True confession: I’m a hypocrite. You see, I have been preaching the lifestyle of fitness, but have also managed to successfully disregard the most important client in my business — myself.
Every person working with a fitness trainer has the right to expect that trainer to practice what they preach. One of the long-standing jokes about the best way to fall out of shape is to either own a fitness business or become a trainer.
From my side of the gym, it’s easy to understand how and why that happens. Nonetheless, nothing is more oxymoronic than an “acceptable excuse.” In order to stay true to my own credo, no excuse qualifies when they’re used as reasons to fail.
My immersion into the never-ending demands of small business ownership, late nights, chaotic mornings and go-go-go has made me the consummate “desk-top trainer,” pushing my clients to their limits and accepting none of their excuses, while I created so many of my own. So many excuses, in fact, that I defied geology and succeeded in “reverse erosion” by slowly gaining an average of 1 pound per month, over the past 24 months.
Trainers who are in shape and keep body fat down to minimum while maximizing lean muscle are not privy to any special or secret workouts that make it any easier for them than their client. Yes, they have knowledge — but it’s the same knowledge they are passing on to you.
The first step to success, however, begins with control of time, so that the daily work schedule always has a dedicated space for at least a half hour of work in the gym, track or trail.
Secondly, perform both cardio and resistance training for the development of lean muscle and the ability to use oxygen effectively — that is what a strong heart can do once it too has been trained.
Lastly, consume food at the same caloric amounts in which it is expended (maintenance) or less than expended (fat loss) so that adjustments to minimal unwanted gains can be quick and effective.
As we go into the New Year, I feel accountable to my readers to share a summary of what I plan to do from a training, diet and discipline perspective.
This will include my lifts and cardio programs, time management schedule, diet, food journal entries and very simply, practicing all the advice I have given.
Since it is weight I wish to lose, and lean muscle I wish to gain, I can only assume that my starting point is similar to those of you who have resolved yourself to do this in the New Year.
Using my own body as the “working project,” I will also share with you how I justify my exercise and dietary choices. In other words, my journey will be the vehicle I use to provide information.
I’m off to a good start in that I have slowly eliminated alcohol from my diet, satisfied the 9 p.m. “booby-trap” of snacking with low fat proteins, and started bringing lunch to work instead of purchasing it. A lunch that consists primarily of protein and complex carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and some fruit. My breakfast this morning was a tablespoon of dry oatmeal mixed into a combination soy and whey protein shake — nothing like complex carbs and protein in the same brew.
Now that my fitness has become an “open book”, my next step is to be 100 percent accountable to my readers. Learn something new each week from my journey along with an honest report of my progress. My resolutions started in December, the focus is on, and my own efforts are the gentle reminder to all of us that there’s work to be done. Stay tuned!
Bill Victor is the owner of Victor Fitness System Professional Fitness Trainers, Flashpoint Athletic Speed & Agility Specialists, and Performance Nutrition Consultants. Reach him at victorfitsystems@gmail.com and http://theflashpoint.org and VictorFitnessSystems.com.
