March 14, 2013
By Nick Brucker
Personal Trainer
Often times its hard for us to prepare for the warm season with the bone-chilling winds continue to knock at our door. But in order to prepare, there has to be a plan, and planning takes time. Every day, we choose to either spend our time wisely, or worthlessly. The time has come to change your physique, and your mentality!
By the end of this article, you will learn how to:
How to visualize your goals
- Distinguish your body type
- How to train and eat for your body type
- How to plan the next 12 weeks
- Figure out how many calories your body actually needs
- My personal tips/strategies
- What to do if you are still overwhelmed
Choose Your Destination
First thing I want you to do is stop reading this for one second and really visualize how you would feel if you actually accomplished this. Don’t think about the time, or the money– just the end product. Something that may help is to visualize different people who have the body, or parts of their body you wish to achieve. This step was extremely difficult for me personally, but it is essential to keeping you on track. I often thought about how long it would take, and how little I believed in myself to actually follow through. This was a huge waste of my energy, and 5 years of my life so I beg you not to make the same mistake! Try to have as vivid a visualization as you can. Pay attention to every detail, and let your dreams become your virtual mentality. You ready? Close your eyes, take a deep breath breathing in through your nose, out through your mouth, and Visualize for as long as you need…
Now I want you to take out a pen, a piece of paper (or notebook), and ask yourself:
- How did you feel during the exercise?
- How do you feel now?
- What details caught your attention?
Repeat this step at least once a week!
Remember– Most people fail from lack of direction than lack of motivation!
Make it a necessity to set a time, a date, and pick a place that is quiet and easy for you to focus each week.
Distinguish Your Body Type
This is not usually taught but I am a huge on this. Think of it this way…
You not understanding what Body Type you are is comparable to you driving a car and not knowing what type of engine is in it!
Figure out your body type is essential to structuring your diet! Many times, we are a mix of 2 out of the 3 body types. Use the link i provided here to take a simple quiz to get a general overview of which body type you are.
A Call to Action is a Plan to Succeed!
Creating a plan is very important. Like I stated before– direction is the key to staying on track and keeping yourself motivated. I could spend all day on planning now, especially in this category. To see a great example of a great fitness plan, please check out A New Body Would Look Great On You This New Year! Structuring a simple, yet detail plan like this would keep you trucking on the road to success once and for all.
You Knew This Was Coming…
As everyone knows–nutrition can make or break your success! Creating better eating habits now will make all the difference in the end. Do not put nutrition off until the very last minute. I’m telling you now that it will be even harder for you to establish during the summer. With BBQs, parties, and other events, it may become a lot harder to say “no” to barbecue-smothered brisket, and a cold beer. When you enter summer at your peak physique, you become extremely cautious as to what you put in your body. Best of all, it no longer is a hassle to eat this way! After seeing the results and living this lifestyle for 3 months, I promise you– you won’t want to go back.
Basil Metabolic Rate
If you really want to do this right, you should begin by figuring out what your Basil Metabolic Rate is. This will calculate how many calories your body needs to survive if you were to sit still in a chair for 24 hours. Manipulating this number will play a role as to whether your body will gain or lose weight. As of right now, I will NOT make you count calories, but I do want you to look at the nutrition facts for everything you eat, and how big of a serving it calls for. Then you can use your best judgement in the future when you are without measuring utensils. Below are the ratios you should be consuming according to your body type based on Carbs/Protein/Fats.
My serving size secret– What I used for all my clients and myself for a serving reference is…. Google!
Go into Google and type what you would like a reference of under “images.” For example, If you need a reference to 1/2 cup of rice, beans, chicken, or anything else. Google most likely will be able to show you an exact illustration. Almost every food my clients and I have looked for in a particular serving size was there– Try it!
- Get into the habit of eating 5-7 meals per day, each meal containing a protein, carbohydrate, and fats (use the ratios if accordingly if possible).
- Begin limiting simple sugars to what is found in fruits and complex carbohydrates – no junk food, sweets, or candy.
- Limit the amount of fruit juices! They are proven to store almost as much fat as soda!
- Replace your full-fat dairy products with low-fat or fat-free. If you really want your body to function optimally, cut dairy out altogether (which I prefer–one less temptation!)
- Start increasing your fiber intake gradually, and aim for 30-35g per day. A great tool to track your daily food intake is an app called “Calorie Count.” It’s free, and contains a huge food database and the option to customize your own foods.
If For Some Reason…
If you are still overwhelmed with all this information, I completely 100% understand! I have been there personally and I know I personally would need more than just a “how to” directional post, so here’s my solution. I have received tons of emails from people that wanted my guidance through this process since I struggled with this process also. Just as of recently, I have become an online coach with Beach Body (the makers of Insanity & P90X to name a couple) to help more people achieve that same feeling of ecstasy I established through a journey towards living a healthy active lifestyle. I was able to put my own spin on it to maximize your physical and mental capabilities to take with you for the rest of your life. For those beginning a healthy active lifestyle and have no idea what to do– I highly recommend this. You get a fully structured program, nutritional guide for every meal, and a coach (me) through the entire transformation for less than my hourly rate! Last weeks post on “How To Become A Success Magnet” describes the importance of being healthy and fit in order to achieve Life Success! So Not only will you be in awesome shape by summer, but you will become more susceptible of what skills/knowledge you actually learn along the way, making you more successful at anything you put your mind to. Many of us never catch some of these lessons that we learn through this remarkable journey (took me 7 years to figure them all out myself) so I decided to train your mind AND your body at the same time! If you are interested, please feel free to comment, or contact me at the top of my site and I will provide you more details, but if not–no worries! Hopefully you can use my information as your guide. Consistency is the key to anything you wish to succeed at. Be patient, and if you feel its necessary to make adjustments, by all means do so. Also, feel free to join my growing family on FaceBook and My Blog for free quotes, motivation, and inside tips and strategies to achieving the life of your dreams!
I really hope that you too would be able to experience this feeling this summer– you deserve it 🙂
“Nick is known for Physically AND Mentally transforming his clients! Transform your body, and your life with Nick today!”
