If you are serious about your New Year’s resolution to lose weight then I am proud to offer you the chance to win a copy of Jillian Michaels’ COMPLETE BODY WORKOUT 5 DVD SET!

• DVD1 Shape Up - Front
• DVD 2 Shape Up - Back
• DVD 3 Cardio Kickbox
• DVD 4 Maximize - Full Frontal
• DVD 5 Maximize - Back in Action

Teamed with a healthy eating plan this is what you need to blast that fat and get fit for the summer time!

HOW TO ENTER:

To enter all you have to do is add a comment to this post including;

1. Your Name (err so we know you are real and have a name ha ha)

2. Your Country (so you get the right DVD region sent to you if you win)

And if you want your name put in the pot more than once to win this then you can also sign up for my Healthy Tips Newsletter and subscribe to my Feed Burner RSS feed.

This competition is open to all and will close on January 31st 2009 @ 12am midnight (GMT).

Good luck!

Last night in the gym after powering through my first workout of 2009 I joined a spinning class.  My motives for joining was purely because it offers a high level of fat burning potential.

We started off with a warm up and then with a sonic boom hit light speed, ok yes I’m joking, after about 15 minutes I was wondering how I can sneak out without being noticed, I was blooming knackered!

The class instructor was very good at motivating and getting us to give more effort.  She put us into a virtual race and she was describing what was happening in the race, she was good, I don’t know how she could keep talking and shouting like that, I was so knackered I couldn’t even think about talking, I was using all my brain power just to keep my legs moving.

The spinning class is based on interval training by changing pace and intensity.  We would go into a sprint and constantly turning the dial to make it harder, then all butts up and out of the seats for a stand and cycle.

Even though I struggled with this class (I didn’t stand on two occasions) I really enjoyed it, spinning gives you a great CV workout.

It also gives you a good leg workout (upper and lower), so it’s a mix of CV and resistance training.

I think the RPM class will become a part of my weekly workout, it’s just what I need to bring my poor cardio workout efforts into something that should give me results.

If you haven’t tried an RPM/Spinning class I encourage you to give it a go. You don’t need to be able to keep the same pace as the instructor but you do have to give it all you got!

And if you join and like me you want to quit after 15 min DON’T keep pushing through, remember if it’s new then it’s bound to be difficult but the satisfaction of finishing the class will be worth it.

One last thing to mention about the class is last night, I slept like a baby!

This puts it all into perspective about drinking your calories! Check this one out, don’t miss it!

There are stacks more videos from Isabel on YouTube that you should check out.

As the new year is here sales on exercise equipment will go up for those that can afford them in this time of economic tightness, the same with fad diet pills and false hopes and dreams of getting back to that body you had in college or if you are like me and you have never been fit and slim it will just seem like a myth that you could attain it.

But the real truth is that you can get it and save your money at the same time!

Weight loss doesn’t need to be expensive when you are starting out.  How many times have you made that New Years resolution to “finally do something about it”, but it never happens.

This almost happened to me at the start of Discipline or Regret when I was popping diet pills that nearly gave me a heart attack! But I am glad that I took my own initiative and began to educate myself about healthy weight loss.

Timeless Fitness Principles

The fitness principles are there, and they have never changed, that’s what the fad diet industry doesn’t want you to know, they want you to think they they have discovered “THE SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS!” and then when the bottle is finished you are so hungry that you could kill a large Super Supreme Stuffed Cheese Crust pizza, and then you feel defeated and lose interest because you are not seeing the results and it’s all just “TOO HARD FOR ME!”

Does this sound like you?

Fitness principles are timeless and they work and they are not a secret you just have to go dig and you’ll find them.

If all this sounds so familiar to you and your New Years resolutions to get fit always land in the bin by the end of February then this is for you.

Check out my FREE mini-ebook called SIMPLE WORKOUT PRINCIPLES, this will guide you on starting a workout plan yourself based on solid exercise principles.  This mini-ebook will also point you to posts here at Discipline or Regret on planning your new eating programs and using the SMARTER principle for goal setting that will wipe the floor with crapy-never-will-work New Year’s resolutions.

Click here to download mini-ebook for FREE!

So my family and I arrived back from the jungles of Borneo on Saturday at 1am. We should have arrived back here at 4pm on Friday but there were major delays with flights from Pontianak where we were flying out from.

