5 Tips to Starting Your Fitness Journey

Every race has two places - a finish line and a starting line.  So I wanted to share my 5 quick tips to starting your fitness journey right.

1. Pick a plan -- 
Just like in any other area of your life, you are by far more successful when you have a plan.  Here are couple ideas: join a class, using a walking/running app with a plan or use a home based program like one from Beachbody.

The struggle for some many who join a gym for those starting out is the lack of knowledge on the exercises needed to achieve their goals.  So if you join a gym, meet with a trainer to set up a program to help you accomplish your goals.

2. Never Alone --
The journey is going to get tough, tougher is you do it by yourself.  Don't do it alone.  Find a partner or group to join you in your journey.  Support is the one three keys to success in reaching your health and fitness goals.

3. Use Visual Reminders -- 
Keep your goals in front of you.  Right it on the mirror in lipstick.  Make a vision board.  Pull out those skinny jeans and keep them in visible sight.  These visual reminders will serve as constant reminder to be consistent.

4. Set a Workout Alarm --
Seriously, set an alarm or reminder on your phone. Schedule your workouts in your calendar.  These become set in stone (well, digital stone) times for you to get off your backside and get going.

5. Have Fun! --
If your workouts are not fun, you will not keep doing them.  Find a workout plan or program that you will fall in love with.  If you don't like doing it odds are increasing less likely that you will continue doing it.  Have fun, have fun, have fun!!!


 No matter what you do, START!  You will never regret getting started on your journey of health and fitness.  You will never regret improving your life.  Just START!

If you are looking to start and don't know where to begin, leave me a comment.  Or if you have a great recommendation on where to start leave a comment too.

My Story & Why You Need to Read This...

My Story

As the old hymn says, "this is my story..."

I was living my dream.

I was inspiring young lives as a youth pastor.

There were Monday meetings at a local coffeeshop with excessively large cups of sugar filled coffee and even larger blueberry muffins warmed with butter dripping off.  There were Wednesday night bible study with sugar cookies.  Afternoon mentoring meetings with students over several McD's large sweet teas.  Thursday night youth group with a full stocked candy shop and my  pre-sermon Slim Jim that I would snap into.  Throw in special events with pizza and convention weekends with sugary snacks and eating out every meal. And I have not mentioned the 100's of hot dogs consumed at every community or church outreach ever hosted.

All in the name of being God's servant to the youth of that community.  I was sacrificing for the gospel and what was being laid on the alter was my health.

In a sense, ministry was killing me.  Okay, not specifically the ministry. I take responsibility for the poor food choices I made.  But the environment I existed in was causing a slow painful death to every article of clothing hanging in my closet.  My waistlines were gasping for air with every pizza party! The buttons on my button ups were beginning to cry for mercy. Super hip skinny jeans were a non negotiable when you have too much hip and and not enough skinny.

The Day God Spoke in an Animated Voice

Leadership is a dangerous environment.  Church leadership seemingly even more so.  A recent study showed 76% of all Evangelical pastors are overweight or obese.    Sure I was chubby, a little overweight but never in my mind did I see myself as obese.

Until that day...

I stepped foot for the very first time onto a Wii Fit board.  For starters there is this annoying beeping sound as it resembles an alarm clock while it "prepares to measure" you.  Then once it has scanned you like a TSA security screening it takes your skinny "Mii" character and inflates it like a helium balloon.  That day I thought my animated Mii was going to float right off the screen as these insulting words in the kindest animated voice screamed at me "that's obese."  I had just became part of the 76%.

That became my wake up call, coupled with the fact I had recently learned of my dad acquiring Type II Diabetes, a completely preventable disease.  I was determined to no longer be insulted by that animated voice.  I was determined for that voice to call me healthy!

The Outsider

At that same point we were transitioning ministry positions.  We moved from a larger church to smaller family style church.  Similar to the one reference in my blog "The Lie the Church Told Me".  Transitioning from a Slim Jim inspired, sweet tea drinking youth pastor to a leader who was testing the waters of tilapia and broccoli I became an outsider.

The funny looks when you pass on Sunday morning donuts.  The odd stares when your church fellowship plate has more veggies than desserts on it.  When you show up to an impromptu meeting still smelling like the 2 mile run you just finished, you get that odd look.  Suddenly, one of these things does not look like the other.

