Entries Tagged 'Motivation' ↓

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope the new decade has kicked off so far so good for you

Before the start of my cardio kick class today, I had the opportunity to speak with a few of my participants. “I’m going to lose weight” is the common new year’s resolution among them. Good start… but I wonder how long they’ll stick to it. There’s always next year to make the same resolution. I’ve seen the number of sign ups increased in January of every year at fitness clubs. Everyone got excited and hype up about losing flabs and bulges. Come February or March, some would have lost momentum and quit.

I view new year’s resolutions as just simple wishes that often don’t get fulfilled. Easy to make and yet, easy to forget and not follow through.

Staying lean, fit and healthy is not something you decide to do at the start of each new year. It is a daily ritual, just like eating and sleeping. You don’t put off eating your dinner till the new year, do you? The same goes for getting into shape. It requires daily commitment and hard work. There is no quick fix.

I don’t know about you… I rather work hard for a healthy body than pay the costly price of being fat/obese –> sickness (diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, etc), medical bills, low self esteem, depression and so forth.

The choice is yours. Make a decision to live a healthy life, take action and you won’t regret it in the years to come.

Here’s an article by Tom Venuto on why you should be setting goals instead of new year resolutions.

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Goal Setting For The New Decade: Beyond The New Year’s Resolution
By Tom Venuto
BurnTheFat.com

When you pause and reflect on the past decade as you look ahead to a new one, it makes you appreciate how short life is, how valuable time is and how quickly the time can pass you by - with nothing to show for it, if you don’t plan otherwise.

That’s why the passing of another decade can feel like a wakeup call as much as a fresh start: Looking at the technological wonders that surround us in 2010, I can’t help thinking it feels like science fiction.

In fact, modern technology is one of the reasons why some people have succeeded at body transformation while others have failed.

I’m still in awe of the web. The satellite navigation system in my car amazes me every time I drive. I can store a library of books in a device that fits in my pocket. It blows my mind that we can speak to each other face to face through the internet live on video. That’s straight from Star Trek! And those are just the everyday little things.

The cover story of the January 2010 National Geographic magazine is titled, “Merging Man and Machine” – it’s about bionic limbs. Richard Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic just unveiled spaceship two and is preparing to launch civilians into sub orbital space flights.

It’s the greatest time to be alive in all of human history! Unfortunately, today’s modern conveniences have brought a dark side upon us.

Rising obesity has paralleled the march of technology. The chair-bound, desk-job, computer, car, elevator, television based society of today is helping to make millions of people fat and lazy.

Our current way of life is less than a century old, yet our biology hasn’t changed in tens of thousands of years. Our bodies were designed to move and work, not sit and click.

We’ve become spoiled. Complacent. Dependent. And we are paying a price for it. We are fatter than ever before in all of human history. More than two thirds of Americans are now overweight. One third are obese.

People are dying because they‘re too fat.

Ironically, none of our new technology can solve our body fat problems.  There’s no easy way. No pill. No machine. No drug. More knowledge isn’t going to help. We already have most of the answers. We know more about the human body than ever before. But it’s all academic.

The problem lies in the doing. You have to do the work – in the gym and in the kitchen. Hard work.

We are a quick fix society. It’s partly human nature, but technology is making us more impatient. We can have products delivered to us with one click and even do it from our cell phones. We have instant downloads, movies on demand, and drive through coffee shops. We get  our food made and delivered in just minutes while we are sitting in our cars, and it’s still not quick enough. The internet is blazingly fast, but most people will abandon a web page in seconds if it hasn’t loaded. It’s no different with fat loss. We want six pack abs yesterday.

Simultaneously fighting the pull of human nature and the convenience of new technology is no easy task. But there is a solution: Future Orientation.

The most successful people in the world today are those who have a long term perspective. They plan 5-10 years in advance and beyond. They know how to enjoy and live in the present moment, but they take action and make decisions based on their future vision.

The passing of another decade makes you take stock of yourself and your achievements, or lack thereof. “What did I accomplish in the last 10 years? Am I a better person today than I was in 2000?”

If you don’t like the answers, then it’s time to finally get serious about your future because the next 10 years are going to fly by even faster than the last 10 as the pace of life and society gets even faster.

To succeed in the new decade, think beyond new year’s resolutions. Think beyond the 12 week fitness goal. As you write your goals this year, don’t stop with 3 month or even 1 year goals.

Project yourself into the future: 3, 5 and 10 years from now. For each point, dream, fantasize, visualize: if your body, your health your physical performance were perfect in every way, what would that look like? Describe it in vivid detail.

