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Positive Thinking and Successful Slimming

 

March 20, 2010 By Tom 4 Comments

A healthy couple holding scales and a measuring tape.

Hello everyone.  Today’s article is a guest post from Audrey Makepeace who writes for http://www.slimmingresources.com/.  This blog contains some excellent weight loss advice and I highly recommend you check it out once you have read Audrey’s guest post.

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Have you ever noticed that some people seem to always be thinking positive thoughts, while others tend to be a lot more negative? Most people seem to fall somewhere in between and get annoyed with the people that fall on either end of the scale. There are some definite benefits to thinking positive though, including links between positive thinking and weight loss. If you don’t believe it, you won’t achieve it, so you need to think positively about any goal you are attempting to meet. Those who think positively are more likely to reach their goals in life, so it is a good habit to cultivate.

Start Thinking Positively If You Want to Get Slim

Many people let the negative thoughts that come to mind derail them when they are trying to reach their goals. However, if you can change those negative thoughts to positive ones you will have a lot more success in life, regardless of what you are aiming to achieve. The positive thinking and weight loss link has been shown to be present. Those who think about the benefits of their slimming efforts are much more likely to succeed than those who think about how difficult it is going to be.

Every time you think a negative thought regarding your slimming efforts, replace it with a positive one. You might want to try placing positive affirmations around the house as well in order to help motivate you so you don’t let any negative thoughts keep you from achieving your goals. You need to really concentrate on positive thinking and weight loss will start to come a bit easier.

How Positive Thinking Can Help You Lose Weight

If you focus on the good that will come out of your weight loss, rather than what will happen if you should happen to give up and not reach your goals, it will help to motivate you and you will be more likely to succeed. One thing you can do is make sure to keep looking toward the future and thinking about how much better things will be once you lose the weight, and what you will be comfortable doing that you were never comfortable doing when you were heavy. This will give you things to look forward to, which can help to motivate you. This is one way that positive thinking and weight loss are connected. Once you start getting slimmer you can even start charting your progress toward your goal. That way you will be able to see how far you have come.

Jump Start Your Slimming  Efforts by Thinking Positively

Although many people don’t think about the connection between positive thinking and weight loss, if you think about it this really makes sense. It takes a lot of effort and commitment in order to lose a weight, especially if you have a lot to lose. It can be hard to keep yourself on track if you keep thinking about possible failure. However, if you think about success you will be more likely to be able to find the time and energy you need to reach your goals. It really is a matter of controlling what you are thinking and the more you think positively the more this will come to you naturally and the less you will have to work at it.

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My Fitness Resolutions for 2010

 

January 31, 2010 By Tom 10 Comments

Hey guys.  I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year.  I expect by now most of you will have settled back into work and have enjoyed the first month of 2010.  Hopefully you have all managed to stick to the resolutions you made for the year so far.  Today I am going to kick off the content on the Free Fitness Tips Blog for 2010 with a slightly belated post on whether I achieved my fitness resolutions for 2009, what my fitness resolutions are for 2010 and what topics I am planning to post on the Free Fitness Tips Blog over the coming months.

REVIEW OF MY 2009 FITNESS RESOLUTIONS

Last year I made 6 fitness resolutions…

1) TO IMPROVE MY FLEXIBILITY:- Overall, I believe I have succeeded at this resolution.  I have improved my flexibility significantly this year by staying behind at the gym after finishing my main workout and doing an extra 10 minutes of stretching.  Whilst I have achieved this resolution there is still room for improvement and I plan to continue stretching consistently to increase my flexibility during 2010.

2) TO DO MORE BODYWEIGHT TRAINING:- Unfortunately I did not succeed when it came to this resolution.  I started off the year by focussing solely on bodyweight training but from February onwards pretty much reverted solely to gym workouts.  So whilst this resolution was not a complete failure, taking the year as a whole I did not achieve this resolution.

3) TO DO MORE RUNNING:- I have improved massively in this area and definitely achieved this resolution during 2009. To do this I incorporated interval sprints into all my gym workouts and also managed to fit in some longer distance outdoor runs throughout the year.  This has allowed me to see huge improvements in my running speeds and cardiovascular fitness.

