Attiftude of gratitude

·         "Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation."

·         Brian Tracy

Happiness

·         "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

·         Albert Schweitzer

 

four strategies to indulge:

Regardless of your long term vision, it’s important to remember that any diet can include an allowance for dessert. Here are four strategies that will help you find an effective way to indulge:

1. The percentage rule 

Some people go by 90:10 and others 80:20. Either way, the concept is simple: 10 (or 20) percent of your daily calories are “free” for whatever you want to eat. So if you’re on a 2,000 calorie/day diet, you can eat 100 calories of whatever you want, whether it’s ice cream, candy, or cake. If you choose this route, just make sure you’re aware of portion sizes and don’t overeat.

2. The cheat meal 

If you have trouble counting calories or keeping an eye on your meal size, this might be your preferred option. In this strategy, you choose 1 (or maybe 2) meals per week when you can eat whatever you want. No rules. No restrictions. Just enjoy. I’ve seen this approach work great for many people. But, if you have a lot of weight to lose, I recommend avoiding this in the early process of your transformation. Oftentimes it increases cravings for the bad foods that you’re trying to remove, and can make your eating changes more difficult.

3. The post-workout approach 

If you’re a macro person (track your carbs, proteins, and fats), this is a wonderful option. When you’re aware of how many proteins/carbs/fats you consume, it’s easy to make food substitutions and eat “bad” foods without a negative consequence. And there’s no better time for a small indulgence than after a workout. Enjoy a sugary cereals, or pancakes as part of your “healthy” post-workout routine.

4. The random 

I guess you could call this the Born. It’s the strategy that I’ve followed for years, and it seems to work best for my goals. Here’s how it goes: I eat healthy year round. I do have weekly cheat meals. I know what’s good for me (fruits, vegetables, lean sources of protein, whole foods), and that’s all I eat. And I love my diet. I understand that this is a struggle for people, but when you learn to eat healthy, you find that most options taste delicious.  But sometimes, life calls for an indulgence. So when I go on vacation I eat and don’t worry about the consequences. Why? Because I knew that after my vacation, my healthy behaviors would return and I would be back on track. 

Regardless of what you chose (or if you even eat dessert), make sure you approve of your approach to diet and fitness. Although being healthy can be challenging or force change, ultimately it should never be uncomfortable. That's how you make it last.

Let go

o    "Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?"

o    Mary Morrissey

resolve conflicts

Resolve conflicts with others.
Always forgive people and move on, even if they never ask for your forgiveness. Don’t do it for them – do it for yourself. Get that unnecessary stress out of your life.

Non-doer

A non-doer is very often a critic—that is, someone who sits back and watches doers, and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It's easy to be a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk, and change.

Leave no Doubt

·         You've done it before and you can do it again. Redirect the energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, unstoppable determination. Don't give up. There are too many naysayers who will try to discourage you. Don't listen to them. The only one who can make you give up is yourself. Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache-the greatest glory is rising up and smashing the challenge. Leave no doubt.

 

Act big

·         The reason why we often find ourselves in the same place time after time is we fail to trust ourselves enough to follow our dreams. You know the way, you know what to do, now give yourself permission to live out your boldest dreams. Don't just think big, it's time to act big.

 

10 Rules to a better Physique

10 Rules to a better Physique

1. Use compound lifts: Utilizing multi-joint movements such as bench presses, pull-ups, rows, shoulder presses, squats and leg presses in your routines will ensure you are hitting more than one muscle with maximum weight. This will help you become efficient in the gym.

2. Use a weight you can handle: Be sure you are using a weight you have control of. Do not load the bar with so much weight that your training partner is helping on the first rep.

3. Use proper form: Make sure to use good form for each lift not only for safety but for function of your training. If you just throw the weights around you will not target the specific muscle.

4. For the majority of the time use a rep range of 6 to 12: This is the range typically used if muscle mass is what you are after, but strength will come also.

5. Try doing drop sets for stubborn body parts: Sometimes all you need is a kick in a certain area’s butt to get things going again. Use this technique on the last one or two sets of a movement. Perform a set as you would normally do it, then strip some weight off and continue with your reps and you can strip the weight several times before the muscle is toast!

