I used to look at certain weights and say, “Oh I could never lift that.” But in reality if you push yourself hard enough anything is possible.  I used to lift 2, 8lb dumbbells to do curls, then I worked my way up to 2, 15lb dumbbells and that was extremely hard for me at the time.  I stayed at that weight and then realized, if I really want to I can push myself and 5 weeks later I was curling a 45lb bar.  What a feeling of accomplishment I though to myself!  I also never thought I would be able to do a pull up because they are one of the hardest exercises to do.  I would walk by the pull up bar every day and try to do one and not even come close.  Being persistence works and is ½ the battle when it comes to lifting weight you thought you could never do.  Obviously we know we have to work up to it and build our muscles stronger over time but if you have in your mind that you cant do it, then you probably wont.  I kept trying for weeks and would fail each and every time.  I began to increase my weight with pull downs on the machine; this gave me the confidence to lift heavier and know that I can do it. Eventually after 6 weeks I finally was able to do one pull up, then a few days later I did 3, then 6 ...etc!  I am not going to stop now as I want to keep pushing my body. 

Squats used to be one of my least favorite exercises to do however I always read it was the most beneficial for your legs, glutes and overall body.  Always keeping that in the back of my mind,  I stuck to it so I would feel more comfortable with that exercise.  Usually your least favorite exercise is the hardest and makes you push your body furthest.  Hey, no one said this would be easy right? ; )  I started off with squats with no weight, then slowly but surely I started to increase my resistence with adding weight over time.  I started with 15lbs, then 30lbs and 3 months later I was squating 120lbs. I will continue to increase my weight to continue to build muscle and increase my strength.  I am only giving you my weight as an example of how you can increase your strength however you should increase to your comfort level as everyone is different when it comes to weight training and lifting heavy.  Safety is very important in the gym.  You should always have a spotter to ensure you can handle the increased weight when doing any exercise exspecially squats and be sure to have proper form each and every time as that is extremely important so you do not have an injury.

In order to maximize your results you need to set up a plan that works for yourself and stick to it.  Now when I say a plan that works for yourself, don’t just follow a plan that worked for someone else because it may not work for you.  Maybe you have a different schedule, you have children, have an injury to work around or it is just simply a little harder than you can handle right now.  What you can do is take a plan and modify it to your needs.  You do not want to start off with something you know you will never maintain because then you will begin to hate working out.  I absolutely can’t wait for the next time to get into the gym because I feel that sense of accomplishment each and every time.  Also have a buddy system with either a friend or your partner.  Tell each other your goals and individual plans and hold each other accountable to them.  This will help motivate you and also make you feel guilty in the event you miss a workout or have a cheat day with your diet.  My workout partner is my fiancé.  He helps motivate me while staying in shape himself.  I tell him to be as honest with me as he can with my physique because it is something I want to try to maintain throughout my life.  Even though I know he loves me regardless of my exterior I want to maintain it for myself.  Many people enter a relationship and get a little to comfortable with each other.  I still believe in looking good for yourself #1 and then also your partner!  Being healthy early in life will also help you stay healthy as you get older which is exactly what I want to do!

It helped me to write down my workouts and also what I ate that day.  This put it in reality what I put in my body and made me not want to eat any unhealthy because I wouldn’t want to have to write it down.  I also started to research a restaraunts nutritional information if I knew I was going out to eat before I went so I knew exactly what helathy options they had for me.  Every once in awhile I will have a "cheat" day because I believe it helps spike your metabolsm.  Again, everyones body is different but this sure does work for me.   Making the right decision in your meal is something that is extremely important because you dont want to let the hard work go that you have put in at the gym.  You don’t get in and out of shape in a couple days.  It takes month to reach your goals so if you fall off the wagon a few days just get right back in there and continue where you left off.  Don’t let weeks go by and just keep saying oh I will get back into it one day as you don’t want to let all your hard work from the previous weeks go to waste.   This is why we call it a “lifestyle change” because working out and eating healthy becomes a way of life, not just a fad.  So the longer you do it, the easier it becomes.  Also always remember, you will have good days/weeks and bad days/weeks, so dont get discourged if you get into the gym and are tired or burnt out.  That will happen from time to time but then the next time you get in there get right back to working out hard.

Most people already feel at a loss because they look at these fitness models on the cover of magazines and think they will never be able to look like that.  We think to ourselves it is also very easy for a fitness model to stay in shape because we all know that’s their job, to work out and look good for photo shoots.  So you think how hard can that be right.  Well it is, these girls don’t just put in the minimum effort to keep a toned fit body.  They work extremely hard at it.  When you first begin to workout and come up with your workout plan/goal you have to set a goal that is achievable to you.  Dont start off with going cold turkey with your diet as well as working out 7 days a week etc.  You most likely will get burnt out real quick and not want to workout or eat healthy.  You should try to introduce the "healthy lifestyle" into your life gradually and set a plan that you know you will stick to.  Also,  don’t think you have to look like a fitness model.  Maybe you just want to lose 30lbs or 50lbs, well that is easily accomplished by eating right and working out during the week.  Always remember diet and exercise go hand in hand.  The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.  Most of us have 9-5 jobs so we think we don’t have time to work out.  It only takes an hour a day to workout so if you think of it that way, you definitely should be able to fit that into your day whether in the morning or at night.  Remember you can do anything you set your mind to. 

