How many of us look over the past year and say “I wish I could have done… ” or as the New Year approaches you are thinking, “This year I’m going too…”

I have been in the same situation numerous of times, recapping the years that have past and coming up with “New Year Resolutions” to achieve in the up coming year. I can honestly say that each year I have personally made a laundry list of goals I wanted to accomplish and have been able to fully complete only a few. There are people out there that are able to write out their list of 5, 10, 20…etc goals to achieve in the New Year and are able to complete them. But, like myself there are so many people that can not do it because life seems to throw us challenges.

Three years ago, I learned a way to setup realistic holistic goals that not only was I able to accomplish them, but I was also able to enjoy the journey. The system that I learned is detailed and takes sometime to get it down. I want to give you the overview and a few tips so you can start working on your Holistic New Years Resolutions.

1) Understand and live your Core Values.

2) Know your Legacy and live it daily.

3) Do not set more then 3 Goals at a time.

4) Draw out a mind map on how you are going to accomplish each goal.

5) Figure out how you are going to do 1 action per day to work towards each of your goals.

Here are some tips that are very helpful for setting goals. Think of goals like children; you have to care, feed, play with and love them. If you can only handle taking care of one child then do not set yourself up for caring for 3 children. I use this analogy because it is so true when it comes to goals. If you can not spend the time, feed, nurture, and love your goal(s) how are you going to be able to accomplish them? That is why when I teach people about goal setting I teach them how to properly manage their expectation and how to set realistic goals. This way they can accomplish their goals without getting overwhelmed and quitting.

Once you have this foundation down you can easily set S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic, Timed) Goals and have a successful New Year!

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Love & Chi

I feel that by following some simple goal setting rules, and this is not just post Christmas, but all year round, you can greatly increase your chance of achieving your goals. So lets take a look at the SMARTER system for setting goals, all goals must be:-

Specific – Goals must be specific to what you want to achieve, a goal such as to ‘get fitter’ is too vague to be used motivationally. A specific goal needs to be along the lines of ‘to improve my fitness levels to a point where I can run a 10K’.

Measurable – All goals must have some form or measurable element such as a time, a weight or the completion of an event, so you clearly know when you have achieved your goal. A goal such as ‘to lose weight’ is useless as it has no clear end point.

Agreed – If you do not feel that you can achieve a goal, then you will have no ownership of it and therefore it loses it’s motivating power. Goals must therefore be considered achievable and agreed to by all parties involved.

Realistic – A goal must be challenging but achievable. If you feel you can’t achieve the goals that have been set by you then they will have no motivational effect.

Time Framed – If a goal is not time framed then it is easy to put it off, therefore increasing the risk for failure.

Exciting – Goals must excite you, if you are excited about it you are much more likely to get up and work towards achieving it.

Recorded – Writing down your goal allows you to fix and focus on what you are looking to achieve.

If I take a common example of a guy who comes to a personal trainer and would like to loose 2 stone. The goal outline might look like the following:-

‘To loose 2 stone, over the next year, so I weigh 12 stone on the 31^st December 2009’.

This goal meets all the criteria of the SMARTER principle, it is specific in that he wants to loose 2 stone, it is measurable as a specific time has been set. It has been agreed between the two parties who both think it is challenging but realistic. And a specific date it is set by which he would like to achieve the weight loss, so it is time framed.

Once you have set yourself a goal it is then time to work on your strategy that will help you achieve it. This is done by initially setting a number of sub-goals with motivating rewards. These should also follow the SMARTER principle!

So for our guy he might se similar goals at 3 months, 6 months and 9 month. These would take the format of ‘I would like to loose 8lb by 1^st April, making my weight 13st6lb’. He may also set goals that might add to his main goals such as ‘ take a course of Personal Training in my first 3 months of training’ or ‘use a nutritionist to help me formulate a diet plan, during my first 3 months of training’.

Once this goal outline is completed it should not be put away in a drawer to gather dust, read over it regularly place it somewhere prominent where you will see it daily. By doing this you are focusing your mind on the goal that you have set yourself and you are preventing deviation from it.