4) TO ENTER A 10K RUN:- Unfortunately I did not enter a 10K run this year so did not achieve this resolution.

5) TO BE MORE FLEXIBILE WITH MY TRAINING:- Unfortunately this was another fitness resolution I did not achieve this year.  Whilst I started off the year with bodyweight workouts my overall training program was not very flexible.  I spent the majority of the year working out in the gym and did not really focus on other training methods.

6) TO SLEEP MORE:- This is another area I have struggled with and a fitness resolution I failed to achieve.  The reason for this is that on work nights it can be very difficult to fit working, training and preparing my meals into a 16 hour day.

So overall I achieved 2 of 6 resolutions.  Whilst this seems low and there is certainly room for improvement, I have made progress over the year.  Hopefully, 2010 will be an even more successful year in terms of fitness resolutions.

MY FITNESS RESOLUTIONS FOR 2010

Although I did not achieve 4 of my fitness resolutions last year, I am not going to add all of these to my list for 2010 because I do not believe all of them are as relevant now.  Anyway, my fitness resolutions for 2010 are…

1) TO ENTER A 10K RUN:- Although I did not manage to do this last year, I want to enter a 10K run this year.  I believe I am physically ready as I have been running regularly and built up my fitness and stamina.  I just need to make the final push and actually enter an event.

2) TO SLEEP MORE:- Whilst I did struggle last year to get my full 8 hours on work nights it is still something I want to work towards because lack of sleep can have a negative effect on your training, your ability to build muscle and more.

3) TO BE MORE CONSISTENT WITH MY TRAINING:- Over the last few weeks I have started really well by training Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  However, as I get to the mid-point of the week my training starts to tail off for various reasons.  Sometimes I do not even manage to get another session in before the week is over.  Whilst this will inevitably happen sometimes I want to be as consistent as possible with my training this year and make sure that bad weeks are kept to a minimum.

4) TO GET NOTICEABLE IMPROVEMENTS FROM MY TRAINING:- One of the main problems I have with my training is that I struggle to make noticeable improvements in the long term.  This is normally caused by lack of sleep (which can hinder my performance in the gym) and inconsistency (which means that certain muscle groups can get neglected during my training so I lose any improvements in strength, stamina etc).  This year I want to get noticeable improvements from my training by improving in these two areas and also by writing notes during every workout.  This will allow me to track my progress and actually see if I am getting stronger.

5) TO BE MORE CONSISTENT WITH MY BLOG POSTS:- Regular readers of this blog will know that I am quite inconsistent with posting to this blog.  Sometimes I will do 2-3 posts a week then (for various reasons) I will have a barren spell with no posts for a month.  This year I want to be more consistent than ever and ensure that Free Fitness Tips Blog is updated regularly with fresh, unique content.

FREE FITNESS TIPS BLOG POSTS FOR 2010

Last year I did a number of detailed posts on diet and nutrition covering carbohydrates, dietary fats, protein and vitamins.  With my next few posts I want to carry on with this topic area by expanding on the subject of dietary fats and doing some new posts on the different types of minerals out there.  I also want to do some posts later in the year on some of my favourite exercises.  Hopefully, 2010 should be a great year for content at the Free Fitness Tips Blog.

Now I want to hear your comments.  What are your fitness plans for 2010?  Did you achieve the fitness goals you set yourself for 2010?  Let me know by leaving a comment.

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Look Forward and Be The Change

 

January 29, 2009 By Tom 1 Comment

Hey everyone.  Today I’ve got something new for you…my very first guest.  It comes from Parth Shah who runs his very own blog over at ShahTraining.com.  Shah’s blog is full of killer workout information and provides you with some fantastic training techniques.  I strongly urge you to check it out after you have finished reading his excellent guest post

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We’re going through some tough times. I can understand that. But when has the human race never faced a tough time. Just think about the events in history. The past fifty years will show you how lucky you are. Pick up the paper and see the suffering going on around the world.

