Diet. Exercise. Pizza!

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Excuses or Justifications?

Posted in DIET AND EXERCISE with tags 21 day body fat blast, 24 hour fitness, hoover fitness, hoover gyms, hoover personal training, hoover ymca, jason cerniglia, The 301 workout, weight loss on March 28, 2012 by cerniglia12

Excuses or Justifications?

Do we have real reasons not be healthy? Or are we just justifying poor habits? We all have excuses to why we have not started that exercise routine or started eating better. And, actually, a lot of these excuses are valid. The problem comes when we use certain excuses to justify not doing what we should. We use them as a crutch.

Example #1: “I don’t want to go to the gym because I don’t want to be selfish and put my kids in the child care or spend time away from them.” This is actually a good reason. Who wants to send their children to another child care or spend another minute away from them when they don’t have to? But the problem is that you have to view it as something that you have to do! Honestly ask yourself if you are doing this for the good of your kids or are you using this valid excuse to justify not going to the gym? You say it’s not fair to leave your kids to exercise. You say that it is selfish. What is not fair and selfish is not taking care of yourself. It’s developing a chronic disease in a few years and not being able to spend time with your kids or do the things that you want to do because you have not taken care of yourself.

Example #2: “I can eat as much of a certain food as I want to because it is healthy.” This is another one that I see a lot. People will over-eat on what they think is healthy but justify it because they believe it is good for them. The truth is that too many calories of anything is too many. You can eat healthy and become obese and then you have an entirely new set of health issues that come about from the obesity. True discipline with eating is controlling calories, not just eating the right stuff. You want to eat healthy foods, but you really need to make sure you are burning more than you are consuming.

Example #3: “I won’t drink a diet drink because I saw a report on the news that artificial sweeteners cause cancer.” I hear this one a lot. And here is the problem: This is a valid statement if you decide not to drink them and drink water and other healthy stuff instead. This is a crutch or a justification if you are using this as an excuse to drink regular soft drinks. I am not saying to go and drink diet drinks. We are unsure what the health ramifications are on them. But what we do know is that regular soft drinks will kill you. There is no lingering research on sugar and high calories. There is common knowledge that too much will cause diabetes and weight gain and chronic illness.

Example #4: “I can’t work out my legs because my knee is bad” or “I can’t lift weights because I have a bum shoulder.” These are valid excuses to limitations. But that is all. They are not justifications of not having to exercise. Remember this – if you want the benefits of diet and exercise, you have to diet and exercise. So, the answer is to work around and through the injury. Whatever your maximum level of participation is, you have to work to it. If you avoid all exercise because of an injury, then you are basically handicapping yourself for life.

I see these and many other excuses every day. A lot of them are very valid excuses. The number one thing that I tell the participants in my 21 Day Body Fat Blast before they begin 21 straight days of exercise is that during those 21 days, the same life problems will occur that have kept you from exercising, the same nagging injuries will be there, the kids will get sick, and so on, but during these 21 days, you will see that you worked around and through them. You found a way. You changed your priority level. You did not let your excuses turn into justifications!

Jason Cerniglia, CPT, CSN, Owner Hoover Fitness, Author of the book, Look Great. Feel Great. And Still Eat Pizza! and creator of The 21 Day Body Fat Blast and The 301 Workout Smartphone App.

www.lookgreatfeelgreatandstilleatpizza.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-301-Workout/213970211969531

Supersize JC

Posted in DIET AND EXERCISE with tags hoover gyms, hoover ymca, jason cerniglia, the 300 workout, weight loss, weight watchers on February 10, 2012 by cerniglia12

Headaches, stomach issues, very poor sleep, night sweats, waking up groggy, lack of energy, slow mornings….and so on. These are the words to describe the way I felt after two recent one week studies that I performed on myself. You may be asking, what did I do to create these results?

For one week in December, and one Week in February, I stopped exercising, drank less water, and ate whatever I wanted for the entire week. What does this mean? Well, if you look at statistics (or just go to the mall and look around), you will see that the majority of Americans do not exercise at all and eat junk food and desert every day, for 2-3 meals. So what did I find out? That the way I felt, which was horrible, is the way that the majority of Americans feel every day! No wonder we hear so many complaints about people not having energy and feeling bad all the time.