Although goal setting like this may seem like a lengthy process compared to the relative ease of just saying in your head ‘I am going to lose 2 stone’, once you get into the habit of doing it you will soon start to see the motivational rewards of having a clearly defined goal and achievement.

I hope that by this time next year you will be looking back seeing a year of achievement, whatever your goals may be.

TOM

Christmas is only a few weeks away, parties are coming up and Christmas shopping is going to get more hectic as the big day approaches. With the Christmas season comes drinking, eating fun foods (Deserts, lots of food, drinking…etc), spending time with family and friends. This season causes people to develop short tempers, impatience, frustration…etc. I am sure we have all seen or know someone that gets affected in one of these ways around this time of the year.

Here are some tips to help enjoy this Christmas and not become a scrooge this season

1)      We all have great parties to go to with a smorgasbord of food and deserts. Make sure you eat properly over Christmas. Balance out your meals with good quality carbohydrates, proteins and fats (Certified Organic is highly recommended). Have a good meal before deserts being more generous with the proteins before you start drinking and/or eating a lot of deserts.  This will help balance out your insulin levels (Sugar levels) which will help stabilize your hormones, energy and moods. My rule of thumb is try to eat as best as possible 80% of the time and throw caution to the wind 20% of the time. Which means 80% of the time eat certified organic whole foods in balance with your bodies unique needs (Metabolic Typing) and 20% of the time go out party, drink, eat the fun foods you enjoy.  For Example Monday to Friday is the 80% Saturday and Sunday 20%.

2)      Try to exercise 20min to 30min per day even if this means going for a walk in the snow. We all need to keep the metabolism going as well de-stress from some not so jolly Christmas partiers.

3)      Rest as much as you can, we need to recharge our batteries when we have a chance.  I recommended that you go to bed around 10:30pm when possible and if you’ve had a great night of partying. Take it slow the next day. As we get worn down we have less tolerance to deal with people and our immune system gets weakens which can lead to colds and flues this time of the year.

4)      Try to complete your Christmas shopping at least 2 weeks ahead of Christmas before you get into the Christmas rush.  Where lots of people rushing around, frustrated trying to finish their shopping last minute…etc. These people have less patience and shorter tempers closer to Christmas. No point going into a lion’s den if you don’t need to

5)      We all have different types of friends and families that we love in their own special way. Make sure you plan out your Christmas visiting that you enjoy it. If you can only spend 30min with someone over Christmas do yourself a favor and only schedule 30min. This way you leave happy and can enjoy your Christmas visiting.

6)      When you eat all the good food around and sweets to follow this can rob the body of water.  The Solution to pollution is dilution. To prevent this dehydration drink lots of good quality water (Evan, Fuji) ½ your body weight in ounces per day to keep hydrated through the seasons.  For example 150lbs person is equal to approximately 3 liters of water.

7)      Last but not least have FUN with family, friends and have a Happy Holiday!!!

Season Greetings,

Brandon Krieger H.L.C 2, C.M.T.A

http:///www.knssconsulting.com

After qualifying I did the usual and worked part time for a number of gyms in Manchester and Cheshire in a range of positions from Personal Trainer, to Gym Manager. At this time I also decided that it was probably a good move to go to uni too, as I loved Personal Training so much I was sure it could not last as a career, who ever has a job they love?  How wrong could I have been?

I decided as a back up to do a BA (Hons) Business Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, the course was aimed at those who wished to start and run their own businesses. This course seemed an idea complement to my Personal Training. The course was great fun, and once again I landed on my feet and had some great tutors who never minded me molding questions to make them more relevant to the fitness industry. The course helped me to realise exactly how much business knowledge and skill you need to run a successful company. This course has been a constant help to me over the years, and has more than paid for itself.

While studying I continued working at a gym and also started seeing a few private clients, this helped me to keep my hand in with all the fitness stuff. I found that my degree actually helped me a great deal in how I dealt with and managed the relationships with my Personal Training clients. With me covering areas such as marketing, accountancy, operations, etc… I was able to build up a great business plan for how to take my business to the next level, and then more to the point make it work!

