Looking to lose weight? More specifically- are you looking to burn off body fat? If your answer is 'yes', then read on because winning the battle-of-the-bulge is easier than you think! By understanding and practicing the following 9.5 steps, you'll be well on your way developing the physical fitness level you've always dreamed of.
1. Eat less and more often: Your body is like a furnace, to keep it running moist efficiently, you have to stoke the fire regularly. Eating smaller meals five to seven times a day will help keep your metabolism constantly firing your internal furnace. Loading it down with three heavy meals like your momma fed you as a kid will only serve to slow your metabolism to a crawl.
2. Get Your Rest: Getting a good night's sleep will actually help you lose weight. Eight hours of sleep per night might be ideal, researchers report. Of the 740 people studied, those who slept eight hours per night were leaner than those who got five or six hours of sleep. Participants took blood tests that screened for leptin, a hormone that helps regulate hunger. The amount of leptin in the blood is proportional to body fat. Leptin is believed to reduce appetite. However, obesity is often accompanied by a resistance to leptin and its appetite-suppressing effect. Participants who slept less tended to have lower leptin levels. This loosely translates to: less sleep= less leptin= more hunger and eating.
3. Avoid Injuries: Nothing can slam on the breaks of you reaching your fitness goals than a training injury. When you are laid up with a sore back or a tweaked knee, the fat can accumulate quickly. So don’t go crazy with hitting the heavy bag or practicing new techniques only to sacrifice the form of the movement. Sloppy technique can lead to an injury faster than Santa can deliver presents. Also, avoid over training as this leads to fatigue which in turn creates sloppy technique.
4. Cardio is King: It’s called “fat-burning” for a reason. Doing cardiovascular training like what we do here at Clearwater Boxing Center, raises your core temperature and puts your body in a perfect zone for melting fat. By attending 3-5 classes per week (along with the other suggestions) you’ll see the fat melt off you in no time.
5. Your Scale Will Lie: Muscle weighs more than fat and your bathroom scale can’t tell the difference. While following a workout regime, your body could increase muscle by 10 pounds and only lose 5 pounds of fat. Your scale will show you as being heavier, yet that is not an accurate representation of where you’re at. If you want a real representation, get your body fat measured by a doctor, see how your jeans and t-shirts are fitting you and also take pictures each month. These methods will tell a more realistic story than your bathroom scale will.
6. Watch Your Carbs: As a nation we eat way too many carbs- like processed sugar, pasta, white bread, etc. I’m not saying drop carbs, I’m saying watch what kinds you put into your body. Try to choose quality carbs like brown rice, whole grains, colorful vegetables and oatmeal. Choosing carbs that are low on the glycemic index will help to insure a lower insulin demand, better long-term blood glucose and a reduction in blood lipids (fat).
7. Drink More Water: Water is the essential life giver and can help keep you lean. It keeps you hydrated while you train, flushes your system, suppresses appetite and your metabolic rate can increase with water consumption.
8. Eat Clean Not Fast: Don’t eat fast food!! Proper nutrition is paramount to reaching your fitness goals and fighting body fat. Choose lean beef, chicken, fish and protein shakes rather than a burger at Mcdonalds. Eating these healthy and clean sources of protein helps to increase your protein intake. Clean protein creates more quality muscle and (in case you didn’t know) having more muscle helps to burn body fat!
9. Pre-Pack Your Meals: By pre-packing your meals each day, your chances of having to cave-in and eat the cupcakes a coworker brought in will decrease dramatically! Depending on how many hours you’re at work each day, bringing 3 small meals (see step #1) with you, will help keep the fire stoked and those calories burning! Don’t have time? Bulls**t. Put down the remote at night and take 15 minutes and just get it done.
9.5 Get Educated: Not many schools today teach physical fitness the way it probably should be taught. So, perhaps the best thing you can do to reach your fat burning and fitness goals is to get educated. You need to understand that there is no one-right-way of eating food, or working out, or increasing your muscle mass as everyone’s genetic makeup is different. And because of that, you need to understand that what works for your best friend or that cover model on the magazine may not work for you. Your genetics are different from theirs and should be treated as such. Heck, that whole #2 Step about sleep and Leptin was taken from a muscle magazine called "Reps" that I trecently read! Who knew that getting sleep could affect fat lose huh? So take some time and read books or magazines and find out what’s out there. Now go get educated- and then get busy!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
3.5 Ways To Increase Your Focus
Let’s get right to the point here: if you want to succeed either in the fight-game or in life, there are many, many things that you need to do. But one of paramount proportions is to increase your ability to focus because it literally affects every other area of your life. In the ring, if you can increase your skills of focus, your chances of getting hit, receiving a standing 8 count or getting knocked out cold diminish greatly. Likewise, in life, if you increase your capacity to focus, you reduce your likelihood to procrastinate, thus causing your chances of long-term success to grow exponentially.
That said, here are the 3.5 Ways to Increase Your Focus:
1. Focus Your Eyes- Any good fighter knows that he/she had better keep their eyes on their opponent at all times. Because as soon as they look elsewhere- bang! – they get hit! Now, you may not be looking to fight for the title anytime soon, but I’m sure that you can remember a time in your life when you took your focus off of an important goal only to find yourself suddenly far away from what you really wanted. I know scores of people who have allowed that to happen to them. They let someone or something else plan out their lives for them and years later, they felt unfulfilled and angry at themselves. All because they had lost their focus and taken their eyes off their target.
On a daily basis, you have to keep your eyes focused on what your goal or goals are, otherwise reaching them simply becomes an “I really wish I had…” statement later in your life. Fortunately, the “focusing your eyes” step is about as easy as it gets! Here a few simple ways to Focus Your Eyes on your goals:
· Write your goals on a piece of paper and keep them on your bedside table so you can see them each morning and each night.
· Tape your goals into your day planner or onto the visor in your car.
· Tape your goals on your bathroom mirror to look at each morning and evening as you brush your teeth.
· Tape your goals inside your closet door to see each time you change your clothes.
· Have your goals scrolling across your computer at work as your screen saver.
· Create your own focus exercise…..
2. Focus Your Mind- It does no good for a fighter to keep his eyes on his opponent if his mind is somewhere else. That not only gets a fighter hit, it gets him hurt! Each day your brain is bombarded with millions of different messages from other people, the media, the internet, billboard signs, etc. Companies try hard to get your attention and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll follow just about anything! You need to be sure that your mind knows exactly what is important to you and what you need in order to achieve it. Because when your mind does know, it will literally find those things for you. Don’t believe me? Look around your room right now and look for anything blue. You found several things and very quickly too, I’m sure. Now look for red. Quick and easy again, right? This is because once you tell your mind what you want, it will literally filter-out what you DO NOT want and give you what you have deemed important. So be sure that you send as many vivid pictures to your mind as you can so that it finds the things that are most important to you. Here are a few great ways to Focus Your Mind:
· Make a Vision Board- Cut out pictures from magazines of what you want and paste them on a large foam board
· Have a Vision Board at your office or cubicle at work and paste a reminder photo on your bathroom mirror at home, as well.
· Take time to meditate alone with your eyes closed and really imagine what your life will be like when you’ve reached those goals. (The sights, sounds, smells, feelings, etc.)
· Discuss your vision with your closest friends and family members and use the best verbiage to paint as thorough a picture of what your accomplishment will look like once you’ve achieved it. The more people you tell, the harder it will be to back out.
