Doug Jackson’s Fitness Blog

Since I moved to Florida, every so often someone will ask me about the Cookie Diet.

I hesitate to even write about it because my acknowledgement of it gives it publicity.

And risk lawsuits, as other fitness pros who have talked about this diet, have found out.

But it’s time for people to stop looking for the quick fix.

Look at the major challenges facing the United States today.

The Gulf oil disaster. The recent economic meltdown.

Weren’t both of these caused, in part, by cutting corners?

The “cookie diet” I’m writing about is another gimmick that will ultimately lead to failure.

To sum the diet up, he wants you to replace your breakfast and lunch with six cookies spread out over the course of the day. Then you can have a sensible dinner.

According to his website, the creator of the diet “mixes every batch of his secret amino acid protein blend with his own hands in his private bakery”.

Well… it may be secret, but I can tell you exactly what he’s mixing (I have the ridiculous image of a mad scientist standing over a cauldron mixing cookies in my mind).

Well, as stated on the nutrition information that he is regulated to list, here’s the first five ingredients of his “secret amino acid” blend in his oatmeal raisin cookies:

1) water
2) glycerin
3) whole wheat flour
4) beef protein hydroslate
5) crisp rice

And of course, when you are consuming nothing but this (plus your dinner) each day, you will start seeing nutritional deficiencies, so they also sell vitamins to take with the diet.

Of course, you will lose weight on this if you are consuming less calories than you burn off during the day. But is this really a long-term solution? I’d ask the creator of the diet (name withheld due to liability concerns) to give us some statistics on what percentage of his customers actually maintain their weight loss after they return to their previous eating habits (you can’t eat the cookies forever).

Ultimately, programs like this won’t work for the long-term and programs like these are why the diet industry, although a huge money maker, has an absymal success rate.

What really works?

No magic potions or gimmicky diets. That’s for sure.

What works is dedication to consistent and physically challenging exercise along with a balanced diet which emphasizes whole foods including lean meats, fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

Do you live in South Florida and finally want what really results in health and fitness? Request an initial consultation at http://www.PersonalFitnessAdvantage.com

At first glace, someone may assume that since I’m a fitness professional, that I’m mainly focused on the physical aspects of health. And in some sense, that is my expertise. However, the best professionals in my field deal with the mental aspects of changing behavior and creating breakthroughs every day.

Eleanor Roosevelt said:

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

I love that quote and think of it often. But in my experience, there’s a caveat to it.

You will never do the thing that you think you can’t do.

To achieve what we once thought impossible, we must first make a mental jump. We can only do what we can see ourselves doing.

If I have a female client who wants to lose 30 pounds but can’t imagine herself doing it, we have a problem.We can use all the special exercise techniques and nutrition programs in the world and in the end, the woman is most likely going to sabotage herself. Why? Because she can’t see herself achieving the goal. And if she can’t see herself doing it, that means her current belief is that achieving the goal is impossible under the current circumstances.

And if she believes the goal is impossible, she will NOT fully buy into the goal, she will NOT fully COMMIT to OWNING the goal, and she will NOT take full accountability for her results.For her to do these things. She must be able to see… to visualize… herself achieving the goal. She must KNOW that achieving the goal is 100% possible.

That’s why ‘trying’ doesn’t work.That’s why when we hear people say “I’ll try”, we know it’s BS. Almost always, when we say “I’ll try”, the stated goal is not accomplished.And that is NOT the way we want to live.

Take a moment right now to create your own story. See it in your mind. How you want to live. How you want to feel.

Life can throw unimaginable obstacles at us, but how we respond to our environment makes all the difference. And we can affect how we respond by improving our own self image. And the easiest way to make the sort of quantum leaps that change lives is to change (and train) your mind first.

Want to change? See yourself how you want to be seen. And act accordingly.Do not underestimate the power of our minds to create our destinies.

PUSH to become your best,

Doug

Today I was bottle feeding baby Sophia some breast milk that Emily had pumped.

As typical with parents of newborns, I was using that dialect of ‘baby talk’ that we for some reason use with babies.

I wanted Sophia to finish the last 20% of the bottle so I started my typical pep talk.

“Life is about making it to the finish line… you don’t stop 80% of the way there…”

That didn’t seem to help a whole lot so I used my next strategy.

“It will make you strong like bull…”, I said in a somewhat Russian-sounding accent.

Emily, who would like nothing more than a pretty, dainty daughter, looked at me and said “like a bull?”

“Like a pretty bull…”, I replied.

Anyone watching Sophia over the last week would notice an amazing increase in strength and capabilities.

Why?

Well, to some extent, it’s natural for newborns.

But that natural growth and increase in strength is directly correlated with her two primary activities during the day:

1) Eating frequently

2) Sleeping a lot

And if I were add a third factor, I would say:

3) Eating highly nutritious, natural food (rather than Formula) to really pump up the immune system

Now that we’re giving Sophia what she needs, Emily and I are just trying to figure out how to squeeze in our own sleep and quality foods!

Take a look at your own schedule. If you really want to be healthy and fit, you must make time for your adequate sleep and balanced nutrition program.

Wow…

The last 8 days have been a whirlwind. Since Emily and I’s daughter, Sophia, was born last Tuesday, approximately five weeks before her anticipated birth date, she was placed in Memorial West’s neonatal intensive care unit.

The staff told us that she’d be there one to two weeks and it ended up being eight days. We brought her home late last night and we ended up getting about four hours of sleep.

This morning I cranked out a quick 25-minute strength training workout to burn off some stress and maintain my own fitness level. I wanted to share that routine with you today:

Completed two sets of each in circuit fashion with 30-45 seconds between exercises:
1: Jump rope
2: Walking lunge
3: Pushups
4: Chinups
5: Romanian Deadlifts (with dumbbells)
6: Shoulder side raises (with dumbbells)
7: Stability ball crunches
8: Dumbbell bicep curls
9: Bodyweight dips

That’s it. Nothing too fancy. But I tell you what… workouts like this are (and always will be) better than any drug when it comes to staying health and feeling good.

Don’t let time become a major obstacle for your fitness program. Just pick the right exercises, get in the right frame of mind, and get it done!

If you need help getting started, download the Personal Fitness Advantage Ultimate Exercise Guide for FREE.

I hired our trainer Tom Bowler to train me a few days ago.

It’s not too often that you hear of a trainer hiring another trainer to train them.

But many of the best do.

When I was completing my Masters Degree and wanted to continue getting stronger with less total time in the gym, I hired well-known Las Vegas-based strength coach Charles Staley to design my programs.

One of my favorite questions if I talk with a massage therapist or a chiropractor is how often they actually utilize the same service they provide.

I would think that a massage therapist (who we would assume believes in the value of massage), would also get massages themselves. If they didn’t, it would be a little bit of a credibility gap.

Now as I find myself becoming more and more like the clients we serve (in terms of growing demands and responsibilities) I have an even deeper understanding of the value of the personal fitness solutions we provide.

Tom took me through my first workout on Monday. He gave me that “extra push” that I knew I needed. We shot a quick video of how I looked after ourworkout, check it out:

This morning was the second time in a week that someone was in my office crying.

This time, it was one of the first clients that I had when I moved to South Florida.

She’s been out of work for a year, fallen out of shape, and just in a big rut.

Fortunately, she committed to starting a fitness program again and is planning on using that program as a stepping-stone to get her mind right, her health right, and get back on track.

We can all use some inspiration every now and then… and I have a special, motivational, Youtube video for you today. Check it out: