Happy Birthday to me! 50 years ago today I entered this world. I’m giving myself a pat on the back because at this milestone, I look and feel better than ever. Is this blatant self-promotion? Yes, to some degree it is. More accurately, this is blatant book promotion. Hey, it’s my birthday and I’m 50, I think I’ve earned it. Truth be told, my primary motivation is to inspire others. My greatest satisfaction comes when I’m contacted by complete strangers who tell me that my program has helped them achieve their fitness goals and improve their quality of life. That makes it all worthwhile.

    Motivated by wanting to build muscles, I began weight training in my teens. But I never thought too much about my overall health and well-being until the age of 43. After overcoming some challenging life events and temporary setbacks, I decided it was time to make a serious lifestyle change. I entered a body transformation contest where I lost thirty five pounds and gained lean muscle. I did my first Men’s Physique competition at age 45. At age 49 I published a fitness and nutrition book. Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job outlines the proven program I developed over the last 30 years. Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job has helped hundreds of men and women improve their fitness, wellness, and self-esteem. A walking, talking, real life proof of concept is yours truly.

    As a 50th birthday present to myself, I did a photo shoot. The resulting image leads this blog. As a self-published author, I am my own marketing and promotion department. This photo, as is the case with the photos on my book’s front and back cover, is an example of what following my program can achieve. Everyone is capable of dramatic change. With a little hard work and discipline anyone can transform their body into whatever shape they’d like.

    Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job is about much more than vanity. Sure, most everyone wants to look good.  But as we age, we come to realize that health and wellness are most important. Since publishing last September, I’ve helped hundreds of people improve their quality of life. My program can help you, too. It’s never too late and your starting point doesn’t matter. Whatever your age, gender, and level of fitness, you too can dramatically improve your health and fitness.

    Unlike so many of the popular fad diets that come and go, I’m not going to pretend like there is some magic pill. There’s not. In fact, my program is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. “Going on a diet” implies a temporary plan with a fixed duration that you do before returning to your normal habits. A lifestyle change, however, is permanent and becomes your new normal. A lifestyle change is for life. Regular exercise and good nutrition are the keystones of a healthy lifestyle. It’s important to do cardiovascular exercise as well as resistance training. But because nutrition is about 80% of the challenge, let’s talk about that for a moment first.

    Other than refined carbohydrates and manufactured fats, I’m not going to focus on what you can’t eat. I’d rather focus on all the delicious foods that you can and should eat. The overall nutrition plan is pretty straightforward. There are two variables to solve for. First, if your goal is to lose weight (lose fat) you need to put yourself in calorie deficit. Second, you need to optimize your available calories by eating the right foods. You do this by eating the right ratio of the three macronutrients. You then eat the right foods within each of the macronutrient groups.

    Most of your calories should come from proteins and fats, with limited carbohydrates. Try your best to eat whole intact foods. If it’s packaged in a box or a can, it’s not real food. Read labels and accept no added sugar. Refined carbohydrates like sugar and enriched flour trigger an insulin spike which is inflammatory. Continued inflammation leads to a whole host of non-communicable diseases. Conversely, naturally occurring sugar like the sugar found in fruits and root vegetables is bound in fiber. Eating fruits and vegetables in reasonable quantities triggers a slow release of insulin. Whole foods are what we are perfectly designed to eat. We have not adapted to deal with refined carbohydrates.

    The second piece of my proven program is cardio. Doing regular cardio exercise will fire up your fat burn by burning more calories than sitting at a desk all day. Additionally, daily cardio has a residual effect of bumping up your basil metabolic rate throughout the day. Cardio also has the added benefit of strengthening your heart and respiratory system. The addictive part is the endorphin release which is not a bad drug to get hooked on. Try it, you might be surprised at how good you can feel.

