Category Archives: Inspiration

Never Give Up

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I would like to thank a very close friend of mine for showing this video to me and I would like to share it with all of you with the hopes that it will inspire you to never give up on your hopes and dreams.

I think we’ve all been at a point in our life where we’ve felt like giving up or we stop believing in ourselves.  This can happen not only with our fitness goals but with any goal.  You might be at a point right now where you have a lot of weight to lose and/or you have injuries that prevent you from doing a lot of things.  Your goal might seem so far away and unattainable that you think you can’t possibly ever get there.

So what do you do?  Give up and let things get even worse or do you make a decision right now to do something about it?

The first step is making that decision with so much enthusiasm that you feel like you’re going to explode!  Many people never achieve their goal because they can’t make a definite decision about what they want or they don’t have a clear picture in their mind of their ultimate goal.  Sometimes people set themselves up to fail before they even start due to fear of having a different life.  It can be easy to get caught in your comfort zone and change can be very frightening to some.

Like the wonderful and inspiring man in the video above, you could have an injury that you think might stop you from reaching your goal or you might have a lot of weight to lose but don’t let this be the reason you give up.  There will be times and it could be many times that you fall down but please, always get back up and keep going.

Be consistent…be determined…be persistent…never ever give up!

Change your Mindset, Change Your Life

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There is a lot more to achieving your fitness goal than just exercising and eating properly.  In my previous post titled “Presence“, I talked about how being in the present moment can drastically improve your results.  With this post, I would like to elaborate further on how to achieve this mindset and share some things that I do myself on a daily basis.

First of all, an important point to remember is that your mind is a tool that can be trained and developed just like your body.  The real you is not your thoughts.  The real you is the life force within you and your mind is the tool that shapes your life around you.  The outside world is only a reflection of the thoughts and beliefs that you hold within yourself.

With this knowledge, you can start to change not only your health and body image but also your financial situation, your relationships, and self-esteem/confidence by consciously choosing your thoughts rather than just reacting automatically to every situation.

I see the evidence of how much your mind plays in to things with clients I have trained over the years.  Without fail, the people who don’t dwell too much on their current state and focus mostly on the end goal while enjoying the journey along the way, always get the best results from their fitness program.  The people who focus on their current body image with negativity and impatience about not being in the shape they would like will either get very little results or stay exactly the same way they are.  Sometimes they will actually go in the opposite direction and become more out of shape as more and more negative emotions surface from just looking at what is instead of focusing only on what they would like to achieve.

It’s not always easy at first to look away from what is but with daily practice you can gradually change your mindset.  So how do you do it?  There are many things you can do but I will share with you what has worked for me and anyone that knows me well, can attest to the fact that my life has changed in many positive ways.  One of my clients has affectionately called this the “Craig Plan” which brought a smile to my face so I will go with that title!  Here are the 9 things I do on a daily basis:

1.  I write down my goals and have them somewhere where I will see them regularly.  I’m also very clear and detailed about what I want to achieve.

2.  I meditate every day for 10 to 15 minutes.  Meditation will bring you in touch with your inner being and will develop mind control. This will also calm the mind and bring you in to the present moment which is where all your power is.  Remember this, the present moment is what matters.  The past doesn’t matter, the future doesn’t matter, all that matters is right now because this is where you are right now.  The thoughts and choices you make right now will affect your future.  When meditating, focus on your breathing and if a thought comes just let it pass and focus back on your breathing.

3.  I visualize every day for 15 minutes.  What I mean by visualize is I imagine the life and health I desire.  If I have a specific goal in mind then I visualize that and I’m very clear about it.  I picture what I will look like and feel like when I have achieved my goal.  Feeling is important.  You have to become so clear about your vision of yourself that you can feel it strongly.

4.  I say affirmations.  3 times every day, I stand in front of my mirror and say positive affirmations to myself.  Some examples of the affirmations I say are, “My life is abundant in every way”, “I am grateful for everyone and everything”, “I can do what I will to do, I can do anything”, “I am successful in all that I do”, “My life is filled with love and beauty”.  These are just a few of many things I say to myself daily and by doing this you reprogram your mind and change your beliefs.  Remember this always: A belief is just a thought you keep thinking over and over.  If you know this then you can change your beliefs and when your beliefs change, your life will change.

5.  I work out 5 days a week Monday to Friday no matter what.  If I’m not feeling 100% I will do something even if it’s just for 10 or 20 minutes.  Making a commitment to yourself and staying true to that commitment is a powerful boost to your confidence and self esteem. When you respect and love yourself it spills over in to every thing you do and other people will pick up on that.

