Kick Ass Motivation

There's nothing else to say...

Define Your Motivation

Weight loss is a three-part process: Exercising and cutting calories are vital, but your mental outlook can mean the difference between success and failure.

"Self-defeating thoughts are often the most overlooked factors when a dieter gets off track," says Jeffrey Wilbert, PhD, author of Fattitudes: Beat Self-Defeat and Win Your War with Weight (St. Martin's Press, 2000). "You feel disappointed when a quick fix turns out to be anything but, or weak if you succumb to an intense craving for ice cream." Without the resolve to overcome such thoughts, sticking with any major lifestyle change can be difficult, if not impossible."

The key is to adopt the right attitude before you start your plan. "If you're really serious about slimming down, you need to think long-term. That's why it helps to ready yourself emotionally to take on the challenge," says Daniel C. Stettner, PhD, a behavioural-medicine specialist at Northpointe Health Centre in Berkley, Michigan. These eight strategies will help strengthen your mind-set.

You probably have lots of reasons for wanting to lose weight. Not all, however, may be good ones. "If your decision develops primarily out of pressure from someone else, your conviction to succeed could diminish over time," says Stettner. "To ensure success, you need to develop the will to improve your life, not someone else's vision of it."

Start by listing all the reasons you can think of for slimming down. Highlight any that include other people. Rewrite the list, omitting the highlighted items. Next, inspect each one for phrases like "have to" or "must." Such words imply obligation, not desire; eventually, they'll also invite the instinct to rebel. (Test the theory: Stand in front of a piece of chocolate cake and tell yourself over and over that you must refuse it. You'll instantly want to dig in.) Translate each "have to" into a "want to." If your reasons lose their relevance, pare down the list again, until you find two or three of the most compelling motivations.

Choose an Attainable Goal

Think smaller: Count on losing just 10 percent of your weight within six months, and focus on keeping it off for more than a year. But be careful about relying solely on figures. "A number on the scale isn't a goal; it's a measurement of success," says Bonnie Goodman, a psychotherapist based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who specializes in behavioural therapy. 

Design Your Own Plan

Rather than trying every new diet fad, create your own plan that will fit your lifestyle. You need to cut out only 150 calories a day to lose 15 pounds in a year, so start small.

Visualize the New You

A mental dress rehearsal prepares you to recognize and accept success. "Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and picture yourself healthier and slimmer," suggests Goodman. How do you walk? With your head held high. How do you dress? More boldly. How do you feel? More confident, energized, and proud of your achievements.

Get Your Priorities Straight

Start by making "commitment appointments." First thing in the morning, set your goal for the day, whether it's to spend an hour at the gym or to cook a healthy meal. Before the beginning of every month, decide which days you'll work out and what you'll do. Shop for healthy foods once a week, always on the same day if possible.

Uncover Emotional Obstacles

Sadness and anger are two of the most common reasons women overeat, but food won't quell either one. Your diary can provide valuable insights into what may be causing you to binge occasionally. Once you start evaluating your eating triggers, you'll be able to develop more effective strategies to deal with the underlying emotions. 

Celebrate Every Achievement

"Rewards reinforce positive behaviour, but only if they're meaningful," says Goodman. "When you reach a milestone in your weight-loss or exercise routine, treat yourself to something that celebrates the particular goal you achieved and helps further your progress."

Forgive Yourself

"If you make an unhealthy diet choice, admit that you're fallible, but don't drown in a sea of judgemental thoughts," says Wilbert.

Berating yourself won't foster the courage you need to dust off those cookie crumbs and move on. A momentary slip won't register on the scale. Turning negative thoughts into encouraging ones will propel you to keep at it until you finally reach your goal weight.

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Don't Be A Quitter!

Just Do It!

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How To Get Motivated!

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Fantastic Cardio Workout To Burn Fat Fast!

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This is an excellent workout to really raise your heart rate and burn some calories. Try to fit this short workout in at the start of your day to really kick start your metabolism and burn calories well into the day.

