P90X3: Day 9 of 90. Agility X. Feeling Awesome.

Yes!! You'll have that day after you start P90X.  It's usually in week two, right about now.  You do those routines, those damn killer routines, a second time.

"Wait.  What the...?"  My chart says I did 5 and now it's 8.  Really?"

Or, as you start an exercise...

"Crap.  I was awful at these last week.  This is going to be...what?  30 seconds to go?  That's when I stopped last week.  My legs hurt...and TIME!!!  What the...I finished?  Man!! I finished!!"

This is the week where you find out that you are going to do well.  This is where you get that first jolt of motivation to keep going.  As you look as those instructors, and you did the same (or almost the same) reps as they did, keep this one thought in mind.  They are never getting any better than they are, on that DVD, right now.  That's it.  They'll never improve.  But, you will.  There will come a time when you are doing those exercises and you realize that you have passed them.  It's coming.

For me, this week, it was those damn lunges.  For those of you reading this blog, as you will recall, last week at this time I was sitting with an icepack on my muscles.  Not this week.  This week, I crushed it without a twinge.  Not ONE twinge.  I felt great.  No, I felt awesome.  I bet you are all feeling a little awesome this week.  And, this little dog knows it too!

P90X3: Day 5 of 90. CVX. Sweating.

And, we sweat.  CVX.  Boy, it looked easy on the DVD when I was previewing it.  I started with a 10 lb dumbbell.  Here is what I sounded like on the third set, "Lexieeeee???"

"What?" came the sound far away from my kitchen upstairs.

"There's a five lb dumbbell next to the fireplace...bring it down here quick!!"

Oh, the male ego.  Yes, I looked at the ladies.  Then, I looked at the guy in back.  Saw him grab a 10 while the ladies took less.  Well, I'm no lady.  I'll have what HE's having dammit.

This was a good workout.  With the fives, I finished and finished well.  Completed all circuits and sweat like a dog. THIS will someday be a favorite.

Day five update...there are muscles that were sore four days ago that feel stronger today.  What I realized doing P90X, and it seems to still hold true here, is that the next days exercises are designed to rest the previous days burnout.  That's what puts P90X at the top of my list.

Props to Traci Morrow, who I follow on Facebook.  She kicked ass on this workout.  Tony paid her a little too much attention but, hell, can you blame him?  Tony's jokes are still funny too, they keep me going.

Okay, all the best and tomorrow, when you get up, just do it one more time.  It gets easier.  Promise.

P90X3: Day 4 of 90. The Challenge.

The Challenge.  That about says it.  I don't have to add anything else.  My arms and chest hurt.  This is the first time I have done this in about 8 months, to repeat my other blogs.  I'm fried.  My reps weren't awesome...and I knew they wouldn't be.  I know how to handle this though.

Mentally, I know that how I did today is the bottom of the barrel benchmark.  We only get better from here.  I don't feel "bad" that I couldn't do what the folks on the DVD could do.  Really, I weigh about 15-18 lbs more right now than I did the first time I did this.  Also, I had been doing pushups back then.  Not this time.  So, in about four weeks, when I am down about 15 lbs, and my arms have been pushing all this extra weight, but it's not there anymore...watch me rock.

So, for now, to do the set, I do as much as I can and when I am burnt, I modify.  Down to the knees for pushups until I fail there as well.  As Neil Young would say, "It's better to burn out, than to die."  So tonight, I burnt out good.

The pullups?  I use the bands but they are modified for the pullup bar.  Some night, I will photograph it, because I've never seen anyone else doing it quite this way.  I may be a trend setter on this one.  I did many more pullups than pushups.  But, like I said, tonight was where we break off the rust.

Okay, time to check the kids' homework, take a shower, drink some protein/creatine, watch Weeds Season One reruns, and eat some fruit, and sleep.

Food tip for the day.  It starts with a question.  What comes in a jar, is about four inches long by an inch thick, and if you eat four of them, you are full and have only eaten 20 calories?  Glassen Kosher Dill Pickle Halves.  When I feel a need to snack, I eat two. 

P90X3: Day 3 of 90. Yoga X. I'm the Chairman.

I'm the Chairman.  More accurately, the Chair Man.  Yoga is not my thing.  I freely admit it.  There are those that I have done P90X with that are probably laughing right now.  I am fairly flexible.  I am also very bulky in terms of muscle.  Big in the thighs, barrel chested, big calves.  I have never been what you could call "lean."  Also, I kind of pulled something last night (more on that in a minute), so I'm a bit tender in some areas today.  That's my mea culpa.  I am not a Yoga guy.  To add to that, in P90X, Yoga is 90 minutes.  That's right, 90 minutes.  I hated it.  I cursed all the way through it.  I made fun of (because in my home, alone, I have that luxury...) everyone on the DVD and I would curse Tony every time he failed to do balanced reps.  Basically, I was surly and didn't need a reason to 'get my hate on.'

P90X3 Yoga is only 30 minutes.  Seriously?  You had me at 'hello.'  Yes, it is still Yoga.  And yes, it still has things I will NEVER be able to do unless I have some serious gene therapy and alter my body's structural design.  But, at 30 minutes, I will work through it.  It does still have the same flaw as every other Yoga DVD and that is, as you are focusing on what you are doing, they are progressing to the next move.  And, I swear, Tony Horton has HDD and just moves without telling you he's going.  That's fine too.  I'll catch up.  Hell, at 30 minutes, I'll hit pause and repeat it.  Not a problem.

So, I actually am cool with P90X3 Yoga X.  Now, for my injury.  It's cured.  Don't know how.  Don't care.  The muscles felt great today, just a little stiff...and Yoga and stretching was the perfect cure.  Loved doing it today.  Don't know what did it, the Protein, the Creatine or the Ice...maybe all three.  Either way, I felt like a million bucks doing Yoga X tonight.

Finally, why am I the Chairman?  or Chair man?  You should see me trying to do some of these poses.  It's ridiculous.  Now, I can do one of two things.  I can NOT do the pose, or I can find a way to do it so that I can stretch, achieve some balance and improve for the day when I can do the pose without help.  That's where the chair comes in handy.  I will use it to balance but only for the second I am losing my balance.  Then, I let go.  Sometimes I just use it to get into position.  Is it cheating?  Not really, it's cheating if you don't do it.  (In my mind, anyway.)

"Now, pull you foot into your crotch area and grab your toe.  Now, extend your leg straight out without letting go of the toe."  Really?  Dude, I have breakable stuff in my house.  I can fall and cover 15 feet of room.  That's just the balance part.  Also, you would think last night's injury would have kept me from doing that one.  Nope.  It's the extending of the leg, of course.  If you think touching your toes is tough, you are never going to make it through that.  What I do is slide my hand to my calf and I have the chair under the extended leg.  I lift the leg for as long as I can and hold it.  If I let it down, it's for a moment and then back up.  When I did P90X, by the last phase, no chair was needed.  You do what you have to do to get through the workout.  Make it happen.  Be the catalyst for your own change!  Good luck and see you in the AM!

P90X3: Day 2 of 90. Agility X. Crap, now I've done it! Again.

And, by 'doing it again,' I don't mean the Agility X routine.  I warmed up by doing 30 minutes on the treadmill.  All was going great until the first lunge set.  I felt a tightness in a muscle that has never given me problems before.  I pushed it for a couple more and it pulled tight on me.  Painfully tight.  I hit pause and backed out and stretched.  I didn't stop, just stretched the area that was affected.  I'm not sure, but I don't think it's the groin muscle.  If I look at a muscle map, it seems like it's the Gracillis.  Also, many pictures online show the muscle, oddly enough (and I say that sarcastically) with the leg in a lunge.

It's a small pull.  So, I kept going, I stretched frequently, and I modified to keep an eye on it.  Bottom line, I finished the workout.  But, it's pretty sore.  I iced the muscle and drank my protein and creatine shake when I was done.  For those of you over 50, that's spackle and glue for building up old muscles.  It'll be a few days of modifying the exercises that affect that muscle.

Here's the thing for you new people, kind of a "Coaching Moment" if you will.  When you feel your muscles pulling back in weird ways, hit pause before they react badly.  I've done this twice before in P90X and should have learned my lesson about listening to my body.  It's okay though, nothing permanent.  When it happened in P90X, I modified those exercises until I could do them again and did the rest with vigor.  Listen to your body.  Don't let your brain or ego write a check your body can't cash.

Here's the second part of this.  I'm not stopping.  I'll be on the treadmill for 45 minutes in the AM, and I will stretch it during the day so it doesn't get tight...and I will stretch better before each set.  Thirty minutes goes by quickly...if you need it, go "Cold Start."  I'll be doing heat before exercising and ice afterward.

So, it's deja vu all over again.  I pushed too hard and strained something.  I'll be fine.  Learn from my mistake (the third time) to listen to your body.  It's late.  Great Wildcard Weekend of NFL though!

P90X3: Day 1 of 90. Boy, Did I Screw Up

How did I screw up?  I will answer that one in a minute.  Today is Day One.  Think of it this way, if you commit to the next 90 days, this is the worst you will look for the next three months.  That is the only way you will survive doing your Day One metrics, to include the pics.  Just remember, it's all uphill from here.

So, I got up this morning and weighed myself, took my measurements and took my pictures.  Here are the shots to the left.  I know, most of you will keep these private.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that when it comes to this, I have no shame to speak of.  So you can see how I improve from here.

Here is the other reason I post them.  It helps me follow through.  When I motivate myself, I always make my starting point public.  When everyone else knows your stats and your commitment, you feel an added amount of pride in going the distance and a little more trepidation to let that promise go.  It's like a little more glue, holding you to the process.

I went through a very strict, medically supervised weight-loss program in 2008.  I had to do a liquid diet.  Why?  I was dying.  You can read my blog called "The Tipping Point" by clicking on the link above to read the detail.  The point is, I was SO physically unfit that I could not safely exercise rigorously.  It was causing other medical conditions that were shortening my life.  In that program, most of the people never discussed their weight, or their progress.  They kept it secret.  Those people who never discussed it, well, they either quit the program or failed to lose weight over a long period of time.  Doing the measurements and making them public makes you accountable to yourself in a way that you can't just silently slip away and quit.  It does make a difference.

Okay, how did I screw up?  Take a look at the pics to the left.  I am in worse shape now than when I started P90X in 2012.  I knew I was...deep down.  But, now I REALLY know it.  And so do you.

This is the journey for me in the next 90 days.  It's not some pipe dream, I know I can do it.

Screwing up?  I haven't been this heavy or out of shape since I lost my 85 lbs in 2008.  I let things in my life derail a ton of progress that I had made.  When I look at that 90 day picture, I know that I want THAT back.  I also know that I need a plan to NEVER let it get away again.  Over 50 years old, you lose your 'fitness gains' at an incredible speed if you just plain stop.  You need to make the programs a part of your normal life and you need to make it something achievable.  We will all have the moments when life derails us.  It's not the obstacle, it's how fast you get back up.  I didn't get back up.  Now, here I am, facing the big work one more time.

I do have one advantage that many of you don't have.  I know I can do it.  I've climbed this mountain before.  I also know something about you...you can do it too.  If you just follow along, you will make progress and achieve things you didn't know you could do.  Trust me.

Here is my "gym".  Check out the mat.  It's all measured up and waiting for me.  Notice something on it though, I measured it for Novice, Expert, and a spot in between.  I may have to start at Novice.  We'll see.  If I do, it's not failure, it's just Week One.  That last line is my goal by Day 90.  The line is already drawn.  Just like the photos, it's real and looking me in the face every workout.  So are my weights.  There are weights heavy enough that I may not use them...but they are STILL waiting for the day I can...staring at me.

I also did my measurements.



Day 30, 60, and 90 are waiting.  March 31st is not that far away.  90 seems like a lot.  It's not.  Okay, enough typing.  Time to warm up and get to "Total Synergistics."  Follow along and let me know how YOUR journey is going.  I'll be following you all too!  You are not alone.  Don't stop.

P90X3: Mindset. Your New Body is Thoughts Away

Do you think the toughest part of P90X will be the workouts?  No doubt, they are difficult and challenging.  Would a better diet help?  Yes.  If you were in better shape right now, would the workouts be less difficult?  Yes.  If both of these things were present, would that guaranty your success?  No.  The one thing that will guarantee your success is your MINDSET.  No matter what your physical state of being is, if you are not mentally ready to do this, it will be nearly impossible to succeed.  That statement is not meant to apply only to P90X or P90X3.  It applies to your life.  What you do, in P90X-3, is going to change the way you view everything.

