How To Make 2007 Your Year to Get into Shape

Here we are, already two weeks into the New Year. You know I have to ask...how is that fitness resolution coming along?

If the pounds haven't budged yet, don't panic. I have some words of wisdom for you to live by this year - words that will aide in getting you to your fitness goal.

Shoot for dropping a pound a week.

Now, this may not seem like that much, but if you did this consistently for the rest of the year it would result in 50 lbs lost. This may be extreme for you, but the good news is that once you achieve your idea body, maintenance is a breeze. How great would it be to begin 2008 with a brand new body?

This all sound well and good, but how do you go about the business of shedding that pound each week? I am here to tell you that it doesn't have to be allusive, mysterious or frustrating. In fact, with a little calculation, you can consistently drop one pound a week until you reach your goal.

All it takes are small changes in your daily lifestyle. Let's break the process down...

How to shed a pound a week: Burn 3500 cal. more than normal.

It's that simple! No fancy pills or powders necessary, just a progression of calories exerted without an increase in calories consumed. Try the following three steps:

1. Record your normal weekly exercise - look at everything from walking to participating in sports to exercising in the gym. This is your starting point. You need to burn an additional 3500 calories on top of your normal weekly exercise.

If you don't currently exercise, then this step is really easy for you, a simple blank page will do.

2. Record your normal weekly food intake - this may be hard to do honestly, but remember that you are only cheating yourself by not recording everything. Calculate the total number of calories that you eat in an average day.

In your quest for dropping inches you shouldn't exceed your normal daily caloric intake - you should, rather, work at slowly decreasing that number.

Remember, we are going for a 3500 calorie deficit each week - this can be done by a combination of increased calorie exertion (exercise) as well as a decrease in calories consumed (eating less).

3. Chart the difference - now that you know your starting point for both calorie exertion and calorie intake it is time to turn the tables in your favor. Take every opportunity to exert more calories by increasing your physical activity, and to decrease your calorie consumption by eating fewer calories and by making healthier selections.

Record your progress in a notebook and refer back to it often. You will be surprised how encouraging it is to see the positive changes that you are taking in your life written down on paper.

If you burn up 500 calories a day you will drop a pound in a week.

Nordine's Mindful Tip

How many times have you made resolutions that lasted just about the same amount of time it takes to read this sentence? Don't feel bad. Out of 10 people, eight won't keep their resolutions for more than a month.

Whether it's working out regularly, "releasing weight" (my dear friend John Assaraf likes these words as opposed to "losing weight", I will tell you why in another issue) or changing your diet, they are most often directed at making us feel better about ourselves.

Mindful Tip
Why are these goals likely to fail? Much of the problem is with your mind-set and a lack of planning, as well as getting the wrong information. Being aware of what the obstacles will be and how to avoid them is crucial in setting goals and actually achieving them.

Mindful Wisdom
Accept who you are and what your current life situation is. When you reject your situation it tends to stick to you like glue. What you resist persists; I am sure you've heard this before.

Mindful Action
Make a conscious choice and go for it. When challenges arise we tend to revert back to our old condition. That's a normal mind event. Go over the threshold and climb back up, you will only be closer to your dreams. Changing a habit is just a matter of finding another one; a more positive one that will give you a benefit, even if it is a delayed benefit such as exercising. Immediate benefit such as feeling good by, say, smoking a cigarette, is deadly and you know it. Besides, it takes 10-15 minutes for a smoke break -try to add it up in weeks and years, you will soon find out that it's an absurd waste of time, money and life as opposed to more time to play, more money to spend and more oxygen to breathe.

Holiday Binge

The average American eats, on average, about 60,000 calories during the entire festivities of the year (Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas, New Years', etc). That's a total of 30 days, as the festivities always start early. All those extra calories translate into a total gain of over 17 pounds of fat (1lb of fat = 3500 calories). It takes from 8 to 16 weeks to lose the weight. So why not be a little more aware?

Mindful Wisdom
When the next holiday approaches, make yourself a promise to indulge in a mindful fashion. Respect your hard work: don't destroy what you've achieved the rest of the year. If you have to go full-blown into the celebrations, do it the day of the celebration, not an entire week before.

