What is Healthy Weight Loss?

This is a simple but tricky question.

WHAT is Healthy Weight Loss?  It is a method of reducing the amount of fat stores on your body while preserving your lean tissues. It is a slow and sustained process of altering your thinking and your choices to align with your new goals and values.

A Healthy Weight Loss plan provides nutrition for your body and movement to energize you to feel your best. It is a diet rich in grains, fruits, veggies and healthy fats. It is an eating style that includes foods, not eliminates them. It is an active lifestyle that gives you fuel and energy to live your best life.



 Who should you trust to give you Fitness Advice?

HOW do you achieve Healthy Weight Loss?

• Healthy Weight Loss focuses on... healthy patterns.
• Healthy Weight Loss focuses on the long-term outcomes, not instant gratification.
• Healthy Weight Loss allows you to be flexible, not rigid in your food and exercise selections.
• Healthy Weight Loss allows for setbacks and does not provide punishment for a poor choice or temporary loss of focus.
• Healthy Weight Loss focuses on caring for your physical, mental and emotional needs, not punishing yourself for not being perfect.
• Healthy Weight Loss is slow and steady.
• Healthy Weight Loss is allows you to eat out at restaurants, not sit home alone obsessed with following a "diet".
• Healthy Weight Loss allows you to feel good about yourself and know that you are making great changes for your life, not that you are sacrificing and restricting your choices.
• Healthy Weight Loss includes all foods, not limiting the "magical fattening" foods or avoiding entire food groups (Dairy, Wheat, Carbohydrates etc…).
• Healthy Weight Loss includes strength training to boost your metabolism, help your posture and allow you to enjoy more food.
• Healthy Weight Loss is balanced.
• Healthy Weight Loss is intelligent and planned, it avoids fads and falling for "miracles".
• Healthy Weight Loss is a way of life. Your new life.

In this new life, you would:

• Know that you have control over many things but do not have control over everything.
• Focus on obtaining fruits, veggies, fiber and protein from your food choices.
• Focus on moving more simply for the sake of moving.
• Focus on reading and learning to build your "brain muscle".
• Focus on trying new recipes and finding activities to do with your family and friends.
• Focus on your relationship with yourself and with others.

Healthy Weight Loss is a journey to a new lifestyle. Enjoy it.

To your Health,

Robert

Follow these tips to begin eating better 

Successful People

Character Traits of Successful People

1. They are hard working.
There is no such thing as easy money. Success takes hard work and people who are willing to do it. Successful people realize the sacrifices that they must make in order to achieve the results they truly desire.

2. They are honest.
Those who are successful long-term are the honest ones. Successful people are honest with themselves regarding their strengths, needs, opportunities and true production.  Successful people realize that lying only delays results.

3. They persevere.
How many success stories will go untold because they never happened? And all because someone quit. Successful people outlast everybody else. Successful people prepare for the hurdles to come, accept that there will be hurdles, plan for the ones they know will arise and plan to overcome the unforseen hurdles.

4. They are friendly.
Have you noticed that most successful people are friendly and people oriented? This endears them to others and enables them to lead others to accomplish the task.

5. They are lifelong learners.
Successful people are people who stretch themselves and grow continually, learning from all areas of life, including from their mistakes. Successful people surround themselves with people that will support and challenge them, they will seek out advice and education from the people they admire.

6. They over-deliver.
The old statement of under-promise and over-deliver became famous because it made a lot of people successful, including the richest man in the world - Bill Gates

7. They are Positive.

Successful people do not allow themselves to be dragged down by small problems.  they realize that life is filled with challenges, that there is good, bad and ugly that occurs to everyone in differing amounts at different times. Successful people put negativity in perspective and rebound quickly from setbacks.

8. They seek solutions in the face of problems. 
Problems are opportunities to do the impossible, not just complain. Successful people are the ones who
find solutions. Successful people do not view the issue/obstacle as the end.  They are solution based and action oriented.

9. They seek assistance when it is needed.

The most successful people I know seek out the guidance of a coach to get a different perspective, ask the right questions and aid them in getting "un-stuck".

10. They BRING IT ALL. EVERYDAY.

Successful people do more and give more than the average person.  Successful people have set goals and have created a plan to achieve them.  Successful people wake up and TAKE ACTION.

Thanks to Thomas Plummer for teaching me this years ago.  




                                    

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line: Move more, eat less.
Turning off the television and skipping the sugary drinks can help.

