Sunday, April 26, 2009

Support channels for your fitness goals

Hello, So you tried to get all of your friends and family to workout with you or support you but it hasn’t worked out like you planned. Now what do you do?

1) Go to the website http://www.presidentschallenge.org/ and pick a challenge for you to complete. This site is really cool and you can even track your success. You can do these challenges all by yourself or you can even gather a group together to perform the challenge as a group effort.
2) Get a virtual Personal Training program. This is a program (usually 8 weeks) that a certified Personal Trainer creates for you. You and the Personal trainer communicate over email to track and support your goals together. Better yet hire a Personal Trainer that will assure you are never alone or lax in your fitness goals.
3) Send out a flyer to your neighbors and see if anyone is interested in creating a walking group for fitness.
4) If you belong to Weight Watchers or another weight loss group see what kind of eager members might love to have a workout partner. I am sure you will have lots of willing participants.
5) Team up with someone who will never say no to you for a good walk. Your dog.
6) Join a sport. Some gyms have racquetball courts, basketball, or even outside bicycling weekly events and almost all of them have single member signup sheets.
7) Join a group exercise class at your gym. If you have never participated in a group exercise class you will find that for the most part the group becomes very tight and supportive of each other.
8) There are a lot of websites that offer support specifically geared for motivation.

I have just touched upon a few ways to garner support your fitness goals when you feel all alone in your quest.

Next months theme will be (Making fitness a part of your daily living).

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Saturday, April 18, 2009

What happens when your fitness support dries up

What happens when your support dries up

Hello, for this week I wanted to talk about a real concern for some exercisers. What happens when your support stream dries up? What happens when the people you depend on for your fitness support goes away?

For many of us we find that we need the support of others to continue on our fitness quest. We like hearing their positive admiration as we progress to fit and fitter individuals. Maybe these same individuals also exercise with us or are our walking partner. What do we do when they “fail us”?

First and foremost as I have cautioned before (http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/04/support-for-your-fitness-goals.html) you should always be exercising for your OWN goals. Be your OWN support mechanism. Anything less then exercising for you puts the rate of failure higher.

Maybe you relied on Mary from accounting to walk with you during lunch – but now she cannot. Do you stop walking and getting fitter because of Mary? Of course not! Take some initiative and go to Human Resources and get their buy-in for a walking club at work. Maybe have the company sweeten the pot by giving the top walkers certain benefits (better parking spot, vacation time, free meal at the cafeteria, a plaque highlighting the top walkers, etc.). I have YET to find a company that would not buy-in to this. Now you are the HERO. And you will have lots of walkers to reach your goals.

Grab your IPOD and listen to some great music and walk alone.

But what happens if the partner you go to gym with fails you. Well, first do you really need a partner? If you do then go to some group classes and find that “someone”. Ask your spouse to try the gym with you. It will be quality time you both can share and you will BOTH be getting fitter for it. If the club has a Jacuzzi like my club – that only sweetens the pot for your spouse and you. Make the gym a special time for you both.

Start walking the dog at home if that is your only avenue. The point I hope I keep making is work the problem and find solutions. Never – ever give up your fitness goals.

I really could’ve written a volume on this topic but I kept it short. There are so many roadblocks that I hear from potential clients on this. In fact some clients of mine that have signed on for my Personal Trainer services do it because they want accountability and a partner during their workouts. They love the idea of someone looking out for them and pushing them to their limit.

Always remember that YOU started your fitness goals with YOU in mind. Never let someone else take that away from you!

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Tools to help you make exercise a part of your life.

Hello, this week I would talk about some tools to make your exercise and fitness goals easier.

