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Back towards the beginning of this year and end of last year we posted several times about the importance of having goals and working to achieve them. Well, we’re almost done with the first quarter of the year and its probably time to check with your original goals to see how you’ve done so far!

Are you on track? Have you accomplished or surpassed what you set out to do already? If so, good job! Your work is to be commended and you should feel rather proud of yourself!

Or are you a little behind and not quite on track to where you’d like to be? If so, then now is a great time to readjust your goals and start to move forward again. Don’t get discouraged, just pick yourself up and start moving towards your goals again. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that 2007 is already ruined and you’ll take some time off and restart in a couple months. Start up again ASAP and get back on track. You still have plenty of time to accomplish some great things this year!

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Have you ever stood in front of the mirror and looked at your self but not been happy with what you saw in the reflection? I think that all of us have done this at one time or another. The sad thing is that unless we change the way that we see ourselves, we’re never going to change! Its like the age old truth that the person that thinks the most about being sick is always sick. The people that talk the most about aches and pains always seem to have aches and pains. The person that talks the most about being ugly seems to be that way because they see themselves that way! So, if you really want to see a change in the way you look you have to start to change the way you see yourself! Its time to visualize what you want to be, not where what you are.

I heard a statement the other day that really rang true with this concept. The idea is that if you look at yourself and judge yourself the way you are today you’re really just looking at what you ‘were’, and so you’ll always be stuck there. What you are today is a culmination of the past! So if you want to change your future, stop looking at the past (or in other words where you are today). Instead, start to visualize what you want to be and you’ll actually start to become that.

So next time you stand in front of the mirror take a good look at yourself. Then close your eyes and get a picture in your mind of what you want to look like. Do this on a daily basis and really feel and picture what you want to look like. Don’t make it just a mundane routine, really get into it. This will help you to stay motivated and also help you to accomplish your goals even faster because you’re involving your mind in changing your body. There is a really correlation between the mind and body. If you really want to achieve lifetime fitness you have to start including your whole body in the process.

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Think about this: If you’re really trying to improve your body in some degree, you are a body builder. Now, before you start thinking about someone that’s all loaded up on steroids, that’s not what we’re talking about. Just like a person that is in construction doesn’t necessarily build the same type of building all the time, a person that is working on their body isn’t necessarily the same as what you would think of when you picture a ‘body builder’ in your head, but you could still consider yourself to be one. And that is not a bad thing!

The reason I believe its better to consider yourself a body builder rather than a dieter is the overall goal. Dieting is focused on just one aspect of having a healthy, well developed body. But, if you consider yourself some type of body builder you’re looking at the big picture. Unless you’re looking at building a better body as one whole project, you’re not getting the whole picture. Yes, there are phases that you’ll go through like bulking a cutting, but these are all parts of the whole plan.

So look at the whole picture and don’t be afraid to think of yourself as a body builder, even if you don’t tell it to anyone but yourself.

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Its funny how we all will start a new workout or weight loss program with a lot of excitement and high expectations, but then after about a month or so a lot of people will be back to their same old routine. So what happened? Where did they lose the motivation? There isn’t a universal answer to that question, but you have to find a way to keep yourself going. Here are a couple of ideas:

- Take a “before” picture and look at it constantly. The whole point of doing this is to motivate yourself to change the way you are. Keep reminding yourself that you don’t want to stay this way and that you’ll do what it takes to change.

- Have pictures of “role models”. This helps you to keep your goal in mind. Go find a picture of someone that has your same body type and has a body that you think you could believably achieve and look at it constantly as well.

- Watch the health news. this one may sound a little weird, but its a really good idea to become conscious of why you might need to make some changes. If you keep yourself up to date on the growing concerns out there associated with obesity and take a “I won’t be part of the problem” attitude, it can really be motivating.

- Have a support group. Its very important to take note of who you hang out with or who is in your social circle. Make sure that you are around people that support what you’re doing. Eventually you might get to the point where you honestly don’t care what others think and you really are just doing it for yourself, but at the beginning your motivation is very fragile. Protect it and be careful who you share it with.

While this is not an all encompassing list, we hope that it will at least help you to maintain a high level of motivation for a longer period of time. A lot of what you will achieve in your goals will be determined by your attitude towards what you’re doing.

