Life does not come with a rewind button.

It’s been a little over a month since you started your new workout program. That initial gloss is gone and you are learning a hard truth. Doing this is hard. It takes work, and sometimes serious effort to get those workouts in. You miss some meals, you miss some workouts.

Now that big fancy fitness challenge you are doing has some gaps in the record. You don’t have a string of gold stars anymore. Obviously if you don’t have all gold stars, you won’t get perfect results! This is a catastrophe! It must be fixed! I know, the best way to fix this is to restart my fitness challenge right? Because if I don’t get it perfect, it doesn’t matter.

Stop right there. Think about this for a minute. What in your life is actually perfect? Odd are, not a thing. That’s because perfection isn’t a place that any of us can remain at. Change is by it’s very nature an imperfect thing. You are going to fail, you are going to make mistakes. That’s how you learn and grow. Trying to achieve a perfect challenge doesn’t make your result perfect. It just means you got lucky.

Learning how to shake off bad days and bad weeks is a critical component to making fitness a true lifelong habit. When things go wrong, you can’t go backwards to fix them. Time doesn’t move that way. It only goes forward.

Pick up where you left off. Go forward. The only way for you to stop starting over is to stop quitting in midstream because things are not perfect.

So get off the couch and go do a workout. I don’t care how many days you missed. I care what you do today.

I managed to get a nice cut on my hand at my part time gig. No stitches required, but due to location, it’s caused some issues with my scheduled workout progressions. Injury and illness are part of life. It’s critical to know when to ease up and when to push through.

In this case pushing results is reopening the cut and extending the healing time. Sure I can do 1 armed workouts, but why? It’s easier and safer to give the hand a few extra days to heal and make sure I stay active.I don’t need to pick up an odd infection at the gym. I shifted my resistance workouts to minimize lifting and ejected to do some additional cardio this week.

When you are faced with illness or injury how do you chose to deal with your workouts? Comment below.

This weekend-

Jumping jacks 20 reps

Squat thrusts (Burpees) 5 reps

Side crunches 15 rep each side

Side leg lifts 10 each side

Fire hydrants 8 each side

Star jumps 5

Beginners do 3 circuits, intermediate folks go for 4, and advanced folks go for 5.

Courtesy of the awesome Dave Kellett

There’s this tendency to think that no pain, no gain means you need to kill yourself on the first workout. Not so. Killing yourself on the first workout is a good way to ensure that you don’t try for a second. You don’t need to vomit on your first workout. You don’t need to pass out. You don’t need to hobble out of the gym.

That first workout with a trainer may seem short. The goal isn’t to break you. The goal is to orient you to basic movements and assess where you are. The last thing your trainer wants to do is scare you into not coming back. Don’t worry if the first couple of workouts don’t seem hard enough. Your trainer is building you up gradually to reduce the possibility of injury and general terror. The hard work will come. It just doesn’t always need to show up day one.

Case in point. Today I got up and discovered that one of the cats had decided to explode the kibble dish all over the living room. In the interests of my sanity, I elected to vacuum up the kibble before I did anything else. I hauled out the battered vacuum cleaner, turned it on, and promptly heard the sound of the motor burning out accompanied by the smell of burning rubber bits. So I’ve got a dead vacuum cleaner, cleaning powder all over the floor, and kibble scattered from here to Timbuktu. In short, I’ve got a mess to deal with at a very inconvenient time.

Now honestly, when is it a good time for the vacuum to die? It always happens while you are needing to clean something. The same thing happens with your workouts. Without fail, something happens during the day that interrupts your schedule. The boss needs a report from you. A deadline is looming and you’ve lost a half a day’s work due to circumstances beyond your control. The kid walked out the door without her coat and it’s going to drop down to 30 degrees by the time school is out. Life happens. The question is, what do you do?

The key is to keep moving. Curse the vacuum and horrible timing. Do not waste 10 hours researching cheap vacuum options. Identify the closest place which sells vacuums and go. Purchase what you need. Not what’s perfect, what you need. Then go home and finish vacuuming the blasted carpet.

