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Understanding S.M.A.R.T Goals

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in Success.

So you want to set some goals

The best way to get where you want to go in life is by having a map!  A map will guide you to where ever you want to go and will take the guess work out of how to get there!  Being successful at anything in life is no different, if you see the path to take and you stick to it, you’re sure to get there!  Which is why you always here me say ‘Know The Goal’, after all how can you hit the goal, if you don’t know the goal!  S.M.A.R.T Goals are the easiest way to breakdown what we want and how we get it!

So here we go, read the below to get an understanding of how we set ourselves up for success!

SPECIFIC: Having specific goals gives you a much better chance of hitting them then just something general.  There are six”W” questions you’ll want to answer to make a goal specific!

Who:      Who is involved?

What:     What do I want to accomplish?

Where:    Identify a location.

When:     Establish a time frame.

Which:    Identify requirements and constraints.

Why:      Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

EXAMPLE:  A general goal would be, “Lose Weight, or Build Muscle.”  A specific goal would say, “I will commit to workout 4 times per week at a fitness facility doing group exercise.”

MEASURABLE:  Give your self a solid criteria so you can measure your progress each step of the way and see your progress.  There’s no better feeling then progress or accomplishment and this will help you stay focused on hitting the goal!

A way to be sure your goal is measurable you can ask yourself questions like

How often do I need to do ‘blank”  to hit my target goal

How will I know when I’ve hit my goal?

Example: If you want to lose 20 pounds, you’ll need to know how you go about losing 1 pound per week, and then hitting you’ll monitor your progress and if you stick to it, you should hit your goal in 5 months or less!

ACHIEVABLE:  One of the most important parts of hitting goals is making sure you can hit them and they’re within your physical or mental limitations. Developing the attitude, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them.

I am 100% confident that you can hit any goal you set your mind to, when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

RELEVANT: To be relevant, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and relevant you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.

A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.

TIME-BASED:  A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

So now that you’ve got a better idea of what a S.M.A.R.T goal is you can start to think about what goals you want to hit and in what amount of time you want to hit them!  Stay tuned for more information of setting specific goals!

‘KNOW THE GOAL’

NBC Today Show – Abs

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in In the Media, Training, Videos.

Are you looking to strengthen your core while trying to get the six pack abs you’ve always wanted?  On this segment of the Today Show along with Colleen Oddegard and Paul Schadt, I will show you a few exercises that you can do at home or while on the road to help you keep in a good routine!

 

Own The Moment

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

You have to see where you want your life to go if you ever expect to get there.

Success is in the eye of the beholder, you must determine what you consider to be your success.

Then create a plan of action, steps that can get you to your goal.

Stop, breathe, focus, see yourself accomplishing the task at hand.

Visualize your success.  Each moment of your life offers the chance to put your plan to action.

Take advantage of every chance you’re given, we never know how many chances we’ll have.

Own The Moment.

– Know The Goal

Own The Moment

 

 

 

 

 

Create Your Own Path

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Be true to yourself.

Don’t be afraid to do things that have never been done.

It’s from things that have never been done that the most amazing moments in life have occurred.

Create Own Path

Be a trend setter and create your own path to the top.

They may not understand what you’re doing along the way, it may appear strange to many.

Who cares what they say or think?

Once you reach your goal, the path you took will be a distant memory.

Strive For Greatness, and Dare To Be Different

Know The Goal

 

Bend Don’t Break

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Great momentum can sometimes be slowed up by unforeseen circumstances.
Maybe you get sick, or someone in your family gets sick.
Maybe you have an injury that keeps you from the physical activity that you want to do so bad.Bend
When these things happen its important that we adjust our perception away from the “why me”.
Sometimes a forced rest period is the best thing for us, a time to reset and refocus so we have clear sight to finishing the goal.
Bend, Don’t Break
You may have to waiver from the original plan, but that does not change the end goal. The only thing that changes is the immediate action we have to take to get there. During these times it’s easy to lose our focus, to throw our hands up in frustration and think we’ve lost our momentum, or ruined our progress.
Its ok to waiver from the original plan, as long as you stay in tune with the end result you were striving for. When faced with obstacles it’s ok to not be perfect, adjust to the moment, regain composure, Bend Dont Break!
Photo by@ Wanda Koch Photography

Know The Goal

 

Good Fat – Bad Fat?!?!

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in In The Kitchen.

Can consuming fat actually be good for you?

Not only can consuming fat be good for you, it is 100% necessary to include in your diet to promote good heart health, good emotional well being and also to help promote the loss of body fat!

Yes, to burn more body fat you need to consume fat. Now comes the part you need to know; there are good fats and bad fats!

