What do we eat in a day? Hmmm ….  Most of us go through the day and work hard, play hard and grab bites to eat here and there.  I know, we all live fast paced lives at times and it’s difficult to keep track of everything.  The kids need to go to daycare, the dog needs walked, the groceries’ need to be put away, got to go to the dentist, have to take the kids to soccer, music lessons, the doctor, have to go to work and on and on and on ….. I’m tired just thinking of it all.  And in between we eat.  If it’s not fast food, it’s rushed through at the dinner table with us hardly having time to talk with our family and share the day’s events.

But what do we really put in our bodies each day?  I’ll say it up front,  some of you do a great job of watching what you eat and how much.  But for the vast majority of you ……..  think again.  People stop by the golden arch’s and grab coffee, bacon and eggs, hash browns,  biscuits with who knows what on it, Danish’s , and that’s just to start.  On to school or work, we get there, more coffee, candy or crackers from the machine, doughnuts from the kitchen, bagels with cream cheese and on and on.  We haven’t even got to lunch, dinner or all the snacks in between.  So what’s my point?

My point is that we eat too much.  (As a general statement of course).  Honestly people, have you even tried to figure out how many calories you’re consuming?  Not to mention the right nutrients that your body needs instead of what we tend to feed the craving little guy buried deep in our body that screams out “I WANT THAT HOT FUDGE SUNDAE”.  I remember a long time ago listening to Bill Cosby when he produced comedy skits on record.  For those of you who don’t know what a record is …. It’s that black circular vinyl thing with grooves in it that music used to be recorded on.  Sheesssshhh another 10 years and that will totally be lost on ya’ll.  Anyway, Bill Cosby had a skit where his wife was pregnant and Bill kept trying to give the yet unborn child things to play with, such as asking his wife to swallow a ball so the kid could play, etc.  Then from the babies point of view, when the mom was eating healthy, the baby cried out ‘get those Brussels sprouts outta here, and so on”  He just wanted the junk food that tasted good that mom would eat………..I digress so …..   The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) says that every State in the country has a large population that is obese with a BMI of 30lbs or more.  We’re gaining, not losing.  Very sad.

So, let me just say that if you want to lose weight, you must take in fewer calories than you burn in a day.  I’ll refer you to a prior article to help you figure that one out, but let’s just say…..those coca colas are not helping!  Also, starving yourself is not helping.  Did you know that your body literally shuts down on you if you stop giving it food?  Yep, the little guys inside keeping you running start chatting with one another when their food source stops.  They raise mortal cain for awhile.  They convene a little board meeting and planning session and determine that since you are not going to feed them, they’ll just shut down your metabolism, slow it way down and then they decide to burn your muscles for fuel instead of the fat you were trying to get rid of.  Why should they burn the fat, hey that’s their winter protection, like the bears and other hibernating animals.

So there is a happy medium and a way to get the little guys active again (That’d be your metabolism).  Eat right, eat often (about 5 small meals a day spaced evenly) and you’ll find that your metabolism will kick into gear and with the right foods, your sugar levels will be maintained on an even keel and couple that with the correct calorie intake, you can either maintain your weight or lose some.  So what’ll it be, a life of hibernation or a life with high energy and a kick ‘in metabolism?  You choose!

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Okay maybe it’s just that Love / Hate relationship but certainly it’s not one  of those workouts that I’m thinking of the night before and just jumping at the chance the next day to start.  You don’t agree?  Well maybe you’re not giving yourself the intensive cardio workout that your body is needing.

On a scale of 1 to 10 during your workout, what level would you say you are at if 10 is you can’t hardly breath and feel like you’re going to puke and 5 is pretty much just ho, hum?

So, these workouts typically aren’t fun for me.  And running, come on people, what’s up with that?  I hate it!  Did I just put an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence?  I did!  I just can’t help it!!!  Breathing hard, legs burning and your chest feeling like it’s about to explode.  Who loves that?

Now some of the cardio that I do is intense I have to admit.  It’s not for your average Joe, but really anyone with a desire and commitment can do it.  Take Insanity for example.  This program is aptly named because it truly is an INSANE workout.  Jumping, squatting, hopping around, up and down, plyo this, push up this, jeesh you would have thought I was back in boot camp, only 100 times worse.

