I was reading an article in the New York Times that a couple of clients insisted I read titled, “Do you have to be Super Human to Lose Weight?” The title alone intrigued me enough to poke through it while drinking my fresh cup of Green tea. AH!
I’ve run into so many people throughout my professional career who have either expressed this sentiment to me or I’m sure it’s crossed their minds. This is why people come and ask for the assistance of a Personal Trainer/Boot Camp Instructor. It’s a bit overwhelming trying to decipher this, “Top Secret Formula” to get strong, sexy and uncover the right approach to shedding some serious pounds (or kilos for my awesome international audience out there!).
On October 10th, 2010 The Journal Nature Genetics reported that researchers have confirmed 32 genetic variations associated with obesity. Are some of us GENETICALLY DESTINED to be obese??????? I say that’s a cop out, in other words it’s BULLSHIT! Is it okay to say that you should be an alcoholic if you’re predisposed to alcoholism? Or it’s okay to be on drugs because somewhere in your genetic code it says you have an addictive personality?
I refuse to accept that theory. You have a choice to take infinite roads in life, whether it’s the high road or not, it’s still a choice.
The article does make an interesting point. If you compare someone who weighs 200 lbs and looses 30lbs with some one who is already 170lbs, the person who looses the weight is metabolically different then the person who is naturally 170lbs. Your body wants to go back to its original weight. Of course it does, it’s called a defense mechanism. Your body can’t distinguish the difference between you loosing weight because you want to look good in that bikini for that pool party or on a deserted island struggling to survive a ship wreck!
Remember: you’ve put in a lot of work packing on those pounds through out your life, now its time to put some work into designing the new version of yourself. Find a valid reason for loosing the weight that isn’t just a tip of the iceberg reason like “to look good in my skinny jeans”. Make an impactful statement like, “I want to look great in my skinny jeans so I can have unbreakable confidence in every moment of my life!” or “I want to be a determined, intelligent, motivated, and energetic version of my self”.
Will you let your destiny be decided for you or let yourself ultimately have the last word in your legacy on this world?!?!
Food For Thought: Beethoven was partially deaf and eventually became completely deaf. He composed masterful pieces of classical music that to this day apart of our culture and our hearts. Do you think for one second he thought to himself,”Ah screw it, I can’t hear anyway, let me try being a carpenter or something”.
Committed to changing lives. – Alex Villegas CPT,.P.P.
You find reasons why you can or excuses why you can’t. In other words, you happen to life or it happens to you. -Zach Marcy
Can you believe how poorly people eat around you?
I remember back in 2002 when I was getting ready for the Mr. Georgia bodybuilding competition I had to watch every single calorie that went into my body, especially refined sugars and complex carbohydrates. At this time, right out of college, I had a daytime job as a web developer working in a major telecom 911 call center. As I started on this path my mind played tricks on me as i was walking by everyone eating fast food breakfast, sugary snacks and fried food lunches. It seemed the more strict i was the more people found comfort excuses to share crap food with one another and celebrate. It also seemed like people made more excuses for me to join them and for reasons why they could eat the food.
At this point in my young life I got very stressed out having to deal with this issue. I awoke one morning with a tremendous amount of anxiety about being able to deal with turning down all of the offers when I went into work and I HUGE calm came over my body and mind. I sat up in bed, grabbed my journal and started reviewing the 16 week goals I set for myself related to my mindset and my physique. This was a HUGE turning point in my own and my clients lives.
The Ultimate Weight Loss Fail: Your Mindset
Let me repost my quote from the very beginning:
You find reasons why you can or excuses why you can’t. In other words, you happen to life or it happens to you. -Zach Marcy
I realized on this very morning that it simply came down to knowing me and knowing what I wanted in order to over come short term temptation. Essentially after meditating I came up with the very first step in our Synergize Seven steps to Life Transforming success; decide to change and commit. With that commitment came a brutal and honest assessment of where I was and where I wanted to go.
