Yes, You CAN Love the Gym!

Look at the image above. What does it make you feel? Some of you look at this image and think “Ugh . . . I have to get to the gym today.” You have negative feelings. Some others look at this image and think the way I do. “AWESOME!!! Nobody in my way! I’m staying all day!!!” I want all of you to feel that positively about the gym. I know you can get there!

Many of you want to get into better shape. I understand this desire. Many of you are trying to get to the gym on a regular basis, but find it difficult. I’ve sure been there. You want to work out. You want to look better and feel better. You know that you need to get to the gym and get to work, but for some reason, you just can’t seem to be consistent. I have been there as well. You can fix this.

Why you currently hate the gym

In order to solve the problem, you must first understand the problem. The reality is simple, you hate going to the gym. You hate it because it’s hard. You hate it because you see the gym as a place where you go to suffer through tortuous work, only to make what seems to be infinitesimal progress. You feel like you are trying to empty the ocean with a teacup. Once again, I understand.

Your goals seem so far away. You go to the gym, thinking about how hard it will be, and how far you have to go, and the work seems oppressively difficult. Your focus is always on the inconvenience, the effort and how impossibly long this journey will be. In addition, you never stop measuring your progress, or the lack thereof. These are the reasons you hate the gym. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Create a new approach to workouts

When something fails to work, over and over again, it might be a good idea to try something different. This works in life, and it works in the gym. A quick note here, the gym is a wonderful microcosm of life. All of human behavior is played out right in front of your eyes at the gym. You’ll see commitment, excuses, failures and successes, all right there. Keep an eye out. You’ll see what I mean.

I bring this up because you will notice that the way people approach, and talk about training, will be evident in their success in their fitness efforts. Excuse makers and those who are more interested in texting, will have less success in creating the physique they are hoping for. Others will be committed and methodical. They will make consistent progress and ultimately reach their goals . . .and maintain the results.

A new approach is needed. If you want to succeed, you will need to look at what you are doing in a new way. If you can make two fundamental changes, you will learn to enjoy this process and you will reach your goals. Are you ready to try these simple changes?

Two simple changes

The first change you MUST make may be simple, but it may not be so easy. Here is where the excuses come into play. You see, what you must do, is change from using the gym as a mere means-to-an-end, and make it a part of your lifestyle. I mention this often in my blogs, videos and book. I do so because it is so important. This is where people say, “I don’t have time. I’m too busy. My life is hectic. I have a life . . .” Well, either you want it, or you don’t. You decide. If you want it, read on.

If you think of exercise as a means-to-an-end, then you'll never stop thinking about how far you have yet to go. If, on the other hand, you treat this process as a lifestyle, then you will simply make going to the gym a part of your work day. It will become simply, what you do each day. You will stop looking at the end goal, and you will begin to focus on getting in a good workout each day.

The second thing you need to do, will be to create a Habit of working out. This is how you will make this new lifestyle work.  Habits, both good and bad, are hard to break. Once you create a habit of going to the gym, you will no longer be going because you “have to”, but rather because you are “compelled” to go. You will, “Have to” go to the gym, but only because you hate NOT going! I know this from experience.

Here’s is how you create the Habit of going to the gym. I did this. I can’t believe how easy this was! I decided to force myself to go to the gym for 1 hour each day, after work. I would go at the same time each day. I would go directly from work without going home. I would stay at the gym for 1 hour. I insisted that I would do this for two weeks, no matter what. This took self-discipline.

After the two weeks were up, I no longer needed self-discipline. I had created a new Habit. From this point forward, the Habit pulled me through. I didn’t miss another day for 11 years! In my early 40’s I was in the best shape of my life! It was easy. I just kept moving forward with my new lifestyle.

You’ll get hooked on working out . . . “I swear!”

You will absolutely get hooked! How do I know? Because I got hooked. Then I started training people and they got hooked! As you begin to see the results, you will get more and more into it. I went from my 1 hour per day to 2 hours per day, Monday through Friday. I also added 1 to 2 hours each Saturday and another hour on most Sundays. Sundays were supposed to be for rest, but I couldn’t help myself! I was hooked!!

