My why...the two things I want to do rest of my life

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.  

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.

* (the asterisk)

In the annals of sports history are *s.

They wanted to put one next to Roger Maris' 61 homeruns.

I would like to put one next to Barry Bonds 762 (for obvious reasons).

The asterisk is used to indicate that the record is somehow tainted by circumstance.  That something about that record is invalid or corrupt. (Hence my disdain for Barry Bonds 762 home runs).

I think in our journeys we place an asterisk by a lot of things.

"Well that one pound was just water weight." *
"It's easy to lose weight the first week."*
"It is only a few pounds." *

I think we are the biggest asteriskers of ourselves.  Instead of celebrating our successes, we find ways to discredit them.  Instead of recognizing ourselves for staying disciplined with our nutrition and fitness, we somehow consider our results tainted.

If you have lost 1 pound this week or 5 pounds this week and have done it the right way (fitness + nutrition), then celebrate that.  Don't hang an * on it with some lame excuse.  Feel good about the work you put in.  Raise your hands victorious like an Olympic champion (who tested negative for Perfomance Enhancing Drugs).

Don't * you results in the record of your success.  Whatever level of success you achieved you deserve it!

I Can Only Imagine

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

Walt Disney

A golfer will visualize there shot before hitting it.  A shooter in his mind has already made the free throw before it ever leaves his hand.  Award winning actors have rehearsed their winning speech hundreds of times before the movie was ever shot.  

That is the power and the fuel that comes with imagination.  The first steps toward success - in health and fitness, in business, in sports, really in any avenue of life - starts with the ability to believe you will be successful.

I have been given the gift of imagination.  I am creative.  I am one of those people that have unfiltered ideas of grandeur. My left handed self thrives in these moments.  I have written #1 songs.  I have penned the screenplay for the next Oscar Award winning movie.  I at one point starred in 13 straight All-Star Games and finally brought the World Series back to the Chicago Cubs.  (I told you I had a big imagination.)

So it leaves you asking, "Jeff, why have you not ..."

That answer is simple.  The power of the imagination gives the dream.  The athlete, artist or person has to believe in it.  They have to sell out to that dream.  It is one thing to see the impossible happening for a brief moment.  It is an entirely another to continue to see that dream as a reality despite set back, despite obstacle, despite failure.  

There is a story of Walt Disney's brother, Roy at the opening of Walt Disney World.  Prior to the opening Walt had passed away.  A guest at that grand opening said to Roy "what a shame Walt was not here to see it."  Roy's response "He already had."  The only way the Happiest Place On Earth ever came into existence was because one man in plane ride over some swamp land in Orlando, FL saw something that did not already exist.  And then pursued that something passion, fervor and tenacity.  

For me, it is not a problem to see swampland as the world's greatest amusement park.  I have the imagination for that.  My struggle is taking what I imagine and believing two things:

1) that I am able to bring the dream to reality

and 

2) that there are others who are willing and wanting to share in the dream.

While Walt gets the majority of the credit, others like Roy stood by him.  

So when I fly over the swampland of my life what do I see?  I see a guy with a successful Team Beachbody business impacting 1000's of lives.  I see a guy with the ability to take his family to the Happiest Place on Earth whenever.  I see a guy on a stage in front of thousands sharing a message of hope and change.  

What do you see for your life?  Maybe you imagine yourself 10 pounds lighter.  Maybe you imagine yourself debt free.  Maybe you imagine yourself wildly successful in your giftedness beyond what others believe.  

It is time for you and I to not only imagine,  but to come alive.  

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive. ~ Roy Disney

A Beachbody, A Struggle & The Heart of Father

As is my usual Saturday morning practice, I sit in the stillness of my bedroom while everyone else is a sleep pounding the keys of this computer and sipping my morning coffee.  Last weekend was a struggle...no coffee.  My intimate relationship of 8 years with my coffee pot was broken off last Friday.  Leaving me with just the computer and a less than warm bed.