Not only will you burn calories, but you will release chemicals into your body which will make you feel alive and ready to attack your day.

By following a healthy eating program, exercising 4 times a week, mixing both cardio and strength training you will shock your body and the body fat will "literally disappear!" 

The difficult part is finding the motivation and enthusiasm to drag yourself out of bed...

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Learn To Smash Pull Ups!

Reasons To Lose Weight

Rock Hard Glutes!

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Why not try this simple workout to tone up your glutes, do the routine 4 times a week for 30 days.

Combine the routine with a healthy regular eating program and you should definitely see some great results fast.

Once you have completed the 30 days, include the "butt program," once a week into your normal exercise routine and you will have buns of steel!

Good luck......

Weight Loss Motivation

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"ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN... SO WHAT'S STOPPING YOU?"

It's too easy to sit at home and wish your life away, if you want to make changes only you can do it. The first step is to acknowledge you are not happy with some aspect of your body and life. Once you have done this and are certain you are ready to make the changes, you then need to educate yourself as to why your unhappy and what are the options available.

If you jump in too quickly, unprepared the chances are you will fail! Take your time, research the subject, make informed decisions and always look long term. If you are going to do this, you are going to do it once and get it right!

You must remember all aspects of weight loss are related, your eating program, exercise routine and mindset all work in tandem. If you get one aspect wrong the others will falter and will not achieve your goals. Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint!

Self Motivation - To Lose Weight & Exercise

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Without effective weight loss motivation skills, diets and failure often become synonymous. 

The relationship between weight gain and fad diets creates a vicious cycle that can be incredibly disheartening.

However, with the appropriate weight loss motivation skills, you can turn your weight around - permanently! 

Develop A Realistic Perspective 

A powerful weight loss motivation skill involves developing a realistic perspective about your goals. Even if your high school reunion is around the corner, it is not feasible for you to drop two sizes in only two weeks. Medical experts suggest that a healthy pace of weight loss is two pounds per week. Remember, approximately 3500 calories create one pound of weight, and you either need to burn an extra 3500 calories or refrain from ingesting 3500 calories to lose one pound. Being realistic about your weight loss progress will help keep you on the right track. 

Remember Your Past 

One of the most important weight loss motivation skills is remembering your past, and deciding not to repeat it. Think about your past and your lifestyle habits that led you to this point. Chances are that the life you lived was unhealthy, causing you to gain weight. When you keep the past in perspective, you can avoid making the same mistakes. Instead, you judge your progress by how far you have come from your past lifestyle. 

Reward Your Accomplishments 

Weight loss is a journey, and you must reward yourself along the way. Even if your goal is to lose 50 pounds, you can reward yourself each time you lose five pounds. Your rewards should not be food related, but something else that you hold valuable. You can reward yourself with a massage or perhaps a new candle. Or you can simply enjoy a quiet afternoon gardening. When you reward your accomplishments, you give yourself further weight loss motivation to stay on the right track. 

Overcome Your Demons 

In many instances, there is a direct correlation with weight and emotional demons. Emotional eating is one of the most prevalent causes of weight gain. Overcoming your emotional demons is a critical weight loss motivation skill. Do you eat when you are stressed out from work? Do you reach for a cookie because your significant other hurt your feelings? When you can identify your emotional eating habits, you develop a weight loss motivation skill that will hopefully prompt you to go to the gym, instead of the refrigerator, to take out your frustration. 

 Focus On Yourself 

The most important weight loss motivation skill has to do with yourself! The most powerful way to lose weight is to achieve your goals for yourself, and no one else. Hoping to lose 15 pounds to impress your boyfriend or to reignite the flames with your wife is not sufficient weight loss motivation. Instead, the weight loss motivation should come from within, you should lose weight to live a healthier life and to feel great about yourself. 