Training methods that don’t suck

I see many people working out and hating it. I see trainers making their clients do the kind of training I don’t want to do. Worse yet, I know these methods are not very effective.

Keep coming back to this blog. I will add training methods which will make your workouts more effective and more enjoyable.

Soon, the Gym will be YOUR happy Place!

Click the image to begin your journey!

Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss

Have you ever heard anyone say, “The last five pounds are the hardest to lose?” If you don’t know why that is, I will explain. There is a very important distinction between fat loss and weight loss. Fat loss is the loss, of, well . . .fat. (I know. DUH, right?) But, weight loss could be fat loss or muscle loss, or a combination of the two. This is very important to understand.

It is important to understand this because if you don’t take this seriously, you will seriously undermine your fitness results. Let’s look at dieting to lose weight. What all diets do (don’t let anyone tell you different) is cause you to take in fewer calories. When you take in fewer calories than you burn off, you will lose weight. That’s simple enough, right?

However, simply burning off calories through dieting will cause your body to react. At first, you will be happy. You will get on the scale and smile. “I’m doing it! I’m losing weight!” Your body is burning off fat and you couldn’t be happier. I get it. This is great, for a while. Then, something will change.

Why am I no longer losing weight?

What will happen next will not make you happy. You see, when you take in fewer calories over an extended period of time, your body will take notice. It will make changes. If you continue to eat a low-calorie diet, especially if you are not working out, your body will do two things. First, your body will SLOW DOWN your metabolism. WHAT??? Yep, I said it.

Your body will try to prevent starvation by slowing down your metabolism. This will keep fat stored to be used later for energy. It’s like your body has its own accountant. The accountant will notice that there are fewer assets (calories) coming in, but the same assets are going out.

“We are losing assets daily! Stop the spending and save!” Your metabolism will slow down. You’ll stop losing weight and get discouraged. Now you’ll quit the diet and gain all the weight back before your metabolism can reset to the new calories coming in again. This is the yo-yo effect.

The second thing your body will do, if you continue dieting is, it will start burning off muscle instead of fat! That just seems mean, doesn’t it? But it makes sense. The reason it makes sense, is that muscle burns 40% more calories, at rest, than fat burns. This is your body’s accountant at work again. Your body is trying to preserve the energy stores (fat), for survival.

Sadly, if you continue to lose weight (in the form of muscle) while saving fat, you will be happy looking at the scale, but less happy looking in the mirror. Your appearance will not be what you expected. As your muscle decreases and your fat stores remain, or shrink more slowly, you will not like the proportions you see in the mirror.

There is something you can do!

There are two simple things you can do to combat this problem. First, you should eat small meals all day long. Five or six meals (small, healthy) meals per day will keep you and your body’s accountant satisfied. As long as the body knows that calories are being introduced all the time, it can burn them freely.

The second thing you can do is work out. Live an active and physical lifestyle. You can burn off calories as you continue to eat your small meals all day. You will maintain, and even add to, your calorie-burning muscle mass. This will give you the look you want. Rather than having skinny limbs and a pot-belly, you will have a trim, shapely physique.

In the first paragraph of this blog, I stated that the last 5 pounds were the hardest to lose. That is true, if you try to diet the pounds off. But now you can see, that the less you eat, the more your body tries to hang onto those last five pounds. You also know why.

To lose those last five pounds, eat a low-fat, healthy diet and increase your calorie-burning exercise regimen. Your body will happily conform to your wishes!

Happy training!

Knock-Knock . . . are You There???

You know, life is funny. Most of the time, we need to bust our rear-ends to make any progress toward our goals. Every now and then, however, we get a break. Sometimes, you turn a corner and walk face-first into exactly what you need.

You just turned that corner.

I am offering you that break. If you are like a great majority of people out there who are looking for weight loss, or other fitness answers, well, they are right here. Look, I already did the decades of busting my rear-end, to figure this out. Now that I understand, I want to share what I know with you.

FREE, No money, No catches, No B.S.

Here’s the deal. I made a promise to myself to help as many people as possible for the rest of my life. I know two things for certain. 1. Many, many people want to get fit but don’t know how. 2. I know how. I will give you what I know. It will all be here in these blog posts. I have a YouTube channel as well, but you can find what you need here. I offer my experience for free.

I know. No one does that, right? I must want something. Yes. I do want something. I want you to succeed. It would also be cool to hear from you when you do. I love when people let me know that my methods helped them.

So then, is there anything else? I always want to know what’s in it for the person who tells me what they will give for FREE. After all, FREE doesn’t exist in the real world now, does it? (Not usually)

What am I selling?

Good question. I will give you what you are looking for, for free. What is that? The best, fastest, most efficient and most addicting methods of burning fat and creating any physique you want. I will continue to create blog posts and videos. You can find them here. The great thing about this blog, is that you can leave messages and request posts on the things that matter to you. I will help in any way I can!

As for what I’m selling? If you like what you read here, you can get all the information in one place in my book, “The Ultimate Secret of Fitness for Women”. (Don’t let the name fool you. This is great for anyone, I’m a male and these are the methods I used. I tailored this book for women, because as I taught these methods to others, women had different questions and I wanted to answer those effectively in the book.) There is an image and a link on the sidebar of the PC version of this blog page. The book is available at Amazon in both Kindle and paperback versions. The book may be a good idea if you want more detail and a better understanding of the information in this blog.

What’s the difference between the book and the blog?

In this blog, I will post the kind of content which will help you learn “how” to do different things in fitness, nutrition and weight training. In the book, I explain more of the “whys” and I go into how I learned these things. Some of my methods seem counter-intuitive and require more explanation. (Spoiler alert, I learned EVERYTHING, by trial and error. I proved these methods before sharing them.)

ALso, in the book, I give you not only the training and nutritional methods, but I lay out in detail each of the exercises needed. I create an entire workout plan, including the number of sets, reps, and how to increase weights and why.

In addition, I teach you the best methods of transitioning into these routines to ensure safety, effectiveness and to help make the transition one you can handle and get excited about.

So, what will you do?

If you have fitness goals, the answers you are looking for can most likely be found here. I will share what I can. It is up to you to take advantage of the opportunity being offered to you.

Knock-Knock-Knock. . .

Dieting Is Simple

OK. I get it. No one wants to hear that dieting is simple, but it really is. Now, I said simple, not easy. The truth is this, burn off more calories than you take in and you’ll lose weight. I go into this a bit more in another post on this blog, “DietsSuck”. (They really do.) Today I want to discuss, eating with a purpose.

The problem many of us have, is that we eat for pleasure. I am one of those people. I love all the wrong foods. I don’t have a problem with the sweet stuff. My issue is with fried foods and anything with cheese. I swear, I might eat a deep-fried shoe smothered in melted pepper jack cheese. (Mmm .. . cheesy.)

Food focus

In the post, “Diets Suck”, I explain how to set up a diet and incorporate “cheats” to help you get through. Here I want to create a mindset that will help you make this transition a little easier. So much of life is controlled by focus that I finally realized how powerful this tool can be.

Let me show you. Let’s say you are sitting in a chair. (Like right now, most likely) Now let’s say that you were to sit in that chair for 2 hours. If you were to spend those 2 hours staring at a clock, that would be a long 2 hours. If on the other hand, you were watching a really good movie, the time would go much more quickly. You are focused on the movie. Dieting can be like that.

If you deny yourself all of your favorite foods for good, you will be thinking about your sacrifice 24-7. But, when you schedule two cheats per week into your diet, there will always be a break on the way. You will enjoy your treat, guilt free. This will let you focus on things other than what you have given up, because well, you haven’t given anything up!

Eating with a purpose

During the rest of the week, you should be eating with a purpose. When you think of food, think about what it is doing for you, rather than to you. You should be getting proper exercise in on a daily basis. Tailor your meals to fuel your workouts. The best thing you can do for yourself is keep this simple. Do not do anything extreme. Diets do suck! They suck to suffer through and they suck at helping you accomplish your goals, especially if your goals include being healthy.

Make sure you think about having energy for work and for working out. You don’t want to feel sluggish or tired. Also, you can eat to change your appetite and your metabolism. HA! How do you like them apples! (Sorry Will Hunting. I couldn’t resist.)