Your body is more energy than it is mass.  Think about that for a minute.  Your body's cells, at the atomic level, are made up of this tiny solid nucleus, surrounded by energy that bonds it to the other atoms.  The space between two atoms is far greater than the size of the atoms.  That energy is a part of this massive neural network in your body that is tied to your brain.  When your brain feels great, it affects all aspects of your body.  Also, when your brain feels awful, you feel that too.  Your brain reacts to whatever you feed it.  Feed it negative stimuli constantly, and your whole body is affected.  Feed it positive stimuli, the inverse.

Also, we do react to the world we live in.  We don't live in some jar, disconnected from external stimuli, and with the luxury and ability to just be a being in peaceful bliss.  That is true.  But, how you process that external stimuli to your brain, that IS in your control and that is your MINDSET.  You can paint almost anything in your life as positive or negative.  That's your choice.

Are you telling me that all I have to do is think positive thoughts to feel better?  Yes.  There is actually some evidence that it can affect physical healing and how your body deals with ailments, but even if you don't buy into that completely, processing in a positive manner will improve how you feel.

This may shock you, but your brain does not know the difference between thought and reality.  Locked away inside your body, your brain reacts to what is fed into it.  Whether you see something "real", or a picture of that same thing, your brain reacts to it the same way.  The same goes for any thoughts you have.  Your brain processes the thoughts you feed it.  Based on those thoughts, your brain then interacts with the neural net in your body and releases various hormones, etc.  Your physical response will react to the thoughts you fed your brain.

This is wonderful!!  How the heck does this relate to P90X??

The physical challenges ahead of you will be greatly assisted by your MINDSET.  If you picture yourself as thinner, in better shape, athletic...your mind will do everything in it's power to get your body there.  You have to do the work, but the physical work you are performing is assisted by the brain and how it programs the energy in your body.  How you view food, how you view exercise, how you process 'pain' and 'soreness'...all of that will dictate your rate of success.  If you constantly are telling yourself, "I want clean food.  Fruit, water, salad, nuts, vegetables.  I am hungry for that," then you will be shocked how your body will condition itself to satisfy that desire.  If you tell yourself, "The soreness and aches don't matter," you will be shocked how your body responds and allows a few more minutes of work, giving you an edge.  If you keep seeing yourself as a thinner person, and really focus on that, your brain will help to deliver that result.

MINDSET.  Find five positive affirmations.  Even if you don't feel them right now, especially if you don't feel them right now, write them down.  How do you want to be and feel ninety days from now?  Make those five short statements something you repeat to yourself over and over.  Make one about diet, make one about exercising, make one about how you want to look, make one about how you feel about yourself, and make one about removing something toxic from your life.  As you are going through your day, begin to see yourself in this way.  Repeat it over and over.  As you do all of the reps of the exercises, tell yourself these things over and over again.  It WILL become you.

Did you ever make up a story and then retell it so many times that you have a hard time distinguishing the reality from the made up?  That's because you told the story so many times that your brain stopped being able to tell the difference between "reality" and what you fed it.  You can tell your brain a different story.

What will your story be?  Write it today, five sentences, and begin making it your story.  Your brain won't know the difference.  And, in 90 days, you will see what that did for you. 
 

P90X3: Eye on the Prize. 3 Days to Go.

Saturday's the day.  For almost all of the group I am doing this with, Monday, January 6th is the P90X3 start date and all will be doing it in unison.  I have done this before, and my optimal start DAY is Saturday.  I like Saturday's because Day 7 in the program is the rest day and I like my rest day to be Friday...so I will be starting on Saturday, January 4th.

Over the next couple of days, I will do a few things to finish my prep.

I need to break out my mat, my weights, my pushup grips (optional, but very effective) my pullup bar and my bands.  Finish watching the DVDs for the first cycle.

Eating right.  This is important.  Write down the shell of an eating plan.  Don't make it so restrictive that you can't follow it.  Just outline your approach to eating.  Read the P90X3 guide for suggestions, but use that to set yourself up for success.  If you do not change your diet one iota, you will change.  You will be burning calories that you normally don't burn and that will have results...but not the results you want.  You have to eat better and you have to eat healthier if you are going to take your body on this 90 day journey.

There is also one thing that people often skip.  Measure yourself with the scale and the tape measure, to include the visual measurement...the photos.

There are a lot of reasons people don't do this.  For many people, this is uncomfortable.  How much do I weigh?  How large am I around the waistline?  Is this what I really look like?  Oh...my...god.  Facing this brings about a lot of thoughts and feelings.  Self loathing is one.  You can't believe you did this to yourself.  Everything you have been telling yourself to fool yourself into thinking you look fine, rationalizing, will go right out the door because the numbers don't lie.  You will hate them.  But, ninety days from now, if you commit, YOU WILL LOVE THEM.  Why?  Because they don't lie...and they will be saying, "Wow...you kicked ass."

And, if you have never done a program like this, without an idea of what you will look like 90 days from now...it can be very DE-motivating.  But, 90 days from now, if you commit, you will change.  YOU WILL CHANGE.  That's why you have to do the measurements and photos.

There will come a time in this program, around week 3, when you realize you are getting better at the routines.  And, you will notice that the pants you have been wearing will have more room in them.  I was in good physical shape when I started P90X but I still got asked by my closest friends, "What are you doing?  Are you losing more weight or something?"  Your first set of program pictures, at 30 days, will look better, but maybe not great.  I was already in pretty good shape, so I didn't see a lot of change...at least not what I was expecting to see.  But the change was there.  Everyone else noticed it.

At the 60 day mark, I was really pushing hard because I felt like a million bucks and was starting to see it in the pictures.  By 90 days, I didn't want it to end.

Do all the measurements before you start.  Learn to love the numbers because, when you are done, they are the evidence of your success.  When you can't visually SEE all the results you want, the numbers will reflect progress.

One last thing.  If you have never done this before, fix an image of yourself in your mind...a realistic one...of what you would like to look like 90 days from now.  Think about that image every time you are working out.  SEE yourself looking just like that.  Your body will deliver what your mind conceives.  In 90 days, if you don't look exactly like that, don't be discouraged.  Acknowledge how far you have come, and then keep going.  It's about the journey...so plan another routine (Insanity, T25, Les Mills, etc.) but, keep going.

I start on Saturday.  If you haven't done this before, I can tell you this much.  It's not a commercial, and it's not some joke with fake pictures and professionally managed results.  It works.  It works on regular people.  It works at home.  It's going to work on you.  My pictures are attached today of my P90X experience.  I am psyched to get back to this photo because, I am not there right now and, more importantly, THAT's how I see myself in my mind's eye.  Eye on the prize.  I will be here for the whole ride with you!

