Achieving Your Goals in 2012

Well we're now almost at the end of January.

Have you written a list of New Year resolutions that you can look back over the year and mark off as you accomplish each one?



I know I have, in fact I have 8 goals that I want to achieve by the end of 2012.

Achieving your goals in 2012 isn't as hard as you may think

For me as I’ve got older, my goals are SMART goals.

What I mean is:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

That’s absolutely no point in writing down that I want to fly to the moon by the end of 2012, because you know what, it isn’t going to happen.

SMART goals are achievable goals that you can set yourself over the whole of 2012.

So, if you want to run a marathon this coming summer than you need to plan each individual step, how often you need to train each week, how you progress to eventually being able to run that marathon, how you need to eat, how often you should eat, what you should eat and how you will need to up your calorie intake to cope with the amount of training that you will be doing.

The same applies if you want to lose 20 pounds, how are you going to get there? Don’t just say that I want to lose 20 pounds this year, set yourself weekly, monthly goals and an exact time frame of when you want to achieve your weight loss by. How many times each week are you going to workout, what program are you going to use, obviously your now shouting The Flat Stomach Solution, in that case you would definitely have hit your weight loss goal within 12 weeks….

Can you see what I’m saying here, planning and setting yourself SMART goals is the way that you are going to achieve your goals.

My suggestion to you now is choose 5-10 New Year’s resolutions that are achievable and start planning how you’re going to achieve them. Take it individual one and write a detailed plan of action.
Using the SMART system to achieve your goals can work in every area of your life.

Don’t wait for life to happen, chase it!

Here's to an amazing new year, may it be filled with happiness, success and love.

Put Your Fitness First

How many times have you said to yourself, today is the day that I’m going to put my fitness first, come what may…

Then without warning, something more important comes up!

* Your work meeting has been re-arranged
* Your partner wants you to spend more time with them
* Your kids need cookies to be made
* Your dog needs to go to the vet

So many important tasks to fit into your already busy life

So what gives?

Well, I bet you would say 'my workout' because it can be done another time.



That is definitely the wrong answer; you should always put your fitness first.

I’m not saying that the other tasks are less important but your health & fitness should always take priority.

'Why?' I here you ask…..

Because without your health and keeping your body fit and strong, all of the other day to day tasks will be so much harder to manage and cope with.

This is what you achieve when you put your fitness first:

1. You lose weight
2. You strengthen & tone your body
3. Improves your stamina
4. Helps prevent diseases
5. Improves the quality of your life

Those are just a few benefits; the list is endless.

Just as you put important tasks into your diary on a daily / weekly basis, that’s exactly what you should do with your workouts. If they have to be re-arranged then that’s fine but just make sure you fit them into another time during that day.

Don’t cancel completely!

You must take charge when it comes to your health, it’s an absolute necessity.

Putting your fitness first will make you an even better woman, partner, mother, business woman than you already are.

But be warned!

Putting your fitness first may have these side effects:

1. Improved confidence
2. Constant boundless energy
3. Improved physical strength
4. Heightened alertness
5. Everyday tasks become easier
6. Feelings of wellbeing
7. Patience to deal with stressors
8. Weight loss and firm physique

Who’d want all those right?!

You! OK then! So say it with me!

“I will always put my fitness first because I value my health”

Try This Fantastic Flat Stomach Exercise

Try this flat stomach exercise without even having to step a foot out the front door. All you need is a Swiss ball!

Here's how to perform the Swiss Ball Jacknife:

Get into a push up position

Place your shins on top of your Swiss ball

Keep your abs tight

Tuck your knees into your body rolling the ball towards your hands

Your back will naturally go into a hunch position

Hold for a count of 2 and return to the start

Repeat for 12 reps


While performing this flat stomach exercise, keep your abs pulled in tight to ensure you're getting the full effects and using correct form!

Incorporate Swiss ball Jacknifes into your metabolic circuits and you'll stay strong, lean and healthy.

The 2011 Celebrity Oscar Workout

What an amazing night at the 2011 Oscars this year.

I'm so happy that Natalie Portman won best actress for the Black Swan, she was amazing. If you haven't seen it yet, get yourself down the cinema today.

As you could see by so many of the hot sexy actresses, they were spending extra time with their trainers, getting themselves red carpet ready.

When you think of these actresses do you think that they’re just blessed with the perfect body? And that they have all the time and money in the world to workout with their expensive trainers? Well the latter is definitely very true.

But you DON’T have to workout for 4 hours each day and you DON’t have to hire an expensive trainer to reap the benefits of a red carpet body…

Try this 2011 Celebrity Oscar Workout using Metabolic Circuit Training to blast fat away.

Do this workout 3 days each week, making sure that you leave 24 hours rest in between each workout.

Change your workout every 4 weeks to constantly challenge your body in new ways to keep you on your toes and ensure your workouts fun; not stale.

