Most of us set goals and work hard only to find our motivation fizzle out after a couple of weeks. But there are little tricks that will help you harness the power of your mind and propel you toward achieving your goal.
The Two Motivators
When you boil it down, you’re motivated by two simple things:
- To avoid pain (fear of failure)
- To gain pleasure (promise of reward)
You are naturally geared toward one of these motivators. To figure out which, think of the last time you accomplished a task and then ask yourself the following: While doing the task were you thinking about what would happen if you failed to finish, or were you thinking about what you would gain when you finished?
Take note as to which motivator works for you – fear of failure, or promise of reward.
Set Your Goal: The first step towards unstoppable motivation is to determine your goal. You know you’re unhappy with your body, but what exactly do you want to change? Why is it important to you?
Perhaps you can relate to one of the following goals:
- You need to lose weight for your health. Your doctor scared you straight or maybe you’ve had a recent health problem that landed you in the hospital. Your goal is to move away from the pain of sickness.
- You want to look and feel incredible. You’ve always wanted to feel vibrant and attractive. The idea of having more energy really excites you. Your goal is to move toward the pleasure and reward of a fit body.
- You’re worried about your kids. They don’t eat enough vegetables, they drink more soda pop than water and they play video games constantly. You have decided to model a healthier lifestyle and to encourage your kids to participate. Your goal is to move away from the risks of a sedentary lifestyle and to propel your kids toward a healthy future.
Train Your Mind for Weight Loss:
With your clear and important goal in mind, let’s take a few minutes to train your mind to achieve it. You know that weight loss comes as a result of eating right and regular challenging exercise, so let’s use your mind to conquer both.
Eating Right: Use this exercise to distance yourself from the self-sabotaging foods you really wish you didn’t eat, and to naturally begin selecting healthy foods.
Take a moment to review your current eating habits. Identify the foods that you should stop eating (hint: sweets, anything fried, refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks). Identify the worst food that you eat regularly but know you shouldn’t.
Now imagine the healthy foods that you should eat (hint: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein). Identify the healthiest food that you know you should eat regularly.
Now with the image of these two foods in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise (seriously this stuff works):
- Draw up the image of your unhealthy food item. This image will likely be quite vivid, with smell, taste and bright color. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy and remote.
- Draw up the image of your healthy food item. This image will likely be fuzzy and faded. In your mind, bring this picture to life with smell, taste, sound and bright color.
Regular Exercise: This technique can be applied in a way that encourages you to crave exercise rather than avoid it.
Take a moment to imagine how you feel after a great workout (notice the emphasis on the word after). Remember the physical satisfaction as well as the sweet feeling of accomplishment.
Now bring to your mind the aspects of exercise that you dislike. What is your biggest reason for avoiding exercise? Are you too tired? Do you not have enough time? Is physical exertion too much of a hassle? Pinpoint your greatest complaint about exercise.
Now with the image of these two aspects of exercise in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise:
- Draw up the image of your exercise complaint. The image is likely to be clear and accompanied by the sounds, smells and sensations. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy and remote.
- Draw up the image of the wonderful feeling you have after accomplishing a great workout. Magnify this image in your mind. Fixate on how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally. View the experience in bright colors and add a sound track of inspirational music.
Why It Works
If this was your first experience with training your mind (also called Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP) it may have felt a little odd. Many of the world’s top achievers regularly use techniques like these to accomplish astounding goals.
The techniques above work because they train your mind to bring your behavior in line with your values. Think about it, you value health, you desire to be fit and attractive and you want to instill healthy habits in your kids.
These techniques encourage you to avoid self-sabotage and to make choices that line up with what you truly value.
]]>So what do fit people do in their “healthy lifestyle”? Take a peek with the following 7 Express Fat Loss Tips for Fit People:
Habit #1: They Don’t Buy Junk
Fit people know that if they keep junk food in the house it will land on their waist sooner or later. So they don’t buy any. Even buying junk food for your kids or spouse is not advised since 1) you’ll likely eat some of it eventually, and 2) your loved ones shouldn’t be eating that junk either. It’s called junk for a reason.
Rid your home of chips, cookies, candy, baked goods, pre-packaged snacks and anything else that belongs in a vending machine. Replace the above with fresh fruit, veggies, nuts and other healthy whole foods snacks.
