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Mark Twain once wrote, “There are a thousand excuses for failure, but never a good reason.”

After being in the fitness industry for the last 17 years, I must have heard at least a thousand different excuses for not training consistently, for not eating properly, for “trying”, but not getting any results, or for not even starting at all. I’m telling you, I could fill up an “excuse encyclopedia” with all the lame excuses I’ve heard!

Do you know what an excuse really is?

An excuse is when people rationalize (“ration lies”) to themselves to uphold their current belief systems, to avoid taking risks, to avoid the fear of failure or making a fool of themselves, to justify failure to take action, to provide explanation for why something “cannot be done,” to let themselves off the hook to escape personal responsibility and accountability or to avoid the hard work and “growing pains” it takes to achieve personal change and success.

If you’re a chronic excuse maker, you will never reach a high level of success in your fitness endeavors or in life until you break this habit.

Fortunately, there is hope, and help for “excusitis,” and it’s called “THE EXCUSE BUSTER.” It’s a simple method that I’ve used and you can use too to squash those rationalizations once and for all.  Continued…

Have you gotten “derailed” on your way to success in the past, and didn’t know why? That’s a demoralizing and confusing experience, and it can totally sabotage your progress and stop you in your tracks if you don’t know how to get the success process jump-started again.

Based on decades of experience with human behavior change, I have developed a powerful and proven 10-step system that will help you clearly identify where you’ve been getting derailed so you can get back on track and finally reach your destination!

10 Proven Steps To Lifelong Fitness Success

All you need to do is build your own personal program around these 10 steps. Not only will you then have all your bases covered, but you’ll also be able to clearly identify what’s been keeping you from enjoying the success you so richly deserve.

Whether it’s health, fitness, or happiness you want the most, the keys to all three will be found among these 10 steps. So if you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and get some traction toward your goals, then let’s get started!

First I’ll list the steps with a brief explanation of each. Then in the next section we’ll get started creating your custom-tailored success plan! Continued…

Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?” Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body? You’re about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple secret for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a “food fanatic.”

In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip’s “Body For Life,” allude to the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…

Phillips wrote,

“There aren’t many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting ‘portions.’ A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate.”

Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie – in the literal sense – can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term Continued….

By now it is accepted among experts that the only safe and lasting solution to weight loss involves, not a focus on diet and exercise, but on identifying and eliminating / replacing our own self-sabotaging beliefs and attitudes.

This – and nothing else – must be weight loss “Job #1.”

But there’s a major roadblock in the way: your own ego!

You see, your ego is not very interested in this business of exchanging self-sabotaging beliefs for self-supportive ones. On the surface, that doesn’t make any sense. So how could it be true?

You see, your ego is highly invested in your existing belief structure because it has been involved from day one in the accept-reject process. As such, your ego is attached to your current beliefs—no matter how well or how poorly they may be serving you. The ego is all about maintaining the status quo—the unconscious status quo.

Your ego may or may not be the least bit interested in the truth, because the truth may conflict with the ego’s existing beliefs, and than that would mean rocking the boat. So you need to know going in that there WILL be resistance to ANY new beliefs, no matter how beneficial they ultimately may be. Why? Because the ego has no concept of “later,” and therefore can’t grasp the concept of deferred gratification. Continued…

If you work at home, you have the ultimate situation and virtually no excuses not to be fit and healthy.  I used to have a two car garage and now I have a two kid garage.  I insulated the door end, bought an EdenPure heater (Paul Harvey loves it), put a TV, DVD player and mini office in there and spend a whole bunch of hours in there working, working out and always being with my little girls.  They actually don’t see me working out because I threw delayed gratification to the wind and do the most fun thing first (my workout) at about 4:30 or so in the morning.  Then I can work uninterrupted until the girls get up and I make them breakfast.  The rest of the day is spent weaving together work and parenting and keeping everything in balance.

Answer: exceptionally accurate. Having used the Polar S1 Foot Pod with my Polar S625X and now the Polar S3 Stride Sensor with my Polar RS800sd on the same routes, I know that they are both equally accurate. However, that has presented a problem for me, because they both confirmed that I am now slow. Thinking that wasn’t possible and also needing to be smarter on my solo runs all over Albuquerque and in the Sandia Mountains, I decided to upgrade my Sprint phone to a GPS enabled Katana II and use Wireless Run Tracker to track my runs (and find me in case something happened to me on a run). Sadly, the GPS only confirmed what I knew in my heart – my S3 Stride Sensor was only one one hundredth of a mile off in a 45:00 run and I am slowing down. In repeated tests over the last three weeks, in all terrains and at all paces, the Polar S3 Stride Sensor has proven over and over that it is exceptionally accurate. With the speed, pace, cadence and running index information that the RS800sd with S3 Stride Sensor provides, it is the ultimate training tool for runners.

