You are what you think

Every Thursday in June, we ran The Beast — a one-third mile cross-country run with two sets of stairs, 20 walking lunges, 20 push-ups, 20 jumping jacks and a sprint to the finish.



Naturally this exercise tests your cardiovascular system and stamina, but more importantly it’s a battle of mind over matter. Just completing this grueling finisher can be an accomplishment by itself. You have to get over thought that you might not be able to finish. The power of positive thinking can take you a long way toward reaching that goal.

Studies found that negative emotions can weaken people’s immune response to a flu vaccine. A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin shows that activation of brain regions associated with negative emotions appears to make subjects more susceptible to illness.

Take this idea back to boot camp. One member, Alex, says that nearly every exercise we do is his favorite. Pushups followed by a plank crawl. His favorite. Tai kwon do moves. His favorite. His positive thinking helps him get through the workout without getting frustrated and believing that each exercise really is his favorite.



One way you can get a more positive attitude is to take the three Cs approach — commitment, control and challenge.

Make a commitment to treat yourself well, especially with the gift of good health. Praise yourself when you complete something like The Beast. Dream of running it faster. And be enthusiastic about doing it instead of dreading it.

Control your thoughts. Concentrate on things that are important to you like a healthy lifestyle and a fitness routine. When you learn to set goals and priorities for those things most important to you, you accomplish them a lot faster. If losing weight or gaining muscle tone are important to you, making them a priority will help you accomplish that goal.

Enjoy your successes along the way. If you want to lose 40 pounds, it could take six months to a year to accomplish that goal. Celebrate every 10 pounds that you lose. Setting smaller goals along the way will help you reach your big goal.

Finally, challenge yourself to change and improve on a daily basis. On any given day, you have to do your best and don’t let small setbacks get in the way. Maybe you ate a high-fat dinner last night. Move on and keep working toward your goal without beating yourself up over one lousy meal or a bad workout. Every day that you’re in boot camp, give 100 percent to help you reach your goal.



Any way you apply positive thinking to your life makes you a winner whether in boot camp, with your relationships or work. And that means that the next time we run The Beast, it won’t be as intimidating.

Favorite Motivational Quotes from a Las Vegas Personal Trainer

Last week I told you three of my favorite strategies to always staying motivated are reading lots of motivational books, watching inspiring videos and having lots of quotes up around my house.

Anytime you're feeling down and unmotivated, and just need a spark of some inspiration read some of the quotes to pick you up.

These are some of my favorite health and nutrition quotes, fitness quotes, exercise quotes, success quotes, motivation quotes, and determination quotes.

These may be just what you need to get back on track.

"A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools."
~ Spanish Proverb

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
~ Mahatma Gandhi

"The only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions, running down their friends, side-stepping responsibility, and pushing their luck!"

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."
~ Jim Ryun

"Sometimes, it is not good enough to do your best; you have to do what is required."
~ Winston Churchill

"Some succeed because they are destined to, most succeed because they are determined to"
~ Unknown

Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out. ~ Robert Collier

"The only real failure in life is the failure to try." - Author Unknown

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

99% of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.

~George Washington Carver

f you want to be successful you must take 100% responsibility for everything you experience in your life.-Unknown

"Failures don't plan to fail, they fail to plan"

-Harvey Mackay

"How am I to know what I can achieve if I quit?"
~ Jason Bishop

"If it were easy, everyone would be doing it" -Unknown

"We can do anything we want to if we stick with it long enough"

-Helen Keller

"Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can."
~ Unknown

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination."
~ Tommy Lasorda

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
~ Japanese proverb

"No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves."
~ Dwight Eisenhower

"Before you change your thinking, you have to change what goes into your mind."
~ Zig Ziglar

Negativity is a waste of energy.
~ Author Unknown

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.-Robert Collier

Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether or not they feel like it.

Okay, that's it for now...

Put these quotes up around your house to remind yourself to keep going forward. Use them as a reminder to do a little bit every day.

Do me a favor. I'd like to know what your favorite quote is, so go ahead a leave a comment down below with your favorite quote (from this list or not).


Keep working hard!

Tony

Inspirational and Motivational Videos

I get asked this all the time…
“Tony, how do you stay so motivated!?”

Well, I have lots of quotes around my house, read lots of motivational books, and I watch videos like these.



This is one of my favorites. Will speaks the truth. Just get focused, decide what you want and do it.








I hope you feel MOTIVATED and INSPIRED!
Let me know you thoughts…

Reach Your Fitness and Fat Loss Goals Faster

After many failed attempts at trying to get in shape, most new clients come to me thinking that all they have to do is come and do the workouts I tell them to do and then everything will magically fall into place


...but to get results quickly there's a lot more to it than that. While hiring a trainer will definately increase your chances of success, you've got to be serious about your lifestyle choices if you want to get anywere.


To assure your reach your goals you must realize what sacrifices you have to make and take responsibilty for your actions.

Now check out this video...




Now that you know what to do, think long and hard about two or three sacrifices you are going to make that will help you reach your goals and write them somewhere on your goal sheet that you look at everyday.


Show me you're serious by leaving me a comment down below letting me know what sacrifices you're going to make.


Tony

Commitment is Not a Four-letter Word

Here’s the thing about achieving your weight loss and fitness goals — they require commitment. You didn’t gain weight or get out of shape overnight. And you certainly can’t achieve your health and fitness goals by being haphazard in your commitment to eat healthy and work out.






I like to think of the 90 percent level of commitment to get your closer to your goal. If you want to eat healthy, try to do that 90 percent of the time. If you’re eating five meals a day over the course of a week, that means you’re consuming 35 courses in seven days. If you’re trying for 90 percent commitment, that means you can have three or four reward meals every week.

The same goes for strength training and cardio conditioning. If you committed to my boot camp for five mornings a week, that means you’re attending 20 times a month. Over the course of 30 days, you should only miss two classes maximum to achieve your fitness goals. When you are at class, don’t just show up. Only you can push yourself to the next level.

It’s easy to make excuses regarding why you can’t achieve your goals. I know that this level of commitment requires sacrifices, whether it be a time crunch, lack of sleep or giving up your favorite foods. But if you give up on your goals at the first sign of adversity, you are going to have a very difficult time achieving them.

Your goals don’t have to be over the top. For example, I gave two of my current boot camp members a pushup challenge. They had to stop doing pushups on their knees and do 20 full pushups, all the way down and up on their toes. Each was only allowed to do full pushups in boot camp. One was convinced she couldn’t do any. I asked her to do as many as she could, and to her surprise, she did five.

Over the next 30 days, I challenged them to do 20 full pushups every night at home with no time limit. At then end of the 30 days, one did 26, up from 10, and the other did 20, up from five. Both completed this in 60 seconds.

How to stay committed


Write down your goals — If you want to meet your goals, you need to have them in writing. That helps you visualize where you want to be. Come up with three-month, six-month and yearlong goals. Maybe you want to run a mile 30 seconds faster in three months. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds in three months. Whatever your goal is, write it down and share it with me.

Attend boot camp — Every morning, five days a week, I offer boot camp at Sandstone Ridge Park in North Las Vegas. When you can’t make it to class, ask for help. I can give you exercises to do if you’re on the road or have to miss class for another reason. Keep in mind that I will call you if you don’t make it to class to find out why.


Keep a food journal — If you bite it, write it down. You may discover that you eat too many carbohydrates, not enough protein or not enough vegetables, something I’ve discovered in many food journals. A good rule of thumb is to eat a carbohydrate and a protein with every meal to maintain your blood sugar levels and help you curb your urge to overeat. Writing down everything you eat will help you see where you can make changes to your diet to help you achieve your goals.

Most importantly, consider me your partner in crime. I can hold you accountable for reaching your goals.

Goal Setting for Improved Health and Fitness

It remains a fact that those who write their goals have a higher rate of success than those who don't. So if you want to be successful here's what I want you to do.

I want you to write down your top three fitness goals. Then break them down into short-term, mid-term and long-term goals.

Short-term goals are those you wish to accomplish in the next 12 weeks, mid-term in 6 months and long-term will take you a 1 year or more to reach.