    The third part of my program is resistance training. Also known as weight training, weight lifting, and pumping iron. Here’s a secret. Resistance training is as much for women as it is for men, and it’s for people of all ages. As we age, we slowly lose muscle and bone mass. We can’t stop the aging process but we can significantly slow it down. Weight training triggers our body’s adaptive growth response, which strengthens muscle and bone. For women, who are at risk of osteoporosis, weight training as you age is extremely beneficial. Despite the popular misconception, weight lifting won’t make ladies look masculine but instead will accentuate your female form.  Skinny isn’t sexy, fit is sexy.

    I present myself as an example of what is possible by living the fitness lifestyle. I hope that I inspire and motivate others who want to improve their health, fitness, and self-esteem. My book, available on Amazon.com, tells the story of my fitness journey and provides a complete transformation guide that will help anyone who wants to help themselves.

Yours in fitness,

J. D. Griffin

         With the holiday season now over, you’re back to the grind, and you’re wondering how you’re going to stay true to your New Year’s resolutions. Like most people, your number one New Year’s resolution was weight loss. Unfortunately, more than 90% of the people who proclaim shedding pounds and getting fit, as their New Year’s resolution will throw in the towel within the first two weeks of January. You don’t have to be one of the masses.  Here are three tips to help you succeed in achieving your fitness goals.

        First, create a permanent record of your goal weight and target date. Write down your goals. The psychological component of writing down goals can’t be overstated.  Whether you enter your goals in a diary app or write them in a journal, the act of writing them down makes them real. By contrast, people with no recorded goals find it easy to drift in the wind. Perpetually extending the end date or continuously putting off getting started in the first place is far too easy. You need a hard date and a tangible target that you’ll be working towards. Carve it in stone.

          A strategy that has enabled me to achieve my fitness goals has been coordinating my target date with an event. Give yourself no alternative other than success. For example, I’ve entered Men’s Physique competitions that are 12-weeks out on the calendar. I’ve also scheduled and paid in advance for photo shoots that are 12-weeks out. You don’t have to get on stage but anybody can plan a photo shoot. Another great strategy I’ve used is planning a vacation, preferably a beach destination that is 12-weeks out. Friends of mine have used similar strategy by timing their goal completion date with a significant life event like a birthday or a wedding. As far as your New Year’s resolution goes, circle March 31st on a big wall calendar, take a picture of it and text it to all your friends. Creating a permanent record of it makes it real.

            This leads me to my second tip. Don’t keep your weight loss goal a secret. In fact, tell as many people as you can. Tell your significant other, your family, your friends, your work colleagues, the butcher who sells you your chicken breast, tell anyone willing to listen. More psychology at work here as there is strength in numbers. By numbers I mean the number of supporters that you’re going to solicit. You will be surprised by how many people support you when they realize that you’re serious. You’ll even be more surprised by how many of those people you influence with your new and improved eating behavior.

            Think about how much we influence those close to us and how easily most of us are swayed. If you order out pizza for dinner your significant other is probably along for the ride. But if instead you grill chicken breast and steam broccoli, guess what you both now having for dinner? Likewise, if you go out and grab a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake for lunch then bring it back to the office a lot of people will think, now that looks and smells good. Many will follow your lead and indulge as well. Contrast that with bringing your own baked chicken breast and green salad every day to work. People are influenced and inspired by the positive actions of those around them. Eat clean, stay on track and you’ll quickly become a great example for all.

            Speaking of staying on track, this brings me to my 3rd point. Track your calories in and out and track your progress. In my recently published book, Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job; a Transformation Guide For Any Body, I outline exactly how to easily track your entire program. My program covers everything you need to know including nutrition, cardio and resistance training. Good nutrition is 80% of the battle so I strongly encourage people to use a calorie counting app. Free apps such as MyFitnessPal allow you to track all your calories consumed and burned. Maintaining a calorie deficit is a key to weight loss success and you’ll never really know how much you’re eating without keeping a meal diary.

            Again, there is more psychology at work here. Once you begin to see results and your bathroom scale starts responding, you’ll be providing your own motivation you’ll be much more likely to stay the course. It’s a bit of a snowball effect as success breeds more success. Whether your target means losing one, two, or three pounds a week, make a game of it. Set incremental weekly targets along the way and soon you’ll be well on your way to conquering your New Year’s resolution.

