TIPS FOR STAYING FIT WHILE TRAVELING

Quite often I’ve found my butt on an airplane, something I look forward to with the same enthusiasm as a dental appointment, traveling to and from various personal appearances. Since I do spokesmodel work for different companies, they fl y me around to fi tness, bodybuilding, and nutrition expositions to sign photos, answer workout/meal plan questions, and basically represent them to industry members and the general public. Usually these conventions are spaced apart throughout the year so they’re a nice break in my routine. Sometimes, though, they come in a schedule-shattering, cross-country cluster from Atlanta to Los Angeles. How do you stay in shape during such a hectic travel schedule? I’m sure this thought has entered the minds of more than a few of you frequent fl yers out there. It might also have passed right through them once you realized solving the dilemma requires a little bit of thought and planning. Fortunately, I can share my personal experiences in the form of a few tips to help you stay fi t while on the go. 

1. Prepare a Carry-On Meal for Your Travel Day

If you’re looking for lots of sodium, sugar, and saturated fat, airline food might be the way to go. I think the buttery sauce on the “sautéed chicken nasty” they almost served me one time could actually have equaled my daily allotment of fat grams. Add to that the salted peanuts coupled with the high glycemic piece of cake, and I’d be nicely bloated by landing time. Thanks to a little preplanning, however, I now bring plastic containers with a grilled chicken breast and mixed vegetables to keep me from resorting to airline cuisine.

On one fl ight I even heard an envious passenger a couple of rows behind me breathe a sigh of regret as he said to his seatmate, “That looks a heck of a lot better than what we got.” If you’re not into cooking, as I’m usually not, you can also simply pick up a healthful meal, like a chicken or turkey breast salad on pita, to go from the drive-through window of many popular fastfood restaurants. You’ll notice just about all the major franchises are now catering to fi tness folk with special high-protein, low-fat food options.

Bringing my own food on the plane has two benefi ts. First, it helps me stick to my nutrition plan. Second, it helps me mentally stay in control of the situation and keeps me focused right from the start that this trip doesn’t have to interfere with my fi tness program.

2. Make Sure Your Hotel Has a Gym

This one is very important. The fi rst thing I do when I get my itinerary is to call the hotel to make sure it has some sort of workout facility. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just a lifecycle, elliptical trainer, or treadmill for my morning cardio and a multistation universal gym for some basic weight training suits me fi ne for short trips. I get to stay in the exercise mode while getting a break from my normal routine. Surprisingly, I sometimes return home in better shape, tighter and more defi ned, than when I left. Because I have a tendency to overtrain a bit, I guess this abbreviated travel routine gives my body a needed rest and my muscles a chance to fi ll out.

If your hotel doesn’t have a gym, like some of the no-frills ones I’ve been put in, you still have a couple of other training options. Number 1, check out local gyms, some of which usually have deals open to fi tness-oriented hotel guests. Ask someone at the front desk for details. Number 2, use your room. Remember, exercises using your own body weight, like push-ups and stomach crunches, can help you stay pumped and get blood fl owing to those working muscles. Of course, for cardiovascular activity there’s always walking and jogging. These are also great ways to see the area where you’re staying, a feat that’s otherwise diffi cult for me considering I’m stuck inside convention halls most of the day.

I’d also like to recommend that no matter what exercise you’re planning, make it a priority. Try to do a good portion of it fi rst thing in the morning to ensure you get it in. Too many times the days tend to get away from us when we’re traveling, and if we put off working out until the later hours, it often gets left out completely.

3. Eating Healthy While Traveling Is No More Diffi cult than Eating Poorly

If even the fast-food places offer low-fat, low-calorie food options, there’s no excuse for straying from your nutrition plan while you’re away. As I always say, eating well takes no more time than eating badly. It just requires that you take a moment to think about what you’re putting in your mouth. Stay in control by practicing some discipline, and you’ll thank yourself for it when you get home.

4. Don’t Forget Your Supplements

We’ve already established that traveling doesn’t have to translate into a vacation or deviation from our fi tness lifestyles. So if you’re currently using any supplements, there’s no reason not to bring them with you.

Following as much of your usual daily schedule as possible will help keep you in the fi tness mode while traveling so that by the time you return home, you might just be in even better shape than when you left.

