Having trained solidly all year, with the launch of the business and with a few aches and pains coming into the shoulder/knee joints most likely due to the intensity of the workouts I have been doing I took the concious decision to take the last 10 days off gym work and just done some movement with good dog walks in the park daily as well as some light lifting of cases of apples and oranges in the shop which opened a week last friday.

It felt good to have a break and my body defo needed it but were back to training in the morning having had a week of not worrying too much about what I ate although I was cleaner than clean during the day and relaxed a touch at night but were back focussed having replensihed over the 10 days and looking forward to train again.

I posted an update on the business in my diary for those interested.

Nice slow roll on the vids

I know you must be busy but we want to see the place buzzzzzzzzzing please

Sorry for the delay Trevor but literally the feet have not touched the ground for a few days but that should change going forward this week.

So back in January this is how the premises I viewed looked

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With inside being like so


And on our opening day this is what we have created

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With a quick walk through the front of house


1 minute after opening we had our very first Juice Kitchen customers

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We have a pretty agressive opening offer with a free tea/coffee with every breakfast purchase and a free juice or smoothie with every lunch purchase to really launch ourselves to the City and if anyone has followed us on FB you will see that we have quite an attractive range of food and drink on offer which changes as we feel like, as we are independant and can change to suit.

Despite offering a healthy discount we took in the region of £6k in week one and are on course to beat that in week 2 and have received great feedback and reviews from all quarters so far and with my head chef and fornt of house manager away on annual leave (an unexpected hazard of recruiting for a fresh start with a launch that gets delayed) for a week now the team have really slotted well into the City.

I have had 2 Gym chains request meetings to set up discounts for 6500 members in total and a variety of local employers get in touch asking for schemes to be set up for their employees and part of the next few weeks is going out to these companies and presenting to them the benefits of them offering a small subsidy to their staff to eat with us as there is evidence that if their staff eat better at lunchtime they will be more productive in the afternoon so if we can then discount it slightly to the employee it's win win for all and we just invoice the company at the end of the month.

We have served between 140-190 people per day so far and are learning every day about the business and all the processes we wish to set up and whilst having to "work in the business" at the moment, pretty soon I will be able to "work on it" which is when the team of investors and staff really get the best out of me.

Talking about me! As I have been really looking after myself in terms of eating and training for those that have not read the Blonde will get you Strong thread, I have got myself into pretty good shape over the past few months and certainly in the best shape I have been in for a few years from the paunchy photo shown late last year to this by training 3/4 times per week and eating well!

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Family life is good and despite not being able to be back home at a respectable time in the 3 weeks upto launching and leaving early giving time to train before work we have done really well as a family unit with Petra being the standard trooper that she is and timing wise a visit for her and the kids to Slovakia where they flew a week ago and are away for another 2 weeks has worked out well so that I dont have to feel guilty about not being around to help out whilst we get through this initial launch period.

Here they are recently

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I have had conversations recently with people who said how nice it was that I wasnt talking about punting etc and as I have not earnt any money whilst getting this business off the ground and with Petra being pregnant at the start of the year and not bringing much in from her photography I really battened down the hatches and hardly had a bet at all but with the footie season starting I thought it was time to bet like a pro mug punter (in before) and as I cant bet in chunks in any way shape or form I have to shoot for the stars.

Needless to say I didnt expect to be collecting this from Paddy Power this week    

Click to see full-size image.

The text convo with Dubai read as follows
"Oioi" (text accompanied by photo)

replies
Ha!

Not only you need 4 teams to win

Need 8 teams to score

and 4 less than the other 4!!


Me - This is a bet I have done 25-30 times lifetime and got it up for chunks twice

Dubai - run above the curve at life mate


Hope everyone reading here is all good and I will post when I can about how we are doing etc but if you are on FB or Instagram and havent followed us yet please do as it's easier to see what I am up to there.  You can find me on FB @juicekitchenchelmsford and Instagram the same.

Hows it going Rich?

Hi Trevor, we actually open in 3 hours time and I've just got in from setting up having got there today at 6am 😒 

I will post a few vids in the next 24 hours of how the finished article is.

Thanks for asking though.

Legs today, had a bit of a cold the last few days, so wasn't expecting much. Went in with the mindset of doing what I can, and just tighten up technique. But managed 2x6 at 100kg with the control I am after.

Really looking forward to where I can go from here. Like what Sean is doing, so might do something similar.

Bench tomorrow so looking forward to what that throws up.

Nice!

I had legs today too and video'd again so will post in next 24/48 hours. I didn't get 3 figs and felt the same in terms of going with the flow but managed 60/80/90/95/95/90 x8 with 1min between sets so am sure 3figs isn't too far away

Been eating 90% well and have seen great results with some good gains

Might get this bannered in the studio.

