Regular Guy Gets Fit!

On vacation this week with observations about how the warmer weather might be a bit more accommodating toward a healthier lifestyle.

This is a quick and easy system that keeps me from straying too far from my usual healthy routine. You probably already do some version of this.

Thigh Masters, $20 steppers and Shake-Weights. Is there any real value to be found in these Cheap-O exercise items?

Get out of the mindset that you're wasting money by not clearing your plate. You're actually making an investment in your health.

Ms. Lovato took a lot of heat for something she tweeted about diet foods this week. To her credit, she apologized and backed off her initial statements a bit. Let's take a quick look at what is at issue here.

We all have our bad habits and guilty pleasures. Kick out the really bad habits, and enjoy your guilty pleasures in moderation. You'll be just fine...

At the end of the day, there's a reason (or two) that you would like to be in better shape. What are your motivations? Are they getting you to the place where you want to be?

Your diet is the key to your fitness. Whether you are trying to lose weight, or adopt a healthier lifestyle, what you eat is important to keeping your body operating at peak efficiency. Maintaining a good diet with proper eating habits takes work, but if you keep it simple and stick to it, it will get easier.

Exercise is key. But it is much more than spending hours of boredom in the gym. What you really want to be doing is just movin' around. Whenever, and wherever, you can.

Mental clarity is essential to accomplishing just about anything, including fitness. Here are a few ways to help you get to a point where you can effectively focus on the important things.

No matter what you try to accomplish in life, there will always be people that will try to drag you down. Maybe they're jealous, or insecure. But whatever the reason, you don't need their negativity. Cut 'em loose. Try instead to surround yourself with positive people. People who will support your choice to try to be the best that you can be.

All the best laid plans for eating better and exercising more don't mean a thing unless you have the discipline to follow through. But don't worry...discipline takes many forms. Don't let it scare you off before you even get started. Here are some ways of putting it all in perspective...

This is how you put the plan in place. Whatever system you come up with, you will need to draw from each of these 5 things to stay on track and reach your goal of a healthier and happier lifestyle.

Learn from my mistake. I stopped doing two very important parts of my own system and paid a price. Fortunately, I caught it before I caused too much damage, but keeping up a very simple routine would have saved me from having to work twice as hard later on.

Who we choose to be close with, our friends and family, can have a big influence on your success in achieving better health and overall well-being. Does your circle of friends and family support you and celebrate your aspirations and accomplishments? Or are there those that help to create a negative environment that drags you down? If so, you may have some difficult decisions to make.

Did you use to be in much better shape earlier in your life? What happened? For most of us, the rush of life--kids, careers, etc.--often has us choose different priorities. Now that you're working to get back into a healthier lifestyle, give some thought as to how you can create a system that is more sustainable with how you live now.

I used to be a vegetarian. Twice. I learned a few things from those experiences that shape how I eat to this day.

We all do it. Once in a while, we get a little crazy. We eat things we shouldn't, we have a second helping here and there, or we can't do our usual exercise. It's ok. It's normal. Cut yourself a little slack. It's actually a healthy thing to cut loose once in awhile. But you don't do yourself any favors by stressing over it. Learn how to forgive yourself and move on.

Some fitness lifestyle gurus seem very intimidating. Do we really need to kill ourselves with super-serious workout and diet regimens in order to keep fit? Not me. I've got better things to do. I want to find ways to get the most out of the least. A fit mindset should complement our lives, not dominate them. Just make today a little better than yesterday...

As spring creeps up on us here in the Northeast, we are left to clean up mother nature's messes left over from the winter. But hey, it's an opportunity to get a great workout!

It's important to listen to your body and not push it too hard if you suffer from the occasional muscle pull or strain. But there still may be things you can do in the meantime while your body heals.

As promised, I tried being a Flexitarian for a bit. Here's how it worked out for me.

Even though we lose an hour on Daylight Savings Day, we gain an hour of sunlight in the evenings going into the Spring. Use that to your advantage. Get out there and MOVE. Breathe the fresh air and get those muscles working.

Sylvester Stallone's action series, The Expendables has just about every movie action hero from the last 30 years in it. Stallone himself was in his late 60's when The Expendables 3 came out in 2015. And he still managed to look the part. A true inspiration for men of a certain age.

