Here’s my latest column at The Soko.

Be on the lookout for Inside Fitness Magazine if you’re in Canada. I have a 20 minute workout in there for ya.

 Just Want To Live A Little?

Human beings have fascinating psychological views and actions, in my opinion.  The food we know is not good for us, we still eat.  The workouts we know would help us get back into shape, we decide to not be consistent with them.

Some people realize that their health is what actually keeps them alive, but they’d rather spend their money on a monster television rather than a gym membership or a personal training service.

Why, though?

The typical answer I seem to get when I point out to someone that a chocolate bar isn’t exactly the best kind of snack in the world is this: “Why can’t I just live a little?”

Can We Break That Train of Thought?

I’m guilty of this at times too.  I mean, I’ve already confessed to you my love for hot dogs in a previous article.

My job as a fitness coach is to solve people’s fitness problems.  This whole ‘living a little’ philosophy is a rampant problem with many people, so I have to try and help them with it.

Just to make it clear right now, I’m not going to be telling you to never eat a bad thing ever again in your life.  That’s just stupid.  It’s okay to have cheat meals; you just need to be smarter and more organized about your choices.

I have here a list of a few possible solutions that may help you make better choices more consistently.

Understanding Your Top Priority

If you don’t have your health, you really don’t have anything.  If you’re sick from being drunk the night before, your health suffers, and it’s really hard to enjoy the next day with all the headaches and potential vomiting.  But in today’s society, that’s apparently the ultimate symbol of living a little.

Of course, that’s an example, and yes, I do drink alcohol on some occasions, but never like that.  I’ve realized my priorities on it.  In college I would drink.  When I tore my hamstring that threatened my baseball career, I actually started to drink fairly heavily.  The only priority I had was having fun and trying to run away from my circumstances.  Obviously that kind of attitude didn’t exactly help my recovery from the injury very much, because my health wasn’t my number one priority.

When I finally realized what my top priority should be, I quit drinking for a while.  And it was easy to do, because I had a new set of rules governing my life.

What’s your top priority?  It could be the difference between you buying that monster television or taking the steps to actually getting the body you want.

Surround Yourself With Your Goals

Put them everywhere.  Put them in your bedroom, in your wallet, in your car, on your mirrors, on the fridge, on the television and on your favourite junk food.  Get a bunch of those yellow post-it notes and write your goals on them.

Put them everywhere – literally.  Make sure your goals are always going to be fresh in your mind.  That will help when those ‘live a little’ decisions come your way.

Just ask yourself, “Will this decision HELP me towards my goals, or push me AWAY from my goals?”

Keep Visiting

Keep visiting sites like The Soko to try and find advice or tips that will work for you.  Maybe my stuff makes more sense to you than others, maybe not.

Organize your day so that you can read at least one article that relates to your fitness goals, so that you can learn along the way too.

This strategy can motivate you to keep working hard on your goals and not let those annoying decoys (the living a little decoys) get in the way of your goals and dreams.

________________________________________
living a little or dying a little?

When you buy into the living a little philosophy, which I think we all should do sometimes, are you actually living a little or are you dying a little?  I mean, eating tons of sugary food isn’t good for you, and if you do it enough, you might be on your way to a shorter life when you think about it.

But the key thing here is doing it consistently.  Organize your diet or your life to the point that you can enjoy some cheat meals during the week, or if you really want that monster television, make sure you’ve accomplished conquering your top priority first.  Hell, you might not even want the television anymore with your new body and new-found energy.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

If you’ve emailed me last week, I will get back to you this week.

Last week was just a little too nuts for me at some points with all
the travel I did.

Before I get to this week’s edition I want to just tell you about a
couple fitness sales going on. Remember, this is just for people
INTERESTED in knowing about them.

If you’re not interested, don’t worry about them.

First, Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training is celebrating his
birthday for the next 3 days (if you’re on other fitness pros list,
you’ll probably be getting a lot of emails about it, just a warning).

Anyways, he’s got some great additions he’s added to the package, and
once you’ve bought it once you’ll always get new bonuses for life.

I bought his program last June and since then he’s given out some
pretty sweet bonuses after the fact.

So IF interested go to Turbulence Training.

Second, Mike Geary of Truth About Abs is doing a $4.95 trial offer
on his best selling program.

So IF interested about that go to Truth About Abs.

Alright, let’s get on to the crazy thougths in my head:

- The big Apple Blossom Festival happened this week in Winchester.
Jerry Rice was even here. Anyways, you know what the snack of choice
was? FRIED OREOS….I’m pretty sure I saw a few people grab their
chest immediately after scarfing them down.

- I was at a baseball tryout with a pro team on Tuesday and our warm
up was all static stretching. I guess I just assumed the industry
was a lot farther along. I had to re-warmup right after our supposed
warm up.

- A guy at the high school came up to me the other day frustrated as
to why he’s only lost 10 pounds in 4 weeks. I’m pretty sure I hate
The Biggest Loser for putting this crazy weight loss crap in people’s
heads.

- The best part about my job, changing people’s lives.

- I promised you the 100 Calorie Snack report last week. Here’s the
download link: 100 Calorie Report by Jayson Hunter

- I have a list of exercises that are pretty much always found in
my programs. One of them is the pull-ups. They are far more better
for you then pulldowns. If you can’t do a regular pullup then try a
horizontal pullup.

*Set the barbell at a height, typically a touch about your waist level.
Then lay underneath the bar and grab so you’re hanging with just your
heels are touching the floor (or bend your legs and have the soles
of your feet touching for beginners). The pull your chest to the bar
as many times as you can.*

- I may repeat myself quite abit but it’s only because I’ve found that
people just don’t get things right away sometimes. It takes constant
reminding and teaching.

- quote of the week: “Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what
you’re up to.”

- I understand that fat loss training can seem complicated at times,
but the best way to learn is by doing. So go out and try to figure
out what works for you. You don’t have to follow what everybody else
is doing. You can get in great shape in about 15 minutes, 3-4 times
a week. I wrote an article about it at The Soko.

Here’s the link to it: http://thesoko.com/thesoko/content.html?name=News&file=article&sid=1710

Have a great week,

Dan Grant

PS - What’s your number one question about fat loss training? Email
me and let me know. Thanks. admin @ dangrantfitness.com