Blog Archives
Failure Might Just Make You Mad Enough to Succeed
How do you handle failure? Do you fall apart? Do you quit? Or, do you get so mad you do something to change it – to change you?
I CAN Get Better
I can’t change my circumstance, but I sure as heck can change me. I CAN become better. I CAN learn from each and every mistake. I CAN continue pressing on no matter how much I’ve failed, no matter how others view me, and no matter what odds are against me.
I CAN Get One Step Closer
Will I become everything I want I hoped to? Will I achieve every goal or dream? I don’t know but, if I try, I can definitely become BETTER. I can get closer to my goals and dreams if I keep pressing on. But if I quit, I don’t just stay the same – I actually become worse, weaker, and further from my goal every single day I neglect to chase it.
I CAN Let Failure Fuel Me
One thing I know is I will use every ill word, every lame opinion, every frustrating obstacle and every negative comment to FUEL ME to become stronger and better. I will not let it destroy me, or my spirit.
I CAN Face Our Fears
I will not let my own doubt, insecurities, failures or fears paralyze me. I will face my fears head on and trust that God will give me the strength to handle everything that comes my way so that I can become everything He has designed me to be.
I CAN Press On
Today I decide, once again, to “keep showing up”.
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Finish What You Started
Joyce Meyer once defined excellence as “Excellence is not extravagance. Excellence is simply being the best you can be with what you have”.
How often do we compare ourselves to others? How often do we define excellence as ‘best’ or by how much talent someone was born with? If you are honest, I bet it’s way too often. If excellence is being our best, then that means finishing what we started, no matter how we compare with others.
Just think how much greater we would be if we finished everything we started. Yet, we are often tempted to compare ourselves to others to the point it can make us quit – or worse, it can make us not even start.
Today let’s redefine what a winner is. It’s not 1st place. It’s YOUR 100%. YOUR best. It’s YOU finishing what you started. THAT’s what makes a champion. THAT’s what makes a winner. Vow today to finish what you have started. And no matter how hard it gets or how long it takes, never, NEVER give up!
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When Our Will Makes the Way
Yesterday I talked about willpower, today I want to just talk about the will.
We’ve already determined that will means “to choose”, however, I still feel people initially think it means desire, or an inner strength, that we don’t have control of.
The first time I really thought about the word “will” was in my mom’s kitchen 18 years ago, when my mom was talking to me about marriage. As I was approaching our wedding date, mom explained to me that all the lovey-dovey feelings Steve and I currently had would eventually change. Not that our love would go away, but it would be different. She said “Love is not a feeling, it’s a choice. At some point in your marriage, you won’t ‘feel’ like loving Steve, but you will have to choose to continue to love Steve.”
This, coming from a woman who has been married to her high school sweet heart for over 40 years now, was information I needed to know. WHAT? You mean, you had times in your life where you didn’t love dad? Yup! There were times where she chose to love him even when she didn’t “feel” like it. Of course, when you do this, eventually your feelings change, and catch back up again, but these are the times many marriages give up.
Well, fast forward 18 years and I can say – She was right. Yes, you heard it mom! You were right. 
Steve and I have had those times and we knew in our heart we had to make the RIGHT decision no matter how we felt in the moment, and boy does it pay off – and the same goes for fitness.
We are faced with decisions everyday of things we don’t want to do, but things we SHOULD do. Like a marriage, we must make the RIGHT decisions, not the one that is easiest, or feels the best in the moment. Making the right choice will always pay off in the end.
Instead of saying “when there’s a will, there’s a way” we should say “our will makes the way” because making the right choices paves the way to success.
Don’t take the easy way out. It’s only temporary relief that prevents a long-term reward.
If this hit home for you, then read Steve’s blog today for more motivation and encouragement to do what is right for your body, right for your life.
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Big Fit Mistake: Over-Thinking & Under-Doing
Sometimes, while on your fitness journey, it’s easy to get discouraged. You begin to feel like your goal is too far away – and it’s tempting to give up or give in. Our mind goes crazy and we begin to over-think everything. Before long, we’ve spent more time thinking about fitness than doing anything about it. After spending so much time on thinking of what you could be doing differently, you can get completely discouraged. This is when I have to stop and remind myself I don’t have to “feel” like working out. I don’t have to be the fastest or the strongest. I don’t have to look the most fit or prove anything to anyone. All I really need to do is just show up.
No matter how sloppy your Burpees look, no matter how ugly your run feels, no matter what ridiculous face you make when you grunt the weight up and no matter how much you complain - none of it matters. The only thing that matters is that you Just Do It (thank you Nike).
Every champion has days they feel like a loser. Every olympic athlete has a day they don’t want to practice. Every weight loss success story is riddled with days of doubt and frustration. What makes each of them a success story is they keep going – whether they feel like it or not.
When you feel discouraged, just remember, fitness isn’t as complicated as you may think. You workout can be as simple as some pushups, sit ups, jumping jacks and squats. The only thing fitness requires, is that you show up – and you keep showing up day after day. If you show up, results will show up!
TEN FOUR WORKOUT
Here is a simple workout from our BCx Boot Camp program at FitStudio. You can do at home or the gym and it requires no equipment. 4 exercises, 10 rounds. Time yourself each time to increase intensity. Grab a towel and follow Steve through this awesomely intense and effective workout. Click HERE to try all the BCx workouts or join the program.
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Feeling are WEAK, yet YOU are STRONG!
We can’t allow our feelings, in the moment, affect the moments to come. We have to base our decision on what we know – and trust me, we all KNOW what we NEED to do today.
When is the last time you skipped a workout or ate something you shouldn’t have and thought “I’m so glad I did that”? I don’t know about you, but that’s NEVER happened to me. My poor decisions in the moment only left me with a bunch of yucky regret.
Quit Talking Yourself Out of It
If you give yourself enough time, you can easily talk yourself into, or out of, doing just about anything. We all have the unique ability to justify our actions. HOWEVER, no matter how good we are at convincing ourselves of doing anything other than taking the steps required to reach our goal, we have to live with the consequences – and they are never as “OK” as we try to make them seem.
Each time we skip a workout or cheat on our diet, we are single-handedly sabotaging our progress – and not just for a 1-hour workout or one day of clean eating. Normally, when we goof, it’s bigger than that and can even take up to a week to correct.
Make Yourself Proud
Don’t allow your body to tell it what IT wants to do. You tell it what YOU want it to do, to BECOME what YOU want to BECOME – so no matter how you feel today, you’ll be PROUD tomorrow.
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NEVER FORGET: Retrain Your Fitness Brain
If you’ve read my blog for a while, it’s probably not the first time you’ve heard me say “you reap what you sow”. This could not be any more evident than with fitness. It’s just a simple fact: You train hard, you will look like you train hard. If you neglect your body, you will look like you neglect your body.
Every time I crack down on my diet and train hard, I’m always amazed at how fast the body responds when you give fitness your 100%. Really? Am I really that surprised every single time this happens? Yup! I’m in the industry and somehow I forget the thrill of seeing your hard work and dedication really pay off – and I forget just how WORTH IT it is!.
Never Forget
It’s like I come up with a case of fitness retardation. Somehow, when I am in the middle of fat and lazy land, I forget what it feels to be at my ideal weight – and it takes me a while to “get it” again (yes, I’m slow). Note the word “ideal”. My ideal weight is just that magic weight where I personally feel my best. This may not be a number for you. Truth is, I don’t even know what my ideal weight is – I just know it when I find it.
For me, it’s that feeling of putting on jeans and not having fat roll over the sides. It’s being able to put on a fitted shirt and be comfortable in it without feeling like I have to suck in my gut the entire time to avoid popping a button (see hilarious video clip below!). It’s just the place I feel my absolute best – yet, when I’m diving in a bowl of chips and salsa, that feeling gets trumped by the taste of cilantro on my tongue. If only we could never forget.
Retrain Your Mind
If we can retrain our mind to think of the reality when we taste food or think of the reward when we are in the middle of a hard workout, we’d respond differently. Eventually our first thought when we face a high calorie food would not be how it tastes, but how it makes us feel – and I don’t know ANY high-calorie food that after I’ve eaten I thought “I am SO glad I ate that, I feel SO good!” And all those times we’re tempted to skip our workouts, if we could just remember how GREAT they make us feel in that very lazy pity-party moment, we’d RUN to the gym!
Reality
You truly do reap what you sow. We may not turn into a french fry after going to McDonalds, but I can guarantee you won’t feel, or look, as good as when you eat quality food and do quality work.
“Being fit feels better than food tastes”
Crap in = Crap out
Quality in = Quality out
It’s just that simple and it’s worth it!
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Are You Taking Baby Steps Toward Your Goal?
When it comes to fitness, most of us do not have any patience for slow results. With that said, how come so many people choose to take baby steps to get to their goal? Don’t you want to sprint and LEAP your way to success?
Watching a person on a slow path to fitness success is as painful as waiting for Tim Conway’s old -man character to shuffle, inch by inch, across the Carol Burnette’s stage back in the day. Of course, we all got a kick out of watching everyone suffer through his slow-mo pace but there is nothing funny about watching someone shuffle through their weight loss or fitness journey – when I know good and well they can reach their goal a lot faster if they took bigger steps.
Listen, if you have talked yourself into taking the slow and easy path, think again. Although your plan has to be one you can live with, you also have to live with the pace in which you get results. If that pace is too slow for your personality type, you are likely to give up. Maybe, just MAYBE, you need to SUCK IT UP and RAMP THINGS UP so you get to your goal faster.
Honestly, what do you really have to lose? So what – you skip a few party favors, you back off on the burgers, you add a few more 30-minute cardios, you quit eating such big portions, you lay off the booze for a while. REALLY? Is it THAT hard? People do it every single day, so why not you too?
Ask yourself this: Is food really more important than how you look and feel? Is laziness what you want to define you? Don’t let lame excuses and lack of faith in what you can accomplish get in the way from taking that leap of faith in what fitness can do for you.
There is someone JUST like you, with all YOUR excuses, with all YOUR struggles, with YOUR workload, with YOUR past and with YOUR same resources (or lack of) reaching their goal quickly – all because they are taking LEAPS and BOUNDS, not baby steps.
Try one of our FREE programs & LEAP your way to success:
BCx Express™ (30-minute fat-melting body-toning workout)
BCx Boot Camp™ (1-hour body transformation workout)
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Success isn’t WINNING. Success is IMPROVING!
I may not be the STONGEST
but I will get STRONGER.
I may not be the FASTEST
but I will get FASTER.
I may not have the BEST BODY
but I will get a BETTER BODY.
Success is not about WINNING, it’s about DOING!
Don’t let your pride stand in the way of making improvements. We can all get frustrated at our weaknesses, but we need to get excited about our progress. Quit focusing on what you aren’t and focus on what you are becoming. I may never be a champion, but I sure can train like one – and so can you.
Do YOUR 100% and never, EVER give up! That’s all that matters: You becoming a better you!
TAKE YOUR TRAINING UP A NOTCH: Try BCx Boot Camp online at www.FitStudio.com
BCx Express 30-Minute Workout (4-week program)
BCx Boot Camp - Intense 1-Hour Workout (4-week program)
RAW Workout – Extreme Kettlebell workout dedicated to GNC’s Beyond RAW product line.
Butt & Legs Workout for Women (one sample workout)
Fat-blasting Blitz at FitStudio
Absolute 6-pack at FitStudio
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Discipline Your Body: It’s Test Time!
”I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” 1 Cor. 9:27
Of course I love it when scripture refers to athletes, but the reason I love this one so much is it reminds me doing what we SHOULD do takes WORK. How much work? Well, one version says “I beat my body and make it my slave”. Another says, “I keep it under control”. Basically, the author (Paul), is using some harsh words to get his point across and to describe just how hard it is to control your body.
Of course Paul is talking about the spiritual things in life, but there is nothing our body wants to do on its own that is good or right – not even stay healthy because that takes work too. It’s like our body and spirit are two different people, joined together, both trying to worship two different Gods. My spirit wants to worship the God Almighty and live to His high standards, but my body wants to worship Satan, the deceiver that says his way is more fun.
My body wants to be lazy – to eat, sleep, and want for everything, but not work for anything. No matter how I grow in my spirit, my body’s desires will never change. The only thing that changes is how good I get at keeping it under my control.
This is why I believe self-examination is always in order. How do you know if you are improving in school? You take a test. How do you know you are improving in your spiritual walk? Your faith is tested. And how do you know if you are improving in fitness? You guessed it – you take tests.
Maybe you’ve been floating around gym too long, doing the same old routine over and over. Maybe you treat going to the gym like going to church on Sundays – just a time to clock in and clock out because that’s the “right thing to do”.
