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.

You'd Think I'd Know By Now

The number 1 lesson in health and fitness is this "you cannot out exercise a poor diet."

I know this, I have taught others this and I have experienced it's truth -- on both sides of the success scale.

So you think I would have perfected this lesson.  You would think that I would not struggle with this.

Where I don't struggle is exercise.   I have no issue lacing up the sneaks for a 5 mile run, pushing play on Insanity or Focus T25.  Exercise is not the issue...food at times is.  I at times playfully play this off that there is a 10 year old inner fat kid that wants to be fed who lives inside me.  While just a joke there is some truth to this thought.  Here is why I am maybe you struggle this nutritional lesson:

1) I eat my feelings

Food has been and at times is my coping mechanism.  Stress enters my life and so does pizza, Oreos and any carbohydrate within arms reach.  Remember that 10 year old boy I said lives inside, he comes to life when my stress levels rise.  Stress sends a flight or fight survival response to our brain, so my survival skill is to load up on food like a bear going into hybernation.

2) I didn't know

While not true now, this has been a reason for a long time.  Simply, I did not know what a correct portion looked like.  As Americans, our sense of portions are way out of whack. Bigger has always been better!  If you go out for a meal,what you are getting most times is the equivalent to 2 to 3 meals.

A second piece to the portion puzzle is a balance of nutrition.  The what I eat was out balance between proteins, carbohydrates, veggies, fruits and good fats.  One of the tools that really brought this to light was the 21 Day Fix.  This is a program that has really helped me understand balance and portion control.  (Now just to put it into practice consistently).

3) Feeling Left Out

Food is a social commodity.  We gather, we eat and eat some more.  It is hard to be the outsider who ate a salad before attending an event.  Food is placed before us at nearly every social event I would attend.  Bagels at church, cookies at the school function, hot dogs at a cookout.  It is a difficult decision to stare down a Snickerdoodle and turn the other way.  Plus, food and beverages actually tend to make us more comfortable in social situations.

How do I respond?

As REO Speedwagon sang, "I can't fight this feeling anymore."  I have to learn better response to my stress.  I am a novice runner, but find that getting away and hitting the pavement with music pulsing in my ears is one way to be the stress.  If you are like me, you will have to find a way to battle fat kid inside that wants to emotionally eat.  You have to be stronger.  You have to find alternatives and healthier ways to deal with stress and emotions.

Measure.  I know it sounds annoying, but it will get easier with time.  I measure my portions.  Plus, I only take what I am going to eat.  So when I pack a lunch, I only take exactly what I am eating.  Don't leave it to guess work.  Secondly, our family does best when meals are planned.  Plus, then I have an answer to that one single question I will be asked til I have an answer "What's for dinner?"  Taking the guess work out will keep you from snacking before a meal.

This is the tough one.  It requires you to be weird.  It requires you to say no.  It requires you to push against the norm.  If dining out decide on a healthy options and stick to your guns.  If you can order first.  Studies have shown that the rest of the group is more likely to change their mind based on what the first person ordered.  Say no.  You might feel like you are being offensive, but you have goals and a plan.  You can say no with a smile!  That softens the blow.

Who do you win the battle of eating to match your fitness?  Post your comments below.

6 Reasons to Stay Home

We know the terms like gym rat or gym junkie.

We know the people – bulking up guy grunt, princess pink on a slow walk on the treadmill, weird creepy guy just walking around talking to everyone. 

We know what gyms have to offer.  There are some great fitness centers and gyms here in Lexington and I am sure in the city where you live.  And gyms and fitness centers do a great job at helping people get results.  Yet, we also know or have been that person who buys a gym membership, pays monthly and never goes.  The alternative to hitting the gym is pushing play at home.

 So here is the question I want to pose, why workout at home?  Here are 6 reasons: 

