Motivate Yourself in Health and Fitness

Is There a Real Need For a Personal Trainer?
Let's talk about different forms of motivation. As a person looking to get motivated to lose weight, you should first ask yourself, "Can I motivate myself? If I cannot afford a personal trainer can I still get the job done?" Some people - those who are motivated by something or have completely made a decision to motivate themselves -- can use this motivation to get to a point where they're making good decisions about their eating habits, losing weight, and reaching their goals. On the other hand, there are people looking to lose weight who are not in a particular state of mind to motivate themselves. The question is, Do you need a personal trainer to motivate you? I cannot answer that question for you directly, just as I can't take your journey to health and fitness for you. But I can tell you this: in my opinion you can lose weight without a personal trainer. And you can even lose weight without dieting. I'll give you tips on how to succeed in self-motivating to weight loss, and discuss if and how a trainer can be useful in the process.
You Can 'Do It Yourself'
Self-motivating can be very difficult. We have created a society which seems to be very needy. This manifests in the realm of health and fitness as the belief that we have to hire a personal trainer and go to a gym in order to accomplish our health goals. But personal trainers are just another tool to assist you in your weight loss; hiring a personal trainer does not determine whether you're going to lose weight or reach your goals. I know a lot of personal trainers who have obese clients start a weight loss process and after they lose five or 10 pounds they set them loose. Those clients are still obese. I know personal trainers working with clients to get them stronger but they end up gaining weight because of the muscles they build. In the grand scheme of things, this is a positive development because muscle burns more calories than fat, but the clients cannot control what they are doing outside of the gym-- self-motivating to change their diets - so they do not lose weight. The good news is that the inverse is also true: you CAN lose weight without a personal trainer. If you structure the way you make changes in your life properly, you can do the job of losing weight and getting fit yourself.
To do this, you will have to understand certain aspects of fitness and nutrition. Given the public health crisis of obesity in our society, there are enormous amounts of information on how not to be obese available to you -- on the Internet and in libraries and bookstores -- that you should take full advantage of. Gather resources and information about the human body, food plans, workouts, training regimens, and dietary supplements to help you work towards reaching your fitness goals. I also recommend looking in the self-help section of the bookstore to see what speaks to you. This can help you change your mind about other negative habits in your life so there is a complete metamorphosis, not just of the body but of the mind as well. This is what ultimately determines your success - how far you can go to alter your mind. This is why personal trainers do not guarantee weight loss, because they cannot live in your head. What can guarantee that you reach your goal is altering your state of mind so that you think differently about health and fitness, about your weight loss. Even better, eventually you will not have to think about it at all. Health and fitness and training can and will become second nature, just like waking up and brushing your teeth.
You Can Do It at Home
As we think about health and fitness being second nature, let's also consider the necessity of a gym or fitness facility to reach our fitness goals. As with the 'need' for a personal trainer, there is no need to pay a monthly fee to enter a place where there is equipment, other people, or sometimes distractions in order to reach our fitness goals and become healthier people. Just being active and doing more than you did in order to become obese or gain the weight will start the process of reversing your obesity or shedding pounds. So if you do not have a gym or fitness facility, what do you or where do you go for exercise? Well, places you can get a good workout may be in your own home, like a spare bedroom, basement, or garage. Find a spot where you can lay out a couple of mats, put up a small television, get a few free weights, and some workout videos. Add some fresh plants and make sure you have nice lighting and upbeat colors to make it an inviting personal workout space. Over time, setting up your own workout space will cost you considerably less than the gym membership that you going to be paying for even when you're not going to the gym.
You can also go outside in the sunshine and nature to get some vitamin D and fresh air. In the spring, summer, and fall your training may happen at a park or lake or some other outdoor venue. In the winter this may be a little bit more difficult, but you will have your personal workout space to retreat to, where you can continue to stretch, do push-ups, sit-ups and free squats in order to keep your body in motion to burn fat and continue weight loss. None of these suggestions requires you going to a fitness facility. They don't require you to put out a great deal of money to become healthy. What it does require is that you build a resistance to failure and the negative voices in your head and create within yourself the aptitude for self-motivation. This means you will have to take on the burden of being able to motivate yourself. In essence you will have to become your own personal trainer.

Purchasing Fitness Equipment For Health And Fitness

Are you looking to find and purchase fitness equipment? Supreme health and fitness is possible when purchasing fitness equipment and actually using it! As you read this article, you will discover how to purchase some great equipment, as well as discover some great benefits of doing so!
There are many different ways that you can get fit, however, one of the best things that you can do, to stay committed to achieving great health and fitness, is by purchasing fitness equipment, and using it regularly.
This is an easier discipline than going for a run, jog or doing press ups, and other activities. Why? Because when you have something tangible, you will be more apt to work it daily!
The good news is that there are many options out there, and investing the time to finding and purchasing fitness equipment that is right for you, is a good idea. There are many options, such as treadmills, weights for weight training, and rowing machines, aerobic training equipment, and much more. Investing the time to finding the best, is a great idea.
This can happen with some research.
The first thing to do, is look at what you like. If you are new to health and fitness, exercise, etc, then it can take a bit of soul searching to be able to find the suitable options that you like, and would like to invest time into using.
If you use a gym, and want to add to this with your own fitness gear, then you likely know what you like, and selecting the best options is much easier than if you didn't know. Whether you use a gym or not, purchasing equipment for home is a great idea. Not only does it save a lot of money, but it can also can actually make all the difference in your fitness level, as it is there, and doesn't require scheduling time at a gym, which can be expensive.
There are many ways to purchase fitness equipment. For example, the fitness magazines are generally full up with options to buying fitness equipment.
Locally, you may also find stores that specialize in this equipment or at least have these kind of items for sale. A better solution I like to go with, is to buy fitness equipment online. When you purchase online, you will ultimately find that you have access to a better range of options, and this can make all the difference.
Being able to buy the best, is a good idea, and most local stores don't have the range of options we need. Buying online also has the added benefit that you can actually go through and order, and then get home delivery!

Current Trends in Health and Fitness

Earlier this year I attended the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Personal Trainers Conference. During the conference, I learned some useful information and received validation that I am on the right path when it comes to my personal approach to workouts and fitness in general. Since these types of conferences are a good reflection of current trends and future directions of the health and fitness industry, at least among true fitness professionals, I thought you might be interested in learning about the most discussed topics during the conference.
On a side note, there are always personal trainers and other health and fitness employees who have no interest in increasing their knowledge or providing better information to their clients/customers. These people are not representative of the entire health and fitness industry, although they do make up a significant portion of it. The true professionals realize that health and fitness information is constantly evolving and we have to keep learning if we want to provide our clients with the most accurate information and the best quality service.
Personal trainers and other health and fitness employees who are not interested in improving their knowledge or staying up to date with information are usually more concerned about making money than they are about their clients. Naturally, it is best to avoid these people whenever possible, because they generally provide lower quality products or services that will not help you effectively reach your goals and generally result in disappointment and frustration.
Okay, with that little diversion out of the way, let's get back to the conference. There were many different topics covered during the conference including nutritional issues, performance enhancement for athletes, training special populations (children, elderly, people with injuries, etc.), and more. However, even with this wide variety of topics, there were some topics that seemed to keep coming up over and over in different presentations.
Probably the most frequently discussed topics were related to movement, specifically the importance of moving correctly and training to correct poor movement patterns. If you have followed my writings over the years, it should be no surprise that proper movement is very important to me and it is great to see that movement issues are taking a more prominent role in the health and fitness industry.
There are many reasons why movement technique is getting more attention, but one of the driving forces is actually the rising cost of health care. As health care slowly shifts from just treating problems to actively preventing them, research has found that people who have incorrect movement technique are more likely to develop muscle and joint problems later in life, which results in higher numbers of joint replacements, falls, and other major problems. To make matters worse, these problems are not only found in the elderly.
With the removal of physical education from many schools, children are growing up being less active. This not only has implications for increasing levels of childhood obesity, but it has consequences for movement as well. We are finding that inactive children are much more likely to have poor movement technique when they grow up, which results in premature deterioration of their body. Younger people commonly have physical problems that should not occur for another 10-20 years or more and many of these problems are the direct result of poor movement technique putting excessive wear and tear on their muscles and joints.
The good news is these incorrect movements can be retrained and when poor movement patterns are replaced with correct ones, people can dramatically improve their long-term health. Unfortunately, training biomechanically correct movements is more complicated than just performing random exercises and exercising on traditional machines will generally not do the job. It takes concentration and awareness of what muscles are contracting and how each segment of your body is moving, along with the knowledge of how each movement is technically supposed to be performed.
When all these elements are put together in a well-designed training program, people of all ages and ability levels can improve their overall health and physical function. This was evident at the conference, because there were sessions on exercising and training movements with many different types of people including, children, elderly people, athletes, pregnant women, and people with injuries. It is clear that training is advancing past simply working individual muscles and becoming more about training each muscle to work correctly with the rest of the body.
Proper movement was not the only topic covered and many of the usual subjects were represented as well. On the nutrition side, protein intake and supplementation are still popular, because people are always interested in learning things they can do to improve their results. Another topic that continues to be noteworthy is eating disorders, along with the importance of developing good eating habits. People with bad eating habits (eating too much before they go to bed, eating too few calories, etc.), almost always have a hard time making progress, because even a great exercise routine can be undone by poor nutritional habits.
There were also many sessions with practical information about different types of training and demonstrations of new training equipment. Much of the focus was on training to improve specific attributes, such as speed, agility, power, and balance. Improving these different characteristics is important for improving physical performance in athletes, but they also have applications for improving performance in everyday tasks and improving the quality of life in all segments of the population.
Of course, no conference would be complete without sessions on core training, because everyone cares about their abdominal muscles. Fortunately these sessions were not about generic topics, such as training to get 6-pack abs, but rather training to improve the function of your body. The core muscles are essential for protecting your spine, maintaining good posture, preventing back pain, and much more, but many people still only think about how they look and not about how they function.
The topics discussed above were not the only ones covered during the conference, but they were the most common ones. When looking at everything, it's clear the overall theme and general direction of the health and fitness industry is learning to use specific exercises and movements to improve physical function in people of all ages and ability levels. As time progresses, hopefully training not just to improve appearance, but also to improve physical function, will become a standard for personal trainers and others in the health and fitness industry. Unfortunately, right now we are still a long way from that happening.

Thoughts, the Foundation for all Health and Fitness Achievement

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve" - W. Clement Stone

Like any learned skill, there are certain basics that must be mastered first. The very bedrock upon which all health and fitness achievement rests are thoughts. Everything man-made in the world or any action you've taken in the past all started with a thought. There is not one man-made object or goal that didn't start as a thought in someone's head that was then made into reality. Your toaster, your TV, your automobile, your desire for better health.

A single thought ultimately transformed into physical reality.

In order to achieve any health or fitness goal you must start with this basic concept; thoughts are things. Thoughts are the foundation upon which you build the framework for attainment of your goal. Every thought has a physical manifestation in our bodies; every thought produces physical substances called neuro-transmitting enzymes that have instant effects on how we feel and who we are at the cellular level.

Don't believe me? Think of biting into a big, juicy lemon or think about fingernails slowly running down a chalk board and tell me you didn't have an immediate, physical response.

Or how about a thought that changed the world?

Every day, thousands of times a day, all over the world people fly from destination to destination. It's amazing that a person can step into a device that lifts them off the ground and flies through the air at great speed sometimes over great distances safely carrying them to their destination in a matter of minutes or hours! Only a bit over a hundred years ago that would have been considered impossible or a miracle. Yet it happens every day today and it started with a thought in someone's head that man could fly. On December 17th, 1903 the thought that man had had for generations to fly, became reality.

That is the power of thoughts!

If you can have that kind of immediate response from such a simple thought, just imagine what you can accomplish with a focused, burning desire backed by faith and persistence!

Life isn't fair or normal, there's just life. But that should be a comforting thought. If life were fair all things would be equal and all people would be equal. The logical conclusion is that there could be no social movement up or down, no bettering of yourself nor worsening, no getting healthier, just stagnation. Because life isn't fair it means you have the ability to control whether you improve your life or make it worse but at least you have the ability to make change.

What about external influences which you have no control over? Say your significant other is killed in a car accident or you become paraplegic in a skiing accident. The list could go on and on. But there is one thing you have total control over.

Viktor E. Frankl, a concentration camp survivor, put it best in his book "Man's Search for Meaning,"

"The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one's freedoms is to choose ones attitudes in any given circumstance."

The only absolute freedom you have is choosing how you react to life. And how you choose starts with a thought.

Who you are right now is the sum total of what you've thought about up to this moment. If you're not satisfied with who you are right now, the good news is who you will be from now on is entirely up to you. Change your thoughts and you can start changing yourself. If you want to lose weight or be more fit, it all starts with a thought.

Health and Fitness Business

Online search activity rose thirty-nine percent last year to hit an all-time high of 5.7 billion searches, according to Nielsen Netratings, the global leader in Internet market research. Studies have also discovered that searchers are using the Internet as their global and local "yellow pages". Whether they are searching for the latest movie times, a good Moroccan restaurant, a nearby health spa or a fitness center in their city, fewer and fewer people are picking up the big yellow book and spending fifteen minutes trying to find your listing.
Instead, they have a permanently-connected broadband link to Google, Yahoo, MSN or their favorite local search portal, and within seconds they have typed in something like "Denver health spa" or "North Seattle chiropractor," received thousands or millions of results, and scanned the first few until one catches their eye.
Many business owners in the health and fitness industry think it is good enough to put up a web site and print the URL on their business card. They have no idea that thousands or millions of other web sites are competing for the same terms (usually product/service+location) or that, without being properly optimized, their web site is destined to sit in the darkest corners of cyberspace. If the purpose of the site is to act as an online brochure, sort of a convenience for those who already know about your business, then it doesn't need to rank high on the search engines.
However, if your web site is meant to bring in sales, leads, news clients, members... what good is it doing way back on page 55 of Google for your best search terms? If you run a fitness center, shouldn't you be on the first page (or at least the first few pages) for "Your City Fitness Center" or "Your City Gym"? The same goes for all local businesses, from chiropractors to martial arts schools and health spas.
But it doesn't have to be local either. What if you manufacture fitness equipment, or produce a health supplement and want to market your products nationwide or globally? The same principal applies - either you compete for those key terms or you sit back in the corner and throw money away on hosting and web site design, never to obtain a positive return on investment.
Now that you know "something" needs to be done, let's discuss what that "something" is. It goes by the name Search Engine Optimization - SEO, for short. Search engine optimization is a mixture of Internet marketing, web site design, copywriting, PR, coding and other factors with the solitary goal of getting your web site to show up better on search engines for a certain group of keywords and phrases.
Professional search engine optimizers study the algorithms patented by major search engines to determine how each determines how to rank a web site. Google alone looks at over 200 factors when choosing where to place a web site on its result page for a search! Lucky for you there are firms out there dedicated to staying on top of the latest SEO strategies. Just be sure to choose the right one, because not all search engine optimizers are created equal.

