Your First Week's Goals Include the Following Action Steps:

1. Immediately Begin Meal Tracking

Start today.

Begin keeping track of everything you consume.

Meals, snacks, drinks, total daily water intake, desserts, alcohol, or anything you eat or drink.

Please post everything on your Program Design Document so that I can look for your trends and patterns.

You'll also want to pick up a Food Scale if you don't already have one, so that you can measure the weight of your ingredients and food choices, which is critical to learning how to eat properly for your goals. 

The Food Scale Aaron recommends can be found on Amazon at this link.

This is very important for me to help you create a sustainable meal plan consisting of foods that you love, and one that is supportive you and your goals.

A simple course correction doesn't just make a difference - it could be THE difference that gets your body building muscle, burning fat, and feeling better than ever. 

The more often you post your meals, the simpler it will be for me to spot trends, habits, and patterns that we can adjust immediately, so that we keep you on track and consistently pointing in the right direction. 

2. Add a Salad and/or a Smoothie Every Day

Not only do we want to make sure that we meet our Daily Caloric & Macronutrient Requirements (Proteins, Carbs, and Fats), but we also want to get a plethora of Micronutrients as well.

Vitamins, Minerals, and Trace Elements are not only critical to your fitness, but to your health - and because your fitness sits on the bedrock of your health, by consuming lots of colorful fruits and vegetable each day, you give yourself an advantage when it comes to reaching all of your goals, looking great, feeling great, and having a lot more energy than you've had in years. 

By adding a large salad, loaded with lots of green leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and oil - and/or - a fruit or vegetable protein smoothie as staples to your Daily Meal Plan, you will not only come closer every day to meeting your Caloric Requirements, but also your Macro Requirements - which again, are so critical to building the body of your dreams. 

This doesn't mean to add both a salad and a smoothie, if you are not already eating them on the daily.  That would be too much too soon. 

The object is to start increasing your daily caloric intake just a small amount at a time (200-300 calories) so that we can slowly "Ratchet Up" your metabolism, and, in conjunction with your Strength Training, Ratchet Up with more muscle strength, and ultimately, growth. 

Too much too soon is not the answer. 

Small, progressive increases in your daily caloric intake is enough to get started in the right direction, so, add one, or both (a salad & a smoothie) according to what you have been consuming on the regular.  

If you are already eating / drinking a salad or smoothie every day, add the one you are not consuming every day to your diet. 

If you are already doing both, increase the number of calories in each, so that we are Ratcheting Up by about 200-300 calories per day as you are first getting started. 

This is a critical step in getting a Fast Start with your new Fitness Program. 

3. Body Weight Workouts

Frequency of Movement is a lost value in today’s sedentary World.

The more we move, the better we are going to feel.

And when we feel well, we do well.

Take every opportunity during the day - outside of your workouts - to move your body.

If you have an option to walk, take the stairs, or the long cut - do that.

If you have some free time between scheduled tasks or activities, dropping to the floor to do push ups, crunches, leg lifts, pull ups, dips, air squats, or burpees - these are all some simple exercises you can do during the day, that not only take a few minutes or two, but will send the signal to your body that it is not sleeping, to wake up, and stay bio-actively alert.

Creating this habit will make a huge difference in the quality of your overall Health & Fitness, and will make you look and feel better much more quickly, and efficiently. 

4. Professional Fitness Assessment

Knowing where you are starting, is critical to getting where you want to go.

Having a visual reference point is super important, but what’s more important, is knowing your true Lean Body Mass, your Basal Metabolic Rate, and Body Fat Percentage.

This way, you can be as accurate as possible when meeting your Daily Macro Requirements, especially when first getting started.

As your fitness improves, your requirements will change, but to start out it’s important that we have this information.

You can either consult a Fitness Pro in your local area - at a gym, a weight loss center, or any facility where you can be measured, tested, and assessed for your current state of fitness... 

Or... 

Purchase a personal, in home Body Fat Scale so that you can do your own Weigh-Ins before your Weekly Check-Ins with Aaron starting in your second week. 

The one Aaron recommends is available on Amazon, at this link.

5. Before Pics and Goal Photos

Having some front, back, and side shots of your starting physique or figure, might be motivation enough for you to do the work, but it’s not just what we do that makes us successful; it’s what we do, daily. So, seeing your before pics every day might remind you of why you got started, and will help you on those days when you don’t want to do the work. You will see over the course of time with me, that your body can look completely different, in just 24, 48, and 72 hours, based on your workouts, rest, and your daily meal plan. So, either take a few timed selfies, or have someone do it for you. Front, Back, Sides, and a two armed Flex Shot!  Also, find a few goal photos on the internet of the physique or figure that you’d like to see staring back at you over the course of the next several months & years, and share those with me as well. You can post them in your Program Design Document in your notes. 

Remember, just like everybody is different - so is every body.

While we never want to compare ourselves to anyone else, we do want to have a goal to shoot for, so these pics will be very helpful for us to a have a visual, and to begin with the end in mind.