The Ellipse Fitness Blog

Happy New Year! I’m starting off the year with a few of my biggest tips for 2012!

1. After a holiday season of too much beer, food, wine, chocolate, wine, late nights, junk and wine (!) a great start is to systematically eliminate all the junk from your diet. There are an entire category of diets and plans out there but my favorite is the Ellipse Jump Start – and it’s exactly that! A Jump Start that cleanses your palate by eliminating caffeine, alcohol, wheat, red meat, sugar, artificial sweeteners and dairy amongst others. It’s tough but you’ll feel great at the end. Couple of bonuses – you’ll probably lose 4 or 5lbs during the first week, and last year we saw several drop 10-20lbs in about 4-6 weeks!

2. If fat loss is your goal — Make a real commitment to lose the unwanted pounds. Write it down and make it specific. Saying that you want to lose weight is not enough. Saying how much and how you are going to do it by when is far more powerful. And WRITE IT DOWN.

For example: I am going to lose 12lbs of fat by March 1st 2012

I will do this by exercising 4 days per week for a minimum of 35 min
This will include metabolism boosting resistance training 2-3 times per week for a minimum of 45 min
I will meet with a weight loss coach at least once a week to keep me accountable
I will then continue on a four times per week program including 2 strength and 2 cardio sessions
I will cut 500 calories from my diet and track this using an e journal or online journaling program (try spark people.com)

3. Work on the quality of your muscle tissue. A regular stretching session or yoga class is a great investment. If that’s not your thing, making a commitment to stretching regularly on your own is never a bad idea. Ideally though – a regular massage will do wonders for the health of your musculoskeletal system – but if that’s not economically viable – then pick up a foam roller. There are clinics using this piece of equipment being planned at Ellipse in early 2012!

4. Rely on a team. Outside expertise allows you to focus on your job and commitments and literally just “show up” and let them take care of it for you. Studies have shown that people exercising when a trainer just supervises work up to 30% harder than they do on their own. This isn’t even if the trainer is pushing—this is if they’re just watching! 30% more work translates to significantly faster results – imagine what you could do if that trainer actually pushed you through to harder workouts in a program designed to blast fat—wouldn’t that work even better?

One last tip — plan the whole year in advance. Writing down your goals and your plans to achieve them can greatly help.

Then—share them with others and get moving!

Make 2012 a great year!