Control your appetite and metabolism

Many people don’t realize that they can control and change their appetites and their metabolism. But you can change both! The great thing is, this only requires one simple change. You have heard this before; eat smaller meals, all day long. Now I will tell you how you will benefit greatly from this simple change.

When you diet, and take in fewer and fewer calories, you risk slowing down your metabolism. This is why fad diets leave you to fall into the yo-yo effect. This is when you gain back all of the weight that this silly diet promised you that you would lose for good. Your body feared starvation, so it slowed down the speed at which it burns calories. In this case, less food, will still cause weight-gain.

If, however, you ate smaller meals, spread throughout the day, your body would know that more food is always coming. Even though you are taking in fewer calories each day, your body will still burn the calories without fear of starvation. This will actually speed up your metabolism. In addition, you are eating healthier foods, which will give you more energy. You will also never feel stuffed and bloated, which will also leave you feeling energized after eating.

Lastly, one of the great benefits of eating smaller meals really surprised me. Our stomachs are elastic. If you keep eating bigger and bigger meals, it will take more food to satisfy you because your stomach will stretch. Conversely, if you eat progressively smaller meals, yep, you guessed it, your stomach will shrink!

When I was in college, playing football, I could eat a cheese-steak (a Philly favorite) and fries with a large soda and then ask my roommates if they wanted to order a pizza. I ended up getting fat after I was done with football.

After I graduated, I got into boxing and had to drop 35 lbs. I got to the point where I could only eat ½ of a small turkey sandwich with a glass of water. I didn’t want any more. My stomach had shrunk a great deal. You can do the same thing. Now, as far as choosing my foods, I keep this incredibly simple. Be smart and don’t eat the things you absolutely know you shouldn’t, at least until you are ready for a scheduled cheat. Simply look at the packaging on your food choices and shop with these percentages in mind.

Carbohydrates – 50% (Yes! You need these for energy!!!)

Proteins – 35%

Fats – 15%

Try to stay “around” these numbers. You don’t have to be a slave to them. You shouldn’t need a scale and a calculator to eat lunch. Find a good healthy mix and replace cheeses and rich sauces with tasty spices. Get creative. You may find some really interesting recipes.

Learn to eat with a purpose and you will see great changes!

We All Have the Bodies We Have Chosen

OK. Take a moment to swear and call me names. Got that out of your system? Let me explain. The reason I say that, “We all have the bodies we have chosen”, is simply because, well, it’s true. (One more swear break). I will now make my case.

The choices you make, make a difference

What you do on a consistent basis, will determine the course of your life. In the world of fitness, you control your body, your physique, and for the most-part, your overall health. Now, before we go further, I understand that there are genetic factors, and unavoidable illnesses and injuries which occur. I am addressing the majority of the population who have no serious medical or genetic issues. (No. Being “big-boned” does not qualify. Stop it!)

Your choices are powerful. When I speak to audiences about achieving lofty goals, I always tell them, “Achieving something great does not require you to do great things. Achieving something great is about doing the little things, day-in and day-out, every day, over an extended period of time.

You see, you choose to eat healthy foods each day and avoid the unhealthy foods, or you do not. You choose to exercise each day, or you choose to come home from work and sit on the sofa watching T.V. while eating a bag of fried snacks. You choose to stay active and take responsibility for your fitness, or you choose to make excuses. (As always, “Excuses are nothing more than lies we tell ourselves to give ourselves permission to quit.” I will repeat this until you say it in your sleep!)

All of the choices mentioned above, are what will determine the condition of your body. You know that Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t born looking like his Mr. Olympia self, right? He made choices. He made a commitment, and he decided he was going to be a champion. He did it. It took him years, but he achieved his goals. He trained 5-hours a day while going to college and working full-time in construction. (In case you wanted to say, “Well, I don’t have time to workout all day”.) No excuses.

If you want it, you’ll find a way

There is a saying, “If you want it, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” I love that! It is one of the most accurate things I have ever heard. This makes me think of how we are as children. If you tell a five-year-old to put his toys away and clean his room, he’ll give you a long list of reasons why “I can’t.”

(I said “his” in this story because, well, OK, I meant me.) Anyway, five-year-olds can’t seem to find the capacity to clean their rooms, but try to prevent them from getting to the cookies. Good luck. You think Ocean’s Eleven had skills? I firmly believe that if you wanted to break into Fort Knox, all you’d have to do is tell a five-year-old that there were cookies in there. 10 minutes, tops.

If you want six-pack abs bad enough, you’ll get them. Wishing won’t help. Consistent effort and commitment will. All you need to do is make a commitment. If you DECIDE to create the physique you want, and then make wise choices every day, you can accomplish just about anything.

Sure, there may be much to learn. Maybe you have some injuries or even genetics working against you, so what? I see so many people use these things as an excuse to quit. However, I see just as many people overcome their limitations to surpass even the most genetically gifted people I’ve ever seen.

What choice will you make?

So. Here you are. You have a choice to make. Will you choose to step-up? Will you choose to be uncommon amongst your peers? Will you choose to make a commitment? Will you choose to achieve your goals? Will you choose to live a better, healthier, fuller life? Will you set an example for others to follow? Or, will you order another pizza, sit down and wait for another season of Lost Zombies Dancing on the Thrones of . . . or whatever?

The choice, is yours. It always has been.

If you want to learn more click the image below:

Available in both Kindle and Paperback formats.

In 2019 I Will NOT Let YOU Fail!

After a devastating personal loss in 2016, I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to helping as many people as possible. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to go about this, or what I had to offer. I decided to reflect upon my life, and try to remember the things that hurt me. I focused on the difficulties that life had presented me, and what I learned from these challenges.

I think you’ll find, if you look at your own life, you will realize that you have learned a great deal. You know how to overcome obstacles and get through tough times. For me, reflection lead to a revelation. I have a ton of valuable experiences to share. I struggled to overcome many things in my 54 years. (Many of these challenges were fitness related.) These struggles rewarded me with knowledge and understanding.

Through struggle, I learned how to overcome my obstacles. What is more important, I realized that many others are traveling down the roads I have come to know so well. I know where the hazards can be found. I know how to avoid them. I know what to do when you come across a detour. I know how difficult the journey can be, but I also know the joy of reaching your destination. The question then became, what do I do about it?

I decided to share what I have learned. I have broken this information down into two main areas. 1. Fitness and 2. An overall approach to achieving your goals.

In 2018, I wrote two books, one on each of these subjects. (You will see them in the right margin of the desktop version of this blog.) If you are interested, these books are here for you. They are both available on amazon and each is available in both Kindle and paperback formats.

However, I will continue to share what I have learned, for free, in these blogs and in my YouTube videos.

Blogs:

1. “Phoenix Fit”

2. “You Are Stronger Than You Can Possibly Imagine"

YouTube:

“Phoenix by Wade Motivation”

I am writing this blog post to you today as a promise to help you succeed in your fitness goals in 2019. You can achieve your goals and I will do what I can to help you. I will continue writing these blogs and I will create my videos to help you along your journey. In fact, I am restarting down this road myself.

Click Video Link Below:

Fitness Motivation: You can do anything. Let me show you!

If you truly want to succeed with your fitness goals this year, please check in regularly. Read my blogs and watch my videos. I will share the best ways to create great eating, and training habits which will lead you to success more quickly than you thought possible. It will be a challenge, but once you begin, you will get hooked! Most people do!

Creating these changes may seem difficult, but I will help make this transformation: 1. Successful, 2. Enjoyable! And 3. PERMANENT!

Yes, you can make your fitness gains permanent. This is not a temporary quick-fix. I want to give you the methods to make your life better, healthier and more enjoyable from now on! I don’t want to see you reach your goal and then fall back to square one. I want to help you make real and meaningful change.

One more thing, I can better help you if you let me know what you need. Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions. Help me to serve you better.

If you find this blog helpful, share it with anyone you think may be interested. I am interested in their feedback as well.

Now, let’s attack 2019 and meet all of our goals!!!

When you're ready to get serious, click on the image below:

Available in both Kindle and Paperback formats.

Diets Suck

I wanted to expand on my last blog post, “How to Succeed at Weight Loss & Fitness Pursuits” to help you eat better on a permanent basis. Most people fail at dieting because they start off all wrong. 

If you want to drive to a vacation destination which is 100 miles from your home, and you turn left on the highway when you should’ve turned right, you’re going to have trouble getting there. Dieters do this all the time.