P90X3: Commitment! One week away!

One week away.  That's what I think as I look in the mirror.  It's not procrastination, it's preparation.  I am putting myself in the mindset of commitment.  You have to commit, one hundred percent.

What's my commitment?  Ninety days.  Ninety days of eating right...of sleeping right...of watching my progress...of not letting people and situations stop me...of doing every workout, every day.

This workout is thirty minutes long each day.  Seriously, if you can't find 30 minutes in each day, you don't want this...you WISH this.  If you can't put aside 30 minutes, you aren't trying.  My daughter SHOWERS for almost 30 minutes...I have the hot water oil bills to prove it.  A TV sitcom is 30 minutes long!  COMMIT.  That comes first.

How have I committed this week?  I have watched almost all of the videos I will be using in the first 30 days of the 90 day period.  They are the same DVD's for three weeks.  I have gotten my pullup bar back out and checked it out for support and band issues (I use pullup bands off of the bar due to shoulder issues).

What else?  I have modified my eating,  more fruit and slowly eliminating sugary type items.  I have started drinking more water and less caffeine.  Hydration is key.  I am breaking out my mat this weekend and mark it according to the DVD workouts.  There is an agility set that calls for floor tape...I just use a Sharpie on my rubber mat.

As I look in the mirror, I can see the person I did not want to become again.  Months of sedate living has put me right back where I worked very hard NOT to be.  I'm not obese, but there is a much larger person in that mirror staring back at me than I am used to.  I don't want to be him.  I also know that the person in the mirror has only a short amount of time left.  Because I have done this successfully before.  How did I do it?  I committed 100% to the program.  The person in the mirror is slowly dying...he is on life support.  The person in my mind, the one I always see when I think about me, is ready to return.

I begin next Saturday, January 4th.  The rest of the group is starting on January 6th, but I always start on Saturday so that Friday is my break day.

Put this word in the top five of words you think of for the next 90 days.  COMMIT!!

Coaching : What Am I Doing Here?

I gave a bit of thought to being a Coach before I made the decision.  I’m sure many have.  Everybody has different reasons for wanting to do it.  Why someone else wants to do it is their private business.  Even if they are someone in my organization, it will still be their private business.  I respect everyone’s reason and I hope they respect mine.  I would like to share my thoughts on why I chose to do this.  Also, why Beachbody?  It all played a role in my decision.

I have chronicled my journey to fitness heavily through my blog.  Anyone can find it if they look for it but here it is:

Dick's Diet: The Tipping Point

First and foremost, I changed my life from a dangerous level of health to where I am today.  It didn’t start with Beachbody products…I didn’t use Shakeology or do P90X or Slim in 6 to get the excess weight off.  I had to go to a medically supervised diet to do it.  It worked.  It was also tremendously embarrassing.  For the first time in my life, I couldn’t manage my weight issues alone. 

All diets, applied with discipline and exercise, work to get the weight off.  The problem is that you can’t live your life on a diet and that is why diets fail.  You have to adapt to a new lifestyle.  A healthy lifestyle does NOT fail.  I am not Coaching to sell Beachbody products.  I am Coaching to sell that lifestyle…and that lifestyle is free.  It always has been…and it always will be.  If I try to sell that lifestyle, put a price on it and try to make money off of it, I then will feel like I am selfishly doing this as a pure profit venture and that will communicate loud and clear to all who look at my new role as Beachbody Coach.  I don’t think I can do that.

I had been maintaining my weight for better than two years when I decided to look at the Beachbody program.  It wasn’t introduced to me by a Coach…like many, I saw the infomercial one morning…and afternoon…and night.  That’s meant to be funny.  I have been blogging about my weight loss since 2008.  It became my life.  It changed me radically.  I blogged late in 2011 (and put on my Facebook page) that one of my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions was to do P90X.  In swooped my Coach, who was a Facebook friend.  I love my Coach dearly but I think even she will admit, I was an easy fish to pull out of the lake.  With her support, I joined the Challenge group and began to workout.  It was fun and the people were all great.  Some of us were on P90X, others did other stuff.  My Coach gave me guidance and encouragement the whole way.  But here is the bottom line…it worked.  The dedication to exercise and diet worked.

So why Beachbody?  Because the products worked and I got results.  Great results.  The DVD’s are very well put together.  The one thing I noticed was the way daily routines were sewn together to allow physical repair while working other areas.  The concept has been very thought out.  Compare Shakeology to some of the meal replacement shakes on the market.  It has no equivalent.  Just last night my wife received a complimentary meal replacement shake for a company called JuicePlus.  I looked at the nutrition guidelines and compared it to Shakeology.  No comparison, Shakeology blows it away.  I compared Shakeology to the shake I was on when I lost my 80 lbs medically…Optifast.  Honestly, Shakeology is better.  More nutrients and better quality ingredients.  That’s a fact. 

Are there other products?  Yes.  Zillions.  So, why Beachbody?  Because it worked for me.  That’s all you need to know.  People look at me and see someone who is using the system and changing himself.  You can look all day at the plethora of products on the market and try to decide which ones will work...or you can find the people who have had the results and use what they used.  One path is shorter and considerably less painful. 

As a Coach, I am giving away my knowledge on a lifestyle that changed my life…for free.  I have been doing it for years through my blog.  Everyone who knows me knows I will take fifteen to thirty minutes to tell anyone who wants to hear my story how I did it.  Beachbody products are the table legs that support that free lifestyle.  They make it easier.  In my mind, my job is to know when people truly want to commit to the lifestyle change and be ready with the products they need when that time comes.  I can only understand their readiness if I am making a real connection.  I can only make a real connection if I am sincerely helping them change to a new lifestyle.

Some of those people will want to help others like I have.  Why they want to do it is up to them.  I can explain the business opportunity easily and if that motivates them, great.  I can’t make the world do this…I can only try to find the ones that want to.  That’s how MY coach found me.

My personal opinion is that to truly do this well, you have to be living proof.  You have to be living proof of the system or the business.  I am proof of the former.  I think, but I don’t know, that by being the example, I may also someday be living proof of the business success.  I intend to always be proof of the lifestyle, and that is how I want to do this as a business.