• No drive time.  When I was going to the gym I would get up early, drive 15 minutes across town just to get to the place that I was going to run on a stationary treadmill for 30 minutes.  Then drive 15 minutes back home.  So it adds up that I spent an hour to get in a 30 minute workout.  Bad math!
•  Your own shower.  This mostly applies to those of us that get our workout done first thing in the morning before we go to the office.  While the shower smells like that funky fresh cleaning stuff,  I am not sure how clean it is.  Factor in shaving for us guys and hair drying, curling, crimping and product necessary for the ladies, this is just done better from the comforts of our own vanities.
• The equipment battle.  This is the 10 minutes you spend on that “one” machine  working a muscle group that you are not sure exists because the exercise machine or the equipment you want to use someone else is on.  So you kind of put in effort all the while ready to sprint to that machine once that person gets off.
•  Any time.  Here is what I love about my home based workout programs, it is always open!  I have a world-class fitness expert available on my schedule.  I pop in a DVD and press play and I get step by step instruction on an amazing workout.  No need to schedule a time with a personal trainer.  I have several on standby.
• Gymtimidation.  One of the fitness companies coined this term about the all the grunt, mirror posing meathead and dolled up princesses at the gym that emotionally detract us from wanting to enter the doors.  At home, you get to come as you are.  And fall dead on the floor of your own house after you get your rear handed to you in a great workout.  There is no Barbie in corner or Arnold in the front of the mirror flexing. Just you focused on you.
•  Something for everyone.  What I love particularly about Beachbody and the array of programs is that there is something for all fitness levels.  If you want dance off the pounds, we got that.  If you want to punch and kick your way to fit, we got that.  If you want to get INSANE results, we got that too.  If you have not worked out since your senior year gym class in the 70’s, we got something for that too.  Beachbody has put together an amazing collection of fitness programs that deliver results and help you reach your goals.

I still hit the gym from time to time.  I will still pop into a fitness class.  But for me the time saved, the schedule flexibility, the options I have and level of training I get, I will keep pushing play at home!

The Measure of Success

We have all stood there.  We put in a great week of work.  We watched and tracked what we ate.  And then the scale reads....no change!!!!  This is when we start with the explicatives...

Don't get discouraged.  Let's take a look at what we are truthfully measuring as success.  While most of us have a number we want to see on the scale, our goal should be more about living a healthy and fit life.  Still, you want to see the numbers move.  But when they don't, lets look at the what else we can measure to see if we are being successful.

- Body Measurements
We have all seen the picture of 1 pound of fat versus 1 pound of muscle.   So I won't re-post that viral image.  But measuring your body let's you know where the change is happening.  So when the scale doesn't move, take a look at where you are losing.

Measure these areas: chest, waist, arms, legs, hips and neck.  Compare those numbers and look to see where change is happening.  I recommend measuring every two weeks.

- Clothing Test
This is simple enough, how are those clothes fitting?  Are you noticing a difference?  In honestly, we all have those "skinny" pants hanging in the closest.  Check and see how those are fitting.

-Before and Afters
We look in the mirror everyday.  We see ourselves everyday.  There is an incredible visual evidence in comparing side by side pictures of yourself.  These are best done either every 2 weeks or every month.  Take front poses, profile poses, back poses, and one where you flex those guns!

-The "DANG" wat cho been doin' effect
 Sometimes other people take notice when we don't.  So take the compliment and share what you have done to reach those amazing results!

So when the scale is not going the right way, measure these other areas to find success!

Letupicitis the dream killer

It is a common disease that strikes many quickly and suddenly.

It has destroyed the strongest of men and the bravest of women.

It is a silent, decimating killer.

It's Letupicitis!  Commonly known as quitting, letting up, slowing down, pulling back and backing down.

It is the moment you taste the start of success in your goals and instead of hitting the gas you "let up".  It the day you step on the scale to see you have dropped 3 pounds and reward yourself with a Big Mac and a day off, instead of pushing play.  It is the moment after you have posted your third blog of the week and decide to cool the keys and wait on inspiration.

Letupicitis is rooted in the bacteria of disbelief.  It is contracted on the microbe of a poor self perception and spreads on the virus of a poor self perception.

It is known as the dream killer disease.  It slowly infects the dreamer and keeps him/her from pushing past barriers to new levels.  At one point or another we will all contract this silent killer of imagination, passion and conviction.  If you let it, it will infect your heart and keep your from achieving the dream you set out to.

Know the symptoms, recognize the signs, and push past letupicitis!  

New Years 2014!

Happy New Year!

As you awake this morning, it is a morning like any other, but then again it's not.  Today is New Years Day.  A day of fresh starts, clean slates and declaring what you will accomplish in the next 365 days.  So here are my 3 resolutions for 2014:

1) Be an encourager of others dreams.  
- Zig Ziglar says if you help enough people get where they are going, they will help you get where you're going.

2) Become a goal getter, not just a goal setter.  
- I am setting goals, dates, and putting together plans.

3) Become healthy on the inside, not just the outside.
- What is inside of us will spill out to the outside.  No amount of diet and exercise will heal hurts and help souls.

