The grotesque, animated bodies of the recently dead are among the most horrifying creatures in all the world. However, were you aware that zombies also serve as fantastic fitness role models? While the slow shamble of the undead may strike a deep fear in your heart, try to learn as much as you can from them before they tear the flesh from your bones. Here are 4 quick lessons we can learn from reanimated corpses.

Be Persistent:

Think about it. A zombie stops at nothing. He will pursue you to the end of the world if it means one more bite of living meat in his mouth. His legs will break off long before his determination does. While, I sometimes feel determined to reach my fitness goals, I can honestly say that I’ve never been near as persistent as one of the walking dead. If you need help being consistent in your exercise routine, look to zombies… as they slowly saunter up behind you.

Be Single Minded:

Again, picture a movie like “Night of the Living Dead”. Think about how the zombies were so united in their attack on the old farm house. Were they bickering amongst each other or  debating whether or not they should give up? Absolutely not. They had one goal in mind. To reach the young people holed up in the house and sink their teeth into their brains. There was no debate, no internal struggle. The zombies simply knew what they wanted and were focused on achieving their goals.

Don’t Over Think It:

If you often have difficulty deciding upon a course of action, try to think about what a zombie would do. He takes the straightest path to his desired goal. He doesn’t debate whether he should sneak up behind a victim or cut them off at the pass. No, he simply takes a direct route toward his next meal. Similarly, try not to needlessly complicate your exercise or nutrition plan. Do some research, plan a simple course of action and stick with it… zombie style!

No Reservations:

When you get tired or think you can’t go a single step further, throw all caution to the wind and attack! Take hold of your goal no matter what stands in your way. Is it a finish line? A new personal lifting record? Is it the soft, tasty flesh of your next door neighbor? No matter what it is, pursue it without regard for your own comfort or dispositions. Zombies don’t care how hard something his. Zombies don’t care how good they look when they’re at the gym. Zombies simply work. Take their tenacity, determination, and recklessness as motivation! Break down the door of whatever is standing in between you and your fitness goals.

(photo credit Eric, Eh?)

Throughout the workday one is obligated to perform assignments and answer to another in order to earn wages. One’s own personal feelings and thoughts may be set aside at least partially throughout the workday and that is why a personal time out is one of the ways to change hats at the end of the day.  Even a 15 minute time out, or sanity break, if you would like to call it that, can do wonders for one’s perspective.

This is your time, so do not rehash the events through the day, especially if they were trying events. Those need to be set aside and replaced by “me” time. Take a moment to reflect on nature, family, a vacation you enjoyed, a personal accomplishment or something that was particularly satisfying or rewarding. One’s life needs a balance and if you dwell on your tasks or work or your family’s needs you can almost be assured that your energy will drain from you and you will not be up to the tasks at home.

One should not continually sacrifice of their time and energy without replenishing themselves. In trying to give their family their most they may be leaving themselves depleted so that there is a smaller and smaller resource of energy available to draw upon in order to be the caretaker they once were. The “well needs not run dry”, there are sources of replenishment. Here are a few:

• Prayer and meditation. Many find praying and meditating to be a constant source of spiritual strength. It helps to focus outside of one’s self and to stop and realize we are not the ones in charge here. There is a higher power.
• A nature walk. Studies have shown that walking is a wonderful and safe way to work out and a scenic route can also provide some lovely looks at nature. Green has a natural calming effect on the senses.
• Work out in the gym or play a game of your choice with friends. Many people gain enjoyment from joining golfing, bowling or other such clubs or leagues. The camaraderie will improve one’s outlook and self-esteem while the sport participation is a good cardiovascular workout.
• Garden. Flowers, herbs, and vegetables can be grown in a very small area or grown large scale. A garden can be as small as a window sill if need be. Many studies show that plants are beneficial not just for consumption but in preserving air quality and our earth. Gardens enhance our living areas and make life much more enjoyable. There is also something very rewarding in seeing a seed reach it’s maturity and provide us with beauty and sustenance.
• Take time out with a pet. Studies indicate that having a pet at home improves hospitalized patient’s recovery odds by 500% upon their release from the hospital. A pet provides unconditional love and devotion which cannot be measured.
• Soak your feet. There are many foot soak preparations, homemade and store bought which can relieve the tension felt in one’s feet and help to improve the overall mood. The pesky creeping Charlie that is springing up in yards everywhere has astringent and skin softening properties. Place some in a tied piece of fabric and drop it into a dishpan. Soak feet in warm water.
• Chat with a friend. Friends make a daily load much lighter and if they are going through their own ordeals (who isn’t) listening to theirs and helping them to solve them all the sudden brings our own into prospective.
• Make a thank you list. Somehow the frustrating things have a way of surfacing to the forefront of our mind. It is our choice to continue dwelling on those or to replace the unhappy thoughts with pleasant ones. Make a list of thanks you are grateful for and read through them.
• Eat a snack. There are foods, and there are power foods. While one may crave something sweet or fast there will be repercussions for grabbing the wrong one.  Most fast food is weighed down with sugars, salts and fats. A healthy body will not stay healthy for long if fueled on the wrong diet. Grabbing a piece of fruit, some nuts or seeds is so much healthier and will not provide the sugar dump shortly after.
• Watch a funny movie. Laughter really is the best medicine. Laughter can lighten a load like no other remedy.
• Do volunteer work. Doing things for others is a very rewarding outlet.

