Staying on track to meet your fitness goals

I’m on the path to getting back in shape and staring in the face of all of the obstacles to doing so. Everyone that starts a workout regimen begins with all of the energy and motivation in the world. Keeping it is the problem!
Like most people I began with an ambitious plan, working out at the gym, eating right, getting outdoors and staying active, even exercising during commercial breaks when watching TV! (This can definitely reduce the amount of television one watches.) Now, a few days into it when the soreness kicks in and cravings for a 64 ounce steak settle in, I have to find ways to stay motivated and not give in to temptation (is that the couch calling me?).
I’ve got a few ideas on how to stay on track to meeting my fitness goals, but jsut like anything else with fitness or working out, or dieting, it takes discipline and a huge commitment from me. To motivate myself to begin a fitness program I set some very specific goals for myself. Anyone can do this by asking themselves “what’s important to me?” For some people it’s a certain weight goal, or maybe getting into a certain article of clothing. Some people want to be able to participate in a certain event like a 5K run, or a dance competition. Some people target a body part to work on such as six pack abs or 20 inch arms, while there are some of us who just want to see the tops of our shoes again…while wearing them! Whatever your motivation, make it reasonable, but somewhat out of easy reach so that you have to work hard to achieve it. So, rule one, set a goal.
Next, remove temptations. This is easier said than done, especially for those of us who have momentary lapses in sanity in the grocery store (how did those potato chips get into my cart?) You have to eliminate the urge to cheat on yourself. You can do this by doing things like shopping only the outer ring of the grocery store, everything you love is in the middle aisles laying in wait, ready to carry you 100 miles away from your goal. Stay out of these aisles, your health and your sanity depend on it. If you really need something from the inner aisles, fall down on the floor and when a store associate comes to see if you are okay, tell them that you have a rare condition and that the only thig that can help you is the item in aisle 6! (I’ve only been kick out of and permanently barred from three grocery stores for this act.) Stop sitting down! We all feel the need to leave one room and go sit down in another, Stop it! Stay on your feet, stay active. You’re not tired so stop telling yourself that all the time. When you really are tired, your body will let you know, and then you can rest. Think about your day for a moment. I’ll give you a quick example of my morning: get out of bed, start my coffee, sit and wait for coffee, pour coffee, sit and drink coffee, sit and watch the news, sit and watch ESPN, sit and have breakfast, get ready to go to the gym, sit and think about my workout, sit and “mentally prepare” myself for said workout, do you see the trend here? I take so many breaks per day it’s amazing that my body has the opportunity to burn a calorie! If I focus on moving around more and resting less, my metabolism will increase, and after a while I will find myself having more energy. Rule two, stay active.
I’ll give you one more then wrap this article up. Stop whining and complete your workouts. This is something I have to say to myself all the time and believe it or not, it works. Listen, you may be sore, you may be fatigued, you may want to sit in a dark room with a tub of ice cream and a spoon, but will any of that help? If you’re sore and you decide not to work out, you’ll still be sore, probably even more so because you aren’t stretching out the sore muscles. You may feel fatigue, but you have to realize that it’s just because you’ve been sedentary for a while, fight through it and the rewards will be great (a Ranger school instructor said that, and he was right.). As far as the ice cream goes, refer to rule one.
Meeting your fitness goals requires determination and will power. You can take these steps and others to lighten your load, but it will always be a struggle, if it’s not, look around, you might just be back on the couch. Get out there and be active.