As a trainer I am always preaching a balanced diet, made up of good protein, carbohydrates and yes fat. In fact, when creating your meal plan you want to have 20% of your caloric intake per day come from fat. A useful number to remember is the number 9. Every gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. For example, if you are on a 1200 calorie diet per day, 20% of your calories would be 240 calories from fat, which would equal 26.6 grams of fat.

Now before you jump up and down excited about having a scoop of ice cream to make up this 20% we must discuss the difference between good fats and bad fats. For years we’ve been told that a lowfat diet is the best way to lose weight, and when we walk through the grocery store it seems as though there are more and more ‘low fat’ products to choose from. If they’re so low in fat and supposed to help keep us from getting fat, why are 2 out of every 3 people in this country overweight?

When reading the back of labels you’ll sometimes notice four different types of fats broken down under the fat category. They’re Saturated Fat, Trans Fat, MonoUnsaturated Fat and Poly Unsaturated Fat.

Let’s start with bad fats, they’re Trans Fats and Saturated Fats. Both of these fats lead to elevated levels of bad cholesterol and will increase your risk of heart disease.  Some saturated fat in our diet is necessary to have for proper body function and you will find it in some of our foods, such as red meat, or coconut.  Trans fats are by far the worst fat there is, and unfortunately can be found in many of our commercially processed and prepared foods. Here’s a quick list of products that are high in BAD fat, both Saturated and Trans Fats.

Saturated Fat

– Ice Cream

– Butter

– Cheese

– Whole Milk

– High Fat cuts of Beef, Pork

– Chicken with the skin

Trans Fat

– Fried Foods (Fried Chicken – French Fries – Breaded Fish )

– Commercially Baked Goods (Cookies – Cakes – Donuts )

– Packaged Snack Foods (Crackers – Chips)

– Candy of any type in a wrapper

– Stick Margarine

The most important thing you can do is start reading the labels and stay away from saturated and trans fats, the less you put in your diet the better your chances of slimming down and getting healthy.

So with that being said, let’s talk about good fats, and those are the Polyunsaturated Fats and Monounsaturated Fats. Both of these are excellent for the body, they promote a healthy heart, they promote healthy emotional well-being and best of all they will actually help you burn more body fat! Here’s a quick list of sources of both Poly and Mono Fats, Good Fats!;

Polyunsaturated Fats

– Walnuts

– Fatty Fish (Salmon – Tuna – Trout – Sardines)

– Seeds (Sunflower – Pumpkin – Flax – Sesame)

– Tofu

Monounsaturated Fats

– Olive Oil

– Sunflower Oil

– Avocados

– Nuts (Almonds – Pecans – Macadamia Nuts – Cashews)

These are great sources of GOOD fats and should be incorporated into your daily meal plan. Some good ways to get them into your diet could be:

– Add a handful of nuts to your diet as a snack

– Add avocados to your diet

– Snack on fresh olives or make a tapenade dip

– Create your own salad dressing using olive oil, sunflower oil or sesame oil

Another component to look for when choosing GOOD healthy fats is to look for Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Found in many types of fish, Omega 3’s are found in Polyunsaturated fats and have shown in clinical studies to:

– Reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke

– Reduce inflammation, and the pain of arthritis

– Protect against memory loss and dementia as we age

– Reduced the symptoms of depression again leading to healthy emotional well being

In summary it is important to know you absolutely want to incorporate GOOD fats both Poly, Mono and some saturated  in to your diet, and anywhere from 20% to 30% of your daily caloric intake should be made up of GOOD fats. Try not to rely on Fat Free foods as they are processed and usually high in sugar and carbohydrate content. A healthy diet is a diet with balanced nutrition, and this is what will lead you to great long term health.

Staying away from BAD fats is easier then you may think, don’t go after fast food, as there are no nutrition facts given, stay away from foods that are high in sugar such as candies and ice cream.

Start to add a couple of GOOD fats per day, maybe adding olive oil to your salad, or grabbing a handful of almonds as a snack!

Taking a little step each day toward a healthier lifestyle will take us a long way for many years to come!

Know The Goal

21 Day Good Eating Habits

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in In The Kitchen.

When trying to live our healthiest life there’s one place in particular that we have to start and that is In The Kitchen! Creating healthy eating habits does not have to be hard, but it does take some change, and some discipline.

If you really want to get into your best shape, follow this basic 21 day guide to healthy eating and you will be sure to jump start the fat burning process!

1. To start the 21 days, download the My Fitness Pal App to your phone.
You will want to track what you’re eating and how many calories you’re eating per day.

2. If you don’t know how many calories you should be eating go to CALCULATE YOUR BMR AND CALORIES I’ve attached a great BMR Calculator to make it easy for you.

