How to Succeed at Living the Fitness Lifestyle

How to Succeed at Living the Fitness Lifestyle - Preventing Lifestyle Abandonment

How many times have you heard or even said, "The only way to succeed at transforming my body is to make it a lifestyle." Deep down inside, we all know that the quick fixes either won't work or will backfire just as quickly as they seemed to fix our problem. We know that we need to make lifestyle changes but many of us are stuck in a frustrating cycle of beginning, stopping, and beginning again when it comes to actually living the Fitness Lifestyle. Yet some of us succeed at living the Fitness Lifestyle...for life. Are some of us bound to stay out of shape and unhappy with our perceived inability to follow through? Are some of us just "the lucky ones" who have some advantage that makes the lifestyle more natural or somehow easier for us to live? The answer to both of these questions is NO.

Living the Fitness Lifestyle is simply a process of developing and refining effective responses to those emotions or situations that threaten our continuance on our lifelong fitness journey. Anyone who is willing to change how they view themselves and the process of developing effective responses can succeed at living the Fitness Lifestyle. So dedicate yourself to monitoring and refining your responses and watch how quickly you become one of the "lucky ones" who is happily living the Fitness Lifestyle and inspiring those around you to do the same.

“Your success at living the Fitness Lifestyle (which of course will lead to body transformation) is solely dependent on your continued acquisition and refinement of effective responses rather than your willpower, existing advantages or disadvantages, or resources.”

How does the above statement free you from guilt, worry or frustration?

How does the above statement call you to a place of personal responsibility?

Leave your comments below.

C

Food Pressure - How to Deal With It This Holiday Season

How to Deal With the Press - Food Pressure That Is!

Food pressure, feeling compelled to eat something or a quantity of food that is not supportive to your health or fitness goals, can be manifest in countless ways. Whether perceived or real, food pressure can make the holiday season prime time for unwanted weight gain but it doesn’t have to be that way this year.

External food pressure is when someone is unrelenting in insisting that you eat a certain dish or a certain quantity of food. This person may be well meaning but the pressure can often come in forms of hurtful remarks (“oh so you are dieting AGAIN) or guilt trips (“I really worked hard to make this special dish. I can’t believe you won’t eat it.”). Internal food pressure is the pressure we feel when are compelled to alter our food choices based on what we believe those around us think or feel about our food choices.

4 Tips for Dealing with the Pressure

Tip#1: Offer to bring a few healthy dishes along to share. Your plate won’t look empty because you will have plenty of supportive options to choose from and maybe no one will notice you didn’t go back for your usual second serving of mom’s cornbread dressing.

Tip #2: Decide in advance when and how much you will indulge. Be polite yet stern when others try to influence you and focus on non-food parts of the celebration to turn the attention off of you and your dietary choices. Stick to your guns. Self-determination is one of the most powerful tools you have. If you go into a social situation with the thought, “I MAY have some dessert, a drink, etc”, you absolutely WILL have an indulgence and you will most likely feel bad about it since it was not part of your plan. This perceived failure then leads to more indulgences because the “I already messed up and I will start again tomorrow” mentality kicks in. You have the power and responsibility to remain in control- decide in advance.

Tip #3: If someone keeps pressuring you about your food, explain why you are choosing to eat what you have chosen and be enthusiastic about it. You just may inspire someone.

Tip #4: Realize that in most cases people really don’t care deeply about what is on your plate as long as you don’t make everyone else miserable because you feel you are missing out on the fun. Come to the gathering prepared with a game plan. Stick to it and most of all be upbeat and fun- no one may even notice what you ate.

Whether you experience external or internal food pressure during the holidays, the key point to remember is that you and only you have the power and the responsibility to create the health, look, and fitness that you desire. If you consistently give your power to others, you will never attain the health and happiness that is within your reach. At the end of the day, only you will live in your skin and you owe it to yourself to make the choices that will make you comfortable in that skin. Have a happy holiday season!

Simple Body Transformation Approach

Making Body Transformation Simple – The Four Factor

If you want to transform your body by losing fat and increasing muscle definition, it can sometimes be challenging to channel all of the advice, excitement, and anxiety into a simple, effective plan of attack. Here are the four areas you need to have nailed down to enjoy a simple and effective body transformation- without the unnecessary stress.

#1: Weekly Regimen
First determine how many strength and cardio workouts you need to complete each week. In general, you will need 2-3 strength workouts and up to 3 interval workouts. Once you determine what your weekly workouts will be, schedule them in your week- ideally with at least a day between strength workouts. Put your workouts on your calendar like any other important appointment and now all you have to do is show up.

#2: Nutrition Approach
How are you going to approach nutrition? Will you be eating 4 meals a day or 6? Will you be having starches with all of your meals or only some? Which meals will you have starch with? How often will you splurge? Define your nutrition plan. Don’t leave anything out. Once you know what your plan is, you won’t have to wonder how you are doing in the area of nutrition. You are either following your plan or you aren’t. The simplest place to start is by eating meals that contain protein and produce every 3-4 hours, eliminating refined starches and added sugar, and drinking plenty of water. Once your results slow down following this approach (our Phase 1 nutrition approach), it may be time to look at carbohydrate timing and other more advanced nutrition strategies.

#3: Food Prep Strategy
Now that you know what you are going to be eating, you have to make sure that you have the right foods available at the right time. Without a food prep strategy, you are destined to fall off the nutrition wagon quickly. There are many food prep strategies that you can employ. A few popular ones are the Sunday ritual, the Twice Weekly Ritual, and the Cook Double Ritual. For the Sunday Ritual you cook all of your meals and snacks for an entire week, package them in individual containers and then store them in the fridge and/or freezer. The Twice Weekly Ritual is similar to the Sunday ritual only you prepare less food since you will complete the ritual twice. The Cook Double Ritual is where you cook twice the amount you need at each dinner and pack the leftovers for the next day’s lunch. Your personality and food preferences will determine which ritual works best for you but the most important thing is to pick one and stick to it. If it doesn’t work for you, pick another.

#4: Tracking Method
To reduce the severity of your ride on the emotional rollercoaster that can sometimes come along with a body transformation, pick at least one tracking method for both your actions and your outcomes. This helps you minimize the amount of times you will find yourself saying, “I don’t know I just FEEL like I’m not doing so well. I mean I haven’t cheated or anything but I just FEEL like I could be making more progress faster”. Tracking what you have done and the results your actions have produced makes it a lot easier to determine if you are getting results and what actions are contributing to your rapid results or lack thereof. You can use a journal to record your meals and workouts to easily assess how closely you stuck to your plan or use our Boot Camp Scorecard to get your total daily points based on your workouts and nutrition. To measure your outcome, you can watch our Self Measurement Video on the member blog and track your circumference measurements and weight or have your boot camp coach take your progress pictures every 4-6 weeks. One of my personal favorite outcome tracking methods is the “jeans method”. Get a pair of jeans that are too tight (preferably ones that don’t button). Try those on every 2 weeks and note how the fit changes. Regardless of what the scale says, you will know you have made progress when you can confidently rock those jeans outside.

Now you see, losing fat and transforming your body can be a simple and manageable task when you use our Four Factor approach.

