IF IT IS NOT IN WRITING

It Did Not Happen

Good Day Readers,

How are you today?  Let’s talk about one of the most important activities and a tool available to all that will help you to achieve your goals. And if you have not set any goals well you need to do that too. How will you know when you get there if you do not know where you are going? However this is not the activity we will be discussing today.

The activity involves holding yourself accountable and paying close attention to your progress by recording and documenting your workouts, your measurements (once a month), and what fuel you are consuming. Yes, I said fuel ladies and gentlemen. Please understand that your attitude about food needs to change before you can actively make better choices about what you are consuming. Eating better is equivalent to living better. Food is fuel. It is as simple and plain as that. All living things use various fuels to make their apparatus function properly. The purpose of food is to provide fuel...not kill us.

Recording your workouts is important so you are aware of your progress as well as when you workout has become static. It is also an important tool that helps to insure you are completing your full routine and motivate you to do a little more each time. This is difficult to do if you are not documenting your routine. I recently started keeping my own workout and meal journal and now I have a great source of reference and personal motivational tool that is specific to my growth. If I do the same series two days or more in a row, then I will increase the weight or I’ll change the order of exercises. It is fun to change it up and trick my body to make my workouts more effective and challenging.

One drawback is, it takes a little longer to complete the workout but it is worth it. I also noticed I am more focused which increases the intensity and pump. The gains are steady both in strength as well as endurance. Recording has a way of not allowing you to fake your way through the workout. Like me, you probably will not want to read that you did not do your best. We may be able to lie to ourselves in an attempt to change history in our minds but it is far less likely if you document.

During your workouts, keep your log book or workout journal handy. Quickly write down the exercise, weight, and repetitions after each set. The trick is to find one that is durable, light, and compact. This is a project I will be working on in the next few weeks so stay tuned. I use it to record but also to check in each day and look at what I did previously, in terms of weight, or repetitions to determine where I will begin my workout each day. It works well for me and increases my awareness and determination to become better.

So go out and invest in yourself with a slightly extended workout and a few dollars. Trust me you are worth it!!! Pay attention to how it improves what you are doing and how you feel, while reducing the amount of deadly extra padding you may be carrying around. Why carry that extra weight all of the time causing strain on your body even while you are asleep? It is possible, to put a little strain on your body, for say an hour or two at the gym, park, or wherever you like and put down the baggage.

Shamelessly, I am going to steal a line from my 2^ndfavorite movie, Armageddon, “GET THE BOOK, GET THE BOOK, GO GET THE _ _ _ _ing BOOK.”

Get up, get moving, it is Monday morning and time to improve your health. Have fun this week do something new and remember, “CHIT CHAT WON’T BURN FAT.”