DIETING TO BUILD PURE MUSCLE

Diet is probably the most fundamentalcomponent ofthe bodybuilder’smakeup. The foodyou eat becomes the fuel that allows you to perform heavy sets of muscle-building exercise, as well as becoming the primary fuel of your nervous system and brain. All mental functions, from choosing a biceps exercise to abstract philosophical contemplation, are fueled by what you put into your mouth. Because this aspect of bodybuilding is so fundamental, it can be broken down logically into some basic arithmetic. To start off, let’s conduct an elementary caloric analysis of human tissue. It’s a fact that a pound of human muscle tissue will yield about 600 calories when measured with a device known as a calorimeter, while a pound of fat will yield 3,500 calories. We will return to these numbers in a moment.

As a bodybuilder, you must strive to increase your percentage of organic muscle while simultaneously reducing your stores of bodyfat. The reward for success is a more functional and effi cient (not to mention well-chiseled) physique. Unfortunately, the average bodybuilder fi nds it nearly impossible to gain even ten pounds of solid muscle tissue in a year’s time, due largely to the person’s falling prey to the hype and outright B.S. that is propagated by most bodybuilding publications and that lines the pockets of more than a few gym owners and personal trainers.

Fortunately, to reach a solution to your nutritional problems, you needn’t try to sort through the dubious proclamations of the bodybuilding publishing industry (most representatives of which exist solely to sell you their products, but that’s another story entirely). Instead, you need look no further than the fi eld of nutritional science. You will quickly learn that all that is required in the course of a year to allow for ten pounds of muscle growth would be 600 (the number of calories in a pound of muscle) times 10 (the number of pounds of muscle growth stimulated in a year), or 6,000 extra calories a year over and above your present energy requirements.

SIX RULES FOR STICKING WITH A FITNESS PLAN

When it comes to long-term success, these six rules proved invaluable to me.

1. Make Fitness a Priority and Readjust Your Mind-Set

Everyone complains about time limitations. People justify not working out or eating healthy by saying, “I don’t have time.” If this is the case, you have to make time. It’s not that hard to do. Think of fi tness as a priority, something that you must fi t in, like going to work, eating, sleeping, or even using the bathroom.

It should be that much of a staple. Everyone has 24 hours in a day. That’s lot of time. What matters is how you fi ll those hours. Take a moment to list all of the things you’re doing now that you make time for and ask yourself how important they are to you and your happiness. Are they more important than improving your health and getting the body you want? More important than feeling better? When I used this simple technique, I couldn’t believe how many ridiculous, habitual things I was unknowingly fi lling my days with and putting ahead of my fi tness pursuits.

To further solidify your commitment to improving your body, take a page out of Oprah’s book. She wrote a contract with herself. I didn’t go that far. I just wrote down my short-term and long-term goals as well as what I to do to accomplish them. Writing things down just makes them seem more real.

2. Make It Real: Give Yourself Something Tangible to Focus On

The fact that you’re holding this book in your hands is a great start, both mentally and physically, to making fi tness a permanent part of your life. Mentally, it’s something you can see, feel, and touch, and it represents your commitment to putting ideas into practice. Most of us have amazing thoughts every day, but only a select few ever act on them. You’ll notice those few are usually the most successful.

Physically, Fitness Made Simple provides the exact time-conserving workout routine and nutritional meal plan thousands of women and men, including myself, have used to attain their fat-burning and lean musclebuilding goals. I’ve been told it’s like having a personal trainer on hand 24 hours a day providing you with the complete blueprint for creating a toned, defi ned physique. In just eight weeks this program helped me develop the tight six-pack of abs I’d always wanted but never was able to see before, despite years of trying.

This book isn’t the only way to make your goals tangible, of course. Joining a gym or buying inexpensive home exercise equipment like free weights and a bench are two more ways you can show commitment to your goal.

3. Take Photos

No matter how out of shape you think you are, take a “before” photo prior to beginning your workout regimen and additional snapshots every two weeks until you reach your goal. This practice can be nerve-racking, but nothing beats it when it comes to keeping your mind on your goal. It provides

a starting point and biweekly reminders of your progress. I fi nd it diffi cult to notice improvements on a day-to-day basis, which wreaks havoc on my motivation. When I compare periodic photos and notice the benefi ts of my efforts, however, I feel much more satisfi ed and strengthen my resolve.

