Diet and fitness affirmations from A to Z

Introducing the Pierini DIET here

With a new year around the corner, many middle-age men and women will make New Year resolutions to get eat healthier, get fitter and lose unwanted bodyweight. It happens at the start of every new year as evidenced by crowded gyms bulging at the seams with new members who join, begin an honest effort to exercise and eat healthy, only to lose their enthusiasm a couple weeks later or a month at most.

To guide these poor souls, the chief executive blogger of Pierini Fitness has come up with this alphabet-based compendium of diet and fitness training affirmations. If you'd like a PDF version of this, send me an e-mail request at pierinifitness@yahoo.com. Enjoy!

A – Always train a little on scheduled fitness training days. Don’t let your efforts be sabotaged by an “all or nothing” mentality because something is better than nothing.

B – Be on guard for family and friends who do not share your diet and fitness zeal as their misguided charitable offers laden with possibly envy can sabotage your efforts.

C – Chance is not how diet and fitness improvements are made so make sure you have a written plan to guide your daily efforts.

D – Don’t eat unless you are hungry. Break old habits of eating because the clock says it is a certain time or food is offered to you when you aren’t hungry. Don’t be afraid to say “no thank you”.

E – Eat your food slowly and make sure you “milkshakefy” it. What’s that mean? Read The Pierini DIET, an easy-read PDF book I’ve written.

F – Fuel your body with real food that will support the demands of your fitness training and aid in post-training recovery.

G – Go for a brisk walk as an alternative to watching television or spending time on the computer. You can always do that after you’ve taken that brisk walk.

H – Have fun chasing your diet and fitness goals and you’ll increase the likelihood of success.

I – Intensity is your time-efficient friend so make sure that your cardio sessions are short and intense rather than long, slow and steady. You should be breathless at the end of your cardio training.

J – Jump if you can now and then in your training. It’s a great way to make sure your cardio sessions are short and intense.

K – Kill all negative thoughts that periodically enter your mind that you can’t achieve your diet and fitness goals. Find something else to be a failure about.

L – Lift heavy weights at least once, and preferably, twice a week following a progressive resistance training program. Use good form and seek out instruction to make sure you perform the lifts correctly.

M – Monitor your bodyweight, diet and fitness training efforts by maintaining a journal. Weigh yourself daily and record details of your workout in your journal. Depending on your dietary discipline, consider using a daily food journal to help create awareness of what you are eating and to foster rigorous honesty.

N – Never tell yourself that you can’t do it because you can – if you want it bad enough.

O – Opportunities to eat healthy and exercise are always present, even when you are away on a business trip or vacation. Be creative and so something. Don’t worry about people looking at you – let them.

P – Pushups, pullups and other bodyweight-only exercises should be part of your fitness training program because fitness training variety is the results-producing spice of life.

Q – Question all that you read and are told about diet and fitness from the “experts". Follow the money and make sure that their advice passes the “smell test”.

R – Rest and recovery are your friends after a hard fitness training session. Train hard and then make sure that you have a quality rest and recovery program on non-training days.

S – Sitting is something you do when eating, visiting with friends and working if you “sit for a living”. Insofar as your fitness training goes, don’t lay when you can sit but don’t sit when you can stand when exercising.

T – Timed workouts are great particularly during short and intense cardio sessions. Use a stop watch occasionally and time your efforts to measure your fitness improvement.

U – Umbrellas can be used to take a brisk walk on a rainy day that you might talk yourself out of doing because it’s raining. Make sure you have one in you fitness training tool box.

V – Victims of crimes sometimes put themselves in harm’s way. Don’t be a victim of diet and fitness failure crime by putting yourself in harm’s way with environments and people that are not safe for you.

W – Warm-up your body with flexibility drills and gradually elevate your heart rate before beginning the tough part of your fitness training.

X – X-treme and unrealistic diet and fitness goals should not be what you are chasing. Reasonably demanding and achievable goals will serve you better.

Y – Yearn for the day when you are one day closer to achieving your diet and fitness goals for that is today.

Z – Zeal will serve you well in your lifelong diet and fitness journey. Make sure you are always carrying some with you.

There you have it folks – your diet and fitness affirmations from A to Z

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum