Fitness Motivator, January 15, 2003 Volume 3, Issue 1

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You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to it. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please see the instructions at the end of this newsletter. Our subscriber list is NOT made available to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy. This newsletter is published once a month, usually around the 15th. This edition is coming out early this month since I will be away on the 15th.

In this issue, we are placing a new column called From Our Readers. If you have something to say that will help to inspire or motivate our readers, please send them to: FitnessMotivator@exerciseyourwillpower.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Welcome to all our new subscribers, and I extend my appreciation to everyone who forwards this newsletter to friends. One friend telling another is how we grow, and I deeply appreciate your support. If you know anyone who might like it, please forward this newsletter to them or send them this link: http://www.exerciseyourwillpower.com/FitnessMotivator

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We have made it through another holiday season. We have celebrated and have enjoyed the festivities. A brand new year is here, and we can make every effort to make it a productive one. Every year we make resolutions. Some years, some of us are lucky to keep these resolutions through March. With the right attitude, and plenty of determination and proper tools, we can make this year be the year that we follow through with our resolutions and, possibly, fulfill our goals by the end of the year.

I know I am going to put my best foot forward and aim high this year. I laugh as I typed that last sentence because in August I had foot surgery. Maybe it was a Fruedian slip. After next August, my best foot will have to be the opposite foot, since I will then be having surgery on what is now my best foot. That goes to show you how one's situation can be a certain way at a particular time and then be another way a short time later.

We will always have to make the best of each situation life deals us. By tradition, we feel that we start with a clean slate on January 1 every year. But we can start each day with a clean slate and make that day the best that we can.

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"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes
off our goals"

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Do you have a Resolution or a Plan?
By Terri Main

It's been said that people don't plan to fail, but rather, they fail to plan. Certainly, this is true of attaining fitness goals as well. Tomorrow is New Year's day and Thursday, the gyms will be filled with new patrons who have made New Year's Resolutions to get into shape. By March, many, if not all of them, will have let their membership lapse. The New Year's Resolution to lose weight has become almost a joke.

This is sad because January is a great time to get started. Many of us are budgeting for the coming year so we can include fitness costs in our planning. Prices on gym clothes and equipment are often low. Gyms are competing for your business. And there isn't a big eating holiday for almost 4 months. So, it is a good time to plan for your fitness goals of the coming year.

But you will need more than a resolution to succeed, you will need goals and a plan to achieve those goals. Resolutions tend to be vague. We say things like "This year I will get into shape" of "This year I'll lose weight." Those are so vague as to be practically useless. Neither of them address specific behaviors and how you are going to change them. That's why you need behaviorally-driven goals and action plans to support them. Here's an example:

This year I will work toward a schedule where I will increase my aerobic exercise to three hours a week and my strength training to two hours a week. To do this I will need to do the following:

Can New Year's Resolutions work? Certainly. I'm living proof. I took my first aerobics class on December 29, 2001 as part of my New Year's Resolution. I barely made it through 15 minutes, but now I go an hour each time. This year I'm increasing the intensity of my workout and learning more about working out on my own. So, they do work. Now, what's your resolution? And more importantly, what's your plan?

The article reprinted by permission of the author. Terri Main operates "Get Real: A Sensible Approach to Weight Loss for Real People" http://www.getrealdiet.com. Email: terri@getrealdiet.com

Back to Table Of Contents

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"If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just finish the race—it's up to you."

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A couple years ago, I learned an important principle that literally changed my life when I put it to use.

This amazing idea allowed me to lose well over 50 pounds and put my career on "warp speed" to where I wanted to go.

If your car does not start one snowy morning, would you care to take the whole engine apart yourself to try and solve the problem?

Probably not, you'd bring it to the nearest mechanic that knows how to pinpoint the problem, hopefully quickly, so that you do not have to diagnose and repair the problem yourself.

There are people that have more specific knowledge, learned or acquired, than we do in certain areas in life.

You can learn from other successful people and can have anything you want in life by copying them.

You can role model others so that you do not have to learn through trial and error what you want to discover.

If you want to learn about investing and making money in stocks, what would you rather do? You could spend $100,000 go to a four year business school and then study as an intern for weeks on Wall Street.

That will guarantee you will learn about stocks but doesn't guarantee you'll make money.

Or, you could speed up the process by picking up a book by Warren Buffet or Peter Lynch that pinpoints specific strategies on investing and making money in stocks.

