The 3 Best Ways To Ensure Your Fitness Program Is Working For You.

The training programs tried by the masses that guarantee their abilities to shed fat, build muscle and deliver incredible health are typically rigorous and very stressful on the body.

There’s nothing wrong with them (and they obviously work well for thousands of people), but there are many times where the training doesn’t work, despite the research (and results) that indicate they should, leaving those that ‘fail’ frustrated and wondering what to do.

If you’re frustrated because repeated attempts at ‘getting in shape’ have failed to bring you results, or if you’re simply a beginner struggling with ‘where to begin’ your journey to improved health and fitness, here are 3 things you can do to ensure you get the most out of your training:

1.  Assess Yourself. An assessment is one of the most basic and important steps to getting results, yet it’s also one of the most overlooked (or ignored).  You might have a clear vision of the health and fitness goals you want to achieve, but the road map you use to get there can only be drawn if you know your starting point.  The best way to determine your starting point?  An assessment!

2.  Use an assessment that goes beyond ‘health history’ and postural/movement analysis . . . and digs deeper into your current lifestyle. The importance of health (and family) history can’t be denied because it gives you a ‘heads up’ about ailments/injuries you’re predisposed to.  Postural assessment and movement analysis is also important because it enables you to effectively deliver structural balance to your body, ensuring that you’re actually ‘working the parts you think you’re working’ while preventing injury.

But an equally important assessment that you’ll want to do (that’s rarely ever done) is a lifestyle assessment because it helps you to objectively look at the elements of your life that are significantly influencing the health and function of your body right now.  Not only will a lifestyle assessment direct you toward the specific areas of your life you can improve upon, but it will also help you to create a training program that will most benefit you.

Which leads to . . .

3.  Use a training program that’s ‘ideal’ based on your current stress/health status. If your body isn’t functioning properly on the inside (i.e. if it can’t handle and positively adapt to the stress of training) it won’t respond to exercise in the way you think it’s supposed to . . . and you won’t see the expected results.  It doesn’t matter if you’re training hard, using most ‘proven’ fitness program on Earth!

Simply put, it’s not often the training program that’s not working — it’s your body that’s not working with the program.  And one of the most effective ways to fix the problem is to utilize training that emphasizes rejuvenation, rebuilding and recovery (like Qi-Gong, Yoga or a walk in the park) instead of solely following the latest, greatest ‘run yourself into the ground’ fat loss program.
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Assess yourself (including a lifestyle assessment) and create/use an exercise program that works best with your body as you strive to reach greater levels of health and fitness.  They may be simple and obvious concepts, but they’re frequently overlooked, misunderstood or ignored.  Make a concerted effort to do these 3 things, and you’ll open the door the greatest, longest-lasting results of your dreams.

What are your thoughts on this?  Let me know by leaving a comment!

Thanks for reading!

YOUR Personal Trainer NYC

Is Your Training Program Unrealistic? (Or Are You Just Unwilling?)

You can do anything you want, as long as you put your heart and mind into it . . . as long as your heart and mind wants to be in it!

It’s not uncommon to read interviews where a trainer suggests that people fail to accomplish optimal fitness because the training programs they’re being exposed to have unrealistic expectations and unrealistic time requirements.

Is the fitness program too demanding (or are you simply unwilling?)

They demand too much of a lifestyle change. . .

They require ‘radical’ change in diet. . .

They require too much time. . .

While this logic may resonate with you, I think it’s just another in a long list of excuses for not ‘living a healthy lifestyle’ or ‘taking the time to train’.

In fact, I don’t think the problem is a fitness program’s unrealistic expectations or time constraints at all.

The problem . . . lies within you.

Worded better (and less harshly!) the problem is lack of a deeply-rooted desire to train and face a ‘fitness challenge’ that requires you to make significant changes to your life.

Think about that for a second . . .

In your time on the planet, what did you do when the path to your ‘dream job’ presented itself to you?

What did you do when you met your first ‘dream guy/girl’?

What did you do when you wanted to satisfy the desires of somebody you love?

Or when you had the opportunity to buy your first dream (insert object here)?

You did what you had to do in order to achieve, right?

No obstacle, no time constraint — nothing was going to stop you from doing what you wanted to do.