It was like becoming an outsider.   As a leader I have walked a mile in your shoes.  Then I ran a mile in those shoes, then 2 miles in those shoes, then 3 miles in those cool sneaks!  Then I put on a different pair of kicks and went crazy with Insanity.  And in that process I found something, I didn't have to be part of the 76%.  I was becoming part of the 24%.

It Costs

As leaders we have to do better.  Here is my challenge to whether your are in church leadership or in position of leadership in the marketplace, just start!   Leaders love to look at bottom lines, so here is what it is costing you "being 15 to 45 pounds overweight can cost you $500 per year. Being 50 or more pounds overweight can cost you up to $5000."

This became my reality when we signed up life insurance.  While at the my largest weight when we signed up I was considered a "high risk insurer" due to two major factors one my weight being over a 30 BMI and to my profession as a pastor.  It was a high premium based on the fact of those contributing factors I was more likely to die sooner in the eyes of the life insurance company.

Two years later, after several hundred miles in the sneaks, a sweet tea detox and lots of sweat when we change life insurance companies I was no longer a "high risk insurer".

It is going to cost you to get healthy - cost you time, energy, money.  But they return is valuable.  The return is life. The return is greater energy. The return is greater creativity.  The return is some very practical way is that in the long run that cost will save your life and you money.

 What is your story?  I would love to hear it.  Post it in the comments below.  

The 3 Places We Look...

We all have those spots...the places we look when the keys are missing or the remote can't be found.

The go to spot when we need to find that extra $0.27.

In life there are similar spots. I call them the 3 places we look.  Each of these spots hold incredible benefit for us, but if not careful each can hold you back.

BEHIND

Looking behind is a great tool to remind us where we have been, where we have come from and how far we have come.  It is a measuring stick of success.

You can only know how far you come by measuring it against where you've been.  This gives a clear sense of exactly how far in life you have come.

Yet looking behind can be like walking in quick sand.  It's full of remember whens, the good ole days and it will never be like that again.  It can become a mental trap to move forward.  Every "there will never be another" creates a mental mile marker that what is ahead of you can not compare to what is behind.

What's behind is behind and great reminder of the...

PRESENT

This moment is happening.  Now is now and will never happen again.  Whether your in the midst of the storm or life is pool side at the Ritz Carlton, it is happening.  Embrace the moment, stop and smell the proverbial (or actual) roses.

Too often we get caught on the bookends -- looking behind or ahead -- that the moment is lost.  So go ahead and YOLO it!  Because you really only do live once.

As modern day poet MACKLEMORE said,

Can we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we’ll fight 'til it’s overSo we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold usLike the ceiling can’t hold us


Embrace the here and now.  But don't live this moment captive to what's BEHIND and not satisfied because you are looking too far...

AHEAD

Benjamin Franklin said "A failure to plan is a plan to fail."  Looking ahead requires making plans and plans to achieve those plans.   Goals setting is key to success.  Having dreams and the desire to chase them is essential to living a fulfilled life.

Looking ahead is all about creating a plan for the future.  Understandably, life is going to throw you curve balls.  There are going to be moments that you will not be able to control the circumstances.  But have a clear destination picked out allows you realign your path and stay on track.  So looked ahead with expectation of great things.

Looking ahead can cause amnesia about where you have been and you are.  Don't let what is ahead of you hold you back from celebrating past success and winning in the moment you're in.

Oh and your keys are always in the last place you look. (That's because the last place you look is where you find them.)

Where do I begin?

Here is what I don't doubt, the fact that you want to change.  

Here is probably the question you may find yourself asking: "Where do I begin?" 

Begin by asking a different set of questions.  Let's start by defining the change into smaller portions.

- What do I want to accomplish in the next 6 months?

Now smaller.

- What do I want to accomplish in the next month?

Now smaller.

- What do I want to accomplish this week?  

The daunting part of changes is that it seems so big.  And truthfully, we tackle the biggest elephant in the safari thinking we can eat the whole thing in one big bite.  But the adage is still true, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. (Although, I have never eaten elephant and don't plan on it, but you get me.)

My heart is bent toward helping people move closer to their potential - it comes in the form of their personal, spiritual and health and fitness.  But this reverse thinking applies in every situation.  

If you want to graduate college, it starts with taking a class.  Then by getting this weeks homework done.  