Mindful Action
Eat mindfully by chewing each bite 20 to 30 times. Drink a glass of water prior to each meal, eat the protein portion first, pause for a few minutes, eat the carbs (leave the sweets for the end of the meal), pause, then if you still have room get to the dessert. I doubt you'll have any room left. A meal should last 30 to 45 minutes. In France, where I come from, we take about an hour to eat a full course meal. Do you see a lot of overweight people in France?

To control Holiday Binge and preserve your hard work: click on the title of this article.

Take your cardio workout to a new level with HIIT

Take your cardio workout to a new level with HIIT

Can you think of anything more torturous than spending an hour pedaling away on a bike or plodding along on the treadmill? You're not alone. Most exercise enthusiasts dread conventional cardio - why?

Because it's b-o-r-i-n-g.

So why do it at all? The goal of a cardio workout is to lose the unwanted inches and to develop the efficiency of your heart and lungs. But new studies are out that show our slow-go cardio sessions may not be as effective for burning off that holiday bulge as we thought.

When you plod along on the treadmill at an even pace, your body enters what is called a steady state. This means that your body has adjusted to the pace and is now trying to conserve energy.

Conserve energy? But I thought the point was toburnenergy?

And so your dilemma goes: You can't stand the monotony of traditional cardio and it leaves you with less than satisfactory results. So what should you do?

The answer is HIIT, a new training technique that blasts both boredom and fat.


Check out what experts are saying:

"In research, HIIT has been shown to burn adipose (fat) tissue more effectively than low-intensity exercise - up to 50% more efficiently."

"HIIT speeds up your metabolism and keeps it revved up for some time after your workout. The bottom line is that HIIT training burns a greater number of total calories than low-intensity training, and more calories burned equals less fat on your body."

What is HIIT?

High-Intensity Interval Training: is an exercise strategy that improves performance with short training sessions. These sessions involve a warm up period, several short, maximum-intensity efforts that are separated by moderate recovery intervals, and a cool down period.

In other words, your 60 minutes of low-intensity cardio is replaced with more effective, High Intensity Interval Training for as little as 15 minutes. The addition of explosions of speed into your comfortable pace will increase your power, muscle tone, speed, strength, endurance and best of all will melt the inches off.

Here is an example of a HIIT program - this can be done on any form of cardio equipment or even jogging outside or swimming laps:

• Start with an easy 4 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.
• Once you are sufficiently warm, sky rocket your intensity for 30 seconds.
• Return to your normal pace for the next 30 seconds and then sky rocket again.
• Repeat this 30-30 interval for 6 minutes and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.

After your HIIT session you can expect to burn more calories due to an increase in your metabolism - sounds good, right? If you aren't ready to jump into a full-fledged HIIT session, try on of the following modified HIIT workouts:

Modified HIIT 1:

• Start with at least a 5 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.
• Once you are sufficiently warm, increase your intensity for a full minute.
• Return to your normal pace and remain here until you have recovered enough to go again.
• Repeat this 1 minute interval with full recovery time between each one for the full extent of your workout and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.

Modified HIIT 2:

• Start with at least a 5 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.
• Once you are sufficiently warm, change your speed and intensity for 2 minutes.
• Return to your normal pace for 2 minutes and then change your intensity and speed again. The key is to keep your body guessing - you aren't doing full intensity work, but you also aren't staying at the same pace for the entire length of the workout.
• Repeat this 2 minute interval for the full extent of your workout and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.

There you have it - all you need to take your cardio workout to the next level. Do you have questions about the information presented in this newsletter? Or how would you like to slim down just in time for the holidays? I can help. And best of all I have many more strategies and techniques to help you achieve maximum results in minimum time.

I want to talk with you, one-on-one, to design an exercise program that will fit your unique goals. Just click here.

NEW- Nordine's Workout " A la Carte" MENU

Check out our new Nordine's Workout Plans from the "a la carte" menu. These perfectly safe and effective plans are designed by Nordine to target specific areas of the body. You can choose from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels, and whether you want to use free weights, an exercise machine, a physio ball or a combo fo the three.


Click here and get your plan today!

Activate Your Fitness Brain During The Holidays

Free Teleseminar

Stress and a ten-pound weight gain over the holiday season are not as inevitable as the ugly scarves Aunt Mabel always knits you for Christmas. Join us and learn how it is possible to stay fit and healthy over the holidays without spending endless hours at the gym.

