Tonight I spent my second time in the pool (a month since the first). So I still can’t float. My swimming probably looks like a chicken having a seizure in the water. I was going back and forth. Trying to get it right. My friend Ari giving me swimming points.

Then it happened. I’m flailing in the water moving forward and I lifted my head out of the water, took a breath, and put it back in and kept on swimming.

THAT WAS IT!!

That one moment of actually swimming and being able to take a breath and continue swimming. I got it!!!!!

Sure, just for a second, and then I kept flailing around. But I kept at it. And later on I was able to get another breath in. Why it worked on that particular stroke I’m not sure yet. I don’t know exactly what I did right. What I was doing wrong on all the other ones. But I got it for just those few strokes. Regardless of the fact that I still suck at swimming, I can do it that one time. And if I can do it once, I can do it again. I can improve it. I can perfect it!

I have 210 days till my Ironman and I can’t really swim, but I can take one good stroke and that’s good enough, because all I need is practice, practice, practice.

What are your goals? Your fitness goals. What do you want to achieve? Whatever it is, if you can do it just once. Just one perfect rep. That’s the start of getting it right every single time. Once you get it right, and continue repeating it, your success is guaranteed.

Can you lose one pound? Just one? I bet you can. If you can do it once you can do it 10, 20, 50 times. Want to get stronger? Faster? If you can improve a little then you can get it all. Just do the things that gave you that little bit of success. That one perfect moment where it all came together. Keep at it. You’ll get it right more often and soon you’ll be able to do anything you want.

Don’t believe me? Come to Arizona in November. I guarantee you I will be swimming.

At some point I was getting it, but not quite. Josh asked me if I wanted to go to the longer pool that was 7 feet deep. I decided not to (I wanted to let the lifeguard take it easy today). I have 243 days until Ironman Arizona and I can’t swim.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by something that seems so impossible to achieve. What are you trying to do in your life that most people would tell you that you’re insane for trying it? Or it seems so out of your reach that you begin to doubt yourself?

There’s this hill in Central Park that I had a lot of trouble going down in a race. Yes, I said going down. Riding up hills was fine for me, but riding down this hill at 30+mph; I just couldn’t make the right hand turn. I would always end up taking it really wide (nearly off course) and then sprint to catch back up to the race.

I had friends teach me how to make the right turn at speed, but I was having a lot of trouble. It was extremely frustrating. Then one day, with a lot of concentration, I was getting it (to a certain degree anyways). I went to Central Park a bunch of times just to ride that downhill and conquer it.

Now, I ride down that hill and don’t even need to think about it. I can go through the curves so smoothly that I don’t know why I even had any trouble with it in the first place!

What are you trying to do/accomplish that is so out of your league that you don’t know if you can do it or not?

Theres nobody there disciplining me and telling me what I need to do and when I need to keep going, which makes it easy to give up. I also wanted to try new methods of working out. My brother started doing bootcamp and then his wife joined him shortly after. He suggested I try it- he said it was a very intense workout and that i wouldn’t be able to move the next morning- challenge accepted.

I was hoping to lose weight primarily, and build my endurance. What I love about it, is that it’s never the same workout! Every day was different- and mixing it up kept me wanting to come back. It wasn’t boring or routine so I actually felt like I was working out productively. It also made me feel better and healthier.

I can honestly say I’ve never really seen real results until I started bootcamp. Not only did I lose weight, but my body was actually shaped for the first time. I lost weight in my face, and my stomach which is the hardest areas for me to lose weight. I also felt much stronger, and healthier- like I could run after the bus and not collapse afterwards.

I got a bunch of those “you’re so skinny!” “you’re a toothpick”!  but my favorite was “you look great!”

Sunrise Bootcamp changed the way I viewed working out forever. I now know that just doing treadmill every day may help you lose weight, but the exercises we did worked every part of my body-some parts i didn’t even know about until I woke up sore the next morning. I recommend bootcamp to anyone and everyone who feels like they are working hard and are not seeing results.

-Patti Serure

Patti lost over 10 pounds at Bootcamp in just over one month. She toned her body from head to toe and looked amazing on her wedding day. Patti is a professional make up artist working with brides, bridesmaids, fashion shows, talent shows, and student films. Check her out at Makeup By Patti.

