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When starting a new workout regime or diet plan we all struggle with one huge aspect -  motivation .  Setting a goal or starting a new regime is simple because we're excited. But we often overlook how to maintain day one's excitement to the last day. “Shane, how do I stay motivated?” A question I often encounter once some one has started on their path. This question shows its ugly face anywhere from one week, three months to one year. There is no proven time where it arrives, but trust me, it will. I have experienced the excitement of engaging in a new routine myself, only to find myself struggling with the idea of staying on this path. Truth be told, I have been successful and I have also failed. The great thing about failing is that you often learn something. I have stated some strategies which have helped me maintain motivation: 1. Make It Personal. What is it you want? No I mean  really want. Is it weight loss? Okay, great. But why? What happens after that weight loss? Is it more love? Acceptance? Attaching some personal relevance to our goals gives it purpose and makes it mean something.  2. Make It Specific & Measureable.  You want to lose weight - great! How much? You want to get stronger - fantastic! In what way? When we set goals we often set them too vague and generalized. We want to be specific . Saying you want to lose weight is great, but saying you want to lose 20 pounds gives you a number to hit. Something to strive for. Having a measurable goal, allows you to keep track of progress, stay focused on what you are trying to achieve. Also seeing yourself getting closer to this goal is exciting and self motivating in itself. 3. Break It Down. Long Term vs. Short Term . You want to set out a basic outline of what you want to achieve. For instance, wanting to lose 100 pounds can be daunting. Like many challenges in life, I like to break it down. Don’t focus on the end goal itself. Focus on small increments on how you are to get there. “Check stops”, if you will. Every week, decide you will lose 1 to 2 pounds. This puts you at about 8 pounds a month, which puts you at about 95-100lbs for the year. Setting short-term goals that are on the way to your end goal makes the challenge not so daunting.  ​​ 4. Do Not Be A Perfectionist.  80% STRICT.. 20% LEANENT .  When it comes down to it, stop striving for perfection. Its not maintainable, realistic and more often than not it's unattainable. If you miss a workout, it’s not the end of the world. If you eat some pizza, ice cream or what have you - enjoy it, and move on. Do not stress about it. Life should be about moderation. Give yourself a break. You eat well majority of the time, exercise and lead a busy life with social and professional events. You cannot be 100%, 100% of the time. Strive for 80%, 100% of the time. 5. Pick An Idol.  Sounds kind of funny, but pick someone you look up to and read their bio. Find out how they got where they are. What were their successes, struggles, failures, and lessons learned? Chances are they have had some of the same barriers you have. You could pick up some tips/tricks that relate to you and your situation. 6.  Make It Public .  This can be terrifying. But posting or mentioning to someone your new goal is setting you up for more accountability. You will have more support. You never know who is also struggling with staying towards their goals or who is having the same issue as you. You can build a support system with people who have the same goals as you. 7. Write It Down. Simple and effective. Write down the goal you have for yourself. Post it where you often frequent and some places that are more “random” and “odd”. For me, in the past I have placed a post-it on the fridge, by the bathroom mirror, in the bedroom by the door. The latest, I have a ”reminder” set in my iPhone that goes off and now and then. This helps remind you of your goals, not how far you have to go, but how far you have come. It’s a little self check-in to help remind you of why you are embarking on this goal. ​​ 8. Journal. Marking your progress down keeps you on track because you can see what you last weighed, how much you lifted or how many reps/sets you performed. It keeps you pushing to be better than you were last week. It lets you know if you are on track or if you are off track. Counting calories becomes huge when hitting caloric deficits for weight loss or surpluses for weight gain. Its hard to know how much you're really  consuming. Also, seeing yourself get stronger, lose weight and become faster, will push you forward. 9. Think About It. “Do I really want this?”, is usually a question I ask myself. When I find myself struggling to get in a workout or diving into a bag of chocolate almonds, I take 10 seconds to think to myself. It sounds silly, but it works for me. It takes out the impromptu reaction to just grab that bag of chips or go home right after work and skip the workout. Actually stopping to revaluate the goal I found works well. 10. Take Progress Pictures .  I was never adamant on taking progress pictures, I usually focused on the measurements and the scale. Then one day I was scrolling through pictures, saw a "before" picture I had taken of myself. Of course I had to take an "after" picture, which happened to be about a year and a bit later. I was shocked at the difference the two looked. I hadn't felt any different than a year ago (that I remembered). I knew I was stronger. But comparing the two pictures, I was happy with the amount my body composition, and size had changed. I had put on almost 10 pounds in that time, and it showed in my change in muscle mass. I then came to realize that pictures are important when maintaining motivation and marking progress. You can pay attention to the numbers, but that can get tedious and stressful. What's remarkable is seeing the difference in your body. YOU CAN DO IT!

