Want to get motivated about your fitness? Set new goals!

I’ve been doing Beachbody for 2 years now and it definitely made a tremendous impact on my life, my health and the health of my family. I’ve lost 10 pounds and tons of inches and learned a great many things about fitness, nutrition and myself. I have met a lot of wonderful people and made a lot of friends. But lately I was looking through the progress pictures of the Million Dollar Body winners and the thought occurred to me: I have not made any progress to speak of for a year now. Yes, I ate a healthy balanced diet and exercised regularly. I stayed at the impressive 136 pound mark on the scale and, on most days, fit into size 6 jeans. But these winners went further than that and they looked superb!

What was I missing? When I let myself meditate on the subject the explanation came to me – I achieved my old goal; I achieved it a year ago and since then I have not set a new goal for myself to work towards! I realized that I was not even sure I really wanted or could lose more body fat. I was not sure if I had the energy and a metabolism to achieve that, and was not even sure if I’d look good if I did. Very likely I just used these doubts as an excuse. When I said it all out loud, it was one of those “ah-ha” moments that, unfortunately, do not happen to me often enough. It became clear to me that, hesitation and all, I still wished to look as great as these folks or people in Oxygen magazine, but I was not working toward it. I had a dream, not a goal! Wow!

Admittedly, last year was a turbulent one, with worries about the economy and jobs, but I still was working out, even though it was not clear to me what I was working towards. Of course, retrospective vision is always 20-20, but there is still an important question to consider: had I had a goal, wouldn’t I have done better? I think I would have. Lesson learned.
Right now I am so glad I know where I am and I am glad I know where I want to go. I am grateful for the “ah-ha” moment and what it taught me. And yes - you guessed it - I have a new goal!

Here it is:

I want to be 130 by 8 A.M. on May 14th and I want submit my success story to the Million Dollar Body Game. This is no longer just a nice idea, wishful thinking, or a dream. This is a concrete goal and I am planning to stick to it!
Watch my progress and cheer me on. Or, if you think I am crazy, don’t cheer me on but watch my progress anyway. I am not new to the process but I am new to the goals set in stone, and that makes me exhilarated. I hope it rubs off on you too!

Bring it!

Clean eating diet - is it only for people with tremendous will power?

For someone just starting examining their daily diet a prospect of eating from top two tears of the Mich’s Ladder can look like a daunting task requiring immense will power. Recently I started an on-line clean-eating challenge. One of the participants, a very motivated woman, said : “I can definitely understand why eating from the top 2 tiers(Mich’s Ladder) is working for everyone! I’ve got to say, I have a TON of respect for the will power you people have.“ To which I replied: “It has nothing to do with will power” and I meant it...
In spite of its tremendous health benefits, one cannot switch over to eating clean overnight. The process of cleaning your diet of junk has to be gradual and deliberate. Going “cold turkey” with diet will only make you feel deprived, and all your determination and will power won’t be able to sustain you for a long enough time to achieve any results. So, as with any habit change, you have to give yourself time and not aim for perfection at the start. Gradually find healthy substitutes for the unhealthy daily staples. It can be done by going from BK hamburger to lean chicken patties, from generic white bun to multi-grain one, from eating a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles to eating a cup of yogurt sprinkled with sugar-free all natural multi-grain serial, and enjoying it just as much! Impossible? Believe me, it is very doable for any person who wants to turn their diet around! Here’s why: our taste buds are adaptable! Our body needs basic building blocks: protein, carbs and fats. As long as it gets a reasonable amount of these, it will adjust! Here’s my favorite example: if you are used to drinking whole milk then at first reduced fat or fat free milk will taste watery to you. But give it a few weeks, and the whole milk will taste too rich, while reduced fat milk will be just what doctor ordered (well, mine did, anyway). Finding healthy substitutes will require some creativity on your part, and some things you may not be able to let go completely – so once in a while you can let yourself enjoy a treat – be it an ice-cream cone or a burger or fried onion rings. Let a little steam out and next day back to clean eating again!

To summarize, here are the things you need to do to clean up your daily diet:

- Come up with healthy substitutes for unhealthy food you eat now
- Don’t aim at perfect diet; slip-ups are OK.
- For hard to let go favorites allow a snack once in a while.
- If you fail off the clean-eating due to travel or holiday, get back on track without beating yourself up. Practice makes perfect.
- Remember - you are worth the effort!

Bring it!

What even five figure fitness program cannot do for you

Over the weekend I picked up a free magazine Energy Times which featured Arnold Schwarzeneger look-alike Roland Kickinger. On the cover this Austrian body-builder, actor, certified personal trainer and nutritionist is proudly flexes huge guns while smiling angelically.
I could not help but to be impressed with this guy looks and his portfolio – he can, among other things, sword-fight and dance ballet! But when I read about his personal business – a three week fitness emergence for his clients –that’s when my eyes truly glazed over… His guests stay over in his guest house, work out every day under his supervision and eat 5 super-clean low-carb meals a day prepared by this gentle giant! Understand that it is hot and sticky humid in New York, and I feel a little unmotivated to slave over the stove, and am scraping the bottom of the motivation well for my daily workouts. Let’s face it: I am sweating without moving, so... Oh, how wonderful would it be to have a fitness authority figure prodding me on, telling me what to do and when, so I can just blindly follow the instructions and eat perfect meals put in front of me! It is a day dream I want to hold on to for as long as I can, but wait – how much does this experience cost? The article says vaguely: five figures. I have to strain my overheated brain to process that. “Five figure” means… anywhere from $10, 000 to $99,999! What??? The day dream evaporates. No way can I afford either the time or the money! And what is it that he does that I cannot do myself? I am capable of measuring portions, counting calories and following the recipes, of packing my lunches and snacks, and as far as exercise I have all the instructions I need from the best in fitness business: Tony and Debbie, Chalene and Shaun! I have it all now; I am empowered by knowledge, the method and the system! I don’t need to be rich (and idle) to be in the best shape of my life at any age! All I need to do is follow the program! And that even a fitness and nutrition guru like Roland Kickinger cannot do for me. He says as much himself: ”Ultimately, you have to take action; no one can do this for you. You can take all kinds of supplements, you can pay a trainer a lot of money, but you still have to take responsibility and act. They can only give you a key, but you have to go through the door yourself, on your own.” From his lips and into my ears!

Why I exercise - because I LOVE it!

To people who know me, but do not subscribe to my level of commitment to fitness, I probably seem crazy to exercise as much as I do.
They are probably silently professing all kinds of ills that will come out of it. I know my parents periodically do, because they tell me so, being the old school they are. I always try to win people over to my "side", never sparing any time when it comes to explaining why I eat or exercise the way I do. But my dedication to exercising is simple to explain: I love it!
I love it on so many levels, that if I list all the reason, it will be the classic TMI (too much info), so I will limit myself to only a few:

1) I love to exercise because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.

No matter what life throws at me that day, I feel that I've done something good, that I've put the effort and was successful at it. I don't need to do anything special to feel this way. Just do the best I can, and I feel well-prepared for whatever challenges may comes my way that day because I started it right.

2) I love to exercise because I feel energized.

I am not on fire every day. On days when I don't feel especially energetic, I nevertheless feel great after completing the routine. Surprisingly the energy picks up after that!

3) I love to exercise because it gives me confidence.

Amazingly, as the level of physical fitness increases, the level of confidence does as well. It gets funny sometimes - I can be watching an adventure movie where a hero/heroine are running away from bad guys, or holding on to the rope for their life, I catch myself thinking - I guess I could do it to, now that I am strong!

4) I love to exercise because I like the way my food taste after workout.

I don't know the science behind it, but after a workout everything taste better. I am hungry, but in a different way. It is not a boredom-induced or stress-induced hunger. It is as if my muscle tell me: we expanded a lot of energy, you better feed us something good!

5) I love to exercise because I sleep better when I do!

This is very obvious but is still worth listing. I have trouble falling and staying asleep. But if I put the mileage and the reps in, no matter how stressful my day was the physical exhaustion wins over all the distractions of the day and I fall into a blissful slumber. There is nothing better!

I could definitely go on listing other reasons why I like exercising, but I feel I already made my case to prove that there is merit in it. Theoretically we all know that exercise is good for us, but I am here to state that it also feels good. Try it, you are going to love it!

Bring it!

You got to be in it to win it!

