Two Disgusting Words!

Can't

But

As I work with clients these are perhaps the most frustrating words I can hear coming out of their mouths. Its not because I don't understand. Believe me I've used those words many times myself in the past and yet, my life didn't change until I stopped using them and neither will yours!

It goes kind of like this:

I just can't get myself to stop eating...

I can't seem to get up in the morning...

I can't find the energy after work...

I want to workout, but...

Tony Robbins once said; "The person who uses the word but all of the time usually has a big one!"

That may be a little harsh and yet it is the truth. There is a country music song playing lately and the line that sticks out to me is: "Sounds like life to me."

We all have things that get in the way of some of the things we want to do. Life will continue to happen all around you every single day for as long as you grace this world with your presence. Its inevitable! The only question then is; What are you going to give your focus to?

I constantly hear people say they would love to work out but they have kids and they just can't find the time. That one sentence has both of those disgusting words in it! In fairness, I don't have any children, in fact I'm not even married or dating at the moment and so yes, my time is my time and yet...

I work 14 to 16 hours a day almost everyday and still find the time to go for a run. And I realize, fitness is my business and so it would seem to most people that it should be easier to workout right? Wrong! Most of my time is spent in front of a computer, writing, typing, blogging, emailing, designing training programs.

And before I got into endurance fitness training, I worked 7 days a week 12 to 14 hours a day running a car dealership and that is definitely not conducive to a healthy lifestyle!

So how do I find 2 or 3 hours to train each day?

Its all about how important my health is to me. 

If you constantly find yourself saying, I want to but... your health is just not that important to you no matter what kind of lip service you give it. If its really important to you then you will wake up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later or find a way to get someone else to watch the kids for a short period of time. If its really important, you will make the time.

I know you're tired! And, if you will just get with the program you will little by little find that you have more energy and vitality. You'll find that the time you spend with your kids or your spouse or doing whatever else you have to do in life will be so much better because you made your health a priority.

I hear over and over again; my kids are my priority! I completely, one hundred percent, unequivocally agree that they should be! And consider this...

If you don't take care of yourself... who's going to take care of your kids when you can no longer do so because of your health. You have to make the time. Period! You have got to make your health an absolute must. If you are the type of person who thinks its selfish to take time for yourself then don't think of it that way. Think of it as taking time to make yourself a better parent or spouse or lover for those other people in your life. If you fear not being there for them to give them what they need... it should be pretty easy to imagine what it would be like if you weren't around and I doubt you want that!

If you have found a way to get yourself to the gym or on the treadmill or out the door there's still one more thing we need to address.

Are you going through the motions or are you really working on improving?

When you first start out exercising, we take great care to make certain that at least for the first four weeks or so you don't push yourself too hard as your body gets used to its new demands. Where the problem comes in is most people never get out of that initial conditioning phase. In other words, they start going through the motions and as the same workload becomes easier they start to see diminishing returns and don't understand why.

As you're aerobic conditioning improves you have got to continue to challenge yourself. How much?

I'm glad you asked...

With runners, as we begin to increase mileage we use a rule of thumb of no more than 10% increase in mileage per week. If a runners long run is 4 miles one week, the next week we would increase it by 10% or basically a half mile and so their long run would then be 4.5 miles.

On a treadmill you should be using the same sort of principle for speed or time or both. If you are walking at 3.5 mph for 40 minutes, the next week I would suggest 45 minutes at the same speed of 3.5. The next week I would suggest 45 minutes at 3.9 mph (10% increase in speed). 

This is where can't and but come into play. It is going to be a little uncomfortable if you are pushing yourself. I expect my clients to experience mild discomfort when they are training. I'm referring to a low threshold soreness. I am not talking about sharp jabbing pain. You should be able to increase the speed on your treadmill by .1 or .2 or .3 mph in a week without extreme and sharp pains up to a certain speed. If you can not then we need to address your form because something in the way you're moving is causing a problem.

My point is... you will have some soreness, I would be lying if I told you otherwise. You never get more out than the effort you put in!

This is usually where I hear a whole bunch of I can'ts! I just can't go any longer or I just can't go any faster than 2.3mph...

And...

When you say you can't, guess what... you're absolutely right! As long as you tell yourself you can't, you will never ever as long as you live be able to. That applies to everything in life and you can absolutely take that to the bank!