Pursuing your health and fitness is no different if you’re really serious about it!!

Don’t you think that you’d pursue it relentlessly if you knew that you not only needed it, but that you wanted it too?

Of course you would!

– You’d be open to altering your nutrition, especially if it was evident that ‘everything you’ve tried in the past’ had failed to work.

– You’d be open to altering your lifestyle, knowing that that way you are currently living isn’t cutting it.

– You’d make the time to put this high on your priority list because, frankly, very little would be more important than finding a way to make your health, and the quality of your life, better!

So, instead of looking for ‘fault’ in the programs that are out there, look within yourself first.

The ‘right’ training program — the world — is right in front of you, ready to deliver exactly what you want . . . as long as you’re open to receive it!

The question is, are you willing . . . and do you really want it?

If so, leap over the perceived obstacles in your mind, throw out all of your excuses, make your schedule work, and take action.

If others can find a way to make fitness work, you can too!

What do you have to lose?

After all, the least you can expect from reward for making time and taking action, is the reward of MORE time for yourself due to the energy and empowerment cultivated by your training!

Your Personal Trainer NYC

Fifth Power Fitness, “Turning Fitness Inside Out”

The Worldwide Release Of ‘Women’s Fitness Beyond 40.’

After years of studying, practicing ‘in the trenches’ and dreaming, one of my dreams is finally coming true — the chance to bring a message and an opportunity for health and fitness worldwide!!

I can’t believe it . . . and I can’t wait!

6 months ago, I finally began writing the book that I’d been writing in my head for years.

The result was a project that became much more than a book — it became a full-on coaching program specifically for Women over the age of 40, complete with:

• a program manual (‘The Book’)
• exercise videos and descriptions
• training charts mapping out the program in full
• an online community where you can find inspiration and moral support.

AND

• 90 days of coaching — 90 days, every day — that arrives in your mailbox each morning . . . there to educate you, motivate and inspire you AND tell you EXACTLY what to do each day.

(Most importantly, those emails push you into action, so the program doesn’t collect dust inside your computer or on your desktop!  )

And now I’m ‘releasing it to the world’!!

Women’s Fitness Beyond 40

The site is up and running, and for the first 50 people who purchase, beginning at 12 EST tomorrow, I’ll have a special bonus for you, as a thank you for the opportunity to serve you.

Women’s Fitness Beyond 40

Check out the site, and be ready to go back tomorrow after 12 noon, EST, to pick up your copy!

Sweeping The World, 10/22/09 -- Grab Your Copy!

It’s a health and fitness training program that can truly transform your life — and I can’t wait to use it with you!

Are you ready?

Women’s Fitness Beyond 40

Is The “Everything In Moderation” Mindset Holding You Back From Optimal Health and Fitness?

One of the most common phrases uttered by clients around the world is ‘everything in moderation’ – as in, “I’ll be fine, I’ll shed weight, I’ll get healthier . . . as long as I stay the course and do everything in moderation.”

The thing is, individuals have come to me after years of practicing the ‘everything in moderation’ lifestyle . . . and they’re living with anything BUT the health and fitness they desire.

I believe that ‘everything in moderation’ is a crutch used to avoid choosing a specific path.

It’s an ‘easy way out’ when individuals don’t want to make tough choices and would rather pacify themselves by choosing to be moderate.

Now, some may argue that ‘moderation’ equals ‘balance’ and that being balanced is much healthier physically, mentally and emotionally than living at one extreme or another.

The thing is, 9 times out of 10 when I hear ‘everything in moderation’, the individual saying it isn’t searching for balance. They’re searching for the aforementioned easy way out — the way to live without making sacrifices — while also expecting the world!

And unfortunately, (of course) change isn’t going to come about with that mindset!

Is ‘everything in moderation’ a choice?

Sure!

Choosing moderation is a perfectly viable solution.

So is choosing ‘mediocrity’; choosing ‘average’; choosing ’standard’.

But you don’t choose ‘mediocrity’ when you aim for improved health, do you?

No! You choose to have the best health you can possibly have, right?

You don’t choose ‘average’ when you’re striving for fat loss, do you?

No! You choose to shed as much fat as you can . . . in the shortest amount of time.