6. Use antagonistic supersets: This is the old technique Arnold used quite often. Superset chest with back, triceps with biceps, and quadriceps with hamstrings. For example; perform a set of bench presses and then without rest move over to pull-ups for a set. Alternate like this until you have completed all of your sets. You will not only save time but you will have a skin-tearing pump!

7. Blast through weak points with compound supersets: A compound superset is when two sets are done back to back with different movements but for the same body part. This is a brutal way to “wake up” more muscle fibers to get it to react.

8. Hydrate: Drink plenty of water while you train. We lose an enormous amount of fluid during training and it must be replaced if building a better physique is our goal.

9. Set a time limit: Some days you may feel like you drag in the gym. Try to get your whole workout in say an hour. This will prevent you from too much lag time and more productivity while training.

10. Take off: Sometimes what everyone needs is a little well-deserved rest away from the gym to help recharge our “batteries.” After a few days away you will be ready to get back at it with a brand new attitude and muscle pump!

Courageous Action

·         More often in life, we end up regretting the chances in life that we had, but didn’t take them, than those chances that we took and wished we had not. The greatest risk in life is not risking anything at all. Do not think too long, go do what you know you need to do. Be bold. Go tackle grand tasks. Accomplish your dreams. Aggressively pursue those things that spark that energy and passion within you. Once you let go of the invisible weights holding you back, you will wonder why you stood still in time so long holding them. Futures reward courageous action.

Closer to your goals

o    "Keep replacing any thought or belief that’s keeping you from accomplishing your goals with an empowering thought or belief that will take you closer to your goals."

o    Jack Canfield

Transformation

Every positive step that you take is transforming your being. With the consistent use of your will and steady determined practice of what you have learned, you will be amazed at how fast transformation takes place. Transformation of your being brings a peace and a joy that is indescribable. You have to experience it to know it, but once you do, you will never go back.

Purpose

You cannot do anything about yesterday, but you control today. Be your best, align with people who lift you up, do the things that give you a sense of purpose, choose not to merely exist but rather thrive and create a lasting wake of positivity. The past does not define you, all that matters is you take every moment today and define your future.

Happy New Year!

AN APPLE FOR A SWEET NEW YEAR!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wishing you a very sweet, healthy, joyful, successful and peaceful year!

Create

There is a truth deep inside of you that has been waiting for you to discover it, and that Truth is: you deserve all good things life has to offer. You know that, because you feel awful when you are experiencing the lack of good things. All good things are your birthright! You are the creator of you, and the law of attraction is your magnificent tool to create whatever you want in your life.

The 5 Rules of Fat Loss

The 5 Rules of Fat Loss

Successful fat loss plans have a few things in common. Five, actually. You probably already know what they are, but let's refresh just in case.

1. Don't eat so much

In other words, if you're eating a typical diet, you're probably eating a bit too much food to lose fat. That's right, the food you eat that isn't used by your body for energy and re-building gets stored as fat. Simple stuff, but it's often overlooked. That's because most of us have no idea how much food we really eat.

Our job is to help our clients become aware of how much food they're eating. Seems small, but it makes a big difference.

Here's a simple way to do that: Grab a notebook and write down everything you eat for the next three days. After those three days you'll have a rough idea of how much food you normally eat.

Then all you have to do is replace a few calorie dense foods with calorie dilute foods. Or just trim back your portions a little. Voila. Same amount of food, instant calorie-reduction, no stress.

2. Eat healthy food

Depending on who you ask, "healthy" food can mean different things. But there is one universal truth: More nutrients with fewer calories is a recipe for success.

In general, the best foods are lean meats, vegetables, high-quality fats, and maybe a small amount of starches, depending on your carbohydrate tolerance. The best part about these foods? They're also fairly low in calories compared to processed stuff.

3. Move more often

Most people think the only way to lose weight is to work out for 5+ hours per week or go for morning jogs. Fortunately, this is not true. We've seen some remarkable fat-loss progress in clients who simply moved more often.

Taking the stairs, going for a morning bike ride, or walking to lunch instead of driving may seem like small steps, but they make a big impact on how your body feels and how many calories you burn.