But here’s a couple of good thoughts from my dear friend Tony Horton (check him out in the video below).  “You’re only good at the things you do often and you become great if work at the things you struggle with most”.  And I also agree with him that I don’t really enjoy these workouts but they’re important and I do them anyway!

So I’ve rambled on a bit about why I hate cardio.  But it is the one thing my body, my heart and my mind crave.  If I don’t feed them this particular thing, then they all will fall into a state of disrepair and unfortunately the worse that can happen is that my heart decides it’s the weak kid on the block and gives me grief for it.

You all know deep down that the easy low intense cardio that you’ve been doing isreally not helping you to burn fat.  That is one of the goals of doing cardio.  Studies have shown that high-intensity training and especially when combined with an interval workout can burn up to 9 times the amount of fat as other cardio workouts.  Further enhance this fat loss by doing them in the morning on an empty stomach and you’ll have the effects of the workout throughout the day to help burn fat.

So the morale of the story here is to “Do It Anyway”.  Regardless if it’s a little or a lot, just do it!  And if you need some motivating, shoot me an email and I’ll love to partner with you in your success.

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What makes some people so successful in their career or life’s pursuits where it seems that everything they touch turns to gold?  On the flip side, how come a lot of other people we know seem to struggle and toil over the same issues time and time again?

Let me propose to you that the first person knows something or has something that the second person does not.  Would you agree with that?  I think most of you would.  So what is it?  That’s the million dollar question.  If you could just find out what that thing is and how you can get it, that would be the real solution to all your struggles in life.

I’ll pose a few scenarios to you;  And since this site is really about fitness, the first one will be about that …Why is it some people never manage the time to stay in shape, while others run a few miles each day even though their lives are just as busy?  They have the Slight Edge!  It’s there in your life whether you know it or not.  It’s either working for you or against you.  Your health is the most prized possession you have.  Yet many people don’t give their prized possession the attention it deserves. You wouldn’t expect to eat a double cheeseburger for lunch and then keel over with heart attack from it.  Not today and not tomorrow.  But a lifetime of that type of eating will certainly put you on that path.  So it’s not the 1 junk food meal, it’s the thousands over a lifetime.  Eating fresh fruit, complex carbs, lean protein and such will give your body what it needs. It’s easy to eat right and it’s easy to not eat right.  Both are easy, but in the long run they have dramatically different outcomes.

The same is true for exercise.  Not doing a bit of exercise for a week or so, won’t put your body in sad shape, but a lifetime of no exercise will certainly put the pounds on. A few workouts a week, twenty minutes here doing a fast walk or run, doing some resistance exercises here and there, all add up to what your body needs.  Both of these examples show the slight edge in our life.  A little bit each day will either reward us, or put us on the wrong path.  Yet the day we do it, just that one day in time doesn’t have much of an effect.  The days add up and the slight edge has worked for us.

The second example is finances.  It’s the same story a lot of you have heard.  Two people age 24 talk about retirement and how to invest to make a million bucks by age 65.  One takes steps, small as they are and invest 2,000 dollars a year for 6 years.  The other just meanders through life not giving much thought to retirement and then meets his friend again at year 7.  He asks his friend how he’s doing and how are his investment plans going.  His friend says ‘I’m all done!”  At age 65 by the magic of TIME his friend will have a million dollars even though he doesn’t have to invest 2 cents more here at age 31.  So the friend who didn’t start investing wants to be in the same shape and starts his trek towards the million dollars at age 65.  The only difference is, he now has to invest 2000 dollars a year until he’s 62 to reach that mark.  His procrastination cost him 33 years!

So the slight edge in life can have a profound effect.  But it’s never to late to start.  It’s not simply “Will Power” that will get you there.  All it is is TIME.  Do a little each day, regardless of the goal and you will achieve it.

So get off your (you know what) and get on the “Slight Edge” of life and succeed!