How Can I Get Fit When He Eats Like This?

Body Transformation While Married to a Nutritional Opposite

Consistently eating a healthy diet for greater health and body transformation in today’s world where tempting food is often available can be challenging even for the most dedicated fitness enthusiast. The difficulty of succeeding with the supportive eating habit can grow exponentially when your spouse or housemate is not quite on board with healthy eating. Although staying the course while facing daily temptation is hard, it is possible and it is definitely worth it. Here are three tips to staying the course despite your surroundings.

Tip #1: Talk to your spouse or housemate about your reasons for changing your eating habits.
Sometimes when someone we are close to changes, it can be uncomfortable and evoke worries about whether or not the relationship will remain intact. It is important to identify and share your motivation with your partner. In most cases, your driving force is far deeper than fitting into a certain size or outfit. Tap into the raw, emotional reasons why you want to change. Someone who sincerely cares about you is very likely to be supportive of your changes if they know what you are fixing by changing your lifestyle. Your spouse may not think it is important for you to drop a dress size but if he knows that your lack of follow through with your fitness goals is building a habit of avoiding rather than overcoming challenges, he may be less likely to bring you food treats as his display of love for you.

Tip #2: Make a plan that includes splurges and then stay true to your plan. If you don’t respect your plan, don’t expect anyone else to do it for you.
Part of your initial discussion with your partner can include sharing exactly what your plan includes and when you are free to splurge. Knowing when you will have time for a more relaxed nutrition approach can help your spouse know that your new goal doesn’t completely eliminate any food related events you used to enjoy together. While many coaches will advise that you just replace the food related events with events that don’t involve food, this switch may not be immediately feasible- especially if your spouse doesn’t have a fitness goal of their own. Finally, once you set your plan and state your intentions…STICK TO YOUR GUNS! If you want your partner to respect your nutrition decisions, you must be the first to respect those decisions. If you are all talk and no follow through, your partner will not take you seriously and may still suggest unsupportive foods and events due to your inconsistency.

Tip #3: Designate a spot for the unsupportive food in your house and then stay clear.
A complete kitchen sweep in which you throw away all of the unsupportive foods in your house may not be feasible if those foods belong to someone else in the house. You can however, move all of the unsupportive food to a designated area so that you don’t have to reach past them multiple times a day. You can explain how having this separate area helps you stay on track and then stay out of the stash.

This is one Fit Club member's unsupportive food designated area. It is in an obscure part of the pantry that she can easily ignore. Hopefully soon, her family will be following her example and this food can be tossed never to return again.

Bonus Tip: Don't nag. Don't judge. Don't be a drag.

Your decision to change should be about you! Lead by example but don't nag him to change just because you have finally seen the light. Don't make smart comments about what he is eating. Finally don't walk around somber and sad just because you no longer randomly indulge in unsupportive foods like your partner. Your change is supposed to be for a better you so be excited about the journey and the benefits. Your spouse will probably not be supportive if your healthy lifestyle change causes you to be in a sour mood all the time.

In summary, you can successfully transform your eating, health, and body even if you live with someone who doesn’t share the same desire. Sharing your motivation with them and then leading by example just may win them over to the fitness lifestyle as well!

Body Transformation Without Willpower - Top 6 Tips

NO WILLPOWER? NO PROBLEM!
6 TIPS TO HELP YOU TRANSFORM YOUR BODY WITHOUT WILLPOWER

Are you one of the millions of people who have given up on transforming your body and getting into great shape because you don’t have willpower? Do you go through the motions of your exercise routine with little belief that your body will change because you haven't found a way to will yourself to stay consistent with your nutrition? You don’t need willpower to have a successful body transformation. As a matter of fact, WILLPOWER IS OVERRATED.... DON'T COUNT ON IT!

By definition, willpower is the trait of resolutely (without hesitation) controlling your own behavior. In terms of diet or fitness, I would say willpower is the trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior IN THE FACE OF TEMPTATION. When you are in the habit of eating what tastes good whenever you please, how likely is it that you will control yourself WITHOUT HESITATION when faced with temptation? Not likely at all. If you count on willpower, you will be disappointed with every attempt at developing a healthier, happier lifestyle.

So how does a healthy eating novice succeed at body transformation and a healthier lifestyle? Avoidance is the key. Until healthy eating has become a deeply ingrained habit, I recommend practicing discipline instead of willpower.

Discipline by definition is to train by instruction and practice; especially to teach self-control. Right now you are in training and that training goes far beyond the time you spend in the gym. You are training yourself to develop healthy habits that support your goal. One of those habits is to eat healthy, wholesome food that supports optimal health, energy, and fat loss. So now what you have to do is practice eating that way. In order to succeed at this practice do the following:

1. Have healthy options available to you at all times. This will require packing snacks or at least being aware of healthy options near where you work, live, and play.

2. Avoid situations where you will not have healthy options. Until you have created a habit of consistently eating healthfully (which usually takes about 3 weeks of consistency), don’t put yourself in harm’s way. Bring a healthy option to parties. Find a new route home instead of driving past your favorite doughnut shop. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID.

3. Develop a clear vision of what you want to accomplish and strong desire for that result and all of the positive things it will bring. Know WHY you want to change (this is your driving force or motivation). If you don't have the VISION AND DESIRE, no strategy, tip, or tactic will work.

4. Focus on your vision daily. Experience the new healthier you in your mind. Soon your vision will become so clear and the desire to change so strong that you will charge through obstacles like a rhino!

5. Become accountable to someone. Telling someone or a group of people about your vision and your plan makes it more real. It is important to pick the right person/people to share with.

6. Practice your new behaviors until they become a part of who you are. If you slip once, get right back on it. Do you think Michael Jordan quit basketball because he didn't make one jump shot? NOT AT ALL. He analyzed the miss, tweaked his approach, and then perfected it. You are in training just like MJ. You are training to become the best version of you possible. Continue to practice until you arrive!

Living Without the Cream - Part II

Living Without the Cream - Why I Had to Learn to Drink Black Coffee
Part II – What I Learned From Drinking Black Coffee

In Part I, I shared my decision to drink my coffee without cream for a while to increase my mental toughness and sharpen my discipline with regards to nutrition. As I mentioned in the first partof this article, most people who are on a body transformation journey have a “cream” in their lives- the food that doesn’t serve a purpose in the nutrition plan apart from pleasure. Because these small dietary crutches can be abused (i.e. over consumed) and lead to self sabotage, discovering and gaining control over your attachment to your “cream” is part of your journey to success. I am not suggesting that you eliminate all pleasurable food (and certainly not permanently) but simply that you gain awareness of your daily nutrition habits and be on guard for any self sabotage behaviors or budding food addiction.

Below are my lesson from my black coffee experiment. If you relate to any of them, I encourage you to conduct experiments of your own to gain the habits that will make your success with body transformation and other areas of your life inevitable.

What I Learned:

• Most people need a strong incentive, ideally behavioral, to stick to changes. If I were giving up cream to look better in a bathing suit this summer, it would have been easy to convince myself that I could produce that outcome without the sacrifice of drinking black coffee. However since my goal was to sharpen my discipline, mental toughness, and to become aware of or overcome any food addictions I may have, the only path to achieving that goal was to go through the process.