Habit #2: They Have Priorities
Fit people make exercise a priority. Along with keeping a job, paying the bills and going to the doctor, exercise is an important part of their lives. What I’ve found is that fit people put exercise before leisure time. Sure, fit people enjoy leisure, but it is scheduled around their workout time.
Treat exercise time with the same importance that you would a business meeting or trip to the dentist.
Habit #3: They Stop When Full
Fit people stop eating when they feel full. Sound simple? It is, but how many times have you stuffed yourself simply to clear your plate? Or how many times have you eaten another piece of cake despite being stuffed?
The next time you feel full, take it as a sign to stop eating. Yes, even if your plate isn’t empty.
Habit #4: They Push Themselves
Not only do fit people make time to go to the gym, they challenge themselves during each workout. While it is easy to simply go through the motions while exercising, you’re cheating your body out of great results when you don’t push yourself. Exercise should make you sweat, make your muscles burn, and leave you with a feeling of accomplishment.
Find ways to make each workout more challenging. For competitive people, the best way to push yourself is to exercise with a friend of similar strength. Another great way to challenge yourself is to set small attainable goals. These goals could be to push heavier weight, to sprint longer, or to do cardio at a higher intensity setting.
Habit #5: They Don’t Eat and Watch
Fit people know that eating in front of the T.V. is mindless eating. When your attention is on your entertainment and not on your food, then you’ll be less tuned in to what and how much ends up in your mouth. Eating in front of the T.V. is also very habit forming. Ever notice how you crave munchies just as a reflex of sitting in front of the T.V.?
Eat before or after your entertainment and pay attention to what and how much goes into your mouth.
Habit #6: They Drink Water
Fit people drink lots of water. And not just in addition to other beverages, but instead of them. Water is their main drink, while other drinks are occasional treats. Calorie-filled drinks are one of the quickest ways to consume excess calories which quickly turn into fat. Consider water your beverage of choice. Drink plenty of it each day and drink other beverages only a few times each week.
Habit #7: They Are Supported
Fit people don’t leave their motivation to chance. They know that if their personal trainer, boot camp instructor or workout partner is waiting for them, then they are less likely to skip a workout. It is so easy to hit snooze or to talk yourself out of the gym as soon as your behind hits the couch after work. Fit people take the option of skipping out of the equation.
Want instant support? Started on your own with the Express Fat Loss System and take control of your weight……. CLICK HERE TO START TODAY!!!
I hope that these habits have inspired you to make a change for the fitter in your own life.
If you already do some of these habits then congratulations – you are on your way to a better body. Make an effort to incorporate the rest of the habits to take your results to the next level.
If none, or very few, of these habits describe your lifestyle, then I’ve got good news – you now have 7 effective new habits to start that will get you some awesome results. Don’t try to tackle all 7 at once – pick one or two to add each week and gradually work up to all 7.
Grab Your F.REE Special Report on Express Fat Loss and get started on your own fitness plan. I look forward to hearing from you
]]>You want to be slimmer and to tone your body, but your weight won’t budge.
Read the following 7 Weight Loss Blockers to discover what is standing in your way and how to quickly and easily begin your weight loss journey.
Blocker #1: Your Mind
Your mind is your number one ally when it comes to achieving your goals. However, until your mind has been programmed for success, it will do more to derail your efforts than to help you.
- Take a few moments each day to visualize yourself at your ideal weight. Imagine how it feels to look the way you’ve always wanted.
- Protect your mind from any negative self talk. If a negative thought comes to mind, immediately reject it.
- You want to be thin and fit, and yet you think of yourself as out-of-shape and fat. Re-program your mind to think of yourself as fit and attractive, and you will be well on your way toward achieving your goal.
- Give up the belief that you can’t achieve the body you’ve always dreamed of. See it first in your mind, and then in the mirror.
Blocker #2: Your Fear
Change makes most of us nervous – even if it is a change in the right direction. You may not be consciously aware of the fear you have of getting into shape. Until you conquer this fear, your weight loss efforts will be blocked by self sabotage.
Professional speaker and author, Anthony Robbins, has outlined three specific beliefs that you must have in order to conquer your fear and instantly create a lasting change.
- Believe that something MUST change. You can’t be wishy-washy about it. You can’t be considering it. You can’t even be pretty sure about it. You’ve got to be rock solid.