It took an hour out of my day to cuss, pull on jeans, and head to Walmart for a new vacuum cleaner. Is it the best possible cleaner? Nope. It’s going to get the job done. Have I possibly wasted a little money? Maybe. I’ll probably replace it again down the road. But my time spent on workouts, and my business is a lot more important than the $40 I may save by doing perfect vacuum research for 10 hours.

I fixed the problem, and moved right on to the next priority event on my list for the day. Once I finish up this, it’s time to get in my delayed workout. Doing that puts me back on track for the day. It has the added bonus of dropping any residual stress.

Life happens, don’t let the unexpected moments detour you from your end goal. Fix the immediate problem, then get right back on schedule. Do not compound the frustration by missing additional tasks. Honor your self promises and get those priority tasks done!

The idea behind Wildcard Weekend is simple. Most workout programs have either cardio or rest days scheduled for the weekend. Wildcard Weekend gives you a random selection of exercises. Sometime during the weekend, crank out a brief 15-20 minute workout. This is a chance to have some fun. Bring your kids to the park and have some play time. Invite a friend to join you. The key is integrating a fun, potentially challenging break into your day.

This weekend:

Jumping jacks 20

Bodyweight squats (wide stance) 12

Narrow pushups (bring your arms in closer to your body) 6

Wall sits 20 seconds

Reach ups 8

Dips (using a bench or chair) 8

Thirty seconds rest, repeat the circuit 3 times for beginners, 4 times for intermediate, 5 times for advanced.

Remember, this is a body weight workout. So no need to hit the gym. You can do this in your living room. Have fun, and let me know how you do!

courtesy of Denise Taylor

Building a healthy body and life isn’t just about fixing the outside. It’s about working on the inside as well.

Inspirational speaker Denise Taylor is a living example of this. When her daughter Jonnae Taylor was dealing with treatment for leukemia, Denise battled to keep her body and mind fit. The idea of Wacky Wednesday came from a desire to bring joy to children stuck in the wards of childrens hospitals. These kids battle life threatening diseases. Denise and Jonnae would wear funny hats, wacky glasses, and generally make an effort to bring some silly into a scary, serious world.

Jonnae lost her battle with leukemia, but her spirit carries on through the We Get To program and Wacky Wednesday. 

Life doesn’t always have to be serious and painful. Bring joy to the life of another and learn to not take everything so darned seriously! Laughter is great exercise!

Equipment Needed

• Running shoes, track (or)
• Cardio machine where you can adjust levels (stationary bike, ARC Trainer, Eliptical, Treadmill)
• Timer

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It’s a cardiovascular workout  that uses cycles of high intensity exercise interspersed with intervals of lower intensity recovery. The best way to think of HIIT is look back at when you were a kid. This is where you run a block, walk a bit to catch your breath, then run again.

HIIT cardio came into the mainstream fitness world starting in the mid 90s. Researchers discovered that using intense intervals over short bursts improved  VO2 max (a measure of aerobic capacity), and improves anaerobic performance. What does that mean in layman terms? You improve your endurance and your strength by doing a shorter, faster workout.

My introduction to HIIT came via the now defunct Muscle Media magazine. In an article by Shawn Phillips, he introduced me to the workout that would help change my life. His method was short and simple. Do a short, intense workout of 30 seconds of all out sprint, followed by 30 seconds of lower intensity recovery. Do this for 4 minutes. That’s it, just 4 minutes. Over several weeks, you add a minute of intervals every few days  until you hit 15 minutes.

I didn’t care about that. All I cared about was 4 minutes. At that point in time, walking up the stairs was hard. Looking at the “simple” cardio workouts in various books and magazines. Even 20 minutes seemed too long. But I could do 4 minutes. I built my life around suffering like a dog for 30 seconds. As hard as it was, I unloaded everything I had into those 30 sprint intervals. At the end of 8 weeks, I was at 15 minutes of work, 20 pounds down, and feeling amazing.