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Over the last few weeks in preparation for 2007 we’ve been trying to give you some tips and hints on how to prepare yourself for the new year and set some goals to continue to strive for lifetime fitness. And really, thinking of your fitness as a lifetime thing is what you really need to consider when looking at your health. Too many people out there go from one diet to another, or one workout to another, hoping for the next new trend to finally be the one that works. The problem here is that you have to make complete lifestyle changes in order to truly achieve lifetime fitness! A 12-week mentality won’t cut it!

Now, setting goals in 12-week increments isn’t a bad thing as long as you understand that they are a means, not an end. If all you think about is that in 12 weeks or some other relatively short time frame all your life problems will be gone, you’re kidding yourself. Instead, look at the first 12 weeks or so as a spring board to creating some new habits. After that, keep on going and strengthen those new habits! 12 weeks is a short term goal. Make sure to set some long-term goals as well. 3, 6, 12 month goals should be standard, and right around the turning of the new year is a great time to plan for the coming year.

Another reason that its good to break up your goals in this type of fashion is that at different parts of the year you may have different goals. For example, perhaps for the first 3 months you want to focus on workouts and nutrition to gain muscle, but at about month 4 you want to start cutting up for the summer. Plan these sorts of things into your overall goals as well.

We’ve posted about goals and resolutions a lot this month, and the reason for that is that without them you’re just not going to hit the mark. That’s because without a goal you don’t have a mark to aim for! So with all the parties and fun this week, be sure to set aside some time to really decide what you want to achieve in 2007.

Happy New Year!

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Just like having a plan for working out, you should also make sure you have a plan for your nutrition goals as well. In case you missed the post about having a plan for your workout, you can access it here: Having a Plan — Workouts.

So, when it comes to nutrition goals, what should you consider? Well, very similar to our goals for working out, you need to first decide what you’re trying to achieve. First of all, if you’re trying to gain weight you need to be sure that you’re eating more calories than you burn each day. Or, if your goal is to lose weight, then you need to do the opposite. Here’s a great tool for getting a pretty good idea of how many calories you are really consuming each day: www.fitday.com. This is a very easy to use tool so you can get a good idea of where your calorie intake really is. Then, you can also use the standard RMR calculation to see how many calories you’re currently burning on a basic level and see how many calories you should be consuming based on your goals.

So to recap, here’s the basics:
To gain weight, eat more than you burn each day.
To lose weight, eat less than you burn each day.

The purpose of this post is not to give you detailed recommendations on what you’re intake of calories should consist of. We’ll probably cover that more in detail in a later post. But, here are some standard recommendation to get you started: a standard recommendation is 40% Protein, 40% Carbs, and 20% Fat. You should also be eating around 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight.

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We’ve all heard this much overused statement: “If you fail to plan you plan to fail.” One of the funny things of life is that the more we hear something the more we tend to not realize how significant it really is. So, let’s take a quick look at this particular phrase and how it applies to reaching our fitness goals. Specifically, let’s take a look at having a plan for working out in the gym.

The thing to realize is that most of us just don’t know ourselves well enough to go to the gym without a plan. Once you’ve been working out and having success in the gym for several years, then you might be able to just go to the gym and know yourself well enough to have a good workout without a set plan. But even then, your overall achievements are likely to not be as much unless you have a plan.

So how do we come up with a plan for our workouts? First of all, you need to set a goal for what you want to achieve. Then you need to plan accordingly. For example, if your goal is size and strength, then you need to focus on the more basic, multi-jointed movements that build size and strength. This would include exercises like the bench press, squat, deadlift, chinups, and rows. Or, if you’re going through some sort of a cutting phase, then you should also be sure to incorporate some isolation exercises like flyes.

The important thing is to have a plan, and then stick to that plan! Just ask guys like Tom Venuto, Anthony Ellis, or Bill Phillips. They’ll all tell you that you need to set some goals for what you want to achieve, set a plan, and then execute that plan. Don’t make the mistake of considering yourself to be better than that. These guys stick to their plans, and look what they’ve achieved.

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We have touched on this recently in another post, but since the new year is a mere 20 days away, we thought that now would be a good time to revisit the idea of setting your goals for 2007 now instead of waiting until New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to get ready to hit 2007 running:

1- Where am I at right now?

Get a good idea of what your current condition is. You could do this through taking measurements, taking pictures, or anything else to give you a good indication of where you are in your lifetime fitness goals right now.

2- Where do I want to be 3, 6, 9, and 12 months from now?