Here is the fact, I was 220lbs (started at 230) and I wanted to be 175lbs to make middle weight. My body fat was 16% and I needed to get to around 4% to be competitive. I had 16 weeks (14 at this point) to get there. My task ahead of me was HUGE, but I knew that only me, myself and I were going to get me there. In order to make this process a success and as less stressful as possible I set my mind to task and it became so clear. *NOTE: I do not recommend ANYONE take on this drastic of a cut over such a short period of time. This was a drastic cut and we are able to have people lose over 80 – 100lbs in a year to a year and a half time frame in a safe manner.
So many people start this process the backwards. They jump into the gym for a few weeks, they drastically reduce their calories for a few days and find themselves starving at work or after the gym. A few days or weeks down the road when the newness wears off they find themselves shoveling garbage into their mouths. Does this sound like you? What if you take a better approach and start by taking ownership. I highly recommend reading this blog post first: Set Rules, Not Resolutions Part 2. After that print out my beginning quote and read it morning, noon and night until you believe it. Then…
How strong are you goals, how bad do you want it?
Once you take ownership and realize if you aren’t in control then someone else will be it’s time to set your goals. In general it’s best to make them very specific, able to be measured, put a date on them and then share them with an accountability partner. Write down your goals and review them, along side the quote I posted at the beginning, morning, noon and night.
You can feel free to post your goals at the bottom of this post in the comment section and I PROMISE to hold you accountable to them if you give me consistent updates on your progress. As you can see I make sure you take ownership over them and i’m not held responsible.
You know how others eat, so prepare yourself
Imagine how much stronger you are going to be going into your temptation environments armed with these mental weapons. On top of the mental attitude, i recommend preparing your food and having all of your meals and snacks readily at hand. If you are in a job or life situation where you can’t actually eat a meal, I recommend getting nutrition shakes that you can grab in a pinch.
During this time period I had meeting after meeting after meeting about projects. I drank shakes and ate almonds if I was hungry or the 3-4 hour time window had elapsed. I didn’t put the responsibility into anyone else’s hand, but my own. Because of that, I went prepared every day while keeping my rules and goals in mind.
If I can do it so can you
So how did i fair in the contest? I finished 3rd in my weight class out of 8 other competitors. The guy that won my weight class went on to win the whole show. See the results for yourself:
There is no special super power that i have over you reading these words right now. Everything that I have put together was because I wanted to succeed and I figured out how to take control over it. Then i made it as simple as possible and started sharing this way to life with thousands of clients. Would you like a 30 day jump start that take the guess work out of this? Try our Weight Loss Plateau Buster program…
I do highly recommend getting your 30 day jump start with our Weight Loss Plateau Busters program
Do you need more personalized Help? Reach out to me for Coaching!
I’ve opened my coaching program back up. If you want more details, simply send an email to zacharymarcy@gmail.com. In the title put “coaching inquiry” and in the message put, “please give me more information”. I’m ONLY taking 14 people and I close this window by Feb 1st, 2012.
Do you feel that heavy weight you are carrying from the resistance meeting you on your goals this year? You do realize that weight is EXACTLY what makes you stronger and makes your goals worth it, correct? Push yourself, do the uncomfortable and expand and succeed! – Zach Marcy
*WARNING: These rules I share here are MY rules. They are in no way a judgement on you or a way for me to tell you how to live YOUR life. If you feel pushed or stretched by some of these rules, good, it might be something you need to adopt into your life. Other than that, keep your own goals in mind and take action on this powerful post.
No More Resolutions, NOW!
So we at my company Synergize have been jumping on the impressionable and open minded people over the last few weeks that are willing to make significant change in their lives due to it being the New Year. Since people are open, i’m making a play for educating you reading this to set long lasting rules and make significant and lasting change in your life and let go of the theory of resolutions. In Part 1 of Set Rules, Not Resolutions I gave you homework that is essential for the action plan in this part. Make sure to take action on part 1 and then read this while taking action and completely transform your life.
Rules Simplified
I’ve got to admit that I borrowed the idea for setting rules for myself and my clients from a mentor of mine, Craig Ballantyne. I had the benefit of Craig’s guidance last year on creating businesses online for fitness professionals. Craig, who is an online fitness business guru, talked about how he stays disciplined and ever moving towards his goals. He essentially used the same approach most vegetarians and vegans take towards their nutrition, under no circumstances will they ever eat meat. It’s written in stone, it’s dogma to them, it’s a rule. Their minds don’t even entertain the thoughts like, “just this once i’ll try meat”. Instead it’s a rule or a personal philosophy that they will never eat meat and they carry it out in everything that they do and say.
