Step 5

Replace Sugary Foods With Healthier Treats.

The next food group we are going to zero in is sugary foods. We're going to do the same thing here with the sugary foods that we did with the fatty, greasy foods... we're going to eliminate them one at a time with healthier options.

* Challenge: Here we go again with another 30-day challenge, this time it's for sweets. Can you go one whole month without them!?!? As I have been doing this whole time... I would encourage a gradual approach to this as well and just try to start having less every day.

* Cheat Day: This is one of my favorite days EVER and I suggest you add one in once a week for yourself! My cheat day is every SUNDAY and I LOVE IT! I get to eat what I want on that day, I can have a sugary dessert or two or some chips and salsa or whatever I'm craving. The goal here is not to GORGE and completely pig out but to enjoy some of the foods that you have cut out.

* Alternatives: Find alternatives to the sweets you are used to eating and stock up on them and then get RID of the sweets in your house so you're not tempted in a moment of weakness! If you usually have a candy bar for a snack... try having an apple or a banana with some peanut butter instead, or some veggies and hummus. A lot of times we eat, just to have something to munch on.

* Drinks: A lot of people for some reason seem to think that the things they DRINK don't count towards their caloric intake. This is a big mistake...HUGE! The best thing you can drink is WATER. Try to cut out all the sugary sodas and juices. Most every juice on the market is just a well disguised sugar water full of empty calories and artificial flavors and colors...really!?!?! NO GOOD!

Step 4

Start Intensifying Your Exercise Slowly.

*Duration: Here's the thing...for now, don't worry about making your workouts any HARDER than they already are, just start increasing the time spent doing it. Start by adding just 5 minutes to your workout and keep doing that for 2 or 3 workouts and then add another 5 minutes to that. The goal here is to gradually work your way up to 40-45 minutes!

*Intensity: Pretty soon these longer workouts will start to feel too easy for you! (can you believe it!?!?) After your body gets used to going LONGER, a couple of times a week you should make your workouts a little HARDER. When you do your harder workouts...do them a little bit shorter than your normal long ones. For example, instead of your usual 40 minutes at your normal pace, do 20 minutes. Second... go harder in intervals, by that I mean for 3-5 minutes, go at a faster pace, then slow it back down to your normal pace and keep alternating that every 3-5 minutes.

* Hard/Easy: As you begin to add harder and longer workouts, you'll probably want to follow those with an easier workout. Let's say you do a long workout of 45 minutes or so...try going only 20 or 25 minutes the following day. Interval workout one day...go shorter and easier the next day. Always try to alternate between the two to avoid the risk of an overuse injury... or burnout.

Step 3

Eat smaller meals, more frequently. As you start getting rid of all that nasty artery clogging, unhealthy greasy food and replacing it with fresh, healthy foods... you should probably begin eating smaller portions. We have gotten way out of control with the amounts of food we eat. Thanks to our portion distortion, we think that when we eat a plate of food at a restaurant that we have only had one meal, when in fact... a lot of times that amount of food could have fed about FOUR people!

*5-6 meals: The good news is you get to eat more often! The bad news is... well, sorry, I can't really think of any bad news about getting to eat more often. What I would like you to start working towards would be having a a good breakfast (that really should be your biggest meal of the day) then a mid-morning snack, a small early lunch, another small lunch a couple hours later, a small late-afternoon snack and then a small, light dinner. If that sounds to complicated to start with... stick with your three main meals but work on making them smaller and lighter and incorporating both the mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.

*Wait: When you have a meal... make sure it is a proper portion and just eat that! if you still THINK you're hungry, wait about 20 minutes before heading back for more. It takes a few minutes for the brain and stomach to get on the same page. A lot of times you'll find out that you're really not that hungry after all and the second helping...well, you just don't need it.

Step 2

Replace fatty and greasy foods with healthier foods.
I don't want you to think of yourself as "going on a diet" because you're NOT! You ARE going to take a look at WHAT you eat and try to start replacing some of the BAD FOR YOU foods with healthier options.