The Flat Stomach Solution provides over 3 months of fat burning workouts that will melt away body fat and boost your confidence. No more guess work with trying to lose weight; everything is laid out for you inside the book.

The Oscars 2011 Workout
You need to warm-up before you begin your main workout.

Main Workout:

Push-Ups x 12 reps

Dumbbell Wide Squats x 15 reps

Body-Weight Rows x 12 reps

Jump Squats x 30 seconds

Push-Ups x 12 reps

Step-Ups x 15 reps (each leg)

Reverse Lunge with Bicep Curls x 12 reps (each leg)

Jump Squats x 30 seconds

Complete each exercise without any rest in between.

Once you have completed the entire circuit, rest for 60-90 seconds and repeat once more if you’re a beginner. Twice more if you’re intermediate and 3 more times if you’re an advanced exerciser. These are hard work but fun and get amazing results.

Achieving any level of fitness does take dedication. You must make fitness a priority in your life; schedule your workouts into your diary on a weekly and monthly basis.

See them as important as brushing your teeth or a doctor’s appointment that you couldn’t possibly miss.

The majority of these stars are not obsessed with vanity; they just know that if they take care of their body and feel good because of that, that will show on the outside too.

Looking healthy is certainly a huge incentive to workout out but more importantly there are far more benefits like feeling healthy, strong and alive!

You don’t need to walk the red carpet at the Oscars to get a sizzling hot physique.

If you use my Oscar workout then you’ll be looking and feeling red carpet ready every day of the week.


Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Give the Gift of Health This Christmans

The gift of good health is probably the best gift you can give someone besides love.

Here's some Christmas gifts I recommend for family and friends or even yourself!

1. The Flat Stomach Solution Recipe Book

Take control of your diet with the Recipe Book and enjoy recipes that are suitable for all types of diet, there’s something for everyone in here!



Every aspect of your new lifestyle nutrition plan is taken care of with drinks, snacks, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a whole host of tips and advice that you don’t get from any other recipe book.

The book is also packed with tips on how to stock your kitchen, delicious recipes that guarantee your diet will be packed full of foods that nourish your body!

If you have barely cooked a thing in your life so far then this book will really help you to discover your kitchen and what it’s meant to be used for! If you are used to cooking but generally heavy fat laden foods then this book will be your nutritional saviour and show you the wonderful foods that can still satisfy but truly help you get the weight loss results you want to see.

Get your copy of The Flat Stomach Solution recipe book for just $20
**This offer is only available until December 24th 2010!



Click here now to order your copy of The Flat Stomach Solution Recipe Book



2. An iTunes gift card – great for adding new workout music to an iPod.


3. Amazon Kindle - The perfect partner to your e-book collection and ideal for storing and using your copy of The Flat Stomach Solution Recipe Book.


4. Health shop voucher – fantastic for buying items such as raw almonds, almond milk, green tea, the list is endless. No excuses for eating rubbish foods going into 2011.


5. Massage or a facial – what better way to spoil yourself or a loved one, indulging in one of these little beauties after a hard workout is wonderful.


6. A Blender - I know this is not the most inspiring gift to buy someone but it is an awesome thing to have in the house. I use mine virtually every day, I whip up Smoothie’s and soups in no time at all and if you're looking to lead a healthy lifestyle then this is one tool no one do without!

There you have it, a list of presents that guarantee to get smiles on the big festive day….


Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Nutrition & Fitness in the Forest

I’ve just returned after spending a week relaxing (mostly) at a forest retreat in the beautiful Suffolk countryside…

Good nutrition and fitness was never far from my mind.

I must tell you that I had a fantastic time mountain biking, I was acutally on the course that will be used for the 2012 Olympics right here in sunny England! I also enjoyed trail running and of course facials and massages were definitely two of my other priorities.

One morning (only one!) my party woke up at 4.30am so that we could go on a nature walk and watch the sun rise. We saw dear, rabbits, badgers, birds and even a wild cat! It was amazing.


My time out got me to thinking about how important it is to ensure you kick back on vacation & travelling whilst at the same time as continuing to take care of your nutrition, fitness and health.

When it came to my nutrition I made sure that I made healthy choices but at the same time a girls got to treat herself once in a while but especially whilst on vacation…

It’s very important that when you are away from home whether that be a short stay overnight or longer, you always forward plan when it comes to your meals and fitness. One of the important rules I follow is to always carry my snacks with me (for example an apple and a handful of almonds). By doing this I ensure that I keep my blood sugar level stable throughout the day and that stops me from reaching for any sugary snacks! As for the fitness side I always make sure I have my iPod and a body weight workout at the ready to perform anywhere/anytime. If there’s a gym to hand then that’s great and I know I can get a workout in by figuring out my surroundings and adapting it to them.

You must treat yourself every so often, it’s all about balance and if you use my simple and easy tricks, a little of what you fancy will do you no harm.

• When ordering a desert share half with someone at your table
Ask your waiter to divide it before they bring it to the table & work it into your calorie allowance for the day. That way you won’t be kicking yourself at the end of the week because you’ve eaten far too much.
• Work it in / Work it off
As it states, if you eat a treat then work it in to your calories and then the next day work it off in your workout. No harm/no foul (as long as it’s a treat and NOT junk!).
• Half is better than whole
When you really fancy something calorific then share half and get a side of vegetables or no dressing salad to go along side.
• Be prepared!!
As with anything in life, if you don’t plan then usually it won’t work.
This goes for your food and fitness, you have to plan the details before you go on your trip or vacation and if you don’t, then chances are you’d be late for your plane or not get the hire car in time etc! Same goes for your healthy lifestyle: Make an adaptable plan and you will ensure you don’t have to spend the next days/weeks/months working the extra fat/calories/wobble off!!
• Adapt
As you see from my forest vacation I adapted to my surroundings and used it to my fitness advantage. This goes for any different environment you encounter, outdoor, indoor, forest, city, hotel room or stairwell you can literally work out ANYWHERE/ANYTIME! So give it some thought next time you’re off to somewhere else and make sure you keep active at all times.

Remember you are on vacation, so NEVER deny yourself anything because I can promise you, from my own experiences, you’ll only end up wanting it more and that’s when the problems start.


Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Sign Up for your FREE copy, How to Stop Emotional Eating.

Download Your FREE Copy TODAY!

The Flat Stomach Solution Eating Plan Principles

Let me ask you a question…

Do you also think there’s more and more confusing and contradictory information out there on how to lose weight?

I was in my local book store recently and I must have seen at least 200 books, each of them offering a different diet solution! There was low fat, high carbs, no carbs and then the usual suspects the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, and the fruit only diet to the breakfast cereal diet, the list went on and on.

Maybe you are one of those women who have tried countless diets over the years? Perhaps the diet worked over the period that you were actually on it but when you started to reintroduce foods that you previously eliminated the weight started to creep back on, plus quite a few extra pounds and you were back to square one! Am I right?

Diets are tricky things, promising us one thing and before you know it giving us a hell of a lot more than we expected.

If diets worked, wouldn’t we all be following the same one and seeing amazing results that we would never need to follow any other for the rest of our lives?

We must remember that we are human and can’t possibly go through each and every day depriving ourselves, not only the occasional treat but the correct amount of calories we need to survive on each day.

I’ve had many women come to me over the years and say that they have been on a diet for most of their adult life, which is incredibly disheartening. Life is for living and enjoying, not for following a strict diet plan 24/7! Unfortunately with all these women their metabolisms have taken a severe battering because of the constant ‘yo yo’ dieting that they have put their bodies through over the years. Each time that they have gone onto a new diet their metabolisms slow down, which as we know the body then starts to store more fat which for any woman trying to lose weight, this process is a viscous cycle!

I’m going to confess now; I’ve come up with the most amazing diet plan that actually works! It’s called ‘The Healthy Eating Plan’. It nourishes your body each day with wholesome nutritious foods.

It doesn’t contain anything that is processed, so nothing that comes in a box or a packet and when you look at the ingredients you can actually pronounce them because nothing is man made.

The healthy eating plan contains all varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables. 100% whole grains, brown rice, brown pasta, millet, quiona. Lean red meats, chicken and fresh fish. Also raw nuts, seeds, pulses and legumes. Whenever possible go with organic produce.

You must eat five times a day, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner.

The great thing about this diet plan is it’s so easy to follow and you definitely don’t deprive yourself, in fact I insist that you have a treat meal once a week.

I guarantee that you will have more energy, your skin and hair will look glowing and most importantly you will feel amazing!

This is how I eat, why don’t you give it a try and see some real results!

Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Sign Up for your FREE copy, How to Stop Emotional Eating.

Download Your Copy TODAY! =>

http://www.stephricefitness.com/howtostopemotionaleating/

Hate Long Cardio? Try my Interval Training Workout

It’s a beautiful sunny morning here in the UK (we do occasionally have them) and I’ve just got back from my outdoor high intensity interval training session, which I wanted to share with you.

I’m very lucky to live in such a beautiful area and early on a Sunday morning I never see anyone else around apart from sheep and horses. I decided to do hill sprints this morning so I took myself to one particular place where the views are incredible and there are only a handful of horses to cheer me on….

My session went something like this…

A good warm – up starting off with a 5 minute walk into a 5 minute jog, until I reached my destination.

I did an all out sprint up the hill for 30 seconds, followed by a 60 second recovery period where I slowly walked back down to the bottom of the hill. I did this 10 times which took me fifteen minutes. I then said hi to the horses and took a slow run home. I always like to stretch well and spent the next 5 minutes doing that.

