I received this via e-mail today. If you've made resolutions or goals for 2010, this is a must read article from Tom Venuto. Here's an excerpt.
There are two things you can always count on:
(1) Nature's laws of cause and effect, and
(2) human nature.
On that basis, here are my 20 fitness predictions for the new year:
I PREDICT that if you can reach into your pocket on any day this year and pull out a card or piece of paper with all your body and fitness goals written on it in vivid detail, the odds are 95 to 1 in favor of you achieving every one of those goals before the year is out.
I PREDICT that if you focus your thoughts on your goals and how you are going to achieve them, all day long, you will reach your goals so fast this year, it will make your head spin.
I PREDICT that if you focus your thoughts on health woes and body fat problems and if you think about what you don't want, all day long, your problems will get worse than ever this year.
Read the rest of this excellent article at www.TomVenuto.com
Showing posts with label Tom Venuto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Venuto. Show all posts
Monday, January 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Top 8 Reasons Why You Fall Off The Wagon - Tom Venuto
For years, Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle system has been a highly regarded and top selling fitness ebook. Tom has now turned his attention more to the mental side of fat loss with his new hardcover book, The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscles, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight
His current focus is on why why people don't stick to their programs, and what they should do about it.
Tom has put together a new list (below) of the top 8 reasons why you fall off the wagon.
The Top 8 Reasons Why You Fall Off The Wagon
Rather than worrying about the minutiae of your diet plan, like whether you should be on low carb or high carb, Mediterranean or Okinawan, vegetarian or meat eater, I propose that if you simply focus on these 8 issues, you'll start getting more lasting results.
How? By being able to stick with whichever plan you decided was best for you!
After all, even if you have the best nutrition program in the world - on paper - it doesn't do you much good if you can't stick with it in practice!
THE 8 REASONS:
1. NO FOCUS: you didn't set goals, you didn't put your goals in writing, and or you didn't stay focused on your goals daily (by reading them, affirming them, looking at a vision board, etc.)
2. NO PRIORITIES: you may have set a goal, but you didn't put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.
3. NO SUPPORT SYSTEM: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going got tough.
4. NO ACCOUNTABILITY - you didn't keep score for your own accountability - with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn't set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)
5. NO PATIENCE: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 pounds a week or 5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you lost "only" 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.
6. NO PLANNING: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn't plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn't
have a menu on paper, you didn't make time (so instead you made excuses, like "I'm too busy").
7. NO BALANCE: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, "I want it now" route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.
8. NO PERSONALIZATION: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn't suit your schedule, personality,
lifestyle, disposition or body type.
So there you have it - 8 reasons why most people to fall off the wagon! Have you been making these mistakes? If so, the solutions are clear and simple:
focus, prioritize, get support, be accountable, be patient, plan, balance and personalize.
Train hard & Expect success,
Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is an internationally recognized fat loss expert, nutrition researcher and natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder. Since 1989, Venuto has been involved in virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight loss industry - as a personal trainer, nutrition consultant, motivation coach, fitness model, health club manager and freelance writer. Tom is the author of the best-selling e-book, Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. His newest book, The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscles, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight (Hardcover Avery/Penguin), is a #1 Amazon.com best seller, focusing on accountability and the psychological, emotional and social factors that sabotage fat loss success.
His current focus is on why why people don't stick to their programs, and what they should do about it.
Tom has put together a new list (below) of the top 8 reasons why you fall off the wagon.
The Top 8 Reasons Why You Fall Off The Wagon
Rather than worrying about the minutiae of your diet plan, like whether you should be on low carb or high carb, Mediterranean or Okinawan, vegetarian or meat eater, I propose that if you simply focus on these 8 issues, you'll start getting more lasting results.
How? By being able to stick with whichever plan you decided was best for you!
After all, even if you have the best nutrition program in the world - on paper - it doesn't do you much good if you can't stick with it in practice!
THE 8 REASONS:
1. NO FOCUS: you didn't set goals, you didn't put your goals in writing, and or you didn't stay focused on your goals daily (by reading them, affirming them, looking at a vision board, etc.)
2. NO PRIORITIES: you may have set a goal, but you didn't put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.
3. NO SUPPORT SYSTEM: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going got tough.
4. NO ACCOUNTABILITY - you didn't keep score for your own accountability - with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn't set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)
5. NO PATIENCE: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 pounds a week or 5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you lost "only" 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.
6. NO PLANNING: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn't plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn't
have a menu on paper, you didn't make time (so instead you made excuses, like "I'm too busy").
7. NO BALANCE: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, "I want it now" route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.
8. NO PERSONALIZATION: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn't suit your schedule, personality,
lifestyle, disposition or body type.
So there you have it - 8 reasons why most people to fall off the wagon! Have you been making these mistakes? If so, the solutions are clear and simple:
focus, prioritize, get support, be accountable, be patient, plan, balance and personalize.
Train hard & Expect success,
Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is an internationally recognized fat loss expert, nutrition researcher and natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder. Since 1989, Venuto has been involved in virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight loss industry - as a personal trainer, nutrition consultant, motivation coach, fitness model, health club manager and freelance writer. Tom is the author of the best-selling e-book, Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. His newest book, The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscles, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight
(Hardcover Avery/Penguin), is a #1 Amazon.com best seller, focusing on accountability and the psychological, emotional and social factors that sabotage fat loss success.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Brain Science And New Year's Resolutions by Tom Venuto
If you're not just going through the motions of making New Year's resolutions; if you're really serious about making changes this year, read Tom Venuto's article below for tips on effective goal setting.
Brain Science And New Year's Resolutions
A Study in Goal Setting By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, "I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps it's because escape is easier than change."
Success psychologists say that 95% - 97% of the people in the world do NOT have written goals and fail, while 3-5% have written goals and succeed.
If these statistics are correct, then Mr Rohn's observation really IS quite fascinating isn't it?
Unfortunately for most people, the odds for success are actually even lower, because out of the few people who do set goals, most don't take goal setting seriously, they don't do it scientifically and they only do it once a year.
Goal setting is so important, that I always teach goal setting and mind dynamics first, and only THEN, do I teach nutrition and training second.
It doesn't matter how much you know about nutrition or exercise. Until specialized fitness knowledge is linked with goals and directions, the knowledge is useless and you won't accomplish very much or keep the changes long term.
In fact, I devoted the entire first chapter of my book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, to the subject of goals and constructive "mind programming" for successful, permanent behavior change.
I've also studied neuro linguistic programming (NLP) for many years and more recently spent many months researching the latest information about neuroscience to see just how much of the traditional self help and goal setting wisdom is actually backed by brain research.
As you start thinking about your goals for 2007 right Now, I'd like to help you start the year off right by sharing two very valuable, science based tips on achieving your goals:
SCIENTIFIC GOAL SETTING TIP #1: Repetition is an effective way to "plant" a goal in the non-conscious mind
Why don't most resolutions stick? Psychology and neuroscience today are giving us the answers.
Thanks to new technologies in brain imaging, such as PET scans, SPECT scans and functional MRI's, we can now actually see your thoughts as electrochemical impulses and we can see the formation of new neural connections in real time right before our eyes.
We can also see where, geographically, in your brain, a particular type of thought is occurring.
Most importantly, we can see how long it takes to form strong neural patterns and what types of stimuli cause the patterns to form more quickly
Here's what we've discovered:
Setting a goal once is a conscious activity. Willpower is also a conscious activity. But research has shown that at least 5/6 of your brain power is in the non conscious mind and that the information and instructions that reach the non conscious mind are responsible for your automatic behavior.
Some psychologists believe that 95% of our behaviors are unconscious and automatic... more commonly known as habits.
Long term behavior changes don't take place when you set goals one time as with most new years resolutions. There's an old saying in "self help" circles that it takes at least 21-30 days to form a habit. This has now been proven to be fairly accurate on a neurological basis.
New neural patterns begin to form only after they've been repeated enough times. They continue to strengthen with further repetition. If you make resolutions on January 1st and you don't continue to repeat and reinforce your desire for those "goals," no new neural connection is formed, no new habits are formed, no new behaviors are formed....
Your resolutions wither away and die and any results obtained through willpower (trying to force the new behaviors through conscious effort), are quickly lost when you slip back to your old ways.
What you repeat over and over again is programmed into the subconscious mind and begins to take root. On a practical level, this means RE-writing your goals everyday and thinking about them in positive terms and in mental pictures, every day, repeatedly until the habit is formed and turned over to "auto-pilot."
In 1956, when Earl Nightingale wrote "The Strangest Secret is that we become what we think about most of the time," we didn't know what we know now about the brain.
Nevertheless, Earl was right.
You don't change your body by trying to change your body. You change your body by creating new habitual patterns of thinking and visualizing.
Trying to force new behaviors with willpower while continuing with your old ways of thinking will always fail because your automatic behavior is mostly under non-conscious control.
It's not the resolution you set once... it's the goals (mental thoughts and images) you focus on all day long that create the long term (and automatic) behavioral change... when you change your behaviors, you change your body and your life...
SCIENTIFIC GOAL SETTING TIP #2: Emotion is a goal-turbocharger
Is there any way around this tedious process of "mental programming" through repetition? Not really. The fields of NLP and hypnosis have given us some tools for creating more rapid changes, but ultimately you have to begin to "run your own brain" and change your habitual way of thinking. No one else can do it for you and there's no way around it.
There is however, a scientifically proven way to to speed up the process and that is with the use of strong emotion.
Since modern imaging technology can see activity in the brain and scientists have located the seat of emotions in the brain, we know that the strength and number of neural connections associated with a thought or behavior are increased when you're in a highly emotional state.
The neuron connections are also stronger, longer lasting and it takes longer to lose a neural connection when it was formed with great emotion.
With this knowledge, we see another reason why new years resolutions fail: They are set casually with no emotion and no strong emotional "reason why" that gives you the leverage to you need to make a change permanent.
On January 1st, you may think you're setting "real" goals, but if you're like most people, you're not only doing it a mere once a year and then losing focus, you're also likely to be making flimsy, wishy-washy, emotion-less "resolutions."
Zig Ziglar once said that, "A goal casually set and lightly taken will be freely abandoned at the first obstacle."
You might want to back up and read that quote again, maybe even write it down or print it out, because this one hits the bull's-eye!
This truly explains why New Year's resolutions almost never work, and why so few people can keep off the pounds after they get rid of them.
Goal setting should not be casual or lightly taken. Goal setting is an important and serious matter. This is not a game - this is your life, and you only have one life to live.
Goal setting is also not a one time event - it is an ongoing process of literally "re-wiring your brain." With the discovery of brain plasticity, we now know that this is science fact, not self-help fiction.
Make the time to set REAL goals, today! Take it seriously, do it scientifically, re-write your goals every day, think about them constantly, and then take massive action
Do it and this will be the most successful year of your life!
Tom Venuto, CSCS, CPT, is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal tainer, certified strength coach, certified master practitioner of NLP and author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets Of The World's Best Bodybuilders And Fitness Models". Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: http://www.burnthefat.com
.
Brain Science And New Year's Resolutions
A Study in Goal Setting By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, "I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps it's because escape is easier than change."
Success psychologists say that 95% - 97% of the people in the world do NOT have written goals and fail, while 3-5% have written goals and succeed.
If these statistics are correct, then Mr Rohn's observation really IS quite fascinating isn't it?
Unfortunately for most people, the odds for success are actually even lower, because out of the few people who do set goals, most don't take goal setting seriously, they don't do it scientifically and they only do it once a year.
Goal setting is so important, that I always teach goal setting and mind dynamics first, and only THEN, do I teach nutrition and training second.
It doesn't matter how much you know about nutrition or exercise. Until specialized fitness knowledge is linked with goals and directions, the knowledge is useless and you won't accomplish very much or keep the changes long term.
In fact, I devoted the entire first chapter of my book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, to the subject of goals and constructive "mind programming" for successful, permanent behavior change.
I've also studied neuro linguistic programming (NLP) for many years and more recently spent many months researching the latest information about neuroscience to see just how much of the traditional self help and goal setting wisdom is actually backed by brain research.
As you start thinking about your goals for 2007 right Now, I'd like to help you start the year off right by sharing two very valuable, science based tips on achieving your goals:
SCIENTIFIC GOAL SETTING TIP #1: Repetition is an effective way to "plant" a goal in the non-conscious mind
Why don't most resolutions stick? Psychology and neuroscience today are giving us the answers.
Thanks to new technologies in brain imaging, such as PET scans, SPECT scans and functional MRI's, we can now actually see your thoughts as electrochemical impulses and we can see the formation of new neural connections in real time right before our eyes.
We can also see where, geographically, in your brain, a particular type of thought is occurring.