As an Internet professional (my REAL job…lol) I know that every great offer or system has a “freemium.”  In my eyes, my “freemium” as a Coach is my knowledge and my Challenge groups.  I have never run one, my first starts June 1^st.  I will say this though.  I asked only a few people and almost all of them said yes.  A few asked to bring others.  Why?  Because every one of these people has seen me change my life and they want to know how I did it.  When I ask people verbally if they want to be in my Challenge group, they don’t look at me skeptically.  They look at me with guilt.  I have seen some of the saddest ‘no thanks’ you will ever see in your life.  They KNOW I did it.  They know I feel great.  They know I look great.  To say ‘no’ to me is embarrassing for many…but that is okay.  It really is, and I mean that.  In time, as I continue to be the example, they will seek me out.

The Challenge group introduces a free but exceptionally well designed Beachbody website for planning, execution and support in the fitness journey.  It's free.  The support from the group is free.  They are exposed for 60 to 90 days to all the Beachbody products.  If they are looking to change their lifestyle, you have two months minimum to point out the advantages with real live examples of success.  If they don't have an interest after that, you either have to reconsider your approach or let yourself off the hook.  Not everyone will want to change their lifestyle.

There has never been a better time for this opportunity.  If you do not understand how much of a national issue obesity is, then you need to do a little more research.  Offering a different lifestyle to counter the obesity epidemic for free should be a slam dunk.  There is no better time to offer this than right now.  If you can’t get someone to listen to the message, then you need to think about how you are packaging it.  Make sure you package your message properly.  This message is valuable and great…don’t wrap it in newspaper. 

This is not about selling Shakeology, it is about changing a mindset.  Once that mindset is changed, they will ASK you for Shakeology.

Here is an analogy.  The obesity epidemic is like a vast desert and nutrition and fitness are the water.  You are NOT selling the water.  You are giving it away for free.  You are selling the maps.  But, in order for anyone to believe they can find water with YOUR map…you need to look like you know where the water is.  You will have a hard time selling those maps if you are a dried out dehydrated mess.  You have to look like you found the thing that is free.  If you look like you make a trip to the oasis every day, they will seek you out.  Could they find it without you?  Sure.  The water is there.  But, the desert is large and you can die wandering around out there hoping to get lucky.  I’ll never sell the water.  I will, however, sell you a map.

I’m not looking for Coaches.  I am looking for Apostles and Evangelists who can be converted into Coaches.  I will know I have found a potential coach when I see someone embrace the lifestyle and exemplify the products.  Along the way, many will follow.  Some will continue to walk with me to the well and that’s fine too.

I love my new life of fitness and the opportunities that it presents.  Those opportunities don’t start OR stop at a business opportunity.  At fifty years old, I have been given years back.  I have been given opportunities to share more with my children because they won’t be carrying me or pushing me around in a wheelchair.  I have been given emotional freedom because I worry less about ailments and illness.  I have been given the ability to see things on this planet that you have to walk to and climb to truly appreciate.  No pictures for me…I want to touch the world.

I’m not selling that.  I can offer that to anyone for free.

Want to buy a map?

Weight Loss : Is Stress Sabotaging You?

“I don’t get it!!  I am only eating 1500 calories a day and I am exercising like crazy…but the fat doesn’t seem to be coming off!”

On the surface, when you read that, your first thought may be (especially if you are a Coach with incomplete nutritional knowledge), “You have to be cheating.”  There’s no way you can put less calories in and exercise and not lose an optimal amount of weight.

Right?

Wrong.

How is this possible?  Cortisol.

When your body is under stress, it produces a hormone known as Cortisol.  Cortisol’s roots go way back in our biology to the days when we were hunters and gatherers…not observers and keyboard peckers.  When you experience stress, your body releases Cortisol into your blood.  The effect of the Cortisol, as a response to the emergency conditions your body is under, is to preserve your fat for future emergencies and burn carbohydrates immediately to help you get away from the stress.  To burn the carbohydrates and use them in your muscle you need insulin.  So your pancreas jumps into overdrive and starts producing insulin.  All of this activity from stress starts your body into carbohydrate burning mode…and seriously inhibits your ability to burn fat. 

As a side note, the insulin in overdrive (when there is really no carbohydrates to burn) produces cravings for fuel that you may satisfy with short-term snacks that are not the best for a diet.  Many people reach for fatty foods.  Why?  Because the fat in things like Ice Cream and cookies goes into your system and dulls the receptors of the brain that process emotional response.  So you are craving sugar and fat.  Damn.  That donut looks good right about now.

Elevated Cortisol can also cause other issues in your body besides inhibiting your ability to burn fat.  The hormonal imbalance cause by the excess Cortisol can also cause electrolyte imbalance (hurting your ability to stay hydrated).  In this case, your body won’t get the right nutrients because your fluid delivery system FOR those nutrients has been thrown off.  Anyone trying to exercise in a dehydrated state can tell you how rough that is.  Your workouts have worse quality, which hurts your ability to burn fat.

High Cortisol also messes with our ability to sleep properly.  You need sleep, particularly if you are exercising rigorously, to allow your body to fully repair itself.  At least seven hours per night is recommended.  High Cortisol wreaks havoc with your sleep.  Your workouts get worse and worse, again, which hurts your ability to burn the fat.

Mainly, the point here is, Cortisol hurts your ability to burn fat.

But wait…I live a very happy life.  I have no worries.  I am not stressed!  So that can’t be it.

Right?

Wrong.

Stress comes in many forms.  It is not just emotional.  Your body can suffer other kinds of stress…and REMEMBER…ALL stress types cause you to produce that dreaded Cortisol. 

Certain stresses in your life are necessary.  Complementary and Productive stress are normal and actually push you through the necessary obstacles you face every day.  This stress makes up about 40% of the stress we experience each day.  The stress you need to consider and worry about is UNCOMPLIMENTARY stress…which impacts us about 60% of the day.

Uncomplimentary stress takes three forms, psychological, environmental, and nutritional.  Most of us think about stress in its psychological form.  If we have no emotional stress, we pretty much think we have the whole ‘stress’ thing whipped.  This is NOT the case.

Psychological stress actually makes up only about 20% of the stress you experience every day.  Your environment (or physical stressors) make up about 10%, after all, we are physical beings.  Nutritional stress makes up a whopping 70% of the stress we put our bodies under.  70%.

Let’s do the math.  Uncomplimentary stress at 60% and Nutritional stress is 70% of that…40-42% of the stress you experience every day is NUTRITIONAL.