- Believe that YOU must change it. You can’t pass the buck of responsibility and expect to lose weight. It’s on your shoulders. Other people will prove to be great assets in your journey, but in the end you are the one who is going to make it happen. You have to want this weight loss enough to make it your personal mission.
- Believe you CAN change it. You may have failed in the past, but that doesn’t matter. When you put your mind to it, you’re able to do amazing things. Do you believe that you are capable of losing weight? Once you own the belief that you can, you’ll be unstoppable.
Blocker #3: Your Excuses
Your excuses for being out-of-shape are getting old. An excuse takes less immediate effort than an action, but in the long run the action taker always has the advantage. Don’t allow excuses to ruin your life any longer.
- Don’t skip out on your responsibilities with excuses, instead expect more from yourself.
- Focus on the big reason why you are losing the weight. Make a list of the benefits you’ll enjoy once you achieve your goal, and read them first thing each morning.
- Remember that you can only have two things in life: excuses or results. Which do you want?
Blocker #4: Your Commitment
How many times have you tried to lose weight, only to give up a week or two later? We live in a commitment-phobic world, so it’s no wonder that you routinely abandon your goals. If you truly want to lose weight then your commitment to the process is a must.
- The margin between success and failure is bridged by your commitment. Don’t give up until your goal has been achieved.
- Treat exercise with the same importance as a work meeting, and you’ll never skip it at the last minute. Find three available 60-minute time slots in your schedule and mark them (in pen) on your calendar. Now stick to your schedule.
- If you don’t give up, then you’ll never fail.
Blocker #5: Your Diet
If you consistently eat the wrong food, then you’re weight loss efforts will all be in vain. To put it bluntly, you need to stop eating junk. Processed foods, refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup do not belong in your diet if you want to be in great shape. Cut these items out of your diet and replace them with real whole foods like lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fruits.
- Don’t eat processed foods. Even though processed foods are accepted by our society, they contain tons of chemicals and empty calories that will make you sick and fat.
- Fat contains twice the caloric density of protein and carbohydrates, so make sure to limit the amount that you consume. Eat lots of lean proteins and wholesome carbohydrates from plants and whole grains.
- Vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts and seeds are filled with fiber and antioxidants which are vital for healthy weight loss. Snack on these instead of packaged treats.
Blocker #6: Your Patience
It takes time to transform your body from fat to fit, even though you want it to happen overnight. Remind yourself that it took time to put the weight on, so it will take time to take the weight off. When you find your patience wavering, or when you encounter a frustrating plateau, do the following:
- Review your goal. Is it specific and measurable? Is it small and attainable, rather than monumental? Focus on your goal when the going gets tough.
- Make each workout a new experience. Challenge your body with different resistance, new exercises and a varied pace.
- Remember that anyone can have one great workout, but that won’t get you the body you want. The only way to achieve your goal is by consistently exercising and eating right, plain and simple.
Blocker #7: Your Support
People who exercise alone are less challenged, less accountable and are more likely to fail. It makes sense. Who would rush to the gym if no one is was waiting for them? Who would push themselves if no one was paying attention? Exercising alone is a recipe for disaster.
- Find a workout partner who is in better shape than you, or better yet, work with me, your local fitness expert, to guarantee your results.
- I am passionate about seeing you achieve results – don’t waste your time, energy and effort on mistakes.
- When you start a program with me, you suddenly have the upper hand on weight loss. I’ll be in your corner, coaching you each step of the way, keeping you accountable to workouts and giving you that dose of encouragement when you need it most.
Get serious about your results and begin the last weight loss program that you’ll ever do.
]]>Most of us set goals and work hard only to find our motivation fizzle out after a couple of weeks. But there are little tricks that will help you harness the power of your mind and propel you toward achieving your goal.
The Two Motivators
When you boil it down, you’re motivated by two simple things:
- To avoid pain (fear of failure)
- To gain pleasure (promise of reward)
You are naturally geared toward one of these motivators. To figure out which, think of the last time you accomplished a task and then ask yourself the following: While doing the task were you thinking about what would happen if you failed to finish, or were you thinking about what you would gain when you finished?
Take note as to which motivator works for you – fear of failure, or promise of reward.
