» 2009 » October

Having the right mindset is critical for having weight loss success.

In fact, I’ve never seen somebody lose weight and keep that weight off who didn’t have a positive and determined attitude.  The power of the mindset ranks right up there with hard work outs and great nutrition.

Losing weight isn’t going to be easy but that doesn’t mean that you have to hate it.  A lot of the people who I train with really look forward to getting back into the gym and working their butts off.

Are these people crazy?

Yeah they are…crazy about fitness!  But seriously once people really start working out hard and eating well they find that they’re feeling 10X’s better and have more energy than ever before.  I see the results of not working out much faster than most people, I start feeling more sluggish, lazy and more overall attitude is negative.

As a personal trainer it’s easy to see people really excited at the beginning of training but as a couple weeks go by I’m consistently seeing people teeter off and quit.  And part of it’s my job to keep them motivated but I can usually predict somebody’s success at losing weight just by getting a glance of their attitude.

Go Into Training With A Battle Plan

I’ve made the mistake of not knowing where I was going with my fitness training and I found myself 30 pounds overweight.  Knowing where you are and where you want to go, short-term and long-term are vital to your success.  As soon as you can I would take the plunge and get down all your critical stats such as your weight, BMI, body fat percentage and girth measurements.  Also take a “before” picture, which can be hard, but think of it as your trophy when you look back at it a few months from now.

No Overnight Weight Loss Exists

Knowing that it’s going to take some time and some hard work is a great mindset to have when going into training.  Just like you can’t become a millionaire overnight, you can’t drop all the fat you’ve been accumulating as well.  Taking a realistic yet positive approach is critical when it comes to keeping your mindset strong and your motivation lasting.

Keep Mixing Up Your Training

One thing I’ve found as a personal trainer is that people get BORED fast when they do the same thing over and over again.  Mixing things up will be vital to keeping your motivation strong.  This doesn’t just apply to the work outs, but also to your nutrition and your life.  Don’t always eat the same stuff every day, keep trying new foods and different combinations of healthy stuff.

If you’re anything like me then the muffin top / love handles are one of the biggest sticking points on the body.

In fact, there was a time when everything else on my body was rockin’ but the muffin top was still hanging out.

I was tired of them bulging out from my hips so I decided to do something about it.

This work out can be done in the home or you can also do it at the gym, either or just GET IT DONE!

I started using this little work out with my boot camper’s too, click here to find out more.

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is one of the most popular sandwiches in the world for good reason.

But it’s easy to get it wrong, heck I was doing it wrong for the last 10 years!

Only recently did I start looking at the ingredients of the sandwiches I’ve been eating and discovered all the bad stuff I was putting into my body. Creating a healthy peanut butter and jelly sandwich is essential for maximum energy and also fat burning. In this video I’m sharing with you some insider secrets into how to make a healthy version of this sandwich which will keep your metabolism going strong and thus burning more fat.

Stay away from peanut butters that have partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats as well as ones with high amounts of sodium.  When looking for jelly make sure it doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup or a lot of sugars. As for the bread look for sprouted breads not the white flour bleached junk.

Ok starting off what the heck is an acai? Pronounced “ah-sigh-ee” and it’s found in the exotic palm trees down in Central and South America.

I personally became more familiar with acai when I traveled down to Brazil last summer and visited Rio De Janeiro with some friends.  When thing about acai is that it tastes pretty darn good and I would really recommend giving it a try sometime but not for the reasons I’m about to talk about.

Acai exploded onto the American market when Oprah and her boy Dr. Oz said it was one of her favorite superfoods and discussed its health benefits on her show.  Ever since there have been a crazy amount of marketing hype around the acai and its “miraculous” weight loss benefits.

It’s gotten so ridiculously over-hyped and marketed that nobody knows what to believe any more.

Marketers are claiming that acai provides increased energy levels, improved sexual performance, improved digestion, natural detoxification, improved skin appearance, improved sleep, improved heart health, and reduction of cholesterol levels. Sounds great, right?

Here’s the real truth about acai…

It actually has a fairly good amount of antioxidants which are great for killing off those free radical devils who wreak havoc on our bodies.  But acai only ranks in the middle of the market for antioxidant fruits.  Pomegranate juice and blueberry juices both have more antioxidant density than that of the acai berries and there have been no verified claims of the marketers “benefits” of acai.

In fact, in March Oprah had her million dollar lawyers go out and hunt down the people who were scamming people with their acai weight loss stuff while using her and Dr. Oz’s name.

There have also been NO scientific studies to back up their claims and the FDA has not approved any of their crazy weight loss hype around the berry. Now don’t get me wrong, I think the FDA is royally messed up by approving some horrible stuff such as aspartame but they still have a little bit of credibility with me.

So…is the acai berry a hunk of crap?

I drink acai juice regularly because I like the taste and it does definitely provide some antioxidants for my body. I in no way take it for weight loss purposes and I don’t recommend it to any of my clients for those purposes.

Everyone’s thinking that the acai is the miracle pill for losing weight and feeling great, but it’s really just a bunch of marketing hype to get you to buy their product and get scammed.  Save yourself the time and have great nutrition and work out hard consistently & enjoy the antioxidants powers of acai.

I really like Sambazon acai energy drinks too…

If you’re looking for a great work out with some fun exercises to pump up your booty so they think you’re stealing basketballs then this is the work out for you.

In our Napa Boot Camp we work hard to get people the results they’re looking for and this is just one of the work outs we implement.

It’s a lot of fun doing this boot camp in Napa and even though it’s not easy we always have a great time and there’s always lots of laughs.

If you’re in the Napa area come by for a free 1 week trial work out.  Click Here to find out more…