The struggle spilled far beyond my caffeinated beverage that was missing into something more that needed to take place.  Like many Americans, we fight for every dollar we make.  The coffee pot was the icing on the financial cake of demanding weekend.  There was flag football to register for, there was a band trip to sign up for and there is a little girl who steals my heart and I want to give her everything.  Factor in the utility bill that tips in somewhere around the weight of NFL defensive lineman and we were face to face with a Dave Ramsey More Month than Money type situation.  And it was just not feasible to make all of them happen.

I am a husband and father first and foremost.  As was handed down to me from generations of husbands and fathers from the earliest of my ancestors who hunted and foraged the land for food, you have the responsibility to provide for your family.  You wear that pride as you would a bear skin coat that you killed and skinned with your own two hands.  You want to provide for their needs and give them their wants because they are great kids and deserve that.  You want to give them moments and memories and at times that costs money. So when as a dad you can't, it is like having your bear skin coat stripped from you!

I am by default an incredible dreamer.  On the filp side of the coin, I am terribly lousy and making dreams reality.  So after a conversation with a good friend, who also has a background in ministry, I realized you just don't walk into a $80,000 job anymore.  And if we are being honest, that number just begins to touch what it takes to raise 3 kids, pay for 3 college degrees and I hate to think about it, 3 weddings.  Last weekends big revelation through a broken coffee pot was that whatever it is I do for a "job" will always leave us short of the dreams we want.  Momma always asked if money grew on trees, there's no forest nearby if it does.

If you are reading this post by now you know I am a Team Beachbody coach, in short, I help people with their health and fitness.  No I don't have a six pack, in part due to the cup in my hand that is filled with creamer in my coffee.  I did not join to get ripped, just to improve me.  I joined to get healthy and that I am.  I also joined with the hope of helping others.  

Here is another truth that I know, my Beachbody business is not another "job".  While my day work has an income ceiling, my business doesn't.  While my 40 hour struggle could never mathematically take my family to Disney, my Beachbody business can.  While money may not grow on trees, I have the opportunity to invest in a garden that if tended properly will produce great fruit.  While the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel has always been there, I have often been reluctant to run towards it.  (There is a whole nother blog post to deal with that).  As a dad of 3 amazing kids, what I hold in my hands is opportunity.  Opportunity to not put limitations on our dreams.  Opportunity to provide for their everyday needs and some moments they will never forget.

What I have is an opportunity to end the struggle!

Seriously?

Seriously?

Every just start your day feeling that way.  I have a Saturday morning routine.  Get up, grab a banana, make some coffee, drink said coffee.  Today, my 7 year old coffee pot decided it had enough.  Routine ruined, morning ruined.

This got me thinking, how often do we let one set back, one poor food choice, one missed workout ruin our progress.  I am amazed how quickly I can spiral back to poor choices due to one small thing.  It's that thinking "oh, well, I didn't workout anyways.  Might as well eat a dozen cookies."  I hope you are not like me, because that is totally ME!  

Life is full of speed bumps that slow us down, but are not intended to bring us to a stop.  We just roll right over them and move on to the next point.  My hope is that you have kept moving forward past the speed bumps.  Rolled right past and on to bigger things.  

Yet, I also know that the speed bump, in our eyes, become insurmountable.  I heard a great illustration about momentum.  When a train engine is at a complete stop, it only takes a 2 inch peice of wood to that train at bay.  The difference of momentum is that when that train is rolling at even minimum speeds, that wood is no match for the train.  

The coffee pot is just a Saturday morning speed bump.  Don't let a little thing keep you from your goals!

Good Saturday Morning (even without coffee)

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!

Focus T25 Review

Beachbody, the world leader in home fitness, took it to a whole new level!  As a Insanity grad, I was anxious to try Shaun T's new program Focus T25.  While I loved, loved Insanity, that second month of workouts lasting up to an hour were physically demanding and tough to always squeeze into life.

So what excited me most about Focus T25 is that workouts were just 25 minutes, 5 days a week.  Fridays on the calendar are double workout days.  You can, if desired, move the second workout to Saturday and take just one rest day, instead of 2.  Included and to be used on the rest days is a 25 minute stretch video which will improve flexibility and stretching.

Now admittedly, I was a skeptic that just 25 minutes would deliver the results, but I know Beachbody does everything with excellence and would not put out a product that did not deliver the results.  And Focus T25 DID JUST THAT!

Here are my 10 week before and after photos.  I lost around 6 pounds but the proof is in the pudding, my body was totally transformed. I finally saw some abs show up.  My arms no longer looked like spaghetti and my overall shape was better than when I was 16 years old. In full disclosure, I was running on Sundays as well.  The weather was just too nice not to run.  

Why do I love it?  25 minutes, 5 days a week and results like this!  What's not to love?

The first 5 weeks is the ALPHA phase.  This is a building phase.  Workouts build on themselves, no equipment required and the bonus is the modifier.  A modifier is a person demonstrating a lower impact way to do the exercise and still get great results.  I saw a lot of fat loss during this first 5 weeks. 

The second phase is BETA.  BETA builds on ALPHA.  Some of the same exercises are carried over, now with increased intensity. Additionally, this phase will require some equipment either the resistance band included or dumbbells.  What I saw in this phase was increase muscle building, especially in the upper body.  

Here are the workouts included:

Your FOCUS T25 program includes:

ALPHA Cycle 25-Minute Workouts:

• Cardio. 25 minutes of calorie-burning, sweat-drenching cardio.
• Speed 1.0. Ignite your quickness. Burn the fat. Fast-paced for fast results.
• Total Body Circuit. Focus on strength and resistance—without lifting a single weight.
• Ab Intervals. Cardio and ab intervals that shred the fat from your midsection.
• Lower Focus. Focus on your lower-body muscles—the key to burning fat and kicking up your metabolism.

BETA Cycle 25-Minute Workouts:

• Core Cardio. Get your sweat on! This progressive cardio-core workout is about you getting shredded fast.
• Speed 2.0. Rev it up with Shaun's calorie-scorching, core-focused speed drills.
• Rip't Circuit. Cardio … upper body … legs … abs ... repeat! This is how you get ripped in 25 minutes.
• Dynamic Core. You'll go from vertical to horizontal and back again in this dynamic, crazy core routine.
• Upper Focus. Shaun will help you develop the upper body of your dreams. All you have to do is FOCUS.

Plus T25 Nutrition guide:

Meals are quick and easy to fix with just 5 ingredients in most meals!

Beachbody has an upgrade third phase called GAMMA.  GAMMA steps up the game one more level for increased results! 

This is perfect workout for everyone, even those just starting out on their health and fitness journey.  When put together with Shakeology you will get the results you desire!  

Are you ready to focus?

Les Mills Combat Review

Beachbody unveiled their second program from world renowned fitness trainer Les Mills -- Les Mills Combat.  Combat is an mixed-martial arts style home based fitness program that packs a punch!

Let me just get this out of the way, probably one of my favorite aspects of the program where the Aussie and New Zealand accents of the trainers Dan and Rach.  Okay, I said it!  

Now to the program.  The base kit came with 7 different workouts.  Five of them were primarily cardio based fighting workouts.  The workouts pull from several different areas of the world of martial arts including Muay Tai, kickboxing, karate, tae kwan do and traditional American boxing.  The mix of moves target your arms, shoulders, legs and core all the while peaking out your heart rate.  

In addition to the 5 fighting workouts, there are two HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts.  These work a blend of upper and lower body areas.  As well as targeting that core.  With these workouts, you will need a dumbbells, a weight plate or a resistance band could be used as well.  

What makes this program a great choice for any fitness level is the use of a modifier.  With every workout is one member of the cast reducing the impact of the moves but still maximizing the results you are going to get.  While not an incredibly difficult program, there is lots of challenge and delivers on the results.  