Put some thought into this and keep in mind your goals don't have to be an outcome goals, they can be process goals.

Here's some examples of outcome goals: lose 30 pounds by my birthday. Drop 4 dress sizes by Spring Break. Lose 8 inches on waist by Memorial Day.

Examples of process goals: Exercise 3 days a week. Drink 8 glasses of water a day. Eat something healthy every three hours.

While outcome goals are great for your mid and long-term goals keep in mind you need to give them a due date and break them down into smaller daily actions. That's where the process goals are great - list the daily actions you are going to take for the next 12 weeks.

The difference between those who are successful and those who are unsuccessful are the daily actions they take. Those who succeed take daily actions not for a week, or a month or even three months, but daily until the goal is reached.

"You only fail when you quit"

So if you want to lose 20 pounds of fat by your birthday, you better make sure you eat right and exercise daily every day until that day comes.

If this is your long-term goal here's how you can break it down.
Long-term: Lose 20 pounds by Birthday and maintain it through the end of the year.
Mid-term: Lose 10 pounds of fat by the 4th of July

Short-term: Do three strength training workouts per week, 1 HIIT workout per week, and eat 5 meals per day every day.

Do this for all three of your goals and then make three copies of your goal sheet. Keep one by your bedside so you can read it every morning and every night. Keep the second in your car and read it at least once a day as soon as you get in before you start up - not while you're driving :) Keep the third in your pocket or purse and pull it out at least once a day and read it.

Hold Yourself Accountable

The last thing I want you to do is to get a calendar and use it to keep yourself in check. Every day you complete your daily actions give yourself a check mark and everyday you do not give yourself an X. The goal is to fill your calendar with check marks. At the end of the month give yourself some sort of reward for having 90% check marks on your calendar.

These steps are quick and easy and the road to finally reach your fitness goals. Take the time to do it and you'll thank me later.

Leave me a comment below and let me know how your goals are coming along so far.

For more on goal setting check out 14 Strategies to Reach Success

One Thing That Will Help You Get the Body You Want

How many times have you won the lottery?

How many times have you got in the best shape of your life in a few short weeks with little effort.

Try, never and never.

You should know by now that quick fixes don't work. Stop looking for the easy way out. It's time to try a new approach. If you want to get what you haven't got, you have to do what haven't done.

That's worth repeating; If you want to get what you haven't got, you have to do what haven't done.

"You only fail if you quit"

You wanna know how to win the lottery? Here the answer - embrace hard work and take daily actions. It won't come overnight but as long as you keep going you'll eventually get there. If you're doubting me it's because you usually quit too soon. Keep on keeping on!

Here's a secret, those who have the body you want are either the hardest workers in the gym or they have better genetics than you.

Since you can't do anything about your genes you've got to be a hard worker. It's that simple.

"It's not going to be easy, but then again nothing worthwhile ever is"

Make a promise to yourself that from today on you're gonna work hard and take action everyday!

My Goals for 2010

As I promised last week I'd post some of my goals for this year. While I have a lot of goals; some financial, some personal growth, others fitness related here's three I wanted the share with you.

1. Read 30 books this year.

Believe it or not I hated reading in school; seriously all the way up through college. It wasn't until I was done with school that I actually found out what type of books I like. I don't read mysteries or adventures - I have movies for that. I mostly read books on personal growth and of course always health and fitness stuff. Most people stop learning once they're out of school but for me I've learned way more since I finished school and I'm going to continue...

Two of my favorites from last year were - How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie and the Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen.

This year I'm looking forward to reading The power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership by John C. Maxwell
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

While I've never read more than 20 books in a year I wanted to challenge myself.

ACTION PLAN: I've broken this goal down to reading 2-3 books a month and even further to reading 25 pages per day. I think it's important to break down your long-term goal into daily actions like this so you don't find yourself way behind and then giving up all together.

2. Handstand for 20 seconds.

Nothing special here just something I always thought was cool and wanted to do. Somehow it always got put on the back burner. I just started practicing for this and can only hold it for a few seconds at best.

ACTION PLAN: practice for a minimum of 10 minutes twice per week.