You don’t look for a ’standard’ training program to do deliver you health, fitness and fat loss, right?

No! You want an excellent training program that’s going to take into consideration all of your needs, and deliver EXACTLY what you’re striving for!

So, than the question is, why would you choose anything ‘in moderation’, when achieving success requires actions above and beyond . . . average?

Take a chance!

Go beyond ‘moderation’ with your nutrition. Dedicate above average effort to your training; commit to the ‘extremes’ of a healthy lifestyle that suits you perfectly . . .

It’s the surest way to go beyond ‘moderate’ to ‘overwhelming’ health and fitness success.

Your Personal Trainer NYC – ‘Turning Fitness Inside Out.”

Women’s Fitness Beyond 40

Ignore Swine Flu Hysteria: 5 Reasons NOT to get The Swine Flu Vaccine . . . and 5 Things You Can Do To Promote Health During Flu Season

(Hint:  It’s No Secret — You’ve Heard It Before!)

Admittedly, ‘Swine Flu Vaccination’ is a little off topic for what’s usually posted here. . . But if I’m going to live up to my aspirations as a health and fitness coach, this is something I simply feel I’ve got to bring up.  (My background in biomedical science and microbiology has to be used for something, right?  )

The Swine Flu is circling the globe . . . and vaccination is all the rage.  EVERYBODY is being asked to get the vaccine and, one day, it may even be forced upon you.  To top it all off, there is an incredible campaign that’s been launched to push this whole thing along even further.

Last week, another interview with another ‘expert’ proclaimed that the swine flu vaccine was safe, healthy and necessary; people were shown lining up in droves — some in ‘vaccination drive-thrus’, others in lines waiting to get inoculated  with a nasal spray injection.

The thing is, the vaccine isn’t necessarily safe, isn’t necessarily healthy and surely isn’t necessary.

At all.

Why?  I’ve got 5 reasons for you here:

5 Reasons Why You Don’t Need the Swine Flu Vaccine (or Any Flu Vaccine, for that matter).

1. Many of the professionals administering the vaccine aren’t even willing to take it themselves.

This point speaks for itself, doesn’t it?  If the vaccine was absolutely necessary, safe and guaranteed effective, you’d think these health care workers would be first in line to get injected — whether it be via nasal spray or the more traditional intravenous injection. . .

Take the lead of the healthcare workers shunning the vaccine . . . and stay away.

2.  ‘Swine Flu’ may be spreading quickly, but it isn’t any worse for you than the ‘average’ yearly flu.

In fact, data is pointing to it being less deadly than the flu bug strain(s) that annually  work their way around the globe.

If vaccinations are optional for the ’standard’ flu, and the standard flu is more dangerous, what’s the point of getting a swine flu vaccination?

3.  There’s no guarantee the Swine Flu vaccine will keep you from getting the flu.

One of the most ridiculous arguments given for using the vaccine is that it’s perfectly matched for the strain of swine flue that currently exists.  (One of the first times this has ever occurred).

This doesn’t guarantee anything!

Influenza has the unique trait of containing 8 genetic strands per viral capsule, leaving it incredibly vulnerable to mutation, especially if it replicates in the vicinity of another (different) strain.

(Example:  Horse flu replicates in the vicinity of bird flu, resulting in a new flu strain that is a hybrid of horse and bird flu).

So, the vaccine may be ‘perfect’ now, but if the virus mutates, even the slightest bit, the vaccine you’ve been given is rendered useless.

4.  You’ve got innate immunity — customized, ‘built-in’ immunity that will take care of you.

An argument made for vaccination claims that the vaccine is necessary ‘because people haven’t developed immunity to this flu strain yet.

There isn’t a virus on the planet, including tiny little cold viruses (of which there are over 200 strains), that you’ll have immunity for . . . until you’ve been exposed to it.

And when you are, your innate immunity ‘kicks in’, recognizes the flu as a foreign object and then builds up defenses against it.  Sure, you might get sick — even if you have a strong, optimally functioning immune system.  But it’ll only be temporary as adequate immunity is built up to specifically defeat the flu that you’ve acquired.

Why go through the trouble of inoculating yourself unnaturally when your body is perfectly capable of taking care of you on its own?