Examples: Let's just say hypothetically that you really like your fried chicken... try replacing that with baked instead. You can find recipes out there that are LIKE fried chicken but don't involve the actual frying part. Want a big juicy hamburger? I found that it isn't so much the BURGER I enjoy as the bread with the onions and pickles and mustard... try substituting a burger for a verggie burger or a portobello mushroom. Pizza junkie? No problem, make your own with a store-bought pizza crust and load it UP with veggies, olive oil, go easy on the cheese and you have a very great tasting, healthy alternative to your usual meat lovers combo.

Gradual Changes: Here's where I'm going to be nice to you...again! And some people say I'm a total hard ass (you know who you are) Don't try changing out all your foods overnight. After you complete the first 30-day exercise challenge from step 1... start a second 30-day food challenge by replacing just ONE fatty food a day with a healthier option. Then, after that...begin replacing more and more of your unhealthy choices with healthy ones!

* Exercise: In this second month, start tweaking your exercise program just a little bit too. You should be able at this point to start gradually increasing the length of your workouts

Step 1.

Begin Exercising Gradually.
This is the same sort of thing I tell my clients, don't try to change your ENTIRE life with an intense weight loss and workout plan. Start small. All you really want to do to start with is to make a commitment to yourself moving. I would suggest you start moving for even just 10 to 15 minutes a day for 30 days straight!

* Type of exercise: If you used to run or bike, then start by adding that back into your life. If you have never really done anything, start walking, find a way to get to a treadmill or rowing machine, find a good hiking trail. What type of activity you choose to do isn't as important as you actually DOING it!

* Start out really easy: I see this happen...a LOT. Folks start out completely excited and ready to go and then..burn out. Then the inevitable skipping a couple of workouts happen and then BAM the plan has failed, all attempts to exercise have been abortedand then they're right back to where they were in the first place.... not doing anything.

*Try your HARDEST to do it EVERY day! Keep track of the days you do SOMETHING on a visible calender... mark it with big gold stars, big red X's or whatever you need to do so that you can easily SEE when you've done it...and hopefully this won't be the case,but also when you didn't.

* Find a time during the day when you prefer to do it and set that time aside for yourself...every day!

* Strength: In addition to your walking, hiking or biking... you need to incorporate some strength exercises into the mix. Again though, keeping with starting off easy and working your way up...don't start with anything too hard the first couple of weeks. Try just doing some pushups, sit-ups, lunges and squats using no extra weight, you may be surprised just how effective of a workout you can get using just your own body weight.

* START! This is the most important step to this whole process...just START! Today... I did NOT want to get out of bed and go do my workout. You wanna know what I did? I told myself that I didn't HAVE to workout, but I DID have to get out of bed, get dressed and GO. Once I got there, I started warming up and the next thing I know... I finished my workout.
Tell yourself you're just going to do 5 minutes...chances are once you start, you'll probably keep going.

Are You Ready?

As some of you who read this know, I have begun a very rigorous and demanding new training program for myself. I ABSOLUTELY am loving it... every minute. Even the times when my hands are bleeding and I am almost reduced to tears, in FACT those are some of my favorite times, because I get to prove to myself, if no one else, what I'm made of.
One of the things I have learned from starting this is, what it feels like to be a beginner again. And that got me thinking about how hard it can be for someone to start working out and more importantly stick to it.
Over the next few days I am going to give you a simple, easy to incorporate 5 step plan for weight loss. These are going to be things you can start putting to use right away to help get you on the path to a happier, healthier life! So, stay tuned and check back regularly and get ready for a new way to live!

S.

The Number One Dream Killer: Doing What Works.

I did not write this article, but I wish I had... it's very well written and should help give you some ideas on how to start taking the steps necessary to living your best life.

What’s the number one dream killer?
Doing what works.
By doing what works, I mean following a safe, easy, path where it’s unlikely you’ll find much that’s unknown. It’s comfortable and secure, so we think.
I don’t know about you, but I want more than just security. I want to live not simply survive.
If we want to have any hope at making our dreams a reality, we have to carve out our own path. We have to find a way to get paid to be ourselves. We must drop conventional wisdom (collective assumption) and break away from the herd.
But that takes courage, doesn’t it? It’s not easy taking giant leaps of faith, especially when you don’t know if there will be any floor beneath your next step.
So in order to start living on our own terms, we need to do two things: Go To Article To Continue Reading.

Hungry Like The Wolf.

Today I wanted to write a little about gratitude and focusing on the GOOD things in your life. Unfortunately it is SO easy to get caught up in all the 'bad' things. But, have you ever noticed that once you start focusing on a couple of bad things...that's ALL you start to notice and that's ALL that you seem to get? I am willing to bet...that if that is true, then the opposite must be true as well. I am thinking that if we were to focus on a couple of GOOD things, then we would start to notice MORE of the good things that happen to us and we would be attracting more GOOD into our lives. So anyway, that's what I was THINKING about writing about today and then... all of a sudden, this story below came into my inbox.... talk about bringing about good things!
I am sharing it here with you and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Read it, Learn it, Live it.



The Old Cherokee and The Boy

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

"The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply stated, "The one you feed."

- Anonymous

A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words

For those of you who missed it or don't live in the broadcast area...
Here's the interview from KOTV that aired on Friday.
Friday the 13th no less!

I tried to embed the video in this post but for some reason the code wasn't working...
technical difficulties.

S.

CHOICES

Today I had two different clients who were commenting on the same thing. They both thought that their weight loss was not fast enough. This is not an uncommon complaint by any means, but it is one I thought deserved a little attention. The thing to keep in mind with weight loss, especially weight loss that is healthy and will have lasting results, is that it DOES take time. It takes commitment and dedication. What we never really look at is the opposite of that fact. let me explain.
If we wanted to GAIN 50 pounds...guess what.... that too takes some commitment and dedication. We can't decide today that we want to weigh more and wake up tomorrow heavier. We would have to take steps towards making that goal a reality. We would set out on a course of making sure we ate more and became less active. We would make choices that enabled us to gain weight. "No thank you, I don't think I will have water today...i'm trying to gain weight. Do you have anything that has a lot of High Fructose Corn Syrup in it and that maybe has unlimited refills? GREAT! I'll take that please!"
The weight you are trying to lose did not magically appear over night, it took some time. So, inversely, it's going to take some time to take it off as well.
It's important to understand that what took a while to add on is going to take a while to take off...but that it WILL come off! It is just going to take some time and it is going to take a commitment to making the proper choices and staying on course. There will be bad days along the way, but it is important to not let those completely sabotage what you are trying to achieve. Keep making the right choices...the choices that are in alignment with your goal and one step at a time you'll get there.

How Are Those Resolutions Coming?

Okay folks... we're just a little over a month into the New Year and I know that MANY of you resolved to lose weight...No, I'm not some kind of genius...it's just a fact that is the MOST popular New Years resolution. Here's the part where I showcase my freaky genius though... I bet that very few people are actually adhering to their ambitious weight-loss goals. How many of you just went, "oh my god...has he been stalking me?!?!" The answer is no, well, mostly...SOME of you I have been. Just kidding. Maybe.
ANYway...what I want to do is to re-encourage you to take a look at whatever resolutions you made and see if we can't get you back on track. I have a few suggestions that hopefully will help...again, with ANY resolution, not just weight-loss specifically. Although that will be the primary focus here, the themes are very much transferrable.
Here we go!

1.Have A Plan

It's really sort of tricky to achieve anything without a plan in place. Saying you're going to lose weight is NOT a plan. In fact, I would suggest not even making that a GOAL but more on that later. Figure out HOW you are going to lose weight and stick with it! Plan out your diet and exercise routine and keep it somewhere that you can refer back to it and be accountable to it.

2. Be Realistic

One of the biggest reasons we give up on our goals is because of frustration. When we set unrealistic goals we are setting ourselves up for certain failure. You can't lose 100 lbs in a couple of months...it's not going to happen...it's not REALISTIC. Put the focus on losing 1 to 3 lbs a week. That's much more easily obtainable and your success every week will keep you motivated and striving towards your larger goal.

