» 2009 » May

We all have to work.  It’s hard to find the time get your workout in when you are always working long days.  Especially in the whole “bad economy” that we’re living in, working hard is more important than ever.  Unfortunately most of us fail to realize the investment of being healthy & how much it can influence your overall success.

Many of my clients always give me the excuse that they’re too tired or their minds aren’t into working out after they’ve been at work all day.  And that’s understandable.  Although this is when I begin to see a problem when they’ll constantly sacrifice their workouts to put in an extra couple hours of work.  Another problem arises when they claim that working out will only make them more tired.

The benefits of exercise, nutrition & having a positive mindset are a powerful force when it comes to achieving greatness.  Without a strong energy you’re doing yourself a disservice by not giving all you can to accomplishing your goals.  Lethargy is becoming a bigger & bigger problem these days as technology grows, but there is no substitute for getting a great sweat on.

Exercising will undoubtedly help you sleep better as well as releasing all the hormones that build up in the body.  These hormones can get built up so easily especially when we are working sedentary jobs & doing sedentary activities all day. 

The gym is also a fantastic place for an escape from work & all the junk that’s going on in your life.  We all need to have that release and exercising is one of the few things that can healthily achieve this.

Stress levels can also cause you to get fatter by the release of the hormone cortisol.  Having proper nutrition along with a great exercise program 3-4 times a week can do wonders for your weight & your health.

1.     Go To Sleep By 10:30:  By going to sleep early you’re going to have more energy tomorrow.  This means no late night TV!  Instead use your TV Recorder to record the program & watch it later.  I wouldn’t go anywhere near bright lights (TV, computer, video games) within a half-hour of going to bed.  Our bodies have natural circadian rhythms from our caveman days we have pre-wired in all of us.  We’ve always gone to bed when the sun goes down & woke up when the sun comes up.  So even if you got a full 8 hours of sleep last night but didn’t go to bed until 1 A.M., this isn’t the same because your natural circadian rhythms won’t agree.

2.     Eat Breakfast Every Morning:  Breakfast is easily the most skipped meal of the day.  It’s easy to trade in a little sleep for a bowl of oatmeal.  Having a healthy breakfast will provide the necessary energy to fuel your workouts & your workday.  I recommend eating a bowl of old school Quaker oatmeal, with some protein powder & a banana.  Also have plenty of nutritious snacks in your office drawer or wherever you work to keep your blood sugar in good homeostasis.

3.     Start Your Day With A Positive Attitude:  Having a strong attitude will give you the mental strength to have a more positive day & will give you some encourage to actually do your workout! The third thing I do every morning (after making my bed & drinking water) is to do deep breathing exercises along with 5 minutes of meditation. 

4.     Organization Leads To Your Productivity:  Another huge reason why we put working out on the backburner is because we have allowed our lives to become chaos!  Becoming organized & having a battle plan will give you the accountability of getting your workout in.  Before you go to sleep write out your top 3 things you must accomplish by tomorrow & get them done before anything else.  And do the one you don’t want to do the most first.  When you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will seem great.

5.     Fitness Is A Part Of Your Job:  Exercise will help you with achieving success in your job.  It will turn the volume down on any big situation or conflict.  Working out can spur creativity & help you find solutions that wouldn’t come to you when you’re sitting in front of a computer.  Keep a fitness item near you at all times so you’ll be more likely to do that instead of heading to the computer to check your email for the 57^th time today.  

Hey Crew!

These are my favorite Top 5 exercises that I personally use & recommend to all my clients for fat loss. These are athletic movements that also give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to fitness & weight loss. They are designed to get your heart rate moving & the metabolic cost is going to be high! The best part about these exercises is that they also build your bodies natural athleticism back to the way it naturally should be. After years of sitting on the couch or in front of the computer these are great exercises to mix up your fitness workouts & get a great athletic fat loss workout.

Another great video by the #1 Personal trainer in the Napa Valley!

