Your (Fitness) Dreams

Today I want to talk about something little bit different than nutrition, fitness or workouts, although it can apply juts as well to those areas.

I want to talk about your DREAMS. The dreams you have for fitness, in your personal life, or for your career. Never let anyone destroy your dreams. Your dreams are your ultimate goals. You have to do everything you can to achieve them.  On your road to achieving your dreams, you will always meet some nasty people who try to discourage you. Those people are real losers.

You don’t need those people around you, and if you feel those people bring you further instead of closer of your dreams, let them go.

Every time you come closer to your dreams, some people will try everything they can to stop you. Why they do this?  Like I said, they are losers. They don’t have the motivation to work for their own dreams, so they cannot achieve what they dream of in their life and they get jealous. Especially when you start to get some great results, you have to be very solid to maintain the right focus to reach it. That can make some people very jealous.

Have you ever seen a bucket full of crabs?  They pinch and pull as they struggle to climb over one another to reach the top of the bucket – to freedom.

Ask any fisherman and they’ll tell you that a bucket full of crabs doesn’t need a lid – they simply won’t escape.

Why? Well, it’s not impossible for a crab to climb to the top, and really if they worked together it would be quite easy. But crabs don’t work together…

Instinctively crabs pull each other down-literally.

When one crab breaks away from the pack, reaching its pinchers toward the top of the bucket, the others promptly grab onto the escapee’s leg, pulling him back down. That crab is then pushed to the bottom of the pile and his dream of freedom is crushed.

People have a way of acting just like a bucket of crabs. Have you ever decided on a personal goal only to have someone in your life talk you out of it?

Do you have crabs in your life? A crab is…

* The person who discourages you from going to the gym
* The person who scoffs when you mention your weight loss goals
* The person who snickers when you choose salad over pizza

The crab mentality says “If I can’t have it, then neither can you.” When you decide to do something different, to reach for a goal and to improve yourself, the crabs in your life will do their best to hold you back.

Keep Crabs at Bay: When crabs come snapping, remember the following:

1. Ignore them: When someone in your life begins to pull you down with discouraging words, remember that you don’t have to listen. Don’t let them get into your head. Mentally tune them out or politely remove yourself from the situation. Who are they to tell you what you can or can’t achieve?
2. Understand them: Ouch! Insults and put-downs hurt, especially when they come from people that we care about. So what is the deal? Why do your friends, co-workers and even your spouse turn into crabs when you decide to improve your life? Do they really hope that you don’t succeed? The truth is that crabs are thinking about themselves-not about you. They see you attempting to better yourself and to change your life. Whether they realize it or not, this scares them. If you better yourself will you still like them? Or will you leave them behind?
3. You hold the power: Even the most persuasive crab doesn’t hold a candle to your iron will. When you are ready to change, and you’ve made up your mind without an inkling of doubt, then 90% of the work is done. Your mind is the most powerful tool at your disposal-don’t let a wimpy crab rob it from you.

Are you ready to make a positive change in your life? Don’t wait any longer. The Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss will give you the tools you need.

And don’t let a single crab talk you out of it!

My Top 50 Tips on Nutrition, Fitness and Motivation

What are my best tips for fitness, nutrition and motivation?  Here they are! 50 of the best tips to make sure you eat right, train right and stay motivated!

Often when I meet someone at the gym, a reunion or on any other occasion, and we start to talk about fitness and health, this is always the question they ask me: what are my best tips for weight loss, nutrition, motivation, training, cardio and the list goes on.

So what I decided is to do is give you a quick list of my best 50 tips on different topics.

Nutrition:

1. Drink Green tea for its health and antioxidant properties.
2. Pre-cook meals, split them into small portions and freeze them for a quick meal or snack ready to go.
3. Eat your vegetables.
4. Avoid refined sugar. - To read more
5. Do a cleansing regime once a year. Isagenix Cleanse
6. Eat a good source of protein during meals or snack (Fish, seafood, turkey, soya bean etc.).
7. Don’t go overboard on your cheat day. Try to not fall too far from the track.
8. Eat 5 to 6 meals/snacks a day, 3 hours apart.
9. Use meal replacement shakes on busy day. Isagenix Meal Replacement
10. Use a smaller plate for your meals. It will look full with less food.
11. Drink water during the day.
12. Eat complex carbohydrates.
13. Don’t do your grocery shopping on an empty stomach. You will spend way more and make some bad food choices.
14. Keep a nutrition log to record your food intake. I’m sure you will be surprised at the amount of calories or simple sugars you can eat during a day.
15. Opt for organic and unprocessed foods.
16. 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories. This is why your nutrition is such an important factor on a weight loss program.
17. Cook with extra virgin coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil.
18. Eat breakfast every day.
19. Never skip a meal to lose weight. By eating more often your keep your metabolism active.
20. Take a multi-vitamin. Multi-Vitamin for men or Multi-Vitamin for women
21. Eat fruits.
22. Include foods with fiber in your nutrition.
23. Carry a snack with you (baby carrots, fruits, shakes, protein bar).
24. Eat whole grain.
25. Take fish oil supplements.

Workout:

1. Train with free weights.
2. Doing strength training first and cardio Second.
3. Keep intensity high during your workout.
4. Try circuit training like Small Group Personal Training.
5. Challenge your muscles by increasing the weight or the reps.
6. Keep a training log.
7. Change your program every 4 to 6 weeks.
8. Buy the Express Fat Loss book. BUY NOW
9. Drink water before, during and after your workout.
10. Warm-up before you workout.
11. Stretch after you workout.
12. Work on compound movements like squat, bench press, military press or deadlift,  instead of isolation movements.
13. Measure yourself with a tape instead of just looking at your weight.
14. Do cardio with HIIT. Link to Article
15. Don’t waste money on magic pills like Fat Burner.
16. Keep your workout short but intense.
17. Take a post workout shake after each workout.
18. Have fun during your workout.
19. Be consistent with your workouts.
20. Do not read during your cardio session.

Motivation:

1. Visualize yourself how you want to be.
2. Believe in yourself.
3. Be proud of what you have accomplished.
4. Set realistic goals to keep you on track.
5. If you fall, get up even faster.

All those tips are more in details in my E-Book The Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss.  www.ExpressFatLoss.com

What should your body fat percentage be?

Body fat percentage is talked about a lot in the fitness industry these days.  Here is my way, and the best way to find a body fat percentage you will be happy with!

This is one of the most common questions, I get asked. What should my body fat percentage be?  Does this question concern you?  Do you think you should be at 10%, maybe 12% or even lower than, say 7%.

A lot of people ask me this question. They also ask me what my body fat was when I did my first show on the picture below. Do you know what my body fat is in this picture? No?  Me either! Do you know why? When I was training for my first show (the Natural Caribbean Grand Prix) in the Cayman Islands and before I become a personal trainer, I met the president of the Natural Bodybuilding Federation of the Cayman Islands.  I asked what my body fat should be for the show.  I knew at that time that I asked the right guy because the year before he had won the Natural Federation Mr. Universe competition.

His answer to my question was a big “I don’t know”! I was shocked.  How come he doesn’t know? He is Mr. Universe! My second question was, “What was your body fat when you won Mr. Universe?” His answer: “I don’t know.” Wow, I almost fainted!  He simply told me, “This is all ‘BS’. Do you know how to check if your body fat is right for you? It’s when you look in the mirror and you are happy with what you see.”

Wow, that is simple! I have a member at the gym ask me almost every 2 weeks if his six pack is good enough. He lifts his t-shirt every time and asks me, “So what do you think? Do you think it is good enough?” I told him what I learned in Cayman and asked him if he was happy with what he saw? If yes, just maintain it, if no keep working on it.

For all of you who are trying to reach a number for your body fat, forget it and look in the mirror. See how you look. Some people look great at 15%, others don’t.  You don’t need fancy equipment. Look in the mirror and keep track of your measurements on a regular basis (every 4 to 6 weeks). This is the best way to look good and be happy with what you see.

But remember, you need the 4 wheels of the Express Fat Loss Program to be able to reduce your body fat and to keep the weight off for good. If you miss one wheel, you may lose your chance to ever be happy with what you see.

To read more on the express fat loss program visit: www.expressfatloss.com

Why I still keep a workout log?

How are you today? It’s always nice to talk to you on regular basis. First, thank you for taking the time to read my series of tips. I’m sure if you’ve really taken note of what you’ve learned with me so far you should be seeing some great improvements. I know you have a busy life and this is why I like to keep these email tips short but informative!

But remember all the knowledge you have won’t give you anything without “Action”. I know some very smart people, but despite being smart they are overweight. Their nutrition habits are horrible and they know it. They don’t do any exercises but they always say they want to lose weight. This is why they are in this situation – they don’t take “Action”. Without action all your knowledge will come to nothing. Remember this.

I don’t know if you think all the tips I give you are just good for you and I don’t apply those to my lifestyle. But trust me, I walk the talk! This is the best way to stay connected with my clients.