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Simple question right?  But let me tell you, it’s one that makes you really examine your day, your night, your week and your life.  How does the day come and go?  What’s it like, …your life?  What do you do after you wake up in the morning, shower, dress and go off to work, or meet friends or play?  What’s your day like?

If your  day is anything like mine, then you ‘ll have to get a few towels and mop up the sweat!  As my good friend Tony Horton once commented on a friend of his teaching him to ski, who  said “I only have three rules… Keep Up, …Keep Up, …Keep Up”.  That’s what my day is like.  Whew!  I’m tired just thinking about it.

Up at 3:50 am.  Down a bottle of water, pop in a workout DVD and huff and puff to some cardio or grunt and clink weights with some resistance training.  My friend, this is no fun that early in the morning.  Afterward, a quick shower…”thank gosh”…then in the car for an hour drive to work.  I can’t believe at 615 am the email is beeping at me, the phone starts ringing off the hook, the radio is squawking and people are literally streaming in the door for help, direction or a badly needed kick in the butt  .

Hours and hours later, I’m finally out the door for another trip home.  Arriving there, it’s time for another workout.  And usually my heart is not in this one!  Then Samson my dog keeps wandering in looking at me with those serious stares probably thinking “Are you EVER going to take me out?”.  So out the door we go for a 30 minute jaunt around the neighborhood.

By this time, SWMBO’d (She Who Must Be Obeyed) is home and we take a few minutes to cook and eat dinner.  We spend a few minutes talking then we both graduate towards something soft and cushioning to collapse on (That’s IF I don’t have a lot of work to do on the PC).  We either watch a bit of TV, read a book or chat.  But by this time it’s almost time to hit the hay and cry ourselves to sleep knowing that the cruel little box on the nightstand is going to shrill and scream at us all over again when we least want it to.

SO……What’s the point of all this rambling?

Take a moment today and examine your life, or just the day.  Plan a little down time, something special just for you or with your significant other.   Break the routine, refresh your mind, body and Spirit with something that your body knows it needs, but you’ve been unwilling to give it.

If you’ve been out of the exercise routine for some time, take this opportunity to try something to get your blood pumping and your heart going.  Plan 45 minutes to an hour of exercise with some proper warm up and stretching before and after.  There’s no better time to do this then now.

If you’re a workaholic or a couchaholic, break the routine.  Go home early from work one day, you know it’ll be there when you get back.  Stop by a lake or a park on the way home and sit on a park bench or watch a kid’s softball game.  Enjoy the moment, relax and breathe.  If you’re a couchaholic, see my paragraph above!

Life is way too short for us to let it pass by and our not even seeing it or experiencing what Joy there is all around us.  I admit, my life is way too busy and that’s why I’m writing this.  I’ll take my own medicine and do some of the above and check back in with you later on what I did, but my challenge for you today is……….Just do it!

AND …..please take a moment and click the SHARE button below and then give it a little ‘Tweet” up top……Just do it! 

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My Weight Loss Story

I’ve been wanting to write this for some time now but never really got around to it.  So, pen in hand…uh…keyboard at the ready, …here I go.

I can’t say that I was overweight, unless I go by the CDC center’s guidelines on obesity which says that my BMI greater than 30 I would be obese.  Well then, maybe a tad, but you never would have known it for the golf shirts.  The start of my weight loss journey found me in a hotel room in Atlanta, GA, lying on the bed, eating a doughnut while flipping through the TV after a hard day at work.  Feeling lethargic would be saying it mildly.  I came across the at home workout program, P90X infomercial.  I was amazed at what I saw.   Those guys on TV were moving, jumping, doing pull ups, push ups and things I never knew existed.  It looked hard, it looked like a killer workout but it looked like it got results!  Now this was truth TV.

I never knew you could get results by doing a workout at home.  I’ve never been one to workout at home with a DVD either.  Now I knew there was no magic pill to weight loss, but seeing this P90X workout made my mind say, “Here’s the magic pill”.  I picked up the phone, ordered it and haven’t looked back since.