Nutritional stress is not about eating sugary and fatty foods.  Nutritional stress is caused when your body is asked to process fuel that was not meant to be processed by it.  It CAN be excess sugar (particularly the refined stuff) and excess fat, but nutritional stress also comes from eating foods laced with chemicals and toxins.  Aspartame (or NutraSweet), Sucralose, Saccharin...these are some of the most popular chemical additives in our food that have to be processed in our bodies.  Those toxins are hard to remove.  Our livers are working overtime to do this because they weren’t designed for that process in such amounts.  Also, the liver is responsible for fat burning.  So while it is busy with the toxins, it is NOT burning your fat.  Your body is sensing that it is being poisoned and is under duress and stress, so more Cortisol is released as well.  Starting to see the picture?

As our food becomes more and more ‘created’ and not ‘grown’, our bodies are spending inordinate amounts of time removing the junk from our system.  Refined foods like white bread, where all the nutrients have been basically removed, are making your system work overtime.  Think about the ingredients in the foods we have adapted into our diets everyday.  High fructose corn syrup?  Dye?  Look at the ingredients label on what you really are eating.  How much of what you read actually shows up on a food chart?  Probably not a lot. Your body has to deal with all of these ingredients.

In addition to all the work your body has to do to remove the toxins in the additives and refined foods, consider HOW these products have been altered.  The ingredients in the food ‘creation’ process, if not chemical, are almost always high in sugar and fat.  They are the cheapest things to use in the food ‘creation’ process.  So after your body is done with the toxic ingredients, it now has to deal with the sugar and fat…and it doesn’t have a lot of time to do it.  There are only so many hours in a day.

Ever wonder why you can’t lose a ton of fat weight by drinking diet soda?  Yep.  You now know why.

But Dick, wait.  I eat lots of fruit and vegetable.  That is awesome.  No joke…it really is.  Consider though how food production in this country has been modified into a chemical laden process.  Consider all the toxic chemicals used to GROW the rest of the food we would consider healthy?  Pesticides?

If you are eating the good food, please don’t stop.  But when you can consider organic vs. non-organic, think about the toxins and how your body will process them and be affected.

That covers nutritional stress.  There is also physical stress to consider.  While it makes up about 10% of the stress, don’t underestimate the impact of a rigorous exercise routine that does not allow for recovery.

Cortisol is produced in ALL stressful situations.  Consider the impact of a rigorous workout (physical stress) combined with poor diet (nutritional stress).

Are you burning fat or producing Cortisol?

As you continue to hear the term CLEAN EATING, remember this...the goal of clean eating is to reduce the 40-42% of the Nutritional stress your body experiences every day.  And if you do that along with your exercise, you WILL lose weight.

Note:  Much of this content was obtained from my reading of the book “Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life”.  I highly recommend it.

Insanity: Preparation for the Next Level

I finally received the Insanity DVD’s this past weekend.  It was all I could do to NOT open them and just “Push Play,” as we say in the Beachbody world.  I will be starting on Saturday.  I have a Fitness Challenge group starting on or about June 1^st.  At least one member of the group will be doing Insanity with me.  I am going to start two weeks ahead and blog the experience.  I am leading the group so I will be kind of like a “scout’ on this one.

As many of you know, my success formula is built around four factors.  Knowledge, Skill, Confidence, and Motivation.  Right now, I am highly motivated and my confidence that I can do this, given my success with P90X is very high.  I need to work on my program knowledge to prepare myself and then prepare for the skills part as I review the DVD’s to make sure I have all the materials to execute the routines.

First, the knowledge.  I am reading the materials.  There isn’t much.  This routine does not come with the big instruction book that P90X did.  It is a pamphlet.  Basically, there are three things you have to know.

(1) Make sure your doctor says you can do this, particularly if you have neck issues, back issues, or are extremely overweight.  The program is an advanced workout routine, so you want to be careful.

(2) Do what they do on the DVD and try to keep up.

(3) Eat right.  They DO have a book for this and I am reading through it..

As far as I can see, I am pretty much set to start.  The program is advanced, but I just finished P90X, another advanced program.  I think I am ready for the work.  I love the Plyometrics and Core Synergistics of P90X and Insanity appears to be an extreme level of that kind of routines.

I think I can keep up with the DVD.  Ha-Ha.  Do you have any idea how many times I thought I could just 'do this?'  That is the watchword of the day...no matter how hard something is when you start, don't get discouraged.  It always gets a little easier.  If you don't believe me, read my P90X blog.  Can I just start this with no issues?  That one we will find out together through my next blog!

I eat very clean so I tend to look at the diet portions of these programs and actually criticize them for being too lenient.  My breakfast, lunch and dinner are about as clean as anyone you will meet.  I have one cheat meal per week and that is on Friday night…Pizza night.  If I have one concern, it’s making sure that I have the right level of nutrients to ensure that my body is performing optimally.  That was a challenge during P90X, but a Nutrition coach gave me some very helpful hints on it.

So as far as building my knowledge around the program, I think I am all set.

The skills portion of my preparation will entail simply scanning through the DVD’s visually.  I like to know that I have the right things to start.  Insanity requires, to the best of my knowledge, very few pieces of equipment.  I want to check out how much jumping there is and how high…because I typically do my routines in my basement.  If a lot of jumping is required, I usually remove a few ceiling tiles for extra height and try not to hit my head on a plank.  Nothing ends a workout faster than that!  Also, do I have the right type of mat for this?  All things I need to consider. 

I made the mistake a few times in P90X of thinking I had done enough DVD review only to find out that I needed a few dumbbells or stronger bands for the pulliups.  It also helps mentally to not be surprised by what’s coming.  Mental preparation is almost half the challenge of the workout.

I will let everyone know tomorrow how the review went!

Have a great night!  I am off to do P90X Plyometrics!  My favorite.

Four Reasons to be Fit Over Forty

“Yes, Dick, I get it.  You have been working out.  You are in the best shape of your life.  Good for YOU!”  And the next thought is, “Now leave me alone, I am fine the way I am.  There is no reason for me to care.”

Really?  I think there may be some things to consider.  Let me try because there are at least four good reasons to stay in shape over the age of Forty.

NOTE: if you are looking at the picture on the left...is this person truly 'old' or are they too big?  If this person were at a different fitness level...would they look younger?  Would they feel younger?

The first reason is:  The concept of ‘old’.