Stay Positive 

Even those with adamant self-control veer from the course occasionally. An important weight loss motivation skill is to stay positive, even when you falter. If you are too harsh on yourself for eating an extra brownie, chances are that you will feel guilty, sabotaging your entire effort to live a healthier lifestyle. By forgiving yourself when you make mistakes and staying positive, you create a path to a healthier weight. 

By honing and strengthening your weight loss motivation skills, you can achieve your goals and enjoy a healthier lifestyle!

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Beat The Pain - Train Your Mind!

We have seen this video before, but it's the start of a New Year and this short video really sums up the attitude you need if you want to be successful on your weight loss journey.

Managing and excepting pain in any form is the key. At some stage, at what ever level you are training at you will experience pain. It's how you handle this pain, which will inevitably determine whether you succeed or fail.  

Your body can and will adapt to most things, the key is if your mind wins the battle and forces you to give up, sit down, take a break or stop exercising altogether! You must train your mind as well as your body, when it hurts keep going, when really hurts keep going!

You only stop when physically you have nothing left, you then rest, regroup and go again. It will get easier, you will get fitter and stronger. The more you train the better you become, the more your mind will be able to accept, until one day you smash the barrier, and exercising is fun!! 

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Positive Thinking To Lose Weight

Positive thinking plays a significant role in your weight loss efforts. 

Perpetual negative thoughts can lead to self-defeating behaviours such as going off your diet, overeating and skipping your exercise routine. Positive thoughts, on the other hand, can increase your motivation and energy level.

Positive Thinking and Weight Loss

Positive thoughts are empowering. A negative attitude can set processes in motion that makes losing weight difficult, if not impossible. Berating yourself every time you eat the wrong foods, constantly focusing on what you cannot eat and approaching your exercise regimen with dread are all ways that negative thought patterns can sabotage your weight loss efforts.

When you hold a negative image of yourself, you rob yourself of much-needed energy. When feeling powerless, depressed or unmotivated, it's easy to skip your daily workout or eat a bag of potato chips to feel better. However, tuning into how you feel, acknowledging those feelings and transforming those thoughts into something more positive can actually help you to achieve your weight loss goals faster.

Strategies for Increasing Positive Thinking

A common response to those who tell you to think more positively is often: "I feel what I feel. I can't help how I feel." Positive thinking is only effective if it is in alignment with your true feelings. If you sincerely feel down about your body weight, telling yourself that everything is okay will often create internal discord.

The trick is to tap into those feelings that ring true for you. For example, keep a daily journal in which you write down your negative thoughts and feelings. If you feel you are lacking in willpower or just can't overcome your cravings, write those thoughts down. When you acknowledge the darker emotions, they often tend to have less power over you.

It is important to then make a conscious effort to transform your thoughts. It may be true that you often cannot overcome your food cravings or stick to your diet. However, if there are times when you are able to stand strong, then focus on those moments and celebrate the triumphs. Maybe you put less sugar in your coffee today and said no to a second slice of pizza. Giving attention to the positive things will help to create greater self esteem and motivation to continue with your weight loss efforts.

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Weight Loss MOTIVATION

Here is the first video of 2015 to really kick start your motivation & keep losing weight.

It's the start of a new year what ever happened last year good or bad is now in the past! You need to move forward, focussing on new achievable short term goals. Look at your training program and update, refresh and re-think if required. Try new activities, try exercising at different times of the day or look for new locations or routes.

The aim is to ignite your motivation and confirm your mindset is positive and ready to achieve what you have always wanted. The new year is the start of a new chapter in your weight loss journey, grab it with both hands and "smash your targets to pieces." 

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Top Workout Songs 2014

It's time to start thinking about getting back into the gym or planning your exercise program for the New Year.

We always think it's best to plan your program for about 8 weeks, this allows you to get the best from the program, but isn't too long so that your body become too comfortable with the routines.

The video above has some top workout songs, that you can use to motivate your workouts and challenge yourself to improve the intensity of the exercise. For instance, if you are doing a cardio workout try to complete a set before a song reaches a certain point, or try to maintain your pace for the duration of the song.

You can also select songs to warm up to and warm down to, this will stop you from clock watching and allow you to lose yourself in the music. By having a quality play list which you workout to the time will fly by and you will find yourself enjoying your sessions much more.

If you have never exercised to music before, give it ago, after all you have nothing to lose and you might just find that the music is the trigger you need to really help you focus! 

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Happy Christmas everyone, we hope you have a brilliant day where ever you are in the world.

I'm sure Father Christmas will bring you lots of amazing presents, if some of them are a little bit "caloriffic" don't worry too much, as we will blast away the calories in the New Year.

PS: Is it just me or is Santa looking like he's been dodging the gym?

Total Motivation!

This is the time of year when people start to make promises to themselves and others, about life style changes blah blah blah.

Don't be one of the crowd, you create a positive mindset, set short term realistic goals, research everything you need to know and then dedicate yourself 100%!

Let the talkers talk....

Keep Motivated To Lose Weight

Always remember it's your weight loss journey, you decide how long it takes and how far you want to go.

Anything is possible, the word CAN'T doesn't exist, remove it from your mindset and don't allow it to creep back in. It will dry over and over again to brake you down, you won't let it happen because you have made a decision to succeed and that is what will happen.

Of course you will feel like you CAN'T keep going, or you CAN'T train today.

But the answer is very SIMPLE YOU CAN & YOU WILL. Once you have created the correct mindset, one that will not accept defeat under any circumstance, then you CAN'T fail.

You must think of your weight loss journey as a life choice, not a 6 week diet or getting in shape for summer! 

You are making a conscious decision to be healthy, lose weight and get fit. This process will take time and will involve major changes to the way you presently live your life. Accept the change, set realistic short term goals and start today, not tomorrow or in the New Year. Today is the day...

If losing pounds is as easy as journalling about what you put in your mouth, can you use the same technique to help you stick to a fitness routine?

Dieters who keep a food diary lose twice as much weight as those who kept no records, according to a recent study by Kaiser Permanente’s Centre for Health Research. But while keeping a journal holds you more accountable for how you treat your body, sticking to a fitness routine is different from sticking to a healthy eating routine. Personal trainers we talked to recommend these tactics to keep you motivated and inspired to work out.

1. Change Your Perspective

Shift your thinking from couch potato mentality to thinking like an athlete. This may sound like a big challenge, but it’s not as big a leap as you think. Essex, Massachusetts mother April Bowling, 33, stopped using her busy life as an excuse not to exercise. After the birth of her children (now ages 5 and 3), Bowling started viewing exercise as a way to set a strong example for her kids.

Bowling started thinking about her workouts at odd hours as a blessing rather than a sacrifice. She also found inspiration in others, looking outward for extra motivation. “Take inspiration from everyone you meet."

2. Set a Goal

There’s nothing more motivating, sometimes even scary, than that first 5K looming in bold letters on the calendar. Register early and commit to an exercise program that will get you in shape by race day.

“Set realistic goals that include clear milestones, and as you progress toward your goal, you’ll find a ripple effect occurs and things fall into place in your work, home life and health,” says Stacy Fowler, a Denver-based personal trainer and life coach.

The goal doesn't even have to be an organized race. Maybe it’s a mission to fit into that bikini by the annual beach vacation or that old pair of jeans buried in your closet. Whatever it is is, define it, write it down and revisit it daily.

Make sure it’s realistic and you can actually adapt your life around meeting the goal, says Philip Haberstro, executive director of the National Association for Health and Fitness in Buffalo, N.Y. 

3. Schedule a Regular Workout Time

Some of the most committed exercisers do it every day before the sun comes up or late at night when the kids are in bed. Sit down with your weekly schedule and try to build in an hour each day to be good to your body.

Tamira Cole, 24, a graduate student in Clarksville,Tenn., was motivated to exercise regularly by the energy boost it brought to her day. “It’s easy to stay in bed. But you have to set an alarm and take the extra initiative,” she says. “Then you’ll find you have more energy and can be more efficient throughout the day.”

If you convince yourself you’ll fit in a workout some time after that last meeting, once the kids go down for a nap or when your spouse arrives home on time, failure is certain. Chances are a last-minute invitation will come along; weather will foil a bike ride; or the kids won’t nap. Write your workout on your calendar, set up daycare, and rearrange things around this one hour as if were any other important appointment you have to keep.

4. Think Fun and Variety

By nature, humans need change and variety to stay motivated. We also need to have fun, even while we’re working hard. 

Whether it’s a toning and sculpting class that changes choreography every week or a trail run that changes scenery every season, design your exercise routine around a variety of exercise methods. Make sure you include activities you truly enjoy and look forward to doing. Think movement that's more like recreation and makes you forget you're working out, like dancing, hula hooping or playing sports with family and friends.

Workout variety also challenges your body in unique ways, which may introduce you to new muscle groups you didn't even know you had!

5. Reach Out to Others for Support

In America, some tend to have trouble asking for help, says Bowling. Yet in order to stick to a fitness program, we need buy-in and encouragement from other people.

“Exercising is built into our family life," Bowling adds. “We view it as a necessity. Sometimes it takes the place of watching TV together.”

For others, it’s finding a friend with a shared zest for running, and planning scheduled workouts together. It’s easy to hit the snooze button when it’s just you, but much harder to leave a friend waiting at the track.

Consider joining a social networking site or on-line community with fitness trainers and nutrition experts, and support from other people trying to lose weight and maintain healthy eating and exercise routines. People who get this kind of on-line support are proven to lose three times more weight than people going it alone.

So start thinking of yourself as an athlete, and not a spectator. Set a goal, enlist a friend, mark it on your calendar and have some fun. You’ll be setting yourself up for a lifetime of better health, more happiness, and more energy for everything else in your life.

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Getting Started & Keeping Going

You know that you want to look and feel fitter and healthier! 

You know that you will feel better after a workout, yet you just can't bridge the gap between lying on the sofa, thinking about exercise and actually doing it. "Knowing what is good for you and wanting to do it is, alone, not sufficient to make sustainable behaviour changes," says Dr Falko Sniehotta, a psychologist at the University of Aberdeen. "The proverb, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions', is backed up by science. There is often a substantial gap between our intentions and our behaviour."

Ten top tips to boost your motivation

Take 10 Make a deal with yourself to do 10 minutes and you will probably end up completing a full workout.

Get your kit on Get up or go home and put on your workout clothes. Once they are on, you'll feel you may as well make use of them.

Distract yourself Research at San Diego State University suggests that most novice exercisers do better when chatting to a friend, listening to music or watching television.

Psych yourself up Listening to uplifting music before and during exercise can be beneficial.

Phone a friend "A workout buddy gives you a moral obligation to turn up, introduces an element of rivalry to push you harder and offers feedback, support and fun," says sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis.

Get a gadget Equipment that allows you to monitor your progress - such as heart rate monitors, pedometers and the Nike + Sports Kit (which monitors pace and distance) can help. Research by the Walking the Way to Health Initiative found that people who wore pedometers over a 12-week period ended up walking an extra 1,000 steps daily.

Make it bite-size Focus only on the moment and before you know it, you'll be cooling down.

Imagine it Visualisation is a very powerful mental strategy, but be careful. "If you see yourself sprawled on the sofa, feeling guilty about not being at the gym, your mind will take on board those negative feelings," says exercise coach Amelia Watts. "Better to visualise yourself exercising and feeling good. See yourself on the home stretch of a run - imagine how good you feel, what you might hear, smell and see when you put your key in the door."

Get minted As far-fetched as it might seem, research in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology found that sniffing peppermint resulted in increased running speed, hand grip strength and number of push-ups performed in a test.

Bribe yourself "Token reward systems work well," says Karageorghis. "Set yourself rewards for achieving stages along the way."

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