1) One thing ALL successful dieters have utilized to make their weight loss efforts stick is to keep a food log. With the advent of the Internet this is easier than ever. Most sites allow you to just drag and drop your meals based on a food database. If you need help finding one reach out to me about what I feel are the best.
2) Even if weight loss is not your goal keeping a food log goes far in showing you exactly what you are eating and how balanced your nutrients are for a given day. Below is what each of you should strive for per day.
a) PROTEIN: 50 to 70 grams per day or 12% to 20% of total caloric intake.
b) CARBOHYDRATES: A minimum of 125 grams per day, optimally 350 to 400 grams or 555 to 65% of total caloric intake.
c) FATS: Approximately 30 to 65 grams per day or 25% to 30% of total caloric intake.
d) WATER: At least 1 ounce per pound of weight.
3) Get a jump rope – and us it daily! Why? Because it is still one of the best ways of getting an intense cardio and building lower body strength. If you do not have a jump rope you still can pretend and go through the motions as if you did have one to supercharge your cardio.
4) Buy a cheap pedometer to assure you are getting 10,000 steps a day. By taking 10,000 steps a day you will burn an additional 500 calories a day. See my post http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/03/walking-as-part-of-your-fitness-goals.html
5) Take a multi-vitamin daily. Very FEW of us ever get all the required nutrients we need daily. Buy the store brand multi (with minerals) – they work just as well as the pricier ones.
6) Write into your calendar/planner set times to exercise and OBEY the appointment you have with yourself. Research has shown that this little step goes far in your goals for obtaining a fit body.
7) Buy some Personal Trainer sessions (Believe me I am not trying to self-promote myself here). When you are accountable to another about your fitness goals research has shown you are more apt to go the distance to achieve your goals. I have some clients that only see me once a month to assure they are at their best. Others only buy ½ hour sessions with me weekly. The point is my clients realize that having a professional review and work with them really makes a BIG difference. Again, research shows that people who utilize a Personal Trainer are happier with their exercise experience and obtain results MUCH quicker then if they tried to go it alone.
8) Plan on two days away from the gym to achieve your goals. On these days walk your neighborhood. What this does is get you into the mindset that the gym is NOT the only place to get fit.
9) Keep an exercise diary. Map out your goals, what you did, how many sets/reps and pounds, and write how you felt before and afterward. Strive to better your results daily.
10) Make exercise a part of your favorite TV show. If you watch a 1-hour sitcom plan on either stretching or doing easy exercises while you watch it. I use this technique with all my clients and they are amazed how good they feel about themselves when then do this.
11) Fit exercise into everything you do.
a) Park farther away from your destination.
b) Bike more.
c) Take the stairs more.
d) During your lunch break grab a willing partner and walk.
e) Do some sort of stretch every 45 minutes while at work. See my post for some simple all body stretches. http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/02/basic-stretches-to-keep-you-relaxed.html

12) And lastly – love your body. It is the only one you will ever have – make it ready for the challenges that life demands.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Why so quiet out there in cyber land

Hello, I have over 50+ members (and it grows by about 5 new members a month) to this BLOG but so many of you are SO silent and never comment etc.

So to sweeten to the pot I will be offering an 8 week virtual trainer session to the subscriber that comments the most for the month of April.

The subscriber that comments the most in this month will be offered a full Personal Trainer program that will show them the results they want.

The winner will be offered email support for the duration of their program. This is a $350.00 value.

I look forward to awarding this to a lucky subscriber to my BLOG.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Support for your fitness goals

Hello, Some of the toughest barriers you may encounter when you are working towards your fitness goals is lack of support from those around you. Below I will talk about some obstacles you may encounter and offer some steps and hints that hopefully will get the needed support you want. I have picked some of the most common arguments I get from my Personal Training business to show you how I answer to them.

Dilemma: Your spouse thinks you are trying to get fit to leave them or test the waters (You would not believe how many times I hear this one).
Response: You should reassure your spouse that rather then testing the waters you are assuring that you will be around for a long time and that you care about them enough to make a change to make that possible. That you are making yourself into a healthy person that can keep up with them (even if you feel they are of shape) to have the best possible life. Try to get them to do a few workout moves with you like partner push ups, medicine ball twists, etc. Your goal here is to make them feel good about your efforts while drawing them in to the benefits. With the right coaxing you will snag them into your fitness web. I caution you to not give the answer that you are doing this for them. Don't ever ever forget that you are doing this for YOU!

Dilemma: Your friends and everyone around you think you are perfect just the way you are.
Response: Tell everyone that you truly appreciate that but you are not changing the old you. Your personality will still be the same - except now your body will be able to do more. You may look better but that is just an added benefit of why you are doing this.

Dilemma: Your friends miss the old you. They miss a night of ice cream and sorrow stories with you.
Response: Let them know that they still can have those days with you but you might just eat frozen yogurt instead. Your mind and compassion hasn't changed just your fitness level. Let your friends know how great exercise has been to your well being. Offer to exercise with them and THEN grab that ice cream. Better yet - go for a long walk with that ice cream cone around your neighborhood with them in tow.

Dilemma: Your spouse is suspicious of your gym time.
Response: Invite your spouse to join you. Even if exercise isn't their thing. All gyms offer some sort of free pass to potential members. Show them your workout - your dedication - and show them how great you feel afterwards. Tell them how great you would feel if you could workout with them and them alone. Make them feel special and wanted. For example one of the gyms I work at offers boxing instruction. Not cardio boxing but true boxing instruction. Other gyms offer martial arts training. Maybe this is the hook you need to get your spouse wanting to go with you to the gym. Most gyms have pools as well. Sweeten the experience with your spouse by telling them you both can relax in the jacuzzi after working out. Make it your own private time together.

Dilemma: Your friends tell you that the effort you are putting into your fitness goals is not working and it is a waste of time.
Response: Accept their judgement. And prove them wrong with every clothes size you go down. Never be in their face - let the results talk for you. Before long I can guarantee you (based on past experience) that they will be coming to you for help with their fitness goals.

Dilemma: Your friends and/or spouse tells you that they miss the old you.
Response: Reassure them that you still have the same personality and mind. All they miss is the unhealthy you.

Dilemma: You miss being one of the crowd.
Response: Do not give up. The more fit you get the more opportunities you have to cheat once in a while. Do not be one of the crowd anymore be the leader.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT