January 7

There is a powerful tool that will help you get the motivation you need to get started - the humble pen!  With this ancient tool, you can begin to chronicle your fitness journey from the very first day.  I highly recommend starting a personal Fitness Journal that you can go to each day.  In your journal you can keep your weight chart, your daily activities, and even include a personal daily diary.   I have kept one of these in a 3 ringed binder for the past 13 years.  It is very encouraging to skim through these pages over the years and to read about my own successes and my own share of failures!  There is no more interesting story than your own - so please do not lose even a single day of it.  I can promise you that in less than a year, you will have forgotten many of your triumphs and struggles.  Think of your fitness journal as a written copy of yourself with perfect memory cheering you on day by day.  Forming a dynamic team with your journal will assure you are never making this passage alone!

January 6

There are three linked tiers to any fitness program.  They are: nutrition, supplementation and exercise.  These three tiers can be best understood in terms of a common piece of furniture - a three-legged chair called a stool.  This stool is totally stable, of course, with all three legs placed on the floor. Anyone can completely trust their entire weight on it unreservedly.  Each leg supports and complement the other. But if you remove one leg, the stool suddenly becomes unstable.  Yes, one can successfully sit on it, but it is hazardous at best.  Further, if one removes two of the three legs to the stool, it is even more unstable.  Some may even be able to carefully balance on a one legged stool, but it is not a good idea, of course, and it could go down at any moment.  A successful fitness program can be described the same way - all three tiers - nutrition, supplementation and exercise all support and complement one another.  In my gym, I have more than one good friend there who faithfully trains day after day, year after year and never miss a single day!  And yet, they and are still obese and most are actually getting heavier year by year.  They train hard, lift far more than I will ever be able to manage - but they totally ignore any nutrition and supplementation regimes.  I have always assumed they train for enjoyment and not for necessarily to lead a healthy lifestyle.  As we explore getting started in the month of January at Fit Science, we will discuss this in more depth, of course.  And as they are so essential and so vitally important, an entire month this year will focus on each of them.  February: Your Body in Motion.  March: Nutrition.  April: Supplementation.  Stay fit - stay healthy - stay with Fit Science!

January 5

Understanding the science of losing weight is not difficult at all!  For a human to lose weight, they merely have to consume less energy than they burn.  If they do, they WILL ALWAYS lose weight - they must.  It simply is not any more complicated than that.  If I describe this in even simpler terms, for a human to lose weight, they must consume less energy than their body requires to stay alive, which forces the body to access and use stored fat and protein for energy.  In reality, it becomes very complicated because the human body is an astonishingly complex biochemical machine that has an overriding control mechanism that is responsible for survival.  Once the readily accessible energy stores (food) have been depleted, the body turns on one of the most powerful of all human drive mechanisms - even more powerful than the male drive for sex - and it is called hunger.  Even before the body begins to access stored energy, it will signal hunger.  This drive is extraordinarily commanding.  To begin any fitness program, it is essential to understand this drive, learn to never ignore it - but instead learn how to satisfy it.  Few people can control it.  But that's just fine!  Hunger is a sign of health and was never designed to be controlled.  If you wish to lose weight - we can be most successful by respecting this drive as a positive one and by satisfying it intelligently.  We accomplish this by what we eat and when we eat!  Stay with us here day by day at Fit Science, and we can share our experiences and successes at satisfying hunger in order to lose weight, getting fit and staying healthy. 

January 4  
Getting started (or even re-started) on any fitness program is difficult, I don’t care who you are. Imagine this for a moment. If your target is to lose 25 pounds, that means that during your workout, you are dragging a quarter of a 100 pound block around with you everywhere you go – jogging, treadmill, elliptical machine and even walking. Actually pick one up and try this to see what I mean. Next time you are in the gym, snag a 25 pound weight and (carefully) walk around the floor with it. It’s heavy. Even though that excess weight is distributed relatively evenly over your entire body – it STILL weighs in at 25 pounds! Getting started is difficult partially because it takes more energy and effort to move your ideal weight PLUS all that excess weight in an exercise regimen, in addition to making a whole new habit that requires self-discipline. The idea here is to burn more calories than you consume and force your body to burn its fat stores. If you do it right, you will burn mostly fat, just a little protein and with determination and discipline, that 25 pounds will disappear – forever! And at that point, you will be happier, literally lighter, feeling better and more confident that your health is improving each day. And as a bonus, because of less weight to drag around and the new routine you have learned, it only gets easier each day because by the laws of physics - it takes less effort to move around less weight!

January 3 
Once you have consulted a real, flesh and blood physician for medical clearance to work out, it would be very cost prohibitive to return to him or her every time you have a medical question regarding your fitness goals.  In this case, most people I know turn to the internet for fitness advice from nutrition, technique, supplementation and avoidance of injury.  And- anyone who has ever tried this approach has the same impression after only one hour or so: many sites disagree with one another and all the advice is significantly and qualitatively different!  The solution to this is to do your research very carefully, consult others in your sphere of influence and decide on one or two  internet physicians with a good reputation (that you can verify through thorough internet reviews) and that has a very large body of material posted.  Obviously, if your question is about your own medical situation and is unique to you, please schedule another visit with your personal physician!  I can unreservedly recommend two sites that I rely on:  Dr. Jennifer Landa, MD, my own in-the-flesh wellness physician and the Chief Medical Officer for BodyLogicMD.  She has written books on these subjects, has an active YouTube presence and her own website.  She is the cutting edge expert in fitness and many 21st century medical approaches.  And finally, I most highly recommend Dr. Joseph Mercola, MD who has one of the internet's largest body of completely trustworthy and well researched fitness related materials and advice.  Just be careful who you choose as your expert and always turn to your own personal physician if the question is significant.

http://drjenniferlanda.com/

http://Mercola.com

January 2

In any fitness program, your physician is your best friend beginning before day one of your program.  It is not wise to embark on a fitness program until you first pay a visit to your doctor. To go directly from a sedentary lifestyle into an exercise program without professional advice is dangerous. I would love to advise you to skip it because physician visits can be expensive and such a requirement could discourage a lot of people from even starting. But unfortunately, I cannot. If you have insurance, it should not be much of a burden. But if you are not covered, inquire about availability and price at your local urgent care facilities for what is called an 'athletic physical'. They often perform school athletic physicals which should be sufficient for you unless you have preexisting medical problems. Just explain to the examining physician what you are doing before the exam begins. The doctor can rule out any heart/circulation irregularities and can advise you individually on getting started. Knowing you one-on-one, the physician can then also offer good advice on a suggested pace, supplements and diet. The visit to your doctor is an important first step as you embark on one of the most significant ventures of your entire life – a life that just got longer by acting on the wisdom to get started today!

January 1
There is no better new year’s resolution than to resolve to be healthy.  Unfortunately, most New Year’s resolutions never even make it out of the month of January.  The reasons for such a dismal record is fairly simple:  “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”  How do we humans get around that?  By attaching a realistic goal to the resolution and thereby appeal to the ego of the flesh.  Don’t just strive to lose 50 or 100 pounds in 2016!  But instead, resolve to lose 3-5 pounds in January. When that goal is achieved, add another one.  Resolve to lose another 3-5 pounds in February.  Strategically link  your resolutions together into an achievable reason to celebrate early in the year and then often thereafter.  If the flesh enjoys anything – it is a reason to celebrate and to feel good about itself!  Feed your flesh healthy food, exercise it and then achieve and record frequent success in 2016.  This is accomplished by chaining your resolutions together one small success at a time and your big goal will surely be overtaken by intelligently attending to the smaller ones!