You say you’re faster, but how much faster? You say you’re stronger, but how much stronger? Maybe it’s time to test your fitness routine and see if it is actually working.
3 ways to test your fitness:
1. You should perform better
2. You should be improving your body composition (weight & body fat vs muscle)
3. Your doctor should report health improvements
Quitting is not just stopping – Quitting also happens when you quit trying to improve. There is no room for complacency in life. There is ALWAYS room for improvement – and as soon as you forget that, you’ve quit on yourself. You have the potential to do greater things – whether you do them is up to your effort to always work on improving – both spiritually and physically.
BCx Performance Test:
Test your body regularly to make sure you are always improving. Whether you have never worked out a day in your life or you workout all the time, these exercises will strengthen you, challenge you and help you to track improvements. Even if you are 80 years old, you still have to SQUAT down to get something, PUSH UP off the floor, PULL UP after a fall, SIT UP out of bed and RUN to avoid something (or someone ha!). These activities will help you until the day you die, so if they are already things you do, why not make sure you can do them well – and better and better?
Do the following exercises as many times as you can in 60 seconds and record the time:
1. Air Squats
2. Push Ups
3. Pull Ups (girls do assisted pull ups)
4. Burpees
5. Sit Ups
6. 1/4 mile run (do this for time)
Do this regularly, including it in your weekly workout routine for the best results.
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FIT TIP: The Secret Behind the Impossible
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” St. Francis of Assis.
You surely can’t do the impossible, if you aren’t even doing what is possible now. Maybe you aren’t doing what’s possible because you are too busy attempting the impossible. This can be anything from trying to maintain a crazy workout schedule that would take an act of God to keep, or it could be your poor attempt to buy all that healthy food that is rotting in your refrigerator because you haven’t had time to cook it. Before you can do what’s possible, you need to know what you realistically can pull off right now.
Bridge the Gap
I believe people often set their sites too high. It may not be too high for someone else, but it could be too high for you – at this exact time in your life. If this is the case, what do you do when you can’t reach something? You bring a ladder out – and the same goes for your goals.
You must have something in place to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, no matter how impossible it may seem. How steep the climb depends on how close you are to the goal. Another words, if you are far away from your destination, it will be a mild climb and may take a while. If you are wanting to reach your goal quicker, the climb will be more challenging. But remember, BOTH ways will get you to your goal. You just have to decide on what you can handle – both mentally and physically.
If you are impatient, you may require a steep hard climb so you can reach your goal quickly. Someone who is not ready for that big of a challenge may need to take the slower route. Unfortunately, many people feel like they are so far away from their goal, over time, they forget they are still actually moving in the right direction at all. Others never even really set a goal and find themselves climbing the wrong ladder altogether. Listen, in order to reach the right destination, you MUST know where you are heading and PURPOSEFULLY go there – every. single. day.
Don’t Look Down
You’ve heard the saying “no matter what you do, Don’t Look Down!” That saying is SO true with fitness. As soon as we look down, we get shaky. Looking down can refer to looking back, longing for some of the things we “enjoyed” that we may have left behind. Looking down can also refer to negative thoughts, allowing ourselves to get mentally down. No matter what the distraction is, as soon as we take our eyes off the goal, we set ourselves up for getting off course or doubting where we are and where we are heading.
Are You Willing to Climb?
- You CAN lose 50lbs IF you are willing to do the work consistently for 6 months.
- You CAN compete in a figure competition IF you train and diet hard for 90 days straight.
- You CAN build muscle IF you are willing to lift strong and get the protein you need for growth.
- You CAN lose that 10lbs IF you are willing to eat out less and cut back on the alcohol.
- You CAN have less back pain IF you are willing to stretch and strengthen tight muscles.
- You CAN have more energy IF you are willing to do more cardio and lose a few pounds.
- You CAN control your weight IF you start managing calories.
- You CAN completely change your life IF you are willing to invest in making the changes your body needs.
Everyone Begins at the Start Line
Remember, everyone who has reached their goal was once just like you. Sure, running a marathon may seem absolutely crazy right now. Losing 50lbs may feel like it’s too far out of reach from where you are now. Or, maybe living without back pain would almost seem more like a miracle from how you feel now. This is where the impossible becomes possible – by doing what is possible for you at this very moment, each and every day, until you get the results you want.
