6 Principles That Will Transform Your Professional Approach

While you can easily blame your job or manager for your stressful days, the answer to your success and satisfaction may actually lie in your professional approach. Incorporate these 6 principles and redefine your business mindset today.

Don't should all over yourself

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Take action instead. While you SHOULD reflect and carefully assess most situations, you SHOULD not always tell everyone what you SHOULD be doing. Do the statements "I SHOULD go to the gym" or "I SHOULD eat better” show commitment? If you know you SHOULD do it, then why don't you do it? Be mindful of the excuses you make for yourself. You may sink into your mental quicksand if you don't start moving forward.

Solve interesting problems

Personal Trainer Wisdom: No matter your age, nothing stimulates the mind more than solving an interesting problem. It forces you to examine what you've learned and assess what you didn't. These lessons not only give you the blueprint to approach the same future problem but they will also help you develop the generalizable problem-solving skills to handle unrelated situations. Essentially, it develops your adaptability and knowledge beyond what you already know and reinforces what you’ve learned.

Know when to persist, know when to abandon

Personal Trainer Wisdom: While I value the ambition to complete a task to completion, I don’t think it should be at any cost. Far too often we carry on due to our ego...our unwillingness to give up. What if abandoning a project could save you time, effort, and money? While you may have already invested in the effort, it may not be worth the additional loss (especially if it could be better spent elsewhere). On the other hand, there are times when you should persist. No path is perfect, and you will face obstacles. Some challenges require an accessible solution rather than a termination. Fairly evaluate the situation and weigh all over your options. Don't forget to ask for educated opinions to expand your perspective.

Become less competitive to become more successful

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Although competitiveness may drive you to great heights, it may also blind you from pursuing the most appropriate path. Not only can it consume your well-being, but it can also distract you from other important parts of your life worth spending time on. While mastery or being the best can be important, always be mindful of all your needs at a given moment and fairly value what's truly most significant (no matter what anyone else is doing).

Be aware of your gut feeling

Personal Trainer Wisdom: At times, your gut may bark at you when it senses danger or a compromising position. At the same time, it may be signaling something different. Have you ever thought that you might actually be on to something when you're a little afraid...especially in business? It might be an exciting unknown that you don't know how to handle but should be willing to learn about. On the other hand, it could be your good sense to switch directions even though you're emotionally invested. Even if you don't know the root of this feeling right away, it's worth examining.

Practice your values instead of just professing them

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Modern translation: Lead by example instead of just expressing endless opinions on social media or to your colleagues. Practice what you preach.

Photo Credit:
Entrepreneur.com–Does the answer to change in your professional life lie outside of your typical office complaints?

Your Business Plan to Lose Weight (or Achieve Optimal Health)

Why do we develop business plans in the corporate and entrepreneur worlds but never for our personal health? If you're looking for a strategic change, consider this simple plan.

Section 1: Your Mission

Personal Trainer Wisdom: If you want to end the cycle of guessing and lack of control, you need to move and choose with intent. Be specific. What is your true, realistic weight loss goal and what is the objective based on? For example: To maintain a weight of ____ and a body fat of ____ while living a life with intent. Can your mission be summed up in one sentence? Do you have a bigger transformation goal in mind? This is the time to state it clearly. It will steer your approach (and the rest of your plan).

Section 2: Summary of You

Personal Trainer Wisdom: How can you build a solid foundation if you don’t know the material you’re working with? A contractor wouldn’t move forward without this awareness and you shouldn’t either. Now is the time to become a human scientist and study you! Who are you? What are the trends and patterns of you? How would you describe your emotional, mental, and physical selves? What is your approach to fitness? Do you like fitness? Why or why not? What do you prefer to eat? Why? When do you eat? How do you choose your meals? How do you handle stress? What is the relationship between this stress and other areas of your life? Be honest and list all of your attributes, strengths, and weaknesses here.