I’m lucky to be sitting in a warm room with a computer in front of my eyes. I’m lucky to be able to eat warm, healthy food. I’m lucky to still be able to have a choice about the type of foods I put in my mouth.

Life requires a lot of mental and physical strength to push through it. The only way that I have moved past my bad times – when I was being mocked in middle school for my weight, when my parents disagreed with my career goals, when I just felt depressed due to a series of failures – I pushed through with the support of intense training and sound nutrition.

When you spend time improving yourself, pushing yourself through physical plateaus, you realize the amazing things that you are capable of. I follow the creed of Mahatma Gandhi:

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

How to Be the Change

What Mahatma Gandhi meant by this quote was to simply live life the way you want to see the world. I want to see the world healthy and fit. And so I live my life in this manner. I want to see people respect each others’ religion, background, political views, and race. And so I live my life in this manner.

Fitness itself provides a huge vehicle for change. One such example is Anne Malhum’s “Back on my Feet” program. Anne ran past a homeless center in Philadelphia every morning. One morning, she decided to motivate these homeless men to start running with her.

This seemingly simple task changed the lives of these men. The running club transformed from just 9 runners in from over 300 members in across 3 shelters. According to Mahlum, “Running is really a metaphor for life. There is always another mile. You just have to take it a step at a time.” She says that the men have not only improved in their health and well being, but also have learned life lessons such as discipline and goal setting.

The program also has a job training program, complete with interview prep and computer classes. There have been numerous success stories of the program.

Applying it to Your Life

I’m not telling you to go out and start a community program, or even volunteer in your community (but you can, if you want). I’m just trying to give you another reason to stick to your program and perhaps try things you’ve never done before.

A global recession or crisis often makes people not want to do anything. But if anything, this is the time to do SOMETHING. Inactivity or ignorance is probably why a crisis occurred. Someone somewhere wasn’t doing their job properly.

Just as in the world, what happens in life is that you become comfortable. You think things are going smoothly, so you hold back back. You settle. You let things go the way they are. You used to train five days week, but now you’re settling for three days a week, with only half the effort. All of a sudden you find yourself unhealthy, maybe even back to where you originally started.

When things go back, it’s time to move forward, not look back and sulk.

About the Author:
Parth Shah is an average joe who’s tired of all the nonsense in mainstream fitness media. His thoughts, ideas, and philosophy can be found on his website, ShahTraining.com. (Feed – http://feeds.feedburner.com/shahtraining/UQuk)

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4 Ways to Motivate Yourself in 2009

 

January 4, 2009 By Tom 13 Comments

A person standing and looking at the sky with their arms outstretched

Today I want to write about a topic that I feel is quite important if you want to succeed at anything – motivation.  Whether it’s a fitness plan, a new diet, being good at your job or anything else in life you need to be motivated to succeed.  In my last post I discussed my fitness resolutions for 2009.  What I failed to mention in that post is the need for motivation in all of them.  Writing a list and saying you want to do this, this and this is easy.  However, actually having the motivation to do the things on that list is not so simple.  To explain this concept further I want to share with you a little story about this list…

My second resolution on that list was to do more bodyweight training.  To keep up with this resolution I wanted to continue doing an outdoor bodyweight routine that I had put together whilst stopping over at my parent’s house (I will be discussing this workout in my next post).  Now I really am not a fan of cold weather so exercising outdoors is not usually my first choice.  However, there were two big factors that pushed me towards this type of workout.  First, I did not have access to a gym and still wanted to do something to keep myself physically active.  Secondly, I was on holiday from work during the Christmas period so I could get myself nice and warm in the house before stepping outside which made the whole routine a lot more bearable.

Next week I return to work full time which means I have two options when it comes to this workout:

1) Get up early and do this workout before work.
2) Do this workout in the evening straight after work.

I presently live in Salford, UK and anyone who has been there will know that it is not the kind of place you want to be jogging around in the evening.  This leaves me with option 1 as my only realistic choice.  Since I am starting work on Monday I decided that on Saturday morning I would get myself up nice and early and do this workout.  I could then repeat this on Sunday and be ready to face the early morning workouts during the week ahead.

