We are officially into our 2nd week of September, and hopefully still going strong with your fitness goals.

Take a moment right now to grab a small “post-it” or index card.

1. In one sentence, write what your health, nutrition, and/or fitness goals are. You already know this off the top of your head, just jot it down quickly.

2. In one sentence, write why this is important to you.

3. Finally, write down your plan of action over the course of this week
to make this happen.

This small act will take you all of 1-3 minutes to do, but by getting clear and setting your intention for the week can help keep you focused.

Take this one step farther!

Share your plan with the rest of us below!

Question of the day: What will YOU DO this week to get one step closer to your health and fitness goals?

I have started and stopped this blog entry so many times you would laugh at me.

If you are ready to get to know the very human side of me…then keep reading.

Doing a “Best Body Challenge” is always a good idea. After spending my 20’s teaching fitness and never having to worry too much about what I eat, and then my early 30’s traveling around Central America, I entered the crazy world of finally growing up and getting a real job. Of course my real job would be to take my health and fitness passion to the next level of running my own business, which ironically, got me a little stressed out and sick!

What Happened???

Well, in order to get to the bottom of this…lets rewind to the beginning. Last December I made a bold move to start video taping my workouts, my meals, and my life to let you follow along on my very own quest for my ‘best body’.

Truth be told…it was fun! I enjoyed sharing with you my successes and struggles. Last summer was my first year (welll..6 months) to really take my passion for health and fitness and turn it into the vision I have for my business, and it was a roller coaster ride for sure!

But…

Nothing can compare to the whirl-wind I’ve experienced in 2010. This will be my first full year of creating this fun fitness and nutrition business and to put it as nicely as possible, I have learned almost all my lessons the hard way.

Having fun teaching Boot Camp in Vasona

You see, I am a seeker. I am always striving to make my life more useful and meaningful. I sometimes desperately want to break out of whatever bondage that I perceive to hold me back. And this year for me, that has meant taking my business, and thus my life, to the next level, because as any budding entrepreneur knows, they are so intricately connected.

So I always have these grand visions for my life.

But then guess what happens?

You got it. I GET IN MY OWN WAY!

Can anyone else relate to this? All my old patterns of thinking I’m not good enough, or that I don’t deserve this or that come rolling in and create a storm.

For me personally, it seems that nothing comes easily (except maybe kicking your booty at boot camp…).

I don’t mean that in a “feel sorry for me way”. But seriously… for me to change and grow as a person (which I so desperately want) is like trying to pull out my own wisdom teeth with a set of pliers. First I just don’t want to do it, but then I force myself into situations where I absolutely HAVE to…and it really, really, really hurts.

I kick and scream the whole way giving every excuse NOT to do it…. and then when it’s all said and done (and the wisdom teeth are finally out), it’s all good, I’m in a better place, and when I look back, I’m not sure why I didn’t think to just call the dentist to do it for me in the first place.

Another lesson learned the hard way.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself that I am very certain of, it’s that the only way I have ever bettered myself or my situation in life is to put myself in a position where I absolutely HAVE to do it.

Teaching exercise is a great example I love to share with people. All through my 20’s I taught a ton of group exercise. You know…the Jane Fonda hi-low step aerobics stuff. Besides loving it, what I learned from this experience is that no matter what… I HAD to exercise. If I didn’t show up, there was no class, and ‘not showing up’ was NOT an option. So I did it. In the middle of finals at school I would have to put the books away to go teach my class. When I was going through a break-up (as I so often did in my 20’s), I still had to show up. When my grandfather died, and the last thing I wanted to do was show up to teach a spin class, I still did it.

If I put myself in a position where I HAVE to show up, this is how I change my life. I will punch, scream, and do it the long and hard way, but up till now, it seems to be how I function.

Now…little did I know that I would have to learn that lesson all over again.

Finally deciding to start my own business and jump blindly in head first is typical of my personality, but seriously…I had no idea what I was in for.

Just the organization process alone is enough to make me want to cry. Little did I know that starting a FITNESS business would have me sitting on my BUTT all day long and into the night. Work started at 5 or 6am, flowed into the evenings, and then easily through the weekends.

Where did my balance go?

And forget balance…where the hell did my Best Body Challenge go??? How did this happen?

Hey...we should try this one in boot camp with the medicine balls!

Needless to say, I’ve had to do some serious re-evaluation of my life and the type lifestyle I want to live. While I do believe I spent most of my 20’s screwing around preferring to go on snowboarding and rock climbing trips rather than prepare for and better my future, I don’t think the right answer is a straight 180 in the other direction of ‘sit on my butt and use my brain (and computer) all day with now connection to my body’.

So not only did “my best body challenge” go out the window with the plethora of work required to get my own business off the ground, but I felt as though my health flew right behind, too.

My question to you….

Where in your life have you ever had to learn your lessons more than once? Where have you fallen off the wagon? : )

Everyone who’s trying to get fit wants to see results right away.

Compound exercises are the way to go!

And while there’s no magic pill or “quick fix”, there is one thing you can start doing differently in your workouts to speed up your results.

I’m talking about focusing on the exercises everyone hates to do, but are oh-so-good for you!-

Compound Movement Exercises.

Unlike single-joint exercises (i.e. isolation exercises) like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, and leg extensions, compound movements recruits multiple joints and multiple muscles.

This is what makes them so hard to do. However, it’s also the reason they are so effective.

Not only do compound movements burn more calories and rev up your metabolism, they also promote the secretion of human growth hormone (hgh) which helps with muscle growth.

So what kinds of compound movements should you be doing?

Here are a few you can get started with:

Squats — be sure to ask someone who works at your gym to show you how to do these with proper form. If at any time you experience pain, STOP immediately.

Deadlifts — another great exercise. On this one, make sure to keep your chest out and back straight.

Perfect Dead Lift Form!

Bench presses - Keep your back flat on the bench. Don’t use so much weight that you start arching your back to try and push the bar back up.

Single Arm Row works your upper back muscles and is great for posture! Do it standing with both arms for a more intense workout.

Barbell rows — Make sure to keep your back straight and chest out. Squeeze your lats and hold for one second on the contraction for maximum benefit.

There are more compound movements you can do, but these will give you a great start.

If you don’t know how to do any of the ones listed here, make sure to ask someone who works at your gym to show you the proper form, to avoid injury.

These exercises will be tough. But the hard work will be worth it.

What’s more, just doing 3 - 5 of these exercises will workout your ENTIRE body. That means less time in the gym and greater results.

Lastly, if you have any questions on these exercises, or simply want to know how you can seriously accelerate your results, make sure you take advantage of your FREE fitness consultation (an $87 value) with me.

This consult will focus on you and your goals … you’ll discover little tips and tricks that are specific to your body and metabolism type … and you’ll be armed with the information you need to make your fitness goals a reality THIS YEAR — not some distant time in the future.

To get started today, click here.

First off I just want to say WOW!!!!

Thank you to EVERYONE who has put their thinking-cap on and let the creative juices flow while trying to come up with a new name for our boot camp program. This is just awesome!

So far there are a few that I absolutely love! The problem is choosing just one! I’m going to share with you the “top winners” so far, and I would like for YOU to help me decide by leaving your comments below.

Remember, whichever idea gets chosen, the creator gets a FREE MONTH of Boot Camp, so if you don’t like any of the name’s I’ve chosen and you think YOU have the winning name, then make sure to leave you comment and suggestion below!

So here goes…in no particular order:

RECESS! BOOT CAMPS

PRO:

• RECESS! – (and keep the exclamation point) because it’s fun and we do things we used to do as kids while getting in shape – jumping rope, skipping. throwing balls, etc.
• You could do ad campaigns like “It’s time for RECESS! Let’s Play!” and make it fun.
• Recess as in a break from the daily grind of work, school, kids…whatever your stress is. TOTALLY not intimidating.
• Logos could be cute, with like hopscotch’s, and playtime stuff while throwing in that added benefit of fitness and health.

CON:

• It might be too gentle. It still is a boot camp and you still do some serious work in this program.

TRAIN SMART BOOT CAMPS

PRO:

• It’s a saying that Audra uses already and I think it sounds cool! The reason this one rings so true to me is because Training Smart is EXACTLY what Boot Camp is all about.
• Our Program has a scientific approach and is systematically designed to blast your metabolism into hyper-drive! You are Truly TRAINING SMART When you train in our program.
• PLUS…think of “Smart Water”. Is that not like the best marketing ever? You put the word “Smart” in front of water, and people are willing to spend tons of money on what is essentially filtered water and sugar in a cool package. Amazing. I think “smart” is a great word, especially when people are trying to get the most out of their time and training regime.

CON:

• Maybe not catchy enough? We want people to remember the name.

BETTER BODY BOOT CAMPS

PRO:

• I love the way this rolls off the tongue when you say it. (no mistaken cuss words here!)
• And I love what was said…’you just can’t help but get a better body!’
• It’s true!!! Even if you already have a great body…when you train with us… you’ll still get a better body!

CON:

• Unfortunately not original enough…lots of camps already use this name.
• Also, it might be too….girly? (Don’t get me wrong here…I’m trying to reach women, but I don’t want to exclude the men either!)

ReBoot CAMP

PRO:

• This name idea came out of a fun session in Willow Glen. The brainstorming (while stretching) was, “Reboot your Body Boot Camp” We thought this was fun, especially since we’re in Silicon Valley.
• Then we came up with Tag lines, like “Reboot your Drive” and “Reboot your body”…which I LOVE both of these tags. BUT….

CON:

• Have you tried to say it? It’s not easy.
• Also what exactly would it be called? ReBoot Camp? (Not enough) Or ReBoot Boot Camp? (Way too much!) Or Audra’s ReBoot Camp? (Don’t know if I like my name in it)
• I just don’t know how to use this good idea. It seems like it would be good on a shirt, but difficult to say it out loud.

PLEASE…CAST YOUR VOTE BELOW (OR IF YOU CAN THINK OF A BETTER NAME…LEAVE IT BELOW, TOO!