Weight is a tough issue. Most people know how important it is to keep weight in check yet struggle to do so. And it's understandable in today's world where calorie-packed food comes fast and easy. But, the health benefits of staying at a healthy weight are huge and well worth the effort.

Because most people put on a pound or two every year, the first, and easiest, goal should be to stop any more weight gain, which has big health benefits itself. After that, getting weight down to a healthy level should be the next step.

Quick weight control tips? 
Get active, choose smaller portions, and eat more s-l-o-w-l-y.

Learn about the IFS Weight Loss Education and Support Program HERE

How do I get to my goal?

"How do I get to my goal?"

Are you acting according to your goals?

Unfortunately, there is no one canned answer to this question.  Consider this, pick your favorite store in the world, and now figure out how many different routes you can take to arrive there.  The options can be endless. Now utilize this same thought process for your personal fitness goals.  The same analogy can apply. When you add in all of the marketing that tells you to take a specific direction or route, your friends telling you the "shortcut" that you can take to arrive at the store faster and the feeling that everyone you know has figured out how to get to the store in a timely manner but you, you may not even want to go to that store anymore!  It could get really confusing.

Fat Loss, Health and Fitness, and Sports and Performance goals all place different demands on the body. From the amount of sleep required to the number of meals and calories eaten daily to what they are made of (Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats) -  it is slightly different for everybody. If you add in your genetic predisposition for where and how much fat you hold, your given metabolism, food preferences and dislikes plus your attraction or aversion to exercise it can be exhausting and de-motivating to try and figure all of these items out for yourself.

My advice: DO NOT GIVE UP!  That is one surefire method to fall short of your fitness goals.

Now that we have decided that you will not do that let's discuss how to succeed.  Focus on food, fitness and education, the foundation of Innovation Fitness Solutions.

When your actions meet your goals you will experience progress.

Food

It's a good idea to spread your food out throughout the day.  I recommend at least 4 meals daily and sometimes up to 6.  The number of meals depends upon your goal and some of the factors discussed above, but a good starting point is 4 meals.  Do not ever eat less.  It just leads to hunger and hunger leads to poor food choices and over-eating.  Regardless of the goal, it is important to know how many calories you need to maintain your weight daily and how many calories you are actually consuming.  Do you really know how many calories is in that Whole Wheat Bagel you eat?  How about that Chai Tea with skim milk you had yesterday?  Having the facts at your fingertips is a great method to understanding how to be successful, guesswork usually can get you started but never works long term.

The good news is that there are people who have spent their entire adult lives preparing themselves to help you get the success you want. Your Weight Management Specialists and Exercise Specialists care about you and your results and we do know how to help you.  Everyone has different goals, and the strategies that you must utilize for success have to be tailored to you. Realistic, Progressive and Maintainable (R.P.M.) methods for long term success are right here in front of you. Talk to one of us and let us help!

Fat Loss
Fat matters, carbohydrates count but calories are the bottom line!  Do not buy into the myth that some foods are fattening and others are not.  It is not true.  Every food can help make you gain weight and every food can help you keep it off.  The amount of ingested has to be less than the total calories burned or you will get bigger eating sunflower seeds and grapefruits.  It just does not matter! Control your calories and eat as healthy as you can right now.

Health and Fitness

The more consistent and the healthier the choices that you make the better you will feel.  I suggest 30-45 minutes of cardiovascular work 3-4 times weekly + 2-3 strength training sessions weekly.  In addition, maintaining a diet of consistently balanced foods along with your exercise routine will help you achieve your goal with ease.  Your body will thank you for it and your mind will as well.  When we choose healthy options we give our body the fuel it needs to keep going strong throughout the day, fight off cellular damage and be mentally sharp.

Sports and Performance

Eat often, eat well and eat balanced!  The timing of your pre and post workout meals is crucial to your success.  Eating 45-60 minutes pre-workout is essential to providing the energy necessary for optimum performance.  A post workout meal consisting of a 4:1 ration of carbohydrate to protein is important for recovery.  In addition, optimal rest (6-8 hours of sleep) and the proper training intensity is essential too. Try not to workout more than 3 days consecutively if your intensity level is above a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10.

Result

In my opinion one of the strongest variables someone can change is to get out of daily result and into the process. It is a BIG PICTURE way of looking at your goals and your goal setting.  Everything matters but mistakes will be made and they will be corrected.  Nothing is impossible and a great plan makes for great successes.