The most powerful action you need to do right now to achieve your fitness goals

The number one reason for failure in losing body fat is the lack of clearly defined, written goals.

Here are the steps to achieving your fitness goals:

STEP 1. Set Inspiring, Detailed & Specific Goals

Don’t say things like I want to lose weight and have more energy, that is not clear, detailed or specific. A better way to talk to your sub conscious brain is to say something like: By March 1st, I want to weigh 130lbs, with 18% Body Fat, and be wearing size 8 clothes. My Current waist size is 36 inches, and My GOAL is 28 inches. See the difference? Those are very specific detailed and attainable goals that you can now write down and measure by tracking your progress as you’ll see in Step 2.

Step 2. Set BIG Measurable Goals

Really look at some BIG goal that seems very far from where you are at the present moment. For instance, I said to myself, I haven’t weighed 130 lbs since I was 30, so it’d be a Big Deal for me to have that as my goal today. So, Yes its scarey, BUT I will look and feel totally different and people will SEE me differently, WHEN I have achieved my big scarey goal. This is Way outside my comfort zone of what I’ve thought I could do, but now I’m gonna do it & succeed, cause its time! I can See the Picture of my New Body in My Mind, and I will Visualize it Everyday…!

Then make sure you measure it everyday. Write down your goals somewhere that you can track your progress. So I might say, on my scale I want to weigh 130 lbs, but by measuring with the Body Fat calipers I want to get down to 17% Body Fat.

Step 3. Set Realistic Deadlines

30 lbs lost by May 1st. So 4 months (16 weeks) from now, that’s 8 lbs per month, or 1.9 lbs/week. In terms of body fat, that translates to about a half a percent per week.

Step 4. Daily goals & habits to do every day repeatedly

You develop good habits by setting daily action goals and working on them repeatedly until they become as routine as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Ninety-nine percent of the actions you take every day are habits. Write out a list of daily goals, to-do’s and habits you want to develop habits like eating small, frequent meals, cutting down on sugar, getting up early, making your meals in advance for each day and so on.

The next time you feel a craving, you’re tempted, discouraged, unmotivated or you feel like skipping a workout, focus on your daily goals, not on the huge amount of work that is ahead of you. Tell yourself, “All I have is today. All I have is this moment, this workout, this meal, the next 30 minutes, the next hour. If I just do what I know I must do now, then I know I’ll reach my ultimate goal eventually.” Concentrate on the task at hand in this moment. As the Zen masters of Japan remind us: “Be here now.” The point of power is always in the present moment.

Step 5. Write out an extensive goal list in the form of affirmations

Always use I AM or I HAVE. Write them in the present tense. I AM 30 lbs leaner. I AM 130 lbs of solid muscle. Always use positive affirmations, never negative. Never say “I’ll never see my abs again”, instead say “I HAVE a flat toned stomach. I AM getting leaner every day. I like the way I look. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it. I like eating healthy foods. I love working out. Training early in the morning is exhilarating.

Step 6. Read your affirmations (your goal list) at least twice a day and always keep your goals “in front of you” and “on your mind.”

Psychologists have proven that repetition is an effective way to penetrate and program the subconscious mind. Fortune 500 companies spend millions of advertising dollars every year based on this fact. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich and The Law of Success, said, “All thoughts which have been emotionalized and mixed with faith begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent.”

As you read your affirmations, mentally visualize them as already achieved. Visualization means making mental pictures or images – it’s thinking without words. The brain thinks in pictures. I’ve also put photos up of myself to help me through this visualization, the photos make it very real and I can see them everyday.

Step 7. Share your Goals with Everyone.

Your Friends & Family, your Workout Partners share your goals with everyone so you can feel good about what you’ve achieved and you can stay motivated by calling someone up to help you get to the gym or give you a high five for doing another exhausting workout. You’ll be amazed at how great a little bit of praise can help you through day.

Just to give you some motivation, Here are My GOALS:

1. I AM dramatically Changing my Outer Packaging, by being 17% body fat and 130 lbs, by May 1st.

2. My motivational positive affirmations are: “I HAVE a flat toned stomach. I AM getting leaner every day. I LOVE the way I look & how I FEEL. I’ll DO whatever it takes. I LOVE eating healthy foods. I love working out & training early in the morning is exhilarating and really starts my day off right. I feel healthy & have lots of energy.

3. I AM sharing my written goals, my workouts and my daily experiences with My Team.

4. I AM thinking constantly about My Goals & Being Constantly Mindful of what I AM accomplishing. I AM visualizing and seeing my goals photos everyday.

So, Before you eat your next meal or start your next workout,

THE MOST POWERFUL ACTION you NEED to do right now to achieve your ultimate fitness goals is to WRITE DOWN YOUR FITNESS GOALS, – TO DO IT NOW!

