Hey guys, it’s your coach Mike here. I hope that everything is going well for you, and that you are approaching the holiday season with ease…BUT still working towards your fitness goals.
This is honestly my favorite time of year, there is truly so much to be thankful for… children, spouses, family, beautiful weather, football season, and of course… deer season (I know I’ve got some hunters who read this. :-) )
This is also the time of year where we can get into serious trouble with our fitness journeys if we are not careful. There are so many varying reports on how much weight the ‘average American’ gains during the holiday season. I have seen reports claiming that the average American gains as much as a ludicrous 15 pounds, but I’ve also seen reports claiming that we gain as little as 1 pound per holiday. My personal opinion is that it is somewhere in between… I think on average I have gained around 3 to 5 pounds during the holiday season in the past. Now 3 pounds is anything to really worry about is it? Most of us could lose 3 pounds in a matter of a couple of weeks – three weeks at max.
In my humble opinion, the weight gain is truly the least of our worries over this holiday season… here’s what is troubling though.
Although the number will vary from person to person, studies have shown that it takes somewhere around 20 days to form a habit. Guess how long the holiday season lasts for most folks? A little over a month!
Now, you might be saying ‘no way, not me!’, but hear me out. Tell me if this sounds like you.
You’re off work a day or so before Thanksgiving, you’ve been working hard and it’s time to relax! (Keep in mind that many people have off either half that week or the whole week actually.) So you relax and enjoy a nice Thanksgiving meal…. and then another…. because you know you’re not going to eat just one. :-) You enjoy all of the sweets and all of the foods that you truly love. You’ve done a little damage, but no big deal really.
Here’s where the real problem starts.
That next week you remember how good all of those foods tasted… so you continue to blow your diet for an entire week following Thanksgiving. At this point, you’re anywhere between 10 and 14 days into a bad eating cycle. This where your brain starts telling you “hey, let’s just make it through the end of this year, and we can start over in January. We will start over totally fresh, and then you’ll be able to bring it with your diet and lose the weight easily!”
You just procrastinated, and now you’re TRAPPED!
You go up to another three weeks before beginning dieting and exercising regularly again in January. Again, you may not have gained a lot of weight over this time… But guess what the real problem is? You have now formed a series of SERIOUSLY BAD HABITS over the last 4 to 5 weeks.
I personally believe that this is one of the many reasons that most of us fail to follow through with our New Year’s resolutions to get fit. We have ingrained such bad habits that is almost impossible to instantly change them on January 1. FRANKLY… YOU CANNOT WAKE UP A BRAND-NEW PERSON ON JANUARY 1st. We are who we are – bad habits and all.
So, what will you do differently RIGHT NOW that will help you be more successful in 2014?
I want to offer you these three options:
1 – Get involved in my next challenge group starting Monday, October 28. Sorry for the late notice. The group last 30 days and ends right before the Thanksgiving holiday. In the next 30 days you will be concentrating and building GOOD HABITS that will help carry you through the holiday season. Many of you already have programs like P90X or Insanity, so why not get involved!?!
***FYI – if you do want to do this, then you will need to let me know very quickly. As I said it is a very late notice on this, and I will be forming the group THIS weeked. So, please respond ASAP.
2 – Get involved with our 1-Week clean eating challenge in November. There is no set date for this yet, but I am thinking about doing it either the week before Thanksgiving, or the week right afterwards in order to get us all back on track… If we slip up that is. :-)
For this challenge I will be providing a one-week meal plan, that includes replacing one meal per day with daily Shakeology. If you already have Shakeology, then you’re all set. If you do not, then you will have the option to buy five single serving packets from me so that you can take part of this challenge. I will sell them to you at my cost, so they will be as cheap as possible.
*** If this is something you want to hear more about, then go and like my Facebook page. I will make the announcements on that page when this one week challenge will run. www.facebook.com/teamironman
3 – We should all be doing this anyhow, but this next option involves keeping track of what we eat over the holiday season. Personal use an app called MyFitnessPal and I highly recommend it. My username on there is ‘teamironman’ if you care to add me as a buddy.
If you have never heard of this app, then you really need to go and check it out. It is totally free and very useful. I will post a link to a video below that shows you exactly how I plan my meals and how I hit my goal percentages. It’s very easy to do!
How to track your foods –> http://youtu.be/r_nXI8pC0zU
Tracking what we eat may not sound like a big advantage to most people. However, when you physically take the time to look at what you are putting into your body, it makes you look at food a different way. For example, it’s easy to eat a candy bar and just forget about it. However, it’s much more difficult to eat that candy bar and know you have to enter it into your application for tracking. When you watch your percentages go in the WRONG DIRECTION it does something to your brain. It’s very similar to spending money. Swiping that debit card or credit card is simple… as there is very little emotion attached to it. However handing over cold hard cash stings a little bit and makes you think about the purchase you are making.
So, do yourself a favor and start tracking whether you plan to be a part of my next challenges or not. It will make a difference in your fitness goals.
Finally, I sincerely hope that you decide to get involved with some of my groups. They are an excellent way to find motivation and work as a TEAM towards our individual goals. When people join and truly ENGAGE… that is where the magic happens!
PROMO:
I wanted to also let you guys know of a promotion that Beachbody is currently running. I’m not telling you this so much to sell, as I know many of you already own P90X. However, I would have personally like to have known about this promotion back in the day when I purchased P90X. This would have definitely been the route I would have taken.
Anyhow for the next six or seven days you can get a P90X challenge pack for $90 off. This is the absolute cheapest I have ever seen a legitimate P90X pack sell for. You can get both Shakeology and P90X for $180 with free shipping. Considering that Shakeology runs for $130 a month, you’re basically getting a world-class program for only 50 bucks. You really can’t beat that deal.
Here is a link with more information about what a challenge pack consists of –> http://youtu.be/VqUatOARXxQ
If you would like to take advantage of the deal, please that me know as soon as possible. As I mentioned above, you only have about six or seven days until this ends. It will likely be the last time this happens, as P90X3 comes out in December. Be looking for more on that later!
Okay, I am finally done! I apologize for the novel… but sometimes important things take a while to say. Have a very blessed weekend, and I look forward to serving you and helping anyway that I can.
God bless!
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