1.  Eat something healthy before you head out to that dinner or party.  This works!  Have you ever said to yourself, I am not going to eat lunch today because I am going out to dinner tonight.  BAD idea!  By the time you are ready to eat you are starving and will probably consume way too many calories.  Grab some nuts, raw vegetables or fruit before you go out and you will not be near as hungry and hopefully eat fewer calories.

2.  Drink lots of water. Not only is water amazing for our bodies it also acts as appetite suppressant. Water helps with digestion, clenses the body of toxins, the list goes on and on. Have some with your meals and before head out for the night.

3.  Slow down when you eat! Enjoy the company and slow things down a bit.  It takes a while for us to register how full we are.

4.  Watch what you drink! Lots of the fancy holiday drinks are loaded with calories.  Try and make good choices here.  Opt for wine or wine spritzer, or a mixed drink with water instead of sugary soda.  Have a glass of water after wine or alcoholic beverage.  Rehydrate yourself.  Try and avoid those speciality coffees that are out right now too.  Some of them have a whole days worth of calories in one serving!  Try a non fat capichino with some cinnamon on top instead.

5.  Hit the gym. Try and get to the gym as often as possible and GIVE IT while you are there.  I will try and get there at least 5 times a week over the holidays, 3 times at the Markham Women’s Boot Camp.  This will also help me escape my ever lingering holiday guests! As a bonus, working out helps releave stress too!  Do not come home and say well I just did a 30 minute interval training so I can eat this plate of cookies and chocolates.

6.  Make a healthier festive feast. If you are making the Christmas dinner this year start some new traditions with healthier choices.  Instead of the regular mashed potatoes, try baked or mashed sweet potatoes.  Make sure you have lots of healthy vegetables to choose from and not covered in glazes and cheese.  Make healthier appitizers such as vegetable trays with low fat dip or even better hummus. YUM!  For dessert you could put out a fruit plate as well with lots of fresh berries and melons to choose from. If your guests don’t like it maybe you wont be hosting next year

7.  Keep a food journal. I know you are busy but trust me this works.  If you have to write it down or enter it into your smart phone you will think twice about eating it.  It is amazing how quickly the calories add up and also how quickly you forget about what you actually ate in a day. At the Markham Women’s Boot Camp we highly recommend our clients to get in this habit.  It is a good one to have.

8.  After the holidays throw away all the sweets in the house or give them to a neighbour or seniors home, whatever, just get rid of them. This might hurt but you will thank me later. Don’t freeze them throw them out, I have eaten a frozen cookie before!

Well that is it for my ideas.  I would love to hear some of yours.  Please write me a comment so we can hear your great ideas too.

To help you keep off the holiday weight or to shed those extra holiday pounds visit us at www.gogirlbootcamps.com for a free trial workout.  We guarantee our workouts or your money back!  How is that for a guarantee.

Talk to you soon,

Janet

Before getting into this blog post I just want to say…”THANK YOU”. You really don’t know how much I appreciate you reading this blog, taking my boot camp classes and just generally listening to me.

Why am I being so sappy this early in the week?

I was going through my gmail account looking for an old email from my business coach and I came across this:

“Hey Everybody,

As you may or may not know today is my last day at ******* I have learned and accomplished so much in my 2 years here that it is time to move on to bigger and better things. More importantly than that is the fact that I had the opportunity to meet and interact with all of the members. It was the members who made it fun for me to spend all those years at the gym and I THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

A man has to go his own way in the world and I am just taking the next step in my journey. I would not know how I would have gotten here had it not been for all of you. I will continue to do the weekly fit tips for the time being but there will be some big changes made so stay tuned!”

It’s kinda crazy to look back and see how far we’ve come in this amount of time.  Sometimes we don’t look back because we are too caught up in the future. Most times when we do look back, we look back at the bad things that happened to us in the past.

It’s time to look back at the past and realize how far you’ve come.  You may not realize it but you have come a heck of a long way in the past 5-10 years. You may have moved up in your career, raised a child, or made a significant change in your life…you have come a really long way and you are still evolving.

When I look back at that letter, it makes me appreciate my past more than ever.  I’m the type that doesn’t even want to look back at the past because I’m so focused on my future and the present.  I feel that it holds me back when I focus on the past.  Although this time, looking back has given me more of an opportunity to appreciate what is happening right now.