Come Saturday morning my alarm went off.  I actually wasn’t that tired but it was very cold so I hit snooze to give myself 10 more minutes to warm up.  The alarm went off again and I needed another 10 minutes.  In the end I did not get out of bed early and had to do the workout in the afternoon.  Since it was a Saturday this was not a massive deal because I had the whole day to workout.  However, if I do this on Monday morning I will have to go to work and the opportunity to workout will be gone.

This got me thinking why I didn’t get out of bed when the alarm first went off?  Sure it was cold but during this time of year it is going to be cold all day.  When I cut out the excuses I realised that it came down to one basic thing – I wasn’t motivated enough.  Once the alarm goes off I am awake and I choose whether to get out of bed or stay in it.  I cannot control the weather and so should not be using it as an excuse but control whether I get out of bed.

Now that I had established I was not motivated enough to get out of bed I started thinking of ways I could motivate myself.  Luckily for me a lot of the fitness blogs I read have been posting about this very topic.  Today I would like to bring all this fantastic information together and share with you some of the best motivational ideas from around the fitness blogosphere:

1) LISTEN TO SOME INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC OR WATCH SOME INSPIRATIONAL SCENES:- Andrew Rubalcava did a really great post entitled songs to help you kick holiday sluggishness where he listed 10 highly inspirational songs.  Some of these songs were from films such as Rocky and the Karate Kid so came with a kick ass training video.  It may sound a little cheesy but just watching these videos before working out can really alter your frame of mind.  The training videos from Rocky just make me want to get out there and emulate what he is doing – even if it is cold.  So next time you need some motivation take five minutes to listen to a song that you find inspirational or watch a short video that motivates you.  It could provide you with that little push that you needed.

My only problem with this post is that Andrew missed out one of my favourites – the training scene from Rocky 4 set to ‘Hearts on Fire’ (he had used it recently in a previous post) so I have included it here:

If Rocky can do it in the freezing Russian temperatures during the Christmas holidays then surely I can get out of bed an hour earlier in the morning :-)

2) LEARN TO PAY THE PRICE:- Vic Magary puts it perfectly in his post How to be a Real Man in 2009.  You need to “determine the cost of what you want and then pay the price”.  I already determined the cost of doing my new workout routine earlier in this post.  The cost to me is getting up extra early in the morning.  The reason I didn’t get up on Saturday is because I didn’t want it enough.  As Vic says; “It all comes down to how much you want it”.  If I really want to do these bodyweight workouts then I will spring out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off and not reach for the snooze button.  You should develop a similar attitude when it comes to your own fitness goals.  Determine the cost (whether it be joining a gym, missing out on a bar crawl or skipping take away Friday) and then learn to pay the price.

3) DEVELOP A WINNERS MINDSET:- Rusty’s post on developing the winner’s mindset expands upon the concept of learning to pay the price perfectly.  He says that without hard work a goal is meaningless and explains how you can learn to look forward to hard work.  I feel Rusty’s got it spot on here.  If you can develop a winner’s mindset getting up early and training in the cold weather becomes a lot more bearable.  Although you will still have to pay the price of getting fit you will be much more willing to do so.  Next time I get up for my bodyweight workout I need to remember that every workout I do is going to make me stronger, leaner, fitter and healthier.  If I keep it up for a month I’m going to realise massive improvements.  Surely that is something to look forward to and enjoy.

4) TAKE ADVICE FROM THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY SUCCEEDED:- Athletes and sports stars usually know what it takes when it comes to staying motivated.  They’ve been in situations where it would have been far easier to stay in bed or skip the workout but they didn’t.  For this very reason they have excelled in their field and become the best at what they do.  Sometimes listening to how these people have done so well can be extremely motivating.  Eartha has put together a fantastic ebook entitled 100 Inspirational Fitness Quotes which you can download at absolutely no cost to yourself.  It contains lots of great quotes and here is one of my favourites:

”I wouldn’t say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it.” – Michael Phelps

This guy was a stand out performer at the 2008 Olympics.  He got there by sacrificing a lot of time and putting a lot of work into his swimming.  If I put the same amount of effort into my bodyweight workouts and you put it into achieving your fitness goals just imagine how far we could go.