I'll be the first one to tell you that I want the quick fix.  I want to just take a pill and have my problem go away forever.  But then I get realistic I realize the path to my success depends on hard work and consistency.

Hard work and consistency are the keys when it comes to staying fit forever.  Long-term fat loss and the key to lose weight lies in this very "secret."  Most people get pumped up to go to the gym but unfortunately end up NOT sticking with their goals.  They get so worked up and dive in head first to a training program that they get burned out & I'll never see them in the gym again.

I'll be real with you right now.  Growing up I was so skinny that I had to run around the shower to get wet!  I was finally starting to get fed up with it and I wanted a change so badly I decided the only way to do so was to take action.

So I signed up at my local Napa gym Healthquest, worked with a personal trainer and eventually started putting on some size!  I was on the top of the world for that summer as I continued to put on 20 more pounds of pure muscle.  I was on my way to living a life of fitness…

Unfortunately, as the winter rolled around and the days started getting colder I stopped making it to the gym.  There's was always an excuse that I was throwing around and it would be different every day.  "I have to finish homework…I have to work so I don't want to be sweaty…I just ate a big meal…Home Alone is on in a half hour…"

Whatever it was I knew I was slowly losing whatever I had that had gotten me where I wanted to go.  Becoming successful is about having priorities and being able to complete them even when you don't want to.  I don't ALWAYS want to work out but I'll still force myself into the gym and fake it until I feel it.

That is the secret when it comes to staying fit forever.

Here are my Top 5 tips for you to stop slacking and get yourself fit forever.

• 1. Have a Positive Mental Attitude: Negativity is everywhere! Start with staying away from gossip and the news. Try meditating for just 5 minutes every morning to clear your mind and imagine positive things. This will undoubtedly increase your chancing of getting more accomplished.
• 2. Get a Workout Partner: I know it can get extremely hard to consistently work out all by yourself. Find somebody else who shares your enthusiasm and commitment. If they start to slack off then you might want to look for a new workout partner. If you can't get a workout partner try joining a local bootcamp. When I'm training in Napa me and Scott Thom have been working out hard together for the past 8 years or so. 
• 3. Prepare Prepare Prepare: When it comes to meals and my workouts I've always found I'm more successful when I take the time to prepare my meals and workouts. If I don't prepare my meals then I'll find myself starving and looking to chow down anything in sight. Plan your workouts ahead of time too so you're not randomly throwing together exercises and are using your time efficiently.
• 4. Create Goals for Yourself: Having clear cut goals of what you want to achieve and actually writing them down will lead you to become more consistent and successful with your workouts. Place the goal somewhere you can see it every day, I recommend the refrigerator. You're more likely to be disciplined when you see your goal in front of you all the time. I've also found short term goals to be more successful, like what you want to accomplish today and this week.
• 5. Always Keep Learning: I'm not saying you have to dedicate your life to reading fitness literature but try reading a blog or a magazine every once in a while. Learn new exercises and start connecting with the people working out around you. You'll learn great new ways to exercise and will improve your consistency by preventing your workouts from becoming boring.

Now back to my original keys to long-term fitness success…hard work and consistency.  Just because you go to the gym doesn't mean you're automatically getting great results.  Strategized hard work is going to going to be the other piece to the puzzle to you achieving your fitness goals forever.  In the end it's all about making lifestyle changes, which are going to take time.  But taking action on something everyday will build up faster than you think.  Always pushing yourself a little bit out of your familiar zone will keep your body progressing.  Imagine if you were playing the piano and just played "chopsticks" all day…it would be easy but you would never be able to play Beethoven.

This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions that I get. To tone your hips & thighs you're going to have to lose fat.  But I'm going to give you the necessary strategies to help tone these problem areas.  You're NOT alone!  To lose fat I suggest getting my $21 FREE eBook "The Fat Loss Frog" by opting into the form on the right.

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