January: Partner Challenge

It's a new year and 2014 is among us already.  You've already started your transformation and lifestyle change, but there is someone who is secretly inspired by you.  They may tell it to you in passing or admire from afar but you definitely inspire them to want to make a change in their life.  Vice versa, you may have a friend or family member who you know needs to start exercising and you've always wanted to invite them. Here's your chance!!!

We want for you to take a picture with a new workout buddy a minimum of 4 times this month.  Hopefully by the end of January, your buddy/buddies will have taken steps to living a healtheir lifestyle themselves consistently.  There is a "relaxing" prize for the person who posts the most with their "NEW" workout buddy/buddies.  Post your picture to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and use the hashtag #keeponmovin #partnerchallenge and tag https://twitter.com/HandF4You or http://instagram.com/healthandfitness4you.

Who: You!!!
When: Jan 1 - Jan 31st
Where: The gym, your house, outdoors, anywhere you like
What: A picture with your friend(s) that you don't commonly workout with, if you have a story behind it...tell it! But use the hashtags #keeponmovin #partnerchallenge
Why: Inspire others to make a lifestyle change
How many: Minimum of 4 pictures with the person(s) you are inspiring to make a change

Good luck everyone...and start inspiring in this New Year!!!

5..........
4........
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1..
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Upcoming challenges:

February: Feb-tastic Abs February
March: 200-mile March

Don't Wait til the New Year to start!

So you've been thinking about losing weight for the summer, you want to get your body nice and tight for that time of the year so that everyone can see you and rave about how great you look...EXCEPT...you want to wait til Jan 1st when everyone and their mother is going to be up in the gym.  What's wrong with that??? Nothing, but why not get a head start on your goal at hand.  You're not racing anyone but yourself so you can't possibly be cheating yourself.  In fact, the only way you cheat yourself is if you DON'T get started now.

Consider the last few days of the year to be your trial period in which you can learn some things about yourself.  You learn how much you really want to make a journey like this become a reality.  Making dietary changes, adding exercise to your daily routine with no excuses, and the other factors that come into play when you embark on said journey is trying and difficult to say the least.  These last few days of the year are your opportunity to work out the kinks of your schedule, figure out what foods you actually like and figure out what time of day you actually like working out.  It's your chance to say goodbye to the foods you KNOW you shouldn't be eating and picking out the ones you KNOW you should.  

The thing about "getting healthy" is you have to start somewhere and there is no time like the present...ever.  Start walking...start running...start lifting weights...start eating right...just DO SOMETHING today! 

December Legs Now - - - Summertime ready then!

This Month's Challenge is meant to affect the part of your body that you use the ABSOLUTE most...your legs.  Today is the 8th of December meaning there are 23 days left in the month of December allowing for 12 days of leg-work (assuming you do this every other day).

400 squats
200 lunges (per leg)
300 Jump squats
200 Side lunges (per leg)

300 Scissors
25 30-second mountain climbers

Facebook, Tweet, Instagram your progress at #keepmovin #Decemberlegs

Get this done, you should see a change in your waist line and legs.  Good luck!!

Congrats to Cindy Ming who won last month's challenge posting 12 times in November and a distance of 25.12 miles

Jan. Challenge: Bring a friend
Feb. Challenge: Feb-tastic Abs

Your Health is Your Money Maker

Interesting fact... 61 of the top 100 billionaires in the world are 65 or older.  But why is that interesting you ask...because the people who make the most money are healthy and viable to their business.  What does that mean?? That means they are working out and caring for their health, which in turn means that YOU don't have to kill yourself working and using work as an excuse for not taking care of yourself and your health.

I'm not saying that work isn't important, it is...we all need to pay bills and maintain our livelihood, but at what cost???  I'm not sure I can emphasize this enough, because of the effects and toll that work takes on our lives, our bodies, and our minds there has to be some sort of a release available for us to maintain our health.  Nobody is asking for an hour and a half to two hours of gym time, if that's what you choose to do, more power to you but I am asking you take 45 minutes out of your day to take care of yourself.