Whatever plan you choose to pursue, make sure that it's a good fit with your daily routine so that you can be consistent about following through.

A quick refresher on how to start a diet regimen that is sustainable. You can do this. The toughest part is always taking that first step.

Staying flexible as you get older is key to pain free life. While touching your toes is not a requirement, it may be a good indicator of how well you're progressing on your journey towards getting fit.

Motivation plays a big part in getting us to achieve our goals and staying on top of our diet and fitness regimens. Here are a few examples on how to get and stay motivated.

Can you really turn excess weight into muscle simply by starting to lift weights? Or is it more productive to lose the excess weight first, and then tone your muscles with strengthening exercises?

Don't get hung up on what others tell you is the "best" exercise or how much of it you should be doing. In the end, we each have to find our own way to determine what works best. It's ok to use the experience of others as a rough guide, but you should strive to fine tune and customize that advice to suit your own needs.

Here in the middle of winter, it's harder to get outside for long periods of time to stay physically active. As a result, I'm trying to re-focus my diet regimen to keep the pounds off. I'm going to try a popular diet that is supposed to be one of the easiest to follow.

The most basic rule of keeping to a good diet. In fact, this one rule, by itself, will get you 90% of the way to your goal. The good news is that it's an easy rule to follow, once you get the hang of it.

In the quest to find the most efficient and beneficial exercise you can do, there's one that stands out above the rest. Best of all, you can do it just about anywhere, and there's no special equipment required.

A quick overview of the list of top diets that people are choosing to follow. Are your own common-sense choices better than some of these programs? Also, a brief warning about buying products labelled specifically for use with a particular diet.

There are many diets to choose from, with more being promoted every day. Some are silly fads, and some are based in proven science. For the long term, simple is usually better. This episode discusses some of the more popular trends, and what to look for when trying to find the best fit for your lifestyle.

If you truly believe that you can "just lose the weight anytime I want to," chances are that you will never get around to actually doing it. This phenomenon is explored along with some other mindsets that might just be keeping you from achieving your goals.

Every famous model or actor who talks about their diet claims to have a "cheat" day once a week when they can eat anything they want. Is that a good thing to build into your lifestyle? Is it sustainable? Let's talk...

One of the biggest frustrations of trying to lose weight is getting stuck where it feels like you just can't lose weight no matter what you do. Hitting a plateau is perfectly normal, but if you just can't seem to shake it, here is what you might want to try.

A recent clickbait fitness article headline asks if 10,000 steps a day is enough. The answer, of course, is that the number of steps is beside the point. But getting up and moving is important.

Calorie Burners are just about anything that gets you off the couch and moving. Today's calorie burner for me was shoveling snow after a good old fashioned Nor'easter blew through Boston, leaving about two feet of the white stuff.

The best exercise is the exercise you actually do. If you dread exercising, we have some suggestions for you. And if you don't think you're physically able to even do the basics, we can get you through that as well.

It's the weekend coming up, and it can be a difficult time for those trying to change their eating and fitness habits. Here's some motivational tips to help keep you on track, as well as what to do if you're not yet seeing the results you want.

Fitbit was just purchased by Google, and is poised to become one of the most popular fitness devices on the planet. In this podcast, I walk you through all the popular features, as well as the pros and cons of using it.

Beginning our discussion of paid apps, we will be talking about NOOM in this episode. I will give you the pros and cons based on my personal experience losing 30 lbs. with it.

There are studies that suggest the best times to consume food throughout the day. Then, of course, there's what I do...

Intermittent Fasting, or IF, has become a very popular diet method in recent years, largely propelled by its success with Jimmy Kimmel and other celebrities. This podcast will delve into the origins of IF and the one amazing benefit it has that most people don't even know about.

Today we discuss limiting your intake of fat and fatty foods, how keeping really good food around will help you eat better, and a tip on how you can make incredible healthy desserts that can help satisfy your sweet tooth.

Today we focus on making better food choices, and the benefits of eating good real food in place of fake diet foods.

Staying active is important. In this episode, we introduce a free tool to help you track your daily steps, which, hopefully, will encourage you to walk more and burn more calories.

There are a number of free tools and methods available to easily determine the calorie content of all the foods you eat. We will explore some of those here.

Some free tools to use when trying to determine what your daily intake should be.