Getting in shape for Summer

OK I’ve taken a lot of time off from the gym and I’ve eaten poorly over the past few months. Now the weather is warming up and I’m concerned about how I’ll look this summer, I have got to lose weight and get in shape, fast!
I’m not typically the New Years Resolution type. You know, the ones that crowd the gym in January and February with their lofty goals and good intentions for rapid weight loss and a healthy diet. That’s not me. But I don’t necessarily stay true to my goals year round either, hence the need for this article.
So, how will I get back into a routine, promote rapid weight loss and maintain discipline after months of doing everything wrong? I’m going to start by putting away the rum that has kept me warm this winter and dusting off my water bottle. When it’s colder outside people tend to drink a lot less water, dehydrating themselves, slowing down their metabolism and forcing the body to retain what it gets. Drinking lots of water will flush out my system, hydrate me, act as an appetite suppressor, and increase my metabolism. This step alone will help me shed a few pounds over the next couple of weeks.
The next step is to make myself more active. Believe me, if I could lose this gut and a lot of weight just laying around watching TV I would. But wait, I might just be able to do that! Not by laying around but watching TV can help. As I watch my shows I will sit and enjoy the storyline. When a commercial comes on, I will hit the floor. I will alternate between doing:
-Push ups
-Crunches
-Jumping jacks
-squat thrusts
-Flutter kicks
I’ll post instructions for each for those who aren’t sure how to do them. I advise you to start slow with these exercises, in other words, don’t try to max out on the first commercial break. My advice, do them like this: first commercial break, 10 push ups. Next commercial break, 10 crunches, and so on like that. Remember, this isn’t your only workout, and you’ll find that after a 30 minute show, you’ll be gassed. Of course if you can do more reps during a commercial break feel free to do so, the more the better.
Make sure you keep drinking your water, and get up every commercial break. It requires a great deal of discipline to get this started, but I can assure you that you’ll start seeing major results in a couple of weeks.
My next post will began outlining my gym routine and diet, yeah, I used the D word, but never fear, I love food too much to sit around eating bark and no fun foods. I’ll show you how to get creative and eat well. Until then, get off the couch and live. It’s a beautiful world out there, go be a part of it.

Now THIS is interesting…

[ Editor's Note:  Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you.]

Have you ever started out to do one thing but ended up doing something different?

Night and day different?

Remember how Post-It Notes were invented?

Some guy was trying to come up with a “permanent” glue.

Obviously he failed… and he considered it a failure… but 3M had another idea.

The guy was all of a sudden Joe Brilliant.

Well, I’m feeling a bit like Joe today.

But this is much more interesting to you than Post-It Notes…

It’s about s – e – x… sorta.

Not dirty, I’m talking about couple’s stuff here.

My new book just came out today about it.

But it didn’t start off that way at all.

In fact … get this… I was co-writing a book with medical researcher Frank Mangano on lowering blood pressure without meds… really.

So how did this big U-turn occur?

Okay, okay…. funny, true story:

I read this article from a medical journal about how “lowering blood pressure would help sexual-performance-problems.”

Ding. The lightbulb went off in my head.

You see, lowering blood pressure is probably the most healthy thing you can do for yourself.

But face it — it’s really, really BORING.

I mean, who really cares about their blood pressure unless their doctor says, “Look, lower your blood pressure or you’ll die in six months.”

Then you care.

Are you with me?

I’m right and we all know it.

Heck, I was the same way.

I ignored my blood pressure for years until it hit stroke-level back in my 30s.

Then I could no longer ignore it.

I found every natural alternative possible… which led me to Frank’s books… and they are the BEST.

So Frank comes to me and asks me to contribute to his very popular on-the-shelf book “The Blood Pressure Miracle” –

… and I said,

“Hey, guess what I just read?”

Since he’s the researcher, I said, “Go see if there’s any truth to this.”

The results BLEW MY MIND.

Not only is there truth to it — that, yes… lowering blood pressure not only extends your life but also extends your sexlife as well — but WOW… it’s a major player in everything from male-ED to females feeling “out of the mood.”

It’s crazy, but it’s true.

It makes sense once you read this:

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/lenyrp1 <— Low Pressure Sex-System

Hang with me: It gets better…

So Frank digs up article after article on the subject of high blood pressure and LOW sexual-energy and performance… and we have a much more compelling reason to want to lower our blood pressure, now don’t we?

But we wanted more.