With our ingrained penchant for quick fixes, we often overestimate what we can achieve in the short term and set unrealistic deadlines on our short term goals. But the flipside is that we often underestimate what we can achieve in the long term, so we set our long term goals too low.  Do you realize that people have gone from broke to billionaire in 10 years? In this internet age, some have done it even faster.

My challenge for you this year is to start thinking about your body and your life with the same type of creativity that has led to our greatest technological advances:

Not the same thoughts as yesterday. Not just positive thoughts. just bigger thoughts. NEW THOUGHTS! Creative thoughts! Inventive thoughts! From new thoughts will spring new goals, new actions and new achievements.

Fitness goals should not take over your life, they should enhance every other part of it. So take this opportunity to achieve balance by setting long term goals for every area of your life – health, fitness, finances, career, relationships, experiences, travel, possessions and spiritual growth.

Most people didn’t set any goals 10 years ago. They’re among the masses who are in the same place today as they were a decade ago.  

Some people only set short term goals, so they accomplished a few little things, but then stopped, as if a goal were a final destination rather than a stepping stone along a path. Other people set goals but didn’t follow through on them. They forgot that goal setting and goal achieving are two different things.

Don’t fall into these traps.

If you need coaching in the goal setting process – from the daily and weekly baby steps to the long term goals and dreams that span a decade – read chapter one of Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle.  If you already have it, now is the time to revisit it.

If you don’t own a copy yet, you can get the program at:

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

Most people make resolutions. Some people set well-formed goals. But long term goals are the goals that almost everyone forgets to set.

If you didn’t do this exercise 10 years ago, do it now. If you do, I guarantee that in 2013, 2015, 2020, you’ll not only find yourself living at a whole new level, you’ll find yourself living in another world - one of your own creation.

Happy New Year!

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle

PS. Remember, goal setting is just the start. Goal ACHIEVING requires a nutrition and training plan.  Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is the most comprehensive fat loss program of its kind because it teaches you every element necessary to succeed: nutrition, cardio training, weight training and “mental training” (goal setting and mindset).

Learn more about the Burn The Fat program at:
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Learn more about our Burn The Fat Inner Circle community at:
Burn The Fat Inner Circle

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

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A few days ago, fat loss author/expert Tom Venuto issued a bold challenge to hundreds of thousands of people…

Basically, he “called them out,” (but in a motivating sort of way, that is).

Tom was making an announcement about a new type of fitness transformation challenge contest that will run - get this - through ALL the holidays:

Thanksgiving (US), Christmas and New Year.

He actually suggested that now is the BEST time to transform your body and that procrastinating until New Year’s is a pointless waste of time. If you wanted a better body, why wait, right?

He also said that he thinks its downright “neurotic” to believe that you can’t get leaner AND enjoy holiday food at the same time.

According to Tom, that is a catastrophic form of “EITHER / OR THINKING” which leads many people to procrastination or self-sabotage.

You can read more of Tom’s “call to action” here:

==> Burn the Fat Holiday Challenge

To say there was a “response” would be an understatement…

Tom’s blog had something like 500 comments on it when he first issued this challenge and he hasn’t even opened the contest registration yet.

He also hasn’t released the prize package list yet, but rumor has it, he is sending the overall winners somewhere tropical… a warm place to show off a hot new body in the dead of winter! Nice.

But if it wasn’t the prizes, what created all the buzz, then?

Well, Tom simply asked two questions in his challenge announcement:

(1) “Are you concerned about dealing with holiday food and drink temptations that might lead you to become one of
the “holiday fat gain” statistics?”

(2) “If so…. DO YOU ACCEPT MY CHALLENGE TO GET IN BETTER SHAPE OVER THE HOLIDAYS?”

Hundreds upon hundreds of people raised their hands and said, “YES, I accept the challenge!”

It became clear that what people need more than “another diet program” is MOTIVATION…. INSPIRATION…
and a REASON WHY to get up, move, and change the things that need improving.

By providing a goal (a contest), a source of motivation (prizes and recognition), accountability (A forum with THOUSANDS of like-minded fitness enthusiasts to help you along) and expert advice (a place with coaching and education resources), THAT combination was the trigger that had so many people say YES to this challenge.

Maybe, if you too say “YES, I accept your challenge,” a fitness competition during the holidays could be an event that not only keeps you from gaining fat from the season’s indulgences, but could inspire and motivate you to achieve your best shape of the year, or even the best shape of your life.