I am. That’s me at right this summer. Why would I be embarrassed to work out? Because I once was fast, and now I’m slow. I went to the Albuquerque Academy to do a short track workout, thinking that there would be no one there since cross country season is over for them, but forgetting that a couple of runners and a group of triathletes always meet there on Tuesdays. I started making jokes about having already done a very fast workout and then telling self effacing tales of why I haven’t been going to the track, all the while trying to decided in my mind whether I would actually do a workout at the same time as them. Spotting Jason Karp, who just got his Ph.D. in exercise physiology, we struck up a conversation about the Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials which he went to see and then I left, running in a different direction from the track.

I was too embarrassed to work out with my friends, so I just went off by myself and did a wonderful run. Do you find yourself too embarrassed to go to the gym? I don’t, because I don’t go. Personally, I would never go to the gym because it seems to me to be just a place to see and be seen. I work out at home because it is convenient, cost effective (I don’t have to drive anywhere), I can’t make an excuse that it is too cold or rainy or snowy, etc. and I get an effective workout. I use P90X, but if you want to join the growing number of people who find in home workouts to be the perfect solution to getting into and staying in shape, then choose from one of the great Workout DVD titles on this page and find a workout that will fit your personality and be the most effective workout for you.

You will actually find that in no time, you’ll be getting results and that you will never be too embarrassed to work out again!

“Healthy Buddies!” What a great idea. Developed by Dr. Jean-Pierre Chanoine, of British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada and tested at two public elementary schools, over one school year, participants in the “Healthy Buddies” program, boosted their physical activity levels, gained less weight, and showed smaller increases in blood pressure, compared with age-matched counterparts not enrolled in the program. To me, given the trend in childhood obesity, that is extraordinary.
In one school, teachers taught healthy-living lessons — the value of being physically active, eating healthy foods, and having a positive body image — to students in grades 4 to 7. These older students then paired with students in kindergarten to grade 3 to teach them similar healthy-living lessons. The other elementary school served as a control and underwent no intervention, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics. After one school year, assessments of students’ knowledge of healthy living showed an increased overall understanding of healthy diet and behaviors in the intervention school compared with the control school.
So what does this mean to us? “Younger kids learn very efficiently from their older peers,” Chanoine noted in comments about the study, but how can we, as adults, apply the findings of this study? Use what we have learned from our own successes with healthy eating and exercise and spread the word to family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers and anyone who will listen. Be outspoken advocates. Instead of being silent, be vocal sharers with others of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and make a difference. If the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are true, then “We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside…True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar.” We are healthy and because of it, wealthy and wise. Share that wealth of knowledge with those around you and be Healthy Buddies! Read more in the Reuters Health article here

I am an Ambassador of Fitness. Will you join me in my quest?

Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor from Reuters Health News wrote an article August 28, parts of which I will quote here:

Americans are fatter than ever, with obesity rates up in most states and fewer people exercising, according to a study released on Monday. Only a concerted effort by state and federal government, schools and individuals will make a dent in the growing epidemic, the Trust for Americas Health reported.

Obesity rates ranged from more than 17 percent in Colorado to more than 30 percent in Mississippi.

“No state is doing well. We have seen a dramatic increase throughout the country,” Jeff Levi, executive director of the nonprofit Trust, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

“Poor nutrition and physical inactivity are robbing America of our health and productivity.”

Adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year and obesity rates did not fall in any states, the report said.

“Rates of adult obesity now exceed 25 percent in 19 states, an increase from 14 states last year and 9 in 2005. In 1991, none of the states exceeded 20 percent,” the Trust said in a statement.

The group advocates a concerted effort to fight obesity in the United States, where more than 60 percent of adults are either obese or overweight.

The article goes on to say that the Trust for Americas Health is suggesting, “changes in laws, including mandates on school lunches, requiring insurers to pay for weight loss programs and restoring physical education programs to schools.”

We don’t need laws, we need action. Sunday morning I heard a sermon from 2 Corinthians 5:20 and knew that I had to implore as many people as I could to become Ambassadors of Fitness. Take the initiative yourself to be fit and healthy and then turn to your families, friends and neighbors and speak up and speak out to change the lives of those in need and rid our country of this epidemic of obesity.

Please join me as a Million Dollar Body Club Member or a Million Dollar Body Club Coach. You can learn more about my 20 year quest at www.howtobefit.com or you can email me at howtobefit@aol.com.