            Yours in Fitness,

            JD

                The holiday eating season is nearly upon us again. For many of us, the festivities revolve around traditional feasts. Most people will kick it off by celebrating with a Thanksgiving meal fit for a king. I know I will. But this doesn’t mean that you have to gain several unwanted pounds and then find yourself struggling to lose the extra mass in January. With the right strategy, you can indulge and enjoy the seasonal feasts without adding unwanted inches to your waistline.

                Thanksgiving Day wouldn’t seem right if I didn’t stuff myself with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. If you believe in the idea of an occasional cheat meal then T-Day is it, the granddaddy of all cheat meals. Throughout most of the year I follow a fairly strict nutrition plan, but I admit to chucking it out the window for Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner. If a turkey dinner with all the fixings is part of your holiday tradition, then go for it. Enjoy it guilt free, just don’t continue the over indulgence straight through to New Year’s Day. You can avoid plumping up over the holidays by developing a smart game plan now.

                  Frame your strategy like this. You’ve got three weeks until the start of the holiday season. If we define the season of overindulgence as Thanksgiving through New Year’s, then it’s a five week long minefield of continuous calorie bomb loaded meals that you’ll have to navigate. You could wear a blindfold, avoid all social gatherings and lock yourself in your house alone for five weeks, but that wouldn’t be very fun. You don’t have to be a hermit; get out and attend all the holiday dinners, parties, and shindigs -- but DO have a strategy in hand.

                 You’re going to eat a lot, probably more calories than you do the rest of the year. Your strategy should be twofold. First, think about total calories on the day of the event and total calories for the week. Second, decide carefully from what foods those calories will come from. Tighten up your nutrition plan now and eat super clean between now and Thanksgiving. If you’re not familiar with my program, it’s outlined in my book; Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job. Following a disciplined plan between now and the big feast in three weeks means that you’ll enjoy it even more. Eat super clean the week of the event and then on the day of the event, save the majority of your calorie intake for the big meal. Three weeks of self-control and the big dinner will be all the more special.

                When you do sit down to indulge, choose wisely. Pile the turkey on your plate, it’s a great source of protein. Pile the green vegetables and salad on your plate because you can never really eat too much green vegetables. Your strategy should be to fill up on the reasonably healthy items as much as possible. Next, if you’re a potato fan then take a reasonable portion of mashed potatoes. Your strategy for dealing with the decadent offerings should be to think of them as samplings. The smell of the stuffing is intoxicating so have a single portion then pass the platter on. The delicious smell of the gravy is also intoxicating. Have one ladle then stop, you don’t have to drown your plate in gravy. The cranberry sauce taste amazing but its pretty much candy so have one or two spoon fulls then pass it on. Use the same strategy with pie and other deserts. Pick the one you like best and have one reasonably sized portion then stop. You get the picture.

                Holiday cocktail parties usually mean a spread of appetizers and other finger foods. Again, choose wisely. Scope out the offerings and pick the meats, cheeses, and vegetables. Avoid the crackers and breads. Think of it as a microcosm of your healthy daily nutrition plan and avoid any refined carbohydrates. Instead, snack on the proteins, fats and any complex carbs there may be. Of course if you choose to drink alcohol then you’re consuming a lot of empty calories not to mention you’ll be much more likely to use bad judgment. If you do drink, try to do so in moderation.

                  Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, company holiday parties, and other holiday events are prime temptations to overindulge. I recommend marking on your calendar the three to five meal events that you’re going to attend over the five week holiday season then eating super clean in between and ramp up your cardio exercise. Earn it. This strategy will enable you to take part in all your favorite holiday festivities and stride into January with minimal scale and waistline damage. Make the indulgent meal events special, not everyday affairs.

                There’s no reason you have to spend January and February wrestling with fat loss and crash diets trying to make good on your New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Follow my survival plan and you can get through the holidays with your body intact.

     I once asked a veteran trainer why I never saw her using traditional weight lifting exercises while working with her clients. Her response was, “I’ve been doing this way too long, I don’t want to just stand over people and count reps all day, that would be boring.” This sums up a big problem for not only trainers but also many gym regulars. Too many people want to mimic whatever the latest popular fad happens to be. The latest popular craze is often perceived to be better and more advanced than traditional exercises. This also applies to workout techniques, late night training DVDs, fad workout gimmicks, and popular “diets” alike. Ultimately, gyms and fitness clubs are businesses. Continually selling memberships is a requirement for the success of the business. They have to “keep up” with their competition and stay “cutting edge” by offering whatever the current fashionable workout method happens to be popular. Offering the latest training approach and in vogue workout routines may help increase the gym’s bottom line by selling more memberships and collecting more personal training revenue but it won’t help you achieve your transformation goals.

    A good personal trainer can help you to optimize your valuable time in the gym. If you hire a personal trainer, be perfectly clear what your goals are. Tell the person exactly what you want to accomplish in the gym and make sure they understand that you want to learn perfect technique. If, at times your trainer has to just “count reps” then so be it. It’s your hard earned money paying for the workout session.

Myths and Popular Fads

     The sub-title of Carl Sagan’s bestselling book, “The Demon Haunted World”, is “Science as a candle in the dark.” For me, this says it all. Knowledge illuminates the unknown by shining a light on what we can and cannot prove. In his wonderfully entertaining book, Mr. Sagan debunks such notions as extra-terrestrials visiting Earth, ghosts, and witchcraft. Mr. Sagan concludes that people, cultures and ultimately entire civilizations will invent explanations for what they don’t understand. Human nature is to find answers to the unknown. Our curious minds then lead us to invent explanations for the unknown.

There is no shortage of myth and popular folklore surrounding weight loss, muscle building, fitness, and nutrition. Some of these ideas have flourished as popular opinion for years, some are what we in the fitness world call “bro science”, while others are short-lived passing fads. Unfortunately, hanging on to these false notions can sometimes lead you in exactly the wrong direction serving to only derail your progress. Let me address some popular myths.

Women Will Get Muscular Lifting Weights

     A common concern many women have about weight training is the fear of becoming “too muscular”. Don’t worry ladies. It’s extremely unlikely that this will ever become a problem.

First of all, the naturally occurring testosterone level in the vast majority of women is simply not high enough to achieve overt muscle growth. Without the aid of some kind of performance enhancing drug (synthetic or actual testosterone), significant bodybuilding like muscle development is just not possible. Second, natural muscle development is a slow process. As a healthy male who’s been resistance training consistently for over 30 years I can pass my firsthand experience on to you. It’s not easy to put on serious muscle mass. It doesn’t happen overnight.

     If you are indeed one of the genetically gifted statistical anomalies who does build significant muscle mass, you can easily control your growth. If you begin developing more muscle than you care for then adjust your workout accordingly. Back off the resistance training volume and intensity to a maintenance level if too much muscle ever starts becoming a real “problem”. Much more likely is that rather than overt muscle development, your resistance training will result in enhancing your female form. Shapely legs, back, shoulders and a round butt serve to enhance the classic hourglass figure.

Remember back in the early 90’s when Madonna started showing off her buffed well-defined legs, shoulders and arms? Many people, both men and women, admired her new athletic build. Madonna’s confidence in her new physique was inspiring. She was able to show that a woman, in this case a female pop star, could still look super sexy while sporting a chiseled athletic physique.

     In the 1990’s both Madonna and Linda Hamilton, from The Terminator I and II films, inspired a generation of women. Buffed female physiques became accepted in mainstream pop culture. Now, with the growing popularity of women’s bikini, figure and physique contests, women sporting athletic physiques have become more and more of a desired look. In my opinion, as a guy who’s into fitness, I think it’s damn sexy. The great thing is, all women have the potential to sculpt their body this way if they want it bad enough. If you choose to tap into your genetic potential, you too are also capable of dramatically improving your figure.