It’s this very dogmatic approach that we will take when we set our own rules for living our life. Craig also mentioned that he does this with his own fat loss clients and himself so they live their lives with no guilt, no stress, and no wasted emotional energy over their decisions. It just is how they live, no question or answering to people about why. So when you type up these rules keep in mind you are going to use the brainstorming we did from part 1, then you are going to set your rules and apply them immediately into your life. Let’s first look at my rules so you know where to start.
My Rules
These are the rules i’ve set for myself to live.
1. I meditate on my goals, my path and my Primal Beast Mode mindset every morning for at least 15 minutes but preferably 30 minutes before I leave my bedroom.
2. I live a lifestyle of Paleo/Primal nutrition and will only allow myself 1 MOO (meal of opportunity) per week. For the first 30 days of January I will have 0 MOO’s with the intention of shedding 8lbs in 1 month. This nutrition helps to regulate my hormones, which have shifted dramatically the older i get. It is extremely important to look the part of a physique transformation and strength coach so this is my lifestyle without question. The only exceptions come under extreme, but planned circumstances like social functions, but even then I will stick with lean proteins, gluten free foods and vegetables.
3. I get 6-8 hours of sleep per night, limit myself to 3 hours of tv per week (unless the UFC is on), only check social media 2 times per day (with a 30 minute max time limit) and limit myself to 60 min per day of internet viewing (not including research or educational reading for my business). All of these activities must be planned or else they won’t take place. Couch naps don’t count. This must be in my bed and consider my plans for the next day.
4. Always finish what you start, don’t start things you won’t finish. The key to me leading the life of success I want to lead comes down to only taking on tasks that fit into the ultimate grand plan I have as being a leading expert in the fields of living a Primal/Paleo lifestyle, training athletes, making physical, professional and personal transformations and running mental and physical health and fitness businesses revolving around these theories. My roles as a father, husband, son and friend fall within this spectrum as well. Since there are so many things i’d like to accomplish this becomes an incredibly important rule to ensure i’m not distracted and consistently moving forward. Forget about the concept of perfection. Take imperfect action and use your degree in GSD (get sh!t done).
5. On non client training days I write, undistracted, for 60 minutes per day either immediately after meditating, after taking my son to school or after my own AM workout. This includes sundays, but NOT saturdays. This doesn’t include emails, but does include blog posts and my transformation book i’m writing.
6. I resistance train 3 days per week, do metabolic conditioning 3 days per week (sometimes as my resistance training workout) and will get too and maintain a body fat below 10%.There is nothing more important than a strength coach and personal trainer that walks the walk. The only exception to this rule is injury or a planned deload which I do every 8-12 weeks. There is ALWAYS something that can be done (especially my rule on nutrition) to stay in shape. Apply the Synergize Seven (soon to be revised to the Primal Principles for myself).
7. Apply the Primal Beast Mode Mindset (PBM) into everything I do in life. Primal Beast Mode is about about channeling the right mindset in life to overcome your perceived limitations and fears. This mindset an individual takes through out their life. It’s about learning to take hold off life and maximize it through accomplishment. PBM is about assertively and purposefully focusing 100% of my mental and physical energy to perform at my absolute best in work, school, the gym, with my spouse, in everything. Remove doubt and act in spite of fear in a locked in and confident manner.
The ultimate mindset of forged Primal Beast are completely confident, aggressive and focused on crushing any given task at hand. This state of mind allows a Primal Beast to perform to the maximum mental and physical capacity in spite of any and every circumstance or road block thrown in the way. This Mode is not an accident; it is a practiced habit of consistent, intentional and dominant excellence.
I happen to life, it doesn’t happen to me. Anything and everything both negative and positive that happens in my life is a direct result of the action or in action i take. If there is something that needs to be done about a negative situation in my life I will take personal responsibility and handle it. If something positive happens in my life I will take pride in my hard work and continue to enjoy it. Even when I have doubt it’s removed through action. Remove doubt and act in spite of fear in a locked in and confident manner.