When you stop saying I can't or but and start saying I can and I will things will start to change. When you start to push yourself to go farther or a little bit faster or maybe to jog a little or even run... that's when the magic will begin to really happen!

Every day will not be perfect! Guaranteed! And yet more of them will be pretty darn good. There will be times when you do everything right and get what is seemingly zero results. If you were here with me and we took you to the lab and did all of the latest testing and then trained together everyday, there would still be weeks where you didn't feel like you made any progress. Part of that is simply your body responding quickly to its new challenges and part of it is the fact that everything you do does not result in an immediate weight loss. You are improving your cardiovascular strength and endurance, you are building muscle. Never forget that your overall body composition is changing. You may not experience weight loss all of the time as you gain muscle and lose fat and yet I'll bet you clothes will fit better!

And now I'll get off my soapbox and just repeat.

Start saying I CAN and I WILL!

Now go get active!

Why Your Health Is So Important To Me!

Another Saturday training session on the books! We had a great session, with everyone feeling like they could have done more and still we were out for 50 minutes, twice what the schedule called for! I think everyone should be as proud of their efforts today as I am of all of you!

That being said, there are many who have not even made one session yet and at the risk of offending, you need to make this a priority. The question begs to be asked; “If not now... when?”

I thought I would share with you why this is so important to me and why I may be a little pushy on this subject. Hopefully give you an understanding of where my passion comes from.

Each and everyone of us has our own reasons for wanting to do this. For some its just simply to shed a few pounds. You may not even be that convinced that you need a lifestyle change as much as you just want to get rid of the pounds and move on. Still, for others you may have been told by your physician that you needed to make a change. You may be committed to losing the weight, but still figure once you've lost it you'll be able to get back to normal. There are certainly countless other reasons for undertaking this program. For most of you at this point, to take part or not is still a choice. Count it a blessing that it is still exactly that... a choice you can make.

Here's my inspiration:

I have been an on again off again runner and fitness enthusiast my whole adult life. Through March of 2008 I had run 4 marathons and countless shorter distance races. I had even competed in a bodybuilding competition in my late teens. And yet, that didn't mean I was always in great or good or even fair health. I certainly knew how to take care of myself. I am after all a Certified Endurance Fitness Trainer and Personal Trainer. And still, knowledge doesn't guarantee results, action does!

Its funny, if you asked most people who knew me they would tell you that I was active, I mean I was a marathoner you know! What most people didn't realize was that I was the “Grand Poobah of Yo-Yo'ers. No question that in spite of everything I knew; I ate the wrong stuff, drank too much and even smoked! Great example of health, right?

Monday May 18^th, will be an anniversary for me. It will be exactly a year ago and 60 lbs heavier that in the middle of a 40 mile bike ride I had my heart attack. Yes, at 45 years of age, my refusal to apply what I knew caught up with me.

You might at this point be thinking; “That could never happen to me!” Guess what? I thought the same thing. To a person, everyone who knew me thought it should have happened to them not me. I was after all the active guy.

My one concern in telling this story is that you might take away from it what some of my friends did. If the healthy guy has a heart attack, then what's the point, I might as well have another beer and a cheeseburger!

The fact of the matter is, I only appeared to be healthy. I am a big guy, frame-wise and so even with an extra 60 lbs of body fat, I didn't appear to be overweight. I had that “Week-end Warrior”, “Guy” mentality that said I could eat what I wanted, when I wanted, drink what I wanted, when I wanted and then just workout once in a while and everything would be honky-dory.

As an example; I had almost a full year to train for my first marathon from the time I signed up until the time I had to run. Guess how many times I ran during that year? 300? 200? 100? 50? 20?

How about none of the above! I literally ran 10 times in the year leading up to my first marathon. Everyone knew I was training for the marathon. What they didn't know was that I would go home from work, put on my workout clothes, sit down and turn on the TV and never get out the door. Pretty soon all I did was think about putting on the workout clothes and just go right to the food and TV routine.

Don't get the impression that if you are genuinely active, you are no better off than if you just say forget it, because I was not the stellar example of health everyone thought I was.

