Valentine's Day Fat Burning Tips

Valentine's Day is almost here. And there's a VERY good chance you have plans to eat out that night with your significant other.
And while I want you to have a great time, I do NOT want you to kiss your fat loss goals goodbye. Here are three quick Valentine's Day Fat Burning Tips to help keep you on track.

1) Make sure you get a good workout in that day. Preferably strength training. It'll have you blasting fat all day long.

2) Whatever you do, do NOT starve yourself all day long in anticipation of your big night out. That's one of the worst things you can do.

3) If you're having a chocolate craving - it is Valentine's Day after all - you want to have some good dark chocolate on hand.

(Note: I recommend Prograde Cravers. See the bottom of this email as they are on sale this week!)

4) Start Valentine's Day off with 2 large cups of water when you wake up. You also want to drink 1-2 cups before each meal as it will help you from consuming WAY to many calories.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yours in health,
David

PS - Here are all the details on Prograde Nutrition's 14% off Prograde Cravers sale.
Organic Dark Chocolate Prograde Cravers have no preservatives, only 180 calories and they come in three delicious flavors: peanut butter, almond butter and spirulina.
The even better news is they are on sale all this week for Valentine's Day.
Here's everything you need to know:

- Again, because it's Valentine's Day, the sale is 14% off all purcahses of Prograde Cravers
- When you checkout you will enter this coupon code to save the 14%: vday0909
- Shipping will take 3-5 days, so while I HIGHLY recommend you jump all over this sale, don't purchase these as a gift expecting them to be their for Valentine's Day itself. Buy them as a healthy gift for yourself or others.
- Sorry, Prograde Cravers are not available overseas
- The offer cannot be combined with others from Prograde and it ends this Saturday, February 14th at 11:59pm EST.- Prograde Cravers are NOT available in stores anywhere. You can only find them online here: Prograde Cravers http://perfectfitwc.getprograde.com/cravers

Have you fallen off yet?

I always look forward to this time of year for myself and my clients, as an opportunity to step back away from our workouts and see what worked in 2008, what didn't, and what new directions we want to head in. To learn how to stop failing at the same thing over and over. It's a time for identifying the top priorities for the coming year, which is especially important given that most of us get stuck in ruts with our workouts. So at the new year, I recommend really taking a creative look at what you would like to accomplish in all areas of your life, health, and fitness in the next 12 months. Use the guide below to start heading your body and your life in a new and better direction. Don't be afraid to fail—you will never know if you don't try. Look at your life—are you finding challenge and reward in your daily activities? If the answer is no or even maybe, then I challenge each of you to use 2009 as the year to truly make some amazing changes and enhancements to your life and health.

Get a Baseline

Before you start making changes, find out where you are now. Rate your current state of health and wellness on a scale of one to 10, where one means "horribly unhealthy" and 10 means "perfect health". In rating yourself, take the following factors into account (if you like, you can score yourself from one to 10 on each of these, and then divide by 10 to get your average):

1. Food Choices: Do you eat processed (bad) or organic (good)? Do you eat a healthy balance of food types (veggies, fruits, lean meats, healthy carbs)?
2. Drink Choices: Think about your intake of caffeine, soda, artificial sweeteners and alcohol vs. good old-fashioned water.
3. Daily Caloric Intake: As opposed to your daily caloric output—are you operating at a deficit?
4. Consistency of Above: Be honest with yourself about how consistent you are in making smart eating and drinking choices. Are you sticking with your goals?
5. Types of Workouts:Do you only body-build, or do you maintain a balanced program of weight-training, cardio, flexibility training, and corrective work for better posture?
6. Workout Program Consistency: A good, balanced program is a great start—but have you been sticking with it through the year? Do you skip days at the gym, or overlook some muscle-groups? Again, be honest with yourself; this is the moment for a reality-check.
7. Relaxation/Meditation Activities: Are you taking care of your mind's connection to your body through activities like yoga, outdoor walks/biking/hiking, massage work, or meditation?
8. Rest/Sleep Schedule: Getting eight hours per night? Does your sleep schedule follow your circadian rhythms (that is, sleep from 10pm to 6am)? Are you sleeping soundly through the night?
9. Work Life: How many hours are you working per day? Is it stressful or rewarding?
10. Drinking/Partying Habits: We all like to have a good time, but are you drinking or partying every weekend or too often? Are you spending the whole week recovering?

