Another 90 Day Wonder

As a loyal follower of my blog, you know that I hold myself accountable 'in the light of day' with this blog. Unless of course you read this blog at night? Then I'm off the hook.

One of my favorite accountability tools is the 90 day wonder that I complete. It's a opportunity to mark what I've done (based on my intentions) and what I plan to do. Try it yourself, the results may surprise you.

Ask yourself 3 questions:

1) What have I done in the last 90 days? (all areas of life)

2) What is my biggest issue or obstacle?

3) What actions will I take in the next 90 days? (what will I do?)

Here is my current 90 day wonder:

1) What did I do in the last 90 days? (based on my last set of intentions)

Add another 20-30 clients hrs to our facility. DONE
- Hire a Pilates Instructor. DONE
- Market our "Golf Fitness Group Program." STILL WORKING ON
- Add another 2 Athletes to my "Run Coach" Program. DONE
- Schedule talk at ESU to Exercise Science Club. STILL WORKING ON
- Get our "In Action" shots on the BLOG. DONE
- Book my trip to San Diego this March!! DONE
- Sign-Up for Long Branch 1/2 Marathon. Train to Win my Age Group. NOT DONE
- Read: "The Greatness Guide" & at least 1 other book. DONE

2) What is my biggest issue/obstacle?

- Signing up for any kind of event (nothing is exciting, except IRONMAN possibly?)

- Need more "Mellow Yellow" Frank time to relax and visit friends/family.

- Managing the "growth" of our business.

- Budgeting my "time" better; Balancing all things while I'm at it!

3) What will I do/accomplish in the next 90 days?

- Visit San Diego and my MM Team.

- Sign up for 3 Spring/Summer Events.

- Free up some time in my schedule for "growth" business work.

- Train 6x weekly & Eat to Win (I accidentally typed Wine; clearly a Freudian slip!)

- Add another 20-30 client to our facility.

- Add 5 "duets" in our Pilates program.

- Contact ESU and schedule talk.

- Read 2 Books (TBD)

- Have dinner with my Monmouth County "family" 2x

- Get my bike fixed!

-Frank Pucher

3 Fitness & Health Tips

Too often, the "fitness segments" on TV focus on complicated formulas for weight loss and impractical exercises for the general population. To make matters even worse the segment is usually limited to less than 5 minutes (as if that's enough time to educate a fat and unhealthy population.) Actually, it's more than enough. In fact, it's too much time; and to complicate for people to understand. And you know, people don't do - what they don't understand.

Allow me to give you 3 tips for better fitness & health.

1) Drink MORE Water: If you think you drink enough - You Don't. If you do drink enough; Congratulations you should. Water is the catalyst for your metabolism, digestion and recovery.

Without enough our bodies don't function as well as they are designed to.

Drink MORE Water.

2) Exercise Regularly: This is key. You will derive more benefit from a 'poor exercise routine' done regularly than a 'great exercise routine' done infrequently. Consistency matters. So no matter what you do, do it often.

3) Stand Up when Exercising: Your hips & spine are perhaps the 2 most important joints in your body; That is why the muscles that attach to them are referred to as "the core". When you sit down you eliminate the need of these joints to mobilize & stabilize. Over time this causes inefficiency in the joints - resulting in hip & back pain.

Do your arm & leg exercises from a standing position. Not only will you strengthen your hips & spine, but you'll add real strength to the "core muscles" that support them.

An added benefit is that the increased requirement to push-pull resistance from this position will burn more calories.

Reduce risk of injury. Get stronger. Burn more calories. What's not to like?

Stand Up when exercising.

By no means are these 3 tips going to transform you into Olympic fitness levels. They will however go a long way to improving your current fitness & health needs.

Email/Call me with any questions you may have. I can talk a lot longer than you can listen and I'm always ready to make my case.

-Frank Pucher

Just Breathe

My day always has a little 'pop' to it when I've got a song in my head. You probably have had the same experiences (the kind of song that you play over and over on your Ipod when running?)

I've been singing and humming "Breathe" by Ryan Star the last 24 hrs.

"Take the world off your shoulders

And put it on me.

Breathe, just Breathe.

Let the life that you live

Be all that you need."

Seriously good song! I Think it may get some play on my long run tomorrow.

Enjoy the weekend everyone. Breathe.

-Frank Pucher

W I N

What's Important Now

Lou Holtz - former football coach at Notre Dame and motivational speaker, emphasizes the importance of keeping this question in mind in order to focus energy on the one most important thing at a given moment. Most people try to do too much with too little focus and end up accomplishing next to nothing. Performers focus on priorities and concentrate their energies on the BEST things to do, leaving the GOOD things for another time.


W I N today and Create a great day!

-Frank Pucher

Focal Point

After a little 6 mile run outdoors; I showered and joined my TEAM for some lunch. Gary and I were having a conversation about a friend of ours when I made the comment "this may be a good wake up call for them." To which Gary replied "they've had 4 or 5 wake up calls. The problem is that they keep hitting the snooze!" LOL

Meanwhile, The rest of our TEAM is working on their "Functional Training Specialist" exam booklets. Lot's of GREAT conversation amongst (is that a word?) them; regarding training, programs and the Why's & How's of what we do. Actually, a great follow-up to yesterdays meetings.