The mere “passage of time” does not make a person old.  If you saw a 1978 Pontiac TransAm (black with gold trim and a T-top of course…) that had only 3000 miles on it, it would most likely be in pristine condition.  Time does not make the car “old”.  If you had the choice between that car and a 1999 Toyota with 120,000 miles on it, you would probably take the TransAm (notwithstanding the idea that you might never be able to find parts for it).  It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.  An ‘in-shape’ fifty year old is no older than a thirty year old obese person, and he/she may in fact be ‘younger’…I found that out in Utah in the mountains.

‘Condition’ is what makes a person old.  It ages some before their time and gives others a lot more time.  Being fit over forty means you are in condition for the long haul.  

The second reason is:  Inactivity ‘ages’ the human body.

One of the key reasons that a body shows the symptoms of age is that our lives become sedate.  We stop moving around so much.  We are busy working and have families to monitor and parent.  So we sit at our desks, sit in the car (or train) to get home, eat a fast meal for dinner, plop ourselves into the car to drive the kids to their activities, and then sit there and watch them.  Then we go home to bed.

We sit.  We eat.  And sit.  And eat.

The symptoms of age in a human body are directly related to inactivity.  A human body regenerates most of its cells about every 6-7 months.  The body regenerates through metabolism.  As your metabolic rate slows, so does your body’s processes.  Your cells do not regenerate.  They hang around…literally.  Your skin begins to look older and wrinkled as it loses elasticity.  You retain less water.  You retain more fat.  All of your cells are getting older and staying with you for prolonged periods of time.  This leaves a nice nesting ground for illness and disease.

When you exercise regularly, your body rids itself of old cells and replaces them with newer and (if you are eating right) hopefully better cells.  New cells, and this makes sense to you, look younger than the old cells that you are metabolizing away.  Through proper conditioning, you can put the brakes on that physical perception of ‘old’ because you will be slowing all the ‘symptoms’ of what people think ‘old’ is.

The third reason is:  Inactivity increases the potential for illness…real illness.

Quality of Life.  We all have heard that phrase.  No one wants to think they will spend their last ten years in firmed or in a nursing home being cared for by others.  There are people who are there because they had an illness they couldn’t prevent, but there are many who just ‘let things go’.  As our cells stop regenerating, they become a breeding ground for illness.  They are great places for your body to store toxins that you pick up in everyday life from the food you eat to your environment.  Those toxins hang around those old cells and wreak havoc with the rest of your body’s functions.  Sometimes, those toxins become cancerous and they have to be removed or harshly treated.

A life of activity greatly increases the chances that you can bypass many illnesses that others suffer over the age of forty.  High blood pressure.  High cholesterol.  Type II diabetes.  Acid reflux.  Swelling of the limbs and joints.  Heart issues.  Knee and hip problems.  All of this can be directly correlated to a distinct pattern of inactivity.  You do NOT have to experience these things because ‘time has passed.’  That’s not how it works.  You don’t get these illnesses with the AARP card that you get at age fifty, they come to you because you have stopped moving.

The fourth and last reason is:  Being able to stay in the game.

Have you ever gone on a vacation or some kind of outing where some level of physical activity was required?  How many times do you see people over forty just look at it and say, “No, I think I will just stay here.”  Nothing ages you like simply feeling old.  And nothing makes you feel old like having to be left behind because you can’t keep up.  If you are ‘fit’ you can keep up.  Given the physical state of our nation, if you are ‘fit’ you can probably lead them, not simply ‘keep up.’

Life is a participation event.  You are either in or out.  When you opt for ‘out’ you have charted your own destiny.  We will live longer on average than any other humans before us.  We can either enjoy every minute with a high quality of life or we can painfully sit and watch others participate.

Is there anything worse than having to look at pictures of someone else’s vacation?

That’s what being ‘old’ really means.

Nothing will help you be ‘old’ more than NOT being physically fit.

Thanks for reading.  Have an awesome day.  Have a salad for lunch.  Go for a brisk walk or do a workout.   

You are here for the long haul.

MetaMorpheSys: Paying It Forward

First and foremost, I want to thank all of you who have followed my journey to this point.  You have sent me congratulations, encouraged me to keep going, and paid me many compliments.  You have truly been the fuel that I relied on to help push me over the tough obstacles.  Thanks very much from the bottom of my heart.

Along the way, many of you have made comments like, “I need to do something too,” or “I wish I could do what you did.”  Many of you also communicated to me that I had inspired you.

It is with this in mind that I have decided to try my hand at becoming an Independent Beachbody Coach.  I think it is time for me to truly try to help others achieve some of the results that I have seen. 

I particularly want to reach those in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.  We are going to live longer than any generation before us.  At forty, none of us should be looking in the mirror at a body that cannot take another 30-40 years.  We should be living to about seventy-five or eighty years old.  We all have ancestry that lived lives of working people.  My grandmother was brought up on a farm in Canada.  Physical work was done every day.  It is something she and her sister, my aunt, carried with them into their 90’s.  It’s what sustained them. 

We do not live that way anymore.  As a result, 65% of us are overweight.  30% are obese.  By 2030, the government is estimating that 11% of us will be “Severely Overweight.”  That new category is for those who will be 100 lbs or more overweight.  One Hundred Pounds.  There are super models that weigh one hundred pounds.  While I wouldn’t mind having one with me all the time, the thought of having to carry her around all day long makes me cringe.  That’s a joke but I think you get my point.

I believe we need to proactively set ourselves up to have the best physical machine possible so that we can ‘go the distance’ and enjoy all the years of our lives and have them be truly ‘quality years’.

I am going to put together my very first Challenge Group.  The idea of this group is to provide a place and time for a team of us to set some health and fitness goals and try, ourselves, to make the changes we want, know, or simply dream, of making.  It is also a way for you all to see the different Beachbody programs at work and hear first-hand from some people actually doing them.  Most of us will be doing them for the first time.  That’s important.  You really need to know how YOU would fare the first time out.

The Challenge Group will run from June 1^st to July 30^th.  Sixty days.  Your program doesn’t have to be that long.  In fact, I have chosen three programs that I can recommend.  Each of them varies in the total time commitment, the time you need each day and the degree of difficulty.  The program you are on is not nearly as important as making sure you do it as often as you can (hopefully as set out in the program), exert yourself as much as you can while doing it, and watch what you eat.

It is my goal to make this first Challenge Group a stepping stone to the same good exercise and nutrition that I have built over the last four years.  I also think it is a great place to introduce better eating habits and pick up some knowledge on exercise, nutrition and motivation.

The changes I have made in my life, and I have said this over and over, are not miraculous.  I am not special.  I am no different than you.  Everything that I have done can be replicated by you.