Health and Fitness Clubs on the High Rise

Health and Fitness Clubs Surprise Rise?

It came as no surprise to me. The report from FinancialWeek.com pronounced that memberships to health and fitness clubs were actually on the rise, even in spite of current economic conditions. The biggest growth is coming from elder 'Boomers', age 55 and up.

Um... that would be me!

So why the surprise? The fact that my age demographic is leading the way in the current membership explosion shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It was the Boomers who started the whole craze.

I can't say I'm big on joining a fitness center as I prefer doing my own thing. Here in my high rise condo, I have access to an indoor pool and a very well-equipped gym.

I rarely use it. But whenever I walk by, the majority of people who do use it are... you guessed it - minimum 45+. One of the regulars is 78 years old!

For myself, I spend a good amount of time in the stairs, currently running 5 cycles up and down 22 floors, three times a week. It takes just over 30 minutes. As well, Maggie and I do a fair bit of walking after dinner and on weekends. Add a few stretches coupled with some occasional resistance training as recommended by most professional trainers and I'm good. In fact, I'm pretty darned proud of my 55+ year old bod!:)

The Lure of Health and Fitness Clubs

It's hard to resist those health and fitness club flyers, isn't it? Boomers especially cling to the vision of maintaining a youthful, vigorous appearance. We're getting more 'quantity' of life, with age expectancy rising all the time. What Boomers demand now however is 'quality'. They want to squeeze as much enjoyment out of their ever lengthening years.

Of course, you could always take the Rodney Dangerfield approach to looking your best, "If you want to look thinner, hang around more fat people."

Personally, I believe you actually become who you hang out with. My job teaching young children for the past 37 years has certainly had a better effect than any gym. Plus the fact that Maggie is 12 years younger keeps me energized as well!

Choosing a Health and Fitness Club

Whether or not you join a health and fitness club is a matter of choice. Some people need the extra push and accountability that a personal trainer or other club members will give. Organized gyms also can provide a social outlet which is most important in this day and age of increasing isolation and cocooning.

Of course, due diligence is required before signing on the dotted line at any fitness center. While the initial offer to get you in the door may be quite enticing, you have to be extremely aware of the inevitable upsell to an annual or 'family' package deal.

The main question is, will you actually stick to the program? Most clubs are banking that you won't! They know most people are very weak when it comes to keeping commitments, especially the pain-for-gain kind. They also know these same people are even weaker when it comes to asking for a refund. They would rather simply slink away rather than be held accountable.

The fact is, most health and fitness clubs are very strict with their refund policies. This brings a whole new meaning to the term, "Use it (your membership) or lose it (hundreds of dollars of your hard-earned cash!)".

Warning: Health and Fitness Club Fraud

It's not bad enough that you have to be aware of 'upsell-hell' when you shop around for a training center. It's extremely rare NOT to be confronted with an upsell opportunity, so expect it. (Do you want fries with that?)

Maggie actually had such an experience with a spa, very similar to the gym bait and switch routine. She purchased a basic package, only to be told the next week that the package was 'discontinued'. She would have to upgrade.

The following week, she was pitched to add a massage. The week after that, she was followed by a rep with a clipboard, showing her all the benefits she would gain if she upgraded to the next better deal. Maggie didn't return again after the 5th week. She just cut her loss. Obviously, this spa mistook her for an ATM machine.

Occasionally though, you'll come across outright frauds. The news from my old home town of Nashua, N.H. recently reported that the president of a new, unregistered health and fitness club was found guilty of illegally using $14,000 in pre-paid memberships to carpet his facility. Apparently, this person was a firm believer in exercise as law officials concluded that he planned to take the money and run!