Building Muscle Will Slow You Down

     Conventional wisdom says that weightlifting will slow you down and inhibit your flexibility. This false notion is particularly common in the traditional fighting sports such as boxing, kickboxing, karate, and Jiu Jitsu. Many people still cling to the false narrative that if a fighter weight trains and builds muscle he will lose speed and agility. In the case of “juiced” bodybuilders, there is some truth to this notion. When steroids, testosterone and growth hormones are used in order to develop massive unnatural muscle size, agility and flexibility is certainly lost. However, in the case of natural muscle development through good nutrition and hard work alone there is no loss of speed. In fact, agility and flexibility are improved. As any professional athlete will tell you, adding significant lean muscle will only improve your speed, quickness and flexibility. It’s not just professional football player who lift weights. Pro baseball, basketball, and hockey players as well as downhill skiers and even golfers all lift weights.

     A great example that busts this myth is the story of one of the great heavy weight champion boxers of all time, Evander Holyfield. At the age of 22 and weighing just 178 pounds Holyfield won a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. He didn’t carry a lot of muscle then and he was lightning fast. 12 years later in 1996 at age 34 and weighing 215 pounds, Holyfield beat Mike Tyson very convincingly. Mr. Holyfield had added 37 pounds of lean muscle. That is quite a lot of muscle gain since his days as an Olympic medalist. He hadn’t lost any speed - he was still lightning fast.

Holyfield had been scheduled to fight Iron Mike Tyson in 1990 but Buster Douglas upset Tyson and then Tyson was sent to prison, delaying the Holyfield clash by 6 years. In preparation, Holyfield added some serious muscle, moving up from barely a light heavyweight to a true heavy weight. How did Holyfield add 37 pounds of lean muscle? He adopted a bodybuilding workout routine lifting heavy weights to failure. He lost no speed, quickness or flexibility. As far as I’m concerned the case in closed.

Improving performance through muscle development is not limited to the fighting sports. Muscle development slowing you down is a myth of a bygone era. No matter what sport you play, lean muscle development will only improve your game.

Fasting Cardio

     Some self-described “nutrition coaches” have latched onto to a popular new fad called Fasting Cardio. Their logic goes something like this. If you do intense cardio on an empty stomach there is no blood sugar to burn therefore you will only burn fat. They advocate Fasting Cardio as the quickest way to loose fat.

     What happens in reality is something quite different. The stress of intense cardio while you’re blood sugar deprived triggers a survival response. The scientific approach views biology through an evolutionary lens. Our hunter gather ancestors could survive a harsh winter with little muscle however they wouldn’t last long without stored body fat. Our hard-wired survival mechanisms response to Fasted Cardio is to save the stored fat and instead cannibalize muscle tissue for energy. Obviously this is counterproductive to everything that you’re trying to achieve.

     Perhaps I can best support this argument with the advice of the many contest prep coaches that I’ve had the good fortune to be associated with over the years. When building nutrition and training plans for figure, physique and bodybuilding competitors; professional coaches have got to get their clients body fat percentage pretty low. These coaches never have their competitors doing Fasted Cardio. They will instead tell them to spread their limited calories throughout the day. Eating just before a cardio session is often the only way their clients can get through a workout. The benefit of daily cardio training is two-fold, total calories burned and the residual increased metabolism effect that can last 24 hours after exercising.

     The most likely result of Fasted Cardio is not only cannibalizing hard-earned muscle tissue. You will likely give yourself a headache and become irritable. Never exercise on an empty stomach. You’ve got a killer body to build. You need energy in the form of blood glucose to get through your cardio and resistance training sessions.

Spot Burning

     This one is an oldie but a goodie. If you want to lose belly fat then do lots of sit ups. Right? Or if you want to get rid of the fat on the back of your arms then do lots of triceps work. Right? Wrong!

     We all have a genetic predisposition to store fat on particular parts of our bodies before storing it on other parts. The first place you store it is the last place that you lose it. Women tend to store fat on their hips, thighs, breast, and the back of their arms first whereas men tend to store fat on their bellies. Focused resistance training certainly tones, strengthens and develops the muscle underneath the particular area you are working but it will have no effect on the stored fat in that area.

     The solution to losing fat, anywhere on your body, comes back around to the energy equation. Burn more calories than you consume and you will lose fat. You’ve got two levers you can pull. You can eat fewer calories, you can burn more calories through cardio exercise, or preferably, you can do both. Fat lose is achieved by maintaining a calorie deficit.

     Our genetics control where on our bodies we are predisposed to store fat. If you’re the person who stores any excess fat on your belly first then that is going to be the last place you lose it. If the first place you gain weight is on your hind end and you want to shrink that backside then you’re going to have to put yourself into calorie deficit. Fat lose can only be achieved by consuming fewer calories than you burn. Period.

No Magic Pill

There’s no shortage of people trying to sell you a quick and easy fat lose solution. Whatever the problem happens to be, it’s human nature to seek out the easiest solution. The path of least resistance is usually our first choice and clever marketers take full advantage of this.

Plenty of enterprising folks are earning big bucks exploiting the mass desire for an easy weight loss fix. People want a magic pill. Websites, magazines, and TV advertise magic pills guaranteed to make you lose weight. The “easy” solutions are packaged in countless forms. You can buy expensive ready to eat meals delivered to your doorstep that are guaranteed to make you lose weight. Go to any bookstore and you’ll find an ocean of fad “diet” books, all claiming to offer the latest break through weight loss solution and foolproof diet plan. There is also no shortage of “new” workout plans you can sign up for from military boot camp style group training that meets in city parks before sun rise to “hard core” work out DVD collections available online or advertised on TV infomercials. The hard cold reality is this. There is no magic pill or easy fix. There is no secret gimmick. The real solution is calorie control, good nutrition, and exercise.

There is nothing new under the sun. There is no magic pill nor is there some new secret “diet” or weight loss breakthrough. Gimmicks don’t work. You can lose all of your unwanted body fat, put on lean muscle, look great and feel great with nothing more than my new book as your guide. I outline a no-nonsense, straightforward practical approach in Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job.

Yours in fitness,

JD

As you can probably tell by now, I like to base my blogs on things that I hear and see on a daily basis in the fitness center. This is another one of those opportunities.

The fitness center I train at in Florida has one of those in-house TV channels that they show on half the monitors in the building. It has a lot of little news bits and advice about nutrition and working out. But the other day I saw something that made me shake my head: a story about losing fat based on making sure you have multiple colors of food on your plate. Wow! Sounds so simple. And it is simple. Perhaps too simple, but it makes a great TV sound bite. It’s yet another example of something catchy trying to be trumpeted as the new secret to fat loss. Don’t buy into the hype of new “miracles” or “ancient [insert any foreign/exotic country here] secret to burning fat.” Now, I’m not saying that eating different colored veggies doesn’t have some merit; what I’m saying is, there’s always some supposedly new thing that is being touted (or marketed or sold to us). It’s easy to lose focus and get caught in the “flavor of the week” hamster wheel.

Most of us are bombarded by all kinds of news stories and facebook posts about how so and so lost weight using this NEW and UNIQUE program… and if you hear that, just tune it out. Nutrition is actually very simple, and you just need to know a few key things to apply to your own habits that will turn you into a lean, mean fit machine.

The keys to a positive, healthy nutrition program are not based on the color of food. They are based on facts and the tried and true principles of managing your calorie intake and expenditures, and managing percentages of macronutrients (45% protein, 35% fats, and 20% carbs) and eating the right kinds of those macronutrients (clean, lean proteins like chicken breast, fish, and lean beef; healthy fats like avocados and fish oils and certain nuts; and complex carbs, avoiding sugars and simple starches like flour-based foods). By minimizing sugar and simple carbs, you minimize the opportunities for your body to go into fat-storage mode.