Looking back at the past makes me realize that I have made strides in my life so I don’t have to be hard on myself as much anymore.

I know I’ve come a long way since that letter and I am still evolving and improving.  And if you are reading this, I know you are still evolving and still improving each and every day. Just look back at what you’ve accomplished so far.  You’ve come a long way.

With that being said…I’m going to leave you with the rest of that email I sent on my last day of work.  It’s about how to reduce stress at work.  Pretty good stuff for those that stress out regulary at work..and if you don’t there are still a couple of good takeaways you can get from this post:

The Top 5 Ways to Remove Stress At Work
Remove the stress from the words you use when you talk to yourself.

Don’t feel bad – everyone talks to himself or herself. Give your choice of words a positive twist, avoid negative labels and exaggeration, and don’t always view the situation as black and white.

Try to change worries into concerns.

A worry is something you cannot do anything about. For example, if it is going to rain today, is it worth worrying about and causing stress? Concerns, on the other hand, are things that you can change, such as advising the people you are meeting with that you’ll be a few minutes late. The key is understanding the difference, letting the worries go without any more thought, and learning to take some action on the concerns.

Manage your time more effectively.

Practicing long-term planning helps you to picture what your upcoming agenda might be like. Write down appointments. Keep a daily “To Do” list. Prioritize your “To Do” list each day. These all help to eliminate surprises and unknowns. Don’t forget to plan for leisure time and time with your family.

Improve your physical work environment.

The three most common environmental stressors are noise, clutter and personal space. Make sure your desk is neat and organized so that you have space in which to work. Take some breaks to get away from your work area.

Time to relax and refresh yourself is very important to your mental health. Noise might be a difficult issue, however, and might require a discussion with your manager to see what can be done to alleviate the noise.

Work out

The best way to reduce emotional and physical stress at work is to is physically exercise.  It’s funny in a way because to gain more energy you have to exercise, to reduce stress you have to exercise, to gain more mental clarity you have to exercise.

To reduce stress physically, emotionally and mentally…you have to work it out in the gym. Often times the happiest most stress free people in the world are those exercise on a regular basis.

Hope you liked the post…please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts on it. Leave 5 comments below and I’ll reveal next week a new really super ninja fat loss technique that will help you burn off a crazy amount of weight in one day.
Talk soon,

Dan

I just got back from sunny California from a Fitness summit and I had the most amazing eye opening time of my life.  I too a couple pics too.  Nothing too crazy but trust me…I don’t see palm trees that often in my life so when I did I was giddy like a little school girl.

The crazy thing about the conference was that people actually had heard about me before the conference. People were coming up and introducing themselves and it was….unreal.

And my mastermind group members (Leanne Ellington and Michael Duivus) were presenting on stage at this conference and they even gave me shout outs from the stage.   So imagine 300+ people hearing your name called out.  UNREAL!

Honestly it was super cool to be recognized by people half way across North America.  This is coming from a guy that was the OPPOSITE of the Most popular guy in high school.  And all the people I met at the conference were so cool.  It was like being among 300+ good friends…all of whom I’d just met.

I gotta say thanks to Bedros Keullian for putting on an amazing conference and my mentor/business coach Chris Mccombs for being such a cool guy to chill with as well as being such a generous dude.

Big Chris (my business coach), Sara, Big Zach and Me at Shabu Shabu

I also gotta say it was amazing to see Michael Duivus of Straight up fitness in Los Angeles, Leanne Ellington of Not your average boot camp in Orlando, Sarai Jones of Booty Boot camp in Sacramento, Luka Hocevar of Hocevar Performance in Seattle, Dustin Maher of Momma Tone fitness in Wisconsin, Jeff Sherman of fit soccer chicks in Baltimore, Justin Blum from Vegas, that guy from Ireland whose name I can’t remember but did Irelands version of the TV Show “The Swan” (sorry dude) and all of the 300+ people in attendance.

In fact I won’t lie, a big portion of this conference was focused on business and how we can get our services in the hands of more people that are looking to change their lives.