Too many people are all or nothing. They go from nothing but takeaways to nothing but salads and wonder why it is unsustainable. Just do the right thing 9 out of 10 meals, enjoy your food, enjoy your fitness. I think it sounds a little overly dramatic to most people when we say "it's a lifestyle," but it is. It's about making more and more positive choices. Something that your future self thanks you for today.

Really good progress Eso. Some nice numbers there, and that physique is really coming along. How tall are you btw? Judging from these pictures we have a very similar skeletal structure so it will be quite interesting to see what we both look like at <15% bodyfat (although I've just started the bulk so we'll have to wait until at least March to see what I look like at sub 15!)

Cheers mate, I'm just over 5ft 7 so pretty short really.

March seems like a long way away!! I'm gonna change my programme up in the next few weeks as have more than got through this phase and the shoulder wear n tear probs isn't great long term to go incline bench>seated shoulder press>Lat raise>dips>8 sets of chins so will take advice on a new programme.

Not really looking to get much bigger so am happy to increase reps and have good movement but gonna launch the business first before I worry about change.

I've been a bit quiet on here as been busy working on the Healthy Food and Juice Bar 14 hours a day pretty much but if anything I have trained even harder and have been training 6 days adding in a couple of cardio days to go with my program.

Strength has been great and I'm now doing the following

Still 4x8-10 with 1min rest between sets
Upper Body Day
Tri Set
Incline DB - 28s into
Seated Upright DB Shoulder press 14s
Lateral DB raise 14s x2 12s X 2sets

Dips 4x9
Wide Grip Chins 4x7
Close Grip 4x6

Legs
Squats are now at 95kg for 4x8

Been eating 90% well and have seen great results with some good gains I think mainly from the chins and having changed gyms and now training in Chelmsford it's given fresh impetus.
Photos from a week ago

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Click to see full-size image.

Keep up the great work itt everyone!

<3 Reece and Maureen obv so stick me in for a pony as well please Raymondo

It's been a blast.

Thank you for sharing.

Saturday can only mean one thing

LEGS DAY!!!

I decided to video my whole Squat session today which is mid session and are heel raised on 5kg plates, with me also going for 90kg after my first two sets so you see today

60kg warm up -
80kg x 8
90kg x 8
90kg x 6 (felt a couple of weak reps so stopped at 6)
80kg x 8



GG 10 mins of your life

Watched this back twice today and the 90's looked really weak/poor form but was first try at them so am gonna go back to 4x85 after wup set.

Saturday can only mean one thing

LEGS DAY!!!

I decided to video my whole Squat session today which is mid session and are heel raised on 5kg plates, with me also going for 90kg after my first two sets so you see today

60kg warm up -
80kg x 8
90kg x 8
90kg x 6 (felt a couple of weak reps so stopped at 6)
80kg x 8



GG 10 mins of your life

All the best today Reece & Co.

Great Result Dan

Great pics, well done mate!

Who's next?

Go on then!

I have time bound all my photos from one year ago through to this year where I have taken it to a different level and even though I am not completely happy with where I am I have to remember that whilst not as OLD as Dean I am 42, got 3 kids under 5 and am starting a business so am happy with what I have achieved mainly this year and aim to continue my progress over the coming months and will post more as we go.

Before the photo's I have had a really good couple of weeks training and this week I have felt really strong with Chins getting easier so I have added 2 reps to each set so am now doing 4 x 9 dips with amins rest then into  4 x 6 wide grip chins with 1 min rest and then 4 x 6 Close grip UH chins with 1 mins rest between sets and felt really good today and as I am motivated atm I managed to slip a couple of 40 min cardio sessions in on rest days too as with spending a bit more time in Chelmsford on the business I have missed a few school runs.

So the photos

This was the 5th June 2015 with me being completely shapeless, paunchy etc

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12th March

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26th April

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21st May

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10th June

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Who's next? I Nominate....

A pretty sexy bit of kit was delivered today with this arriving

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It's a Norwalk Cold Press Juicer that uses a hydraulic press to give you the best quality juice you can ever have!

Cant wait to try it

I hope you need an intern some day.

You offering mate

Impressive stuff, and I hope it crushes!

I've got a juicer in the cupboard, and it has been there since xmas when the new kitchen started being built.

Got a nutribullet somewhere, which I'll find at some point, and replace the Kenwood thing I use for my protein shakes.

This time next year

Another big plus one for the admiration and best wishes from me too Richard.

^^ Thanks Alan and Mark

We are currently flat out and for those not seeing our progress on FB I have been keeping it about a week behind where we currently are so this was our first day on site about 10 days ago as they prepared the walls to create the kitchen area

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This was the 15th June and a little walk through taking you from the back where we are creating two customer toilets and then into our proposed kitchen are and finally into the front of house area


Then this was today just showing the front of house area


They hope to hand over to us on the 8th July and then we have 2 weeks of staff training before we hope to open....