These are my resolutions for the New Year, what are yours?

Here's to a amazing and blessed 2014!

4 Tips to Picking the Right Workout

So you are ready to start...but where do you start.  Here are 4 tips to think about when picking the right exercise and fitness program for you.

1) Pick something you LIKE to do.

If you like cardio, do cardio.  If you like to hike, hike! Running your thing, go run Forrest! It is important to find a program, a schedule or workout that you enjoy.  If you enjoy your exercise regime, there is a greater likelihood of you dragging your rear end out of bed to do it.  Pick something you like to do.  Pick something that you look forward to doing.

2) Pick a program that MATCHES your goals.

If you are trying to lose weight, then the program you are doing needs to match that goal.  You want to add mass, than you need to workout in a way that adds muscle mass.  Your goals and your program need to match.  This will prevent discouragement because you will actually get the results you are looking for.

3) Pick a program that fits your ability.

The worst thing you can do is take on more than you can handle.  This often results in either injury or be overwhelmed and quitting.  Make sure that what you choose to do matches what you are capable of doing.  Now this is not permission to not push yourself to your fullest potential.  Yet, understand that you need a program that is aligned with your capabilities at the current moment.

4) Pick a program that fits your lifestyle.

If you don't have 2 hours a day to go to the gym, than a fitness program that requires 2 hours a day will never work for you.  This is not a excuse for you not to workout or leverage the "I don't have time" excuse.  Yet, you need to have an understanding of what fits into your schedule.  There are plenty of great programs that are 25 or 30 minutes and get results.  Or if you have an hour, find a program that goes a whole hour!  Just make sure what you chose will continue to fit into your lifestyle.

The greatest tip I can give is just to pick something.  Get moving, get started, and start seeing results!

Counting calories counts

Darren Hardy in his book The Compound Effect talks about the challenge of paying attention to the small details.  He poses the question how much more likely are you to reach your goal weight if you counted every bite, crumb, scrap of food you put in your mouth.  That bite of cereal, the "dad tax" bite off your kids plate, the little "taste" of this unbelievable dessert.

Oftentimes, those are the calories we forget.  No, I am not trying exaggerate here and saw that your little nibble is what is keeping from your goals.  But enough nibbles during a day will add up.  The challenge is to track every calorie that we take in, in order to create a calorie deficit for that day.  The complex idea of weight loss has a simple formula, burn more calories than you take in.  Now there are many other factors, but a great starting point to achieving weight loss is to do the math -- count calories!

There are some great tools that make this even more convenient:

MyfitnessPal

SparkPeople

LiveStrong -- save the Lance jokes.  It is still a useful tool.

plus many more in the App Store or Google Play for your smartphone.  Which leads me to this point, all these calorie counters you can take with you.  No EXCUSES for not keeping track!  So do it!  I want you to have a beach ready BEACHBODY!  Do the work, eat right, and keep track!!

Another Reason WHY

This weekend our family took a short getaway to Caribbean Cove Hotel and Waterpark in Indianapolis.  The waterpark was your typical indoor facility with kiddie area, activity area, lazy river and 3 water slides.

My youngest child is my little diva.  She is 5 years old and working on 15 most days.  It took me a little convincing, a couple dollars cash to get her down that first waterslide, but once she did...it was I could do to keep up.

Here is a little perspective, the waterslides stand 40 feet up in the air, 4 stories high, 4 stories of steps...multiplied by the enthusiasm of a 5 year old girl who kept saying "daddy, one more time."  Every one more time meant picking up our bright yellow intertubes, lugging it up those 4 stories of steps, to sit her down on that tube and give her smiling face a push down that slide.

It was just 7 seconds of bouncing and bumping down that yellow tube on that air inflated tube to get to the bottom of the pool only to find her their soaked by water but having the time of her life.  And then those words "one more time" was reason enough to pick up that tube and travel up those 4 flights of stairs one more time.

There is a difference between being a dad and being an "active" dad. Being an active dad means not sitting on the sideline and watching them slide, but traveling along side them down the slides of the journey.  It has been a journey for me to lose the weight, get healthy and get fit.  But days like yesterday make it worth it.  Worth every step, worth every slide down, worth every water soaked smile on her face.  Just one more reason why I am stay healthy!

I ate my feelings and...

In our continued stream of thinking along nutrition and my continually belief that confession is good for the soul...I am an emotional eater.