I said, “Look Frank, I get a lot of emails about sex-after-30… people who want to feel more kick, more alive in that area of their lives… and above all, closer to their mates.”

So… we decided to add another book on TOP of our book…

… a book on improving sexual-pleasure for couples only. “RevolutionarySex” is the name of it. My friend Alex Allman wrote it…and just like that we had two books instead of one.

But that’s not all… ( told you… this story is interesting… ; )

THEN my friend Jeff Anderson comes out with his “homemade V” — and guys, we know what “V” stands for.

Listen: V (little blue things) is really dangerous stuff. It really is. It RAISES blood pressure for one thing. For another it can cause addiction and memory loss.

But Jeff’s version is all-natural, cheap (we’re talking pennies instead of dollars per “pill” to make) and above all… SAFE.

So all of a sudden… THREE books (plus an audio)… so…

It became a System, not a book.

And the topic went from “lowering blood pressure” to …

… How you can completely solve your sexual-performance-problems and increase your pleasure all by lowering blood pressure naturally without meds.”

What a concept…

…and it WORKS.

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/lenyrp1 <— Low Pressure Sex-System

Here are the advantages…

1. If you take blood pressure meds… and a lot of you do… your “kick in the stick” suffers. A lot. Some men suffer all the way, which lead them to taking the V stuff…

… and that stuff ‘raises’ blood pressure.

Bad, bad combo. Our System gets you off of that dangerous and expensive cycle of drugs and on to a natural, easy approach that also adds pleasure to your relationship.

2. Cheaper… by far… than meds.

3. Something you can read and do as a couple or as a single person.

4. You get healthy and you get your vigor back at the same time. Ladies too.

5. It’s guaranteed-to-work… 60 days on us.

I’m very proud of this System. We put a lot of time, research and effort into it.

If you want a life freee from high BP and sexual-performance-issues and better health, then go here:

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/lenyrp1 <— Low Pressure Sex-System

P.S. There’s even more to this story –

We created an “Advanced Health and Relationship-Saver Kit” that comes with the most awesome self-hypnosis audios to help you relieve stress, lower pressure, increased your “drive”, and more.

You can get the starter Kit or the Advanced Kit here:

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/lenyrp1 <— Low Pressure Sex-book

Here’s to your health… and your increased pleasure and enjoyment.

Exercise Less, Not More!

[ Editor's Note:  Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]

If I had to pick out the number one reason most people fail to achieve good results in the gym, guess what it would be?

Over-training. Exercising too much.

Sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me: It’s quite real.

Folks write to me all the time and say…

“Jon, I don’t get it. I cannot lose bodyfat and I’m running six days a week for an hour and training in the gym five days a week for 45 minutes!”

My answer back is usually:

“You are training 4x more than me, and I’m a fitness pro!”

Look, do you take 21 aspirin for a headache, thinking the more you take the faster your pain will go away?

No?

So why apply the same logic to fitness? Only a certain amount is required. Beyond that, you are spinning your wheels.

When I wrote 7 Minute Muscle (available here:  http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/lenyrp1) I exposed all the lies about training too long and why this is not the best way to achieve the results you want. Check it out if you want the facts.

One more thing:  75% of your progress will come in the kitchen, not in the gym or on the treadmill.

As for me, I would much rather eat smart and train less than train all the time and be forced to eat 6-8 times a day just to recover from it all.

That makes no sense to me at all.

You?

http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/lenyrp1 <— Less Is More!

Exercise and the brain

[ Editor's Note: Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]

If you ever needed another good reason to exercise, I’ve got one for you:

Exercise makes your brain bigger.

Actually this isn’t entirely accurate. To be more specific, exercise was found to increase brain size slightly, but far more important to increase “spatial reasoning.”

This is the ability to recognize patterns, remember phrases, numbers, and so-on. This was discovered by researchers at the Universities of Chicago and Pittsburgh.