Get a Goal

Now that you've reached a health rating score, make a list of changes you'd like to make in 2009 to improve this number within the categories listed above. These will be pretty specific and practical changes. For example: swearing off diet soda, or alcohol on the weekends (or at least for the three months of the year); only eating as many calories as you burn each day; taking up a recreational sport instead of just gym workouts, or working with a trainer to develop a corrective program; or getting enough sleep, at least on the weekends.

You want these specific changes to stay in touch with the person you want to be more broadly. That's why it's important, at the start of the year, to think about your general life goals, and how you might achieve them. Take this opportunity to list five to 10 life goals to work toward in 2009. For example, these can be particular but life-changing—like paying off your credit cards, or completing a triathlon. Or, these can be more abstract, like becoming a more flexible person (and that, in turn, might require some of the changes listed above, like changing your insane work schedule). But the abstract becomes the particular: your goal to lose weight can be an ambition to get into size 32 jeans. And once you have the goal, you just need the plan.

Get a Plan

So, now that you've got the life goals, let's give you some specific fitness goals for 2009. Try to find five to 10 goals that fit in with your life and health goals, and that can help get you where you want to be. For example:

1. Pick a Part: Make specific areas of your body stronger and/or more powerful for specific functions or movements. For instance, strengthening your lower abs for better lower back support and improved posture; bench-pressing your own weight; doing 10 unassisted pull-ups; improving your cardio endurance; increasing your flexibility enough to be pain-free in daily life. You can invent your own specific goals, thinking about how they advance your general life goals.
2. Make a First: One great way to advance life goals is to become accomplished at something new, that you never thought you could do. And, it will help your basic fitness as well. So, go learn to swim laps, or prepare for a half-marathon, or learn to double-jump rope. Set a goal, achieve that goal, feel awesome.
3. Get an Education: You can broaden your horizons, and get new ideas, by learning new information. Learn more about proper form (try consulting a trainer), or perform checks to self-diagnose muscle pain and postural issues. This will get you feeling enlivened for your general life goals, and put you in a better position to succeed.

You now have a lot of information—and you may not be able to do it all. Try to keep a single goal in mind, one life goal you want to accomplish, and pick a few of the health and fitness goals that pertain to it to change. Ideally, consult a trainer and/or nutritionist to come up with a plan for the first quarter of 2009, one that is in line with your long-term goal for the year. From there, it's mostly a matter of staying on track, and we all know that can be hard. So be practical. Write out your goals and the changes you want to make, and post that list somewhere that you can see it daily, like in your office, or inside the medicine cabinet so you can see it as you brush your teeth. Constant reminders can be a big help.

So can checking in. Put a reminder on your calendar on the first of April that you are to go through this entire questionnaire again and check up on how you're doing. Your plans may need tweaking at that point—and that's ok. Just be honest with yourself about where you are, so you can see where you'd like to go.

All the best of luck in 2009—and remember the challenge I gave you to make 2009 the year you make a real difference in your life!

This is so sad, but true

As a fitness professional, I can tell you from experience that most people just do not give their health a second thought until it's gone.

It's very sad, but very true. Now I know you've heard this before. And I know that this message typically falls on deaf ears. But today I want you to do some soul searching.

First off, I hope this message finds you in good health. If it does, I want you to give me just 60 seconds of reflection. Sit back in your chair and give thanks for your well-being. Give serious consideration to what your life would be like without it.

Imagine the effect on your family if you lost it.Next, I want you to think about the old saying "you are what you eat."Truer words were never spoken, you know.

So now give me another 60 seconds and think about what you've eaten over the last few days. Make a little list on a piece of paper or on your computer.

So if you are what you eat, what is YOUR body made of right now?

Have I struck a nerve yet?

You and I both know there's nothing better than filling up on nature's finest whole foods. If you are what you eat doesn't it make sense to build your body with nature's finest?

By now I'm guessing I have your full attention.Good. Because I want you to know that while I would NEVER promise you a miracle pill, I am going to tell you that you can get the nutrients of 25 whole vegetables, greens and fruits in caplet form.

Prograde Nutrition's VGF 25+ is the culmination of 25 vegetable, green and fruit concentrates. Yes, they take those 25 whole foods and pack them into a heck of a caplet.

They even have specific formulas for men and women.It's an incredibly convenient way to build your body with better materials, so to speak. And remember, Prograde's formula uses whole foods. It is NOT a synthetic vitamin created in some lab somewhere.

Now the really cool thing about Prograde Nutrition is they were created by fitness pros for fitness pros. They created a company just so I had nutritional products I could recommend to you. Products I know you will get great benefit from.