3. Improve my flexibility.

I love strength training and the challenge I get from high intensity cardio work, but for some reason I never liked to stretch. I can tell I'm not as flexible as I was 10 years ago and don't want it to get worse. I've been talking about this one for years and finally decided to do something about it.

One of the specific flexibility goals I have is to improve the flexibility in my hips. If you are familiar with yoga there's a pose called pigeon, and I can't do it very well, my goal is to be able to do this pose with proper alignment and be able to breathe deeply while in it. This may not seem like a challenge to you but as tight as my hips are it is a big challenge for me.

ACTION PLAN: take at least one yoga class per week and stretch on my own for 20 minutes twice a week. Once I get past 60 days I'm going to bump up the yoga to twice a week. I just need to make it a habit first. No need to set myself up for failure from the get go.

Well there it is. My goals and action plans to accomplish those goals. I hope this helps you think about your goals for this year and how you going to break them down to daily actions. If you have no action plan then you're just hoping and wishing you'll get there. Make sure to get your plan of action in place.

Leave me a comment below on your thoughts or your personal goals for 2010. If you can do a handstand please share your tips with me, I need them :)

Tony

What Can I Do For You?

I hope you're doing great and that 2010 is off to a great start for you!

This post is a little different.It's a new year. You probably have some health and fitness goals set for yourself.

I want to help you achieve those goals.

So what I want to know from YOU is; what can I do for you?

What do you need more clarification on? What topics should I cover in the next few blog posts?

In the comment box below let me know what you need help with, and what I can
do for you to help you reach your goals for 2010.

Tony

What everybody Ought to Know About Weight Loss

Weight Loss isn't just about dieting and working out. It's also about your support system.

Do you have people in your life that seem to suck the life right out of your dreams? They may be your friends, family members, or co-workers who are supposed to be supportive of you, but whenever you tell them you’re going to do something they get all negative about it.


You’ll hear them say things like, “You can’t do that” or “I tried that and it doesn’t work”.

Sometimes they’ll pressure you to eat doughnuts someone brought into the office when they know you’re trying to eat clean, “Come on, one doughnut won’t hurt”. I call these people energy vampires.





You need to stay away from them and get around positive people who will support you. It’s hard enough to stay disciplined to exercise and eat healthy as it is, you don’t need other people tearing you down to make it even harder. Their negative words can be poisonous to your success. Avoid them when you can.


You need people in your life that will tell you, “Yes, you can do it” and “great job for sticking with it”. They also understand when you pass on the junk food.



Ask yourself who is in your close group of friends? Are they supporters or vampires – sucking the life out of your dreams? You don’t have to stop being friends with vampires just spend less time around them. Often they do this not because they want to see you fail, but because your success makes them feel worse about themselves because they’re doing nothing to better their situation.



Leave me a comment down below about your experience with the vampires or supporters in your life.

Here's a Method that Helps People Achieve Their Fitness Goals

“The only time you fail is when you quit. If you keep trying you will reach success.” - unknown

January is always a fun time to start exercising. People love setting New Year’s Resolutions to lose the fat and get in shape. Keep in mind if you’re looking for a quick fix, you might as well switch your resolution right now. Quick fixes either don’t work or are temporary and even harmful to your body. Understand to be successful you need to be in it for the long haul. Dedicate a minimum of six months, but preferably one year to this goal and don’t give up until you reach it. If you reach it before one year, great…. Then it’s time for maintenance. Besides, what’s the benefit of getting in shape if only to lose it once you get there? Use the New Year’s resolution to kick start your healthy new lifestyle.

Keep in mind obstacles will arise. The key is to ready for them and to overcome them. Don’t abandon ship just because you got sick, your kid’s activities take up too much of your time, or your work schedule changed. Successful people know obstacles will arise and they work around them.

My wife was training for her first marathon last year and was following a six-month training schedule to build up from not running to be able to run 26 miles. Do you think the road was nice and smooth? Heck no, there were days she was sore, but ran anyway; there were days when our daughters soccer schedule got in the way but she made the time to do it anyway. Then she got the flu and missed three weeks of training a month before the run. Did she give up? No, she rested, recovered and continued her training and ran the marathon and finished.