It is also one of the most important factors to the prevention of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

My mom suffered with dementia the last ten years of her life. But unlike most dementia patients she was fully functional thanks to exercise. She drove and had a mind that was unbelievably sharp right up until an accident injured her beyond the ability to exercise.

After that, she mentally went downhill rapidly. Thankfully, she passed in peace… and she had ten wonderfully active years thanks to her willingness to take up weight training at the age of 71.

She eventually walked up to 3 miles per day and trained in the gym 3 days per week.

That kept her mind sharp, along with fish oil and N-Acetyl L-Carnitine, a wonderful brain nutrient.

Once again, we see the power of exercise. It increases the QUALITY of your life.

Quantity is no where near as important to me as quality.

The links at the bottom of this newsletter are to my books on exercise. Pick the one that appeals to you most and take action.

Your brain will thank you, as will the rest of your body.

One of the best ways to start exercising when you are over Ȉ is by using the routines covered in “Fit Over 40″.

This book profiles 53 different men and women, age 40 to 80, all sharing their workouts, nutrition plans, and mental empowerment techniques.

It is a MUST-HAVE for anyone wanting to begin exercising or improve their level of fitness after the age of 40.

For a freee fat-burning course from Fit Over 40, go here –

http://www.fitover40.com/go/lenyrp1 <— Freee Fatburning Course

How To Get Rid Of Arm Flab

[ Editor's Note:  Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]

Got arm flab?

Know someone who does?

Some women I know with a healthy sense of humor refer to it as “their wings” because their arm flab flaps when they walk or jog.

It’s time to get rid of your wings ladies…

… and guys, listen up:  You are not immune to arm flab. Even if your don’t have any, the tips I’m about to give will help you build stronger arms.

Before I go any further, I have to tell you about Marty Web.

Marty looked like … well, your typical 59-year-old housewife. Actually she looked a bit worse.

She was a good 80 pounds over her ideal bodyweight. And she had her wings…

… big time wings. Loads of arm flab.

That was at age 59.

At age 61… wow. Different story.

Marty transformed her body to such a degree that even I could have never guessed she was an OUNCE overweight!

Her story and 52 others just like her, male and female, are in my first book — and my best-seller Fit Over 40.

I’d like you to read more about it here –

http://www.fitover40.com/go/lenyrp1 <— cure for arm flab

Marty replaced her “wings” with toned, beautiful arms. And you can too.

She has two pages in Fit Over 40… too much to cover in an email… but here’s the basics to get you started:

1. You have to get your nutrition down pat. Most people think that the flab on their arms (or anywhere for that matter) can be solved by “turning it into muscle.”

This is not true folks. Fat does not turn into “anything”. It is used for energy. Period.

Muscle is muscle. Fat is fat.

You must use low-insulin nutrition like I recommend in all my books, including Fit Over 40, to lower your bodyfat. For ladies, the back-of-the-arm bodyfat is often the last bit to go.

But I promise — it will go. I can go for anyone. Marty Web and dozens of other ladies in Fit Over 40 prove that in living color… and they share how they did it.

Low-insulin nutrition means eating more protein-rich foods, foods that are not processed, and plenty of tasty veggies. But it does not mean you cannot have your pizza and burgers here and there. I do every week and my bodyfat is low.

2. You must train your triceps. The back of the arm is made of three muscles called the “triceps”. You have a long head, a medial head and a lateral head that form the triceps muscle group.

If you cannot access a gym, you can do plain-old pushups to work all three heads of the triceps. Here’s a few tips. First, if you cannot do a pushup with your legs straight, start by doing them on your knees. Work up to straight-legged pushups.

Second, do one third of your reps with your hands facing away from your body, one third with your hands facing toward your body (fingers pointing toward you) and the final third with your hands in the “normal” pushup position, facing the same direction as your body. This will work the various heads nicely.

If you have access to a gym, see the exercises for the triceps found in my book Fit Over 40:

http://www.fitover40.com/go/lenyrp1 <— say good-bye to arm flab

3. Finally, you have to have a role model. Find someone like Marty who has lost their wings and use their success to inspire you.

