You get married. Have a baby. Move across the world. Start going to night school so you can get a degree. All of these are life-changing events that make you a different person. But did you know your life can change significantly just by spending some time on strength training?
That’s right—if you’re willing to commit to strength training, your life will change significantly in seven ways. Here they are.
Change #1: Toned
This one’s obvious for anyone who has ever stepped inside a gym. When you add strength training to your routine, your body shapes up quickly. Working with me, you can determine an appropriate strength-training regimen that will give your body the look you desire. When you look better, you feel better and more confident. But lifting weights isn’t just about looking good…
Change #2: Health Risks Drop
Want to reduce your worry factor significantly? Then start lifting weights. When you do, you’ll find your body has better defense against the common cold and other everyday illnesses. But that’s not all. By lifting weights and staying healthy, you’ll be better able to sidestep countless diseases that plague so many—from diabetes and cancer to heart disease and stroke.
Change #3: You’ll Go Longer
Ever just want to crash and burn after a hard day at work? Wish you had the stamina to play a game of kickball with your kids on the weekends? Lifting weights will help you improve your stamina so you can do just that. Once you’ve lifted weights for a while, your muscles grow stronger and you learn how to power through even when you’re feeling a bit worn out. Going longer, however, isn’t reserved for the athletic field.
Change #4: Sex Improves
Lifting weights may not transform you into some sort of sexual maniac, but it will do lots of good things for your body that in turn translates to good things for your sexual abilities. One way strength training does this is by improving blood flow throughout your body, which is important for sexual function. On top of blood flow, you will feel better about your body and become less likely to struggle with sexual dysfunction.
Change #5: You Can Focus
Meetings aren’t the most exciting events in the world. They drone on for hours, and your involvement does little to help those you’re meeting with find solutions. Until you start lifting weights. Suddenly, your brain is getting the blood flow necessary for optimal function and your brain even grows new cells. Once your most important muscle kicks into overdrive, you’re ready to be alert and thoughtful.
Change #6: You’ll Smile More
Life is not easy. And when it comes at you full force, the stress can be too much. When this happens, you may find yourself spiraling into a bout of sadness or even depression. Lift weights regularly, however, and you’ll experience something the prescription-producing world doesn’t want you to know. Lifting weights gives your body what it needs to fend off depression. And you don’t need a doctor’s appointment for a weight-lifting session.
Change #7: You Live in the Now
It is good to plan and know what you’re doing with your life. However, if you spend all your life worried about what you’re going to do with yourself when you retire in 23 years, you’re missing out on something very important: the here and now. When you lift weights, you’re forced to focus on the task at hand. Otherwise, you’ll never get that final rep in. By incorporating strength training, your life is changed for the better, because you finally learn to live in the moment, a skill that translates to increased life satisfaction.
Sound good to you? Give me a call or shoot me an email today to get started on a fitness routine that’s custom tailored to your needs.
Most people say they want to be fit, and yet only a very small percentage actually are fit. Why is this? Because they are doing the WRONG THINGS!
Here are 5 examples to get you started on your fitness journey…
#1: DO THIS: Exercise DailyThe truly fit among us choose to hit the gym instead of getting extra sleep, watching TV or doing whatever else it is that you’d rather be doing. Exercise is a daily habit that simply becomes a way of life, rather than a task that’s begrudgingly undertaken on occasion. Incorporate challenging exercise until – gasp – you begin to enjoy and look forward to it!
NOT THIS: Forget Exercise
Your focus is to spend your spare time being as relaxed as possible. This means plenty of kicking back on the couch. The less that you use your muscles, the more aches, pains and mobility limitations you’ll experience. Oh, and if you’re consuming more calories than your natural metabolism burns then you’ll steadily gain weight.
#2: DO THIS: Eat Clean – All The Time
Choose your meals based on nutrition rather than taste and desire. This means plenty of salads, lettuce wrapped sandwiches and lean protein at most meals. Being fit means making it a habit to limit your intake of simple carbohydrates and get lots of protein and fiber.
NOT THIS: Eat For Taste
Eat whatever sounds and tastes good. Our human palate is naturally drawn to items that are high in sugar, salt and fat so your eat-whatever-diet will naturally be filled with these fattening foods and will be lacking in protein and fiber. You’ll find your weight increases, and your energy levels plummet, accordingly.
#3: DO THIS: No Room For Junk
Truly fit people turn down their favorite junk foods –even when they really, really want it. Treats and indulgences are saved for special occasions, and the fact that it’s Monday or that there’s traffic doesn’t count as a special occasion (nice try though!). Cut out simple sugars and harmful, processed fats out of your diet completely.