Slowly over the years the business grew and I gained more and more clients, within a year of leaving university freelance personal training was my full time job. I was able to then use the business skill gained at university, coupled with my practical skills to launch the business, and gain a number of clients very quickly.

I established Foresight Fitness Services formally and looked at ways that I could make my services open to a wider segment of the community. I set out with the goal that Foresight Personal Training should look to offer a leading range and quality of personal wellbeing services at an affordable price. But will leave it there before this turns into a sales pitch! IF you would like to see more about what we offer and info about how we work, have a look at the website.  All you would liek to know is on there and if you have any questions do please just drop us a line!

Since qualifying from the Premier Diploma I have ensured that I continue with improving my knowledge base and I have added qualifications to my list from NCF, Premier, and YMCA. I feel that this is vital to being a successful personal trainer, in this industry ideas, theories and methods of best practice are constantly changing, and it is vital that you stay ahead of the game. Also it would be impossible to know it all so by constantly adding to your knowledge base you can become the best possible trainer you can be!

I am also always looking for new ways to take my wellbeing message to new audenaces, all in all I love the industry I am in and feel that I am here to help as may people as possible to live a happier, healthier and longer life.

Tom
If you would like to book a free Personal Training Taster Session and Consultation in the Manchester area, Call 0161 614 0133 NOW, or E-mail info@foresight-fitness.co.uk

I thought I would start off by telling you a little about myself and my background in the world of health, fitness, nutrition and personal training.

I started off in the fitness industry working at the Galleon Leisure Club in Didsbury, at the young age of 17. I had only had a very low level gym qualification, but it gave me the basics. I started off as a gym junior, basically doing all the cleaning jobs/keeping the place ticking over and helping out with members questions. This involved alot of cleaning and sweaty towels. This experience made me really appreciate what a great place a gym is, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and had the opportunity to work with some great people.

After a month I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life, I decided to attend the BAWLA Instructors course, and once I had passed this I was made a Fitness Instructor. I loved it, I got to do so much more than wiping down the machines and filling the water cooler!! I was finally let loose on the members, designing very basic programs, doing inductions and still my share of the cleaning! Again working more closely with the members allowed me to meet some great people and help them in my small way to achieve their personal wellbeing goals. These small improvements that I helped clients to make is where I got my first exposure to what great personal rewards being a personal trainer can give you.

Even though looking back I now see how little I actually knew, but it gave me that grounding in knowing how gyms worked and how to work as part of the fitness team. After a six months or so, and a shock to myself in that I had found a job that actually enjoyed, I got into a conversation with one of the personal trainers about what it took to become a PT. He recommended that I look at the Premier Diploma in Personal Training and Sports Therapy as a good course to aim towards, and after a bit of research I did just that.This would allow me to start working as a personal trainer and give me a very strong foundation in the theory and practice of sports science.

These course was not cheap and cost in the region of £3,000 for the full time course, so I had my goal, I just had to raise the money. So I just worked and worked, I took all the shifts I could and saved up for the course and a bit extra to see me though.This involve living on a very tight budget, but looking back now it was well worth it.

As soon as I had the money I booked on the course, and I was on my way to my dream of becoming a personal trainer!

The diploma was again another of my great experiences in this industry, I was with a great group of people and I could not have asked for a better tutor. Who if anyone is interested in becoming a persona trainer, still teaches the course based in Manchester.  The course was grueling, early starts and late finishes (two busses and a hour walk each way!) and most nights I got home and felt like my head was going to explode from all the information Doug had crammed into my brain. But again after a lot of hard work I managed to graduate, I had finally achieved what I wanted so badly. To be a qualified Personal Trainer! In a later blog I am planning to cover how to become a personal trainer, as I am often asked. So I will look at what is covered on a PT course in more detail then!

I however realised that compleating the course is just the start the real hard work was just about to start as I strugged to start my business, and the emense amount of work that goes into helping clients to really get the most out of thier time with me.  Not to mention the continual learning an self improvement.

Well going to leave it there for today, will move on to part two of my ramble about me on Thursday!

TOM