When it rains, it pours highly carbohydrated snack foods in a Noah's Ark style flood.  In order for me to achieve the success of my goal weight and maintain that healthy, the one thing I have to find control over is my emotional eating.  I tend to eat when the stresses of life become overwhelming.

So here are 3 alternatives to eating my weight in snack foods:

1) Workout - pop in a DVD and sweat it out.  Pushing my physical fitness and releasing endorphin keeps me from binging.

2) Run - while similar to working out, running allows me to put my body on cruise control and engage my mind in some thinking and processing.  It gives a chance to escape to another place (both physically and mentally) and avoid the snacks.

3) Laugh - The proverb says that laughter is good medicine.  Being able to find humor in laugh is healthy.  While whatever the situation was may not have be funny at all, there is plenty in life to find laughter in.  So laugh, smile, and take your hands away from the sweets and salty.

I have not perfected being an overcomer of emotional eater.  I am working on it.  I try to use these alternatives to stuffing my face.  In an honest reflection, I really don't feel any better by eating.  While I satisfy my taste buds, I upset my belly and worse really don't emotionally feel any better.  (SAD FACE)

Day #17 3 Things Winners Don't Do

In a follow up to the post about what winners do, here are three things winners don't do.

1) Quit - Winners never, ever give up.  They break, the crumble and at times are crushed.  But they never, ever quit.  Pain and struggle are temporary speed bumps on the road to succeeding.  These should not be walls that keep us from our goal, but simply serve as obstacles we fight hard to overcome.  DON'T QUIT!

2) Blame Others - The affirmative of this is that winners take personal responsibility.  Their situation is never someone else's fault.  Their weight struggle is not blamed on DNA or genes.  The inability to lose weight has nothing to do with what everyone else in their life is doing.  Your life situation is not the fault of someone else!  A winner takes responsibility for themselves!

3)  Half A$$ IT - A winner gives everything, every time.  A winner puts their foot to the pedal and steps on it.  50% is not going to get you the results you want.  75% is not going to get you to your goals.  You have got to give 100% and then give something more.  DIG DEEPER ala Shaun T!  DO YOUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST ala Tony Horton!  Give your all, all the time!

You have the ability to win!!!!  Now GO WIN!!

Day 7 - Finding Insanity

To rest or not to rest was the question of the day.  I chose not to rest. As a matter a fact did something on the far opposite end, Insanity. Now I believe that rest in your exercise routine is essential.  It allows the fatigued muscles to rest, restore and rebuild. Don't short change yourself on rest.

Rest is an interesting idea.  It is Biblical principle as foretold in the creation story.  It is cultural principal based in our 5 day work week.  Yet, it something we probably don't do enough of.  We live in noisy, loud, busy, overwhelming worlds.  We have demanding schedules for ourselves and for our children.  The one thing we probably don't do enough of or do properly is rest.

Where I am now focusing my attention is improving my productivity.  If you are productive in your working time then what you have freed up is time to rest.   I am personally working through Chalene Johnson's 30 day push challenge.  It is a 30 video based personal development on being organized and efficient...leaving time for rest.

If you life has been life mine typically when you go looking for rest all your find is insanity!

MEALS:  (just the calories)
Breakfast: 383 (I did treat myself to French Vanilla creamer in my coffee)
Lunch: 370
Snack 1: 315 made my Shakeology with Silk Fruit and Protein.  SO GOOD!!!
Dinner: 360
Snack 2: 360

EXERCISE:
Insanity Cardio Resistance and Power...sweaty is mess!

Day 2 - Don't Call It a Come Back

LL Cool J has the hit lyric "don't call it a come back, I have been here for years" from the track Mama Said Knock You Out.  LL was proclaiming his inner belief in himself despite lacking radio success he had never really gone anywhere.

Even when no one else believes you are making progress, you have to believe.  I know I am not alone when I say for some of us out there the person we aim to please the least is the person in the mirror.  So finding inner strength and belief to drive us to success is possibly the most difficult strength to find.

Inside us lies a 16 year old kid who believed he could do about anything still lies inside of me.  I am just trying to tap into him a little in order to push past the current visual of who I am to reach the me I am trying to become.  Don't call it a comeback...