5.  The vaccine poses a greater risk to you than the swine flu virus itself.

This correlates with point number 1 and the fact that many health care professionals aren’t willing to vaccinate against Swine Flu.

The chemicals used to stabilize the vaccine and/or boost its effects on your immune system are often toxic, capable of leaving serious side-effects.

Even additives that aren’t outrightly toxic can harm the body because of the way that the vaccine is administered.  For example, Squalene, is a naturally occurring compound in the human body that is used as an adjuvant in the swine flu vaccine.  If it’s produced or ingested by us, all is well.  As soon as it’s injected as part of a vaccine, however, Squalene is seen as an ‘invader’ . . . leaving open the possibility that the pre-existing squalene in your body is subject to an auto-immune response . . . leaving you with a list of symptoms to deal with when all you were initially looking for was protection from a relatively harmless virus.
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Of course, the question remains . . . if you’re not going to vaccinate yourself, what can you do to prevent (or lessen the effects of) swine flu infection?

EASY! 

The answer lies in what we talk about all the time:  Build a foundation of health with . . .

. . . Awareness and Clarity of Purpose — manage your stress and bring invigorating energy to your life by knowing what you’re doing and why you’re doing it . . . and then actively pursuing it!

. . .  Quality Nutrition — eating nutrient-rich, whole foods that cater to your individual needs, giving you the ingredients to build an optimally structured, optimally functioning body.  Of course, one of the critical factors in all of this is drastically reducing/ fully eliminating sugar from your diet, as sugar negatively effects immune system function.

. . . Adequate Sleep — a healthy body prepares itself to stay that way by getting sleep, with the hours between 10pm and 2am being the most critical for physical repair and a ‘boost’ to the immune system.

. . . Exercise — a well-designed training program will enhance the effects of your healthy lifestyle choices.

. . . Good Hygiene — wash those hands! 

Once again, staying healthy comes down to simplicity.  There is nothing that we can do to the body/for our body that is more effective than what the body can do on its own.

No treatment.  No drug.  No vaccine.  At best, our interventions simply create an opportunity for the body to do what it does naturally; at worst, they cause problems that didn’t exist to begin with . . . that could have been avoided.

Cultivate the health that your body is innately designed to maintain, and you’ll thrive perfectly well without the swine flu vaccine.

Thanks for reading.   If there’s anything you’d like to add or discuss,  please leave a comment!

YOUR Personal Trainer NYC|Fifth Power Fitness — ‘Turning Fitness Inside Out.’

Shed Excess Body Fat By Changing Your Mindset.

It goes without saying that, over the course of his/her career, a dedicated personal trainer will work with countless individuals who have struggled with their attempt(s) to lose body fat.  Commonly, of course, the problem tends to be such things as poor nutrition, inadequate rest and/or ineffective training programs.

‘Mindset’ plays a critical role as well.

A person might be ‘on’ their nutrition, might be getting enough sleep and might be ‘killing it’ in the gym, but their mental approach to the whole situation leads to less than optimal results . . . or results that only last temporarily.

My friend Charlotte Ord, an excellent coach in the UK, wrote a great article that touched on this concept . . . take a look! 

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Be Careful What You Wish For . . .

By Charlotte Ord

(October 10, 2009)  People, lots and lots and lots of people, want to lose fat and lose weight. Nothing wrong with that, right? Hmm, well I’d say wrong.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about the power of the mind and gave you an insight into just how powerful the mind can be. So let’s have a quick think about what signals we are atually telling our mind when we say, ‘I want to lose weight/fat.’

Take a moment to have a think about all the things that you’ve lost in the last year.  My list goes something like this:

• My wallet
• My keys
• My favourite necklace
• One earring
• A training folder
• A magnetic therapy bracelet
• Numerous socks
• 2 crop tops (how one loses these things is beyond me, but I managed it!)

…ok you get my drift.

Now what do all these things have in common? (Read the rest . . . )

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One of my favorite areas of study back in graduate school was neuroimmunology because it studied the very tangible interaction between ‘mind and body’ . . . and it made (for me) the importance of having a strong, positive mind all the more apparent.

Whether you’re struggling to lose fat because you view the glass as half-empty versus half-full . . .

or  you’re struggling because you focus on all the problems associated with the challenge of ’shedding fat’, rather than unveiling the solutions that will help you overcome said challenge . . .

or you’re struggling due to ’semantics’ — thinking of ‘losing fat’ versus ’shedding fat’ . . .

the key here is that successful incineration of excess body fat requires the right mindset . . . just as much as it requires optimal nutrition, adequate rest and an effective fitness program.

Change your mindset; shift your perspective and increase the likelihood that you’ll shed your unwanted pounds . . . permanently.

Thanks for reading!

YOUR Personal Trainer NYC

P.S.  Have a success story about how your shift in mindset contributed to your fitness success?  Please share it in the comments – I’d love to hear it!

5 Reasons Your Cutting Edge Fat Loss Program Is Failing You.

You’re carrying an excess of body fat and decide to begin ‘training for fat loss’, following all the best advice from all the expert coaches in all the fitness magazines and on all the most reputable websites around the world.

• You’ve stopped doing ‘traditional cardio’ in favor of strength training.
• When you ‘do’ cardio, you do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), not long slow distance (LSD).
• You’ve done ‘total body training’, 3 days per week, because studies (and work in the trenches) have shown that this is the most time efficient and effective way to transform your body.
• Everything you think, feel and do is dedicated to turning your body into a fat-burning furnace via higher metabolism and increased strength.

The only problem seems to be that all of this scientifically-justified, ‘in-the-trenches’ training isn’t working for YOU.

All your hard work . . .  and all you’ve got to show for it is fatigue, frustration and little to no fat loss.  Or, worse yet, you did succeed, but have since regressed and are left wondering “What happened?” as you begin again from square one.

If this describes you or somebody you know, here are 5 reasons why your fat loss training program is failing you:

1.  You view training as if it’s a ‘magic pill.’
Common sentiment these days seems to be that exercise is the central figure in getting you healthy.  You buy the optimal training program, you train hard, you train consistently . . . and the rest of your life falls into place.

You eat what you want — “No problem!  Exercise makes up for it!”

You drink regularly with your friends – ‘No problem!!  Exercising harder ‘cancels out’ the beers.”

But training isn’t a remedy for fixing or ‘overriding’ consistently poor choices. It just doesn’t work that way.  If you view it as a ‘magic pill’, you’re setting yourself up for disappointing results because, frankly there’s a little more to training than ‘just training’, whether that’s a premise you want to accept or not.

2.  You worry more about the quantity of calories you consume and less about the quality.

To this day, the common focus by those fixated on fat loss is on burning calories.

Eat (a little) less!  Burn more!

It’s as if food’s only responsibility is to provide you with energy when you’re depleted . . . and, again, that’s simply not the case.

When eating, your primary focus should be on the quality of the food you’re eating.  Quality food builds a quality infrastructure while building an optimally functioning body — one that will favorably respond to the rigors of your training.

3.  You view exercise as an ‘isolated event’ in your life and not as part of a lifelong journey.

If you do this, you tend to treat your ‘exercising self’ as an alter-ego of the real you.  You live one way when you’re not training; you live another when you are.  You eat ‘good foods’ when you’re training; ‘bad foods’ as soon as you get into shape.

The thing is, of course, that the ‘exercising you’ and the ‘real you’ are one in the same person, living one life — a life that responds best to consistency and flow.  If you live a life of inconsistency, where you ‘live healthy’ only when you’ve got to burn fat  and fall off the wagon as soon as your use of the ‘perfect fat loss program’ has finished, the roller coaster ride that your body has taken leads to hard-to-achieve (or fleeting) results.

4.  You’re using a training program that’s not aligned with your specific training goals.

A healthy lifestyle is important for having any program work, but assuming you’ve got ‘healthy’ down, you’ve got to make sure that you’re using a training program that will deliver according to your specific needs.

If you’re going to burn fat, you’ll best be served by strength training and metabolic conditioning.  If you’re trying to add significant muscle, you’ll want a training program that delivers high intensity and high volume.  If you’re simply looking to kick the living heck out of yourself because, well, you can, then you’d be served by some incredibly intense conditioning.  Point being, after (or concurrent with) cultivating health, if you want to get specific results, you’ll want to choose training that will deliver those specific results as efficiently and effectively as possible.