I can tell you this: I’ve heard it myself from a lot of people; it’s rewarding enough to get through the “holidaze” in better shape than you began them; winning would just be the icing on the cake.

I agree. And I believe you CAN do it NOW - DURING the holidays - while enjoying the food and festivities (with balance and moderation), and you will NOT be one of the procrastinators who say, “I’ll start after New Year’s day.”

Tom’s Burn The Fat Inner Circle Will be “CONTEST CENTRAL”

==> Burn the Fat Holiday Challenge

He just opened up a new challenge forum where ALL contestants and members will converge to post their before/after
results, post their journals and all support each other towards an incredible “50-DAY-BURN!”

If you want to be a part of online fitness history and become a contestant in the first-ever 50 Day Burn The Fat
Holiday Challenge, you will be instantly eligible for the contest and get access to the challenge forum when
you join the inner circle:

==> Burn the Fat Holiday Challenge

Another way to get started: Read (or Re-Read) Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

If you don’t have this ebook yet, this is the classic manual that many people call the “bible of fat loss” - it’s a virtual roadmap for how to eat, train and get motivated to win a transformation contest or, simply get yourself in the best shape of your life

Get Burn The Fat ==> Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

Anyone who already owns Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is automatically eligible to enter the contest, with no other purchase required.

Registration for the contest will open at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle on Thursday, November 19th. There may be
some restrictions and the contest is void where prohibited by state or country law.

More details are coming soon.

You can read Tom’s Holiday Fitness Challenge call to arms, and get on the notification list about the contest prizes, rules and instructions by visiting this page:

==> Burn the Fat Holiday Challenge

To your best body transformation, while enjoying the food and festivities of the holidays at the same time!

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This is the time of the year where many people fall off the diet wagon. Food is a big part of this season so it’s not surprising to gain weight between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

Do you deprive yourself of the fun of the festivities just to keep the pounds off? Or do you indulge first and beat yourself up later?

Neither.

You can enjoy the holidays with family and friends, eat your favourite foods AND stay in shape.

How?

Simply follow any of the 17 strategies discussed in Joel Marion’s Holiday Fat Loss Black Book. Get your FREE copy here:

Holiday Fat Loss Black Book <– Grab your free copy here

I’ve just read the 14-page ebook and will certainly use some of the tips to help me keep the weight off during the holidays.

This free ebook will only be available for 2 days, so make you sure you grab a copy now:

Holiday Fat Loss Black Book <– Grab your free copy here

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Do you often find yourself falling off the workout wagon or succumb to diet relapse, binges or just too much over-indulgence? Why do you (relapser) regain weight while maintainers lose and keep off the pounds successfully? What can you (relapser) learn from the maintainers?

Tom Venuto answers these questions in another great article, “How to Stop Bingeing, Unconscious Eating And Diet Relapse”, below.

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How to Stop Bingeing, Unconscious Eating And Diet Relapse: What the Research Says

by Tom Venuto

In a study published in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, Susan Kayman and colleagues set out to discover the difference between women who took off weight and kept it off successfully (maintainers), and those who took off weight but eventually regained it all (relapsers). They found many differences between relapsers and successful maintainers, but one of the differences stood out like a sore thumb…

Relapsers were emotional eaters who lacked skills to respond to and cope with stress and unexpected problems.

While almost all of the women reported stressful issues or problems, there were major differences in the way the relapsers and maintainers coped with their problems.

Very few relapsers used problem-solving or confrontive ways of coping with their problems as compared with maintainers.

Instead, they were more likely to use emotion-focused or escape/avoidance behaviors for coping such as eating more, sleeping more or just wishing the problem would go away.

Relapsers reported using food to make themselves feel better when they were upset. They also attributed weight gain to unexpected or unpredictable stressful life events.

Maintainers, by contrast, confronted their problems directly and looked for alternative ways to cope with them (other than eating)

These included relaxation techniques, meditation, exercise, focusing on productive work, seeking social support, getting professional help, or talking out their feelings with other people they trusted.

This by the way, confirms previous research in the area of addiction recovery which found that a person who has made a successful behavior change will return to a previous negative pattern if a stressful situation occurs and no coping skills have been developed to deal with it.

Another big difference between maintainers and relapsers was conscious awareness (or lack of it)

70% of relapsers ate unconsciously in response to emotions.