The P90X workout came in the mail that week and I eagerly opened it and read all the material.  I set my workout journey to begin on the following Monday with doing my “fit test” on Sunday.  My wife watched while I was doing my fit test and laughed a few times.  How encouraging was that?  Actually it pushed me harder and helped to cement my resolve.  I threw the mental switch in my mind that I was going to do this, stick to it and get in shape, “the BEST shape of my life”!  Part of the fit test included doing pull ups.  Easy right?  Wrong!  Wide grip, overhand I did an amazing 1 and ¾.  Very embarrassing.

Monday morning 4 am came bright and early,…well not so bright, but early.  My at home workout with P90X started by popping in the DVD “Chest and Back”.  So what do you think I did?  Lots of push ups and lots of pull ups.  Well, lots of attempts anyway.  I logged all of my results on a P90X workout sheet .  All throughout the P90X workout, Tony Horton kept telling me to “do my best and forget the rest”.  That’s what I did, my best.  I couldn’t do near as many as everyone on the workouts, but I  felt a great accomplishment at having started the ball rolling and moved past the inertia keeping me in a life of unhealthy living with no exercise.  And guys, playing golf riding in a golf cart doesn’t count as exercise.

So I’m not going to go through all of the 12 DVD’s that come with P90X at home workout like Chest and Back, Plyometrics, Shoulders and Arms, Yoga, Legs and Back, Kenpo, Stretch, Core Synergistics, Chest shoulders and Triceps, Back and Biceps, Cardio and Ab Ripper but to tell you that it is a 90 day at home workout program that will absolutely change your life.  How did it change mine?  I’m glad you asked.

I went from weighing 187 lbs. to 162 lbs. in 90 days!  Now that’s true weight loss! You can see my before and after photo here.  Did I change or what?  Does it work or not?  Pictures don’t lie,…well if I photo-shopped them they would, but I’m NOT that smart.

I believed in this program so much that I clicked on one little button on my online website that Beachbody gave me when I ordered P90X and I became “A Coach”.  Now I get to encourage others to start their at home workout journey just like me and see success in weight loss, just like me.  And I get paid to do it.  Now that’s just icing on the cake… not that I’m eating it mind you

So there you have it.  Lots of sweat left on the floor, lots of fat burning and fat loss and I’m on my way to being in the best shape of my life.

If you think this article was helpful, please take a moment and “Share it” using the button below so some other “lethargic, doughnut eating, hard worker” can discover the same “magic pill” that I did.

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Walking In A Fog

Have you ever had one of those days where you just seemed like you were in a fog? Or maybe instead of a fog, you just “felt” out of sorts? Well that’s happened to me, and recently I might add. It was just a weird day. The second one this week matter of fact!

I was doing most things like normal, waking, exercise, starting work and doing the normal daily grind. But I also had an appointment later on in the day to something that I had never done before. I was to have my picture taken by a professional photographer. Maybe this is what stress is? Not really experiencing true high intensity stress, but stress behind the scenes. I made my appointment and everything was OK. I was actually asked to pose certain ways trying to convey an attitude to the camera so it could actually capture more than just my picture. (Some would say I have enough attitude!) That was weird to say the least. For me anyway.

Waiting for the pictures to be downloaded and then make my way home, I still felt “out of sorts”. As I write this now, I’m feeling a bit better but you know, it has to have been that unseen stress in my life.

What’s that you are carrying around today that is making you feel this way? Can you identify it? Can you place a name on it, think it through then find something in your day to relieve that stress? I actually hit the gym at my house, worked out hard and focused on the movements, the weights, my breathing and just cleared my mind. It helped!

So what’s the point of my little rant here? Well…. just to let you know that you are not alone. (Or is it just me?) Seriously though, too many things come into our lives where we just feel like we are all alone, left out in the cold, no one to care about us and no one there to help. If you’re reading this, then I pledge my helping hand to you. If you need a shoulder, need a friend or just need to let loose on the keyboard, then here I am and this space is just for you!

Let the new wind blow through your life today, catch a breath of fresh air, close your eyes, breathe deeply and clear your thoughts……..you’ll find that the fog will be lifting once you open your eyes.