5.  You’re using a training program that’s not ‘ideal’ based on your current stress/health status.

If your underlying health isn’t supporting the fitness program you’re doing, you won’t see the results you expect.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the greatest training program on Earth!

It doesn’t matter if you feel you can do the training — ability to do a program doesn’t imply guaranteed results!

Quite simply, you’ve got to choose exercise that will bring balance and harmony to your underlying physiology. If you’re chronically over-stressed your body is going to respond best to activity that encourages rejuvenation, rebuilding and recovery (think: qi-gong, yoga, a walk in the park, etc.), not to the latest, greatest ‘run yourself into the ground’ fat loss program.

In the end, it comes down to this:

Blindly choosing exercise because ‘it’s the best method for fat loss’ without looking at the big picture and considering such things as ‘what your body needs from ITS perspective’ can end up being an exercise in futility.  You might feel good in the moment (because you feel the burn and you’re sweating profusely), but what you’re doing could be the exact opposite of what’s necessary to truly transform into the image of what you want.

Take this into consideration, and you’ll have much greater success with any fitness program you follow from this point forward.

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Are you getting the results you want from your training program?  Let me know in the comments!  If you’re stuck and looking for suggestions I’d be happy to help!

Thanks for reading!

Your Personal Trainer NYC

Make Your Focus FAT Loss, NOT Weight Loss.

Picture Perfect Weight

You dedicate 12 weeks to improving your nutrition habits, managing your stress and training hard . . . and

Focus on Fat Loss (and Losing Inches), NOT Weight Loss.

the results are in:

The hypertension and high cholesterol you had?  Gone.

Your energy levels are consistently through the roof.

You sleep better.

You look refreshed, awake, younger.

You can see a tangible improvement in your physique and the clothes that once tightly clung to you are falling off.

Your friends and family can’t take their eyes off you and are amazed at the transformation you’ve made.

You never imagined that you could sustain a healthy lifestyle for 12 weeks, let alone achieve it. . .  and then have a desire to maintain it.

You are living life to the fullest and filled with happiness.

You LOVE the way you look.

Can you picture this?  Do you have this image burned into your mind?

Now, you step on the scale in front of you for the big weigh in.  You look down with anticipation and discover. . . that you weigh 2 pounds more than when you started.

Does that change anything?
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You’d think the obvious answer here would be “NO!” . . . or “It Shouldn’t!!”, but it’s amazing how often that’s not the case!!

Time after time, I’ve had clients come to me (or heard people around me) absolutely distraught about the number that they see on the scale . . . and I’m telling you, weight just doesn’t matter!!

Weight doesn’t matter!

Sure, it’s an indicator of where things are going, but there are many things that determine that . . . and a scale simply won’t give that information to you.

So don’t worry about it!!

It’s simple.  If you’re too focused on weight (and that focus is taking you on an emotional roller coaster dependent on what the scale is telling you), you’re expending too much energy on something that just isn’t giving you enough valid information in exchange for the stress that ‘weight’ typically causes.

Focus on what is important – losing excess fat.  Losing inches off your waistline (your butt, your thighs,  . . . {insert most ‘problematic’ area here}).  Losing that fat . . .and those inches . . . and feeling great, functioning well and getting stronger physically, mentally and emotionally all at the same time!

Focus on fat loss . . . and all your weight loss issues will certainly disappear!

Sound good? 

7 Simple Concepts To Help You Eat Better.

“As a culture we seem to have arrived at a place where whatever native wisdom we may once have possessed about eating has been replaced by confusion and anxiety. Somehow this most elemental of activities — figuring out what to eat — has come to require a remarkable amount of expert help.”  ‐‐ Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma
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Many times, even when information is laid out in front of you explaining exactly what to do, nutrition can be confusing.

Who the heck to you believe?

The media?  The government?  Your local farmer?

Your parents who raised you to eat a ‘particular’ way?

Your religion?

Confusion comes as a result of (among other things) the diverse resources from which you get it.  Many times you can’t figure out what to do simply because you don’t know how to piece all the information — from all the different resources — together.