Maintainers, on the other hand, were vigilant and conscious of EVERYthing:

• They were conscious of the quantity and type of food they ate
• They were conscious about the amount of activity that they needed personally to maintain their weight
• They consciously worked to “keep in shape” after they reached their initial goal
• They were conscious that they felt uncomfortable in their clothes after they gained even a little weight such as a few pounds after a vacation
• They intentionally wore close-fitting clothes to keep themselves aware of their bodies, which prompted them to exercise more eat less if their clothes felt tighter.

From these findings emerge two of the very first steps that are absolutely necessary for you to end emotional eating and prevent diet relapse:

1. Develop greater conscious awareness
2. Develop alternative behaviors and coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and emotions

It takes courage to directly confront your problems and strength to overcome them, but you can’t even begin to solve a problem unless you are aware you have one. It all begins with AWAREness.

One of the best ways to increase conscious awareness of your eating habits is to keep a nutrition diary at least once in your life for a period of at least 4-12 weeks.

many people are catching on, as reflected in the popularity of sites like fit day, which lets you log in your daily food intake, while others keep extensive written journals.

People who are struggling with relapse and weight regain, but who refuse to admit that calories are important, who find keeping journals to be too much like work, or who don’t at least find some other way to raise their awareness about what and how much they are eating, are likely to continue to struggle.

P.S. As you can see, based on research in both obesity and psychological journals, and as your own instincts probably have already told you, emotional eating is not a “women’s tabloid magazine” type of topic that can just be brushed over lightly. It is very very real problem, and it affects men as well.

Fortunately, there are numerous real solutions for ending emotional eating. You now have two of the first and most important steps.

If you’d like to learn more, I recently wrote a short ebook called, THE A.W.A.R.E. Formula: 5 steps to end emotional eating

5 steps to end emotional eating is now available as a special bonus with the purchase of the Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle ebook from www.BurnTheFat.com and with membership at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle .

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In the past, I had been an emotional eater who battled with significant weight fluctuations. I’d reach for chocolate, sweets, chips and crackers when under stress. Somehow, these foods seemed to make me feel better or so I imagined.

At that time, I knew nothing about emotional eating. It was only by trial and error that I became aware of my eating habits.

In the past, I had been an emotional eater who battled with significant weight fluctuations. I’d reach for chocolate, sweets, chips and crackers when under stress. Somehow, these foods seemed to make me feel better or so I imagined.

At that time, I knew nothing about emotional eating. It was only by trial and error that I became aware of my eating habits.

According to Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, willpower and conscious mind are not enough to overcome emotional eating. He shares  5 powerful ways to take control of emotional eating behaviours in the article “5 Steps To Beating Emotional Eating” (see below)

Hey, no one is perfect… I still fall for emotional eating on occasions. But Tom’s valuable advice has helped me to be in control of, rather than to be controlled by, the evil of emotional eating. I hope these 5 tips can help you too.

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5 Steps To Beating Emotional Eating

by Tom Venuto

Today we continue with our special motivation and fitness psychology article series (“bloginar”) with some serious information about what some experts believe is the #1 cause of obesity in the world: Emotional eating. But what is emotional eating really? Quite simply, you may be eating for reasons other than satisfying physical hunger, providing energy, supporting your metabolism and feeding your muscles, too often, and it may indeed be keeping you overweight.

Are you an emotional eater? Do you eat for the wrong reasons? Do you eat mindlessly, stuffing down food with nary a conscious thought?

Take this quiz and find out:

Do you frequently eat for any of these reasons?

1. To obtain a good feeling
2. For comfort
3. Out of sheer boredom
4. Out of habit (for example, every time you watch TV)
5. For purely social reasons
6. To cope with stressful events
7. To fill a void or missing need
8. To recapture a feeling or memory associated with a food (makes you feel “like being back home with family again,” etc)
9. To cope with depression
10. To cope with (or in response to) other feelings such as anger, loneliness, frustration, disappointment, grief, lack of control or anxiety

If so, then you’re an emotional eater!

As long as you are an emotional eater, you may continue to struggle to follow even the very best laid nutrition plans. That’s what’s so frustrating about this issue. You KNOW your nutrition (and exercise) program would work… if only you could stop sabotaging yourself with inappropriate eating!

Conventional solutions to emotional eating are helpful. Much of the traditional wisdom focuses on conscious eating (mindfulness or AWARE-ness), as well as setting up your environment for success (ie, keep the trigger foods OUT of your house!).

Awareness IS an important part of the solution, but an incomplete one. There are lots of people who are ALREADY AWARE of their emotional eating problems, but they feel powerless to stop them

Why? It’s because traditional awareness-only solutions to emotional eating focus only on willpower and the conscious mind. But that’s not where your power lies.