Never let a setback derail you from reaching your goal. Stay focused on what you want and why you want it. Read your goals daily and stay hungry for the prize at the end of the journey. You’ll be so glad you made it through to the end, I promise.

14 Strategies to Reach Success

Are you ready to succeed in your fitness quest? Here's 14 of my favorite strategies to reach success. The key is to do them. You may know about them, but you don't truly know them until you apply them.


1. Set Goals

2. Be specific with your goals and dreams

3. Create good daily habits

4. Visualize success daily

5. Believe in yourself

6. Stop talking and start doing

7. Step outside of your comfort zone

8. Today is the best day to start anything.

9. Plan everyday. Success isn't an accident.

10. To be successful you must must take 100% responsibility for your actions.

11. Don't compromise your dreams

12. Expect more of yourself

13. Surround yourself with successful people

14. Don't be afraid to ask for help

Well there you have it. I've highlighted some of my favorites. What are yours? Leave me a comment down below. Please feel free to add to this list as well.

Tony

3 Tips for Fitness Success

This is a guest post by my good friend Carisse Crossland, CSCS whose a Personal Trainer and group fitness instructor in Las Vegas. She's listed 3 tips to help you reach your fitness goals.

1. No pain no gain" is old news. Pain vs. Burn are 2 different things. Pain means something is wrong, burn means you are exerting yourself, keep THAT up!



2. There is no sport like your own. To run more efficient, you have to run. To play football better, you play football and incorporate workouts around the movements of football. A gentlemen once saw a lady on the stepmill. They spoke afterwards and she told him she plans on doing a marathon. He said, "Oh, if you can do the stepmill, you can run a marathon." This is incorrect. Climbing stairs is not comparable to running 26.2 miles. You have to train what you plan to compete. (Aka sport specificity)


3. If you are lacking drive or motivation, aim for an event to compete in. There is nothing more satisfying than joining people with the same goals and finishing an event you trained months for.



Please leave Carisse a comment and let her know what tips you like best. Also feel free to add your favorite in the comments section as well. You Can reach Carisse at CarisseCrossland@hotmail.com.

The Biggest Loser Finale

So I'm watching the Biggest Loser finale the other night and wow did those people lose a ton of weight! I know what you're thinking if you saw the show - how did all those people lose in double digits in a single week and how did that guy lose 28 pounds in a single week.

They're in another world

You've gotta remember on the show they're living a different life than you or me. They don't have to work eight plus hours a day, go to school, take care of the kids, the dog, pay bills or do any of the things we have to do.

Plus they work out for hours a day under the supervision of two trainers that don't take excuses and push them to their limits and beyond. To top it off, they have nutritional and medical staff behind the scenes as well.


How to Lose 10 pounds in a week

Well they don't always lose 10 pounds a week, sometimes they don't lose anything - even with all those advantages. But the more you weigh, the more calories you can burn in a workout. After all walking a mile isn't all that tough when you weight 160, but imagine how much work you'd be doing if you weighed 400 pounds. More work = more calories burned.


The turning point

The contestants all came into the show with a burning desire to change, for some it was a matter of life or death if they didn't lose weight. Even so, at some point each and every contestant wanted to give up at one point or another and without a trainer they would have slowed way down or even quit completely.

You could see from the clips of the first few shows how the contestant were saying things like, "I can't do this", "I have to stop", and "this is too hard". Have you ever pushed that hard where you were telling yourself that? These people were working the butts off.

When you're not accustomed to working hard, you want to give up a lot. But then something changed. They got accustomed to hard work and started to believe they could step up to the challenge.

When you believe in yourself your language changes. They started saying things like, "I can do this" and "I will be the Biggest Loser". When you believe in yourself your language changes and your attitude changes and you can accomplish what you set out to do.


How you can succeed

*You gotta have a burning desire to change. Change doesn't happen by accident. Your health and fitness may not be a matter of life and death, but that's how serious you need to take it. Stop putting it on the back burner. I'm serious - stop it now. Make exercise and nutrition a priority in your life today.