• Set a timeline for the experiment – being overly restrictive or restrictive longer than it takes to gain insight and control can backfire. I failed to set a timeline for my experiment and after more than a month, I started rebelling by introducing other dietary crutches. I reminded myself that I hadn’t given up cream forever, that my goal of the experiment had been accomplished, and that I could move on. When I reintroduced cream, I didn’t like it as much, didn’t over consume it and stopped eating the other foods I had introduced. This experience can also be related back to the first point. My incentive had been met so if for some reason the experiement needed to continue, I needed to identify the new incentive to continue with diligence.

• Inability to give up a certain type of food for short periods of time is food addiction and the best way to break the addiction is to abstain. Addicition is defined as the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming. Although it may be hard to reconcile an inability or unwillingness to give up nightly dessert, wine, or other nutritional practices with addiction- by definition this inability is addiction. At first I laughed at the thought of being addicted to coffee cream but I realized that when you crave, think about excessive, strongly desire, or have an inability to abstain from something (even if it is cream), it is time to gain control. I’ll be the first to admit that I was shocked to discover just how emotionally attached I was to having cream in my coffee- but not any more.

• Completely abstaining from a food for a period of time helps you gain perspective on how attached you were (or not) to the food. If you don’t miss it at all, you obviously weren’t attached to it and if it consumes an unusual amount of your thought time, you really were.

• You can reset your taste buds and nutritional preferences to be more supportive of your goal. Many people say they don’t like the taste of healthy food, black coffee, or water (due to the lack of added flavor and sweetness) but those taste preferences are learned and can be reset if you take the time to develop new habits.

• When you reintroduce the food you may find you don’t like it (or as much of it) the way you did before abstaining. My first cup of coffee with cream wasn’t as good as I had anticipated.

• Complete abstinence from a food that you struggle with consuming “in moderation” helps minimize draining internal dialogue and can improve your mood overall. Once you have already decided that the item is not an option in your nutrition plan, you eliminate the time spent deciding when to have it or how much of it to consume. You will eliminate thoughts like “should I have a bit more” or “should I save it for X event” as well as the guilt ridden thoughts like “I really shouldn’t have had so much” when you eventually get worn down my the internal debate and indulge.

• Being able to master your own behavior in one area builds confidence in your ability to match your behavior to your goals and carries over to other aspects of your life. You realize you are capable of removing things that stand between you and your goal and feel unstoppable.

I am sure some of you want to know if I will abstain from cream forever. Well the answer is… no. I reintroduced cream into my morning coffee and quite honestly it wasn’t as good as I remembered. Some days I have it and other days I actually desire a cup of black coffee. I think lasting change happens when you truly desire what benefits you most. I am happy to have completed my experiment and know that it will continue with other foods (and life behaviors). I look forward to truly desiring a fruit salad rather than my brownies so maybe abstaining from dessert will be my next experiment.

What is your cream? When do you plan on giving it up? For how long? Post below and I’ll support you through your personal experiment!

How to Deal With Change While Pursuing Your Fitness Goals

Dealing With Change While Pursuing Your Fitness Goals
How to Stay on Track

Some women struggle to achieve their fitness goals and spend months or years losing the same pounds over and over again only to quit and regain them. They sometimes mistakenly believe that the women who achieve their goals have more time, less stress, more support, better genetics and a host of other advantages that give them the edge in the game of fitness. However women who achieve their fitness goals are women just like you with many of the same challenges. Their advantage is simply that they are determined to reach their goal. They realize it may take longer than they thought and be harder than they thought but quite frankly they don’t care because WANT the goal that they have set. If you have ever seen ladies at a sale at their favorite department store, you know that nothing can stop a woman going after something she wants. So assuming that you really want the fitness goal that you have set for yourself, lets explore how to deal with some of the most common changes that occur during a body transformation journey.


The Change: The loss of an accountability buddy.
It is difficult to “lone ranger” your way to your fitness goal. A fitness buddy can make the journey more enjoyable and easier to stick to so when you lose your accountability buddy either due to relocation or a buddy’s change in priorities, it is important to find another one. This doesn’t mean ending your friendship with your previous buddy if they are not sabotaging your efforts, it just means finding another person who is on the same road that you are and linking up to hold each other accountable and up the fun factor. You can find a buddy at boot camp, your gym, or even on an online forum. You can provide encouragement through texts, Facebook messages, and phone calls. If you live close and can work out or cook food together that’s great too. You may be surprised how much support you can receive from people you don’t even know.

The Change: New job or family demands.
It can be challenging to keep up with your old routine when your life demands change. Whether your work schedule changes, your children are out of school for the summer, or you are required to travel more than usual, you can continue your fitness journey somewhat seamlessly. The first step is to assess the change and identify which parts of your previous routine don’t fit anymore. Next come up with a new routine that does fit. Be open minded about different ways to fit in your exercise and supportive foods. When things change…things will have to change in order for you to keep going on your fitness journey. Don’t be stubborn. Assess and change before your results suffer. Get help from a professional if you don’t know how to adjust your program.

The Change: You feel less motivated than before and feel old habits creeping back. As counterintuitive as it may be- sometimes getting results isn’t all you need to stay motivated especially if your ultimate goal is a long way off. If you find yourself feeling less than motivated, set mini goals that support your overall goal. Knowing that you will have the satisfaction of a “win” in the near future can be enough to keep you pushing forward and resisting the temptation to slow down in your efforts. Having mini goals can also help you steer clear of the “I just thought I would be closer by now” feelings that sometimes creep in and sabotage your progress. You will have something to be excited about achieving soon as well as the momentum from a recent win fueling you.

Are Your Lifestyle Habits Making You Fat?

Discover the Top 3 Lifestyle Habits Sabotaging Your Fitness Program

Have you tried numerous body transformation programs only to continually fall short of reaching your goal? Do you feel that nothing works for you? If so, you may need to change your habits instead of your fitness program to lose fat fast and finally attain the body of your dreams. Your daily habits are just as important as what you eat and what you do in the gym. Read on to discover the top 3 bad habits that are sabotaging your body transformation efforts. Break these habits to attain a lean, fit body more quickly than you imagined!

BAD HABIT #1: Doing things when they need to be done instead of BEFORE they need to be done.
Have you ever neglected to bring a healthy lunch to work because you discovered you didn’t have the ingredients you needed that morning? Have you had to cancel an appointment with your workout partner because you discovered your workout clothes were dirty only minutes before getting dressed? If you answered yes, a little preparation in advance can help! There is a saying that I learned during my college years that applies to every aspect of life- including fitness and body transformation. Take this saying to heart and be amazed by how much more of what you intend to do actually gets accomplished. “To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to be out of luck.” Don’t wait until the last possible second to do things with hopes that everything will go smoothly. Instead prepare in advance so that little surprises don’t derail your plans. Try the following little adjustments for more fitness consistency and success. Prepare your lunch, gym bag and work bag at night. Leave your bags in the car before bed so that you have less chance of forgetting something on your way out of the door.

BAD HABIT #2: Over-committing or scheduling yourself too tightly.
Do you skip meals because you “don’t have time” to eat during the day. Do you skimp on your water intake to avoid needing bathroom breaks? If you answered yes, you are scheduled too tightly. Allow 5-15 minutes between appointments or commitments. Schedule your breaks on your calendar so that you will be less tempted to schedule yourself for hours without breaks. If you don’t have enough time in your day to allow these small breaks, consider eliminating some of your commitments. Succeeding at fat loss to become fit, healthy, and lean requires being calm and aware. It’s almost impossible to be calm and aware if you don’t even have the time for a bathroom break. If you want a better body or better health, you must cut back on the stress and anxiety that unreasonably tight schedules create.

BAD HABIT #3: Putting important tasks on the “to do” list instead of on the calendar. Have you ever gotten to the end of a very busy day only to discover that many of the most important tasks didn’t get done? Well you have just discovered the draw back of the to-do list. Instead of blindly plowing through tasks, prioritize. Place important tasks (including your workouts, food preparation, and maybe even meals and snacks) on your calendar. Leave the to-do list for less important tasks that are not time sensitive. On days when your appointments run long or something unexpected happens, you will be more likely to have done all of the important things (including your workouts) at the end of your day leaving you feeling more satisfied and fulfilled even when everything that could go wrong does.

Body Transformation Mindset - Turning on the Mental Switch for Success

Turning on the Mental Switch – Get a Body Transformation Mindset
Part II

In Part I of this article, we introduced the six critical step to take the leap from thinking about having a body transformation to actually taking the day to day steps (while dodging the obstacles that are sure to arise) to make your body transformation dream a reality. We called this six step action plan turning on the switch to create a body transformation mindset. In this part of the article, we will introduce the last three steps to get your mind to focus in on achieving your goal in a way that makes success inevitable.

Step #4: Eliminate stumbling blocks.
A stumbling block can be a trigger food (food that you have a hard time controlling the amount that you eat or that leads you to eat more unsupportive choices), a food that makes you less than eager to train, or even a habit that hinders your ability to follow your plan (such as staying up late playing on Facebook and then being too tired to make it for your morning workout). Left in place, these stumbling blocks will sabotage every attempt at improving your fitness.

Body Transformation Mindset Action: In your fitness journal (you have one right?), keep track of the times that you have dietary slip ups and miss workouts. Don’t dwell on the non-compliance but once you have a few days recorded look for a pattern. If you see the same slipup occurring repeatedly, identify the corresponding stumbling block and eliminate it. If you keep binging on sugary cereal- stop buying it or give it to a family member to hide. If you can’t stop at just two glasses of wine at designated splurge times, stop drinking it altogether. If you stay up too late watching TV, record your favorite shows and designate a time to watch them on the weekend. Take the journey seriously. Embrace the challenge and rise to the occasion. These actions may sound drastic but really how serious are you about your results

Step #5: Be willing to learn and change according to what you learn.
If you have always tried the same style of working out and the same nutrition plan and those methods have failed to give you the results you want (even if they have yielded some results), then be willing to learn what the shortfalls of your approach are and change. The help of a professional fitness coach can prove invaluable with this step. A fitness professional who has gone through a personal transformation as well as helped other people like you transform would be ideal.

Body Transformation Mindset Action: Get the help of a fitness professional to build an approach that is suitable for your goals and lifestyle. Be honest with the person helping you about what you truly want to accomplish, your motivation, and past successes and failures. Take the information that you get and APPLY IT. Shopping around for a second and third opinion and applying bits and pieces of each person’s advice will surely lead to confusion and frustration rather than results. Pick someone you trust and then apply the information that they share. If it doesn’t work and the professional implies that it is solely your level of effort that needs to change (i.e. they don’t have a plan B for you) then it is time to move on to a different professional (assuming of course that you really have followed the advice with at least 90% compliance). It’s that simple.

Step #6: Get Accountable.
Be honest with yourself about the level of accountability you need to succeed and then get it. Some people do well with information and monthly check-ins to review progress and actions. Others need weekly accountability and feedback. Some people need almost daily accountability to stay on track. Figure out what you need and then make it happen. Often the difference between those that get good results and those that get unbelievable results is simply how many layers of accountability were built. One of our very successful boot camp members has built quite a few layers of accountability to get great results. She is accountable to me as her coach both in boot camp and in the semi-private Jean Drop Challenge. She is accountable to a few boot camp buddies through daily reporting via text and finally she is accountable to her friends and family on Facebook. She has built a deep circle of support for herself and her results are better because of this support.

Body Transformation Mindset Action: Think about whether you need monthly, weekly, or daily accountability to stay on track with your program. A huge hint may be how often you find yourself needing feedback or encouragement. Once you have an idea of what you need, get the accountability. If you need monthly accountability, join boot camp and take advantage of the coaching calls. If you need weekly accountability, join one of our challenges such as the semi-private Jean Drop Challenge. If you need daily accountability, couple the previously mentioned options with a boot camp accountability buddy and consider blogging or reporting your progress on Facebook. Do whatever it takes to keep yourself accountable and on track.

As you have learned in this article series, a successful body transformation is about more than calories, grams of fat, reps, and sets. You have got to engage your mind and build a transformation mindset to achieve your best body possible. The investment of time and emotions that it takes to create the body transformation mindset yields amazing returns. Get inspired and turn on your own body transformation mental switch!

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Living Without the Cream - Part I

Living Without the Cream - Why I Had to Learn to Drink Black Coffee
Part I – Knowing When It Is Time to Let Go

If you have started on your path of living the fitness lifestyle and even achieved some level of body transformation success and you are looking to bump things up a notch and discover what you can accomplish if you gave it your best shot, I challenge you to learn to live “without the cream”. Before you stop reading and decide that I have absolutely lost my mind, let me share my personal experience of learning to drink black coffee to provide some insight into what I mean.

A few weeks ago I decided that I was getting a little bored with my personal fitness and wanted to switch gears a bit from being mostly a coach to being more of a player on “team fitness”. I started thinking about a challenge that would light my fitness fire and get me excited about my training. In preparation for that goal, I decided that I was going to train to fit the smallest jean size I have ever worn as an adult (although my current size is the smallest size I’ve worn outside of competitive figure training season) as a short term goal . I wanted to prove to myself that I could achieve the goal while still maintaining a lifestyle approach to fitness (without twice daily workouts and eating chicken breast and broccoli all the time). With a goal in mind and an understanding of my underlying motivation, it was time to construct a plan.

It was easy to identify the training tweaks I could make to get closer to the goal but, as I always tell my clients, nutrition is most important so I took a look at my diet to see what I needed to change. I confirmed that I was already following the “Metabolic 10” (basic nutrition guidelines) but I discovered… THE CREAM. “The cream” can be any crutch that you use to get you through the hard work of being consistently disciplined with your diet. For me “the cream” was literally the cream in my coffee. I am very good about avoiding juice, soda, artificial sweeteners, and the like but I had come to rely on the cream in my coffee for my sweet fix. With time, my frequency and amount (of course I had stopped measuring) had grown and I estimated that I was getting an extra 100-200 calories daily in cream. Now this may not seem like a big deal to you and if I were just starting my fitness journey, staying in shape, or continuing to slowly tighten up, it wouldn’t be a big deal to me either. However, I had an aggressive goal and other boundaries that I was putting on my fitness program (remember I didn’t want to spend lots of time training) so I knew it was time to let go of the cream both to hit my short term goal of getting in those jeans and to sharpen the mental toughness and resolve that I would need to take on my next goal. So it was obvious to me that the cream had to go- it was no longer an option to let it stay.

It has been almost two weeks now since I gave up the cream. I would be lying if I said it was easy or that I hadn’t contemplated going back. The justifications have run through my mind. I had hit similar goals before without giving up the cream- why should I give it up? I had just given up artificial sweeteners a few months ago- wasn’t it too soon to be changing something else? There were many more thoughts that I had to work through to become solid in my commitment to live without the cream. I’ve even opened my hubby’s cream ready to give in during times of weakness and talked myself off the ledge because for me hitting my goal and proving something to myself is worth it. If you have an aggressive goal (or aggressive time frame) or even if you are just tired of always getting close but never quite "there" and you think you are worthy to experience the success of achievement, it is time to let go of the cream. So I challenge you to take a close look at your diet and be honest with yourself… what is your cream?

In part II, I’ll tell you why giving up the cream was so important and give you some practical instructions to discover and get rid of the cream in your life when you want to kick things up a notch to hit your goals. You don’t have to give it up forever and once you hit your goals you can decide if and when you’ll put it back. I’m sure I’ll enjoy a cup of caramel color coffee again in my lifetime… just not in the next couple of weeks.

Friends and Fitness - Social Support for Fitness Success

Friends and Fitness – Are You Under the Influence?

In financial services circles, there is a commonly quoted idea that any person’s financial net worth today is the average of their ten closest friends. The theory behind this statement is that the people who you spend most of your time with heavily influence your habits and expectation level of whatyou think is possible when it comes to lifestyle and money. As a fitness professional, I have observed that the same can be said for level of physical fitness and degree of leanness. Ladies who like to push their fitness to the next level and enjoy hardcore workouts usually don’t exercise with those who consider a walk in the neighborhood a workout. A lady who is in less than average shape who frequently hangs out with fitness models is sure to be inspired to take her physique to the next level as a result of their influence. Let’s face it, it is hard to be the lone ranger and champion of the health and fitness lifestyle when most of your time is spent with friends who would rather invite you to happy hour than join you for a round of hill sprints. It is hard to continue on the path of eating nutritionally balanced meals that support body transformation when every gathering you attend is laced with fatty foods and alcohol to spare.

What can a lady committed to transforming her body do to ensure her fitness success? Must she get rid of her current friends to pursue her dream? Absolutely not! She simply needs to add new friends. Having friends who have already accomplished, or are accomplishing, what you want in the arena of health and fitness expands your expectation level and helps increase your belief factor. Spending time with people who eat well, exercise often, and look and feel amazing helps you to believe that you can do the same. You’ll pick up helpful tips and strategies and be motivated to stay the course on your personal transformation. As you continue on your path, you may even inspire some of your friends who aren’t currently fitness minded to take the plunge and achieve a better body for themselves as well. Don’t be surprised however if your current friends aren’t instantly inspired or even have negative things to say about your dedication to your goal. Change can be scary and when you change it is sometimes threatening to those who are close to you. They may fear that they will lose your friendship or may be envious of your accomplishments as your success will now disprove any “nutrition and exercise just doesn’t work for regular people” justifications that they may have been using to explain away their lack of physical fitness. Stay your course, be patient with your friends as they adjust to your change but be willing to sever ties with anyone who blatantly tries to sabotage you as that is not the mark of a true friend.

Check out part one of my interview with two boot camp buddies – Missy and Tracy to find out how they supported each other to get amazing fitness results in one of our boot camp challenges.

Top Three Places to Meet Fitness Minded Friends

1. Great Shape Fit Club
Any lady who is ‘embracing the burn’ with us on a regular basis has body transformation on the brain and can be a great addition to your fitness friend circle.

2. Online Fitness Forums
You may be surprised how many fitness minded ladies you can find online and the amount of support you can gain from a cyber circle of friends. I actually met Dustie, yes our very own boot camp coach Dustie, on an online fitness forum years ago. We became workout partners and enjoyed Saturday morning bleacher workouts together and the rest is history.

3. Clubs or Organizations
Do you like to swim, bike, or run? Join an organization geared to that activity and you’ll be sure to have more fitness friends soon.

To get free body transformation resources including free fitness reports and a nutrition crash course, subscribe to the Great Shape Fit Club newsletter at www.GreatShapeFitClub.com .

Self Sabotage - Stop and Finally Achieve Body Transformation Success

Secret Self Sabotage Behaviors- Part II
Stop These Behaviors to Get Fit Faster

In Part I of this article, we explored three self sabotage behaviors that can keep even the most devout fitness enthusiast from reaching her body transformation goals. In this article, we will explore three other behaviors that can take away your chances at your dream body.

Sabotage Behavior #4: Between Meal Snacking

The Problem: Eating small, frequent meals is not synonymous with a license to graze all day. Eating a few veggie chips, a spoonful of peanut butter, or a small piece of chocolate between your meals will add up over time and can be just enough to slow your progress or keep you away from your goal entirely. Even if you aren’t consuming enough calories with your between meal snacking habit to derail your progress, you are gaining a habit that could easily become detrimental to your success in the future if your portions grow or you begin to select foods that are higher in calories, sugar and fat.

The Solution: Find an activity to occupy your mind and your hands between meals. After all, if you are following the Great Shape nutrition guidelines, you are eating every 2-4 hours already. If you need to release some pent up energy, do a quick 4-minute exercise routine. Stressed? Try a few yoga poses to release the tension. Need a quick crunch fix to get through a tedious report? Try raw vegetables. If your stomach feels empty but it isn’t yet time to eat, sip on a hot cup of green tea. Either option you choose, you are adding something that will help you reach your goal instead of something that can potentially slow down your progress.

Sabotage Behavior #5: Having an “It Won’t Hurt” Mentality

The Problem: Anything you do or eat is either helping you achieve your goal or taking you away from your goal. Believing that certain unsupportive habits “won’t hurt” will keep you on the chase- running after your goal without ever achieving it.

The Solution: Realize that the game of transforming your body is not won with one monumental choice or action but rather with the culmination of small, daily choices. Enough missed workouts or overindulgences will add up to keep you away from your goal. Begin to ask yourself, “Will this help?” If the answer is no, then it really will hurt in the long run. Accepting that choices that are not helping you achieve your goal really are taking you away from your goal will keep you from sabotaging your best efforts at a healthy, fit body.

Sabotage Behavior #6: Refusing to Give Up Trigger Foods

The Problem: Trigger foods are foods that you are seldom successful at controlling the amount you consume and that serve as a gateway to overindulge in other non supportive foods. Leaving these foods in your diet (even in your splurge meals) while you are actively trying to transform your body sets you up for failure. You often eat more than you intended to eat and find yourself “starting over” after every overindulgence. This sometimes happens weekly over even more frequently. This keeps you away from your goal. Common trigger foods are chips, trail mix, wine, and chocolate.