“Stop drifting, start rowing”

by Fit Women Staff

Our friend and fellow water person extraordinaire, Roz Savage, who is the First Woman To Row Solo Across the Pacific Ocean and has logged 11,000 miles, 3.5 million oar strokes, 352 days alone at sea,
has just been officially selected as an “Adventurer of the Year” by National Geographic.

Roz Savage arriving in Hawaii

Here is a message from Roz that she wanted me to pass along:
“I’d like to thank you for your support, which has undoubtedly contributed to my receiving this wonderful accolade. My boat and I may be the most visible part of the picture, but I couldn’t do what I do without the ocean of support from you and others like you, and so this title belongs as much to you as to me.”

“I see this as a vindication of the course that I plotted 6 years ago, when I chose to abandon my creature comforts to row across oceans, using my adventures to spread the message that we have to look after this Earth if we want it to look after us. When I look back over the years since I first set out across the Atlantic in 2005 as a nervous novice ocean rower, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the people and places and incredible life experiences that have enriched my life while I have worked incessantly to make my vision a reality.”

“I have a favour to ask you – would you please vote for me? Out of the ten of us who have been chosen as “Adventurers of the Year”, one will be voted the “People’s Choice Adventurer”. Between now and January 15, people will be voting for their favourite adventurer.”

Roz Savage, Ocean Rower

“It would really be the icing on the cake if I won this additional title as well. Besides the prestige, it would give a real boost to my efforts to raise profile and funds as I prepare for the last two years of my ocean-rowing career: the Indian Ocean in 2011 and the North Atlantic in 2012.”

“The Indian Ocean – dubbed “EAT, PRAY, ROW” – starts around 31st March next year. I’ll need $50,000 to complete the row and am asking people to sponsor $10 per mile of the 5,000 mile trip. There’s more about this campaign at http://www.rozsavage.com/eat-pray-row/”

“My final “Homecoming Row” is in 2012, launching from New York, heading out past the Statue of Liberty and heading for London, ideally arriving just before the 2012 Olympics. More info at http://www.rozsavage.com/homecoming-row/.”

“I want to leverage these expeditions to the max, reaching as many people as possible with my environmental message. The more resources I have at my disposal, in terms of (wo)manpower, budget, and media exposure, the more effective I will be in my mission.”

“I would be really grateful for your vote, AND for you to forward this message to your network of friends, family, colleagues, newsletters – whatever connections you have at your disposal. Please take a moment to think of as many people that you know who are interested in adventure, athletic endeavour, environmental issues, personal growth, rowing, or simply enjoy an inspiring success story – and ask them to vote for me.”

“Vote for Roz Savage”

Many thanks!
And warmest green wishes
Roz xxx

Life certainly begins in many ways after 40

by Fit Women Staff

Photo by Brian K. Donnelly

This is a follow-up to a story I did last summer on USA Canoe/Kayaker, Pam Boteler. See the article, World-class athlete, activist and raw food vegan at 40.

Boteler is the top American woman in sprint canoeing, a high intensity flatwater sport that’s a growing craze among women at boating clubs across the United States. Competitors kneel in sleek carbon-fiber boats and paddle furiously on one side for up to 1,000 meters.

Sprint/flatwater canoe (also known as “high-kneel) is currently an Olympic event for men, but not for women, and is the last summer Olympic sport to not have full gender equity. (Women’s ski jumping is the last winter Olympic sport not to offer women’s events.) Canoeing is the companion discipline to kayak (an Olympic event for men and women). Canoe/Kayak is one of the oldest Olympic sports, and one of the most difficult, as it is a classic test combining speed, power, endurance, and balance.

Photo by Brian K. Donnelly

Pam is over 40 and still competes regularly against “kids 18-23” and she still wins. Recently, with her canoe partner (30, with 2 kids and another on the way) and she won 3 bronze medals at the Pan American Championships in Mexico City ( at altitude), setting a new American record in the C2 200m event (2 person canoe).

They also set a new 500m record at the national championships in August in Oklahoma City, where they won 3 gold medals. And they finished 4th at the World Championships in Poznan, Poland in August.

Photo by Brian K. Donnelly

She writes: “Thank you – for featuring me. Your blog is awesome and inspiring (great outrigger photo!). I look forward to reading from your site about amazing women over 40, 50, 60. Thank you for what you are doing for so many women. Life certainly begins in many ways after 40. ”
Pam Boteler

Need more ideas for Cooking Healthy Meals, then check out: The Healthy Urban Kitchen Cookbook The Healthy Urban Kitchen is a simple, step by step system for shopping, cooking and eating the world’s healthiest foods. It was created for busy people who want to improve health, have more energy, and prevent disease.