Your true power source is your non-consious mind, which is the part of you responsible for automatic behaviors. Think about it: If the non conscious parts of your mind can handle complex tasks like beating your heart and circulating your blood without consulting your conscious mind, then how easily do you think it can control your eating behaviors?

Your ability to change inappropriate eating behaviors (eating for the wrong reasons), starts with your understanding that you have been running patterns on automatic pilot (unconsciously), without even realizing it.

The first step towards freedom from emotional eating is to develop conscious AWAREness. But there is more to it than this. Conventional approaches tell you to become AWARE of your “mindless eating” but then they don’t tell you how to change those old patterns.

I’ve been spending the last few years researching this topic of eating behaviors and emotions and I’ve been researching Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for many years before that. It was NLP that really helped me fill in the missing piece and make what I can honestly and legitimately call a “breakthrough.”

I’ve discovered numerous quick and easy, yet very powerful ways to neurologically short-circuit the old emotional eating behaviors and literally re-wire you with healthy eating behaviors that run on auto pilot just as easily as the old negative habits did. I’ve organized them into a very concise, succinct system.

It’s called, The AWARE Program: 5 Steps To End Emotional Eating. It’s the same program that is also summarized in my hard cover book, The Body Fat Solution and the complete AWARE formula is now available in a digital ebook format.

Here’s my 5 step formula:

1. Raise your AWARENESS about your habitual eating behaviors. In a word, this means eat mindfully. Many people eat without thinking. For example, stress eating can be an unconscious pattern and you often don’t even realize when or how much you eat impulsively in response to stress. 3 easy ways to raise awareness include eat exclusively, eat slowly and keep a journal.

2. WATCH out for your emotional eating triggers. Every time you eat emotionally, there is a cause, or “trigger.” As mentioned above, stress is the BIG one, but the list of potential triggers could go on for pages and may include feelings (loneliness, frustration, sadness, etc), places (buffets, kitchen, etc), people (mom, spouse, drinking buddies), or events (parties, movies, T.O.M, etc)

3. ARREST the negative patterns when they happen As you raise your awareness, you’ll shift from an unconscious, mindless eater, to a conscious, mindful eater. That doesn’t mean you won’t be assaulted with temptations and encounter trigger situations. However, once you are aware, you can interrupt the emotional eating patterns and THINK before you act.

4. REPLACE the old emotional eating behavior with more constructive alternatives. nature abhors a vaccuum. It’s rarely enough to simply stop an old behavior in its tracks. It’s important to replace the old behavior with a constructive new one. Alternative coping mechanisms can include all kinds of stress relievers (meditation, yoga, relaxing music, a jacuzzi/bath/sauna, deep breathing, etc), a talk with a friend, and even exercise.

5. ESTABLISH new beliefs about food and the right reasons for eating. Food is for fuel, for feeding muscle, and providing energy. Although there are appropriate occasions to use food for other reasons, when you establish beliefs such as “Food is fuel” your eating behavior will be vastly different than if you habitually use food to cope with stress and bad feelings. This is why I’ve found that athletes and bodybuilders are rarely emotional eaters - they always view food as fuel, for energy and construction material for the body.

There you have it - that’s my entire 5 step formula. If you’d like to learn a LOT more, including more details on emotional eating triggers and how to deal with them, how to find alternate coping mechanisms, how to balance proper nutrition with an enjoyable social and family life, and much more, you can get the entire ebook, 5 Steps to End Emotional eating, for FREE, for the next 3 days only by purchasing the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle system from www.BurnTheFat.com. (Previously it has only been available to members of my Burn The Fat Inner Circle community).

Not only that, during our special OPERATION MOTIVATION bloginar this week, you can also get SIX MORE absolutely FREE bonuses with the purchase of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

To get all the details visit the Burn The Fat website at: www.BurnTheFat.com.

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Having spoken to members at my gym and students in my classes, I found out that many continue to struggle with losing body fat. Besides exercise and nutrition, there is something else missing. Social support. Some people just can’t do it alone.

Social support can come from friends, family, trainers, coaches, support groups and so forth. Research has proven that social support does help you to transform your body.

Your circle of friends, ie people, can make or break your fat loss efforts. Obesity is socially contagious. It can be difficult when you are surrounded by negativity and peer pressure from family and friends.

“Eat (chocolate fudge muffin) first, worry later”
“Join us for a drink, there’s always time for gym tomorrow”
“Is that all you’re eating?”

Sounds familiar?

One study found that family members were considered both the MOST helpful and LEAST helpful by study participants!

The good news is good health and fitness habits are socially contagious, too. They can spread socially by being around the RIGHT people. What if you aren’t getting support from family, partner or friends? Look for new sources of support such as reputable online  fat loss support groups. When you need positive reinforcement, you can turn to online communities of like minded people who share similar health and fitness goals. You’ll also get advice and support from mentors and members who have transformed their bodies. What you don’t get is more negativity!

It was the realisation of the missing element of social support that prompted Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, to create Burn The Fat Inner circle, an online support community. It brings together himself, other expert mentors and a huge international like minded group of peers with a common goal into one tightly knit internet community.

Here’s what one of the members of Burn The Fat Inner Circle online fat loss support community recently posted after just three days inside the inner circle:

“That is what makes these communities so great! Here we can share our story with so many like-minded folks from all over the world. I don’t know about you, but in my work, neighborhood, and other places I go, I’m alone in my fat burning.

One cannot do this alone, it takes a lot of support. I have that from friends and family, but they have not been there nor done it. They can support me but they cannot sympathize. Here, people can. THAT is what will make this community.”
- Rob, burned 100 lbs of fat

If you can’t find support offline, why not try joining an online fat loss support community like Burn The Fat Inner Circle. The wonders of internet have made it easy and convenient to connect with people worldwide from the comfort of your home.

Remember, you don’t need to do it alone. Check out Burn The Fat Inner Circle for powerful support from experts (including Tom Venuto), mentors and peers.

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You have chosen to follow a nutrition and training program for fat loss. Yet, you find yourself not sticking with the program consistently. You are frustrated ‘cos you ain’t losing fat .

Is the program at fault? Or is it you?

Tom explains how limiting beliefs can prevent you from losing fat…

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The Little Thing in Your Head That’s Keeping You Fat

By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

I have no doubt that a scientist somewhere just read the title of this article and said out loud, “YES! Venuto is right! That little thing in your head – the hypothalamus – it IS the thing that is keeping you fat! By George, that Venuto guy isn’t a dumb bodybuilder after all – he’s been doing his research!” At which moment, I will be shaking my head and thinking, “you need to get out of the laboratory and into the real world, with real people, buddy.” Okay, okay, to be fair, Neuro-endocrine control of appetite and body fat really is quite fascinating. But today, I’m talking about PSYCH-ology, not PHYSI-ology. The little thing in your head that’s keeping you fat is actually just a….

Limiting belief!

Self-limiting beliefs are among the biggest problems that people deal with in their struggles to achieve a healthy ideal weight. They’re also one of the reasons that so many people start to falter or fall off the diet and exercise wagon as early as late January or early February in their New Year’s goal pursuits.

If you’re that science guy I spoke of and you’re about to bail because you’re thinking, “Here we go again… another psycho-babble, self help article,” then think again. A belief is the force behind the placebo effect, which is well known by every scientist and medical professional. A respected doctor gives a patient a pill and is told it’s a powerful drug. The patient gets well immediately, not knowing that the “miraculous” substance was a dummy pill. Inert. Sugar. The miracle was in the mind.

But beliefs are not only involved in the mind-body connection, they are unconscious programs that control your behavior. The most important factor in whether you achieve the body and the health you want is NOT what diet or training program you follow. It’s what makes you follow your diet and training program. And guess what? What you believe controls your behavior - whether you will stick with your program or sabotage it with cheating, bingeing or inconsistency.

What to do about limiting beliefs

Ok, so now you agree that beliefs are psychological factors that affect you physically by controlling your behavior, including your eating, exercising and lifestyle. What now? 3 steps. 2 questions.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY LIMITING BELIEFS

You are fully aware of many of your beliefs. For example, beliefs about spirituality or politics are usually in the front of your conscious mind.

But the beliefs that hold back your health and physical development the most are usually the ones you don’t even know you have. They are like unconscious “brain software,” running silently in the background.

So the first step is to bring those unconscious and potentially damaging beliefs up to the surface so you are aware of them. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know you have one.

2 Quick Questions That Will Help Draw Out Your Beliefs

Beliefs can go back to childhood, but don’t worry, you don’t have to go to a psychotherapist and be regressed back to kindergarten. It’s simpler than that. But it does pay to do this questioning process as a formal “exercise” with serious quiet time, with pen and paper (instead of just thinking about it).

Question #1: What causes me to be overweight (or unhealthy, or not having the body I want)?

