This article series and video companion is designed to help you get radical results with your body transformation. It is from knowledge and experience collected from hundreds of clients. For more information on how to succeed you can contact Omar at omar_isuf@hotmail.com.

This week will be a short but sweet theme: fun! If you are trying to pursue a fat loss goal and you’re not having a good time- stop! Fat loss should not be a chore, it should be a nonstop adrenaline rush. Life is too short to be spent doing what you don’t want to do. Ever wonder why you fall out of your fitness routine? Is it always a willpower issue? Or can it actually be a boredom issue (like watching figure skating…in slow motion…while listening to Clay Aiken…wait thats not boredom thats the definition of insanity!).

Select activities that are fun and will keep you engaged. Play a sport with friends vs being on the treadmill watching Oprah, join my boot camp vs doing a Jillian Michaels DVD work out at home (ya know… the one thats collecting dust!). Prevent boredom by changing up your work out and not doing the same thing. If your work out partner sucks, get rid of them. If your trainer sucks, fire them! Seriously, fat loss should be challenging but never boring. We’re after excitement!

Now who’s ready to do my boot camp?

This article series and video companion is designed to help you get radical results with your body transformation. It is from knowledge and experience collected from hundreds of clients. For more information on how to succeed you can contact Omar at omar_isuf@hotmail.com.

Most people don’t pursue their fitness goal; they chase it. From jumping onto the latest fitness crazes to falling off the bandwagon, the average gym goer has no idea what they are doing. Its easy to understand why; from the mass of confusion thats out there in the media (do I go with the low-carb, no fat, or don’t eat diet?), to the amount of misinformation spread by “fitness professionals” (I use that term very loosely), the average person just doesn’t know who to listen to. What happens then is you either combine everything into a messy quagmire of confusion (interpretive salsa cardio kick boxing!) or cling onto one of the many tight factions of people who convince themselves that one method of choice works the best (enter the cardio bunnies, pilates chicks, yoga moms, former high school jocks).

Success Tip: Know what to focus on and what is just a big waste of time

Stuck with no real solution, the usual outcome of a once highly motivated person is plateau of their progress. Instead of listening to the noise we should zone out the confusion and focus on what is important, not what is interesting. Don’t ask if drinking cold water assists with weight loss when you haven’t performed five hours of physical activity! You can drink all the cold water you want but unless you get that butt off the couch, Ben and Jerry’s will still be your best friend.

Success Tip: Do the most important things first

What Should You Focus on?
Three Pillars to a Lasting Transformation
1. Perform at least 5 hours of physical activity a week, with 3 of those involving strength training and the rest a mixture of strength, circuits and high intensity cardio

2. Eat small meals spread throughout the day loaded with clean protein and vegetables (don’t count calories, go by quality of ingredients such as one skinless chicken breast instead of breaded chicken fingers!)

3. De-stress your body: get at least eight hours of sleep on average a night, go for relaxing walks, foam roll, stretch, perform NEPA (non-exercise physical activity) and just enjoy life!

You need to focus on what is important. By doing so you also develop a strong sense of commitment to what you are trying to achieve because you have faith it will work. Believing in the program is just as important as doing that actual program. When doubt starts to creep in thats when people stop trying and end up quitting.

Success Tip: Don’t doubt! Believe the program will work and it will!

This is why one of the most common mistakes you can make is weighing yourself every morning. It goes against the concept of focus and faith as you are in doubt about your progress. Its the same reason why most people don’t stick to a routine long enough to see any progress. I see too often people initiate a fat loss transformation and stop one or two weeks in because they “haven’t seen any progress”. Fat loss is an emotional issue, we want that extra flab gone yesterday. But the fat loss is a long term process. It takes awhile before your exercise is intense enough to effectively burn fat.

The combination of immediately wanting results and not focusing on whats important (such as doing cardio instead of weights) equals frustration. We doubt. A lot. The minute we have an unsuccessful weigh-in we question the whole program. We need to have faith that what we are doing is right and effective. We need to be rational. There is too much noise out there. In one magazine you can read how low-carb diets are the “solution to your bulging butt” while on TV you’ll hear that low-carb diets are outdated and its all about what they do over at South Beach.
Here is the right answer: 90% of all diet routines are the same, people quibble on the small details.

Instead have clarity of thought. Eliminate all the needless distractions and figure out whats most important, whats holding you back the most, and do them! You’ll be surprised by the results.

Success Tip: Ask yourself constantly if you are doing whats most important or just wasting time?

This article series and video companion is designed to help you get radical results with your body transformation. It is from knowledge and experience collected from hundreds of clients. For more information on how to succeed you can contact Omar at omar_isuf@hotmail.com.

I can hear the confusion now, “but I thought you said to go intense!”. Yes I did, but in order to maximize your gains in the gym you must recover just as hard. Our pillar of a successful transformation is threefold: exercise, nutrition, and recovery. If you remove one, the whole stack falls down (or you become a work-out zombie- dead to the living!). Let me illustrate my point.

The Dark Side
Yes I’ve seen it happen. Heck I’ve had it happen. You don’t feel like working out. Your performance in the gym sucks. You go through the motions but can’t give a 100%. You can’t go to sleep (or worse you dream of dancing Twinkies with black bow ties). You my friend, could be suffering from Adrenal fatigue.

Signs Include:
-Burn out, fatigue, depression, irritability, reduce gym performance, loss of appetite, lack of weight loss, death, ugliness, stinkiness, ok maybe not the last three aren’t true but you get the point.

Listen friend, you aren’t over trained, you are under recovered. Heck your performance in the bed might even suffer! NOBODY WANTS THAT. I once trained myself into the ground. I was working 60 hours a week, training 6 days and getting no results with fat loss. Now that’s frustrating, working out a lot and seeing NO results.

Lets prevent that from happening by recovering properly.

Real Recovery: How To Sleep Like its Your Job

1. Sleep- Yes it sounds obvious but no you do not get enough sleep (eight hours is what we are after). Make this a priority! Even one night of impaired sleep can affect your nervous system (i.e. your mental mood and physical performance). Fix this by getting effective sleep.

Heres how:
-Keep your bedroom as dark as possible(no LCD lights, put on a sleep mask)
-Develop into an evening routine (avoid TV late at night), stimulate the mind with something relaxing: a fictional book, jazz (no Whitney Houston), my blog, a picture book, whatever.

If you can’t get enough sleep consider power naps (just don’t wear a power suit) where you’ll sleep anywhere from 30min-2hours. Remember we are after total time for sleeping.

2. Nutrition

Yep another no brainer, you should be eating food that fuels recovery. I’m talking proper post-workout nutrition (to help accelerate recovery from the gym) and day to day eating to fuel a more balanced body. Top recommendations are fish oil for anti-inflammation (its also used to treat depression in Europe), Vitamin D (for overall performance) and Vitamin C (post-workout or pre-bed to lower cortisol).

PS In the video that shake is a product called Surge by Biotest, excellent for fuelling performance, pretty much the only company I trust.

3. Active Recovery: Foam Rolling, Epsom Salt Bathes, Contrast Showers, NEPA
You want to do activities that help your body recover, whatever they may be (yes even doing that helps). Here are some of the most effective.

Foam Rolling- Great to relieve built up muscle tightness and adhesions that might be stopping you from optimal gym performance (don’t worry if people look at you strange in the gym!)

Epsom Salt Bathes- Soaking in a hot bath with two cups of Epsom salt helps detoxify your body and releases magnesium into your blood

Contrast Showers- In a shower turn the water cold for 30 seconds, followed by 2 minutes of warm water, repeat for 10 minutes.

NEPA (Non-exercise physical activity)- Aids in peripheral blood flow into muscles that are sore and affected, walk, throw a Frisbee, whatever relaxes you thats active

These things should be an essential component to proper recovery. Now writing this post has made me sleepy, so I think I’m going to catch up on my ZzZs, I suggest you do the same.

What are you doing to recover?