The other day I was doing my workout and one of my old clients – I haven’t seen see him for at least 6 months- was surprised to see me writing down the weight I use and the number of reps I do for each exercise. He asked me “You still write down your workout?” Of course I do! This is the only way you can keep track of your progress.  Let’s say you do a different body part for your workout and do 3 or 4 exercises for your chest workout and each exercises is 3 set of 8-12. So you have to remember how much weight you used at your last workout and for how many repetitions. If someone tells me he remembers it all without writhing down, then I can tell you they don’t push enough and they probably always use the same weight and do same number of reps every time. Remember , to get results you have to challenge your muscles. It should be hard to complete your number of reps you need to achieve, and that makes it hard to remember!

So trust me, all the advice I’ve given to you since we start this series of tips – this is the post 68 – I do everything so far. This is my life. I will never ask you to do things that I don’t believe or I don’t do.

Make sure you read the tips, but the most important thing is to take “ACTION”. I know so many people who told me they want to do this and that but nothing happened. They forget the word ACTION.  If you learn something you can take some notes, but it’s more important that you try them at your next workout. Do not just read the tips, you have to apply them to be successful!

What is your best tool for Weight Loss?

What is the best tool you can get to help you with your weight loss program?  Is it your cardio session? Or what about the strength training?

It’s probably not the strength training, right?  The cardio machines are always full at every gym, and you see so many people on the step master or elliptical machine, sweating like crazy for an hour or more. So you probably imagine they know what they doing, if they always doing it all the time. It must be working, right? So you copy what they’re doing and jump on the cardio machines to burn some calories and reach your dream body.

You are wrong. Strength Training is more effective than cardio when it comes to weight loss! But how can that be?

Let me explain…

Don’t get upset over all that time on the cardio machines, but I’m telling you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. When you did your cardio session, what happened?  You burned some calories and that was great. What is not so great is when you step back from the cardio machine, then what happened? Nothing That’s right.  Nothing happened and you didn’t burn any more calories.

I want to tell you something about cardio.  I do some cardio as well, but only after my strength training, and I do interval training for my cardio routine. I don’t just slog away at a cardio machine for hours.

Now when you use some weight training, weight lifting, strength training or pumping some iron, call it what you will – it’s all the same, you burn calories during your workout.  Trust me, if you move fast between sets and you push yourself you will feel your heart working too. You train anaerobically – without oxygen, so you’re really burning calories here too.

The beauty of the strength training is you will be able to increase your muscle mass. What happens when you muscle mass increases? Yeah you are right, you speed up your metabolism. And when your metabolism runs higher, you burn more calories during the day, at night and even when you sleep. Now you start to figure it out!

This is good for men and women. especially for you ladies, don’t be afraid that you’ll wake up one morning looking like Arnold when he is competing for Mr. Olympia. It will not happen. Why?

For 2 GOOD reasons

Reason #1- You don’t have enough of the hormone Testosterone in your body. Testosterone is the hormone that helps you to build muscles.

Reason  #2- It will not happen….Period!

Change your mind about your weight loss program approach and start to lift some weights. It will help you to look thinner and more toned and you will look really GOOD.

If you are not confident using free weights or the machines at first, ask at the staff members at your gym to show you few basic exercises to help you started with your strength training. If you want, you can always purchase my E-book the Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss with a full program for your weight training with pictures and descriptions or each exercise.

In my Express Fat Loss you will also discover all the different aspects of weight loss – Nutrition, Strength Training, Cardio and Flexibility- everything you need is in this e-book. And did I tell you about the 60 day guarantee? If you are not satisfied with my product you have 60 days to ask for your money back, no questions asked!.

To buy the Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss: Click Here

Why you shouldn’t train like a Pros

In the gym I can see new members with the latest issue of different bodybuilding magazine. Oh Boy! What a mistake. Why?  The guys in the magazine, their full time job is to train to get the best physique. They have sponsors and train twice a day, 6 days a week. It’s a real job for them.  Also, there is still a great deal of drug abuse in bodybuilding.  Drugs like steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) can help bodybuilders lift heavy and the recuperate much faster than you and me, but the potential effects on health can be catastrophic..

If you are a beginner don’t try to imitate them.

The last thing you want to do is pick a magazine and fellow their routine. This is the best way to injure yourself. This is why the  Express Fat Loss Program is based on a steady progression in exercise.  You will strengthen not just your muscles but your ligaments and tendons as well. You can get the Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss  today with a full 60 day guarantee. If you are not satisfied with the program you can send me an email and I will refund your money and you can keep the program. I can do this because I am 200% confident that you will love it and get results.

You have nothing to lose except some stubborn fat and everything to win like a great physique.

Keep Moving, Stay Fit!

Martin Bolduc

ExpressFatLoss.com