Do you need a coach?

“Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin’ and preachin’ were a lot alike.” ~ Bear Bryant, Famed University of Alabama football coach

To answer the first question we have to answer another question, what is it to coach?  A coach is part inspiration, part motivation, part good cop, part bad cop.  A coach is friend and at times seems like an enemy.  A coach is someone who betters you in specific area and pushes you past the limits you have set for yourself.  

So the second question is "do you need a coach?"  Yes!  

If you "sport" of choice is public speaking, then you need a coach to help you with diction, word choice, pronunciation and delivery.

If you choose business, then motivational leaders like John Maxwell, Seth Godin and Ken Blanchard may coach you from the sideline of your life through books and articles or podcasts.


If you are a culinary artist, then you will find yourself under the tutelage of a master chef who will coach you in the finer ways slicing and sauteeing and saucing.  

Health and fitness or weight loss are no different.  You need a coach to instruct you, encourage you, inspire you, motivate you and keep you focused on the goals you have set.  A coach is someone who has a heart for fitness and a heart to see you succeed.  A coach is someone with a personal story of struggle, success and overcoming.  A coach is someone just like you.  

You need a coach because there will be question you need answers to.  You need a coach because you will hit a plateau and need to know how to break through.  You need a coach because let's face it, getting healthy, weight loss, getting fit is HARD to do on your own.  You need a coach because you have no idea what the heck quinoa!  

I want to be your health and fitness coach.  Whether it is ten pounds or 100 pounds, I want to be here for you.  Whether it's get skinny or getting big, I want to help you through.  Whether it is beating diabetes or just beating down your waistline, I am the guys who wants to help you succeed.  Do you need a coach?  Absolutely!  And I'm want to be that guy!

When you need to exercise

There are a lot of moments when you look into the mirror and say "I need to exercise".  Here is my list of times:

1) When you are frustrated.
2) When you are angry.
3) When you are happy.
4) When you are sad. 
5) When you are healthy.
6) When you are trying to improve your health.
7) In the morning.
8) In the afternoon.
9) In the evening.
10) With friends.
11) When you are alone.


These are just few...I would love it if you would add yours in the comment section.

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!!

Day #11 A Plan

Do you know you are going to eat tomorrow?  Most of us do not know what our next meal is.  Having a food plan keeps you on track and less likely to get your hand into something that you are going to regret.  Part B of that whole concept is to stick to that plan.

I had my food planned out today for lunch.  And then it happened.  I thought what a great partner to my vegetable shop but some tortilla chips from Qdoba that were in our break room.  Halfway through my lunch I punch my foods into MyFitnessPal app only to find out my expected amount of calories on my lunch had just doubled...that's right doubled.  My serving of chips that I assumed were about 120 calories were 250. YIKES!

Now 130 extra calories is not the end of the world.  Yet it was a failure to stick to my plan that cost me the extra.  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me...What I and you need to make sure is that we don't get fooled into extra calories by not A. failing to plan out meals in advance and B. fail to stick to the food plan you set out.

Knowledge is POWER, but only when that knowledge dictates and determines your behavior.  PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!  Stick to that PLAN!

EXERCISE:
Insanity - Pure Cardio

Day #5 Just Ask

"I can do it myself..."  at least that is what I always seem to try to convince myself.  In reality it is not a confidence in my own abilities to act like that, but more my fear of asking for help.  Maybe you are like me and would rather suffer through, struggle, and face defeat rather than suck it up and ask someone for help. It is not even that I don't want help or that I believe that I don't need it...the struggle comes in asking.

Sometimes fear sets in.  What will they think if I ask?  How will they respond?  Will they see me as weak?  These question flood us (or just me) and handicap me from getting the help I need, whether in weight loss or business or finances or just life.  Our character traits spill over into every area of our life.  So if you struggle with asking for help in general, what I know is that you are not going to go to someone and say "help me lose the weight."  How do I know this?  Because I am that guy, who struggled and struggle and refused to ask anyone for help.   I wrote earlier this week about how support creates success.  But you will never get the support you need if you don't ask.  I finally asked.  I went to a friend who had reached out to me about Beachbody and I said I need to help to get to the goals I have.

While I am less than perfect at asking, as matter of fact, still learning to ask for the things I want and need.  I am getting better.  Our first step to reaching the goals we set might be as simple as asking someone to help.  If you have health and weight loss goals, here is an open hand extended.  Just ask for help...

MEALS:
Breakfast: Egg with 2% pepperjack cheese on 10 grain Brownberry toast, medium Red Delicious apple - total cal - 275
Snack #1: Chocolate Shakeology, frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup skim milk w/ ice and water - 270
Lunch: 5oz of tuna with spicy brown mustard and sweet relish, baby carrots, banana, 10 grain Brownberry bread - 378
Snack #2: 6 sourdough pretzel nuggets, Brownberry toast with Wholly Guacamole, baby carrots - 290
Dinner: Lean Turkey sausage link, potato, onion and green pepper pan fried - 335
Total Calories: 1548

EXERCISE: 
Les Mills Combat HIIT Plyo Shock - or in other words 30 minutes of pain and agony!!!

Day #4 Determination and Big Things

*Disclaimer - I told you from the start this was half health and fitness and half emotional well being.  I got a feeling today is a little more emotional well being.

I weighed in this morning was down 3.1 pounds.  Not bad work for three days.  Most of that is shedding the junk I consumed over the week I was home in Illinois.  But as I have dug a little deeper inside what I also realize is I have a satisfaction level for small things in my life.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in celebrating little wins.  My issues is being settle with little wins.  Settling for little wins and then stopping which is more dangerous.  What this really drives at is belief that I deserve big things.  I deserve a better paying job, I deserve to have the life I want, I deserve to lose the weight and have the body I want, I deserve to have a great Beachbody business.  It is this core belief that triggers determination inside of us to go work like crazy to achieve those things.

I don't believe, just because you believe you deserve something that it is automatic.  Although, our achievement bone is directly connected to our thinking bone.  In short you have to believe that you can achieve and overcome obstacles in order to have the determination to do that.  Here are my goals:

1) Weigh 170 pounds by April 1st

2) Reach Diamond Status Coach with Beachbody by Summit in June

There are some other personal, financial and emotional goals that I have set for myself that I won't bore you with.  Here is the crux of today, I have to believe that I am worth good things and big things.  I am worth the goals I have set.  If I believe then I will keep my eyes on the prize and push through to reaching those.

Thanks for taking this journey with me!

MEALS:

Breakfast - total calories: 315
Snack #1 - total calories: 270
Lunch - total calories: 380
Snack #2 - total calories: 340
Dinner - total calories: 225

Total Calories: 1530

EXERCISE:
Les Mills Combat LIVE 30

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!

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

46th in the nation...

Way to go Kentucky...the state celebrated an amazing athletic accomplishment in April, an 8th NCAA National Championship in basketball.  While another banner is hung in Rupp Arena, the state of Kentucky ranks 46th in the United States in least OBESE states.  An estimate is that over 31% of the state is obese.
An USA Today article says that by 2030 the United States as a whole will be somewhere close to 40% obese.

Maybe that does not alarm you, maybe you look at that number and say oh, well that can't be me.  That is what I thought.  I was overweight, yes.  Heavy, yeah okay.  Obese, not me.  Obesity is measured on the BMI scale.  If your Body Mass Index is over 30% you are considered obese.  Let me give you my numbers at 5'9" and 218 lbs, I was at a BMI of over 32% (besides looking like a pregnant man).

Check for yourself...what is your BMI.

1)  If you find yourself needing to make a change. I want to help you do that.

2) If you find yourself wanting to be a part of helping others make a change.  I want to help you do that.

Join Team Beachbody in our goal to end the trend of obesity!!!!  The Revolution Has Begun!!!

Follow Through

My brain has a funny way of taking little bits of information and turning them into life lessons.  My middle child, who is about 8, is all boy.  Slightly bull in a China shop meets a solid rock.  When he shuts the door, he SHUTS the door.  It is not simply a push to create momentum to get the door to the latch so that it catches.  No it is a full on SLAM.  Hand on the door all the way through until the latch catches and the whole car shakes...

So what does my son shutting the door have to do with you and me and our journey to getting healthy...well simply these words "Follow Through".  My son doesn't just do enough to get the door shut.  He finishes it!  He pushes til the point that he knows that door is going to close.  Where most give a passing push, he gives all he's got everytime.

Most of us give it all for a short while or we start off out of the gate quick, but fail to finish.  I have been known to get all jacked up to begin something -- whether that be eating healthy, an exercise program, or even a new book -- then get half way through and fail to follow through.  In an our efforts to achieve the health and fitness that we desire, we have to keep giving the same effort we gave at the start.

Here some ways to keep you following through on those commitments:

1) Set goals and make it a priority to reach them.  This might be an amount of pounds, level of fitness or a specific program like a race.

2) Community and Accountability.  While not impossible, it quite a bit more difficult to do on your own.  To make eating healthy a lifestyle change in your house everyone in the house must agree.  One person cannot bring kale chips and the other person bring french fries.  To achieve best results it is essential to find the nutrition support as well as partners in fitness.

3) Find mental strength.  Your mind will tell you to quit long before your body is ready.  Your mind will tell you to skip a workout.  Your mind will tell you to stop, that it is okay.  That is when you have to find that inner voice that say "bring it" or "dig deeper" or "push harder" or "one more".  You have to find the voice that pushes you to be louder than the voice that tells you to quit!

Finish!  Follow through!  Push that door until it's shut!