I did actually exercise 2 times during each of those weeks, and I only ate one bad meal every day and desert every day, so I was even better than the average person to some extent, but far worse than my usual. I teach and live a fairly friendly system. Eat good and exercise most of the time, not all of the time. On a normal week, I exercise 5 or 6 days and take a day or two off and I eat good most days and allow myself a no-rules cheat meal about 3 times per week. So, I am not some crazy fitness person that tells you not to cheat. It is not uncommon to see me eating pizza or french fries or dessert. But, the majority of the time, I eat good, exercise, and take Juice Plus+. For those two weeks though, eating dessert every day and not exercising and eating more fast food and fried foods, and drinking less water, I felt horrible. I also found myself craving sweets more. It caused me to realize that sugar is one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs in America and probably has more negative impact than any controlled substance.

The experiments were alarming and scary. After only one day of eating good, drinking a lot of water, and exercising, nearly all of the symptoms went away. There is no doubt about it that lack of exercise, dehydration, and poor nutrition caused the way that I felt. I want to share this experience with as many people as possible to show them that there is a reason that they feel bad all the time and to show them that they can feel better. And, medicine is not the answer! The answer is simple, eat better, exercise, and drink lots of water!

For a simple guide to eating better and exercising more, log onto www.lookgreatfeelgreatandstilleatpizza.com.

To learn more about an easy simple step to better nutrition, log onto www.cernigliajuiceplus.com

For an easy to follow workout with video demonstrations, search the app store for “The 301 Workout”

Jason Cerniglia, CPT, CSN, Owner Hoover Fitness, Author of the book, Look Great. Feel Great. And Still Eat Pizza!, and the creator of The 301 Workout smartphone app.

Is your health important to you?

Posted in DIET AND EXERCISE with tags 24 hour gyms, birmingham gyms, crossfit, hoover fitness, hoover gyms, hoover ymca, p90x, supplements, The 301 workout, weight loss on January 27, 2012 by cerniglia12

I once heard someone say that if you want to see what is important to someone, then take a look at their checkbook. What is important to you? What do you spend your time and money on? Take a look at your check book and your calendar. Where has your time and money been spent? Is your health important to you? Is it really important? I mean, is it worth your time and money?

Remember this – There are no excuses, only priorities!

What is keeping you from exercising? What are your excuses? The answer can be simple, like lack of discipline or laziness or you just don’t care. Or, you can have excuses such as sick kids, work late, busy schedule, ball park every day, personal injury, and so on. These are actually valid excuses. But…. They are still excuses. Do you know someone who is healthy and in good shape? Ask them if their kids get sick, if they ever have to work late, if they have to go to the ball park, if they ever get injured, etc. The answer will be YES! People that exercise regularly have the same life problems as everyone else. The difference is that their priorities are different. They find a way to keep exercise in their lives and work it around these problems.

But what if you have the motivation, but you can’t afford exercise and health? You say that you can’t afford a gym membership or afford nutrition. Can you really not afford them or are you using this as a valid reason to not exercise or eat good. Once again, I know a lot of people who do not have a lot of expendable income, but still pay for a gym membership and for nutrition. The keys are priorities, education, and looking at where you are spending your money. If exercise and health are priorities, then money will not be an issue, regardless of how much of it you have. Education is important because the more educated we are on the benefits of exercise and proper nutrition, the more value we see in it, thus making it worth the money we spend on it.

Look at where you are spending your money. Do you eat out at restaurants for lunch every day or do you pick up dinner on the way home at night? If you eat at home, you will save a lot of money and save a lot of calories, thus saving money and losing weight at the same time! If you eat out often and you say that you can’t afford a gym membership, then you are saying that eating out is more important than your health.

Another money example that I like to talk about is college football. In the state of Alabama, we have been fortunate to have the national champion for the last 3 years. I personally know many people who not only spend an arm and a leg to go to the Alabama and Auburn games each year, I also know a lot of people who have spent literally thousands of dollars to go to the national championship games over the last three years. People have paid $800 to $3000 and more for tickets, and in addition to that, they paid for travel! So, if you are in this category at all, and you say that you can’t afford your a gym membership or training or nutrition, then I would ask you if college football is more important than your health. (Actually, in Alabama, for a lot of people, it is!)

Let’s go back to education. When I recommend Juice Plus+ to people, I often get the answer back that it is too expensive. I try to tell them that it really is not expensive, if you are educated on the benefits of 7-13 servings of raw fruits and vegetables. If you understand the benefits, then it really is inexpensive. Let me ask another question: Knowing what you know today about brushing your teeth, if you had to start paying $40 per month to brush your teeth, would you still do it?