There you have it; it’s as easy as that! I’m off now to make one of my delicious smoothies that I gave you the recipe for a couple of weeks ago.

Let me know what interval training you do.

Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Sign Up for your FREE copy, How to Stop Emotional Eating.

Download Your Copy TODAY! =>

http://www.stephricefitness.com/howtostopemotionaleating/

Mind Numbing Cardio vs High Intensity Interval Training

I was at my local gym a few days ago, I still enjoy going despite no longer working from one, and I love the atmosphere.

After my session I was thinking, it does disturb me when I see someone doing an exercise incorrectly and all the fitness instructors can do is gossip by the gym office.

I’ve been in the fitness industry for so many years that I still feel I have a duty to people in a gym to show them the correct way to perform an exercise even though I no longer work in one. Anyway getting back to my original point, there is a woman that I have seen at the gym for the past 4 months, she is heavily overweight and all I see her do is go from one piece of cardio equipment to the next!

Her program goes something like this, 20 minutes on the treadmill walking at a slow steady pace and then 20 minutes on the bike at a slow steady pace. That’s it, and then she’ll head straight for the changing rooms only to be seen next time doing exactly the same workout.

Unfortunately over the past 4 months her shape has hardly changed but she keeps on going so good on her for trying!

This story is so true for many women wanting to lose fat. The one full proof, 100% guarantee way to lose body fat is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Not only can you get this over and done with in less than 20 minutes (instead of 40 minutes +) but it’s a shore thing when you want to drop the fat FAST…

If you are into your long cardio sessions because you enjoy them, then good on you. I love nothing more than to go for a run just as the sun is coming up on a summer’s morning, it’s a great feeling but to lose fat fast then that is a big NO….

With low intensity training, doing long runs or a long bike ride will only burn fat for as long as you are working out and when you stop, the fat burning stops! But with HIIT your metabolism will be spiked and you will continue to burn fat for up to 24 hours after you have finished working out. Imagine, 9 hours after finishing your workout you’re sat in your office or your car and you’re still burning fat…..how cool is that!

So let’s take a look at what this HIIT training is all about. It’s basically performing high intensity intervals for a short period of time, lets say 20 seconds all out sprinting, followed by 40 seconds of recovery, do this fifteen times and there you have it your 15 minutes.

I’m not saying it’s easy because it’s not but if you want to see results FAST….
Then this is the one for you! You can also try this using a stationary spinning bike, cross trainer or rowing machine, the list is endless. For me I love HIIT training outside, one of my particular favourites is hill sprinting but I’m going
to leave the details of that for another time.

Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Sign Up for your FREE copy, How to Stop Emotional Eating.

Download Your Copy TODAY! =>

http://www.stephricefitness.com/howtostopemotionaleating/

Michelle Obama shows us the way to a fit, healthy body!

Yesterday morning whilst replying to emails and sipping a cup of green tea, I heard the words Michelle Obama and cellulite cream coming from the TV. I stopped typing and thought to myself; those words definitely don’t belong together! With that, I wandered into the other room and sat down to watch the news programme.

As Michelle was recently in the UK supporting her Husband we are constantly hearing about them either in the newspapers or on the TV. What I found strange was the presenter of the TV show was talking about cellulite cream and Michelle Obama in the same breath! Obviously that caught my attention.

Her workout routine was briefly mentioned and I must say the workout sounded very impressive. But instead of telling everyone how they could achieve the same results, they began to tell us how you can get Michelle’s beautifully toned arms through rubbing a cellulite cream in twice a day! I’ve got to say this cream wasn’t at an affordable price, certainly in this financial climate.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, how on earth can a cream replace good old fashioned exercise?

Unfortunately today we have become a nation of quick fixes and the big organisations are taking full advantage of this, selling these products to people who have perhaps failed at an exercise programme and diet promising great things but bringing nothing. For some people they may feel this is their only hope.

I’ve been involved in the fitness industry for many years and in my opinion, to reduce the features of cellulite dramatically you need two things, a proven exercise workout and a nutrition plan that is specifically geared towards fat loss and toning. At the end of the day, cellulite is just plain old FAT which has a dimply, cottage-cheese and orange peel like appearance that has become the bane of many women’s lives since the dawn of time.

So, instead of listening to what a TV presenter is telling us to do about this problem, take a leaf out of the First Lady’s book and exercise 3 times a week and eat a healthy, nutritious diet.

After all, doesn’t every woman want a beautifully toned body where she too can be confident enough to show her arms?

Stay fit, keep focused and feel fabulous!

Steph.

Author of The Flat Stomach Solution

Sign Up for your FREE copy, How to Stop Emotional Eating.

Download Your Copy TODAY! =>

http://www.stephricefitness.com/howtostopemotionaleating/