If more people understood that they could have and achieve anything they want by following others that have already achieved it, there would be less complaining about unhappy lives or the monotony of the daily 9-5 drudgery.

This principle of copying other successful people in certain areas of life allowed me to take my passion of health and fitness to the masses, by transforming my personal training business into a global internet presence.

I copied other successful internet businesses by learning directly from them about web design, HTML, and marketing.

If I had tried this myself through trial and error, I'd still be learning how to turn the computer on!

If you're unhappy about your body or life in any way, you can change it right now by figuring out what you want and then finding someone that has already done it.

Do you have a friend that lost 30 pounds last year or a brother that increased his bench press (naturally) by 50 pounds last year?

I personally transformed my body in the past by learning from other successful athletes and fitness pros.

It allowed me to make more change with my physique in 8 weeks than I had previously made in 10 years when I was trying everything under the sun.

Now I provide the same useful, body-changing information to people worldwide so that they can simply copy some or all of what I did, speeding up their results as well.

The great thing is, I didn't have to spend $100,000 and 8 years for a Phd. I just learned real world tactics from the best and now, more importantly, I produce results by teaching these common sense tips to others.

Bottom line, it's a new year and time to take action to get what you want. Cut to the chase and copy what other people have done to transform their own bodies.

It starts by identifying what you want and then start to model after those that have already done it.

Shawn LeBrun has one mission and one mission only: To make 2003 the year you get your Best Body Ever. See how you can get it. http://www.shawnlebrunfitness.com

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"Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will, sooner or later, have to find time for illness."

~~Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby, 1873

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Resolutions for the New Year frequently include commitments for regular exercise. Many gyms will be packed during the first week of January.

Crowds begin decreasing within a few weeks. Don't be a dropout! Here's a simple tip that could double your workouts in 2003.

The key to long-term fitness training is to be aware that motivation levels come and go.

The one day that you decide to miss could be the last workout for a year. Long-term training is not a physical issue, it is a mental one.

I have a mental practice that I use to help me through the tough days when I do not feel like training. It's simple - I don't make the decision to miss a workout until I first change into my training clothes.

If I decide to miss a workout, that's okay (sometimes it's unavoidable), but I always make the effort to change clothes first.

Most of the time, just changing into training clothes is enough to get me started. Once started, this typically becomes the best workout of the week!

Never have I met anyone who made a conscious decision to stop exercising. Everyone who has stopped exercising began by "missing once."

The key to long-term training is to understand the mental risk associated with missing "one workout."

I can't overemphasize the importance of mentally making an issue of missing "one workout."

Missing one workout will not hurt you physically. Mentally, however, missing a workout permanently breaks the habit of training - until you make the next workout.

When deciding to miss a workout in 2003, make a mental note that you just decided to "stop training permanently". . . until you have completed the next workout.

Phil Campbell, the author of Ready, Set, GO! Synergy Fitness for Time-Crunched Adults offers a Free Health & Fitness Newsletter at http://wwww.readysetgofitness.com

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This is being published with permission from Andy. This was a post sent to the Exercise Your Willpower mailing list. I thought it was so inspiring and appropriate, that I asked him if I could publish it in this month's issue.

Happy New year to all, hard to believe it is 2003 ! I have been talking to a lot of my friends recently about fitness and workout programs and a lot of people seem to use the same excuse - " I don't have time" - As I ask them to really evaluate if that is a valid excuse they realize it really is not. It is just that exercise is not enough of a priority to them. When I started my program I decided I would have to get up 45 min early if I was going to do my cardio each morning. In the beginning I had a hard time but now it just seems natural, I have much more energy by doing exercise first thing in the morning than had I slept for those extra minutes. I also find that I eat a much healthier breakfast after a workout. One friend claimed she did not have time yet watches at least an hour of TV a day. I challenged her to get an exercise bike and ride it while watching her shows, she is doing great so far. I think anyone who says they don't have time can find the time if it is enough of a priority to them. Make exercise one of your top priorities and you will have more time not less, everything you do following your workout will be much easier and you will do things more efficiently. I know I can make much better decisions after a hike in the crisp morning air than if I have a cup of coffee and a donut on the way to work. Until later - Stay motivated and Keep on Keeping on :)

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Check out our the facelift that our Exercise Your Willpower website has gotten. If you need more motivation and some group support, feel free to subscribe to the Exercise Your Willpower mailing list. To get more information, visit our website at: http://www.exerciseyourwillpower.com

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