In fact, their products are so in demand they are now shipping to the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand! Plus, they will soon be able to ship to just about anywhere in the world.

Yes, ALL their products are that good and they are that much in demand.

So to celebrate their new shipping destinations, and just to ring in the New Year, they are having a 10.9% off everything sale.

Yes, that's 10.9 as in January of 2009 ;-)

Here are some other details I want to make sure you know about:
- Again, you receive 10.9% off all Prograde products.
- It will run from Thursday, January 8th until Thursday, January 15th at 11:59pm EST. - Yes, that 10.9% off will be applicable to SmartShip orders. But it only applies to that first purchase. Not ongoing.

The coupon code you enter at checkout is: 012009

The website is http://perfectfitwc.getprgrade.com
- If you want to check out the VGF25+ I've been telling you about go here: http://perfectfitwc.getprograde.com/vgf

Yours in health,
David Corder NSCA-CPT

PS - Do some soul searching today. Do you really want to be one of those people that thinks about their health AFTER they've lost it?

PPS - If your nutritional plan needs a boost be sure to check out Prograde's 10.9% off sale at http://perfectfitwc.getprograde.com

7 Days Left!

We're just 7 days out from the start of this Year's www.12daysoffitness.com and boy, have we been puting together a bunch of great FREE gifts for you!

There are well over a hundred exercise programs, diets, nutrition plans, videos, audios, reports and tons more getting linedup to hit your inbox from 10th December......and all of it is FREE.

It won't cost you a single penny!

All of the contributors (myself included) are really looking forward to sharing their gifts with you but we really need your help to make this work.

First, we need you to get on over to http://www.12daysoffitness.com rightaway and update your details into theform we've set up over there. This will make sure you don't miss out on the gifts as we release them on the tenth.

Second, we need you to tell everyoneyou know about the gift-giving. You see, we want this to be big. No, HUGE, and the only way to accomplish that is to get the word out through everyone who we know. That means you too!

You don't have to do much just send your family, friends and colleagues on over to http://www.12daysoffitness.com to get their own gifts and we'll do the rest.

Can you help?

I hope so, we really want this to help as many people as possible.

Thanks in advance!

Speak soon!

David Corder NSCA-CPT

http://www.12daysoffitness.com

Disturbing Fact You Might Not Like

We fitness pros get a bad rap at times. And hey, sometimes it's well deserved. It's unfortunate, but there are still way too many "meat head" trainers who are more interested in looking at themselves in a mirror than they are in their own clients.

But we also take heat at times for being too interested in looks and appearance than health and wellness.

Well, I'm going to fill you in on a little secret. We've tried to market our businesses by educating people about the health benefits of proper nutrition and exercise. We'd love for people to care more about their health than how they look.

Unfortunately, and this holds true for the vast majority of people, they only care about their health once they've lost it.

Think about that for a little bit.

I can tell you right now the unscrupulous marketers online are making a FORTUNE promoting these Acai Berry pills right now. And they are able to do that because they are promoting it as weight loss and not the real benefit of Acai Berry.

It is the "magic pill" of the day. If you've been paying attention to the weight loss market you'll know it used to be Hoodia.

Now, you might not like it, but I'm not going to be the one to lie to you. I'm not going to be the one to tell you take this little pill and watch the weight fall off. Acai Berry is a heck of an antioxidant that can help your body fight the aging process and help boost your immune system, but it's not going to flush the excess pounds off your belly, butt, hips and thighs. Sorry.

Now my friends at http://perfectfitwc.getprograde.com have an amazing product that includes Acai Berry as one of its main ingredients. But unlike the Grade A scumbags out there lying to you, they only promote their product for what it is; a very powerful Antioxidant formula to help boost your health.

So if your health is of interest to you then definitely check out http://perfectfitwc.getprograde.com/longevity

Sorry if this ticks you off. I'm here to shed light on the truth for you. It's up to YOU to decide whether or not your health is more valuable to you than your appearance.

Yours in health,

David Corder NSCA-CPT

P.S. - Again, if you value your health and want help with the aging process I can't recommend http://perfectfitwc.getprograde.com/longevity to you enough.

Leading Fitness Experts Give The Gift Of Health To World With Biggest Ever Health and Fitness Giveaway This Festive Season

On Wednesday, December 10, Dax Moy and over 250 of the world's top fitness professionals will open the doors on the World’s largest ever health and fitness gift-giving, set to generate positive health for over 500,000 people this Christmas.

