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I covered creating a vision for your future in an earlier work, “What’s your Vision“, and today I’ll introduce a concept that I’ve found to be very helpful. When you ask any successful person their primary reasons for success, the three most likely answers are persistence, confidence, and goal setting. There is a multitude of literature on goal setting and later I’ll list some of the ones that I’ve found helpful. However, I want to take the idea of goal setting and go one step further. Instead of being a goal setter, focus on becoming a goal getter. Setting goals is a great starting point but a horrible finishing one. How many times have we planned to do something, didn’t take action, and failed to hit our target? Too many to count right? It’s not enough to just visualize what you want, you have to go out there and get it!

There is one thing that we all learned in high school biology that can be applied to fitness. I know there is more than one thing if you want to be technical, but I am referring to the scientific method. To help jog your memory, it was a 5-6 step process to solve a problem that looked something like this: 1. Ask a question 2. Do background research 3. Construct a hypothesis 4. Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment 5. Analyze results and draw a conclusion

You really don’t have to fire your nutritionist but you may feel like it if they haven’t told you what I’m going to tell you. People spend billions of dollars each year on advice on what to eat. They try all these new “miracle” diets that promise to lower your waistline, give you energy, etc. If they only knew that it boils down to a few simple foods. Meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and nuts. That’s it. Throw in some eggs and call it a day. It’s so easy a caveman could do it…wait they did.

This is a very common question that many people ask. A general rule of thumb is 3-5 days per week depending on your goal. The routine that is best for fat loss will vary tremendously from a routine designed for someone who wants to run a marathon. If you are trying to maintain your current level of fitness 3 days is enough. To lose fat and build muscle, 4-5 days is optimal. The biggest key is consistency. If you say you are going to hit the gym 3 times per week, do it. The worst thing you can do is be inconsistent. Each time you start and stop an exercise program it will be harder to begin again from a physical and mental standpoint.

Eating fruits and vegetables is an excellent way to stay lean and healthy. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to drop a few pounds or maintain your current weight, you should definitely eat your fruits and vegetables. Try to get between 6-10 servings daily from different sources. Studies have shown that different colors have different health benefits. The best way to reap the benefits is to try to eat at least one from each of the major colors daily. Eat them raw or steamed for optimum nutritional retention.