Happy mothers’ day, dear people!
This morning my husband and I treated ourselves to a brunch in a restaurant. We were sitting in a warm sunny spot in the outdoor space, basking in the glory of the day and taking stock of the good things in our lives. The most important thing for both of us was that we’re both healthy and we’re committed to staying that way. We are making an effort to eat healthy food and maintain a good exercise routine. I exercise 4 to 6 times a week, mixing cardio, strength and flexibility training. I am constantly refining my diet and exercise, tweaking little things, shaking things up to keep myself excited about it. I am always trying to learn new things from the health experts and coaches who I admire and follow. Joe is not quite there yet, but he runs at least 2 -3 times a week and does stretching routine daily and really enjoys all of it. I am hoping that one day soon we will be able to exercise together - it will be so much fun to challenge each other. Overall, we are in the good place health-wise and I hope it will only improve from here onwards.
It wasn’t always that way. When Joe and I married more than 10 years ago, we put two different routines together and the sum was not equal to its part, not in a good way, anyway, so I started gaining weight, was not feeling good and was not happy about it. But I was not about to give up. For years I’ve tried different things; when one thing failed, I tried another. Finally I’ve found Beachbody and understood what my body needs to stay fit and healthy. The sense of newly acquired control was incredible, and there was no turning back. I cannot imagine where I would be now, had I not tried to improve my lifestyle. I am truly proud of the progress I’ve made and am looking forward to taking my fitness to the next level.
What is the point of my story? Real simple: if I can do it, you can do it too. But you have to try. You and only you can do it! As the old adage goes: you got to be in it to win it!
Bring it!

Marry Your Best Self

I am reading the book Optimal Thinking – How to Be Your Best Self by Rosalene Glickman.
Let me tell you, this is not an easy read! Optimal (not positive, which often becomes wishful) thinking is a lot of work. I am reading and re-reading the whole chapters…The book encourages a close and hard reexamination of all areas of one’s life, and it is painful… There are some areas of my life that are far from perfect and I may not be always ready or willing to admit to it. You can imagine that it drives me nuts. It makes me depressed one moment – hopeful the next. While I am reading it; and my positive voice and my negative voice shout over each other in my head, this brilliant idea just jumps at me:” “Marry Your Best Self”.
Ms Glickman talks about the importance of self-esteem, about visualizing positive self-image she comes up with this amazing exercise.
Here it goes:
“Below is an adaptation of a portion of the sacred marriage vows between husband and wife…
Will you permit your best self to be your internal caretaker, to live together in the estate of inner matrimony? Will you allow your best self to love you, honor you, comfort you, and keep you, in sickness and in health; and be true to you as long as you both shall live?
If you answer yes, please proceed.
I hereby empower my best self to be my internal caretaker to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.
“By accepting yourself unconditionally – regardless of where you are in your journey toward becoming all you can envision – and choosing the wisest path in the present moment, you are maximizing your self-esteem!”
Am I ready to marry my best self? I am, but it won’t happen overnight.

Weight Loss: Stages of change - Action

OK, we are finally coming to the point when we are ready to bit the bullet and spring into action.
You are starting this phase with renewed commitment to weight loss.
You made all the necessary preparations
You know that cheap change won't do - only the hard work!
You know there is no "magic bullet" - you will try to employ all the techniques and processes you've learned about and reach for all the support you can get from friends and family!
You will let go of old coping mechanisms, all the situations the led you to overeating and develop new habit

Even though the success is never guaranteed, utilizing tool at your disposal will help you avoid the usual pitfalls and traps.
When you are dieting, and you are experiencing a "snack attack", try to employ a countering and counterthinking and environment control and reward techniques.
The countering techniques are:

1) Active diversion:

Piano playing, crossword puzzle, knitting, walking, reading, calling a friend on a phone all constitute a good active diversion from eating.
You can come up with a few of your own!

2) Exercise

you know it is good for you and should be a part of your weight loss program in a first place!

3) Relaxation

We are all emotional eaters! Relaxing, putting your mind at ease can eliminate the desire of snacking as it eliminate the reason my we reach out for food when we are not hungry!!!
Relaxation can have other, very desirable, side effects such as increased energy, decreased blood pressure and muscle tension, decreased anxiety, improved sleep, improved concentration and overall health!

4) The counterthinking :

Eliminating self-deprecation thoughts that lead to anxiety by more positive and constructive thoughts. Instead of thinking "Everybody must love me" think "what is the worst can happen if some of my husband's new friends won't take note of me?" Instead of "I hate eating food that don't taste good" think "I like how the thin feels!" You get the drift! The anxiety induced craving should subside when you think that way!

The environment control techniques are:
1) Avoidance
We already talked about avoiding known situations in which your need to overeat is hard to control. You can't be a member of the Baker of the Month contest and be on a hard carb-limiting diet!
2) Cues
You can't avoid the situations in which you overeat forever. Eventually you'll be forced by life in one of those, so you better be prepared. A good prep for trigger inducing situations is to play the scenarios in your mind! Use your imagination to create a event and work out your reactions in advance! This sounds like a child play, but it works!