The Solution: Become aware of what your trigger foods are and then avoid them.
As long as you are trying to transform your body, trigger foods have no place in your nutrition – not even in your splurge meals. Once you have attained your goal, you can experiment with learning to control your consumption of these foods by incorporating them into a splurge and monitoring how you react to them. You may find that the excitement of having attained your dream body gives you new found discipline with these foods but if that is not the case, reserve these treats for special occasions a couple of times per year.

To get free body transformation resources including free fitness reports and a nutrition crash course, subscribe to the Great Shape Fit Club newsletter at www.GreatShapeFitClub.com .

Self Sabotage - The Enemy of Your Fitness Success

Secret Self Sabotage Behaviors- Part I
Stop These Behaviors to Get Fit Faster

Whether you are a seasoned fitness enthusiast or fitness novice, it is important to recognize and stop destructive behaviors that sabotage your journey to a fit and healthy body. If you identify with any of the sabotage behaviors, stop standing in the way of your results by implementing one or all of the suggested solutions. Most importantly, find someone to be accountable to regarding those behaviors. Constant accountability to a support system is a habit that is common among fit people.

Sabotage Behavior #1: Setting Wimpy Goals That Lack Passion

The Problem:

If you are not passionate about and emotionally attached to achieving your goal, you will not consistently take the action required to achieve it.

The Solution: Get real about what you want and why you want it. This can be uncomfortable because you may be admitting to feelings that you have denied or ignored or risking failure because your goal is aggressive. The risk of failure and the vulnerability that comes with setting passion filled goals is better than the alternative of guaranteed failure in pursuing a goal that you really don’t care about. Set the goal, get real about why, and then guarantee your success. To guarantee your success, get a solid plan specific to your goal from a professional fitness coach. Increase your belief in the possibility of attaining your goal by finding others who have accomplished what you want to accomplish and learn from their journey. Finally, remind yourself daily of your goal and your motivation for achieving it with affirmations, a vision board, or reading inspiring transformation stories.

Sabotage Behavior #2: Setting Vague Workout Appointments

The Problem

: In this world of fast paced lives, that which is not scheduled is often left undone. It is not good enough to know which workout you plan to do on what day. You need an appointment.

The Solution: Set an appointment and then honor it the way you would any other appointment. Only skip the appointment if it is an absolute necessity. When you must change the appointment, be sure to schedule it for another time. If you can not realistically fit the planned workout in your schedule at another time, commit to doing a quick 5-minute workout that day and pick up your regular workout schedule with the next scheduled workout. Don’t carry the guilt of the missed appointment and allow the “makeup workout” to hang over your head. Get intense for five minutes and then start fresh the next day.

Sabotage Behavior #3: Not Making Time to Eat

The Problem: When you skip meals, you negatively affect your metabolism. PERIOD. Not only are you missing out on an opportunity to spike your metabolism with a meal, you are also setting yourself up to be so hungry that you make poor food choices for the next couple of hours or even the rest of the day. When you are overly hungry, it is highly likely that you will overeat or make non supportive choices at your next meal or graze on snacks until your next meal. Either one of these will move you away from your goal.

The Solution: Decide that you are worth the effort that it takes to get the body you want, that fit people are as busy as unfit people, and that every meal doesn’t have to be a perfectly plated, warm culinary delight. Once you have accepted those truths, implement these busy woman nutrition solutions. For a meal at your desk, in your car, or in meetings, carry a few single servings of protein powder. You will be able to add water for a quick meal on the go. If you are sure that you will need to drink protein shakes while away from home, make your shakes at home and then use drink Tupperware to transport them to eliminate a step while on the go. Eat a fruit and nut bar like a Larabar for a super portable mini meal. If are able to eat full meals but still find you are too busy to stop and prepare them, make sure that every meal is packaged in individual Tupperware before you start the day. Set a timer and eat on cue. Finally, make salads and other meals you wouldn’t mind eating cold if you find that you don’t have time to warm your food.

This article offers a few solutions to the most common sabotage behaviors that I see while coaching clients. If you find other solutions work better for you, use those instead just make sure that you acknowledge your self sabotage behaviors, get accountable, and then overcome them. In part two of this article, we will explore the rest of the most common self sabotage behaviors.

To get free body transformation resources including free fitness reports and a nutrition crash course, subscribe to the Great Shape Fit Club newsletter at www.GreatShapeFitClub.com .

Motivation Doesn't Last

Motivation doesn't last. You are not imagining it. Trying to stay motivated is like trying to hold sand. It can slip through your fingers bit by bit until you don't have any left. If it were your goal to always have sand in your hands (I can't imagine why it would be- but bare with me and my analogy please.), you would have to make sure that you were constantly scooping some more in your hand to make up for what was being lost. Motivation is the same way. You have to do something DAILY (and sometimes even multiple times per day) to refresh your motivation.

Top 3 Daily Motivation Rituals

1. Change your password to some of your online accounts to something related to your goal. Here are some examples "veggies2x"(if eating veggies with two meals a day is your goal), "exdaily"(if your goal is to do some form of exercise daily) or "nosoda4me" (if your goal is to abstain from soda). You will be reminded of your goal multiple times per day as you log on to your computer.

2. Write down and carry your goals with you. Read them in the morning and night and as often as you need throughout the day to feel motivated to make the necessary daily choices to achieve your goal.

3. Create a vision board (or a few vision boards) and place it where you will see it often. Feel stressed and tempted to raid the pantry? Go look at your vision board instead and emotionally connect with the things that you will achieve by just staying the course with your plan.

What tricks do you use to stay motivated? Weigh in below in the comment section.

Don't forget, if you haven't already, join us in our "You Can Do It - Stick to It" Challenge. This is another tool you can use to keep your motivation high as you check in daily to report on your progress. Click here for details and to join in the fun. We are only on day 2 there is still time to get in!

Can Beauty Rituals Help You Lose Weight?

Is it possible that a body scrub, facial or applying your favorite eye shadow can help you to get in the best shape of your life? Absolutely! There are many ways that beauty rituals can help you achieve your dream body. Here’s why applying mascara or doing a weekly facial scrub can help you get into a little black dress.

While working with women on their journeys to transform their body to its former glory or even to an image in their head that they have never attained before, I have observed a few common traits of women who repeatedly fall short of their goals that their more successful counterparts don’t share. The habits and factors have nothing to do with how much weight they lift or even how often they attend the gym but have everything to do with their ability to follow through with their program to their ultimate goal.

Here are the most common factors that keep women from achieving their dream body even when given access to a proper nutrition and fitness program and the support of a coach: mindless night time snacking, unchecked stress levels, living in a constant state of hurry, an inability to see themselves as the hot, fit person they are becoming, disconnection with their body as evidenced by not being able to recall what and when they ate, exercised or slept, not believing they are worth the time it takes to create the body they desire.

