What: A Latin-inspired fitness dance party!

When: Thursdays at 7:00 pm. Four-week series runs May 10 – May 31.

Where: Tri Valley Trainer

Who: Zumba Instructor Angela Banke

Cost: $40 four-week series, $12/class drop-in.

For more info or to register: Dan@TriValleyTrainer.com

What:A Latin-inspired fitness dance party!

When: Wednesdays at 7:00 pm. Four-week series runs May 9 – May 30.

Where: Tri Valley Trainer

Who: Zumba Instructor Angela Banke

Cost: $40 four-week series, $12/class drop-in.

For more info or to register: Dan@TriValleyTrainer.com

A few months ago I posted about Darell, the winner of a three month, company-wide fat loss competition that I conducted. When the program started, Darell weighed in at 218 lbs, with a body fat level of 30% (first picture).

When the contest ended, he’d lost 30 lbs., 4 inches from his waist and half of his body fat (second picture).

Darell always came to the weekly exercise classes and group weight loss coaching sessions; sometimes the only one in attendance. He asked lots of great questions and kept in touch in between via e-mail. He was obviously committed and put the fitness and nutrition principles we discussed to the test consistently. The contest ended around April 1st of this year.

Since then, he’s kept in touch and given me status update. The last one blew me away so I asked him to send me a more recent picture. That’s the third one above. He’s currently about 168 (sometimes lighter), and, as you can see, has clearly added some muscle as well. How much? I’d guess that he’s put between 10 and 15 lbs of lean muscle on his frame. So that means his total fat loss is really somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 lbs., and his bodyfat percentage is probably about 9%. That’s comparable to a professional athlete.

Darell was kind enough to leave me with this thought:

Thank you Darell, for reminding me why I do this every day and for serving as an inspiration to others.

How many things do you do because you want to, versus the number of things you do because you feel you have to? Is it a pretty small ratio?

Guess who has the opposite ratio?

Kids.

Wealthy people who are not defined by their wealth.

Peaceful souls who love life and appreciate their blessings.

Entrepreneurs who think of success as a game and failure as a learning opportunity.

When did you get so scared?

If you want to be in great shape, feel fantastic and look terrific, you have to want to do the things that will get you there.

That means you look forward to pushing yourself, working hard and getting sweaty. It means you enjoy planning, preparing, choosing and eating healthful food.

Until you reach that point, you won’t sustain the effort, no matter what the anticipated rewards might be. Stop looking at living a healthful lifestyle like cleaning out the garage or doing your taxes. Stop acting old, and grow up.

Lecture over.

Now, if you’re ready to start, start with breakfast.

One lean protein source (egg + 2 additional whites scrambled with frozen chopped spinach), a whole grain (small amount of granola) and a fruit or veggie (V8 will be my choice tomorrow).

Eat enough to satisfy yourself for two, but not four hours. If you exercise within a half hour of waking up (my recommendation), have breakfast afterward.

Exercise? It depends on your health and level of fitness. Start with something you know you can do. Check the index in the top left (exercise postings) for ideas and challenge yourself but don’t overdo it if you’re just starting out. If you’re healthy and already fit, push yourself.

Then when you’re done, notice how vital you feel.

And go have that great breakfast.

Here’s something my dad didn’t know when he was my age: There’s no reason for a guy (or gal) in his forties to feel any different than he did in his teens. And he can do it in just a few hours a week.

Sounds improbable? Why don’t more people do it? Here are some of the reasons I observe in my work that we “mature” people miss out on this great opportunity:

1. We spend our time doing physically inactive things we think are more important.

2. Most exercise programs are poorly structured, badly executed and largely ineffective.

3. Inertia – the more you move, the more you want to move; the same goes for moving less.

4. We buy the bill of goods that we’re supposed to be less vital as we grow older.

5. We become spoiled and fearful, reluctant to move out of our comfort zone or try something we’re not already good at, so we only exercise sporadically and without conviction or consistency.

6. We think of eating as anything but fuel for our machine; which is the role it plays for athletes.

7. As we grow older, we need more time to ramp up our level of challenge and to recover from tough workouts, so we get discouraged when we overdo it and chalk it up to inevitable achievement limitations associated with aging.

How’s that for starters? Any of these conditions sound familiar? All of them?

So now you know where to start. Dump the self-imposed boundaries and the limiting misconceptions, and make the adjustments you need to allow for the realities you now have a better understanding about. Because over the next several posts, I’m going to give you more detailed guidance on how to get in the best shape of your life when you’re halfway through it. And if you follow it and believe in yourself, it will happen.

This stuff works for me. It works for my clients in direct accordance with the degree to which they practice these principles.

And it can work for you.

Let’s see how badly you want it.