Even the most positive people need to be motivated at times and I hope these tips have helped.  On Monday morning I’m going get out of bed as soon as the alarm bells ring, make myself a hot coffee (hey even motivated people can do with a quick winter warmer), watch a short inspirational video (I think Rocky 4 is going to have it all the way…that training scene never gets old) and then start paying the price (i.e. going outside and working out).  If I want to succeed with my fitness resolutions this year I’m going to need to develop a winner’s mindset.  Lying in bed because it’s cold simply won’t cut it.

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My Fitness Resolutions for 2009

 

January 1, 2009 By Tom 5 Comments

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a good Christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year in 2009.  Hopefully, you didn’t party too hard last night and are able to read this post without too much trouble.  Since New Years Eve is traditionally a time when people make resolutions for the new year I thought today I would put a fitness spin on this theme and post my fitness resolutions for the new year.

1) TO IMPROVE MY FLEXIBILITY:- I’m not naturally very flexible.  I used to be very flexible in my mid-teens because I incorporated stretching into my daily routine.  However, over the last few years stretching has taken a back seat to the other exercises I do.  When I think about it my flexibility is the last thing I want to lose as I get older as it can really affect how mobile you are.  I don’t want to struggle to put my shoes on, to get dressed or to reach things that are on the bottom shelf because I’m not flexible enough.  To remedy this I plan to start making stretching part of my daily routine again.  I’ve been doing it for the last couple of weeks and have noticed the improvements so hopefully in a month or two I will be back to my mid-teen level of flexibility.  Plus, I will be doing some posts on stretching and improving your flexibility so that you guys can learn about the topic too.

2) TO DO MORE BODYWEIGHT TRAINING:- I like exercising in the gym which is fine.  However, there are undoubtedly times when I will not have access to a gym.  One such time was the past week when I went to visit my parents for Christmas.  Even though I didn’t have any gym access I still wanted to some exercise so I put together my own simple bodyweight routine which I will be outlining in a future post.  Surprisingly even though the weather was very cold I actually enjoyed doing this outdoor bodyweight workout.  So now I want to become more knowledgeable in this area and learn more bodyweight training exercises.  I will also be posting about this topic as I learn.

3) TO DO MORE RUNNING:- I used to be quite good at long distance running in my school days.    However, since school I’ve been on and off with my running.  This year I want to get more consistent with it.  I think that by doing more bodyweight training this will help as I can build running into my routine.

4) TO ENTER A 10K RUN:- Hopefully as I do more running I will get to a level where I am good enough to be compete.  When I feel ready I plan to enter a local 10K.  Not only will this give me something to work towards but it will also add a competitive edge to my training.

5) TO BE MORE FLEXIBLE WITH MY TRAINING:- As I said above I like exercising in the gym.  However, I understand that this is not the only training method out there.  In fact there may be better methods out there that I neglect because I focus on gym work.  Therefore I want to mix up my workout routine and try new things each month.  This month I’m going to focus on bodyweight training then next month I will probably go back to the gym.  The month after I will look at something new.  By training this way it should improve my overall fitness and make my workouts more fun.

6) TO SLEEP MORE:- I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that I always struggle to get enough sleep on week nights when I am working.  Over the Christmas holidays I’ve had more free time and managed to get a full nights sleep.  This has shown me the value of getting a good nights sleep.  So during 2009 I’m going to be making a continued effort to get enough sleep every day of the week.

So there you have it.  My fitness resolutions for 2009.  I think overall I’ve led a relatively healthy lifestyle over the past year but these resolutions should give me a bit more variety and hopefully improve my fitness even further.

Now I want to hear from you guys?  Have you got any fitness resolutions for the new year?  If so leave me a comment.

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