MEALS:
Breakfast - 100% whole wheat english muffin, 1 egg, 1 pc turkey bacon, 1 pc pepperjack cheese and 1 banana - Total Cal 335

Meal #2 - Chocolate Shakeology, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup skim milk, ice and water - Total Cal 275

Lunch - 5oz can of tuna with mustard, 1 pc 100% whole wheat, sugar free bread, baby carrots, apple Total Cal - 335(ish)

Dinner - Tilapia with worcheshire and lemon pepper, green beans, banana, 1 pc whole wheat bread Total Cal - 365

Snack #2 - Red delicious apple, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter  - Total Cal 270
Daily - 1580 Total Calories

Exercise:
Les Mills Combat HIIT Power - Consider this a Insanity/P90x hybrid style workout.  Lots of legs, lots of upper body, lots of calories!

Day 1 - Revenge of the Sugar Cookies

Starting Weight: 184.8  BMI 26.45 and the annoying sound of my Wii Fit telling me I am overweight!  Great start to a Monday!

I had intentionally avoided scales the last 3 weeks knowing my weight was on a steady climb. But the miniature voice in the Wii this morning as a stepped on the scale is motivation enough as it declared I was overweight.  Honestly, I did workout 6 days last week, but the week before was a steady diet of Christmas Sugar Cookies with my coffee filled with sweetly flavored creamer.  I guess they have taken their revenge.  It is now time to fight back...good bye sugar cookie belly.

Breakfast: 1 piece sugar free whole wheat toast, egg with pepperjack cheese, 1 pc turkey bacon, medium banana - Total Cal: 325

Meal #2 - Shakeology Chocolate, Banana, 1/2 cup skim milk, ice & water - Total Cal.  300(ish)

Lunch - 5 oz tuna with mustard, medium apple, baby carrots (raw), medium green pepper - Total Cal 265

Snack - medium apple and 2 tbsp natural peanut butter - Total Cal 230

Dinner - 1 skinless chicken leg, baked potato (plain), steamed broccoli about 1 1/2 cup - Total Cal 310

Late Night - Banana and baby carrots raw - Total Cal 125
Daily total calories:  1,555

In honest reflection, I did resist some temptations (um, pizza) and also had the urge to emotionally eat to which I choose carrots.  Now it is not the sugar sweet cereal I wanted, but a much smarter choice.

Exercise - Les Mills Combat 30 minute kick start

**Before picture taken and will be posted later in the week!

It is all about me!

I know that sounds selfish, but sometimes you have to be!

There are days I set an alarm to workout just to snooze through it until I have left myself just enough time to avoid my exercise routine.  Just being honest!  There are other days I workout out of an obligation to my role as a Beachbody Coach, because I know you are watching me.  But there are days that put in my DVD, push play and sweat it out just because I want to, just for me.

Maybe one of the greatest lessons I am learning and want to share with you is that if you take this journey of health and fitness do it for one reason and one reason alone, FOR YOU!  If you are sweating and working for the approval of someone else, then you are working for the wrong reasons.  If you are sweating and working to get someone else's attention, then you are working for the wrong reasons.  But if you are sweating your guts off because you want to make a difference in YOU, then you are working for the right reasons.

What I have learned is that if you do it for any reason other than for the yourself, then you will eventually quit.  While changes may garner more attention that attention is not as fulfilling as feeling good about who you are.  While your new shape make gain you approval, that approval will never be as fulfilling as being happy with who you are.  Each day as you push play and become drenched in perspiration find fulfillment in who you are becoming.  Know that it is a journey you are on and each day brings you closer to your goal of becoming the You  that YOU desire to be.  Do it for YOU and nobody else!

6 pounds in 30 days

In June I roasted through Insanity, shedding a total of 17 pounds in the process.  I hit an all-time adult low of 171.8 pounds.  I was fit, healthy and feeling great.  In a moment of honest confession, my fitness and nutrition have been "okay".  I have picked us some running again, working through p90X at about 60% of the workouts, missing from time to time. My focus has lacked on reaching my own personal health and fitness goals.  I am in good shape, but have yet to hit great shape.

So I am challenging myself and asking you to hold me accountable to it.  Today is Day 0 of my 6 pounds in 30 day challenge.  I weighed in at 175.5 pounds, 6 pounds breaks that barrier of 170 pounds.  There is nothing special about the number 170, other than the tens have been my walls that I have needed to break through.  While nothing significant physically, 170 means a whole lot mentally.  Seeing 6 after the will indicate a level of fitness and health that I have yet to see as an adult.  It will be payment for working my "gut" off the next 30 days!

