Fitness Destinations

In this edition of FitnessDTV, we are talking about Motivation and Modification – specifically, about your personal responsibility when it comes to weight loss, physical fitness, and health.

The Beachbody product line is the best out there, but even the best products in the world won’t work if you don’t consistently use them – and use them properly – in order to get RESULTS.

Any exercise equipment collecting dust at your house? Any gym memberships ever gone unused? Any workout videos just sitting on the shelf? Then this video is for YOU!

“All of the support, encouragement, gizmos, gadgets, and videos in the world don’t equal an ounce of weight loss results if you don’t consistently use those resources to work hard, challenge your body, and follow an effective nutrition plan.”

If you’re tired of not following through on your weight loss, health, or fitness goals, then join Team Beachbody or get an awesome home workout video and let us Coach you to success!

This series of posts will focus on the basics of maintaining an optimal level of health so that you are certain not to miss any of the critical steps on your way to maximum health and fitness.

Part I – What is your Primary Goal and Why?

It seems silly to even have to call out the need for this step, but you would be amazed at how many people don't really know what they want out of their diet, weight loss, or fitness program.

In 3 years of personal training, I had to hold the hand of almost every client and show them how to decide on both short-term and long-term goals.

When people are asked about their goals, there are common responses such as:

• I want to lose weight and feel good
• I want to look like I used to look in high school
• I want to be as healthy as I was before I had children
• I want to lose my pot gut
• I want to clean up my nutrition and start eating healthy

Okay, those are all "goals," technically speaking, but none of them answer the two critical questions that everyone must ask themselves at the beginning of any journey:

"What specifically do I want to accomplish?"

"Why do I want to accomplish it?"

The reason why you have to get specific about your weight loss and health goals is because you need to be able to track whether or not you are making any progress, and you also need to be able to stay very tightly focused on whatever your goal is.

If your goal is just to "lose weight," what does that look like? How do you measure that? How will you know when you have attained that goal?

If your goal is to be in the same shape you were in before you had children, how do you visualize that goal? How does that goal make you feel? How will you be able to make note of the contrast between where you are now and where you ultimately want to be? 

Just wanting to "lose weight" or "be healthy" leaves way too much room for slacking off while you are on the path to goal attainment.

After all, if you are used to eating fast food 3 times per day, then even cutting that down to once or twice a day is a serious improvement over your old habits. However, are you really staying on track if you still consistently eat junk food even once a day?

Here are some goals that are much more specific, and thus, more measurable and able to be focused upon:

• I want to lose 30 lbs in the next 4 months.
• I want to wear a size 6 dress, or wear pants with a 30-inch inseam.
• I want to be able to comfortably wear my favorite jeans that I haven't put on since I got pregnant.
• I want to be able to see the muscle definition in my stomach, or I want to be able to take off my shirt without seeing "love handles".
• I want to stop eating food that raises my cholesterol, increases my risk for heart disease, or that puts me at risk for diabetes. 

Do you see how each one of those examples can be easily measured, seen, felt, and focused upon? Your own goal list should have those same characteristics.

As far as determining why you want to attain your goal, that is just as important as determining the specific goal that you want to accomplish.

Make no mistake, creating a healthy body where one did not previously exist can be hard work. Without knowing why you want to accomplish your weight loss or health goals, what will keep you on track during the sometimes difficult journey to goal attainment?

When the couch or a nice warm bed is keeping you from wanting to do your daily workout, what will you think about that will cause you to jump up and get started?

When a big piece of chocolate cake is offered to you after an already nutritionally sufficient meal, what will cross your mind that causes you to turn it down?

When the siren call of "responsibility" causes you to want to stay at work rather than deal with your daily exercise needs, how will you justify shutting down operations and heading out the door?

As you consider answers to these types of questions, you need to really dig deep. You can't rely on images of super-models, hot beach bodies, and fame & fortune to keep you on track.  

Your "why" reasons should be much more personal than simple aesthetic or materialistic gain. Everyone wants to look and feel healthy. What are your specific reasons for bending over backwards to ensure a maximum level of health and fitness?  

This concludes Part I of the Health, Diet, and Weight Loss Checklist Series. Feel free to share your comments on this entry, and you may also click here to read the other entries from this series.

Depending on the circles that you run in, you may or may not have heard about a very powerful force in your life that is called the Law of Attraction. It’s powers are literally limitless and utilizing those powers is absolutely free of charge!

