Staying Power!

My goal is reset minds to want to stay. Stay in a healthy lifestyle and fitness program.

Staying power: my definition as it relates to health and fitness is to stay in the forward direction. To work towards overall health and fitness goals, to not let digression be an option!

Over the past 20 years I have watched several people stay and progress into healthy, lean, and beautiful individuals. In reverse I have seen so much sorrow, sickness, and unhappiness because of the inability to stay.  

As a fitness advocate I really want to help people to

stay happy with there bodies,
 to stay injury free,
 to stay feeling good...

I stay, everyday as part of my job, in hopes that you stay too!!

On top of that

Every spring/summer my fitness classes die down and momentum gets lost among many people.

Why? I get it, everyone wants to be outside and that is wonderful, vitamin D....GREAT!

But.......
you still need to maintain and keep your already established habit of going to your class/gym to get a workout in. Most outdoor activities are not as intense and do not burn as much calories as e.g. as a Zumba class...wink wink :)  in my opinion.

Walking, biking, back packing are wonderful but on TOP OF THAT you need to still need to maintain your already established fitness routine.

The secret to getting success with diet and exercise does not start with your diet and your exercise plan. It starts with your mind. You have to first get into the mindset of someone who lives healthy.

You have to next prepare yourself to stay consistent and dedicated to your program. And last but certainly not least, when it comes to fitness, you MUST stop focusing on the following 10 most popular things people pay WAY too much attention to... and instead focus on just ONE thing that will change your body faster than ever before.

You want to make all your hard work pay off? Stop focusing...
1. On how many calories you are burning.
2. On what you should wear to the gym, to workout at home, or outside.
3. On how you look while working out (unless it is to watch your form).
4. On buying all kinds of fitness equipment.
5. On socializing at the gym.
6. On what's better: working out at home or working out at the gym.
7. On whether you are going to be sore or not after a workout.
8. On doing excessive cardio.
9. On trying to improve one (or more) parts of your body (you workout to improve your WHOLE BODY).
10. On ab exercises (THEY DO NOT REMOVE BELLY FAT)!

The secret to getting success with your fitness goals (and actually many of life's goals as well) is to...
Focus on breaking your comfort zone and challenge yourself with every workout! The one thing to remember is that your body is not going to change unless you are challenging yourself with fitness. If you are not sweating, if you are not feeling exhausted, if you are not breathing heavily... you are not challenging yourself!

Your body DOES NOT like changes! You have to tell it to shut up, wake up, and be prepared for something amazing that is about to happen!

Bottom line, when that moment arrives during your workout when you feel like quitting, when you are battling voices in your head telling you to stop, when you feel like you would do anything to catch your breath, when you are sweating so much it looks like you went swimming, when you are breathing so hard you can't talk, and when you have to give everything you got for that last repetition, the last mile, the last minute, etc., then that's when you WILL... SEE... CHANGES!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7021383

Who am I to you and why should you listen to me?

I am the person that had self destructed for years and overcame it. I could eat an entire large pizza followed up with a sleeve of girl scout cookies.

After that I would just...hate myself! But a cigarette always made me feel better.

Some days I would eat so much I would try and manually get it out of me....not sure how I did not end up with an eating disorder.

I kicked addiction to food and smoking both extremely HARD additions!

It was a definite process but exercise helped spark a positive direction for me.

You have to start somewhere! Here are a few starting points.

• 8 glasses of water a day (healthy habit)
• 4/5 servings of fruits/vegetables per day (curves appetite)
• stop smoking aid e.g. patch (gets the ball rolling)
• walking for an hour (good starting point)
• talk yourself through a cigarette craving, they usually last about 10 seconds then they go away (start getting used to the feeling of not having them)

Please post other thoughts and ideas!

Except no guilt, it's not like we are heading to the club, shopping etc...

Selfish isn’t a dirty word. It means we take care of ourselves and are able to give back.”
Jillian Michael
and....

Except NO guilt about it! Shelly Kadilak

I began teaching fitness classes so that I would be forced and obligated to be there and no one could guilt me out of it. My son got used to it, and now respects me for it. He knows I HAVE to get to my fitness everyday in order to be happy and healthy. He also now knows it is my job and has learned my schedule, he finds rides or waits until I am done to ask me for what he needs. It is only 1 1/2 per day that I am unavailable....

Husbands, same thing, but are the hardest to deal with.  They need to help pick up the slack. We need to teach them to be supportive. In the end it is in their favor for you to be happy and healthy. Don't let them make you feel guilty because you are going to exercise?! Really?!  Its not like you are going out to a bar, or a football game etc....

Eventually they will get used to it as long as you stay firm, and except no guilt! Single ladies, find a group of supportive women that you can work together with, also consider taking your children with you or set up your children schedule around yours. Again, in the long run your children will appreciate a healthy mom....

Our families are not the reason why we cannot make it to a fitness classes or fulfill our fitness goals, they are the reason why we must go. You have to be selfish with taking care of your health. Most women put this last when it should come first.

Again, selfish isn’t a dirty word. It means we take care of ourselves and are able to give back, and except no guilt about it!

It is not obsessive

Friends and family think I am obsessive about exercise and fitness, but I am really just following the minimum standard.

The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association updated the Physical Activity Guidelines in August, 2007. The standards say you need moderate aerobic exercise for 30-60 minutes a day, 5 Days a Week. This is the minimum!!!

I give to my body, 6 days of physical activity 1 hour per day. My personal training manual suggests starting people off with 1/2 per week program. I wish I could start people off with at least 3/4 days a week min.

Diet is 80% of the battle with weight loss. And when you are working out 6 days a week you probably need a few supplements. I was asked to mention my diet. I am on the Zone (best for burning fat and growing muscle) and Advocare supplements (the best supplements in my opinions)....here's how it goes:

8am-Advocare Coreplex Chewable and Advocare Meal Replacement Protein Shake
11am-Apple with peanut butter (smuckers natural)
1:30pm-Salad with beats, tuna, olives, cheese, ranch dressing
4pm-chicken and carrots/onion/celery soup
4:30-Advocare Rehydrate/Spark/Catalyst
6:30-Low carb flat bread (10grams of protein/carbs, 6 grams of fiber) with melted cheese
9:30-Lemon greek yogurt, Avocare Omegplex

Gun to your head

If someone held a gun to your head and said do not take another bite of that cake would you take another bite? No, because the consequence is significant enough to change your action. In reality, most of us that eat junk food are holding a gun to our heads. It has been proven that consuming junk food kills people. For most of us it just makes us fat and depressed...eventually sick, but by then we may be to fat to care.

Develop a sense of urgency to hate junk food. Go to war with it.
Step on it, smash it, spit on it, throw it, stab it! The sweet/salty taste is a trick to get someone rich while making you miserable!