Come to think of it…Fitness training and boot camps are about giving clients toned abs, tighter thighs and leaner arms…but in the long run we are preventing diseases, building self confidence in our clients and building their self esteems so they can feel like they can achieve anything they want in this world.  We are actually helping people live longer happier lives.

When I think about that…it really reveals to me the true reason why I’m in this profession.  I may be biased but I’m in the best career in the world.

Okay so before I get all emotional and start crying…lemme get to the point.

As you would expect most of the conference had personal trainers and boot camp trainers who were also business owners.  Entrepreneurs from all around the world were there.

And in all honesty as much as there were a lot of successful fitness profesionals in the building…

There were also people who were straight up struggling in their fitness businesses.  Like not making money…broke..credit card debt…you name it.

You had business owners who were making a substantial amount of money, who had been in business only one year.

And you had business owners who were in the business for 7+ years and just scraping by wondering what to do.

You couldn’t find a more diverse group of business owners in one place anywhere.

So it got me thinking…what seperates the successful people from the unsuccessful?  And please don’t get me wrong.  I am using money as a measure of success but to me it’s not even about that because you can be successful and not have be uber Richard Branson rich.

This success trait can be taken anywhere in the world towards any goal you achieve for yourself…especially when it comes to transforming your body.

So this is what seperates the successful from the unsuccessful…

Unsuccesful people make excuses and blame others.

Successful people take personal responsibility for everything going wrong in their life and do whatever it takes to change it.

That’s it.

The one thing I got from all the people talking to me who were struggling in their businesses was that most of them were making excuses as to why they were doing so poorly.

“It’s the economy…“

“I don’t have enough time to work on my business..“

“I’m not in a mastermind group…“

“I don’t have the money…”

And the most unsuccessful ones would actually be cynical and sarcastic. I could seem them mock at the presenters and not take their advice seriously.  I mean seriously.  If you are at a conference with the purpose of learning…and you do that?  What’s the point of going at all?

This leads me to the SUCCESSFUL fitness trainers..

The most successful trainers I talked to had no excuses.  All they talked about was their goals, their current business and what needed to be done and what their vision was for the future.

There were no excuses.  They would actually be harder on themselves than make any excuses at all.  Their minds were focused on the outcome and what they needed to do to get there.

They don’t:

• blame others or things for all the things going wrong in their lives
• Make excuses
• make negative comments or think negatively
  
• become cynical or sarcastic when it comes to reaching their goals or learning something new
• whine, bitch or complain

Successful people do:

• Focus on their goals
• Do what it takes to reach their goals
• they are positive people
  
• Invest in the means necessary to get them closer to their goals

Their mindset and your mindset alone is the reason for your success.

I hope you got something from this post.  Definitely leave me a comment below and let me know what you think .  What do you personally think is the true key to anyones success?

I’m in the lobby of Pure fitness in Hong Kong and I just had an intensssseee workout. I’m going to make this a quick read as I definitely need some food in my stomach as soon as possible. Thankfully I don’t have to pay for the gyms when I’m on vacation and you don’t have to either (I’ll tell you next week how to do that)

I was listening to one of my many self help cd’s on my ipod when I came across this wicked question that I thought you would really like….

Where will you be in 5 years if you keep on doing what you are doing right now?

It is as powerful a question anyone can ask themselves because it puts you on the spot. Take your current habits, discipline, group of friends and mentality and fast forward 5 years into the future. Where will you be? Will you be worse off or better off? Will you be living the lifestyle you want? Will you have the health and vitality that you want?

Will you improve?

Are you setting and writing down goals for yourself that will set you up with the life you want…for the life you aspire to have. Did you know that you are 95% more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down. You will not believe some of the things I wrote down for myself years ago that I would have never thought possible…but somehow someway it happened because I started by writing it down.

If you are currently doing what you are doing right now….where will you be in 5 years?

If you don’t like the path you set for yourself you can always make that decision to change and live the life you want, have the body you want, be whatever you want.

Where will you be in 5 years?

Take 10 minutes and ask yourself this question.  If you don’t like it then make the changes now to be where you want to be.

Dedicated to your fitness goals,

Dan Go

Before anything I want you to get one thing in your mind.  Repeat this with me.  Repeat this at least 3 times over to yourself for the next 21 days. ….