3. Focus Your Body- You show me a fighter who waits until the week before a fight to begin his training and you would have shown me the loser of that bout! A good fighter gets himself in shape LONG before he enters the ring! So, are you physically ready? Do you go to that job interview unshaven, unrehearsed and with a booger in your nose? Are your clothes wrinkled when they should be cleaned and pressed? Are your pants several sizes too small or too big because you’ve gained or lost lots of weight? (Either way, you look stupid, err, umm, I mean unprofessional.) If you’re looking for success in, let’s say the corporate world, then you need to dress like it. Not too many sloppy people get great promotions. For example, if you’re looking to be a success in the fitness industry, then you better look the part. People who are overweight don’t make good money as fitness trainers. As much as you hear the old saying “never judge a book by its cover”, no one ever practices it. You judge someone by the way they look as much as the next person. So with that in mind, why not try to make other people’s judgments of you more on the positive side? Here are a few hints to Focus Your Body:
· Gentlemen- Trim the nose and ear hairs. Why? Because even if it’s looking like a jungle, you’ll still never be Tarzan.
· Lose weight- recent studies have documented that obese people do not get hired as often as fit people do. Why? It has been shown that obese people can actually cost companies a greatb deal of money in health insurance, sick days, time off to see doctors, etc.
· Dress for success- like I just said, if they’re gonna pass judgment, try to receive a good one.
· Get in good overall physical shape- you’ll be able to enjoy your accomplishments much more without having to stop to catch your breath!
3.5 Focus Your Actions: This step is about as simple as it can get: take action. Just as a fighter is set – eyes, mind, body - and ready to go 12 rounds, you need to be ready for success by taking the action necessary to reach your goals. That’s right, get going on what you need to do to accomplish your goals because you can write and wish all you want, but if you don’t DO what you know you need to, then you’re finished before you even start. Each day, there should be some sort of routine that you go through that will help you get a little closer to your goals. These routines might include meal plans, exercise schedules, prayer & meditation, studying, or journaling. Along with establishing routines, on a weekly and monthly basis, you should engage in an action step; take a class at a local college; get involved in networking; clean the house and car from top to bottom; balance your checkbook. Likewise, there are other important action items that need to be taken care of on a yearly basis, like getting a physical, or taking a personal retreat for a few days. If you’re not sure what your exact actions should be, here are a few great ways to help Focus Your Actions:
· 1st, write out all of your goals- 5 year, 3 year, 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month, 1 week
· 2nd, write next to each goal every action that needs to be taken to accomplish that particular goal.
· 3rd, from those actions, create a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly task list.
· 4th, create a routine from that task list.
· 5th, find others who have done what you’re looking to do and see what they did to reach that level. Try to speak to them personally or e-mail them if possible.
· 6th, OK- NOW GET GOING!
That said, here are the 3.5 Ways to Increase Your Focus:
1. Focus Your Eyes- Any good fighter knows that he/she had better keep their eyes on their opponent at all times. Because as soon as they look elsewhere- bang! – they get hit! Now, you may not be looking to fight for the title anytime soon, but I’m sure that you can remember a time in your life when you took your focus off of an important goal only to find yourself suddenly far away from what you really wanted. I know scores of people who have allowed that to happen to them. They let someone or something else plan out their lives for them and years later, they felt unfulfilled and angry at themselves. All because they had lost their focus and taken their eyes off their target.
On a daily basis, you have to keep your eyes focused on what your goal or goals are, otherwise reaching them simply becomes an “I really wish I had…” statement later in your life. Fortunately, the “focusing your eyes” step is about as easy as it gets! Here a few simple ways to Focus Your Eyes on your goals:
· Write your goals on a piece of paper and keep them on your bedside table so you can see them each morning and each night.
· Tape your goals into your day planner or onto the visor in your car.
· Tape your goals on your bathroom mirror to look at each morning and evening as you brush your teeth.
· Tape your goals inside your closet door to see each time you change your clothes.
· Have your goals scrolling across your computer at work as your screen saver.
· Create your own focus exercise…..