If it's weight loss, well let's start by setting fitness goals for this week and planning meals for the week. 

If it's to become an accomplished public speaker.  Then start small, speaking to church groups, non-profits, business groups.  

You only start at the end to work backwards to find a clear starting point.  

But get started!  If it's your dream, goal or ambition don't let it pass!  Start!

Risk, Reward & Reality

There is a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew commonly called the Parable of the Talents.  The parable tells of 3 servants who were given am certain amount of money - one got 5 bags, one got 2 bags, and one was given just 1 talent.

The man with 5 invested and got 5 in return.  The man with 2 put his to work and got 2 in return.  The man with one dug a hole and buried the talent.  Long story short, the man with 5 and 2 got a return on their investment and were rewarded for their efforts from the master.  The man with one who had buried the 1 bag of talents (money) was punished.  He was stripped of his bag and put out.

Why do I tell this story, well for a long time I read this story and identified with the guy with one bag.  I thought to myself, nothing wrong with that, at least he did not lose anything.  I have lived my life burying my talents, limiting the risks I take, and living the middle.  The middle is no place to live.  The middle is risk free, the middle is fading, the middle is no place to live.

The middle class is fading.
Mid-size cars are boring.
And nobody in the NBA can make a mid-range jumper.

The middle is disappearing...

I have lived like the guy who been captivated by fear that if he lost his master's talent he would be punished.  The "one bag" of talent guy did nothing with what he was given not for selfish reasons, but out of fear.  Fear of failing, fear of risk, and the fear of taking a chance caused him to do nothing with his talent!

Without risk there is no chance at reward.  My reality is that I have lived comfortably in the middle, risking little, gaining little and losing most everything.  Without taking risk you are really losing.  The man with one bag was stripped of his talents and kicked out!

I am working at being a risk taker.  I am working at changing my reality.  Without taking risk there is no chance of knowing what reward you may find.

Risk is scary.
Risk require facing fear.
Yet, risk has the potential reap reward and change reality!

Learning to take a risk with my talents!

Creating a movement -- #livewithhope

Have you ever had one of those days?  A day when you feel like everything is falling around you?  I know I have, even recently.  We all face struggles.  We all face hard times.  We all hit points that feel like the end of our ropes.

If you have followed me on Instagram (@jeffpittsfitness) or LIKED my Facebook Page you would have seen the hashtag #livewithhope.  I saw hope defined as the desire + expectation = hope.  I think we often lack one or both of these things.  We have lost a desire to see or be different.  We have lost an expectation that things can change.  And what we have really lost is HOPE!

Once of the most crippling feelings is a loss of hope.  I dont' know where you have lost hope.  Maybe you've lost hope in your fitness.  Maybe you've lost hope in your job.  Maybe you've lost hope in a relationship.  What I realize is that a fitness program and Shakeology won't magically fix broken places...this email is not about that.

This is just a simple word of encouragement -- #livewithhope!  Find your desire and expectation for what it is you have lost hope in.  Sometimes the tipping point of changes is our belief that it can be different, our HOPE that it will be different.

I have a dream, if you would dream with me to create a movement.  The #LIVEWITHHOPE movement.  What I think we don't realize is that so many people live hopeless, live in constant emotional struggle.  That there are people who everyday face that day without an expectation to that change will happen.  The loss of expectation drains desire to make it different.  It creates a life without HOPE!

Would you help me by doing one things over the course of the next week?  Will you tag one pic, one facebook post with me in it and the hashtag #livewithhope.  Maybe we don't change the world, but I do believe we can change one heart!  Help me create a movement the #livewithhope movement.

Hoping you find your hope!

Chachachanges...3 questions to ask

Let's face it NO ONE likes change.

At best we tolerate it as a part of life, just like paying taxes, traffic and another Law and Order spinoff.  But change does happens.

As a matter of fact change happens all around us.  If you are a parent you watch it take place daily in your house.  That infant you held snuggly in your arms becomes a pre-pubescent boy with a smart mouth (experience talking).  Change is all around you - the light changes (at least we hope), seasons change, styles change.  Thank God!  I could only wear a mullet for so long!