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Fast Easy Weight Loss

OK……so what’s fast?  That’s one of the questions I’m sure is on your mind because how to lose weight quick is pretty common for most people.  The second one may be, how much can I lose?  The third may be, how to lose weight easy?  Fast easy weight loss can be broken down into just a few simple thoughts, ideas and actions.

As the summer sun warms the white sandy beaches around here, a lot of people bring out those bathing suits and try them on only to look in the mirror gasping at how much weight they’ve gained over the winter and Holiday’s.  Now it’s crunch time, the vacation is set, hotels booked and the new bathing suit at the store is on your mond as the one you want to wear.

Let’s look at this a moment…

• How to lose weight quick -First you need to know how many calories it takes for you to breathe, pump blood, grow hair, blink…you know, basically to stay alive.  My number (called RMR, resting metabolic rate) is 162 lbs. x 10 or 1600 calories.  Second, I need to know how many calories I burn in a day apart from any exercise. So 1600 x 20% is 320 calories.  So leading a sedentary life, only doing those things to get me around town, the house and the sofa is 1920 calories.

Here’s the fun part.  I know that I want to lose 5 lbs.  And I want to do it quick.  So the simple math behind this is, burn more calories in a day then you take in.  One pound is equal to 3500 calories.  The “fast” part of this question is, what are you willing to do?

• How much can I lose – Staying with the 5 lb example let’s apply the math above.  If I want to lose these 5 lbs. in 5 weeks.  That means 1 pound a week which I think is a good goal.  So that means I have to eat less than 3500 calories than I normally would have.  So… each day I need to consume 1420 calories.  I’m saving 500 a day and at the end of 7 days I will have lost one pound.  Five weeks will yield a 5 lb. loss.

• How to lose weight easy – OK, so now you know the magic formula.  But let’s kick it up a notch.  Let’s say I do some exercising each day of the week.  And that exercise burns 500 calories.  So the simple equation here is that by eating less and burning more, I can lose 2 lbs. a week.  Now I will say right here that your body needs fuel, so I would not encourage eating less.  Take the one pound of weight loss by doing the exercise.  Not only will you lose weight, you may even build a little muscle which will also help you to burn more calories in the future. So I may have embellished a bit on the headline how to lose weight easy.

Have fun!

All lifestyles aren’t created equal, so take that in mind when reading through this post.

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3 Day Cleanse

Well guys, I did it!  I did the Shakeology 3 day cleanse.  I have to admit I was a bit scared going into it as I have NEVER done anything like this before.  But having read up on Master Cleansing and what that’s about and then what the Shakeology cleanse was about I knew that this one was for me.  It’s not really calorie deficit, but is calorie efficient as mentioned by my friend Steve Edwards in his blog about the Shakeology cleanse.

I had been looking for a colon cleanse recipe and really everything I read didn’t sound like what I wanted to do.  There were all things out there that showed you how to cleanse the body.  Cleansing fast, cleansing slow, cleanse like this, cleanse like that…. good grief it was confusing.  But this 3 day cleanse that found with a product that I already love and use regularly was just the ticket for me.

The 3 day cleanse is just that.  Three days of putting into your body what it needs and wants.  My mind was telling me “cleanse the body”, “cleanse the body”.  My stomach was telling me other things as I went through it.  Here’s what Steve Edwards had to say about how to do it …”The plan consists of three Shakeology shakes* a day with a salad in the evening. If the shakes are plain (Shakeology and water only) I can add three pieces of fruit. The salad is unrestricted as far as veggies go, with 4 ounces of a protein source (if it’s meat or fish and slightly more if it’s a veggie source like legumes), and two tablespoons of an olive oil/vinegar dressing. For fatty acids, each salad will also contain a tablespoon of chia seeds (or flaxseed or hempseed). Plenty of water washes it all down. Coffee, tea, and herb teas are fine as long as they are sans additives, as all are performance enhancing.”