All of my meditation centers around my PBM mindset that sheds the distractions and weakness that modern day technology, comforts and conveniences create. Instead, I revert to a simpler time when man acted on instinct, God given athletic talent, mental and intestinal fortitude. Although I do embrace modern methods of knowledge, learning and information acquisition I shed the things that make us weak, lazy and mediocre as individuals. I AM A PRIMAL BEAST!
8. Resist Comfort and do 1 thing per week that is incredibly uncomfortable, but has a direct positive impact on my goals. You only have 1 life. You can’t have this day, you can’t have this very moment back, so do something with it! You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable and pushing yourself for achievement and success. Mediocre sucks, status quo sucks, if you believe you are special and have special things to offer this world then go out and push the limits.
9. Remove the words “i know” and “try” from your vocabulary and replace them with “I will do” or “I won’t do”. The phrase “i know” shuts the mind off from any further action. In fact it elicits the stupid response in people. My infamous quote of the definition of stupidity is…
Having the knowledge of what you should do to get to where you want to be and not taking action on it is the definition of stupidity – Zach Marcy
Using “try” is completely non-commitmental. You set out to do something or you don’t (thanks Yoda).
10. I only surround myself with good friends and loved ones that understand and support my beliefs and lifestyle. It’s said you are a sum of the top 5 people you hang out with. If that’s the case I need to consciously pick those people. Each person I choose to spend my very little free time should be of similar mind and always wants the best for me. They aren’t bs’ers and lack the ability to BS. They are entrepreneurs with a similar vision as to where they want to go and have similar vehicles to get there. If someone isn’t in this category I will immediately and unapologetically remove them from my life.
11. I’m creating a life of freedom, not of work and I will semi-retire by the time i’m 50. I pay cash and not rely on credit unless i’m leveraging debt to make money. I’ll run debt free businesses and be personally bad debt free within 3 years. I am creating multiple streams of income off of what i’m most passionate and knowledgeable about. My free time will be spent raising my children and staying in shape while giving back to the world through my passions of helping others transform their lives.
12. Temper Action with Wisdom, but never be a know it all. Look to be a person that adds quality and value into situations and not a value or quality extractor.
13. Stay in the present while being mindful of the future and forgetful of any negative in the past. I have a tendency to have certain social anxiety. NO ONE would ever know with me being out going almost everywhere we go, but i’ve restricted myself to phone surfing and distraction into comfort zones recently. Now, i’m going to only check my phone once every 2 hours while my wife and I are out and ONLY if there is someone watching my son. I will also call my daughter 3 times per week with no question.
14. Organization rules my life and my business while all of my action plans are driven on my personal and professional mission statements. I only handle the top 10% of activities in my life that drive the success of my profession, while the rest is delegated. With time being a very important commodity staying completely organized is not an option, but a requirement. I keep a rolling 3 month to do goal journal, a personal and professional mission statement with a visual vision board. My goals are updated and reached every 3 months and immediately reset.
Our marketing and sales events through email and brick and mortar are on a rolling 12 month schedule, but purposefully and thoughtfully planned out. All of my client files, business files and computer files are in beautiful order. There are instruction manuals on each job in my business online and offline, including but not limited to administrative tasks, trainer tasks, onboarding new clients, policies and procedures and anything that might one day be outsourced.
15. 30 minutes before bed I write out my to do list for the next day, meditate in reflection on how my day went and how rockstar of a day i’m going to have tomorrow. I also review my rules to insure i’m following them and also review my goals.
16. Life is fun, pleasurable and the journey IS life. I will remain and forever be the kid inside who lacks the ability to bullsh!t, who always sees the world through a positive light and who isn’t afraid to laugh, cry, smile, compliment, thank and see the world for the wonder and amazement that it is.
17. Use the Serenity Prayer as my tool for distinguishing things I can’t and can control. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
A Strong and Vulnerable Confession
I’ve gotta admit, I put off writing this for a bit. I knew when i launched these goals I was going to be held to a different standard and I needed to make sure, from balls to bone, I was ready to adhere to this lifestyle. Remember in part 1 I talk about making the loop a massive success towards failure or a massive success towards your goals. There was no way I was going to write this up and then launch into my own set of failure patterns.