What is this wrong turn? How do people start of incorrectly when they choose to go on a diet? Simple. They choose to go on a diet, which is what I explained in my previous post. The idea that dieting, or working-out is a means-to-an-end is a flawed approach, is examined in that post. The point is, don’t go on a diet, change your daily eating habits permanently. Dieting to reach a goal fails.

This approach fails because it is too difficult, a scam, and/or just too hard.

Creating new eating habits you can live with is easier, more effective, and will last over time. The problem most people have with this approach is, it’s not a quick-fix. There is no “30-Day instant reward” promise. May I just say, “30-Day Diets are pure B.S. You will read this in many of my blogs. (Quick-fix lies really tick me off.)

How do you begin?

As with everything I share, this may sound counter-intuitive. Begin your new eating habits by adding food first. (Hey, you want to succeed right? Stay with me!) Your goal should be to transition completely into a healthy, sustainable diet. This is better than being super-focused on short-term success which will ultimately send you back to square one. That would be awful, right? Read on.

In the beginning, rather than making this transition a negative thing, by making you give up the foods you like most, you will make this a positive thing. For instance, add some steamed vegetables to your diet. Make sure you eat at least 2 portions of healthy, steamed (or raw) vegetables each day. Learn healthy ways to serve the vegetables. Do not add butter or cheese! This defeats the purpose.

Next, add 1 new lean protein source. I use baked, skinless chicken. If you have dietary restrictions, use your favorite, healthy, substitute. Replace any garnishment, i.e. cheeses or rich sauces, with spices. This is the fun, and positive part. You get to delve into new and interesting recipes. Explore and have fun with this. I was surprised to find that simple seasonings, like Creole seasoning, sprinkled on chicken is delicious! I also use salsa and other hot sauces for flavor.

My point is, you will be adding high-quality, tasty and healthy foods to your diet. This will be a positive thing. Remember, this is a lifestyle change, not a quick-fix. Be patient and you will be rewarded.

The change-over

Here’s the interesting part. As you begin to add these new, healthy foods to your diet, you will begin transitioning the unhealthy foods out. This may be subtle at first, but I know from experience, this will happen. Rather than torturing yourself through the denial of everything you want all at one time, you will slowly move from one way of eating to another.

As you see this happening, you will be able to consciously increase the pace at which this transition occurs. You will have more, healthy options now, because you have been adding them a little at a time. You won’t want to spend all day shopping, cooking and eating. Something will have to go. Start with junk food. Then slowly, but methodically, remove more unhealthy foods from your diet.

The secret to sustained success

Now, I want to share with you a great way to make sure you don’t “go off the wagon”. I want you to cheat. Yep, I said it, cheat! The problem with “Diets” is that they are too restrictive. You shouldn’t have to give up all of your favorite foods permanently. That’s too hard. If you try to do this, (How did this work for you in the past?) you will eventually eat something you like, feel bad, then quit the diet, thinking you failed. Let’s not do that.

I have found that, if there is an end in sight, you can get through tough challenges. If you eat right most of the time, but you also get to eat the foods you love, in moderation, you will be much happier and more successful nutritionally. The trouble is, moderation can get out of hand. To combat this problem, I added structure to my moderation.

After slowly transitioning to a healthy diet, I added cheats. I would allow myself two cheats per week. A cheat cannot be a “binge”. It will merely be a food you enjoy, which is not normally a part of your diet. For me, this would be a slice (maybe 2) of pizza, or a burger. I might have a doughnut (or 2), instead. I would only do this twice per week. I would schedule these cheats ahead of time.

In order to maintain consistency, I would schedule one cheat on Wednesday, and one cheat on the weekend. The weekend cheat could come anywhere from Friday afternoon, to Sunday night. The reason for this, was that all my weekends are different and I didn’t know where I might be, or what I might be doing, or who might offer me something delicious.

Using cheats in this way, makes eating a healthy diet easier. You no longer have to give up your favorite foods permanently. There will always be a tasty treat just over the horizon. No more gluttony. No more starving. Now you have a plan to create the eating habits which will lead you to a happier, healthier, and more-fit life!