3. Follow these 3 week guidelines!

Week 1
1. 7 Day Liver Detox Drink – Helps us stay hydrated, helps break up toxins so we metabolize fat faster.  For the complete recipe and guide to make this drink go Making The Liver Fat Flush Drink

2. No Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners or Alcohol – We must keep all sugar out of the body while we’re getting rid of toxins

3. No Bread or Grains – We want to digest all of our food as quickly as possible forcing the body to use body fat as a source of energy during the 1st 7 days.

Weeks 2 and 3
1. Drink 1 gallon of water a day, this is 120 ounces.  Staying hydrated is one of the best ways to help promote fat loss.

2. Include Protein and vegetables at 3 meals a day – Protein at every meal will help to boost the metabolism and build muscle.

3. Choose a minimum of 3, but we recomend doing all of these to see the best results
A. No Sugar, B. No Alcohol, C. No Bread, D. No Processed Foods, E. No Carbs After 3pm

As you go into this, you should Know The Goal, how hard are you willing to work to get what you want?  We’re giving you the choice to commit to 3 things that need to go if you’re serious about losing body fat, it will be a challenge, but I would never ask you to do something that I didn’t think you could do!

 

 

Calculate Your BMR and Calories

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in In The Kitchen.

If you’re serious about losing weight there are three factors that come into play, exercise, nutrition, and the third is caloric intake.
To lose body weight, and body fat we must be at a caloric deficit, which means we are burning through more calories per day then we are consuming.
This is going to force the body to breakdown body fat as a source of caloric energy. Here’s the formula and equation of how all this works.

1 pound of body fat is equal to 3500 calories. In order to lose a pound of fat you must burn 3500 calories more than you consume in food and beverage. Each of us has a set amount of calories we burn every day without exercising. These calories are referred to as BMR Basal Metabolic Rate, and they’re based on height, weight, age and sex. These are the calories your body needs for daily energy to function properly.

For the sake of example let’s say your BMR was 1500 calories per day. If you were to burn 500 calories in exercise a day, your Total Daily Energy Expenditure ‘TDEE’ would be 2000 calories. If you were then to eat a healthy 1500 calories, you would be at a deficit of 500 calories per day, times 7 days, 3500 per week equaling 1 pound of body fat.

Here’s a BMR calculator if you’re curious what your body is burning!

While the amount of calories in and out are important, it’s equally important that we are feeding the body nutrient rich foods like a LOT of veggies.

If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to download my free e-book the power of food which will help you calculate how much protein, fat and carbs you’ll want in your meal plan to help you reach your goals You can download the ebook by entering you information into the subscribe box to the right of this page!

Running, Lifting, Losing Weight

Written by Chris Bryan on . Posted in Workouts.

Lets talk about the great debate of which is a more effective exercise for losing weight, running or weight training.
Before we start lets differentiate ‘losing weight’ and ‘burning body fat’

You see both running and weight training play an important role in how we lose weight, what kind of weight we lose, and also how we maintain that weight loss.sneakers

All weight loss occurs through caloric burn, so to lose weight or get thinner in body, we must burn more calories then we consume.
If you’re curious how many calories you’re burning without exercise, and then how many you need to burn to get to your desired weight loss goal, be sure to read my blog
CALCULATE YOUR BMR AND CALORIES

So, which is better for burning calories during your workout running or strength training?

As far as burning calories goes, during your exercise, running definitely has the upper hand.

How many calories you burn is based on your weight and how fast you’re running, but for example, a 140 pound person running a 10 minute mile will burn on average 640 calories in 60 minutes.
When it comes to weight training we do burn calories, a 140 pound person will on average burn around 250 calories during a 60 minute workout. If you were to participate in the popular style of fitness referred to as High Intensity Interval Training ‘HIIT’ which is a high intensity weight training program, that same 140 pound person would burn on average around 400 calories in a 60 minute workout.

As we can see, during the 60 minute workout, we will burn more calories running at a good pace then we will strength training and this is why we seem to get skinnier from running.

Weight training builds muscle, and in order for the body to maintain muscle tissue it must burn calories. As a result, weight training will lead to us burning more calories throughout the day. Muscle will also help you keep the weight from coming back because that muscle will always need energy ‘calories’ to sustain its current size.

All in all, do both, or incorporate a HIIT High Intensity Interval Training program, which includes weight training at a high intensity and fast pace, helping you to achieve both results in one.

Running will help you burn more calories to help you lose weight, and strength training will build the muscle you need to keep the body fat from coming back!

Everything we’ve talked about here also revolves around your nutrition plan. It’s the combination of both your fitness and your meal plan that will help you achieve the desired success you’re looking for!

If you’re looking to learn more about food and what to eat, be sure to download my free e-book The Power Of Food!

You can download it to the right of this page.