I want to start out by saying this: things will never be perfect. 

When I was writing out plans to start Vanbar, there were many times I put things on hold for various reasons. 

I don't have enough money yet. 

I don't have the experience. 

No one knows who I am. 

Now's just not the right time. 

It took some time to get over that hump and tell myself to just go for it. There was never going to be the perfect time, the perfect condition to get things started on this business now know as Vanbar Fitness. 

So, don't wait for the perfect time to get started on whatever it is you want to accomplish. Don't wait for the perfect time to start your business. Don't wait for the perfect time to start your brand. Don't wait for the perfect time to begin working out. 

I've heard so many times that "I'll start working out when I lose 10 pounds," or "I'll begin working out when I get to such and such weight". 

Why wait? The purpose of working out is to help you lose the weight. 

And why wait to accomplish your goal? Each day you wait is another day lost. We have to maximize our time and maximize each day we are given. 

Stop waiting. All the stars will never align to fit just how you want them. That waiting is just another way of making excuses. Let's stop the excuses and just do! Let's stop waiting and just make it happen. 

Don't mask "waiting" for excuses and being afraid to try because we don't want to fail. Take the step today to start. And then take the next step. And then the next step. 

I believe in you, so let's go! Let's BE GREATER! 

How many hours are in a day?

That's easy. We all know it's 24. 

But do you know how much time you spend in each section of your day?

Here's what I mean. We spend, on average, 8 hours a day at work. 

We're suppose to sleep for about 8 hours a day. Between the two that's 16 hours. 

That leaves us another 8 hours for anything else. That could be personal time and family time. That time could consist of watching TV, cooking, exercising, talking on the phone, and the list goes on. 

For my math gurus out there, that's, 8X3=24. So we have 3 sections to our day:

1)Work
2)Sleep
3)Personal/Family Time. 

On some days or weeks, we may spend more or less time in one section. For some, our jobs call for longer hours in a day. However your schedule is, what's important to note is that we all get the same amount of time in a day, how you use that time is up to you. 

When it comes down to our wellness, how we spend that time is important to our health. It's not enough to guess how much time we spend in each section. We have to be intentional and know exactly how much time we're spending and where. 

We need to have time to relax, we need to give our family time, we need to be able to work on hobbies. It may seem that we don't have time for anything, but if we don't how much time is going where, how do you know for sure that you don't have time?

My challenge is this: on a piece of paper write out all 24 hours, and for each hour write what you do in those times. It should only take a few minutes. You block out your time for work and sleep. Now your focus is on the 8 free hours you do have. Write out what you do in those times. You'd be surprised at the extra time you find, and the time you waste on pointless things. 

Try it out. Reclaim your time. 

BE GREATER! 

A couple of months back we talked about the difference between a personal trainer and a fitness coach. They both may sound the same but the duties are different. Mainly a personal trainer is one who you meet with, whether at a gym or at your home, and guides you through a workout. 

Our focus here this time around is to dive into the role of a fitness coach and what I do. 

A fitness coach provides a few things: 

1) Programming
2) Accountability
3) Consistency
4) Guidance

With a fitness coach, a level of self-motivation, self-discipline is required. You won't have a coach standing next to you giving you instructions during your session. What you will get though with a coach is some staying on you consistently, making sure that the workouts they designed for you, and any other tasks given are completed on time. 

I've brought up accountability and consistency quite a few times over various different posts, and it's because those are the key ingredients to successfully making improvements to yourself.  We fail at bettering our health and wellness due no one holding us accountable. Then we're not consistent. We don't see the results we want and then we quit.

As a coach, quitting is not an option for my clients. We're in this together so we work as a team to reach that goal. As a coach, regular check-ins are provided to ensure we're staying on the right path. 

Picture a bridge with you on one side and I on the other. The middle of the bridge is unfinished and needs some work done on it in order to be completed. We'll meet at the middle of that bridge with me giving you all the tools and discipline needed. From there we'll work as a team to get the job done!

So, let's get started!

***Like me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness and follow me on Instagram @vanbarfitness. 

BE GREEATER 

I remember it like it was yesterday. The day I signed up for my first gym membership. With my newly acquired contract came a free personal training session. 

I was a skinny 18 year old, ready to enter into this new world full of dumbbells, sweat, weights, and racks, so why not take them up on the offer?

Let me tell you, I got worked! My legs felt like jello after that session. I felt as if I needed a cane to walk up and down the steps. My legs were of no use to me at all. I wondered why anybody would put themselves through this kind of torture to feel pain all over their body. I was ready for that to be my first and last time I ever went to the gym. 