Put these three things together and you too will be “grounded” — wingless, but with a lovely pair of arms that never jiggle and look fantastic.

New Research: Fat Is Contagious?

[ Editor's Note:  Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]

It’s like a dream come true.

“Gaining bodyfat is the result  of a virus.”

Wouldn’t that be great news?

Well…

Let me tell you about the AD-36 adenovirus. Adenoviruses are the same nasty bugs that cause the common cold. We all have these viruses in various forms in our body all the time.

That last bit is a critical distinction.

Remember that.

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana has been doing some really ground-breaking research on AD-36. AD-36 affects stem cells… more specifically fat cells, both pre-formed and post-formed.

This means AD-36 can make MORE fat cells if contracted as an infant and make your fat cells larger if contracted as an adult.

Or so the theory goes.

To quote the study:

“Earlier researchers have concluded that Ad-36 may be contributors to obesity by super-charging fat cells to grow and store more fat. Until now, though, those researchers thought the viruses targeted pre-fat cells (called pre-adipocytes), causing them to convert in higher numbers to fat cells and causing those fat cells to be larger. Those studies were in mice. Pasaricas work determines the virus targets stem cells in humans.”

The result?

“In one test, a third of obese people had the rare and highly contagious virus compared to just 11 percent of thinner people. Weight gain can last three months until the body has built up resistance to the bug.”

Wow. Sounds like we have a winner here. A virus that you can catch that literally makes you gain bodyfat!  All we need is…

a vaccine!

Right?

Wrong.

First of all, notice that 11% of LEAN people have AD-36. And at any given time, just like a cold or a flu virus, you could contract AD-36. If your body has ‘never’ been exposed to it, you may require about 3 months to build up antibodies to ward it off.

Now, you can gain a lot of weight in 3 months… but come on. You cannot become obese in three months unless you are really, REALLY working at it.

Plus, like most viruses, you build up immunity to AD-36. Researchers do not know how long the immunity lasts, but some theorize it could last years… some even decades.

And let’s not forget those 11% who are lean and have the virus.

Why did they not all of a sudden get “sick” with bodyfat?

Because they are not EATING or LIVING in a way that allows them to gain bodyfat no matter what nasty freakin’ viruses may be floating about, that’s why.

That’s right folks:  It is always going to come down to the food we put in our body and the way we move.

Here’s another hypothesis presented by Sherry Strong, food philosopher and nutritionist:  “This could very well be the result of nature creating a mutation to encourage us to eat more due to the fact our consumption of natural, whole and organic foods is so low.”

Brilliant observation… and one tha makes complete sense.

Even if a “virus” is responsible for 20% of our weightgain, what about the other 80%?

We do not need a vaccine other than good food and a common sense workout plan.

Here’s the best –

http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/lenyrp1 <— the “vaccine” for bodyfat

Here’s why I love this workout:

1. It’s fast. 7-14 minutes 3-5 days per week. Anyone on earth can do this.

2. The Basic Upgrade (you will see it) still comes with a copy of my book “The Every Other Day Diet.” Put the two together and you have an absolute winner of a plan that’s practical and enjoyable.

3. Plus, anyone who owns “Every Other Day Diet” gets my upcoming “Radical Fatloss Blueprint” book freee. It comes out March 1st.

That’s 3 good reasons to go here and check out 7 Minute Muscle…

http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/lenyrp1 <— the “vaccine” for bodyfat

Here’s one more:

You know better.

You know that there’s never going to be a magic pill for health, vitality, energy and looking your best.

We can keep hoping… or you can take action and get what you want now.

To me, that makes more sense than AD-36 “Super-Retro Fat-burning Vaccine” to hit the marketplace in 2021.

Man Boobs!

3 quick questions:

1. Are you a guy or do you know one close to you over the age of 35?

2. Have you or he looked at your/his bare chest lately?

3. If so… did you see them?…The dreaded….

“Manboobs”?