Beauty rituals such as bathing, skin care, applying makeup, shaving, waxing, styling hair or manicures and pedicures can help with slowing down a rushed mind and becoming connected with what you are doing (or not doing) to your body. When a woman looks good, she feels good, and consequently will have the level of awareness and confidence necessary to consistently follow through with the proper fitness and nutrition steps needed to achieve her goal. A few minutes spent in the morning applying moisturizer and makeup can set the tone for better self care for the rest of the day. Night time beauty rituals such as bathing, hair washing, or skin routines can help with unwinding from a stressful day without snacking on unsupportive food. So ladies, while you are lifting weights to shape the body you want, don’t forget to lift a brush, a mascara wand, and whatever else helps you look and feel your best. You are worth it!

Slow Down for Faster Results

Want Faster Results?... Slow Down!

You want to lose fat and see muscle definition and you want it done yesterday right? Well getting faster results requires that you sloooooooow down. This time I'm not talking about the speed at which you lift, press, or do your cardio. I'm talking about slowing down long enough to evaluate what you are doing and to make small, continuous improvements for better results. I have come across many ladies who are frantic for quick results and ready to pull out all of the stops to get them. Maybe you can relate.

Here's the scenario. Suzy sets a fitness goal and deadline and then begins to follow her program - 6 small meals, 3 metabolic strength sessions, 3 cardio interval sessions, daily activity and so on. A few weeks pass and Suzy hops on the scale, pulls out the tape measure, and takes some pictures to assess her progress and..... she doesn't like what she sees. Less weight loss than she had hoped for, only a few fractions of an inch change in measurements and no noticeable difference in the pictures. Suzy is driven and ready to make her goal happen so she starts to wonder what she needs to do to "get this thing going". She contemplates more cardio, lower carbs, two a days and more. No price is too high because she is determined. Does this sound familiar?

I have met many Suzy's in my time. As a matter of fact I was her. If you can relate to Suzy, here's my suggestion for you today....slow down! Track what you are doing in a fitness journal- workouts, meals, sleep, everything. Establish what you consider a reasonable rate of progress and write that down as well (it is a good idea to get your fitness coach to sign off on what is a reaosnable rate of progress for you). Track how your body responds- changes in weight, measurements, body fat pinches, fit of your progress jeans, and visual changes. If your body is not changing at a rate you consider reasonable, look over your journal and identify opportunities to improve your COMPLIANCE WITH YOUR CURRENT PLAN before changing the plan. Each week, improve how well you attack your current plan. If you follow your current plan with 90% compliance or better for 2-4 weeks with slow results, then and only then is it time to tweak your approach. Small, continual changes will produce the best lasting results. Make it a great week!

Things to Look For When You Review Your Fitness Journal

Here are some common opportunites for improvement. There are many more but this list should get you going in the right direction.

1. Meal frequency- Eat every 2-3.5 hours. Don't skip meals.
2. Protein intake- Eat a source of protein every time you eat.
3. Sources of protein- Ensure your protein sources have low to moderate amounts of fat. The general rule is to take the amount of protein per serving and divide it by two. The number you get is the upper limit for the amount of fat per serving that should be in that protein source.
4. Produce intake- Eat a source of produce with each meal.
5. Portion sizes- Ensure you are eating proper portions at each meal (not to small or too large).
6. Water intake- Drink at least half of your body weight in ounces (i.e. 50 ounces or more if you weigh 100 pounds).
7. Sleep Patterns - Get 7-9 hours per night.
8. Workout Frequency - Do 3 strength sessions and 3 interval sessions- no skipped workouts.
9. Starchy Carbohydrate Intake- Ensure you are eating minimally modified sources of carbs at the time of day when you need the most energy and before and after your workouts.

Fat Loss Won...in the Mind

Winning the Battle of Fat Loss in the Battlefield of Your Mind

As you exercise your muscles with rigorous weight training and your heart and lungs with intense cardio intervals, don’t forget to train the muscle that holds the key to your success at achieving your fitness goals – your mind. What you think, believe, and visualize will affect your actions and therefore your outcomes.

Controlling your daily thoughts can fast track your results better than anything else. This week’s mindset challenge: uncover your personal motivation. Why do you want to accomplish your fitness goal? WHY? Knowing the true reason why you are doing what you are doing is the first step in overcoming temptation and inconsistency. Ask yourself why your goal is important. You will know when you have found your true reason because the answer will be emotionally charged and/or something you are passionate about. No emotion or passion in the answer? Then that is not the true answer. Keep digging until you find it. Then think about it daily. Why not make your “why” your password on some of your online accounts. This way you are sure to remind yourself of your reason multiple times a day. How’s that for motivation?

I'll end with a paraphrased quote from Zig Ziglar. People often say that motivation doesn't last but neither does bathing. That's why we do it daily. Motivate yourself daily by reflecting daily on your why and never lose motivation again.

Avoid These Dangers

DANGER AHEAD!

I would love to tell you guys I was smart enough to discover this danger but the truth is I learned it in church and I'm just passing along a very helpful message. Two things that can be very dangerous to your fitness endeavors and in life are two seemingly harmless WORDS.... Can you guess them? They are "try" and "but". When you tell yourself you are going to "try" to make it to class, do your cardio, eat protein and produce every 2-3 hours, it is NOT going to happen. Why would I say this? It is because by using the word "try" you have already given yourself an excuse or an out. Think about it. When someone who is holding you accountable asks you whether or not you did it and you say "no", you then follow up with "I said I was going to try and I did". Basically "try" is the lack of commitment. Either do or don't but please for your sake don't "try".

The second dangerous word is even sneakier and one that I am learning to eliminate as well. That word is "but". In coaching clients, I can't count how many times I've heard, "I know I should be eating X and doing this much cardio BUT (insert excuse or contradiction here)". The word but negates anything that was said before it. It means what I just said isn't what I truly believe, think, feel, or endeavor to do because of whatever I say after the but. Think about it. Have you ever used the word but after any of the following statements? I know I need to keep breathing if I want to live. I know that if I stand in front of a moving bus it will run me over. I'm pretty sure you don't have a "but" to go after those statements so don't use "but" when it comes to talking about achieving your goals.

Keep these two little sneaky words out of your mouth. Do what it takes to meet your goals and watch your level of accomplishment dramatically increase.

Preparation is the Key to Success (With Fat Loss & Life)

What's the difference between someone who "knows what to do" to succeed and someone who does what it takes? I think the answer can be summed up in one word...PREPARATION!

As a fitness trainer who works with ladies looking to lose weight and get in shape, I hear it all the time... "I know what to do, I just have to do it". Wrong! You just have to PREPARE so that you can do what you know. Planning and preparing is the missing link in virtually every failed fitness attempt. So how can you better prepare and what happens when you face a setback (like for instance a failed alarm clock)? Check out this peek into my life this morning and apply the lessons to your own life for more success in fat loss and beyond.

If you had been in my house this morning, you would have gotten quite a laugh. It looked like something out of a comedy movie. I woke up at 5:03am. For most people, that would not have been a problem but since I teach boot camp at 5:30am, that COULD HAVE been a MAJOR problem but it wasn't. I didn't even have to skip breakfast (#1 nutrition violation for busy women).