4. Practice Nutritional Planning

“Good eating” takes no more time than “bad eating,” but it does require a small—and I emphasize small—amount of planning. This is why I suggest taking a few minutes one day and writing down all the foods you want to keep in your nutrition plan and then shopping for them one day each week. I also think it’s helpful to cook one day a week and refrigerate or freeze some meals for later in the week. 

For instance, since I love bulk discount stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, I get the jumbo chicken breast packages and cook two of them on Sundays, storing serving-size portions of the tasty morsels in my refrigerator for use throughout the week. When needed I take them out, add some brown rice or a sweet potato (previously cooked) and/or vegetables, pack this nutritious meal in a plastic container, and carry it with me to eat later in the day. This practice benefi ts both my muscle defi nition and my wallet when compared to the often pricey, sugarladen, and saturated-fat-fi lled fast-food fi xes I might have succumbed to.

Speaking of fast food, nowadays it can be a help rather than a hindrance in keeping our physiques lean and muscular. Just select healthy alternatives. As stated earlier, most major franchises offer low-fat fare, and it doesn’t take any more time to select the chicken breast salad combo over the bacon double cheeseburger or to opt for the chicken soft taco with sauce on the side instead of the deep-fried cheese tortilla. You can also carry convenient protein powders, meal replacements, and nutrition bars with you so you don’t fall victim to fast-food cravings. If you just think about what you’re putting into your mouth, eating on the go doesn’t have to translate into eating badly.

Planning what you want to eat and making smart choices when you’re eating out gives you control—and control will help you get the body you’ve been dreaming of.

5. Make Good Eating the Rule and Cheating the Exception I said it before and it bears repeating: as long as you eat “clean” by following your FMS nutrition plan the majority of the time, the truth is that one day of indulgence in most cases will have no lasting visible impact on the gains you’ve made over several weeks of good days.

6. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself

No one eats perfectly all the time, so don’t give up if you have a bad meal, a bad day, even a bad week. The same is true with exercise. There are going to be days when you may not feel like doing your A.M. cardio workout or lifting weights later. If that happens and you miss a day, don’t give up and tell yourself it’s hopeless. Just try to make progress the next day.

Once again, keep in mind that the fi rst few weeks of anything new can be diffi cult. You’re trying to change a lifetime of habits, and it can’t be done in a single day. It’s crucial to look at your new fi tness lifestyle as just that—a lifestyle. Trust that you are taking control of your life and changing it for the better. Look to the future with a sense of eagerness and excitement!

SAMPLE 7 DAY MEAL PLAN

MONDAY

Breakfast

Egg-white omelet with mixed

vegetables

Peanutty Oatmeal Cakes

Mid-Morning Snack

1 cup low-fat yogurt with nuts,

almonds, or fl ax meal

Lunch

Tuna Pita Delight

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Protein bar (any fl avor)

Handful of raw almonds or

raw mixed nuts

Dinner

Light and Tasty Turkey Loaf

Vegetable

Brown rice

Mixed salad with olive oil and

vinegar or fat-free, sugar-free

balsamic vinaigrette

Evening Snack

Protein Shake Fruit Freeze

TUESDAY

Breakfast

All-natural cereal with skim milk

100 percent whole-grain toast

with almond butter or

peanut butter

Mid-Morning Snack

Vanilla protein shake with half an

apple or half a banana

Lunch

Sliced turkey breast on

100 percent whole-grain bread

with a slice of avocado

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Hi-Pro Oatmeal Energy Booster

Dinner

Chicken Stir-Fry

Romaine lettuce salad with olive

oil and vinegar

Evening Snack

Protein Shake Fruit Freeze

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast

All-natural oatmeal topped with

fl ax meal

Egg-white omelet with spinach

and cut-up chicken breast

cubes

Mid-Morning Snack

1 cup low-fat yogurt with nuts

or almonds

Lunch

Extra-lean turkey burger on a

100 percent whole-grain bun

or wrapped in lettuce

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Protein bar (any fl avor)

Handful of raw almonds or

raw mixed nuts

Dinner

Wild salmon

Vegetable

Spinach salad with olive oil

and vinegar

Evening Snack

Protein Shake Fruit Freeze

THURSDAY

Breakfast

Egg-white omelet with mixed

vegetables

Peanutty Oatmeal Cakes

Mid-Morning Snack

Vanilla protein shake with half a

banana or half an apple

Lunch

Chunky Chicken Salad

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Hi-Pro Oatmeal Energy Booster