It was a typical Tuesday night in the gym. My client went through their warm up, then we began our training session. About a quarter of the workout through, they said to me with great disappointment, “Shane, do I look bad? Do I look unhealthy? Honestly.” I was taken aback, then reassured them that they looked great and were crushing their workout. With a bold statement like that, I had to ask why? "My family told me that I have lost toomuch weight. That I look unhealthy”. My heart immediately sank. When you're starting a health journey, there comes the feelings of uncertainty, doubt, and lack of confidence. Also, the learning process of how to deal with these feelings and not letting them hinder your path. The last thing you need is someone telling you, you are doing it wrong or you, “don’t look good”. DID THEY ACTUALLY JUST SAY THAT? “Don't comment on other people's bodies unless it's POSITIVE or they happen to ask for your opinion or advice.” – Neghar Fonooni. The thing is, no one has any right over your body. It’s yourbody. It’s yourbusiness. No one else’s. It’s that simple, but simple things can made complicated. In this case, outside noise, and Nay-sayers. Nay-sayers are at the market. They’re at work. They’re at the gym. And unfortunately, they’re even found among your family and friends. The issue is where they are found, but that they don’t have a problem telling you exactly how your journey to better health makes themfeel, for better or worse, and they're ignorant to how these words may effect you. At the end of it, some people struggle to be happy for another person's success. We’ve all encountered them to some degree. We've probably even been this person ourselves. This can be about what food you eat, to when you eat it. What exercises to do, to what exercises you don’t do. To spin or not to spin. That Crossfit is good or no its bad. You will get it all and everything between. On your health journey you will get advice and comments you have not sought after or want. This is very frustrating when you're starting a new fitness class, to then hear, “Why are you doing that? You should be doing this.” Because they’re an expert on your body and enjoyment right? "YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? ...NO." The scenario above is not an isolated case either. This happens to everyone who goes through a body transformation or fitness journey. We just don’t talk about it. The possibility that some people will not exactly be happy for you or your success. “When I initially lost my weight, everyone told me I was losing too much and they always judged what I ate. Some to the point that they didn’t like eating with me anymore.” - Undisclosed This is sad, but real. It's often we go out with friends and try to eat healthier, ordering a chicken salad and some guy at the table pikes up, “Oh yeah, you would order that. I forgot…you're eating healthier nooow.” Or in another case, everyone at the table knows about your fitness journey and you order a burger with fries. So, Angry Amy from across the table announces, “Aren’t you on a diet?” Being in this industry, I’ve had the pleasure to encounter this as well. Right out of college, I was trying to get clients. I got an email stating, “Maybe if you lost weight, you would have more clients.” Thank you, kind stranger. Another interesting moment, “Your waist is looking wider” and “Shane, you’re looking trimmer.” In one day, I had someone tell me I looked “wide” and another “trim”. All within 3 hours. At first, this was confusing and I didn’t know how to process this information. Now, my thought is simple: It’s nice to have compliments and with compliments come criticism. Outside feedback about your body is all subjective - a matter of opinion.Take it as that. No matter what journey you embark on - fitness, personal, or professional, you are going to get unsolicited feedback. Whether they're pleasant, hurtful or indifferent - it doesn’t matter what comments are made about you. At the end of the day you can lose 10lbs and someone might mention how great you look. Or maybe they’ll say you look like you’ve put on a few. Heck, you could gain 10lbs of hard muscle and get comments like, “Hey, you’re looking good. You must be trying to slim down.” The comments will come, but don’t let these words or phrases hinder you. Take it, as is background noise. It doesn’t matter what anyone, anyone thinks about you. In the end, its how you feel. It’s your body. Its your life. Its your story. Now go on and continue to create that great story. You're Awesome. Did you enjoy this article and want more? Subscribe herefor more insights into health, fitness and mindset.