Diet is a huge percentage of being in shape.  Most misconceptions come from the fact people think they can eat anything if they go on a treadmill for an hour a day.  Well if you do that you will most likely just stay the same.  You have to be at a calorie deficit in order to lose the fat.  What does that mean?  Well if you plan to lose fat you want to take in fewer calories then you burn in a day by working out and dieting.  You should continue to weight train as well as do low intensity cardio.  You want to keep your heart rate at the fat burning zone which is what I do when I want to lose those extra fat lbs.  The more muscle you have the more calories you burn in a day and I have definitely seen that change in my body as I have put on more muscle.  I actually did not do much cardio at all in the beginning of my training.  I lost fat lbs by simply my diet and weight training alone. 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  It kicks starts your metabolism for the day and keeps you from binging later since you already have something in your stomach first thing in the morning.  It is also the most common meal for someone to skip, including myself.  I eat 5 meals a day currently because it keeps my metabolism going.  Now when I say 5 meals it doesnt mean 5 huge meals, some are just small snacks such as fruit or nuts in between my larger meals.  Before I knew what I do now I used to starve myself and skip meals and then eat things that were unhealthy.  It was just making me pack on the fat and left me tired throughout the day.  I actually eat more now than I did before and I am losing the fat.  You think that sounds strange don’t you?  Well it is true and by fueling your body with the right nutrients you will maximize your results in the gym.  I can definitely attest to that philosophy!

 I look at a meal as just fuel to get through the day.  Just keep thinking to yourself, that meal will be over in about 10 minutes and if you ate something really healthy you will feel so much better when it is over.  Also, when you are full STOP eating!!   If I go out to a restaurant I always try to make healthier choices with a chicken breast or fish dish.  I have started to research the nutritional information for the restaraunt I know I am going to before I go so I know what healthy choices they may have for me.  Every healthy choice that I made got me closer to my goal with being fit.  If I ate something bad one day I looked at it as a cheat day and knew that I had to go right back to eating healthy again.  I also have some foods I just can’t live without which is cheese and also chicken quesadillas.  So what I did is found a healthy version of the food I love and would suggest you do the same.  It makes for a happier you and also helps you stick to the eating healthy plan. 

You may be able to find a workout program online that you like and tweak it to your needs.  Everyones body is different so you may not be able to take someone else's exact workout and get the same results. It helps to write down your workout plan for each week so there is no guess work involved when its time to workout.  You also may want to start out conservative and then increase th difficultly level as you get more comfortable.  Having a plan set before you workout makes it much easier to accomplish what you wanted to in that workout.  Maximize your workouts by pushing your body to limits you didnt know you could before.  Dont just pick up the really light dumbells and not feel a burn.   If you think you can do 20+ reps then you most likely can increase your weight the next time until you are around the 12-15 rep range and really push yourself so you couldn't even get another rep if you tried.  You want to feel the burn because that means its working!

A sample of my workout program is below however I like to switch it up very often to keep my muscles confused and guessing. I try to fit abs and cardio in wherever I can.  I do about 4-5 different exercises for each body part and do 3 sets of 12-15 reps.  Do higher reps if you just want stay toned, 20 rep ranges, and if you want to build more muscle, like I am trying to do now, you want to stay in the 12-15 rep range.  Like I stated above if you think you can get more than 15 reps then increase the weight the next time.  There are some days that I can’t workout as intense because maybe I just didn’t have it in me that day but that doesn’t get me discouraged.  I just keep going the next day as we all have our good and bad days. 

HIIT training is something I truly do believe in.  It stands for Hi Intensity Interval Training and you may have seen infomercials on tv about this.  It really does work and what I do for my HIIT training is run on the treadmill and maximize my heartrate by running at a fast speed and then bringing it down to a walk to bring my heartrate back down.  I do that on 1 minute intervals for about 20-30 minutes.  What it does is averages out your heartrate to keep you in the fat burning zone.  You also only need to do this for half the time then if you were to walk or job at a slow steady speed and you burn MORE calories with HIIT.  With HIIT you will also burn for many more hours more after you are done then if you were to jog/walk at a slow steady pace.  Also, who would rather do cardio for an hour, for example, rather than only 20 minutes of HITT and burn more!  Cardio is one of my least favorite things to do so if I can limit the time and burn more calories you better believe I will do that!  

Here is my sample workout:

Day 1 - Arms
Day 2 - Cardio and abs
Day 3 - Legs and Cardio
Day 4 - rest day (sometimes I fit in cardio and abs in)
Day 5 - Back and Shoulders
Day 6 - Cardio and abs
Day 7 - repeat arms...

Protien, protien, protien is what you want to make sure to fuel your body with as you are working out.  I will be adding recipes to my site and if you have any good ones feel free to email them to me so I can post them.  I used to enjoy my food and look forward to each meal however now I eat so often I look at it as fuel to get me through my day and keep me healthy.  I started to think to myself, this meal will be over in about 10 minutes and I would rather eat something healthy and feel better in the end then feel bloated, stuffed and gross from eating greasy unhealthy foods.  Another tip I can give you is to STOP EATING WHEN YOU ARE FULL!  Many people continue to eat even though they are full because they want to finish their meal or not let something go to waste. That is the worst thing you can do because you will just stretch out your stomach to consume more food and also eat more calories that you really did not need.  Dont worry about food going to waste, just think in the end you are really just helping yourself. 

 Here is a list of some foods I eat...

• Egg whites with whole grain toast
• Egg white omelets with fat free cheese and spinach
• Rolled Oats with a scoop of low fat peanut butter
• Whey Protein Shakes (Chocolate Mint and Banana Cream flavors are my favorite)
• Chicken breast and veggies
• Chicken quesadillas (Whole grain and low fat cheeses)
• Tilapia with fresh salsa and veggies
• Sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries made with little cinnamon and olive oil
• Salmon
• Tuna fish with whole wheat bread
• Apples and peanut butter