If one is not good to themselves they will become unable to provide for others. The body needs to be taken care of to remain strong and healthy so if you are not good to yourself for your own sake do it for your loved ones.

Author Bio: Marina Chernyak is a freelance writer and co-owner of floor and table lamp store.

(photo credit Rick)

A fresh start is sometimes necessary even for experienced fitness geeks. If you couldn’t tell by the current status of FitHacks, I’ve been slightly coasting in both my blogging  and fitness goals this year. Not to say that I’ve become a total and complete slacker (I am in fact busy finishing my masters degree, captaining my college ultimate frisbee team and successfully providing for a family of four) but I defintiely have put my personal fitnes goals on the backburner for the past few months.

Here are the stops that I’m currently using to ramp out of my fitness lethargy and back on the track of fulfilling my fitness goals.

1) Get on a Program

There are a ton of reasons why you may not feel comfortalbe using a “paint by numbers” approach to fitness. If you are doing fine on your own, are steadily growing in the goals you have defined for yourself and don’t need a plan put in place by anyone else, then keep going with what works! But if that doesn’t necessarily describe where you are currently at, then let me encourage you to not shun all regemented fitness programs. There are actually some great ones out there if you take the time to do some research and find the best fit for your current needs.

The program that I have personally decided on is Insanity. It is a high intensity interval training program from the makers of P90X. By following along with the DVD’s regular workout schedule I am able to get my regimen back on track when I’m just too busy to plan something out myself. I’ll do some followup posts about the effectiveness of this program but so far I am throughly impressed.

2) Get Accountable

When you make a fitness goal and keep it secret, it is so easy for your plans to fail. Let someone know that you are making a concerted effort to get on a fitness plan and ask them to follow up with you. Both encouragement from success and the shame of failure can be powerful motivators to stay on track.

In many ways, this is how I personally use FitHacks. By letting my few readers know what my goals are I feel somewhat responsible for following through. Note: If you never hear another post about my results on the Insanity program, I may need a swift kick in the butt email asking if I’m staying on track.

3) Don’t Lose Your Momentum

Once you start, try really hard not to let yourself slip up… even once. I have found that the power of sustained momentum is awesome. Once I start something, I feel like I can go on forever. However, if I slip up once or twice I feel like I’m starting from square one all over again. Don’t let yourself skip a scheduled workout (rest days are OK) and you won’t lose the power of your initial momentum!

I’ve just finished week one of Insanity and it is intense. I actually feel like I’m seeing results already. Bottom line, I’m just happy to be making forward progress again.

(photo credit cogdogblog)

It seems that most people today, especially my generation, are extremely adept at self-deception. We simply don’t like being confronted with harsh truths and therefore have become great at lying to ourselves. Life is hard. Sometimes it certainly feels better to overlook our problems than to deal with them, but ultimately we all know that this will solve nothing. Here are several such lies that we all need to avoid telling ourselves today if we ever hope to make a dent in our fitness goals this year.

“I’m too busy.”

Ah yes. The classic excuse. While I’m sure that it feels like you are, in fact, too busy to exercise, eat right, and stay on a consistent fitness plan, this lie is down right dangerous. If you have said this lie to yourself within the last three months, let me ask you a question. How much TV have you watched in this time? How many video games have you played? How much non-essential junk could be removed from your weekly schedule if you took an honest look? Bottom line: no, you aren’t too busy to take care of yourself… even if you really, really think you are.

“I’m not concerned with appearances.”