YOGA. I've learned this word may appear like not much, but this is not the case. If you're like me, yoga is kinda frightening and for sure challenging. However, I admit it has many positive benefits. I’ve done yoga several times before but I've never made it a priority. A yoga session was always on an annual basis and the 60 minutes were always unplanned and was someone else's suggestion. Though infrequent, how has yoga benefited me? Chapter 1: Warning Signs In the summer of 2012 I had injured my left hip. I am still not certain what the initial incident was, but the pain was more of a nuisance than anything. Nothing serious. With stretching and corrective techniques I was able to progress where there was no pain - just tightness in the glute and hamstring. I was in great condition, until the end of summer. I was enjoying the end of summer at a friend’s lake lot. We went out on the lake where I was on a tube behind a boat (tubing and boating is the bees knees). My friend decided to step on the gas and cut it sharp. If you're familiar with tubing, you know that once this happens, a large dip in the water occurs. If you hit this, there is a large blow to the tube and you’re thrown in the water. If you manage to escape you will slide rapidly across the water, flipping a couple hundred times. I experienced the later of the options. ​​ Chapter 2: The Incident Upon flipping I managed to grasp the tube's handles, then was submerged under the water. I held on for some time. I mean why give The Caption of the boat the sweet satisfaction of winning this battle? No, thanks. Well, my endurance ran out -- I had to let go. I got back on the boat, dignity somewhat intact and noticed my left hip felt off.  This was the start to a painful inconvenience. Chapter 3: The Aftermath Following the weekend the pain was similar to what was experienced in the beginning of summer - annoying, but tolerable. The only difference this time was the pain started to escalate, then began giving impressions of sciatica. I couldn't effectively train my clients. Soon after, I couldn't get out of bed. This happened all within 10 days. I had to make an desperate appointment with a chiropractor. The chiro performed some excruciating active release on my hip, then realigned my spine. It was painful, but I felt better. The chiro also couldn’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong. It was concluded the muscles in the left hip became so tight, causing it to shift more and more to the left. The blow from the tubing incident was too much and pulled my hip out of its proper alignment. After about 4 weeks of treatment I felt better. Still tight in my left leg - you know, the usual. Nothing significant happened after that. Chapter 4: The Yoga Class One evening some coworkers attended a yoga class and persuaded me into attending. I was due for my annual 60 minute yoga anyway. I drug my heels into the class, to which I then found out was actually 90 minutes (the profanity running rampant in my mind LOL). Two days following the 90 minutes of personal hell, I noticed my hip never felt better. My leg never felt looser and my lifts felt stronger. I forgot how amazing it felt to actually have a full range of motion. Though I don't get into a yoga class as much as I should, I acknowledge the importance and benefits behind the practice. Moral of my story: Sometimes you need to push your ego aside. Get help when needed. It will save you time, money and stress every time. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. New challenges bring growth. Stretch. Your body needs it. By no means am I a Yogi, but the practice of yoga changed my life and could well change yours. Do you want more? Sign up here for the monthly newsletters that feature content from exercise, food and mindset.

Majority of the population today suffer from some form of “ache” or “pain”. Sadly, a greater number have adopted an idea that is this “normal” daily living. Some days are simply just “better than others”. I have said this myself and also heard this many times. Acute pain is occurring more frequently and chronic pain continuing to wear out their welcome. My purpose here is to introduce you to a training principal that is being used by health professionals and gym-goers. Corrective Exercise is the name given to training principals where we focus on the body's imbalances, often caused throughout everyday activities. This is correctedthrough massage and manipulation of the tissues. This stratedgy is easily done  because it can be self directed (you don’t need another person there to perform this). The name given to this method is Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) – self meaning you, myofascial meaning muscle, and release meaning relaxation. SMR is being introduced into training programs because it is a simple, non-invasive tool that helps alleviate stress throughout the tissues in the body that interferes with our biomechanics, which really is just a fancy word for the way the body is intended to move. With the alleviation of this stress on our bodies we have decrease pain, improved biomechanics and range of motion throughout our joints. It also aids us with our movement and muscle preparation before our workouts. How is SMR done? There are tools such as a foam roller. A piece of light weight, travel friendly foam that comes in a wide variety of sizes, and densities that you roll on to create pressure on the muscle. This pressure stimulates receptors located within the muscle fascia and connective tissue. This is when the body over rides the neural aspects that cause dysfunction or tension in the tissues. There can be some discomfort during this process. Once the nervous system has been overridden, the body is essentially telling itself, “this is okay, you can shut down”.  Here the discomfort begins to diminish and pressure alleviates off the muscle. This is the reduction of that stiffness or soreness. How long do you stay on the muscle? We want to stay on the muscle from approximately 30-90 seconds, recommended 30 seconds for those who are experiencing a high degree of pain with the SMR (self-myofascial release) technique and closer to the higher end of experience a low or mild degree of pain/pressure. Following SMR we want to perform a static stretch for the area, which helps increase the extensibility of the muscle, putting in more into realignment. Where and when do you foam roll? SMR can be preformed anywhere from your home, office, travel, vacation and hotel and during anytime of the day. It’s great to perform 5-15min pre and post workout to help with efficiency. With SMR we are breaking up the adhesions in the tissue, increasing blood flow, allowing more oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, which may speed up removal of waste in the muscle. The gains from SMR are relativity quick; however without regular engagement in this corrective exercise they can be lost quick however. When should you notfoam roll? Now with any form of exercise, corrective exercise (SMR) does have some contraindications that I will touch on. If you have any of the following it is advised that you do not engage in the SMR technique: Osteoporosis/osteopenia  - we want to decrease pressure on the bonesAcute Rheumatoid Arthritis -  we want to avoid causes more stress on the bones/jointsBlood clotting and related medicationsOpen wounds and healing fracturesAdvanced diabetes Now of course with every new exercise procedure you should advise a certified health care practitioner before any engagement. As a Certified Personal Trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist, I introduce SMR in most programs I design for clients given their specific needs and goals, as well as my own program.