The fact remains, when I hear someone talk about how they are going to get active and healthy and then they come up with every excuse in the books as to why they don't, I know exactly what's going on in their brain at that moment. I've heard, given, used and created pretty much every excuse you can imagine as to why tomorrow is a better day to start getting healthy than today. You can't surprise me with one I haven't at least thought of at some point in time.

Truth is; you still have a choice and that may not be the best thing in the world. I don't have a choice.

Actually, I do. Live or die!

Which would you chose? I've opted for living. I've kind of grown accustomed to it!

You have lots of choices that I no longer have. If you are a Weight Watchers member, you have a points system that pretty much allows you to eat anything on the menu as long as it falls within the allotted points. I don't! I am a Midwestern boy at heart. Which means I do love food! Food is now fuel for me. The leaner and more pure it is the better and enough to keep me running in top condition is all I'm really interested in. I have zero cravings anymore. Why? I want to live and after a year of very pure eating for fuel, I just don't' crave anymore. I know by how I feel exactly what type of fuel I need and that's what I eat. No more, no less!

You have the choice to be active or not. I don't! For the rest of my life, I have to constantly work to improve my cardiovascular endurance and cardiovascular strength. Its not an option, its a must!

Fortunately for me, I find extreme joy in running! And, now that I'm actually doing it on a regular basis, I'm enjoying it even more.

Don't get me wrong, I love my active lifestyle. So much so that I'm training for my first ultra marathon next January of 50 miles. Its just that getting to this point became non-optional.

So I hope that you can understand, that when I am pushy about getting you out to our training sessions its not for me. Its that I would never wish what I went through on anyone... ever!

And when you throw out your excuses, I'm not being judgmental, but in the back of my mind I do hear myself throwing out the same excuses over a year ago. Trust me if you haven't figured this out already, once you come up with one way to let yourself off the hook, it just gets easier and easier with every one.

No one who has been to our training sessions would walk away saying anything but how enjoyable walking with the group is. I truly enjoy it myself. I also enjoy the solitude that a long run by myself brings.

Please get active, while you have a choice. I will do everything in my power to help make it something you enjoy now and for the rest of your life and yet it all begins with you!

Have an incredible day and go get active!

Find Your Inspiration

I have to say my training has been crazy lately... in a good way!

I don't think I've felt this good running since I was in my early twenties.  Oh sure, there are those times when I just really don't feel like it and yet once I get out there everything just really seems to flow!

At 46, I think it is all together possible that I could set a 5k PR at any time just pick a race and go.  I am not specifically training for speed in fact quite the contrary, I'm really just looking to put in the miles and drop the final few pounds of body fat that have plagued me for the last several years of my life.  Still I find my speed dramatically improving.

Some of it may very well be attributed to the Run/Walk training I mentioned the other day.  What's been happening is that because I am in essence getting a small rest during the walk periods my run is at a much quicker pace.

Hurray for Galloway!

It may also be that I have really been putting my nose to the grindstone so to speak.  I am currently doing a series of two a days.  Training longer in the morning, maybe a couple of hours and then coming back later in the day and doing a quick 5k around the neighborhood.  My favorite 5k route takes me just down along the ocean front and then back up a couple of nice little hills before reaching home.

But from the title of this post you can tell all of this training talk is not the subject I want to talk about.  No, instead I want to talk about what really pushed me in the last few weeks to put the hammer down.

A while back I mentioned that I was going to be working with a group of individuals as a Team Trainer for the Momentum Walk-It Challenge sponsored by Weight Watchers.  It has been an incredible experience to say the least.  I am working with a group here in Santa Monica and then also offering training advice to others online.

These folks have got me totally fired up!

The level of exercise experience is wide open.  I have some folks who haven't done anything in years and some who have been involved in some form of exercise albeit maybe not consistent all along.  More importantly, they all have made a real commitment to improving their health through exercise and most are really putting in the effort to improve themselves.  Everyday I see reports from them as to the workouts they did and its impressive.  Not just the numbers, but also the excitement and enthusiasm they show when they complete another day with activity and they feel better.

I can tell by their words that each one of them is feeling better about themselves because of their renewed commitment to being active.  How totally inspiring!

And so, me being the trainer can't think of a better reason to be even more committed to my training.

I guess its true... sometimes the student becomes the master!

Open up almost any Internet browser and somewhere amongst the sea of information you'll find an ad that uses the term "Easy".

Why?