*Change your thoughts. Until you truly believe in yourself you won't accomplish your goals. Stop hoping and wishing. Successful people don't hope and wish... they believe. Change your thoughts and change your life.

*Work hard; then work harder. I know you think you work hard on your own, but trust me, each and every last person I've trained always works harder when their pushed. When you want to give up - don't. Do you see how hard the contestants worked? They results they got weren't on accident.

Give more effort in your workouts and you'll get more in return. To truly push yourself, you need a trainer or at least a training partner; just make sure your partner spend most of the time pushing you, not talking your ear off :)

*Surround yourself with positive, like minded people. The more time you spend around negative people the harder it is to get where you need to go. Joining a boot camp or a running group are great ways to get around people with similar goals who are positive and will support you.

Stop hoping and wishing. It all comes down to believing in yourself and working hard.

9 Habits to Break

Aren’t you tired of hoping and wishing you could finally get in shape? In all my blog posts I’ve put up tons of useful workouts to help you along the way, but if your mind isn’t right then it’s not going to help much. Once your break these habits and form new positive habits success is right around the corner.

1. Stop waiting for the right time to get in shape. Don’t wait until you have more free time, January 1st or next summer to start working out. I know people who’ve been waiting for 6 years for everything to be perfect before they start working out! Start now, because there’s never a better time than now.


2. Being afraid to fail. Maybe you failed the last time you tired to lose weight. So what! Everyone who’s been successful fails. The difference is successful people embrace failure, learn from it and try again.

3. Not finishing what you start. Do not let yourself be the person who makes a New Year’s Resolution just to give up 6 weeks later. Successful people get the job done whether or not they feel like it. Take it one day at a time and be successful every day.


4. Not having a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail…. nuff said.


5. Being Insane. Hey the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Stop being insane! If the workouts in the magazines aren’t working – it’s time to try something new.


6. Giving up because it’s hard. You know, I rarely see someone in great shape who doesn’t work hard. Yeah you’ve got a few people with great genes that don’t have to work hard, but for most of us we have to work hard for what we want.


7. Stop rationalizing failure. Maybe you don’t have a gym membership or you have a bad back. Stop using that as an excuse. Find a way to succeed despite the road block.



8. Stop complaining and blaming others. Don’t tell me you can’t eat healthy because you don’t buy the food in your household. If you want to succeed start taking responsibility for yourself. It’s your job to see that you eat healthy not anyone else’s. Go shopping with the person who shops or give them a list of the healthy foods you need.


9. Being inconsistent. Working out once in a while won’t get you in the shape you want to get in. Even if you can’t do your full workout once in a while, do 10 or 15 minutes. This will keep you consistent and you’ll be less likely to let a week or two go without working out which leads to giving up completely.

Let me know what your favorites are below.

Accomplish Your Fitness Goals With One Easy Step

You know, getting in shape really isn't that hard. It's no secret - all you gotta do is exercise and eat right. You know that. Everyone knows that. Then why is it that so many people are unfit and unhealthy?

It's really quite simple. It's not what you know, it's what you do. Like I said everyone knows to exercise and eat right but so many people are out of shape and their health continues to suffer because they are not doing what they already know they should be doing.

Watch this video to see how one simple action can lead you to success and see how failing to act will cause you to fail every time.



Please leave your comments below.

7 Secrets to Successful Weight Loss

Because I want you to succeed in quest to lose weight, tone up and feel better, I’m going to share with you 7 secrets successful people use to reach their goals.

Does this sound like you?

Someday when I have the time, I’m going to start exercising.
Someday when I have the money, I’m going to eat healthy.
Someday when I’m in shape I’ll start going to the gym.
Someday, someday, someday…

It’s been said that,

It’s been said that, “Someday is the eighth day of week, the only day that never comes”.

Okay so, now that I have your attention here’s those success secrets; and actions you can take:


1. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Go to the gym when you’re tired. Eat healthy meals when everyone else is eating junk.

2. They get the job done whether or not they feel like it. Take a jump rope and resistance band and workout on vacation.

3. They set goals, write them down and read them daily. If you haven’t done this…please do it today!





4. They never blame circumstances or other people. I don’t care if you do the shopping in your household; it’s your job to influence the person who does. Get healthy foods in to your house and in front of you one way or the other.