3. Make It Public

Let others know about the journey you are embarking upon! Let your friends and family help hold you accountable for your success. They can help with motivation or to talk you down from the ledge when you want to wash down 15 Twinkies with a 2 liter of Soda Pop and a Frappucino.

4. Reward Yourself

Treat yourself along the way towards your goals. Set some milestones and figure out what your reward will be. Maybe for every 10 lbs you lose buy yourself a new CD. When you hit the 20lb mark, maybe it's a new outfit. Some people call them bribes, I call them rewards...whatever you call them... I think they work.

5. Keep A Journal

Keeping a journal is extremely good for weight-loss. Include what you ate, track your progress and your moods and energy levels. Again, your journal is sort of like a friend or family member...it's something else for you to be accountable to. If you have to sit down every night and 'talk' to your journal...it's harder to eat poorly all day and to skip your workout!

6. Plan For Obstacles

Life Happens! There will ALWAYS be something that pops up unforeseen that can throw a wrench in your well laid out plans. But if you are aware of this from the beginning and have a PLAN to work around them...YOU are more in control of the situation instead of the situation being in control of YOU! Dinners out with people come up that have the potential to throw your diet into a tailspin, have a plan! This is something I have started doing... if you know in advance where you're going...go online and look up their menu! A lot of restaurant have their menus online now and that gives you a chance to see what they have BEFORE you get there and can give you a little more time to choose a healthy option!

7. COMMIT!

Don't half-ass your way through your weight-loss goal or WHATever it is you are doing. Make a list of the top 5 or 10 reasons WHY you are doing what you are doing and keep them where you can see them! And when I say make a list, I mean make a BRUTALLY HONEST list. The more HONEST and EMOTIONALLY charged it is...the more likely it will make you stick to it!

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!

McDonalds Is Drowning.

Flooded McDonald's from Superflex on Vimeo.

You Should Quit!

If there are things you are trying to achieve or accomplish, sometimes the best thing to do is QUIT

QUIT!?!?!

For those of you who are wondering if I have completely lost my mind... the answer is yes... a long time ago. BUT I still said QUIT and I meant it... not a mistake.

Sometimes when we are trying to make things happen, the GOOD things we're trying to do... things like losing weight, reading more, studying more, writing a book, whatever it is, the best thing to do is to quit the things that are keeping us from achieving our goals. The things that are standing in the way of your progress!

Here are some thoughts on the things you might want to take a second look at and reevaluate.

*Are there people that are not supportive of you that you could spend less time with?
*What websites can you quit spending time on (not this one!) How much time do you spend a day reading Perez Hilton?
*Does what happen on Lost of American Idol REALLY impact your life in a positive, productive way? What TV shows could you spend a little less time watching?

Those are the things I am encouraging you to quit... not your goals and passions and dreams. THOSE are the things that most OTHER people quit because they just can't seem to find the time to make them happen. Choose a different path...quit the the things that are standing in your way...don't quit the THINGS!
S.

Respect Yourself.

I was doing my workout today when it struck me.... I am not enjoying this... and it's HARD! A different kind of hard than my normal workouts. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE hard workouts and I enjoy pushing myself to the outer limits. No, today's hard was different, my MIND wasn't in it... I could not stay focused and every step of the run was a struggle. I kept TRYing to tell myself to just keep going... just keep putting one foot in front of the other, the end result is the same whether you ENJOYED the process or not. That's when it struck me... sometimes we just have days when we are not functioning at full capacity and that instead of FORCING ourselves through the motions, instead of FIGHTING to keep at whatever it is we are doing, we just need to let go a bit. Did I burn 100 less calories than I intended to today...yes. Did the world come crashing down around my ankles as a result of that...well, the day is not officially over yet but I am pretty sure I'm out of the woods. There is a difference between pushing ourselves and FORCING ourselves and I urge you to listen to your body and what it's trying to tell you and learn to distinguish between the two.
Be your own best friend...cut yourself some slack once in a while.
S.