So how did I manage to arrive to work on time, perfectly groomed, with ironed clothes, and with a breakfast in my belly that supports my fitness and body composition goals? Very simple...by being prepared. Check out my top 5 preparation tips to help you stop with the excuses and succeed with fat loss.

1) Select and iron your clothes the night before AND always have a go to outfit or two that require no ironing just in case you fall asleep without ironing your clothes (oh this one is a bonus - only keep in your closet clothes that fit so you don't have to spend time in the morning doing the routine fashion show). This morning I had to use my go to outfit because when I put AJ to sleep, I put me to sleep too!

2) Prepare your food in advance (at least the day before but a couple of days worth in advance in best) and pack your meals in INDIVIDUAL SIZED, GRAB AND GO TUPPERWARE. You don't have time to scoop out portions of this and that when you are running late. This morning's breakfast was Greek yogurt and an apple (protein and produce as required).

3) Pack your gym and workout bags the night before and put them either in the car or by the door.

4) Shower or take a bath before bed just in case you wake up late.

5) Put your hair in a protective style at night (high ponytail or bun). This will eliminate any lengthy detangling sessions in the morning and may just serve as the next day's hairstyle if you are super tight on time. So you guessed it, with 13 minutes only to get to work, I wore my protective style with a little headband for added pizazz. Here it is... I don't think it was bad at all!



So you see a little extra planning and time management go a long way in sticking to your plan and achieving your goals. It is possible!

Now if I didn't live 3 minutes from work even these tips may not have saved the day but I think you guys get the point.

What tricks do you use (or plan to use) to make sure you stay on your nutrition and workout plan? What's your 'go to' outfit or snack that keeps you on track when things are going haywire? Post your tips in the comments section below.

Top 5 Summer Shape Up Tips

Is your body summer ready? With just 6 weeks until Memorial Day, the official kickoff of summer events, it is time to get serious about looking (and feeling) your best this summer. So if you have ignored my advice all winter and sat on the couch eating your favorite comfort food, it is not too late for you to get summer ready now. I've been getting a few emails lately asking what's the quickest way to get in shape for a wedding, class reunion, etc, so I figured you guys would appreciate some Summer Shape Up Tips on the blog.

Top 5 Summer Shape Up Tips

1. Ditch the adult beverages.
Of course you all know that wine and beer will NOT help you get beach abs(they don't call it a beer belly for no reason) but what about your favorite coffee beverages. As the weather heats up, resist the temptation to grab those frozen lattes and fraps. Stick to non-caloric beverages and decline the ever so clever offer to add "breakfast" with your coffee from your local coffee shop. Since when did desert become breakfast? That offer is great for their bottom line but not so great for your waistline. Come on guys... you are smarter than that! Don't let them cheat you out of your slim summer body.

2. Add a protein shake or two to your meal plan instead of your typical "snacks".
Did you know that your body burns more calories when it digests protein than it does when it digests carbs and fat? It's true. So for an easy way to bump up your protein intake and turbo charge your metabolism, replace a snack or two (not more) a day with a protein shake. Don't just grab any protein powder you can get your hands on. There is a lot of junk out there. I recommend getting your protein from Prograde Nutrition. I am proud to be a partner with this company as they have some of the highest quality products I've used. Get your protein today at: http://greatshapefitclub.getprograde.com/protein-powder.html and try this delicious recipe to get summer ready now.

CONCITA'S SUNRISE SMOOTHIE
2 oz Orange Juice
2 oz Water
1 Scoop Protein Powder
8 frozen strawberries
1/2 cup ice

Add all ingredients to a blender, blend and enjoy.

3. Get moving now.

Did you really think I was going to suggest you could get in shape for the summer WITHOUT EXERCISE? No way! Sure there are plenty of diet programs and "medically supervised programs" that would like you to believe that there shake, pill, or even shot is the answer to your weight loss woes and that all you have to do is buy their product to get in shape but that is just NOT TRUE. Sure you can lose weight with mostly any product out there, but I can make you drop pounds guaranteed in a few seconds too... all I have to do is chop off your arm. Are you in? I didn't think so! The only way to get a trim, tight, body is to MOVE IT! You don't have to dedicate hours to working out. You can get a tight body in as little as 30 minute a day IF you are doing high intensity exercise that challenges your largest muscle groups at the correct intensity. Have no clue how to do this? No problem, show up for my BOOT CAMP SMACK DOWN CHALLENGE WORKOUT on April 17th. In only 30 minutes, you will get one of the best workouts of your life. It's only $15 and all proceeds go to Susan G Komen for the Cure - Dallas County Affiliate. CLICK HERE to email me to reserve your spot and get the details.

4. Get accountable.

You know how it is when you get started on a fitness program. Days 1 and 2 are great. Day 3 is challenging and sometimes you don't make it beyond day 3- especially if there is a dietary slip up or missed workout. Then you spend days 4-6 blowing off your plan and promising to start again NEXT MONDAY. This cycle repeats for a few weeks until you decide that you have "more important" things to focus on than being vain and losing weight and that right now the children, your church group or (fill in any other excuse here- you know them well) really just have you too busy to focus on fitness right now. Yeah right! That's called MAKING EXCUSES AND GIVING UP. So how can you keep going to make sure you get in shape for the summer this time? Get a trainer or a workout partner who will truly hold you accountable to sticking to your plan. Don't pick the friend that would never challenge you on what you said. Pick the person bold enough to call you out when you need it. Don't know anyone like that? CLICK HERE to email me to reserve your spot for a free 2-week boot camp membership starting April 26th. Don't delay. Orientation is April 17th.

5. Do the hard thing.

Don't stick to what you have "always done". Has the thing that you have always done gotten you and kept you in shape? Probably not so stop doing it! You don't need an hour every night to go for a walk or to put in your time on the treadmill to get in shape for the summer. You don't need to carry around a notebook or Iphone and dutifully track every calorie that goes in your mouth to make sure that you are under some MAGIC NUMBER that will get you in shape. Neither one of those things will get you beach ready so stop doing what is comfortable or familiar or even popular. STOP RIGHT NOW!

Instead of doing what everyone else is doing, do 20-30 minute of interval training cardio 3 times per week. Make sure it is hard. For an example, check out this video that I made a few months back when I started my personal "mommy makeover" (I know I'm not in top shape in this video - my son was born just a few weeks prior but you can see I was working darn hard at getting back to top shape - by the way...IT WORKD!). CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CARDIO INTERVAL TRAINING VIDEO.

Do 20 minutes of strength training circuits 3 times per week. For an example of what types of moves you should be doing and the pace at which you should be working, CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF A BOOT CAMP STRENGTH TRAINING CIRCUIT.

Eat 4-6 small meals per day every 2-3 hours and make sure each meal has protein and produce. Don't eat anything that has added sugar and didn't grow out of the ground or have a face and a mother. It's that simple. Not fancy or popular, but it works.

Be sure to post a comment below and let me know what you think about my Top 5 Summer Shape Up Tips. If I get 50 comments, I will post a FREE SUMMER SHAPE UP WORKOUT just for you guys!