We all know that one parent…

We all know that one “super-jock” parent who is TOO vocal at the kids’ games, right? He’s calling all the fouls, criticizing the refs and coaches, and even other children. He’s still so pissed that he wasn’t good enough or he didn’t work hard enough to attain his own athletic dreams that he rides his kid and pushes them obsessively in sports.

95% of the crowd thinks he’s a jerk, but nobody says anything because they don’t want to cause a scene in the stands. The other 5% are the parents in the little click who always sit together. They won’t say anything for fear of being ostracized in their social group.

Seriously, folks need to lighten up! They are kids, they make mistakes. Referees and coaches make mistakes, we ALL make mistakes. It’s ok. Why can’t we all just sit back and enjoy watching our kids play. Revel in the fact that your offspring are in to athletics and not drugs, and stop ruining it for them and everyone around you!
Peace.

Struggles, struggles everywhere!

Hello friends, I hope this finds you well. Thanks for checking out my blog!
Today I feel like writing about overcoming struggles.
We all have struggles, not to think so is naive. The difference between those that succeed in life and those that don’t is how we choose to handle those struggles. One of my favorite motivational speakers was Jim Rohn, who was one of Tony Robbins’ early mentors. Mr Rohn has since passed away, but one of the things he said has stuck with me since I first heard it.
He said,
“The same wind blows on us all. The difference in arrival is not the blowing of the wind, but the set of the sail.”

Once I applied this philosophy to my life, the struggles seemed to diminish. Problems became easier to handle and I broke out of that “victim mentality”.
Life is hard. You will get knocked down. Are you going to stay down, or are you going to get up and own your life? The choice is yours alone.

I write this with one hand as my left arm is in a sling. I was dealt yet another hurdle on my road to becoming fit. I aggravated an old shoulder injury just as I had progressed in to strength training following my last injury before Christmas. I swear I’ve been hurt more often than not since Thanksgiving!
This most recent struggle could have been a crippling blow to my motivation. I could choose to let this set back define me.
No, I choose to get up and keep going. I am still doing my daily cardio until my docs can figure out how to fix my shoulder. I’ve worked far too hard to go back. I am down almost 20 pounds since New Year’s and I have a 5K to train for.

Choose well my friends, and I wish for you limited struggles and the wisdom to set a good sail. Join me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/300poundfitnesscoach

Slow Cooked Chipotle Chicken with Cool Avocado Cream

Hello cilantro and lime! What a great combination along with avocado??? I’m thinking yummy!! I think this dressing would go great for a lot of dishes. Try it out and tell me what you think.

Starvation and Your Inner Caveman

I keep seeing this trend when I begin to coach new people. I will ask them how often they eat and the answers will usually be something to the effect of, “well I usually don’t eat breakfast and then I just have a light lunch around noon and then I don’t eat anything until dinner”, therein lies the problem.

We as humans have this nifty little tool built in to our DNA to keep us alive in the event that our food source runs out. It’s called “starvation mode” and it is something our prehistoric ancestors actually needed to survive, but today is just keeping us fat. You see, when your body thinks your food source isn’t reliable, eg, by skipping meals, it thinks that you have the potential for starvation so it flips a little switch that causes you to store a lot of what you eat as fat. The way to flip the switch back is by eating. Yes, that’s right, to lose weight, you need to eat! Oh happy day!

The key is to eat small meals throughout the day. What happens is when you eat a small (200-300) calorie meal every 3 hours, your body will realize that food sourcing is not a problem and actually release stored fat to burn as fuel.

Ideally, you will want to eat within an hour of waking, and not eat within 2 hours of going to bed. So now you have your breakfast and dinner time set, all you need to do is figure out how to eat something light no more than every 3 hours in between. It works, I promise you!

“But I hate eating in the morning.” Tough. Buck up powder puff and eat something! A few Ritz with a little peanut butter, a low-fat Greek yogurt, a protein shake, whatever it is, make it happen. If you miss this step in the process, the rest of your efforts will be diminished immensely! I have Shakeology daily for breakfast and it gives me a great amount of clean energy, not like that poison that comes in the big cans, and it keeps me feeling full.

Here’s a basic day’s meal plan. Tweak it how you like it.