Dinner

Lean red meat

Vegetable

Red potato

Romaine lettuce salad with

olive oil and vinegar

Evening Snack

Protein Shake Fruit Freeze

FRIDAY

Breakfast

All-natural cereal with skim milk or

all-natural oatmeal

100 percent whole-grain toast

with all-natural almond butter or

all-natural peanut butter

Mid-Morning Snack

1 cup low-fat yogurt with raw mixed

nuts or raw almonds

Lunch

Chicken breast on 100 percent

whole-grain bread

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Protein bar (any fl avor)

Handful of raw almonds or

raw mixed nuts

Dinner

Mexican Scrambled Omelet

Spinach salad with avocado

Evening Snack

Protein Shake Fruit Freeze

SATURDAY

Breakfast

Hi-Pro Oatmeal Energy Booster with

fl ax meal

Mid-Morning Snack

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese with

fruit and raw mixed nuts

(all-natural raw trail mix)

Lunch

Tuna Pita Delight

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Protein bar (any flavor)

Dinner

Turkey or chicken breast

Brown rice

Vegetable

Romaine lettuce salad with olive oil

and vinegar

Evening Snack

Protein Shake Fruit Freeze

SUNDAY

Eat Day! Follow the regular schedule

from your other “good eating” days,

but indulge with something you’ve

been craving. Don’t go crazy, watch

overall calories, but enjoy yourself.

TEN (10) TIPS FOR LIVING LEAN AND HEALTHY

1. TAKE BABY STEPS

The words baby steps refer to the mind-set you should have when following a fitness lifestyle, especially when you’re first starting out. Too many people think the only way they’ll be successful and get the body they want is if they do everything all at once—exercise every day or go from fast-food burgers and fries to chicken breast and vegetables overnight. Just thinking about these drastic changes is overwhelming, and it causes most people to throw up their hands and quit their fitness programs before they

even get started. Instead, you should look at fitness as a lifelong journey and make an

effort to think of improving one thing or doing one thing better fitness wise each day. Do that every morning when you wake up, and by the end of a month you’ll be 30 times better. One day you may say, “I’m going to do 100 stomach crunches today.” Be specific. The next day you might look at your diet and eliminate one or two high-fat, high-sugar foods you normally eat. Then the day after that you may decide to start doing some of the yoga stretches I’ll go over in the workout chapter. The specifics don’t matter. What matters is that you improve yourself and your fitness program each and every day. When you do that it becomes self-motivating. You see the positive changes and you want more, and things that would have seemed impossible at the beginning of the month will now seem easy and natural.

2. EAT UNTIL YOU’RE NO LONGER HUNGRY, NOT FULL

There is a very fi ne distinction between feeling not hungry and feeling full, and it took me a while to learn to notice it. To avoid overeating you want to leave the table when you no longer feel hungry, when the food is beginning to not taste as good as it did originally and you’re just continuing to eat it because it’s there. You don’t want to wait until you feel full. There’s a biological reason for this. It takes the brain about 15 to 20 minutes before it realizes that the stomach is full, and then it sends the message to stop

eating. That 15- to 20-minute lag time is what keeps a lot of extra pound son our trouble-prone areas—the belly and lower back in men and the waist, hips, and thighs in women.

If you stop eating when you’re no longer hungry, in about 15 to 20 minutes you will feel full. I know I do. If I wait until I actually feel full before leaving the table, in about 15 to 20 minutes it’s couch time for me. I feel really bloated and tired and just want to lie down for a long nap. This is a big sign that you’ve overeaten and that you’ve overwhelmed your body’s digestive process with the food intake. It doesn’t have energy left over todo anything other than try to handle the food overload, so it signals you to take a rest.

You shouldn’t feel exhausted after eating. Food is supposed to energize us. Since I learned how to tell the difference between being no longer hungry and feeling full, I have to say it works. I feel so much better after eating, and maintaining a lean weight is a lot easier.

3. DON’T STARVE AND STUFF

Starving is probably the worst thing most people do when trying to lose fat, and it sends the worst messages to our bodies.

1.    Starving ourselves or depriving our bodies of food sends them into fat storage mode, which is something no one wants. Our bodies are designed not to care how we look but to preserve our lives. When we starve them, they try to hold on to every last bit of fat reserves they have and fat burning just about stops. When we do finally eat again, we usually overeat and stuff ourselves, which really defeats our weight loss efforts since our bodies are now primed to store as much of that feast as fat as they can get away with, much more than they would have stored if we just continued eating normally.