The calendar of the program is 10 weeks long (63 days) with a 6 day/1 rest day schedule.  The calendar is also modifiable for different fitness levels mixing in a longer workout for those looking to maximize their results.  Workouts range from 30 to 60 minutes.  There are also a couple upgrades that will include additional workouts and weighted gloves for increase results.  

Here is list of the workouts:

• LES MILLS COMBAT: THE BASICS. Master the techniques and mixed martial arts moves, guards, and stances you will use throughout all the LES MILLS COMBAT workouts.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 30: KICK START. A low-complexity but high-intensity workout, introducing you to the basic LES MILLS COMBAT combination moves.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 45: POWER KATA. This workout combines speed and power with cross-training for complete calorie scorching.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 60: EXTREME CARDIO FIGHTER. Challenge your endurance with a high-repetition sequence of moves that will have your muscles firing on all cylinders.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 60 LIVE: ULTIMATE WARRIOR'S WORKOUT. Upper body . . . legs and butt . . . core and cardio . . . this workout hits every muscle hard.
• LES MILLS COMBAT: POWER HIIT 1. High Intensity Interval Training uses short bursts of maximum effort followed by recovery to push you into muscle-conditioning overload.
• LES MILLS COMBAT: SHOCK PLYO HIIT 2. Uses propulsion exercises to improve athletic power and endurance, pushing you into peak performance mode.

I love the results I got !

The Speed of the Pack

Last the improbable happened...

Three Olympians from the same country captured Gold, Silver and Bronze in the same event - 500M Speed Skating.

While admittedly, I know little about speed skating other than these folks have the largest quad muscles I've ever seen, I do understand a key principle that makes this rare event more likely to have happened.  Certainly, this is not the first time these three men have been on the ice together.  For sure not, because two of them are twins. (Can someone say sibling rivalry?)  More than likely for some time these men have been training together, skating together and pushing one another.  The result - three Olympic Medals.

We have long been told by motivational speakers, personal development folks and even pastors that our success and rise (and fall) is built around those we spend the most time with.  I think this coronation is further proof of that.


In fitness you tend to run faster, lift more and work harder with a partner or group.
In business you compile the best of each person, pooling them together for further success.
In life you gather those around you that will not hold you back but propel you forward, push you to be the best version of you and elevate you to person you desire to be.

As the 3 Dutchman took their skate around the rink, hands raised, flag waived and tears being shed, I asked my son "why do you think all three from the same country won?"  His answer (as a typical 12 year old would say) "they were the fastest."

While on the money with his response, there is bigger lesson to be learned in how they became the fastest.  My theory is due to the speed of the pack.  The day one got faster it pushed the others to speed up.  If one got one one-hundreth faster, than the others had to work harder to get there. The synergy of the group created the three fastest men on ice last night and a crowning moment for the Netherlands.

I believe it was the power of WE and the speed of the pack that launched these men to the medal stand.  So who have you gathered around you to improve your speed, your business or your life?

Post your comments below.

Saw Rock City

I once heard John Maxwell say "Sometimes the place where we quit is on the edge of success."

I think a lot of us find ourselves at the edge of our lives -- the edge of our weight loss, fitness, business, relationships, career.  We stand face to face with quitting or continuing.  We are at the point of giving up or going on.  We are at an edge...

If you have ever been to Rock City in Chattanooga, TN you had the opportunity to walk out onto Lover's Leap.  Lover's Leap is a rock ledge that hangs out hundreds of feet over a valley below.  Off to one side is a waterfall crashing to valley floor.  If you look straight down it can be a frightening veiw point.  But if you look out aheaad you will have the opportunity to see something spectacular.  From that one piece of ground, you have the vantage point of seeing 7 different states.

What I have learned about health, fitness and even life is that we can either look straight over the edge at the potential fall or lookout over the possibilities.  If you are like me, your edges have caused you too often to quit.  The fear of the fall and overwhelming vision of what is immediately below captured my attention more than the great things that lie ahead.  If you simply look down, you never see Georgia, Alabama or the Carolinas.  Alll you see the potential fall...