Morning:

16 oz. of water, Shakeology (made with Almond milk and PB2)

Morning Snack:

12 oz. of water, 1/4 cup of unsalted or at least lightly salted nuts, a small apple or box of raisins

Lunch:

16 oz. of water, 2 cups salad greens with 4 oz grilled chicken or fish, 1 TBS of parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of lite dressing

Afternoon Snack:

12 oz. of water, celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, or a small piece of fruit and 1TBS of peanut butter

Dinner:

16 oz. of water, grilled chicken soft tacos with Spanish style quinoa and black beans.

Dress two whole wheat soft taco tortillas with lettuce, grilled chicken, quinoa, black beans, a light sprinkle of cheese, and some light sour cream

Spanish style quinoa – prepare quinoa per directions, about 5 minutes before it’s done, mix in garlic, cumin, and chili powder to taste. once quinoa is done, stir in some green or red salsa.

Eat this way consistently for just 3 or 4 days and your metabolism will be on fire! Keep the substitutions reasonable and the portion sizes in check and EAT ALREADY!

Get FREE access to more recipes and tips along with a lot of great articles about becoming more fit HERE

Why Diets Don’t Work

Exactly! GuerreraLatina really hit the nail on the head. Lifestyle lifestyle lifestyle!

Guerrera Latina

Everyone has tried a diet at some point in their life. I’m guilty of this as well. There are thousands out there, promising to help you lose weight quickly. Often, these diets recommend abstaining from eating a certain food or only consuming liquids. They promise unhealthy weight loss within an unrealistic period of time, often sabotaging your body.

Now, the reason why these diets don’t work is because….You haven’t addressed the underlying issue! Your unhealthy habit. These habits may include eating large portions, consuming unhealthy meals, large qualities of fat, eating processed meals on the run or simply, not exercising. The diet does not address those bad habits, it only ignores it for a few weeks. You are given a set of rules to follow temporarily, but it never really teaches you how to eat healthier, how to avoid processed foods, the benefits of eating more natural foods or encouraging…

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Naked to the World

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted. I have really no excuse other than I’ve just been really busy trying to balance work, school, business, and family responsibilities, and if I am to be honest, I have been falling short on every front.

A week before Thanksgiving I had hernia surgery. In my mind, I was only going to be out of commission for a few weeks and then I’d be right back at it. I had already lost 25 pounds and I knew that a small set back wasn’t going to derail my success! Boy was I wrong! I was unable to work out until after Christmas! Almost 6 weeks of not working out really put me in a funk and I found myself slipping back in to old bad habits of eating due to boredom and stress. Had it not been for Shakeology, I would have gained a ton of weight, but I managed to get through the holidays having only gained 8 pounds.

My oldest daughter moved back in with us for a few weeks during Christmas and New Year’s and of course her stuff was stacked up in the garage where our exercise space is. I totally took advantage of this excuse to continue my bad choices. After all was said and done, I gained about 12 pounds back of the 25 I had lost. I was really depressed about it and felt like a big phony. I’m sure that feeling came through in my personality because that was also about the time my business started to take a dive.  I became so focused on building the business back up that I lost focus on what it really is all about.

I got in to the fitness coaching business to help people just as I had been helped. It feels so good to know that I’ve greatly impacted the health of another person and helping someone else achieve their goals is what I believe my calling is. For whatever reason, I lost sight of that and it became about the money.

I haven’t really been one to look up to for motivation as of late and for that I must apologize. I am supposed to be coaching and inspiring others, but I really got in a dark place these last several weeks with all of the pressure that has been put on me. A good friend who is familiar with my business had to dish out some tough love. You see, if I am not walking the talk, then how am I supposed to be successful as a fitness coach? She totally called me out! She knew I hadn’t been doing my daily workouts and it showed in my mood. My Facebook posts had turned in to nothing more than shameless product barking and I am really not proud of that. The one thing that I had going for me was that my Facebook page was all about inspiring others to take a chance on themselves and become healthier and I screwed it up. She told me to take a break from my business for a few weeks and focus on myself because if I’m not happy with me then I can’t effectively help others. Makes sense.

So here I am, starting over (somewhat). I am part of an accountability group just like the ones I place my clients in to. At first I didn’t like the idea of taking what seems like a step backward, but after thinking about it I realize that she was right. I need to work on me for a bit so that I can be the husband, father, and coach that my wife, children, and clients deserve.

21 days, 15 pounds, 0 B.S.