Check this transformation:
This was me almost 10 years ago when I was in the shape of my life. It’s also a shape i would like to get close to looking like again and I will. This is my vision, my rules are my roadmap for getting to it.
CALL TO ACTION: What Are Your Rules?
As I always say knowledge without action is stupidity (quote, Zach Marcy). Go immediately and write out your rules while keeping in mind where you would like to go this day, month, year and life. Notice that these are written in a certain voice and intent. There is no waivering, maybe or “I might” in the rules. These are the rules i follow. Remember to write the rules that you must follow in order to lead the successful life you want, but only put that rule down if you will follow it and reinforce it as your own dogma. I’d love to hear some of your rules!
Did you get Weapons of Mass Construction yet? See that email opt-in to the right–>>> Get your copy of the 4 week muscle and strength building program that is cranking out Primal Beasts left and right.
Don’t create resolutions, create Rules for your Life. Break your life goals into rules you must live by as a lifestyle in order to achieve what you would like. -Zach Marcy
Mental Software
We really are a representative of the software that is going on in our head. Over the course of time and experience we develop that programming into habits, either good or bad. Understanding that our life goes into auto pilot on this programming it becomes even more important to make it intentional and focused. For example, you wake up every morning, shave a certain way, put your clothes on, eat (or not), go about your routine at work or school, go about your routine heading home, etc. We live without guilt and question on this programming, we simply function on it.
Every program runs on a set of rules. We are responsible for these rules, intentionally or not. As babies we start as a blank program with nothing running. As we go through life and experience it we become programmed by these experiences and it shapes our mental software into our physical actions. Some of this gets broken along the way, but the body and mind best cope and carry on.
What is Really Done With Resolutions
Resolutions are an example of failed life programming in their nature. For some reason, at a certain time every year, more so than any time, it becomes more important to make dramatic change in ones life than not. This would be okay if people take the appropriate approach, but they don’t.
Most people set resolutions like lose 30lbs, gain 15lbs of muscle over a year, work harder and ask for a raise at work, take batting practice every day and on. Then they set to task only to fail after their faulty programming takes over and short circuits them. Then, year after year and failed attempt after failed attempt this programming becomes even more haywire. Every time the faulty programming goes off it’s reinforced. Essentially, you are consistently programming your brain to fail over and over again. These have compounding effects and without proper intervention you will continue down this path with not reaching your goals. With the best intentions, but faulting programming you are building in a program that allows you to bullsh1t to yourself that you are going to change and then reinforces failure every time.
Brainstorm Some Rules
Resolutions are considered fleeting and short term, but rules (principles, core beliefs, laws, etc) are unquestioned and rule your thinking. Your life and your brain need a drastic interrupt and reprogramming of these rules. The only way this will take place is to drastically change your programming with intention and purpose. It starts with redefining how you go about things. It’s time to do a personal inventory of both your negatives and positives in your life. When you do this inventory it needs to be absolutely brutal and completely honest.
Sit down and brain storm your top 10 things that you are great at and need to continue doing. Then write down the top 10 things that are keeping you back from being the best you that you can possibly be. It’s more important now more than ever to write out everything as blunt as you can. Doing this self reflection will give you a sense of the things you need to work on and the skills and desired traits you have to help you become even better.
To Be Continued
Keep this brain storm close because on Friday we will cover how to create rules for yourself that will completely rewire you programming in your head and create a lifestyle of change and consistent success. Make sure you have done your homework, because without it you’ll be setting resolutions to failure the rest of your life.
It’s been a few months, but we’ve been putting together AMAZING programs and content to relaunch our Synergize Fat Loss blog 2.0. We’ve already got engagement facebook “like” and Faceboook comments sections up. Next, Alex and Dana are gonna start sharing weekly post to get your weight loss/fat loss back in the swing of things.
My big announcement is we are contemplating launching our Hot for the Holidays program online and not just in our camps and studios. The problem is I don’t know how interested you guys might be in it. I need to hear some love.
How many of you gain weight each holiday? How would you like to use the next 40 days to blow your friends and family away and lose up to 20lbs of nasty body fat all while enjoying yourself? It’s just a question, but I need to see a lot of interest going on for me to even take the time to launch it outside of my inner circle of my studio and boot camp.
Comment away if you truly want to get an alternative version of this program!