I am not asking you to try P90X or Insanity first.  For many that is a daunting task.  You don’t make the changes we need to make by running a marathon.

Every change starts with one step.  When I first started losing my weight four years ago, I walked.  Every day I put aside 40 minutes and walked as fast as my body would allow.  It didn’t allow much.  The goal was to exert myself and see some sweat.  At some point, I jogged from telephone pole to telephone pole.  Then I jogged the whole time.  Then I ran harder.  Later on, I started to do pushups and situps, to get back the muscled strength that had gone away with the dieting and running.  Then I took on P90X.

It is for this reason that I am proposing three ways to be in this group, in reverse order.

1) Insanity.  If you are in shape and want a real challenge, this one is for you.  It is difficult and lasts 60 days (6 days per week with one off-day).  This is the one I will be doing.  As your leader, I really should be setting the example.

2) Slim in 6.  This is a program for beginners that, in 6 weeks, will get you in peak shape.  It will also, if you eat right, have you looking much better by your 4^th of July outings.  It is 6 weeks and starts at 25 minutes per day.  By week 6, you are at about 45 minutes per day, but don’t worry, you will be ready for it.

3) Your own program.  Some of you are going to a gym and/or working with a trainer.  If it is working, stick with it.  Get in the Challenge Group, log your goals and progress, and see other’s in action.  You might even decide, after seeing how everyone is doing, that you want to push yourself to try P90X or Insanity.  You might even try some other products like the Ultimate Reset (a 21 Day Detox and Cleanse that will reset your body for optimal performance and weight-loss) or Shakeology (a patent-pending meal replacement drink that will enhance your ability to exercise and complement your weight loss goals in your existing workout).

This can be done in 60 days and, for many of you, the progress and changes you see will be the first steps to understanding how you can positively affect the way you live the rest of your life.

I hope many of you will join me.

You cheered me on.  Now it is time for me to see if I can do the same for you.  Let me pay it forward.

Sixty days is not long.  I have been maintaining my fitness and weight for four years.  My diet in 2008 lasted about four months.  P90X lasted 90 days.  Insanity is 60 days.  Routines are from 30 minutes to an hour.  One step at a time.

I hope you join the Group and let us cheer you on.  Thanks again.  For everything.

P90X: "Coaching: Engaging the Player" Day 91 of 90

In my experience, a Coach is only as good as his/her ability to share and teach the player.  In sharing and teaching anything, to anybody, you have to have the ability to ENGAGE.  Have you ever heard someone say about someone else, "They're just so engaging!"  Someone engaging actually makes you feel compelled to be in their circle.  Not to just listen to the engaging person, but to also participate.  That's what engaging means...it means that that person makes you feel like you are a part of driving something, not just a 'passenger on the bus.'

How do people who are 'engaging' accomplish this or become that way?

There are characteristics of these people that you either already possess or can work on building.

The first is that an engaging person projects themselves visually.  They are dramatic, sometimes 'over the top.'  They use a lot of body language to make the space they are in look bigger than life.  They fill a room when they enter it.  When they are expressing themselves they do it with a passion that is outwardly perceived.  Think about people you feel compelled to listen to...you will find they have this ability to translate visually.  Even when you talk to an engaging person over the phone, most times, you can feel that emotion.

The second thing an engaging person possesses is a 'hook.'  An engaging person, in your eyes, will have something you want...even if you don't realize at the time that you want it!  Be it a product, idea or emotion, the engaging person has it and you either want it or want more of it.  An engaging person may have a new way of thinking of an old concept.  It may be new facts or ideas.  It may be something that is completely old, but this person found a new way to wrap it so it feels new...and you want to see it again.  Maybe what they have will help you in business.  Maybe it will help you personally.  Maybe they are just really happy and 'up' right now and you want THAT.  If only because it will just make you feel better for a moment.  An engaging person has a 'hook' that draws others.

The third thing an engaging person has is 'room.'  They always have room for you...no matter how many of YOU there are.  They ask questions and listen.  They let you participate.  They let you nibble on the 'hook.'  With an engaging person, it's not a manipulation or sale.  They are sincere.  You can feel that they care deeply about their cause and how it will affect you.  They want to hear your story too.  Again...they LISTEN patiently and sincerely.  The relationship an engaging person forms is a dance, not a direction.

The last thing an engaging person has is a great sense of self-awareness.  They are humble enough to know that they don't know everything.  They also have a sense of humor.  They don't take themselves and everything so seriously that becoming involved with them is a life or death proposition.  They know that life is too short to not have fun doing what you love...but that everyone may not love the same things.  They have respect for you.

As a Coach...as a leader...these things will help you become a person who draws others in.  When you have people's willing attention, you are best positioned to be influential.

If you do not have these qualities, they are things you can learn, improve, and practice.

Many are not comfortable in front of people.  That hurts your ability to project and show passion.  A player can't see it if you can't show it.  There are many ways to get out of this shell.  Toastmasters is a great group that encourages you to get in front of the room.

Finding your 'hook' can be a challenge.  You need to really understand what it is you are trying to project and truly understand it's value or potential value to your audience.  Is it really something of value or something you WISH they valued?  Ask yourself that question and be honest.

Do you leave 'room' for your audience?  Always keep a list of no fewer than twenty engaging questions for the audience.  Some people are habitually good at this and do it reflexively.  If you are not a natural at this, get index cards, write the questions down and rehearse them until you know them by heart and can ask them with sincerity.  Listen acutely.  Don't just blink and nod.  Listen with real concern.  If the 'hook' is of real value, this should not be that hard, but it does take practice.

Remember to keep it loose.  Not everyone feels the same way about the 'hook.'  Let them take their time to get to it, don't just grab the damn fish and slap the hook in it's mouth.  Not nice.  Not engaging.  It's more like a trap.

Being able to 'engage' a player is vital to being a good or great coach.  If the player is not ready or willing to really take your guidance...your coaching may be only minimally effective if not simply ineffective.

Okay, time to work out!  I am putting in an extra two weeks of P90X.

Have a great weekend, GET UP, and JUST DO IT!

My resources this week for my Coaching blog were:

Mindset, by Carol Dweck Ph.D.

The Power of Persuasion, by Robert Levine

Influence Without Authority, by Allan Cohen and David Bradford

The Handbook of Coaching, by Frederick Hudson

Coach Anyone About Anything, by Germaine Porche and Jed Niederer (this one was sourced the most)