I waited a couple of days (alright, maybe a week) before I went back to the gym for my next workout. I went straight to the back of the gym and occupied a bench, because that's what we're supposed to do, right?

​I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but figured I'd look at what others were doing and then copy them. As time went on, I became more educated with working out by learning, by studying, all because I fell in love with it. 

But how many of us were like me, or are still like me? Went into the gym and had no idea what they were doing, or didn't like the feeling of being sore. 

Now I'm not saying you have to enjoy being sore, but that brings me to one of the reasons we don't stick with a workout program. 

1) We don't like being sore. 

I know it seems hard to believe, but the soreness that sometimes come with working out hold some of us back. We want to avoid. We don't want to go through it. We don't want to experience some temporary pain and so we avoid working out all together. 

Another reason why we don't stick with a program:

2) We don't know what we're doing. 

Think about it, would you stick with something that you don't know how to do? Of course not. We try a few workouts, but don't really have a clue if it's working, so we stop. Now that shouldn't give us an excuse to stop working out. We should either educate ourselves or find help, whether that be from a friend, coach, or trainer. 

The last reason we'll cover today is:

3) We set unrealistic expectations 

We get caught up with fads, or think that we can lose 50 pounds in a few weeks or build exploding biceps after a few sessions in the gym. I'm here to tell you that's not going to happen. Wherever we are physically right now didn't happen overnight, so changing it to where we want it to go won't happen instantly either. 

The great news is that the process to get where you want physically is shorter than the years it took to get our body to the point that made us decide to make a change.

Now, this isn't a complete list of all the reasons why we don't stick with a workout program, but it is a start. I wanted us to start the conversation and see if one of these reasons are holding us back from working out. Maybe it's none of these. Maybe it's more than one. Or maybe it's another reason. 

Do you have trouble sticking with a workout program? 

I want to hear from you and help you overcome that. Email me at vandie@vanbarfitness.com and reply to me with #1, #2, or #3. Then let's work to make sure that's not an issue any longer. 

***Like me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness and follow me on Instagram @vanbarfitness. 

​BE GREATER

When it comes to working out, there are plenty of different types and things that you can do. However, every workout should have a basic structure of three things to it. Those three components are: 

1) Warm-up
2) Exercise
3) Cool-down 

We've went over the three components of a workout before, however I think a lot of attention and focus gets put on Component 2: the Exercise. What's often neglected are the Warm-ups and Cool-downs. Those two steps are equally as important as the exercise itself. 

The warm-up gets your body ready for the exercises ahead while the Cool-down helps to prepare you for the next workout. 

Want to focus for just a few moments on the Warm-up and what that looks like. How long should the warm-up be? It depends on the length of the workout itself and what exercises are going to be included. I generally would aim for 3-5 minutes minimum for the Warm-up. 

That could be static stretching (holding a position for a set duration) or dynamic stretching (taking that same position and including movement with it). I find it best to go with the dynamic stretching to better warm-up your muscles and get the blood flowing. 

Do you warm-up, or do you typically skip it and get right into what you have planned? 

If you tend to skip them, I urge you to reconsider. Warming-up has many benefits besides getting your blood pumping. It prepares your muscles, prepares your body for what's ahead. It also helps prevent injuries. 

No matter your age, no matter your fitness level, make sure that you are getting your body ready and loose for your exercise. 

I want to know: what do you do for warming up? Comment below and let me know!

***Like me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness and follow me on Instagram @vanbarfitness. 

BE GREATER

I'll get straight to the point. I really disliked eggs. I'm talking about a very strong dislike. Growing up I tried them boiled, scrambled, as an omelette, over hard, over easy, and whatever other method there is to make eggs. Didn't matter how they were made, didn't like them. 

Not until recently (over the last year), have I now started to eat them again. Now I can say that I somewhat like eggs. It's not my favorite choice, but I'll eat them. Just add a lot of hot sauce to it. 

You may be thinking to yourself how I can have such a huge dislike for this breakfast staple? 

There is most likely something you don't have a taste for. Some food item, or items, that you don't want to see on your plate at all. And that's okay. We don't have to like everything. 

There are so many food options to choose from that we can have a dislike for some. So when it come to your nutrition, don't feel forced to have to eat certain foods. Eating should not be torture. Eating should not be painful. When we feel that it is, that's when we run into emotional problems that adversely affect our health. 

Of course, don't eat like crap. Eat healthy for the majority of your nutrition, 70-80%. Eat foods that you like, not something that you'll struggle to finish. 

If you have a dislike for eggs, embrace it. But who knows, maybe one day you'll like them. 

***Like me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness and follow me on Instagram @vanbarfitness. 

​BE GREATER! 

Hey there!

Remember our conversation from last week: What's your Painkiller? You've identified your pain, or pains, and the next step is implementing a plan of attack. So how do you go about that plan?

Write it down. 

You know what your pain is, so write that down. 

Based off your pain, you know what your goal is, write it down. 

With that information, write down a concrete plan of how you are going to overcome that pain to reach that goal. 

Here's an example: 
Pain: Wanting to be able to carry groceries without struggling 
Goal: To put on more muscle 
Plan: Utilize a 3 day/week bodyweight program to develop strength 

Pretty simple right? 

Of course you have to execute, but writing it down increases the chances that you are going to complete that goal. 

Whether you write it down on a piece of paper or put it in your phone, put it in a place where you can see that goal regularly. That way you see it often. That way you visualize it often. That way it motivates you that much more. 

If you are struggling with your PGP (Pain, Goal, Plan), let's work together to at least get that written down for you to get you started. 

Email me at vandie@vanbarfitness.com and write PGP. 

BE GREATER!

*Like me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness, follow me on Instagram @vanbarfitness.

Have you ever had a tooth pulled?

I experienced that for the first time recently. It's no fun though the tooth needed to come out, so I'm glad that it did. What was worse was the pain that preceded it. If you've ever had the sharp pain that shoots up through your head from a toothache, then you know the exact feeling. 

In life we all have experienced pain. We have these particular pain-points, and we do or purchase different things to get rid of the pain..

​We buy certain products or subscribe to services because they help us solve a problem. We may have a Netflix subscription because of the low-cost price and it serves our entertainment needs. We may subscribe to a service that delivers us meals or groceries on a weekly basis to save us the pain of going to the store or because we don't have the time to go shopping. 

We workout because we want to solve multiple pain-points: feeling better about ourselves, improving our health, training for a specific event, just to name a few. 

Makes sense? We have a certain pain and our solution to the pain is a painkiller (not the kind you may be thinking...you know those at the pharmacy....don't get any ideas).

The problem we have a lot of times is that we aren't able to identify these particular pain-points. We know that there is a pain that needs to be addressed, but we don't know exactly what it is. If we don't know what it is, then we aren't able to know what will kill that pain. 

You know that exercising is good for you, but why exactly are you exercising? Your reason for exercising may be completely different than those in your household. You need to know what your exact pain-point is so that you know the specific painkiller(s) needed to destroy that pain once and for all. 

Need to know what your painkiller is for your pain-point? Do you need help finding out what that pain-point is? 

Let's chat. Email me at vandie@vanbarfitness.com and simply reply with "What's my painkiller?"

Like me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness and follow on Instagram @vanbarfitness. 

​BE GREATER

About 3 years ago after completing a leg day workout and sipping on my protein shake, I started to look around the gym as I cooled down. I saw members finishing up their BodyPump class, some getting after it on the treadmills, others taking selfies of themselves in the mirror and I thought to myself how awesome it was that we have access to all this. 

How great it was to be able to relieve stress, to be able to exercise with family and friends, to be able to better yourself physically, mentally. Then I thought about all those that don't have that ability to go to a gym (pre-pandemic). 

Whether it may be because of location, finances, family commitments, or other reasons. In that moment I thought about how easily I was able to access the gym at any time, any day of the week and get my workout in. I thought about how much I love doing so. There are those that really do want to workout, they want to leave the excuses behind, but can't.

Today working out takes on many different forms, it doesn't just have to be in the gym. That was part of the premise behind the birth of Vanbar. It was too ensure that everyone, no matter where they are and no matter their circumstance had some access to working out or coaching. 

Help me in reaching those that don't have that access, that want to better themselves. That want to be greater versions of themselves. Help me in spreading the message. Help me to let them know they aren't alone. They have help. They have their coach. 

If you know of anyone, if that may be you yourself, let me know. Email me at vandie@vanbarfitness.com and reply simply with 'I'm Ready!'. I look forward to speaking with you. 

Follow me on Facebook at Vanbar Fitness and on Instagram @vanbarfitness. Let's spread the word.

As always...

​BE GREATER!

With everything that has been going on, are you finding it hard to stay positive? Hopeful? 

Here are some strategies that you can use right now to help you stay positive.

Check it out below in this audio message.