Get an idea of where you want to be. Find some pictures of people that represent the body you would want to have. (NOTE — Its a good idea if you’re going to do this to also check and see if that person is actually the same body type as you also. For example, if you are a 6′4″ Ectomorph, a 5′1″ Mesomorph might not be the absolute best role model for you.)

3- How am I going to get there?

It’s one thing to have a goal, it’s another thing to have a plan to reach that goal. What days will you be able to work out? Are you going to follow a particular plan? And so forth. Its also important at this point that you have a good understanding of what your main goal is: to gain muscle, or to lose weight. Then, make a plan and get ready to execute it.

These are just a few ideas to help you get ready for the New Year. Let’s all work together to make 2007 the year that more people actually achieve their fitness goals. We truly believe that one of the only ways that this is going to happen is by preparation. If you don’t start getting ready for 2007 now, chances are that March will roll around and you’ll be in the same shape or worse than you are now simply because you did not prepare.

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It seems that most of the time when people talk about doing a cardio workout, they refer to it more as a necessary evil than as something that they really enjoy. With how monotonous cardio workouts can be, this really isn’t too surprising. Think about it: unless you are outdoors doing what might be considered “natural cardio” (running, biking, etc. without a machine) you are mainly just conforming to the movement of a machine to get your heart rate up. The scenery doesn’t even change except for the people that are walking in front of your machine. Sometimes that might be good scenery and sometimes it might not be…

So how do we make our cardio workouts more enjoyable? The first thing is that you have to decide that it can be enjoyable. Let’s face it, people dread doing things they don’t enjoy. A great example of this is the dentist. Because most of the time it is not an enjoyable experience to go to the dentist, most people dread it. It becomes another one of those necessary evils that we have to do to maintain good health. Now, I don’t think that its fair to compare cardio with going to the dentist, but it seems that to some people it is that un-enjoyable. So once you’ve decided that it can be enjoyable, here are a few things you can do:

1- Read a magazine or book while doing cardio.

Granted, this is easiest to do if you are on a stationary or recumbent bike. It’s probably best to read books and magazines about fitness and health, keeping your mind focused on what you’re really trying to do. While other books and magazines are great to read, they may not be the best to keep yourself mentally in the game when doing your cardio workout.

2- Watch a favorite action movie

Chick flicks, slow dramas, and other slow paced movies are probably not the best to watch during your workout. You want to keep a fast pace for your workout, so don’t slow it down by what you’re watching visually. Watch the type of movie that motivates you to want to get in shape.

3- Listen to upbeat music

Music can have a very powerful effect on you. Have you noticed that when you listen to upbeat music, you feel more upbeat; when you listen to angry music, you feel a little more on edge; basically music can greatly affect your mood. So if you’re planning on listening to music while your workout, make sure it is upbeat and positive.

4- Play some type of racing video game

Again, this really only works when you’re on a stationary or recumbent bike, but why not do all you can to make your body think that you really are in some type of a race? Great way to get your heart beat up. This could be done with either a hand-held gaming device or on a full console if you’re working out at home.

One thing to be careful of with any of these methods it to make sure that they help you and don’t distract you. Personally, I’ve found that my pace almost always slows down when I’m just “watching TV” while doing my cardio workout. But if its a movie that motivates me, then I tend to keep my pace up to par. Experiment with different ideas and find out what works best for you.

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How important is focus when you’re working out? We believe it is crucial to your success, whether you are working on losing weight or just trying to gain muscle. There are a lot of different terms that people use for extreme focus, but we’ll use the concept of being in the “Zone” today.

So how do you get into the “Zone”? This will be different for each individual person. One thing that is very effective it to somehow drown out all of the other noise around you in the gym. Get an inexpensive walkman or MP3 player and listen to music that gets you pumped. There are a few reasons why this simple method is effective for getting into the “Zone”. First of all, have you ever been working out, and then all of a sudden a song you just can’t stand starts to play over the gym radio? Tune it out and listen to something you like! Another reason is that some people find that they are easily distracted by other conversations, grunts, and other gym noises around them. Again, let’s drown those out with something that gets you motivated and moving.

Other things that you can do to get in the “Zone” are meditation, working out alone (if that suits you), and other general attitude concepts that we don’t have time to go into in this post. In my personal opinion, music has always been the most powerful way to help me get into the “Zone” where I can really focus in on the intensity of my workouts.

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