2.    A starvation-type diet also causes the body, which is trying to preserve fat stores, to start catabolizing, or breaking down, other tissues like muscle, which is metabolically active and burns fat for energy. During a starvation situation muscle is the enemy. It’s burning precious fat that the body wants to hold on to, so it’s gotta go. When you start eating normally again, you’ll put on fat in record time, probably more than you ever had before, because you have less muscle mass to burn fat on a daily basis. In short, you’ve blunted your body’s fat-burning capacity.

3.    Finally, starving and stuffing creates emotional and mental turmoil. No one really wants to live like that.

4.  DO A.M. CARDIO

Doing cardio first thing in the A.M. is our fat cells’ worst nightmare. It’s the best time for burning body fat. In the morning, after a good night’s sleep and before we eat, our bodies are going to burn a greater percentage of stored body fat for energy rather than relying on energy from food we’ve just eaten. Our blood-sugar and insulin levels are low and stable, which isthe perfect environment for fat burning to occur. After we eat, especially after we eat meals high in carbs, our blood-sugar and insulin levels rise and fat burning stops.

When I first added morning cardio to my fitness routine, I started dropping  pounds of fat like a bad habit. If your schedule doesn’t permit you to do cardio first thing in the morning, you can add it after your workout or later at night. But try to make sure it’s done on an empty stomach. For variety you can use a treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical trainer, or stationary bike, or you can simply walk, jog, or run around the block a few times. I just make sure to keep it low impact so my heart rate stays in fat-burning mode. If you’re huffing and puffing, you’re probably working too hard and possibly breaking down muscle tissue. You should be able to carry on a conversation without losing your breath.

5.  DRINK WATER

Water is a magical drink. It helps transport vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients throughout our bodies, plus it flushes out toxins and other waste products. Our muscles consist of 70 percent water, so drinking lots of it helps keep them looking full and pumped. I like to drink lots of water, about a gallon a day, not only for its health benefits but also because it helps keep me lean. I drink it with and in between meals to curb my appetite and decrease cravings. I also learned another trick to stop overeating: if I’m getting ready for a photo shoot or personal appearance, I’ll have a full 8- to 10-ounce glass of water before each meal starting a few days prior to the event. I noticed it fills up my stomach and causes me to eat much less than I normally would if I didn’t down the water first. Water’s my best friend when it comes to sticking to a lower-calorie nutrition plan.

6.  BE A SMART SHOPPER

My sixth tip for living lean and healthy relates to shopping. We all do it, but we don’t all do it well. Be a smart shopper. First off, don’t ever go food shopping when you’re hungry. Your stomach will always override your brain. Cravings kick common sense to the curb, and you’ll end up with a cart full of sugar- and saturated-fat-fi lled garbage that you bought on impulse rather than planning. Second, don’t ever enter the supermarket without a list—and don’t buy anything other than what’s on that list, especially when you’re fi rst starting a new nutrition plan or fitness program. Think before you put something on your list about what benefit it will bring you and whether or not it will help or hinder you in achieving your fitness goals.

Third, try to shop in the outer aisles of the supermarket. Along the periphery of the store is where you’ll find more of the natural foods—vegetables, fruits, and protein sources like chicken breasts, turkey breasts, and egg whites. It’s when you venture into those inner aisles that you get into trouble. That’s where all the highly processed, high-calorie/high-carb/high-sugar nasties are. In general, the more highly processed a food is, the bigger the blood sugar reaction it’s going to give you and the further it’s going to put you from attaining your fitness goals. Stick with natural choices. Save these inner aisles for last when you just want to get a treat or “cheat food” that you’ve been craving, or avoid them altogether.

7.  MAKE BETTER “BAD” CHOICES

Now that we know how to shop, let’s stick with the nutrition theme. Fitness is supposed to be fun, and eating healthy will actually be more fun than eating poorly. Our bodies crave what they’re used to—the stuff we’ve been feeding them over time. If you subsist on fast-food hamburgers, milk shakes, and large brownies, like I used to, then that’s what your body is living on and that’s what it will crave. These cravings will change when you start feeding your body something different. When I first heard that I didn’t believe it either. I thought I was born to crave bacon double

Cheese burgers and jumbo fries, but I can tell you now that I wasn’t. I don’t even want them anymore. The problem is that it usually takes four to eight weeks for our bodies to get over old cravings and start craving the new, better foods. It’s like lag time. We might want to look and feel better now, but our bodies want the sugar and saturated fat they’ve been surviving on so they don’t react as quickly as we might like. During that time it helps to make better “bad” choices.