And I’m sure this frustrates you because all you’re trying to do is ‘get your nutrition right’ . . . yet you have no idea what to do (or who to believe after being bombarded by conflicting information.

(All this being said and I haven’t discussed the fact that you’re probably running around with an insane schedule, simply trying to make the time to have a meal, let alone muddle through the confusion of nutrition!!)

What’s the best way to get around this?

Keep things simple.

Get back to the basics and often times the answers will be found there . . .

7 Simple Things To Consider To Help You Eat Better

1. When you’re hungry.  Eat.  Eat quality, nutritious foods.  (What are those?  Start with the list found in this nutrition program!)

2. When you’re full, stop eating.

3. Quality is important, first and foremost.  Eat animals and plants that are untainted — no antibiotics, no steroids, no genetic modification, not given foods that are unnatural to them, not grown in nutrient poor soil, not bathed in pesticides.

4. If you’re eating quality, eating according to your body’s individual needs and listening to what your body is telling you, calories don’t mean much.  Your body runs the show and it won’t ask for anything more (or less) than it needs.

5. Recognize that you’ll likely be very hungry on days that you’re very active . . . and less hungry on days that you’re not.  It’s the least you can expect — if you demand energy from your body, it’s going to demand that you replenish it!

6. Avoid foods ‘manufactured’ by man.  Regardless of what we think, we really can’t do things better than mother nature — and we sure as heck can’t outsmart her!

7. Recognize that you’re built and re-built by the foods that you eat.  Quality fats, proteins and carbohydrates are broken down into their most basic building blocks when you digest them.  Those building blocks are shipped to your body where needed (and as needed) to construct quality cell structures, cells, tissues, organs, systems . . . a quality YOU.  Eat junk and you reconstruct your body out of junk.  Eat quality and you’re built out of ‘the best that money can buy.’

Just taking these 7 points into consideration will go a long way to ending your confusion and getting you on the fast track to health.

Try it . . . and let me know how it goes!!

Trust the process of ‘getting healthy’.  Know and trust your body.  And keep things simple!

Thanks for reading!

Why Specificity Is Important In Fitness Programs.

I was in the middle of a set of deadlifts when a gym member walked by and made the following remark:

“That weight looks really heavy — heavier than you should be lifting — what are you lifting it for?”

I’m look at him quizzically thinking, “What?  Was my form bad?”  (No. . .  Thank you very much! )

He continued, “I thought there was more to you than just wanting to be big…. And that’s what you’re doing by lifting that weight, isn’t it?  Otherwise, why else would somebody want to lift such heavy weights?”

“Well. . .  I want to get stronger,” I said.  “And I have a particular strength goal that I’m trying to reach. . . so I’m using a progressive regimen that’ll help me get there.”   It’s that simple – and that specific.
The conversation was probably more intriguing to me because it popped up absolutely out of nowhere, but it left me thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to touch on the importance of this concept.
Many people train.  Few have a clue as to what they’re doing as they embark on their fitness programs.

Oh, sure. . they have an IDEA:

“They wanna sweat.”

“They wanna work hard.”

“They wanna FEEL like they’re doing something.”

“They’re doing the program they saw in that fitness magazine. . . or that they saw that person doing . . . or that they saw that trainer teaching. . .”

And then they go and throw their body around (apparently) for the sake of throwing it around, in search of symptoms of exertion.

While I can appreciate that there may very well be as many reasons to strength train as there are people on this Earth, I’d like to think that most of us aren’t “just doing it for the sake of doing it.”  We’ve got a particular goal in mind, whether it be:

• training for performance in a particular sport
• adding 12 lbs of muscle in 12 weeks
• losing 20 lbs of fat in 12 weeks
• improving your posture while rehabbing a back injury so that you can work without pain
• increasing your cardiovascular strength and endurance by 50%
• improving a deadlift from 225 to 350 lbs

And each of these goals requires a specific plan of attack in order to effectively achieve it.

That’s the whole point.

If we’re going to reach our goal(s), our fitness programs require a plan . . .  we can’t just be flailing around the gym – moving for the sake of moving – without direction in mind.

So, what’s your specific goal?

Why are you doing it?

And what’s your plan of attack?