Sunday, January 4, 2009

THREE STEPS TO MAKE YOUR NEW YEAR’S FITNESS RESOLUTION STICK

Most people make the same fitness resolutions every year, just to repeat a very discouraging failure. They tell themselves, “This time it will be different because I really mean it”, but then the same thing happens and no one can figure out why. Recent research in exercise science and psychology has uncovered the real reason for these repeated failures and it can all be summed up in the following three step plan.

1.) Rewire your brain for permanent physical change. The fundamental reason people yo-yo with their weight or fail in their New Year’s fitness resolutions is because they never change their mind’s eye. The weight might come off, but they still think of themselves the same way, so it comes right back on.
No one ever talks about this but recent science has found that the brain really is the main reason for failure. Only if you think of yourself a certain way, will you become that way. The body always follows the mind, so changing your mind will change your body.

Thin people stay that way because they think of themselves that way. The same goes for fat people. This is also why poor people quickly become poor again after winning the lottery. They never changed their mindset, and because they thought of themselves a certain way, they made conscious and unconscious decisions every day to make sure that happened.

The way you think of yourself can be changed. It has to be a daily exercise to make this change permanent, and to form new nerve pathways that change your brain wiring. This rewiring process will make sure your brain is ready to stay thin when you become thin, and that will control your body and actions to make sure that happens.
Visualize how you want to look. See yourself in that body and practice it daily. Once you become that person, you will already be comfortable with it, and will be able to stay that way because you have already formed your new identity.

Change your self-talk by phrasing everything in a positive way and emphasize your goal the same way. A good example of this is to say, “I’m going to get leaner today” instead of saying, “I’m going to lose some fat today”. They might sound the same, but they are very different.

2.) Consider a cleanse routine to get you started right. This process is meant to detoxify the body of harmful chemicals stored in the digestive system and organs. It is also meant to clean out the intestines of harmful flora that prevent you from absorbing key nutrients.

It is important to remember that once you have done your cleanse, you are starting over with a clean digestive system and proper intestinal flora, so stick with your new and good nutrition habits to continue to reap the benefits of the process.
A cleanse is a great way to start healthy eating, but the intestines will rapidly repopulate with the bad flora if you go back to poor nutrition habits, and then you have lost all the benefits of what you accomplished with the cleanse. It takes 3-4 weeks to get rid of the bad flora but less than a week to get it back!

I don't recommend any particular cleanse system because they are all pretty much a waste of money. If you want a cleanse that actually works, eat only these things for 3 weeks:

Wild fish
Organic chicken
Organic grass-fed beef
Organic broccoli, spinach, kale and collard greens
1 gallon of water per day

Take a probiotic every day and continue it after you are done with the cleanse. You can get a good one at SuperSupplements (but don’t let them talk you into their cleanse systems).

This is better than any cleanse out there and will prevent the muscle loss cleanses often cause as well. Get a deep tissue massage 2-3 times a week and take an Epsom salt bath every night on massage days.
After your cleanse, continue to eat organic and emphasize lots of dark greens, lean meats and water as your first priority. Make this your new lifestyle habit and adopt it permanently. Make your resolution for life, not just for this year. Think of each change you make as a new permanent step to your new permanent you.

3.) Workout harder and train less. High intensity training is the best way to build muscle and burn fat. Strength training to complete muscle failure is the best way to build muscle and increase your metabolism. This metabolic increase helps you burn more fat even when you sleep, so muscle really is the key.

This doesn’t mean you have to bulk up, it just means that a little tone and shape will go a long way towards burning the fat off and keeping it off. Pound for pound, muscle takes up about half the space as fat so trading muscle for fat will make you smaller and improve your shape, even if the scale doesn’t show anything!

The same high intensity principle goes for your cardio exercise. Interval sprint training is the way to go for the best combination of fat burning and cardio fitness improvement. These workouts only take 20 minutes so it is a great time saver as well.
A new minds eye, a cleanse routine followed by continued good nutrition, and high intensity exercise is a sure fire way to reach the resolution goals that have eluded you for so many years by doing things the hard way and the wrong way. Ben Franklin once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. This year it is time to try something different that actually works instead of the same old thing that has failed you year after year!

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