5. They start with a dream, turn the dream into a goal, and make a plan to reach the goal. Start with a dream and write it as a goal. If you need help with a plan e-mail me at tony at workoutquest dot com

6. They spend time with other people who have done what they want to do. If you want to lose weight, find someone who has done it and ask them what they did. If you don’t know anyone check this out Steven’s story then find a trainer who specializes in weight loss and hire them to help you. Don’t use the excuse that it’s too expensive either. Where talking about your health and your quality of life. Find some other area to cut back on if you need to.

7. They use momentum. The first week of exercise it hard, but it gets easier by week two, and it’s a habit by week four. Avoid starting and stopping and keep that momentum rolling. If you can’t do a full workout keep the momentum going by doing the No Excuse Workout.

Remember, application is the key. These secrets only work if you apply them.
I’d love to hear some of your favorite success tips in the comment section below.

The Secret to Successful Fat Loss

I’m going to share with you the secret to successful fat loss. It’s real easy and begins with three questions you must ask yourself.

1. Where am I today?
2. Where do I want to be?
3. Is what I’m doing today going to get me there?

Let me break down each one for you.

First, do you know where you are today? Did you set a goal at the beginning of the year to be down 25 pounds by December? If so, the year is half way there; are YOU half way there? Or do you have the same open ended goal of losing some weight and toning up? First before you can do anything else, figure out where you are today.

Second, where do you want to be? What is your goal? Figure it how, write it down, and have a clear picture in your mind what this looks like and know what it’s going to take to get yourself there.

The third question is so powerful because it relates to you taking action. You can read all the blogs, magazines, and books you want but nothing happens until you take action! Ask yourself this question daily; is what I’m doing today going to get me there? If you can answer yes to this question on a daily basis then you’re on your way!

The Definition of Insanity

Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Think about this quote for a second and ask yourself, does this quote apply to me?

Well, if you have been doing the same workout for years and aren’t getting the results you want then guess what? You might be a little insane. First of all don’t feel bad at least you’re still going to the gym right? The problem is you need to learn what is going to get you the results you’re after.

Chances are the intensity of your workouts is too low and you’re not breaking out of your comfort zone. Until you push beyond your comfort zone you’ll maintain at best. Don’t be afraid to sweat and don’t be afraid of being sore. These are two indicators that you’re pushing yourself hard, and when you push yourself hard results aren’t far behind.

Stop the insanity now and push yourself to the next level. For more tips visit us www.workoutquest.com

Avoid Negative Thinking

"If you want to change your circumstances, first change your thinking” – unknown

The only person who can stop you from achieving your fitness goals is you. However it’s important to have a support system to cheer you along the way. Friends, family and co-workers are usually your biggest supporters, offering words of encouragement and complementing you on your improvements. Conversely some will tell you that you’re dreaming and you’ll never accomplish your goals. This is usually because they themselves could never imagine themselves completing such a goal. These words of discouragement only become true when you believe them to be true.

While those around you may try to sabotage your success, your biggest supporter and your biggest enemy is yourself. When you tell yourself “I’m too tired to exercise”, or “working out is too hard”, or “I tried before and failed”, you’re impeding your own progress by acting as your worst enemy. The good news is you have a choice, and if you want to succeed choose positive thinking or negative thinking.

Learn to become your biggest supporter. If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your chances of accomplishing your goal are greatly reduced. By changing your thoughts to positive ones your chances of success greatly improve. Tell yourself you can, believe you can and you will accomplish what others may think is impossible. When negative thoughts enter your mind re-evaluate them and put a positive spin on them. If you tell yourself “I don’t have time to exercise” change your thinking to “I’ll reassess my priorities and make time for exercise”. Instead of saying “I’ve failed before and I can’t succeed” change your thinking to “I’m going to take small steps, follow my plan, and reach my fitness goals”.

In addition to changing your thinking, surround yourself with others who may have similar fitness goals and those who offer words encouragement, while spending less time with those who fill you mind with negative thoughts. Click here to get support carrying out your fitness goals.