Section 3: Competitive Analysis Summary

Personal Trainer Wisdom: While your plan should be tailored to your wants and needs, you will need to analyze other weight loss and health plans to fully understand the full scope of practice. What are the most effective and efficient health models that you’ve researched? Should you reinvent the wheel or adapt a popular, successful plan? How have different body types responded to these theories? This section will not only shape the process you choose but also justify it.

Section 4: Strategy and Obstacles Summary

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Once you have observed yourself and considered the research, it’s time to develop your strategy. You will generally describe the implementation of your plan here. Include the answers to the following questions: How will this strategy reflect your strengths and weaknesses? What boundaries will you develop? How will you implement this plan? Will someone help you? What do you think will be the biggest obstacles to your goal? How will you overcome these obstacles?

Section 5: Specific Implementation

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Considering that losing weight or achieving optimal health requires a multifaceted approach, break down your strategy into several categories and specifically list what you need to incorporate into your lifestyle. Use this structure as an example:

Weight/Body Fat Accountability
-Check weight and body fat when you workout and record it on your phone (app Monitor Your Weight???? or Notes).
-Record what you're eating every day (no calorie count needed).

Nutrition
-Limit drinking alcohol to only 2 days per week.
-Print and stick the "Eating Pie Chart" (from this diet article) on your fridge as a reminder of healthy eating habits.
-If you're eating overnight....Eat a small meal before bed and when you first wake up. Post a note on your fridge that says "You will eat again when you wake up in the morning."
-Eat no more than 1 meal per day containing meat, dairy, grains, and/or refined sugar.
-Aim for a daily caloric range of 1200-1500 calories.
-Follow the recommendations for this month in the following article: Weight Loss: The Diet Questions You MUST Ask Yourself.
-Minimize caffeine to 2 cups (equals 1 small mug) of coffee per day.
-Print 1 restaurant menu: Choose a restaurant you love or want to visit and ask someone to help you figure out the best menu items.

Exercise
-5-day workout: 3 days strength/2 days cardio

Mindset
-Minimize any news content to 5 minutes per day. It will eliminate quite a bit of negativity in your life.
-Embrace new challenges as opportunities to refine your problem-solving ability.

Habits/Goals
-Write down 10 personal/professional goals on individual post-it notes and place them on your closet wall or another private place that you'll see at least once per day.
-Setup up alerts with positive messages on your phone using the app Simple Routine as reminders of goals and what you're trying to achieve.

Social Life
-Choose 1 new activity or interaction per week to satisfy your curiosity.
-Surround yourself with positive-spirited people daily.
-Seek out at least 1 person when you're in need of help.

What's missing from your business plan? What categories would you add? Tailor this section to support your mission.

Section 6: Timeline and Milestones

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Once you have decided on your steps of action, you need to develop a timeline. This section is not only important for accountability but also reflecting on your goals, what is a realistic timeframe to achieve them? What points of this process should serve as milestones? What are your realistic expectations for each of those milestones? How will you adapt this process if you don’t reach your mark?

Section 7: Financial Plan

Personal Trainer Wisdom: A financial plan can be interpreted a number of ways. In terms of monetary obligation, the range of money you spend really depends on your interests and the type of help you desire. What will you budget for a new gym, clothes, food, or personal trainer/fitness class? What areas are you willing to splurge on?

In terms of time, how many minutes will you dedicate to research, diet, meditation, and/or exercise? Within a strict schedule, what are you willing to sacrifice to make room for these endeavors? No matter what you prioritize during this section, you’ll definitely need to determine the true cost of your mission.

Photo Credit:
Fitnessbestreviews.com–How will you race to this finish line?

Article Credit:

Author: Michael Moody Fitness

5 Lessons You Need to Incorporate Into Your Life Today

Whether you’ve hit a challenging point or just want to enhance the path you’re on, you need to incorporate these lessons into your life today.

When you meet a challenge personally or professionally, ask yourself "How can I simplify this?"