I’ve taken the original Shawn Phillips HIIT and modified it. For this workout you will add a 5 minute warm up and cool down to your overall time.

Downloadable 30-30 HIIT Workout Chart

A quick Google search returns over 300 million hits on the search “weight loss”.  The variety of methods available is mind boggling. There is literally an exercise program for everyone. They range from time tested methods of weight training to strange torture devices. From CrossFit to wearing shoes which alter your gait the possibilities are endless. So how do you deal with this flood of information when you are starting out?

Pick one system. Stick with that system for at least 12 weeks. Don’t make alterations, don’t add or subtract anything for that 12 weeks. At the end of that 12 weeks, evaluate your progress and then make changes.

It’s easy to keep adding new pieces to your workouts. You see or hear about a new move that is supposed to make it even easier to lose weight. What you may not realize is that adding that new move in is actually making things more difficult. Just like the danger of too many cooks in the kitchen spoiling the soup, the same thing happens with workouts. The more you add, the less progress you make.

Pick one thing.

Some of my favorites:

Couch to 5k- This is a great program for folks who are looking to get into running. It has you building mileage gradually, and it can get just about anyone up and running.

Beginner Triathlon Training-  Looking to be a multi-sport athlete? This is the place to start. Swim, Ride, and Run yourself into fitness.

Body for Life -Body for LifeThis is the granddaddy of transformation style fitness programs. Simple, includes both workouts and nutrition information, and just plain works. This is what I originally used to drop 60 pounds. It’s a little thin on information to help keep you injury free.

The IMPACT! Body Plan- One of my current favorites. Todd Durkin is a great trainer, and his simple to follow program will get you moving, and help keep you injury free.

If you want a little more help putting together a workout program, consider getting a personal trainer. A good trainer will design a program specifically for you, not just hand you a cookie cutter program. By addressing your individual needs, a trainer will help you get stronger, healthier, and stay injury free.

The goal is to get healthier, not prove how much you know about how to get healthy. So pick one thing and stick with it.

What workout program are you planning to use to help move yourself forward?

Who were you before you out yourself last? At some point in time, things changed. You stopped looking at your own dreams and needs and began focusing on others. It seemed like the right thing. After all, being selfish isn’t a good thing. Society tells us that over and over. As an employee, you need to work hard for your employer. As a spouse, you need to be attentive to the needs of your other. A parent is the center of his child’s word, and naturally the needs of the child always come first.

Society considers these truths to be close to gospel. So somewhere along the way, you shifted from first to last. Who were you? Were you a talented musician who gave up a dream to get a real job? Were you an athlete who finished up your glory days in college and found yourself adrift, no real direction? Were you the dedicated professional who shifted from being the boss at work to being a stay at home mom? You look back into the past and feel the tug of what used to be.

Maybe you never put yourself first at all. For a moment, think about who you would like to be. Confident, strong, in control of your life; all the things you aren’t now.

Getting control of your health and fitness is the ultimate selfish act. It requires that you put your needs in front of just about everything. This is one of the reasons people fail. There’s a belief that this type of selfish behavior is wrong. It somehow hurts others. Now sure in the short run it may cause issues. Being late to work because you were at the gym may cause some stress with the boss. That stress is offset by the fact that you are sharper and more alert in meetings. Your spouse may think you are cheating on them when you hit the gym. Take them with you and watch your relationship grow and strengthen. Your kids discover that you aren’t at their beck and call. They learn to be responsible and not wait until 9pm on Sunday to let you know they have a project due. They learn healthy eating habits and avoid a lifetime of health issues.

Who were you before you started putting yourself last? In a way it doesn’t matter. What matters is the person you become when you learn to put yourself first. You become the athlete, the musician, and the power CEO. You find strength you never imagined possible as you lift up the others around you. Putting yourself first allows you to become someone remarkable.

Are you ready to be remarkable?