Combine that nutrition plan with a solid cardio and resistance exercise regimen, and you have the components of a great program to get you – and keep you – fit, lean, and healthy.

That’s it. It’s not overly complex, is it? The fact is, people have been getting into great shape for decades by following this sort of nutrition and exercise plan. Author and certified nutrition coach JD Griffin outlines this perfectly in his book. I followed his nutritional advice, adopted his cardio and resistance programs, and I got into amazing shape in 12 weeks.

So next time you see that article or TV commercial proclaiming “European Women’s Secrets to Fat Loss” or “Ancient Chinese Herbs That Melt Fat Overnight,” or even “Super Duper New Never-Thought-Of-Before-Now Fitness Fat-Destroying Annihilation Program on 237 DVDs!!!”, just don’t listen to it. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on some “secret” mix of herbs or a giant DVD set. All you need to do is follow a sound nutrition program, do your cardio and resistance training, and you’ll achieve your goals.  What are you waiting for? Eat clean, workout like a machine, and get fit and lean!

About the author:

Steve Welch is a medical publishing professional who Got Fit, Lean and Kept His Day Job at the ripe old age of 50. If he can do it, so can you. So get on it!

By now a number of you have probably bought the Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job book. At least I hope so. And I know there’s a lot of info there. After all, I edited it! And I did the program and successfully lost 26 pounds over the 12 weeks. So, now it’s time for YOU to get started. And that first step, starting a new program, is often the hardest. So here’s a few tips I’ll share to help you get going.

1. Don’t Be Paralyzed by Information Overload

Yes, there’s a ton of information in the book. But it’s not overly complicated, so don’t overthink it. Don’t worry that you don’t have enough information or that you still need to understand a bunch of things before you start. Get started now. You’ll learn as you go, and that’s ok. If you try to wait until there’s some magical “perfect time,” you’ll be waiting a long time. So don’t wait. Get started and tweak things as you go. 

2. Clean up your eating and drinking 

Follow the basic principles JD lays out regarding clean, healthy eating. Avoid processed foods, cut simple sugars and starches out of your nutrition plan as much as possible, and eat lean proteins, complex carbs, and healthy fats. There’s a big list of all these things in the book to give you some guidance.  As he says, nutrition is 80% of the challenge.

3. Get your heart rate up

Start doing 30 minutes of cardio as many times a week as you can fit it in. More if you can. And again, if you end up starting a little slower than you’d like, it’s ok. You can add more time in when it’s convenient. Just don’t let yourself procrastinate by thinking things like “I can only do this 3 or 4 days a week right now, so I’ll wait until I can do it 5 or 6.” Get started, and things will fall into place. Start establishing your cardio exercise as a priority and a habit. Believe me once you start seeing results, and you will, you’ll look at this as one of the best parts of your day.

4. Work your body

After you’ve done your cardio, do brief but intense resistance training, as outlined in the program. You can do a lot in 20-25 minutes if you’re focused and work hard.  You truly don’t have to spend hours doing this stuff. Hit it and quit it.  Fire up that calorie burning furnace (your body) and it’ll pay dividends all day long.

5. Hydrate with healthy liquids

Water is king, and if you need something else, tea and coffee are the only things you need to drink. No sugary sports drinks, artificially sweetened diet sodas, or juices. Make your calories count by eating good foods (not drinking your calories) and keep your body clean from all that junk. When I stopped drinking soda and other stuff and just kept to water, coffee, and tea I felt different – better – in a single week. Do me a favor and just try it and see how it feels. I think you’ll feel the difference.

6. Don’t worry about the 12 week thing

Yes, the Get Fit, Lean transformation program is based on a 12-week window. But that’s not all there is to it. You’re going to develop healthy habits that you’ll continue long after the 12 weeks – hopefully for the rest of your life. I made some dramatic changes in the initial 12 weeks and then continued to eat clean, work out, and stick to the basic principles of the program, and after almost 4 months I’ve kept the weight off. In fact, after the 12 weeks was up, I tweaked my nutrition and training because I’d gotten to the body fat goal I was working toward and wanted to maintain but focus more on adding a little muscle. So if you are afraid you won’t “succeed” in 12 weeks, there’s no need. This about making progress toward the goal of a fit, healthy new you. If you still have work to do after 12 weeks, no problem. 