Of course, this isn't all you need to become a cover model, but it does kick-start the fat loss process. It also supports rules number four and five.

4. Do strength training a few times per week

To look and feel better and speed up the rate of fat loss, you need to do muscle-preserving exercises like weight-training or bodyweight workouts. They don't need to be too intense, and they certainly don't have to take a long time.

The best thing you can do is start slowly and visit the gym two or three times per week. Perform a small circuit of full-body exercises like squats, lunges, rows, and presses. It all takes about 45 minutes.

A word of caution: Working out is something most people over-think. The truth is, you don't need a perfect program to start the process. All you need is something that gets you in the gym a few times per week and has you lifting weights or doing some sort of challenging body weight exercises. Adding complexity can come later.

5. Do intervals (aka "Cardio")

If strength training was your muscle-preserving exercise, intervals are your calorie-burning activity. Doing short bursts of work followed by longer periods of recovery helps your body burn a tremendous amount of calories.

To start, all you have to do is get on an exercise bike, treadmill, or other cardio equipment and try the following:

30 second burst of fast pedaling or running
60 second recovery of slow pedaling or jogging

That's one round. Go back and forth between the "intense burst" and "recovery" and repeat that for a total of six rounds.

And that's it.

 

Fear

Fear is a habit; so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: I can! and I will!”

Lack of faith

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.

obsticles

The biggest obstacle can most often times be ourselves. If your goals are to be healthier and take care of yourself; to feel better and have more energy; to look better and be more comfortable, then get out of your own way and stop making excuses! You can do anything you set your mind to!

Difficulties

Sometimes you face difficulties not because you’re doing something wrong, but because you’re doing something right.

Courage

·         Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

·         Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not intimidated

·         "The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a mountain -- he is inspired by it. The persistent winner is not discouraged by a problem -- he is challenged by it. Mountains are created to be conquered; adversities are designed to be defeated; problems are sent to be solved. It is better to master one mountain... than a thousand foothills.”

·         William Arthur Ward

5 quick tips

5 quick tips

1.) No Ego Training (NET)

It's not always about lifting the heaviest possible weight...you can build muscle with your own body weight and isolation exercises and your more likely to remain injury free. The amount of times I see people training biceps with massive weights but with no form...then they complain their arms aren't growing!!? That's because they are mostly using their backs! Don't be macho and out of proportion, be smart and symmetric!

2.) Don’t Over Train (DOT)

Every muscle including your Abs needs sufficient time to recover properly! The gym isn't meant to be for defining your jaw line by catching up on the latest gossip! Get in, focus on the muscle being trained and keep yourself motivated with music if needs be! This will prevent too many disruptions/distractions! Try and keep it under and hour with small rest periods (pending on cutting or bulking).

3.) Don’t Forget to Drink (DFD)

Drinking water is essential for anyone but more so for the training enthusiasts! Dehydration or dropping water is not the way forward! You need water to flush the system, help sweat, prevent cramping along with helping energy levels and your skin complexion.

4.) Aim For Target (ATF)

If you don't have a goal to score in, how can you win!? You need to set yourself a target to keep motivated. Observing progression is the key to staying on top. If you don't know what you want then your wasting your time...your training and nutrition needs to be synced.

5.) Natural Is Best (NIB)

Eat your way to success! Use supplements and a good progressive training and nutrition program...believe in yourself and the gains will follow.

Persist

Persist until you succeed. There may be times we face those with more talent, but never allow yourself to be outworked. Put forth your best effort. Do the things that make you perform at your highest level. Focus relentlessly and carry forward an unwavering mental toughness. Confidently know you will not have any regrets for going all in.

No limits

There really are no limits when it comes to fitness...there will always be one to push through...I love this because it shows me there will always be a new goal to reach, something new to achieve. You should never be done with your body...it is an amazing creation and deserves to be great! Push past what you think your limits are...your comfort zone and see amazing things start to happen.

limits

·         Limits are for us to define. We can go as little or as far as our minds allow. It won't be easy but achieving great things never is. It takes strength, willpower, commitment and dedication to smash through barriers. The end result...every drop of sweat, every ounce of effort you give will be worth it. Be limitless and take control of your life.

mistakes

·         Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did......