Get your butt in motion...

People are always telling me that they can’t find time to workout, or they travel too much, or they can’t afford to join a gym. These are just some of the reasons that folks choose to remain sedentary.

As I am prone to do I call BS. I too have been an “excuse maker” in the past but I am now an excuse breaker in my enlightened life as a personal trainer.

Why are we lazy? Why do we procrastinate? I think most people understand that exercise is important for the human body. I also think that most people “exercised” a ton as kids-except it was called organized sports (or maybe not so organized when you did it after school in the neighborhood).

Sometimes I think we all assume that exercise is either “balls to the wall” or nothing at all. While I am all for “balls to the wall” there is such a thing as just getting your butt in gear. We were born to MOVE. Somewhere along the line we discover TV and instead we watch OTHER people move. They look good. We get fat.

The summer is the perfect time to rediscover the joy of moving (okay, exercising). The weather allows us to take it outside…no gym required. Live near a school with a track? Hit it for some sprints/jogs. Got some water nearby? Jump in and take a swim. Gotta bike? Ride it…

We are a country of marketers. We create the need for things so that we can sell them. It is better for us all to be fat so we can sell diet plans. Stop eating out (3 portions a plate) so much and you’ll be surprised at what happens to your waistline.

But move people. Whether it is a 15-minute walk with the dog at 5:45 AM, or a 30-minute run at 7:00 PM, you gotta do something. Otherwise let me talk to you about the Atkins (or pick your favorite crash one) diet…and then we’ll have the talk again in a year or so.

You are what you eat

Of course this is the time of year when everyone has resolved to get back to the gym and lose that Holiday flab...and 2008's Holiday flab...2007's, well you get the picture.

As a personal trainer I am obviously very aware of the role that diet plays in one's overall appearance and how they feel. I am also human and occasionally fall off of my own diet wagon, which I did during the 2009 Holiday season.

The work you do in the gym is worth about 10% of what you will look like, genetics is another 10% and the other 80% ladies and gentlemen comes down to what you shove in your mouth.

So in the first week of January I got serious about what I was eating and I'm glad to report that my body is quickly returning to a much healthier state of being. My workouts never changed during the entire time. Just my eating habits...The ironic thing is that I have kept a workout and food journal for the past three years so I have documentation of my dietary transgressions! Sometimes you just get stressed enough to say screw it...

But I'm here to tell you that the mountain back is not impossible to climb. I am eating like crazy. But it is pretty "clean" and man does it make a difference... My workouts are better, inches are peeling off in the right places and my brain seems to be back on track.

We are what we eat.