You were put on this earth to succeed.

Whether it be building your perfect body or moving up the corporate ladder to achieving what you really want out of life….you were meant to succeed.  Fuck what anyone else says.  Their opinions don’t matter.

This is not some airy fairy BS where I’m going to tell you to think positive thoughts and repeat positive affirmations to yourself….no this is different…why?  Because it works.

“Failure is a learned concept”

To me there is no such thing as failing.  There is only trial and error.  You do the thing, make mistakes and correct the course as you move towards your goal.

The problem is when people meet a roadblock or an obstacle it stops them.

When they stop a ton of things start happening:

-  they start beating themselves up and calling themselves failures.  Once this happens its gonna take a ton of work to undo in your mind.

-  they start to blame others and the environment for their mistakes thus relieving themselves of responsibility.  This ultimately leads them to feel that they have no control over their life.

-  the just give up and accept the failure as part of their reality.  THIS SUCKS.

What is the way to get rid of this concept of failure?

Learn from what you have “failed” at and use it as a lesson.  I said, “There is no such thing as failure” because there isn’t.

The only way to defeat this notion of failure is to learn from it and be proactive to correcting it.  Keep improving until you achieve what you want to achieve.

In the book “Psycho Cybernetics” by Dan Kennedy and Maxwell Maltz they explain that your success/failure is all dependent upon your own self image or rather….how you see yourself through your own eyes.

What you see in your mind is what you will get in the real world.  If you dwell on thoughts or images of past/present/future “failures” then your mind will move in that direction whether you like it or not.

If you dwell on thoughts of the things you want/your goals you want to accomplish in this world…your mind will work towards it just as fast.

It’s all dependent on what you are focusing on.

The major revelation I got from this book is that your mind is meant to be a goal achieving machine.  The more you are focused on what you want in your life….the more your mind will target in on it like a heat seeking torpedo.

The reason why you “fail”?

Because you are selling yourself short by seeing images of failure.  You have images of future and past failures so you don’t even bother starting in the first place.  Or you just give it a half hearted effort because your mind can’t compute the success.

So how can you succeed?

This is the big question.  How can you set up your mind to automatically achieve your goals?

You have to start putting images in your mind of the things you want.  Put images in your mind of the way you want to ideally see yourself to be.  Keep your mind focused on what you want….rather than what you don’t want.

“So how do I do that??”

Do this for the next 21 days…

This might be a little weird to do but if you do it….it will totally change your life.  And if it doesn’t…you can stop reading this blog and talk as much shit about me as you want.  Tell your friends I’m a crazy son bitch and write nasty comments on my blog.

All I ask is to just try it and give it a good effort.  Hell…you have been doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results.  Why not try something different and see better results?

I want you to take 15 minutes of each day sitting down with your eyes closed in a completely relaxed state.  For the first 5 minutes focus on your breathing…do whatever you gotta do to make yourself relax totally.

For the following 10 minutes….Visualize yourself in a theatre and in the theater it is playing a movie with you in it….in your ideal self image.

What job do you have?  What does your body look like?  Who are your friends?  What are you doing on a daily basis?  Picture yourself happy and feel that emotion.  Look at the little details that surround this new ideal self.

Also do this….

Before going into a situation that gives you a little nervousness take about 5 minutes to visualize yourself doing it with confidence.  Visualize how you want the situation to go.

Then let go and do it.  Don’t think about it.  Your mind will take over and the results will be astounding.

I recently did this when negotiating a deal for a new facility.  I pictured in my mind how I wanted the entire negotiation to go.  I pictured how much I was willing to pay for the rent per month and the times I wanted.

Then I just let go and went on autopilot.

What happened?  I ended up getting the times I wanted at the price I wanted at the terms I wanted.

I constantly do this when I hit the gym.  I visualize how I want my workout to go.  Then I just let go and do it without thinking.

This will take time and practice.  I realize this could be outside of your comfort zone so please do these things in private.

But I assure you that if you do these things on a regular basis….for at least 21 days….you will be amazed at much your life has changed.

Some results will happen instantly.  Some will take some time to manifest in your life.  Give this 100% effort for the next 21 days.  I promise you that you will absolutely change your life.

Dan Go