How much is too much?

The 12 week challenge is filling up fast, and one of the most common questions I am hearing from clients old and new is 'how much is too much'.

With so much on offer and so much motivation it's important to work a program that is going to deliver what your body needs.  That's why you need a trainer.

Our bodies can, and will, do anything we ask, provided that they are conditioned to do it.  It's a hard lesson to learn, especially when the attainment of the goal is so desirable and patience is not the first given of human virtues.

To work out how much is too much, and more importantly how much is 'just right' for you, get a professional assessment before you start.  Important physical measures of your current state of health and fitness include cardiovascular/aerobic condition, also called VO2Max, strength, endurance, flexibility and core strength.  Then it's important to consider also lifestyle factors such as stress, sleep, eating habits, medications and toxins.  All of these factors will play a role in determining your individual prescription for optimum health and fitness.

Finally, consider whether changes you are making to your lifestyle and your fitness regime are changes that you could maintain for the long term, i.e. the rest of your life.  If your program has you doing things that could not possibly be sustained for the rest of your life, then chances are very high that you are doing too much.

Goals drive motivation.  It's perfect to have a goal, such as a race, a big game, a reunion or a party, that motivates you to achieve your short term goal.  It's even better to know that you can keep going once you reach that goal and raise the bar each time.

Here are my golden rules for training.  (Thanks to the awesome Ian O'Dwyer from ODOM)

1.PAIN FREE MOVEMENT

2. IF YOU CAN'T MOVE IT, YOU CAN'T LOAD IT  (i.e. if your knees won't bend, don't pick up dumbells and try to lunge!!)

3. HAVE FUN

So, how much is too much?  Well, you know you have it right when you feel good, you look good, you're excited about your workouts and your energy is up.  The opposite of this ... that's too much!

The 12 Week Challenge

The 12 Week Challenge WILL focus you.
The 12 Week Challenge WILL deliver results.
The 12 Week Challenge WILL change your life!

Over the 12 weeks you will become an expert at:

• Goal setting
• Achieving goals
• Focusing your energies
• Daily training
• Eating right for your body
• Filtering out negativity
• Feeling, thinking and looking your best!

The program is $75/week paid up front.  You can commit to 3 x 4 week block payments of $300 or commit to the full payment up front.

Your weekly training program includes daily group sessions; a personalised program just for you; education on nutrition and exercise; plus an insight into 6 more areas that impact your overall sense of feeling great; a minimum of 1 personal training session a week with me; plus online and peer support.

Your progress will be guided and recorded by your individual Success Journal.

You can have the life of your dreams - you just need to tools to create it.  The 12 Week Challenge will give you those tools.

"Life isn't about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

To get started call me on 0411 027 883 or email fitness.form@live.com.

Change your MIND; Change your BODY; Change your LIFE

Make the changes you need to and live the life of your dreams.

Next week my Personalised Coaching Business - Fitness, Form & Function - will be starting a 12 week challenge for the first time.  I've already found several eager recruits and this afternoon I've had a wonderful time pulling together the best of the swag of resources available to me to create a Success Journal for the "Transformers"!

Over 12 weeks the participants will build a journal that will not only help them through their journey on a daily basis, but once complete, will serve as a wonderful reminder of where they have come from and how much they have achieved.

The 12 week challenge is about learning to exercise mind, muscle and emotions to create the life that you desire and that you deserve.  Once you have a compelling vision of your future and are equipped with the resources and support to help you take action and maintain momentum, the only option is success.

I am so excited by the Success Journal and its contents, I want to do the challenge myself!

Feel free to call me if you are excited too - 0411 027 883.

An apple a day ...

Do you have enough energy to do all the things you WANT to do in a day?

A small consistent effort on a daily basis will make the world of difference to your health and fitness over a period of time, and give you the energy to achieve more.

And guess what - YOU DESERVE IT!!!

Yes, you deserve to be fit and healthy, and have a reservoir of energy that lets you see opportunity for enjoyment everywhere you go.

A few very wise people have said that if you can't make time for fitness, you will have to make time for illness, because without a consistent effort towards health in your body, you will inevitably end up with the opposite of fitness.  Try "an apple a day"  - eat healthy foods and move your body in ways that are fun - and see what a big difference a small daily effort can produce in your life.

