Kudos to Joe over at the Cr8 Health & Fitness support and accountability site (http://cr8health.ning.com) for taking the 30 day challenge! Visit the site to see Joe’s progress.

It has been about two weeks, so I want to talk about strategies for reaching your goals, either weight gain or loss.

Every two weeks is a good point to evaluate progress and make changes to your plan if necessary. It is enough time to establish the current trend based on your nutrition intake and energy expenditure.

My weight over the past two weeks has been in a narrow range. Between 195.0 and 196.5 for the most part. It is safe to say that my energy intake and output have been equalized.

Since my goal is to lose bodyfat, I now know that something needs to change; either I need to take in less calories or expend more energy through exercise.

My first choice would always be to up my activity level, primarily because I don’t want to lose muscle, so the higher I can keep my calories while also losing bodyfat the better.

This is an important principle - you can only drop calories so much before you start to get diminishing returns. It is also very difficult to get all your micronutrients - your vitamins and minerals - on a calorie restricted diet.

That doesn’t mean you can go hog wild. Some calorie restraint will be necessary, we just need to continue to monitor and adjust as we go.

So my plan for the next two weeks is to increase my activity level while keeping my calories where they are.

What’s your plan?

My newsletter and blog post titled “Food Label Lies” hit a nerve.

I got feedback (boy did I ever).

Actually some was very positive, but others must have thought I was attacking them personally.

It’s not personal - it never is.

My mission is to cut through the garbage, not to offend, but to wake people up and get them to take a look at the habits that may be contributing to less than optimal health.

Some people think we go too far with the “healthy stuff.” That’s ok. We try to eat whole and unprocessed foods, as close to their natural state as possible. I think the evidence is clear this is a healthier way to eat than getting everything out of a box, bag or carton.

When my family goes to dinner or a party at someone else’s house, we eat (and drink) what our host has graciously provided. Granted, if there are “better” choices, we gravitate toward those.

As I said in the first letter, our friends and family are very kind in trying to accomodate our “weirdness”.

We do NOT take that for granted.

The title of this letter is ”You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”. 

If you don’t have the info, you can’t make an informed choice. Simple as that.

Now you know.

Our friends mean well, they really do.

Most of them respect the fact that we eat try to make healthy food choices, for ourselves and our kids.

We really appreciate it, it is very kind of them.

Last Friday one of Nancy’s good friends was so proud of herself. She brought her kids over for a visit, and as a treat for the kids (we normally only have water and sometimes milk) she brought some ****** **** Berry Punch.

She was so proud of herself for bringing a “healthy” choice.

Nancy didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth.

It was junk, just total garbage.

But is sounded so good.

I mean, look at what it says on the FRONT label:

“All Natural”

“Premium”

It’s go to be good, right!

Not so fast!

I am about to give you the super secret, known only to a few select operatives in the whole world (ok, not really - but you would think so)

You have to look at the label on the BACK!

This is where you have to take some responsibility for what you are eating.

The food companies number one priority is NOT your health - it’s to get you to buy their product.

They will do it by any (legal) means necessary.

Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s moral or ethical - words to live by.

Anyway, let’s look at the BACK label.

Here are the ingredients:

Pure Filtered Water, Sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup, sugar), Grape juice from concentrate, less than 1% of: Pear and Strawberry juices from concentrate, Natural flavors, Citric acid (provides tartness)

Remember the FRONT label - “All Natural”

I have been thinking for two days how something with high fructose corn syrup (as the second ingredient no less) is able to be listed as “All Natural”

If I squeeze a kernel of corn, is that what comes out, high fructose corn syrup? I don’t think so, bubba.

The stuff has no reedeming qualities whatsover. I think the evidence shows that is one of the key “bad players” in the obesity epedimic. It is used because it is cheap, bottom line.

Let’s look at the Nutrition Label.

At the very top: 5% Fruit Juice - yep, that’s it. Your “All Natural, Premium” product is 5% juice, 95% garbage.

No Fat

No Protein

A whopping 31 grams of sugar. That’s like shoveling 8 teaspoons of sugar down little Johnny’s throat. In fact it’s more sugar than in a Snickers bar, for crying out loud.

I think Johnny’s going to be bouncing off the walls.

He will drink water, I assure you. It may take time, but it will pay off.

If you want to make a real impact toward better health, you have to take responsibility.

It takes a little longer to read labels, I understand.

But once you get into the habit, it becomes easier and easier.

Don’t be fooled by fancy slogans and pretty words.

Next time you shop, just pick one item that you think is good for you. Turn the box around and take a look at the label.

You might be surprised by what you find.

It WILL be the first step to a lifetime of healthier choices.

It’s up to you.

Thanks to Zach Even-Esh over at  Underground Strength Coach for this one.

It is a great reminder that YOU are capable of great things.

You are capable of pushing beyond what you THINK are your limits.