Ok let’s cut the crap, I went up a chunky 5lbs over the Christmas bringing me back to 262lbs. I would be lying if I said that I am not disappointed.  While there I had a body weight workout (from Turbulence Training) and I had planed some jungle treks and mountain walks, none of which took place due to the heavy tropical rain that we had.  There were two dry days but they were Christmas day and New Years Eve. We spent Christmas day driving around visiting family and then New Years Eve getting ready for a feast of grilled chicken and corn on the Cobb; I was on baby duty looking after Daniel.

Well enough of the excuses; I knocked out about 4 workouts over the two weeks but I guess that they just teased my muscles and kept them firm, as for fat blasting I doubt that there was any.

As for my eating I just had to go with the flow and eat what was on the table, which meant rice, rice and more rice.  In the backs of the out backs here in Indonesia the people can be rather primitive and food is a very important part of their life, not only food to live but it’s a social, relationship building practice.

So the loading of carbohydrates was unavoidable.  As for drinking I tried to stick to water but when family members from the village know that I am coming they go out and buy cans and bottles of Coke-a-Cola, their intentions well meaning and evil stairs from my wife saying “Don’t say anything just drink it!”

After looking back at all this all I can see is life.  This is just like when birthdays, weddings and other celebrations come aroundl; are we to be a right sour-puss and eat sticks at these times or can we loosen up and enjoy the people around us and foods that we wouldn’t normally eat? I think yes!

Now there is letting lose and there is going over-board and I feel that I just let lose a little.  I could have really went over-board with Christmas booze but I thankfully didn’t.  Even though I was sitting in the jungle village beer and home-made rice whiskey was plenteous, but I showed discipline and resisted.

A night before Christmas I had about 6-7 shots of rice whiskey and then on New Year’s eve I was given a warm bottle of Anker Beer (I hate warm beer!).

I not only avoided the beer because of it’s calories but I also avoided it because of my increased appetite that comes with it.

So let’s look at my new graph, not a pretty picture huh?

I will be starting a new workout program tomorrow and will be changing my workout days from Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s, I will now be working out on Tuesday’s, Thursday’s and Saturday’s.  I will still be doing cycling for my intervals (let’s hope this wet season will pass soon) on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Fridays. I will have Sunday as a day of complete rest for recovery purposes.

These 5 diet and nutrition tips are so simple and the foundation of losing or maintaining weight. DON’T underestimate their simplicity, they take discipline but they will give you results.

I really wonder about what goes on some times in peoples heads. Well I really shouldn’t talk, because I once jumped of 13 stairs in my BMX and splitting my head open in the process, I’m glad that camcorders still expensive when I was a kid!

In Part 1 of Using the SMARTER Principle I outlined how it brings your goals into reality and makes them something visual that you can see and follow.

Now in Using the SMARTER Principle Part 2 I will provide you with a SMARTER principle sheet that you can use to follow your goals and watch them unfold and evolve and bring you the success that you are seeking.

As an educator I am 100% behind a method of learning, I use it in my own life, I’ve got my wife hooked on it too as she can see how effective it is. The method is ‘Teach to learn’, now this is very straightforward and what you do is; teach to learn. ::WOW!!::

So if you want the SMARTER principle to be really effective in your life then teach it to someone else, (better yet teach about 2-3 people in your life) show them how it works and give them a copy of the SMARTER Principle sheet to plan their goals with.

By doing this you will strengthen your memory of the SMARTER Principle (IE. What all the letters stand for) and the way that you use it will also be more effective.

Here is the SMARTER Principle sheet for you to download and print.

Click Here to Download

As you can see it is pretty straightforward; in the first column you can see what each letter of the SMARTER Principle represents, then in the second column a brief description with example.

Now in the third column this is where you write in how you are going to follow this part of the SMARTER Principle, don’t miss any of these out. (Remember this can be used for any goals, it’s not exclusively for fat loss.)

Now the last column is for your evaluation. Stick this evaluation form somewhere; refrigerator door, desk at office, bedroom wall, etc. Don’t put it in a drawer or file it away, this is a living, working document, it’s not magic, you need to work with it.

As you are working towards your goals take notes in the last column, these notes are very important to your own self awareness as you journey towards your goals and also as your goals evolve.

It is very important that you don’t neglect this part of the process.

Ok, I am not going to go on and on like a cat stuck in a bag, you are now equipped to succeed! And remember any failure from here on, will be human!

Keep going! If you fall 5 times then get up 5 times, if you fall 50 times then get up 50 times! YOU CAN AND YOU WILL!