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Surprisingly, the answer to minimizing the stress or demand of any situation could be as easy as simplifying it...stripping it down to the skeleton. We're often too overwhelmed when analyzing irrelevant or insignificant details and chasing fruitless paths in circles. Do you truly know the foundation of this problem? What factors are worth the most attention to solve it? What information is missing? Returning to the basics may lead to a fundamental answer. Don't move forward until you understand the root/intent of your focus and prioritize the most important elements.

Find what nobody else wants to do and do it

Personal Trainer Wisdom: When you need to create value for yourself, step forward with pride, bravery, and diligence and do the things that most people avoid. People will notice you among the masses and see you in a different light.

Remember that "a problem is a terrible thing to waste" (Peter Diamonds)

  Personal Trainer Wisdom: At what one point, I avoided problems or approached them with great haste. Why waste these opportunities to learn something new about someone else, your environment, or yourself though? You will develop a generalizable problem-solving ability and foster the mindset and skillset to handle future demands with more confidence and ability.

It's ok to pivot rather than completely give up your dream

  Personal Trainer Wisdom: Have you ever started a book and by page 100 realized you hate it...but continued to read and finish it anyway? I have (too many times) because I value persistence and resiliency! I will not give up...on anything...ever!!!! Is it always necessary to follow through with every goal or project though? Do you really need to finish that self-help book when you might find the answer you're looking for in another one (try Redefine Yourself :))? While it may seem like a badge of honor always to finish what you start, there are times when your effort is best used elsewhere (especially if the path is stressful or destructive). This couldn't be more applicable to your career or any dream in particular. I learned to pick a path and stick to it until death. Is that what we should do though? I don't believe we give ourselves enough leniency. At times in our lives, special circumstances necessitate a pivot...especially if you don't feel a sense of purpose or fulfillment. While I understand that you may have already invested a lot into this path (i.e., education, time, money, bragging, etc.), is it worth being miserable? You don't need to give up your dream or career completely. Perhaps you can still teach but not in a classroom of kids (corporate speaking or presentations). Perhaps you can still practice law but not in a private firm (state's attorney office). Your path doesn't need to be linear, but it should move forward productively and happily (why not?). Adjust when needed.

Remember that winners fail all of the time

  Personal Trainer Wisdom: We accumulate wisdom through error and the most successful entrepreneurs fail all the time. Learn from your failures to take the right approach. You never know what that experience will teach you.

 Photo Credit:
My Healthy Living Coach .com–Is the answer to your happiness between the trees?

3 Tools to Dramatically Improve Your Romantic Relationship

Optimal health extends beyond your time in a personal trainer’s studio. If you spend an extra effort on your relationships, you might be surprised how your overall well-being is improved as well. No matter if your romantic relationship is sound or a struggle, here are 3 tools to dramatically change that dynamic today.

The 5 Love Languages Personal Profile for Couples

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Although you can ambitiously read the book of the same name, I highly recommend taking this free quiz online at 5lovelanguages.com. It will help you identify the love languages (words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch) that you value the most. Why is this important? If your partner values “acts of service” the most (like making dinner together), it may not matter how many bunches of flowers you buy him or her. Although you value “receiving gifts” the most, it doesn’t mean your partner will too. How often have you heard someone say (or said yourself), “It doesn’t matter what I do, he never appreciates it.” I ask you: Do you really know what he appreciates or value the most? Perhaps, all your partner wants is “physical touch”…a hug to show your continued interest in him. You can see how easily this lack of communication or awareness can compound into many nonsense arguments.

I recommend that you and your partner individually take this quiz and then discuss your scores. Although you’re not instructed to breakdown each of your answers, I highly suggest you do this. The two of you may share the same the answer but may have a completely different mindset approaching the scenario. Essentially, take the guesswork out of the relationship and learn how your partner approaches a scenario and what he or she values the most.

