Month: March 2022

You get married. Have a baby. Move across the world. Start going to night school so you can get a degree. All of these are life-changing events that make you a different person. But did you know your life can change significantly just by spending some time on strength training?

That’s right—if you’re willing to commit to strength training, your life will change significantly in seven ways. Here they are.

Change #1: Toned

This one’s obvious for anyone who has ever stepped inside a gym. When you add strength training to your routine, your body shapes up quickly. Working with me, you can determine an appropriate strength-training regimen that will give your body the look you desire. When you look better, you feel better and more confident. But lifting weights isn’t just about looking good…

Change #2: Health Risks Drop

Want to reduce your worry factor significantly? Then start lifting weights. When you do, you’ll find your body has better defense against the common cold and other everyday illnesses. But that’s not all. By lifting weights and staying healthy, you’ll be better able to sidestep countless diseases that plague so many—from diabetes and cancer to heart disease and stroke.

Change #3: You’ll Go Longer

Ever just want to crash and burn after a hard day at work? Wish you had the stamina to play a game of kickball with your kids on the weekends? Lifting weights will help you improve your stamina so you can do just that. Once you’ve lifted weights for a while, your muscles grow stronger and you learn how to power through even when you’re feeling a bit worn out. Going longer, however, isn’t reserved for the athletic field.

Change #4: Sex Improves

Lifting weights may not transform you into some sort of sexual maniac, but it will do lots of good things for your body that in turn translates to good things for your sexual abilities. One way strength training does this is by improving blood flow throughout your body, which is important for sexual function. On top of blood flow, you will feel better about your body and become less likely to struggle with sexual dysfunction.

Change #5: You Can Focus

Meetings aren’t the most exciting events in the world. They drone on for hours, and your involvement does little to help those you’re meeting with find solutions. Until you start lifting weights. Suddenly, your brain is getting the blood flow necessary for optimal function and your brain even grows new cells. Once your most important muscle kicks into overdrive, you’re ready to be alert and thoughtful.

Change #6: You’ll Smile More

Life is not easy. And when it comes at you full force, the stress can be too much. When this happens, you may find yourself spiraling into a bout of sadness or even depression. Lift weights regularly, however, and you’ll experience something the prescription-producing world doesn’t want you to know. Lifting weights gives your body what it needs to fend off depression. And you don’t need a doctor’s appointment for a weight-lifting session.

Change #7: You Live in the Now

It is good to plan and know what you’re doing with your life. However, if you spend all your life worried about what you’re going to do with yourself when you retire in 23 years, you’re missing out on something very important: the here and now. When you lift weights, you’re forced to focus on the task at hand. Otherwise, you’ll never get that final rep in. By incorporating strength training, your life is changed for the better, because you finally learn to live in the moment, a skill that translates to increased life satisfaction.

Sound good to you? Give me a call or shoot me an email today to get started on a fitness routine that’s custom tailored to your needs.

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Most people say they want to be fit, and yet only a very small percentage actually are fit. Why is this? Because they are doing the WRONG THINGS!

Here are 5 examples to get you started on your fitness journey…

#1: DO THIS: Exercise DailyThe truly fit among us choose to hit the gym instead of getting extra sleep, watching TV or doing whatever else it is that you’d rather be doing. Exercise is a daily habit that simply becomes a way of life, rather than a task that’s begrudgingly undertaken on occasion. Incorporate challenging exercise until – gasp – you begin to enjoy and look forward to it!

NOT THIS: Forget Exercise

Your focus is to spend your spare time being as relaxed as possible. This means plenty of kicking back on the couch. The less that you use your muscles, the more aches, pains and mobility limitations you’ll experience. Oh, and if you’re consuming more calories than your natural metabolism burns then you’ll steadily gain weight.

#2: DO THIS: Eat Clean – All The Time

Choose your meals based on nutrition rather than taste and desire. This means plenty of salads, lettuce wrapped sandwiches and lean protein at most meals. Being fit means making it a habit to limit your intake of simple carbohydrates and get lots of protein and fiber.

NOT THIS: Eat For Taste

Eat whatever sounds and tastes good. Our human palate is naturally drawn to items that are high in sugar, salt and fat so your eat-whatever-diet will naturally be filled with these fattening foods and will be lacking in protein and fiber. You’ll find your weight increases, and your energy levels plummet, accordingly.

#3: DO THIS: No Room For Junk

Truly fit people turn down their favorite junk foods –even when they really, really want it. Treats and indulgences are saved for special occasions, and the fact that it’s Monday or that there’s traffic doesn’t count as a special occasion (nice try though!). Cut out simple sugars and harmful, processed fats out of your diet completely.

