Bodybuilding Can Be Beautiful & Artistic
Bodybuilding Can Be Beautiful & Artistic
Goal Setting is a Must For Fitness and Fat loss
If you want to build your best body you must get a fire lit underneath you. Having a great physique will not just happen if you do not get some leverage. You must put pressure on your self and create a deadline. For me, it was a bodybuilding contest. The fear of standing in front of people in my underwear, fat and unimpressive scared the crap out of me. When ever I would commit to a contest, I ate, trained, and thought like a champion for 12 weeks.
For you, maybe your pressure and your deadline is a wedding, or a vacation, or a “glamour” photo shoot, or a professional engagement.
One facet of most people’s fitness and fat loss programs that usually gets over looked is goal setting. It is a fact that only 3% of the population has a goal that last past the second week in January. You need to have something to shoot for. You also need a way to track your progress. Below is a simple, usable goal setting strategy that you can personalize for your self. Don’t work out with weights, do your cardio, and eat better and just occasionally step on the scale. This technique will not work for you.
Leverage is Key
What is leverage? It is something that gives you more strength or power than you would normally have. In order to have leverage when you set a fitness goal you must have a precise goal, an exact deadline, and you must have emotions attached to the completion of the goal. The goal is the what, and the emotions are the why. When you have a what and a why, you have leverage. You have more power to consistently get your work outs in. You have more incentive to eat small healthy meals often.
You Must Get Emotional
Plugging in your emotional reasons for wanting to peak your fitness and fat loss is crucial. It is the why to the what. It does not matter what they are; just make sure that they are real for you. Pick the top 2 or 3 emotional reasons why you must become healthier, leaner, stronger, and more energetic.
Preciseness is Paramount
Your goal cannot be “I want to lose some weight” or “I want to feel better”. A better goal would be “I am going to lose 2 inches off my waist by Nov. 5th (some date six weeks into the future).
The Scale Does Not Work
Most people make the mistake of only using the scale to see if their fat loss program is working. The scale does not tell you the whole story. It will not tell you if you are replacing fat with muscle. It will not tell you if you are losing valuable water, muscle, or fat.
Ideally you should use a one site skin fold caliper kit. It is very quick, easy, and consistently accurate. Within one minute you will know your over all body fat percentage, fat weight, and lean body mass. Armed with this info you will be able to really tell if your fitness program is working.If you are reluctant to use a skin fold caliper kit, at least use a tape measure and a scale.
A measurement around the waistline and a scale weight can let you know more than just using the scale. If the scale stays the same, but the waistline is less, then you know that you have gained muscle and lost fat. Not a precise as a skin fold caliper kit, but much better than just using the scale.
Commitment Sheet
Below is an example of our goal setting tool that we use with our clients. It is called a commitment sheet. It is a commitment that you make to yourself. It ties everything together.
I _____________ (your name) am very excited about my new, healthy, fat loss lifestyle program that I have committed to.
On __________ ( a date six weeks into the future), when I retest my body comp and take pictures, I will have;
Goals
- Lost 12 lbs. of fat
- Gained 4 lbs. of muscle
- Lost 3 inches off my waist
Emotional Elements
So that; 1. I can get off my blood pressure medication
- I can lead my family by example on how to live a healthy full life
- I can feel attractive to the opposite sex
- I can have more confidence to start my own business
______________________ (your signature)
_______________ (todays date)
The commitment sheet above can be used by you. Just put in your own emotional elements. The goals are very doable by most fat loss clients.
As you can see, the commitment sheet is written in the tense of already having accomplished the goals. Your home work now is to read the commitment sheet out loud, with a positive tone in your voice three times right before bed. And right upon wakening in the morning. There is power in the spoken word. Stand up tall, with good posture, and say it like you mean it.
These two times of the day you are in an alpha sleep state. This is prime time for you to be more susceptible to auto suggestion or self hypnosis. Your mind will go over 12-15 times what you were thinking about at these two times as it “cleans the files” while you sleep.
If you really want some goal setting power, you will focus on seeing the goal as it has already been accomplished, and feeling the emotion of accomplishing your emotional elements because of hitting your goal. So one key is to see it, and feel it, like you already have accomplished it. I highly suggest that you cut out the physique of a lean, muscular person out of a magazine or print one off of the computer. Cut out the silhouette of the body you want and put your head on it. It is important for you to see this often through out the day. I did this 15 years ago, and within 2 years I took my physique to a level that I never dreamt of and became a drug free for life competitive bodybuilder in the WNBF. It works.
What we are doing is working on that faith muscle that you can peak your fitness & health and therefore peak in all the areas of your life at any age. This is a great mental and emotional exercise. Because what I have found for myself, my trainers, and my clients is that once we believe something, with a sense of certainty deep down in our core, it will almost always become true for us.
That is what this commitment sheet can do for you. It is very powerful. I have seen well over 100 personal clients radically change their waistline, their lifestyle, and their lives by using this goal setting / visualization tool.
A fitness / fat loss lifestyle is the only true fountain of youth that exists. You DO have the power to change!!
Your Healthy Lifestyle Coach,
Darin L. Steen
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