How do you know if your diet is as crazy as Charlie Sheen?

It thinks it’s better than everyone else.

There is no one ultimate diet. Different methods work for some and not for others.

You’re good one day, then bad the next.

Avoid diets that think in black and white. Instead, make small adjustments to your eating and never give up when you slip up.

It doesn’t need anyone else.

Anyone on a diet needs the support of those around them. Your spouse, friends and family will all play a part in your weight-loss success.

To really succeed with your diet, don’t get caught up with extremes. Eat sensibly, and make healthy changes. Remember, your ultimate goal is to be successful WITHOUT losing your mind.

You may be doing the right things right now; eating right, exercising 5 days a week. Can you really keep going? Will you be able to hold out and not fall back into your bad habits that kept you fat? I bet you’ve seen many people lose weight, only to gain it all right back.

Look at professional athletes. One day they are dominating their field. They make winning look easy. But then, they just shut down. Suddenly all of their training doesn’t measure up to the competition.

Take Brett Favre right now. Yesterday he lost in the last 30 seconds of the football game. He could have made the winning touchdown in the last 20 seconds of the game, but he missed a pass that should have been the winning touchdown. After

years of experience, what suddenly brought him to his knees? What’s hurting his game right now, is all the media talk about his alleged sexual misconduct. Whether he’s guilty or innocent I don’t know. But, the man is playing one of the toughest sports but he’s too stressed and distracted to give it his all.

Now I know you’re completely capable of hitting your weight loss goal and keeping it there. But it can get very hard sometimes. All of life’s stress like work, carpool, money, etc can really take it’s toll on you. It’s going to affect the decisions you make, and there’s really nothing you can do about it. If you’re nervous about how you’re going to pay your car bill this month, how are you going to focus yourself on getting up early for a run? Or keeping to just one slice of cake at a birthday party?

What you’re going to have to do, is manage that stress. Deal with what’s bothering you and let it go. If it’s something that you can’t take care of immediately, then write down on a piece of paper how you will handle it. Write out all of the options you have to deal with what you have going on. Pick what you know will work best. Even if your options won’t be a complete solution, writing it down will take it off of your mind and leave you free and clear to focus on your fitness.

Send your questions to Trainer@marineparkfitness.com and I’ll answer it in a future post.

Q: Now that the weather is cooler, I’m not sweating as much as I was in the summer. Does that mean I’m not getting as good of a workout?

A: Nope. Your body needs to be a certain temperature to effectively do the work you want it to do. In the summer, because of the extra heat from being outside, your body gets much hotter and has to sweat more to keep your inner temperature from getting too high. Now that the temps are in the 60′s when you’re working out, your body isn’t getting hot as quickly, so you won’t sweat as much. That doesn’t mean you’re slacking off in your workout.

Q: What’s better to do, the elliptical machine or the treadmill?

A: First let’s assume that you’re not a runner, because you would definitely pick the treadmill. So if you want to get a kick ass, burn more calories than you can eat workout, you really can get it from both machines. But, you do have to know how to use them the right way.

You can change things on the treadmill like the speed and incline. On an elliptical, you can change the incline, intensity, work at different RPM’s, and move your legs backwards. The way you combine all of that will give you a certain result.

But you should know that both of them also have pluses and minuses. If you set the treadmill on a specific speed, you’re forced to run at that pace. So if you have a hard time pushing yourself, just pick a fast speed and you’ll have no choice but to run on that fast moving belt. On the other hand, you can slack off on the elliptical and no one will be the wiser. Just make a cringed look on your face so that people around you think you’re pushing it.

On the other hand, a treadmill can hold you back too! Think about this; you’re running on the treadmill at a certain speed and max incline. Your body is fit enough to handle even more intensity, but your legs just can’t move any faster. So it’s the skill of running fast that is keeping you from getting a higher quality workout. If you walked over to the elliptical, you can stride at a certain incline, RPM, and even increase the resistance to push yourself harder. Even if you can’t hold a high RPM, you can pick up the intensity and push yourself into overdrive. That’s something you can’t do on the treadmill.

Send your questions to Trainer@marineparkfitness.com.

Here’s an argument that comes up frequently, It’s easier for men to  weight, compared to women.