Well, quite honestly in this ever busier world that we live in people want the quickest and easiest solution to whatever their problem is. And quite frankly, marketers know this. They know that when they use that magical little word, they're going to get your attention.

I mean, think about it... if you were going to write an ad for a new abdominal workout video would you say:

Easy Abs!

or

Fairly Simple abs!

Most of us if we're honest want "Easy"! The unfortunate truth is - anything that is worth having requires some effort, in other words, its not easy.

The Good News is, although it may require some effort on your part being and living a healthy life is relatively simple. An example would be Weight Watchers. The program is simple by nature and although it may require you to make changes in your life that are not easy, its not complicated and hard to understand.

I've done a lot of research on why it is that most people either never get involved in fitness activities or don't stick to them. I'm the guy who if told most people don't stick to a program because its too hard, asks the question; What's too hard about it? I want to know what specifically is it that's keeping you from doing what you know is good for you?

The answers to those questions may surprise you as they did me at first. What I have found is that its not really the actual effort involved in the exercise that discourages people, its that they don't know how. A good steady training program is not going to be so difficult that you can't physically or mentally handle it, but that's not normally the problem is it.

You may have been in this situation. You decide to do something about your health. Everywhere you turn you see ads for "Easy" this or "Easy" that and maybe you even invested in some of those programs. When they arrived in the mail and you tried them out they were so complicated and hard to understand that after one or maybe two sessions you just gave up.

Let's be honest here; How many of us have an "Ab Roller" stuffed under our bed or jammed in the back of a closet somewhere?

Or...

Maybe you thought about joining a gym but just the thought of all of that unfamiliar equipment left you defeated without even trying. Maybe you joined a gym and the 19 year old trainer who obviously got hired for looks not brains, and who thinks that everyone can be motivated with a simple "Come On, You Can Do", got you so confused with exercises you'll never be able to remember that you said; "To heck with it" and never went back!

So here's the truth about being active...

1. It is not always easy! There are days for me when the last thing I want to do is go for a run or do strength training or quite frankly, anything that resembles activity. We all experience that feeling from time to time. And still I say; "The only bad run, is the one that never begins!"

2. You more than likely will experience some soreness when you first start to get active. I experience soreness on a regular basis as I continue to push myself farther and farther with my training.

3. Soreness and Pain are not the same thing! A little soreness is your body's way of saying it is in the process of rebuilding itself. Pain is your body's way of saying: "Hey dummy, something's wrong here!" A little soreness can simply mean you need to back off or take a rest and recovery day. Pain means you should get it checked out because something may very well be wrong.

4. Being active is simple. It doesn't require that you have a degree or certification in exercise physiology to get started. Yes, just like anything else, there are lots of new things to learn about the more involved in fitness you become, but you don't need to know them to go for a walk.

5. Being active can and should be enjoyable. A walk is refreshing, rejuvenating, invigorating and a great way to clear your mind. Walking with family and/or friends can be a great way to reconnect.

The more I get involved in "Virtual Coaching", the more I realize that simple is best. If the people I work with in person or online want "Easy" they got the wrong guy. If they want simple to follow instruction that slowly builds as they become progressively more fit and healthy, with an understanding that one-size does not fit all, then I'm their guy!

As the virtual coaching site launches over the next few days, that's what you can expect. Simple, fun and effective.

Remember that being active is a lifestyle choice, something you can enjoy for years to come. It's not always easy, but it really is simple!

How Totally Cool!

This Saturday morning I will have the opportunity to meet for the first time a group of individuals who are taking action to change their lives for the better. I have to say I am excited!

Who are these individuals? They are members of local Weight Watchers groups who are taking part in the Momentum Walk-It Challenge sponsored by Weight Watchers. They are people from all walks of life who already know the value of making a lifestyle change through their association with Weight Watchers and now their kicking it up a notch by training to complete a 5k.

I am fortunate enough to be involved as a Team Trainer for this program and I am already in awe of these folks and our training hasn't even begun! It is my responsibility to provide motivation, inspiration, tips, techniques and advice on how to achieve this goal.

I have a strong feeling that I will be receiving far more motivation and inspiration than I am giving. Just a hunch!

I'll try to keep you up to date on our progress and of course I'll give you an update when we've done the race June 21st.

I can't wait for Saturday morning!