This post is going to have a lot of people repost to their friends or they are going to unsubscribe. In fact, this question and a series of life events has motivated me to create a lifestyle blog that is independant of this blog. Don’t let me digress and let me post this up…
Questions: Zach, i see you post your hardcore workouts online, you consistently check-in at parks and gyms and always seem to have energy. I can’t seem to get motivated to be as perfect as you are at working out and eating well all the time. I work 60 hours a week, i have 2 children and an unsupportive girlfriend. Motivation and finding time are always a problem. What do I do to have what you have?
- Kevin F
Answer:
Damn, Kev. There is a lot going on with this question. It upsets me a little bit in some parts, but it also inspires me in others that you still have hope to change. Today i’ve had 2 cups of coffee, a bad a$$ workout where I worked so hard I ripped 2 calluses off my right hand, i’m listening to gangsta rap, had 3 people give me crap excuses for not working out (one of which no showed me in an appointment today), had 2 sessions where people completely CRUSHED their workouts (Nice Job Blake and Alex!!!) and had 2 other INNOVATIVE people working to win a contest we are running. Let’s break down your question into digestable portions so we can get moving. You are asking me on a day where I might write TOO much.
Things have been going so well lately with Synergize that we have had a mixed bag variety of people coming into the program. Mind you, Synergize is about complete life and physique transformation. It’s a very open program catering to people of various shapes and walks of life. Each one of them have to have 1 ultimate and common goal: make the decision to change and commit to change their personal, professional and physical life. This is your first course of action… decide to change and commit to that change right here and NOW!!! No excuses, no whining, no bullsh!t, nothing holding you back. Commit right here and now to getting your a$$ into a workout program (notice I didn’t say gym and I will clarify this later).
Next, perfection is bullsh!t. There is no such thing and it crushes people and their expectation of themselves with their weight loss and life transformation programs. You are a human being and are prone to make errors. This isn’t an excuse, but it’s a fact of life.
Immediately get the idea of having a “perfect” meal plan, workout schedule or life out of your head. Instead, strive for consistent action on your goals. Do you have goals? A plan of action with exact deadlines and measurable results? That is a place to go immediately. The general consensus in the industry is if you eat correctly 90% of the time you are going to lose weight. I really put this into question and say it’s more like this… follow a meal plan (like that you get in the Weight Loss Plateau Busters program) completely.
Any meal plan or program should allow for some forgiveness about eating foods off of the plan. If they don’t, get off of the program immediately because it’s unrealistic. As I said, programs like Weight Loss Plateau Busters allow you to eat 1-2 MOO’s (meals of opportunity) per week and get you dramatic results.
Let’s address your time issue. Since you are comparing yourself to me I will continue to use my life as a reference. You realize I put in about 60 hours a week into Synergize and my other projects, I have 2 children, but I have a very supportive wife.
Supportive significant others can make a big difference.
By the way, my energy is being connected with my passion and purpose in life, eating correctly 95% of the time and exercising without excuse. It’s the de-wussification (Thank you Frank Di Meo) of my life and the aggressive pursuit of what I really want. It’s easy to spring out of bed excited to hit my goals, grab 1 cup of coffee, organize my day to attack my goals and go at it. I MAKE that time, I am too busy to make excuses because i’m taking action and i use the JEDI Mindset (JEDI = Just Effing Do It). I recommend reading this blog post for further information about mindset and goal setting.
Brother, almost every major gym has a daycare, you can workout at a park WITH your kids in tow (see my video attached from Zach Even-Esh), or go run WITH your kids. They never have energy excuses, do they?
FYI: i’ve moved onto Electro House and ANOTHER cup of coffee… be prepared.. Afrojack, Take Over Control blastin…
Lastly, find reasons TO succeed and stop finding reasons not too. I constantly surround myself with points of inspiration, usually in like minded people. Let me give you an example of some of the people that I call friend and inspiration:
- My father: He taught me about business ownership, hardship, success, being a man, being a father, being a son, being an athlete, EVERYTHING!
- My mother: Held and holds me to a standard that the world forgives or let’s go of. Every time I type out or say a cuss word I hear my mom in the back of my head yelling at me to clean it up (I still do it anyway).
