Being January 1st I thought that it would be very important to remind people about how to join a gym. I was listening to some sports radio guy on ESPN this morning and he was telling people:

“If you are thinking about getting in shape, don’t. Don’t go and join a gym or get in shape it’s too much trouble. One of your friends probably convinced you it was a good iea and you don’t need to do that anyway. Keep doing what you are doing”

I was a little offended by the guy until he continued:

“My workouts that take 50 minutes always take 2 hours in January when so many people join a gym. Don’t bother getting in shpae, who wants to feel better about themselves, who wnat to get complements abouot how great they look, who want to look years younger, no just stay at home in front of the TV and eat fried food, someone has to to keep the economy going buying too much bad food.”

What a great rant. Anyway, last year I wrote a series of articles aboout what to look at when you are joining a gym. Here are the links to the articles:

Joining a Health Club – The how and why of joining a gym

Joining a Health Club – The Tour – The guys at the gym put on a little dog and pony whow and it is almost worthless unless you know your priorities and ask the right questions

Choosing a health Club – Distance from Home – Where would your gym be? Close to home? Close to work?

Health Club Staff – How to know what to look for in the staff at the gym itself. Your membership si paying for the staff you should get your moneys worth.

If you are going out in the next couple of days to join a gym I think that it will really help you make a better decision to read these articles.

Good luck with the gym shopping.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: bad food, fried food, gym, health club, joining a gym, new years resolutions, sports radio guy

New Years Resolutions are a great idea that seldom work. The reason that most peoples new years resolutions fail is that people will get a good idea and not flesh it out, decide what to do and how. The best way to be successful is to plan your outcomes and to decide what are the most important things for you. When you do this you have a much better chance at succeeding because when you need to make changes you will do it knowing why you are making a change and exactly what changes need to be made.

Starting to Plan New Years Resolutions

The way I start each year is by looking back, looking at where I am today and finally looking at where I want to be tomorrow and then creating a plan to make a better tomorrow happen.

With traditional goal setting most people just look at what they want and then create a plan to get there. My method of setting real New Years Resolutions is much better as it does not just look at myself as a superman and allow me to collapse as soon as any problem gets in the way of my goal.

Tools for successful New Years Resolutions

To start you must have a notebook and realize that this notebook will be your companion for the next year. Give yourself an hour to get started and know that you will likely be sitting down a few times over the next few days, if New Years Day comes and goes while you are in the midst of this process do not worry. Even though we always look at new years day as the switch that begins a new year remember that you are creating a map and a route that is much more important and long lasting than the flip of a calendar, the end of a day, or a fuzzy idea in the middle of the night whose idea of importance is reflected only by the thoughts and actions of a very few minutes.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: food, goal setting, head, life planning, new years day, new years resolutions, www.43things.com

I was so excited this year about new years resolutions that I decided to create minor ones to support my big ones for the year for February.

Of course I am a little off pace after January for my new years resolutions but I can almost expect this. I always seem to aim too high and then when real life gets in the way I have to ratchet back my goals a bit. I have done this before and I will do it again and I expect it.

So I have made some nice smaller goals that are all about consistency. I have decided that there are certain things in my life that have not been gelling together and nothing will fix this faster then consistent effort and small results.

My fitness took a bit of a fall in January when I hurt my back and now my back is better so I am again looking at cardio every day and then taking out cardio days for weight days as I go through February.

Last week I was again reading the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and it reminded me of a couple of things that I am doing terribly wrong in my life. First email, I check email constantly during the day so now I have decided as a way to save time I will only be checking mail a few times, maybe 3 or 4 times a day and either dealing with or deleting what I do not need. My email mailboxes are sitting at 3000 or 4000 messages across a few accounts and most of it is just junk and spam. I am not much better with reading RSS feeds and right now I follow about 300 different blogs, I will be cutting back on that too.

Another thing that I am looking at now is that I have made really great changes with my eating and not snacking at night. I am proud of these changes but now I am looking back on my new years resolutions and realize that the next step is cutting back on my pop and chocolate. This change in diet will not be as big as the other changes that I have made but I always like to make sure that I am moving in a more healthy lifestyle and going in the right direction at all times is more important then making those big changes that we always seem to strive for.