7. Just get started

The bottom line is that in order to make a change, you have to start somewhere. Start now! Today is the day to begin the transformation to a better, healthier, more positive you.

I’ll be waiting on facebook to hear from you, because I want to know how you’re doing.

About the author:

Steve Welch is a medical publishing professional who Got Fit, Lean and Kept His Day Job at the ripe old age of 50. If he can do it, so can you. 

What doesn’t catch your eye like a nice set of abs? It’s true, the primary focus of any fitness program to lose fat and get in better shape is often visual. People gauge success by dramatic results, changes in their measurements, and seeing how much better they look. But what about how you feel?  One of the most overlooked things about an effective fitness program is how good it makes you feel to eat right and get in better shape.

Not long before I started the Get Fit, Lean program, I went in to see my doctor because I was feeling lethargic, unmotivated, and just felt crappy most of the time. I even was having these periods where my heart would just pound and I’d have labored breathing. I was worried I might be having heart trouble. I’d been gaining weight, and after some introspection I realized I hadn’t exactly been killing it at the gym, nor had I been eating very healthy. Too many business dinners with free flowing booze, lunches of sandwiches and potato chips from quick-delivery sub joints, and unhealthy snacking had added up. Fortunately, my heart was fine. The problem was I was about 30-35 pounds overweight, eating poorly, and it was taking its toll on my body – and my soul. I just didn’t feel like myself.

That was about the time JD contacted me about his book as I described in my inaugural blog post (you can read it here), and I decided to do his Get Fit, Lean program. In the book he talks a lot about having a steady, constant energy level all day long due to eating right and being in better shape. I just kind of breezed over that when I read it, you know, maybe it was a little hyperbole, and besides I was focused on wanting to lose my gut and get abs. Yet, once I started following the clean nutrition plan, cut out the junk and simple sugars and starches, and began exercising with intensity and purpose, a change began. I felt better. I had more energy. I stopped having those post-lunch comas at work. Just like JD wrote about. It was dramatic and noticeable.

Here’s the thing: when you are eating a lot of processed foods made with sugar and highly processed flour, your body is constantly in a battle to keep your blood sugar levels stable. This battle ends up giving you lots of energy highs and lows. It’s like being on an energy roller coaster. But once I moved to the high-protein, low carb, healthy fat macros outlined in the program, it was like a switch had been turned on.

In addition, over the course of the 12-week transformation program, I lost more than 25 pounds. That might not seem like a lot to some people, but I was 180 (at 5 foot 6 inches tall) and a lot of that weight had accumulated around my middle. So 25 pounds was almost 15% of my total body weight. I literally feel like I have a weight off my shoulders now – I feel lighter on my feet, and doing things require so much less effort. To put it in perspective, pick up a 25-pound dumbbell and start carrying it around. After a few minutes you’ll get pretty tired. Well I had been doing that 24-7 without realizing it. And that’s the equivalent of what I lost on the program. So on top of getting into better cardiovascular shape and being more fit and lean, I’m no longer carrying around all that extra weight.

I can only describe it as life-changing. I didn’t realize how much my lifestyle was bogging me down until I changed it. I feel incredible now every day – I have a high level of energy, I don’t get tired mid-way through the day, and I just plain feel good. It’s impacted my workday and even coworkers have noticed it and commented to me about it. It’s kind of hard to describe, but I’d say it’s as positive or even moreso than the visual physical changes I experienced. So, my message is this: get on a good plan like Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job – clean up your nutrition, do cardio and resistance training regularly, and start feeling great!

About the author:

Steve Welch is a medical publishing professional who Got Fit, Lean and Kept His Day Job at the ripe old age of 50. If he can do it, so can you.