- Elliott Hulse: Elliott is a professional strongman, entreprenuer, dedicated father and all around inspiration for men looking to be strong physically and strong in character. Although I only know Elliott through a presentation at Fitness Business Summit, a sit down dinner afterwards, and hanging out at a bar after the dinner he left a lasting impression on me. Now, I am a part of his Inner Circle for gym warehouse businesses and pretty much consume everything he puts out on his YouTube channel. Here is an example of a successful muscle up he did exactly 1 week after several failed attempts at one.
- Zach Even-Esh: Zach has influenced me in a number of ways, but mainly being a person that is passionate about what he does and don’t allow what others think to stop you. In this video, my boy shows you how to workout without a gym. Any park will do and you can get incredible results with this type of training…
- Armando Cruz: This guy figured out the lifestyle he wanted to live (family man with loads of time for his family and friends while helping others reach their physical and personal peak) and then developed his life and profession around that. NO EXCUSES!
-Dug McGuirk: Dug is a Tony Robbins protege and works for Tony worldwide. He is a revolutionary in being a peak potential coach. Dug has tapped me to be his fitness revolutionary in a project we will release very soon. Check this interview I did with Dug on how to reach your goals…
This list isn’t exhaustive about my influences, but you are starting to get the hint. Kevin, i know if you take action on crazy amount of information inside of this post you will make a HUGE change in your life and take MASSIVE action. I’m at a point where I have to close out this email before i get more crazy.
It may appear we haven’t updated the blog in a little bit, but our email list has been incredibly active. If you aren’t signed up for the updates, then you better be. We are running a contest looking to enhance our sphere of influence and help 100,000 people reach their personal, professional and physical goals through the Synergize System. It’s not too late to get involved with the contest, be sure to sign up on the email list opt-in to your right. This contest is ONLY for our local Miami residents for right now.
Yours in Mental and Physical Health,
Zach Marcy
Yo, it’s Zach bringing you exercise of the week. My girl AAAAAAAAA OOOOOOOOO, Amanda O, is cranking out push up’s with knee tucks.
For note, this is a modified version of this exercise. Our preferred method is to do a full push up.
From time to time I will do an “Ask Kristy” segment. In this segment, I will answer your questions about positive thinking, healthy eating, and physical fitness. If you have questions that you would like for me to address in future segments, please email them to me at kristy.moveyourbody@gmail.com.
1) “What keeps you going and not giving up?”
(While I do want to be a positive role model for my son and I do want to decrease my risk factors for contracting any number of diseases, they are not the overriding motivating factors.)
The short answer is “my goals.” When I first started focusing on losing weight and changing my eating habits, I set a goal to weigh 145 lbs, which is in the middle of the ideal body weight range for my height. Every month I also set a goal for how much weight I want to lose. I look at those goals as a competition within myself to see if I can reach my goals in the allotted time frames. (I only have 49 more lbs to lose to reach my goal!!!)
Additionally, I have learned to listen to my body. I listen to my body when it is telling me what it wants to eat and I listen to my body when it is telling me that it wants to exercise. Since cutting out processed foods and fast foods, I have noticed that my body feels much better after eating the whole, pure foods. I have also on a couple of occasions decided, mainly because of circumstances out of my control, to eat fast food again. I can say without hesitation that both of those times I spent the rest of the day regretting that decision! I felt horrible for the rest of the day. My stomach felt bad and I had a headache. It was a mistake I will not make again! As for the exercise, after the first couple of weeks of forcing myself to walk every day, rain or shine, my body started craving the exercise. Now, if I do not do some type of physical activity every day, my body begins to feel very sluggish. However, as long as I do some activity every day, I am full of energy all the way through the day.
2) “How much money have you spent on new clothes?”
Very little! All of my newest clothes, with the exception of one pair of shorts and one t-shirt, were given to me from friends and family. Unfortunately, I do not have enough money to purchase new clothing for each size that I move through. Fortunately, I had saved a lot of t-shirts from high school and have been using them for my weekend wear over the last few months. Prior to this size, I was purchasing my clothing and selling my old clothing at a consignment shop. Unless I find someone pretty soon to offer me hand-me-downs in sizes 12/14 and below, I will have to return to the consignment shop and hope that I have some money on my account for more clothes.
