Breaking your New Year’s resolutions is easy – sticking to them requires a lot of discipline and hope. However, before you even can test your resolve, you have to decide to not quit. Before you set another resolution this year, you have to answer one question – “Why do I break them year after year?” If you answer this question honestly, you will find the reasons to be so silly that you will probably laugh or cry. You will laugh because the thoughts are so stupid and trivial, and you may cry because you realize how much time you’ve wasted over the years. Either way, you’ll have a better chance of sticking with your plan, now that you know why you sabotage your dreams every year.

Click here to learn more about why you break your New Year’s resolutions now!

I know people who set New Year’s resolutions because they want to belong to a group or just to say they’re striving toward a goal. Is that crazy or what? Here’s the deal: if you set a New Year’s resolution just because your friend did or to belong to a gym or group of some sort, your misguided motivations will doom you from the start. You have to have heartfelt intentions when setting goals for your fitness.

Heartfelt intentions are just that – they come from the heart, not the head. You have to set a goal for yourself, not for the acceptance from others. That’s really the bottom line: don’t set resolutions for someone else’s perceptions or to be accepted. The truth: until you do it for YOU, the uphill battle will get even steeper.

Fitness Tip:   Set a New Year’s resolution for you, not just because it’s trendy!

Click here to learn more about how to really keep New Year’s resolutions, not break them.

The holiday season can be an enjoyable time of the year, with friends and family gatherings. My favorite part of them all is the eggnog. While it’s as fattening as it gets, a cold or warm dose of eggnog takes the family dysfunctions right away.

After all of the parties, after the wrapping paper is tossed and the Christmas tree is on the curb, the house seems so empty, so cold and dark; it’s almost depressing. I need something to pick me back up.

Have you ever had the post-party blues after the holidays? Have you ever searched for something around the start of the new year to give you a lift? How about setting a New Year’s resolution? Sure, that would get me out of this funk!

There’s nothing wrong with setting a New Year’s goal, but when you do it to lift yourself out of a funk, it really doesn’t work for too long.  

Here’s my point: setting resolutions for superficial reasons will only set you up for failure. Before you even set one resolution this year, write down a few good reasons to set a New Year’s resolution in the first place.

Click here to find out more about how to get over the post-holiday blues!

It just seems like this is the time of year we habitually start thinking of what we’re going to do after the holidays. Why? Why do you think about it at all? Why do you try to set any New Year’s resolutions in the first place? When you think about it, there are plenty of reasons why we do.

In my book, “Why Wait?,” I outline many reasons why we set New Year’s resolutions. Setting resolutions becomes a part of our lives at the end of each year, whether we like them or not. We may not like striving for them, but it sure seems as though we love to set them, then breaking them.

This year, before you even set one resolution, ask yourself, “Why do I set New Year’s resolutions?” By knowing why we want to set resolutions, we then can work on figuring out why we tend to BREAK them in the end.

Learn more about how to reach your fitness goals in 2010 — click here now!

We are very excited to be launching a new weight-loss and fitness website on December 15. The new site at www.resolutions.bz will include; access to personal training services online and in person. In addition, you will be able to purchase all of our weight loss and fitness books either in hardcopy form or by immediate download in PDF form.

Resolutions.bz will also offer a FREE monthly fitness newsletter by subscription only and daily fitness blogs specifically on weight loss, training and disease prevention. Check out the blogs now at www.resolutionsblog.com and www.resofit.com

My aunt had gastric bypass surgery last year. She was so excited about the new body she was going to have after the surgery. She just couldn’t wait for her new life to begin. This was an answer to her prayers. So she thought!

Up until then, my aunt had not exercised a day in her life. She never followed a sensible eating plan, nor did she want to. By the looks of them, none of my family had ever sacrificed anything in the way of food. The doctors had filled her head with “results” that were only possible, not even probable. Her children were totally delusional about their mom’s weight and had danced around the issue so much that my aunt was in total denial. And guess what? True to form, she gained the weight back in eight months. Why?

The answer: you can’t build a house on a foundation made of sand. If you don’t deal with what is underneath the surface of your emotional behavior toward eating and exercise, you will go right back to the beginning, no matter what you take out or do to your body. Surgery or no surgery, there is no cure-all for being overweight. However, there is a solution — do you want to hear it? Here it is:

1. Decide how you are motivated.
2. Determine your underlying reasons for your eating and exercise behaviors or lack thereof.
3. Develop the best support system to promote your own personal success.
4. Deal with the emotions behind your eating patterns.
5. Dedicate yourself to an exercise program.

Maybe the surgery works in the short run. And maybe that will buy you some time and give you some inspiration to start exercising and eating better. However, surgery is not a means to an end! It doesn’t change your head; it only changes your stomach. If you do decide to have the surgery, please understand that without deep changes in your thought process and exercise habits, the gastric bypass surgery “results” will not stick.

