Today I’m going to give you my 3 best motivation tips.  If you actually put these tips to work you’ll surprise yourself how quickly you become motivated to workout.

Tip#1:  Go shopping for new clothes

I know you’re probably saying to yourself,  “What?  I hate the way I look and shopping for clothes is only going to remind me of it.  How is that going to motivate me?”  Well, being reminded of it is reason in itself, but I meant to go shopping for new workout clothes.  Buy just ONE really nice fitness outfit that you’ll look forward to wearing and ONLY wear it to your work outs.  Then set a short-term goal like “If I don’t miss a workout this week I’ll go buy another outfit on the weekend.”

Tip#2:  Get yourself fired-up… every day

You can’t hit a target you can’t see.  Visualization is used by the top performers in every field.  It doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn’t have to take long and WOW does it get you revved up to take action!  It only takes a minute or two a day.  That’s it.  In fact the more you do it, the less time it takes.  Here’s what to do:

Take  minute and in your mind’s eye see yourself with your best body (not somebody else’s, yours).  See yourself looking in the mirror wearing your favourite dress or jeans.  Make it vivid – see the colours, hear the usual noises in your house.  Let that feeling of confidence and excitement flow through you – don’t hold anything back – just let yourself feel.

Don’t believe me?  Think it’s a bunch of “new age” hooey?    All I have to say is – Try it (nobody has to know).  Set your smartphone timer to 2 minutes.  (It’s best to use an audible timer so you don’t keep breaking your concentration by looking at the time).  Close your eyes and try the visualization technique I just described and stay focused until the timer goes off.  If your mind wanders start again.  It gets easier with practice.

Tip# 3:  Tell the world your plans

Here’s your chance to use Facebook, LinkedIn and all the people on your e-mail list for something more than sharing pictures of your cat or forwarding bad jokes.  Tell everyone you know that you’ve started on this fitness lifestyle that includes working out every day and eating better.  Post pictures and results (even bad ones).  Funny, it’s the bad ones that motivate me even more.  Then invite everyone to check in on you.  Peer pressure works, use it to your advantage. Plus your good friends will help you by not tempting you with bad food and bad habits.

Bonus Tip: Stop the scale “routine”

The surest way to kill your motivation is to continually step on the scale.  If getting on the scale is part of your daily routine – stop it now!  Your weight fluctuates for a thousand different reasons every day.  It’s very unlikely you’ll lose weight in a perfectly straight downward line.  But this doesn’t mean you should give up.  Every single person I’ve met that has exercised and eaten properly and consistently has lost the weight – every single one.  AND every one has had struggles and plateaus and just plain “bad days”.  But that’s okay.  If it were easy, everyone would be thin.

If there’s anything special  that’s worked for you I’d like to hear about it.  Please comment below – you never know who you’ll be helping.

If you can relate to any of this, please comment below…

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Thank you!

Have a great vacation Cary! (Now, what can I write about her while she’s gone?)

This is VERY funny. Please comment if you enjoyed it.

If you’re at work you may want to turn the sound off (it’s only music anyway).

Hi-lights:

0:12 – Why there are no more Instructor group vacations
0:32 – Cary – age 7
0:41 – Christine – age 8
1:10 – Rob runs his first group exercise class
1:38 – Preview of next week’s new move
2:39 – Don’t tempt me when I’m on a diet
2:55 – Rob – age 5 (and 45)

• Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Theodore Bundy and Albert DeSalvo all have thirteen letters in their name. (Remember this when naming your kids… it may come back to haunt you.)

• In France, socialites once known as “quartoziens” made themselves available as the fourteenth guest at a party or dinner. (Hey everyone – just so you know, I’m a quartozien.)

• In Formula One racing there is no car number 13.  The number was eliminated after two drivers died in crashes driving a car numbered 13.  (Formula One is the one where they don’t just drive in circles.)

• In Florence the house numbers go 12,  12-1/2,  14.  (Leave it to the Italians to make even house numbering complicated.)

• Most airports skip gate 13 and have no 13th aisle. (They should’ve learned from the Italians.)

• One of the origins of number 13 being unlucky is the fact that 13 people attended The Last Supper. (It was only unlucky for 2 of them.  Okay, so it was REALLY unlucky for them.)

• Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. There is no 13th Avenue in San Francisco, instead Funston Avenue is between 12th and 14th Avenues. (Did you know there are a lot of Italians living in San Francisco?  I wonder if there’s a connection?)

• Every year has at least one and at most three Friday the13ths.  (Only Port Dover, Ontario wishes there were more – to find out why CLICK HERE)

• The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. (Say that 3 times real fast.)

• According to the British Medical Journal there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents when the date is Friday 13th.  (Lesson:  Drive carefully if you’re going to be in Britain today.)

• More than 60 million people worldwide claim  to be affected by a fear of Friday 13th. Some of them won’t go to work, drive cars or get out of bed on this day. (Funny, I feel the same way on Sunday mornings – so maybe it isn’t the drinking after all?)

Why do so many people fail in life? The answer will surprise you… especially as you really think about how true it is. Don’t be trapped like so many others – Aim High!

That’s right, Monday morning we’ll all start using this new move… so limber up and get ready… especially for the second move (watch to the end) – OMG!

I shouldn’t expect any more complaints about Turkish Get-ups, eh?

I felt the arm pop out of the shoulder socket and then slip back in.  It actually didn’t hurt too much.  In fact I played in the championship game later that afternoon (we won).  However, the next morning was another story…

I woke up at 5am with a start. I had rolled onto my left side and WOW did it hurt.  Naturally I rolled back onto my right side and went back to sleep

I figured it would slowly get better.  It didn’t.  Finally I relented and went to see my chiropractor.  She determined that I hadn’t torn any cartilage and I didn’t need surgery.  More than 3 months after the original injury she went to work.  I want to give a big shout out to Stefanie Medoro of Complete Chiropractic for the great job she did of healing my shoulder – Thanks again Stefanie!

Needless to say I couldn’t work out… but I could still eat.  In fact, I had more time to eat.  I took my focus completely off my health and fitness and focused on my shoulder and other things.  For months I was afraid to even walk by my electronic scale in case it read my vibes and flashed that HUGE number on it’s screen.  But still, it taunted me.  “C’mon Rob let’s see how you’re doing” , “How bad can it be?”  “I won’t break, I promise.”

Finally I took the plunge and as lightly as I could I stepped onto the scale and watched the numbers flash.  I stepped off the scale, slid it to another part of the tile floor that looked like it might give me a more favourable reading and stepped on gently again hoping the scale will be nice to me – it wasn’t.  The numbers read the same – 244 lbs – or 39lbs of pure lard more than when I fell on that fateful day in April.  Ouch!

But my shoulder was hurt, I’ve been busy with my business, kids’ activities on and on and on.  Excuses. Every one of them, excuses.  This summer I finally started working out again seriously and my shoulder feels great!  I completed my 105lb Turkish Get-up (left and right), I could almost press my to my peak weight and I was swinging my 85lb ‘bell again.  20lbs dropped off me over the next 6 weeks – and then it just stopped.

So I thought, why not recruit my clients to help me on my journey?  Maybe a few of them can come along to.  Well, here I (we) go.  Today is Day 1.  Please post your comments below