Being healthy and fit is not easy. It requires discipline, time, and money. The first thing to do is to become educated on the benefits of health. If you see the importance of exercise and nutrition, then it becomes easier to budget it into your time and money. Change your priorities, look to the future, get ahead now. You may spend a little more time and money now, but you will save in the long run and you will be thankful for it. I know a lot of people who say they don’t have time or money for the gym, but they can pay $50 to $75 every week for a 4 hour trip to the golf course…..

Jason Cerniglia, Owner Hoover Fitness, Author of the book, Look Great. Feel Great. And Still Eat Pizza!, and creator of The 301 Workout Smartphone App.

To learn more about health and fitness, visit:

www.lookgreatfeelgreatandstilleatpizza.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-301-Workout/213970211969531

Is More Health Clubs the Real Solution?

Posted in DIET AND EXERCISE with tags 24 hour fitness, health clubs, health statistics, hoover gyms, jason cerniglia, weight loss, ymca on January 2, 2012 by cerniglia12

Is More Health Clubs the Real Solution?

The growing trend these days is to open more and more health clubs. Everywhere we look there is another gym opening up around the corner. Y’s, 24 hour small places, big gyms, 10$ gyms, personal training studios, etc. This would suggest that more people are exercising and that the demand for all these health clubs is high. Are these clubs really opening because the demand is high?

Two thirds of Americans are overweight and one third are obese. So we need these health clubs, to service our unhealthy population, right? Well…, industry statistics tell us that only 16% of Americans belong to health clubs, and that number has not changed in several years. Have we put the chicken before the egg?

The problem is not that there are not enough health clubs. The problem is that there are not enough people exercising! If only 16% of Americans even belong to health clubs, then only half of them are actually using the facility in which they belong. Take that 8% of Americans and add maybe another 2% who exercise at home and you have the number of Americans who actually exercise closer to 10%.

Our society is extremely unhealthy and it is causing severe economic and health care problems. The solution to this is to take responsibility as individuals and get in better shape. The solution is to want to be healthier. The solution is not to open more health clubs. However, if we can get Americans to want to exercise and become healthier, then the best option is join a health club. If Americans want to exercise, then we will need health clubs popping up on every corner in every town.

Until we can create a society in which people want to exercise, the current health clubs will continue to fight over the same members. This creates the problem that we have today in the health club industry, which is clubs opening and everywhere and saturating the market and hurting each other’s business. In the past several years, the number of health clubs has grown, but the number of people being members at health clubs has not. You do the math! The problem is not enough health clubs. The problem is that more people need to exercise.

Are you healthy? Do you exercise? If so, then continue to do so, and also share your experiences with others. Help us create a healthy society. Then, and only then, will we need all these health clubs!

To learn more ways to get healthy, visit the following websites:

www.lookgreatfeelgreatandstilleatpizza.com

www.jasonchealth.com

Jason Cerniglia, CPT, CSN, CGCC, Owner Hoover Fitness, Author of the book, Look Great. Feel Great. And Still Eat Pizza!, and the creator of The 301 Workout and smartphone App.

Will Your “Fad Diet” Really Work?

Posted in DIET AND EXERCISE with tags 24E, crossfit, Diet help, gold's gym, hoover fitness, hoover gyms, hoover ymca, weight watch on December 16, 2011 by cerniglia12

Are you on a diet program? Is it one that gives you points based on what you eat? Is it one that doesn’t allow you to eat carbs? Is it one that only allows you to eat soup and or a piece of fruit? Is it one that you are only allowed to eat their meals and/or bars? Are you under doctor supervision during this diet? Do you take a shot as your diet? Are you doing anything that is not considered “eating normal?”

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you are on a diet. It may not be a “fad diet” and it may actually work to some degree, but remember that no matter what it is, it is not a permanent fix to your diet. Let’s start with the term diet. Diet is defined as what you eat. It is that simple. What you eat is your diet. So, do you really ever go on a diet? No, you are always on a diet! If you eat pizza and hot dogs every day, then your diet is pizza and hot dogs.

Specialty diets are not all necessarily bad. They can provide accountability. They can provide a quick boost to your weight loss or other results. They can help, but remember this, they are not the permanent answer. The problem is that with a “diet” you have two choices to keep getting results. You can stay on that diet forever or you can learn how to eat good in a normal setting. What most people tend to do is go on their specialty diet, then quit and go back to eating bad.