Most importantly, we can see how long it takes to form strong neural patterns and what types of stimuli cause the patterns to form more quickly
Here's what we've discovered:
Setting a goal once is a conscious activity. Willpower is also a conscious activity. But research has shown that at least 5/6 of your brain power is in the non conscious mind and that the information and instructions that reach the non conscious mind are responsible for your automatic behavior.
Some psychologists believe that 95% of our behaviors are unconscious and automatic... more commonly known as habits.
Long term behavior changes don't take place when you set goals one time as with most new years resolutions. There's an old saying in "self help" circles that it takes at least 21-30 days to form a habit. This has now been proven to be fairly accurate on a neurological basis.
New neural patterns begin to form only after they've been repeated enough times. They continue to strengthen with further repetition. If you make resolutions on January 1st and you don't continue to repeat and reinforce your desire for those "goals," no new neural connection is formed, no new habits are formed, no new behaviors are formed....
Your resolutions wither away and die and any results obtained through willpower (trying to force the new behaviors through conscious effort), are quickly lost when you slip back to your old ways.
What you repeat over and over again is programmed into the subconscious mind and begins to take root. On a practical level, this means RE-writing your goals everyday and thinking about them in positive terms and in mental pictures, every day, repeatedly until the habit is formed and turned over to "auto-pilot."
In 1956, when Earl Nightingale wrote "The Strangest Secret is that we become what we think about most of the time," we didn't know what we know now about the brain.
Nevertheless, Earl was right.
You don't change your body by trying to change your body. You change your body by creating new habitual patterns of thinking and visualizing.
Trying to force new behaviors with willpower while continuing with your old ways of thinking will always fail because your automatic behavior is mostly under non-conscious control.
It's not the resolution you set once... it's the goals (mental thoughts and images) you focus on all day long that create the long term (and automatic) behavioral change... when you change your behaviors, you change your body and your life...
SCIENTIFIC GOAL SETTING TIP #2: Emotion is a goal-turbocharger
Is there any way around this tedious process of "mental programming" through repetition? Not really. The fields of NLP and hypnosis have given us some tools for creating more rapid changes, but ultimately you have to begin to "run your own brain" and change your habitual way of thinking. No one else can do it for you and there's no way around it.
There is however, a scientifically proven way to to speed up the process and that is with the use of strong emotion.
Since modern imaging technology can see activity in the brain and scientists have located the seat of emotions in the brain, we know that the strength and number of neural connections associated with a thought or behavior are increased when you're in a highly emotional state.
The neuron connections are also stronger, longer lasting and it takes longer to lose a neural connection when it was formed with great emotion.
With this knowledge, we see another reason why new years resolutions fail: They are set casually with no emotion and no strong emotional "reason why" that gives you the leverage to you need to make a change permanent.
On January 1st, you may think you're setting "real" goals, but if you're like most people, you're not only doing it a mere once a year and then losing focus, you're also likely to be making flimsy, wishy-washy, emotion-less "resolutions."
Zig Ziglar once said that, "A goal casually set and lightly taken will be freely abandoned at the first obstacle."
You might want to back up and read that quote again, maybe even write it down or print it out, because this one hits the bull's-eye!
This truly explains why New Year's resolutions almost never work, and why so few people can keep off the pounds after they get rid of them.
Goal setting should not be casual or lightly taken. Goal setting is an important and serious matter. This is not a game - this is your life, and you only have one life to live.
Goal setting is also not a one time event - it is an ongoing process of literally "re-wiring your brain." With the discovery of brain plasticity, we now know that this is science fact, not self-help fiction.
Make the time to set REAL goals, today! Take it seriously, do it scientifically, re-write your goals every day, think about them constantly, and then take massive action
Do it and this will be the most successful year of your life!
Tom Venuto, CSCS, CPT, is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal tainer, certified strength coach, certified master practitioner of NLP and author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets Of The World's Best Bodybuilders And Fitness Models". Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: http://www.burnthefat.com
.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Does Fruit Make You Fat?
It's hard for me to believe that anyone actually thinks that but considering how the media report (or should I say distort) scientific studies, I can understand how some people could be confused.
Here's a link Tom Venuto's answer to the question. Tom gives you the scoop and explains it in plain English. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript.
Burn The Fat blog
Here's a link Tom Venuto's answer to the question. Tom gives you the scoop and explains it in plain English. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript.
Burn The Fat blog
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