Question #2: What’s preventing me from getting leaner? (or healthier?)

Spend some time with it and see how big of a list you can create. Ask yourself whether each belief helps or hurts you. Does it move you forward or backward. Does it empower or disempower you? The ones that hurt you or hold you back will be obvious. You may come up with beliefs such as:

“I’m overweight and I can’t get leaner because”:

I have no time
I’m too old
I can’t stop eating
I hate exercise
You just can’t do it when you have 4 kids
It’s impossible after having a hip replacement

But the million dollar question is: are these beliefs actually true?

Beliefs are not facts. You may hold your beliefs as absolute reality, but when you deconstruct them and challenge them, you may see that they don’t hold any water.

Self limiting beliefs are false interpretations (negative thought patterns) that hold you back. And you keep holding on to them because making excuses and staying the same is a lot more convenient than changing, isn’t it? Change requires hard work, effort and leaving your comfort zone.

Your mission now: weaken the limiting beliefs and get rid of them

STEP 2: CHALLENGE THOSE BELIEFS

How do you challenge a belief? 4 ways:

(A) Challenge it directly: Is the belief even valid at all? See if you can find a “counter example” that disproves your belief. For example; if you think that after you’ve had 3 or 4 kids, it’s impossible to get a nice flat stomach, what will you say after I introduce you to a dozen of my clients and readers who had 3 or 4 kids and went from bulging belly to rock-hard flat stomach? If they did it, then how could your belief be valid? Answer: It WASN’T! You believed something false and inaccurate and it was holding you back!

(B) Challenge the source: Is it your belief, or have you been living what your parents, peers or culture handed down to you? Just the realization that a belief wasn’t yours to begin with is enough to shatter it.

(C) Challenge the usefulness of the belief: Ok, so you believed something when you were younger. Does still believing it has any usefulness today? Does it help you move closer to what you want in your life today? If not, then wouldn’t today be a good time to get rid of it?

(D) Challenging the belief by weighing the consequences: If you keep this belief, what is it going to cost you? What will the pain be like? What will you miss? And what will these consequences be if you don’t change it NOW?

STEP 3: INSTALL A NEW BELIEF

Nature abhors a vacuum, as Spinoza once said. You don’t simply get rid of a belief, you must also replace it. What things would you want and need to believe instead that would create positive behaviors that would move you toward your goal? Write them down, then massage them into an affirmation. For example, if you’ve hung your hat on the belief that you didn’t have time to exercise, could you write a new affirmation of belief similar to this?

“I’m a very busy person, so that means I must set clear priorities and I must keep my health and body on the top of my priority list. I always schedule time for my most important priorities, I am efficient with my training, and I use every minute of my day wisely. And if Barrack Obama, the busiest person in the world, can train for 45 minutes a day 6 days a week, there’s no excuse for me. I can do it too.”

Write down your new belief affirmations and read them, right along with your goals, every day.

Then “activate” this affirmation by doing what Olympic and professional athletes do: engaging in mental rehearsal. Visualize yourself carrying out the behaviors that this belief would generate. Think about and feel what it would be like to take those positive actions steps and play mental movies of how your life would change by doing so. Involve all your senses: see it, hear it, feel it.

Keep it up until you start to see your behavior change and your habitual actions come into alignment with your goals/intentions. If you’re diligent, you’ll see changes in attitude and behavior with 21-30 days. It may happen sooner. It may take longer if you’ve carried deep, lifelong limiting beliefs. But in less than a month, the roots of the new belief pattern will be formed.

Then you can update your goals and affirmations to reflect your current priorities and move on to the next goal you want to achieve or the next limiting belief you want to change. Keep THAT up, and pretty soon, you will be LIMIT-LESS!

BELIEVE ME, spending quality time understanding and working on your beliefs is a lot more productive than spending time in forums arguing about whether a low carb program is better than a high carb program… or even whether the cure for obesity is found in the arcuate nucleus of the lower hypothalamus. It’s in your head all right… but most people have been looking in the wrong place.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

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Why wait to start a great new year? Why have new year’s resolutions when you can start NOW and DO… today? 

I think new year’s resolutions are just a load of rubbish… they are just reasons to procrastinate…. to postpone what can be done today. I can hardly remember the last time I made my NY resolutions… but I sure know that after making them, I never followed thru’. How many of us really commit to realising their resolutions? Hmm… I wonder…

A few days ago, I received a special email message (see excerpt below) from my friend, Craig Ballantyne. It reminds me that time waits for no one, so make healthy habit changes NOW.