My Life Story: A Visual Map

Personal Trainer Wisdom: The ‘My Life Story Map’ left a lasting impression on my wife and I before our wedding last year. It helped us recognize the defining moments in our past and understand how they have shaped us. Although we utilized the ‘A Visual Map for Reflecting on My Past’ diagram by Sibyl Towner and Sharon Swing, you can certainly create your own. Basically, you and your partner will draw and write a timeline of your life on separate pieces of paper. At the top and middle of your page, draw a horizontal (parallel) line. On the top line, write the years of your life that correlate with the important events that you describe on the middle line. The middle line should reflect events, people, places, vocations, avocations, and more. You can record these events above or below this middle line depending on whether the event is perceived as a positive event (above) or negative event (below). As you try to determine the most noteworthy events, ask yourself the following questions: Which events elicitated the biggest emotional response? Which events were most responsible for your personal and professional approach today? Which events specifically affected your relationships with others today? When did you feel the most insecure and weak or secure and powerful? What were the biggest turning points or decisions that steered your life the most?

You may certainly personalize this timeline however you see fit. Honesty is most important (with yourself and partner). Evaluate how these life occurrences affected you and write that down. For example, my parent’s divorce had a profound effect on my life. Unfortunately, it shaped a negative perspective on relationships for a long time (conflict management, displays of affection, etc). At the same time, while moving after my parent’s divorce was certainly a great challenge at the age of 12, I became more adaptable in a number of different environments. I became more curious. Think about these long term effects on my life! I now love travel and feel comfortable exploring and interacting with the unknown world. What events in your life have shaped you? Not only is this a great way to see a timeline of your life on paper, but it is also an opportunity to see what has influenced how you behave, perceive, or generally approach the world. Take this time to learn about yourself while helping your partner understand you.

A Hug

Personal Trainer Wisdom: The root of all life is interaction…and nothing is easier or cheaper than a hug! Even if you don’t have the right words, a simple hug could express how you feel. It also shows your vulnerability to your partner as well as physically connecting to him or her.

Photo Credit:
The wonderful and talented Elizabeth Nord (Photography)–My wife, Sammy, and I still remind ourselves of the promises we made on our wedding day (and you should always too). A solid foundation always requires honesty, communication, and self-awareness.

Article Credit:

Author: Michael Moody Fitness
3 Tools to Dramatically Improve Your Romantic Relationship

37 Snack Ideas for Weight Loss (And You Won’t Be Bored)

As a personal trainer, my personal training clients always wonder what quick and healthy snack options will help them lose weight. With a little research (and tasting), I’ve compiled this master list to guide their (and your) choices. Please keep in mind that “snacks” are really filler foods or indulgences that rarely meet your entire nutritional need at a given time (such a tease!). You’re probably seeking food because you’re hungry, and a small meal is most ideal (even if it’s only 100-300 calories). Since you now eat with intent, you want to choose a nutrient balance of vitamins, fiber, protein, fat, and more.

The snacks/small meals below are perfect examples of delicious, on-the-go options that satisfy your hunger and nutritional needs without adding to your waistline. Be sure to bookmark this list in case you’re looking for something to prepare at home or pickup in-between appointments. I’ve included a number of meal delivery services as well. Finally, check out the "Ideal Weight Loss Plate" below to help you choose combinations beyond this list.

At-Home Ambition

- Kale, black bean, red pepper flakes, and avocado bowl
- Spanish spinach with chickpeas
- Hummus and tabouli salad
- Chickpea salad
- Mixed olives, almonds, and minced garlic tossed in a little tahini sauce
- Roasted chickpeas and carrots with lemon and tahini sauce and crushed almonds
- Cashews with sliced apples
- Pistachios with a banana
- Kale chips with jalapeno hummus and lemon
- Hummus with chia seeds and sliced bell peppers

Eating on the Road

Chipotle
- Tacos: Corn tortillas, avocado, black beans, romaine lettuce, pico de gallo
- Bowl: Black beans, pinto beans, fajita veggies, fresh tomato salsa, tomatillo green-chili salsa, guacamole

Roti
- Bowl: Hummus, tomato and cucumber, fresh vegetables, red cabbage slaw, sumac onions
- Bowl: Tomato and cucumber, red cabbage slaw, sumac onions, tahini

Lyfe Kitchen
- Edamame hummus with seasonal vegetables
- Fish tacos with seasonal fish chayote slaw, avocado, cilantro, green onion, chipotle aioli, corn tortillas, salsa fresca
- Roasted curry cauliflower with brussels sprout petals, roasted grapes, capers

Protein Bar
- HI-5 Smoothie: Coconut milk, kale, spinach, cilantro, and pineapple blended with crushed ice
- Market Smoothie: Coconut milk, kale, romaine, spinach, celery, apple, ginger, cucumber, parsley, lemon, and lime
- Sweet Greens Smoothie: Coconut milk, pineapple, apple, spinach, romaine, kale, celery, ginger, cucumber, parsley, lemon, lime

Pret a Manger
- Moroccan lentil soup: A bold soup packed with hearty lentils and chunky vegetables, with a handful of spices and a dash of balsamic vinegar to create an authentic Moroccan
- Black bean soup
- Mediterranean Mezze Salad: A colorful salad loaded with falafel, butternut squash, harissa chickpeas, beet hummus, dukkah, pomegranate seeds and fresh mint
- Veggie Fiesta Salad: Black beans, charred corn, jicama & zucchini slaw, cubed pepper jack, avocado, pickled red onions, cilantro & lime over a bed of romaine and spinach

Freshii
- Superfood Soup: Vegetable broth, quinoa, kale, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, red onions
- Salad/Bowl: Spinach, kale, almonds, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, roasted peppers, sesame seeds, beet slaw

Left Coast Food and Juice
- Jimmy Ching: Napa cabbage, romaine hearts, snow peas, crunchy quinoa, cashews, green onion, mint, sesame seeds, chinese mustard vinaigrette
- Robust Rosa: Kale, spinach, roasted broccoli, red onion, roasted tomato, toasted hemp seeds, avocado caesar dressing

True Food Kitchen
- Charred Cauliflower: Harissa tahini, Medjool date, dill, mint, pistachio
- Seasonal Ingredient Salad: Brussels sprout, butternut squash, cauliflower, white bean, pomegranate, toasted mulberry, horseradish vinaigrette
- Ancient Grains Bowl: Miso-glazed sweet potato, turmeric, charred onion, snow pea, grilled portobello, avocado, hemp seed

Sweet Green
- Spicy Sabzi: Organic baby spinach, shredded kale, spicy broccoli, raw beets, organic carrots, bean sprouts, spicy quinoa, basil, Sweet Green hot sauce, carrot chili vinaigrette (ask for no roasted sesame tofu)
- Bowl (build your own): Organic mesclun, bean sprouts, spicy broccoli, hot chickpeas, toasted almonds, local apples, lime cilantro jalapeño vinaigrette
- Bowl (build your own): Organic arugula, basil, shredded cabbage, raw beets, toasted almonds, spicy sunflower seeds, carrot chili vinaigrette

Caffe Baci
- Grain Salad: Organic kale & spinach, citrus marinated northern beans, tri-colored quinoa, pickled red onion, toasted sunflower seeds, citrus vinaigrette on the side
- Grilled Vegetable Salad: Native, grilled seasonal vegetables, balsamic vinaigrette
- Tomato Salad: Fresh vine tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, fresh basil, red wine vinaigrette, Italian spice blend

Meal Services

- http://www.sageeatschicago.com
- https://www.fittinglydelicious.com/
- https://www.purplecarrot.com

Photo Credit:
Purple Carrot .com – Could this be the snack that helps you lose weight and satisfy your hunger on-the-go?