Life is stressful, 40 to 50 hrs of work is stressful, kids are stressful, family and friends can be stressful, and any other variables that life throws our way are stressful.  Stress has so many effects on our body that we HAVE to make sure we find ways to release it.  A picture was found on www.stress.org on how the body is affected from head to toe, pay attention to what happens when you get stressed:

Exercise (cardio, yoga, stretching, playing sports), laughter, proper rest, proper diet, and interaction with friends all help to relieve stress.  Utilize these constructs to help keep yourself sane and alive.  If the richest people make time to care for their health, maybe you should consider the same...because your life is more valuable than a few pennies.

Move-mber Challenge

Its a new month! The month of November...and with that said, I want to issue a challenge to everyone in sight of this blog post! The challenge for my clients, past or present, to participate in cardio all month long and prove it.  How do you prove it?? Take a picture of your activity.

Challenge:

Run, bike, swim, elliptical, it doesn't matter how you do it...do something!!!

How do I prove what I've done?

There are apps that appropriate and accurately calculate distance and pace.  For those of you that are running, use the Nike Running App, I'm on there (look under email trey.douglas@gmail.com) and I can see how you often you run, your pace and distance.  There is an app for biking as well...but it doesn't matter what apps you are using as long as you can take a picture and post it for me on my Facebook page, tweet me at @HandF4you or on Instagram and tag "Healthandfitness4you" in your pictures with the hashtag #keeponmovin.  For those of you who train with me, you still have to abide by the rules even in session!

I will pick a winner and they will win a $50 gift card at the end of the month.

Ahhh ssssssss...PUSH IT!!!

About a year and a half ago a friend once told me her fitness goals and I offered to train her in an attempt to teach her proper technique, to see what her workouts consisted of, and teach her a few other exercises to add to her repertoire.  As we moved through the workout she was visibly challenged and even commented that she'd "Never used these muscles before."  She would mention how she had done this exercise, but it never felt like this when she did it (technique).  I began to wonder, what had she been doing all this time.  What was she considering "her workout"??? She thanked me for showing her some new stuff and fixing her technique and told me she would be putting her newfound information to use.  A few days later she also told me how she was still sore.  Fast forward 1 year and 4 months...

We decide to go to the gym in her building with another friend and I tell her this workout will be a little more challenging than the last time, assuming that she's been semi-active since the last time we worked out.  I don't think we made it through the first set before she was already talking about how sore she was.  She then proceeded to explain to me that she may have embelished how active she was and that she hasn't pushed herself the way I had pushed her.  She explained that she worked out every other week, due to hair restrictions, and so she restricts her workouts to the alternative weeks.  We then had a conversation about her workouts and if she was pushing her limits, to which she asked me to define "pushing her limits".

One other story, a friend of mine has lost a considerable amount of weight to which I can honestly say I'm very proud of him, but he disappointed me when he told me he wasn't running a mile or remotely close to it.  He spoke of how he had increased from running a quarter of a lap to one lap around the track...over the last two years.  I quickly expressed to him that he had not been pushing himself in the least bit and that he should do better.  Think I was being hard on him?? Not at all...the truth of the matter is he wasn't pushing his limits. The Couch to 5k program has people who are potential couch potatoes running a 5k (3.1 miles) in 9 weeks for people who are driven, so for him to say that he still isn't able to run a mile after 2 years is a little disappointing.

Are you getting the results you want?? Seeing the changes in your body you are hoping for? If not, you may need to ask yourself a few questions.

When you are doing your workout:

• Are you doing the max number of reps possible when you are doing the exercise?
• If not, it's time to push for a few more.
• Within the next day or two, are the muscles that you used in your workout close to being sore? 
• If not, you may need to explore your technique or increase the weight that you are using.  Not all exercises leave you sore, however after a full body workout something should be sore. 
• In regards to weights or body weight exercises, have you increased your weight or repetitions from the last month?
• At some point your body adjusts to what you're doing (it's called a plateau), especially those who use the same routine.  However your body needs to be challenged in order for real change to continue to show.  That means you may need to take those 10 bicep curls and up the repitition amount to 12 or 15 reps or you may need to increase the weight while maintaining the goal of doing 10 bicep curls.  There needs to be an increase somewhere in order to push levels and see results.  
• In regards to cardio, are you going farther without a break or are you doing your distance in a faster time?  
• Going back to the story of my friend who only increased from running .1 mile to running .25 miles in 2 years, push yourself to do better.  Rather than trying to run the same pace for a month, you need to up your intensity (by going farther/faster) on a weekly basis.  

The point being made is there needs to be a valuable point of increase in effort, no one is saying you need to run a marathon, but your effort will show how much better you've become.  Your effort will be indicative of the results that you want and the results that you get.  Don't forget that!!

Moving forward, forget the excuses as to why we're not pushing ourselves and BE better than our former self.  

Ready or Not....Exercise!!

The other day a friend sent this picture to me and I felt it caught the point of exercise and fitness to a "T".  I've tried to explain this exact point to people who are questioning their readiness to start exercising.  They compare themselves to others and say that they still aren't ready, but the truth is, just like other life changing moments, you're never truly ready.  No matter how hard you try to "prepare" you're never quite ready to get married, have a child or to start an exercise regimen.  The thing is "readiness" is a mental aspect and sometimes the only preparation one can truly have is "life application".  Rather than think about the complexities of exercising, simplify for the positive reasons as to why you should be exercising.  Think about how you may be helping to reduce health risks that are apart of your family history, how you will feel energized as exercise becomes a regular part of your life, or how much better you will sleep after you workout.  Not to mention that you will start to look better and feel better about yourself and the person you are.

Are those things you're ready to feel and achieve??? Then get out there and exercise!!! No need to wait for anyone else...your battle should be with self NOT with everyone else! The person in the mirror should be your motivation.

Recap from the weekend of 9/7

If you didn't know the weekend of September 7th, I took a group hiking at Old Rag Mountain in Sperryville, VA.  If you don't know where it is, I've attached the link to get to the National Park Service's site.  As you read through the description of this hike it incites fear or excitement in some first time goers.  The thing that seems to consistently resonate on a year in and year out basis is the wonder of "if I'm able to complete this hike".  The entire trip to the mountain, one of my riders kept asking me if I thought he could do this hike and I kept telling him, "it doesn't matter because you're here now".  The truth of the matter is, we can do ANYTHING we want to if we set our minds to accomplish it.  All we have to do is set our foot forward one in front the other and actually start!

I enclosed a video of pictures from the hike so you can see for yourself what we saw.  The difficulties of this hike are well worth the views and comradery that comes with making this trek up the mountain.

The parallels of the hike to our health journey or life journey are so similar.  We learned that:

1. You can do anything you set your mind to!!! Whether you're forced to do it or do so volunteerily, you can do it!!! Fear often limits us, we must overcome it and move forward for allowing fear to overcome us is often the ultimate failure.  
2. You don't have to accomplish it all at once, it takes one small step forward regularly to accomplish your goals. Don't stop moving forward!! If you keep that in mind you will always be one step closer to your goal and one step further from what you were!
3. You have friends along the way...people you know and don't know are there to encourage you! Make your journey known so that people will be there to help push you through
4. You are an inspiration.  You inspire others in your journey, you may not know who you influence but people are always watching.  Someone may have needed to see that someone else like them can do it in order for them to start their journey and you may be that someone.
5. Understand that you HAVE to PUSH YOUR LIMITS! You shouldn't be at the same place you were last week, month, or year! Yes things take time, but for example if this year you ran a quarter of a mile nonstop, by the following year you should be running at LEAST one mile nonstop barring injury/sickness.  

Have a good week and keep climbing upwards towards your goals!!!

An Unhealthy U.S. is an Unhealthy Us

When you look around, there is an increasing number of people who are overweight in the United States of America.  Is appearance everything? Absolutely not.  In a previous post I discussed how some skinny people may not be as healthy as they appear.  However, appearances are very leading and the appearance of our country is "heavy". 

Based on the map below and information from the CDC, there are no states that have less than 20% of their adult population that are overweight.  There are 9 states and Washington DC that falls between the 20% and 25% mark of adults considering themselves to be overweight, with Colorado coming in at the lowest percentage (20.5%).  Which means that at least 1 in 4 adults consider themselves to be overweight in 80% of the United States. 

What exactly does all this mean?  Plain and simple...It means WE HAVE TO DO BETTER.  Why should people care? People should be caring because your health matters.  I've heard the reasoning that "its my life, I will eat what I want and when I die...I die".  That is so discouraging to hear someone say simply because the only person you're thinking about is yourself.  Think beyond the fact that you leave and only you die, think about your associates, friends, and family!  They too care about you and your life, show them you care too!

Skinny DOES NOT EQUAL Healthy

Shocked by the headline??? Don't be...it's the truth! And I don't want to beat around the bush on this subject because I don't want people to be confused on the matter.  I hear people complain that they wish they could be as small as so-and-so because of how small that person is.  I also hear people say, "Oh well I'm skinny so I don't need to exercise".  FALSE!!! Please don't get it twisted, exercise and dietary changes are necessary for everyone and someone's body frame is not necessarily exemplary of their body composition! Let me clarify what this means...

Let's say we have a girl, we'll name her Susie.  She is 5'5 and she weighs 115 lbs, here's my example . She looks small and she fits within the BMI standards but is she really healthy?  On the outside she looks excellent, but what exactly is her body composition??? I'm not saying this is the case of my "example" but Susie could have a 40% body fat composition.  What does that mean? It means that 46 lbs of her 115 lbs is fat, which is not healthy.  Regardless of her age, a 40% body fat composition would NEED to change and be brought down to about 22-26% body fat assuming she's in her twenties.

Here's the thing, in our world and especially the United States, we are driven by physical appearance. Susie's friends and family may look at her and be envious but her inside does NOT match her outside appearance.  If Susie has a mindset that exercise or dietary changes are not necessary because "she looks good" or "I'm skinny", that would absolutely need to change.  She doesn't have to lose weight, but change her body composition and she'll look healthier and feel better about herself.

Whether or not you look like Susie, exercise and a proper diet ARE in your best interests.  You don't want your life to be one inundated with pills every 4-8 hrs  and dependency on your loved ones because you had the attitude that "You only live once" so may as well enjoy it stuffing your face with food.  Think about your choices on more than a "YOLO" thought process...because really, You Only Live Once.

Think about that...

Are You Doing Everything You Can???

As we go through life, no matter what stage we are in, we are always striving to attain something.  Part of being a human is setting goals. We are cultured to want and to accomplish.  From childhood, we want to buy toys and the response is "work for the money so you can pay for it yourself." We go to school and our goal is to get good grades. We go to college and create goals for adulthood. We work hard to get what we want while other goals seem to remain untouched. Yessss...you know what I'm speaking of, our health goals.

Somehow our health goals end up taking a backseat to the other goals we set in life, and before we know it, health problems seem to creep up on us.  Somehow we got bigger than we've ever been, developed high cholesterol or even diabetes.  The truth is that we've never really prioritized our health, but we expect our health to maintain itself.  We use excuses as to why we can't exercise. We choose the faster options for food because of our busy schedules yet we make time to watch Scandal, Grey's Anatomy, So You Think You Can Dance, etc.  These shows don't contribute much to our health.  In fact, sitting on our bottoms watching these programs actually diminish our health, as our lower backs get weaker from sitting on couches and reclining in beds. The truth is we have to make time for our exercise and overall health.

And to that I ask, are you doing everything you can to help achieve your health goals? Are you doing the minimum amount of cardio recommended by the government (2.5 hrs per week)? Have you made the change to your diet that will get you the results that you're striving for?Are you putting in an extra day of weights at the gym? If you haven't made any of these changes, what kind of results are you really expecting? How can you expect your BEST results? I'm not saying you have to go from 0-60 in one day, week or month...but as time increases you better believe that your yearning and willingness to achieve your goals better be increasing ESPECIALLY if you start to plateau and your change starts to slow down.

Let's stop talking about what we are going to do and rather...as Nike says it, JUST DO IT!!!

Feeling Guilty??? Don’t, Just Do Better!!!

The struggle of eating healthy is a real challenge for people who are striving to make changes in their diets.  It's nothing to laugh about and is far too real for some people to understand... myself included. One thing that I’ve learned is that when you make a choice you have to live with the consequences.  Whether the consequences are good or bad, we must take the time to think our actions through before making a final decision. And once a decision has been made, we must choose to be happy with it.  If you can see that one option will make you unhappy, then don’t do it.  If you are displeased, decide that you will do better for yourself.  Think about all who are to be affected by your decision.  For example, if you’re diabetic and you know that cookie will spike your glucose levels, please think about yourself, your family and your friends.  

You are more dynamic than you can imagine and people want to see you living life healthily as you continue to make a difference in the world.

Let's drop the guilt, and do better!