Like it or not, appearances are pretty important in our society… whether you choose to admit it or not. Just because you personally claim to be unconcerned with the superficiality of looking good also doesn’t make it so. We all want to look good. Besides, this is far from the most pressing reason to get in shape. Exercising drastically increases our health, mood and well-being in addition to getting you those abs you’ve always wanted.

“I’ll start next week.”

Procrastination is personally one of my own biggest problems. I tell myself this lie nearly every single week. Just look at how many blog posts I’ve done the last few months. However, this is also a really easy lie to overcome. Everytime you hear these words coming out of your mouth, stop what you are doing and do one thing that will proactively set your fitness in motion. You can begin a food log, do 10 pushups in your office or tell a friend your goals for the next month. Never put off to tomorrow what you can accomplish right now.

“Exercise isn’t that important.”

Really? You think you can tell yourself this lie and expect your body to believe it? Exercise has been shown to affect one’s overall health in tremendous ways. Exercise speeds up your metabolism, helps your heart, improves your cholesterol as well as a number of other amazing benefits. Sure, you can try to lose weight by dieting alone but don’t expect breathtaking results. Diet + Exercise = Double Rainbow of fitness.

“I’d rather enjoy my life than spend time in a gym.”

Working out can be a chore… if you only do boring exercises. The turth is, I look forward to my workouts way more than anything that comes on TV. The trick is to find the activities that suit both your fitness goals and your personality. Not everyone is going to want to spend hours doing heavy lifting in the weight room or jogging on the treadmill. But if you find something that you genuinely enjoy then your “workout time” quickly becomes your “play time”. The key is to experiment with different activities. If you want to come throw a Frisbee around with me sometime, I’d be more than happy to introduce you to the amazing sport of Ultimate…

“I don’t want to over-do-it.”

Injuries can be a major bummer. Especially when you are first starting to see results. However, this fear should never stop you from actually living. If you are really concerned about going too hard too soon, you simply have to pace yourself. Start with a couch to 5k program or seek the help of a personal trianer. Don’t be afraid of taking the first step.

“I’ll just have one.”

The king of all dieting lies. Many people don’t know the word of moderation. If this is you, then the best course of action is to remove problem foods from your life alltogether. There are certain items that I know I can’t resist. When I am struggling to lose some pounds, I know that eating one french fry is way harder than simply saying “no thanks.” Once it hits your lips, it’s simply too good to say “no”.

(photo credit William Hoffman)

Once the new year rolls in, I’ll be trying to get back to my goal of two articles per week. Now that I have that in writing, hopefully it will become a reality. With that said, we are still in the midst of the biggest dead week of the year. Most people are still in a post-Christmas haze and haven’t checked their feed reader in over a week… a bad time to start regularly scheduled posting again.

So, without further ado, a FitHacks post from 1 year and 1 day ago.

The holidays are always a tough time of the year for fitness. The stresses of shopping, traveling, and family certainly seem to take a toll on most of our fitness routines. Personally, I’m a creature of habit so sticking to a workout plan isn’t too bad on a normal 9-5 workday 5 days a week. However, throw in several days off from work and a crazy traveling schedule and my normal diet and exercise regimen is completely shot. Does this seem to sound familiar?

link – Getting Back on Track After the Holidays

Sometimes I feel like my personal fitness goals are more of a “nice idea” rather than an absolute “declaration of war”. Simply thinking that it would be nice to run an X minute 5k or bench X amount of weight will never ever result in success. Unfortunately, fitness isn’t easy and anyone who says otherwise (even fitness bloggers) is lying. If you aren’t fully committed to the operation at hand, you will surely lose focus and be swallowed up by the vast opposing army. Rather, if we declared war against ourselves, our bodies and our laziness, we could go into exercise with an intensity level of 11. 

The single most common excuse I hear from people who aren’t currently pursuing their fitness goals is that they are “just too busy”. Personally, I also use this excuse from time to time. Sometimes we get behind at work or need to spend time with family and that planned trip to the gym gets put on the back burner. It happens. But the important thing is that you don’t let your excuses become a habit. Below are a few simple ways to overcome this most common of excuses. Note: about 90% of the time I write posts I’m talking to myself. As you can tell from my recent posting frequency I often need a kick in the rear too.

make fitness a priority

This may seem obvious coming from a fitness blogger but we all really need to take our fitness seriously. Our overall health is at stake and when we lose focus of this our priorities can get really out of whack. If exercising isn’t the most fun thing to you, try to imagine what your life would be like if you really stopped caring. If you failed to treat your body the way it was meant to be treated it would slowly deteriorate, plain and simple.

eliminate excess in you life

It seems like most of us are running in the “overflow” mode. We are constantly stressed with too little time to spend on ourselves. Sometimes, it can be very helpful to stop and take stock of what is really going on in our lives. Are there things that we are doing regularly that aren’t really necessary? Are there any areas that we can cut back on in order to devote more time to the important stuff in our lives?Just like that old example of trying to fill a container with small rocks before the big rocks, some stuff just won’t fit if you prioritize them in the wrong order. Instead, place the big rocks in the container first and the little rocks will fill in the space that is left. Translation: Schedule the important things first and fill in the details later as you see fit.

simplify workouts

One reason that people think they are too busy to exercise is that they don’t really know what they are doing. They go to the gym, choose a machine at random and go through the motions for some arbitrary set of time. Generally, any exercise is better than no exercise, but if you are working out inefficiently or if you don’t have a plan, then you are really just wasting your time. First, define a goal. If you want to lose a set number of pounds then write than down and don’t let it out of your mind. Next, create a plan. Lookup programs online that will help you get to your desired goal. If you are simply confused from all the info out there, ask someone you trust or just drop me line from the Contact section and I’ll be glad to help you get on some sort of plan that will fit your needs. Lastly, drop the inefficient exercises. If you want to get a stronger upper body, then focus on multi-joint exercises that work more than one muscle group at a time. (Hint: bicep curls and tricep extensions, bad; bench press and pullups, good.)

If you find yourself frequently skipping workouts, don’t stress over it. We are all busy with hectic lives. Do the best you can and above all, never give up.

(photo by hojusaram)

My wife and I recently completed Dave Ramsey’s personal finance course called Financial Peace University. Overall, I thought it was a great course with a ton of valuable information regarding personal money management, investing and getting out of debt. Throughout the course, I was struck with how similar the ideas of debt management and fitness really are. In both aspects of your life you have to make budgets (money or calories), utilize personal discipline, and have the ability to maintain motivation for an extended period of time.

A particularly unique idea of Ramsey’s was the “debt snowball”. This was his preferred method of digging yourself out of debt by paying down the smallest debts you owed first then rolling the money that you were using to pay that bill into the next smallest debt owed. This way you would systematically eliminate all your outstanding bills one at a time from the smallest to largest.

While this method of debt elimination is fantastic, I think the idea also holds water in other areas of life management as well. Lately, as you can probably tell from the frequency of my latest blog postings, I’m struggling somewhat in my personal time management. I have a full time job, I’m pursuing a Master’s degree, I have a two year old son and a brand new baby girl. So in an attempt to get my growing “to do” list back to a manageable size, I tried Ramsey’s debt snowball method for time management.

1) I listed out everything that I had to do in the next few weeks on a sheet of paper. Some of these things were simple phone calls I needed to make. Others were long time annoyances that have been on my mind for months.

2) Next, I went through and mentally arranged them in order from “simplest to complete” to “most complex”

3) I systematically began making myself complete the simplest tasks first even if they weren’t due for another two weeks. I did this for a few reasons. One, I could now release the brain power that I had been spending on that simple task and roll it into thinking about the other items. Two, I could use the momentum from marking something off my list as extra motivation to get more things done. It’s funny how satisfying crossing off an annoying task can really be.

4) Finally, I continue this process until only the major things are left. The cleared “to do” list builds my confidence to continue accomplishing things. Plus, all the time I would have spent on worrying about the smaller tasks can now be devoted to productive thinking about the big items.

You may think this is a silly yet obviously application of the “debt snowball” but the idea has genuinely proved productive for me the last couple of days. If you are like me and currently find yourself swamped in small “to do” items progress through them systematically from easiest to hardest and let me know how it works for you.

(photo by Ivan Walsh)

Failure is a pretty common occurrence in my life. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t manage to experience at least a moderate amount of defeat. Some days I eat a little too much or skip a workout. Other days, I can screw something up bad enough that it sends the whole system into a tailspin. But by learning to fail the right way, failure can actually be a positive experience.

If you look at your defeats in the proper attitude and context, you can really experience a lot of growth and be better off for it.

Fail With Enthusiasm – Don’t let past failures deter you from your goal.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”  ~Winston Churchill

Yesterday sucked. I woke up knowing that I was in the process of getting sick. I spent all day at work trying to correct a problem only to discover I was barking up the completely wrong tree. At home I was performing a dreaded OS reinstall when I find out that the new drivers I need haven’t even been written yet. Nutritionally, I somehow manage to consume enough food to fuel a family of Olympic athletes and the start of my new Ultimate Frisbee season was canceled due to rain. I was close (very close) to calling it a night at 7:30 and heading to bed.