I am giving you permission to check in on me -- ask me about my workouts, my nutrition and diet, ask me anything!  My commitment to you is to be honest, to post regularly via youtube videos - (www.youtube.com/karch46mu) and posts on my facebook like page -- www.facebook.com/AFitterYou.

So join me, follow me, watch me change...my Thanksgiving thanks will be for all the support I have got to get this done.  If you are willing to be my encouragement and my accountability partner in this, I would love for you to leave me a comment below!

Thanks in advance!

Jeff Pitts

Changed Lives...become the change

The Thin Line

Let's face it, weight is an emotional thing.  Scale goes up were sad.  Scale goes down were happy.  As much as we would like to reduce it down to just numbers -- number of calories taken in, number of minutes burning those calories off -- what we cannot separate are the emotions of our weight.

With all that in mind, then what we have to strive to overcome is letting our emotions control our behaviors.  In all honesty, if I am having a bad day, there is a mechanism that will pick up any food that is put in front of me and put it in my mouth.  Sometimes this is a conscious decision, other times it is a sub-conscious reflex to my emotions.  I have realized I am not the only one who is an emotional eater.

I have also learned that when I exercise and push my physical limits there is an emotional connection to that as well.  I feel accomplished, satisfied, and actually a sense of happiness.  Exercise is euphoric.  Now I will say this, there are many days at the start of my workout that I don't feel joy or happiness, but that is where choice comes in.  And choice is that thin line that keeps us emotionally attached to the number on the scale.

I have come to a better emotional state when it comes to the scale based on these simple facts:

1) I have eaten in a way that feeds my body what it needs.
2) I have exercised in a way that has push my body to it's physical limits.
3) That I am not defined by that number, but being refined into a healthier person.

Don't let the thin line become a dictator of your behavior.  Overcome those emotions driven by the number you see.  Choose to win.  Win with your food, win with your exercise, win with your attitude.

The Fat Kid Inside...

While I was active and athletic as a kid, I was also quite a "chubbs".  Losing and gaining weight is a matter of math - burn more calories than you take in.  I had no issue burning calories as a kid, but had a greater love for taking them in.  End result: a chubby, athlete.

Inside me is still that "fat kid".  The internal battle I face is the same as it was at 12 years old, now with the metabolism of a 35 year old man.  Like a magnetic force I am drawn to Chinese buffets, sweet tea, pizza parties and holiday feasts.  Like a drunk with his bottle, I never know when to put down the plate.  It is always just one more piece of chicken, one more serving of potato salad, one more...won't kill me.  True enough one more won't, but a life of one mores will.

I have spent the past three years is essence overcoming the inner fat kid.  My journey to a healthier and fitter lifestyle faced many challenges, but the greatest one was controlling my food intake and my desire for food.  Inside still lies that 12 year old kid who longs to shove his face full of whatever is in front of him.  The desire still lies deep inside me so as to win the war on weight comes by beating that "inner fat kid".

A couple of tips to beat the inner fat kid:

1)  Control what you can control:  Bring your lunch to work instead of ordering out; put proper servings on you plate; serve from the stove and not from the table, this prevents from picking more. The more you can control the food, the better your chance of not over indulging.

2) Eliminate piece by piece:  starting changing things out little by little, change from sweet tea to unsweet tea or soda to water.  Little changes start to add up.  Begin cutting back on sodiums, butters and little things that add calories to vegetables or proteins that naturally full of flavor.

3) Say NO:  it takes will power but walk past the doughnuts, the cookies, the sweets that open the abyss of endless snacking.

4) Don't buy it:  because the kids like it is not an excuse ti keep it in the house.  If it is not available, you won't eat it.

Win the war on the inner fat kid and win the war on weight!

The Most Powerful Word

As you launch out into your journey to a fitter you, one of things you will notice a shift in your language.  You will use expressions like "dig deeper" or "you can do this" and everyone's favorite "NO".  Really, no?  Yes!

You will have to use the word NO in place of "sure", "why not", "but I deserve it".  You will have to say "NO" to seconds or even firsts (of certain things).  No is not word of weakness, "no" is a word of strength.  "No" is powerful.  You see although it is a negative its power is found in the positive results.  When you say no to overeating or sugary sodas or high sodium, high fat foods you are really saying yes to things like health and wellness.  You are saying YES to those goals you are aimed at.

The word "NO" truly empowers you.  Although the first time or two may be difficult you will find it easier with each opportunity.  Use the word "NO" often enough and you will be at your goals quicker than you realize.