You'll learn:

* Why it's so hard to stick to a new resolution
* How we can successfully get rid of old bad habits

* Using exercise to reduce stress
* The most effective motivational tool one can use and more!

Activate Your Fitness Brain During The Holidays will be presented on Tuesday, November 21, from 7:00-8:00 pm Mountain Standard Time. (9:00 - 10:00 pm Eastern, 8:00-9:00 pm Central, 6:00-7:00 pm Pacific.) Go to www.financialmagic.net to register. The seminar is free.

Our special guest, Nordine Zouareg, is a Mindful Fitness Revolution coach and founder of Triple Impact, LLC, (http://www.tripleimpactcoaching.com/) and an internationally known fitness expert who developed and led the Body Mindfulness Center at "Miraval - Life In Balance", the world-renowned resort/spa in Arizona.

Inspiration

From Health Struggles to Health Triumph

A Mother Shares Her Son's Touching MIO Story

"My son, Calvin, first started having health issues at the age of four. Through nine years of misdiagnoses and endless treatments, his condition continued to deteriorate. He required an electric scooter at school and a wheelchair when he went anywhere with our family. He would go to bed at 7:00 p.m. and still wake up tired. Fatigue was his constant complaint; he was unable to walk very far, especially if he was forced to go faster than his comfortable pace. FINALLY, after years of watching my son struggle, we received a correct diagnosis.

After a trip to the Mayo Clinic, the doctors determined that Calvin had a genetic defect called McArdle's disease. He was missing an enzyme in his muscle cells which is normally needed to break down glycogen into glucose for energy. So, with any muscle activity, his energy levels quickly depleted from his body.

Fortunately, we found a research specialist who studies the effects of controlled exercise in patients with Calvin's condition. He underwent bicycle stress testing and was placed on a controlled walking program. His body would struggle for the first 7 -10 minutes, and then kick over to use alternate energy forms such as blood glucose. To be certain that he wasn't overdoing it, we needed to constantly monitor his heart rate. It would initially go up more than expected, but then drop about 10 -15 beats per minute once his body switched from muscle glucose to blood glucose.

He is now 14 and definitely fond of electronic gadgets, so using a heart rate monitor was natural. He is a discerning customer though, and we went through several makes and models before discovering MIO. He loves the comfort, and we both notice that MIO is much more accurate and easy to use than the others he has tried. One year later, after walking and using his MIO to maintain an appropriate heart rate during exercise, he has dropped his resting heart rate from 101 to 70 beats per minute! Thanks to MIO, he is maintaining his health routine. This has made all the difference in the world to Calvin and he couldn't be happier! He is like a new person: no longer tired all the time and more social with his friends -exactly the way a young boy's life should be. I just thought that I would share this success story and thank you for making such a wonderful product."

Yours in health,
Tammy S.

Source: Physi-Cal

What's Up With That?!

I was walking out of the health club today after a great workout, feeling rejuvenate and relaxed. While walking towards my car, I noticed two ladies headed for the health club entrance and while walking they each lit up a cigarette; they were wearing gym clothes and were going to work out.

You are probably thinking that this doesn't make much sense, trying to get in shape but at the same time, killing yourself. This is not a strange thing to me. I've seen it so many times, especially in Europe. You see, those ladies are thinking that they are trying to be healthier by going to the gym - they read somewhere that it's a good thing, or someone told them they needed to workout or maybe the doctor prescribed exercise.

But did anyone explain to them that in order to get in shape and be healthy they actually need to do something about their belief system, about their current lifestyle, their current environment and so on?

Have you heard of the gentleman who after getting a triple bypass surgery started to smoke immediately after getting discharged from the hospital? Well it's nothing out of the ordinary to me; I have coached thousands of clients for over twenty years and the answer to behavioral change resides somewhere else than any data you have been given. It resides within your heart and if you really want to change you must learn to listen to it. No fitness program, not diet book, no fitness video will work if you haven't checked-in with your heart.

THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING

If you missed the Larry King Live show with my dear friend John Assaraf?

Please click the link below:

http://www.onecoach.com/Public/Home/LarryKingPage/index.cfm

Attitude

Today while going through my old files at home, I stumbled upon one of the most important wisdom I had kept for a long time. I wanted you to have it.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than the facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you, we are in charge of our attitude.

Charles Swindoll