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