We all come to the edge at some point.  The choice is yours...do you simply see the potential fall or can you see the great things that lie ahead?  I got my eyes set on what lies ahead!

Live with hope!

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!

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!  

Hustlers

I wish I had some huge success story about my Team Beachbody business taking off and making me a millionaire.  I don't, at least not yet.

So I enrolled myself in a little adventure with writer, blogger and fashionably smart Jon Acuff for a 30 day hustle marathon.  Clustered together are over 3000 individuals who are taking aim at a specific goal. Jon Acuff, New York Times Best Selling author and encourager of people wisely leaving behind their jobs for their passions, serves as the Skipper of a ship full of Gilligans.  Or at least this Gilligan.  My hope was simply to gain something that would help my business grow.

Admittedly, I have probably taken too much time to read through the posts rather than focus on my own hustle, what I have seen is that there is an abundance of people "hustling" to lose weight, get in shape and change their health.

While numbers are reported of the rising trend of obesity, that reality becomes a little more real when you start putting names and faces with it.  Attached to those names are personal, heartfelt and emotional stories of struggle.  Of weight lost and regained.  Of deep disappointment, coupled with new found hope that this time it will be different.

Each story tugs digs a little deeper as I realize that I am not in a business about  business.  I am in a business about people.  The greater value is not the sale of one more P90X or Insanity
program, but helping someone author the new chapter in their story.  A chapter entitled "Losing It For Good".  I have been rocked again and again by the Zig Ziglar famous words that "if you help enough people get where they are going, they will help you get where you are going."

I logged into this escapade with the hopes of gaining something about how to run a business, set goals and move from the dreaded day job to a dream job.  What I am sure that knowledge will be gained, what I am unexpectedly acquiring is a deeper sense that people just need someone to walk beside them and say "you can do this."  My hope is that I have the opportunity to be the voice in their life saying just that!

Everyday we're hustlin'!

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!

A YUGO of a Ferrari

I dogged it this morning...

Not proud of that, but it's the truth.  Here's why:

I believe that we have the capabilities to find the physical fitness of a Ferrari.  A Ferrari is a high powered, sleekly curved, sexy machine.

Truth be told, I have treat myself a little more like a YUGO with all it's economical, boxy shaped, 3 cylinder, top speed of 40mph styling.  There are drive-through bags on my floor board.  It is way past having any kind of maintenance done.  And I feed it whatever I can find.

And this morning I felt it.  

At the starting line of my daily workout when I stepped on the gas to push through,  I got what I put into my body, a sluggish, slow result.  

In order to operate physically as a Ferrari, instead of YUGO, you have got to fuel your body like a Ferrari.  This means fueling up on whole foods, plenty of H2 and the O.  This means knowing the difference between treating yourself and going full on buffet on holiday dinner.

Lesson learned...

Do you feel the difference in your workouts when you eat clean?

Reminder Pants - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

In my closet are lots of pairs of pants, but more specifically two specific pairs of pants.  I call them my "reminder pants".  

The Good - 
These are a pair of black suit pants.  They are a size 38.  To be honest, my chubby buns and dunlap belly I am sure stretched it past the 38 inch waist line.  There were Sundays when I would pour myself into those pants and uncomfortably suffer through the service. 

Now I am a true 34 inch waist!  Woot!

Those pants serve as a reminder of where I have come and how much progress I have made.  These are just a simple reminder of the good!  They remind me of the wins in my health and fitness.  The wins in my weight loss journey!

It's amazing reminder!

The Bad -
The skinny pants that I wear to work.  Like all of you I have moments of slipping back into poor habits.  There are days I skip workouts and feed my face fattening foods.  As I slide into those pants and pull that waist line across my belly I am reminded that I need to get back on track.  

Just the feel of those pants snuggling up under that little pooch belly that rares it's head when I make excuses for my health and fitness.  It reminds me "Jeff you need to refocus".

The Ugly -
Simply get rid of these.  Just a reminder that sometimes you make terrible clothing choices.

Enough said!