Set Your Goal: The first step towards unstoppable motivation is to determine your goal. You know you’re unhappy with your body, but what exactly do you want to change? Why is it important to you?
Perhaps you can relate to one of the following goals:
- You need to lose weight for your health. Your doctor scared you straight or maybe you’ve had a recent health problem that landed you in the hospital. Your goal is to move away from the pain of sickness.
- You want to look and feel incredible. You’ve always wanted to feel vibrant and attractive. The idea of having more energy really excites you. Your goal is to move toward the pleasure and reward of a fit body.
- You’re worried about your kids. They don’t eat enough vegetables, they drink more soda pop than water and they play video games constantly. You have decided to model a healthier lifestyle and to encourage your kids to participate. Your goal is to move away from the risks of a sedentary lifestyle and to propel your kids toward a healthy future.
Train Your Mind for Weight Loss:
With your clear and important goal in mind, let’s take a few minutes to train your mind to achieve it. You know that weight loss comes as a result of eating right and regular challenging exercise, so let’s use your mind to conquer both.
Eating Right: Use this exercise to distance yourself from the self-sabotaging foods you really wish you didn’t eat, and to naturally begin selecting healthy foods.
Take a moment to review your current eating habits. Identify the foods that you should stop eating (hint: sweets, anything fried, refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks). Identify the worst food that you eat regularly but know you shouldn’t.
Now imagine the healthy foods that you should eat (hint: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein). Identify the healthiest food that you know you should eat regularly.
Now with the image of these two foods in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise (seriously this stuff works):
- Draw up the image of your unhealthy food item. This image will likely be quite vivid, with smell, taste and bright color. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy and remote.
- Draw up the image of your healthy food item. This image will likely be fuzzy and faded. In your mind, bring this picture to life with smell, taste, sound and bright color.
Regular Exercise: This technique can be applied in a way that encourages you to crave exercise rather than avoid it.
Take a moment to imagine how you feel after a great workout (notice the emphasis on the word after). Remember the physical satisfaction as well as the sweet feeling of accomplishment.
Now bring to your mind the aspects of exercise that you dislike. What is your biggest reason for avoiding exercise? Are you too tired? Do you not have enough time? Is physical exertion too much of a hassle? Pinpoint your greatest complaint about exercise.
Now with the image of these two aspects of exercise in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise:
- Draw up the image of your exercise complaint. The image is likely to be clear and accompanied by the sounds, smells and sensations. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy and remote.
- Draw up the image of the wonderful feeling you have after accomplishing a great workout. Magnify this image in your mind. Fixate on how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally. View the experience in bright colors and add a sound track of inspirational music.
Why It Works
Now that you are ready to accomplish your goals, start your fitness program that will greatly improve your life, The Express Fat Loss System.
This is a copy of Frank email (with his permission).
*********************************************
Hi Martin,
First of all I would like to say thank you for all the good information you provide with your tips and your newsletter. I loved your tips and try to make all of them my new way of life.
I don’t know if you can answer to my question. When I train my chest, it’s very hard for me to be able to push heavy for my workout. I’m pretty good with the rest of the body parts.
My split routine is like this:
Monday: Back/Core
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Shoulders/Core
Thursday: Biceps
Friday: Triceps/Core
Saturday: Chest
Sunday: OFF
Do you think this is a good split for my routine?
I usually do 5 set of 3 exercises for each body part?
Each set is around 12-15 reps and I keep the same program for 12 weeks.
Thank you
Frank
********************************************
I can see right away that a few things are not right with Frank’s routine.
First, let’s talk about how Frank split his workouts to work different body parts. It depends on what you want to accomplish, but for nearly everyone, heavy strength workouts out 6 days a week is too much. I might do this when I’m training for a bodybuilding tournament, but otherwise I do my strength training 4 days a week and I stay in amazing shape all year round.
Second, the idea of training different muscle groups on different days makes sense – it really hits those areas hard and then gives them plenty of time to repair and recover, which is when new muscle mass gets laid down. That’s the point of strength training after all. But Frank has taken this a little too far. Instead of breaking down the muscle groups into, for example, biceps one day and triceps another, plan instead for a ‘legs’ day, an ‘arms’ day, an ‘abs’ day and so on. This lets you have a little more variety in your sets, and will let you train a little harder for a little longer.