2. Focus Your Mind- It does no good for a fighter to keep his eyes on his opponent if his mind is somewhere else. That not only gets a fighter hit, it gets him hurt! Each day your brain is bombarded with millions of different messages from other people, the media, the internet, billboard signs, etc. Companies try hard to get your attention and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll follow just about anything! You need to be sure that your mind knows exactly what is important to you and what you need in order to achieve it. Because when your mind does know, it will literally find those things for you. Don’t believe me? Look around your room right now and look for anything blue. You found several things and very quickly too, I’m sure. Now look for red. Quick and easy again, right? This is because once you tell your mind what you want, it will literally filter-out what you DO NOT want and give you what you have deemed important. So be sure that you send as many vivid pictures to your mind as you can so that it finds the things that are most important to you. Here are a few great ways to Focus Your Mind:
· Make a Vision Board- Cut out pictures from magazines of what you want and paste them on a large foam board
· Have a Vision Board at your office or cubicle at work and paste a reminder photo on your bathroom mirror at home, as well.
· Take time to meditate alone with your eyes closed and really imagine what your life will be like when you’ve reached those goals. (The sights, sounds, smells, feelings, etc.)
· Discuss your vision with your closest friends and family members and use the best verbiage to paint as thorough a picture of what your accomplishment will look like once you’ve achieved it. The more people you tell, the harder it will be to back out.
3. Focus Your Body- You show me a fighter who waits until the week before a fight to begin his training and you would have shown me the loser of that bout! A good fighter gets himself in shape LONG before he enters the ring! So, are you physically ready? Do you go to that job interview unshaven, unrehearsed and with a booger in your nose? Are your clothes wrinkled when they should be cleaned and pressed? Are your pants several sizes too small or too big because you’ve gained or lost lots of weight? (Either way, you look stupid, err, umm, I mean unprofessional.) If you’re looking for success in, let’s say the corporate world, then you need to dress like it. Not too many sloppy people get great promotions. For example, if you’re looking to be a success in the fitness industry, then you better look the part. People who are overweight don’t make good money as fitness trainers. As much as you hear the old saying “never judge a book by its cover”, no one ever practices it. You judge someone by the way they look as much as the next person. So with that in mind, why not try to make other people’s judgments of you more on the positive side? Here are a few hints to Focus Your Body:
· Gentlemen- Trim the nose and ear hairs. Why? Because even if it’s looking like a jungle, you’ll still never be Tarzan.
· Lose weight- recent studies have documented that obese people do not get hired as often as fit people do. Why? It has been shown that obese people can actually cost companies a greatb deal of money in health insurance, sick days, time off to see doctors, etc.
· Dress for success- like I just said, if they’re gonna pass judgment, try to receive a good one.
· Get in good overall physical shape- you’ll be able to enjoy your accomplishments much more without having to stop to catch your breath!
3.5 Focus Your Actions: This step is about as simple as it can get: take action. Just as a fighter is set – eyes, mind, body - and ready to go 12 rounds, you need to be ready for success by taking the action necessary to reach your goals. That’s right, get going on what you need to do to accomplish your goals because you can write and wish all you want, but if you don’t DO what you know you need to, then you’re finished before you even start. Each day, there should be some sort of routine that you go through that will help you get a little closer to your goals. These routines might include meal plans, exercise schedules, prayer & meditation, studying, or journaling. Along with establishing routines, on a weekly and monthly basis, you should engage in an action step; take a class at a local college; get involved in networking; clean the house and car from top to bottom; balance your checkbook. Likewise, there are other important action items that need to be taken care of on a yearly basis, like getting a physical, or taking a personal retreat for a few days. If you’re not sure what your exact actions should be, here are a few great ways to help Focus Your Actions:
· 1st, write out all of your goals- 5 year, 3 year, 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month, 1 week
· 2nd, write next to each goal every action that needs to be taken to accomplish that particular goal.
· 3rd, from those actions, create a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly task list.
· 4th, create a routine from that task list.
· 5th, find others who have done what you’re looking to do and see what they did to reach that level. Try to speak to them personally or e-mail them if possible.
· 6th, OK- NOW GET GOING!
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