The following is an affirmation from Louise Hay's book - You Can Heal Your Life.  This really works.  Keep it somewhere handy to read every day and remind yourself of how important you really are:

"In the infinity of life where I am,

all is perfect, whole and complete.

I accept health as the natural state of my being.

I now consciously release any mental patterns within me

that could express as dis-ease in any way.

I love and approve of myself.

I love and approve of my body.

I feed it nourishing foods and beverages.

I exercise it in ways that are fun.

I recognise my body as a wondrous and magnificent machine,

and I feel privileged to live in it.

I love lots of energy.

All is well in my world."

Get out there and move it baby!!

How to Eat, Move & Be Healthy

If you're wondering how to eat, move and be healthy - here's Paul Chek - he wrote the book!  Enjoy :D

START NOW!

In a few weeks I'll be starting a 12 week transformation program with as many people as want to come along for the journey.

I have developed the program drawing inspiration from others around the world who have gone before.  My resources include Bill Phillips - author of Body For Life; Pamela Peeke - author of Body For Life For Women; Tony Robbins - Success Coach and author; Louise Hay - Life Coach and author; and I have drawn on my personal experience and training in the fitness industry, in business and in life.

The program is focused on effecting positive change - physically, mentally and emotionally.  There's a lot available to those people that want to participate and you can cherry pick what you need and want to use.

Today, I invite you to start to the process of positive change with a very simple, yet potentially very challenging and ultimately rewarding exercise.  10 consecutive days where you do not dwell on negative thoughts.  10 consecutive days of positive, energised thinking, acting and being.

Crystal Andres says that our reality is exactly as we expect it to be.  With this in mind, it is important to position ourselves in the positive.  Expect good.  It is easy to get drawn away into negative thinking - someone pulls in front in traffic when you're in a hurry; a child throws their food on the floor; you drop your mobile phone and it smashes - little things, and of course big things, can lead us into negative thinking.  The challenge is to be able to bring ourselves back to the positive.

A simple tip to help is to find a positive quote that works for you.  For me it is from Bill Phillips book -

"NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, YOU ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY DO HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE."


I find this empowering and uplifting and when I fall into a negative thought, I know that I have the power to change.  I can't change what has happened but I can change how I react to it and what it means.

Take on the challenge.  Find your positive mantra - stick it up on your wall or carry it with you on a card, and use it to change your mind whenever you need to.

Stay positive - START NOW!!

Advice for the Newbie

Today I watched vast numbers of people pour through the gym doors.  Something BIG has happened, and I suspect it's new years resolutions.  

This is fantastic and I am always happy to see more people on the move.  I support you and applaud your choice!

The statistics show that many people, starting their fitness regime as part of their new year plan, will fail to follow through, and usually within the first 6 weeks.

There's a number of reasons for this.  One of the main reasons is that reality and expectation are generally miles apart.  

For newbies in the gym, or embarking on a fitness regime of any kind, it's vital to assess the starting point and then work upwards from there.  

Alan Warwick is a wise man, and coincidentally a client of mine (an endorsement of his wisdom).  We recently made a little video about his fitness experience so far.  I have extracted some of it to share with you here.  Alan's advice and encouragement to newcomers to fitness and gym is excellent.

The proof is in the results he has achieved:

- Sustained fitness regime for past 4+ months

- Substantial weight loss of 19kg over 4 months

- Significant improvement in liver and kidney function

- Reduced from extremely hypertensive with daily medication to normal blood pressure and medicating every 4th day

- Improved mobility

- Reduced joint pain

Share this with the Newbies ... 

Power of the People

Last night 4,317 enthused Cairns Taipans (basketball) fans packed into the convention centre to watch our boys bring it home against the Gold Coast Blaze 86 - 82.  Sensational result.

Prior to this I spent a day with my two sons aged 2 and 4 playing 'hoops' in the back yard.  "Arms Up" everytime a shot went up and "Whooshka" everytime a shot went in.  These are the traditions at the Taipans games and my boys know it well.  (My bicep muscles are pumped today!!)  We also practiced a few chants - Ubaka!!! - the name of the key point guard for the team; and Let's go Taipans, let's GO!

The end result was another extraordinary instalment in my ordinary life and a big reminder that life is what we make it.