Remember that when you train your shoulders as a ‘primary’ muscle, your triceps will be working as well as ‘secondary’ muscles. If on another day, you target your triceps on its own, then the next day you train your chest and your shoulders and triceps are again involved as a secondary muscles. That means your triceps are actually working hard three days on the week – by the last day, they’re dead! You don’t have any power to push heavy. This is the mistake in Frank’s program design.
Third, doing 5 sets of 3 exercises for your any single small muscle area (like triceps) is way too much. That will give you a total of 15 sets and if each set is for 12 to15 reps, that’s 180 to 225 efforts for a single muscle area!
15 Sets for a big muscle group like chest, back or quads is fine, because of all the ‘secondary’ muscles that share the load. For smaller muscles like biceps, triceps, or calves, stick to just 8 to 12 sets.
Fourth, make sure you rest enough to be able to recover from your last workout. That’s when your muscles repair and build new muscle mass. If you don’t let them rest, your progress will slow and you could even get injured. Trying to keep going when your muscles feel fatigued is a sure way to get injured, and it’s a sign you haven’t given your muscles enough time to recover. ‘Mixing up’ your program can help too; doing a pattern of shoulders – legs – chest and arms – abs, for example, means that you are not stressing secondary muscles too workouts in a row. Keep consecutive days of strength training focused on body parts that are ‘far apart’ or isolated from each other.
Fifth, Frank has been sticking with the same program for too long. Keeping a program going for more than 6 weeks isn’t going to work. Your muscles adjust to your workout and you won’t progress. Your body gets on “cruise control” and doesn’t need to work as hard to achieve the workout – and that means fewer results.
I like to change my programs every 4 to 6 weeks. It depends what phase I’m in (e.g. breaking plateau, active recovery, balance and nervous system, cutting phase, bulking phase etc.). You don’t need to worry too much about this level of detail, but as soon as you start to feel like you aren’t making the gains you want, it’s time to change your program and challenge your muscles in a new way.
Here’s a sample program that I use:
Monday: Chest/Triceps/Core (plus 15 minutes of cardio intervals)
Tuesday: Quads/Calf/Core
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Back/Biceps (plus 15 minutes of cardio intervals)
Friday: Hamstring/Shoulders/Core
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF or Cardio
I like to work my Chest and Triceps on the same day as well as my Back and Biceps; this means I don’t forget about those ‘secondary’ muscles!
So let’s thank Frank for writing in, because like many of you he’s working hard and trying to get results, and asked for help when he felt that he wasn’t getting the best results. Chances are some of you have experienced the same thing. That’s why I’m here. Thanks to Frank, we’ve been able to talk about what he – and you – can do to get your strength training back on track and get the best results possible!
In my Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss I design a full program for you for 4 months. Everything is done with pictures and description of each exercises. This is based on years of practice on me, and on my clients. I bring you the best exercises planned in the most effective way to give you the best results!
You can read more about the system right here
]]>The number one reason that most people are out-of-shape is that they don’t exercise enough.
I’ve often wished that I could give each and every one of you a personalized pep talk to get you up off the couch and into the gym, day after day. So here’s my pep talk in bullet form – 21 rewards that you will gain from regular exercise.
Photo: Getty
Do yourself a favor and print this list and post it where you’ll see it every day. When you need motivation or encouragement simply read over this list and feel your motivation soar.
- You’ll reset your body: Exercise has been described as a giant reset button. A good workout will block appetite swings, improve your mood and even help you sleep.
- Your clothes will fit better: Consistent exercise will tone and tighten your body, causing your clothes to not only fit better but to also look nicer. Also exercise ensures that soon you’ll be trading your clothes in for smaller sizes.
- You’ll be less stressed: You have enough stress in your life – it’s time for a break. A good workout invigorates your muscles, leaving you relaxed and less stressed.
- You’ll have more energy: WebMD tallied research studies and concluded that 90% of them prove exercise increases energy levels in sedentary patients. Next time you feel fatigued, fight it will the most powerful tool available: exercise.
- You’ll be stronger: Exercise improves muscle strength and endurance, two things that you use throughout each day. When you exercise consistently you’ll be pleasantly surprised when difficult tasks begin to seem easy.
- You’ll be less likely to binge: Exercise has a powerful anti-binge effect on the body. This is due in part by an increase in sensitivity to leptin, a protein hormone, which has an appetite-taming effect.
- You’ll burn calories: You know that excess body fat is made up of stored and unused calories. Fight back by burning loads of calories with fat-blasting workouts.
- You’ll be more confident: Who doesn’t wish they walked and talked with more confidence? A consistent exercise program will do just that. As your body becomes more fit, watch as your confidence sky-rockets.
- You’ll have fun: Believe it or not, exercise can be extremely enjoyable. Remember how fun it was to run around as a child? Tap into your inner child as you find a mode of exercise that gets you excited.
- You’ll reduce your blood pressure: Exercise has been proven more effective than medication in reducing blood pressure to normal levels. A single workout has been shown to reduce blood pressure for the day and regular exercise reduces overall blood pressure in the long run.
- You’ll lose the jiggles: Regular exercise tightens flabby arms, legs and waistlines. So wave goodbye to the jiggles with a solid exercise program.
- You’ll increase insulin sensitivity: Researchers at Laval University in Quebec discovered that exercise improved insulin sensitivity dramatically. Peak after-meal insulin levels dropped by more than 20 percent after as little as 3 weeks of consistent exercise.
- You’ll sleep better: Do you toss and turn for hours before falling asleep? Exercise is a powerful sleep aid. Your tired muscles encourage your body to quickly fall asleep so they can get their overnight repair work done.
- You’ll lower your risk of heart disease: Regular exercise strengthens your heart and makes it more resilient against disease. A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for heart disease, so rest assured that consistent exercise is your ally against disease.
- You’ll feel great: Vigorous exercise releases natural endorphins (happy hormones) into your blood stream that dissolve pain and anxiety. You’ve probably heard of ‘runner’s high’, this can be achieved by any great workout.
- You’ll lower your risk of diabetes: Studies show that exercising as little as half an hour each day can dramatically reduce your risk of diabetes. If you are at risk of diabetes, or already have diabetes, regular exercise is the most effective treatment for reversing the disease.
- You’ll meet cool people: You could benefit from a group of new, energetic friends, right? Gyms, bootcamps, workout centers and even the jogging trail are all great places to connect with fun new friends.
- You’ll improve your BMI: You know that maintaining a healthy BMI is key in disease prevention. Exercise is the best way to keep your BMI under control.
- You’ll increase your endurance: Do you ever get out of breath when walking up stairs or through the mall? Regular exercise builds your endurance for everyday activities.
- Your doctor will be impressed: How many times has your doctor given you the lecture about losing weight and exercising more? Exercise regularly and get your MD off your back!
- You’ll look amazing: Are you happy with the shape and size of your body? Regular exercise works wonders on your physique. Within a few weeks you’ll see shape and tone in all the right places.
What are you waiting for? Lace up your shoes and get moving! ]]>
You’ll refuse the baked goods at the office. You’ll speed past that fast food place at lunch. You’ll turn a blind eye to the vending machine in the mid-afternoon. And you’ll pass on the ice cream after dinner.
But… you hadn’t counted on the fact that a box of your favorite donuts would be sitting in the break room. Or that co-workers would invite you to join them for fast food place at lunch. Or that Girl Scouts would come through the office after school with boxes of thin mints. Or that your special someone would come home with a pint of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.
And as you get into bed each night you tell yourself that tomorrow will be different.
Tomorrow you will conquer temptation.
But tomorrow comes with its own set of special circumstances and temptation gets the best of you once again.
Why Does Temptation Always Win?
We live in society where food temptations are everywhere.
- Walk through a store and you’ll see the unhealthy food items displayed front and center.
- Turn on the TV and you’ll be assaulted with commercials for fattening foods.
- Open a magazine and you’ll notice glossy pin-ups of sugary snacks.
- Go down the street and you’ll have restaurant signs clamoring for your attention.
In addition to the abundance of tempting edibles, you also have deeply ingrained positive associations with indulging.
- You treat tempting food as a reward.
- You turn to tempting food for comfort.
- You rely on tempting food as stress relief.
- You allow tempting food to become a habit.
It’s Your Turn to Win
Temptation doesn’t need to have the upper hand on you anymore. It’s time to fight back using your most powerful asset: your brain.
Your mind is an amazing thing. Once it is made up about something it is nearly impossible to change it.