Who doesn’t want Unlimited Cosmic Power without even having to bust open their wallet?

I will start with a brief introduction to the Law of Attraction, and then I will get right into how you can use this universal power for something that a lot of people care about – losing weight!

In simple terms, the Law of Attraction basically states that “like attracts like”. Whatever thoughts and feelings that you focus on the most will literally determine your future.

In fact, the Law of Attraction has already been working for you and every other life form in our universe since the beginning of time. However, only recently has education about its incredible power become readily available to the general public.

So how is it that the Law of Attraction can help you to lose weight? Simple – you just need to think about it! Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, it actually is just that easy, but an explanation of exactly how you are supposed to “think” will help you to understand this process better. You can then take that knowledge and use it to help you with your weight loss or fitness goals.

Earlier I said that the Law of Attraction has been working for all life since the beginning of time, which begs the question, “Then why haven’t I lost any weight yet?”. In fact, that same question could be asked about pretty much any other goal that anyone has ever had. If all we have to do is think about something in order to bring it into our lives, then why aren’t we all rich, perfectly healthy, and living happily ever after?

The simple answer is that most people – without even knowing it – don’t really think about what they want. They think about the fact that they DON’T have it. Now, if you’ll go back briefly to the definition of the Law of Attraction – like attracts like – then you will see that the reason why people don’t have the things that they want is because all they ever do is think about NOT having those things.

This same concept applies to weight loss and health just as efficiently as it applies to everything else. A lot of people want to lose weight, but rather than think about how wonderful their life will be once they have lost the weight, they instead think about how miserable they are because they HAVEN’T lost the weight!

Think about it. If you need to lose weight, which of the following statements describes your thoughts/feelings when you walk in front of a mirror without any clothes on:

a) I am so sexy since I have my weight under control, and I have an unlimited amount of confidence. I can date anyone that I please and my biggest problem is deciding which little tiny piece of clothing to wear to the beach or the swimming pool.

b) I am so FAT! I can’t even stand to look at myself in the mirror, so how can I expect anyone else to want to look at me? I’ll be lucky if I don’t have to take my clothing size up another notch or two at the rate I’m going.

Now, be honest. Which one of those statements do you think comes closer to the way that people who need to lose weight think of themselves?

Once again referring back to the Law of Attraction – If you think miserable, sad, guilty, or low self-esteem powered thoughts, then the Law of Attraction will dutifully bring you more things to be miserable about. In fact, the more miserable you are about any particular subject – say, weight loss – the more powerfully you will attract more of the same since that is your primary focus.

So, the answer to utilizing the power of the Law of Attraction for weight loss is to simply stop thinking about your situation in such a negative manner! Start thinking positive thoughts, confident thoughts, and thoughts of happiness, smaller clothing sizes, and showing more skin at the beach.

When you successfully do those things, the Law of Attraction will start to move around the chess pieces that affect your life, and before you know it, you will have whatever it is that you need in order to finally get in shape.

It may come in the form of a free gym membership, a workout partner, a piece of home exercise equipment that you actually want to use, a new motivation to get involved in some sort of physical activity, or any number of other things that will put you on the path to weight loss.

Here’s the rub, though – You can’t sit around and get hung up on the details. Mike Dooley said it best in the movie ‘The Secret’ – “The How’s are the domain of the Universe!”

You don’t need to worry about HOW it is going to happen, you just have to feel the positive, confident emotions that will MAKE it happen. The Universe will then step in and show you the path!

Set and measure your goals! If you don't know specifically where you want to go, how can you possibly know if you are on the right track to get there?

Everyone wants to "lose weight" or "feel better". What does that MEAN? Does it mean that you want to drop 4 dress sizes? Does it mean you want to shed 30 pounds? Does it mean that you want to lose a certain percentage of bodyfat? Does it mean that you want to run the 100-yard dash in a certain period of time?

The moral to this story is that if you don't know SPECIFICALLY what you want out of your fitness program and SPECIFICALLY when you want to have it by, you are going to have a hard time even knowing if you are on the right track. You need to set and measure your goals on a frequent basis. Get on a scale once a week, have your bodyfat checked, run the 100-yard dash to see if your time is improving.

When you measure your progress, it allows you to modify your program if necessary to stay on track for your goals. If you need to lose 1 pound a week to get to your goal, but you are only losing half a pound each week, then you need to make some changes to get on a faster track to success.

Set and measure your goals, and you will be amazed at how motivating it can be.