NOT THIS: Say YES to junk food. Snacks and meals purchased at convenience stores and fast food restaurants are a staple in your diet. And as I mentioned above, your favorite foods are likely high in sugar, salt and fat. Your indulgent eating is going to raise the number on your scale higher, and higher, in addition to putting you at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and other weight related ailments.

#4: DO THIS: Push Harder

Being fit is a constant progression. You push your body to be stronger, faster and better during each workout. There’s no such thing as simply going through the motions of your routine – instead your focus is to consistently challenge your muscles to do more each day.

NOT THIS: Stay Comfortable

Your goal is to be comfy. This means use as little muscular strength as you can on a daily basis. When you don’t use your muscles they begin to atrophy (shrink!), leaving you with less lean tissue. Since lean tissue raises your metabolism, a drop in lean tissue means you’ll be burning fewer calories at rest than ever before causing fat gain to be automatic.

#5: DO THIS: Control Calories

Forget the unlimited buffet line. Being fit requires that you limit your total calories to within an appropriate range for your size and goals. Remember, even healthy calories can add up to weight gain when you’re not careful, so calorie control becomes a way of life.

NOT THIS: Pile It On

There’s no limit on how much you eat – in fact, more is better. As a result you often feel sluggish from your overloaded digestive system. And your motivation to exercise and turn your Flab Life into a Fit Life gets dimmer and dimmer.

Which choice will you make?

The truth is that both of these lifestyles are hard. Just depends on which hard you’d rather deal with.

The Fit Life’s hard has to do with discipline, motivation and determination. It’s about doing the right thing rather than the easy thing. Most of all, the Fit Life is about constantly striving forward.

The Flab Life’s hard has to do with excess fat, aches, pains and physical limitations. It’s about avoiding doing the hard thing now and ending up with a body that’s just plain hard to live in. Most of all, the Flab Life is about NOT taking action.

Which hard do you choose?

If you’d like the Fit Life then take action now by calling or emailing me today to get started on a fitness program that’s going to be hard. And rewarding. And life changing.

The best kind of hard.

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I’m here to warn you about 5 fat loss myths that most people fall for. This might come across as a soapbox rant, and for that I apologize, but trust me when I say that this is a message that needs to be spread.

Your fat loss depends on it.

Don’t waste your time on these:

This is a Myth: Diet pills will help you lose fat.

It’s so tempting! The commercials make compelling claims about the power of diet pills, but don’t fall for it. The ‘magic pill’ has yet to be discovered (it has been discovered – exercise. It’s just not in pill form…). Diet pills are more likely to damage your health and burn your pocketbook than to slim you down.

• Don’t pop a pill—instead burn calories with exercise.

This is a Myth: You should starve yourself to lose fat.

Attempting to lose weight by starving yourself is not only ineffective, it’s also dangerous. It may seem that severe calorie restriction would deliver the quickest weight loss, but your body is complex and by doing so you’ll disrupt your metabolism and slow your results.

• Don’t starve yourself—instead eat healthy small meals throughout the day.

This is a Myth: Lots of crunches will flatten your abs.

We all want our midsection to look toned as we stroll down the beach, but excessive crunches aren’t the answer for tight abs. In order to achieve a lean look you’ll have to focus on burning off the layer of fat that is covering up your abs.

• Don’t obsess about crunches—instead focus on fat burning.

This is a Myth: Eat packaged diet foods for speedy results.

It is amazing to see the kinds of foods that are packaged as ‘diet’ or ‘weight loss’ aids. More often than not these products are packed with refined sugar and other artificial ingredients that your body doesn’t need.

• Don’t eat packaged diet foods—instead stick with nutritious whole foods.

This is a Myth: You have to avoid carbs to lose fat.

Carbohydrates have been given a bad rap, which is unfortunate because you can (and should) eat carbs while losing weight. The key is to stick with whole grains, oatmeal and brown rice while avoiding processed and refined flours and sugars.

• Don’t swear off all carbohydrates—instead stick with wholesome carbs.

Now that you know what not to do in order to look great this summer, it’s time to go over your beach ready game plan.

Here’s what you need to know in 3 simple steps:

DO THIS FIRST: Cut out the junk.

The best way to do this is to start by purging your kitchen. Get rid of sugary, processed and fat-filled foods. Once the junk has been cleared out don’t buy any more of it. Remember that your beach ready abs depend on what you eat – don’t eat junk!

DO THIS SECOND: Focus on whole foods.

Replace the junk food in your life with plenty of the following: cooked and raw vegetables, fresh fruits, whole grains, moderate amounts of seeds and nuts, lean meats and low fat dairy. Clean eating really is that simple.

DO THIS THIRD: Come train with me.

This is the most obvious step. You’re ready to get into great shape and I’m in a unique position to make that happen for you.

Want more guidance as you take your body from flab to fab? I’d love to help you! Give me a call or shoot me an email and let’s get you on track to shed some major fat before summer!

Let’s do this together.

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