3) “What motivated you to begin losing weight in the first place?”
The answer is best explained in “The Beginning” which can be found here.
“I began my journey to change my life, not because I was unhappy with anything in my life (in fact, I was very happy with my life), but because I didn’t want to look incredibly out of shape and embarrass myself at The 1st Annual Promise Walk 5K for Preeclampsia. It had nothing to do with weight loss or changing my eating habits. If you had asked me about my eating habits in March or April of 2010, I would have told you that I DO eat healthy- mainly just chicken, turkey, veggies, and no fried foods. I thought I was doing well for myself and I thought I was beautiful, all 335 lbs of me. At the end of March 2010, my dear friend, Michelle asked me if I would consider participating in The 1st Annual Promise Walk 5K for Preeclampsia with her. Since we had both recently suffered with Preeclampsia (read our stories here), without any thought at all, I said, “YES!” Once she left that day, it hit me that I had not really exercised in…. well, forever. Had the walk been that day, I would have definitely done it, but it would have been very difficult. So I recruited my husband and he and I started walking… EVERY DAY. We only had a month to get ready for the 5K (3.1 miles) walk. We started small (less than a mile per day) and gradually added more to the walk every couple of days. When May 8, 2010 arrived, we were ready (for the most part). I wasn’t quite prepared for the hills that were on the walking course, but my brother-in-law, Marc, graciously offered to push my son’s stroller for me so that I could just haul myself up the hills. There was an option to stop at the 2.5K mark, but I completed the whole 5K (and I was not at the back of the pack)! It felt great!”
To find out what happened next, visit my website and read “Exercise can be addictive…(believe it or not),” “No matter what happens, stay the course!,” and “Your eyes want it, but does your stomach NEED it???”
4) “How do I get started??”
Read “Move Your Body Transformation: An Introduction”- that is how you get started! You can find it at www.moveyourbodytransformation.com. Once you sign up for the email updates in the box on the right, you will receive an email with a password to open the Move Your Body Transformation: An Introduction page. (Email updates are emails sent directly from me about new blog posts or other news. They are not SPAM emails.)
5) “How can I help?”
Zach Marcy, CPT and I have put together a survey. We would greatly appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes and answer the short 10 question survey. Your input would be very helpful!
Click on the link to take the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M97ZXXH
Thank you all for your support! Remember to smile and brighten someone else’s day with a random act of kindness! Have a wonderful day!!
This may read a little funny, but it’s going to be quick and POWERFUL. This was originally a facebook response to a high school friend of mine. It brings up a great point on how to get started living a life of enjoying holidays while still losing weight (or not gaining it). I want to share my day with people so they understand how to stay healthy on a holiday.
I’m no bullsh!t; if you eat like garbage and drink like garbage you are going to look like garbage and your healthy will be garbage. When it comes to living a balanced life while looking good you are either committed or you aren’t. You don’t find time, you make it. You decide to change, you commit and you hold yourself to that standard no matter what (Rule 1 of the Synergize Seven).
Example, today was supposed to be a day everyone eats poorly and drinks beer. July 4th is the ultimate party and excuse holiday for people to fall off their plans. My goals are bigger than that and i’m on a mission to get my abs back and get rid of this damn middle aged spread that has my love handles sticking out. Today, my wife, my son and I went to South Beach early. I woke up, had a Paleo nutrition breakfast. I packed a cooler full of healthy things, raw almonds, bananas, etc… I hit the beach gym (a la the old profile picture of me flipping the 350-400lb tire).
We hit the beach for a while. Then we sat down at a restaurant on the Beach and I had a turkey patty and a green leafy salad with oil and vinegar. Now, we are napping and then going over to Jessi’s parents house where I will bring turkey burgers and a huge salad for myself. No alcohol, tons of sun, tons of fun and a little planning.
This is just a day in the life of me. I hope it helps anyone reading. The most important take aways should be:
1. Decide to change and commit, TODAY, NOW!
2. Find excuses TO follow your plan, not excuses not too.
3. Plan. If you know you are going to be out or have a holiday with temptation Plan to succeed.
4. Set goals bigger than your eyes. Once you decide to change and commit, define your goals and follow through.