The program, called ’12 days of fitness’ initially began when the UK's leading fitness professional, Dax Moy, wanted to express his gratitude to his clients and offered them a gift a day for 12 consecutive days as his twist of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Last year Moy shared this idea with fellow fitness professional Pat Rigsby and they expanded the 12 Days of Fitness to include not only their own clients but to the world at large and gave fitness gifts to over 200,000 people who signed up at the site at www.12daysoffitness.com.This year, with the help of 250 of the world's top personal trainers, nutritionists, therapists and specialist fitness experts, the 12 days of fitness is set to become the biggest fitness gift giveaway in history with expected downloads of over 500,000 between the 10th and 22nd of December.

"There’s never been another health event like this, where so many people stand to benefit from the expertise of true professionals for free” says Moy who has been working flat out to make this year’s 12 days a success.“Fitness professionals from around the globe have contributed hundreds of e-books, reports, videos, meal plans and other free gifts in their hope of making 2009 the year that anyone, regardless or their location, financial situation or past failures, can finally reach their fitness goals and make those New Year's Resolutions a reality once and for all.”

Perhaps the best part of the 12 Days of Fitness giveaway is that regardless of a persons health or fitness goals, there are going to be gifts specifically designed to help them achieve success."We've received gifts designed for busy mom's, elite athletes, bodybuilders, back pain sufferers and pretty much anyone else you can imagine covering everything from fat loss to rehabilitation and everything in between.There literally will be something for everyone this year and all of it free, making it, without a doubt, one of the most important gifts anyone will receive this year.

After all, what’s more important than health?”The 12 days of gift giving starts December 10th but those interested are urged to visit www.12daysoffitness.com right away to sign up for their free gifts.Once enrolled, participants will get a daily email telling them how to access each of the new gifts that are being added each day as well as a reminder on how to access previous gifts.

To guarantee a healthy start to 2009, simply visit www.12daysoffitness.com today.

Sprint.....for a healthy heart!

You know you need your cardio to keep your heart healthy, right? So just how many hours of cardio do you need to do a week? It turns out the answer may not be one of time spent, but of intensity of exercise. A new study published recently in the American Journal of Physiology's Journal of Regulatory, Integrative & Comparative Physiology investigated the relationship between high intensity training and cardiovascular health. Their findings? Start sprinting.

The study, conducted by Mark Rakobowchuk at McMaster University in Canada, gave male and female subjects six-week training sessions using two different types of exercise. One group used high-intensity sprint training, but an overall low volume of exercise: They performed four to six sprints of 30 seconds each, separated by 4.5 minutes of recovery, and did this program three days per week. The other group did 40 to 60 minutes of moderate intensity cycling (at 65 percent of their maximum) on a stationary bike five days per week—a traditional endurance program. The study found that the groups received the same reparative benefits to their arterial systems—despite the huge difference in the actual amounts of time spent exercising.

The researchers tracked both groups for the elasticity of both their central and peripheral arterial systems—that is, blood flow to the heart, and blood flow to the muscles. They found that arteries are aided by both high-intensity training and endurance training. This finding offers new options for addressing the complexities of constricted arteries, a major cause of cardiovascular disease. "As we age, the arteries become stiffer and tend to lose their ability to dilate, and these effects contribute to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease,"

Maureen MacDonald, an associate professor in McMaster University's Department of Kinesiology told Science Daily. "More detrimental is the effect that blood vessel stiffening has on the heart, which has to circulate blood."

The implications of this research are significant, given the difficulties of persuading most people to do cardio exercise 45 minutes a day, five days per week. But smaller, less time-consuming (though very challenging) doses of exercise may be more manageable, and still give significant benefits to stiff and constricted arteries. For people from the ill to the busy to the merely tired, this research potentially offers a new, less time-consuming way to approach exercise and heart health.

Project Breakout - The search for the new fitness phenom!

I entered on a whim.

I won week one by a landslide!

I will win the finals!

Project Breakout is the "American Idol" for fitness trainers. My first DVD " Perfect Posture/Body Alignment Program" ( I know, not a great title...LOL) won the first week by a landslide. But, the next video "12 x 12 Fat Burning Bootcamp" ( much better title....) is smoking hot!

Be on the lookout and vote for it from September 1-7, 2008. It's just like voting for your favorite reality show. You get 15 votes a day during the competition. Please use them all!!!

Here is the link to view my progress and vote: http://www.projectbreakout.com/fitness1/mediapage/15

Thank you all for your continued support!

David Corder NSCA-CPT