Heath and Fitness For Everyone

If there is one concern that all of us have it is directly focused toward our well beings. For being well is the only way to live, both physically and mentally speaking. Specifically, it is our health and fitness levels that are, whether we truly choose to accept it or not, all too important factors in our lives. They keep us going. Keep us living. And having poor health will not allow us to fully live and enjoy what life has to offer. And being out of shape is nothing to be satisfied with as it proves to make us incapable of doing many activities we would otherwise love to do.
So, hopefully with all this said, it would make individuals like yourself say to themselves "Well, am I healthy...am I, fit?" Or, "Am I happily living?" And they're questions that should be inwardly asked and answered accordingly. If you're not healthy or physically fit you need to ask yourself why. Usually, lack of a healthy life is not simply put upon individuals. Instead, it's gained from something that's done, or, more likely, from something that isn't done.
Ask Yourself If You Live A Healthy Lifestyle
You need to ask yourself if the way in which you live is in line with being - and, more importantly, striving to be - healthy. Do you eat well on a regular basis or do you eat poorly day in and day out? Or is there a bit of a combination, of monitored and carefree eating? Do you exercise to keep yourself in decent shape or do you prefer vegetating, inadvertently keeping yourself unfit? Or again, do you exercise intermittently and still partake in being a vegetable too?
After asking yourself the above questions give yourself some answers. If you do eat without care daily, do sit around and opt out of exercising then it's likely you're a bit unhealthy. Yet, this unhealthiness can easily be addressed and fixed.
Changing The Way You Live - Becoming and Being Healthy
All that needs to be done is a little reorganization of what you typically do day to day, both concerning eating and exercising habits. As far as eating goes, it's a matter of eating healthfully. This means that you eat wholesome foods, in fair amounts, around 3-4 times a day. Stay away from junk or filler foods. Avoid eating till you're stuffed or considerably "satisfied." And eat on a schedule having 3 full meals each day, trying to snack rarely and healthfully, if and when you do.
As far as exercising and activity goes you should aim to be active at least 3-4 times a week to maintain a fitness level that is in line with being healthy. Exercise can be moderate to strenuous based on your current physical shape or fitness goals. Just be sure to stick through exercising even if at first you seem unable or not strong enough - the effort put into a workout is completely worth it, as is your overall good health that will surely follow.
Truly, Anyone Can Have Great Health and High Fitness Levels
And don't underestimate yourself through the process of becoming a healthy individual. You can (stressing the word "can") eat well and be active all at once. It will just take some initiation and unbendable determination on your part. For, no one ever said that being healthy was a matter of just proclaiming yourself healthy. It takes work. It requires drive. But, in truth, it's really not all that difficult to work toward; having good health and being fit is easy enough for everyone to achieve.