Funny thing about losing weight is that it can be so complex and yet so simple. Yes, calories in versus calories out, but then you start talking about fast and slow metabolisms, a woman’s cycle, men’s muscles, etc. It’s easy to get really confused.

So how do you really succeed, and most importantly, does a man or a woman have a better chance at getting it off and keeping it off.

Let’s simplify this discussion right now. Forget about the dieting aspect right now, because that’s a tough thing to compare from person to person. We’re going to focus only on exercise right now.

Imagine a 30 year old woman that weighs 140 pounds and a 30 year old man that weighs 190 pounds. They both want to lose 20 pounds to get the fit, defined body they always wanted. They both go to a Bootcamp style workout; do the lunges, the running, the jumping and exercise games. They’re doing the EXACT same workout but the man will have results much quicker.

Why is that? Didn’t she go just as fast as he did? And he still lost more? Doesn’t seem fair does it?

Many of you will say that it’s because he has more muscles, which is a small part of it. The truth is this. The guy is doing the same workout as the girl, but he’s lugging around 50 more pounds!!! Of course he’s going to burn more calories in a single workout AND lose more weight overall. If the girl had worn a 50 pound vest and kept the same speed, she would also lose more weight.

When you do more work, you reap the benefits. That’s not to say that this woman doesn’t work enough. She does. But the man must use much more energy (i.e.- Fat) just to keep up with her.

Whoever you are, just give it your all in each workout and you’ll soon get to that dream body.

-Mark

Not that it takes too much time, and it’s not even too complicated. What you need a lot of, is the drive to do the things you need to do. Workout with intensity and purpose.

But that drive to keep yourself going can sometimes wither (and sometimes die). It’s hard to keep it going. If you’ve lost it, you may not have worked out in a while, not consistently anyways. Maybe you’re not eating as well as you used to. You may have had more dessert at the last party than you used to. You’re in a funk.

What you need is some external motivation to inspire you to jump up and get back into it. Try putting on some music that pumps you up. Rent Rocky on DVD and watch it.

Here’s a video that I made for my Sunrise Bootcampers to motivate them to make it out every morning and give it their all:

That’s great, but I wanted to tell you about how you can increase your results from the same workout you’ve been doing. It’s a simpe trick that you can see right below in the video.

Did you see it?

This is what happens when you work out with friends. You motivate each other and push each other just a little bit more. So each time you exercise, you’re getting a better workout than if you were by yourself. At Sunrise Bootcamp, we do a lot of partner exercises where we work together and we all push each other to be just a little bit better.

You can do the same by inviting a friend for a run, bike ride, or just try to outdo the girl next to you in your next zumba class.

How can you stop all that stuff from shooting out? On that note, what about your diet? With your diet, you have to stop all that food from shooting in!

We’ve all been there at some point. You’re trying to diet, cut down a few calories, but you just can’t seem to stop eating. And sometimes it can go on for days at a time (heck I bet some people do it for weeks or months at a time). And what do we try to do about it? Pretty crazy stuff.

Just look at what they’re trying to do with the oil spill; they tried the top hat, putting a dome over the leak. Have you ever tried covering your mouth with your hand all day? Try explaining that to your neighbors. Then there’s the junk shot, filling the hole with garbage like tires and golf balls. That’s like using the ice cream diet. I like the relief well idea. That’s called damage control, similar to exercising earlier in the day to burn off some extra calories that you want to enjoy at a party at night. 

Thank goodness we have millions of regular folks that are chiming in with their opinions on how to fix the oil spill. Obama now has enough options of fad oil spill solutions. Like you, he has enough things to do. Imagine if he went with someone’s crazy scheme to fix his oil problems.

Don’t Obama your diet!

Forget all the fad diets out there. If you’re constantly eating then here are 3 solid tips to curb your bad habits.

1. Keep snack log: Write down all of the foods you eat as snacks. Keep track of the portion size, what you were doing at the time, and how hungry you were.

2. Preplan your snacks: Write down a planned time to snack (only 2) and create a list of healthy snack options that you enjoy (100-calorie snacks or healthy veggies work great here).

3. Stock up on healthy options: Look for snacks that are low in fat and salt, but high in fiber and protein. That will keep you satisfied longer.