So that’s what I did.  I started out weighing 164.5 lbs. and ended up 161 lbs.  Now I know a lot of that wasn’t body fat loss, but some of it was.  I felt better for having done this and I set myself up for eating right going forward.  If you decide to do this one, make sure you do your own research first and make the decision that is best for you.  Come back here and write to tell me how your 3 day cleanse went.  If you don’t have the product Shakeology yet, just click on my link at the top of this page “Shakeology” and get it delivered to your door in now time flat.  The best thing about Shakeology is that it gives me absolutely the best meal of the day regardless of doing the 3 day cleanse.  In my opinion you’ll not find a better product on the market.

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Oh why am I going to share this story?  I usually try and stop my family from telling it when we’re among family reunions, but something in me today told me I needed to share it.  So here it goes…

One early day when I was around seven years old I somehow gained access to an empty apartment above ours where we lived.  My parents were at work and me and my brothers were at home alone doing the normal boy things…getting into trouble.  But I was alone and I must have just finished watching a superman show.  You know the one, the black and white series where Clark Kent worked at the Daily Planet and always rushed into a closet or empty office to do his quick change into his Superman outfit.  (yes men, he wore an “outfit”)  The next moment you saw him take a few running steps and out the window he went…Whoosshh!

Carrying my trusty towel and the largest safety pin I could find, I went upstairs and got into the empty apartment.  I wrapped my cape around my neck, secured it with the pin and looked for my window.  Seriously…  I found a kitchen window, slid it open and looked out.  I don’t even remember looking down, I just knew, “hey if Superman could do it, so could I” and out the window I went.  You all know the end of this story.  Once airborne my cape filled with air and I felt the rush of wind.  But I wasn’t going horizontally to say the least.  Downward I flew, or plunged, whichever words suit you better.  I didn’t land like I had seen him on TV either, with the gentle two to three strides walking up to the villain.  Nope, I smacked the ground with a hard landing.  Luckily our hero only suffered a broken “widdle weg” as my mother likes to say.

But you know what, I can at least say I tried.  Have you?  But NO, that’s not my admonition to you.  Not at all.  learn from my experience and Don’t try it,…sheessh I feel like I have to have a disclaimer here.  But we do tend to do that in life sometimes.  We act without thinking.  We jump in front of an object trying to stop it when it weighs two tons.  What are we thinking.  We forget that our bodies have limitations.  And the older we get, the slower we get and the weaker.

So the morale of the story is, know your limitations.  Plan carefully, act wisely and move through life in a safe way.  Since my Blog here is about health, wellness and nutrition, I’ll encourage you to get into shape, eat right, exercise and put your body in the best shape it can be.  We want to enjoy life, yet we neglect the most important thing we own.  Our bodies.  So if we are in good shape, we can walk through the day better prepared to handle the bumps that come along.  I hope you enjoyed my story, which was true and I still have my widdle crutch to prove it!

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Now this is just a quick observation of my watching and listening to the President and CEO of Humana Health Insurance on C-Span talking about rising health care costs and legislation.  Boring as usual but he started speaking about children and their being overweight.  His discussion talked about them playing video games, inactivity and such creating a lifestyle that made them obese.  Now I’m watching him and thinking to myself, he’s lecturing the masses on health, eating right and exercise when I can see what kind of shape he’s in.  I’ve shared information from the CDC on Obesity in the US and what I’m seeing on TV certainly looks like a trend from that report, ….just say’in….

He also talked about BMI or Body Mass Index and noted that in his own company that those with a BMI over 30, spent all the money.  Now I’m fairly he was sure about the health insurance money, but he stated that if he could figure out a way to lower the BMI of his employees and knew it would lower his cost by 25 million, then he would be all over it.  But he hasn’t figured out a way to do that yet.  You have got to be kidding me!  Eating right and exercise…Duh!

The problem lies in that we are quick to point out others faults and fail to take action ourselves.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have to look at myself in the mirror and forcefully say…”Hey…do what you preach or don’t preach…”.  My real desire is that if we are going to try and help others, that we first help ourselves.  It’s like on a plane ride.  Remember that the flight attendants say that in an emergency, first place the mask on yourself, then help others do theirs.  There is a reason for that which I think is very obvious.  So let’s start taking care of ourselves first, then let’s care for one another and help them where they’re willing too.  Have a great weekend my friends!

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