STARTING OFF THE CHALLENGE

So, it's the first day of the X-mas challenge! Here are a few guidelines I like to share with you, something to help you out with being in the right mind-set as well as tools to guarantee your own success story.

DIARY
A notebook where you can write down your foods and drinks during the day, how much you eat, how often, how you felt before and after eating. Monitor your progress for exercise routines, weights, cardio, anything active. A diary is not only helpful to keep track of your day-to-day activity, but also an excellent tool to see success or plateaus. If you're confused over why you're not progressing the way you want, a diary is a perfect reference for you to be able to pin down the problem... providing you're being honest while writing everything down... EVERYTHING! :)) In addition, you can use online websites such as http://www.shapelink.com/ to track the calculation of your calories.

BMR
Whether you want to lose weight, gain weight or maintain your weight, you need to know what your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is. This formula is the calories your body burns if you stayed in bed all day. Check your BMR with this calculator. On the same page you can also figure out your Active Metabolic Rate (AMR) which determines how many calories you burn going about your daily business. Both BMR and AMR are really important information for you to have if you want to change your body composition.

GOALS
Be specific when setting your goals. Whatever they are, you need to know what YOU want to achieve. How else are you going to reach it if you don't know what you're striving for?! Write down the goal or goals you want to achieve in your diary, and when times get challenging, read them over and over again to focus yourself on the mission. Make sure you set realistic yet challenging goals. It's more appreciative when you're actually able to reach them, but it shouldn't be too easy either. Remember... Challenges Create Character!

JUST DO IT!
Although your goals are outside of your area of expertise, or you've never tried it before... Do it anyway! Try and learn. That's what challenges are all about. You have to try in order to succeed... or fail. People are so afraid of failing. Why? After all, winning as well as failing builds character. By failing, you always have room to improve. So whether it's the 1st or 50th time you're trying something out, change your attitude about it. Stop contaminating yourself by doubting your own ability to succeed. Instead of saying: This is impossible! Turn around and believe in yourself. If you believe it, you can be it! Start today by saying: I CAN DO IT!

Now you've got these starting points, there's only one more thing to say...
Go heavy. Go hard. Go for it!