

Your well-being comes first.🪫🔋

30/12/2024

Key to achieving your goals in 2025?

Write them down

Spend 30 minutes writing a list of goals you want to achieve whether is fitness, work, family orientated, whatever it maybe!

Then go through each goal one at a time and write next to it what YOU need to change, improve or start doing to get there.

Then.. write how you going to make these changes , what plan action do you need for each one.

Then pick one - work on that one until it becomes embedded.

Move onto the next🙌🏻

✌🏼

29/12/2024

READ CAPTION: REVIVE & REBUILD.

I know i know… its still christmas/ New Years-ish.

Like me probably still in a coma from left over pigs in blankets and trying tk make my way through a box of quality street…

But…mentally i am preparing for next year and how to get back up and running again and be even fitter and healthier than this year…

Back in January of this year 2024 (incase you’ve forgottenthe day and year)

I lost 10kgs in 30days and set myself up for the year!

The longer you put it off the longer you’ll feel as if it is escaping you. It only takes 3 solid habits smashed each day for you to set yourself up for an incredible year.

Here are the 3 main things i focussed on for the 30days - i call it the REVIVE & REBUILD method.

Coming out of christmas and eating a copious amount of cheese and chocolate… the best way for me to control what went into my chops was by:

1. Intermittent fasting - i only ate between 1pm - 9pm. This tied in nicely with work and allowing me to train mid morning and then eat straight after - this helped keep any snacking or urge to eat very low.

2. Hit 10k steps everyday - this is an easy way to measure how active I’ve been throughout the day - if you are currently hitting 3-4k a day id suggest aiming for 6-8k a day instead!

3. I did some form of exercise acitivity everyday - whether that be, weights, run, walk, spin class, something to elevate the heart rate for a sustained period of time!

Doing all these 3 helped med shred 10kgs off and improve my fitness, health and happiness by February !

The 3 things you need tk focus on may be slightly different, depending on life and work schedules!

YOU NEED TO FIND THE RIGHT PLAN OF ACTION FOR YOU!!


Any questions about restarting or getting back into fitness after sometime off shoot me a messave or comment below!

✌🏼

24/10/2024

Another week of being sick and run down with tonsillitis 🤦🏼.

Illness is something that sometimes just can’t be avoided! You have to listen to your body and take a break from doing anything overly exerting and just resting up.

Even though with tonsilitis it hurts like a thousand needles going down your throat drinking water and keeping hydrated is vital…

You don’t want to be adding dehydration headaches to the mixing bowl as well!

If you can mix in some electrolytes in as well then even better!

Sometimes you have to slow down to be able to move forward

✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼

18/10/2024

5/30 complete.

Smashing headache most of the day could have easily sacked it off.

Took some electrolyte’s & did a steady session.

Be stronger than your feelings✌🏼✌🏼

17/10/2024

4/30 complete.

Active recovery- ish

Aiming to average above 10k steps for the week each week - just by increasing that can have a substantial effect!

✌🏼✌🏼

16/10/2024

Day 3/30 complete..

Long day 5:30am - 8:30pm

✅ Steps
✅ Workout

Nice and steady

When im not training or havent trained a long day like this normally knackers me.

But fitter i get easier the long days get, give energy to get energy!

✌🏼✌🏼

15/10/2024

15/10/2024

2/30 complete..

What started off as a steady Treadmill jog turned into something more aggressive🤦🏼🤦🏼🤣 - get carried away far too easily.

Haven’t hit 190bpm for a LONG TIME!

The plan i’ve designed and following for myself is a whole mixture of:

✅ weight lifting x 3 days

🏃🏻‍♂️ Intense cardio x 2 days this is either aerobic or threshold (anaerobic) - something you have to do for all round general health!

🚶‍♂️Gentle recovery walks / cycles to repair and restore the body inbetween the more taxing workouts x 2days maybe 3 depending on how the bodies feeling.

✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼

14/10/2024

Day 1 of 30 complete.

When coming back from injury, illness or a little time off from training or even if you are starting completely fresh… leave some gas in the tank.

For the first week back ill be doing 60/70% max effort specially on the weights other wise the recovery will be too long and the soreness will be unbearable.

Build yourself back up slowly and in very little time you will be back to where you left off!

Enjoy ya training & do exercises you enjoy doing to build the habits back up!

🤞🏽✌🏼✌🏼

18/08/2023

🌟 Embracing the power of daily habits!

🌟Consistency is the key to success on the journey to a positive and healthy life. By cultivating strong habits every day, we create a foundation of discipline and routine that empowers us to reach our goals.

Whether it's exercising, eating nutritiously, practicing mindfulness, or learning something new, these small actions compound over time, transforming our lives for the better.

Let's commit to building a brighter future one habit at a time! 💪🏃‍♀️🥗🧘‍♂️

16/08/2023

Wondering when is the best time to work out? 🏋️‍♂️

You might be under the impression that in order to get healthier, you need to commit to hitting the gym or exercising 5 or 6 days a week right from the start. And you might even be thinking, "Alex, as a personal trainer, you must be hitting the gym 5-7 days a week." But honestly, I make sure to get in at least 3 sessions, otherwise I become pretty irritable and a bit annoying.

Now, if you're not currently doing any exercise, here's some great news: just increasing to once a week can make a huge positive impact. This is especially true if you're short on time and don't particularly enjoy working out.

From there, you can gradually work your way up to twice a week, and then eventually to three times. 🏃‍♀️

Here's the thing about activities you don't enjoy or aren't good at – they're hard to prioritize. However, something interesting happens as you get better: your energy levels rise, and you surprisingly find more time for them.

So, here's a tip to get started on your fitness journey: take a look at your schedule and figure out where you could fit in one workout, walk, jog, yoga session, or whatever type of exercise you prefer, each week. Once you find that convenient time slot, make it a regular part of your routine.

Remember, it's not about making huge, sudden changes that won't stick. It's about taking small steps that you can maintain over the long haul.

✌🏼 Ready to begin your journey to a healthier lifestyle? Let's go for it! 💪🏼

Heres a pic of me crabbing. I was s**t. Caught 1 & accidentally killed it when i picked it up. 🫣😭.