Click here to learn more about the proper diet and exercise advice to lose weight and keep it off.

Bodybuilders are feelers, not lifters. Weight lifters are all about poundage, and that’s it. During competitions, bodybuilders aren’t judged on how much weight they lift, like a weight lifter, but on the visual end results. Neither training technique is wrong, just…different. Can a bodybuilder become a competitive weight lifter? Sure. Can a lifter become a feeler? Sure.

When I first started my bodybuilding career, I would go to the gym and do all my exercises with my eyes closed. This method forced me to feel the weight in my hands versus just lifting it. Feeling the movement and the amount of resistance forced me to have better form and, in the end, better-quality results. I just didn’t go into the gym and see how much I could lift — I lifted at certain weights with the proper form to achieve a target body shape.

Hey, if your thing is power lifting, then have at it. If it’s bodybuilding, then enjoy that, too. The key is to understand that each style of weight training is designed for one of two different training types — feelers or lifters — each with valuable but very different goals.

I discuss training for bodybuilders in more depth on my website — check out Advanced Bodybuilding Training Programs to learn more!

Time Limits for Workouts:
Maybe the smartest thing I’ve ever done is to set limits on the my time spent in the gym. Regardless of the circumstance, if the allotted time was up and my workout wasn’t finished, I just stopped and walked out. You bet your boots that never happened twice in a row — my training was too important to me.

Pre-Plan the Exercises:
Before you walk into the gym, go over in your mind (or even write down) the exercises that you’re going to do. You would be surprised how much time you waste thinking too much about what to do next.

Work the Room:
In social networking circles, they tell you to “work the room.” The gym is no different. Plan your workout to take advantage of where the gym equipment is located. This will take some extra time and creativity, so if you’re a person who’s afraid to get out of your little routine, then second place is good enough for you, right? Hopefully not. Sometimes, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone to make any real progress.

Ready to do some seriously heavy lifting? Read all about Advanced Bodybuilding Weight Training now!

Studies at Indiana and George Mason Universities suggest that drinking low-fat chocolate milk after exercise is just as effective in helping tired muscles recover as a high-carbohydrate sports drink. Eight ounces of low-fat chocolate milk contain 170 calories, 29 grams of carbohydrates, and 8 grams of protein, a 3.6-1 carb-to-protein ratio (ideal).

My mother would be so proud of me now! I’m sure the dairy industry loves this news, too. So, what’s the point? Here’s the theory: there’s a good balance of proteins and carbs in a glass of chocolate milk and that combination works fast in rebuilding or aiding in the recovery of muscle tissue after workouts. I’m all for that, too.

I get so tired of having a Gatorade, Powerade or protein bar after my workouts, so now I’ve GOT MILK!

There’s more information about nutrition for workouts on my website – check it out to learn more today!

So what is the solution to your poor eating habits? Emotional management! What is “emotional management?” Here is my take on it:

Each day, you have only so much energy, both physically and emotionally. Life will throw things at you from hundreds of directions in unexpected and unwanted times.

If you don’t take care of yourself physically and protect yourself emotionally, your energy will be drained long before your day is over. You have to be mindful of your daily demands and put a lot of thought into how to spend most of your emotional capital.

When your energy cup is being constantly drained by the demands of life and other people, you probably won’t make good choices. This is especially true with food. I believe the biggest reason that people are overweight is the mismanagement of their emotions.

The way to address this is to slow the mind down somehow, some way. Your success in life may be determined not by how much you can physically accomplish, but by how you work to quiet your mind in order to make better decisions.

Busy minds

Busy minds can induce stress. High stress levels encourage eating foods that are tasteful, but incredibly unhealthy.

Busy minds can produce lazy thinkers. Lazy thinkers are people who choose to go out of their way to get something to eat for taste instead of taking the time to think of what foods would be tasty and healthy. You make better choices when faced with fewer pressures in life. However, if your mind is always on overload, poor choices abound out of desperation, frustration and lack of preparation.

Quiet times

What is quiet time? In today’s world, you may find a only a minute or two to take a breath and relax a little.  Does that really help, though?

When is the last time you turned off the radio in your car on the way to work? When is the last time you turned off your cell phone in the middle of the day? When is the last time you had a cup of coffee from your very own coffee machine?

Quiet time means quiet time! If you gave yourself as little as 15 minutes a day for peace and quiet, a lot of your eating behaviors and food choices would be much easier to handle. They might even disappear. Try it!

Understand that I’m not talking about just being by yourself; I’m talking about allowing your mind to rest. Let it take a vacation for 10 minutes. Daydream about something. Read a book. Think of things other than tasks that have to be finished. Resting your mind can recharge your batteries, giving you the energy to make better decisions.

Want to learn more? Check out the Five P’s of Eating and Losing Weight today!