6.  I keep a success log.  Every night before I go to sleep, I write down all the awesome things that happened during the day and I mean anything that I consider good.  It could be a nice comment that I received from someone, it could be something I finished that I planned on finishing, etc.  Anything that you consider positive that happened during the day, write it down.  Doing this before you go to sleep is important because you will fill your mind with positive things and you will wake up with those same good feelings.  When you wake up with good feelings and positive thoughts, you set up your day in advance for even more positive things to happen to you and you build huge momentum this way.

7.  I am continually learning new things and reading to better myself.  The universe is constantly expanding and we as human beings are a part of this universe which means we are meant to be expanding too.  If we expand and grow and strive to be the best we can be then the universe will support us with the people, circumstances, and thoughts to get us to where we want to be.  If we don’t expand and grow, we create resistance and we get stuck where we are.  This opens up the possibility to attract negative things in to our lives.

8.  On the weekend, I focus on other things that I enjoy and I slack on my healthy eating.  I indulge in higher calorie foods like pizza for example and I don’t feel guilty once about it. Once you feel guilty about something you are creating resistance again.  Guilt is a negative emotion.  Indulging in a cheat day will also raise your leptin levels which is the hormone that regulates body fat but I will leave that for another post!

9.  I don’t complain about anything.  I don’t complain to other people and I don’t complain internally to myself with my thoughts.  This is important and it really frees your mind to think more positively.  This is another one that takes practice.

So there you have it.  These are 9 things that I do on a daily basis and they have completely changed my mindset and my life.  I’m not saying this is the only way and I’m continually learning and applying new things to further shape my life and bring me to where I want to go.  If anything, I hope this helps bring about a new perspective within you which will bring you closer to your goals and the health and fitness you desire!

Presence

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A healthy, vibrant, and energetic being is our natural state.  Feeding ourselves healthy food and taking care of our bodies through exercise plays a big part in maintaining that natural state of being and it helps tremendously.  Above these two and the most important factor to maintaining our natural state is Presence.  So what is “Presence” anyway?

The best way to explain it is to describe the feeling I get when I’m “Present” or in the “Zone” as I like to call it.

When I’m in the “Zone”, I feel energized, enthusiastic, and confident about what I want to do.  There is no resistance of any kind – physical, mental, or emotional.  I have a powerful urge and feeling of motivation to move forward with focus.  I have no fear, no doubt, and do things without hesitation.  I have complete faith and trust that things are unfolding the way they are supposed to and that I will get to where I want to go.  I have enormous appreciation and enjoyment for whatever I’m doing at the moment no matter what it is.

So your next question might be, “Well how do I get to that state of mind?”.

There are many ways to condition yourself to this state of mind and it does get easier with practice.  First and foremost, try to let go of controlling every uncontrollable situation in your life.  A feeling of trust and belief will bring what you want to you.  It’s inevitable that things come in to your life that can be viewed as a bad thing but what really matters is that you don’t let these things stop you from getting to your goal and what you have envisioned for yourself.

Next, try to not complain about anything in your life.  There are two ways of complaining.  One is vocally to anyone who will listen and the other is internally with your thoughts.  Try not complaining for a week and see how much things around you change.  It takes practice but with time it gets easier and you will then be more in the habit of only talking about the good things going on around you.

Finally, take care of yourself and your body.  You have to start appreciating yourself and believing that you are worthy.  A feeling of unworthiness comes from years of negative thoughts and it’s actually a state that a lot of people are conditioned in to.  This can come through childhood exposure to the beliefs of adults around them, through exposure to negative television programs, and listening to negative complaints from people around them to name a few.  The list goes on but basically we’ve all had certain beliefs growing up that don’t necessarily help or serve us.

So how do you alleviate these feelings of unworthiness and negativity?  Yoga and meditation can help to release these negative emotions.  Saying positive affirmations to keep focused on how we want our life to be helps tremendously as well.  A belief is basically just a thought we keep saying to ourselves over and over again so affirmations can be very effective in reconditioning our thought patterns.  Exercising to strengthen our body and mind is a great starting point also as this will build up confidence and focus and  it will build a strong connection between your mind and your body.  I like to do a combination of all of these things to bring balance and when I do this, I enter my “Zone”.  There’s nothing like it and when you are in the present moment, you will know.

Let your feelings be your guide.  Follow those thoughts that make you feel good and you’ll soon find yourself in the “Zone” and on your way back to that healthy, vibrant, and energetic being that you naturally are!