For example, if you crave ice cream, follow tip 1, take baby steps. Don’t make yourself miserable by eliminating it altogether; instead, eat it a little less frequently or have a smaller portion than you normally would—or choose a more waistline-friendly alternative like sugar-free, fat-free frozen yogurt. If you crave tacos, try a “better” alternative like what I call Fitness Made Simple Chicken Wraps, which have all the basic ingredients of a chicken taco except the deep-fried, saturated-fat-filled tortilla shell. That’s where most of the calories and fat grams are. Instead, I wrap the chicken and vegetables in a lettuce shell, which adds next to no calories. You can still dip this creation in your favourite sauces and it will taste great, plus you won’t feel guilty later, like you cheated on your meal plan.

I’ve learned you sometimes have to play little mental games to break bad habits while you’re trying to set good ones in motion. One of the tricks I came up with I call “Natural Days.” When I was trying to break out of my fast-food, pizza, and chocolate diet and get leaner, every other or every third day I would make a Natural Day, where I’d eat only natural foods: raw vegetables, a few fruits, protein sources like chicken breast, and nuts like almonds or all-natural peanut butter for “good” fat. It was like going through detox, but it worked. The protein and vegetables really filled me up, decreased my cravings for the junk, and helped me get leaner more quickly.

8.      KEEP “CHEAT” FOODS OUT OF THE HOUSE

Cheating can be a good thing. It’s fun and it can also be guilt-free. As long as we exercise regularly and eat clean the majority of the day, having a bite or two of something we’ve been craving is generally going to have no noticeable or visible impact on the lean physique we’re trying to build, plus it will help us keep our sanity.

There’s only one rule I follow when it comes to cheating: keep “cheat” foods out the house. I know if I had brownies or anything with dark chocolate and nuts in my refrigerator, I’d probably never see my abs again. If, however, I want a brownie but I have to go to the local bakery or supermarket to get one, that’s a totally different story. A craving is generally an impulse thing; it’s usually satisfied without much thought and then we feel guilty later. If I have to go out to satisfy my craving, it gives me a moment to consider if it’s really worth the trip. Once I think about the effort needed to get in the car, drive to the store, buy the brownie, and then go home and eat it, I generally fi nd it’s not worth the trouble and the urge passes. It sounds funny but it works. It’s all about having conscious thought take control over impulse. Keeping cheat foods at home within arm’s reach is just too tempting and sets us up for failure.

9.      VARY EXERCISE CHOICES

To keep your body guessing and continue to stimulate growth, vary your exercise choices. As with anything done over time, our bodies and minds get used to certain workouts, causing us to reach a plateau where we stop seeing the same benefits from our exercise investments. That’s usually because both our bodies and minds have become bored with the routine. They’ve been through it day in and day out, they know what to expect, and they’ve adjusted. To avoid getting stuck in an exercise rut, keep things fresh both mentally and physically by mixing and matching different workouts. I’ll give you some options in later chapters. Changing workouts on a weekly or monthly basis really helps me maximize results.

10.   THINK—AND THINK POSITIVELY

The one common thread that ties the mental, physical, and nutritional aspects together when we’re trying to improve our fitness is thought—conscious thought, not acting on impulse or out of habit. Too many people, myself included, fall into the trap of just doing the same things day in and day out—I call it “sleepwalking” through life—and then complaining or finding excuses about why their bodies or lives aren’t better. Bottom line: a large part of how you look and feel today is a sum total of what you’ve been doing up to this point, so if you don’t change what you’re doing, you’ll keep looking and feeling how you do right now. If you’re happy with how you are now, then that’s great; otherwise, it’s time to start taking control of your life and your body and stop sleepwalking. Think about everything you do each day—what you eat, how much activity you get, and so on—and start making changes for the better, no excuses. One of the first changes I made was to start thinking positively. Believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything. You achieve what you believe. If you can’t envision yourself with a great body living a great life, you’ll probably never get there, but if you keep that image in your head every day and work hard to achieve it, you’ll probably be surprised by how quickly it turns into reality.