Act Like A 3 Year Old

If you’ve ever spent much time with a toddler, you know they can drive you crazy constantly asking the same question- “Why?” However, if you’re interested in dumping excess body fat and slimming down, some 3 year old behavior could mean the difference between success and failure. 

To succeed at fat loss, you need to discover a burning reason to get fit. The vague, “I want to be healthier”, won’t cut it in the long run. You need to “peel the onion” to find out the real reason you want to change. You need to ask yourself, “Why do I want to dump this excess fat?” over and over again.

Initially, your answer may be that you want to look good and feel better about yourself. O.K. but why do you want to look good and feel better? Then your response may be that you hate how you look and are sick of having no energy and sitting home alone in front of the TV every night. 

When you ask yourself why you want to get out and socialize more, you may realize you're lonely and not confident enough to meet new people feeling the way you do about yourself. Just keep asking “Why?” and peeling the onion. You have to keep digging until you discover your deepest motivation for dumping the fat and getting healthy.

Maybe you are a parent who is too overweight to play with your kids. Maybe you’re sick of being miserable and depressed. Maybe you’re afraid you’ll die early and never get to walk your daughter down the aisle. 

Without that true motivation to remind yourself of daily, you're far more likely to give up on your new lifestyle when you're tired and ordering takeout is easier than preparing something healthy, or when work gets crazy busy and stressful, or when friends discourage your efforts, or you don't feel like going to the gym.

Dig and then dig deeper.

Making the necessary changes in your nutrition and lifestyle will be easier if you can unearth the real root of your desire to be healthy and fit. You'll be more committed to becoming the person you want to be because your motivation will be stronger.

.

Snap Out Of It!

In the classic scene from Moonstruck, Cher hauls off and slaps Nicholas Cage and yells at him to, "Snap out of it!"

Do you need to "snap out of it" in regards to compulsive excuse making when it comes to working out?

Over the years lots of people have told me they hate exercising or they don't like to sweat or something similar. I'm almost to the point where I want to say, "Get over it!"

Sorry if that sounds unsympathetic but there are plenty of things I don't like doing but I still do. Regular physical activity is the rent you pay for a healthy body. It's especially troubling when people with health issues, who know they should be exercising, spend their days making excuses for why they "can't"/"shouldn't" work out.

It's a cop-out that so many people assume that regular exercisers love to work out. Some do but I don't think that's true for the vast majority of people. They simply accept the importance of exercise to their physical, mental, and emotional health and they just do it.

If you are someone who hates to exercise, here's a tip. Stop dwelling on how much you dislike it and start focusing on how much good it does for you. Don't allow yourself to spend all day coming up with reasons why you should skip your workout and start thinking about how good you feel after you're done or how proud you'll be for going.



In the immortal words of Jiminy Cricket...

"You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between"



It's no big revelation that what you focus on grows. If you're constantly programming yourself with an "I hate exercise and I don't want to do it" message, you are simply making it harder to get yourself into a regular workout routine.

Listen to Cher...

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.

Finish Strong

If you need some extra motivation to stick with your fitness and nutrition program over the holidays, check out this video:

Finish Strong

Healthy Lifestyle Motivation

Recently, Scott Colby recorded a 7-call teleseminar series to raise money for some needy kids who live in an orphanage.

The subject of his first call was motivation and mindset. The roundtable included experts Scott Tousignant, Kevin Gianni and Jim Katsoulis.

Previously the call was available only to participating donors but Scott has now made the information available to everyone. Even better, you can listen online or download the call and listen at your convenience.

Skyrocket Your Motivation

.

Finding Your True Motivation

Yesterday, I wrote about how family and friends can sabotage your efforts to get healthy.

To combat the many people and circumstances that may make your job even more challenging, you need to discover the most burning reason you want to get fit. You have to keep asking yourself, "Why?".

Your initial answer may be that you want to look good and feel better about yourself. O.K. but why do you want to look good and feel better? Then your response may be that you're sick of having no energy and staying home alone watching T.V. every night.

When you ask yourself, "Why do I want to get out more?", you may realize that it's because you're lonely and not confident enough to jump into the dating pool feeling the way you do about yourself. Just keep asking why and peeling the onion. You have to keep digging until you discover your deepest motivation for dumping the fat and getting healthy.

Without that true motivation to remind yourself of daily, you're far more likely to give up on your new lifestyle when you're tired and ordering takeout is easier than preparing something healthy or when work gets crazy busy and stressful or when friends tempt you with pizza or when you don't feel like going to the gym.

Making the necessary changes in your nutrition and lifestyle will be easier if you can unearth the root of your desire to be healthy and fit. You'll be more committed to becoming the person you want to be because your desire will be stronger.

As Dr. James Gordon says, "It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."

.

7 Ways To Get Motivated For Your Workout

Just received this article from Craig Ballantyne and with New Year's resolutions waning, I thought I should post it immediately.

7 Ways To Get Motivated For Your Workout
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

There will be days (everyday?) when you don't feel like doing your workout.

Sometimes you don't want to get out of bed.

Sometimes you don't want to leave your office because you feel like there are too many deadlines (but this is when you need a workout the most!).

Sometimes you don't want to end story time with the kids only to head down to the basement gym.

It even happens to me.

But I knew how I'd feel like a million bucks after the workout.

And in the end, I know I can't let myself become "soft" and start skipping workouts. I have to lead by example.

But if you are set on achieving a goal, then when it's workout time, come heck or high water you've got to bear down and do the job.

So here are 7 ways to get motivated for your workout and to get you inspired to get through your workout.

1) Reward yourself. Finish your workout and treat yourself to a magazine, a TV show, some extra time with your family, some new songs for your IPOD, or even a little extra time for yourself.

2) Or set up a punishment for missing workouts. Skip the workout, put $20 into a jar to spend on home repairs. Make sure your spouse controls the jar.

3) Review your goals everyday and every night. Keeping your goals fresh in your mind will help you stay on track.

4) Realize that the hardest part of the workout is often getting your butt to the gym. Once you get 5 minutes into the workout, you will be over the hump. So tell yourself, "I'll just go in and do 1 set of the first 2 exercises, then I can go". Next thing you know, you'll have done the entire workout.

5) Visualize yourself doing a great workout and finishing strong. Get yourself mentally prepared and you will literally have better workouts each time.

6) Crank the tunes. Seriously, nothing motivates like music.

7) Get social support. If you have a workout partner, you'll feel like crap if you let them down. Or become accountable to everyone in the Turbulence Training workout forums...if you don't post your workouts, they'll track you down and demand to know why you've fallen off track! So online or offline, get everyone on your side!

Now get out there and kick the fat to the curb,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com