Obviously if you are female this is not an issue. But for us men, “gynecomastia“, often jokingly referred to as manboobs (we can thank “Seinfeld” for that) is anything but funny.

From this point on, I’ll refer to it as “MB” if that’s okay by you.

MB is not an age thing. It can occur at almost any time in life. However, for those of us over 35, it is more common.

This is just one of the many symptoms of “andropause”, or “male menopause.”

When you age your testosterone levels decline…and more than that the testosterone gets “weaker” due to an imbalance between it and estrogen.

When you combine that with our modernized “estrogen-rich” environment that Dr. Holly Lucille frequently lectures on, you have a problem.

A big MB problem.

MB is associated with lack of drive (you know what I’m talking about guys) and excess bellyfat due to the estrogen.

Even more serious:  Excess estrogen has been positively linked to prostate cancer.

Yep. MBs are not so funny after all.

Check out Dr. Lucille’s NaturaPause Audios. There is an entire audio dedicated to male menopause and natural solutions that really work.

Most do not work worth a darn.

Hers does.

http://www.naturapause.com/go/lenyrp1 <— no more MBs!

How To Gain Muscle And Burn Bodyfat At The Same Time

by Jon Benson

What is your “big dream?”

I have two:

– To make an impact on the lives of over 10M people before I die;

– To have a family that’s mobile so I can live in many places.

Not bad, right?

Want to know a “third” dream of mine? One that I saw become a reality a few years ago?

To gain muscle AND burn bodyfat all at the same time.

It’s like a pipe-dream that somehow worked its way through the pipes and into my gym.

It is not easy, granted, but you can do it.

Almost anyone can do it.

You just have to train and eat in a very specific way.

Listen: You do NOT want to just “burn bodyfat” or god-forbid “lose-weight”… that will not give you the body you want.

You absolutely MUST shape your muscles, tighten and tone, and burn bodyfat.

And you can do it at the same time.

Most pros disagree with me. They think it is metabolically impossible to gain muscle while in a state of low-calorie dieting.

They are wrong.

Here’s an article I wrote on this topic. I hope you enjoy it.

To save you time, I put a link to the online complete version of the article below…

- – - – -

I remember a friendly argument with my co-author of Fit Over 40 Tom Venuto. It all started when I told Tom how I was eating and training for my last peak. A peak is where you lower your bodyfat and try to maintain as much muscle mass as possible.

“There’s just no way I could ever get in shape eating and training like that,” says Tom. “Sure you could man…what are you, a mutant?” Tom fires back, then me, then Tom….and so it goes. (I really didn’t call Tom a mutant. That was creative liberty.)

So why are so many fitness pros like Tom freaked out about my training and nutrition plan? Simple: I claim it burns fat while building muscle at the same time. Every time I read an article by some doctor or expert claiming it’s “biologically impossible” to gain lean muscle mass on a hypocaloric diet (a diet low in calories) I just laugh.

I do more than make claims–I have proved this to be true many times. I’ve had my bodyfat hydrostatically measured during several peaks. In all but one I showed an increase of muscle mass and a decrease of bodyfat during a 12-16 week period. The one time I didn’t show an increase in muscle mass when was I was training the most in the gym. That may not make sense right now, but it will in a moment.

Article Continued Here –
http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/lenyrp1/gain-muscle-burn-fat < — click.

New ways to fight fat

If you have stubborn bodyfat that just does not want to budge, you will find this freee video helpful.

It’s only 16 minutes long and covers the connection between your “hormones” and bodyfat.

Not only bodyfat… Your sexual-drive, your energy, your mood, and of course issues like menopause, andropause (male menopause) and more.

Give it a look…

http://www.naturapause.com/go/lenyrp1/video-preview

Just by taking some of Dr. Lucille’s advice (natural, without harmful drugs) you can kick-start your hormonal system back into overdrive.

That’s the best way to end stubborn bodyfat and reboot your drive at the same time.

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