I'm starting to get excited about my trip to San Diego in 2 weeks. It's a chance for me to connect with some of the best and brightest minds in our industry. I will be discussing 2 subject areas.
1) Hiring TEAMMATES not Employees.
2) It's not about the Font.

It's not about the font is in essence a reminder or "wake up" to the fact that too many Professionals focus so much on looking impressive rather than being impressive. Focus more on the service and less on the sale. Focus on the work you do and not the FONT on your brochure or business card.
You'd think it's simple but I know people that spend hrs designing the 'perfect' business card and minutes improving their skills. Where is their time better utilized?

Think about that in your own life? At home, on the athletic field or board room - where are you spending too much time working on the font? Focus on what matters. Focus on what works. I could go on; but I'll save that for California.

"Focus on what matters-the rest takes care of itself."

-Frank Pucher

Plan your actions, not your results.

Now is that time of year when runners tend to start looking ahead to next year. Though this is not entirely a bad thing, I personally feel that it's too soon for it, but who cares what I think, right? I'm not even sure I care what I think!

(The reason I think it's too soon for it is because when we look ahead all the time we tend to forget the here and now. Life isn't made up of a bunch of tomorrows; it is made up of the here now…this gift we call the present. And anyway, the future will soon be a thing of the past, so we must embrace the gift of today.)

Still, I don't think most of us think like I think (thank God). Most of us set our sights on things we can't always control, like those many tomorrows we take for granted and presume are coming our way. If you're in good health and don't cross the path of an inebriated driver it's safe to assume these tomorrows will arrive. But if you've done little with your numerous yesterdays and are doing less now today (by reading this drivel, for example) then what makes you think you'll achieve what you're hoping to accomplish tomorrow, or many tomorrows from now?

You see, history allows us to learn a little about the future. Sure, we grow and learn and change and continue to dream (though dreaming is really just a form of planning), but for the most part, each year pans out like the last unless we do something about it NOW. We must take control of our future and indeed our "destiny" if we are to fulfill it, and that begins today, at this very moment. As it's been said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," so don't spend it resting on tomorrow's hopes; quit resting on your lazy laurels and do something NOW. And planning isn't that something. (If you're going to plan, plan actions, not results.)

The dictionary defines planning as the act or process of planning; designing a definitive purpose. So naturally, for the athlete, planning might come across as a good and necessary thing. Purpose certainly is. But planning is often just a way to feel good now without doing something now. It is often little more than an innate subconscious ruse acted out in order to keep us from acting out now. After all, planning relates closely to wishing. Remember, the tomorrow we are planning for today will not exist in this form when tomorrow arrives.

What's more, plans also have a way of destroying our ability to make decisions on the go and we might find ourselves sticking to them to the bitter end, when we should be implementing a course of action based on the realities that unfold "before" us. In this sense, plans are a good servant but a bad master. Perhaps, "It's good to have a plan for when things don't go according to plan?" Just don't over-plan and be enslaved to what may or may not happen. Let your life and your training enjoy some spontaneity and some adventure, and now is as good a time as any!

Before his death (obviously), John Lennon wrote, "Life is what's happening while you're busy making other plans," and truer words have never been spoken. So rather than "make" plans, no matter how elaborate their construction may be, why not just head out the door and go for a run? Who cares if it's snowing? Who cares if it's getting dark? Just go! You can plan for tomorrow when it arrives, because if you go do something today that wasn't planned, tomorrow's plans will likely need to be changed anyhow.

Remember, when they say "Seize the day," that day is TODAY.

-Frank Pucher

It's What

Got me an early morning email from my friend Rick today. He always has some wisdom to spread.

"It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity."

This got me thinking "It's not what we TALK but what we WALK that determines our life."

-Frank Pucher

Live together Die alone.

Caught me some questions like "where's the blog?" from one of my clients yesterday. OK Carol, here we go.

Friday had our Fitness 121 TEAM celebrating Hibachi 50. Along with Francesca's 30th B-day and Gary's 29th. It was our best night yet with Gary displaying his secret Hibachi knife skills. Joining us was our newest TEAMMATE "Doug" (starting February 9th).

My PC is on life-support so I scribble today from Fran's Macbook. We have so many things going on behind the scenes:

Gary & Lori (both) working on their Functional Training Specialist Course. Francesca was recently certified as a Lifestyle & Weight Management Specialist. Anthony & Rob are both doing amazing work along with Bobby who has embraced a "Spiritual Side" as of late.

I have been busy tweaking our website (not for viewing yet). We have some GREAT-GREAT photos from our shoot last week. This weekend is going to be quite busy as we are having the facility steam-cleaned and reconfigured.

My RunCoach clients have been busy also. Strength training, Foam Rolling and about to begin their Tempo Runs as they prepare for the NYC 1/2 Marathon on March 21st. My other Running Team will be entering the NJ Marathon Relay (I expect nothing less than 1st place!) Let's make this happen.

Many-Many 'Rumors and Rumblings' going on about a Reality Show about Personal Trainers.

Hmmm?? Why not us? Maybe Lori will be the next Snooki?

I'm sorry if this blog is a little all over the place. The truth is I'm 4hrs away from the season premier of LOST and my attention span is well 'LOST.'

-Frank Pucher