Fat Health And Fitness Lie

Kevin:
Good evening, everyone. So Craig, you've been in the fitness industry for over 26 years and with that, I imagine comes a bit of wisdom. Why don't you start with your story and how you've gotten to where you are now?Craig: Sure Kevin. Well, first of all, I started out in the fitness industry as a personal trainer making $3.50 an hour.
Kevin: Wow.
Craig: So I've been in it for awhile and I grew through the ranks in the fitness industry to the executive level. I was the president of two of the largest fitness organizations in the United States. I was the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the largest chain of fitness clubs in the world operating in 11 countries. I also successfully owned and operated my own fitness company. I've visited 30 countries and evaluated health and fitness trends all over Russia, Asia, Europe. I've been to dozens of fitness conventions, purchased millions of dollars worth of equipment, supplements and other health and fitness related products and I've also had the ability to train thousands of health and fitness professionals around the world and help them to help other people improve their lives. So this really kind of led me to where I am today, which is to where I just got to the point where I want to do something more and that's why I wrote my book The Big Fat Healthy Fitness Lie and founded the Fit Advocate website so that I could create a platform to protect and enhance the lives and health and fitness consumers.
Kevin: Now you just mentioned your book, The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie which I absolutely love. What is the big fat fitness lie. Let's just lay it on the table.
Craig: Why mince words? Let's dig right in. The lie is that there are these billion dollar industries out there getting richer while we get sicker and fatter and with all the so-called solutions available for losing weight and improving our health, we are literally in the worse shape in the history of modern civilization. There's big profit in sickness and in fatness, and a lot of times people question that and they think, "Oh, well we live in the United States, we're in great health and we have the best health care system" which is a complete fallacy. Here's an interesting fact that people should be aware of, we're approaching some 300 million people in the U.S. and we have every year 200 million diseases that are diagnosed for conditions that could be prevented with simple lifestyle changes.
Kevin: Wow.
Craig: And we spend in the United States, 270 billion dollars on 3.7 billion prescriptions written to, not to cure anything because there's really very few cures in modern medicine, medicine is meant mostly to mask our symptoms. So taking into our bodies a lot of toxic chemicals and you know there's so much confusion out there and misinformation about health and fitness. So there's a huge opportunity, unfortunately, for people to make big money on the lack of knowledge that people have about how to lose weight, improve their health, get in shape and live better. So millions of people are out there paying thousands of dollars that have no chance of helping them achieve their goal and that's really the big fat lie.
Kevin: And let me just ask you this, you've been on the other side, you've been a part of the industry that is making a lot of money in the fitness clubs and the organizations and everything. When did you suddenly say, "Hey, you know, maybe I need to educate people about this."
Craig: Well, first of all I never felt that the club industry was a bad industry.
Kevin: Okay.
Craig: And in my book I still am a big proponent of joining a fitness center for the average person, there are, of course, some caveat of how to get a quality club. I have an article on the ten worst tricks for the fitness industry. So I try to expose the things that I think are bad but there's also a lot of good too, but what I did notice while I was operating all of these clubs and trying to help people is that I would talk to thousands of consumers, face to face. For a big part of my career, my job was to get out there and help, work with people in the field, club operators, managers, sales people, fitness staff members, personal trainers, to talk to them about how to help people make decisions that are good for them and the guiding principle, of course was always don't focus on making money, focus on helping people and you will make money as a natural result, as a natural bi-produce of helping people. That's always been one of my guiding principles, but in speaking with all these consumers, you find that the average person spends thousands and thousands of dollars on products and services that have no chance of helping them. They spend hours and hours of wasted time on information that will never help them improve their health or change their lives. So I got tired, frustrated and really kind of outraged at all of the quick fix solutions that are out there that people jump from one to the other and without really understanding the true cause of why they're in such poor health. So I wanted to try to educate them on all of the things, the lies the deceptions while also trying to give them simple solutions for how to improve their health, how to lose weight, how to get in shape, how to live better, how to feel better with no tricks and no gimmicks for the rest of their lives. That's really what the big fat health and fitness lie is all about and that's really what the Fit Advocate website is all about.
Kevin: And you take a different approach in your book as opposed to a lot of the other books that I've read about health and fitness and it's related to addiction. You say addiction feeds this whole lie. What do you mean by this?
Craig: Well, many people live a self-inflicted toxic lifestyle that destroys their health and feeds this lie. So what do I mean by that? Well, the definition of toxic, first of all, is poison and in our society we are surrounded by poisons, in our air, it's in our water, some of them we can't avoid and many of them we can, however. A lot of these poisons, they're not going to kill us today, but instead what they do is they slowly and quietly deteriorate and destroy our health.
There's two specific types of poisons or toxins that I talk about that create these health problems. The first, of course is chemical exposures. There are thousands of untested chemical combinations in our food supply to improve taste, texture, color or to extend shelf life. There are low calorie, low carb foods laced with toxic sweeteners that has contributed to obesity and diabetes. We've been conditioned to believe that sodium fluoride, for example is good for our teeth. Yet it's a known chemical waste bi-product of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industry. This chemical has been pumped into our water supply and put into our dental hygiene products for years but fluoridation has been flatly rejected by many developed countries because of the dangers and the lack of really any scientific evidence of any health benefit. Beyond that, we have toxic chemicals in our household products, our cleaning products, personal hygiene products. Fruits and vegetables have been treated with herbicides and pesticides. Chickens and cows are fed ground chicken and beef. Then pumped full of antibiotics to stave off disease from the horrific conditions in which they live and where they're slaughtered. So we have all of those, you know, all of this chemical toxicity. That's the first concern.
The second is the biggest toxic exposure which is related to stress, and people don't realize this but as much as 80% of all disease is the result of stress and having had the ability to travel all over the world and visit, you know, I believe I've been to over 40 countries now, you find that we in America are the most stressed out country on the planet. We work more than any other activity other than sleep. Just think about our normal lives, we wake up every day and we're running on empty from morning to night. We've got the pressures at work, at home, the challenges sustaining some sort of happy relationship with our significant others. We've got the demands of the kids, trying to pay the bills. We have all of the negativity in the news. We're all trying to live the American dream which is predicated on financial freedom, but the truth is only a fraction of people out there actually ever realize the American dream and the rest of us are simply trying to get by, and, you know, we're buried in a mountain of debt. All of these things add up to a lot of worry and stress and to cope with this stress, what do we do? We drink, we smoke, we take drugs, we over eat, we eat the wrong foods and we spend hours in front of the television or surfing the internet. All of these activities, unfortunately make us fat, lazy and out of shape, and what happens is this poor health that's created from this self addictive lifestyle creates, and opens the door for these big fat health and fitness lies. One of them is companies that market, manufacture and market and sale products that have no chance of helping us and then, of course, the worse thing is when we look to synthetic chemical compounds, prescription drugs, as the first line of defense to handle our self inflicted health problems. So we really have a lot of issues that we have to deal with in order to be healthy, but people need to understand the basis of where it starts, the cause.
Kevin: Yes. How does someone take that sort of addiction or quote unquote addictive personality and turn that into fitness success?
Craig: Well the first thing they have to do is identify it.
Kevin: Yes.
Craig: You have to realize it. Here's, here's a fact that's pretty important that people should know about, the number one reason that people give for not exercising regularly is that they don't have enough time, okay. Yet the average American watches four and a half hours of television a day. So there's an issue there with priority and people have to understand that time is the most important and the most valuable thing that we have because once it's gone you can't get it back. If you want to improve your health, you have to make time to do all of the things that are necessary to improve and enhance your health and your life and it's not just exercise but it is one of the key components. So they have to first understand the issues and then have the right motivation and set the right priorities to get them to where they need to be.