So, why do we ultimately fail with diets? I think it is because of two reasons. One, is that sometimes we lack discipline and give in to our body’s selfish temptations to want to eat bad all the time. We give ourselves excuses and we eat bad because of it. The other is that we don’t really understand eating good and we think that it is miserable and that we will never be happy or be able to eat what we want if we are a “healthy eater.” Eating good is much easier than people think. It requires a little discipline, not a lot, but just a little discipline. But the discipline must be consistent. Think of it like this – Do good forever instead of great for a short amount of time. Do good instead of great. But do it consistently. Good allows you to have some bad. Great doesn’t. That is why we don’t eat proper diets. We try to do great and then we suffer and are miserable, so we quit.

Also check and make sure that your specialty diet is good for you. Most of the time you are eliminating valuable nutrients that you body was designed to have. The “fad diet” didn’t figure out any special formula. What it did was reduce your caloric intake. That is why they can provide temporary results.

Your “fad diet” may help. It may be a quick fix. But remember, IF you want results on an on-going basis, you have to learn how to eat a normal healthy diet or else you are stuck with the other two options, which are to stay on the fad diet forever or to go back to eating bad.

Do you want to learn more about how to eat a “normal” diet and still keep your sanity? Go to www.lookgreatfeelgreatandstilleatpizza.com and read sample chapters from the book. You can get started on the right path just from the website. If you decide to order the book, you will learn how to apply principles to your life and learn how to balance out eating good and eating bad while remaining happy and keeping your sanity!

Jason Cerniglia, CPT, CSN, Owner Hoover Fitness, Creator of The 301 Workout Smartphone App and The 21 Day Body Fat Blast.

21 Day Body Fat Blast – What is all the hype?

Posted in DIET AND EXERCISE with tags 24E, birmingham gyms, bootcamp, crossfit, hoover fitness, hoover gyms, hoover ymca, jason cerniglia, The 301 workout, weight loss, ymca on December 15, 2011 by cerniglia12

21 Day Body Fat Blast! What is all the hype?

What is the 21 Day Body Fat Blast?

The 21 Day Body Fat Blast, by Jason Cerniglia, is an exercise program that consists of 21 straight days of exercise. 4 days per week, you work out with Jason in group personal training, and the other 3 days, you do the workout that is provided to you, on your own with the aid of the staff. You basically don’t have to think for 21 straight days. You just show up and do the workouts. The program is a complete mix of cardio and weights and covers everything from head-to-toe multiple times.

Does it work?

The program really works. All you have to do is go through the 21 days and you will achieve results. The average participant has lost over 2.5% body fat and over 2.5 inches in their midsection in just 21 days! There have been several people lose over 3 and 4 % body fat and over 3 and 4 inches in the 21 days. The record body fat loss is 7.5% and the record inches is 5. So far, literally EVERYONE who has completed the program has seen results!

Can I handle this program?

ANYONE can do this! We have had people from all ages and levels of health and fitness do the program. Every workout is adjusted to your specific level. Men, women, old, young, skinny, fat, in-shape, out of shape, etc. Everyone can do it. No matter who you are, you will see results from this. (and everyone wants to lose body fat!) We have had people in their teens do it and people in their 60’s, people with handicaps (even an amputee), and people in great shape (marathon runner and iron-man), and everything in-between complete the program. We have even had people who did not even workout before the program do this. So, literally anyone can do this program.

Why do this program?

The primary goal of the 21 Day Body Fat Blast is to jump start some results and/or to break you out of a rut or slump. Normally, I don’t recommend 21 straight days of exercise, but for a jumpstart or a boost of results, it is ok. In addition to that, there are 2 other very important reasons to do this program. 1. After doing 21 straight days, you should be able to go to 4-5 days per week very easily. 2. If you commit to doing this and do the 21 days, you find out that all the reasons that you had in the past for not working out will not cause you to miss as much as they did in the past. Your prior excuses, such as sick kids, work late, ballpark, etc., all are valid excuses and things that really happen, but you will find that during the 21 days, these things still happened, but they didn’t cause you to miss your workouts. This program is a great accountability tool.

In the first 8 months of the program, 272 people have participated, and 150 of them have gone on to do other body fat blasts. Countless others have started exercising regularly and have made exercise a part of their life. So, there is hype behind this program and the popularity is growing. This is a good program, but the best part of it is the people and the community. Working out together in a group atmosphere is fun and challenging and way less boring than going at it alone! And don’t forget, you do not have to be a member of Hoover Fitness to participate.

Email info@hooverfitness.com for more details and a schedule and to read real-life testimonials and see individual results.