Don’t give up.

Don’t EVER give up!

I wanted to share a note I received last week. I really appreciate getting these, for a number of reasons. It’s nice to know you have positively impacted someone’s life, and that she is on the way to reaching her goals and living healthy.  I want to point out that my client did the work it took - there are no shortcuts.

Is it possible we could help you too?

Hi Dean,

Just a quick update…  When I started dieting several years ago I was at a *size 26* & 265 lbs.

When I started working with you & Cr8 Health & Fitness I was wearing a size 20.

Today, I am wearing a *size16* and @ 180lbs!  I am weighing myself on a
medical stand-up scale now, same as yours instead of the floor scales.

Can’t wait to get to the next level _Size 14_!!!

Thank you,
MC

A few days ago I wrote about our new support group over at http://cr8health.ning.com/?xgi=kLAe1u

If you haven’t joined yet, I would encourage you to get on board.

Our offer is to provide the support and accountability necessary to help you achieve your results.

But you have to take action, you can’t just sit behind the keyboard - web surfing is not exercise.

I put a simple challenge on the site. I’ll quote it here:

“Many of you are here because you want to lose weight. This is what I want you to do. Every day for the next 30 days I want you to weigh yourself first thing in the morning, before you eat. Then I want you to post it on your personal blog on this forum. Are you up to the challenge?”

Not too hard, right?

Know how many people took the challenge? Zero. Exactly no one!

How much effort does this challenge require?

If you can’t take 2 minutes a day to do something this simple, I have a hard time believing you will train for 30-45 minutes three times a week. As a matter of fact I KNOW that won’t happen. And this is the minimum required for good results.

Ask yourself why you didn’t take the challenge.

Now ask yourself if you are reaching your goals.

It might help if you actually did something.

Laughing is great for you, most of us don’t do it enough.

Living healthy is serious business, but don’t forget to have fun.

Relieving stress can actually help you get fit.

No,  I am not going to cite the studies (they are out there).

Instead just watch this video - You’ll burn a few calories laughing.

(If you relate to the gym experience, we are here to help you out)

I have written a lot about accountability over the last few months. About not making excuses and just getting to work.

I need to do the same thing.

Here’s your chance to keep me accountable.

I have a goal to see my lower abs by summer. I am estimating that I will have to get to around 175 pounds for that to happen. I am currently 194 pounds. Those of you who see me on a regular basis know that I am not fat, but at age 41 I would like to see those lower abs just once.

Today is February 25, 2008. At 1-2 pounds a week it will take me 12 weeks to get to 175. That would be May 19, 2008.

So my goal is to lose 19 pounds of bodyfat by May 19, 2008.

How can you keep me accountable?

I’ve started a new support group that all readers of my blog are welcome to join.

The link is here: http://cr8health.ning.com/?xgi=kLAe1u

It’s setup a lot like Facebook, and you can customize to your hearts desire.

But that’s not the best thing. It’s a place where you can ask your questions, meet with other people who have similiar goals, and be held accountable for reaching those goals.

If you are not willing to put yourself out there, to let people know what you want to achieve and hold you to it, I really have to question how serious you are about losing the weight, or getting in great shape.

I put myself on the line.

Who’s next?

Join us now: http://cr8health.ning.com/?xgi=kLAe1u

I enjoyed this post on the Family In Shape blog regarding motivation. We have talked about motivation vs. determination before - perhaps they are two sides of the same coin.

We all have our motivation for training, our “why” we do it. If it is a strong enough “why”, this can drive us toward our goals.

What I have found is that our emotions can get in the way, and we let our feelings dictate our actions. If we don’t “feel like it”, we don’t do it. It is at these times where we need to be determined to succeed, no matter what.

Emotions have their place, but we need the self-discipline to act regardless of how we feel.

Set a goal, write it down, and don’t let anything (even yourself) get in the way of reaching it!

I’ve got a cold. This is pretty unusual for me - being sick.

It’s not the kind of sick that will keep you in bed, but I sure haven’t felt like doing a whole lot, especially the last day or two.

My cold has been hanging around for about 10 days. I looked to see how many days in the last 10 I have trained.

Seven.

So why am I telling you this?

Because when I am not feeling well I don’t feel like training either.

Now don’t get me wrong. I didn’t do a full fledged weight training and interval session all those days. In fact on some of them I spent the whole time in flexibility training (stretching - which is a very good thing to do when you are under the weather, by the way).

The point is I did something. And the reason I did ”something” when I felt like doing “nothing” is because I know me. 

I know that if I let myself go for 2 days, it turns into 5 days, which turns into 10 days which turns into…well, you get the picture. 

Often when we get ill it is our bodies telling us something is out of balance, that we need to slow down. We need to listen to that.

But slowing down and stopping are two different thing.

Don’t get caught in the trap of “doing nothing”.

What have you done TODAY to get closer to your goals?