Health and Fitness Magazines

Today, maintaining health and fitness have become more important than ever before. With illnesses becoming more often, we have to equip ourselves with everything necessary to maintain health and have a good quality of life. One of the best ways to jumpstart your way to better health is through reading health and fitness magazines. These magazines offer helpful tips, advice and recent discoveries about health that should come handy. Note that although fitness magazines are aimed mainly at body- and health-conscious audience, everyone will surely benefit from all the information they provide. Here are some of the most popular health and fitness magazines today:
Muscle & Fitness Magazine
This magazine was released mainly for bodybuilders. However, if you are conscious about your health and do workouts, you can use vital information on this magazine. There is a version of this magazine called Muscle and Fitness Hers aimed mainly towards health-conscious ladies. This magazine contains tons of information that can range from bodybuilding foods, diet programs, weight loss strategies, workout information, supplements, and other recent discoveries.
Shape Magazine
Shape Magazine has been edited to help you get a better understanding of fitness. It features articles from experts in the fields of nutrition, exercise, beauty and psychology. Shape is mainly geared towards fitness enthusiasts who surely will benefit from each and every bit of information that the magazine contains. It highlights news, step-by-step guidelines, recipes, and tips in beauty, fashion, style, and everything in between.
Men's Fitness Magazine
Men's Fitness is also a magazine designed for the modern health conscious men. It contains articles containing important details on maximizing workout, optimal diet and nutrition necessary for perfect fitness. Each issue is aimed at showing you how to properly workout your specific body parts, look better, unleash your sexual drive, and essentially put adventure back into your life.
Subscribing Health and fitness magazines cover everything a health and body-conscious person needs to know. If you are aware of the importance of maintaining tiptop health, and are actually doing something about it, a subscription to these types of magazines will provide you great discounts than buying them at the newsstand. Health and fitness magazines are usually offered in an attractive price package through websites.
Consider subscribing to a health and fitness magazine as an investment for your health and yourself. There is nothing more important than valuing health. Today, it may seem like an added financial burden but the long-term benefits that reading about health can give are far worth it. Besides, you can get subscriptions at rock bottom, discounted prices. However, be careful with the website you will subscribe to. Trust only the most reliable website that has a good reputation online.

Health and Wellness Jobs For Everybody

In my last article, I brought up work ethic.
Being an adult, you need a great work ethic to be successful at nearly anything, including health and fitness. So how will you develop a health and fitness work ethic? Begin a career in health. With this, I don't mean leave your job and become a nutritionist or fitness instructor. I mean take on a part-time job of eating healthy and working out and keep it up. Think about it... if we all had health and wellness jobs, would obesity exist? I know this might sound somewhat crazy, but I have developed this mindset over the last couple of years and it works.
How does it work?
One word. Accountability. When you've got a job, you happen to be kept accountable for your effort, generally and at a minimum, showing up and doing what you must do. How frequently does the average Joe compromise doing things he enjoys including seeing close friends or watching TV because he has to go to work? Probably weekly. But how often does he sacrifice these same things for a training session? Probably never. If you don't show up to work, you'll get let go. The good news is that people can't get let go from their self-made health and wellness jobs. The not so good news is that this will make it even more challenging to hold themselves accountable and remain motivated.
In our careers, we're motivated by money.
I'm sorry to point out the obvious, but if everybody was a billionaire, what percentage of us would actually continue in our jobs? With the exception of people who absolutely love their career, I'd venture to say no one. People work to provide for themselves and for their households. They need money in order to achieve this. If they fail to accomplish this, they and their loved ones will suffer. This is quite strong motivation for anyone. Think about that for a minute. "If I don't go to work, my family and I will suffer." No wonder many people stay in jobs they can't stand.
Clearly, motivation is key for individuals to remain in their jobs.
So how does one get motivated for a job that doesn't pay money? Well guess what? Remember that thought that pops up with your real job? "If I don't go to work, my loved ones and I will suffer." This applies to your second job in health and fitness as well. It's just not as noticeable because there may not be immediate repercussions. However, think about the following facts I picked up from an episode of The Biggest Loser a couple of years ago:
• Overweight individuals pay $500 - $1,000 more on medical insurance each year
• On average, obese people make $7,000 less per year than their peers
• Americans spend $4.4 billion each year on gastric bypass surgery
• Americans spend $147 billion annually on obesity related health problems
• The average person will save $1 million over four decades by going from obese to their ideal weight
Therefore you may not necessarily make money from your wellness job. But you will save a lot of money. And you know what people say regarding a penny saved... Not enough motivation? How about this? Obesity cuts the average lifespan by two to four years and by as much as eight to ten years for those people who are extremely obese. Needless to say, the quality of life of obese people will be much lower than it is for non-obese people. It's not going to be easy to care for all your family members if you're in a hospital bed.
I'm not trying to freak anyone out.
I just want to push home the message that your part-time job as a healthy, fit individual is as vital, if not more so, than your full-time job. In fact, if your full-time occupation is a sedentary one, your part-time job will become even more important. I think it's important to shed some light on this because the fact is with no concrete benefit or strong motivating factors, people will not take action. The consequences of obesity and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle are significant, however are not at the forefront of people's immediate focus.
This is a breakdown of my 15 to 20-hour weekly part-time job of being fit and healthy:
• 8 hours per week - cooking and preparing healthful meals, doing dishes
• 3 - 4 hours per week - resistance training
• 3 - 4 hours per week - high-intensity cardio and/or soccer
• 1 - 2 hours per week - low-intensity aerobic exercise (walking)
Just like it's imperative that you have a work-life balance in your full-time job, it's important to achieve a balance with your part-time job in health and fitness. You don't want to devote 60 hours a week and overtrain, however, you don't want to do nothing either. My friends like to go out a lot. During the week, I'll opt out of happy hour quite frequently in order to stay in and get in a high-quality training session and meal because once again, I treat this as my job. It helps me stay lean and healthy. On the weekends, I'll indulge and party along with them because it's also important to have fun and enjoy life. I'd love to hear comments on your weekly routine. Do the men and women you know take on part-time health and wellness jobs?

Health and Fitness Success

You know weight loss shouldn't be about sacrificing everything that we love to eat and the good news is that it is not. When you are trying to lose weight your really attempting to just become healthy. The problem is that most people focus only on the dieting part of getting healthy or sometimes just exercising to get healthier. The truth is that you shouldn't focus on just one aspect of becoming healthier, you need to look at all areas of your life if you are going to succeed.
Dieting is an important aspect to becoming healthy, the whole point of dieting is not necessarily to lose the weight but to focus on what we eat and how much of the food we are consuming. This doesn't mean you cant eat chocolate or doughnuts or any of your favourite foods. What it means, is that you should reserve those foods as treats for the odd occasion and not as a regular part of your diet.
When you start your weight loss journey, don't think of it as a chore but rather as an opportunity to explore. Think about how big this world really is and how many different kinds of foods are out there. This is the best time to move away from fried chips and pizza's and to start exploring the different kinds of foods other cultures eat.
Try taking a boring bit of chicken and adding different spices to it and mix them up, through in some new and different vegetables and see how the food can be transformed into something new and amazing. Try mixing up everything you eat with new fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Instead of going home thinking I have to eat plain old boring white meat, think tonight I think we might try Indian food and tomorrow we are definitely going Mexican.
Once you get into a new habit of looking at different foods and flavours, I can guarantee you wont miss most of the old foods that you used to eat. Plus now there is nothing stopping you from having some of the old faithfuls once in a while and adding them in to a much larger diverse of meal choices. The best news is this though, now that you have started to try new healthy and interesting foods in moderation, you have been naturally losing weight, feeling much better. You can also impress friends by hold dinner parties cooking some of these new wild and great tasting meals they might not ever have thought of themselves.

Exercise, Health and Fitness

We all know that cigarettes are bad for us. But did you know that there's evidence showing that a sedentary lifestyle can be just as detrimental to our health as smoking? Several other studies also found that prolonged sitting increases the risk of heart disease - America's leading killer - as well as cancer, obesity, diabetes, and even premature death. We've always known that sitting for long periods of time can make us more vulnerable to serious diseases. These findings are all the more alarming because they come on the heels of other recently released studies indicating that long periods of time spent sitting in our cars and offices are significant contributing factors in the obesity epidemic sweeping the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and a third of the population is considered obese.
It's all an unfortunate chain of events: sedentary lifestyle leads to obesity, which, in turn, is a well-known factor in heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer, which render us even more inactive. Statistics show that 40 to 50 million Americans have sedentary jobs, which don't allow them to get the recommended amount of at least 30 minutes of moderately intensive physical activity five days a week. Add this to research indicating that 60 percent of Americans don't exercise enough and over 25 percent are not active at all, and what you get is a recipe for disaster.
Since it is not always possible to avoid situations where prolonged sitting is necessary - for example, in a workplace, try to sneak some exercises in to offset inactivity.
Finding time to exercise, be it in the morning, evening or at lunchtime, can literally be a real lifesaver. Here are some examples of mini workouts that can help you battle a sedentary lifestyle:
Stairs - Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Better yet, run up and down. If you do it several times a day, every day, it adds up. In fact, take 2 breaks a day for 5-10 minutes where all you do is walk the stairs.
Avoid your car - Especially for short distances, resist the urge to take your car. Walk to your destination and back quickly enough to get your heart rate up.
The "Idiot Box" - So you're finally home from a long day at work, sitting in from the computer? Don't go "relax" in front of TV for another 3 hours. If you finally have a bit of free time, use it for some form of physical activity, not to sit around some more. I currently live in South Carolina and a study done not too long ago said that SC is the #1 state for hours of TV watched. Guess I have my work cut out for me.
OK. I know I was the bearer of bad news here, but the good news is that there are easy fixes. Just make up your mind to help yourself and keep moving!

Ian Hart is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with 2 kettle bell certificates and a certificate in integrated stretching techniques and is an FMS specialist (among other qualifications). He has also been featured in Men's Health Magazine, on the Men's Health website, was a featured Health Expert on New York 1 News and was a guest on the Mike and Juliet Morning Show. Ian loves training, and helping people reach their fitness goals. Not just physically but also mentally.
K. Clifford has worked in the field of finance until 2009 when K left the field to pursue a different route into the world of fitness and business management at a fitness center in South Carolina. Helping clients reach their goals and managing a great business are the main focuses in K's life.