So at some level we need to quit fighting change and embrace it.  Is it scary?  Yeah, like Nightmare on Elm Street scary, the first one.  Is it hard? Of course.  Is it worth it?  That is the million dollar question.  Most likely if we never see value in making a change, we will never change unless forced to.  We will never quit smoking, start eating healthier, exercise, or move out of your momma's basement without facing change.

Here are a couple questions to ask yourself if the change is worth it:

    1) Is it going to make my life better in the long term?

Is the change that I intend on making going to better my life in the long term?  Weight loss can extend your life, quitting smoking can keep you from cancer and improve the smell of your wardrobe, eliminating negative influences can help you create an atmosphere for long term success - "attitude determine altitude."  What we have to negotiate is whether the short term sacrifice or discomfort of the change is worth the long term result that comes from changing!

    2) Will my choice of change positively or negatively affect my relationship with others?

The answer: likely both.  What you will find is that there are those who are going to celebrate and support your choice.  You will also likely find that there are those that will question your reasoning, criticize your attempts and even try to pull you back into a poor habit.

Yet, what you are more likely to find is that making a positive change will help you create connections with like minded people.  People set on achieving similar life goals.  Your choice to change may actually open up the potential for new relationships.  Who knows Mister or Miss Right might be right at the corner of Choice and Change!

    3) Am I worth it?

This is a question of self value.  So often we stay in poor habits due to our belief that we are undeserving of anything better.  That is just not true!  YOU ARE WORTH IT!  YOU ARE VALUABLE!  Quite possibly the greatest change that has to be made is how you see the image of the person staring back at you in the mirror.  Oftentimes the choice to change is one of belief in yourself.  That is where it has to start!

The greatest change you can make is one of going from unbelief to belief!  You are worth it!

Change is hard, yet so often change is exactly what your life needs!  What changes do you need to embrace?

Rowboats and Ocean Liners

I have always been okay with just enough.  Whether that was in a relationship, in business, in faith, in my fitness, in my health, in my finances and in general, life.  I have felt like most of my life has been spent in a tiny one man rowboat where I have done nothing but tried to fix the holes to keep it floating.  Moments of peace have come in between times of constant repair of the tiny boat.  I have often been envious and even jealous of those on the ocean liners of life.

Today was a watershed moment in my life.  Today, I decided I was done trying to fix the rowboat of my life.  No, I haven't quit, but I have decided to take on a new project.  I have parked the boat along the shore and decided to leave that boat behind.  I am going to build an ocean liner, the S.S. Hope is what it will be called!

My little rowboat was my personal dingy that on occasion was capable of taking along a passenger or two.  The rowboat kept me from achieving bigger things in the life.   The S.S. Hope will have the capacity for hundreds if not thousands of people to go on the journey with me.  What I have realized is that life is done better with others.

Many of you are like me and you find yourself in the sinking ship and busted boat.  You find yourself fighting just to stay afloat.  You have come to the intersection of despair and overwhelmed.  You have hit walls that you can't break through.  The end of your rope does reach the end of the dock.  Your ship is sinking!

You are in the sinking ship of a broken and unhealthy life.  You may be in the sinking ship of broken financial situation.  You may be in the sinking ship of a broken marriage.  You may be in the sinking ship of unsatisfied career choice.  You find yourself in a  sinking ship of your life!

What I realize is that an ocean liner takes time, even years to build.  It is not an overnight project, but a lifetime endeavor.  Building an ocean liner is not something that one man can build alone, heck even Moses had the help of his sons.   Building an ocean liner takes a team of people to dedicate their time and energies and life to make it happen.

My hope is that you will become a part of the S.S. Hope.  My hope is that you will join as a passenger in finding hope through changing your own life, through a physical, emotional, and mental transformation.  My hope is that you will find this ocean liner to be a place of refuge, a place of inspiration and place of motivation.  A boat of hope!  If that is you, the S.S. Hope is now boarding.

Some of you will choose to be join the crew of the boat of hope.  You will sign up to be a coach and share hope and help to those in need.  You will join because you know that all of us can do more than one of us.  You will join because you recognize people need hope.  You will join because you have been a passenger on the boat and found your own hope.  You will join this crew because you believe in the mission of offering hope to people!  You will join because you know that one single row boat does not have the capacity to bring the change that needs to happen!  If that's you, then we want you on board as part of our crew!

The S.S. Hope is now in production.  The S.S. Hope will soon be boarding. The S.S. Hope is a place for you!