NOT THIS: Say YES to junk food. Snacks and meals purchased at convenience stores and fast food restaurants are a staple in your diet. And as I mentioned above, your favorite foods are likely high in sugar, salt and fat. Your indulgent eating is going to raise the number on your scale higher, and higher, in addition to putting you at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and other weight related ailments.
#4: DO THIS: Push Harder
Being fit is a constant progression. You push your body to be stronger, faster and better during each workout. There’s no such thing as simply going through the motions of your routine – instead your focus is to consistently challenge your muscles to do more each day.
NOT THIS: Stay Comfortable
Your goal is to be comfy. This means use as little muscular strength as you can on a daily basis. When you don’t use your muscles they begin to atrophy (shrink!), leaving you with less lean tissue. Since lean tissue raises your metabolism, a drop in lean tissue means you’ll be burning fewer calories at rest than ever before causing fat gain to be automatic.
#5: DO THIS: Control Calories
Forget the unlimited buffet line. Being fit requires that you limit your total calories to within an appropriate range for your size and goals. Remember, even healthy calories can add up to weight gain when you’re not careful, so calorie control becomes a way of life.
NOT THIS: Pile It On
There’s no limit on how much you eat – in fact, more is better. As a result you often feel sluggish from your overloaded digestive system. And your motivation to exercise and turn your Flab Life into a Fit Life gets dimmer and dimmer.
Which choice will you make?
The truth is that both of these lifestyles are hard. Just depends on which hard you’d rather deal with.
The Fit Life’s hard has to do with discipline, motivation and determination. It’s about doing the right thing rather than the easy thing. Most of all, the Fit Life is about constantly striving forward.
The Flab Life’s hard has to do with excess fat, aches, pains and physical limitations. It’s about avoiding doing the hard thing now and ending up with a body that’s just plain hard to live in. Most of all, the Flab Life is about NOT taking action.
Which hard do you choose?
If you’d like the Fit Life then take action now by calling or emailing me today to get started on a fitness program that’s going to be hard. And rewarding. And life changing.
The best kind of hard.
There is one reason why most people haven’t yet reached their goals, and it’s a simple one. It’s something that I’ve struggled in the past, and it just may be the one thing that’s holding you back from your big breakthrough.
That one thing is consistency.
Think about it. The difference that separates a fitness star from a couch potato is the consistency with which the former applies to their diet and exercise routine. That’s it!
Look, I know you can exercise and eat right. You’ve done it before! But a fitness plan only works when you consistently stay with it. You start, stop, start again, take a few days off, then get back on track. This haphazard effort will never lead to a dramatic body transformation!
What if I told you that you’re 5 feet from gold? That if you simply dug in a little deeper, and stuck with the program with consistency, you’d finally achieve the big results that you’ve been hoping for all along.
You are 5 feet from gold; don’t stop now!
The fact is that anyone can stick with a fitness and diet plan for a little while. Anyone can complete a challenge. Anyone can finish a 30-day program. Anyone can put in 2 weeks of solid effort.
It’s those who click into consistency that see the big changes and experience the joy and triumph of real accomplishment. I want this for you.
I know that you see how valuable consistency is, and you want to do it, BUT you get off track time and time again. How do you tap into the consistency you need to make a real improvement in your life? Use these three steps…
See it: Define exactly what it is you want to be consistent on. For example, instead of saying that “I’ll start exercising,” say that, “I’ll do the 5am session on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.” And instead of, “I’ll start eating healthy,” say that, “I’ll eat XX number of calories per day divided into 5 small meals.” The more specific the better!
Keep in mind that you are defining your actions – not your outcome. Don’t use this step to determine what size jeans you want to fit into. That outcome is a byproduct of you consistently doing the actions. Just clearly define the actions that you need to be consistent on.
Feel it: Now that you’ve determined the actions needed, let’s think about that outcome and clearly define it. Be specific! What will you look like? What will that new body feel like? How will your friends and family respond to the new you?
It’s time to get your emotions all tied up in your quest. Daydream about getting to that outcome, feel it, emotionally take ownership of the idea of owning it.
Do it: You’re clear about what you want. You feel invested in getting the results. Now go about the business of taking consistent action toward your goal.
Yes, this sounds simple, and it is simple. Be consistent and you’ll soon strike gold.
Want accountability? I’d love to help you! Give me a call or shoot me an email and let’s get you on track to shed some major fat before summer!
Let’s do this together.