Results Will Come, Be Patient!

Ok, so you started a workout program. You are doing P90x, Insanity, going to the gym more, congratulations, awesome! 2 weeks into your program you step on a scale, you look in the mirror, you get out the measuring tape and your "results" are not what you had hoped. Rewind for a second...its been 2 weeks. So often, in the Team Beachbody chat rooms or on the message boards I see people who are upset with their progress because they haven't lost lbs. or they are not seeing abs yet. This type of behavior just leads to obsessiveness, and believe me i know obsessiveness (i have OCD).

I used to constantly freak out about the same stuff! "How come I don't look like the guys in the video". You have to realize that these workouts take time. The "look" is the icing on the cake; what I learned to really do is just enjoy the hard work I put in and I try to have fun with it. I enjoy the health benefits, the increased energy, and the highs from working out. Sure looking in the mirror is nice every now and then, and keeping track of your progress is important, but step off the scale, stop thinking about doing it just right...show up, commit, do the workouts.

Don't think about the end result, just take it one day at a time. If you constantly compare yourself or measure yourself every day you are never going to live up to these ridiculous standards you are putting on yourself! It is never going to end. Eat well, do your best, commit, and the results will come...be patient!

As always, find me on twitter (@CoachZoso), Team Beachbody, or on my facebook fan page listed above! Always want to hear from you, so email me!

-Tim

Take Care of Yourself

This is not just a blog post about fitness. This is about total wellness. A lot of us are running around all day, thinking a million thoughts and "to do's". We never stop and take time for ourselves. I am not talking about sitting in front of a television, playing videogames, or drinking a beer. I am talking about stopping to sort of be with yourself and reflect. Take a walk, listen to some relaxing music, meditate, read. Do something with you and only you. You have to take care of yourself.

If you are working out 6 times a week, 2 times a week, no times a week you need to stop and take care of yourself and love yourself. I don't mind sit there and hug yourself (though that is awesome too), I mean accept yourself. It took me awhile to cultivate a loving-kindess for myself, and I am still doing it, but once you learn to accept yourself you are going to be a happier person for it. Some people say to me, "But I do love myself, I totally do," and yet when they constantly beat themselves up, judge themselves over every mistake, thought, or imperfection they possess. They never stop to give themselves that unconditional love and acceptance, so I tend not to believe them. We are all afraid of silence, of the pain and emotion that can arise if we are constantly not being stimulated or constantly doing something. Sleep problems are at a high, anxiety and hypertension are constantly on the rise, and not to mention depression. Do yourself a favor...stop reading this post right now...take 3 breaths. With each in-breath say "in breath" with each out breath say "out breath". Notice what you feel, see, sense in your body, what you think. Accept what is in you what is around you, you will learn to love yourself and love others better. You have everything you need.

Catastrophe happens, things go wrong, plans change. If you love yourself you will be okay with all of that. If you take care of yourself and accept yourself no external change or failure is going to shake you too much.


"You could search the world over and never find anyone as deserving of your love as yourself" - Buddha

Get in touch with me if you want to relax or learn how to :). I am still learning. Also if you want to get in RIPPED AMAZING SHAPE BRAWRRRRR!!!! Hahaha. No but drop me a line.

CoachZo

Work Out For You!

Too often, folks get the idea in their head that they need to be the epitome of fitness for someone else. They think, "Oh if I just practice good nutrition habits and get into fitness, my girlfriend, my family, my friends will all like me better." This is kind of a subtle aggression towards yourself, you are thinking that you are not good enough for them and need to change. Don't approach fitness this way! That is how I started, and it only made me neurotic and unhappy.

Fitness, nutrition, lifestyle changes should be for you and for no one else. If you don't go into a transformation process with a love and acceptance of who you are, whats the point? You are just going to come out just as unhappy. You will be seeking out compliments all the time instead of being content with your hard fitness work and change in eating habits. You can have 2% body fat and have the most shredded body, but if you don't love yourself for the right reasons, you are not going to enjoy life.

The compliments are great bonuses, great icing on the cake, but in reality what feels best is a genuine acceptance of yourself and a sort of pride for the hard work you have devoted to getting into shape.

When we think about working out, or getting into fitness we often look at other people. Guys who are ripped, girls who are slender and we think "If I could only look like them, I'd be so happy." This is an ignorant stance. Be you. Trying to look like someone else, or be someone else is setting yourself up for failure cause you will never be them. Sure it is fine to be inspired by someone (heck I am inspired by Tony Horton, creator of P90x every day), but just be you, just do you.

We also think, when we see these super in-shape folks who are fitness gods or what-not doing 80 pushups and lifting 50 lb dumbells that "I could never do that." It is a process! Change it to "I presently struggle with," and then with time you will find that you can do it. You can do pullups, you can run a mile or two or three without stopping. This goes back to an earlier post where I mentioned how American's want quick results and hate themselves. There are no quick fixes! Don't get stuck in a comfort zone and give up before even trying! Use the coaches, the trainers for motivation but ultimately do the work for you.

Find me on twitter (@CoachZoso) and please like/fan my facebook pages on the top right :). Get in touch with me ASAP if you have questions or want some coaching, or just wanna talk.

CoachZoso

Step off the Scale! Weighing Yourself Hurts your Fitness Goals!

So I was talking to a resident who lives in my dorm. She had tried P90x for a month and then quit. She told me that the scale wasn't showing any drop in weight. She kept weighing herself and she was the same. Finally at the end of thirty days, she gave up because the scale just wasn't showing the number that she wanted it to. Here is an important tip: the scale is misleading and not the best way to gauge your fitness and overall health!

There are a lot of things that factor into what the scale will read throughout the day. I once sweat a lb. and a half of sweat off my body, then I drank a bunch of a water and the lb. and a half returned. My point is that the amount of water we drink, how much we sweat, how big of a meal we have...all of this effects your weight. We generally weigh more at night than in the morning. Our weight fluctuates so much throughout the day, and too many people think that little number on the scale is what matters. They think that they are that number, they identify with it and forget the hard work they are putting into their nutrition and fitness. Stepping on the scale constantly is an easy way to set up yourself for self aggression and judgment. Sure if you lost a few lbs in a couple weeks, great! But if you didn't, you are going to hate yourself. Just roll with the highs of eating and living better. Don't succumb to the highs and lows of the scale, not worth it friends.

You are not that number folks. When you undertake a workout program or nutrition change you need to think about the work you actually do. Be in the moment of your workout, be in the moment of eating that healthy meal. Don't think about the end result. When I first got into fitness I thought I would look like Shaun T (Insanity guy below) after 2 months of Insanity. Reality check! These transformations take time and they are only hindered by constantly stepping on the scale. We think about the end result too much! We feel defeated when that number doesn't go down. Focus on your workouts, on the energy you feel, the yummy endorphins swimming in your brain, the delicious healthy food you eat. That is you. Not some number. I don't even weigh myself anymore during a program. I wait the entire length of the program and check my weight because I want to be "in the workout". I want to live with the fitness and the nutrition. That is the best way to approach this stuff. It took me awhile to realize that, but it is truth!

Other measures of health: resting heart rate, cholesterol levels, how your clothes feel, body fat % (get some calipers), energy during workouts, amount of pushups/pullups/jumping jacks/miles etc you can run or do, clothing measurements

Please, step off the scale. You will feel better.

CoachZoso