So now that I have shared all of that what are you going to be doing? As we all know most new years resolutions have failed already for most so it is my guess that now that we are into February you can make some better decisions and easier to attain goals that are all about you and not what you want to tell everyone else.

Share them or keep them private, but I really do believe that this is the best time to make better  goals and resolutions that will stick.

Tags: blogs, consistency, diet, healthy lifestyle, new years resolutions, Tim Ferris

One of my goals this year is to pull some of the posts off of this blog and create blogs that are more tightly focussed. Don’t worry about the posting frequency or the content, I just want to make sure that this blog concentrates on diet, exercise and fitness. Over the last year or so I have been diving a little bit away from this focus and giving you posts about a few other topics.

Today I want to announce that I have moved off all of the acne and skin care posts over to a new blog. That blog is Acne Info Today. Acne info today will be focussed exclusively on skin care.

So as I start looking through the 600 or so posts on this blog what would you like to see? I have been thinking of doing more muscle building but of course the motivation for diet and exercise are important as we get near the end of January and the quick death of the new years resolutions. Do you want more diet articles? More supplements? I started new categories for both supplements and for nutrition so that I could start getting a bit more concentration on those two important topics.

More to come.

Tags: acne, acne info, diet articles, fitness, motivation, muscle building, new years resolutions, nutrition, Skin Care, skin care site, supplements

I was just writing a post of new years resolutions and realized that I had not taken a hard enough look at last year and what it brought me as well as my failures. I will list the downsides of last year first just to get them out of the way.

Over 2007 my fitness activity actually went down. The exercise that I have always enjoyed on my bike dropped as the year went on because I moved to a house that was a lot closer to work so my ride is shorter. One thing that has helped in this regard is that I have been riding a lot more days, still not enough in my opinion though to make up for the shorter ride. Another fitness issue has been my lack of weight training. This last year I was very on again off again about it and have not joined a gym because the distance is far to great for me to really make it worth my while. Lastly my eating although good also comprises some bad foods and that is one thing I will be working on this year.

I hate that part. This part is much better, my victories for 2007. In this last year I was really happy in my focus on fitness increasing, I at a lot better, I focussed on great thoughts instead of destructive ones and I strengthened my core (back and abs) more os I feel really good about myself. I got myself a new bike and although it was still under $250 it is much better than my sub $100 bike I rode for three years. I was able this year to spend more time with my family taking them to California and Disneyland in the Summer although I have to stil improve my work-family focus over the next year.

As far as this blog goes I am most excited with the fact that I moved from and old family subdomain to a whole new architecture (Wordpress) and domain of www.fitnesstipsforlife.com. Also since about the beginning of October I have posted everyday which for me proves to myself that I can be very consistent although I always think of myself as not.

Overall I am happy with how 2007 worked out. My family and work life are better this Jan 2nd than last and I think that I am more excited about this upcoming year than I have been in several years, this is a sign that I have forward running momentum I think.

Only one more post remains for this whole new years resolution stuff and I am ready for the new year anyway.

Tags: California, disneyland, exercise, family focus, fitness, new bike, new years day, new years resolutions, USD, www.fitnesstipsforlife.com

I have been planning and putting this offer together for a while now and it is nice to finally unveil it on the blog. As I hope you have seen I have done reviews of the three big internet weight loss and fitness programs. The programs are:

fat loss for Idiots – This is a customized online diet program that comes with a handbook to help you through your diet to lose weight.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle – This is a mammoth 350+ page book written by a natural bodybuilding champ that shows you how any normal overweight person can lose fat and gain muscle through a special diet and good exercise.

Turbulence Training Program – A three day a week weight training program that will help you lose fat while gaining muscle. Not the standard way that most people workout but in fact a new program that is done in just 45 minutes 3 times per week.

The above links are direct to the sales pages of the programs but if you want to see my reviews you can just click on the links on the right side of this page. Each of the programs are only $39 so you can choose any of them and know that you won’t get soaked for a bunch of money, they are all really cheap. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Diet Program, diet tips, diet to lose weight, e books, ebooks, fat loss for idiots, fitness programs, gain muscle, gaining muscle, internet weight loss, losing weight, natural bodybuilding, new years resolutions, nutrition secrets, online diet program, overweight person, special diet, Special New Years Resolution, tom venuto, turbulence training, USD, weight training program, workout

This week we went through a lot on goal setting and new years resolutions in preparation for a successful 2008. I have had all of my say now and wanted to share these links of information that I have run across just to extend on the principles we have practiced.