********************

Hi,

Today is the day to get started!

Why wait till January 1st to change your habits?

We’ve got a perfect, Monday, December 1st to get a full month’s head-start on your fat burning goals.

If you are a beginner and don’t know where to start, simply make one mall baby-step change to your nutrition. Add one serving of fruit and one serving of vegetables, and cut back on the sugar, bread, and junk food in your diet.

Then try to get a little bit more exercise today than yesterday. If that means 5 minutes, then that is good! That’s fine. It is better than what you did yesterday.

If you are more advanced but have started to slack off because of the holidays, turn that mindset around and use the holidays as a reason to “tighten things up”.

Plan out your holiday treat meals in advance, and focus on sticking to your fat burning meal plan at all other times.

Do your job and earn your rewards. You’ll feel much more satisfied his way than throwing all caution to the wind for the next 4 weeks.

So everyone, everywhere, let’s all proclaim December 1st to be the REAL New Year’s Day, and make all of our healthy habit changes NOW, not later.

Let’s get pumped up to lose weight over the holidays. Let’s do the impossible and show the world that not everyone has to gain five or ten pounds every December.

Get a head start on your 2009 fat burning plans today.

Start creating one new healthy habit every day in December.

There is NO reason to wait.

Craig Ballantyne

Turbulence Training

PS - Want to lose 17 pounds in 4 weeks with Turbulence Training?

“In 4 weeks I have lost 17 pounds and reduced my waist measurement 4
½ inches, increased my energy levels throughout the day, got back
into clothes I haven’t worn in months, and reduced my cholesterol
to normal levels again. The most satisfying result is the comments
I’m receiving from friends and family members on my transformation.”
Hal Empsom

“In the result of the last 12 weeks on Turbulence Training I have:
- Lost 21.8 lbs, not by starving but eating an average 1600+
calories per day
- Lost 4.25″ from my waist, 3.5″ from my hips and 2″ from my thighs
- Dropped 7.7% bodyfat down to 16.9%
- Revealed abs, never seen before. Thanks!”
Serena Tremlett

Click this link to get started with:

=> Turbulence Training

********************

What a powerful message! Thanks, Craig.

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By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
www.BurnTheFat.com

Throughout my 18 years in the fitness industry as a trainer, nutrition consultant and motivational coach, I have noticed that some people who start a nutrition and exercise program give up very easily after hitting the first obstacle they encounter. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement or frustration, they will abandon even their biggest goals and dreams.

On the other hand, I noticed that some people simply NEVER give up. They have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. These people are like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a bone. The harder you try to pull the bone out of his mouth, the harder the dog chomps down with a vice-like grip.

What’s the difference between these two types of people? Psychologists say there is an answer.

An extremely important guideline for achieving fitness success is the concept that, “There is no failure; only feedback. You don’t “fail”, you only get results.”

This is a foundational principle from the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the first time I ever heard it was from peak performance expert Anthony Robbins back in the late 1980’s. It’s a principle that stuck with me ever since, because it’s a very, very powerful shift in mindset.

A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they’ll bail out and quit, just because what they try at first doesn’t work. They consider it a permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset change, or what we call a “reframe.”

Instead of saying, “This is failure” they can say to themselves, “I produced a result” and “This is only temporary.” This change in perspective is going to change the way that they feel and how they mentally process and explain the experience. It turns into a learning opportunity and valuable feedback for a course correction instead of a failure, and that drives continued action and forward movement.

It’s all about your results and your interpretation of those results

Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and wrote about it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he referred to as “explanatory style.” He said that explanatory style is the way we explain or interpret bad events or failures.

People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. For example, they hit a plateau in their progress and explain it by saying, “diets never work” or “I have bad genetics so I’ll always be fat.” These explanations imply permanence.

Other people hit the same plateaus and encounter the same challenges, but explain them differently. They say things such as, “I ate too many cheat meals this week,” or “I haven’t found the right diet for my body type yet.” These explanations of the results imply being temporary.

People who see negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give up easily and often generalize their “failure” into other areas of their lives and even into their own sense of self. It’s one thing to say, “I ate poorly this past week because I was traveling,” (a belief about temporary behavior and environment), and to say, “I am a fat person because of my genetics” (a belief about identity with a sense of permanence). Remember, body fat is a temporary condition, not a person!

People who see challenges and obstacles as temporary and as valuable learning experiences are the ones who never quit. If you learn from your experiences, not repeating what didn’t work in the past, and if you choose to never quit, your success is inevitable.

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom’s Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com

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