A Matter of Perspective
Imagine for a moment that you’re peacefully floating down a river in an inner tube. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and you are having a wonderful time. You feel great about the river because it is making you feel good.
Now imagine that you are in a plane flying over the river. Your eye is immediately drawn to an enormous rocky waterfall. You look up the river and just around the bend is a person floating in an inner tube, having a wonderful time, headed straight for the treacherous falls.
Do you think that after your plane ride you’d be happy to get an inner tube and float down the river? Of course you wouldn’t. You’ve seen that the river spells disaster.
You now have a negative association (watery death) with the river rather than your initial positive association (relaxing fun).
Overcoming temptation is all about building negative associations in place of existing positive ones. Use the 2 steps below to harness the power of your mind to become stronger than any temptation.
Step One: Create a Strong Negative Association with all the BAD STUFF
- If cookies and chips and burgers are put on a pedestal in your mind as your favorite things to eat, then you will always eat unhealthy and will continue to gain weight.
- What do you dislike about tempting food?
- It makes you unhealthy.
- It causes weight gain.
- It drains your energy.
- It kills your confidence.
- It degrades your quality of life.
- It hurts your love life.
- Every time that you encounter tempting food items focus on your list of negatives. It’s time to kick those cookies off the pedestal and to put something healthy in its place.
Step Two: Create a Strong Positive Association with all the GOOD STUFF
- Now that your mental pedestal has been cleared, put healthy food items on it. Juicy fresh fruit, crispy vegetables and savory lean meats are a great place to start.
- What do you love about healthy food?
- It makes you healthy.
- It causes weight loss.
- It boosts your energy.
- It builds your confidence.
- It improves your quality of life.
- It enhances your love life.
- Immerse yourself into the world of healthy food. Browse the aisles of a natural food store. Walk through a farmer’s market. Bring healthy snacks to work. Clear your kitchen of anything unhealthy.
Using the technique above, you will soon find that healthy food is your favorite food.
And temptation will become a thing of your past.
]]>Whether you can’t wait to bare it all on the beach, or if you’re still working toward a weight loss goal, exercise is the key to looking and feeling great in summer months.
But why else should you exercise? Here are the top 7 reasons to exercise this summer:
Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away
The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:
- Your pants become loose
- People around you begin to say that you look great
- A glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile
- Your energy levels soar
- You feel amazing
Reason #2: To Alleviate Pain
Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened by strengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program.
Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue
More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle requires many more calories each day than fatty tissue. In fact, one pound of muscle burns 30-50 calories each day at rest – compared to a measly 9 calories per pound of fat.
When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned while you sleep. What could be better than that?
Reason #4: To Stay Young
Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process.
“These data suggest that the act of exercising may actually protect the body against the aging process,” said Spector.
Here’s the study in a nutshell:
- Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter.
- Once a telomere gets too short, that cell can no longer divide.
- Aging occurs as more and more cells reach the end of their telomeres and die. This results in weakened muscles, skin wrinkles, loss of eyesight and hearing, organ failure and slowed metal functioning.
- The study analyzed the telomeres from the white bloods cells of twins over a 10-year period. Telomere length was used as a marker for the rate of biological aging.
- It was found that the length of telomeres was directly related to that twin’s activity level. “There was a gradient,” Spector said. “As the amount of exercise increased, the telomere length increased.”
- People who did 100 minutes of weekly exercise had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 5-6 years younger than those who did 16 minutes of exercise each week.
- People who did 3 hours of vigorous exercise each week had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 9 years younger.
Reason #5: To Prevent or Control Type 2 Diabetes
Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabete, gain substantial benefits from.
Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity. Of course patients with type 2 diabetes need to get guidelines from their doctor before starting an exercise program.
Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels
Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:
- Weak Heart Muscles pump little blood with lots of effort. By exercising you strengthen your heart muscles and train them to pump more blood with less effort. The stronger your heart is the less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.
- Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people – this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.
Reason #7: To Feel Great
The first thing that clients tell me after starting an exercise program is how much better they feel.
Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated.
Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing.
The quickest, easiest way to guarantee that you’ll meet your fitness and weight loss goals is to work one-on-one with a qualified fitness professional. You’ll be held accountable with your workouts and you’ll be instructed properly and shown techniques and strategies that will expedite your results.
What are you waiting for? Lace up your shoes and get moving!
]]>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!
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