Chew on this....

Here's another one of my simple nutrition tips:

CHEW YOUR FOOD!

Part of the trouble with the typical American diet is that people are in such a hurry that they simply don't take enough time to actually digest the food they put in their mouth.

Up to 30% of the digestive process is designed to take place in the mouth and act of chewing actually sends signals to the rest of the system to begin the efficient metabolism of those ingested nutrients.

Your grandmother probably told you something like "chew your food 20 times" ... That's a good start. Or you may have heard "chew your liquids and drink your solid foods" meaning chew all foods until they become nearly liquid in your mouth and even chew a couple of times when taking in beverages to start the digestive process. Good advice in either case. For now, let me just suggest that you make an effort to chew everything twice as long as you think is necessary.

This will also slow down the pace of eating and may give you the opportunity to recognize that you feel full with less food.

Take the time to enjoy the foods you eat. Even if you don't change any of the things you eat, you will make a significant difference in the way your body looks and feels by simply chewing the food completely.

Multi-Task Training Sessions

A training session doesn't always need to be a structured event that happens around specific exercises. With a little creativity, you can make some of your everyday activities into training sessions by simply applying an addtional purpose.

For example: I needed to get the cars washed today and didn't have time to fit in my energy system training and wash the cars before my appointements for the day. So, I decided that if I put on a weighted vest and washed the cars as normal, I could get both things done at once. Wow! What a huge difference taking care of a normal task with an extra 30 pounds on my body. It felt great to be burning some extra calories and getting work done at the same time.

Look around. Could a few extra trips up and down the stairs make a difference? How about walking to the grocery store?

Get a little more involved in playing with your kids, that's an easy way to get the heart rate up.

Walking through the mall? Throw on a back pack with some heavy items in it.

Carry your golf bag around the course today, instead of using the cart. Add a squat each time you need to pick up your ball.

Be creative, move a little more, just have fun with it and be proud that you have taken definite steps toward better fitness.

Are you navigating life in the Rear View?

My wife and I took a little road trip up the northern California coast this past weekend in an attempt to escape the temperatures in the valley that were pushing 110 degrees.

During the drive at one point I became fixated on something in the rear view mirror...Now, I can't remember if it was one of the stunning vistas of that stretch of coastline or one of the huge trucks threatening to run us down and devour our little car.... In either case, my attention was drawn away from my course of travel. Finally, I look glance back toward the road, adrenaline rushed through my body as I stomp on the brakes and narrowly avoid disaster....

A big brown cow had wandered onto the middle of the highway! That's certainly something you don't expect.

Had I not been fortunate enough to look up when I did, the event of hitting that cow, at that speed, on that stretch of road, would have been potentially fatal for all parties involved.

The thing I realized after this experience is that many of us spend most of our life fixated on the things in our own "rear view mirror". We have been told by many an "expert" that the best indicators of the future are in the past. We validate who we are by the performances of the past. Look for the reasons we are who we are by the things that happened to us as children. Spend countless hours trying to figure out what went wrong with this or that.

If we spend so much time fixated on what's happened in the past, how can we have a clear picture of where we are going?

If it happened behind you, it's behind you and there's nothing you can do to change what's already happened. I don't care how many "experts" have told you different, you cant' change the past.

The only place you have control is in the road ahead. Had I been looking forward I would have seen the cow, I definitely could have avoided her and perhaps would have seen something remarkable in the process.

Stop fixating on the rear view of your life! If something doesn't go as planned, let it go. It was just a result.

You will avoid disaster by seeing the unexpected up ahead and You can change the result of the future by focusing on what you want that lies ahead of you.

Drive forward!

Decide and Do It!

I just looked outside my window and noticed three birds sitting on my fence.

If one of those birds decided to fly away, how many birds would there be on the fence?

I ask a question similar to this very often. About 98% of the time I get the same answer... "There would be two birds left on the fence"

I'm sorry! Try again.

The answer is... All three of the birds are still on the fence. I said that the one bird decided to fly away, but the mere decision to fly doesn't mean that he actually did anything about it.

This is an important distinction because, all to often, we decide to do things and then think that we have failed when we don't get the result we wanted. When in reality there was no action taken that could have moved you closer to the outcome you wanted.

How about this situation....

You decide you're going to go on a diet and lose some weight this month. End of the month comes around and you really don't see the weight loss you were expecting, so you tell yourself that diets just don't work.

If you look back, you will probably find that your "decision" was followed by weak actions that lasted no more than a day or two.

Good decision does not equal a better outcome. A Good decision plus committed action creates a successful outcome.

Practice making better decisions by realizing that a decision doesn't mean anything unless you actually do something about it.

In my book STOP WORKING OUT! I explain this process in detail as well as some specific actions that you can take toward your decision to create a healthier, better looking body.

Never leave the site of a decision without acting upon it!

Summer Is Here!

Summer officially started this morning at 5:26 A.M. PDT.

Today will bring us 14 hours and 47 minutes of sunshine... Get out and enjoy some of it.