Glam magazine in Canada has a nice page ofr the six steps to goal setting as told by NBCs Biggest Loser show

Goal Setting and Secrets for Success

Before you start your new years resolutions you have to look back and reflect on this last year to see what you really need to do to improve. Here are 20 questions to ask

20 Questions to Help You Reflect the Past Year – Lifehack.org

Diet blog has 10 things that will help you succeed in your weight loss goals for next year

10 To-Do’s For Making Your 2008 Comeback

Once you have your new years resolutions set here are 14 ways to make sure that you don’t fail after you start
14 Tips For Resolutions That Stick in the New Year – Lifehack.org

Tags: biggest loser show, Canada, goal setting, new years day, new years resolutions, weight loss goals

OK so yesterday I dealt with goal setting as a good method to make new years resolutions instead of just stating out loud that you want to lose weight or want to quit smoking now. Now I wanted to go though a sample plan for how you can best get the process started with a weight loss. This is exactly the way I would plan and write it all out.

Goal: Lose 20 Pounds by April 1st (notice that there is an amount of weight and a date, nice and specific)

Why: I want to fit into old clothes, want to make sure that I am on the road to a healthier lifestyle, want to be more attractive (good reasons although the last one is a little vague)

How will I do this: I will change my diet by taking out refined foods now, eat more fruits and vegetables. I will start doing cardio Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings before work and will do weights on Saturdays and Tuesday evenings to start with. I will read a health book ever two weeks and I will change my evenings to be around more active and health conscious people. (pretty clear although this can always be expanded on, clarity will lead to a higher chance of success)

Measuring my success: I will weigh myself every Saturday morning when I get up and will measure my chest, waist and hips right after. To succeed I will need to lose 7 pounds a month which is just shy of 2 pounds a week. I know that this is a significant amount of weight. (Clarity of the goal and sub goals helps. Must keep top of mind that 2 pounds a week every week is pushing it but possible) Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: goal setting, healthier lifestyle, life goals, life planning, new years resolutions, Weight Loss

lose weight" align="left" />I have never mentioned what I do for a living but I am a computer geek. I do application support for a big transport company in Canada and have spent my share of hours over the years in server rooms, at desktops, buried in code on my laptop and now deploying software.

One thing that I think that all computer guys have in common is a pretty sedentary lifestyle. The stereotype tends to fit. I know this because I stare into my laptop most of the day everyday. So in keeping with the idea that one of the big two new years resolutions is to lose weight I will appeal to my geek friends and colleagues to make these changes along with me.

1. Make sure that you get away from your desk once an hour. I know that this can be difficult but it is important. The more time that we spend at our desks the more we get done but there is a couple of downsides. First your concentration tends to drop after an hour dug into a problem looking for a solution, second of all as time goes on your posture gets worse and you will find your shoulders falling and your body will start to hate you for it. The aches and pains in your shoulders and upper back are directly caused from this bad posture. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: aches, blood flow, Canada, chair, energy, food, fruit and veggies, metabolism, Microsoft Windows, new years resolutions, office chair, pains in your shoulders, sedentary lifestyle, snacks, stretching exercises

I have dealt with New Years resolutions and goal setting before so I did not bother doing anything about it this year.

You may have notices that I have not been posting much over the last couple of weeks as I have not been. I am working on a couple of projects and have been also taking some family time as well as time to recharge my batteries so today I am back.

My resolutions that are health related are just really to get back on track. I have been not very nice to my body and my weight has crept up to just over 200 pounds and I have not been eating or drinking what I should and eating and drinking much that I should not. I hop that maybe you have been looking at these things going on in your life and hopefully looking at how you can do better yourself as well as taking this opportunity to help others that are not sure of what they should be doing to get themselves living a healthier lifestyle. I know that I try not to preach to people what they should be doing but if I have the opportunity to just prod by suggesting something better I try to help in that way.

Remember, no one likes a “know it all” but everyone likes to get a little help occasionally.

Have a great and happy new year

Bill

Tags: goal setting, new years resolutions