A few years ago the Taipans were almost dead in the water, but thanks to a tenacious driving force from within the club and unparalelled community support the team now sits second on the national basketball ladder and is the only team in the league unbeaten at home.  To say Cairns is excited is a masterpiece of understatement.  We are now seriously contenders for the finals and the fans, the coaches and the team itself expect nothing less.

In life, we get what we expect and our reality today is exactly as we planned it.  I'm expecting a home game final for our Cairns Taipans, and planning for a win.

Let's go Taipans, Let's GO!!!

The Simple 6

Here they are.  Jay Blahnik's (JB) simple 6 suggestions to help we ordinary folk towards an extraordinary life.

Number 1: Get REAL.  

  

- We live on a funky planet with lots of funky people - very true and very cool!  

- Things are never as bad as they seem to be - the passage of time will help with perspective.  

- Your issues are rarely unique, so get real and recognise that people before you and people after you have dealt and will deal with your issues and survived and even thrived.  

- There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.  Your success requires a bit of hard work, and that's what makes it satisfying and rewarding.  

- JB also suggests that God is fair, that there is a karmic balance or whatever you like to call it, and that the higher power whatever it is has a way of keeping things in order.  This is a good one because if you want to focus on what's important in your own life, sometimes you have to trust the higher power to take care of the balance.

Number 2: Get BUSY.

Time is the most precious commodity in the universe and you cannot bend it, no matter how hard you try.  So, get busy and get going, and get comfortable with 'good enough'.  Perfection is great to strive for but to move forward and get momentum in life we sometimes have to be happy with 'good enough'.  (This blog is a perfect example - last year I looked for the creation of perfection and as a result did nothing.  This year I am following JB's advice, and look, here it is, blog number 2 already!!)

Number 3: Get OVER IT

We have all been hurt.  Holding on to the hurt or the guilt holds you back.  As Dory says to Marlin inside the belly of a whale ... 'it's time to let it go'.  Only then can you move forward freely.  If you have done the damage - AMEND.  If you have been damaged - FORGIVE.  When this is done LAUGH.

Number 4: Be YOURSELF

Gold likes variety - how cool is that - we are all different and that's what makes this a funky planet full of funky people.  There is NOBODY ELSE LIKE YOU.  You have a part to play and that's why you are here, and if you don't step up and play your part, nobody will!  (This gives a great new perspective, don't you think?)

Number 5: Be BRAVE

Feel the fear and do it anyway.  Last year I jumped out of a perfectly good aircraft with a tandem parachuter and the parachute on her back and a whole lot of faith in my front pocket.  Some would call it stupid ... for me it was brave (I have a shocking fear of heights).  It was the most exhilirating 60 seconds of my entire life, falling from 14,000 feet.  It took me a year to work up the courage to do it and 60 seconds to realise how stupid I had been to wait so long.  If there is something that you want to do, step up and try it.  Do something that scares you at least once a year and be a little bit brave every day.

Number 6: Be GENEROUS

JB recommends generosity fromt he 5Ts.

Be generous with

Time

Talent

Treasure

Text/Talk

Touch

The guidelines are simple and the results are amazing.

I made an action plan after listening to this amazing presentation last year - it was so simple. More Hugs.  Relax More.  So far it's working ....

Making this your best year yet!

A big lesson for me in 2010 was the value of sharing the information.  This simple act can powerfully transform the lives of both the giver and the receiver.

As a fitness trainer I had the privilege of attending Filex in April last year and listening to many very wise and great people in our industry.  One of them was Jay Blahnik who gave a key note address on Extraordinary Living for Ordinary People.  The information he generously shared helped me shift my paradigm, creating real change in my life and those around me.

Here's a little of what he had to say, and I'm pretty sure he'd be happy to share it...

Firstly 'what is extraordinary living?

Jay has 5 criteria:
1. Experiencing daily joy
2. Feeling comfort and contentment
3. Expressing hopefulness and optimism
4. Repeating professional and personal success
5. Manifesting energy and vitality'

Note that the accumulation of material wealth and a buff, toned and model thin body do not make the list!  It is highly possible that these things may come as a bonus bi-product of creating an extraordinary life according the criteria above, but these things along will not deliver and extraordinary life.

And then he has a Simple 6 - six simple tips to help us along the way

Stay tuned ....