The reward techniques are:

Whenever you successfully resisted the temptation, give yourself a reward! Give yourself a pep talk for a job well done, take yourself on a shopping trip once you achieved you weight loss milestone! if As easy as it sounds some people have a problem rewarding themselves - you can even save up the money by not eating Three Musketeers every afternoon and give these money to charities, if that feels less selfish to you! Reward yourself by giving to others!The positive reinforcement of good behavior puts you on the road to weight loss for good!

Stages of Change - Preparation

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There is a subtle but a very important stage between contemplation and action the presence or absence of which can really make or break the effort to change. This stage is preparation.
I see a lot people I try to help to lose weight jumping onto a good system without being really prepared for it. Needless to say it leads to delaying the action in the best case, and disappointment in the worst.

Preparation is a lot like contemplation but a lot more forward looking, with focus on the future you.
It involves careful planning, positive self re-evaluation and commitment.

In the preparation stage we start to turn away from the past. Letting go of the activities and circumstances that lead us to overeating, like eating while in an depressed state, changing hobbies - picking up knitting instead of baking, finding new fiends who enjoy exercising and healthy eating.

Also in this stage it is important to insure support of your family.You need to explain to them that you decided to get fit and lose some weight in the process and it will require certain investment of time and resources as well as some changes in the usual routine.

During the preparation stage:

- Take small steps:

Details are important: buy exercise clothes or a set of measuring cups or a small scale for your kitchen, or any other logistics that you need for the weight loos program you selected. There is an excitement in little steps like this that build up for the big day! Speaking of date...

- Set a date.

Once you feel ready - set a date within a month, not longer so that your excitement does not wear out.
Once you set the date - stick to it - no excuses!


- Go public:

Announce your decision to lose weight to people in your daily life. That includes work, and people outside your family. That will helps you stay accountable and won't keep your colleagues and friends guessing.

- Treat your change as a major event:

Yes, it is as if you had an appointment for a serious operation. It is that important and will require all the emotional energy you can master!

- Create your own plan of action:

You can borrow other people plans but you must adapt it for yourself. Learn from other people plans of actions but don't follow them blindly. If the program requires you to workout on empty stomach and you are not a morning person, come up with a plan on doing the afternoon workout that will allow you to comply with the recommendation. If you are following a diet plan from a book but are vegetation, make appropriate substitutes. If the program call for a 2 day fast and you don't like to fast - find out if fast is mandatory!

- Commit to your plan!

Commitment is a "willingness to act, but also a belief in your ability to change, which in turn reinforces your will."* You evaluated your problem, worked through pros and cons of losing weight and honestly believe that your life will be enhanced by losing weight! Keeping in mind all of the above, you are ready for action!

Stages of Change - Contemplation

Transition from denial to contemplation stage of the change happens quietly, but once it happens you find yourself listening to people that offer you their advice for losing weight. You don’t switch the channel if the commercial is about some piece of exercise equipment; you find yourself picking a copy of Fitness magazine in the hair salon and actually reading it with interest!

This is an important stage to educate yourself about your weight loss, and design a strategy.
Things to beware in that stage:

- Avoid wishful thinking: wishing you could achieve your weight and fitness goal without having to change.
We all wish for a diet pill that would allow us sleep in and eat from sunrise to sunset and be in ideal shape. There is not such diet, so stop day dreaming and get to it!

- Don’t jump into action:
The rush to act may turn against you. You need to do a certain amount of prep before you are ready. Starting a diet without really committing to change may lead to a conclusion that "dieting is really not for me". Keep in mind: you cannot successfully diet and still be on your baking recipe circle or your bacon tasting club. Prepare a ground for yourself: insure support of your family, clean up your house of junk food and insure support of people who are successful at getting their diet under control.

- Don’t get into analysis paralysis. This is another extreme: trying to acquire a perfect understanding of you weight problem and perfect solution!
Some people take forever to learn everything there is to learn about the weight loss and can't commit to any program while waiting for a in depth understanding of the issue. While theoretical knowledge about various diets is good, you will not know what work for you until you try! So, get your feet wet, already!

- Don’t wait for magic moment to start the weight loss program: while some circumstances are less then ideal, like starting a new job, moving to another city, starting a new relationship, when you are handling way too much on your plate, there isn't a perfect moment to start a new regiment, so once you got your plan together - go for it!