Sometimes Fitness is just about taking the time to appreciate what our world gives us.

Make today a great day!

A Simple Start Toward Healthier Eating

This is the most simple tip that I give people about diet:

"Avoid all foods that contain either HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP or HYDROGENATED OIL"

It's simple... just read food labels. If those words are on the ingredients list, don't eat it.

Do this one thing and I can virtually guaranty that you will lose fat, feel and look better.

Give it 2 weeks and let me know how much better you feel

Are you a statistic?

By now you are all probably aware of the epidemic increases in obesity and health related problems in this county. Here are some statistics that may make the picture a little bit more clear:

- One billion people in the world are obese.

- 65% of Americans are now overweight, up 18% since just
1994.

- 30% of Americans are obese, up 30% since 1994.

- Diabetes is now an epidemic in children.

- Over 40% of Americans have high cholesterol.

- 50% of Americans over 65 have high blood pressure; 28.7% of all Americans have high blood pressure.

- 5.1% of us have type 2 diabetes, a staggering 104% increase from 1980 to 2004.

- Over 100 million Americans have significant risk factors for heart disease.

While these numbers are disturbing, perhaps even shocking, the amount of money that is spent trying to cope with these problems is truly staggering:

- Americans spend $117 billion annually to treat obesity-linked diseases including heart disease, diabetes, dementia,
cancer, and arthritis.

- Over $50 billion is spent on weight loss alone.

- Of the $1.9 trillion spent on healthcare, just 2% is spent on prevention.

- Since 2000 the cost of health insurance is up 59% while wages have increased a meager 12%.

- Medicaid expenditures will increase an estimated 8.9% a year from 2002 to 2012 with Medicare rising by 6.7% per year
over the same period.

- Healthcare costs have risen 250% since 1990, from $717 billion to $1.9 trillion in 2004.

Something is obviously not working...

We need to do something different.... YOU need to do something different!

Together, we can find real solutions to problems like these and make drasitic improvments in your own life as well those around you.

Keep reading the STOP WORKING OUT! blog, I will continue to deliver useful tools that will help you avoid living your life as one of these statistics.

STOP TRYING!

If you've read much of my material, you know that I'm a strong believer in the fact that the words you use have a significant effect on the quality of your life.

A few words that I hear regularly really get to me. "Try" is one of those words.... "I'll try to eat better"... "I'm trying to fit training into my daily schedule"..."I'll try to be nicer to my wife"... "I'm trying to be successful".

Can you see the problem with these trying statements?

"TRYING IMPLIES FAILURE"

If you are trying to do anything, you are simply DOing nothing. In order to use the word "try" you can not truly believe in a positive outcome.

Choose to be successful...Stop TRYing and start DOing!

Consistency Counts

I hear the excuses all year long, but never are they as loud as at the beginning of summer. I know, the kids are out of school, social events are pulling you in a dozen different directions and of course it's vacation time too. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when the weather gets nice and we all seem to get a little more active, but this could be the worst time of year to start neglecting your physical training program.

For many of us, this is the time of year that we were "hoping" to be in shape for. You really thought you wanted to have a swimsuit ready body by now. Unfortunately those missed sessions, here and there, have added up and really effected your overall result.

Notice I said that you "thought you wanted" a swimsuit body and "hoped" to be in shape. Had you truly been committed to a better result by summer you would have done anything necessary to remain consistent with your scheduled training sessions.

Think about this...

If you miss one session, no big deal, Right?

If you miss that one session only once a month, are you still giving yourself the opportunity to create the changes you want?

Missing only one session a month over the course of a year, adds up to TWELVE missed sessions. You will have missed a full months worth of training sessions, yet you still hope for impressive changes. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way.

You made a decision to take part in a physical fitness program. You made a commitment, at some level, to following through with the program. Now, we have to do whatever it takes to remain consistent over the timeframe required to get the result you really want. In most cases, 3 months of truly committed, consistent training will yield far better results than 6 months of training in which you miss only 1 to 2 sessions per month.

If you've committed to a 3 days per week training schedule, makes sure you train 3 days a week. If something comes up at your regularly scheduled time, reschedule that session and remain consistent with your 3 sessions per week commitment.

This seemingly small change will, without question, create more momentum for your program and much faster changes in your body.

Watch Your Language

"STOP WORKING OUT!"

Take a look at the word "work out". Your mind associates those words to mean that you are going to subject your body to some additional form of work until you run out of something (fuel, energy, the will to survive). Rarely does that sound like fun.

Whether you know it or not that simple association is one of the reasons that you continue to have limited success with your physical fitness program.

My suggestion is to change the way you refer to your exercise regimine to something more productive, such as "Training" or "Practice". In either case these words give your activity a positive purpose. These are words that tell your mind and body that you are doing something specific that will improve who you are.

Pay attention to the language you use. It will make a difference in your attitude and your result.

Start today! Train with Purpose.

I'm Back!

I've been off developing new ideas, new business, new strategies and techniques that will make everything you do more efficient.

The wait is over.... you're beliefs about Fitness are about to change.