In my last post I briefly explained the “21 Day Fix” that is being talked about all over the Internet right now. I had my doubts, but I was able to reach out to my friend Brad who was a test group participant. Not only did Brad give me his word that this program is everything they say it is he actually commented on my last post and gave his own personal endorsement!

I am definitely going to give this one a try and am teaming up with a couple other coaches to do a support/accountability challenge that stars on Feb. 10th. If you want to give it a shot, we need to have your orders in by February 4th! 

The program comes with everything you need to succeed. 

– All of the workouts on DVD

– Color coded portion control containers

– Menu guide and meal plan

– A 30 day supply of Shakeology, the healthiest meal of the day. ($130 value)

– Entrance in to our private support group where you will have guidance and support from several coaches

AND

– When you get done with the 21 Days, you can keep all of the stuff and do it again whenever you want!

All with a 30 Day FULL MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!!!

 

This is my friend Brad’s before and after pics. He did this in just 21 days!

If you want to see results like this, you need to reach me soon!

Either comment here, or shoot me an email. My address is up on the left under “contact the coach”

 

 

Hmm, lose 10 pounds in 21 days without being hungry? (yeah, right)

That’s the claim I’m seeing around the net being made by other Beachbody coaches. Beachbody, makers of P90X, Insanity, and Focus T-25 among others, has always put out excellent products that get results, it’s just that this seems too good to be true. In advance of the release of their newest program called the “21 Day Fix”, Beachbody coaches from all over have been posting pictures of people who participated in the test group and to be honest, the results do look really good. My friend Brad was actually selected to participate and even though he lost  15 or 16 pounds in 21 days and looks great, I am still a little skeptical. I guess that is just my nature. I haven’t spoken to him since he did it, I’ve just seen what he has posted on Facebook.

I am going to do some more research and try to get a hold of Brad to ask him more about it. I really have no reason to be skeptical, but I want to know for sure before I buy. From what I’ve seen, you get color coded containers and each food group is represented by a different color. I guess that if it fits in the container, you can eat it. That combined with a daily 30 minute workout is pretty much it. Brad posted the other day that it’s simple nutrition and simple exercise. I just want to know more about what the food plan looks like before I commit.

If I like what I see, I will most likely put together a special “21 Day Fix” support group. I will do some more digging and post again later today or tomorrow if I’m going to do it. My reputation is important to me and I get great results with my groups. I don’t want to do this if I can’t personally guarantee positive results.

Cardio vs weights

I recently had a conversation with a lady who was wanting to lose a lot of weight. She was told by a friend that she needed to do a bunch of cardio and that lifting weights would make her bulk up.

Nothing could be further from the truth! Cardio is an excellent way to burn calories. It does wonders for your heart and lungs and also gives your metabolism a little boost. Resistance training on the other hand builds lean muscle. Lean muscle requires much more energy to sustain and therefore, burns more calories. It’s simple, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body needs. If your body needs more calories and you are not over eating, your body will burn fat for fuel.

Check out this article from Shape magazine that explains it all really well.

http://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shape.com%2Ffitness%2Fworkouts%2F8-reasons-why-you-should-lift-heavier-weights&h=DAQH87ixf&enc=AZPSt6rQurPNzFevjhiIfV0lqWFA060j4oTsgcWbCHwofqajEnfcKWLYBwJ5SPksHIbKiybxzM_TKQ9jtmPEOEaHGYWcp3_mlyokmQMmn4AOIhtU156KcETliqtniCuMUFYPCMorqL12WXTTSGB1MN0A&s=1

Do what works.

What helps me to stay on track is belonging to a support and accountability group. There is no quick fix, but the combination of nutrition, exercise, and support is working for me and thousands of other people. What I do as a coach is ask you a few questions about your current health and routine and try to find the program that would give you the best chance for success. If you decide to join me, I place you in a support and accountability group that is made up of like minded people who are all striving for the same goal. We share tips, recipes, pitfalls, and successes. We encourage one another in a positive, non-judgemental environment. It all takes place in a private Facebook group and there’s no awful public weigh-ins! We do ask that you share your progress, but it’s not a competition. You work out at home and follow a meal plan that’s provided. It’s entirely customizable and is made up of real food and supplemented with just one healthy, delicious, nutrient dense protein shake a day. Have you ever done something like this?