The sugar fix – more than a weight problem!

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So, yeah, if the diet high in fructose was only affecting the expanding waist lines, that would be half as bad.
But the weight problem leads to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, kidney and liver disease, and metabolic syndrome which is a cluster of all health problems mentioned above.

How does fructose cause this terrible damage?

Apparently, high fructose has sneaky habits.
High fructose does not satisfy your appetite. Dr Johnson explains: ”When you eat most types of sugar, your body responds by producing appetite hormones, which signal your brain that your body has consumed enough food to meet its energy needs. As this occurs, the feelings of hunger subside. But unlike other sugars, fructose escapes the attention of appetite hormones. Because of this phenomenon, your brain never gets the message that your body has consumed a load of calories. “
No wonder I felt hungrier after eating McD than I was before (It was a looooooooooooooong time ago, but I remember being puzzled by that and avoiding McDs as a plague!)

What’s more – high-fructose foods may interfere with the signaling system that controls your appetite for all foods. “Chronic consumption of sugary foods seems to promote biochemical changes that prevent the brain from receiving messages from appetite hormones – even when you are not consuming fructose”!

Studies show that fructose is not metabolized in the same way as other sugars, and because of that causes rapid weight gain. Once conditioned this way, it may very well sabotage the weight-loss effort, because the body becomes ultra-sensitive to even small amounts of high fructose and resists weight loss!

I am convinced more than ever that the clean diet is the way to go - all the more reason to stay away from the highly processed foods and eat foods from the top of Michi’s ladder!

Bring it in the kitchen, people!

My ultimate exercise motivation

My paternal grand mother is my ultimate exercise reason. At the age of 70 she decided not to get up from her bed reasoning it would extend her years on this Earth. During my childhood and youth my grandmother, my parents and I were sharing a small 2 bedroom apartment. I don’t have to tell you how wrong that decision was for her, and how it affected the life of our family, but the direct impact on me was the decision not to be like that as much as possible for as long as possible.

The longer I live, the more this decision is being reinforced by my personal experiences, common knowledge and the new scientific discoveries.

I read the brilliant and incredibly optimistic book by a great doctor and author Sherwin B. Nuland: the Art of Aging. The author, himself in his 70es, gives an honest and encouraging view on aging with grace and wisdom. He puts a great stress on the importance of exercise. The cornerstone principle of being physically (and mentally) fit is this: you don’t use it, you lose it!

Yes, it is true says Dr Nuland that we all are given different set DNAs and that drives a lot of how we age, but all else being equal, the well oiled mechanism will last longer then the neglected one.

While explaining the complex changes that happen in the aging body, he stresses the importance of vigorous exercise as means for slowing the aging process.

Exercise improves:
1) the heart muscle: ”A heart that has been benefited by a consistent schedule of vigorous exertion can respond to stress like a heart several decades younger, not only by its added ability to beat more forcefully and faster, but also by the capacity of its muscle cells to take up the required supplemental supply of oxygen from the blood.”
(From the personal experience, I used to have a heart murmur since birth, but not even a sonogram shows it now)
2) the cardio-vascular system - by improving” the ability of the larger arteries to adapt to the heightened blood flow required by exertion, and it increases the sensitivity of certain pressure monitoring structures”
3) the appearance: ”Planned vigorous exercise is a far better anti-aging treatment then all the elixirs, creams, lotions, potions, and cosmetic surgery in the world”
4) lessens bone loss: “The more stress put on the bone by the forces of the muscle attached to it, the more its’ cells respond by doing all they can to maintain and even add to bone mass and strength, including increasing the absorption of calcium from the bloodstream. Just as sedentary life encourages the loss of bone, a vigorously active life encourages increase in bone density”

These few excerpts from Dr Nuland’s book alone should convince you that exercise is invaluable in slowing down aging and assuring your version of the 60es, 70 and beyond are a far more optimistic one then the stereotype. Dr Nuland revives a concept stated by Oliver Wendell Holmes more than 150 year ago: “Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing”. Or, as we in BeachBody land say “Bring it!”

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Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Yale University School of Medicine and a Fellow at Yale's Institute for Social and Policy Studies. He is the author of nine books, including Doctors: The Biography of Medicine, The Wisdom of the Body, The Mysteries Within, Lost in America: A Journey with My Father, and The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignác Semmelweis. His book How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter won the National Book Award and spent thirty-four weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
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