Instead, however, I went to the gym. Tired, sick, and out of steam I somehow found myself deadlifting the horrible day away. Was it a great workout? No. Did I break any personal records? Not even close. But what mattered was that I turned the terrible experiences of the past few hours around by doing something positive for my body and my mind.

Every second of every day we have the option to choose failure or to choose perseverance. Which are you doing right now?

Fail Up – Try something big

“Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.” ~ Napoleon Hill

Trying anything new is a learning experience. However, imagine how much more you’ll learn if you try something BIG! When I began running, I certainly learned some painful lessons. Drink enough water or you’ll get dehydrated and may throw up. Stretch after workouts or you could be out of commission for a while nursing an injury.

However, when I started training for a marathon, it seemed like my knowledge grew exponentially. I learned what it felt like to physically run out of fuel. I learned what happened when you didn’t plan your training route very well. I also learned what it felt like running in 30 degree weather without gloves. These are lessons that I don’t imagine I’ll ever forget.

The bigger your goal, the more you can realistically learn from it.

Fail Often – Success can make you stale

“Success is never final; failure is never fatal” ~ Unknown

By failing you actually may learn more than by succeeding. Success can sometimes make people lazy. Either they think that they are naturally gifted as the smartest people in the world or they become so used to winning that they forget how to try hard. Believe it or not, this can happen. If you get used to being the “best” at something, your drive and passion will die out.

Failing enough times will teach you how to fight. Fight for something hard enough and you’ll know what real success (not luck or happenstance) feels like.

Fail Fast – Don’t be afraid to act

“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

When you are so worried about failing that you never take the first step, that’s when you’ve really lost. Don’t plan so meticulously that you never get around to actually executing. Steve Pavlina has called this “Ready. Shoot. Aim.”

Take your shot at something you’d like to accomplish. If you don’t succeed, adjust your plan and try again. Keep adjusting your sights until you hit the target dead on. It’s much better to have a thousand misses and one bulls eye than to never take your shot in the first place.

Fail Without Fear – What is the worst possible scenario?

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” ~ Sven Goran Eriksson

For the most part, the things we’re afraid of happening as a result of our failures aren’t actually that bad. Now this doesn’t really apply to all things (tightrope walking and skydiving come to mind) but if you’re honest, you’ll probably agree that the fear of failure is worse than actual failure.

I’m still really afraid of public speaking, but when I think it through, it’s silly to be so afraid of it. The worst thing that can happen is to make a fool out of myself. I literally do that everyday anyway, so what’s so bad about doing it once more? Maybe if I actively tried to swallow my pride and face my fear of humiliation head on, I’ll have little to fear when I actually try something new. Just a thought.

(photo by tibchris)

Last week, I wrote about the dangers of comparisons and got some great discussion going both here and on Twitter. Comparing yourself to others can be frustrating and demoralizing. Ultimately, no fruit comes from holding yourself up to the standards or successes of others. However, on the flipside (and there is always a flipside) there are some things that can certainly be gained by looking at the examples of others. Finding solid examples in areas where we are personally lacking can be a great way to build momentum for successes of our own.

Seek out Successful Examples:

Examples Inspire: They show us what is possible. I would never have even become interested in fitness in the first place if I did not first become inspired by other healthy examples in my life. Without knowing that losing a lot of weight was actually possible, I never would have been able to lose the weight that I did. Primarily because I would have thought it was completely out of my reach. Healthy weight-loss examples showed me that others have had success. Therefore I knew that I could do it too.

Examples Teach: They show us what to do. Following practical examples are one of the best ways that we can learn from others. I have learned more about how to eat right and exercise from watching the success of other people than I ever could from reading text books about nutrition. Find people that have experienced the victories that you want to see in your own life and follow their lead.

Examples Motivate: They get us off our butts. Personally, there is nothing more motivating than a real life success story. Watching another person make progress on their fitness goals is thrilling to me and pushes me to work just as hard. Knowing that every success story had to start somewhere can really help remove self-defeating attitudes. What you want to achieve is possible. It has been done before and it will be done again.

Refuse to compare yourself to others by focusing on your inadequacies. Instead, look for examples of what is possible and follow them. Health and fitness is by no means a “zero sum” game. Looking for successes and following those who have been there is the best way to get there yourself.

(photo by jonrawlinson)